The origins of Turkish Gothic:the adaptations of Stoker’s Dracula in Turkish literature and film

The adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) in Turkish literature and film are relatively unknown by Western academia and have been poorly discussed by Turkish critics and scholars on the grounds of being superficial copies of the original. However, they have great importance not only for Turkish Horror studies but also for recently formed Globalgothic studies. In 1928, a novel named Vlad the Impaler was published in Ottoman Turkish by Ali Rıza Seyfi, a historian and a poet from newly founded Republic of Turkey. As the novel’s name suggests, Seyfi uses the historical character known as Vlad Tepes and his connection to Turkish history, which dates back to the Ottoman Empire period. However, Seyfi’s novel was an adaptation of Stoker’s Dracula with engaging modifications. A quarter-century later, this adaptation was adapted into film under the name of Dracula in Istanbul (1953) which became the first Horror film to survive in Turkish cinema history and the first Dracula adaptation made by a Muslim country. Contrary to popular opinion in Western academia, the film is also the first adaptation in which Count Dracula’s fangs are seen. This article provides close readings of both adaptations by focusing on representations of Turkish national identity in particular. Considering both Gothic criticism and adaptation theories, I argue that these works lay the foundations of Turkish Gothic, a genre which has not yet been canonised in Turkish studies, and that they serve as a first step towards a Turkish contribution to Globalgothic studies

The Horror in the Making: A Feminist Film Theory and Ecomedia Studies Approach to Hereditary and Midsommar

Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019) serve as unique and illuminating entry points into a discussion of how to take up both textual analysis of film and production studies through an attention to the material highlighted in both narrative and trade publication interviews. I intend to apply a materialist reading to these texts as well as to specifics surrounding the production of the set and cinematographic choices outlined in interviews with the director, director of photography (DP) and art director. I will discuss how attention to the material reveal critical links between film production, representation of women, and the merchandizing across the two films. By pulling back the curtain, through readings of the films as ecohorror text and by reading between production and narrative, we get a dual sense of horror: one that comes with viewing, and one that comes with seeing in material intensity of production

KAIME : Central Bank Digital Currency with Realistic and Modular Privacy

Recently, with the increasing interest in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), many countries have been working on researching and developing digital currency. The most important reasons for this interest are that CBDC eliminates the disadvantages of traditional currencies and provides a safer, faster, and more efficient payment system. These benefits also come with challenges, such as safeguarding individuals’ privacy and ensuring regulatory mechanisms. While most researches address the privacy conflict between users and regulatory agencies, they miss an important detail. Important parts of a financial system are banks and financial institutions. Some studies ignore the need for privacy and include these institutions in the CBDC system, no system currently offers a solution to the privacy conflict between banks, financial institutions, and users. In this study, while we offer a solution to the privacy conflict between the user and the regulatory agencies, we also provide a solution to the privacy conflict between the user and the banks. Our solution, KAIME has also a modular structure. The privacy of the sender and receiver can be hidden if desired. Compared to previous related research, security analysis and implementation of KAIME is substantially simpler because simple and well-known cryptographic methods are used

Early College, Early Success: Early College High School Initiative Impact Study

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the ECHSI with the primary goal of increasing the opportunity for underserved students to earn a postsecondary credential. To achieve this goal, Early Colleges provide underserved students with exposure to, and support in, college while they are in high school. Early Colleges partner with colleges and universities to offer all students an opportunity to earn an associate's degree or up to two years of college credits toward a bachelor's degree during high school at no or low cost to the students. The underlying assumption is that engaging underrepresented students in a rigorous high school curriculum tied to the incentive of earning college credit will motivate them and increase their access to additional postsecondary education and credentials after high school. Since 2002, more than 240 Early Colleges have opened nationwideThis study focused on the impact of Early Colleges. It addressed two questions:1. Do Early College students have better outcomes than they would have had at other high schools?2. Does the impact of Early Colleges vary by student background characteristics (e.g., gender and family income)? To answer these questions, we conducted a lottery-based randomized experiment, taking advantage of the fact that some Early Colleges used lotteries in their admissions processes. By comparing the outcomes for students who participated in admissions lotteries and were offered enrollment with the outcomes for students who participated in the lotteries but were not offered enrollment, we can draw causal conclusions about the impact of Early Colleges.The primary student outcomes for this study were high school graduation, college enrollment, and college degree attainment. We also examined students' high school and college experiences. Data on student background characteristics and high school outcomes came from administrative records from schools, districts, and states; data on collegeoutcomes came from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC); and data on high school and college experiences and intermediate outcomes such as college credit accrual camefrom a student surveyWe assessed the impact of Early Colleges on these outcomes for a sample of 10 Early Colleges that did the following:-Enrolled students in grades 9 -- 12 and had high school graduates in the study years (2005 -- 2011)-Used lotteries as part of the admission processes in at least one of the study cohorts (students who entered ninth grade in 2005 -- 06, 2006 -- 07, or 2007 -- 08)-Retained the lottery recordsEight of the 10 Early Colleges in the study were included in the student survey. The overall study sample included 2,458 students and the survey sample included 1,294 students. The study extended through three years past high school