CHINA’S GROWING ROLE IN REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS: Application of institutional realism to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

Abstract: China’s ever growing importance in world affairs and politics has not gone by unnoticed. However, conventional IR theories fail to explain how the emerging superpower has been expanding its role in regional institutions. The rather novel theory of scholar Kai He of institutional realism will be applied to China’s involvement in the formation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). His theory combines traditional neorealism with elements of the neoliberal interdependence theory in an attempt to provide a holistic approach to the PRC’s foreign policy decisions. 

Reliable multi-hop routing with cooperative transmissions in energy-constrained networks

We present a novel approach in characterizing the optimal reliable multi-hop virtual multiple-input single-output (vMISO) routing in ad hoc networks. Under a high node density regime, we determine the optimal cardinality of the cooperation sets at each hop on a path minimizing the total energy cost per transmitted bit. Optimal cooperating set cardinality curves are derived, and they can be used to determine the optimal routing strategy based on the required reliability, transmission power, and path loss coefficient. We design a new greedy geographical routing algorithm suitable for vMISO transmissions, and demonstrate the applicability of our results for more general networks

Based on a true story : "The Gezi Film Poster Series" and the role of narrative in cultural history

textFocusing on a series of hypothetical film posters titled the "Gezi Movie Theatre Poster Series," commissioned by Istanbul's independent magazine Bant Mag, this thesis is a multi-methodological, exploratory case study utilizing ethnographic methods, as well as visual, textual, and document analysis. The posters within this series narrativize and encapsulate instances that took shape on the ground during the Gezi protests in Turkey in the Summer of 2013. Embodying the confluence of larger contextual events through the micro-lens of a singular organization and cultural product, the series provides an instance in which key and complex factors regarding social structure, political activism, and cultural production come together in the form of visual narrative. This undertaken analysis seeks to bring together theoretical constructs of social structure, historicization, alternative media and cultural resistance, material culture, artistic creation, and the imaginary, and apply them, in order, to Turkey, Gezi, Bant Mag, and the posters themselves, in order to create an understanding of how they each play a role within the series and its archival formation. Utilizing a critical analytical framework by focusing on the series as art, artifact, and action, after firmly contextually situating the film poster series within Bant Mag's own organizational framework, internal discourse, and history as a magazine, zine, and online resource, this study hopes to demonstrate the affordances of art, imagination, and subjectivity in the creation, documentation, and conservation of historical micro-narratives.Radio-Television-Fil

On Security and Reliability using Cooperative Transmissions in Sensor Networks

Recent work on cooperative communications has demonstrated benefits in terms of improving the reliability of links through diversity and/or increasing the reach of a link compared to a single transmitter transmitting to a single receiver (single-input single-output or SISO). In one form of cooperative transmissions, multiple nodes can act as virtual antenna elements and provide such benefits using space-time coding. In a multi-hop sensor network, a source node can make use of its neighbors as relays with itself to reach an intermediate node, which will use its neighbors and so on to reach the destination. For the same reliability of a link as SISO, the number of hops between a source and destination may be reduced using cooperative transmissions. However, the presence of malicious or compromised nodes in the network impacts the use of cooperative transmissions. Using more relays can increase the reach of a link, but if one or more relays are malicious, the transmission may fail. In this paper, we analyze this problem to understand the conditions under which cooperative transmissions may fare better or worse than SISO transmissions

On energy efficiency of routing with cooperative transmissions

Cooperative transmissions emulating multi-antenna systems may help reduce the total energy consumption in wireless networks. In this thesis, we define a virtual multiple-input single-output (vMISO) link to be established when a group of nodes (transmitters) jointly enable space-time communications with a single receiver. There has been plethora of research investigating physical layer issues of such systems; however, higher layer protocols that exploit vMISO links in ad hoc networks are still emerging. We present a novel approach in characterizing the optimal multi-hop vMISO routing in ad hoc networks. The key advantages of vMISO links that we exploit are the increase in transmission range and the decrease in the required transmission energy due to diversity gain. Specifically, under a high node density regime, we solve a nonlinear program that minimizes the total energy cost of reliable end-to-end transmissions by selecting the optimal cooperation set and the location of the next relay node at each hop. We characterize the optimal solution with respect to the reliability of the links, and for different fixed node transmission powers. Our results indicate that a multi-hop vMISO system is energy efficient only when a few nodes cooperate at each hop. We design a new greedy geographical vMISO routing protocol that is also suitable for sparse networks using the results determined under high node density regime. Also, we consider the network lifetime maximization problem in networks employing vMISO links. We formulated the network lifetime maximization with vMISO routing as a nonlinear program. Then, we presented a novel cooperation set selection and flow augmentation based routing heuristic that can significantly increase the network lifetime compared to Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) systems

