The Defensive System of Algiers (1516–1830) and the Role of the Hydraulic System in its Composition

The successive administrations of Lipova (Lippa) from the end of the Middle Ages until the modern period determined numerous changes relative to its historical topography and urban structures, including its fortifications. The direct association of the settlement with the Hungarian royalty in the fourteenth century, the transition from the fifteenth-century oppidum to the urban status of the sixteenth century and the shaping of a regional administrative centre according to Ottoman traditions generated a highly dynamic historical topography. The scholarly debate on the fortified structures of Lipova can be traced back to the second half of the nineteenth century. Its unknowns and discussions range from the simultaneous number of fortifications directly connected to the late medieval urban centre, their dating, exact location, extent, and particular architectural components. In the last century, scientists revisited the topic circumstantially. It remained problematic, primarily because all the material traces of the fortifications were demolished at the beginning of the 1700s, and they still await archaeological investigations. In the stated circumstances, we resume discussing the available sources that can help us reconstruct the configuration of fortifications during the fifteenth–seventeenth centuries by presenting their potential. Our preliminary study confronts the sparse archaeological data with pragmatic literature, narrative sources, and highly overlooked cartographic documents. Above all, we examine the cartographic sources of the late seventeenth century and their historical context because they recorded the spatial outline and the coexistence of three fortified precincts one inside another. The combined sources show that the medieval castle persisted at the very core of a mid-sixteenth-century bastion fortification encircled by the ample town precinct.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the development of the Islamic economy during the Ottoman Empire. Design/methodology/approach: The research method used in this research is library research. The data used is secondary data obtained from relevant sources, books, journals and so on. Findings: Ottoman Türkiye paid more attention to progress in the political and military fields. In this way, economic and financial conditions contributed to the development of Islam in the Ottoman Empire. Islamic economics during the Ottoman Empire reflected the integration of Islamic economic principles with practical economic practices and effective administration. So, according to researchers of the Ottoman Empire, it is very interesting to study in order to find out how the concept and development of Islamic economics was during the Ottoman Empire. Research implications: The implications of the development of the Islamic economy during the Ottoman Empire include:Expansion of Trade Networks: The Ottoman Empire's strategic location bridged East and West, facilitating extensive trade networks that promoted economic growth and cultural exchange.

Géza Pálffy. <i>Hungary between Two Empires 1526–1711</i>.

Due to its low rainfall and limited potential for water retention, northern Syria has always had access to and control of water as one of the main features of states in the region aiming to maintain their rule. This article introduces new information about the Mamluk period water adduction system of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which brought water to the Quwayq River, the city’s most important source of water. A newly documented part of the system, known in the Gaziantep region of Türkiye as the “Halep Arki” (the Aleppo channel), is discussed along with Mamluk-era inscriptions associated with it. During archaeological survey conducted between 2016 and 2018 in the Oguzeli region of Türkiye’s Gaziantep province, an open-air channel connected to a qanat-like tunnel with vertical shafts was documented, in addition to two inscriptions carved into the bedrock where the open-air channel met the tunnel. These inscriptions, which have been damaged over the centuries, were documented using RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging) technology, which allowed portions of one of them to be read. The survey showed that this Mamluk era water system was also used and expanded in the Ottoman period beginning with the conquest of the region in the 16th century. Spoil heaps show that the system was cleaned, likely during the Ottoman era. The closing of gaps in the bedrock that came about due to earthquakes or other reasons with stone walling may also have taken place in the Ottoman period. Also, in the Ottoman period, water from other springs was added to the system and various regulations on the use of water introduced. In this article, based on topographic and hydrological study of the region, we offer suggestions of the sources of the spring water that were joined to this system.

