[Review of] David G. Such. Avant-Garde Jazz Musicians: Performing Out There

The burgeoning scholarship on the avant-garde in jazz of the 1950s and 1960s still accounts for only a small number of scholarly jazz-related publications. Though the ascendance of interdisciplinary, cultural studies paradigms leave open many pathways to discussions of avant-garde jazz, David G. Such\u27s Avant-Garde Jazz Musicians incorporates little ofthe cultural criticism Ronald Radano offers in his equally new New Musical Figurations: Anthony Braxton’s Cultural Critique (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). Such instead focuses multiply on what avant-garde musicians say about their music\u27s position a handful of topical devices which head chapters in the text. From considering Labels, an indispensable issue in music criticism -- since so much knowledge is vested in its nominal category -- Such discusses predecessors to the ”out jazz“ period from the mid-late 1950s onward, citing bebop\u27s revolutionary reputation and its figureheads as worthy precursors to such musicians as Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, and many of the more recent player/composers whom Such interviews

No more adoption rates! Looking for empowerment in agricultural development programmes

The Plant Protection Department has responded to these developments by organising workshops for Farmer Trainers. This has led to further initiatives by IPM farmers. Mr Neupane and Mrs Bimauli are now members of the Jhapa IPM Association, an organisation that is run by farmers and which is linking up with similar associations in other Districts. The association in Jhapa plans and organises its own training activities, and negotiates the support required from the Department of Agriculture and Local Government Units

Perturbative 2-body Parent Hamiltonians for Projected Entangled Pair States

We construct parent Hamiltonians involving only local 2-body interactions for a broad class of Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS). Making use of perturbation gadget techniques, we define a perturbative Hamiltonian acting on the virtual PEPS space with a finite order low energy effective Hamiltonian that is a gapped, frustration-free parent Hamiltonian for an encoded version of a desired PEPS. For topologically ordered PEPS, the ground space of the low energy effective Hamiltonian is shown to be in the same phase as the desired state to all orders of perturbation theory. An encoded parent Hamiltonian for the double semion string net ground state is explicitly constructed as a concrete example.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, v2 published versio

Tensor Networks with a Twist: Anyon-permuting domain walls and defects in PEPS

We study the realization of anyon-permuting symmetries of topological phases on the lattice using tensor networks. Working on the virtual level of a projected entangled pair state, we find matrix product operators (MPOs) that realize all unitary topological symmetries for the toric and color codes. These operators act as domain walls that enact the symmetry transformation on anyons as they cross. By considering open boundary conditions for these domain wall MPOs, we show how to introduce symmetry twists and defect lines into the state.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 2 appendices, v2 published versio

God, Gold, or Glory: Norman Piety and the First Crusade

Recent trends in crusade historiography depict the Frankish participants of the First Crusade as acting out of piety, while their Norman counterparts remain as impious opportunists. This thesis challenges this prevailing point of view, arguing that the Norman crusaders met the same standard of piety as the Franks. To support my theory, I looked at four different facets on the question of Norman piety, dividing them up into chapters of my thesis. In the first chapter, there is a brief discussion of the current portrayal of the Normans in modem crusade historiography. In the next chapter, I established what piety meant and how it was demonstrated by Christians of the 11th and 12th centuries. This includes an examination of relevant monastic charters, which provide evidence that the Normans had strong ties to the Papacy prior to the expedition to the East. The third chapter is a short summary about the developments leading to the First Crusade, and the standard of piety set by Pope Urban II. In the fourth chapter I examine the chronicles of the First Crusade and their characterization of the crusaders, both Norman and Frank, to see if the crusaders met the pontiff\u27s standard. I conclude that the primary accounts depict the Normans as no different from their Frankish co-religionists, with both groups acting out of piety as well as ambition. The actions of a Norman knight, Bohemond, and a Frankish crusader, Raymond of Toulouse, exemplify this fact. The comparison of these two, as well as the rest of the crusade leaders, demonstrate that the Norman crusaders were driven by a complex and sometimes conflicting mix of pious and secular motivations, no different from their Frankish counterparts. The armies of soldiers fighting in the First Crusade in response to Pope Urban II\u27s call to retake Jerusalem were composed of a variety of cultural groups from Western Europe. The argument over what motivated these men to become armed pilgrims, to travel long distances to strange lands, to fight and most likely die, began with the accounts of the eyewitnesses and continues to the present day. Early on the distinction was made between the pious Franks and the materialist Normans. Some Medieval chroniclers portrayed the Norman crusaders as interested only in amassing land and power, rather than fulfilling their religious vow. Even in recent historiography, the traditional interpretation of the Norman role in the First Crusade is not one of piety, but rather of opportunism - to use the conflict as a springboard for expansion into Byzantine and Muslim lands. This depiction is in stark contrast to the ongoing reexamination of the Frankish crusaders, who some crusade historians see as having a deep religious motivation. The Normans remain as the standard bearer of the pre-revisionist interpretation of crusader motives - for gold and glory, but not for God. However, examination of the evidence does not bear this distinction out. Instead of greed, a pattern of pious acts emerges performed by the families of the prominent Norman crusaders or in the case of Bohemond of Taranto, the crusaders themselves. The Normans who took up the cause for crusade were as conventionally pious as the Franks and other Europeans, exposing the falsehood of their historical portrayal as impious opportunists