Direct Democracy and Minority Rights: Direct and Indirect Effects on Religious Minorities in Switzerland

Most of the research on the effects of direct democracy on minority rights is empirically limited to the direct effects of direct democracy. This article takes the issue a step further and examines both direct and indirect effects by investigating the rights of religious minorities in Switzerland. The analysis provides two main insights: all direct effects are negative and can be observed when the rights of out-groups like Islamic minorities are at stake. Second, indirect effects on the parliamentary process can be observed, too: parliaments make laws more restrictive toward Islamic minorities if they fear a popular vote. However, they develop strategies to enforce their liberal interests, as shown by the fact that extensions of the rights of religious minorities are passed in total revision

Preferences for the Old Towns Centers: The Case Study of Antalya Kaleiçi

The perception of historical urban areas is essential for the city. This study used photographs taken in Antalya Kaleiçi to question the perception of historic urban areas in the whole metropolitan area. In the study, in which the psychological model method was used in environmental aesthetics, categorization was carried out by factor analysis. In the study, in which five different categories emerged, it was revealed that users liked the open prospect views the most, and the streets were significantly less. The study's results are thought to contribute to the management of historic city centers

Examining the Factor of Color on Street Facades in Context of the Perception of Urban Aesthetics: Example of Antalya

In this study, the visual assessment of building facades, which define the boundaries of avenues, were based on the color factor with the aim of revealing its effect on the aesthetic perception of a city. Being part of the façade coloring work implemented in the Province of Antalya, the facades along the Avenues of Gulluk, Yuzuncuyil and Mevlana were selected as the sample for this study. In the first stage of this study, a survey assessment form was developed with reference to similar studies. For the online survey, random participants were asked to evaluate the former and current appearance photos showing the coloring work on the selected avenues based on five selected criteria (Like-Dislike, Boring-Exciting, Compatible-Incompatible, Disturbing-Relaxing, Appealing-Unappealing). Research suggest that coloring work did not have a significantly positive effect neither on the aesthetic value of the city nor on people’s degree of liking of the avenues. However, in scope of given criteria, different relations do emerge when the degree of liking scores for the former and current appearance is evaluated. There is a strong relation between Compatible-Incompatible criteria and degree of liking before the coloring work however, the relation between Boring-Exciting criteria and degree of liking after the coloring work is stronger. Accordingly, it is possible to say that the standard colors used formerly on the avenue facades were liked because they were compatible however, the applied colors are liked because they are found more exciting. Keywords: aesthetics, buildings, environment, perception, visua

Guidelines for techno-economic analysis of adsorption processes

Techno-economic analyses (TEAs) of CO2 capture technologies have risen in popularity, due to growing interest in meeting CO2 emissions reduction targets. Adsorption processes are one of the technologies proposed for CO2 capture, and although difficult, standardisation of TEAs for adsorption should be attempted. The reason is that TEAs are often referred to as input data to other forms of modelling, to guide policy, and act as summaries for those unfamiliar with adsorption processes. Herein, we discuss the aspects that should be considered when conducting TEAs for CO2 adsorption processes, we present the implications of choices made at the TEA stage and offer guidance on best practice. Overall, our aim is to make TEAs of adsorption processes more widely accessible to the adsorption community, and also more generally to communities engaged in the evaluation of CCS technologies

