Sectarian and ethnic ıdentity politics and conflicts in the middle east

06.03.2018 tarihli ve 30352 sayılı Resmi Gazetede yayımlanan “Yükseköğretim Kanunu İle Bazı Kanun Ve Kanun Hükmünde Kararnamelerde Değişiklik Yapılması Hakkında Kanun” ile 18.06.2018 tarihli “Lisansüstü Tezlerin Elektronik Ortamda Toplanması, Düzenlenmesi ve Erişime Açılmasına İlişkin Yönerge” gereğince tam metin erişime açılmıştır.Kimlik, günümüz Ortadoğu siyasetinde önemli bir role sahiptir. Irak, Suriye'den Yemen ve Bahreyn'e bölgesel daha küçük devletlerdeki veraset savaşları ve sivil çatışmalara dahi nüfuz eden, Sünni ve Şii İslam'ın siyasallaşmasının temsil ettiği Suudi -İran rekabetinin şemsiyesi altındaki mezhepçilik günümüzde çokça tartışılan kimlik çatışmalarının çok geniş bir biçimde tarif edilen bir biçimidir. Kimlik Çağdaş Ortadoğu'da çatışmaların özel bir özelliktir. Etkiledi ve hatta dikte vekil savaşlar ve Yemen ve Bahreyn için Irak, Suriye bölgesel küçük devletlerin sivil çatışmalar, yaygın bir biçimi olarak tanımlanır Sünni ve Şii İslam'ın siyasallaşmasına temsil Suudi-İran rekabeti çatısı altında mezhepçilik çoğunlukla kimlik çatışmaları bugün görüştü. Ortadoğu denilince akla gelen uzayıp giden Filistin-İsrail çatışması, farklı kimliklere sahip iki halkın çatışması olarak başladı. Benzer biçimde Kürt sorunu da etnik kimlik politikaları ve çatışmaları olarak karakterize olmuştur. Bu bağlamda, bu tez iki ana araştırma sorusu üzerinden harekete geçmiştir: Ortadoğu'da siyaset ve çatışmalarda etnik ve mezhepsel kimlikler ne rol oynamaktadır? ve etnik ve mezhepsel kimlik politikaları bölgedeki tüm savaşların siyasi süreçlerinde nasıl kullanılmaktadır? Ortadoğu'da çatışmalardaki kimlik politikaları üzerine yapılan literatürün büyük bir bölümü Ortadoğu tarihine kapsamlı ve açıklayıcı olması yanında, bölgesel istikrarsızlıkların kaynağında ve köklerindeki etnik ve mezhepsel kimliklerin olduğu mevcut koşulların üzerine veya ağırlıklı olarak güç mücadeleleri içinde aktörlerin kimlik politikalarını manipüle etmeleri üzerine odaklanmaktadır. Kimlik üzerine mevcut olan primordialism, araçsalcılık ve sosyal inşacılık olarak adlandırılan teorilerin bir sentezi olarak, bu çalışma mezhepsel ve etnik kimlik içinde - Ortadoğu toplumlarına ve bölgesel tarih boyunca kurulmuş içsel bir öz olarak - entegre bir teoritik model kurarak sadece politik süreçlerin üzerindeki muazzam etkisi ölçülemez, aynı zamanda politik uygulamalarda tüm düzeylerdeki siyasi aktörlerin kullanılmaları da karşılaştırılmıştır. Bu yaklaşım yukarıda sözü edilen bölgesel çatışmalara uygulanarak, bu tez uluslararası alanda etnik ve mezhepsel politikalar hakkında en hararetli tartışmalarından biri olarak Ortadoğu'da kimlik çatışmalarının arkasına sığındığı siyasi hedeflerin içyüzünü daha fazla anlayabilmek için bir çabadır.Identity is the special feature of conflicts in the contemporary Middle East. Sectarianism under the umbrella of the Saudi-Iran rivalry representing the politicization of Sunni and Shia Islam, which has influenced and even dictated proxy wars and civil conflicts in regional smaller states, from Iraq, Syria to Yemen and Bahrain, is widely defined as one form of mostly discussed identity conflicts today. The enduring Palestine – Israel conflict, which has been known as an integrated feature of the Middle East, started as a conflict of two peoples with distinct identities. Similarly, the Kurdish question characterizes ethnic identity politics and conflicts through the struggle of the largest people without a state in today's world map. In this context, this thesis is motivated by two main research questions: What role do ethnic and sectarian identities play in Middle East's politics and conflicts? And how ethnic and sectarian identity politics has been used in all political processes of regional wars? A major part of literature on identity politics in Middle East's conflicts has either provided a comprehensive and descriptive account of Middle East history as well as current conditions with ethnic and sectarian identities as roots and origins of regional instabilities, or focused mainly on the manipulation of identity politics by actors in their struggles for power. Synthesizing the theories on identity politics already in existence, namely primordialism, instrumentalism, and social constructionalism, this research constructed an integrated theoretical model in which sectarian and ethnic identity - one essence intrinsic to Middle East's societies and constructed alongside regional history – is not only measured by its tremendous influences on political processes; but also compared in the usage of political actors of all levels in political practices. Applying this approach to the foregoing regional conflicts, the thesis is an effort to offer more insights into ethnic and sectarian politics and the covert political goals behind identity conflicts in the Middle East that have been heatedly debated as one of the most severe global problems

