In order to determine the effects of social capital in innovative contexts, Nahapiet and Ghoshal&rsquo / s (1998) three dimensions of social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) were investigated in a business incubator located in a university science park. This thesis tries to answer five questions for the incubator context: (1) What are the antecedents of the three dimensions of social capital? (2) What are the benefits of social capital for the tenant firms? (3) How are the dimensions of social capital related to the antecedents and benefits? (4) What are the effects of being located in a university on social capital development between the firms and the host university? and (5) What is the role of the incubator management/specialists on social capital creation? The research questions were investigated in two layers: (1) Social capital development among tenant firms, and (2) Social capital development between the tenant firms and the host university. The research was designed with a multi-method approach along four steps. In the first step, the selected incubator was observed for a day. In the second stage, a pilot interview was conducted with one of the tenant firms. Next the firms were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their demographic characteristics. In the last stage, a theoretical sample of nine selected firms&rsquo / owners were interviewed. All the collected data were analyzed following the grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) and seven propositions were developed to be investigated in further research.

In this thesis, the technologies that appeared to be strategic according to the Vision 2023 Technology Foresight Project were examined in terms of how they might form up technology clusters. This thesis aims to identify technology clusters in terms of common knowledge base and to use these clusters in future scenarios as a foresight tool. In this study, Vision 2023 Delphi survey respondents&rsquo / intersecting expertise levels in different fields were accepted as indicators of common knowledge base in these fields and technology clusters were formed up in this direction. In order to attain technology clusters, the appropriateness of hierarchical and nonhierarchical clustering methods and projection techniques were examined. Taking the clusters into consideration, Ward&rsquo / s method revealed the healthiest results for our data set. Investigation of scenario building which had not been used in Turkey as a an effective foresight tool, forms the second step of this study. Scenario method was examined from a historical perspective and different approaches were investigated. Finally, using the technology clusters that were gained through Ward clustering, a scenario building study by scenario matrix was conducted as an example.

The current coginitive models of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms focuses on the different cognitive factors. Like other nonspecific and noncognitive variables, these factors may also function as vulnerability factors. However, they have been mostly studied separately and majority of the findings in the literature come from the Western samples. Accordingly, the studies examining these factors together and the impact of the culture in these studies are sparse in number. The present study suggested a comprehensive cognitive model for OCD symptoms, including several distal and proximal vulnerability factors. It was aimed to adapt three instruments to examine the interrelationships among the vulnerability factors and OCD symptoms in different cultures. Relevant ten instruments were administered to the university students from Turkey and Canada. The analyses showed that Turkish versions of three instruments had satisfactory psychometric properties for Turkish students. These analyses also revealed some cross-cultural similarities and differences in these factors and OCD symptoms. Neuroticism, age, introversion, OCD beliefs on responsibility/threat estimation, perfectionism/certainty and thought-action fusion in likelihood dimension were found to be associated with the OCD symptoms in both Turkish and Canadian samples. The relational paths between non-specific, appraisal and control factors, and OCD symptoms were also significant in both samples. However, religiousness was only significant factor in OCD symptoms and contributed to several belief and control factors toward these symptoms, only for Turkish subjects. The analyses of the religiousness differences indicated that psychological fusion in general and in morality was more related to the religiosity for Canadian Christians. Besides, Turkish students seemed to utilize worry more for OCD symptoms / whereas, Canadian participants used self-punishment. These common and unique patterns of the relationships were discussed within relevant findings about characteristics of the religion and culture.

