Societal Rather than Governmental Change: Religious Discrimination in Muslim-Majority Countries after the Arab Uprisings

This study examines shifts in governmental religion policy and societal discrimination against religious minorities in Muslim-Majority states after the Arab Uprisings by using the Religion and State round 3 (RAS3) dataset for the years 2009-2014 and by focusing on 49 Muslim-majority countries and territories. We build on threads of literature on religious pluralism in transitional societies to explain the changes in governmental religion policy and societal discrimination against religious minorities after the Arab Uprisings. This literature predicts a rise in all forms of discrimination in Arab Uprising states as compared to other Muslim-majority states, and an even more significant rise in societal religious discrimination since societal behavior can change more quickly than government policy, especially at times of transition. The results partially conform to these predictions. There was no significant difference in the shifts in governmental religion policy between Arab Uprising and other Muslim-Majority states, but societal religious discrimination increased substantially in Arab Uprising states as compared to non-Arab Uprising states. Understanding the nature of religion policies and religious discrimination provides further opportunities to unveil the dynamics of regional politics as well as conflict prevention in the region

Religious Discrimination and International Crises: International Effects of Domestic Inequality

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This paper explores religious discrimination against ethnic groups and foreign policy crisis linkages as part of the broader foreign policy approaches developed by McGowan and Shapiro (1973) and James and Özdamar (2005, 2008). Informed by the literature suggesting that domestic policies of repression and inequality may result in similar patterns of behavior internationally, this study tests whether states characterized by high levels of religious discrimination against ethnoreligious minorities are more likely to initiate or become involved in foreign policy crises with other states in general. A broad range of data sources, including an independently collected religious discrimination index, are used to test the hypothesized relationship between religious discrimination and international crisis during the period 1990-2003. The results suggest that religious discrimination is an important predictor of initiating and becoming involved in international crises. © 2013 International Studies Association

Characteristics of Small Hospitality Businesses:A Study in an Urban Setting in Turkey

The aim of this study was to contribute to the growing body of knowledge concerning small hospitality businesses (SHBs) through an analysis of selected aspects of SHBs in an urban setting, namely Akcakoca, Turkey. Particular attention was given to the characteristics of businesses, finance, marketing, human resource management, involvement of residents in the industry, and management of SHBs. A sample of 72 businesses in Akcakoca was examined and their role in tourism was evaluated. The findings of this study reveal that SHBs carry significant deficiencies and inadequacies and face a common set of problems

Understanding ethnoreligious conflict : the state, discrimination and international politics

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on April 24, 2009)Vita.Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2006.Literature on religion's role in understanding conflict in international relations is not well developed. This is quite surprising considering the series of events since 1979 Iranian revolution such as the Islamic rebellion in Afghanistan against communism; the civil war in Lebanon; the conflict in former Yugoslavia between Bosnians, Serbs and Croats; and the current tension in Iraq between Shi'is and Sunnis. This study takes an incremental step in moving toward the literature on religious conflict. This project seeks to answer the following specific question: What are the factors that facilitate protest or rebellion of ethnoreligious groups? The answer to this question, as it turns out, will not be fully in accordance with intuition from the major schools of thought. Both annual multiple regressions and time series cross-sectional data analysis has revealed that unlike what is expected, there is a negative relationship between religious marginalization and conflict. Religious discrimination and religious legislation in majority religion discourage mobilization of ethnoreligious groups. This finding contradicts with the Minorities at Risk (MAR) model that simply predicts discrimination as a major determinant of grievances that at the end trigger mobilization.Includes bibliographical reference

Prospective phase-II-study evaluating postoperative radiotherapy of cervical and endometrial cancer patients using protons – the APROVE-trial

