Young Turkish Tourists’ Religious Tourism Motivations, Perceptions and Intentions About a Religious Destination: The Case Of Konya, Turkey

Young tourists represent over 20% of the tourism market and are an important element in current tourism activities. Cultural tourism, encompassing religious tourism, has increased in recent times, however, young tourists exhibit less preference for religious destinations, particularly within their own religions, compared to other options. Their preferences generally lean towards non-spiritual or secular motivations rather than religious based travel motivations. Within this context, this study aims to determine religious tourism motivations, perceptions and related behaviours of young tourists by evaluating their preferences and consumption patterns at religious sites. The study is undertaken on the basis of secondary research supported by primary surveys (n: 387) conducted with young Turkish tourists in Konya, an important religious destination in the central part of Turkey. According to the results, religious tourism attitudes and young tourists’ related behaviours have a high value and have an effect on their motivations and perceptions. Their consumption patterns are focused on religious and entertainment purposes and their preferences are generally based on resting and selfactualisation. Based on these findings, evaluations and suggestions about what needs to be oriented towards young tourists and how to draw more young tourists are presented. For religious tourism destination planners, this study offers some basic profiles and outputs to build useful strategies and to attract more active young tourists and provide useful marketing knowledge about young tourists for the purpose of making religious destinations more attractive to them

Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017) includes a comprehensive assessment of incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) for 354 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017. Previous GBD studies have shown how the decline of mortality rates from 1990 to 2016 has led to an increase in life expectancy, an ageing global population, and an expansion of the non-fatal burden of disease and injury. These studies have also shown how a substantial portion of the world's population experiences non-fatal health loss with considerable heterogeneity among different causes, locations, ages, and sexes. Ongoing objectives of the GBD study include increasing the level of estimation detail, improving analytical strategies, and increasing the amount of high-quality data. Methods: We estimated incidence and prevalence for 354 diseases and injuries and 3484 sequelae. We used an updated and extensive body of literature studies, survey data, surveillance data, inpatient admission records, outpatient visit records, and health insurance claims, and additionally used results from cause of death models to inform estimates using a total of 68 781 data sources. Newly available clinical data from India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Nepal, China, Brazil, Norway, and Italy were incorporated, as well as updated claims data from the USA and new claims data from Taiwan (province of China) and Singapore. We used DisMod-MR 2.1, a Bayesian meta-regression tool, as the main method of estimation, ensuring consistency between rates of incidence, prevalence, remission, and cause of death for each condition. YLDs were estimated as the product of a prevalence estimate and a disability weight for health states of each mutually exclusive sequela, adjusted for comorbidity. We updated the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary development indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and total fertility rate. Additionally, we calculated differences between male and female YLDs to identify divergent trends across sexes. GBD 2017 complies with the Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting. Findings: Globally, for females, the causes with the greatest age-standardised prevalence were oral disorders, headache disorders, and haemoglobinopathies and haemolytic anaemias in both 1990 and 2017. For males, the causes with the greatest age-standardised prevalence were oral disorders, headache disorders, and tuberculosis including latent tuberculosis infection in both 1990 and 2017. In terms of YLDs, low back pain, headache disorders, and dietary iron deficiency were the leading Level 3 causes of YLD counts in 1990, whereas low back pain, headache disorders, and depressive disorders were the leading causes in 2017 for both sexes combined. All-cause age-standardised YLD rates decreased by 3·9% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 3·1–4·6) from 1990 to 2017; however, the all-age YLD rate increased by 7·2% (6·0–8·4) while the total sum of global YLDs increased from 562 million (421–723) to 853 million (642–1100). The increases for males and females were similar, with increases in all-age YLD rates of 7·9% (6·6–9·2) for males and 6·5% (5·4–7·7) for females. We found significant differences between males and females in terms of age-standardised prevalence estimates for multiple causes. The causes with the greatest relative differences between sexes in 2017 included substance use disorders (3018 cases [95% UI 2782–3252] per 100 000 in males vs s1400 [1279–1524] per 100 000 in females), transport injuries (3322 [3082–3583] vs 2336 [2154–2535]), and self-harm and interpersonal violence (3265 [2943–3630] vs 5643 [5057–6302]). Interpretation: Global all-cause age-standardised YLD rates have improved only slightly over a period spanning nearly three decades. However, the magnitude of the non-fatal disease burden has expanded globally, with increasing numbers of people who have a wide spectrum of conditions. A subset of conditions has remained globally pervasive since 1990, whereas other conditions have displayed more dynamic trends, with different ages, sexes, and geographies across the globe experiencing varying burdens and trends of health loss. This study emphasises how global improvements in premature mortality for select conditions have led to older populations with complex and potentially expensive diseases, yet also highlights global achievements in certain domains of disease and injury

