Cultural Muslims: Background Forces and Factors Influencing Everyday Religiosity of Muslim People

Most observers of the science of religion define Islam as a monolithic religion. Some people pinpoint a cultural practice from a Muslim-majority country and generalize it as a practice of all Muslims around the world by assuming that Islam is a monolithic religion. In fact, Islam never meant the same thing to all Muslims. While the majority of Muslims agree on the core tenets of Islam, Muslims across the world differ significantly in their levels of religious commitment and openness to multiple interpretations of their faith. In addition, fluctuation on the core tenets of Islam among Muslim majority countries suggest that some Muslims make religion a part of their cultural life and practice religion as a cultural habit. There are many points that cultural and religious practices are mixed. This study helps to acknowledge the relationship between regional culture and religious culture, and background reasons of common everyday activities of Muslim people

Social Mobility and Its Discontents: The Center-Periphery Cleavage of Turkey

This study analyzes effects of the center-periphery cleavage on the relationship between state and religion in Turkey during the period of 2002 and 2012. The confrontation between center and periphery is one of the most important social cleavages underlying Turkish politics that has lasted since the late Ottoman period. This study suggests that the social cleavages between the center and the periphery are still prominent factors shaping discussions on the state’s interaction with religion. That the periphery has gained more social capital since the 1980s has fueled these discussions. In recent years, the Republican People’s Party, the armed forces, and the higher judiciary have represented the centrist coalition, while the Justice and Development Party has established itself as the main representative of the periphery. During this period, the previous elites have lost more power on the state level, a development that can be read as the conservative periphery displacing the secular center to some extent

STATE, POLITICS, AND RELIGION: EFFECTS OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STATE AND RELIGION IN TURKEY, 2002-2012

This study analyzes the rapidly changing nature of the relationship between state and religion in Turkey between 2002 and 2012. In the process, it examines the range of opinions on and the different representations of this relationship in the Turkish social milieu. The study deploys a framework based on the center-periphery cleavage to depict the changing patterns of polarization and conflict resolution during this period. The study suggests that the social cleavages between the center and the periphery are prominent factors shaping discussions on the state’s interaction with religion. The power struggle derives from the center’s desire to extend its previous privileges and advantages, and the periphery’s determination to share in the same benefits. That the periphery has gained more social capital since the 1980s has fueled these interactions. In the struggle, the Justice and Development Party government has represented the periphery, whereas the Republican People’s Party, the military, the universities, and the higher judiciary have represented the center. The study focuses on two main cases to explore the trend of this relationship: the teaching of religion by the state, and the rights of religious minorities, including non-Muslim communities and Alevi groups. In general, the Turkish state has taken a similar approach to all religious groups. At the beginning of the new century, the state was skeptical about religious activities, perceiving them as a threat to its sovereignty, especially its secular structure. Thus demands of Islamic groups were perceived as a threat to secularism, while non-Muslims’ demands were seen as a threat to Turkish nationalism. Responses to these demands, especially between 2007 and 2012, proved that these fears were exaggerated. Overall, despite constant changes through the years, Turkey has never insisted on a complete separation of religion from the state, even in its most secular phase. The time period examined, 2002-2012, witnessed what might be called a “normalization” of the state/religion relationship – that is, religion is no longer viewed as a threat to the state, nor is the state seen as a threat to religion

Nonderogatory Directed Webgraph

By assigning a certain direction to the webgraphs, which are defined as the Cartesian product of cycles and paths, we prove that they are nonderogatory

Complementary intestinal mucosa and microbiota responses to caloric restriction

The intestine is key for nutrient absorption and for interactions between the microbiota and its host. Therefore, the intestinal response to caloric restriction (CR) is thought to be more complex than that of any other organ. Submitting mice to 25% CR during 14 days induced a polarization of duodenum mucosa cell gene expression characterised by upregulation, and downregulation of the metabolic and immune/inflammatory pathways, respectively. The HNF, PPAR, STAT, and IRF families of transcription factors, particularly the Pparα and Isgf3 genes, were identified as potentially critical players in these processes. The impact of CR on metabolic genes in intestinal mucosa was mimicked by inhibition of the mTOR pathway. Furthermore, multiple duodenum and faecal metabolites were altered in CR mice. These changes were dependent on microbiota and their magnitude corresponded to microbial density. Further experiments using mice with depleted gut bacteria and CR-specific microbiota transfer showed that the gene expression polarization observed in the mucosa of CR mice is independent of the microbiota and its metabolites. The holistic interdisciplinary approach that we applied allowed us to characterize various regulatory aspects of the host and microbiota response to CR

mTOR: from growth signal integration to cancer, diabetes and ageing

In all eukaryotes, the target of rapamycin (TOR) signalling pathway couples energy and nutrient abundance to the execution of cell growth and division, owing to the ability of TOR protein kinase to simultaneously sense energy, nutrients and stress and, in metazoans, growth factors. Mammalian TOR complex 1 (mTORC1) and mTORC2 exert their actions by regulating other important kinases, such as S6 kinase (S6K) and Akt. In the past few years, a significant advance in our understanding of the regulation and functions of mTOR has revealed the crucial involvement of this signalling pathway in the onset and progression of diabetes, cancer and ageing.National Institutes of Health (U.S.)Howard Hughes Medical InstituteWhitehead Institute for Biomedical ResearchJane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research (Postdoctoral Fellowship)Human Frontier Science Program (Strasbourg, France

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Evaluation of nutritional status in pediatric intensive care unit patients: the results of a multicenter, prospective study in Turkey

IntroductionMalnutrition is defined as a pathological condition arising from deficient or imbalanced intake of nutritional elements. Factors such as increasing metabolic demands during the disease course in the hospitalized patients and inadequate calorie intake increase the risk of malnutrition. The aim of the present study is to evaluate nutritional status of patients admitted to pediatric intensive care units (PICU) in Turkey, examine the effect of nutrition on the treatment process and draw attention to the need for regulating nutritional support of patients while continuing existing therapies.Material and MethodIn this prospective multicenter study, the data was collected over a period of one month from PICUs participating in the PICU Nutrition Study Group in Turkey. Anthropometric data of the patients, calorie intake, 90-day mortality, need for mechanical ventilation, length of hospital stay and length of stay in intensive care unit were recorded and the relationship between these parameters was examined.ResultsOf the 614 patients included in the study, malnutrition was detected in 45.4% of the patients. Enteral feeding was initiated in 40.6% (n = 249) of the patients at day one upon admission to the intensive care unit. In the first 48 h, 86.82% (n = 533) of the patients achieved the target calorie intake, and 81.65% (n = 307) of the 376 patients remaining in the intensive care unit achieved the target calorie intake at the end of one week. The risk of mortality decreased with increasing upper mid-arm circumference and triceps skin fold thickness Z-score (OR = 0.871/0.894; p = 0.027/0.024). The risk of mortality was 2.723 times higher in patients who did not achieve the target calorie intake at first 48 h (p = 0.006) and the risk was 3.829 times higher in patients who did not achieve the target calorie intake at the end of one week (p = 0.001). The risk of mortality decreased with increasing triceps skin fold thickness Z-score (OR = 0.894; p = 0.024).ConclusionTimely and appropriate nutritional support in critically ill patients favorably affects the clinical course. The results of the present study suggest that mortality rate is higher in patients who fail to achieve the target calorie intake at first 48 h and day seven of admission to the intensive care unit. The risk of mortality decreases with increasing triceps skin fold thickness Z-score