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Neo-Slavery as Instrumentalization: Amazon, Surrogate Motherhood, and Mobile Phones
No full textDespite being perceived as a remnant of the past, slavery persists in today's increasingly economized and biopoliticized world. To thematize the actuality of slavery, we initially return to Aristotle's discussion/justification of slavery as instrumentalization of human beings. Then we revisit Plato's allegory of the cave through three distinct readings. This threefold reading enables us to frame three present-day cases/examples to reconsider slavery: the Amazon, surrogate motherhood, and the cell phone. The concept of use is pivotal for such reconsideration. Finally, we propose the concept of neo-slavery. Although the traditional accounts of slavery understand slavery through its triangulation with property relations and force, we suggest another triangulation here: neo-slavery, instrumental use, and consent. In this way, the examination of the three cases casts the traditional accounts of slavery in a new light, revitalizing the concept of slavery by putting it into a different use.The Scientific and Technological Research Council of TurkiyeThis paper is written as a part of the Conceptualizing Slavery in the Twenty-First Century project funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye
Exploring the Relation between Gesture Presentation Perspective and Children's Spatial Performance
No full textThe study investigated whether the perspective of multimodal input in visuospatial maps predicts children's spatial performance, particularly verbal recall and direction-following behavior. 5-year-old monolingual Turkish children were engaged in the Directions Task, which included visuospatial maps and videos of a speaker describing routes on maps in three conditions: Speech-Gesture combination with a front-facing view, Speech-Gesture combination with an upper back angle, and Speech-only condition with a front-facing view for control. Children were asked to verbally recall and draw the route described in the videos. They also engaged in perspective-taking, mental rotation, and relational reasoning tasks. Results showed that children's verbal recall, but not necessarily behavioral recall, was enhanced by receiving multimodal directions. Moreover, children's relational reasoning and perspective-taking abilities modulate their verbal recall performances. The results of this study underline the importance of multimodal input and presentation perspective in enhancing children's spatial performance
Tourism Marketing: The Experiential Perspective
No full textTourism Marketing: The Experiential Perspective could not be more relevant in today's dynamic tourism landscape. As global travel faces shifting consumer expectations, rapid digital transformation, and mounting sustainability demands, this timely volume brings together cutting-edge research and critical insights into the power of experiential marketing to shape the future of tourism. This edited collection explores how immersive, emotionally resonant, and technologically driven marketing strategies are redefining the relationships between tourists, destinations, and communities. The chapters highlight innovative approaches that move beyond traditional promotion, emphasizing the creation of authentic and memorable experiences that foster deeper consumer engagement, brand loyalty, and sustainable development. Drawing on a diverse range of perspectives from leading scholars and emerging voices, Tourism Marketing: The Experiential Perspective examines the intersections of sensory experience, digital tools, and community-based tourism. It is an essential resource for students, researchers, industry practitioners, and policymakers seeking to understand and apply experiential marketing in the evolving tourism sector. © Goodfellow Publishers, 2026. All rights reserved
Coordinating Banking Regulations and Green Transition: The Turkish Experience
No full textGreen transition poses non-negligible financial and coordination challenges. These challenges are more acute in major developing countries, where policy capacity deficiencies and limited financial resources are more pronounced. This chapter examines the existing policy coordination attempts and arrangements in Turkey. The country has announced a net-zero target and has published a national action plan. Besides, the country is engaging in developing banking regulations to stimulate and finance green transition. In light of these attempts and arrangements, the chapter discusses the current coordination arrangement and bank regulations. In so doing, the chapter sheds light on policy capacity deficiencies, political and economic challenges, and bureaucratic politics as the three major impediments against an effective coordination of green transition while ensuring to stimulate and finance green transition on the back of banking regulations. © 2025 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
Value Co-creation Through Artificial Intelligence-Based Mobile Health Applications for Chronic Disease Management: A Study of MS Patients
