Russia\u27s Islam: Discourse on Identity, Politics, and Security

Despite the long history of Muslims in Russia, most scholarly and political literatures on Russia’s Islam still narrowly interpret Muslim-Slavs relations in an ethnic-religious oppositional framework. In my work, I examine Russia’s discourse on Islam to argue that, in fact, the role of Islam in post-Soviet Russia is complex. Drawing from direct sources from academic, state, journalistic, and underground circles, often neglected by Western commentators, I identify ideational patterns in conceptualizations of Islam and reconstruct relational networks among authors. To explain complex intertextual relations within specific contexts, I utilize an analytically eclectic method that appropriately combines theories from different paradigms and/or disciplines. Thanks to my multi-dimensional approach, I show that, contrary to traditional views, Russia’s Muslims participate in processes of post-Soviet Russia’s identity formation. Starting from textual contents, avoiding pre-formed analytical frames, I argue that many Muslims in Russia perceive themselves as part of Russian civilization – even when they challenge the status-quo. Building on my initial findings, I state that a key element in Russia’s conceptualization of Islam is the definition, elaborated in the 1990s, of traditional Islam as part of Russian civilizational history, as opposed to extremist Islam as extraneous, hostile phenomenon. The differentiation creates an unprecedently safe, if confined, space for Islamic propositions, of which Muslims are taking advantage. Embedded in debates on Russian civilization, conceptualizations of Islam, then, influence Russia’s (geo)political self-perceptions and, consequently, its domestic and international policies. In particular, Russian so-far neglected Islamic doctrine supports views of Islamic terrorism as a political and not religious phenomenon. Hence, Russia interprets both terrorism and counterterrorism within its own historical tradition, causing its strategy to be at odds with Western views. Less apparently, these divergences affect Russian-U.S. broader relations. Finally, in revealing the civilizational value of Russia’s Islam, I expose intellectual relations among influential subjects who share the aim to devise a new civilizational model that should combine Slavic and non-Slavic, Orthodox and Islamic, Western, and Asian components. In this old Russian dilemma, the novelty is Muslims’ participation

Social Intelligence: Diversity among Different Language Proficiency Levels

Language acquisition and social intelligence are generating considerable interest in terms of their vital applications in today’s modernized world. Research over the previous decades in the domain of second language learning has mainly focused on neurological and cognitive aspects of a bilingual mind and whether bilinguals outperform monolinguals in various linguistic facets. These studies failed to address possible interconnections between second language learning and intelligence. Likewise, social intelligence has rarely been discussed as a distinct phenomenon from emotional intelligence. With this in mind and the fact that our knowledge of possible interconnections between social intelligence and language proficiency level is largely based on very limited data, the current study attempted to explore the relationship between social intelligence and language proficiency level. Participants included a monolingual group comprising of 30 participants and three English proficiency groups of elementary and advanced, involving 30 subjects in each group. All participants responded to the Tromso Social Intelligence Scale questionnaire. The evidence from this study revealed significant differences concerning participants of the advanced proficiency group with respect to their social skill and social intelligence. Furthermore, a strong, positive correlation was shown only between the advanced and elementary groups regarding their social intelligence. Keywords: language proficiency level, Social intelligence

A new technique of producing sliver of Estabragh fibres

In order to produce a 100% Estabragh sliver, an experimental apparatus has been designed and assembled. The sliver of Estabragh fibres has been produced and the arrangement of fibres in the sliver is studied. The results show that the fibres are arranged approximately parallel in the sliver. The angle of 70% of fibres to the sliver axis is found to be less than 10°. The mean angle of Estabragh fibres is about 10.69° while that of viscose fibres on a traditional sliver is about 18.84 °.

The Molecular Basis of Resistance Antiretroviral Markers and Polymorphisms of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Subtype Crf01-ae Protease Gene in Naïve and Treatment Failure Patients in Bali

