Service robots in hotel businesses: A mixed method study

The aim of the research is to determine the willingness and perspectives of the employees of the five-star hotel business in Nevşehir, Turkey, regarding service robots by using a mixed method. 396 question­naires were obtained with the convenience sampling method. In addition, the pur­poseful sampling method was adopted in the study, which was designed as a case study, and 12 people were interviewed. The research findings were revealed by making difference analyzes and descriptive analyzes. It has been determined that hotel employees are relatively willing to work with service robots. Employees focused more on the performance and convenience of service robots. Some employees stated that service robots will show human-like features physically, but they cannot replace humans due to the labor-intensive nature of tourism. On the other hand, it has been concluded that with the achievement of the service standard, they will play an impor­tant role in reducing errors and increasing service quality.El objetivo de la investigación es determi­nar la voluntad y las perspectivas de los empleados de hoteles de cinco estrellas en Nevşehir, Turquía, con respecto a los robots de servicio. En el estudio se uti­lizó un método mixto: se obtuvieron 396 encuestas por el método de muestreo por conveniencia; además, se adoptó el método de muestreo intencional, que fue diseñado como un estudio de caso, y se entrevistó a 12 personas. Los hallazgos de la investiga­ción se revelaron mediante la realización de análisis de diferencias y análisis descriptivos. Se ha determinado que los empleados del hotel están relativamente dispuestos a trabajar con robots de servicio. Los empleados se centraron más en el desempeño y la conveniencia de los robots de servicio. Algunos trabajadores afirmaron que, aunque los robots de servicio tengan características físicas similares a las humanas, no pueden reemplazar a los humanos debido a la naturaleza intensiva en mano de obra del turismo. Por otro lado, se ha concluido que con el logro del estándar de servicio se jugará un papel importante en la reducción de errores y en el aumento de la calidad del servicio

Proceedings of the Conference on Emerging Economic Issues in a Globalizing World

The paper will examine the 1994 and 2001 Turkish currency crises by using early warning system which is based on the “signal” approach proposed by Kaminsky, Lizondo and Reinhart (KLR) (1998). The “signal” approach is a non-parametric approach. In this approach, the behavior of a number of individual variables is monitored and they are evaluated against a certain threshold levels. If any of these indicator exceeds its threshold, it is said that indicator issues a “signal” that a currency crisis may occur within a given period. The objectives of this paper are two folds: to investigate causes of currency crises under consideration and to compare similarities and differences of the 1994 and 2001 currency crises. The data consist of monthly data and range from January 1987 to November 2005 for the following variables: reserves, inflation rate, GDP growth, portfolio capital inflow to reserves, short term external debt to reserves, domestic debt, money supply to reserves, current account to GDP, real exchange rate overvaluation, regional stock market return, regional market pressure index, stock market index, export and import. Results showed that 2001 crisis is deeper and costlier than 1994 crisis, external factors play more imported role in 2001 crisis than 1994 crisis and in both crises Weighted Composite Index increases sharply previous the both crises.SMEs, Turkey, Currency Crises, early warning system

Carbon tetrachloride, effect of n-acetyl cysteine on glutathione (GSH) and glutathione s transferase activity in carbon tetrachloride induced liver damaged

