Islamic modernity and the Re-enchanting power of symbols In Islamic fantasy serials in Turkey

throughout the Turkish modernization experience, one thing has remained the same: modernization has been defined with reference to the West. This frame of reference has either taken the form of admiration or distaste. Modern Turkey has been seeking the affirmative gaze of the West: whenever a major event, disaster, or success takes place in Turkey, newspapers devote a section to its echoes in Europe. This can concern a sports event, such as a football match, a natural catastrophe, or a social and political disaster, such as the assassination of a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, Hrant Dink. If the European gaze approves of Turkish behavior, Turks are supposed to be proud. If poor infrastructure or corruption leads to a catastrophic end, newspaper headlines mourn that Turkey has been disgraced in the eyes of Europe. I remember writing an essay at the age of eight on the comments published in the international press following the death of the founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Even in the realm of political history, the European opinion on Turkey is important. In the writings of the late Ottoman intellectuals, such as Ahmed Midhat or Mahmud Esat, there was either a fear of "the corrupt aspects of European civilization" or an admiration for the "spiritual aspects of Western civilization" (Berkes 1964, 285, 287). Ziya Gökalp combined the two approaches and argued that civilization is a transferable intergroup achievement, whereas culture is specific to specifi c national groups (in Berkes 1936, 243). According to Gökalp, it was legitimate to borrow from European civilization, as long as the authentic Ottoman culture was preserved. With first the establishment of the republic in 1923, and then subsequent steps designed to make Turkey a Western-style state and society, it was already apparent that Turkey opted for the West. Yet the Turkish Republic would continue to rely on symbols as the sole measure of change. In the course of the modernization process, "secularism à la turca" emerged. Instead of withdrawing from religious affairs, the state put all religious activities under direct control. In 1924, the Directorate of Religious Affairs was established as a state branch. Currently, this institution is responsible for "regulating all work related to the practice of Islam, managing the conduct of places of worship, and enlightening society about the issue of religion."1 In 1928, the constitutional article proclaiming Islam the official religion was annulled, and in 1937, the concept of secularism was incorporated into the constitution (Sakallioǧlu 1996, 234). As a result of this control over religion, two kinds of religious "reality" coexist in Turkey. On the one hand, there is the state, which, in theory, controls the religious behavior of people. On the other hand, in everyday life Islam constitutes an integral element of daily cultural practice-which does not always correspond to a fundamentalist mode of existence. While the state has mobilized certain symbols for its nation-building project and the republican cause, it has also tended to ignore or undermine the symbols that belong to the Ottoman past and traditional Islamic society. Whenever religious symbols become contentious, and gain "political" meaning, the state has shown itself to be alarmed that its own symbols and goals are threatened. The headscarf issue has been one of the most notorious cases. Trouble began in 1969, when a student who wanted to wear her headscarf during lectures was expelled from university. The Council for Higher Education (Yükseköǧretim Kurumu [YÖK]), banned the headscarf in universities in 1982. The Council lifted this ban in 1984. The headscarf was again banned in 1987, only to be officially allowed in 1990. In 1997, students with headscarves were banished once more.2 On February 2008, the president of the republic, Abdullah Gül, approved a constitutional change allowing the headscarf in universities. Still, the legal status of the headscarf remains undecided. Space is another tool used by the state for its nation-building goals. The new capital, Ankara, was established as the republican center and rebuilt in accordance with the new republic's political agenda. The streets of Ankara were named after the republican elite and in accordance with nationalist concepts. Scenes from the Independence War of 1919- 1922 were kept alive by the various monuments erected all over the city. Ankara was regarded as a blank canvas where the new Turkish state could paint its history and construct its future. Istanbul, on the contrary, was ignored during these early years because it was