The cross sectional study investigated the association of tobacco smoke, vitamin D status, anthropometric parameters, and kidney function in Turkish immigrants with type 2 diabetes (T2D) living in the Netherlands. Study sample included a total of 110 participants aged 30 years and older (males= 46; females= 64). Serum cotinine, a biomarker for smoke exposure, was measured with a solid-phase competitive chemiluminescent immunoassay. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] was determined by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA). Measures of obesity including: body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference (HC) were measured. Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were calculated. Urine albumin was measured by immunoturbidimetric assay. Urine creatinine was determined using the Jaffe method. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS, version 19.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Independent samples t-test, chi-squared tests, multiple linear regression and logistic regression analysis were used. Cotinine levels were positively associated with cholesterol to HDL ratio and atherosclerosis-index. Serum 25(OH)D levels were negatively associated with diastolic blood pressure. Gender-specific associations between anthropometric measures and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels were observed. Hs-CRP was positively associated with WC and WHR in males and WHtR in females. Microalbuminuria (MAU), as determined by albumin-to-creatinine ratio, was present in 21% of the Turkish immigrants with T2D. Participants with hypertension were 6.58 times more likely (adjusted odds ratio) to have positive MAU as compared to normotensive participants. Our findings indicate that serum cotinine, 25(OH)D, hs-CRP, and MAU may be assessed as a standard of care for T2D management in the Turkish immigrant population. Further research should be conducted following cohorts to determine the effects of these biomarkers on CVD morbidity and mortality.

This study achieved a group of objectives such as measuring the impact of theEU's decisions on trust-based, nationalism-based, and religion-based Euro-skepticism, measuring the impact of the EU's decisions on overall Euro-skepticism, and searching and investigating the reasons behind Euro-skepticism in detail by conducting content analysis on statements of two Turkish nationalist and religious peripheral parties' elites.The study basically asked two important questions about Euro-skepticism and answered each question by testing four main hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested on two different parties, ,the Nationalist Action Party and the Felicity Party, and on two different events (on December 17,2004 and on October 03,2005). Since the study had 4 general hypotheses, the total hypothesis testing occurred 16 times. To be able to prove the hypotheses, the content analysis technique was used on the data that was collected from two newspapers: pro-MHP Ortadogu and pro-SP Milli Gazete. Each hypothesis was tested by using the two sample z-Test formula.The findings show that the two decisions by the EU did not have any impact on religion-based and trust-based Euro-skepticism. Only the first event had an impact on the nationalism-based Euro-skepticism of both political parties and overall Euro-skepticism of the MHP. The findings showed that 3 of the testing had a negative impact and 13 of them had no impact at all. No positive impact was found at the 0.05 level. Only one of them, trust-based, showed significance at the 0.10 level. The results showed that the decisions of the European Union either did not change the Euro-skepticism or if there was a change it was in a negative way. By the end of the second event, trust-based Euroskepticism of SP showed a decrease at the 0.10 level.The results of this study were associated with the social identity theory, with a group's status as a peripheral party, and the policy requirements of the EU regarding Turkey's sensitive issues.

The words in a language not only help us to construct the sentences but also contain some other features, which we usually underestimate. Each word relates itself to the remaining ones in some way. In our daily lives, we extensively use these relations in many areas, where question direction is also one of them. In this work, it is investigated whether the relations between the words can be useful for question direction and an approach for question direction is presented. Besides, a tool is devised in the way of this approach for a course given in Turkish. The relations between the words are represented by a semantic network for nouns and verbs. By passing through the whole course material and using the relations meronymy for only nouns / synonymy, antonymy, hypernymy, coordinated words for both nouns and verbs / entailment and causality for only verbs, the semantic network, which is the backbone of the application, is constructed. The end product of our research consists of three modules: &middot / getting the question from the user and constructing the set of words that are related to the words that make up the question &middot / scoring each course section by comparing the words of the question set and the words in the section &middot / presenting the sections that may contain the answer The sections that are evaluated are taken as the sections of the course for granted. The chat logs that expand three years of the course were taken by permission and questions were extracted from them. They were used for testing purposes of the constructed application.