There is no doubt about the fact that Europe has become home for millions of ex-colonails, guest-workers, refugees, asylum-seekers. However, these new Europeans are not acknowledged to be Europeans but instead they are mostly perceived as not belonging. Being deprived of political and social rights and exposed to economic exploitation make them the European &quot / apartheid&quot / . Within this present conjunture, this thesis aims at a modest discussion on ever-rising racism in Europe. It focuses on European racism and in particular the new racism in Europe which has been on the rise since the 1970s and 1980s. It examines European new racism via three exemplary cases (France, Britain and Germany). Out of different histories, economies and out of different racisms, this thesis searches for similarities. In fact, it claims that Europe has a traditional racism which is claimed to be one of the outcomes of the European self-construction process. Therefore, the other point of focus that this thesis engages in is the process through which Europe constructs its identity. It intends to discuss what Europe is and how Europe constructs itself via its Others. It claims that Europe identifies itself on the negation of its Others. Hence, this thesis attempts to discuss the connection between racism in Europe and European self-construction/self-identification process. In other words, this thesis intends to clarify that the self-construction/self-identification of Europe, which has depended mostly on the negation of its Others, has resulted in racist-thinking and racism which has always existent in Europe despite the changes in different peroids and different contexts forming a racist tradition in Europe.

This thesis analyzes the difficulties of managing the security of an enterprise network. The problem that this thesis study deals with is the central management of a large number and variety of services that provide organization-wide network and information security. This study addresses two problem areas: how to better manage the security of a network, and how to explain the security issues to upper management better. The study proposes a Security Management System (SMS) to be used for network security management, monitoring and reporting purposes. The system is a custom made, central management solution, which combines the critical performance indicators of the security devices and presents the results via web pages.

This study aims to examine the prevalence of traumatic events among university students and to evaluate the predictive values of socio-demographic variables, trauma characteristics, attachment styles and coping styles in posttraumatic growth. 321 students from the Middle East Technical University and Hacettepe University participated in the study. A trauma checklist, Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Relationship Scales Questionnaire, Attachment Style Questionnaire and Ways of Coping Inventory were administered. The results showed that living a disaster, death of a family member, living a serious accident or a serious health problem, a suicidal attempt or the suicide of a significant other or a friend and losing a significant other in an accident or in an act of violence are the traumas which were reported by the participants. In the regression analysis, gender, felt horror and helplessness during the traumatic event, optimistic coping style and fatalistic coping style are found to be significant predictors of posttraumatic growth. The results are discussed within the existing literature findings. The clinical implications are offered.

The purposes of this study were to examine (a) physical activity participation levels, (b) exercise stages of change levels and (c) physical activity preferences of the Middle East Technical University undergraduate students with respect to gender, residence and faculty. Participants were 953 students from 5 different faculties (496 male, and 547 female). For the data collection, International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), Physical Activity Stages of Change Questionnaire, and Physical Activity Preferences Questionnaire were used. Descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, median, percentage), and nonparametric statistical methods (Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Pearson chi-square test) were used for the data analysis. According to the IPAQ, male students were more physically active than female counterparts. Students who were living in campus had higher physical activity levels, and faculty of architecture students were more sedentary compared to other faculty students (p &lt / 0.05). In general, 24.8% of the students were physically active, 59.9% of the students were moderately active, and 15.3% of them were inactive. The results on exercise stages of change revealed that male students were at upper stages as compared to the female students. Faculty of architecture students were at lower stages compared to the other faculty students (p &lt / 0.05). There was no significant differences on the stages of students who were living in and out of the campus (p &gt / 0.05). In general, students at pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance stages were 15.2%, 31.4%, 25.3%, 7.5%, and 20.6% respectively. Swimming (59.2%), walking (56.7%), cycling (36.2%) and football (30.4%) were the most frequently preferred physical activities. Dancing and tennis were preferred more with the female students while football and basketball preferred more with the male students. Physical activity preferences of students living in and out of campus were similar. In conclusion, female students, students living out of the campus and students of faculty of architecture were more at risk. Approximately 75% of the METU undergraduate students&rsquo / physical activity levels were not satisfactory for a healthy life. University physical activity facilities, extracurricular programs and the courses should be reconsidered based on the findings of this study.