On Security and reliability using cooperative transmissions in sensor networks

Cooperative transmissions have received recent attention and research papers have demonstrated their benefits for wireless networks. Such benefits include improving the reliability of links through diversity and/or increasing the reach of a link compared to a single transmitter transmitting to a single receiver (single-input single-output or SISO). In one form of cooperative transmissions, multiple nodes can act as virtual antenna elements and provide diversity gain or range improvement using space-time coding. In a multi-hop ad hoc or sensor network, a source node can make use of its neighbors as relays with itself to reach an intermediate node with greater reliability or at a larger distance than otherwise possible. The intermediate node will use its neighbors in a similar manner and this process continues till the destination is reached. Thus, for the same reliability of a link as SISO, the number of hops between a source and destination may be reduced using cooperative transmissions as each hop spans a larger distance. However, the presence of ma-licious or compromised nodes in the network impacts the benefits obtained with cooperative transmissions. Using more relays can increase the reach of a link, but if one or more relays are malicious, the transmission may fail. However, the relationships between the number of relays, the number of hops, and success probabilities are not trivial to determine. In this paper, we analyze this problem to understand the conditions under which cooperative transmissions fare better or worse than SISO transmissions. We take into consideration additional parameters such as the path-loss exponent and provide a framework that allows us to evaluate the conditions when cooperative transmissions are better than SISO transmissions. This analysis provides insights that can be employed before resorting to simulations or experimentation. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Joint Sensor Selection and Data Routing in Sensor Networks

We propose a new joint sensor selection and routing algorithm, which selects a set of sensor nodes (sensing nodes) in a sensor network to take measurements, and determines a set of paths connecting the sensing nodes to the sink node. Our objective is to maximize the network lifetime, while satisfying the data precision required by the user. We first develop a multi-objective optimization model for this problem and design the near-optimal OPT-RE algorithm based on this model for network lifetime maximization. Next, we design a low complexity heuristic called SP-RE. SP-RE first labels the links between the nodes with a metric which trades off the residual energies of the transmitting and receiving nodes with the required transmission and reception energy. Then, SP-RE calculates the shortest paths from all nodes to the sink, and identifies the node which is closest to the sink as a sensing node. This process is repeated until the required data precision is satisfied. We demonstrate by simulations that SP-RE and OPT-RE can increase the network lifetime several orders of magnitude compared to naive approaches

A Cooperative Approach to Lab-Based, Multi-Team Courses in an iSchool

The iSchool at the University of Pittsburgh has designed a new learning experience that will allow future leaders of the iProfession to gain critical skills and to experience working in culturally diverse teams. The iSchool has, as one of its mission-critical goals, to create learning experiences that imitate the collaborative nature of the information professions. To provide this opportunity and following the advice from industry experts, our iSchool redesigned the laboratory for teaching and learning computer networking topics to support hands-on lab experiences for students as well as the research activities of the iSchool faculty. However, it goes beyond mere workstations in a lab space – it is an experiment to create a multi-team environment that facilitates cooperative approaches to problem solving. It also requires the students to participate in self-directed learning. This poster presentation reports how the lab and accompanying courses were designed to address a key aspect in working in the information field – how to work as a team to solve a problem. Although the iSchool created this lab as part of its graduate program in Telecommunications, the pedagogical aspects of the lab and curriculum design would be applicable to any discipline within the information field

Wireless Information Systems in Support of Green iSchools

Becoming a green iSchool requires information infrastructure development. Wireless information systems are important for information infrastructure development. This paper assesses how wireless information systems can support creating green iSchools. Wireless information systems can be built from wireless networks such as Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs), and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Wireless networks can reduce the fossil fuel combustion from transportation while using fewer infrastructures than wired networks. A WSN can otherwise help increase energy efficiency for school buildings. With low cost energy efficient sensor nodes placing at multiple locations, data gathering can be more effective. And this in turn helps energy use in a school building be more efficient

How Do Operating Room Nurses Cope with Work-Related Tension and Stress?

