bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Light trapping and guidance in plasmonic nanocrystals
Authors: Sukharev Maxim , Seideman Tamar
Published: May 2007

We illustrate the possibility of light trapping and funneling in periodic arrays of metallic nanoparticles. A controllable minimum in the transmission spectra of such constructs arises from a collective plasmon resonance phenomenon, where an incident plane wave sharply localizes in the vertical direction, remaining delocalized in the direction parallel to the crystal plane. Using hybrid arrays of different structures or different materials, we apply the trapping effect to structure the eigenmode spectrum, introduce overlapping resonances, and hence direct the light in space in a wavelength-sensitive fashion.
Effect of insulating-nanoparticles addition on ion current and voltage-holding ratio in nematic liquid crystal cells
Authors: Chen Pei-Shiang , Huang Chiu-Chung , Liu Yung-Wei , Chao Chih-Yu
Published: May 2007

The transient currents induced by an applied direct voltage (dc) electric field have been measured liquid-crystal cells in nematic phase. The experimental results show that the addition of insulating nanoparticles, such as diamond powders, leads to a reduction of the ion concentration in cells so as to drastically reduce the transient currents and threshold voltage. Simultaneously, a high voltage-holding ratio (VHR) in doped cells is observed. Such a high VHR, in comparison with nematic liquid crystals doped by carbon nanotubes, is a superior feature for future liquid crystal display applications.
Progress in understanding magnetic reconnection in laboratory and space astrophysical plasmas
Authors: Yamada Masaaki
Published: May 2007

This paper reviews the progress in understanding the fundamental physics of magnetic reconnection, focusing on significant results in the past decade from dedicated laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and space astrophysical observations. Particularly in the area of local reconnection physics, many important findings have been made with respect to two-fluid dynamics, the profile of the neutral sheet, the effects of guide field, and scaling laws with respect to collisionality. Notable findings have been made on global reconnection dynamics through detailed documentation of magnetic self-organization phenomena in fusion plasmas as well as in solar flares. After a brief review of the well-known early work, we will discuss representative recent experimental and theoretical work and attempt to interpret the essence of significant modern findings. Especially, the recent data on local reconnection physics from the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment device [M. Yamada , Phys. Plasmas13, 052119 (2006)] are used to compare experimental and numerical results.
Suppression of InAs∕GaAs quantum dot decomposition by the incorporation of a GaAsSb capping layer
Authors: Ulloa J. M. , Drouzas I. W. D. , Koenraad P. M. , Mowbray D. J. , Steer M. J. , Liu H. Y. , Hopkinson M.
Published: May 2007

The influence of a GaAsSb capping layer on the structural properties of self-assembled InAs∕GaAs quantum dots (QDs) is studied on the atomic scale by cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy. QDs capped with GaAs0.75Sb0.25 exhibit a full pyramidal shape and a height more than twice that of the typical GaAs-capped QDs, indicating that capping with GaAsSb suppresses dot decomposition. This behavior is most likely related to the reduced lattice mismatch between the dot and the capping layer.
Fabrication and enhanced magnetoresistance of SiO2-coated Fe3O4 nanosphere compact
Authors: Wang Junfeng , Shi Jing , Tian Decheng , Deng Hong , Li Yadong , Song Pengyun , Chen Chinping
Published: May 2007

Magnetoresistance (MR) of a nanostructured material, monodisperse Fe3O4 nanospheres of about 200nm coated with thin SiO2 and compactly cold pressed and sintered, has been investigated. A high MR, up to 10.8% at 1T and 17% at 8T, has been observed at 100K. This enhanced MR is likely arising from the spin-polarized tunneling of conducting electrons through the insulating SiO2 boundaries. The decrease of the MR with the temperature increasing was attributed to the existence of the local spins in the grain boundaries. In addition, the MR ratio decreases with the SiO2 thickness increasing and sintering temperature decreasing. It suggests that the magnetic property of the insulating barrier is crucial for enhancing the low-field MR at a high temperature.
Observation of photon recycling in strain-balanced quantum well solar cells
Authors: Johnson D. C. , Ballard I. M. , Barnham K. W. J. , Connolly J. P. , Mazzer M. , Bessière A. , Calder C. , Hill G. , Roberts J. S.
Published: May 2007

Photon recycling in strain-balanced quantum well solar cells grown on distributed Bragg reflectors has been observed as a suppression of the dark current and a change in electroluminescence spectra. Comparing devices grown with and without distributed Bragg reflectors we have demonstrated up to a 33% reduction in the ideality n=1 reverse saturation current. Furthermore, to validate the observations we demonstrate how both the measured dark currents and electroluminescence spectra fit very well to a photon recycling model. Verifying our observations with the model then allows us to calculate optimized device designs.
Macroscopic evidences for non-Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel effects in the reaction between H3O+ and D2O: The occurrence of nonstatistical isotopic branching ratio
Authors: Mella Massimo
Published: May 2007

