No / This article undertakes a critical analysis of what have been labelled humanitarian arms control (HAC) initiatives, most notably, recent agreements to ban cluster munitions and landmines as well as efforts to restrict the proliferation of small arms. The article critiques conventional accounts that view such initiatives as illustrating the potential of global civil society to interject human security concerns into the domain of arms regulation through the exercise of bottom-up power. In order to do this, the article first outlines the concept of securitization, particularly Floyd's discussion of positive and negative forms of securitization and Abrahamson's concept of the security continuum. This is used to frame an analysis of contemporary HAC initiatives that locates them in the much longer history of pariah weapons regulation and the way it relates both to the framing of legitimized weapons and changes in the broader regulation of the conventional defence trade in different eras. In contrast to conventional accounts of the HAC agenda, it is argued that initiatives such as those on landmines and cluster munitions were successful precisely because they were consonant with the same discourse used to legitimize both post-Cold War liberal interventionism and the new generation modern high-tech weapons. Moreover, the extra-securitization of landmines, cluster munitions and small arms has been accompanied by the (relative) desecuritization of the trade in major conventional weapons and associated dual-use technologies, a process that has a number of quite negative effects in terms of arms trade regulation. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of the preceding analysis both for thinking about processes of securitization and for arms trade non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Public space has been an important social and political space throughout the history. Although there are various definitions of the term public space in the literature, it can be defined as a place of interaction and social contact among different groups and individuals. Besides, the meaning, form and function of public spaces differ due to different socio-cultural structures of societies. The form of a public space is an essential urban design issue. Moreover, the meaning and function of a space have been also considered as the urban spatial form through the urban design processes. Since the period when Ankara has been conceived and designed as a spatial project of the Turkish Republic in 1924, Hacibayram Square has been transformed within the historical meaning, urban function and spatial form. Through changing contradictions and actors, these transformations have been experienced. Hacibayram Square with its meaning, function and form in the 1930s shows differences from Hacibayram Square in the first map of Ankara (1839), which is drawn by Von Vincke. However, although the meaning, function and form of the Square have been transformed with the effects of every urban project, the political character of the square transformed but protected itself. Through this study, it is aimed to analyze how the historical meaning, urban function and spatial form of Hacibayram Square have been transformed within a historical perspective.

In this thesis, I intend to examine differences between religious communities and practices through a comparative study of funeral ceremonies performed at Hacibayram and Kocatepe Mosques in Ankara. The ethnographic data, which have been collected through eighty-seven funeral ceremony that I attended in these two mosques, shows that there are repetitive patterns among funeral ceremonies performed in the same mosque. When we compare the ceremonial patterns in Hacibayram Mosque and Kocatepe Mosque, it is observed that funeral ceremonies performed in these two mosques is differentiated in terms of material culture, gender and sentiments. There are different variables for these ritual differentiations, such as the nature and composition of a religious community frequenting a mosque, and the meanings and traditions ascribed to a mosque, which affect the way in which prayers are perceived and practiced. Besides, it is also realized that repetitive patterns among funeral ceremonies performed in the same mosque may even differentiate, because of social status and worldview of deceased and mourners.

In this dissertation, a series of multiband hybrid mobile phone antennas, incorporating the electric-current and equivalent magnetic-current excitation mechanisms are presented. The design concept of the hybrid antenna is that the multiband operation is achieved by incorporating the resonant modes generated by the two above-mentioned excitation mechanisms. In the first and the second antenna designs, they are obtained by stacking the antennas using the electric-current and equivalent magnetic-current excitations, and both can achieve multiband operations. For the last two antenna designs, the two different excitation mechanisms can be incorporated on a single metal plate or dielectric substrate. This kind of hybrid are promising for application in bar-type and folder-type mobile phones. Besides, in order to pass some required testing criterions and analyze the environmental effects, the hybrid penta-band mobile phone antenna applied in bar-type and folder-type mobile phones is analyzed. The main topics include the speaker¡¦s effects on the antenna¡¦s performances, the analysis of user¡¦s hand and head effects, and the analysis of the hearing aid compatibility.

In recent years, scientific studies are carried out to find new refractory material. Having good mechanical properties under very high temperatures, refractories are widely used in industries like iron, steel, glass, cement and pottery. Researches are focused on monolithic refractory making because of their superior properties comparing to conventional firebrick refractories. Providing a mono-block body, having no joints makes the monolithic refractories more durable at elevated temperatures. Easier production and installation are two main points that people are choosing monolithic refractories, thus an economy is made. In this study, for monolithic refractory production, high alumina cement was used as binding material. It is known that the increase in alumina (Al2O3) content increases the high temperature resistance, so that crushed firebrick, having 85% Al2O3 was used as aggregate. Pozzolanic materials, which are silica fume, fly ash, ground granulated firebrick and ground granulated blast furnace slag, were added to improve physical and mechanical properties of mortar. With the addition of steel fibres, change in compressive strength and flexural strength was observed.Superplasticizer was used to understand its behaviour under high temperatures. Portland cement containing mortars were also prepared to make comparison with high alumina cement containing specimens. Specimens were prepared in 5x5x5 cm and 4x4x16 cm prisms. They were cured for one day at curing room, then heated to 105&deg / C and then heated to 1100&deg / C. Weight, size and ultrasound velocity change, compressive strength and flexural strength tests were done to determine physical and mechanical properties of the monolithic refractories, before and after heating. Heated and non-heated specimens were pulverized for microstructural investigation with X-Ray diffraction (XRD) method. Using high alumina cement with 50 &ndash / 60 % granulated blast furnace slag or granulated firebrick, by the weight of cement, and crushed firebrick as aggregate, a satisfactory monolithic refractory material was made. It was observed that, mechanical properties were decreased at the Portland cement used mortars after several times of heating and cooling cycles. Also, it was determined that the microstructure of the high alumina cement containing mortars did not deteriorate much at 1100&deg / C, as long as there was no change observed from the results.

The aim of this study is to explorehow the Alevi BektaSi identity is constructed through the memorial ceremonies of Haci BektaS veli on collective and individual level by different actors from the state agents to the Alevi BektaSis who participate in the ceremonies.

No description available.

The development of safe and efficient gene delivery systems in pluripotent human embryonic stem cells (hESc) is essential to realising their full potential for basic and clinical research. The purpose of this study was to develop an efficient, non-integrating gene expression system in pluripotent hESc using human artificial chromosomes (HAC). Similar to endogenous chromosomes, HAC are capable of gene expression, replication and segregation during cell division. Unlike retroviral-mediated gene delivery vectors, HAC do not integrate into the host genome and can encompass large genomic regions for the delivery of multiple genes. Despite the advantages HAC offer, their use has been limited due to laborious cloning procedures and poor transfection efficiencies, and thus only studied in immortalised and tumour-derived human cell lines. In this study, the high transduction efficiency of herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1) amplicons was utilised to overcome the described difficulties and delivered HAC vectors into pluripotent hESc. Analysis of stable hESc clones showed that de novo gene-expressing HAC were present at high frequencies ranging from 10-70% of metaphases analysed, without integrating into the genome. The established HAC contained an active centromere, and were stably maintained without integration or loss in the absence of selection for 90 days. Stable HAC-containing hESc clones retained their pluripotency as demonstrated by neuronal differentiation, in vitro germ layer and teratoma formation assays. HAC gene expression persisted, with some variation, post-differentiation in the various deriving cell types. This is the first report of successful de novo HAC formation in hESc for gene expression studies. These findings show potential for delivering high-capacity genomic constructs safely and efficiently into pluripotent cells for the purpose of genetic manipulation and ultimately patient-specific somatic gene therapy.

Development of safe and efficient approaches for gene delivery in human embryonic stem cells (hESc) and particularly in human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells, which can be derived in a person-specific manner, is considered to be imperative for harnessing their full potential in both the basic and applied research. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of human artificial chromosome (HAC) for gene delivery and expression in hESc and hiPS cells. HAC offers many potential advantages including the provision for carrying large genes with corresponding regulatory elements to obtain long-term regulated gene expression. In addition, they can replicate and segregate independently without integration into the host cell genome. To develop HAC in hiPS cells, the first part of the study was aimed at generating hiPS cells utilising the Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV)-1 amplicon system. With the use of EBNA-1/OriP retention elements incorporated into the HSV-1 amplicon vectors, hiPS cells completely free of vector and transgenes sequences were successfully derived from human embryonic fibroblasts. The hiPS cells exhibited proliferation and differentiation potential similar to that of hESc. In the second part of the study, development of HAC in hESc and hiPS cells was assessed by utilising the HSV-1 amplicon system to deliver the HAC DNA. Analysis of the hESc confirmed the presence of functional HAC which replicated the behaviour of the host chromosomes. Additionally, HAC generation did not lead to impairment in the developmental potential and pluripotency of hESc. The hiPS cells supported HAC at low frequency but DNA also integrated into the host chromosomes. The HAC system, therefore, needs further refinements to improve the frequency of HAC formation and reduce the chromosomal integration of HAC constructs in hiPS cells. Overall, these findings provide a simple and safe way of pluripotency induction and genetic modification of pluripotent stem cells using the HSV-1 amplicon system and represent an important advance towards patient specific gene and cell therapy.

Dans cette thèse nous élargissons le champ d'application des modèles ARMA (AutoRegressive Moving-Average) vectoriels en considérant des termes d'erreur non corrélés mais qui peuvent contenir des dépendances non linéaires. Ces modèles sont appelés des ARMA faibles vectoriels et permettent de traiter des processus qui peuvent avoir des dynamiques non linéaires très générales. Par opposition, nous appelons ARMA forts les modèles utilisés habituellement dans la littérature dans lesquels le terme d'erreur est supposé être un bruit iid. Les modèles ARMA faibles étant en particulier denses dans l'ensemble des processus stationnaires réguliers, ils sont bien plus généraux que les modèles ARMA forts. Le problème qui nous préoccupera sera l'analyse statistique des modèles ARMA faibles vectoriels. Plus précisément, nous étudions les problèmes d'estimation et de validation. Dans un premier temps, nous étudions les propriétés asymptotiques de l'estimateur du quasi-maximum de vraisemblance et de l'estimateur des moindres carrés. La matrice de variance asymptotique de ces estimateurs est d'une forme "sandwich", et peut être très différente de la variance asymptotique obtenue dans le cas fort. Ensuite, nous accordons une attention particulière aux problèmes de validation. Dans un premier temps, en proposant des versions modifiées des tests de Wald, du multiplicateur de Lagrange et du rapport de vraisemblance pour tester des restrictions linéaires sur les paramètres de modèles ARMA faibles vectoriels. En second, nous nous intéressons aux tests fondés sur les résidus, qui ont pour objet de vérifier que les résidus des modèles estimés sont bien des estimations de bruits blancs. Plus particulièrement, nous nous intéressons aux tests portmanteau, aussi appelés tests d'autocorrélation. Nous montrons que la distribution asymptotique des autocorrelations résiduelles est normalement distribuée avec une matrice de covariance différente du cas fort (c'est-à-dire sous les hypothèses iid sur le bruit). Nous en déduisons le comportement asymptotique des statistiques portmanteau. Dans le cadre standard d'un ARMA fort, il est connu que la distribution asymptotique des tests portmanteau est correctement approximée par un chi-deux. Dans le cas général, nous montrons que cette distribution asymptotique est celle d'une somme pondérée de chi-deux. Cette distribution peut être très différente de l'approximation chi-deux usuelle du cas fort. Nous proposons donc des tests portmanteau modifiés pour tester l'adéquation de modèles ARMA faibles vectoriels. Enfin, nous nous sommes intéressés aux choix des modèles ARMA faibles vectoriels fondé sur la minimisation d'un critère d'information, notamment celui introduit par Akaike (AIC). Avec ce critère, on tente de donner une approximation de la distance (souvent appelée information de Kullback-Leibler) entre la vraie loi des observations (inconnue) et la loi du modèle estimé. Nous verrons que le critère corrigé (AICc) dans le cadre des modèles ARMA faibles vectoriels peut, là aussi, être très différent du cas fort.