considered a symbol of the unfavorable and preferably distant imperial past. However, in 1994 Istanbul reentered the clash of symbols through the May 29 celebrations commemorating the five hundredth anniversary of Istanbul's conquest by the Ottomans. Istanbul was appropriated by the Islamist majority and presented as one of the central constituents of Islamic culture (Çinar 2001, 383). The celebrations began after the election of the Islamist city administration from the Refah Partisi (Welfare Party) in 1994. Prayers followed theatrical demonstrations of Istanbul's conquest (Çinar 2001, 366). As the case of the headscarf and the existence of state institutions such as the Directorate of Religious Affairs clearly demonstrate, state behavior in the realm of religion can be defi ned as a regulation of practices and the control exercised over symbols. Yet the state has not always been successful in eradicating traditional symbols and replacing them with its own. The headscarf ban in the public sphere did not result in a decrease in the number of women wearing headscarves. On the contrary, the fashion industry created new styles of headscarves for women, using lively colors and designs, with the result that the headscarf became even more visible. Just like colorful headscarves have become favorite with the new Islamic classes in the cities, authentic Islamic television series have underlain the presence and popularity of Islamic television channels. Television serials form a very important part of entertainment on the screen, and more than a hundred serials are produced per annum. Some of them become popular, whereas those lacking such popularity are often discontinued after a few episodes. During the last eight years, serials promoting an Islamist morality have been among the most popular programs on Turkish television. Islamist channels produce a kind of fantasy serials deeply influenced by some Western productions, although they give an Islamic interpretation of the originals. These fantasy serials adopt magical plots such as time travel, angels disguised as ordinary people, and appearing or disappearing objects and people. Several serials are set in the afterlife, from which the main character looks back on his or her life on earth. The producers refrain from naming a specific genre for these serials, and simply say that "these are original formats never tried before."3 However, I will refer to them as fantasy serials, because of the many magical and supernatural events that occur in them. This chapter focuses on popular fantasy television serials produced by Islamic channels, in particular STV (Samanyolu TV). I explore plots and narrative styles, as well as the various meanings of the symbols that are used. Although the serials are apparently concerned with spreading Islamic morality, the question remains why they use "original formats never tried before" instead of the documentary genre. Also, is there really a contradiction involved in the Islamist adoption of Western genres and the reproduction of Western serials in terms of their own concepts? And what does this choice tell us about Turkish modernity in particular? For some time now, variations of the original format have been produced by almost all secular and Islamist channels. The serials have been designed to appeal to both types of audience, and their popularity provides a good opportunity to take a fresh look at the labels "secularist" and "Islamist" in the Turkish context. Islam, or Islamist, channels will not be treated as an isolated object of study, but as one of the constituent elements of contemporary Turkish political culture. Thus, one can investigate how the Islamic moral message delivered through TV serials and the idea of reproducing Western serials come together and, in this case, why the labels "Islamist" and "secular" do not have to be mutually exclusive. In order to deal with these questions, the place Islam presently occupies in Turkish television will be studied. The Islamist channels broadcasting the serials will be introduced. Next, the fantasy serials will be explored by means of different examples, and an analysis of their plots and characters will be given. Different variations of the original serials will be described. Although the examples will mostly concern Islamist programs, their secular counterparts- which are not produced anymore-will also be mentioned, so as to compare secular and Islamist versions. In the fi nal section, the concept of reenchantment will be suggested as an alternative framework for studying the emergence and popularity of fantasy television serials. Also, an interpretation of Turkish modernity will be offered. Copyright © 2011 by University of Texas Press. All rights reserved