The dynamics of the isotopic scrambling in the energized and metastable complex D2O–H3O+ has been studied using classical molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories starting from regions of phase space corresponding to an already formed collisional complex. The simulations cover the range of internal energies spanned by gas phase collision experiments. Rate constants for the isotopic exchange and the complex dissociation have been computed; the isotopic branching ratio R=[HD2O+]∕[H2DO+] has also been obtained from MD simulations and found to deviate substantially from an equivalent prediction based on a previously proposed kinetic scheme. This finding suggests the possibility that details of the reaction dynamics play a role in defining the isotopic branching ratio. The analysis of trajectory results indicated a relatively long lifetime for the collisional complex and the presence of multiple time scales for the exchange process, with a large fraction of the exchange events being separated only by a single oxygen-oxygen vibration or half of it. The occurrence of these fast consecutive jumps and their different probabilities as a function of the relative direction between first and second jumps suggest the presence of ballistic motion in the complex following each reactive event. This can be explained on the basis of overlapping regions in phase space and it is used to provide an explanation of the difference between kinetic and MD branching ratios.
Hydrogen bonding definitions and dynamics in liquid water
Authors: Kumar R. , Schmidt J. R. , Skinner J. L.
Published: May 2007

X-ray and neutron diffractions, vibrational spectroscopy, and x-ray Raman scattering and absorption experiments on water are often interpreted in terms of hydrogen bonding. To this end a number of geometric definitions of hydrogen bonding in water have been developed. While all definitions of hydrogen bonding are to some extent arbitrary, those involving one distance and one angle for a given water dimer are unnecessarily so. In this paper the authors develop a systematic procedure based on two-dimensional potentials of mean force for defining cutoffs for a given pair of distance and angular coordinates. They also develop an electronic structure-based definition of hydrogen bonding in liquid water, related to the electronic occupancy of the antibonding OH orbitals. This definition turns out to be reasonably compatible with one of the distance-angle geometric definitions. These two definitions lead to an estimate of the number of hydrogen bonds per molecule in liquid simple point charge∕extended (SPC∕E) water of between 3.2 and 3.4. They also used these and other hydrogen-bond definitions to examine the dynamics of local hydrogen-bond number fluctuations, finding an approximate long-time decay constant for SPC∕E water of between 0.8 and 0.9ps, which corresponds to the time scale for local structural relaxation.
Optical measurement of the converse piezoelectric d33 coefficients of bulk and microtubular zinc oxide crystals
Authors: Fu John Y. , Liu Paris Y. , Cheng Jiping , Bhalla Amar S. , Guo Ruyan
Published: May 2007

Zinc oxide (ZnO) crystal is a semiconductor material; the direct measurement and the interpretation of its piezoelectric coefficients are challenging. In this letter, the authors investigate the piezoelectric properties (d33 coefficient) of a bulk ZnO sample by measuring its converse piezoelectric effect using an optical method. The experimental data agree with recent theoretical calculations. The piezoelectric properties of a ZnO hexagonal microtube, which has a highly symmetrical hexagonal tubular structure, are also studied. The results demonstrate that the microtubular ZnO has significantly different piezoelectric properties from that of ZnO bulk crystal, especially under the applied electric fields of low frequencies.
Ab initio study of magnetic interaction of Fe doped ZnO with intrinsic vacancies
Authors: Debernardi A. , Fanciulli M.
Published: May 2007

The authors report on the calculation, by density functional theory, of the total energy and of the magnetic properties of wurtzite ZnO doped with diluted Fe impurities in the presence of vacancies. They found that the complex FeZn–VZn—where the Zn vacancy (VZn) occupies the next nearest neighbor position to Fe atom—is energetically favored compared with the isolated FeZn and VZn. An opposite situation was obtained for FeZn and VO. For Zn-poor growth condition, the room temperature population of the FeZn–VZn complex provides a key to understand the magnetism of this system.
Field emission patterns from multiwall carbon nanotubes with a cone-shaped tip
Authors: Saito Yahachi , Tsujimoto Yuhki , Koshio Akira , Kokai Fumio
Published: May 2007

Electron emission from multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with a cone-shaped tip, on the apex of which five pentagons are present, has been studied by field emission microscopy (FEM). Two types of FEM patterns were observed: one is a well-defined “pentagon” pattern that is typically observed for ordinal multiwall CNTs though the number of pentagons is five in the case of cone-shaped CNTs, and the other is a “dim” pattern that is usually observed for single-wall CNTs. Appearance voltages of the respective patterns and transmission electron microscopy study of the cone-shaped CNTs suggest that the pentagon patterns originate from CNTs with apex radii larger than approximately 2nm while the dim patterns originate from those with the smaller apex radii.
Microwave steam torch
Authors: Uhm Han S. , Kim Jong H. , Hong Yong C.
Published: May 2007