The recent global security challenges such as terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction etc. have altered the security perceptions of the countries. For opposing those new security threats the U.S. and the EU generated their own security discourses. Accordingly, they tackle the issues with diverging perceptions. This diversion paves the way for a debate between two sides. In the mean time, Turkey has established her security architecture in accordance with the Western international community. Nevertheless, the ongoing debate between the EU and the U.S. leaves Turkey in an uncomfortable situation. On the grounds that, the future tendency of Turkey will be dependent on the policies of the U.S. and the EU as well as Turkey&#039 / s own progress. On the one hand the U.S. can present multilateral or unilateral solutions to the problems. On the other hand the EU can show an inward-looking or an outward-looking policy in international relations. The results of those policy options will be the answer of Turkey&#039 / s probable security preference between the U.S. and the EU.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-47).

This thesis documents a study of the dimensions of export market orientation associated with export performance. In particular, the research objective is to examine empirically the development and support of a corporate export market orientation and its successful implementation in Turkish clothing companies, as evidenced by successful export performance, and to investigate variations in export performance which may be related to export market orientation. In summary, this research aimed to explore the nature of market orientation in an international context by using empirical data from a sample of companies to examine some hypotheses regarding market orientation as applied to export operations in Turkish clothing industry. This aim was fulfilled by reliably and validly measuring the key constructs of export market orientation and finding statistically significant relationships between dependent and independent variables. The results of this thesis draw conclusions from an empirical investigation showing that the proposed relationship between export market orientation and export performance does exist, and in the case of Turkish clothing exporters, improving an export market orientation level is a significant contributor to the company's export performance. In order to explore the relationship between export market orientation and export performance, a two phase research design was adopted and conducted in the Turkish clothing industry. The sample for both stages were drawn from a listing of the member companies of the Turkish Textile and Apparel Exporters Association. This listing by the Association is complete and accurate because of the control which obligates exporters to register all their export actions. First, an exploratory phase was conducted in order to gain a clearer understanding of key issues. The stage 1 study was based on 103 responses received from a sample frame of 156 companies representing a 66 0/0 response rate. The primary objective of the first stage research was to develop a profile of the characteristics of the industry. Data generation was achieved through mail questionnaires and respondents were top managers of the selected companies. Second, the Cadogan, Diamantopoulos, and de Mortanges (1997) construct was used to test the hypothesis. The stage 2 study was based on 163 responses received from a sample frame of 384 companies representing a 43.47 % response rate. Data generation was achieved through mail questionnaires and respondents were again top managers of the selected companies. Results were analysed using the SPSS statistical analysis computer package. The findings, based on a sample of Turkish clothing exporters, show that the instrument developed by Cadogan, Diamantopoulos, and de Mortanges (1997) is reliable and exhibits content and convergent validity. Regression analysis found a significant effect of the level of export market orientation on dimensions of export performance. The positive relationship between export market orientation and dimensions of export performance indicated that a high level of export market orientation leads to a higher level of export performance and a low level of export market orientation produce a lower level of export performance. The research hypotheses are supported by the results of the study. The multidimensional operationalisation of export market orientation allowed the testing of the relationship between the dimensions of export market orientation with dimensions of export performance. Generally, there is a strong relationship between the dimensions of export market orientation and dimensions of export performance.

Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907-1991) was one of Turkey's most prominent composers, described in The Times obituary as "the grand old man of Turkish music, who was to his country what Sibelius is to Finland, what de Falla is to Spain and what Bartók is to Hungary" (15 January 1991). Yet so far Saygun's life and works have never been the subject of a critical study in or outside Turkey. This thesis aims to create a comprehensible picture of his life and music for the first time. Divided into three parts, Part I of the thesis presents an annotated biography, preceded by a short introductory survey on the state of European music within the Ottoman Empire, which was significant in Saygun's upbringing. Taking as source material scattered newspaper articles, interviews and hitherto unpublished letters and a diary belonging to the composer, Part I focuses on Saygun's musical upbringing in Izmir and his subsequent education in Paris under Vincent d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum between 1928 and 1931. Also amongst the issues that are addressed here is the important role Saygun played in the musical life of the country on his return to Turkey from Paris, which was being rapidly transformed under Kemal Atatürk's reform movement; his enthusiasm for Turkish folk-music which led to a collaboration with Bela Bartók that finally culminated in the latter's celebrated field-trip to Anatolia in 1936 and his friendship with Michael Tippett, drawn from Tippett's original unpublished letters. The thesis shows that Saygun was not only responsible for training future musicians of Turkey in Western compositional techniques, but also himself wrote works in line with the country's modem music policy which took the principles of European polyphonic music as a model. As a prolific composer Saygun's output comprised five operas, five symphonies, three string quartets, five concertos and a wide range of chamber and choral music. Taking selective works, Part II looks at his developing style, beginning with the influence of the Schola Cantorum education and the effects of the music policy of the early republican years on his output and establishes him as the national composer of Turkey. Works discussed include the oratorio Yunus Emre (1942), his most celebrated work, which immediately became a symbol of the music reforms and was subsequently conducted by Leopold Stokowski in New York in 1958, the first two string quartets, the first two symphonies and the two piano concertos. Part III is a catalogue raisonné which has been compiled through evaluating existing lists of works and going through all the autograph manuscript scores of the composer that are housed at the Bilkent University Adnan Saygun Archives in Ankara. Since Saygun's works have never been systematically catalogued before, the information given here includes dates of composition, instrumentation, duration, dedication, location of manuscripts, publication and recording details, as well as translations of hitherto unpublished analytical notes on certain works written by the composer.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a significant role in most emerging and developing economies. To increase the probability of survival of their SMEs and achieve sustainable growth, some SME leaders expand their business operations beyond national borders by implementing internationalization strategies. Internationalization is crucial to SME survival. The conceptual framework of this study consisted of a multitheory model including stage model, network theory, and new venture theory. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies that Turkish information communication technology (ICT) SME leaders used to internationalize their business operations. Ten SME leaders, who led a variety of high-tech service SMEs operating in the ICT service sector in Turkey, served as participants for this study. The company documents, reports, and government documents were used to triangulate the interview data. Yin's 5-step method to data analysis resulted in the development of 5 themes: Turkish SME leaders have an active role in internationalization, geographical distance and culture are the 2 main factors of consideration when developing internationalization strategies, managerial attitude supports internationalization, Turkish SME leaders choose low commitment entry methods when entering foreign markets, and relationships is the main source the SME leaders rely on when internationalizing. The findings of this study may help SME leaders to implement successful internationalization strategies to their business operations and achieve sustainable growth of their SMEs, which may contribute to social change by improving both local and host country economies and the well-being of their citizens.

China and Turkey, located in eastern and western Eurasian continent repectively, took place joint air force exercise in September, 2010. This is the first time for China to hold joint air force exercise with the members of NATO. It seemed like a sign of intensive foreign relations between China and Turkey, and it led to the great concerns and dissatisfactions with United State. During Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao¡¦s official visit to Turkey on October 8th, China and Turkey issued a joint declaration on the establishment and development of a strategic relationship of cooperation, further upgrading the level of bilateral relations. It is important to find out the developments and changes of Chinese-Turkish relations. Chinese-Turkish relations have gone through the Cold War and the Post-Cold War eras. In the Post-Cold War era, the shape of international system changed into the ¡§One Super Power with Multiple Powers¡¨ which differs from the ¡§ Bipolar System¡¨ in the Cold War era, which has a profound impact on the development of international relations. This thesis, based on the theory of Neo-realism, focuses on the development of bilateral relations between China and Turkey, especially the interactions between politics and economics, under the change of international system and constraint of international structure. The bilateral relations feature the following attributes. Politically, even though there are ¡§Eastern Turkistan¡¨ questions between China and Turkey, the bilateral political relations have been strengthened since Cold war era from being hostile to each other to establish and develop relationships of the strategic cooperation. Economically, China and Turkey are involved in serious trade deficit problems and competitions.

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