Augmenting Land Cover/Land Use Classification by Incorporating Information from Land Surface Phenology: An Application to Quantify Recent Cropland Expansion in South Dakota

Understanding rapid land change in the U.S. NGP region is not only critical for management and conservation of prairie habitats and ecosystem services, but also for projecting production of crops and biofuels and the impacts of land conversion on water quality and rural transportation infrastructure. Hence, it raises the need for an LCLU dataset with good spatiotemporal coverage as well as consistent accuracy through time to enable change analysis. This dissertation aims (1) to develop a novel classification method, which utilizes time series images from comparable sensors, from the perspective of land surface phenology, and (2) to apply the land cover/land use dataset generated from the phenometrically-based classification approach to quantify crop expansion in South Dakota. A novel classification approach from the perspective of land surface phenology (LSP) uses rich time series datasets. First, surface reflectance products at 30 m spatial resolution from Landsat Collection-1, its newer structure—Landsat Analysis Ready Data, and the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) data are used to construct vegetation index time series, including the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and the 2-band EVI (EVI2), and various spectral variables (spectral band and normalized ratio composites). MODIS Level-3 Land Surface Temperature & Emissivity 8-day composite products at 1 km spatial resolution from both the Aqua and Terra satellites are used to compute accumulated growing degree-days (AGDD) time series. The EVI/EVI2 and AGDD time series are then fitted by two different land surface phenology models: the Convex Quadratic model and the Hybrid Piecewise Logistic Model. Suites of phenometrics are derived from the two LSP models and spectral variables and input to Random Forest Classifiers (RFC) to map land cover of sample areas in South Dakota. The results indicate that classifications using only phenometrics can accurately map major crops in the study area but show limited accuracy for non-vegetated land covers. RFC models using the combined spectralphenological variables can achieve higher accuracies than those using either spectral variables or phenometrics alone, especially for the barren/developed class. Among all sampling designs, the “same distribution” models—proportional distribution of the sample is like proportional distribution of the population—tends to yield best land cover prediction. A “same distribution” random sample dataset covering approximately 0.25% or more of the study area appears to achieve an accurate land cover map. To characterize crop expansion in South Dakota, a trajectory-based analysis, which considers the entire land cover dataset generated from the LSP-based classifications, is proposed to improve change detection. An estimated cropland expansion of 5,447 km2 (equivalent to 14% of the existing cropland area) occurred between 2007 and 2015, which matches more closely the reports from the National Agriculture Statistics Service—NASS (5,921 km2) and the National Resources Inventory—NRI (5,034 km2) than an estimation from a bi-temporal change approach (8,018 km2). Cropland gains were mostly concentrated in 10 counties in northern and central South Dakota. An evaluation of land suitability for crops using the Soil Survey Geographic Database—SSURGO indicates a scarcity in high-quality arable land available for cropland expansion