Military Logistics Network Design Via Axiomatic Design Principles

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2011Thesis (M.Sc.) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2011İnsanoğlu çıkarlarını devam ettirebilmek, korumak ya da yeni kazanımlar elde etmek adına, sürekli savaşmıştır. Teknoloji en çok savaş zamanlarında gelişmiştir. Teknoloji geliştikçe, değiştikçe, kendisiyle beraber savaşma yöntemlerini şekillerini de değiştirdi. Fakat bu değişimlerin nasıl kullanıldığı savaşı kazananı belirlemektedir. Özellikle sahip olunan kaynakları nasıl, nerede, ne miktarda ve ne zaman kullanılacağı başarıyı getirmektedir. Askeri lojistik kuvvetlerin ve silahların temini, sevkıyatı, koşullandırılması, bakımı ve geri çekilmesini ifade etmektedir. Bu çalışmada aksiyomatik tasarım ilkeleri ile askeri lojistik ağı tasarımı yapılmıştır. Aksiyomatik tasarım, müşteri ihtiyaçlarının fonksiyonel gereklilikler şeklinde ifade edilmesini, fonskiyonel gerekliliklerin gerçekleşmesi için gereken tasarım parametrelerini ve bunlar arasındaki matematiksel ifadeyi göstermektedir. Askeri lojistik insan ve ekipman lojistiğini içermesine rağmen bu çalışmada sadece ekipman lojistiği tasarımı yapılmıştır. Ayrıca savaş meydanındaki lojistik yerine, ulusal lojistik olarak da tanımlanan, savaş alanına kadar olan lojistik üzerinde durulmuştur. Tasarım dört alt baslıkta yapılmıştır: temin etme, depolama, dağıtım ve bakım-onarım. Satın almada önemli olan müşterinin gereksinim duyduğu ürünü doğru zamanda, doğru miktarda uygun fiyata ve istenilen özelliklerde satın almaktır. Maliyet kalemi değişken ürün maliyeti, taşıma maliyeti ve sabit maliyetten oluşmaktadır. Maliyeti düşürmek için, konsolidasyon, dış kaynak kullanımı ya da talepleri azaltma yollarına başvurulabilir. Fiyat analizleri yapılarak ürün değişken fiyatı optimize edilmeye çalışılmalıdır. Ayrıca stoktaki ürünlerin özellikleri tam bilinmelidir. Ürün özellikleri derken miktar ve kalite kastedilmektedir. Yeni alımlardan önce depodaki ürünler kullanılmalı, üründe modifikasyonlar yapılarak istenilen kalite standartlarına getirmeye çalışılmalıdır. İstenilen kalite standartları ise olası düşmanın ekipmanlarının kalitesine ve miktarına bağlıdır. Bu bilgilerin elde edilmesi için casusluk yapılmalı ve elde edilen bilgilerin doğru kullanımı için de çok hassas biçimde tahmin etme metodlari geliştirilmelidir. Askeri lojistikte en önemli sorunlardan bir tanesi depolama standartlarının sağlanamamasıdır. Depolamada maliyetleri düsürmek ve envanter kullanımını arttırmak amaçlanmaktadır. Maliyeti azaltmak için dış kaynak kullanımı ya da konsolidasyon yöntemleriyle sabit maliyetler ve yönetim maliyetleri düşürülmeli; envanter seviyesi ve envanter hareketleri azaltılmalıdır. Envanter seviyesi sadece depoda bulunan envanteri değil, taşıma halindeki envanteri, tadilattaki envanteri ve savaş alanındaki envanteri de içermektedir. Askeri sistemlerde savaş olasılıklarına karşı bazı ekipmanlar tehlike bölgelerine yakın yerlere konumlandırılırlar. Önemli olan ne miktarda hangi üründen nerede depolanacağı, bu ürünlerin ne sıklıkta bakıma tabi tutulacağı, saklama koşullarının neler olacağıdır. üçüncü basamağı ulaştırma tasarımı oluşturmaktadır. Askeri dağıtım; savaş alanı dağıtım ve savaş alanına kadar dağıtım olmak üzere iki kısımdan oluşmaktadır. Dağıtımda önemli olan zamanında ve düşük maliyette olmasıdır. Ölçek ekonomisi ve mesafe ekonomisi dikkate alınarak maliyet azaltılabilir. Rota optimizasyonu ve taşıma yönteminde esneklikler arttırılarak zamanında ulaştırma sağlanabilir. En son tasarım basamağı bakım onarım faaliyetleridir. Askerler tarafından sahada bakımı yapılamayan ürünler belirli bakım merkezlerine gönderilmektedirler. Bakımda önemli olan maliyetlerin düşürülmesi ve riskin azaltılmasıdır. Riskin azaltılması için ürünler kısa surede bakımdan geçirilmeli ve tamir edilmeli, tamir prosesleri oluşturulmalı ve kontroller sıkı yapılmalıdır. Maliyetleri azaltmak için önleyici ve tahmin edici bakim yöntemleri ile ekipmanlardaki bozulmalar azaltılabilir. Dış kaynak kullanımı ile yönetim maliyetleri ve personel maliyetleri sıfırlanabilir. Çalışmada örnek askeri sistem olarak Amerika Birleşik devletleri savunma bakanlığının yayımlamış olduğu kaynaklardan faydalanılmıştır.As long as there is a conflict of any kind, and weapons are being used by the parties, the military is the only organization that can secure interests. In war, the victory does not always go to those having the largest army or the most sophisticated equipment. It goes to who has more efficient strategic plan. Everything depends on strategic plan: when, where and with what forces a battle is to be delivered; in other words on logistics how and where to locate. In this study military logistics