Triumph of commercialism : the commodification of the Middle Eastern exotica at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893

Ankara : The Department of History, Bilkent University, 2008.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2008.Includes bibliographical references leaves 81-85.This thesis attempts to indicate how the concessionaires of the Middle Eastern exhibits in the Midway Plaisance at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 trafficked in centuries-old stereotypical Muslim images in the United States to realize a large financial profit at a time when American consumer culture was starting to emerge, and how they succeeded against such weaker competitors as the World’s Parliament of Religions and individual efforts made by official bodies such as the Ottoman government. In a larger context, it deals with the subject of how the American advertising and entertainment industries of the twentieth century adopted the practices of the Midway entrepreneurs by using Oriental stereotypes to generate profits.Williams, Zeynep GerdanM.S

Video Conferencing from Crises and Disasters to Daily Life: Reviewing the Psychometric Properties of the Zoom Exhaustion and Fatigue Scale and Determining the Cut-off Score

Video conferencing solutions have become a primary tool to sustain general operations during crises or disasters, and their usage is increasingly widespread even under normal circumstances. This study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Zoom Exhaustion and Fatigue Scale (ZEFS) and obtain a cut-off score from the scale to distinguish the state of feeling mentally exhausted and fatigued. The study was conducted with 270 university students. Participants completed an information form, the ZEFS, and the Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFS). In confirmatory factor analysis, the 5-factor structure in the original form of the scale was achieved. Significant correlations were found between ZEFS and CFS scores, with ZEFS scores predicting CFS scores. Significant results were found among video conferencing evaluation, attendance numbers, health complaints, and ZEFS variables. In the ROC analysis, the mean cut-off score was found to be 1.96. According to the cut-off score, total CFS score, number of video conferencing attendances, perceived burden, and enjoyment differed. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .95 for the entire scale, ranging from .87 to .92 for its subscales. The results indicate that the Turkish version of ZEFS is a psychometrically adequate measurement tool for assessing and distinguishing exhaustion and fatigue caused by the increasing use of video conferencing in the digital age

Diagnosis of Tomato Plant Diseases Using Pre-trained Architectures and A Proposed Convolutional Neural Network Model

Tomatoes are of the most important vegetables in the world. Presence of diseases and pests in the growing area significantly affect the choice of variety in tomato. The aim of this study is to diagnose tomato plant diseases faster and with higher degrees of accuracy. For this purpose, deep learning was used to diagnose some diseases in tomatoes, including bacterial spot, early blight, leaf mold, septoria leaf spot, target spot, mosaic virus, and yellow leaf curl virus were analyzed CNN models. A CNN model with a 2D convolutional three layers, one flatten layer approach and several Keras models, including DenseNet201, InceptionResNetV2, MobileNet, Visual Geometry Group 16 architectures were proposed. The experimental results showed that the accuracy scores were 99.82%, 92.12%, 92.75%, 91.50% and 84.12% training accuracy, respectively. The proposed CNN model provided the opportunity for rapid diagnosis for approximately 14.9 minutes. The results obtained in this study can be used in robotic spraying and harvesting operations

Personality Organization in Anxiety Disorders: Comparison of Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder

The objective of this study was to explore the level of personality organization in patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD). The study comprised 86 patients undergoing treatment for GAD (n=46) and PD (n=40). Various tools were utilized for data collection including a Sociodemographic Data Collection Form, Personality Organization Diagnostic Form (PODF), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). A significant difference was observed between the GAD and PD groups regarding the PODF scores for mature defense, anxiety, and depression. However, no significant difference was observed in relation to the PODF identity total score and primitive defense scores. Furthermore, the quality of object relations and the overall level of personality organization according to the PODF did not display any significant differences between the groups. According to the BDI, comorbid depressive symptoms were detected in 67.4% (n=58) of the participants with GAD and PD. There was no significant difference in the PODF scores, quality of object relations, and the overall level of personality organization between the group with comorbid depressive symptoms and the group without it.These findings suggest that while the primary focus of therapeutic interventions should be on targeting the specific type of anxiety disorder, assessing the level of personality organization in patients with GAD and PD could add valuable insights to individual case understanding, selection of psychotherapy approaches, and the treatment process.

High prevalence of spondyloarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis among familial Mediterranean fever patients and their first-degree relatives: further evidence for the connection

