The Effect of Religiosity and Religious Festivals on Positional Concerns: An Experimental Investigation of Ramadan

This paper examines the effect of religion on positional concerns using survey experiments. We focus on two of the dimensions of religion – degree of religiosity and religious festivals. By conducting the experiments during both the most important day of Ramadan (the Night of Power) and a day outside Ramadan, we find that Ramadan overall has a small and negative impact on positional concerns. Detailed analyses based on the sorting of individuals' degree of religiosity reveal that the decrease in the degree of positional concerns during Ramadan is mainly explained by a decrease in positionality among individuals with a low degree of religiosity. We also discuss the broader welfare implications of our findings.religion, positional concerns, Ramadan, Islam

DETERMINING THE NEEDS OF MOTHERS WITH AT LEAST THREE INTELLECTUAL DISABLED CHILDREN

The purpose of this research is to determine the needs of mothers with three intellectually disabled children. This study has been held with the participation of eleven volunteer mothers, living in Diyarbakır province in 2017. Semi-structured interview technique was used as qualitative research methods in the research. Based on the findings obtained from the research, it was determined that the mothers had important requirements such as materiality, information, general and social support, and needs of expressing themselves to the environment about the disability of their children. The biggest topic was determined as the lack of time for their personal development. When the national and international literatures are analysed, it has been determined that in Turkey needs of the mothers with three intellectual disabled children are higher than those of the developed countries. The main needs are knowledge and materiality. Based on this points, especially mainly legal positive discrimination, governmental agencies, educational institutions and NGO’s need to be more sensitive and should make concrete steps by meeting the needs of children with multiple disabilities.   Article visualizations

Neopterin and asymmetric dimethylarginine levels in patients with type 2 diabetic retinopathy

Objective: We aimed at determining the relationship between asymmetric dimethyl arginine (ADMA) and neopterin levels and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Materials and methods: In our study, we included 41 T2DM patients with DR, 21 T2DM patients without DR, and 20 healthy controls. We measured HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, creatinine, total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, neopterin, and ADMA levels by taking fasting serum and plasma samples. In healthy controls, we evaluated ADMA and neopterin levels in T2DM patients with DR, and T2DM patients without DR. We evaluated the relationship between ADMA levels and HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and neopterin. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in ADMA and neopterin levels between the DR group, the non-DR group, and the control group. There was no significant relationship found between ADMA and neopterin levels and the severity of retinopathy.In our study, we only found a moderate positive correlation between ADMA and neopterin (ρ=0.453 p<0.001). Conclusions: Serum ADMA and neopterin levels did not differ significantly between groups at all stages of DR. Regardless of macrovascular disease, we think that serum neopterin and ADMA levels are not associated with retinopathy in patients with T2DM. Further studies are needed to determine whether ADMA and neopterin have an effect on the pathogenesis

Effect of “Understand and Solve!” Strategy Instruction on Mathematical Problem Solving of Students with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of “Understand and Solve!” Strategy on change problems including change of a one-step addition and subtraction of children with mild intellectual disabilities and whether they maintained their achievements 3, 5, and 8 weeks after the intervention. Moreover, the effects of the Understand and Solve! Strategy on generalization to different types of problems and multiple step problems as well as on the perception, attitudes, knowledge, use, and control of problem solving strategy were investigated. Three students with intellectual disabilities who were 11 to 12 years old and attended 5th grade participated in the study. “A Multiple Probe Design Across Subjects,” which is one of the single subject research designs, was used in the study. The findings of this study showed that Understand and Solve! Strategy was effective in teaching students with mild intellectual disabilities solving change problems including one-step addition and subtraction, they maintained their skills and generalized their skills to different problem types, two-step change problems. As a result of the intervention, students’ perception and attitudes towards mathematics as well as knowledge, use and control of strategies to solve mathematical problems positively changed

The effect of religiosity and religious festivals on positional concerns – an experimental investigation of Ramadan

This article examines the effect of religion on positional concerns using survey experiments. We focus on two of the dimensions of religion degree of religiosity and religious festivals. By conducting the experiments during both the most important day of Ramadan (the Night of Power) and a day outside Ramadan, we find that Ramadan overall has a small and negative impact on positional concerns. Detailed analyses based on the sorting of individuals degree of religiosity reveal that the decrease in the degree of positional concerns during Ramadan is mainly explained by a decrease in positionality among individuals with a low degree of religiosity

Social assistance in Turkey and the provision of social assistance via single centre

