Preventing Terrorist Recruitment through Early Intervention by Involving Families

Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and less lethal methods of countering terrorism, and yet it is often overlooked. This article describes a program designed and administered by the author to prevent terrorist recruitment through early intervention, by promoting the involvement of the families of potential recruits in their children's activities and in a counterterrorism program that was developed and implemented in Sanliurfa, Turkey, for four years, from 2010 to 2014. The article details the concept and structure of the program, provides insights on how it was developed and administered, and presents the data, an analysis, and the findings. In addition, this article reports on the outcomes of the program and offers insights into why the youth in Sanliurfa were struggling to break their ties with terrorist organizations

A Comparative Study of Language Learning Strategies Used by Monolingual and Bilingual Learners

The purpose of this research is to analyze monolingual and bilingual university students’ language learning strategies (LLS) comparatively and to determine whether students’ level of using language learning strategies in foreign language learning process changes in terms of variables such as gender, department and school type. This research was conducted among 524 university students at Yüzüncü Yıl University and Bülent Ecevit University Çaycuma Vocational School. Data of the study was collected by “Strategy Inventory of Language Learning” developed by Oxford (1990) and adapted into Turkish by Cesur and Fer (2007). Data collected was analyzed with descriptive statistics and parametric tests. As a result of the research, it was found that bilingual students use language learning strategies in foreign language learning process more than monolingual students. Furthermore, it was found that university students use language learning strategies at middle level; students mostly use metacognitive strategies and use affective strategies the least; female students use language learning strategies more than male students except cognitive and affective strategies; English language and literature and English language teaching department students use language learning strategies more than department of translation students; 4 years faculty students use language learning strategies more than vocational school students

Sonographically Diagnosed Vault Hematomas Following Vaginal Hysterectomy and Its Correlation with Postoperative Morbidity

Objective. Our aim is to investigate sonographically detectable vault hematomas after vaginal hysterectomy and its relation to postoperative morbidity. Methods. We studied a group of 103 women who had undergone vaginal hysterectomy for benign causes apart from uterovaginal prolapse. Transabdominal ultrasound examinations were carried out 24 to 72 hours after surgery to assess the presence of vault hematomas. Ultrasound findings were correlated with clinical data and postoperative morbidity. Results. The incidence of vault hematoma was found 19.4% in present study. In these patients, 40% (8/20) had fever while only 2.4% (2/83) of cases without vault hematoma suffered from fever. Out of all women having vault hematoma, 70% (14/20) had small-sized hematoma and 30% (6/20) had large-sized hematoma. Fifty percent of patients (3/6) with large-sized hematoma, as compared to only 35% (5/14) with small-sized hematoma, suffered from febrile morbidity. Large-sized hematomas drained by vaginally, while all small-sized pelvic hematomas managed by watchful expectancy successfully. The significant difference was found mean hemoglobin drop and postoperative stay in the hematoma group or without hematoma group. Conclusion. Sonographic detection of vaginal vault fluid collection is common after hysterectomy, but such a finding rarely indicates additional treatment. Though febrile morbidity was more in cases with vault hematoma, the number of such patients was too small to be significant. Vaginal ultrasound examination should not be performed routinely after hysterectomy

Beating ISIS in the Digital Space: Focus Testing ISIS Defector Counter-Narrative Videos with American College Students

ISIS recruits on a 24/7 basis in over 21 languages over the Internet using videos, memes, tweets and other social media postings and swarming in on anyone that retweets, likes or endorses their materials to try to seduce them into the group.  Their unprecedented social media drive has resulted in over 30,000 foreign fighters from more than 100 countries migrating to Syria and Iraq.  ISIS recruitment in the U.S. is for the most part Internet based and has resulted in the actual and attempted recruitment of over 100 individuals residing in the U.S. with over 200 Americans traveling to Syria to join terrorist groups.  To date very little counter-narrative material exists and most of it is cognitive versus emotionally impactful.  The International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) Breaking the ISIS Brand – the ISIS Defectors Interviews Project has managed to collect 43 ISIS defector interviews and thus far produce two video clips of ISIS defectors denouncing the group which were focus tested in this research in a small normative college student sample of 75 undergraduate students.  The results demonstrate that American college students find the videos authentic, disturbing and turn them away from ISIS, fulfilling the goals that the project is aiming for in producing counter-narrative materials

Pairing-based Accountable Subgroup Multi-signatures with Verifiable Group Setup

An accountable subgroup multi-signature is a kind of multi-signature scheme in which any subgroup $\mathcal{S}$ of a group $\mathcal{G}$ of potential signers jointly sign a message $m$, ensuring that each member of $\mathcal{S}$ is accountable for the resulting signature. In this paper, we propose three novel pairing-based accountable subgroup multi-signature (ASM) schemes, which are secure against existential forgery under chosen-message attacks and computational co-Diffie-Hellman assumption. In the first one, we use Feldman’s verifiable secret sharing scheme as an implicit authentication and proof-of-possession for setting up group $\mathcal{G}$. In the second one, the members participating in authentication are decided by the subgroup. In the third one, we consider a designated combiner managing the authentication process. All schemes we propose here require fewer computations in the signature generation, signature aggregation, and verification phases than the pairing-based ASM scheme proposed by Boneh, Drijvers, and Neven. Moreover, our first and third ones solve the open problem of constructing an ASM scheme in which the subgroup $\mathcal{S}$ of signers is unknown before the signature generation. Besides, we give a method of eliminating the combiner in case of knowing the subgroup of signers $\mathcal{S}$ in advance. Further, we extend our proposed schemes to aggregated versions. For $N$ accountable subgroup multi-signatures, aggregated versions of our proposed schemes output an aggregated signature with the size of a single group ($\mathbb{G}_1$) element and require $N + 1$ pairings in aggregated signature verification. In contrast, the partially aggregated ASM scheme of Boneh, Drijvers, and Neven gives an aggregated signature with the size of $N + 1$ group elements and requires $2N + 1$ pairings in aggregated signature verification

