Whose Crying Game? One Woman of Color\u27s Reflection on Representations of Men of Color in Contemporary Film

This film review of The Crying Game critically interrogates the politics of representation and domination which spectacleize Black male bodies. Working out of her location as an Asian American woman who is sensitive to the cinematic and everyday politics of exoticization, this cultural critic provides an analysis of the dynamic relations of power at work in the racial and heterosexual production and exploitation of Black gays in contemporary film. Drawing on the work of such critics as bell hooks, Robert Reid-Pharr, Kobena Mercer, and Judith Butler, she challenges us not to simply perpetuate the imperial gaze

Nanovoid nucleation by vacancy aggregation and vacancy-cluster coarsening in high-purity metallic single crystals

A numerical model to estimate critical times required for nanovoid nucleation in high-purity aluminum single crystals subjected to shock loading is presented. We regard a nanovoid to be nucleated when it attains a size sufficient for subsequent growth by dislocation-mediated plasticity. Nucleation is assumed to proceed by means of diffusion-mediated vacancy aggregation and subsequent vacancy cluster coarsening. Nucleation times are computed by a combination of lattice kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and simple estimates of nanovoid cavitation pressures and vacancy concentrations. The domain of validity of the model is established by considering rate-limiting physical processes and theoretical strength limits. The computed nucleation times are compared to experiments suggesting that vacancy aggregation and cluster coarsening are feasible mechanisms of nanovoid nucleation in a specific subdomain of the pressure-strain rate-temperature space

Detectability of CMB tensor B modes via delensing with weak lensing galaxy surveys

We analyze the possibility of delensing CMB polarization maps using foreground weak lensing (WL) information. We build an estimator of the CMB lensing potential out of optimally combined projected potential estimators to different source redshift bins. Our estimator is most sensitive to the redshift depth of the WL survey, less so to the shape noise level. Estimators built using galaxy surveys like LSST and SNAP yield a 30-50% reduction in the lensing B-mode power. We illustrate the potential advantages of a 21-cm survey by considering a fiducial WL survey for which we take the redshift depth zmax and the effective angular concentration of sources n as free parameters. For a noise level of 1 muK arcmin in the polarization map itself, as projected for a CMBPol experiment, and a beam with FWHM=10 arcmin, we find that going to zmax=20 at n=100 gal/sqarcmin yields a delensing performance similar to that of a quadratic lensing potential estimator applied to small-scale CMB maps: the lensing B-mode contamination is reduced by almost an order of magnitude. In this case, there is also a reduction by a factor of ~4 in the detectability threshold of the tensor B-mode power. At this CMB noise level, there is little gain from sources with zmax>20. The delensing gains are lost if the CMB beam exceeds ~20 arcmin. The delensing efficiency and useful zmax depend acutely on the CMB map noise level, but beam sizes below 10 arcmin do not help. Delensing via foreground sources does not require arcminute-resolution CMB observations, a substantial practical advantage over the use of CMB observables for delensing.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Physical Review

Percolation in self-similar networks

We provide a simple proof that graphs in a general class of self-similar networks have zero percolation threshold. The considered self-similar networks include random scale-free graphs with given expected node degrees and zero clustering, scale-free graphs with finite clustering and metric structure, growing scale-free networks, and many real networks. The proof and the derivation of the giant component size do not require the assumption that networks are treelike. Our results rely only on the observation that self-similar networks possess a hierarchy of nested subgraphs whose average degree grows with their depth in the hierarchy. We conjecture that this property is pivotal for percolation in networks.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Modeling the Internet

We model the Internet as a network of interconnected Autonomous Systems which self-organize under an absolute lack of centralized control. Our aim is to capture how the Internet evolves by reproducing the assembly that has led to its actual structure and, to this end, we propose a growing weighted network model driven by competition for resources and adaptation to maintain functionality in a demand and supply ``equilibrium''. On the demand side, we consider the environment, a pool of users which need to transfer information and ask for service. On the supply side, ASs compete to gain users, but to be able to provide service efficiently, they must adapt their bandwidth as a function of their size. Hence, the Internet is not modeled as an isolated system but the environment, in the form of a pool of users, is also a fundamental part which must be taken into account. ASs compete for users and big and small come up, so that not all ASs are identical. New connections between ASs are made or old ones are reinforced according to the adaptation needs. Thus, the evolution of the Internet can not be fully understood if just described as a technological isolated system. A socio-economic perspective must also be considered.Comment: Submitted to the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference NEXT-SigmaPh

Factors determining spawning success in Penaeus monodon Fabricius

Spawning success in relation to the size of spawner, clumping of eggs, percentage of spawning and frequency of spawning was studied in Penaeus monodon collected off Tamil Nadu, India. The results indicated positive correlation between the size of spawner and the fecundity and hatching percentage, but not the start of hatching. Hatching characteristics were influenced by clumping of eggs or abortive spawning; the greater the clumping, the longer the time taken for hatching, resulting in a lower hatching percentage. The start of hatching time increased when the frequency of spawning increased. Lower hatching rate was observed as the frequency of spawning increased

Correlations in weighted networks

We develop a statistical theory to characterize correlations in weighted networks. We define the appropriate metrics quantifying correlations and show that strictly uncorrelated weighted networks do not exist due to the presence of structural constraints. We also introduce an algorithm for generating maximally random weighted networks with arbitrary $P(k,s)$ to be used as null models. The application of our measures to real networks reveals the importance of weights in a correct understanding and modeling of these heterogeneous systems.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure