Conquered Populations in Early Islam

This book traces the journey of new Muslims as they joined the early Islamic community and articulated their identities within it. It focuses on Muslims of slave origins, who belonged to the society in which they lived but whose slave background rendered them somehow alien. How did these Muslims at the crossroads of insider and outsider find their place in early Islamic society? How did Islamic society itself change to accommodate these new members? By analysing how these liminal Muslims resolved the tension between belonging and otherness, Conquered Populations in Early Islam reveals the shifting boundaries of the early Islamic community and celebrates the dynamism of Islamic history

The Evolution of Revolution: The Dilemma of Censorship and Fifth Generation Filmmakers

China’s Fifth Generation Filmmakers brought forth a burst of transformative cinema, but it could not be done without the strong historical antecedents of cultural turmoil and official censorship steered by the singular political course of the Chinese Communist Party. This group of filmmakers, particularly Chen Kaige (b. 1952), Tian Zhuangzhuang (b. 1952), and Zhang Yimou (b. 1951), produced a national cinema that was defined by censorship. It became their dilemma to define a course within the confines of censorship that not only absorbed the duality of censorship, which serves to both condemn and to promote, but also defied and altered that course to serve their own purposes. Their films became experiments at resolving this dilemma. Each filmmaker focused on his own unique way of recanting censorship boundaries, but together they brought Chinese cinema to the forefront of world attention. Unfortunately, this legacy served to entrap them in a self-censorship of expectations. They have found it difficult to progress beyond their own achievements as they continue to face a double standard of censorship both by their government and by national critics who decry their work as biased by Orientalism and Westernization. Their circumscription by censorship is complete and unprecedented

The Role of Sensory Feedback on the Coordination Dynamics of a Limb and a Voice Task

Although it is generally acknowledged that sensory feedback is required to fine tune movement patterns, its role in coordinative dynamics has received less attention. Experiment 1 investigated the role of visual and auditory feedback on 0º and 180º relative phase patterns at increasing frequency of oscillation for a bimanual limb task. The dependent variables were mean error of relative phase and standard deviation of relative phase. Results indicated that the visual and auditory feedback conditions did not influence the accuracy and the variability in performance of the 2 relative phase patterns, whereas increasing frequency influenced the performance of the 180º relative phase pattern, but not the 0º relative phase pattern. Experiment 2 investigated the role of auditory feedback on breathy, normal, and pressed voice qualities at increasing fundamental frequency for a voice coordination task. The dependent variables were mean of laryngeal resistance (cmH2O/l/s) and standard deviation of laryngeal resistance (cmH2O/l/s). Results indicated that the masked auditory feedback condition significantly increased variability in performance across all 3 voice qualities and specifically, the masked auditory feedback condition facilitated significantly higher mean laryngeal resistance values for the pressed voice quality but not for the breathy and the normal voice qualities. As a potential explanation of the current findings in Experiment 1, it is hypothesized that the bimanual coordination task did not rely on visual and auditory feedback because the task was governed by proprioceptive feedback, which was not controlled in the present study. For Experiment 2, sensory feedback may be relevant for voice patterns that have a shallow basin of attraction (i.e., pressed voice), but irrelevant for voice patterns that have a steep basin of attraction (i.e., breathy and normal voice). Perhaps the breathy and normal voice qualities were governed by voice coordination dynamics, while the pressed voice quality was partly influenced by auditory feedback connections. In addition, level of expertise may also play a role in the coordination dynamics of a voice task. The influence of auditory feedback on voice coordination dynamics suggests an expanded view of dynamic systems theory and supports the role of auditory feedback in vocal rehabilitation

Conquered Populations in Early Islam

This book traces the journey of new Muslims as they joined the early Islamic community and articulated their identities within it. It focuses on Muslims of slave origins, who belonged to the society in which they lived but whose slave background rendered them somehow alien. How did these Muslims at the crossroads of insider and outsider find their place in early Islamic society? How did Islamic society itself change to accommodate these new members? By analysing how these liminal Muslims resolved the tension between belonging and otherness, Conquered Populations in Early Islam reveals the shifting boundaries of the early Islamic community and celebrates the dynamism of Islamic history

A Study of Michael Fordham's Model of Development: An Integration of Observation, Research and Clinical Work

This portfolio of published work represents a discourse on Michael Fordham's model of development that extended Jung's theory to infancy and childhood. The papers were published over two decades and indicate how infant research, ideas from related fields and the author's own clinical and observational work have contributed to her understanding of development. The framework for her thinking has throughout been Fordham's model. In this essay the author contends that what she has learned from research and her own experience adds new contributions to the model, based on data for the most part not available to Fordham. The portfolio of papers is introduced by an essay comprising Part I. It begins with an account of the author's professional life and clinical experience pertinent to the study. Next there is a substantial section on Fordham ' s theoretical model and links he established with Kleinian and post-Kleinian thought. This exposition is followed by a section on the main sources for the author's work. Following this she proposes five areas that she considers to be her original contributions to the model: identifying and defining the features of massive surges of deintegration in the first year; identifying a period of primary self functioning; new considerations concerning the active participation of the infant in development; identifying precursors to projective and introjective identification, and symbol formation. Part II contains nine papers, virtually all of which are theoretical and include clinical work and infant research and observation. They are divided into three sections: 'Theory ', which are predominantly theoretical and ain1ed at making a theoretical point; 'Exp lications ', which aim to elucidate concepts and dynamics comprising the model; and 'Extensions', which are those papers explicitly or implicitly containing the author's new links and ideas that add form and content to the model

Important Considerations in Plasmon-Enhanced Electrochemical Conversion at Voltage-Biased Electrodes.

