Attitudes of Design Students Toward Computer Usage in Design

The success of efforts to integrate technology with design education is largely affected by the attitudes of students toward technology. This paper presents the findings of a research on the attitudes of design students toward the use of computers in design and its correlates. Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools are the most widely used computer applications in design. An instrument was developed and applied for the first time to relate computer attitude to design field through CAD. Interior architecture undergraduates of Bilkent University participated in the survey. As a result, students’ attitudes toward the use of computers in design were found to be positive. A significant gender difference in attitudes toward computers was observed with males having more positive attitudes than females. The results also revealed that students’ attitude toward computer usage in design was highly related to their general attitude toward computers, but it was not correlated with their perception of instructors’ attitude toward the use of computers in design.     

Nash Equilibrium and Decentralized Negotiation in Auctioning Divisible Resources

We consider the problem of software agents being used as proxies for the procurement of computational and network resources. Mechanisms such as single-good auctions and combinatorial auctions are not applicable for the management of these services, as assigning an entire resource to a single agent is often undesirable and appropriate bund sizes are difficult to determine. We investigate a divisible auction that is proportionally fair. By introducing the notion of price and demand functions that characterize optimal response functions of the bidders, we are able to prove that this mechanism has a unique Nash equilibrium for an arbitrary number of agents with heterogeneous quasilinear utilities. We also describe decentralized negotiation strategies which, with approrpate relaxation, converge locally to the equilibrium point. Given an agent with a sequence of jobs, we show how our analysis holds for a wide variety of objectives.     

Research on effectiveness of technology transfer in technology alliances: evidence from Turkish SMEs

Many SMEs homed in newly industrialised countries are successful international players despite limited technological infrastructure and R&D resources. This study bridges a gap in the extant literature by examining the relationships between characteristics of partnership relationships, knowledge sharing and the effectiveness of technology transfer in partnerships between SMEs in developing countries and firms from developed countries. By studying data from Turkish SMEs and using partial least squares structural equation modelling, we find that explicit knowledge sharing forms the basis of technology transfer. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that explicit knowledge sharing is strongly contingent upon formalised technical support while trust and technical support seemed to be important antecedents of tacit knowledge sharing.     

Do Stock Index Futures Affect Economic Growth? Evidence from 32 Countries

This article investigates the relationship between stock index futures markets development and economic growth using time-series methods for 32 developed and developing countries. Evidence of cointegration between stock index futures and real economy in 29 countries suggests the presence of co-movements among the variables, indicating long-run stationarity in those countries. Our findings show that there is Granger-causality from stock index futures markets development to economic growth for middle-income countries with relatively low real per capita GDP, and Granger-causality in the reverse direction for the countries with high real per capita GDP. Variance decomposition and impulse-response function (IRF) analyses results support the existence of a relationship between stock index futures and real economy.     

Seasonal employee leadership and turnover intention in the hospitality and tourism industry: Serial mediation model workplace ostracism and work alienation

Based on the Conservation of Resources Theory, this research aims to examine the relationship between seasonal employee leadership (SEL) and turnover intention (TI). The data was obtained by administering a survey to 450 seasonal employees working in 15 five-star hotels in Antalya. The findings revealed that SEL reduces TI, which is an important problem for the tourism industry. The study results show that SEL was negatively related to workplace ostracism (WO) and work alienation (WA) and TI. Further, the findings show the serial mediating effect of WO and WA between SEL and TI. The study makes useful recommendations to managers to eliminate ostracism, curb the feeling of alienation and decrease TI.     

Financial Transparency and Sources of Hidden Capital in Turkish Banks

This paper investigates how changes in regulatory and economic environments affect the transparency of banks’ financial-statements. Reregulation and a volatile economy make Turkish banks the ideal sample. I disaggregate sources of both hidden and booked capital in Turkish banks traded on the Istanbul Stock Exchange between 1988 and 2006. Hidden capital account for the difference between the accounting and opportunity-cost measures of a firm’s net worth. Increases in hidden capital in crisis periods indicate a greater reliance on government-contributed safety-net capital. The increase in hidden capital is more pronounced for large banks. Too-Big-To-Fail policies may explain why large banks are the beneficiaries of government-contributed capital.     

The effect of pregnancy Pilates-assisted childbirth preparation training on childbirth fear and neonatal outcomes: a quasi-experimental/quantitative research

This research aims to determine the effect pregnancy Pilates-assisted childbirth preparation training for primiparous women has on the fear of childbirth and neonatal outcomes. Fear of childbirth is very common among women and has negative effects on the birth process and neonatal outcomes. The study was designed as quasi-experimental/non-randomised/quantitative and prospective. Primiparous women presenting to the antenatal clinic of a hospital between 27.2.2015 and 01.03.2016 constituted the study population (reached 149 women). The study sample included 108 women, 54 of whom were in the experimental group and 54 of whom were in the control group. The sample had agreed to participate in the study and had met the sample criteria. In collecting the data, the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire Version A, the birth outcomes data collection form were used. The data were analyzed using means calculation, Fisher’s Exact Test, Pearson’s Chi Square Test and T Test. The study found that the experimental group had a moderate level of childbirth fear prior to the training and a low level of childbirth fear following the training (p < 0.05). The study was determined that the experimental group, as compared to the control group, was positively affected by the training, in terms of childbirth fear, mode of the birth, planned or unplanned cesarean birth, the Apgar score and body weight of the newborn, and problems in the development of the newborn, the first contact time with newborn, and the first time breastfeeding (p < 0.05). The childbirth preparation program had a positive effect on fear of childbirth and neonatal outcomes.     

The Shocking Origins of Political Transitions: Evidence from Earthquakes

Do earthquakes trigger political transitions? Using a rich panel dataset of 160 countries observed over 1950–2007, we find that earthquake shocks, measured in terms of the effect of ground‐motion amplitude on death toll, have two contradicting effects on political change. On the one hand, earthquakes drive transitions into democracy due to an affective shock, which we interpret to be the reaction of citizens by which they hold the incumbent government responsible for earthquake damages. On the other hand, earthquakes indirectly hasten transitions into a less democratic regime because they increase the income level contemporaneously, possibly due to short‐term emergency response and recovery expenditures, and thus, raising the opportunity cost of contesting the incumbent government. Overall, we show that, while not leading to a full‐fledged regime transition, earthquake shocks open a new democratic window of opportunity, but this window is narrowed by improved economic conditions.     

ICT labor,software usage,and productivity: firm-level evidence from Turkey

Journal of Productivity Analysis - This paper examines the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on firm-level productivity in Turkey using a novel longitudinal data set. We...