Capitalizing on the Koran to fuel online violent radicalization: A taxonomy of Koranic references in ISIS’s Dabiq

The current study set out to investigate to what extent ISIS is bolstering its jihadist ideology on a ‘cut-and-paste’ or ‘cherry-picked’ version of Islam in their renowned online propaganda magazine Dabiq. The main objective was to examine in a systematic and quantitative way to what extent ISIS utilizes the Koran in an atomistic, truncated and tailored manner to bolster its religious legitimacy. A total of 15 issues of Dabiq and 700 Koranic references were scrutinized. By means of a quantitative analysis we developed an innovative taxonomy of Koranic chapters and verses (i.e. surahs and ayat, respectively) on the basis of their appearance in Dabiq. Our large-scale data analysis provide consistent empirical evidence for severe decontextualization practices of the Koran in three ways: (1) a thin, Medinan-dominated religious layer, (2) ayah mutilation, and (3) clustered versus exclusive mentions. Limitations and implications for future research, policy makers and CVE initiatives are discussed.     

A 40 keV cyclotron for radioisotope dating

We have built and begun testing a small low energy negative ion cyclotron for direct detection of ¹⁴C. At present, the cyclotron is operated in a high resolution mode at the 31st harmonic, with 1–2 kV on the dees. The high harmonic and a minimum number of turns of approximately 100, should give a fwhm mass resolution of about $\text{1}\text{30000}$ — sufficient to suppress the background from molecular ions such as ¹³CH^?. Background such as scattered ions of ¹²C^? and ¹³C^? should be totally suppressed by the cyclotron acceleration process. (At the 88″ cyclotron at LBL we found that ions only 1% off-resonance are suppressed by more than a factor of 10¹⁷.) A miniature Cs sputter source located at the center of the cyclotron is expected to provide more than 1 μA of negative carbon ions. Negative ions are used in order to eliminate the interference from ¹⁴N. Unlike high energy cyclotrons, focussing is obtained solely from the axial components of the accelerating electric field. The magnetic field is kept flat to within 1 part in 10⁴ in order to maintain exact isochronism throughout the several thousand accelerating rf cycles. The low final energy of 40 keV eliminates any danger from radiation or need for shielding, and the final orbit radius of only 10.5 cm, reduce the size and cost of the machine to that of conventional mass spectrometers.     

Identification of temperature-dependent water quality changes during a deep well injection experiment in a pyritic aquifer

Artificial recharge is a technique used increasingly to supplement drinking water supplies. To assess the potential water quality changes that occur during subsurface passage, a comprehensive deep-well injection experiment was carried out for a recharge scheme, where pretreated, aerobic surface water was injected at 300 m depth into an anaerobic aquifer. Water quality parameters were recorded over the 854-days long injection phase. The evolution of the major ion and redox chemistry was analyzed with a three-dimensional reactive multicomponent transport model. It was found that the oxidation of pyrite was the main driverforwater quality changes and that reaction rates depended significantly on the spatially/temporally varying groundwater temperature. With the temperature-dependency of the oxidation reactions incorporated into the model, the simulations give an accurate picture of the temporal and spatial evolution of the hydrochemical changes that occurred during the experiment. To delineate the influence of physical and chemical processes on local concentration changes the results of the reactive transport model simulations were compared with the corresponding results from nonreactive simulations. The study emphasizes the suitability of mechanistic multicomponent reactive transport modeling as an integrative tool for data analysis when physical transport and chemical processes interact.     

Modeling the diffusion-adsorption kinetics of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) in apple fruit and non-target materials in storage rooms

The purpose of this research was to model the kinetics of adsorption of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) in apple fruit and non-target solid materials found in apple storage rooms. The process was described by Fick’s second law of diffusion of the gas through the pores of the material coupled with adsorption kinetics of the gas on the material’s binding sites. A finite element formulation of the model, describing the diffusion and adsorption mechanisms separately, was first developed. The values of the relevant parameters were estimated based on headspace measurements of the decrease of 1-MCP in jars containing the different materials. The headspace concentration of 1-MCP was measured using gas chromatography. Apple fruit (Golden Delicious and Jonagold) and the following bin construction materials were investigated: high density polyethylene (HDPE), oak, poplar wood and card lining. The range in the magnitude of the diffusion coefficient, adsorption coefficient, and concentration of active sites in the various solids was 10,000-, 8-, and 30-fold, respectively.     

Asymmetric synthesis and conformational analysis by NMR spectroscopy and MD of Aba- and α-MeAba-containing dermorphin analogues

Dermorphin analogues, containing a (S)‐ and (R)‐4‐amino‐1,2,4,5‐tetrahydro‐2‐benzazepin‐3‐one scaffold (Aba) and the α‐methylated analogues as conformationally constrained phenylalanines, were prepared. Asymmetric phase‐transfer catalysis was unable to provide the (S)‐α‐Me‐o‐cyanophenylalanine precursor for (S)‐α‐MeAba in acceptable enantiomeric purity. However, by using a Schöllkopf chiral auxiliary, this intermediate was obtained in 88 % ee. [(S)‐Aba 3‐Gly 4]dermorphin retained μ‐opioid affinity but displayed an increased δ‐affinity. The corresponding R epimer was considerably less potent. In contrast, the [(R)‐α‐MeAba 3‐Gly 4]dermorphin isomer was more potent than its S epimer. Tar‐MD simulations of both non‐methylated [Aba 3‐Gly 4]dermorphin analogues showed a degree of folding at the C‐terminal residues toward the N terminus of the peptide, without however, adopting a stabilized β‐turn conformation. The α‐methylated analogues, on the other hand, exhibited a type I/I′ β‐turn conformation over the α‐MeAba 3 and Gly 4 residues, which was stabilized by a hydrogen bond involving Tyr 5‐H_N and D ‐Ala 2‐CO.     

Stability of rare‐earth‐doped spherical yttria‐stabilized zirconia synthesized by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis

Phase stability is one of the crucial requirements for any material that can be used at elevated temperature applications such as thermal barrier coating (TBC). The most traditional TBC material, partially stabilized zirconia, limits the operating temperature due to its phase transformation. Conversely, the low thermal conductivity of fully stabilized zirconia (YSZ) may enable effective reduction in the surface temperature on the coated component, while avoiding deleterious phase transitions, although still being subjected to sintering and grain growth. It has been reported that addition of rare‐earths as dopants to YSZ can significantly increase resistance to grain growth at high temperature. Keeping this under consideration, this work investigates the role of rare‐earths (lanthanum and gadolinium) in increasing thermal stability of YSZ microspheres, the building blocks for high‐temperature photonics for reflective TBC. The spheres were produced by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis, and the doping led to significant improvement of stability by significant inhibition of grain growth. While the individual dopants showed significant growth and sintering inhibition up to 900°C, co‐doping with 4% (in mol) of each (Gd and La) led to coarsening resistance up to 1000°C for 3 hours, when particles retained reasonable spherical features with nanometric crystallite sizes.     

Tuberculosis reinfection rate as a proportion of total infection rate correlates with the logarithm of the incidence rate: a mathematical model

In a significant number of instances, an episode of tuberculosis can be attributed to a reinfection event. Because reinfection is more likely in high incidence regions than in regions of low incidence, more tuberculosis (TB) cases due to reinfection could be expected in high-incidence regions than in low-incidence regions. Empirical data from regions with various incidence rates appear to confirm the conjecture that, in fact, the incidence rate due to reinfection only, as a proportion of all cases, correlates with the logarithm of the incidence rate, rather than with the incidence rate itself. A theoretical model that supports this conjecture is presented. A Markov model was used to obtain a relationship between incidence and reinfection rates. It was assumed in this model that the rate of reinfection is a multiple, ρ (the reinfection factor), of the rate of first-time infection, λ. The results obtained show a relationship between the proportion of cases due to reinfection and the rate of incidence that is approximately logarithmic for a range of values of the incidence rate typical of those observed in communities across the globe. A value of ρ is determined such that the relationship between the proportion of cases due to reinfection and the logarithm of the incidence rate closely correlates with empirical data. From a purely theoretical investigation, it is shown that a simple relationship can be expected between the logarithm of the incidence rates and the proportions of cases due to reinfection after a prior episode of TB. This relationship is sustained by a rate of reinfection that is higher than the rate of first-time infection and this latter consideration underscores the great importance of monitoring recovered TB cases for repeat disease episodes, especially in regions where TB incidence is high. Awareness of this may assist in attempts to control the epidemic.     

Parallel and serial grouping of image elements in visual perception.

The visual system groups image elements that belong to an object and segregates them from other objects and the background. Important cues for this grouping process are the Gestalt criteria, and most theories propose that these are applied in parallel across the visual scene. Here, we find that Gestalt grouping can indeed occur in parallel in some situations, but we demonstrate that there are also situations where Gestalt grouping becomes serial. We observe substantial time delays when image elements have to be grouped indirectly through a chain of local groupings. We call this chaining process incremental grouping and demonstrate that it can occur for only a single object at a time. We suggest that incremental grouping requires the gradual spread of object-based attention so that eventually all the object's parts become grouped explicitly by an attentional labeling process. Our findings inspire a new incremental grouping theory that relates the parallel, local grouping process to feedforward processing and the serial, incremental grouping process to recurrent processing in the visual cortex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)