Erdogan discovered in 2002 that energy policies and the energy sector would create a mechanism to institute his dynasty in Turkey. The energy policies of the Erdogan era include how the Erdogan ...family engaged in the international energy business in Turkey and neighboring countries, and how they became wealthy. After many years of supporting the Calik Holding, the former CEO, Berat Albayrak, Erdogan's son-in-law, was appointed Turkey's Minister of Energy by Erdogan in 2015. Since Erdogan came to power in 2002, many books and articles were published on Turkey's foreign policy and domestic politics by scholars. However, this is the first book that combines Erdogan's energy policy actions (country by country in chronological order) as well as describing the underlying corruption allegations, the Zarrab case, and the smuggling of ISIS oil. As a result of the research through official Turkey institutions and international institutions, it is shown that an overseas Turkish energy company was and continues to be involved in the energy blocks of Iraqi Kurdistan, thanks to Erdogan's agreement with the Barzani administration. This book aims to analyze Turkey's energy relations with Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq-Iraqi Kurdistan, Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asian countries since 2002. One of the notable outcomes of the book is to reveal how Erdogan contributed to Israel's energy security despite his anti-Israeli rhetoric. The reader will learn the details of the energy projects between Turkey and other countries. In addition, the reader will also learn the roles of Turkey's energy companies close to the Erdogan family. The book emphasizes the deterioration of Turkey-Russia relations and its impact on Turkey's energy security, thanks to the Erdogan-Putin rivalry over Syria. Erdogan has been in power since 2002 (President since 2014), and is trying to convert Turkey's political regime to remain in power for as long as possible. Appointing his son-in-law as Turkey's Minister of Energy is not a coincidence, but rather a business strategy.
The present study is the first step of a 3-year European project in which a tailored smartphone application will be developed and tested as a potential tool in the personalized treatment of children ...and adolescents with overweight.
In this study, 10 focus groups (n = 48 participants) were conducted in Belgium, The Netherlands and France with adolescents with overweight (12-16 years; n = 30) and parents of adolescents with overweight (n = 18) to investigate their perceptions on (un)healthy behavior, the drivers of these behaviors, and the needs of an eHealth application for weight loss. A thorough thematic analysis was performed using Nvivo12.
Results show that adolescents with overweight have a well-articulated perspective on (un)healthy behavior and their needs. Parents underestimate their own influence on the (un)healthy behavior of their children and report difficulties in healthy lifestyle parenting, which makes their role as a coach rather ambiguous. Concerning the needs of an eHealth application, both parents and adolescents formulated some challenging expectations regarding the content and the format including information, a monitoring feature and features that increase participants' motivation to behave healthy. The results of this analysis will form the basis for designing a personalized eHealth application, which will be tested in a next phase.
We can conclude that adolescents have a well-articulated perspective on healthy and unhealthy behavior and their needs, whereby a new app could be of great help. It could function as a day-by-day diary and as a supportive coach.
In this study, 25 plant species growing in different habitats in Erzincan province were studied with gypsum (Ebenus macrophylla, Gypsophila lepidioides, Linum flavum, Onobrychis nitida, Paracaryum ...stenolophum, Psephellus recepii, Tanacetum heterotomum, Verbascum alyssifolium), limestone (Alkanna megacarpa, Alyssum sibiricum, Anthemis sp., Astragalus sp., Chrysophthalmum montanum, Ebenus laguroides, Genista aucheri, Pelargonium endlicherianum, Stachys sparsipilosa), or serpentine (Artedia squamata, Consolida olopetala, Convolvulus pseudoscammania, Erysimum pulchellum, Fumana aciphylla, Gladiolus halophilus, Hypericum thymbrifolium, Salvia indica). Within the scope of the study, element concentrations were determined in plants with different flower colors (yellow, purple-blue-pink, white) and in the soils where they grow. Our goal was to assess whether there were differences in mineral element concentrations within plants from these different areas and whether those differences (if they existed) led to changes in plant morphology, specifically flower coloration. The flowers, leaves and root parts of the collected plants and the soils of the habitats where they grow were pre-treated in the laboratory. Mineral element concentrations in the prepared samples were determined by ICP-MS. Plant and soil data obtained were statistically evaluated, and the differences between the habitats were determined. It was observed that there were differences in terms of mineral elements in the generative and vegetative parts of the plant and these differences impacted flower color; these coloration differences in plants from other areas might be used to indicate the presence of potentially important minerals.
