The Cosmopolitan and the nonmenal: A case study of islamic jihadist night dreams as reported sources of spiritual and political inspiration

The convergence of peoples and markets in ‘real-world’ cosmopolitanism is significantly challenged and indeed fractured in emerging apparent differences as to the ontological status of inner worlds. On the one hand, the Western secular, liberal, post-Christian capitalist ideology and world view ‘see’ inner worlds, usually, as reflective but not primarily constitutive or generative of outer world dynamics. The Freudian notion of the personal unconscious is emblematic of such a paradigm. The Western psychoanalytical paradigm, however is radically different from that of many societies studied by social anthropologists, notably shamanic cultures. Strongly religious cultures share a differing and variant paradigm as to the nature of the unconscious; the numinous is, or rather can be, the locus of spiritual generativity within the outer world. These abstractions find real-world political, economic and social significance today, particularly, in the ideological world view of the growing militant jihadist variant of Islam

Testing iPad in the field: use of a relational database in garbological research

Recording thousands of entries during field research poses a challenge to any field researcher. Contemporary handheld computers offer affordable solutions, which can resolve this challenge. In this paper, we test the iPad tablet computer and FileMaker Go database to conduct garbological research carried out in West Bohemia (Czech Republic). Garbological research based on the collection of data about human waste requires not only efficient tools for recording a vast number of individual garbage items on the spot but also integration of multiple analytical levels in a database. Our research was aimed at household waste to illuminate consumption patterns and mobility of humans and things in contemporary Central European settings. The iPad was used to collect textual and visual data and integrate these in a relational database. We describe our methodology and experience with this kind of technology. The iPad and FileMaker Go proved to be well suited to challenging field conditions in the landfill, data collection was efficient and reliable, the database was flexible because its basic features could be modified in the field, and one could even examine preliminary trends in the data using charts in FileMaker Go. The proposed hardware and software is less efficient for the collection of precise spatial data, preparation of accurate drawings, and for projects in remote areas without good access to an electrical grid

Muslim circulations and networks in West Asia: ethnographic perspectives on transregional connectivity

This article explores the concept of West Asia in relationship to recent work in the global history of Islam that points toward the existence of transregional arenas of historic significance that incorporate many of Asia’s Muslim societies. Recent anthropological work has also brought attention to the dynamic nature of the relations and cultural connections between peoples living in regions that once formed part of expansive arenas of interaction yet were divided by imperial and national boundaries, as well as the ideological conflicts of the Cold War. Against this political and historical context, we deploy West Asia as a geographical scale that brings to light interconnected forms of life that have been silenced by traditional area studies scholarship. We compare our field work experiences with two different networks made-up of Muslims that span different axis of Muslim Asia. We argue that “West Asia” brings attention to influential connections, communities, and circulations that both bear the imprint of deeper pasts as well as the influence of emergent and shifting transregional dynamics in the present. Furthermore, by emphasizing connective dynamics that move beyond the rather conventional focus on east–west relationships, the category West Asia also encourages scholarship to highlight multiple yet hitherto little explored inter-Asian north–south connections

Everyday diplomacy: introduction to special issue

This article assesses debates concerning the relevance of an ethnographic approach towards the study of diplomacy. By drawing upon recent developments across the disciplines of anthropology, diplomatic studies, geopolitics, political geography, and global history we critically reassess the ongoing assumption that in the modern world diplomacy is separated from other domains of human life. We build on work in anthropology and related disciplines that has argued for the need to move beyond the that the only actors authorised and able to conduct diplomacy are the nation-state’s representatives. Having outlined recent theoretical interventions concerning the turn towards the study of everyday, unofficial and grassroots forms of diplomacy, the paper suggests postulation some of the ways in which ethnography can be deployed in order to understand how individuals and communities affected by geopolitical processes develop and pursue diplomatic modes of agency and ask how they relate to, evaluate, and arbitrate between the geopolitical realms that affect their lives. In so doing, we propose an analytical heuristic - everyday diplomacy - to attend to the ways individuals and communities engage with and influence decisions about world-affairs

Introducing the Fission-Fusion Reaction Process: Using a Laser-Accelerated Th Beam to produce Neutron-Rich Nuclei towards the N=126 Waiting Point of the r Process

