Dielectric films improve life of polymeric insulators

Degradation of polymeric insulators may be significantly reduced when polymer surfaces are coated with film having gradation of dielectric constants, larger where it is in contact with polymer and smaller at its exposed surface

Preparation of dielectric coating of variable dielectric constant by plasma polymerization

A plasma polymerization process for the deposition of a dielectric polymer coating on a substrate comprising disposing of the substrate in a closed reactor between two temperature controlled electrodes connected to a power supply is presented. A vacuum is maintained within the closed reactor, causing a monomer gas or gas mixture of a monomer and diluent to flow into the reactor, generating a plasma between the electrodes. The vacuum varies and controls the dielectric constant of the polymer coating being deposited by regulating the gas total and partial pressure, the electric field strength and frequency, and the current density

Accumulation, Imperialism, and Pre-Capitalist Formations: Luxemburg and Marx on the non-Western World

The dramatic changes that have unfolded in the global economy in recent years make this a worthwhile moment to explore the similarities and differences between Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg’s understanding of what is now termed the “globalization of capital.” Both Marx and Luxemburg were intensely interested in the impact of the expansive logic of capital accumulation upon non-capitalist or developing societies, as seen in Marx’s late writings on agrarian societies, communal formations in India and North Africa, and among Native Americans and in Luxemburg’s studies of some of the same formations in her Introduction to Political Economy and Accumulation of Capital. Although Luxemburg was unaware of Marx’s writings on these issues, since many of Marx’s manuscripts on non-Western societies are only now coming to light, there are striking similarities, on a number of issues, between her approach and Marx’s analyses. At the same time, there are also serious differences in their approach, in that Marx adopted a far less unilinear and deterministic approach to the fate of non-Western social formations as compared to Luxemburg. This paper explores these similarities and differences by exploring a number of manuscripts by Marx and Luxemburg that have only recently come to light or which have received insufficient attention, such as Marx’s Notebooks on Kovalevsky and Luxemburg’s studies of pre-capitalist societies of 1907, originally composed as part of her research for the Introduction to Political Economy. One of the article’s aims is to generate a re-examination of both Marx and Luxemburg’s contributions in light of these less-known writings. Les transformations dramatiques qui ont eu lieu dans l’économie globale ces dernières années rendent opportun d’explorer les similarités et les différences entre les analyses de ce qui est maintenant appelé la mondialisation du capital par Karl Marx et Rosa Luxemburg. Marx et Luxemburg étaient tous les deux très intéressés par l’impact de la logique expansionniste de l’accumulation du capital sur les sociétés non capitalistes et celles en voie de développement, comme en témoignent les écrits tardifs de Marx sur les sociétés agraires, les structures communales en Inde, en Afrique du Nord et parmi les Autochtones de l’Amérique du Nord, ainsi que les études de Luxemburg de certaines de ces mêmes formations dans son Introduction à l’économie politique et L’accumulation du capital. Bien que Luxemburg n’était pas au courant des écrits de Marx sur ces sujets, parce que beaucoup de ses manuscrits sur les sociétés non-Occidentales sont seulement maintenant en train de paraître, il y a des similarités frappantes, sur de nombreux sujets, entre leurs approches. En même temps, il demeure des différences importantes, dans la mesure où Marx a adopté une approche beaucoup moins linéaire et déterministe que Luxemburg à propos du destin des structures sociales non-Occidentales. Cet article explore ces similarités et différences en explorant plusieurs manuscrits de Marx et Luxemburg qui ont seulement récemment vu le jour ou qui ont reçu une attention insuffisante, comme Les Carnets de Kovalevsky de Marx et les études de Luxemburg sur les sociétés pré-capitalistes de 1907, écrites à l’origine dans le cadre de ses recherches pour l’Introduction à l’économie politique. Un des objectifs de l’article est de générer un nouvel examen des contributions de Marx et de Luxemburg, à la lumière de ces écrits moins bien connus

Marx\u27s Concept of the Transcendence of Value Production

Although the literature produced on Marx\u27s philosophic contribution over the past 100 years is immense, most of it has focused on his analysis of the economic and political structure of capitalism, the materialist conception of history, and his critique of value production. There has been very little discussion or analysis, however, of his conception of what constitutes an alternative to capitalism. One reason for this is that it has long been assumed that Marx\u27s disdain for utopian socialists and his strictures against inventing blueprints about the future meant that his work does not address the possible content of a postcapitalist society that transcends value production. Yet while Marx never wrote a single work addressing the alternative to capitalism, critically important comments and suggestions are found throughout his writings about the transcendence of value production and the contours of a postcapitalist future. This study subjects Marx\u27s discussions of an alternative to capitalism to critical scrutiny by exploring all four decades of his philosophic output--from his early writings of the 1840s, to his various drafts of Capital and Capital itself, as well as his late writings on postcapitalism. This study examines not only Marx\u27s major and well-known works, but also his notebooks, drafts, letters and marginalia that are now being compiled as part of the MEGA2 project

Rethinking Marx for Today: A Response to Paul Kellogg’s and Ian Angus’s reviews of Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism

Rethinking Marx for Today: A Response to Paul Kellogg’s and Ian Angus’s reviews of Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalis

Spin resonance in the d-wave superconductor CeCoIn5

Neutron scattering is used to probe antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations in the d-wave heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn$_{5}$ (T$_{c}$=2.3 K). Superconductivity develops from a state with slow ($\hbar\Gamma$=0.3 $\pm$ 0.15 meV) commensurate (${\bf{Q_0}}$=(1/2,1/2,1/2)) antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations and nearly isotropic spin correlations. The characteristic wavevector in CeCoIn$_{5}$ is the same as CeIn$_{3}$ but differs from the incommensurate wavevector measured in antiferromagnetically ordered CeRhIn$_{5}$. A sharp spin resonance ($\hbar\Gamma<0.07$ meV) at $\hbar \omega$ = 0.60 $\pm$ 0.03 meV develops in the superconducting state removing spectral weight from low-energy transfers. The presence of a resonance peak is indicative of strong coupling between f-electron magnetism and superconductivity and consistent with a d-wave gap order parameter satisfying $\Delta({\bf q+Q_0})=-\Delta({\bf q})$.Comment: (5 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett.

Containment and creativity.

In offering a collection both of poems and short prose fiction, my intention is to demonstrate my exploration of certain motifs and poetics across the two genres, specifically in respect to my core discussion of the creative interaction of structure and imagination. I am interested in how the playing out of this dynamic, in both genres, might influence the deployment of form and the way content is experienced by the reader. In particular I focus on how three fundamental aspects, figurative language, thematic preoccupations, and formal/theoretical parameters, intersect and thereby influence, their respective expression in the light of this dynamic. In addition, I have highlighted the way criteria foregrounded within the MA have influenced my practice and contributed to the shaping of a personal aesthetic founded in the belief that formal constraints can enrich the reader's reception of a piece, and in a manner that is both liberating and democratic