Reaching high accuracy for energetic properties at second-order perturbation cost by merging self-consistency and spin-opposite scaling

Quantum chemical methods dealing with challenging systems while retaining low computational costs have attracted attention. In particular, many efforts have been devoted to developing new methods based on the second-order perturbation that may be the simplest correlated method beyond Hartree-Fock. We have recently developed a self-consistent perturbation theory named one-body M{\o}ller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory (OBMP2) and shown that it can resolve issues caused by the non-iterative nature of standard perturbation theory. In the present work, we extend the method by introducing the spin-opposite scaling to the double-excitation amplitudes, resulting in the O2BMP2 method. We assess the O2BMP2 performance on the triple-bond N2 dissociation, singlet-triplet gaps, and ionization potentials. O2BMP2 performs much better than standard MP2 and reaches the accuracy of coupled-cluster methods in all cases considered in this work.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, 2 table

Understanding Hotel Employees’ Perceptions of Guests with Disabilities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

While previous research has mainly concentrated on understanding the requirements of guests with disabilities, there is a notable gap in exploring the perspectives held by hotel employees. This study endeavors to address this research gap by investigating how hotel employees in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) perceive guests with disabilities. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this research seeks to uncover employee attitudes and knowledge, their roles in fostering inclusivity, and the significance of communication between management and staff in elevating service quality. Notably, the study’s key findings underscore a significant link between employee contentment and customer satisfaction within hotels in HCMC, underscoring the pivotal role of effective communication in enhancing service quality. The research’s most prominent discovery indicates that a substantial proportion of hotel staff (88.5%) strongly agree on the importance of providing accessibility for guests with disabilities, as evident from the outcomes of the online survey. This outcome demonstrates a commendable high level of awareness among hotel employees concerning the specific needs of customers with disabilities. In terms of hotels’ overarching outlook towards guests with disabilities, a majority of managers voiced the perspective that hotels do not actively focus on disabled guests as a distinct market segment. These findings provide invaluable insights that can guide hotel managers and employees, contributing to a more comprehensive comprehension of how to establish an inclusive environment within the hospitality industry

A Combined Strain Element in Static, Frequency and Buckling Analyses of Laminated Composite Plates and Shells

This paper deals with numerical analyses of laminated composite plate and shell structures using a new four-node quadrilateral flat shell element, namely SQ4C, based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and a combined strain strategy. The main notion of the combined strain strategy is based on the combination of the membrane strain and shear strain related to tying points as well as bending strain with respect to cell-based smoothed finite element method. Many desirable characteristics and the enforcement of the SQ4C element are verified and proved through various numerical examples in static, frequency and buckling analyses of laminated composite plate and shell structures. Numerical results and comparison with other reference solutions suggest that the present element is accuracy, efficiency and removal of shear and membrane locking

COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE OF SUSTAINABLE URBAN DRAINAGE SYSTEM TECHNIQUES: A CASE STUDY OF NHIEU LOC – THI NGHE SUB-BASIN IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIET NAM