Background: The prognosis for patients with cervical or endometrial cancer has improved over the last decades. Thus, reducing therapy-related toxicity and impact on quality of life have become more and more important. With the development of new radiotherapy techniques like IMRT (Intensity-modulated radiotherapy) the incidence of acute and chronic toxicities has already been reduced. Nevertheless, rates of complications requiring medical treatment range from 0.7–8% according to literature. 7.7% of patients develop severe complications after 5 years with an increasing risk for complications of 0.3%/year. Particularly, the volume of the small and large bowel receiving low doses (15 Gy) has been shown to be a predictive factor for the development of higher bowel toxicity. With the introduction of proton therapy into clinical practice, there are new opportunities for optimization of organ at risk-sparing thus possibly reducing toxicity. Methods/design: The APROVE study is a prospective single-center one-arm phase-II-study. Patients with cervical or endometrial cancer after surgical resection who have an indication for postoperative pelvic radiotherapy will be treated with proton therapy instead of the commonly used photon radiation. A total of 25 patients will be included in this trial. Patients will receive a dose of 45–50.4 GyE in 1.8 GyE fractions 5–6 times per week using active raster-scanning pencil beam proton radiation. Platinum-based chemotherapy can be administered if indicated. For treatment planning, rectum, sigma, large and small bowel, bladder and femoral heads are defined as organs at risk. The CTV is defined according to the RTOG consensus guidelines. Discussion: The primary endpoint of the study is the evaluation of safety and treatment tolerability of pelvic radiation using protons defined as the lack of any CTC AE Grade 3 or 4 toxicity. Secondary endpoints are clinical symptoms and toxicity, quality of life and progression-free survival. The aim is to explore the potential of proton therapy as a new method for adjuvant pelvic radiotherapy to decrease the dose to the bowel, rectum and bladder thus reducing acute and chronic toxicity and improving quality of life. Trial registration: Registered at https://clinicaltrials.gov , ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03184350 , registered 09 June 2017, enrolment of the first participant 19 June 2017

Resident Memory T Cells

Until recently, T cells were thought to remain in circulation until recruitment of the inflammation and only a small number of T cells remained in the peripheral tissues without inflammation. However, studies have found that a group of T cells settled in the tissues and remained there for a long time. Those cells are named as tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM). TRM cells are transcriptionally, phenotypically, and functionally distinct from other T cells, which recirculate between blood, secondary lymphoid organs, and non-lymphoid tissues. They undergo a distinct proliferation that discriminates them from circulating T cells and their main cell surface markers are CD69, CD103, and CD49a. Upon exposure to the same or similar diseases, TRM cells provide a first line of adaptive cellular defense against infection in peripheral non-lymphoid tissues, such as skin, lungs, digestive, and urogenital tracts. This approach forms the basis of a novel vaccination strategy called “prime and pull”, which ensures long-term local immunity. On the other hand, abnormal activated and malignant TRM may contribute to numerous human inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis and vitiligo. Here in this chapter, we aimed to emphasize TRM cell location, migration, phenotypic structure, maintenance, and diseases associated with TRM cells

FROM NEUTRALITY TO ACTIVE ALLIANCE: TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY, 1945-1952

Basing its foreign policy on the Wilsonian internationalism, the new Turkish Republic established good relations with countries around the world. It signed neutrality and friendship treaties, and pursued a neutral foreign policy. However, at the end of World War II, it abandoned its longtime neutral foreign policy and aimed to establish closer ties with the American-led West. This thesis examines how and why Turkey shifted its foreign policy from neutrality to active alliance. In the first half of the thesis, I closely deal with what role international developments played in that shift. First, I focus on how Josef Stalin's efforts to obtain bases and joint-control with Turkey over the Turkish Straits created a threat to Turkey's national security. Then, I explore how this threat forced Turkey to leave its neutral foreign policy and seek closer ties with the U.S. In the second half of the thesis, I examine how Turkey's search for economic aid and military commitment accelerated and intensified the shift from neutrality to active alliance. First, I focus on how Turkish officials aggressively sought economic assistance from the U.S. and how U.S. officials became resistant to the Turkish requests for additional aid beginning with the second half of 1947. Considering that Turkey was less vulnerable to the Soviet threat, U.S. officials judged that Turkey did not need aid as much as Western Europe did. In order to overcome the resistance, Turkish officials exaggerated the Soviet threat and used the problem of high defense spending. Then, I explore how Turkish officials sought a military commitment from the U.S. A U.S. military commitment could alleviate the problem of high defense spending and facilitate the flow of economic aid from the U.S. Therefore, Turkish officials carried on a diplomatic offensive to secure a military commitment from the U.S. In doing so, they distanced themselves from neutrality and became an institutional ally of the U.S. in 1952.Histor

Religious Discrimination Against Minorities: Theories and Findings

One of the established trends in religion and international relations (IR) scholarship is the awareness of a rising level of religious discrimination against minorities. Although there is variation in rates, religious restrictions are widely observed across the globe, including in Western democracies. Scholarship on the restrictions on religious practices has advanced through seeking answers to the following questions: Who discriminates? Who is discriminated against more? What are the causes of restrictions on religious freedom? What are the forms of discrimination? The purpose of this article is to connect the theories and findings of two religious discrimination studies of IR via the graphic method of systemism. Featured works engage with religious discrimination in a sub-group of states—Western democracies and those with a Christian majority. While one study focused on government-based restrictions, the other one engaged with societal ones. Collectively, these works revealed the fragility of freedom and the importance of understanding the mechanisms that protect it

Discourse ethnography on migrant other teachers: turn the stigma into capital!

Während der Migrationshintergrund im Kontext Schule in der Regel mit Problemen verbunden wird, wendet der Verwertungsdiskurs über migrationsandere LehrerInnen diesen in eine zu nutzende Ressource. Die widersprüchlichen Deutungen von Migration gehören zum selben Repräsentationsregime, das über Stereotypisierung die zu ›Anderen‹ gemachten ausschließt. Zwei ethnografische Fallbeispiele werden postkolonialen Perspektiven unterzogen und zeichnen den Ertrag der Diskursethnografie in Form der gewonnenen Theorie des double-binding ethnicity nach: LehrerInnen sollen sich aufgrund eines Merkmals als nützlich erweisen, dessen Sichtbarmachung für sie mit Risiken von Marginalisierung und Diskreditierung einhergeht.Countering the usual discourse that characterizes migrant other students as a social problem, migrant other teachers are imagined as very useful teachers. The discourses are identified as parts of the same symbolic order stereotypically representing those to be excluded. My discourse ethnographic approach combines field participation with discourse analysis. The postcolonial reading of ethnographic data digs deep to see how the discourses double bind the teachers in situ, generating the theory of double-binding ethnicity: while the teachers are implicitly requested to capitalize their ›foreignness‹, they are called upon to do so within reference frames that (threaten to) marginalize them

SCALE DEVELOPMENT STUDY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS FOR ADVANCED READING AWARENESS

Reading is defined as the reader perceiving and interpreting written symbols using their physical and mental processes. Reading is one of the four basic language skills and it is also a type of communication between the reader and the writer. Many concepts such as “critical reading, strategic reading, implicit reading, advanced reading” have come to the fore about the reading process carried out by the reader. Forward reading, which is one of the prominent concepts, is the way of reading that is carried out by using appropriate strategies in the whole reading process, before reading, during reading and after reading, and one of the strategies used in reading forward is metacognition strategies. The concept of metacognition can be referred to simply as "thinking about thinking". In this study, it was aimed to develop the Advanced Reading Awareness Scale, which aims to measure the advanced reading awareness of middle school students using metacognition strategies. In order to determine the construct validity of the developed scale, Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed with the data obtained from a group of 513 students formed by middle school students, and then Confirmatory Factor Analysis with data obtained from a different group of 141 people. After applying the scale in two different groups of middle school students, the reliability of the scores was determined by calculating the Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficients. As a result of Exploratory Factor Analysis, it was determined that the draft scale of 58 items consisted of 21 items and three dimensions. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis also confirmed the three-factor structure of the Advanced Reading Awareness Scale, consisting of 21 items. The scale consists of three dimensions: “pre-reading (planning), reading order (process monitoring) and post-reading (evaluation)”. When the reliability evidences and validity evidences obtained as a result of these analyzes are evaluated together, the Advanced Reading Awareness Scale, which was developed, was found to be a valid and reliable scale that can be used in future studies. Article visualizations