This thesis analyzes the role of political leadership in post-Soviet democratic transition in Kyrgyzstan by looking at the case of Askar Akaev. Despite the fact that a variety of components can be considered as relevant for the democratic transition process in Kyrgyzstan, due to the highly personalistic nature of Kyrgyz politics, the issue of political leadership needs to be addressed for this purpose. In that sense, the converse trajectories of Kyrgyz democratization (an initial democratic leap till mid-1990s which attracted world-wide attention and made Kyrgyzstan a promising candidate for democratization, afterward a democratic reversion and finally a slip to authoritarianism) correspond to the three stages in Akaev&amp / #8217 / s political leadership style (his emergence as a reform-minded politician, his initial liberal policies in political and economic spheres and his gradual reversion to authoritarianism). As a result, when Askar Akaev was ousted from his office in March 2005 by a public protest, Kyrgyzstan was far away from its world-wide accepted initial trajectory to democracy and became more similar to other authoritarian Central Asian Republics

The objective of this thesis is to examine the political modernization experience of the Uzbeks. In order to do that, first, this dissertation critically analyze the modernization theory, and second, the identity- and socio-political transformation of Uzbeks in the pre-modern and modern eras. The political modernization of Uzbeks and its relation with the peculiar social-political structures, as well as the impact of Tsarist and the Soviet rule on those structures are examined. Moreover, the dissertation analyzes the emergence of an Uzbek political identity and its influence on the post-Soviet independent Uzbekistan. The main argument of this dissertation is that the Uzbek experience under the Tsarist and Soviet rule has inevitably transformed the Uzbek society and achieved relative success in changing the traditional forms into ostensibly modern ones. However, despite the successful political modernization during the Soviet era, the specific socio-political organization, clans and kinship structures inherent in the Uzbek society succeeded adapting and even transforming modern institutions and structures externally imposed by the Soviet. These informal traditional structures emerged as strong institutions in the post-independence era. Moreover, the dissertation claims that the transition and modernization approaches to Post-Soviet Uzbekistan failed in understanding the peculiar socio-political structures and their impact on informal politics in independent Uzbekistan.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the overgenerality phenomenon and to draw some inferences on possible encoding problems of autobiographical memories (ABMs) in a non-clinically depressed sample. Eighty-eight university students (25 male, 63 female) participated in the experiment using the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT / Williams &amp / Broadbent, 1986). The effects of depression level (low or high), cue emotional valences (positive, negative and neutral) and cue number (one or two at each step) on the specificity, overgenerality, and latency of the ABMs recalled were examined. The results showed that the group having high depression scores (Depressed group) was less specific than the group having low depression scores (Non-depressed group) on the specificity levels of the ABMs recalled. Also, the students who were primed with one cue in the AMT were less specific than the students who were primed with two cues simultaneously. The depressed group primed with one cue also recalled less specific ABMs than the non-depressed group primed with two cues / and, the non-depressed group primed with either one cue or two cues in the AMT did not differ in terms of the specificity of the ABMs recalled. Regarding the cue type, the students recalled less specific ABMs as a response to the positive cues than to the neutral cues. However, they did not differ on the specificity of ABMs recalled as a response to the negative and neutral cue words in the AMT. Additionally, the significant interaction between depression level and cue type / cue type and cue number / and, depression level, cue type, and cue number could be summarized with the overall findings that the depressed subjects had the benefit of the two cues priming in the AMT by being more specific on ABMs. For the overgenerality, as a counterpart of the specificity, the results also indicated that the subjects in the depressed group were more overgeneral on the ABM recall than the non-depressed group / and, the simultaneous two cues priming in the AMT had an effect to decrease the overgenerality seen in one cue conditions. The interactions between depression level and cue number, and cue type and cue number on the overgeneral ABM recalls further indicate that the subjects took the benefit of two cues priming with a decrease on overgeneral recall. This benefit of two cues is also seen on the reaction times of specific ABM recalls. Moreover, the subjects reported that they utilized the cues more consecutively than simultaneously and they reported to utilize the first cues more than the second cue when the paired cues were emotional. However, the preference for sequence was almost equal for the neutral-neutral pairs. Supporting the hypotheses of the study, the results suggested that multiple cues in the AMT had an effect to increase the specificity level of the ABMs recalled in the depressed subjects, which was not seen in one-cue conditions. Findings were discussed on the basis of the literature and some proposals were given on the overgenerality of the ABMs by emphasizing the encoding processes.