Compartment-based and Hierarchical Threshold Delegated Verifiable Accountable Subgroup Multi-signatures

In this paper, we study the compartment-based and hierarchical delegation of signing power of the verifiable accountable subgroup multi-signature (vASM). ASM is a multi-signature in which the participants are accountable for the resulting signature, and the number of participants is not fixed. After Micali et al.’s and Boneh et al.’s ASM schemes, the verifiable-ASM (vASM) scheme with a verifiable group setup and more efficient verification phase was proposed recently. The verifiable group setup in vASM verifies the participants at the group setup phase. In this work, we show that the vASM scheme can also be considered as a proxy signature in which an authorized user (original signer, designator) delegates her signing rights to a single (or a group of) unauthorized user(s) (proxy signer). Namely, we propose four new constructions with the properties and functionalities of an ideal proxy signature and a compartment-based/hierarchical structure. In the first construction, we apply the vASM scheme recursively; in the second one, we use Shamir’s secret sharing (SSS) scheme; in the third construction, we use SSS again but in a nested fashion. In the last one, we use the hierarchical threshold secret sharing (HTSS) scheme for delegation. Then, we show the affiliation of our constructions to proxy signatures and compare our constructions with each other in terms of efficiency and security. Finally we compare the vASM scheme with the existing pairing-based proxy signature schemes

A Lattice-based Accountable Subgroup Multi-signature Scheme with Verifiable Group Setup

An accountable subgroup multi-signature (ASM) is a multi-signature that allows any subgroup of potential signers to jointly sign a message such that the subgroup of co-signers are accountable for the resulting signature and their identities are identifiable to any verifier. In this paper, we pro- pose a novel lattice-based accountable subgroup multi-signature scheme, i.e., vMS2, by combining the group setup method of recently proposed vASM scheme and Damgard et al.’s lattice-based MS2 multi-signature scheme. Key generation, signature generation and verification phases of our proposed scheme are almost identical to the MS2 scheme. In the group setup phase, we generate membership keys which is used for signing a message on behalf of a group G of users. These membership keys are generated via a joint verifiable secret sharing (VSS) scheme in a way that they include a piece of information from the secret keys of all users in G so that any subgroup of users in G having a valid membership key can sign in an accountable fashion. We also present a comparison of the underlying MS2 scheme and our accountable subgroup multi-signature scheme vMS2 to show the cost of accountability. We see that lattice-based accountable subgroup multi-signature scheme can be achieved by adding a one-time one-round group setup whose cost is slightly higher than signature generation and verification of the underlying MS2 signature scheme

ANOT TARAFI ELEKTROSPİN METODU İLE YSZ+SDC+NaCaNiBO İLE KAPLANMIŞ PEM YAKIT HÜCRESİNİN PERFORMANSININ DENEYSEL OLARAK İNCELENMESİ

Bu çalışmada, PEM yakıt hücresinin anot tarafı elektrospin yöntemi ile YSZ+SDC+NaCaNiBO ile kaplanmış ve  PEM yakıt hücresinin performansı deneysel olarak incelenmiştir. 0,1 gr YSZ; 0,1 gr SDC ; 0,1gr NaCaNiBO; 10 mL methanol ile bir solüsyon hazırlanmıştır. Bu solüsyondan alınarak elektrospin şırıngasına konulmuş ve elektrospin metodu ile PEM yakıt hücresinin hidrojen tarafı kaplanmıştır. Elektrospin yönteminde 15kV güç kullanılmıştır. Kaplama sonrası membranın kuruması için 24 saat bekletilmiştir. Deneylerde, kaplama öncesi ve kaplama sonrası akım yoğunluğu, gerilim yoğunluğu ve güç yoğunluğu performansları kaydedilmiş ve birbiri ile mukayese edilmiştir. PEM yakıt hücresi YSZ+SDC+NaCaNiBO ile kaplandığında, çalışma süresinde artış olduğu tespit edilmiştir

Monocyte-to-HDL-cholesterol ratio is associated with Ascending Aorta Dilatation in Patients with Bicuspid Aortic Valve

Background: The importance of monocyte count-to-HDL-cholesterol ratio (MHR) in cardio- vascular diseases has been shown in various studies. Ascending aortic dilatation (AAD) is a common complication in the patients with bicuspid aortic valve. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between MHR and the presence of aortic dilatation in the patients with bicuspid aortic valve. Methods: The study population included totally 347 patients with bicuspid aortic valve.169 patients with aortic dilatation (ascending aorta diameter 65 4.0 cm) and 178 patients with no aortic dilatation. Echocardiographic and laboratory measurement was done and compared between groups. Results: The mean age of the participants was 44.7 \ub1 15.4 years and average ascending aorta diameter was 3.2 \ub1 0.3 cm in dilatation negative group and 4.4 \ub1 0.4 cm in positive group. MHR was significantly increased in in patients with aortic dilatation. MHR and uric acid level was independently associated with the presence of aortic dilatation in the patients with bicuspid aortic valve. Conclusion: We found a significant relationship between MHR and aortic dilatation in the patients with bicuspid aortic valve