The institutional design of intra-party democracy through legal instruments: Turkish case

The importance of political parties for contemporary representative democracies is beyond dispute. Despite their significance for state-level democracy, political parties continue to be regarded as oligarchical and to be criticised because of their internal practices. For this reason, intra-party democracy (IPD) warrants in-depth analysis. This thesis investigates IPD in Turkey, primarily from the perspective of participatory democracy, with the purpose of suggesting reforms to the Turkish Political Parties Law (TPPL). Turkish political parties and Turkish party regulation provide an interesting case because there is a significant difference between mature democracies and Turkey regarding IPD regulation. IPD in established democracies has always been regarded as a private concern of parties and has been left unregulated. IPD in Turkey, by contrast, is provided for both by the constitution and the TPPL. Although IPD is a constitutional and legal requirement in Turkey, however, political parties in fact display a high level of non-democratic administration. The main reason is that the TPPL only pays lip service to the idea of IPD and requires no specific measures apart from establishing a party congress with a representative form of democracy. By establishing and holding party congresses, political parties are perceived as conforming to the requirements of IPD under the law. In addition, the contested nature of democracy as a concept has impeded the creation of efficacious legal principles. Thus, the existing party law fails to tackle the lack of IPD within political parties and, for this reason, is in need of reform. Furthermore, almost every Turkish party’s own constitution highlights the importance of IPD and promises IPD. However, these declared commitments to IPD in their constitutions alone, especially in countries where the democratic culture is weak, are unlikely to make much difference in practice. Accordingly, external regulation is necessary to ensure the protection of the rights and interests of the party members with regards to their participation in intra-party decision-making processes. Nevertheless, in spite of a general consensus in favour of reforming the TPPL, a lack of consensus exists as to what kind of reforms should be adopted. This thesis proposes that reforming the TPPL in line with an approach based on participatory democracy could provide better IPD within Turkish political parties, citing as evidence comparative case studies of the participatory practices for policy-making, leadership selection and candidate selection in mature democracies. This thesis also analyses membership registration and the effect of state funding on IPD, which are highly problematic in Turkey and represent impediments to the flourishing of IPD

Cfd investigation of spacer-filled channels for membrane distillation

The membrane distillation (MD) process for water desalination is affected by temperature polarization, which reduces the driving force and the efficiency of the process. To counteract this phenomenon, spacer-filled channels are used, which enhance mixing and heat transfer but also cause higher pressure drops. Therefore, in the design of MD modules, the choice of the spacer is crucial for process efficiency. In the present work, different overlapped spacers are investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and results are compared with experiments carried out with thermochromic liquid crystals (TLC). Results are reported for different flow attack angles and for Reynolds numbers (Re) ranging from ~200 to ~800. A good qualitative agreement between simulations and experiments can be observed for the areal distribution of the normalized heat transfer coefficient. Trends of the average heat transfer coefficient are reported as functions of Re for the geometries investigated, thus providing the basis for CFD-based correlations to be used in higher-scale process models

What to expect from the hydrodynamic energy saving devices

Many retrofitting technologies have been proposed to improve the hydrodynamic performance of existing fleets with the aim of reducing the fuel consumption and consequently CO2 emission. The magnitudes of savings predicted by manufacturers are very promising however ship owners are often still doubtful whether they can achieve what is claimed in operations. This study evaluates the performance of four energy saving devices (ESDs) at ship scale with the aim of assisting ship owners with the decision of selecting suitable devices for their ships. Due to the uncertainties associated with extrapolation of viscous flows from model to full scale it is proposed that investigations must be carried out at full scale; hence a full-scale com putational model was adopted as the only feasible method at the design stage. Two vessels representing di fferent types of ship were selected: a gas carrier and a container ship. Various retrofitting technologies to reduce resistance or to improve the propulsive efficiency were considered. The latter group is subdivided into devices located before, at and aft of the propeller. The resistance induced by large openings on the hull, such as a bow thruster tunnel was quantified and several devices designed to streamline the flow in this region were evaluated. Pre-swirl fins technology was the ESD investigated from preswirl devices. The existing propeller of the gas carrier was replaced with a new type profile propeller which improved the propulsive efficiency. Twisted rudder was the technology investigated from post-swirl ESDs. The level of savings obtained from these technologies was generally less than the values published in the literature. It was concluded that this discrepancy arose for one of three reasons: either the metric used to evaluate the savings was inappropriate, or that the method used to quantify the measure was in accurate, or finally, because the designs examined in the case studies were not suitable optimised. However if some of these devices did not deliver the expected savings because the designs considered in this study were not sufficiently optimised, then the question arises as to whether these devices must be optimised for a specific operational conditions and how well these ESDs behave when the vessel is not operating in the design conditions

Single coronary artery incidence in 215,140 patients undergoing coronary angiography

