'Islamic fatalism': life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London--an interview study 2

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated frequent appeals to God and deprecation of personal agency. This paper offers an interpretation of this apparent 'fatalism', which argues for the logical downplaying of human agency and ambition in archaic Arabia, contemporary rural Sylhet and among first generation Sylheti migrants in London

Did Christianity lead to schizophrenia? Psychosis, psychology and self reference.

Both geographically and historically, schizophrenia may have emerged from a psychosis that was more florid, affective, labile, shorter lived and with a better prognosis. It is conjectured that this has occurred with a reflexive self-consciousness in Western and globalising societies, a development whose roots lie in Christianity. Every theology also presents a psychology. Six novel aspects of Christianity may be significant for the emergence of schizophrenia-an omniscient deity, a decontexualised self, ambiguous agency, a downplaying of immediate sensory data, and a scrutiny of the self and its reconstitution in conversion

Variational discrete variable representation for excitons on a lattice

We construct numerical basis function sets on a lattice, whose spatial extension is scalable from single lattice sites to the continuum limit. They allow us to compute small and large bound states with comparable, moderate effort. Adopting concepts of discrete variable representations, a diagonal form of the potential term is achieved through a unitary transformation to Gaussian quadrature points. Thereby the computational effort in three dimensions scales as the fourth instead of the sixth power of the number of basis functions along each axis, such that it is reduced by two orders of magnitude in realistic examples. As an improvement over standard discrete variable representations, our construction preserves the variational principle. It allows for the calculation of binding energies, wave functions, and excitation spectra. We use this technique to study central-cell corrections for excitons beyond the continuum approximation. A discussion of the mass and spectrum of the yellow exciton series in the cuprous oxide, which does not follow the hydrogenic Rydberg series of Mott-Wannier excitons, is given on the basis of a simple lattice model.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Final version as publishe

Sliding Density-Wave in Sr_{14}Cu_{24}O_{41} Ladder Compounds

We used transport and Raman scattering measurements to identify the insulating state of self-doped spin 1/2 two-leg ladders of Sr_{14}Cu_{24}O_{41} as a weakly pinned, sliding density wave with non-linear conductivity and a giant dielectric response that persists to remarkably high temperatures

Thermal Rounding of the Charge Density Wave Depinning Transition

The rounding of the charge density wave depinning transition by thermal noise is examined. Hops by localized modes over small barriers trigger ``avalanches'', resulting in a creep velocity much larger than that expected from comparing thermal energies with typical barriers. For a field equal to the $T=0$ depinning field, the creep velocity is predicted to have a {\em power-law} dependence on the temperature $T$; numerical computations confirm this result. The predicted order of magnitude of the thermal rounding of the depinning transition is consistent with rounding seen in experiment.Comment: 12 pages + 3 Postscript figure

Electron-phonon coupling in semimetals in a high magnetic field

We consider the effect of electron-phonon coupling in semimetals in high magnetic fields, with regard to elastic modes that can lead to a redistribution of carriers between pockets. We show that in a clean three dimensional system, at each Landau level crossing, this leads to a discontinuity in the magnetostriction, and a divergent contribution to the elastic modulus. We estimate the magnitude of this effect in the group V semimetal Bismuth.Comment: 2 figure