No full textBu araştırma, kronik hastalık yönetimi fırsatları sunan, giyilebilir cihazlarla bütünleşik çalışan tele-sağlık çözümlerini de içeren mobil sağlık uygulamalarına odaklanmaktadır. Uygulamalar, müşteri katılımını gerektiren ortak değer yaratma (ODY) yoluyla hastaların uyumluluğunu artırmaya yardımcı olmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu araştırma, dijital sağlık uygulamalarının özelliklerinin (uygulamaya ve kişiye dair) ODY, hasta refahı ve hastaların bu uygulamaları sürekli kullanma niyeti üzerindeki etkilerinin neler olduğunu araştırmaktadır. ODY perspektifini benimseyen bu çalışma, sıklıkla TKM (Teknoloji Kabul Modeli), genişletilmiş TKM veya YYT (Yenilik Yayılma Teorisi) üzerine odaklanan literatürden farklılaşmıştır. Çalışma, MS hastalarıyla nitel araştırma (Türkiye'deki hastalarla derinlemesine mülakatlar) ve nicel araştırma (Türkiye, Almanya ve ABD'de anketler) içeren karma yöntemli bir tasarım benimsemiş ve hipotezleri test etmek için Yapısal Eşitlik Modellemesi (YEM) kullanmıştır. Bulgular, itibar, insan-biçimcilik, duygusal değer, kullanışlılık ve mobilite gibi özelliklerin önemini vurgulamaktadır. Literatürün aksine, hastaların duygusal ihtiyaçlarının karşılanmasını istedikleri belirlenmiştir. Uygulamaların işlevsel özelliklerinden ziyade kişiye özgü faydalarını vurgulamaktadırlar. İlginç bir şekilde, teknoloji kaygısı, karmaşıklık ve gizlilik endişeleri gibi teknoloji direnciyle ilişkilendirilen faktörler önemli etkiler göstermemiştir, bu da hastalarda dijital araçların daha fazla kabulüne doğru bir kaymayı düşündürmektedir. Öte yandan, hasta-doktor ilişkisinin, özellikler ve ODY arasındaki ilişkilerin moderasyonunda önemli bir etkisi bulunmazken, sağlık okuryazarlığının ODY ve hasta refahı ilişkisinde bir etkisi vardır ve sonuçlar bu davranışları sürekli kullanım niyetlerine dönüştüren birincil psikolojik aracın hasta refahı olduğunu vurgulamaktadır. Anahtar Sözcükler: Ortak değer yaratma, mobil uygulamalar, itibar, insan-biçimcilik, duygusal fayda, dijital sağlık, multipl skleroz, kişiselleştirilmiş sağlık, e-sağlık, yapay zekâThe study focuses on mobile health applications that offer chronic disease management opportunities and tele-health solutions that work integrated with wearable devices. These applications aim to help increase the compliance of patients through value co-creation (VCC) that requires customer participation. This research explores which mobile application-related and person-related attributes of applications are influential on VCC, patient welfare, and patients' continuous usage intention. By adopting a VCC perspective, it differs from the literature primarily focusing on TAM (Technology Acceptance Model), extended TAM, or IDT (Innovation Diffusion Theory).This study adopts a mixed-method design including qualitative research (in-depth interviews with MS patients in Türkiye) and quantitative (online surveys in Türkiye, Germany and USA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) used to test the hypotheses. The findings highlight the importance of variety of attributes including dignity, anthropomorphism, emotional value, perceived usefulness and mobility. In contrast to the literature, it is found that patients often seek their emotional needs to be satisfied. Thus, they emphasize the importance of person-related benefits more than the functional features of the applications. Interestingly, factors traditionally associated with technology resistance, such as technology anxiety, complexity, and privacy concerns, did not show significant direct effects, suggesting a shift in patient attitudes toward greater acceptance of digital tools. On the other hand, patient physician relationship has no significant effects on moderating the relationships between attributes and VCC while health literacy has a slight effect on VCC and perceived patient welfare relationship while highlighting patient well-being as the primary psychological instrument translating these behaviors into sustainable usage intentions. Keywords: value co-creation, mobile applications, dignity, anthropomorphism, emotional value, digital health, multiple sclerosis, personalized healthcare, mHealth, Artificial Intelligence (AI
Multiple Global Peaks Big Bang-Big Crunch Algorithm for Multimodal Optimization
No full textThe main challenge of multimodal optimization problems is identifying multiple peaks with high accuracy in multidimensional search spaces with irregular landscapes. This work proposes the Multiple Global Peaks Big Bang-Big Crunch (MGP-BBBC) algorithm, which addresses the challenge of multimodal optimization problems by introducing a specialized mechanism for each operator. The algorithm expands the Big Bang-Big Crunch algorithm, a state-of-the-art metaheuristic inspired by the universe's evolution. Specifically, MGP-BBBC groups the best individuals of the population into cluster-based centers of mass and then expands them with a progressively lower disturbance to guarantee convergence. During this process, it (i) applies a distance-based filtering to remove unnecessary elites such that the ones on smaller peaks are not lost, (ii) promotes isolated individuals based on their niche count after clustering, and (iii) balances exploration and exploitation during offspring generation to target specific accuracy levels. Experimental results on twenty multimodal benchmark test functions show that MGP-BBBC generally performs better or competitively with respect to other state-of-the-art multimodal optimizers.Trkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arascedil;timath;rma KurumuThe authors would like to thank Dr. Ali Ahrari for providing relevant insights on algorithm comparisons. We thank Ozan Nurcan, Emir Ozen, Erk Demirel, and Ozan Kutlar for helping us run experiments. Lastly, we would like to thank Emre Ozel for allowing us to use 121 computers in the Kadir Has University's Computer Labs for parallel computation: it took us only three weeks instead of three years.Emerging Sources Citation Inde
Narratives of Preterm and Full-Term Preschool-Aged Children: Analyses of Different Narrative Dimensions
