The line between fornication and prostitution: The prostitute versus the Subaşi (police chief)

This paper examines the approaches to prostitution within the frame of legal norms and social life in the Ottoman Empire via the case study of a Muslim woman who was adjudged to be a prostitute at a court in 1580. Compared with similar case reports, this case study also demonstrates the struggle of a prostitute for her rights against the unjust and arbitrary practices applied by officers and common people, which allows us to think about gender mainstreaming. One of the results of this paper establishes that there are no special regulations about prostitution in Islamic Law. Although it is viewed as ‘adultery’ in Hanefi Islamic Law, prostitution is understood to be punished with light sentences since most prostitutes were not married. The severe penalties in Islamic Law were designed to prevent married women’s adultery. Upon marriage a woman grants or transfers her right of sexual intercourse to her husband and if she lets another person use that right, it is seen as allowing someone to steal her husband’s property. In the case of unmarried women and prostitutes, the fee taken is counted as a gift or other consideration. The paper attempts to explain why the concept of prostitution did not occur in Islamic Law and why it was regulated in the Ottoman Empire as a part of private life

Microbial transformation of some steroids by Cladosporium cladosporioides MRC 70282

Incubation of testosterone, androstenedione and progesterone with Cladosporium cladosporioides MRC 70282 for 5 days is reported. Testosterone was hydroxylated at C-16 beta and then oxidised at C-16. This was accompanied by a minor independent oxidation at C-17 and epimerisation at C-17. Androstenedione was reduced at C-17 and hydroxylated at C-16 beta, and this was then oxidised to a ketone at C-16. This was accompanied by a minor epimerisation at C-17. Progesterone was hydroxylated at C-21, and this was accompanied by a minor independent 5 alpha-reduction

Design of a Binocular Pupil and Gaze Point Detection System Utilizing High Definition Images

This study proposes a novel binocular pupil and gaze detection system utilizing a remote full high definition (full HD) camera and employing LabVIEW. LabVIEW is inherently parallel and has fewer time-consuming algorithms. Many eye tracker applications are monocular and use low resolution cameras due to real-time image processing difficulties. We utilized the computer’s direct access memory channel for rapid data transmission and processed full HD images with LabVIEW. Full HD images make easier determinations of center coordinates/sizes of pupil and corneal reflection. We modified the camera so that the camera sensor passed only infrared (IR) images. Glints were taken as reference points for region of interest (ROI) area selection of the eye region in the face image. A morphologic filter was applied for erosion of noise, and a weighted average technique was used for center detection. To test system accuracy with 11 participants, we produced a visual stimulus set up to analyze each eye’s movement. Nonlinear mapping function was utilized for gaze estimation. Pupil size, pupil position, glint position and gaze point coordinates were obtained with free natural head movements in our system. This system also works at 2046 × 1086 resolution at 40 frames per second. It is assumed that 280 frames per second for 640 × 480 pixel images is the case. Experimental results show that the average gaze detection error for 11 participants was 0.76° for the left eye, 0.89° for right eye and 0.83° for the mean of two eyes