The development of minority education at the south-easternmost corner of the EU: the case of Muslim Turks in Western Thrace, Greece

This study focuses on the Muslim Turkish minority in Greece and the development of its educational rights. It starts with the 1923 Lausanne Treaty that established the minorityhood of the Muslim ummah for the former Ottoman territory and explores various aspects of Minority education between then and the end of the 2000s. While doing so, it treats these rights as individual rights with a collective aspect; some of the individual rights of minorities can only be enjoyed together with others. Also, it draws a direct correlation between the Minority’s education and its rights. That is, in the case that the education level of the Minority was high, there was less discrimination against members of the Minority, since they had the linguistic skills, educational background and self-confidence to fight against violations of their rights by the host country, Greece. Also, it emphasizes the involvement of external actors in the development of Minority education in Western Thrace. Concerning the development of Minority education, this study argues that minorities’ rights are not only ‘given’ by host states but also ‘claimed’ by members of minorities through various struggles at the local, national and international level. Also, as well as the Minority and the Greek state, various external agents, such as Turkey and the European Union, are also involved in the struggle between the Minority and the Greek state over the former’s education. The impact of these agents on the survival of the Minority’s educational rights was immense, particularly from the 1980s onwards. It was primarily the inclusion of these external actors that pushed Greece to change its discriminatory policy against the Minority in 1991. This study demonstrates that a number of the individual rights emanating from the Minority’s Greek citizenship have only been recognized since 1991. Nonetheless, I conclude that in spite of some improvements, the Minority’s difficulties in the realm of rights with collective aspects, such as education of Minority students in a bilingual environment, persist

Non-resonant Mie scattering: Emergent optical properties of core-shell polymer nanowires

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We provide the in-depth characterization of light-polymer nanowire interactions in the context of an effective Mie scattering regime associated with low refractive index materials. Properties of this regime sharply contrast with these of resonant Mie scattering, and involve the formation of strictly forward-scattered and coupling-free optical fields in the vicinity of core-shell polymer nanowires. Scattering from these optical fields is shown to be non-resonant in nature and independent from incident polarization. In order to demonstrate the potential utility of this scattering regime in one-dimensional (1D) polymeric nanostructures, we fabricate polycarbonate (PC) -polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) core-shell nanowires using a novel iterative thermal drawing process that yields uniform and indefinitely long core-shell nanostructures. These nanowires are successfully engineered for novel nanophotonics applications, including size-dependent structural coloration, efficient light capture on thin-film solar cells, optical nano-sensors with ultrahigh sensitivity and a mask-free photolithography method suitable for the straightforward production of 1D nanopatterns

Label-Free Biosensing with High Selectivity in Complex Media using Microtoroidal Optical Resonators

Although label-free biosensors comprised of optical microcavities inherently possess the capability of resolving molecular interactions at individual level, this extreme sensitivity restricts their convenience for large scale applications by inducing vulnerability towards non-specific interactions that readily occur within complex media. Therefore, the use of optical microresonators for biosensing is mostly limited within strictly defined laboratory conditions, instead of field applications as early detection of cancer markers in blood, or identification of contamination in food. Here, we propose a novel surface modification strategy suitable for but not limited to optical microresonator based biosensors, enabling highly selective biosensing with considerable sensitivity as well. Using a robust, silane-based surface coating which is simultaneously protein resistant and bioconjugable, we demonstrate that it becomes possible to perform biosensing within complex media, without compromising the sensitivity or reliability of the measurement. Functionalized microtoroids are successfully shown to resist nonspecific interactions, while simultaneously being used as sensitive biological sensors. This strategy could pave the way for important applications in terms of extending the use of state-of-the-art biosensors for solving problems similar to the aforementioned

Linear Estimation of Particle Bulk Parameters from Multi-Wavelength Lidar Measurements

An algorithm for linear estimation of aerosol bulk properties such as particle volume, effective radius and complex refractive index from multiwavelength lidar measurements is presented. The approach uses the fact that the total aerosol concentration can well be approximated as a linear combination of aerosol characteristics measured by multiwavelength lidar. Therefore, the aerosol concentration can be estimated from lidar measurements without the need to derive the size distribution, which entails more sophisticated procedures. The definition of the coefficients required for the linear estimates is based on an expansion of the particle size distribution in terms of the measurement kernels. Once the coefficients are established, the approach permits fast retrieval of aerosol bulk properties when compared with the full regularization technique. In addition, the straightforward estimation of bulk properties stabilizes the inversion making it more resistant to noise in the optical data. Numerical tests demonstrate that for data sets containing three aerosol backscattering and two extinction coefficients (so called 3 + 2 ) the uncertainties in the retrieval of particle volume and surface area are below 45% when input data random uncertainties are below 20 %. Moreover, using linear estimates allows reliable retrievals even when the number of input data is reduced. To evaluate the approach, the results obtained using this technique are compared with those based on the previously developed full inversion scheme that relies on the regularization procedure. Both techniques were applied to the data measured by multiwavelength lidar at NASA/GSFC. The results obtained with both methods using the same observations are in good agreement. At the same time, the high speed of the retrieval using linear estimates makes the method preferable for generating aerosol information from extended lidar observations. To demonstrate the efficiency of the method, an extended time series of observations acquired in Turkey in May 2010 was processed using the linear estimates technique permitting, for what we believe to be the first time, temporal-height distributions of particle parameters

Wafer-scale arrays of high-Q silica optical microcavities

On-chip high-Q microcavities possess significant potential in terms of integration of optical microresonators into functional optoelectronic devices that could be used in various applications, including biosensors, photonic-integrated circuits, or quantum optics experiments. Yet, despite the convenience of fabricating wafer-scale integrated microresonators with moderate Q values using standard microfabrication techniques, surface-tension-induced microcavities (STIMs), which have atomic-level surface roughness enabling the observation of Q values larger than 106, could only be produced using individual thermal treatment of every single microresonator within the devised area. Here, we demonstrate a facile method for large-scale fabrication of silica STIMs of various morphologies. Q values exceeding 106 are readily obtained using this technique. This study represents a significant advancement toward fabrication of wafer-scale optoelectronic circuitries. © 2017 Optical Society of America

La résorption foliaire de quelques macro- (N, P, S) et micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn dans les forêts de Pterocarya fraxinifolia (Poiret) Spach en Turquie

Pterocarya fraxinifolia (Poiret) Spach a une distribution plutôt restreinte en Turquie dans les forêts marécageuses. La résorption foliaire de quelques macro- (N, P et S) et micronutriments (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu) a été étudiée dans des populations de P. fraxinifolia du nord et du sud de la Turquie. Comparativement aux populations méridionales, les populations nordiques ont montré une résorption de l’azote (NRE) plus efficiente mais une résorption du phosphore (PRE) plus faible. Les populations tant nordiques que méridionales se sont montrées P-proficientes alors que seules les populations nordiques se sont révélées P-proficientes. Des valeurs négatives pour ZnRE et MnRE ont été trouvées dans les populations méridionales. SRE s’est révélée plus élevée que celle d’autres espèces décidues. Des ratios NRE/PRE > 1 ont été trouvés dans les populations nordiques mais 1 in northern populations, while <1 in southern populations