Yoksul bireylere veya hanelere devlet tarafından yapılan para, mal veya hizmet şeklindeki desteklere sosyal yardım adı verilmektedir. Toplum refahının artırılmasını ve yoksullukla mücadeleyi hedefleyen sosyal yardım programları, çağın değişen koşullara uygun olarak şekillendirilmeli ve ihtiyaç sahiplerinin talepleri en uygun şekilde giderilmelidir. Bu çalışmada; sosyal yardımların daha etkili bir şekilde yerine getirilmesi ve kaynakların daha verimli kullanılabilmesi için merkezi bir sistem veya uygulama yoluyla sosyal yardım ve hizmetlerin ihtiyaç sahiplerine daha fazla fayda sağlayacağı düşüncesi ortaya konulmuştur.Türkiye'deki sosyal yardım sisteminin işleyişinin incelenmesi yoluyla, sistemdeki sorunların tespit edilmesi, yeni bir sistem önerisi olan merkezi uygulama ve bu yöndeki sorunların çözümüne yönelik önerilerin getirilmesi gerekmektedir. Uygulamadaki yaşanan aksaklıkların ortaya konulabilmesi için; farklı hizmet sunucuları tarafından yürütülen sosyal yardım programlarının neler olduğu ve nasıl uygulandığı gösterilmiştir.Çalışmada; yoksulluk, sosyal hizmet, sosyal güvenlik, sosyal yardım ve sosyal politika kavramları ayrıntılı olarak incelenmiştir. Sosyal yardımlara ilişkin ulusal ve uluslararası yasal kaynaklargösterilerek Türkiye'deki sosyal yardım kurum ve kuruluşları irdelenmiş. Sosyal yardım uygulamalarının en üst düzeyde ve kapsamda uygulandığı refah devleti konusu kapsamlı bir şekilde ele alınmış ve Almanya, İngiltere, İsveç, Fransa ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri'ndeki sosyal politika uygulamaları belirtilmiş ayrıca Cumhuriyetin ilanından bu yana Türkiye'deki sosyal yardımların tarihsel süreci anlatılmıştır.Sosyal yardımlarla ilgili karşılaşılan başlıca sorunlar bu sorunlara ilişkin çözüm önerileri olarak; sosyal yardım alanında faaliyet gösteren ve sosyal yardım yapan kamu kurum ve kuruluşlarını tek bir çatı altında toplanarak merkezi bir uygulamanın hayata geçirilmesi, bu kurum ve kuruluşların mevzuatları gözden geçirilerek çağın ihtiyaçlarına uygun, gerçekçi değerlendirme kriterlerinin getirilmesi, sosyal yardım aktörlerinin yapmış olduğu yardımlara ilişkin yararlanıcı bilgilerinin ortak ve her an ulaşılabilir bir bilgi ağında bir araya getirilmesi gerektiği, ortak değerlendirme kriterlerin getirilmesinin önem arz ettiği ve ihtiyaç sahibine "balık yemeyi değil balık tutmayı öğretmek" diğer bir deyişle sosyal yardım-istihdam bağı kurularak kişinin kendi ayakları üstünde durmasının sağlanması gerektiği önerilmiştir.Social support is defined as monetary, in kind or service support that has been made to poor individuals or households by the state. Social support programmes which aim increasing the welfare of the society and fighting poverty, should be shaped according to current chancing conditions and meet the demands of the people in the most suitable way. In that study; the idea of central system or implementation is proposed for a better service provision for the beneficiaries in order to implement social support more efficiently and use the recourses more efficiently.By analyzing the implementation of social support system in Turkey, the determination of the system's problems, a new system proposal which is called the central system and the development of proposals to solve the problems must be done. In order to display the problems in the implementation; what the social support programmes are by different service providers and how they are implemented are displayed. In that study; the concepts of poverty, social service, social security, social support and social policy are detailed analyzed. By showing national and international legal sources on social support; social support institutions and associations in Turkey are analyzed. The welfare state concept where the social support activities are implemented at the highest level and context is analysed in a detailed way and social policy implementations in Germany, England, Sweden, France and the United States of America are mentioned. Also the historical process of social support in Turkey is explained begging from the announcement of the Republic. The main problems related to social support and solution proposals to these problems can be summarized as; the formation of a central system which gathers the responsible institutions and organizations under one umbrella; the determination of current and realistic evaluation criteria by reviewing the legal sources of the related institutions and organizations; gathering the information of beneficiaries from different social support organizations in a common system; the importance of the formation of common evaluation criteria and the idea of teaching how to catch fish instead of giving them is underlined by emphasizing the formation of social support-employment link in order to make people continue their lives on their own

Effectiveness Of Anla Ve Çöz! Strategy Instruction On Math Problem Solving Of Students With Mild Intellectual Disabilities

Bu araştırmanın amacı Anla ve Çöz! Stratejisinin; hafif düzeyde zihinsel yetersizliği olan öğrencilerin; a) bir aşamalı toplama ve çıkarma işlemi içeren değişim problemlerini çözmelerinde, b) matematik algılarında, matematiğe ve matematik problemi çözmeye ilişkin tutumlarında, matematik problemi çözme strateji bilgileri, kullanımı ve kontrolü niteliksel olarak değişmesinde, c) bir aşamalı toplama ve çıkarma işlemi içeren değişim problemlerini çözme kazanımlarını 3, 5 ve 8 hafta sonra sürdürmelerinde, d) bir aşamalı toplama ve çıkarma işlemi içeren değişim problemlerini çözme performanslarını ve kullandıkları stratejileri sınıf ortamına genellemelerinde, e) bir aşamalı toplama ve çıkarma işlemlerini içeren sınıflama ve karşılaştırma problemlerine ve iki aşamalı toplama ve çıkarma işlemlerini içeren değişim problemlerine genelleyebilmelerinde, f) genellemede gösterdikleri performansları 3, 4 ve 5 hafta sonra sürdürmelerinde etkisi araştırılmaktadır. Ayrıca araştırmada Anla ve Çöz! Stratejisi ile ilgili öğrenci ve öğretmen görüşlerinin belirlenmesi de hedeflenmektedir. Araştırmaya zihinsel yetersizlikten etkilenmiş üç öğrenci katılmıştır. Deneklerin seçimi için ön koşullar belirlenmiştir. Bu önkoşullar: a) Eldeli toplama ve onluk bozmayı gerektiren çıkarma işlemlerini % 80 oranında doğru yapabilme, b) Bir aşamalı toplama ve çıkarma işlemi içeren değişim problemlerinin 10 problemden en az 2, en fazla 4 problemi doğru çözebilme, c) Okula düzenli olarak devam etme olarak belirlenmiştir. Araştırmaya katılan öğrencilerin ikisi kız, biri erkektir. Öğrenciler 11 ile 12 yaşları arasında ve beşinci sınıfa devam etmektedir. Öğrencilerin üçü de özel eğitim sınıfı öğrencisidir. Araştırma tek denekli deneysel desenlerden "Denekler Arası Çoklu Yoklama Deseni" ile yapılmıştır. Deney süreci; başlama düzeyinin belirlenmesi, Anla ve Çöz! Stratejisi Öğretimi, öğretim sonu değerlendirme ve izleme aşamalarında sunulmuştur. Anla ve Çöz! Stratejisi Öğretimi; ön bilgileri harekete geçirme, tartışma, model olma, rehberli uygulama ve bağımsız uygulamalar aşamalarından oluşturulmuştur. Öğretim aşamaları ölçüt temelli olarak düzenlenmiştir. Tüm değerlendirme koşullarında öğrencilere 10 tane problem verilmiş ve öğrencinin çözmesi istenmiştir. Verilerin puanlanmasında öğrencilerin doğru çözdükleri problem sayısı belirlenmiştir. Veriler grafikle gösterilmiş ve görsel olarak analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma bulguları; Anla ve Çöz! Stratejisi'nin; hafif düzeyde zihinsel yetersizliği olan öğrencilerin bir aşamalı toplama ve çıkarma işlemi içeren değişim problemlerini çözmelerinde etkili olduğunu ve bu stratejiyi kazanan öğrencilerin uygulama sona erdikten 3, 5 ve 8 hafta sonra da problem çözme performanslarını devam ettirdiklerini göstermiştir. Ayrıca, araştırma bulguları Anla ve Çöz! Stratejisi öğretiminden sonra öğrencilerin matematik algıları, matematiğe ilişkin tutumları, matematik problemi çözmeye ilişkin tutumları, matematik problemi çözme strateji bilgileri, kullanımı ve kontrolünün niteliksel olarak değiştiğini göstermiştir. Anla ve Çöz! Stratejisi'ni kullanan öğrencilerin stratejileri sınıf ortamına ve farklı problemlere (bir aşamalı sınıflama, bir aşamalı karşılaştırma ve iki aşamalı değişim problemlerine) genellediği ve bu genellemeyi üç, dört ve beş hafta sonrada sürdürdüklerini ortaya konmuştur. Ayrıca, öğrencilerin strateji performanslarını sınıf ortamına genellediklerini ortaya koymuştur. Yapılan görüşmelerden elde edilen sonuçlar ise, Anla ve Çöz! Stratejisi'ne yönelik öğrenci ve öğretmen görüşlerinin olumlu olduğunu göstermektedir.The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of Anla ve Çöz! Strategy on students with mild intellectual disabilities on a) their problem solving skills, including change of a one-step addition and subtraction, b) their perception and attitudes towards mathematics and solving math problems, their strategy knowledge of solving math problems and its usage and control c) maintaining the gains of math problem solving including a change of one-step addition and subtraction after weeks 3, 5 and 8 d) making generalization the performance of solving problems to classroom including change of a one-step addition and subtraction and strategies, which are used, e) making generalization to group and comparing problems including a one-step addition and subtraction and change problems including two-steps addition and subtraction f) maintaining is aimed their performance of generalization after 3, 4 and 5 weeks. Furthermore, student and teachers' views with Anla ve Çöz! Strategy were also investigated. Three students with mild intellectual disabilities participated to the study. Prerequisite skills were determined for the selection of the subjects. These are prerequisite: a) achieving subtraction requiring carrying and involving regrouping at %80 level b) solving problems including a one-step addition and subtraction to solve the problem at least 2 and no more than 4 correct in 10 problems c) attending the school regularly. Two of the students are females and the other is male. They are 11 and 12 years and studying at 5th grade and continue to attend special education classes. The study was carried with multiple probe design across subject. The experimental process consists of determining baseline level instruction, Anla ve Çöz! Strategy instruction, post assessment and maintenance stages. Anla ve Çöz! Strategy instruction is presented with stimulation background knowledge, discussing the strategy, modeling the strategy, supporting the strategy, independent performance. Instruction processes were designed as criteria based. The students were given 10 problems and they were supposed to solve these problems in whole assessment conditions. Students' correct problem numbers are determined in scoring the data. The data were shown in a graphic and analyzed visually. The findings showed that Anla ve Çöz! Strategy is effective on students with mild intellectual disabilities on problems including change of a one-step addition and subtraction and the students maintained their problem solving performance after weeks 3, 5 and 8. In addition, the findings showed that after the instruction of Anla ve Çöz! Strategy students' perception and attitudes towards mathematics and solving math problems, their strategy knowledge of solving math problems and its usage and control changed in terms of quality. The students generalize different problems (one-step group, one-step compare, two-steps change problems) and maintained skills in weeks 3, 4 and 5. Moreover, the students generalized strategy performance to classroom. The data gathered form interviews show that students and teachers' views towards Anla ve Çöz! Strategy are positive