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified

Yedinci sınıf öğrencilerinin çokgenlerle ilgili kavram yanılgıları ve nedenlerinin belirlenmesi

Bu araştırmanın amacı yedinci sınıfta öğrenim gören öğrencilerin çokgenler konusuyla ilgili kavram yanılgılarını ve bu yanılgıların nedenlerini ortaya çıkarmaktır. Karma yöntem desenlerinden ardışık açıklayıcı desenin kullanıldığı araştırma 2013-2014 eğitim öğretim yılında yürütülmüştür. Araştırmanın örneklemi İzmir ili merkez ilçelerinde bulunan okullar arasından sistematik örnekleme yöntemiyle belirlenen okullarda öğrenim gören 424 öğrenciden oluşmaktadır. Araştırma verilerinin toplanmasında araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen iki aşamalı Çokgenler Kavram Yanılgılarını Belirleme Testi (ÇKYBT) ile görüşme formu kullanılmıştır. ÇKYBT'de yedinci sınıf matematik öğretim programında yer alan çokgenler konusuyla ilgili kazanımları ölçmek amacıyla hazırlanan 15 soru yer almakta ve öğrencilerden her sorunun cevabına yönelik açıklama yapmaları istenmektedir. Öğrencilerin verdiği yanıtlar ve yaptıkları açıklamalar Karataş (2002) ve Coştu'nun (2002) belirlemiş olduğu kategorilere benzer şekilde sınıflandırılmış ve öğrencilerin ne tür kavram yanılgıları ve bilgi eksiklikleri olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Görüşme formu ise kavram yanılgılarının olası nedenlerini belirlemek amacıyla kullanılmıştır. ÇKYBT'den elde edilen verilerin analizinde yüzde ve frekans hesaplamaları kullanılırken, görüşmelerden elde edilen veriler önce yazıya aktarılarak incelenmiş ve içerik analizine tabi tutulmuştur. Bulgulara göre öğrencilerin çokgenlerle ilgili kavramların özellikleri, bu kavramların sınıflandırılması ve tanımlanması, aralarındaki ilişkilerin belirlenmesi ile ilgili kazanımlarda kavram yanılgıları olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bu yanılgıların temelinde öğrencilerin bilgi eksiklikleri, öğretim sürecindeki eksiklikler, kullanılan araç gereçler ve dilin çeşitli özellikleri gibi etmenlerin yer aldığı tespit edilmiştir. Bu bulgulara dayalı olarak eğitimcilere yönelik çeşitli öneriler sunulmuştur

AKIŞ KURAMI İLKELERİNE DAYALI GERÇEKÇİ MATEMATİK EĞİTİMİ İLE ZENGİNLEŞTİRİLMİŞ MATEMATİK ÖĞRETİMİNİN ÖĞRENCİLERİN BAŞARI, KALICILIK, MOTİVASYON VE AKIŞ DURUMUNA ETKİSİ

