The Zones of Fragility: Outlaws and the Forms of Violence in the Ottoman Empire

This study explores the relationship between violence and power through examining the archival documents about the outlaws in the Ottoman Empire from 1852 to 1876. I argue that the outlaws and the use of violence in the public sphere defied the power of the Ottoman Empire. Thereof, the present study agrees with the main thesis of Hannah Arendt about the destructive influence of violence on power. However, I take Hannah Arendt's argument on violence one step further by claiming that the form of violence ‐whether political or non‐political‐ loses its significance when both public safety and state sovereignty are under great threats at the same time in the zones of fragility.     

How to Reduce the Impact of Equivalence Scales on Poverty Measurement: Evidence from Turkey

The main aim of the paper is to contribute to the poverty measurement literature by demonstrating a method to reduce the impact of equivalence scales in poverty measurement. This is accomplished by choosing the most appropriate reference household type. The results showed that one adult household is certainly not suitable for being the reference household type. When one adult household is set as the reference, in the range of no equivalence scale and per capita equivalence scale, poverty head count ratio changes from 1 to 48 %, showing the huge effect of the equivalence scale choice. Also the analyses at household size level showed that one adult household type is not convenient to be the reference household type. On the other hand, no clear distinction could be made between central household types, but the importance of choosing a household type close to the center was demonstrated for Turkish data.     

Split‐Award Procurement Auctions—Can Bayesian Equilibrium Strategies Predict Human Bidding Behavior in Multi‐Object Auctions?

We analyze if and when symmetric Bayes Nash equilibrium predictions can explain human bidding behavior in multi‐object auctions. We focus on two sealed‐bid split‐award auctions with ex ante split decisions as they can be regularly found in procurement practice. These auction formats are straightforward multi‐object extensions of the first‐price sealed‐bid auction. We derive the risk‐neutral symmetric Bayes Nash equilibrium strategies and find that, although the two auction mechanisms yield the same expected costs to the buyer, other aspects of the two models, including the equilibrium bidding strategies, differ significantly. The strategic considerations in these auction formats are more involved than in single‐lot first‐price sealed‐bid auctions, and it is questionable whether expected utility maximization can explain human bidding behavior in such multi‐object auctions. Therefore, we analyzed the predictive accuracy of our equilibrium strategies in the laboratory. In human subject experiments we found underbidding, which is in line with earlier experiments on single‐lot first‐price sealed‐bid auctions. To control for regret, we organize experiments against computerized bidders, who play the equilibrium strategy. In computerized experiments where bid functions are only used in a single auction, we found significant underbidding on low‐cost draws. In experiments where the bid function is reused in 100 auctions, we could also control effectively for risk aversion, and there is no significant difference of the average bidding behavior and the risk‐neutral Bayes Nash equilibrium bid function. The results suggest that strategic complexity does not serve as an explanation for underbidding in split‐award procurement auctions, but risk aversion does have a significant impact.     

Bandits,Brigands and Militants: The Historical Sociology of Outlaws

Outlaws have been prominent actors in a social context which is characterized by collective dissent, conflict, and violence. Bandits, brigands, and militants emerged in societies with the decline of social justice, political stability, and economic prosperity. Their emergence and social networks with different actors and agencies provide us principal motives to deconstruct the social identity of outlaws and determine the factors that fostered collective dissent, conflict, and violence in different societies. This special issue covers a vast geography and different time periods to theoretically and methodologically advance our knowledge in the historical sociology of outlaws. In doing so, we address complex social, political, and cultural issues that rendered outlaws inextricable part of social problems. Exploring the power and activities of outlaws in different social geographies offers us new perspectives to tackle the origins and outcomes of social, political, and cultural dissent across the world.     

An integrated environmental risk assessment framework for coal-fired power plants: A fuzzy logic approach

This study quantifies the environmental risk of a coal-fired thermal power plant during operation by using environmental monitoring data, site surveys, and documented evidence. The following criteria are assessed: emissions (CO, SO₂, NO_x, PM₁₀), impact on aquatic ecosystem (fish protection at cooling water intake and cooling water discharge temperature), and waste management (fly ash and bottom ash). Fuzzy sets were defined for each criterion, taking environmental regulatory context as an expert judgment. A survey was conducted with multiple stakeholders to determine the relative importance of risk factors. The survey results showed that the most concerned risks are SO₂ and NO_x emissions. The proposed method estimates the risk of each environmental criterion separately and then accumulates them into an environmental risk index (ERI). Accordingly, we assessed the Catalagzi coal-fired power plant, which has been in operation on the Black Sea coast in northwestern Turkey. For this case study, the ERI resulted in a value of 0.78 (on a scale of 0–1), showing high environmental risk to the facility. Moreover, the applicability of the proposed framework was tested in several existing coal-fired power plants using simultaneous measurements. All studied coal-fired power plants in Turkey have unacceptable pollutants (PM₁₀, SO₂, and NO_x) concentration levels indicating high health risk potential. The application of the integrated environmental risk assessment framework showed that new environmental regulations are needed in Turkey to specify more strict emission limits and to monitor CO₂, fine particulate matter emissions, cooling water discharge, and fish protection at cooling water intake.     

