The Concept of ‘Nature’ in Peripatetic Islamic Philosophers

In this study, lexical and terminological meanings of the term “nature” were analyzed and some Peripatetical Islamic philosophers’ opinions about this term were included. A comparison was made between the words “tabiat” and “doğa” which are used in Turkish language to meet the term “nature”. The realm of existence which Peripatetical Islamic philosophers have used “nature” in as a noun was explained. Debate between Ibn Sīnā and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) about the necessity of proving the term “nature” was mentioned. Ibn Sīnā's views on what “nature” portends in terms of being a source of motion and duration in objects were presented in comparison with Aristotle. Later definitions which are made by philosophers for “nature” as a term were presented. Peripatetical Islamic philosophers’ definition of the term “nature” which has a critical role in Islamic philosophy and the way they use it differentiates from that of Aristotle’s. The term “nature” which they especially use to explain every kind of becoming and motion enables to connect all reason to Allah in aspects of etymology. And it is also known that the term “nature” serves as a basis for differentiation between physics and metaphysics. The purpose of this article is to clarify the possible usages of the term “nature” in relation to new theories

No Appealing Future For High Growth – Low Profitability Firms: Evidence from Turkey’s Top 1000

The view that profitability, not growth, is the driving force behind the firm performance, and unprofitable high growth can not lead to financial success has often been discussed in the literature. In this study, I tested this hypothesis on Turkey’s top 1000 data using an extended version of the method of Davidson et al. (2009). My sample strongly supports the hypothesis that controlling for leverage, low growth-high profitability (profit) firms outperform high growth-low profitability (growth) firms regarding both directions of their transition to an upper state and a lower state in subsequent periods. The hypothesis that controlling for type of firm (growth or profit firm), leverage matters with respect to firm’s future performance is weakly supported by 3-year transition data.Firm performance, growth, profitability, Turkey

Fractional Reserve Banking as Economic Parasitism: A Scientific, Mathematical & Historical Expose, Critique, and Manifesto

This paper looks at the history of money and its modern form from a scientific and mathematical point of view. The approach here is to emphasize simplicity. A straightforward model and algebraic formula for a large economy analogous to the ideal gas law of thermodynamics is proposed. It may be something like a new ``F=ma'' rule of the emerging econophysics field. Some implications of the equation are outlined, derived, and proved. The phenomena of counterfeiting, inflation and deflation are analyzed for interrelations. Analogies of the economy to an ecosystem or energy system are advanced. The fundamental legitimacy of ``expansion of the money supply'' in particular is re-examined and challenged. From the hypotheses a major (admittedly radical) conclusion is that the modern international ``fractional reserve banking system'' is actually equivalent to ``legalized economic parasitism by private bankers.'' This is the case because, contrary to conventional wisdom, the proceeds of inflation are not actually spendable by the state. Also possible are forms of ``economic warfare'' based on the principles. Alternative systems are proposed to remediate this catastrophic flaw.fractional reserve banking money expansion parasitism capitalism greenspan gold thermodynamics perfect gas econophysics gresham's law stiglitz money supply inflation deflation growth price stability counterfeiting energy radical polemic revolution economic warfare religion doublespeak gdp scarcity fiat blips federal reserve history slavery lassaiz-fair solow keynes keynesianism cancer psychology sociology politics analogy IMF world bank GNP GDP digital cash money laundering pareto mcfadden echelon nsa free market growth conspiracy

Channel estimation and tracking for closed loop EO-STBC with differentially encoding feedback

Extended orthogonal space time block coding (EO-STBC) can achieve high transmit diversity over a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel. To do so, it requires channel state information on the transmitter side, which needs to be estimated and fed back from the receiver. Therefore, this paper explores an estimation and tracking scheme by means of a Kalman filter, which is integrated with EO-STBC detection and exploits the smooth evolution of the channel coefficients by applying differential feedback. For slow fading, we propose the inclusion of a drift vector in the Kalman model, which is motivated by a second order approximation of the underlying channel model and can be shown to offer advantages in terms of temporal smoothness when addressing channels whose coefficient trajectories evolve smoothly

Does the Conditional CAPM Work? Evidence from the Istanbul Stock Exchange

This paper tests whether the conditional CAPM accurately prices assets utilizing data from the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) over the time period from February 1997 to April 2008. In our empirical analysis, we closely follow the methodology introduced in Lewellen and Nagel (2006). Our results show that the conditional CAPM fairs no better than the static counterpart in pricing assets. Although market betas do vary significantly over time, the intertemporal variation is not nearly large enough to drive average conditional alphas to zero.Conditional CAPM

Surveying Turkish high school and university student attitudes and approaches to physics problem solving

Student attitudes and approaches to problem solving can impact how well they learn physics. Prior research in the US using a validated Attitude and Approaches to Problem Solving (AAPS) survey suggests that there are major differences between students in introductory physics and astronomy courses and physics experts in terms of their attitudes and approaches to physics problem solving. Here we discuss the validation, administration and analysis of data for the Turkish version of the AAPS survey for high school and university students in Turkey. After the validation and administration of the Turkish version of the survey, the analysis of the data was conducted by grouping the data by grade level, school type, and gender. While there are no statistically significant differences between the averages of various groups on the survey, overall, the university students in Turkey were more expert-like than vocational high school students. On an item by item basis, there are statistically differences between the averages of the groups on many items. For example, on average, the university students demonstrated less expert-like attitudes about the role of equations and formulas in problem solving, in solving difficult problems, and in knowing when the solution is not correct, whereas they displayed more expert-like attitudes and approaches on items related to meta-cognition in physics problem solving. A principal component analysis on the data yields item clusters into which the student responses on various survey items can be grouped. A comparison of the responses of the Turkish and American university students enrolled in algebra-based introductory physics courses shows that on more than half of the items, the responses of these two groups were statistically significantly different with the US students on average responding to the items in more expert-like manner.Comment: 16 pages, Keywords: Physics Education Research, Attitudes and approaches to problem solving, Turkish students, American students, factor analysis, principal component analysi