158 research outputs found
Transnational ‘Interruptions’ in Eritrean Refugee Lives in the Bay Area
For many refugees, the day they flee their home country is the start of the interruption of their life. For refugees, such interruption brings the absence of continuity and loss of vision for the future, that they have to be present in the current situation – not knowing their future. This interruption literally \u27interrupts\u27 the life plan of refugees. Many Eritrean refugees vocally state that, Our body might be here, but our soul is all in Eritrea . Eritrean refugees, having fled an oppressive regime, continue to experience nonstop interruption to their lives in their new country. Due to both the continuing repression in Eritrea which is why they fled, and because of the strong family, cultural and religious values Eritreans grow up, Eritreans in the diaspora feel obliged to save lives and remit funds to sustain the family back in their home country. The research found that this burden of helping not only slows their integration into their new countries, but also leads to stress, compassion fatigue and trauma in the Eritrean diaspora community in the Bay Area. In light of this, the research suggests that refugee resettlement agencies give rigorous orientation teaching refugees/asylees to first take care of oneself, achieving the necessary life empowerment and to work with community centers and religious institutions to understand their needs and expedite their integration. Once having created a strong foundation for themselves, then they can help family members. The research also calls on the Eritrean government to end the indefinite national service and Eritreans to work together to bring about positive change. It is also recommended that USCIS officials, while considering asylum cases, to consider the family as well. Finally, it recommends the UN pressure the Eritrean government to uphold human rights and rule of law and thus stemming migration out of Eritrea and its ultimate consequences on those living abroad
Surface Crystallization in a Liquid AuSi Alloy
X-ray measurements reveal a crystalline monolayer at the surface of the
eutectic liquid Au_{82}Si_{18}, at temperatures above the alloy's melting
point. Surface-induced atomic layering, the hallmark of liquid metals, is also
found below the crystalline monolayer. The layering depth, however, is
threefold greater than that of all liquid metals studied to date. The
crystallinity of the surface monolayer is notable, considering that AuSi does
not form stable bulk crystalline phases at any concentration and temperature
and that no crystalline surface phase has been detected thus far in any pure
liquid metal or nondilute alloy. These results are discussed in relation to
recently suggested models of amorphous alloys.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, published in Science (2006
Complex Patterns in Reaction-Diffusion Systems: A Tale of Two Front Instabilities
Two front instabilities in a reaction-diffusion system are shown to lead to
the formation of complex patterns. The first is an instability to transverse
modulations that drives the formation of labyrinthine patterns. The second is a
Nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch (NIB) bifurcation that renders a stationary planar
front unstable and gives rise to a pair of counterpropagating fronts. Near the
NIB bifurcation the relation of the front velocity to curvature is highly
nonlinear and transitions between counterpropagating fronts become feasible.
Nonuniformly curved fronts may undergo local front transitions that nucleate
spiral-vortex pairs. These nucleation events provide the ingredient needed to
initiate spot splitting and spiral turbulence. Similar spatio-temporal
processes have been observed recently in the ferrocyanide-iodate-sulfite
reaction.Comment: Text: 14 pages compressed Postscript (90kb) Figures: 9 pages
compressed Postscript (368kb
Breathing Spots in a Reaction-Diffusion System
A quasi-2-dimensional stationary spot in a disk-shaped chemical reactor is
observed to bifurcate to an oscillating spot when a control parameter is
increased beyond a critical value. Further increase of the control parameter
leads to the collapse and disappearance of the spot. Analysis of a bistable
activator-inhibitor model indicates that the observed behavior is a consequence
of interaction of the front with the boundary near a parity breaking front
bifurcation.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, see also http://chaos.ph.utexas.edu/ and
http://t7.lanl.gov/People/Aric
Domain Walls in Non-Equilibrium Systems and the Emergence of Persistent Patterns
Domain walls in equilibrium phase transitions propagate in a preferred
direction so as to minimize the free energy of the system. As a result, initial
spatio-temporal patterns ultimately decay toward uniform states. The absence of
a variational principle far from equilibrium allows the coexistence of domain
walls propagating in any direction. As a consequence, *persistent* patterns may
emerge. We study this mechanism of pattern formation using a non-variational
extension of Landau's model for second order phase transitions. PACS numbers:
05.70.Fh, 42.65.Pc, 47.20.Ky, 82.20MjComment: 12 pages LaTeX, 5 postscript figures To appear in Phys. Rev.
Streamer Propagation as a Pattern Formation Problem: Planar Fronts
Streamers often constitute the first stage of dielectric breakdown in strong
electric fields: a nonlinear ionization wave transforms a non-ionized medium
into a weakly ionized nonequilibrium plasma. New understanding of this old
phenomenon can be gained through modern concepts of (interfacial) pattern
formation. As a first step towards an effective interface description, we
determine the front width, solve the selection problem for planar fronts and
calculate their properties. Our results are in good agreement with many
features of recent three-dimensional numerical simulations.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 3 ps file
Emergent global oscillations in heterogeneous excitable media: The example of pancreatic beta cells
Using the standard van der Pol-FitzHugh-Nagumo excitable medium model I
demonstrate a novel generic mechanism, diversity, that provokes the emergence
of global oscillations from individually quiescent elements in heterogeneous
excitable media. This mechanism may be operating in the mammalian pancreas,
where excitable beta cells, quiescent when isolated, are found to oscillate
when coupled despite the absence of a pacemaker region.Comment: See home page http://lec.ugr.es/~julya
Controlling domain patterns far from equilibrium
A high degree of control over the structure and dynamics of domain patterns
in nonequilibrium systems can be achieved by applying nonuniform external
fields near parity breaking front bifurcations. An external field with a linear
spatial profile stabilizes a propagating front at a fixed position or induces
oscillations with frequency that scales like the square root of the field
gradient. Nonmonotonic profiles produce a variety of patterns with controllable
wavelengths, domain sizes, and frequencies and phases of oscillations.Comment: Published version, 4 pages, RevTeX. More at
http://t7.lanl.gov/People/Aric
- …