Bu çalışmada, karaciğerde karbon tetraklorür (CCl4) ile oluşturulacak toksisite modelinde lipit peroksidasyon göstergesi olan Malondialdehit (MDA) aktivitesini ve detoksifikasyon reaksiyonlarında önemli rol oynayan biyomoleküllerden GSH ve GST enzimlerinin aktivitesi üzerine N-asetil sisteinin etkisinin olup olmadığı araştırılacaktır. Çalışmaya altı grupta toplam 72 adet rat alındı. 1. grup (CCl4, 6. saat) 2 ml/kg i.p verilirken, 2. gruba (CCl4+NAS, 6. saat), 3. gruba (CCl4, 72. saat), 4. gruba ise (CCl4+NAS, 72. saat) uygulandı. 5. gruba zeytinyağı verilirken, 6. gruba zeytinyağı+NAS (periton içi 50 mg/kg/gün) uygulandı. N-asetil sistein uygulamasına deney gurubuna enjekte edilen CCl4'den 3 gün önce başlandı ve deney süresince devam edildi. 1. ve 2. deneme gruplarındaki hayvanlar CCl4 enjeksiyonundan 6 saat sonra, 3. ve 4. deneme gruplarındaki hayvanlar ise 72 saat sonra eter anestezisine alınıp kalplerinden kan örnekleri ve karaciğer dokusu alındı. Kontrol grubu oluşturmak amacıyla 5. gruptaki ratlardan 6 adeti 6 saat sonra, 6 adeti de 72 saat sonra kontrol değerlerini elde etmek amacıyla kullanıldı. 6. gruba N-asetil sistein uygulaması 2. ve 4. gruplara paralel sürede uygulandı ve 6 adet rattan 6 saat sonra, 6 adet rattan 72 saat sonra eter anestezisi altında kan ve karaciğer örnekleri kontrol değerleri için alındı. Kanda karaciğer enzimleri AST ve ALT, karaciğer dokularında ise indirgenmiş glutatyon (GSH), Glutatyon S-transferaz (GST) ve lipit peroksidasyon göstergesi olan malondialdehit (MDA) çalışıldı. Karaciğer enzimlerinin değerlendirilmesinde; AST ve ALT düzeylerinin CCl4 verilen grupta 6. ve 72. saatlerde kontrol grubuna göre anlamlı olarak arttığı ve NAS eklenmesi ile AST ve ALT düzeylerinin düştüğü izlendi. Karaciğer doku MDA seviyelerinin CCl4 verilen grupta 6. saatte kontrol grubuna göre anlamlı olarak arttığı ve NAS eklenmesi ile düzeyinin düştüğü tespit edildi. 72. saat CCl4 verilen grupta karaciğer MDA düzeylerinin, NAS verilen grup ile kontrol grubuna göre önemli oranda yüksek olduğu, ancak diğer gruplar arasında istatistiki açıdan önemli bir fark olmadığı belirlendi. Doku antioksidan seviyeleri değerlendirildiğinde, GSH seviyelerinin CCl4 verilen grupta 6. ve 72. saatlerde kontrol grubuna göre anlamlı olarak düşük olduğu ve NAS ilavesi ile arttığı izlendi. GST seviyelerinin ise CCI4 verilen grupta 6. saatte kontrol grubuna göre arttığı, ancak bu artışın istatistiki değerlendirme açısından önemli olmadığı ve NAS eklenmesi ile miktarın önemli oranda düştüğü görüldü. 72. saatte CCl4 verilen grupta GST düzeylerinin NAS verilen grup ile kontrol grubuna göre anlamlı olarak yüksek olduğu; CCl4+NAS verilen grupta ise NAS ve kontrol grubuna göre yüksek olmasına rağmen NAS grubu ile aradaki farkın istatistiki değerlendirme açısından önem taşımadığı görüldü. Sonuç olarak; CCl4 intoksikasyonunun zamana bağlı olarak organizma tarafından tolere edildiği ve NAS'ın, CCl4 ile oluşturulan karaciğer hasarı üzerine yararlı etkileri olduğu sonucuna varıldı.Carbon Tetrachloride, Effect of N-Acetyl Cysteine on Glutathione (GSH) and Glutathione S- Transferase Activity in Carbon Tetrachloride İnduced Liver Damaged In this study, N-acetyl sistein was researched whether has an effect on GSH and GST enzymes, that has an important role on detoxification reactions, and Malondialhedit (MDA) activity, that is lipid peroxidation determinant at toxicity model that will be composed with carbon tetra chloride (CCl4) in liver. Totally 72 rats from six groups were collected to study. 1 st group (CCl4, 6 th hour) 2 ml/kg i.p assigned, 2 nd group (CCl4+NAS, 6 th hour), 3 rd group (CCl4, 72 nd hour), 4 th group (CCl4+NAS, 72 nd hour) were applied. Olive oil was assigned to 5 th group, while olive oil + NAS (inside peritoneum 50/mg/kg/day) was applied. In N-acetyl sistein application was started 3 days before CCl4 that injected to tested group and continued while experiment. Blood samples and lives tissues were taken by ether anesthesia from 1 st and 2 nd sample groups -6 hours after CCl4 injection- and 3 rd and 4 th sample groups 'after 72 hours-. To compose a control group 6 rats (after 6 hours later) and respectively 6 rats (72 hours later) from 5 th group were taken. N-acetyl sistein apllication to 6 th group was performed parallel to 2 nd and 4 th groups and blood samples and lives tissues were taken by ether anesthesia from 6 rats after 72 hours for control values. AST and ALT enzymes in blood and lowered GSH and GST and Malondialhedit (MDA) activity, that is lipid peroxidation determinant were performed. While observing liver enzymes, it was observed that AST and ALT levels increased importantly in CCl4 given groups in 6 th and 72 nd hours than control group and also observed that AST and ALT levels decreased with addition of NAS. In 72 nd hour CCl4 given group liver MDA levels were importantly higher than NAS given and control groups, but statistically there was no important difference. While tissue antioxidant levels reviewed, GSH levels were importantly lower than 6 th and 72 nd hours than control groups and increased with NAS addition. GST levels were increased with CCl4 given group in 6 th hour than control group, but this increase wasn't imporant statistically and lowered with NAS addition. In 72 nd hour CCl4 given group GST levels were higher than NAS given and control groups; in CCl4+NAS given groups whether being higher than NAS and control groups, difference between NAS group has no statistical importance. As a result CCl4 intoxication was tolerated by organism related to time and NAS has beneficial effects on CCl4 caused liver defects

