Phobias

Prose by Michelé Strachota. Finalist in the 2016 Manuscripts Prose Contest with Benjamin Percy

The constitutional referendum – another step towards a New Turkey. OSW COMMENTARY NUMBER 239 | 28.04.2017

On 16 April the citizens of Turkey voted in a national referendum to amend the constitution. This will lead to a radical strengthening of the president’s power. 51.4% of the voters backed the amendments. They will come into force after the next presidential and parliamentary election (scheduled for 2019). The amendments are an important step in the thorough reconstruction of the Republic of Turkey which began in 2002. They will strengthen the position of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in legal terms, and – with all the controversies that entails – will adjust the legal status to the situation on the ground. The outcome of the referendum helps to temporarily stabilise the internal situation in Turkey and allows the country to be more active on the international arena; this includes making another attempt to thoroughly revise its relations with the EU. However, the amendment of the constitution is of a technical nature and is a means rather than an end in the process of building a New Turkey. Thus the calming of the situation in Turkey is temporary

The war of nerves with Iran - consequences for the South Caucasus and Russia. OSW Commentary No. 75, 2012-04-25

Tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme have risen considerably in recent months. This has been visible in numerous threats of – and much speculation about – an imminent Israeli (and US) attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. In this context, the support for the attacks that the countries of the South Caucasus (and Azerbaijan in particular) could provide has been the subject of lively debate, as has been the prospect of a Russian political and military offensive in the Caucasus in response to the attacks on Iran. It seems that the ongoing war campaign in the media has been aimed primarily at putting pressure on Iran and the international community to find a political solution to the Iranian problem. This also applies to the Caucasus’s involvement in the campaign. Given the outcome of the Istanbul round of talks on a political solution to the Iranian issue (14 April), which warrants moderate optimism, the threat of a conflict now appears more distant and this also indirectly proves the effectiveness of the campaign. The war of nerves with Iran, however, is already now actually affecting the stability of the Southern Caucasus. While it seems that Azerbaijan is not Israel’s partner in the preparations to attacks, and that there is no real link between the Iranian problem and the ongoing and planned movements of Russian troops in the Caucasus, the tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan are indeed high. Moreover, the global image of the Caucasus is deteriorating, the USA’s position in the region is becoming more complicated, and Russia’s room for manoeuvre is expanding

Turkey and the Kurdish problem; new approaches in the face of the Middle East crises. Point of View No. 30, February 2013

From the Introduction. For almost a hundred years (since World War I and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire) stability – or rather, the permanent threat to stability – has been a key challenge for the Middle East. One of the central elements of this threat has been the so-called Kurdish problem, that is, the issues that continually arise between the states of the region and the Kurdish minority living in the area, as well as the tensions among the individual states caused by a range of issues related to local Kurds. The country most affected by the Kurdish problem is Turkey

Implementation of the MR tractography visualization kit based on the anisotropic Allen-Cahn equation

summary:Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging (MR–DTI) is a noninvasive in vivo method capable of examining the structure of human brain, providing information about the position and orientation of the neural tracts. After a short introduction to the principles of MR–DTI, this paper describes the steps of the proposed neural tract visualization technique based on the DTI data. The cornerstone of the algorithm is a texture diffusion procedure modeled mathematically by the problem for the Allen–Cahn equation with diffusion anisotropy controlled by a tensor field. Focus is put on the issues of the numerical solution of the given problem, using the finite volume method for spatial domain discretization. Several numerical schemes are compared with the aim of reducing the artificial (numerical) isotropic diffusion. The remaining steps of the algorithm are commented on as well, including the acquisition of the tensor field before the actual computation begins and the postprocessing used to obtain the final images. Finally, the visualization results are presented

How Technology Can Be Integrated Into The Seventh Grade Mathematics Classroom To Ensure A Positive Impact On Student Learning And Engagement

In recent years, there has been a movement for more technology in classrooms across the country. With this new movement, many teachers and students have been hesitant on where to begin and how to use technology in the classroom. This movement in education led for the author to explore the following research question: How can meaningful technology resources be integrated into the seventh grade mathematics classroom to ensure a positive impact on student learning and engagement? This Capstone records one teacher’s creation of a website designed to offer students and teachers an array of resources in one location for the middle school math classroom, while aligning to the Minnesota State Mathematics Standards

The European Commission enables increased use of the OPAL pipeline by Gazprom. OSW COMMENTARY NUMBER 226 | 09.11.2016

In response to a request by the German energy regulator, on 28 October the European Commission announced its decision setting out the rules for increased utilisation by the Russian gas company Gazprom (and possibly other companies) of the onshore leg of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, i.e. the OPAL pipeline. This decision raises a series of questions as to its content, its publication procedure, the context of its adoption and its potential consequences. These doubts are aggravated by the lack of clarity of information regarding both the OPAL pipeline itself and the initial rules governing its utilisation (including its exemption from the third party access rule – TPA), and the present decision by the European Commission. As a consequence, the Commission’s decision is provoking conflicting reactions. On the one hand, it is being received (for example by the Polish and the Ukrainian side) as one that enables Gazprom to increase its access to the European market, which could compromise the security of gas supplies to Central Europe and the transit of gas via Ukraine. On the other hand, it is being interpreted as a decision which does not meet the expectations of Gazprom and the OPAL pipeline operator, which sought increased opportunities to book the pipeline’s capacity in the long term. Therefore, it is not known if and when the rules concerning the of OPAL as proposed by the EC will be implemented and, as a consequence, whether the EC’s decision will put an end to the process of negotiating the rules for the German pipeline’s use that has been ongoing for many years

Automatic Creation of the Publication Index

Tato práce si klade za cíl prozkoumat možnosti běžných metod automatického zpracování jazyka a vytvořit prototyp systému, který bude schopen automaticky generovat rejstříky. Systém bude vyzkoušen na testovacích datech a na základě výsledků bude stanoven hlavní směr dalšího vývoje.The goal of this thesis is to survey potential of common language processing methods for text indexing. A prototype of automatic index-building system will be made and tested on gathered data. A direction for the next developement will be set based on the results of the tests.

The crisis in Iraq and the twists and turns of Turkish Middle East policy. OSW Commentary No. 142, 29.07.2014

The spectacular offensive by Islamic radicals in Iraq this June has led the country to the verge of collapse, and is another scene of the deep crisis in the Middle East, in which Turkey is entangled. The immediate consequence of this is a severe crisis of prestige after the kidnapping by terrorists of Turkish diplomats and Ankara’s inability to resolve the situation; in the long term consequences include escalation of the Kurdish problem, and a further increase in threats to the security of Turkey itself as well as the fundamental principles of its foreign policy. Both Ankara’s options and its political will to actively respond to the crisis are extremely limited. Yet again in recent years, the current crisis, the broader situation in the Middle East, and finally the position of Turkey in the region elude unambiguous assessments and forecasts – these are prevented by the scale and growth of the reappraisals and tensions in the region. The only undoubted fact is that Turkey is strategically and irreversibly entangled in the Middle East’s problems, which are an important factor affecting the transformation of the state which the ruling AKP is implementing; and in the near future, this state of affairs will only deepen