network is designed via axiomatic design principles. In axiomatic design, functional requirements, technical side of customer expectations, design parameters to achieve functional requirements and mathematical relation between two are studied. During logistics network design, it is divided to 4 steps: acquisition, storage, distribution and maintenance. In acquisition it is important to buy products in required amount and desired features to minimum cost at the right time. Cost includes variable product costs, shipping cost and fixed costs. In order to decrease cost, consolidation, outsourcing or any step that will decrease demand can be used. Price analysis should be made and inventory visibility should be maintained. In acquisition, besides cost, it is important to buy products in desired features- desired quantity and quality. Demand quantity depends on safety stock in peace time and probability of war. Quality not only depends on what is available in the market but also depends on enemy’s’ quality standards. Forecasting, spying and updating product information are necessities. In order to buy products at the right time order-management procedures should be developed and lead time should be decreased. Second design step is storage. For strategic mobility framework, some equipment should be prepositioned. Instead of long movement of needed equipment, by prepositioning it allows combat-ready forces. Managing inventory is one of the key features of logistics. Inventory management includes minimization of costs and maximization of usage of inventory. Profit maximization and risk minimization strategies should be developed to better management. In order to minimize costs, fixed costs including fixed assets, administration and selling costs should be decreased; inventory levels and movement of inventory in depots should be minimized by eliminating non-value added functions as much as possible, inventory accuracy and developing inventory allocation strategy. Inventory level minimization means minimization in depot inventory, minimization of non-stable inventory (under maintenance and in-transit), clarification of pre-positioned equipment quantity and minimization of in-theater inventory. Another concern in storage design is to keep assets in safe and good conditions. Third design step is distribution design. The military distribution system has two distinct segments: strategic-national and theater. The strategic-national segment consists of moving supplies from points outside a theater of military operations into the theater. The theater segment consists of distribution that occurs within a theater of military operations. In distribution it is aimed to increase efficiency and decrease risk of failure. Performance indicators for transportation are throughput maximization, time definite delivery, cost minimization and flexibility. Fundamental economic principles impacting transportation economy are economy of scale and economy of distance. Transportation costs are driven by distance, volume, density, stowability -how product case dimensions fit into transportation equipment-, handling, and liability. By flexibility, it is aimed to define a transportation mode having high maneuverability, large freight volume, can be used in all weather and climatic condition. In order to increase efficiency transportation methods should be optimized. Transportation optimization methods are consolidation, outsourcing, route optimization and selecting right transportation mode based on product features, quantity and critique. Another important point in distribution is to decide shipping priorities: which one, in which order, what quantity, in which conditions, what frequency. To solve the problem shipping procedures should be developed based on defined criteria. The last design step is maintenance design. Maintenance is an important aspect of military logistics and includes those activities needed to keep weapons, vehicles, and other materiel in an operable condition; to restore them to a serviceable condition when necessary; or to improve their usefulness through modifications. The Army calls maintenance as reset as the repair, recapitalization and replacement of equipment to equip units preparing for deployment and improve next-to-deploy unit’s equipment on hand levels. In order to have a customer satisfied maintenance function, total cost, risk and required time should be decreased. Cost for repairing are shipping, material and personnel costs. Outsourcing, consolidation and decrease breakdown-frequency can reduce costs. Speed and the accuracy of repair are other issues. In the study as an example to military system design, documents published by USA Department of Defense are used.Yüksek LisansM.Sc

AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF PRESCHOOL TEACHERS' FLOW LEVELS ON PROFESSIONAL JOB SATISFACTION

The forms of organizational regulation expressed by "Human Resources Management" started to come up after 1980s, and as a result, the concept of "work related flow", which is a positive attitude towards the act of working, gained currency. Based on this concept, the purpose of the present research is investigating whether the people who have flow experience pleasure and excitement while working. 278 pre-school teachers working in pre-school education institutions affiliated to Düzce Provincial Directorate of National Education constitute the universe of the present research conducted in the relational screening model. The work group consisted of 162 preschool teachers who were selected by convenient sampling method. "Job Satisfaction Scale" developed by Kuzgun, Sevim and Hamamcı (2005) and "Work-related Flow Scale" developed by Yalçınkaya (2013) were utilised as data collection tools of the present research. According to the findings of the present research, there is a positive relationship between the teachers' flow motivation and Job Satisfaction levels. In addition, there is a significant difference between the flow levels of teachers, employment, seniority, number of students in the class variables.  Article visualizations

Unary adsorption equilibria of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide on y-type zeolites at temperatures from 298 to 393 k and at pressures up to 3 MPA

The equilibrium adsorption of CO2, N2, and H2 on commercially available Zeolite H–Y, Na–Y, and cation-exchanged NaTMA–Y was measured up to 3 MPa at 298.15, 313.15, 333.15, 353.15, and 393.15 K gravimetrically using a magnetic suspension balance. The chemical and textural characterization of the materials was carried out by thermogravimetric analysis, helium gravimetry, and N2 (77 K) physisorption. We report the excess and net isotherms as measured and estimates of the absolute adsorption isotherms. The latter are modeled using the simplified statistical isotherm (SSI) model to evaluate adsorbate–adsorbent interactions and parametrize the data for process modeling. When reported per unit volume of zeolite supercage, the SSI model indicates that the saturation capacity for a given gas takes the same value for the three adsorbents. The Henry’s constants predicted by the model show a strong effect of the cation on the affinity of each adsorbate

Direct democracy and minority rights: direct and indirect effects on religious minorities in Switzerland

Most of the research on the effects of direct democracy on minority rights is empirically limited to the direct effects of direct democracy. This article takes the issue a step further and examines both direct and indirect effects by investigating the rights of religious minorities in Switzerland. The analysis provides two main insights: all direct effects are negative and can be observed when the rights of out-groups like Islamic minorities are at stake. Second, indirect effects on the parliamentary process can be observed, too: parliaments make laws more restrictive toward Islamic minorities if they fear a popular vote. However, they develop strategies to enforce their liberal interests, as shown by the fact that extensions of the rights of religious minorities are passed in total revisions

Uncertainty Calculation as a Service: Integrating Cloud-Based Microservices for Enhanced Calibration and DCC Generation

The calibration industry is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated equipment and complex processes, which necessitate innovative solutions to keep pace with rapidly advancing technology. This paper introduces an enhancement to an existing microservice-based cloud architecture, aimed at effectively managing the inherent complexity within this field. The enhanced architecture seamlessly integrates various equipment types and communication technologies, aligning diverse stakeholder expectations into a unified system that ensures efficient and accurate calibration processes. It highlights the integration of microservices to facilitate various methods of uncertainty calculation and the generation of digital calibration certificates (DCCs). A case study on RF power measurement illustrates the practical application and benefits of the enhanced architecture. Although initially focused on RF power measurement, the flexible architecture allows for future expansions to accommodate new standards and measurement techniques. The enhanced system offers a comprehensive approach to managing data flow from calibration equipment to the final generation of DCCs, utilizing cloud-based services for efficient data processing. As a future direction, this extension sets the groundwork for broader applicability across multiple measurement types, ensuring readiness for upcoming advancements in metrology