Application of antiretrovirals (ARVs) in patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection has proven to reduce mortality rates and prolong life expectancy. On the other hand, the use of antiretroviral drugs has incited the emergence of HIVDR. The resistance is due to mutation at genes associated with drug resistance. Nowadays, the determination of resistance markers mutations are based on HIV-1 subtype B. However, the majority of HIV in Indonesia, particularly in Bali are of subtype CRF01_AE. Genetic variation between HIV viruses has led to variations in subtypes; therefore, resistance markers of subtype B could be polymorphisms of non-B subtypes. This study aims to determine the number and types of the resistance markers mutations and polymorphisms that occur on the PR gene of HIV-1 subtype CRF01_AE of naïve and treatment failure patients in Bali. This is an observational cross-sectional analytical study, conducted at two VCT clinics in Denpasar, during the period of April 2010 until October 2011. Samples consist of 18 HIV patients with treatment failure and 30 naïve HIV patients. Mutations were evaluated using PCR, sequenced and aligned were carried out using MEGA4. Interpretations of the mutations were made based on the Stanford HIV database. Hypothesis tests used were Mann-Whitney because of abnormal distribution of data. Hypothesis was accepted if the significant level p<0.05. This study found that of the demographic data, only the predisposing factors of the two groups were significantly different (p<0.05). Two patients with treatment failure and 5 naïve patients were found to have L10LV/I mutations. Only one patient with treatment failure had the I54FI mutation. No major mutations were found among the two study groups. The number and types of minor mutations were not significantly different (p>0.05) between the naïve group and treatment failure group. M36I and H69K polymorphisms of the PR gene were found in all the study samples. In conclusion of this study, two types of major mutations were found, L10LV/I and I54FI. The number and types of the resistance markers mutations towards the protease inhibitor (PI) group were not significantly different between the two study groups. M36I, H69K mutations of the PR gene are markers of polymorphisms of HIV-1 subtype CRF01_AE

KONSEP BIOPHILIA DALAM PERANCANGAN INTERIOR KAMAR RAWAT INAP STUDI KASUS PUSKESMAS PASAR REBO

Health building design often prioritizes physical healing, but ignores the psychological aspect, such as one of them is the design of the inpatient room at the health center. The design of the puskesmas inpatient room generally makes patients feel uneasy and uncomfortable. The impression arising from the atmosphere of the health center, especially in the inpatient room, affects the psychological and physical condition of patients, especially during the healing period. Basically, humans have a tendency to always relate to nature which can have a positive impact on human physical and psychological conditions. This has led to the emergence of the biophilia design approach. Nature In The Space is one of the three categories of biophilia design principles that are considered to be appropriate if applied to the interior design of the puskesmas inpatient room, namely by integrating natural elements into the inpatient room building. With the application of this theme, it is hoped that the patient's anxiety about the health center can be reduced and can accelerate the patient's healing period from a psychological and physical perspective

KAJIAN EFISIENSI DESAIN SIRKULASI PADA FUNGSI PASAR DENGAN STUDI KASUS PASAR SERPONG, TANGERANG SELATAN

Sebagai salah satu pasar tradisional di kota Tangerang Selatan, Pasar Serpong juga dituntut mampu mempertahankan kualitasnya untuk memenuhi semua kebutuhan dan keinginan masyarakat di daerah Serpong, Tangerang Selatan. Penulis mengamati kecenderungan pemanfaatan ruang sirkulasi di pasar tradisional dilatarbelakangi oleh pentingnya kelangsungan operasional pasar itu sendiri. Sedangkan efektifitas ruang sirkulasi di pasar tersebut diperlukan untuk menjamin setiap ruang operasional pasar berjalan optimal. Perhatian penelitian ini dititik-beratkan pada bagaimana ruang sirkulasi Pasar Serpong dimanfaatkan sehingga bisa diterjemahkan menjadi rekomendasi perancangan pasar tradisional khususnya di daerah Tangerang, Bante

Yarn properties developments with diagonally slotted roller on ring spinning machine

To develop new ring spinning process, the diagonally slotted rollers (DSR) of various angles (15°, 30° and 45°) have been designed, manufactured and then fitted below and parallel to the top front draft rollers of a ring spinning frame. The yarn samples of 20 tex are produced in conventional ring spinning, Solo spinning and newly developed DSR spinning methodologies. In ring spinning process, the escaped fibre ends from the strand surface in the spinning triangle do not entangle with other fibres when the yarn is twisted and therefore they make the yarn hairs. In DSR rollers, the slot walls provide a condition to prevent escaping of fibre ends from the strand and keep the fibre ends on the strand surface in the twisting process. The experimental results show that the yarns produced with DSR roller of 30° slot angle (DSR30) have less S3 value of hairiness and a cleaner appearance than conventional ring-spun yarns. The hairiness of the yarns of DSR30 and Solo spinning processes do not have a statistically significant difference. Also, the improvement in ring-spun yarn tenacity and elongation is much larger for newly developed DSR spinning process in comparison with Solo spinning process. Consequently, it is concluded that the DSR spinning methodology improves the hairiness and mechanical properties of ring-spun yarns even more successfully in comparison with the Solo spinning method