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mathematics instruction designed based on Flow Theory and RME on students’ achievement, retention, flow state and motivation. The study was conducted in 2017-2018 spring semester for 11 weeks at a state school in İzmir. In this study, quasi-experimental research design was used. After the groups were determined to be equivalent in the pretests, they were randomly assigned as experimental and control. The experimental group consisted of 37 students, while the control group consisted of 36 students. Additionally, qualitative data were collected to support the quantitative data. The data were collected through Mathematics Test, Flow State Scale, Mathematics Motivation Scale, observations, students’ diaries and interviews. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, t-tests, mixed ANOVA; determining alpha-level as .05. The qualitative data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The results indicated a significant difference between the mathematics retention scores of experimental and control groups, in favor of experimental group. There is also significant difference between posttest flow subdimension scores of experimental and control groups, in favor of experimental group. Additionally, significant difference was found between pretest and posttest flow subdimension, and between pretest and posttest boredom subdimension of experimental group, in favor of posttests. The results indicated that the mathematics motivation scores taken from posttest compared to pretest by the experimental group were significantly higher than the scores of the control group. The opinions of experimental group students about the instruction were investigated and results were discussed with relevant literature.Bu çalışmanın amacı, Akış Kuramı ve GME’ye göre tasarlanan matematik öğretiminin, öğrencilerin başarı, kalıcılık, akış durumu ve motivasyonları üzerindeki etkisini incelemektir. Çalışma, 2017-2018 bahar yarıyılında, İzmir’de bulunan bir devlet okulunda 11 hafta süresince yürütülmüştür. Çalışmada, yarı deneysel ön-test son-test kontrol gruplu araştırma deseni kullanılmıştır. Gruplar, öntestler sonucunda denk oldukları belirlenmelerinin ardından, rastgele bir şekilde deney ve kontrol grubu olarak atanmıştır. Deney grubunda 37, kontrol grubunda 36 öğrenci yer almaktadır. Ayrıca, çalışmada nicel verilerin desteklenmesi amacıyla nitel veriler toplanmıştır. Veriler Matematik Testi, Akış Durumu Ölçeği, Matematik Motivasyon Ölçeği, gözlemler, öğrenci günlükleri ve görüşmeler kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Elde edilen nicel veriler, alpha düzeyi .05 olarak belirlenerek, betimleyici istatistikler, t-testleri ve karma ANOVA kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Nitel veriler ise tematik analiz kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Elde edilen bulgulara göre, deney ve kontrol gruplarının matematik kalıcılık puanları arasında deney grubu lehine anlamlı bir fark olduğu belirlenmiştir. Deney ve kontrol gruplarının sontest akış alt-boyutu puanları arasında deney grubu lehine anlamlı bir fark vardır. Ayrıca, deney grubunun öntest ve sontest akış alt-boyutu puanları arasında, ve öntest ve sontest sıkılma alt-boyutu puanları arasında, sontestler lehine anlamlı farklar olduğu belirlenmiştir. Deney ve kontrol gruplarının sontest matematik motivasyonu puanları arasında, deney grubu lehine anlamlı fark olduğu belirlenmiştir. Deney grubu öğrencilerinin aldıkları öğretimle ilgili görüşleri detaylı olarak incelenmiş ve bulgular ilgili alanyazın doğrultusunda tartışılmıştır.Ph.D. - Doctoral Progra

IMPROVED PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION METHOD DIRECTED BY INDIRECT SURROGATE MODELING

An improved particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed and tested for two different test cases: surface fitting of a wing shape and an inverse design of an airfoil in subsonic flow. The new algorithm emphasizes the use of an indirect design prediction based on a local surrogate modeling as a part of update equations in particle swarm optimization algorithm structure. For all the demonstration problems considered herein, remarkable reductions in the computational times have been accomplished

Results of De Vega Annuloplasty and Tricuspid Ring Annuloplasty Using by Mitral Annuloplasty Ring in the Treatment of Functional Tricuspid Insufficiency

Objective: This study aimed to compare the medium-term results of patients with functional tricuspid insufficiency (FTI) treated with Tricuspid Ring Annuloplasty (TRA) and De Vega Annuloplasty (DVA). Material and Methods: With the approval of the Ethics Committee, 92 patients who were treated for FTI in our clinic between 2001-2008 were included in the study. Group I comprised 42 patients treated with TRA and Group II was included 50 patients treated with DVA. The mean follow-up period was 43.78+/-28.47 (6-86) months. Post-operative echocardiography findings (especially recurrent tricuspid insufficiency grades), duration of stay at the hospital and intensive care units, post-operative complications, New York Kalp Birligi (New York Heart Association-NYHA) classification and mortality data were compared between the groups. Results: No advanced (Grade 4) TI was encountered in medium-term follow-up in either of the groups. At the end of the mean follow-up period, 14.2% (n=6) of the patients in Group I had Grade 3 TI and 52.3% (n=22) had Grade 2 TI. In Group II, 20% (n=10) of the patients had Grade 3 TI and 56% (n=28) had Grade 2 TI. Although TI showed significant (p0.05) difference was present between the two groups in terms of post-operative recurrent TI. Conclusion: In patients with functional tricuspid valve insufficiency operated for mitral and/or aortic valve pathologies, both DVA and TRA provided significant improvement in tricuspid insufficiency