Background: The aim of our study is to determine the incidence of single coronary artery (SCA). SCA is a rarely seen coronary anomaly in which the right coronary artery and the left main coronary artery arise from single aortic sinus. Although SCA has a benign course in most cases and its clinical significance is unknown, in some autopsy studies it was shown to be related to sudden cardiac death. Materials and methods: SCA patients detected among 215,140 coronary angiographies (CAG) performed between 1998 and 2013 in SANKO Hospital were included in our study. The classification of CAG was made according to the two different classifications defined by Smith and Lipton and colleagues. Results: A total number of 215,140 patients who underwent routine CAG were included in the study, and SCA was detected in 67 (0.031%) patients. There were 6 (9%) type R-I, 23 (34%) type R-II, 10 (15%) type R-III, 16 (24%) type L-I and 12 (18%) type L-II patients according to the angiographic classification. Conclusions: SCA is rarely seen during routine cardiac catheterisation and its incidence is 0.014–0.066% in angiographic series. In our study, the incidence was shown to be similar to the previous studies.

A new energy saving twin rudder system - Gate Rudder

Rudder and propeller of a ship share almost similar long service history. The rudder is usually placed behind the propeller to make use of the strong slipstream flow of the propeller. By changing the direction of the slipstream flow the rudder functions as a remarkably effective control surface to maneuver the ship. While this is the fact the rudder also has several disadvantages including: (a) increased ship resistance as an appendage to the hull; (b) modifications to the stern arrangement to accommodate the rudder that enforces restriction not only to the propeller aperture but also to the engine room arrangement; (c) a non-uniform flow imposed in the propeller plane that can easily increase the vibration and noise originated not only from the propeller but also from the combination of the propeller with the rudder; (d) cavitation erosion on the rudder which can be annoying for high speed vessels In order to eliminate the above disadvantages as well as saving further energy, a new concept of twin rudder system is invented one of the Authors and called “Gate Rudder” in which each of the asymmetric rudders is located aside the propeller to exploit the benefits of an accelerating duct device. The main objective of this paper is to give the background for the gate rudder development and present methodology for powering performance of a ship with the gate rudder using the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel facility. The analysis include model tests to measure the local forces on the stern part of a model hull and gate rudder system in the cavitation tunnel as well as the prediction of the gate rudder induced velocities using computational methods. The papers further presents a flow chart for the fine powering performance prediction technology and cost effectiveness analysis of vessels using the gate rudder system

Malicious code detection in android : the role of sequence characteristics and disassembling methods

The acceptance and widespread use of the Android operating system drew the attention of both legitimate developers and malware authors, which resulted in a significant number of benign and malicious applications available on various online markets. Since the signature-based methods fall short for detecting malicious software effectively considering the vast number of applications, machine learning techniques in this field have also become widespread. In this context, stating the acquired accuracy values in the contingency tables in malware detection studies has become a popular and efficient method and enabled researchers to evaluate their methodologies comparatively. In this study, we wanted to investigate and emphasize the factors that may affect the accuracy values of the models managed by researchers, particularly the disassembly method and the input data characteristics. Firstly, we developed a model that tackles the malware detection problem from a Natural Language Processing (NLP) perspective using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). Then, we experimented with different base units (instruction, basic block, method, and class) and representations of source code obtained from three commonly used disassembling tools (JEB, IDA, and Apktool) and examined the results. Our findings exhibit that the disassembly method and different input representations affect the model results. More specifically, the datasets collected by the Apktool achieved better results compared to the other two disassemblers

Coronary arterial anomalies in a large group of patients undergoing coronary angiography in southeast Turkey

Background: The prevalence of coronary artery anomalies (CAA) are reportedbetween 0.6–1.3% in the literature. CAA are usually asymptomatic incidental findings, but they may deteriorate coronary circulation, cause symptoms andlead to sudden cardiac death; especially in young athletes. Since interventionalprocedures are increasing rapidly for treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) inthe modern era, comprehensive understanding of CAA is becoming progressively critical element in dealing with CAD.Materials and methods: We reviewed the database of the Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory of Sani Konukoglu University Hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey. All patientswho were subjected to coronary angiography from 1998 to 2006 were included.Results: Among 53,655 coronary angiographies performed, CAA were foundin 653 patients (incidence of 1.21%); 590 (90.3%) patients had anomalies oforigin and distribution and 63 (11.7%) had coronary fistulae. Separate origins ofleft anterior descending (LAD) and left circumflex (LCX) coronary artery from theleft sinus of Valsalva was the most common anomaly (64.1%). Coronary arteriesbranching from anomalous aortic origin was the second most common anomaly(16.5%). Right coronary artery (RCA) originating from left sinus of Valsalva or leftmain coronary artery (LMCA) was observed in 55 (8.4%) patients, LCX arising fromRCA or right sinus of Valsalva (RSV) was seen in 52 (7.9%) patients and LMCA orLAD originating from RSV was seen in 14 (0.2%) patients. There were 16 (2.45%) patients with single coronary artery and 1 (0.15%) patient with LMCA originating from pulmonary artery.Conclusions: The incidence and the pattern of CAA in our patient population were similar with previous studies. Angiographic recognition of these vessels is importantbecause of their clinical significance and importance in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty or cardiac surgery

