Tracing Patterns of Divergence in Arms Trade after the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War: Case Studies of Turkey and India

What causes states to diverge from their historic alliances/alignments? This paper examines two case studies - Turkey and India - focusing on the degree to which alliances, arms transfers, and conflict alter each state’s status quo. Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952 to contend with threats emanating from the Soviet Union. Today, Ankara’s foreign/defense policy diverges from that of NATO and the West in its effort to regain Ottoman-like control in the region and thus decrease dependence on Western military support. Turkey has transitioned from seeking Western aid and alignment to deter Russian aggression to being the second most powerful army in NATO with a sturdy domestic defense industry that has given it significant regional bargaining power. Initiating controversial arms deals with U.S. and Western adversaries, developing a domestic defense industry, and demonstrating the effectiveness of Turkish defense products in the Russia-Ukraine War, Ankara has decreased its alignment with NATO. India, along with Australia, Japan, and the United States, formed the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (more commonly known as the Quad) in 2007 to counter Chinese regional aggression. While the Soviet Union/Russia historically dominated India’s arms imports, the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War demonstrated the inferiority of Russian weapons. Further, a declining Russian arms industry threatens arms exports to India and India’s domestic security against the People's Republic of China (PRC). Given minimal Russian influence on India’s military doctrine, New Delhi is determined to diversify its arms suppliers to become less dependent on Russia and align more with the West and the Quad, thus edging closer to abandoning its decades-long relationship with Russia. Turkey and India are seemingly moving in different directions from their historical ties with NATO and Russia, respectively. By studying these two mid-powers in complicated alliances/alignments, we can see the different routes states take to move away from the status quo

Assessment of ostial coronary segments in routine coronary angiography – A comparison of angiography with computed tomography

Im Rahmen dieser Studie haben wir untersucht, ob die bei der diagnostischen Koronarangiographie gewählten Projektionen eine adäquate Darstellung der ostialen Gefäßabschnitte ermöglichen. Hierzu wurde im Rahmen einer retrospektiven Studie ein Patientenkollektiv von 54 Probanden eingeschlossen, bei denen sowohl ein Kardio-CT als auch eine diagnostische Herzkatheteruntersuchung durchgeführt worden war. Mithilfe des Kardio-CTs wurde die Line of Perpendicularity (LoP) der ostialen Koronargefäßabschnitte der LCA und der RCA ermittelt. Hieraus können die optimalen Angulationen für die angiographische Darstellung der ostialen Gefäßabschnitte abgeleitet werden. Im nächsten Schritt wurde überprüft, ob die während der diagnostischen Koronarangiographie gewählten Projektionen auf dieser LoP (mit einer Divergenz von ± 10°) lagen. Zusätzlich haben wir untersucht, ob interventionell erfahrenen Kardiologen in der Lage sind, die Koronarangiographie im Hinblick auf die Qualität der Darstellung des Ostiums zu beurteilen. Ferner wurde verglichen, ob die in der Literatur empfohlenen Standardprojektionen eine optimale Darstellung der ostialen Segmente erlauben. Bei 81% aller Patienten wurde der ostiumnahe Abschnitt der linken Koronararterie unverkürzt dargestellt, wohingegen die Darstellung der rechten Koronararterie nur bei 44% der Patienten adäquat war. Der Vergleich der LoP zeigte, dass es große interindividuelle Unterschiede der Koronarostiumanatomie gibt. Daraus kann abgeleitet werden, dass mit sog. „Standardprojektionen“ nur bei einem Teil der Patienten eine optimale und somit unverkürzte Darstellung der ostialen Koronarsegmente möglich wird. Bei einem beträchtlichen Anteil der Patienten muss man diese Projektionen variieren, um das Ostium bestmöglich darzustellen. Eine CT-basierte Bestimmung der Line of Perpendicularity kann dazu beitragen, die geeigneten Projektionen während einer Herzkatheteruntersuchung einzustellen und so die interindividuellen Verhältnisse der Koronaranatomie zu berücksichtigen.In this study, we evaluated whether the angiographic views selected for routine coronary angiography enable an adequate assessment of the ostial coronary segments. For this purpose, 54 patients were included in a retrospective study, in whom both a cardiac CT and a routine cardiac catheterization were performed. Cardio-CT was used to determine the “Line of Perpendicularity” (LoP) of the ostial coronary segments of the LCA and the RCA. From this, the optimal angulations for the angiographic display of the ostial coronary segments can be derived. In the next step, it was checked whether the projections selected during the routine coronary angiography were on this LoP (with a divergence of ± 10°). In addition, we investigated whether experienced interventional cardiologists are able to visually assess the quality of imaging of the ostium by coronary angiography. Furthermore, it was compared whether the “standardized views“ recommended in the literature allow an optimal representation of the ostial segments. In 81% of all patients, the ostial segment of the left coronary artery was represented without foreshortening, whereas the right coronary artery was adequately represented in only 44% of the patients. The comparison of the LoP showed that there are large interindividual differences in coronary ostium anatomy. From this it can be deduced that with so-called " standardized views" an optimal and thus unforeshortened representation of the ostial coronary segments is only possible in some patients. In a significant proportion of patients it is necessary to vary these angiographic angulations in order to achieve optimal views of the ostium. A CT-based determination of the Line of Perpendicularity can aid the selection of adequate angiographic views during a cardiac catheterization and thus taking into consideration the interindividual variation of the coronary anatomy

Narrating Egyptian Women’s Prison Experiences - El Saadawi and Bakr

The research attempts to discover what Egyptian women prisoners’ experience was like in the 1980s and 90s through studying two major texts which fall under the genre of prison literature: Twelve Women in a Cell by Nawal El Saadawi and The Golden Chariot by Salwa Bakr. Through a thorough reading and analysis of the works, similar tropes and different attitudes can be found in the texts. Both works discussed class, comradery, and the patriarchy but differences exist when it comes to their different portrayals of prison

Neither Maternal nor Zygotic med-1/med-2 Genes Play a Major Role in Specifying the Caenorhabditis elegans Endoderm

The med-1 and med-2 genes encode small, highly similar proteins related to GATA-type transcription factors and have been proposed as necessary for specification of both the mesoderm and the endoderm of Caenorhabditis elegans. However, we have previously presented evidence that neither maternal nor zygotic expression of the med-1/2 genes is necessary to specify the C. elegans endoderm. Contradicting our conclusions, a recent report presented evidence, based on presumed transgene-induced cosuppression, that the med-1/2 genes do indeed show an endoderm-specifying maternal effect. In this article, we reinvestigate med-2(−); med-1(−) embryos using a med-2- specific null allele instead of the chromosomal deficiences used previously and confirm our previous results: the large majority (∼84%) of med-2(−); med-1(−) embryos express gut granules. We also reinvestigate the possibility of a maternal med-1/2 effect by direct injection of med dsRNA into sensitized (med-deficient) hermaphrodites using the standard protocol known to be effective in ablating maternal transcripts, but again find no evidence for any significant maternal med-1/2 effect. We do, however, show that expression of gut granules in med-1/2-deficient embryos is exquisitely sensitive to RNAi against the vacuolar ATPase-encoding unc-32 gene [present on the same multicopy med-1(+)-containing transgenic balancer used in support of the maternal med-1/2 effect]. We thus suggest that the experimental evidence for a maternal med-1/2 effect should be reexamined and may instead reflect cosuppression caused by multiple transgenic unc-32 sequences, not med sequences