The process of developing a behavior change intervention can cover a long time period. However, in times of need, this development process has to be more efficient and without losing the scientific ...rigor. In this article, we describe the just-in-time, planned development of an online intervention in the field of higher education, promoting COVID-19 vaccination among university students, just before they were eligible for being vaccinated. We demonstrate how intervention development can happen fast but with sufficient empirical and theoretical support. In the developmental process, Intervention Mapping (IM) helped with decision-making in every step. We learned that the whole process is primarily depending on the trust of those in charge in the quality of the program developers. Moreover, it is about applying theory, not about theory-testing. As there was no COVID-19-related evidence available, evidence from related fields helped as did theoretical knowledge about change processes, next to having easy access to the target population and important stakeholders for informed qualitative and quantitative research. This project was executed under unavoidable time pressure. IM helped us with systematically developing an intervention, just-in-time to positively affect vaccine acceptance among university students.
When reopening universities in times of COVID-19, students still have to adhere to COVID-19 behavioral guidelines. We explored what behavioral determinants (and underlying beliefs) related to the ...adherence to guidelines are both relevant and changeable, as input for future interventions.
A cross-sectional online survey was conducted (Oct–Nov 2020), identifying behavioral determinants (and underlying beliefs) of university students' adherence to COVID-19-guidelines, including keeping 1.5 m distance, getting tested, and isolating (N = 255).
Attitude, perceived norm, self-efficacy, and several beliefs (e.g., risk perception beliefs ‘I am not afraid because I am young’ r = −0.33; p < .001; attitudinal beliefs, e.g., ‘I feel responsible for telling people to adhere to guidelines’ r = 0.37; p < .001; self-efficacy beliefs, e.g., ‘COVID-19-prevention guidelines are difficult to adhere to’ r = −0.30; p < .001) were associated with intention to adhere to guidelines, and for those beliefs there was room for improvement, making them suitable as possible intervention targets.
Students mostly adhere to COVID-19 guidelines, but there is room for improvement. Interventions need to enhance students' adherence behavior by targeting the most relevant determinants as identified in this study. Based on these findings, a small intervention was introduced targeting the determinants of students' adherence to guidelines.
•Students mostly adhere to COVID-19-prevention guidelines.•CIBER approach was used to select relevant (sub-)determinants for an intervention.•Attitude, perceived norm & self-efficacy determine adherence to the guidelines.•E.g. ‘Guidelines are difficult to adhere to’ is relevant for an intervention.•In the intervention, e.g., self-efficacy was targeted by ‘planning coping responses’.
Open Science practices are integral to increasing transparency, reproducibility, and accessibility of research in health psychology and behavioral medicine. Drives to facilitate Open Science ...practices are becoming increasingly evident in journal editorial policies, including the establishment of new paper formats such as Registered Reports and Data Notes. This paper provides: (i) an overview of the current state of Open Science policies within health psychology and behavioral medicine, (ii) a call for submissions to an Article Collection of Registered Reports and Data Notes as new paper formats within the journal of
, (iii) an overview of Registered Reports and Data Notes, and (iv) practical considerations for authors and reviewers of Registered Reports and Data Notes.
Although several COVID-19 vaccines are available, the current challenge is achieving high vaccine uptake. We aimed to explore university students' intention to get vaccinated and select the most ...relevant determinants/beliefs to facilitate informed decision making around COVID-19 vaccine uptake.
