Nonviolent jihad: an immanent critique

In pursuit of radical democracy, against the juggernaut of modern liberalism, this thesis attempts an unusual resuscitation of an Islamic nonviolence by engaging in bridge-building and mutual translation between the principled nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi and the so-called political Islam of Sayyid Qutb. By means of the method of immanent critique, this thesis employs the anthropological skepticism of Talal Asad to critique the secularist notions of agency employed by these seminal and polarizing figures, revealing the centrality of lack to both ideologies. It otherwise self-consciously adopts the essentialisms used by and against these ideologies to attempt to lay the groundwork for an edifice with maximum rhetorical appeal

Two-stage processes of electrically induced-ferroelectric to relaxor transition in 0.94(Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-0.06BaTiO(3)

The stability of electrically induced long-range ferroelectric order in a relaxor 0.94(Bi1/2Na1/2) TiO3-0.06BaTiO(3) ceramic material has been investigated by temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction and electrical property measurements. The depolarization and ferroelectric-to-relaxor transition are identified as separate and discrete processes. It is observed that the induced ferroelectric domains first lose their ferroelectric/ferroelastic texture coincident with a peak signal in the thermally induced depolarization current. With further increase in temperature, the detextured ferroelectric domains are dissociated into nanoscale entities. This fragmentation marks the ferroelectric-to-relaxor transition. It is suggested that the ferroelectric-to-relaxor transition has features of a second order phase transition.open302

Electric-field-induced strain mechanisms in lead-free 94%(Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-6%BaTiO3

High resolution neutron diffraction has been used to investigate the structural origin of the large electric-field-induced remanent strain in 94(Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-6BaTiO(3) ceramics. The virgin material was found to be a mixture of near-cubic phases with slight tetragonal and rhombohedral distortions of a(0)a(0)c(+) and a(-)a(-)a(-) octahedral tilt type, respectively. Application of an electric field of 4.57 kV/mm transformed the sample to a predominantly rhombohedral a(-)a(-)a(-) modification with a significantly higher degree of structural distortion and a pronounced preferred orientation of the c-axis along the field direction. These electric field-induced structural effects contribute significantly to the macroscopic strain and polarization of this system.open40

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon¹⁻³. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses⁴⁻⁹. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world’s major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve ‘health’: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.Keywords: Ecology, Environmental scienc

Relaxor Characteristics of Morphotropic Phase Boundary (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3-(Bi1/2K1/2)TiO3 Modified with Bi(Zn1/2Ti1/2)O3

Morphotropic phase boundary (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3(Bi1/2K1/2)TiO3 (BNTBKT), was modified with increasing additions of Bi(Zn1/2Ti1/2)O3 (BZT). Microstructure, electric-field-induced strain and polarization, dielectric permittivity, and temperature-dependent piezoelectric coefficient were investigated and compared with crystal structure measured in situ as a function of applied electric field. Furthermore, permittivity and piezoelectric coefficient were characterized as a function of electric field. For small additions of BZT, an applied electric field leads to an irreversible phase transition into a ferroelectric phase with remanent polarization and a reduced relative permittivity. Increasing the content of BZT increased the threshold field for the transition. For additions of more than 2 mol% BZT, the piezoelectric coefficient dropped, permittivity remained almost constant, and a high normalized strain of up to 500 pm/V was observed. However, no field-dependent structural change was evidenced by the in situ X-ray experiment.close373

Electric-field-induced phase-change behavior in (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-BaTiO3-(K0.5Na0.5)NbO3: A combinatorial investigation

The electric-field-induced strain behavior in (1 - x - y)(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-xBaTiO(3)-y(K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 electroceramics has been studied using a combinatorial technique. A stoichiometrically graded sample was produced to contain compositions across the ternary phase diagram between the two end-member components of 0.93(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-0.07BaTiO(3) and 0.86(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-0-14(K0.5Na0.5)NbO3. Both composition and structural information were measured simultaneously during the application of electric fields using secondary Xray fluorescence and high-energy X-ray microdiffraction, respectively. An initial electric-field-induced distortion from the pseudo-cubic structure is seen across all compositions, while those with a greater concentration of BaTiO3 also undergo an electric-field-induced phase transformation. The microstructural contribution to the macroscopic strain within the 0.93(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-0.07BaTiO(3) end member is quantified at a field strength of 5.5 kV mm(-1); 0.08% and 0.11% of the measured macroscopic strain of 0.4% is contributed by the induced ferroelastic domain texture and the volumetric strain associated with the electric-field-induced phase transformation, respectively.close696

Re-description of the type series of Nectophrynoides viviparus (Bufonidae), with a taxonomic reassessment

FIGURE 1. Map of the Southern Highlands, Tanzania. Black dots: type locality and further records of the species.Published as part of Loader, Simon P., Poynton, John C., Davenport, Tim R. B. & Rödel, Mark-Oliver, 2009, Re-description of the type series of Nectophrynoides viviparus (Bufonidae), with a taxonomic reassessment, pp. 41-50 in Zootaxa 2304 on page 43, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.27533

Designation and description of a neotype of Sclerophrys maculata (Hallowell, 1854), and reinstatement of S. pusilla (Mertens, 1937)(Amphibia: Anura: Bufonidae)

Poynton, John C., Loader, Simon P., Conradie, Werner, Rödel, Mark-Oliver, Liedtke, H. Christoph (2016): Designation and description of a neotype of Sclerophrys maculata (Hallowell, 1854), and reinstatement of S. pusilla (Mertens, 1937) (Amphibia: Anura: Bufonidae). Zootaxa 4098 (1): 73-94, DOI: http://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4098.1.