In this perspective we compare plasmon-enhanced electrochemical conversion (PEEC) with photoelectrochemistry (PEC). PEEC is the oxidation or reduction of a reactant at the illuminated surface of a plasmonic metal (or other conductive material) while a potential bias is applied. PEC uses solar light to generate photoexcited electron-hole pairs to drive an electrochemical reaction at a biased or unbiased semiconductor photoelectrode. The mechanism of photoexcitation of charge carriers is different between PEEC and PEC. Here we explore how this difference affects the response of PEEC and PEC systems to changes in light, temperature, and surface morphology of the photoelectrode

A Study of Michael Fordham's model of development: An integration of observation, research and clinical work

This portfolio of published work represents a discourse on Michael Fordham's model of development that extended Jung's theory to infancy and childhood. The papers were published over two decades and indicate how infant research, ideas from related fields and the author's own clinical and observational work have contributed to her understanding of development. The framework for her thinking has throughout been Fordham's model. In this essay the author contends that what she has learned from research and her own experience adds new contributions to the model, based on data for the most part not available to Fordham. The portfolio of papers is introduced by an essay comprising Part I. It begins with an account of the author's professional life and clinical experience pertinent to the study. Next there is a substantial section on Fordham' s theoretical model and links he established with Kleinian and post-Kleinian thought. This exposition is followed by a section on the main sources for the author's work. Following this she proposes five areas that she considers to be her original contributions to the model: identifying and defining the features of massive surges of deintegration in the first year; identifying a period of primary self functioning; new considerations concerning the active participation of the infant in development; identifying precursors to projective and introjective identification, and symbol formation. Part II contains nine papers, virtually all of which are theoretical and include clinical work and infant research and observation. They are divided into three sections: 'Theory', which are predominantly theoretical and aimed at making a theoretical point; 'Explications', which aim to elucidate concepts and dynamics comprising the model; and 'Extensions', which are those papers explicitly or implicitly containing the author's new links and ideas that add form and content to the model

In Situ ATR-SEIRAS of Carbon Dioxide Reduction at a Plasmonic Silver Cathode.

Illumination of a voltage-biased plasmonic Ag cathode during CO2 reduction results in a suppression of the H2 evolution reaction while enhancing CO2 reduction. This effect has been shown to be photonic rather than thermal, but the exact plasmonic mechanism is unknown. Here, we conduct an in situ ATR-SEIRAS (attenuated total reflectance-surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy) study of a sputtered thin film Ag cathode on a Ge ATR crystal in CO2-saturated 0.1 M KHCO3 over a range of potentials under both dark and illuminated (365 nm, 125 mW cm-2) conditions to elucidate the nature of this plasmonic enhancement. We find that the onset potential of CO2 reduction to adsorbed CO on the Ag surface is -0.25 VRHE and is identical in the light and the dark. As the production of gaseous CO is detected in the light near this onset potential but is not observed in the dark until -0.5 VRHE, we conclude that the light must be assisting the desorption of CO from the surface. Furthermore, the HCO3- wavenumber and peak area increase immediately upon illumination, precluding a thermal effect. We propose that the enhanced local electric field that results from the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is strengthening the HCO3- bond, further increasing the local pH. This would account for the decrease in H2 formation and increase the CO2 reduction products in the light

Realizing Death: The Journey of American Cinema

Since their inception, movies have served as the meter of popular culture, reflecting the customs, tastes and thinking of their times. As such, films provide benchmarks for the history of psychological development. A survey of American movies reveals that even though there has been a progression of psychological thought about death and dying by the medical community and a more naturalistic portrayal in our cinema, we remain a death-denying culture

Repertoire Development and the Control of Cytotoxic/Effector Function in Human γδ T Cells

T cells develop into two major populations distinguished by their T cell receptor (TCR) chains. Cells with the αβ TCR generally express CD4 or CD8 lineage markers and mostly fall into helper or cytotoxic/effector subsets. Cells expressing the alternate γδ TCR in humans generally do not express lineage markers, do not require MHC for antigen presentation, and recognize nonpeptidic antigens. We are interested in the dominant Vγ2Vδ2+ T cell subset in human peripheral blood and the control of effector function in this population. We review the literature on γδ T cell generation and repertoire selection, along with recent work on CD56 expression and defining a cytotoxic/effector lineage within the phosphoantigen-reactive Vγ2Vδ2 cells. A unique mechanism for MHC-independent repertoire selection is linked to the control of effector function that is vital to the role for γδ T cells in tumor surveillance. Better understanding of these mechanisms will improve our ability to exploit this population for tumor immunotherapy