No full textAkkan, Ibrahim/0000-0002-9404-6741Preterm birth increases the likelihood of early language and cognitive delays, but less is known about later aspects of language development, such as narrative generation. Narrative skills involve dimensions, such as linguistic and narrative complexity, and preterm (PT) and full-term (FT) children's narrative performances may vary across these dimensions. We investigated the role of neonatal status on the total number of words produced, linguistic complexity, and narrative complexity across two presentation modes: narrative generation while seeing pictures and narrative generation after watching an animated video. Seventy-one Turkish-reared preschool-aged children (31 PT [Mage = 48.70, SD = 1.53] and 40 FT [Mage = 48.83, SD = 1.63]) participated in the study. Despite having lower expressive vocabulary skills (assessed by a standardized task) than full-term children, preterm children performed comparably in both picture and animated video-stories, except PT children tended to produce longer narratives in the picture story, possibly due to the different demand characteristics of the tasks. Overall, our findings support the possibility of interacting factors that may help PT children overcome challenges in narrative development.James S. McDonnell FoundationJames S. McDonnell FoundationSocial Science Citation Inde
Quantum Models of Consciousness From a Quantum Information Science Perspective
No full textCattaneo, Marco/0000-0001-6614-5286This perspective explores various quantum models of consciousness from the viewpoint of quantum information science, offering potential ideas and insights. The models under consideration can be categorized into three distinct groups based on the level at which quantum mechanics might operate within the brain: those suggesting that consciousness arises from electron delocalization within microtubules inside neurons, those proposing it emerges from the electromagnetic field surrounding the entire neural network, and those positing it originates from the interactions between individual neurons governed by neurotransmitter molecules. Our focus is particularly on the Posner model of cognition, for which we provide preliminary calculations on the preservation of entanglement of phosphate molecules within the geometric structure of Posner clusters. These findings provide valuable insights into how quantum information theory can enhance our understanding of brain functions.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye (TUBITAK) [123F150]; Research Council of Finland [336810]; Finnish Quantum Flagship project [358878]; COQUSY project - MCIN/AEI [PID2022-140506NB-C21]This research was funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Tuerkiye (TUBITAK), grant number 123F150; the Research Council of Finland, grant numbers 336810; the Finnish Quantum Flagship project 358878 (UH); and the COQUSY project PID2022-140506NB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.Science Citation Index Expande
Broad Observational Perspectives Achieved by the Accreting White Dwarf Sciences in the Xmm-Newton and Chandra Eras
No full textAccreting white dwarf binaries (AWDs) comprise cataclysmic variables (CVs), symbiotics, AM CVns, and other related systems that host a primary white dwarf (WD) accreting from a main sequence or evolved companion star. AWDs are a product of close binary evolution; thus, they are important for understanding the evolution and population of X-ray binaries in the Milky Way and other galaxies. AWDs are essential for studying astrophysical plasmas under different conditions along with accretion physics and processes, transient events, matter ejection and outflows, compact binary evolution, mergers, angular momentum loss mechanisms, and nuclear processes leading to explosions. AWDs are also closely related to other objects in the late stages of stellar evolution, with other accreting objects in compact binaries, and even share common phenomena with young stellar objects, active galactic nuclei, quasars, and supernova remnants. As X-ray astronomy came to a climax with the start of the Chandra and XMM-Newton missions owing to their unprecedented instrumentation, new excellent imaging capabilities, good time resolution, and X-ray grating technologies allowed immense advancement in many aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. In this review, we lay out a panorama of developments on the study of AWDs that have been accomplished and have been made possible by these two observatories; we summarize the key observational achievements and the challenges ahead.Science Citation Index Expande
Blockchain-Enabled Healthcare Supply Chain Management: Identification and Analysis of Barriers and Solutions Based on Improved Zero-Sum Hesitant Fuzzy Game Theory
No full textSimic, Vladimir/0000-0001-5709-3744; Ali, Sadia Samar/0000-0003-4911-5725Blockchain technology has emerged as a transformative approach in the health sector, enhancing efficiency, transparency, and security in Healthcare Supply Chain Management (HSCM). It addresses critical issues such as data privacy, traceability, and fraud reduction, providing a secure and reliable platform. However, significant barriers to its implementation must be overcome to ensure effective healthcare supply chain operations. This study proposes a two-stage decision-making model for identifying barriers and optimizing blockchain adoption solutions in HSCM under uncertainty. The first stage employs the Hesitant Fuzzy Best-Worst Method (HFBWM) to prioritize barriers. Compared to traditional methods such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), HFBWM achieves high accuracy with fewer pairwise comparisons. In the second stage, the Improved Zero-Sum Hesitant Fuzzy Game Theory (IZSHFG) model, based on the Weighted Sum Operator (WSO) under Hesitant Fuzzy Sets (HFSs), determines the optimal combination of strategies for blockchain application in HSCM. The challenges are modeled as one player and the solutions as another, with the decision matrix established using WSO under HFS. The obtained results indicate the worst-case scenario involves the simultaneous occurrence of four critical barriers: "Lack of Sufficient Knowledge about Blockchain in HSCM" (0.011217), "Lack of Access to Skilled Technical Personnel" (0.025457), "High Maintenance and Support Costs" (0.056076), and "Security Risks of Patients' Data" (0.069367). These findings highlight the need for targeted strategies to address these barriers, ensuring blockchain's successful integration into HSCM.Science Citation Index Expande