We propose to produce neutron-rich nuclei in the range of the astrophysical r-process around the waiting point N=126 by fissioning a dense laser-accelerated thorium ion bunch in a thorium target (covered by a CH2 layer), where the light fission fragments of the beam fuse with the light fission fragments of the target. Via the 'hole-boring' mode of laser Radiation Pressure Acceleration using a high-intensity, short pulse laser, very efficiently bunches of 232Th with solid-state density can be generated from a Th layer, placed beneath a deuterated polyethylene foil, both forming the production target. Th ions laser-accelerated to about 7 MeV/u will pass through a thin CH2 layer placed in front of a thicker second Th foil closely behind the production target and disintegrate into light and heavy fission fragments. In addition, light ions (d,C) from the CD2 production target will be accelerated as well to about 7 MeV/u, inducing the fission process of 232Th also in the second Th layer. The laser-accelerated ion bunches with solid-state density, which are about 10^14 times more dense than classically accelerated ion bunches, allow for a high probability that generated fission products can fuse again. In contrast to classical radioactive beam facilities, where intense but low-density radioactive beams are merged with stable targets, the novel fission-fusion process draws on the fusion between neutron-rich, short-lived, light fission fragments both from beam and target. The high ion beam density may lead to a strong collective modification of the stopping power in the target, leading to significant range enhancement. Using a high-intensity laser as envisaged for the ELI-Nuclear Physics project in Bucharest (ELI-NP), estimates promise a fusion yield of about 10^3 ions per laser pulse in the mass range of A=180-190, thus enabling to approach the r-process waiting point at N=126.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Interpreting the Outsider Tradition in British European Policy Speeches from Thatcher to Cameron

The article investigates how British European policy thinking has been informed by what it identifies as an ‘outsider’ tradition of thinking about ‘Europe’ in British foreign policy dating from imperial times to the presen. The article begins by delineating five phases in the evolution of the outsider tradition through a survey of the relevant historiography back to 1815. The article then examines how prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to David Cameron have looked to various inflections of the outsider tradition to inform their European discourses. The focus in the speech data sections is on British identity, history and the realist appreciation of international politics that informed the leaders’ suggestions for EEC/EU reform. The central argument is that historically informed narratives such as those making up the outsider tradition do not determine opinion-formers’ outlooks, but that they can be deeply impervious to rapid change

Eradication of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms on cultured airway cells by a fosfomycin/tobramycin antibiotic combination

Chronic biofilm formation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis (CF) lungs is a major cause of morbidity and mortality for patients with CF. To gain insights into effectiveness of novel anti-infective therapies, the inhibitory effects of fosfomycin, tobramycin, and a 4:1 (wt/wt) fosfomycin/tobramycin combination (FTI) on Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms grown on cultured human CF-derived airway cells (CFBE41o-) were investigated. In preformed biofilms treated for 16 h with antibiotics, P. aeruginosa CFU per mL were reduced 4 log10 units by both FTI and tobramycin at 256 mg L(-1) , while fosfomycin alone had no effect. Importantly, the FTI treatment contained five times less tobramycin than the tobramycin-alone treatment. Inhibition of initial biofilm formation was achieved at 64 mg L(-1) FTI and 16 mg L(-1) tobramycin. Fosfomycin (1024 mg L(-1)) did not inhibit biofilm formation. Cytotoxicity was also determined by measuring lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Intriguingly, sub-inhibitory concentrations of FTI (16 mg L(-1)) and tobramycin (4 mg L(-1)) and high concentrations of fosfomycin (1024 mg L(-1)) prevented bacterially mediated airway cell toxicity without a corresponding reduction in CFU. Overall, it was observed that FTI and tobramycin demonstrated comparable activity on biofilm formation and disruption. Decreased administration of tobramycin upon treatment with FTI might lead to a decrease in negative side effects of aminoglycosides

Dynamics of Nanometer-Scale Foil Targets Irradiated with Relativistically Intense Laser Pulses

In this letter we report on an experimental study of high harmonic radiation generated in nanometer-scale foil targets irradiated under normal incidence. The experiments constitute the first unambiguous observation of odd-numbered relativistic harmonics generated by the $\vec{v}\times\vec{B}$ component of the Lorentz force verifying a long predicted property of solid target harmonics. Simultaneously the observed harmonic spectra allow in-situ extraction of the target density in an experimental scenario which is of utmost interest for applications such as ion acceleration by the radiation pressure of an ultraintense laser.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure