Cooperating together: How the communication practices of a food cooperative create and reveal relationships

Communication is constructed as a cultural practice. Cultural Discourse Analysis believes the communication practices of an organization communicate ideas about identity, values, and relationships. This paper examines a food co-op, The Second Kitchen, and how shared communication and food values create a communicative culture of “community.” By examining two key moments within the organization: how new members are welcomed, and how decisions are made, I highlight the types of relationships created within the organization. This study reveals how the coordinators of The Second Kitchen dictate whether members feel included or excluded in the organization

Pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity: Experimental constraints

Developing a theory of high-temperature superconductivity in copper oxides is one of the outstanding problems in physics. It is a challenge that has defeated theoretical physicists for more than twenty years. Attempts to understand this problem are hindered by the subtle interplay among a few mechanisms and the presence of several nearly degenerate and competing phases in these systems. Here we present some crucial experiments that place essential constraints on the pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity. The observed unconventional oxygenisotope effects in cuprates have clearly shown strong electron-phonon interactions and the existence of polarons and/or bipolarons. Angle-resolved photoemission and tunneling spectra have provided direct evidence for strong coupling to multiple-phonon modes. In contrast, these spectra do not show strong coupling features expected for magnetic resonance modes. Angle-resolved photoemission spectra and the oxygen-isotope effect on the antiferromagnetic exchange energy J in undoped parent compounds consistently show that the polaron binding energy is about 2 eV, which is over one order of magnitude larger than J = 0.14 eV. The normal-state spin-susceptibility data of holedoped cuprates indicate that intersite bipolarons are the dominant charge carriers in the underdoped region while the component of Fermi-liquid-like polarons is dominant in the overdoped region. All the experiments to test the gap or order-parameter symmetry consistently demonstrate that the intrinsic gap (pairing) symmetry for the Fermi-liquid-like component is anisotropic s-wave and the order-parameter symmetry of the Bose-Einstein condensation of bipolarons is d-wave.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, invited comment by Physica Script

Even-parity autoionizing states in the extreme-ultraviolet photoabsorption spectra of Mg, Al⁺, and Si²⁺

The dual-laser-produced plasma (DLP) photoabsorption technique has been used to study 2p→3s excitations in the isoelectronic species Mg, Al+, and Si2+ prepared in the excited configuration 2p63s3p. The autoionizing upper states belong to the 2p53s23p even-parity configuration. The versatility of the technique is demonstrated through a careful combination of space- and time-resolved photoabsorption scans. Plasma conditions optimized for the observation of the inaccessible parity regime were successfully reproduced along the isoelectronic sequence of interest. All the observed transitions were interpreted with the help of multiconfigurational atomic structure calculations. In the case of magnesium, the photoabsorption data are compared with the ejected-electron spectra excited by low-energy electron impact of Pejcev et al. [J. Phys. B 10, 2389 (1977)]

Neuro-cardiac interaction in malignant ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death

Sudden cardiac death as a result of lethal ventricular arrhythmias is a major cause of death in cardiac diseases such as heart failure and prior myocardial infarct. Activity of the autonomic nervous system is often abnormal where sympathetic activity is upregulated and vagal activity reduced in these conditions. The abnormal autonomic state has been shown to be a strong prognostic marker of increased mortality and propensity to lethal arrhythmias, for which there is no effective prevention. Research effort over the years has established good evidence for a causal link between autonomic disturbance and ventricular arrhythmias. However, the detailed electrophysiological mechanisms by which ventricular fibrillation occurs are still not clear and molecular processes which are modulated by autonomic nerve influences that either predispose the heart to or protect it from these arrhythmias are not fully understood. This review presents data from studies investigating the link between activity of the autonomic nervous system and ventricular arrhythmias, from seminal findings in classical studies to ongoing investigations, in the quest for a better understanding of the arrhythmogenic mechanisms underlying neurocardiac interactions with a view to the development of effective preventative and therapeutic strategies which are very much needed

AU BIEN DU COMMERCE : ECONOMIC DISCOURSE AND VISIONS OF SOCIETY IN FRANCE

Between the seventeenth and the late eighteenth centuries, French political culture transformed from the absolutist politics of privilege and patronage to the politics of the public sphere. This transformation occurred, in large part, within state sponsored institutions. The French Council of Commerce, between 1700 and 1750, established a socially inclusive communication network spread across France in which negociants, merchants, artisans, and guilds discussed and debated specific economic policies. In this governmentally controlled public sphere, French economic actors became politicized as they accustomed themselves to participatory policy-making in which they expected that their views would be considered. Through this network, the French state sought to centralize economic policy-making and nationalize economic policies, yet a tension existed between these political goals and the language in which these debates occurred. Early in the century, the language of ordre and privilege infused these debates, and the concerns of the state served as the basis of discussion. In the process of negotiating economic policies, however, the language of privilege reinforced the local provincialism which the state hoped to diminish. As the half century progressed, two new bases for economic policy-making, the public and the economy, developed in the discourse, and the language of economic liberty separated from the language of political privilege. In the 1750s, the communication network collapsed when new royal administrators, led by de Gournay and Trudaine, adopted a new language of policy-making which emphasized abstract economic liberty. Economic policy-making based upon abstract laws required far less consultation and negotiation in the creation of specific policies, and a politicized public had to seek new venues in which to debate publicly state economic policies. This argument is based upon a database created from the Council of Commerce records and a discursive analysis of the language used in the communication network and in two specific examples: French trade policy towards the Dutch during the War of Spanish Succession and the communicative practices and economic conflicts of the Ni mes hosiery guild