Injecting steam into a discharge tube as a swirl gas at a temperature higher than 150°C, a pure steam torch powered by 2.45GHz microwaves is generated for various applications such as hydrogen production for fuel cells in the future vehicles. The steam torch is very stable and operates continuously. The temperature measurement of the torch exhibits two distinctive regions: a bright, whitish region of a high-temperature plasma zone and a reddish, dimmer region of a relatively low-temperature zone of hydrogen burning in oxygen, indicating efficient disintegration of water molecules, confirmed by analytical estimates and experimentally measured data.
Local quantum dot tuning on photonic crystal chips
Authors: Faraon Andrei , Englund Dirk , Fushman Ilya , Vučković Jelena , Stoltz Nick , Petroff Pierre
Published: May 2007

Quantum networks based on InAs quantum dots embedded in photonic crystal devices rely on quantum dots being in resonance with each other and with the cavities they are embedded in. The authors developed a technique based on temperature tuning to spectrally align different quantum dots located on the same chip. The technique allows for up to 1.8nm reversible on-chip quantum dot tuning.
Controlling the magnetic anisotropy of CoPt∕AlN multilayer films
Authors: Hodumi Y. , Shi J. , Nakamura Y.
Published: May 2007

The magnetic anisotropy of sputter-deposited CoPt∕AlN multilayer films has been studied in contrast with the multilayer films consisting of magnetic and noble metals. It has been found that the as-deposited multilayer film shows enhanced in-plane magnetic anisotropy compared with CoPt alloy film of equivalent thickness. However, upon thermal annealing in a vacuum, the film undergoes a smooth transition of magnetic anisotropy from in-plane to perpendicular direction; moreover, the anisotropy field and coercivity can be controlled by controlling the annealing temperature. Structural characterization has revealed that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of the annealed CoPt∕AlN multilayer films is mainly of magnetoelastic origin.
Analysis of structural changes in active site of luciferase adsorbed on nanofabricated hydrophilic Si surface by molecular-dynamics simulations
Authors: Nishiyama Katsuhiko , Hoshino Tadatsugu
Published: May 2007

Interactions between luciferase and a nanofabricated hydrophilic Si surface were explored by molecular-dynamics simulations. The structural changes in the active-site residues, the residues affecting the luciferin binding, and the residues affecting the bioluminescence color were smaller on the nanofabricated hydrophilic Si surface than on both a hydrophobic Si surface and a hydrophilic Si surface. The nanofabrication and wet-treatment techniques are expected to prevent the decrease in activity of luciferase on the Si surface.
Role of the exchange-correlation potential in ab initio electron transport calculations
Authors: Ke San-Huang , Baranger Harold U. , Yang Weitao
Published: May 2007

The effect of the exchange-correlation potential in ab initio electron transport calculations is investigated by constructing optimized effective potentials using different energy functionals or the electron density from second-order perturbation theory. The authors calculate electron transmission through two atomic chain systems, one with charge transfer and one without. Dramatic effects are caused by two factors: changes in the energy gap and the self-interaction error. The error in conductance caused by the former is about one order of magnitude while that caused by the latter ranges from several times to two orders of magnitude, depending on the coupling strength and charge transfer. The implications for accurate quantum transport calculations are discussed.
Fractal independently tunable multichannel filters
Authors: Wang Shao-Wei , Chen Xiaoshuang , Lu Wei , Li Ming , Wang Haiqian
Published: May 2007

A simple fractal rule has been presented in this letter for the construction of one-dimensional photonic crystals with orthogonal defect states, which can be used as independently tunable multichannel filters. Each channel of the filters can be tuned independently. It overcomes the difficulty and provides an easy way for the design of multichannel filter with specific channels. In order to prove the validity of such a fractal rule, a series of two-channel filters have been fabricated by using a low frequency magnetron sputtering system. The experimental results agree with theoretical ones very well.
Kelvin probe force microscopy study of surface potential transients in cleaved AlGaN∕GaN high electron mobility transistors
Authors: Kamiya S. , Iwami M. , Tsuchiya T. , Kurouchi M. , Kikawa J. , Yamada T. , Wakejima A. , Miyamoto H. , Suzuki A. , Hinoki A. , Araki T. , Nanishi Y.
Published: May 2007

The surface potential of cleaved cross sections of AlGaN∕GaN high electron mobility transistors was measured by Kelvin probe force microscopy. For the bias conditions of Vgs=−5V and Vds=20V, the electric field was concentrated near the GaN∕SiC interface under the gate and between the gate and drain electrodes. A negative potential that decreased over time was observed in the GaN layer beginning 10min after the bias stress was removed. The transient surface potential was found to be well described by an exponential dependence with two time constants: 11 and 55s.
BOLD Activation Varies Parametrically with Corner Angle Throughout Human Retinotopic Cortex
Authors: Troncoso Xoana G , Tse Peter U , Macknik Stephen L , Caplovitz Gideon P , Hsieh Po-Jang , Schlegel Alexander A , Otero-Millan Jorge , Martinez-Conde Susana
Published: May 2007

