Growing up in a Pastoral Society. Socialisation among Pashtu Nomads in Western Afghanistan

For many reasons, publication of this description and analysis of the socialisation process among the Pashtu nomads of western Afghanistan is considerably overdue. The fieldwork was carried out already in the late 1970s. The present booklet grew out of an article originally written fo an edited book that finally became too long and was withdrawn. Once again, it took a long time to partly rewrite and expand it. Nevertheless, even some thirty years after the fieldwork, I think that the data presented here are still valid for three reasons: First, it can be supposed that many of the patterns in the way in which children grow up in a Pashtu nomad camp in western Afghanistan have not changed dramatically - despite the terrible events and socio-political changes that the country has gone through since 1979. Second, even if these dramatic changes have influenced and altered many or some of the values and norms on which the socialisation process is grounded, the information presented here can be understood as a document describing how it was "once upon a time". Finally, the information might also be useful for future cross-cultural and comparative studies on the socialisation process in different societies because very little information is available on nomadic pastoral societies. The fieldwork in Afghanistan, sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG), to which we are most grateful, was carried out together with Bernt Glatzer over a period of about ten months during the winter of 1975/76 and the summer of 1977 in the districts of Bala Boluk (Farah Rud) and Shindand in the province of Farah. The data analysed and communicated here were collected either personally, or, because our language capacities were not good enough for more detailed interviews and discussions, through the assistance of our friends and counterparts Mohammad Saber, Hedayat Hedayatullah and Mohammad Azim Safi who also helped us in many other ways. We are most grateful to all three of them. The transcription of Pashtu terms follows the rules of the "Library of Congress" with the exception of persons' names for which diacritical signs are not used

The general relativistic infinite plane

Uniform fields are one of the simplest and most pedagogically useful examples in introductory courses on electrostatics or Newtonian gravity. In general relativity there have been several proposals as to what constitutes a uniform field. In this article we examine two metrics that can be considered the general relativistic version of the infinite plane with finite mass per unit area. The first metric is the 4D version of the 5D "brane" world models which are the starting point for many current research papers. The second case is the cosmological domain wall metric. We examine to what extent these different metrics match or deviate from our Newtonian intuition about the gravitational field of an infinite plane. These solutions provide the beginning student in general relativity both computational practice and conceptual insight into Einstein's field equations. In addition they do this by introducing the student to material that is at the forefront of current research.Comment: Accepted for publication in the American Journal of Physic

‘Closing the Gap’ at the Peril of Widening the Void: Implications of the Ontario Ministry of Education’s Policy for Aboriginal Education

There is a crisis relevant to the publicly funded education of Aboriginal students in Ontar‐ io. This article, which presents the details of the crisis, analyzes recent policy statements released by the Ontario Ministry of Education designed to address that crisis. By defining the nature of this critical juncture, presenting how these policies may be “widening the void” rather than “closing the gap,” and offering opportunities to respond by improving the capabilities of teachers to enact those policies in their classrooms, the authors appeal to school boards, faculty associations, as well as Deans of Education, to act decisively to sup‐ port Aboriginal self‐determination. Key words: Aboriginal student achievement, Aboriginal languages and student identity, teacher education Une crise sévit en ce moment au sujet de l’enseignement autochtone en Ontario financée à même les deniers publics. Dans cet article, les auteurs décrivent les détails de la crise et analysent des énoncés de politique récents du ministère de l’Éducation de l’Ontario visant à dénouer la crise. Tout en se penchant sur la nature même de ce problème épineux, en expli‐ quant comment ces politiques risquent de « creuser le vide » au lieu de « combler l’écart » et en offrant des possibilités de réponse par l’amélioration des capacités des enseignants de mettre ces politiques en application dans leurs classes, les auteurs font appel aux commis‐ sions scolaires, aux associations universitaires et aux doyens d’éducation afin qu’ils sou‐ tiennent activement l’autodétermination des autochtones. Mots clés : réussite des élèves autochtones, langues autochtones et identité des élèves, for‐ mation à l’enseignement.

Interface-mediated interactions: Entropic forces of curved membranes

Particles embedded in a fluctuating interface experience forces and torques mediated by the deformations and by the thermal fluctuations of the medium. Considering a system of two cylinders bound to a fluid membrane we show that the entropic contribution enhances the curvature-mediated repulsion between the two cylinders. This is contrary to the usual attractive Casimir force in the absence of curvature-mediated interactions. For a large distance between the cylinders, we retrieve the renormalization of the surface tension of a flat membrane due to thermal fluctuations.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; final version, as appeared in Phys. Rev.

Resonant cavity photon creation via the dynamical Casimir effect

Motivated by a recent proposal for an experimental verification of the dynamical Casimir effect, the macroscopic electromagnetic field within a perfect cavity containing a thin slab with a time-dependent dielectric permittivity is quantized in terms of the dual potentials. For the resonance case, the number of photons created out of the vacuum due to the dynamical Casimir effect is calculated for both polarizations (TE and TM). PACS: 42.50.Lc, 03.70.+k, 42.50.Dv, 42.60.Da.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Dyskeratosis congenita and the DNA damage response

Dyskeratosis congenita (DC) is a heterogeneous bone marrow failure disorder with known mutations in components of telomerase and telomere shelterin. Recent work in a mouse model with a dyskerin mutation has implicated an increased DNA damage response as part of the cellular pathology, while mouse models with Terc and Tert mutations displayed a normal response. To clarify how these contradictory results might apply to DC pathology in humans, we studied the cellular phenotype in primary cells from DC patients of several genetic subtypes, focussing on T lymphocytes to remain close to the haematopoietic system. We observed novel cell cycle abnormalities in conjunction with impaired growth and an increase in apoptosis. Using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy we examined induction of the DNA damage proteins γ-H2AX and 53BP1 and the cell cycle protein TP53 (p53). We found an increase in damage foci at telomeres in lymphocytes and an increase in the basal level of DNA damage in fibroblasts, but crucially no increased response to DNA damaging agents in either cell type. As the response to induced DNA damage was normal and levels of global DNA damage were inconsistent between cell types, DNA damage may contribute differently to the pathology in different tissues

Stiction, Adhesion Energy and the Casimir Effect in Micromechanical Systems

We measure the adhesion energy of gold using a micromachined doubly-clamped beam. The stress and stiffness of the beam are characterized by measuring the spectrum of mechanical vibrations and the deflection due to an external force. To determine the adhesion energy we induce stiction between the beam and a nearby surface by capillary forces. Subsequent analysis yields a value $\gamma =0.06$ J/m$^{2}$ that is a factor of approximately six smaller than predicted by idealized theory. This discrepancy may be resolved with revised models that include surface roughness and the effect of adsorbed monolayers intervening between the contacting surfaces in these mesoscopic structures.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 4 eps figure

Could dark energy be measured in the lab?

The experimentally measured spectral density of current noise in Josephson junctions provides direct evidence for the existence of zero-point fluctuations. Assuming that the total vacuum energy associated with these fluctuations cannot exceed the presently measured dark energy of the universe, we predict an upper cutoff frequency of nu_c=(1.69 +- 0.05) x 10^12 Hz for the measured frequency spectrum of zero-point fluctuations in the Josephson junction. The largest frequencies that have been reached in the experiments are of the same order of magnitude as nu_c and provide a lower bound on the dark energy density of the universe. It is shown that suppressed zero-point fluctuations above a given cutoff frequency can lead to 1/f noise. We propose an experiment which may help to measure some of the properties of dark energy in the lab.Comment: Replaced by final version accepted by Phys. Lett. B. 5 pages, 1 figure. additional text on the physical interpretation of the measured noise spectrum in Fig.1, more references added, Title has slightly change