Lithic economies and community organization at La Laguna, Tlaxcala

Site-wide, assemblage-based lithic analyses help to elucidate community dynamics including variability in domestic economies, technological skill and decision making, exchange networks, and ritual practices. In this study we present the results of an analysis of over 36,000 lithic artifacts from the site of La Laguna, Tlaxcala. We compare Middle to Late Formative period (ca. 600–400 b.c.) and Terminal Formative period (ca. 100 b.c.–a.d. 150) deposits to examine transformations associated with urbanization and state formation during this interval. The residents of La Laguna had relatively equal and ample access to obsidian, and most production was organized independently by households. We identify blade production zones and variability in consumption patterns suggestive of different domestic, communal, and ceremonial activities. The introduction of bloodletters, elaborate large bifacial knives, and zoomorphic eccentrics to the Terminal Formative assemblage may indicate the emergence of higher statuses, new social roles, and militaristic symbolism during this period

Field Identification in Non-Unitary Diagonal Cosets

We study the nonunitary diagonal cosets constructed from admissible representations of Kac-Moody algebras at fractional level, with an emphasis on the question of field identification. Generic classes of field identifications are obtained from the analysis of the modular S matrix. These include the usual class related to outer automorphisms, as well as some intrinsically nonunitary field identifications. They allow for a simple choice of coset field representatives where all field components of the coset are associated with integrable finite weights.Comment: 34 page

Book review Carla Rodríguez González & Rubén Valdés Miyares, Eds. Historia y representación en la cultura global. Oviedo: KRK, 2008

How do you adequately sum up twenty eight sophisticated contributions to a book in a short review? You can’t – especially (and ironically) when the volume to be considered often questions the whole idea of globalizing histories. However, what is possible is a series of ruminations on the first part of the book as an introduction to the kinds of questions and arguments the reader can expect from the rest of the book. Thus, I begin with an apology to the contributors who may feel offended that their particular contribution has only been mentioned in passing – it is to be understood not as a form of devaluation but as a sign of the impossibility of doing any kind of justice to a book of this kind. This is intensified by the sheer variety of the theoretical models which now constitute cultural studies and, as will be seen below, the very wide range of subjects that the book addresses

The expression of George Orwell’s racial and social attitudes

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis is intended to show the importance of racial attitudes in the development and work of George Orwell. He grew up in an environment where race and class roles were firmly and hierarchically established. His early training reinforced these orthodoxies, and Burmese Days as well as other writing shows he understood the unity and necessity of these traditional attitudes in maintaining the status quo. Other experiences, however, sowed the seeds of heterodoxy and support for the underdog. He took to Burma two mutually incompatible forms of training: one urged him to serve the Empire, the other, eventually to oppose it. The crisis of Empire is discussed and how it coincided with an unsought personal crisis of Orwell's own as a result of which the hollow tyranny of imperialism became clear to hint. Burma was an empirical watershed, where experience belied ideology and he heeded the former. Burma was the key which unlocked fact from myth and his changing attitude to Empire is reviewed in this light. The similarities of race and class are discussed; particularly training, form and purpose. It is argued that Orwell abstracted the essence of racial oppression and identified it (and its implications) in other forms, and his two major satires are seen to bear this out. The irrationality of racial (imperial) myths are seen to have much in common with contemporary political behaviour: Socialist ‘doublethink’ about Empire paving the road to totalitarianism, and the in-group/out-group urges of Anglo-India being related to patriotism and rationalism. Antisemitism is included as an example of irrationality which clearly had racial and political significance. Finally an attempt has been made to show that Orwell's racial outlook is part of a coherent world-view, and that the implications are currently relevant

The Satisfaction and Recovery Index

User Manual for the Satisfaction and Recover Index, including versions of the tool in English, French-Canadian, Persian, and Japanese translation

The MultiDimensional Symptom Index: User Manual and Quesionnaire

The user manual for the MultiDimensional Symptom Index, including hard copy versions in both English and Canadian French translations

The Evolution of the Electron Radiation Belt During Geomagnetic Storms

The outer Van Allen radiation belt is an extremely variable region of highly energetic electrons in Earth's magnetosphere, providing a harsh environment for man-made satellites. The complex dynamics, governed by the competition between electron enhancement and loss processes, make the understanding of these dynamics challenging. In this thesis, we investigate typical outer radiation belt behaviour during geomagnetic storms, carried out using in-situ spacecraft observations from both polar and equatorial orbits. We initially examine the cross-L* coherence of radiation belt electron variations using particle observations from the SAMPEX/PET instrument during 15 geomagnetic storms. We find that >0.63 MeV electron flux variations are typically coherent inside and outside the minimum plasmapause location. However, variations inside the plasmapause show little correlation with those outside. After the main phase of storms, variations are coherent across all L*, regardless of plasmapause location. The temporal evolution of the outer radiation belt during storms is analysed statistically using SAMPEX/PET and Van Allen Probes particle data. We show that loss process effectiveness is enhanced during storms outside the plasmapause and during periods of high geomagnetic activity, exhibiting an MLT and L-shell dependence consistent with known causal wave modes. Pitch angle distributions (PADs) show a systematic, energy-dependent broadening across the recovery phase for ≲800 keV electrons following main phase acceleration. ≳800 keV fluxes become strongly peaked at 90° during the main phase, concurrent with the enhanced loss shown in the SAMPEX data. Finally, we present strong evidence for the importance of the Kennel-Petschek process in not only limiting electron flux, but also in controlling the temporal evolution of electron PADs during storms. These results provide new insights into radiation belt dynamics using both modern and long-lasting datasets, enhancing our understanding of the outer radiation belt, raising further questions for future studies and missions to this region of space