The Alternating Brightness Star (ABS) is an illusion that provides insight into the relationship between brightness perception and corner angle. Recent psychophysical studies of this illusion have shown that corner salience varies parametrically with corner angle, with sharp angles leading to strong illusory percepts and shallow angles leading to weak percepts. It is hypothesized that the illusory effects arise because of an interaction between surface corners and the shape of visual receptive fields: sharp surface corners may create hotspots of high local contrast due to processing by center–surround and other early receptive fields. If this hypothesis is correct, early visual neurons should respond powerfully to sharp corners and curved portions of surface edges. Indeed, the primary role of early visual neurons may be to localize the discontinuities along the edges of surfaces. If so, all early visual areas should show greater BOLD responses to sharp corners than to shallow corners. On the other hand, if corner processing is exclusively constrained to certain areas of the brain, only those specific areas will show greater responses to sharp vs shallow corners. To address this we explored the BOLD correlates of the ABS illusion in the human visual cortex using fMRI. We found that BOLD signal varies parametrically with corner angle throughout the visual cortex, offering the first neurophysiological correlates of the ABS illusion. This finding provides a neurophysiological basis for the previously reported psychophysical data that showed that corner salience varied parametrically with corner angle. We propose that all early visual areas localize discontinuities along the edges of surfaces, and that specific cortical corner-processing circuits further establish the specific nature of those discontinuities, such as their orientation.
Spatial Definitions of the City: Four Perspectives
Authors: Parr John B.
Published: May 2007

The extent of the city is important in a number of respects, not least in relation to the question of city size, an issue of considerable significance in urban and regional analysis. Four definitions of the city are considered here. The first involves the city as a physical entity, or the area devoted to primarily urban uses. This Built City (BC) is perhaps the most familiar perception of the city, largely because it is relatively easy to visualise. The BC forms the core or basis of each of the other three definitions of the city. These are as follows: the Consumption City (an area within which most of the consumption of goods and services occurs in the BC); the Employment City (an area in which the bulk of the employed workforce works in the BC); and the Workforce City (an area upon which the BC draws for a given majority of its labour requirements). These four definitions of the city are brought together and shown to be interrelated.
Families in Flats, Revisited
Authors: Appold Stephen , Yuen Belinda
Published: May 2007

High-rise flats occupy an ambiguous position in contemporary discussions of urbanism. While allowing for densely populated walking environments, they are widely seen as culturally inappropriate and, whether based on theories of life cycle or lifestyle, especially unsuitable for families with children. Despite the frequent discussion, empirical research into the impact of housing on daily life is rare and, because of strong selection effects, lacks generalisability. The high-rise flats of Singapore provide the opportunity for a natural experiment isolating the impact of neighbourhood density from domestic density in that the prevalence of high-rises with large flats makes it possible to isolate the treatment effects of apartment living on families from the selection effects of housing choice. On the basis of comparisons of adult time-use diaries across household types and societies, it is concluded that the direct effect of apartment living on families is minimal. Nevertheless, planning and management issues along with broader economic and fertility trends will probably moderate any potential movement of families into flats.
Is High-rise Housing Innovative? Developers' Contradictory Narratives of High-rise Housing in Melbourne
Authors: Fincher Ruth
Published: May 2007

The appearance in inner Melbourne in the past decade of high-rise residential buildings for middle- and upper-income households has been contrasted with previous periods when such buildings were for public housing tenants. Drawing on the narratives of high-rise developers and planners about these new buildings, the paper demonstrates an inconsistency between their claims that the housing is socially innovative and their expectations that the choices of housing consumers to live in high-rise housing will conform to longstanding stereotypes. Whilst they claim to be identifying a new group of housing consumers—'empty nesters'-and to be satisfying their needs, in fact the high-rise developers' views of this group are premised on conventional and taken-for-granted views of the relationship between certain life-stages and certain housing forms.
Surveillance in Urban Japan: A Critical Introduction
Authors: Murakami Wood David , Lyon David , Abe Kiyoshi
Published: May 2007

This paper provides a critical introduction to the development of surveillance in the Japanese city. Adapting the analytical scheme of understanding, intensifying, automating, integrating, globalising and resisting surveillance, it considers whether the historical and contemporary development of Japanese urban surveillance fits the narrative of Western surveillance studies. It shows that there are many interlinked and parallel evolutions, particularly in the context of shared global fears of urban terrorism and crime. However, Japan's history, governance, urban morphology and sociocultural evolution provide a particular context, which means that surveillance in urban Japan must be considered not just in comparison with the West, but in its own right.
Confined Contact: Residential Segregation and Ethnic Bridges in the Netherlands
Authors: Laan Bouma-Doff Wenda van der
Published: May 2007

In Dutch integration policy, ethnic concentration is assumed to have negative effects on the integration of ethnic minorities, the most important cause being the lack of contact with native Dutch. Although research on concentration effects has increased, empirical evidence to support this isolation thesis is still insufficient. This paper contributes by testing the assumption that ethnic concentration hinders the existence of ethnic bridges-i.e. the informal ties between ethnic minorities and native Dutch. Moreover, it checks for different effects for deprived and non-deprived households. Findings indicate that one's neighbourhood plays a significant role in social inclusion into Dutch society and that this effect is stronger for the non-deprived.
Impact of Proximity to Light Rail Rapid Transit on Station-area Property Values in Buffalo, New York
Authors: Hess Daniel Baldwin , Almeida Tangerine Maria
Published: May 2007

This study assesses the impact of proximity to light rail transit stations on residential property values in Buffalo, New York, where light rail has been in service for 20 years, but population is declining and ridership is decreasing. Hedonic models are constructed of assessed value for residential properties within half a mile of 14 light rail stations and independent variables are included that describe property characteristics, neighbourhood characteristics and locational amenities. The model suggests that, for homes located in the study area, every foot closer to a light rail station increases average property values by $2.31 (using geographical straight-line distance) and $0.99 (using network distance). Consequently, a home located within one-quarter of a mile radius of a light rail station can earn a premium of $1300-3000, or 2-5 per cent of the city's median home value. Model results further suggest that three independent variables-the number of bathrooms, size of the parcel and location on the East side or West side of Buffalo-are more influential than rail proximity in predicting property values. Individual regression models for each of the light rail system's 14 stations suggest that effects are not felt evenly throughout the system. Proximity effects are positive in high-income station areas and negative in low-income station areas. An analysis of the actual walking distance to stations (along the street network) versus the perceived proximity to stations (measured by straight-line distance) reveals that the results are statistically more significant in the network distance than the straight-line distance model, but the effects are greater in the straight-line distance model, which suggests that apparent proximity to rail stations is an added locational advantage compared with physical walking distance to the station.
Time-Dependent Airway Epithelial and Inflammatory Cell Responses Induced by Influenza Virus A/PR/8/34 in C57BL/6 Mice
Authors: Buchweitz John P. , Harkema Jack R. , Kaminski Norbert E.
Published: May 2007

The present study examines the kinetics of airway epithelial remodeling and inflammation in the airways of C57BL/6J mice infected with influenza virus A/PR/8/34 (PR8). Mice were intranasally instilled with 50 plaque forming units (pfu) of virus or its respective vehicle, saline, and then were sacrificed at 3, 7, 10, 15, or 21 days postinfection (dpi). PR8 treatment resulted in airway epithelial cell regeneration as suggested by proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) positive staining at 7 and 10 dpi and mucous cell metaplasia (MCM) evident at 10, 15, and 21 dpi. PR8 treatment resulted in a classic pattern of inflammation observed in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), in which neutrophils peaked at 3 and 7 dpi and monocytes, lymphocytes, and eosinophils peaked at 10 dpi before returning to background levels of detection. Chemokine (MCP-1) and cytokine (IL-6, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-5, IL-4, and IL-9) levels peaked at 7 dpi in BALF. IL-13 levels were unaffected by PR8 treatment. Concurrent with inflammation, MUC5AC gene expression was markedly increased by PR8 treatment at 7 dpi. Collectively, the results of this study indicate that the onset of MCM in airway epithelium occurs during the remodeling process and persists after the inflammatory response has diminished.
The phonological store abandoned
Authors: Jones Dylan M. , Hughes Robert W. , Macken William J.
Published: May 2007

Baddeley and Larsen (2007) argue that a number of key findings reported by Jones, Macken, and Nicholls (2004) and Jones, Hughes, and Macken (2006) pointing to shortcomings of the phonological store construct arise from the store being abandoned with long lists. In our rejoinder we point out that Baddeley and Larsen use a procedure in which retrieval from the supposed phonological storage would not—according to their own theory—have been possible, and we present theoretical, empirical, and logical problems with their “store abandonment” argument and highlight a number of difficulties associated with the interpretation of suffix and prefix effects. We conclude that our data are still problematic for the phonological store construct and suggest that a reformulation of short-term memory theory needs to embody (or indeed focus exclusively upon) perceptual and effector systems rather than bespoke storage modules.
Cue–task associations in task switching
Authors: Gade Miriam , Koch Iring
Published: May 2007

Cognitive flexibility can be studied using the task-switching paradigm. This paradigm requires subjects to adapt behaviour to changing contexts as indicated by a cue. In our study, we addressed the question of how cue-based implementation of mental “task sets” occurs. We assumed that cues build up associations to the tasks that they indicate. These associations lead to retrieval of the associated task set once the cue shows up again. In three experiments, we tested this assumption using a negative transfer paradigm. First participants were exposed to one cue–task mapping. After a training phase, the cue–task mapping changed in either of two ways. Whereas one group of participants got new cues, the other experienced a reversal of the learnt cue–task mapping. Our results show that participants build up cue–task associations and that these formerly learnt associations can hamper the implementation of new cue–task mappings (particular with mapping reversal). Prolonged preparation time decreased the cost of changing the cue–task mapping but did not change the overall pattern of results.
The Field Trip and Its Role in Teaching Ritual
Authors: Pinault David
Published: May 2007