The increased incidences of disorders of male reproductive tract as well as testicular and prostate cancers have been attributed to androgenic pollutants in the environment. Drinking water is one pathway of exposure through which humans can be exposed. In this study, both potencies of androgen receptor (AR) agonists and antagonists were determined in organic extracts of raw source water as well as finished water from waterworks, tap water, boiled water, and poured boiled water in eastern China. Ten of 13 samples of source water exhibited detectable AR antagonistic potencies with AR antagonist equivalents (Ant-AR-EQs) ranging from <15.3 (detection limit) to 140 μg flutamide/L. However, no AR agonistic activity was detected in any source water. All finished water from waterworks, tap water, boiled water, and poured boiled water exhibited neither AR agonistic nor antagonistic activity. Although potential risks are posed by source water, water treatment processes effectively removed AR antagonists. Boiling and pouring of water further removed these pollutants. Phthalate esters (PAEs) including diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) were identified as major contributors to AR antagonistic potencies in source waters. Metabolites of PAEs exhibited no AR antagonistic activity and did not increase potencies of PAEs when they coexist.

The defensive system of ancient Erice, due to its strategic topographic location, took advantage of the site’s unique features, being protected towards the eastern plains and southern territories by a natural bulwark formed by its steep perimeter. Along the northwestern profile of the city, a series of wall segments interspersed with quadrangular turreted elements defended the various access points to the urban system, of which today some gates and postern remain, including Porta Trapani, Porta Carmine, and Porta Spada. Renowned for their monumental character, marked by the substantial dimensions of their structure, the so-called "Cyclopean" walls follow the geometric layout of the natural orography of the mountainous terrain on which the urban settlement of Erice stands. Following an original triangular layout, it developed on the summit of a hill and was surrounded by a massive curtain wall, even on the most rugged southeastern slope, where defensive walls, now almost entirely disappeared, ran along the nearly vertical rocky faces. Strategically positioned in a territory influenced by various cultures - from the Carthaginian presence on the western coasts to the Greek settlements in the south - the formidable walls of Erice reveal a heterogeneous and composite cultural and technological foundation in the wisdom of their construction. Utilizing modern surveying and digital drawing tools, this study aims to redefine the spatial configuration of the ancient walls of Erice, with particular focus on the eastern defensive system and its access points, such as the dilapidated Porta Castellammare, to highlight the strong correlation between the defensive system and the orography of the land it occupies, while attempting to contextualize the construction events within the historical framework and cultural influences that shaped its creation.

The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire is the first comprehensive overview of the empire’s relationship to its various European tributaries, Moldavia, Wallachia, Transylvania, Ragusa, the Crimean Khanate and the Cossack Hetmanate. The volume focuses on three fundamental aspects of the empire’s relationship with these polities: the various legal frameworks which determined their positions within the imperial system, the diplomatic contacts through which they sought to influence the imperial center, and the military cooperation between them and the Porte. Bringing together studies by eminent experts and presenting results of several less-known historiographical traditions, this volume contributes significantly to a deeper understanding of Ottoman power at the peripheries of the empire.

Under current trends, municipal demand for water in Oregon's Willamette River Basin will double by 2050. Municipalities will have to develop new sources of water, in competition with agricultural and other established uses, as well as increased demand for water to support ecological values. Municipalities can, to a limited extent, turn to their currently dormant water rights, but executing these rights will displace other currently established uses of water or diminish flows for fish and wildlife. Recent listings of salmon and other fish under the Endangered Species Act greatly diminish the acceptability of making water-use decisions without accounting for their potential impacts on water quantity and quality throughout the basin. This paper adopts a basin-wide perspective to analyze the need for new development of new sources of municipal water in the basin, and the impact of increased municipal water demand on water resource management in the basin as a whole. The analysis employs a computer model that simulates the regulation of water rights across the basin. We develop scenarios for future demand and supply of water, and use the computer model to determine the resulting allocation of water across water rights in the basin. Results indicate that the state's three largest urban areas have adequate water resources, but many smaller municipalities will have to develop new sources. The analysis here indicates that eliminating summer releases from storage in the basin's federal reservoirs would not affect water availability at current municipal points of diversion.

This research investigates the trade connections between Bengal and the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to the 18th centuries. It examines how British companies, Armenian traders, and Turkish merchants utilized a range of inland and maritime routes to facilitate the flow of goods from Bengal to Ottoman territories. Initially, the British-Armenian traders, recognized for their extensive networks in Bengal, served as primary intermediaries. At the same time, Turkish merchants played a crucial role in transporting commodities such as silk, indigo, and textiles. Moreover, the study highlights the strategic significance of the Jeddah port in linking Bengal to Istanbul, thereby bolstering the Ottoman economy. Additionally, it highlights the profound economic impact on the Ottoman Empire, including the influx of luxury goods and the introduction of new trade practices, demonstrating how Bengal’s trade played a crucial role in shaping the Ottoman economic framework. This research analyzes historical records and secondary sources, providing a detailed account of the Bengal-Ottoman trade relationship within early modern global trade networks.

Analysis of the Resilience of Intermittent Water Supply Systems and the Disruption-Dynamics of Stakeholders

The Republic of Venice, whose prosperity depended primarily on unimpeded trade by land and sea, had long had a system of defence against infectious disease epidemics, particularly the plague as the biggest threat to the aforementioned trade. These measures were naturally applied in that part of Dalmatia under its authority. There, the city of Split was most imperilled by plague outbreaks as it was the main transit hub for goods arriving by land from the territory of the Ottoman Empire or by sea from Venice. Although to a lesser extent, the plague also threatened the areas of Omiš and Makarska, market towns that were more accessible to the populace from the hinterland, including the Imotski area and the south-western section of Herzegovina on the other side of the state border. A detailed overview of what had been undertaken from 1762 to 1765 to prevent outbreaks of the plague in the area under the authority of the Omiš provveditore was made possible by the extensive data contained in the records of the old Omiš archives, which were deposited in the provincial archives of the time in Zadar. These records simultaneously testify to the very arduous conditions for life and work by the domicile population in that period, as well as the efforts by the authorities to prevent death by starvation. This paper contains a series of data on everything undertaken at the orders of the Venetian central and provincial governments in the area under the jurisdiction of the Omiš provveditore to prevent the possible emergence and spread of the plague from 1762 to 1765 and the difficulties that ensued in the enforcement of these measures. Considerable attention is above all accorded to the surveillance of unpermitted travel by individuals and groups across the boundaries with neighbouring districts, i.e., Poljica and Imotski, and similarly to nearby islands. The border with the Ottoman Empire, whence the plague came into Dalmatia, was subject to the strictest supervision. Inside the Omiš area, particular care was dedicated to health inspections of travellers and goods at Dvare Fortress. A caravan route passed next to its walls and tower, whence coastal villages could be reached from the near or more remote interior and leading to the control stations before the entrances to the towns of Omiš and Makarska. A public health board with its seat in Omiš (Collegio di sanità d’Almissa) was responsible for the enforcement of all stipulated measures and specific decisionmaking related thereto. It selected its own delegate to the supervisory post next to Dvare Fortress, who collaborated with the Dvare superintendent responsible for the nearby village and the fortress commander. It should be noted that at least one member of the aforementioned board had to have a good working knowledge of the Croatian language and the Bosančica script, and such knowledge was also required of the Dvare delegates, who worked in shifts. Provisions stipulating the isolation of individual houses in cases of suspicion of the plague were strictly enforced. Groups of rural sentries (panduri) from villages in the Omiš area were posted in a specific order to guard the boundaries between individual neighbouring districts and the state border. Besides sentry duty, a major hardship for them after being relieved was the obligation to remain in isolation for several weeks in Viseć Fortress, whence they often escaped. The systematic overview of these circumstances contained in this paper may serve as an example for contemporaneous events in other territories of the Dalmatian Zagora region, for which the provveditore archives from that time were either not preserved or do not contain as many records on the topic, and also in cases of plague outbreaks before and thereafter, particularly from the beginning of the 1730s and 1780s.

Bacteriophages (phages) outnumber bacteria ten-to-one and cause infections at a rate of 1025 per second. The ability of phages to reduce bacterial populations makes them attractive alternative antibacterials for use in combating the rise in antimicrobial resistance. This effort may be hindered due to bacterial defenses such as Bacteriophage Exclusion (BREX) that have arisen from the constant evolutionary battle between bacteria and phages. For phages to be widely accepted as therapeutics in Western medicine, more must be understood about bacteria-phage interactions and the outcomes of bacterial phage defense. Here, we present the annotated genomes of 12 novel bacteriophage species isolated from water sources in Durham, UK, during undergraduate practical classes. The collection includes diverse species from across known phylogenetic groups. Comparative analyses of two novel phages from the collection suggest they may be founding members of a new genus. Using this Durham phage collection, we determined that particular BREX defense systems were likely to confer a varied degree of resistance against an invading phage. We concluded that the number of BREX target motifs encoded in the phage genome was not proportional to the degree of susceptibility. IMPORTANCE Bacteriophages have long been the source of tools for biotechnology that are in everyday use in molecular biology research laboratories worldwide. Phages make attractive new targets for the development of novel antimicrobials. While the number of phage genome depositions has increased in recent years, the expected bacteriophage diversity remains underrepresented. Here we demonstrate how undergraduates can contribute to the identification of novel phages and that a single City in England can provide ample phage diversity and the opportunity to find novel technologies. Moreover, we demonstrate that the interactions and intricacies of the interplay between bacterial phage defense systems such as Bacteriophage Exclusion (BREX) and phages are more complex than originally thought. Further work will be required in the field before the dynamic interactions between phages and bacterial defense systems are fully understood and integrated with novel phage therapies.

The flow regimes of arid zone rivers are often highly variable, and shallow groundwater in the alluvial aquifers can be very saline, thus constraining the availability and quality of the major water sources available to riparian trees-soil water, shallow groundwater and stream water. We have identified water sources and strategies used by riparian trees in more highly saline and arid conditions than previously studied for riparian trees of arid zone rivers. Our research focused on the riparian species Eucalyptus coolabah, one of the major riparian trees of ephemeral arid zone rivers in Australia. The water sources available to this riparian tree were examined using delta(18)O isotope data from xylem, soil water, groundwater and surface water. Additionally, soil chloride and matric potential data were used to infer zones of water availability for root uptake. Despite the saline conditions, the trees used a mixture of soil water and groundwater sources, but they did not use surface water directly. The study identified three strategies used to cope with typically high groundwater and soil water salinities. Firstly, the trees preferentially grow in zones of most frequent flushing by infiltrating streamflow, such as the bank-tops of channels. Secondly, the trees limit water use by having low transpiration rates. Thirdly, the trees are able to extract water at very low osmotic potentials, with water uptake continuing at chloride concentrations of at least 20,000-30,000 mg L(-1).

The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 demonstrated that the Ottoman state had become a strong power in Eastern Europe, and the subsequent occupation of Serbia and of the southern part of Bosnia (1464) left the Ottoman state just one step removed from becoming the clearly dominant power. It became evident in 1521, when the supporters of Asiatic and maritime conquests lost out to the Istanbul court faction demanding further conquests in Central Europe, that the next major goal of the Ottoman Empire would be the annexation of the Kingdom of Hungary. Although the Ottomans continued to occupy substantial areas in Hungary up to the conclusion of a new peace agreement at Adrianople in 1568, the implementation of the new defensive strategy soon yielded serious results. The Hungarian theater of war and the border defense system against the Ottomans was a important catalyst for military development in sixteenth century Central Europe. Keywords:Habsburg Defense System; Kingdom of Hungary; military development; Ottoman Empire; sixteenth century

Designed as a defensive system against the Ottoman Empire, the Austrian military border was doubled by a sanitary cordon, which served as a defense shield against epidemics. In order for this system to function adequately, the border patrol troops that served the House of Habsburg also needed protection against the diseases that threatened the empire. The present study brings into discussion the health problems that border guards from the Banat region experienced, a topic that remains largely unaddressed in the existing literature. By building on original archival research and the specialized work of the epoch, this article traces the main conditions, the means of tackling diseases, the remedies that were specifically local or those found within the European repertoire. It also sheds light on the support that the administrative apparatus offered to the troops, namely medical care in its material form (hospitals, quarantines, pharmacies, medicine, monetary assistance) and human form (the personnel hired at the borders: military doctors, surgeons, midwives, veterinarians). This article concludes that the entire correspondence from the center directed at the local authorities in Banat and vice versa reflects in a unique and subtle way the level of medical knowledge of the time.