Short Story in an ESL Freshman English Course: Bridging the Gap between language and literature

[EN] In recent years, the place of literature in language teaching has regained its impetus and the prominent role it plays in promoting linguistic, cultural, intellectual and academic benefits has been acknowledged. Nevertheless, the place of literature in language teaching context in Turkey is still approached to be an outside source to be assigned as extensive reading rather than to be a classroom worthy material to be utilized in class. This article describes a literature lesson at a Freshman Englih level and outlines the steps to be taken to implement language based activities to promote ‘language awareness’ and to foster ‘meaning construction’ and ‘cultural awareness’ in a process based classroom setting. The steps also show that ESL Freshman students have much to gain from literature when the text is explored through language based activities without losing the literary nature of literature.Keywords: literature; short story; esl; once upon a time; freshman English; turkeyAvci Vile, DE. (2017). Short Story in an ESL Freshman English Course: Bridging the Gap between language and literature. En Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 91-100. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.4960OCS9110

Surveillance of Complex Auction Markets: a Market Policy Analytics Approach

The dissertation consists of four essays that investigates the merits of big data-driven decision-making in the surveillance of complex auction markets. In the first essay, Avci and her co-researchers examine the aggregate-level bidding strategies and market efficiency in a multi-time tariff setting by using parametric and semi parametric methods. In the second essay, they address three key forecasting challenges; risk of selection of an inadequate forecasting method and transparency level of the market and market-specific multi-seasonality factors in a semi-transparent auction market. In the third essay, they demonstrate the effect of information feedback mechanisms on bidders’ price expectations in complex auction markets with the existence of forward contracts. They develop a research model that empirically tests the impact of bidders’ attitudes on their price expectation through their trading behavior and tested their hypotheses on real ex-ante forecasts, evaluated ex-post. In the fourth essay, they investigate characterization of bidding strategies in an oligopolistic multi-unit auction and then examine the interactions between different strategies and auction design parameters. This dissertation offers important implications to theory and practice of surveillance of complex auction markets. From the theoretical perspective, this is, to our best knowledge, the first research that systematically examines the interplay of different informational and strategic factors in oligopolistic multi-unit auction markets. From the policy perspective, Avci’s research shows that integration of big data analytics and domain-specific knowledge improves decision-making in surveillance of complex auction markets

MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION APPROACH WITH AHP AND IF-TOPSIS METHODS FOR R&D PROJECT SELECTION PROCESS

In this study, we examined the project selection process in a mould manufacturing company. We ranked 12 criteria via Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and evaluated the most important 8 criteria. Then we applied Intuitionistic Fuzzy TOPSIS (IF-TOPSIS) method, which is the extended version of the TOPSIS method in intuitionistic fuzzy environment. After expressing the decision makers' evaluations in linguistic terms, we turned them into intuitive fuzzy numbers. In the last step, we obtained the project rankings by calculating the closeness coefficient for 5 projects

MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION APPROACH WITH AHP AND IF-TOPSIS METHODS FOR R&D PROJECT SELECTION PROCESS

In this study, we examined the project selection process in a mould manufacturing company. We ranked 12 criteria via Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and evaluated the most important 8 criteria. Then we applied Intuitionistic Fuzzy TOPSIS (IF-TOPSIS) method, which is the extended version of the TOPSIS method in intuitionistic fuzzy environment. After expressing the decision makers' evaluations in linguistic terms, we turned them into intuitive fuzzy numbers. In the last step, we obtained the project rankings by calculating the closeness coefficient for 5 projects

Circulating irisin levels in newly diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea patients

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is commonly associated with obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and coronary artery disease. Irisin is a newly identified myokine and its serum concentration was found to be correlated with cardiac troponin and creatin kinase-MB in acute myocardial infarction patients. Furthermore, irisin levels were positively associated with endothelium-dependent vasodilation in type 2 diabetic patients.Aim: In this study, we aimed to investigate serum irisin level in the newly diagnosed OSAS patients.Materials and Methods: After obtaining ethical approval, 32 OSAS patients were included. All patients gave written informed consent. Diagnosis of OSAS was verified by an overnight polysomnography (PSG) and made by an apnea hypopnea index equal to or higher than 5. Venous blood samples were collected in the morning between 08.00 – 10.00 after PSG (n=25) or after one-night CPAP treatment (n=7). Serum irisin concentrations were studied by ELISA.Results and Conclusion: Serum irisin concentrations were significantly higher in newly diagnosed OSAS group than in OSAS group after one night of CPAP treatment (199.7±42.4 vs 159.7±18.3 ng/mL respectively; p<0.01). These results suggest that increased serum irisin levels can be reduced by CPAP treatment and elevated serum irisin levels may be due to increased respiratory muscle activity and body temperature.

Managing electricity price modeling risk via ensemble forecasting: The case of Turkey

There are two ways of managing market price risk in electricity day ahead markets, forecasting and hedging. In emerging markets, since hedging possibilities are limited, forecasting becomes the foremost important tool to manage spot price risk. Despite the existence of great diversity of spot price forecasting methods, due to the unique characteristics of electricity as a commodity, there are still three key forecasting challenges that a market participant has to take into account: risk of selection of an inadequate forecasting method and transparency level of the market (availability level of public data) and country-specific multi-seasonality factors. We address these challenges by using a detailed market-level data from the Turkish electricity day-ahead auctions, which is an interesting research setting in that it presents a number of challenges for forecasting. We reveal the key distinguishing features of this market quantitatively which then allow us to propose individual and ensemble forecasting models that are particularly well suited to it. This forecasting study is pioneering for Turkey as it is the very first to focus specifically on electricity spot prices since the country's day-ahead market was established in 2012. We also suggested applicable policy and managerial implications for both regulatory bodies, market makers and participants