This chapter describes the author's efforts to navigate naïve students through the rich diversity of religion in Silicon Valley, while enabling them to encounter the real people behind the exotic facades. Along the way the chapter's author recites some of the poetry that resulted from 19th-century encounters of the strange and the human.
The Camp Meeting and the Paradoxes of Evangelical Protestant Ritual
Authors: Taves Ann
Published: May 2007

This chapter addresses the problem of teaching ritual in relation to historically anti-ritualistic traditions that developed ritual forms of their own, specifically, Protestantism in America. The chapter's author begins by describing how she would revise a course that she has frequently taught to include more discussion of the issues at stake in the ritualism critique and reformulation. In developing the interplay between these modes of religiosity, she focuses on the revivalist camp meetings as described in the memoirs of a 19th-century Methodist. In lieu of any classroom performance of their own, her graduate students experience the first-person descriptions of a remarkable eyewitness by reading the rich observations and interpretations of a participant who is cognizant of the subtle reformulations taking place at every stage.
Ritual from Five Angles: A Tool for Teaching
Authors: Strathern Andrew , Stewart Pamela J.
Published: May 2007

Since its inception in 1987, The Journal of Ritual Studies, has published many seminal articles on the definition, recognition, and interpretation of ritual practices. The journal's approach has been interdisciplinary from the start, enriching the scope of contributions and broadening the base of conversations about theory. Its corpus of contributions can be a useful resource for teaching ritual, and this chapter demonstrates how this potential can be realized, using five articles from recent issues analyzed at a graduate or upper-level undergraduate level. The five articles chosen for this task all consider current themes in religious studies, ritual studies, and anthropological studies: the local and the global; ritual and invention; performance and performativity; embodiment and communication; and ritual and human consciousness.
Teaching Healing Rituals/Ritual Healing
Authors: Sered Susan S. , Barnes Linda L.
Published: May 2007

This chapter deals with one of the earliest and most ubiquitous forms of ritual activity in the human record: seeking the aid of a greater power in a quest for healing. Because of the enormity of the topic and the importance of keeping their students' experiences in mind, the authors developed a cross-cultural typology as an tool for organizing the key analytic features of ritual healing for individual and collective illness. Using the pedagogical exercises this typology affords, students discover nearly universal ritual strategies and motivations.
Wandering from “Hills to Valleys” with the Goddess: Protection and Freedom in the Matamma Tradition of Andhra
Authors: Flueckiger Joyce Burkhalter
Published: May 2007

This chapter explores the ways that South Indian Hindu women expand the boundaries of domesticity through a ritual alliance between women and the goddess Gangamma. In many Indian contexts, marriage is understood to be the quintessential domestic institution, serving most often to curtail significantly women's freedom and agency in the public sphere. A form of marriage which is socially liberating for Hindu women is considered — a form of ritual marriage that women may enact with Gangamma. When illness strikes in villages around the pilgrimage town of Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh — especially illnesses of poxes, rashes, and high fevers associated with the hot season and particular village goddesses — little girls may be offered to the goddess Gangamma in exchange for the latter's protection and healing. When these girls reach puberty, they exchange talis (wedding necklaces) with the goddess and are considered married to her. Their alliance with the goddess, formalized by the ritualized exchange of talis, affords them protection, freedom of movement, and agency outside the domestic sphere.
Threshold Designs, Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals
Authors: Nagarajan Vijaya Rettakudi
Published: May 2007

This chapter explores the ways that women's religious practices cross boundaries and traverse thresholds, and emphasizes continuity and overlap between private and public domains. The focus is on the relationship between kolams – auspicious designs that women create daily at their domiciles' thresholds, and pottus – the auspicious red dots that adorn Tamil women's foreheads. It is argued that the kolam and the pottu are parallel ritual expressions that embody larger Hindu cultural values, especially auspiciousness and inauspiciousness, purity and pollution. Both kolam and pottu mark thresholds, those of the home and the body, and function to mark spatial and temporal transformations: from auspicious to inauspicious times or pure to impure ones, as in the erasure of the pottu; and the absence of kolam production during menstruation and their reappearance following the period of menses. Pottu and kolam both embody the status of married women as auspicious householders, a status that is rooted in their domestic location, but both send that auspiciousness forth beyond the domestic threshold into the larger communities in which female Hindu householders are situated.
Does Tantric Ritual Empower Women?
Authors: McDaniel June
Published: May 2007

This chapter explores the ritual practices of women active in tantric traditions in West Bengal. These female tantrikas tend to reject the traditional domestic values associated with women's householder rituals, emphasizing instead ritual practices allied more closely with renunciation and its goals. In this context, renunciation is highly valued in women, as it is in men, while sexuality returns a woman to the sphere of traditional domesticity where she takes on the role of supporter and helper of a man rather than the role of individual seeker. Hence, the world of female tantric ritual challenges the connection between domesticity and women's ritual practices predominant in other contexts.
Religion and the New Immigrants
Authors: Foley Michael W. , Hoge Dean R.
Published: May 2007