Standing in Others’ Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior

Studies show that people are concerned with other people’s consumption position in a varying degree with respect to the type of goods consumed and individual characteristics. Using both survey experiments and a large survey of subjective wellbeing (SWB) dataset, this paper presents robust associations between the degree of empathic capacity and positional concerns for consumption items involving pleasure and pain. The paper exploits both empathy quotient (EQ) and interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) measures of empathic capacity, i.e., dispositional empathy, which are sufficient measures capturing affective and cognitive aspects of empathy. Positional concerns are identified directly using a series of stated choice experiments and indirectly using the SWB approach. The main result of the paper is that positional concerns vary substantially with the levels of empathic capacity. Both EQ and IRI are found to be positively associated with positional concerns for “goods” (e.g., after-tax income, market value of a luxury car), reflecting a degree of selfregarded feelings and behavior to reduce personal distress, and negatively associated with positional concerns for “bads” (e.g., working hours and poverty rates), reflecting a degree of other-regarding feelings and behavior. The results are robust with respect to various checks including statistical specifications, reference groups, and omitted variables (e.g., prosocial behavior and competitivity) that could bias the results.JEL Codes: C90; D6

Economic Performance of Turkish Immigrant Men in the European Labour-Market: Evidence from Sweden

This paper uses eleven waves of panel-data to analyse the earnings assimilation of first-generation Turkish immigrant men in Sweden. Employment-probabilities and earnings are estimated in a fixed-effects sample selection model in order to control for both individual effects and panel-selectivity, which arise due to missing earnings-information. Local unemployment rates are used as proxy for varying local market conditions in order to control for the bias caused by equal-period-effect assumption. The results indicate that the earnings of Turkish immigrant men converge to those of natives, but their probability of being employed does not. The assimilation response of Turkish immigrants differs considerably, depending on arrival-cohorts and educational levels