A cross-sectional online survey with students (
= 434) from Maastricht University was conducted in March 2021. The most relevant determinants/beliefs of students' COVID-19 vaccine intention (i.e., determinants linked to vaccination intention, and with enough potential for change) were visualized using CIBER plots.
Students' intention to get the COVID-19 vaccine was high (80%). Concerns about safety and side effects of the vaccine and trust in government, quality control, and the pharmaceutical industry were identified as the most relevant determinants of vaccine intention. Other determinants were risk perception, attitude, perceived norm, and self-efficacy beliefs.
Our study identified several determinants of COVID-19 vaccine intention (e.g., safety, trust, risk perception, etc.) and helped to select the most relevant determinants/beliefs to target in an intervention to maximize COVID-19 vaccination uptake. Concerns and trust related to the COVID-19 vaccine are the most important targets for future interventions. Other determinants that were already positive (i.e., risk perception, attitudes, perceived norms, and self-efficacy) could be further confirmed.
Halfway through 2021 in the midst of a public health crisis, a new academic year was fast approaching. Dutch universities were preparing to reopen their campuses to students and personnel in a safe ...manner. As the vaccination uptake was increasing and societies were slowly reopening, inviting students and personnel to campus became the next step to "the new normal". To absorb this change seamlessly, it was considered important to investigate personnel's beliefs about returning to campus and their perceptions of a safe working environment. An online survey was conducted among personnel (
= 1965) of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. University personnel's beliefs about a safe return to campus were assessed. The data were collected between 11 June and 28 June 2021. This study showed that, while most personnel (94.7%) were already vaccinated or willing to do so, not all personnel did feel safe to return to campus in September 2021. Over half of the respondents (58%) thought that the university is a safe place to return to work when the new academic year starts. However, the remainder of personnel felt unsafe or were uncertain for various reasons such as meeting in large groups or becoming infected. Moreover, when returning to campus, employees stated that they would require some time to reacclimate to their former work culture. The group who felt relatively more unsafe indicated that returning in September was too risky and that they worried about being infected. They wanted the safety guidelines to still be in force. On the other hand, the "safe" group stated safely returning to be "certainly possible" and trusted that others would still stick to the prevention guidelines. The findings led to practical recommendations for the University Board as they were preparing for organizing research and teaching for the upcoming academic year in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief intervention was developed: a webinar in which the data were linked to the board's plans for safe returning. This study demonstrates that university boards may use research among personnel to develop adequate measures promoting safety and feelings of safety among personnel in similar future situations.
Russia is one of the major players of the world energy market due to its vast resources and places of energy resources in its economy. Russian foreign energy policy needs new markets in order to ...sustain its growth and soft hegemony once more in Central Asia. In East Asia, China remains to be great consumer and a competitor for Russian great turning back to the region. However China has improved its economic and energy relations with particular three Central Asian states, and constituted a balance in the region in terms of Russian energy monopoly perspective. In return, Russia turned its face to Japan in order to trigger a competition between Beijing and Tokyo and/or Seoul for Russian energy resources despite the ongoing Russian-Chinese natural gas price talks. For that reason, it is aimed to analyze of Russian new foreign energy policy towards Asia regarding three global actors; China, Japan and the two Koreas. Adapted from the source document.
TANAP natural gas which was initiated by Azerbaijan's SOCAR and Turkey's BOTA? has altered the dynamics and strategies in the region. TANAP project not only formed new competition picture from ...Nabucco versus South Stream to TANAP versus South Stream but also triggered the competition between Russia and Central Asia in terms of pipeline strategies. Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are landlocked countries in the east Caspian region and Azerbaijan is the only post-Soviet state that had succeeded to reach world markets by non-Russian routes. In this sense if TANAP would establish until 2018-2019, it would have an impact as in the case of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline which was considered as the "Contract of the Century" in the 1990s. In this paper, it is aimed to analyze how TANAP will affect upon Russian foreign energy policy strategy upon Central Asian states and Azerbaijan as well as emphasizing on the risks and opportunities of the project. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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