This book assesses the role of local worship communities — churches, mosques, temples, and others — in promoting civic engagement among recent immigrants to the United States. The product of a three-year study of immigrant worship communities in the Washington, D.C. area, the study looked at churches, mosques, temples, and other communities of immigrants from Korea, China, India, West Africa, the Muslim world, and El Salvador. The researchers surveyed 200 of these communities and studied twenty in depth. Communities vary widely in how much they build social capital, provide social services to immigrants, develop the civic skills of members, and shape immigrants' identities. Local leadership and group characteristics much more than ethnic origin or religious tradition shape the level and kind of civic engagement that the communities foster. Particularly, where leaders are civically engaged, they provide personal and organizational links to the wider American society and promote civic engagement by members. Homeland causes and a strong sense of religious and ethnic identity, far from alienating immigrants from American society, promote higher levels of civic engagement in immigrant communities.
Building Civic Skills
Authors: Foley Michael W. , Hoge Dean R.
Published: May 2007

Most communities encourage lay involvement in worship and leadership, thereby teaching civic skills. Smaller Protestant churches, Hindu ashrams, Sikh congregations, and even some activist Catholic parishes do this well. Some communities engage in direct training in civic skills, through literacy and English classes, naturalization and citizenship classes, discussion groups and forums, and programs to promote greater civic awareness. Lay and religious leadership is often crucial to mobilizing members around homeland causes or immigrant issues, and encouraging immigrants to exercise their civic skills in such causes.
Who We Are
Authors: Foley Michael W. , Hoge Dean R.
Published: May 2007

Immigrant worship communities help forge a sense of identity among participants, but that identity may be religious or ethnic, both at once, or a combination of the two. Most immigrants develop multiple identities. At the same time, worship communities sometimes struggle over the particular identity they represent, as when African or Hindu groups divide into ethnically differentiated worship communities. In the case of many area mosques, an overarching religious identity brings together immigrants from a variety of national and ethnic backgrounds, and even religious traditions within Islam. Leaders often call upon either ethnic or religious identities in mobilizing members of their communities for political action.
Belindia Goes to Washington: The Brazilian Economy after the Reforms
Authors: Vernengo Matias
Published: May 2007

This chapter discusses the effects of the reforms on macroeconomic performance, growth, employment, wage differentials, income distribution, and poverty in Brazil. The results are compared with recent evaluations of the effects of the reforms in other Latin American countries. The effects of the debt crisis and the move toward reforms are discussed, followed by an analysis of the growth performance of the Brazilian economy, before and after the reforms. The effects of reforms on the labor market, income distribution, and poverty are examined.
Vietnam: External Liberalization, Structural Change, Economic Growth, and Income Distribution
Authors: Tu Packard Le Anh
Published: May 2007

This chapter examines the macroeconomic performance and structural evolution of the Vietnamese economy following the reforms launched by the government in 1989. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 identifies the policy phases and major themes of the post-war period. Section 3 provides a broad historical overview of the Vietnamese post-war economy. Section 4 reviews the state of the Vietnamese economy under the centrally planned/“subsidy” period prior to the launching of the “big bang” reforms. Section 5 describes Doi Moi and the country's socio-economic performance from 1989 to 1993. Section 6 describes the more hesitant post-crisis policy stance period from 1994 to 1997, which witnessed a recovery of state finances, and the slower growth phase from 1998 to 2000 characterized by a sharp drop in foreign direct investment associated with the regional financial crisis. Section 7 analyzes shifts in the sources of effective demand. Section 8 analyzes productivity shifts and the decomposition of employment, and relates it to income distribution outcomes. Section 9 reviews social welfare and social policy issues associated with the Doi Moi reforms. Section 10 discusses what may be anticipated in the second phase of external liberalization, and Section 11 makes a conlusion.
Getting Locked In
Authors: Binmore Ken
Published: May 2007

This chapter uses the Prisoner's Dilemma as the linking idea in an overview of many of the topics covered later in the book. The basic ideas are that of a dominated strategy and a Pareto-efficient outcome. Various fallacies that promote the latter notion over the former are considered. At the same time, the chapter introduces problems in the private provision of public goods, the economic theory of imperfect competition, repeated games, the tragedy of the commons, and mechanism design. The idea of a Nash equilibrium is introduced.
Taking Chances
Authors: Binmore Ken
Published: May 2007

This chapter shows how risk can be introduced into the rules of a game by admitting chance moves. The Monty Hall problem is offered as an example. Elementary probability theory is reviewed, and random variables are explained in terms of lottery tickets. The games of Duel and Parcheesi are analyzed as non-trivial examples of games with chance moves.
Planning Ahead
Authors: Binmore Ken
Published: May 2007

This chapter consolidates the ideas necessary to understand the strategic form of a game. Payoff functions are introduced, and strategic forms of versions of Duel and Russian Roulette illustrate the idea. Matrices and vectors are reviewed because of their use with payoff matrices. Strong and weak domination are defined. The iterated deletion of dominated strategies is illustrated using the game of Duel. The iterated deletion of dominated strategies is related to backward induction. Problems of credibility and commitment are discussed in the context of subgame-perfect equilibria in simple Cournot and Stackelberg games. The application of subgame-perfect equilibria is discussed when players may only be boundedly rational.
Mixing Things Up
Authors: Binmore Ken
Published: May 2007