With the philosophy of stimulating ways that nature behaves under extreme weather conditions, Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) has been internationally recognized as one of the most sustainable approaches to minimizing the impacts of flooding on urban development coupled with the achievement of multiple benefits on environmental and social aspects. In this paper, the social aspect of SUDS is examined through the community’s acceptance of a wide range of SUDS techniques, including Green Roof (GR), Rainwater Harvesting (RWH), Pervious Pavement (PP), Green Open Space (GOP), and Pervious Parking Lot (PPL). Data were collected through a social survey of community responses to above SUDS applications in Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe sub-basin from November 2016 to March 2017, then SPSS software was used to analyze data and test statistical hypothesis. The results show that the most preferred SUDS technique is PP, followed by PPL, GOP, RWH and GR respectively. Through statistical hypothesis test, the relationship exists between (1) the community’s acceptability to proposed SUDS techniques and district as well as gender; (2) the community’s acceptance for and their knowledge of SUDS applications; and (3) the priority of SUDS’s benefits between the districts and acceptability as well as understanding of SUDS applications

Essays on the Economics of Education and Market Design

This dissertation consists of three essays on the economics of education and market design. The first two chapters are united in their attention on school choice issues. Chapter 1 considers a specific application, whereas chapter 2 focuses on a matching mechanism widely used in multiple applications. Both chapters 1 and 3 explore equity concerns in education but through very different lenses (affirmative action vs. educational investment) and very different settings (the United States vs. Vietnam). Chapter 1 addresses the diversity issue that is especially prevalent in elite schools that select students based on exams. Whereas previous studies only consider the direct impact on elite schools, I quantify the effects of two widely-discussed affirmative action plans on both elite and regular schools in New York City. I find that the two plans have quite different effects. First, there is a trade-off between improving diversity and maintaining student quality in elite schools as measured by state test scores in middle school. Despite taking into account the socioeconomic status of students' neighborhoods, the Chicago plan gives rise mostly to reshuffling within elite schools. Thus, both the overall racial composition and quality of incoming students are largely preserved as in the status quo. In contrast, the Top 7% plan, which would accept into the elite sector students in the top 7% by academic performance of each public middle school, causes considerable flows of students between the elite and regular sectors. The elite sector experiences a substantial increase in the proportions of Black and Hispanic students, along with a decrease in average student quality. Analyzing the difference between the outcomes of these two policies provides some insight into how the two objectives—diversity and peer quality in elite schools—might be better balanced in general. The second difference between the plans arises because they transform the distribution of diversity across schools in different ways. The Chicago plan reduces the differences among schools within the elite sector, while the Top 7% plan reduces the gap in diversity between the two sectors even as it increases within-sector dispersion. Both plans result in considerable changes in school assignments in the regular school sector, thus affecting the average student quality in these schools. Chapter 2, joint work with Guillaume Haeringer and Silvio Ravaioli, uses a lab experiment to study learning dynamics when participants receive feedback in centralized matching mechanisms. Our design allows for two types of learning: to coordinate within the same environment as well as to understand the underlying mechanisms. We provide additional evidence to previous work that the majority of the deviations from truth-telling, the dominant strategy in the Deferred Acceptance mechanism, are those that do not affect payoffs. Furthermore, by explicitly analyzing learning, we can confirm that at least some of the participants learn about the optimality of truth-telling, and their departures from it happen primarily when they face the same environment being repeated. Finally, we find that when learning to coordinate, agents tend to retain their previous strategy when the payoff from this strategy is high. This is suggestive evidence of reinforcement learning. Chapter 3 documents the pattern of educational investments for high school students across different demographics and their effects on performance on the college entrance exam and in college. Survey data from Vietnam shows that high school students from higher-income households have higher education expenditure and participation in extra classes (both at the extensive and intensive margin). Minority and rural students invest less than their non-minority and urban counterparts even after controlling for income. Out of these investments, only extra classes during the school year education expenditure other than that on extra classes are effective in increasing college entrance exam scores. In terms of college performance, a higher entrance exam score leads to a slightly higher grade point average at graduation, controlling for academic department fixed effects and investments in high school. Neither education expenditure or participation in extra classes in high school show any significant effects on college performance, except that already captured in the entrance exam scores. I record multiple gender differences. Female high school students tend to receive more investments. Even though they perform slightly worse on the entrance exam than their male peers with the same investments, they perform better in college, given the same entrance exam scores