Direct Evidence of a Slow‐Slip Transient Modulating the Spatiotemporal and Frequency‐Magnitude Earthquake Distribution: Insights From the Armutlu Peninsula, Northwestern Turkey

Earthquakes and slow‐slip events interact, however, detailed studies investigating their interplay are still limited. We generate the highest resolution microseismicity catalog to date for the northern Armutlu Peninsula in a ∼1‐year period to perform a detailed seismicity distribution analysis and correlate the results with a local, geodetically observed slow‐slip transient within the same period. Seismicity shows a transition of cluster‐type behavior from swarm‐like to burst‐like, accompanied by an increasing relative proportion of clustered (non‐Poissonian) relative to background (Poissonian) seismicity and gradually decreasing b‐value as the geodetically observed slow‐slip transient ends. The observed slow‐slip transient decay correlates with gradually increasing effective‐stress‐drop values. The observed correlation between the b‐value and geodetic transient highlights the influence of aseismic deformation on seismic deformation and the impact of slow‐slip transients on local seismic hazard

Dual-Band Transmitter and Receiver with Bowtie-Antenna in 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS for Gas Spectroscopy at 222 - 270 GHz

This paper presents a transmitter (TX) and a receiver (RX) with bowtie-antenna and silicon lens for gas spectroscopy at 222-270 GHz, which are fabricated in IHP’s 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The TX and RX use two integrated local oscillators for 222 – 256 GHz and 250 – 270 GHz, which are switched for dual-band operation. Due to its directivity of about 27 dBi, the single integrated bowtie-antenna with silicon lens enables an EIRP of about 25 dBm for the TX, and therefore a considerably higher EIRP for the 2-band TX compared to previously reported systems. The double sideband noise temperature of the RX is 20,000 K (18.5 dB noise figure) as measured by the Y-factor method. Absorption spectroscopy of gaseous methanol is used as a measure for the performance of the gas spectroscopy system with TX- and RX-modules

The Fatigue Strength of AISI 430—304 Stainless Steels Welded by CO₂ Laser Beam Welding

In this study, the fatigue strength of AISI 430—304 stainless steels welded by CO₂ laser beam welding (LBW) is investigated. Laser welding experiments are carried under helium atmosphere at 2000, 2250 and 2500 W welding powers with 100 cm/min welding speed. The welding zones are examined by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis. Fatigue tests are performed using an axial fatigue test machine, and the fatigue strength is analysed drawing S−N curves and critically observing fatigue fracture surfaces of the tested samples. The experimental results indicate that mechanical properties and microstructural features are affected significantly by welding power. The fatigue strength of CO₂ laser welded samples increase due to higher deep penetration in welding zone with increasing welding power in chosen conditions. The best properties are observed with the specimens welded at 2500 W heat input and 100 cm/min welding speed.В цій роботі досліджено втомну міцність неіржавійних сталей AISI 430—304, зварених променем CO₂-лазера. Експерименти з лазерного зварювання виконувалися в атмосфері гелію за потужности зварювання у 2000, 2250 і 2500 Вт із швидкістю зварювання у 100 см/хв. Зони зварювання досліджувалися методами оптичної мікроскопії, сканівної електронної мікроскопії та енергодисперсійної спектроскопії. Дослідження на втому виконувалися з використанням машини для випробувань на вісну втому, а втомна міцність аналізувалася шляхом побудови S−N-кривих та критичного спостереження поверхонь втомного руйнування досліджених зразків. Експериментальні результати показують, що механічні властивості та мікроструктурні особливості значно залежать від потужности зварювання. Втомна міцність зразків, зварених CO₂-лазером, зростає завдяки збільшенню глибини проникнення в зоні зварювання зі збільшенням потужности зварювання за обраних умов. Найкращі властивості спостерігалися у зразків, зварених за підведеної теплоти при 2500 Вт та швидкости зварювання у 100 см/хв.В данной работе исследована усталостная прочность нержавеющих сталей AISI 430—304, сваренных лучом CO₂-лазера. Эксперименты по лазерной сварке выполнялись в атмосфере гелия при мощностях сварки 2000, 2250 и 2500 Вт и скорости сварки 100 см/мин. Зоны сварки исследовались методами оптической микроскопии, сканирующей электронной микроскопии и энергодисперсионной спектроскопии. Испытания на усталость производились с использованием машины для испытаний на осевую усталость, а усталостная прочность анализировалась путём построения S−N-кривых и критического наблюдения поверхностей усталостного разрушения исследованных образцов. Экспериментальные результаты показывают, что механические свойства и микроструктурные особенности значительно зависят от мощности сварки. Усталостная прочность образцов, сваренных CO₂-лазером, возрастает благодаря увеличению глубины проникновения в зоне сварки с увеличением мощности сварки при выбранных условиях. Наилучшие свойства наблюдались у образцов, сваренных при подводимой теплоте с 2500 Вт и скорости сварки 100 см/мин