Yaşar University

About: Yaşar University is a education organization based out in Izmir, Turkey. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Exergy & Job shop scheduling. The organization has 760 authors who have published 1436 publications receiving 20813 citations. The organization is also known as: Yaşar Üniversitesi.

Young people's topography of musical functions: Personal, social and cultural experiences with music across genders and six societies

Abstract: How can we understand the uses of music in daily life? Music is a universal phenomenon but with significant interindividual and cultural variability. Listeners' gender and cultural background may influence how and why music is used in daily life. This paper reports the first investigation of a holistic framework and a new measure of music functions (RESPECT-music) across genders and six diverse cultural samples (students from Germany, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, and Turkey). Two dimensions underlie the mental representation of music functions. First, music can be used for contemplation or affective functions. Second, music can serve intrapersonal, social, and sociocultural functions. Results reveal that gender differences occur for affective functions, indicating that female listeners use music more for affective functions, i.e., emotional expression, dancing, and cultural identity. Country differences are moderate for social functions (values, social bonding, dancing) and strongest for sociocultural function (cultural identity, family bonding, political attitudes). Cultural values, such as individualism-collectivism and secularism-traditionalism, can help explain cross-cultural differences in the uses of music. Listeners from more collectivistic cultures use music more frequently for expressing values and cultural identity. Listeners from more secular and individualistic cultures like to dance more. Listeners from more traditional cultures use music more for expressing values and cultural identity, and they bond more frequently with their families over music. The two dimensions of musical functions seem systematically underpinned by listeners' gender and cultural background. We discuss the uses of music as behavioral expressions of affective and contemplative as well as personal, social, and sociocultural aspects in terms of affect proneness and cultural values.

Behavioral factors on the adoption of sustainable supply chain practices

Abstract: Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has become a popular research topic among scholars as evidence suggests it has significantly contributed to achieve more environmentally conscious and socially responsible supply chains. Operational excellence (OE), on the other hand, can be achieved by incorporating SSCM practices within existing supply chain operations. However, due to human expertise, involvement and commitment towards excelling at sustainable and operational performance, the effective deployment of SSCM practices now depends on various human-based behavioral factors (BFs). Human behavior is dynamic in nature and hence has an effect on the implementation of SSCM practices. Nevertheless, research on BFs in view of SSCM practices is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, this study examines the nature of BFs for SSCM practices towards OE in supply chains, particularly within the context of the footwear industry of Bangladesh. In the first phase, the BFs were identified and determined through a literature review and empirical investigation. In the second phase, the Hesitant Fuzzy DEMATEL method was used to establish the cause-effect relationships among the factors. The influence of group validation by experts and a literature survey, along with managerial implications, was discussed and explained in the third phase of the study. The results suggest that the factor, ‘organization culture’ is the most influencing behavioral factor, followed by ‘commitment from higher authority’. Both theoretical and practical contributions of the study are drawn from its findings, helping footwear industry managers to more effectively adopt SSCM practices in the supply chain operations of their organizations to achieve OE.

An ensemble of differential evolution algorithms for constrained function optimization

Abstract: This paper presents an ensemble of differential evolution algorithms employing the variable parameter search and two distinct mutation strategies in the ensemble to solve real-parameter constrained optimization problems. It is well known that the performance of DE is sensitive to the choice of mutation strategies and associated control parameters. For these reasons, the ensemble is achieved in such a way that each individual is assigned to one of the two distinct mutation strategies or a variable parameter search (VPS). The algorithm was tested using benchmark instances in Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2010. For these benchmark problems, the problem definition file, codes and evaluation criteria are available in http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/EPNSugan. Since the optimal or best known solutions are not available in the literature, the detailed computational results required in line with the special session format are provided for the competition.