INTRODUCTION: Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an auto-inflammatory disease characterized by recurrent attacks of fever and serositis. Limited data suggest that the prevalence of sacroiliitis is increased in patients with FMF. In our present study, we assessed the prevalence of spondyloarthritis (SpA), including ankylosing spondylitis (AS), among a cohort of FMF patients and their unaffected first-degree relatives (FDRs). METHODS: The current study cohort comprised a consecutive group of 201 unrelated patients with FMF and 319 FDRs (≥ 16 years old). These subjects were examined according to a standard protocol. RESULTS: A total of 157 FMF patients (78.1%) and 233 (73%) unaffected FDRs reported back pain. Fifteen FMF patients (7.5%) and nine unaffected FDRs fulfilled the modified New York (mNY) criteria for AS. One additional FDR with AS was identified after review of the medical records. None of the FMF patients with AS was HLA-B27 positive. The allele frequency of M694V among the FMF patients with radiographic sacroiliitis was significantly higher in comparison with those without sacroiliitis (OR 4.3). When compared with the general population, the risk ratios for SpA and AS among the FDRs of our FMF patients were 3.3 (95% CI; 2.0 to 5.5) and for AS 2.9 (95% CI; 1.3 to 6.4), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that a) factors other than HLA-B27 play a role in the association of FMF and SpA/AS; b) MEFV gene variations may be one of the geographic/region-specific potential pathogenetic links between these two disorders in the Turkish population

Theory of carrier phase ambiguity resolution

Carrier phase ambiguity resolution is the key to high precision Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning and navigation. It applies to a great variety of current and future models of GPS, modernized GPS and Galileo. A proper handling of carrier phase ambiguity resolution requires a proper understanding of the underlying theory of integer inference. In this contribution a brief review is given of the probabilistic theory of integer ambiguity estimation. We describe the concept of ambiguity pull-in regions, introduce the class of admissible integer estimators, determine their probability mass functions and show how their variability affect the uncertainty in the so-called ‘fixed’ baseline solution. The theory is worked out in more detail for integer least-squares and integer bootstrapping. It is shown that the integer least-squares principle maximizes the probability of correct integer estimation. Sharp and easy-to-compute bounds are given for both the ambiguity success rate and the baseline’s probability of concentration. Finally the probability density function of the ambiguity residuals is determined. This allows one for the first time to formulate rigorous tests for the integerness of the parameters

A truly complementary approach:A qualitative exploration of complementary and alternative medicine practitioners’ views of treating Ankylosing Spondylitis

OBJECTIVE: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease in which individuals experience a long delay to diagnosis. Prior to diagnosis, individuals report frequent use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies. While popularly used, there is a dearth of knowledge concerning the experiences of CAM practitioners in terms of treating individuals with AS. Addressing this knowledge gap, the present study provides a detailed exploration of how UK-based CAM practitioners treat individuals with AS.METHODS: Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with eight UK-based CAM practitioners, (four males), aged 45-69 years. CAM practitioners were recruited across a range of CAM therapies and years of CAM practice experience (8-46 years).RESULTS: Thematic analysis resulted in the identification of three themes to characterize the data. Themes comprised: (i) the whole picture; (ii) alarm bells; and (iii) a common language. Themes highlighted CAM practitioner adoption of a holistic, yet individualized approach to treating individuals with AS, despite a general sense of lack of knowledge concerning AS among CAM practitioners. Notably, results indicated a desire of CAM practitioners to work more collaboratively with mainstream health providers to provide more joined-up care for individuals with AS.CONCLUSION: CAM practitioners emphasized the benefits of CAM to focus on providing effective symptom management when used in conjunction, rather than in opposition to, mainstream healthcare. Adoption of a more holistic approach to AS management by CAM practitioners may empower clients to become more aware of symptoms, thus potentially reducing delays in receiving a formal diagnosis of AS.</p

Closed-Form transformation between geodetic and ellipsoidal coordinates

We present formulas for direct closed-form transformation between geodetic coordinates(Φ, λ, h) and ellipsoidal coordinates (β, λ, u) for any oblate ellipsoid of revolution.These will be useful for those dealing with ellipsoidal representations of the Earth's gravityfield or other oblate ellipsoidal figures. The numerical stability of the transformations for nearpolarand near-equatorial regions is also considered

Disaster awareness and information seeking behaviour among residents from low socio-economic backgrounds

An individual's socio-economic status can increase their vulnerability to, and ability to prepare for and recover in the aftermath of a disaster. People from low socio-economic (LSE) backgrounds often face greater disaster risks, but are least prepared for disaster events due to a number of factors including a lack of housing affordability, low income and literacy levels. While there is an established relationship between a person's socio-economic status and disaster vulnerability, very little is understood about the disaster information seeking needs and preferences of LSE population groups and how this affects their levels of disaster awareness. This paper addresses this gap through a comparative study of LSE and non-LSE population groups to identify key disaster information sources and how it shapes levels of disaster awareness. A survey of 224 residents was conducted, and multivariate regression analysis of both LSE and non-LSE respondents revealed a trend of disaster passivity in both population groups. English language proficiency, occupation, familiarity with the local environment are the most important factors influencing disaster awareness among the LSE population groups. For non-LSE population groups, disaster awareness is gender-dependent with females showing higher levels of awareness. Overall, television was the most trusted information source regardless of socio-economic status. The results provide a better understanding of the underlying impact of socio-economic status on disaster awareness and information seeking behaviour, which can assist practitioners and policy makers in making informed decisions on disaster mitigation strategies to reduce the disaster risk vulnerability of targeted population groups