Politics of the Jewish community of Salonika in the inter-war years: party ideologies and party competition

Throughout four centuries of Ottoman domination, Salonika Jews had managed to preserve their particular ethnic identity and to occupy an important position in the economic life of the city. In 1912 Salonika was annexed to the Greek nation-state, and only decades later various sources of the early 1930s were emphasising the economic and social degradation of the Jewish community. Existing bibliography has tended to underline almost exclusively the role of Greek politics and Greek society as the major explanatory factor of the community's decline. This thesis challenges this approach and argues that intra-communal politics within the inter-war years had a significant share of responsibility for the crisis which threatened Salonika Jews in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Indeed, Jewish political elites were deeply split over issues of fundamental importance for the community, resulting in political deadlock. Consequently, the community was caught up in fierce ideological debates and was deprived of a solid communal leadership able to steer them through unsettled waters. In order to account for this explanation, the thesis reassesses as a first step Greek majority policies and argues that notwithstanding the numerous constraints which they imposed on the status of the Jews, the latter were left significant room in which to influence their own affairs. Secondly, this thesis explores the ways in which communal political leaders responded to and made use of their 'power'. By analysing the four major Jewish political parties in the inter-war years - the Zionists, the Assimilationists- Moderates, the Radicals (Mizrahi-Revisionists) and the Communists - on the basis of party competition and party ideologies which set 'Jewishness' at the centre of political discourse, it is shown that their constant ideological struggles over this issue rendered them unable to build up constructive political coalitions and find answers to the pressing economic and social needs faced by the community

Prediction of glass transition temperatures: binary blends and copolymers

Abstract Glass transition temperature T g values characterize pure polymers, polymer blends, copolymers, as well as matrices in polymer-based composites. T g s as function of composition reflect miscibility (or lack of it) and determine all properties. We present a new equation for the dependence of T g on composition in blends as well as in copolymers. We compare results obtained from earlier equations (Fox, Gordon-Taylor, Kwei) and those from the new equation with experimental data

Dielectric and electrical properties of polycrystalline rocks at various hydration levels

The dielectric properties of low porosity natural polycrystalline rock material (marble) were investigated using broadband 10-2 to 106 Hz) dielectric relaxation spectroscopy at several hydration levels, from dry to fully hydrated samples, with the water content varying from 0 to 0.08% g water/g dry material. The measured dielectric response is characterized by large low frequency dispersions, which depend strongly on the water content. Upon varying the sample thickness, dielectric and water sorption measurements reveal that bulk rather than electrode/sample interface effects are responsible for the main part of the high values obtained for the complex permittivity ε*. Comparative analysis of the experimental data within the complex permittivity ε*, impedance Z* and modulus M*, allows a detailed investigation of the ac conductivity mechanisms existing in the rocks and of water content dependency. Concerning the rock-water interaction, a critical water content hC, (hc approximately 0.04%, the water content for ambient humidity conditions) has been found

Large low frequency dielectric constant exhibited by hydrated rock materials

The dielectric properties of low porosity polycrystalline marble and granite rocks were investigated using broadband dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (10-2-106 Hz) at fixed room temperature (295 K). The water content of the specimens was varied between 0 and 0.22 % (mass of absorbed water per mass of dry rock material %). The dielectric relaxation spectra were found to exhibit large low-frequency dispersion that depends strongly on the water content. A thorough study of this dispersion reveals that the main part of the enhanced ε* values originates from bulk effects

Effects of blending with fluorescing molecules on the dynamics of the beta, alpha, and alpha ` relaxations observed in poly(methyl methacrylate)

Perturbations in typical dielectric or calorimetric features of the molecular relaxation dynamics in amorphous poly(methyl methacrylate) and two blends with a neutral/apolar brominated perylene dye were analyzed to explore guest-host nanoscale interactions and their role on lasing properties. Aside from a gradual increase of the relaxation strength Delta epsilon(beta) (plasticization), the local beta relaxation is nearly independent of the presence of dye. By contrast, segmental dynamics are moderately hampered: both the dielectric (T-alpha) and calorimetric (T-g) estimates of the glass transition temperature rise with increasing dye content, probably as a result of modifications in the free volume (antiplasticization). Analogous shifts are observed in the peak temperature of the space-charge relaxation (T-rho) and the alpha(’) (liquid-liquid) transition (T-LL), with T-rho/T-alpha=1.04 +/- 0.01 and T-LL/T-alpha=1.10 +/- 0.01. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics