Explores the use of images, sounds and videos in Jihadi media and how people engage with them Fosters theoretical approaches to audiovisuality in the context of ‘propagandistic’ imagery Points to ...strategies and logics of appropriation within and around Jihadi audiovisuality, such as humour, re-enactments and memetic forms of cultural resistance Considers cultural and aesthetic expressions that evolve in response to Jihadi media output Presents empirically grounded research, combined with historical, multi-modal, rhetorical, ethnomusicological and digital audio-visual analysis and interpretations Case studies include: an exploration of: staged violence in IS productions; the appropriation of IS’s nashīd Ṣalīl al-Ṣawārim in digital contexts; the responses by social workers and former supporters of jihadi groups and movements; and how researchers themselves are part of the entanglements caused by politicisation and securitisation of Islam ISIS is often described as a terrorist organisation that uses social media to empower its supporters and reinforce its message. Through 12 case studies, this book examines the different ways in which Jihadi groups and their supporters use visualisation, sound production and aesthetic means to articulate their cause in online as well as offline contexts. Divided into four thematic sections, the chapters probe Jihadi appropriation of traditional and popular cultural expressions and show how, in turn, political activists appropriate extremist media to oppose and resist the propaganda. By conceptualising militant Islamist audiovisual productions as part of global media aesthetics and practices, the authors shed light on how religious actors, artists, civil society activists, global youth, political forces, security agencies and researchers engage with mediated manifestations of Jihadi ideology to deconstruct, reinforce, defy or oppose the messages.
Camera-based visual navigation has great potential for various applications, especially in satellite-signal-degenerated environments. However, the lack of integrity protection has constrained its ...utilization in safety-critical applications. Integrity characterizes the quality of the information that a navigation system delivers. Integrity frameworks have been developed over decades for satellite navigation, and continue to play an essential role in safety-critical applications like civil aviation. Nevertheless, there are several challenges to quantify the risks associated with visual navigation. Over the last few years, several approaches to tackle these challenges have been investigated. These developments are the first steps toward a reliable visual positioning framework with integrity monitoring capabilities. In this paper, we review the current status, particular challenges, and development trends in visual positioning integrity monitoring. In addition, we propose a preliminary framework so that the future developments on visual navigation integrity can benefit from a systematic approach.
h4Explores how Jihad, political violence and audio-visual media are entangled in particular ways as discursive formations/h4ulliFosters critical perspectives on the invocation of a narrow ...understanding of jihad and political violence in different social contexts/liliPoints to the operation of media and aesthetic means to articulate or defy notions of jihad in the context of political violence/liliComprises 16 case studies on forms of knowledge production, aesthetic manifestations, socio-political enactments, and archival practices that shape the entanglement of jihad, political violence, and media/liliPresents empirically-grounded research from the perspective of Anthropology, Art History, Cultural Studies, Islamic Studies, Media Studies, and Political Science/liliAdvances reflections on knowledge production and ethical challenges of research in this field/li/ulpThe entanglement of Jihad, Political Violence, and Media has determined the lives of Muslims in Europe and the US over the past 20 years. This book unravels the nexus of these elements, to critically examine how their conjunction is perpetuated, reproduced, or disputed. In 16 case studies, the contributors critically reflect on the identification of jihad with political violence, address the academic, legal, political and broader public production of knowledge on this topic, examine the aesthetic formations involved in the mediation and reaffirmation of this narrow understanding, explore the experiential worlds of people whose ideas and actions are labelled as and affected by notions of violent jihad, and illuminate the institutional and media contexts (e.g. of archives) in which an entanglement of jihad and political violence takes effect, with profound consequences./ppThis volume decentres dominant discourses on so-called jihadist actors and deradicalization contexts to offer more nuanced understandings of the political and socio-cultural contexts./p
Just like other actors involved in conflicts around power in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State regularly destroyed cultural properties. However, the movement deliberately puts these destructions on ...display and frames them as a pivotal element of its efforts to purify the sociocultural landscape. We argue that the Islamic State seeks to make its iconoclastic actions meaningful by interpreting them as characteristics of a permanent struggle between monotheism and its antipodes. Furthermore, the movement uses the destruction of ancient architecture and various sites of religious practice to enforce its regulative authority and prevent nonconforming behavior. In this sense, its iconoclastic actions not just target cultural objects, but even more so local communities and their sense of identity, which the Islamic State seeks to eradicate and replace with its own vision of a ‘genuine’ Muslim community.
Politische Wahlen sind mitnichten eine Erfindung der Moderne. Obgleich Herrschaft in den Jahrhunderten vor der Französischen Revolution sich zumeist anders legitimierte als in modernen Demokratien, ...finden sich auch in Antike, Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit zahlreiche Beispiele für Funktionsträger, die ihr Amt in irgendeiner Form einer Wahl verdankten. Anhand solcher Beispiele fragen die hier versammelten Beiträge nach dem Stellenwert und der Funktion vormoderner Wahlverfahren. Dem Ansatz einer Kulturgeschichte des Politischen verpflichtet, gehen die Herausgeber dabei von einer unauflösbaren Verbindung von Verfahrenstechnik und Symbolik aus; beide Aspekte werden im vorliegenden Band erstmals in einer integrativen Sichtweise aufeinander bezogen. Diese Herangehensweise eröffnet neue Deutungsperspektiven auf einen traditionellen Gegenstand der Politik- und Verfassungsgeschichte und ermöglicht zugleich eine differenziertere Sichtweise der Kontinuitäten und Brüche zwischen Ancien Régime und Moderne, jenseits der Frage nach dem demokratischen oder vordemokratischen Charakter vormoderner Wahlverfahren.
Inhibitors of the proteasome interfere with transcriptional regulation of growth signaling pathways and block cell cycle progression of mitotic cells. As growth signaling pathways are highly ...conserved between mitotic and postmitotic cells, we hypothesized that proteasome inhibition might also be a valuable approach to interfere with hypertrophic growth of postmitotic cardiomyocytes. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the effects of proteasome inhibition on hypertrophic growth of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Partial inhibition of the proteasome effectively suppressed cardiomyocyte hypertrophy as determined by reduced cell size, inhibition of hypertrophy-mediated induction of RNA and protein synthesis, reduced expression of several hypertrophic marker genes, and diminished transcriptional activation of the BNP promotor. Importantly, suppression of hypertrophic growth was independent of the hypertrophic agonist used. Expressional profiling and subsequent Western blot and kinase assays revealed that proteasome inhibition induced a cellular stress response with reduced expression of conserved growth signaling mediators and impaired G1/S phase transition of cardiomyocytes. In hypertensive Dahl-salt sensitive rats, inhibition of the proteasome with low doses of the FDA approved proteasome inhibitor Velcade significantly reduced hypertrophic heart growth. Our data provide important insight into the suppressive effects of proteasome inhibitors on hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes and establish low-dose proteasome inhibition as a new and broad-spectrum approach to interfere with cardiac hypertrophy.
On August 22, 2014, the satellites GSAT-0201 and GSAT-0202 of the European GNSS Galileo were unintentionally launched into eccentric orbits. Unexpectedly, this has become a fortunate scientific ...opportunity since the onboard hydrogen masers allow for a sensitive test of the redshift predicted by the theory of general relativity. In the present Letter, we describe an analysis of approximately three years of data from these satellites including three different clocks. For one of these, we determine the test parameter quantifying a potential violation of the combined effects of the gravitational redshift and the relativistic Doppler shift. The uncertainty of our result is reduced by more than a factor 4 as compared to the values of Gravity Probe A obtained in 1976.
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