WHERE WE BELONG: SPATIAL IMAGINING IN AMERICAN WOMEN’S LIFE NARRATIVES, 1859-1912

Where We Belong: Spatial Imagining in American Women’s Life Narratives, 1859-1912, studies three marginalized and disadvantaged American women’s self-life narratives during a transitional period in American history. In this dissertation, I am taking an interdisciplinary approach. Where We Belong borrows from social geography, new materialism, and autobiography studies in order to complicate critical discussions of women’s space and place in nineteenth-century women’s self-life narratives. Each chapter of Where We Belong presents a case study with the goal to provide a broader understanding of women’s strategies of belonging due to and despite their spatial exclusions. The overarching emphasis in each chapter remains on the female body’s spatial movement. Exploring Eliza Potter’s A Hairdresser’s Experience in High Life (1859), Elizabeth Keckley’s Behind the Scenes; Or Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (1868), and Mary Antin’s The Promised Land (1912), I claim that material spaces and these women’s corporeal bodies are inseparable. The three cases I present in this project exemplify how marginal women develop strategies of belonging in spaces from which they have been excluded. These women demonstrate ways of belonging (where they are assumed not to) enacted by self-life narratives. Belonging is not a passive way of being: it is activism that disrupts strict categories and definitions, such as blackness, in American literary scholarship. It contains paradoxes of acquiescence and self-declaration

Shape and data-driven texture segmentation using local binary patterns

We propose a shape and data driven texture segmentation method using local binary patterns (LBP) and active contours. In particular, we pass textured images through a new LBP-based filter, which produces non-textured images. In this “filtered” domain each textured region of the original image exhibits a characteristic intensity distribution. In this domain we pose the segmentation problem as an optimization problem in a Bayesian framework. The cost functional contains a data-driven term, as well as a term that brings in information about the shapes of the objects to be segmented. We solve the optimization problem using level set-based active contours. Our experimental results on synthetic and real textures demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in segmenting challenging textures as well as its robustness to missing data and occlusions

Factors affecting the process of taking action at individual level regarding mitigation and preparedness for an earthquake in Istanbul