This chapter develops the idea of a mixed strategy using the entry into a sealed-bid auction as a non-trivial example. Reaction curves are first illustrated for the case of pure strategies and then applied to computing mixed Nash equilibria. The Hawk-Dove Game is equivalent either to the Prisoner's Dilemma or Chicken, depending on parameter values. The mixed-strategy reaction curves are plotted in each case. The interpretation of mixed Nash equilibria as polymorphic equilibria in a game played by a large population is considered. The matrix algebra necessary for handling mixed strategies is reviewed and illustrated with O'Neill's Card Game. Convexity ideas are reviewed and applied to the geometric representation of mixed strategies. Cooperative and noncooperative payoff regions are introduced and illustrated using Chicken and the Battle of the Sexes. Correlated equilibria are introduced after a discussion of self-policing agreements, cheap talk, and preplay randomization. The possibility of correlation without a referee using techniques from cryptography is discussed.
Getting the Message
Authors: Binmore Ken
Published: May 2007

This chapter explains how game theory treats problems of knowledge and information. The knowledge and possibility operators are defined and related to the idea of an information set in games. The idea of perfect recall is introduced and shown to imply that mixed strategies can be simplified to behavioral strategies. The subject of common knowledge is discussed at length, including Aumann's result on when players may agree to disagree. The chapter ends with a discussion of David Lewis's claim that common knowledge is necessary for coordinated action, in which an alternative analysis of Rubinstein's Email Game is offered.
Seeking Refinement
Authors: Binmore Ken
Published: May 2007

This chapter offers a critical review of attempts to refine the idea of a Nash equilibrium. It begins by reiterating the arguments against a naïve interpretation of subgame-perfect equilibria using Selten's Chain-Store Game as an example. It then introduces assessment equilibria as a simplified version of Kreps and Wilson's sequential equilibrium. The idea is then used to analyze a boundedly rational version of the Centipede Game. Two signaling games — the Burning Money Game and Quiche — are used to discuss forward induction and the intuitive criterion, both of which are found wanting. The chapter ends with a brief discussion of rationalizability, which is a coarsening of the Nash equilibrium concept.
Getting Together
Authors: Binmore Ken
Published: May 2007

This chapter introduces cooperative game theory by examining the axiomatic theory of two-person bargaining problems. The link between cooperative and noncooperative game theory is first explained in terms of the Nash program. The idea of a cooperative payoff region is then developed for use in applied contexts. The Coase theorem is explained for the case of a Nash bargaining problem. A variant of the Nash bargaining solution with both a breakdown point and a deadlock point is described. A proof of Nash's axiomatic bargaining theorem is offered. The Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining solution and the Walrasian bargaining solution are offered as alternatives to Nash's solution.
Cutting a Deal
Authors: Binmore Ken
Published: May 2007

This chapter examines noncooperative bargaining models and links them with cooperative bargaining concepts in accordance with the Nash program. Following a discussion of what matters in real-life bargaining, the case in which commitment is possible is studied using the Nash Demand Game. It is shown that a Nash equilibrium of the smoothed version of the Nash Demand Game implements the Nash bargaining solution. Nash threat games are then considered with an application to collusion in Cournot models. The case in which commitment is impossible is considered. Rubinbstein's bargaining model is introduced using one-stage and two-stage Ultimatum Games to set the scene. Rubinstein's theorem that his model has a unique subgame-perfect equilibrium is proved. The outcome is shown to converge on an asymmetric version of the Nash bargaining solution when the time interval between successive proposals becomes sufficiently small. The chapter ends with a discussion of common mistakes in applying the theory.
Teaming Up
Authors: Binmore Ken
Published: May 2007

This chapter offers a brief survey of the theory of coalition formation introduced by Von Neumann and Morgenstern. The coalitional form of a game is defined and discussed. The idea of the core of a game is explained, together with its application to Walrasian equilibria. The Condorcet paradox is used in the game Odd-Man-Out to illustrate the myopia attributed to players by the core concept. This serves as an introduction to the idea of a Von Neumann and Morgenstern stable set. The Three-Cake Game is used to illustrate both the core, stable sets, and the Shapley value. The progress made in applying the Nash program in this area — for example, to the case of one seller and several buyers — is reviewed.
Crossing the Ethnic Divide
Authors: Garces-Foley Kathleen
Published: May 2007

While religious communities often stress the universal nature of their beliefs, it remains true that people choose to worship alongside those they identify with most easily. Multiethnic churches are rare in the United States, but as American attitudes toward diversity change, so too does the appeal of a church that offers diversity. Joining such a community, however, is uncomfortable — worshippers must literally cross the barriers of ethnic difference by entering the religious space of the ethnically “other”. Using the story of one multiethnic congregation in Southern California, this book examines what it means to confront the challenges in forming a religious community across ethnic divisions and attracting a more varied membership.