A Novel Approach for Estimating Seemingly Unrelated Regressions with High-Order Autoregressive Disturbances

A seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model is defined by a system of linear regression equations in which the disturbances are contemporaneously correlated across equations. However, the disturbances can also be serially correlated in each equation of the system. In these cases, estimating SUR becomes more complicated. Some methods have been considered estimating SUR with low-order autoregressive (AR) disturbances. In this article, SUR with high-order AR disturbances are considered and a tapering approach is examined under this situation. Two modified methods for estimating SUR are obtained by using this approach. A comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation study is performed in order to compare small-sample efficiencies of the modified methods with the others given in the literature.     

Effects of heart rate reduction with ivabradine on the international ındex of erectile function (IIEF-5) in patients with heart failure

Introduction: The presence of concomitant erectile dysfunction (ED) with heart failure (HF) is not surprising, because endothelial dysfunction is pathophysiologic signature of both ED and HF. ED significantly and adversely affects quality of life in patients with HF. It was demonstrated that ivabradine treatment can improve endothelial function and ED in experimental models. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of ivabradine treatment on ED in patients with HF via International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) questionaire.

Material and methods: Consequently, 29 patients, between 18 and 70?years of age, male with chronic HF known for at least 1?year, New York Heart Association functional class I–II, left ventricule ejection fraction less than 40%, in sinus rhythm with a resting HR of at least 70 beats per minute (b.p.m.), who were intended to be treated with ivabradine according to the decision of their physicians were evaluated to determine ED. We used the Turkish version of the IIEF-5 questionnaire to evaluate ED on the last 6-month period. Twenty-four of 29 patients who scored ≤21 were considered to have ED and included to the study. IIEF-5 scores for each question and domains were calculated for all responders at baseline and at 6-month follow-up visit in order to determine any effect of ivabradine treatment on ED in patients with HF.

Results: According to the data of survey, Cronbach's alpha coeffient for all of the patients who were included into the study were 0.84 and detected highly reliable. IEFF-5 questionnaire scores increased significantly (p?=?.003) after the ivabradine treatment, on the contrary, significant decrease in HR was revealed as expected. HR is decreased steadily after ivabradine treatment and mean decrease in HR was 11.5?±?9.4 in this study population. Likewise, negative correlation was demonstrated between decrease in HR (p?p?=?.003).

Conclusion: Although lack of patients with HF have been evaluated in this study population, initial results seem promising that ivabradine has favorable effects on ED. These findings were postulated to be dependent exclusively on HR reduction. As a sequel, cardiologist should avoid neglecting ED to improve medical compliance as well as quality of life in patients with heart failure. This pilot study provide some data for further randomized controlled studies.     

An Experimental Study of the Effectiveness of Three Debiasing Techniques*

Subjective probability distributions constitute an important part of the input to decision analysis and other decision aids. The long list of persistent biases associated with human judgments under uncertainy [16] suggests, however, that these biases can be translated into the elicited probabilities which, in turn, may be reflected in the output of the decision aids, potentially leading to biased decisions. This experiment studies the effectiveness of three debiasing techniques in elicitation of subjective probability distributions. It is hypothesized that the Socratic procedure [18] and the devil's advocate approach [6] [7] [31] [32] [33] [34] will increase subjective uncertainty and thus help assessors overcome a persistent bias called “overconfidence.” Mental encoding of the frequency of the observed instances into prespecified intervals, however, is expected to decrease subjective uncertainty and to help assessors better capture, mentally, the location and skewness of the observed distribution. The assessors' ratings of uncertainty confirm these hypotheses related to subjective uncertainty but three other measures based on the dispersion of the elicited subjective probability distributions do not. Possible explanations are discussed. An intriguing explanation is that debiasing may affect what some have called “second order” uncertainty. While uncertainty ratings may include this second component, the measures based on the elicited distributions relate only to “first order” uncertainty.