Amaç: Ameliyathane hemşirelerinin iş ortamına bağlı gerginlik ve stresle baş etme durumlarınınincelenmesi amacıyla tanımlayıcı bir araştırma olarak yapılmıştır. Gereç ve Yöntemler:Çalışma, Ocak-Nisan 2014 tarihleri arasında, İstanbul İli Anadolu yakasında bulunan,ameliyat masası ve ameliyathane hemşiresi sayısı en yüksek dört olan kamu hastanesi ile dörtözel hastanede yürütülmüş olup, araştırmanın verileri Kişisel Özellikler Bilgi formu (KÖBF),Stresle Başa Çıkma Tarzları Ölçeği formu (SBTÖ), İşe Bağlı Gerginlik Ölçeği Formu (İBGÖ) kullanılaraktoplanmıştır. Çalışmanın örneklemini, çalışmaya katılmayı kabul eden 210 ameliyathanehemşiresi oluşturmuştur. Veri analizinde, IBM SPSS Statistics v24 programı kullanılarakyüzdelik dağılım, Pearson korelasyon analizi ve Independent Sample t-testleri kullanılmış vesonuçlar %95 güven aralığında, anlamlılık değeri p0,05 düzeyinde değerlendirilmiştir. Bulgular:Hemşirelerde işe bağlı gerginlik ve stresle baş etme tarzları alt faktörleri olan kendine güvenliyaklaşım (r-423), iyimser yaklaşım (r-213) ve sosyal destek arama yaklaşımı (r-,154)arasında anlamlı ve negatif bir ilişki bulunur iken; çaresiz yaklaşım (r,366) ve boyun eğici yaklaşım(r,209) arasında anlamlı pozitif ilişki saptanmıştır. İşe bağlı gerginlik artarken; kendinegüvenli yaklaşım, iyimser yaklaşım ve sosyal destek arama yaklaşımının azalmakta olduğu belirlenmiştir.Çalışma biçimleri ile işe bağlı gerginlik ve stresle baş etme arasında anlamlı bir ilişkibulunmuş olup, vardiya usulü çalışan hemşirelerin daha gergin oldukları ve “çaresiz yaklaşım”puanlarının daha yüksek olduğu saptanmıştır. Sonuç: Ameliyathane hemşirelerinin çalıştıklarıortamda daha kaliteli hizmet verebilmeleri için, çalışma koşullarının düzenlenmesi ve hizmet içieğitim programları ile stresle baş etme yollarının öğretilmesi ve psikolojik rehberlik hizmetlerininverilmesi önerilebilmektedir.Objective: This descriptive study aimed to investigate the effect of coping with workrelatedstrain and the ways of coping with stress among the operating room nurses. Material andMethods: The study was conducted between January 2014-April 2014 in four training-researchhospitals and four hospitals have the largest number of operating rooms and operating room nursesin İstanbul Anatolia. Data was collected using Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), WorkRelatedStrain Inventory (WRSI) and Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ). The sample included210 operating room nurses who accepted participating. Data were analyzed using the IBM SPSSStatistics for Windows v24. Findings evaluated according to a confidence interval of 95% and a significancelevel of p0.05 and presented as frequency and percentage values with Pearson’s correlationsanalysis and Independent Sample t-test. Results: It was noted that there was a significant andnegative correlation between self-confidence approach (r-423), optimistic approach (r-213) andseeking social support approach (r-.154) and a significant and positive correlation between escapeavoidanceapproach (r.366) and submissive approach (r.209). As the nurses’ work-related tensionincreases, self-confidence approach and optimistic approach decreases whereas submissiveapproach and seeking social support approach decreases. There was a significant relationship betweenworking styles and work-related tension and coping with stress. Nurses working in shiftmode were found to be more nervous and "helpless approach" scores were higher. Conclusion: It isadvisable to arrange working conditions and teach in-service training programs, ways to cope withstress, and provide psychological guidance services in order to make operating room nurses providea qualified service in their work environment