In order for disaster management to be effective and successful, efforts to improve preparedness at governmental, sectoral and institutional levels should be supported by corresponding efforts at community and individual levels. However, getting the cooperation of individuals and communities is a complex issue with many inherent difficulties. The megacity Istanbul is located in an earthquake risk zone and is expected to experience an earthquake in the near future, but on the individual level there appears to be limited interest in preparing for such an earthquake. This study aims to investigate the process of taking action to prepare for an earthquake and mitigate its effects at individual level, to identify the factors influencing this process and to asses the level of preparedness in Istanbul. The study was conducted in two districts of Istanbul with different levels of earthquake risk. Within these districts three socioeconomic levels (SEL) were considered. The study is in two parts. In the first part, 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) with citizens living in Bakırköy (higher risk) and Beykoz (lower risk) and 11 in-depth interviews with experts, authorities and key informants were conducted. In the second part, a field survey was carried out in the same districts. A questionnaire was prepared according to the results of the first part of the study and was administered face-to-face by trained interviewers. A total of 1123 people were interviewed. The qualitative part of the study demonstrated that, within our conceptual framework, which describes the process of taking action to prepare for an earthquake and mitigate its effects, the behaviour of the group participants fell into three different patterns. The first and most common pattern was interruption of the impetus towards taking action after or during the “awareness” stage by intervening social, personal and environmental factors. Less commonly, the first or subsequent step or steps were taken, but again the process was interrupted before successful completion. Completion of the process was the least common pattern among the group participants. The qualitative part of the study identified the obstacle to taking action to mitigate damage from earthquakes and to be prepared for them as: low socioeconomic level; absence of belief in the efficacy of measures, for example regarding nonstructural or microscale-measures; helplessness; a culture of negligence; lack of trust in the building sector; environmental factors such as poor predictability and suddenness of onset; and normalisation bias. Factors motivating individuals to take action were: living in higher-risk areas; a higher educational level; direct experience of earthquakes through participating in rescue and solidarity activities during past events; and social interaction. In our survey sample, 54% of the respondents had taken at least 3 of the 11 measures we asked about and 12% had not taken any measures. The five leading measures generally taken by the respondents were: getting the building tested for construction quality (51%), keeping a torch near the bed (49%), fixing high furniture to walls (39%), obtaining earthquake insurance (38%) and having a family disaster plan (32%). Testing the building for construction quality and obtaining earthquake insurance were significantly more frequent in the high-risk area (X2: 296.6, p<0.001; X2: 89.34, p<0.001). Logistic regression analysis indicated that education level of the respondents (odds ratio, OR: 2.8, confidence interval, CI: 1.8, 4.4) was the leading factor associated with taking at least three measures, followed by living in a higher-risk area (OR: 2.3, CI: 1.6, 3.1), participating in rescue and solidarity activities in past earthquakes (OR: 2.0, CI: 1.2, 2.1), a higher earthquake knowledge score (OR: 1.9, CI: 1.4, 2.6), owning the home (OR: 1.8, CI: 1.3, 2.4), living in a neighbourhood known to be inhabited by people with higher SELs (OR: 1.6, CI: 1.1, 2.3), a higher action-stimulating attitudes score (OR: 1.5, CI: 1.2, 2.1) and general safety score (OR: 1.5, CI: 1.1, 2.2) and being in the young age group (16-34 years olds, OR: 0.6, CI: 0.4, 0.99). It is not easy to change the situation of individuals regarding the factors that are significantly associated with taking action. They need interventions in the political, social and economic systems. But knowledge about earthquakes is the one factor that could be improved through simpler interventions such as effective awareness programmes. Thus every effort should be made effectively to provide earthquake information to the public. Awareness programmes should focus on informing people about how to cope with earthquakes and how to personalise the risk rather than on information about the risk itself and its consequences. In addition, these programmes should involve activities targeted on changing people’s attitudes towards different types of measure, actors in disaster management and their own capacity, and to creating a culture of safety in the public. The target populations in the awareness programmes should be people with a lower educational level living in all areas, tenants, people living in low socioeconomic districts and young people. People who have participated in rescue and solidarity activities could be given appropriate roles and responsibilities to reach the community and local people

Public health and natural disasters: disaster preparedness and response in health systems

The number of natural disasters and the severity of their impact have increased in recent decades. These developments highlight the need for improved preparedness and response in the health sector, inter alia, and the important role of public health in disaster management. The purpose of this paper, which is based on a literature review, is to provide background information about the general framework of disaster management and present the core concepts of disaster preparedness and response in health systems. Three different strategies were used to collect information for this article. First, information was collected from various international databases. Then, the virtual health library for disasters provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the WHO Health Action in Crisis (HAC) online sources were reviewed for relevant WHO and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) books, working papers and reports. Finally, PubMed abstracts were searched with key words and phrases. For greater completeness, five disaster journals were hand searched. Additional sources such as text books, working papers, and articles were included, relying on the bibliography of the original study mentioned in the introduction to this paper. The studies reviewed indicated that fragmented and response-oriented approaches have begun to change world wide, at least in the literature. Despite the publication of increasing numbers of research projects in disaster issues, there are still gaps in sharing experience through scientific papers, such as systematic evaluation of activities in different phases of disaster situation

Modelling and optimizing testing strategies for epidemic outbreaks

The aim of the thesis is to develop and analyse dynamical models for the transmission dynamics and propagation of infectious diseases. Our approach can be used to the practical problems of epidemiology, with serious implications to public health policy, prevention, control and mitigation strategies in public health emergencies such as the ongoing pandemic

YIELD AND ITS COMPONENTS IN FIELD PEA (Pisum arvense L.) LINES

Morphological characters such as main stem length (cm), number of branches per plant, leaf length (cm), number of leaves per main stem, number of leaflets per leaf, diameter of main stem (mm), pods / main stem and seeds / pod as well as agricultural herbage yield (t ha-1), dry matter yield (t ha-1), seed yield (t ha-1), crude protein (%) were investigated in Trakya, during the 1999-2002. The maximum main stem length (124.375 cm), leaf length (24.808 cm), number of pods per main stem (16.526), herbage yield (27.881 t ha-1), dry matter yield (7.319 t ha-1) and seed yield (2.590 t ha-1) were determined from the 16-K and 16-DY field pea lines. K line has given higher values than four lines for the number of branches per plant (5.567). Main stem diameter ranged from 3.077 to 4.300 mm. It’s found that the 23.025 leaves/main stem, 6.833 leaflets/leaf, 7.692 seeds/pod and 17.550% crude protein from the field pea lines