Islamic ideology and religious practice among Muslims in a southern Sri Lankan town

The thesis is concerned with an examination of Islam in Sri Lanka. It argues that while Sri Lankan Islam shares an ideology with the Islamic world, it has a specificity which may only be understood with reference to its particular historical and cultural context. As an Islamic community on the periphery of the Islamic world, Sri Lankan Muslims find their ideology, enduringly problematic. They must continually assert their egalitarian ideology, within the hierarchically ordered cosmological universe, that they share with Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamil Hindus. They must further assert their egalitarianism in the face of constant forces of stratification, internal to the Muslim community itself. Islamic ideology, given this particular cultural context, is both determining and constitutive of the community. The consolidation of the varied histories of the diverse Muslim community in the late colonial period is shown to be an aspect of hegemonic domination of the community by a fraction of it. The structure and force of Islamic ideology as revealed in Sri Lanka is discussed through an examination of religious understanding and ritual practice. The significance of the myths behind, and practices associated with, the shrines of the saints are explored and contrasted with those elsewhere in the Muslim world. Critical distinctions in the practice of Muslim saint 'worship' are discussed. The centrality of the mosque and the male religious community are examined, and the articulation of the mosque with the domestic order is clearly outlined. Sri Lankan Muslims elaborate, through their calendrical ritual, a constant regeneration of the Islamic community - ummah. At its most fundamental level this regeneration requires the unification of male and female, mosque and house. This practice is a constant metaphor of the original basis, and current practice, of the Sri Lankan Muslim community, founded by the marriages of Arab Muslims to indigenous women, in whose houses they took up residence. Regenerative symbols in this context are those of food and hearth, and feast practices reveal the constant constitution of the community through its rituals of communal commensality. The calendrical aspects of the regeneration are most readily determined through a discussion of the ritual complex surrounding Ramazan and culminating in the Feast of Sacrifice at the end of the Hajj. The ideological constitution of the ummah, at its various levels of incorporation, is examined from the perspective of the Sri Lankan Muslims. A perspective in which they as one of a multitude of specific, culturally and historically diverse communities of the Muslim world, participate in a calendrical ritual cycle, which they perceive at the ideological level, to embrace them all

COVID-19 and Opioid Use in Appalachian Kentucky: Challenges and Silver Linings

Appalachian Kentucky is currently fighting two public health emergencies – COVID-19 and the opioid epidemic – leaving the area strapped for resources to care for these ongoing crises. During this time, people who use opioids (PWUO) have increased vulnerability to fatal overdoses and drug-related harms (e.g., HIV). Disruption of already limited services posed by COVID-19 could have an especially detrimental impact on the health of PWUO. Though the COVID-19 pandemic is jeopardizing hard-won progress in fighting the opioid epidemic, innovations in state policy and service delivery brought about by the pandemic may improve the health of PWUO long-term if they are retained

Statistics of soliton-bearing systems with additive noise

We present a consistent method to calculate the probability distribution of soliton parameters in systems with additive noise. Even though a weak noise is considered, we are interested in probabilities of large fluctuations (generally non-Gaussian) which are beyond perturbation theory. Our method is a further development of the instanton formalism (method of optimal fluctuation) based on a saddle-point approximation in the path integral. We first solve a fundamental problem of soliton statistics governing by noisy Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation (NSE). We then apply our method to optical soliton transmission systems using signal control elements (filters, amplitude and phase modulators).Comment: 4 pages. Submitted to PR

Influence of grain-refiner addition on the morphology of fe-bearing intermetallics in a semi-solid processed Al-Mg-Si alloy

© The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 2013The three-dimensional morphologies of the Fe-bearing intermetallics in a semisolid-processed Al-Mg-Si alloy were examined after extracting the intermetallics. α -AlFeSi and β-AlFeSi are the major Fe-bearing intermetallics. Addition of Al-Ti-B grain refiner typically promotes β-AlFeSi formation. β-AlFeSi was observed with a flat, plate-like morphology with angular edges in the alloy with and without grain refiner, whereas α -AlFeSi was observed as "flower"-like morphology in the alloy with grain refiner. © 2013 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International

The floor in the interplanetary magnetic field: Estimation on the basis of relative duration of ICME observations in solar wind during 1976-2000

To measure the floor in interplanetary magnetic field and estimate the time- invariant open magnetic flux of Sun, it is necessary to know a part of magnetic field of Sun carried away by CMEs. In contrast with previous papers, we did not use global solar parameters: we identified different large-scale types of solar wind for 1976-2000 interval, obtained a fraction of interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) and calculated magnitude of interplanetary magnetic field B averaged over 2 Carrington rotations. The floor of magnetic field is estimated as B value at solar cycle minimum when the ICMEs were not observed and it was calculated to be 4,65 \pm 6,0 nT. Obtained value is in a good agreement with previous results.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, submitted in GR

The Structure of a Rigorously Conserved RNA Element within the SARS Virus Genome

We have solved the three-dimensional crystal structure of the stem-loop II motif (s2m) RNA element of the SARS virus genome to 2.7-Å resolution. SARS and related coronaviruses and astroviruses all possess a motif at the 3′ end of their RNA genomes, called the s2m, whose pathogenic importance is inferred from its rigorous sequence conservation in an otherwise rapidly mutable RNA genome. We find that this extreme conservation is clearly explained by the requirement to form a highly structured RNA whose unique tertiary structure includes a sharp 90° kink of the helix axis and several novel longer-range tertiary interactions. The tertiary base interactions create a tunnel that runs perpendicular to the main helical axis whose interior is negatively charged and binds two magnesium ions. These unusual features likely form interaction surfaces with conserved host cell components or other reactive sites required for virus function. Based on its conservation in viral pathogen genomes and its absence in the human genome, we suggest that these unusual structural features in the s2m RNA element are attractive targets for the design of anti-viral therapeutic agents. Structural genomics has sought to deduce protein function based on three-dimensional homology. Here we have extended this approach to RNA by proposing potential functions for a rigorously conserved set of RNA tertiary structural interactions that occur within the SARS RNA genome itself. Based on tertiary structural comparisons, we propose the s2m RNA binds one or more proteins possessing an oligomer-binding-like fold, and we suggest a possible mechanism for SARS viral RNA hijacking of host protein synthesis, both based upon observed s2m RNA macromolecular mimicry of a relevant ribosomal RNA fold

Theta angle versus CP violation in the leptonic sector

Assuming that the axion mechanism of solving the strong CP problem does not exist and the vanishing of theta at tree level is achieved by some model-building means, we study the naturalness of having large CP-violating sources in the leptonic sector. We consider the radiative mechanisms which transfer a possibly large CP-violating phase in the leptonic sector to the theta parameter. It is found that large theta cannot be induced in the models with one Higgs doublet as at least three loops are required in this case. In the models with two or more Higgs doublets the dominant source of theta is the phases in the scalar potential, induced by CP violation in leptonic sector. Thus, in the MSSM framework the imaginary part of the trilinear soft-breaking parameter A_l generates the corrections to the theta angle already at one loop. These corrections are large, excluding the possibility of large phases, unless the universality in the slepton sector is strongly violated.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

The Physics of turbulent and dynamically unstable Herbig-Haro jets

The overall properties of the Herbig-Haro objects such as centerline velocity, transversal profile of velocity, flow of mass and energy are explained adopting two models for the turbulent jet. The complex shapes of the Herbig-Haro objects, such as the arc in HH34 can be explained introducing the combination of different kinematic effects such as velocity behavior along the main direction of the jet and the velocity of the star in the interstellar medium. The behavior of the intensity or brightness of the line of emission is explored in three different cases : transversal 1D cut, longitudinal 1D cut and 2D map. An analytical explanation for the enhancement in intensity or brightness such as usually modeled by the bow shock is given by a careful analysis of the geometrical properties of the torus.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Spac

Scaling Behavior of Anomalous Hall Effect and Longitudinal Nonlinear Response in High-Tc Superconductors

Based on existing theoretical model and by considering our longitudinal nonlinear response function, we derive a nonliear equation in which the mixed state Hall resistivity can be expressed as an analytical function of magnetic field, temperature and applied current. This equation enables one to compare quantitatively the experimental data with theoretical model. We also find some new scaling relations of the temperature and field dependency of Hall resistivity. The comparison between our theoretical curves and experimental data shows a fair agreement.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure