Insider and Outsider Perspective in Ethnographic Research

Emic and etic perspectives are consequential for research because they impact the research process, the findings of a study, and the argument made by the researcher about the implications of these findings. Moreover, because the nature of ethnographic work involves the interpretation of cultures (Geertz, 1973), there is a responsibility on the part of the researcher to the culture being studied because the perspective the researcher takes impacts the knowledge produced about the cultural group that is studied.Contributors to this discussion represent a variety of research areas including rhetoric, library studies, family, media, and intercultural communication. Recurrant themes include awareness, bias avoidance, personal distance, appreciation of one\u27s insider/ outsider status

Damage to Association Fiber Tracts Impairs Recognition of the Facial Expression of Emotion

An array of cortical and subcortical structures have been implicated in the recognition of emotion from facial expressions. It remains unknown how these regions communicate as parts of a system to achieve recognition, but white matter tracts are likely critical to this process. We hypothesized that (1) damage to white matter tracts would be associated with recognition impairment and (2) the degree of disconnection of association fiber tracts [inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and/or inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF)] connecting the visual cortex with emotion-related regions would negatively correlate with recognition performance. One hundred three patients with focal, stable brain lesions mapped onto a reference brain were tested on their recognition of six basic emotional facial expressions. Association fiber tracts from a probabilistic atlas were coregistered to the reference brain. Parameters estimating disconnection were entered in a general linear model to predict emotion recognition impairments, accounting for lesion size and cortical damage. Damage associated with the right IFOF significantly predicted an overall facial emotion recognition impairment and specific impairments for sadness, anger, and fear. One subject had a pure white matter lesion in the location of the right IFOF and ILF. He presented specific, unequivocal emotion recognition impairments. Additional analysis suggested that impairment in fear recognition can result from damage to the IFOF and not the amygdala. Our findings demonstrate the key role of white matter association tracts in the recognition of the facial expression of emotion and identify specific tracts that may be most critical

Jacobi-Nijenhuis algebroids and their modular classes

Jacobi-Nijenhuis algebroids are defined as a natural generalization of Poisson-Nijenhuis algebroids, in the case where there exists a Nijenhuis operator on a Jacobi algebroid which is compatible with it. We study modular classes of Jacobi and Jacobi-Nijenhuis algebroids

The Influence of Medicare Home Health Payment Incentives: Does Payer Source Matter?

During the late 1990s, an interim payment system (IPS) was instituted to constrain Medicare home health care expenditures. Previous research has largely focused on the implications of the IPS for Medicare patients, but our study broadens the analysis to consider patients with other payer sources. Using the National Home and Hospice Care Survey, we found similar effects of the IPS across payer types. Specifically, the IPS was associated with a decrease in access to care for the sickest patients, less agency assistance with activities of daily living, and shorter length-of-use. However, these changes did not translate into worse discharge outcomes.Medicare, health, incentives

Hubbard Models as Fusion Products of Free Fermions

A class of recently introduced su(n) `free-fermion' models has recently been used to construct generalized Hubbard models. I derive an algebra defining the `free-fermion' models and give new classes of solutions. I then introduce a conjugation matrix and give a new and simple proof of the corresponding decorated Yang-Baxter equation. This provides the algebraic tools required to couple in an integrable way two copies of free-fermion models. Complete integrability of the resulting Hubbard-like models is shown by exhibiting their L and R matrices. Local symmetries of the models are discussed. The diagonalization of the free-fermion models is carried out using the algebraic Bethe Ansatz.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX. Minor modification

A variational principle for volume-preserving dynamics

We provide a variational description of any Liouville (i.e. volume preserving) autonomous vector fields on a smooth manifold. This is obtained via a ``maximal degree'' variational principle; critical sections for this are integral manifolds for the Liouville vector field. We work in coordinates and provide explicit formulae

Coherent vs incoherent pairing in 2D systems near magnetic instability

We study the superconductivity in 2D fermionic systems near antiferromagnetic instability, assuming that the pairing is mediated by spin fluctuations. This pairing involves fully incoherent fermions and diffusive spin excitations. We show that the competition between fermionic incoherence and strong pairing interaction yields the pairing instability temperature $T_{ins}$ which increases and saturates as the magnetic correlation length $\xi \to \infty$. We argue that in this quantum-critical regime the pairing problem is qualitatively different from the BCS one.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Thermomechanical response of NiTi shape-memory nanoprecipitates in TiV alloys

We study the properties of NiTi shape-memory nanoparticles coherently embedded in TiV matrices using three-dimensional atomistic simulations based on the modified embedded-atom method. To this end, we develop and present a suitable NiTiV potential for our simulations. Employing this potential, we identify the conditions under which the martensitic phase transformation of such a nanoparticle is triggered—specifically, how these conditions can be tuned by modifying the size of the particle, the composition of the surrounding matrix, or the temperature and strain state of the system. Using these insights, we establish how the transformation temperature of such particles can be influenced and discuss the practical implications in the context of shape-memory strengthened alloys

Temperature Dependent Magnon-Phonon Coupling in bcc Fe from Theory and Experiment

An ab initio based framework for quantitatively assessing the phonon contribution due to magnon-phonon interactions and lattice expansion is developed. The theoretical results for bcc Fe are in very good agreement with high-quality phonon frequency measurements. For some phonon branches, the magnon-phonon interaction is an order of magnitude larger than the phonon shift due to lattice expansion, demonstrating the strong impact of magnetic short-range order even significantly above the Curie temperature. The framework closes the previous simulation gap between the ferro- and paramagnetic limits

The graded Jacobi algebras and (co)homology

Jacobi algebroids (i.e. `Jacobi versions' of Lie algebroids) are studied in the context of graded Jacobi brackets on graded commutative algebras. This unifies varios concepts of graded Lie structures in geometry and physics. A method of describing such structures by classical Lie algebroids via certain gauging (in the spirit of E.Witten's gauging of exterior derivative) is developed. One constructs a corresponding Cartan differential calculus (graded commutative one) in a natural manner. This, in turn, gives canonical generating operators for triangular Jacobi algebroids. One gets, in particular, the Lichnerowicz-Jacobi homology operators associated with classical Jacobi structures. Courant-Jacobi brackets are obtained in a similar way and use to define an abstract notion of a Courant-Jacobi algebroid and Dirac-Jacobi structure. All this offers a new flavour in understanding the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism.Comment: 20 pages, a few typos corrected; final version to be published in J. Phys. A: Math. Ge