Malicious relay node detection with unsupervised learning in amplify-forward cooperative networks

This paper presents malicious relay node detection in a cooperative network using unsupervised learning based on the received signal samples over the source to destination (S-D) link at the destination node. We consider the situations in which possible maliciousness of the relay is the regenerative, injection or garbling type attacks over the source signal according to attack modeling in the communication. The proposed approach here for such an attack detection problem is to apply unsupervised machine learning using one-class classifier (OCC) algorithms. Among the algorithms compared, One-Class Support Vector Machines (OSVM) with kernel radial basis function (RBF) has the largest accuracy performance in detecting malicious node attacks with certain types and also detect trustable relay by using specific features of the symbol constellation of the received signal. Results show that we can achieve detection accuracy about 99% with SVM-RBF and k-NN learning algorithms for garbling type relay attacks. The results also encourage that OCC algorithms considered in this study with different feature selections could be effective in detecting other types of relay attacks

Rethinking Russian pan-Slavism in the Ottoman Balkans: N.P. Ignatiev and the Slavic Benevolent Committee (1856–77)

In the mid-nineteenth century pan-Slavic ideology was evident at two levels: at the personal level in N.P. Ignatiev's diplomacy, and at the institutional level in the Slavic Benevolent Committee's activities. Both served to spread Russian influence among the Slavic Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Sultan. The Russian Archives contain a wealth of material related to the Slavic Benevolent Committee and Ambassador N.P. Ignatiev's activities concerning Russia's Balkan policy. The memoirs of the Russian and Ottoman bureaucratic elites also offer great detail on the subject. Relying upon these archival sources and memoirs, this article aims to discuss the transformation of pan-Slavic ideology from a cultural organization into a Russian political asset, with special attention to N.P. Ignatiev and the Slavic Benevolent Committee. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

M1 ve M2 aydınlatma sınıfı yollar için geliştirilen bir COB LED'li yol aydınlatma armatür modelinin optik tasarımı

In this study, the optical design and analysis of a road lighting fixture model with COB LED suitable for M1 and M2 lighting class roads was carried out. In the design phase, Cree-XLamp-CXA1830 LED was preferred as the light source. The 3D solid model of the concave-convex spherical lens compatible with the selected COB LED was modeled and simulated by Zemax optical design software and created in SolidWorks 3D design software. The COB LED and lens distance are optimized in LightTools lighting design software using the Monte Carlo ray tracing method (Monte Carlo Ray-Tracing Method). Light distribution curves and photometric data files (IES, LDT) were obtained by performing simulation studies for COB LED modules and fixture models with 20-module COB LEDs through LightTools software. Using the obtained photometric data files, lighting analysis was performed for M1 and M2 class road conditions by means of DIALux lighting calculation and simulation software. The suitability of the luminaire models was evaluated by comparing the road lighting parameters obtained from the DIALux analysis with the road lighting criteria accepted by the International Lighting Organization (CIE). In this study, it has been observed that the designed COB LED luminaire model meets the M1 and M2 class road lighting criteria defined by CIE. In the study, the optical design phase of a original and highly efficient luminaire model with COB LED in accordance with M1 and M2 road lighting class criteria has been successfully completed.Bu çalışmada M1 ve M2 aydınlatma sınıfı yollar için uygun bir COB LED (Chip on Board)’li yol aydınlatma armatür modelinin optik tasarımı ve analizi gerçekleştirilmiştir. Tasarım aşamasında, ışık kaynağı olarak Cree-XLamp-CXA1830 LED tercih edilmiştir. Seçilen COB LED ile uyumlu konkav-konveks küresel lensin 3D katı modeli, Zemax optik tasarım yazılımı vasıtasıyla modellenerek simüle edilmiş ve SolidWorks 3D tasarım yazılımında oluşturulmuştur. COB LED ve lens mesafesi Monte Carlo ışın izleme yöntemi (Monte Carlo Ray-Tracing Method) ile LightTools aydınlatma tasarımı yazılımı kullanılarak optimize edilmiştir. LightTools yazılımı vasıtasıyla, COB LED modülleri ve 20 modüllü COB LED’li armatür modelleri için simülasyon çalışmaları gerçekleştirilerek, ışık dağılım eğrileri ve fotometrik veri dosyaları (IES, LDT) elde edilmiştir. Elde edilen fotometrik veri dosyaları kullanılarak, DIALux aydınlatma hesap ve simülasyon yazılımı vasıtasıyla, M1 ve M2 sınıfı yol şartları için aydınlatma analizi gerçekleştirilmiştir. DIALux analizinden elde edilen yol aydınlatma parametreleri Uluslar Arası Aydınlatma Örgütünün (CIE) kabul ettiği yol aydınlatma kriterleri ile karşılaştırılarak armatür modellerinin uygunluğu değerlendirilmiştir. Bu çalışmada tasarımı yapılan COB LED’li armatür modelinin CIE tarafından tanımlanan M1 ve M2 sınıfı yol aydınlatma kriterlerini sağladığı görülmüştür. Çalışmada ayrıca, M1 ve M2 yol aydınlatma sınıfı kriterlerine uygun COB LED’li, özgün ve yüksek verimli bir armatür modelinin optik tasarım aşaması başarıyla tamamlanmıştır

Thermal degradation of polythiophene-natural rubber and polythiophene-synthetic rubber conducting polymer composites

Thermal degradation of conducting polymer composites of polythiophene and rubbers was studied by direct and indirect pyrolysis mass spectrometry techniques. The samples were prepared by electrooxidation of polythiophene using natural rubber or synthetic rubber as the insulating matrix. Presence of decomposition products which were not observed during pyrolysis of pure polythiophene and rubbers, and disappearance of rubber-based pyrolysis mass peaks, together with changes in thermal stability and behaviour, may directly be related to a chemical interaction between the components of the composites. The pyrolysis data were used to propose possible polymerization and degradation mechanisms. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd

Solar pond powered liquid desiccant evaporative cooling

Liquid desiccant cooling systems (LDCS) are energy efficient means of providing cooling, especially when powered by low-grade thermal sources. In this paper, the underlying principles of operation of desiccant cooling systems are examined, and the main components (dehumidifier, evaporative cooler and regenerator) of the LDCS are reviewed. The evaporative cooler can take the form of direct, indirect or semi-indirect. Relative to the direct type, the indirect type is generally less effective. Nonetheless, a certain variant of the indirect type - namely dew-point evaporative cooler - is found to be the most effective amongst all. The dehumidifier and the regenerator can be of the same type of equipment: packed tower and falling film are popular choices, especially when fitted with an internal heat exchanger. The energy requirement of the regenerator can be supplied from solar thermal collectors, of which a solar pond is an interesting option especially when a large scale or storage capability is desired

Investigations of the Mars Upper Atmosphere with ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter

The Martian mesosphere and thermosphere, the region above about 60 km, is not the primary target of the ExoMars 2016 mission but its Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) can explore it and address many interesting issues, either in-situ during the aerobraking period or remotely during the regular mission. In the aerobraking phase TGO peeks into thermospheric densities and temperatures, in a broad range of latitudes and during a long continuous period. TGO carries two instruments designed for the detection of trace species, NOMAD and ACS, which will use the solar occultation technique. Their regular sounding at the terminator up to very high altitudes in many different molecular bands will represent the first time that an extensive and precise dataset of densities and hopefully temperatures are obtained at those altitudes and local times on Mars. But there are additional capabilities in TGO for studying the upper atmosphere of Mars, and we review them briefly. Our simulations suggest that airglow emissions from the UV to the IR might be observed outside the terminator. If eventually confirmed from orbit, they would supply new information about atmospheric dynamics and variability. However, their optimal exploitation requires a special spacecraft pointing, currently not considered in the regular operations but feasible in our opinion. We discuss the synergy between the TGO instruments, specially the wide spectral range achieved by combining them. We also encourage coordinated operations with other Mars-observing missions capable of supplying simultaneous measurements of its upper atmosphere

Analysis of the reaction Q -value effect using newly evaluated empirical formulas of (n, 2 n) cross-sections near 14.6 MeV

Empirical formulas in determining the cross-sections play an important role at the energies of which there are no experimental data scattered about. The purpose of the present communication is to further improve the formulas of the cross-section of (n, 2n) reactions at the energies near 14.6MeV. A systematics for the evaluation of these cross-sections is studied. We present the empirical formulas based on the statistical theory of nuclear reactions in connection with the compound nucleus. The new empirical formulas are found by using the experimental cross-sections as a function of the reaction Q-value. Thus, the new formulas provide the best description of the existing measured data compared with systematics suggested earlier by other authors

Theoretical predictions of excitation functions of neutron-Induced reactions on Li-6, Be-9, C-12 and Na-23 nuclei at low energies

WOS: 000350887400023In the present work, the excitation functions of neutron reactions Li-6(n,p)He-6, Be-9(n,alpha)He-6, C-12(n,p)B-12, C-12(n,alpha)Be-9, Na-23(n,p)Ne-23, Na-23(n,2n)Na-22 and Na-23(n,alpha)F-20 produced by the incident neutrons were studied for the investigation of fusion structural materials. Tel et al. formulae (for sodium isotopes), the codes ALICE-ASH and CEM03.01 (for all nuclei) were employed for the obtaining of cross-sections. In addition, hybrid model and geometry-dependent hybrid model with pre-equilibrium emissions, and Weisskopf Ewing model with the equilibrium emissions, and the cascade-exciton model with cascade interactions were used to calculate the excitations curves. The obtained results and Tendl-2011 library data were compared with the experimental literature values. Finally it is to mention that the cross-section data obtained may be useful for the safety design of future fusion reactors