1,892 research outputs found
Lolita fashion, new media, and cultural hegemony in contemporary Japan
This article seeks to present Lolita fashion, which emerged in Japan during the 1980s, as a case study in performed, postmodern identities that are negotiated through consumerism. Opening with a broad stroke introduction to Lolita fashion, with regard to its principal characteristics and its cultural origins, the article attempts to examine the Lolita phenomenon using a variety of theoretical tools and approaches. Firstly, the article considers Lolita fashion in the light of Antonio Gramsci's notion of cultural hegemony. I assert that Lolita fashion might usefully be read as a place of rupture or resistance against the orthodox hegemony of Japan's historically collectivist culture, one that provides its users with an alternate set of social values, particularly when it comes to traditional notions of femininity. Next, I lean, particularly, on Stuart Hall's ideas about modernity, and consider the question of agency, with regard to Lolita fashion, and attempt to locate the impetus for it, not in multinational fashion houses, but the participants of Lolita subculture themselves. In a third section, I go on to problematise that agency, drawing on John Storey's cultural theory work. While it is a commonplace to attribute the rise of a totalising, contemporary mass culture to the digital revolution, Storey locates a potential for new meanings to be generated, not so much within the act of buying - for that is largely determined by the market - but in what he calls the 'production in use' of those goods. The fashion adage, 'It's not what you wear, but how you wear it' seems to ring particularly true in Lolita fashion, and I explore that idea further with an in-depth, textual analysis of a select image. I conclude by considering Lolita fashion's exportation, out of Japan and into a globalised marketplace, and the signification thereof
Quantum confinement effects on the ordering of the lowest-lying excited states in conjugated chains
The symmetrized density matrix renormalization group approach is applied
within the extended Hubbard-Peierls model (with parameters U/t, V/t, and bond
alternation \delta) to study the ordering of the lowest one-photon
(1^{1}B^{-}_u) and two-photon (2^{1}A^{+}_g) states in one- dimensional
conjugated systems with chain lengths, N, up to N=80 sites. Three different
types of crossovers are studied, as a function of U/t, \delta, and N. The
U-crossover emphasizes the larger ionic character of the 2A_g state compared to
the lowest triplet excitation. The \delta crossover shows strong dependence on
both N and U/t. The N-crossover illustrates the more localized nature of the
2A_g excitation relative to the 1B_u excitation at intermediate correlation
strengths.Comment: Latex file; figures available upon request. Submitted to PR
Low-Lying Electronic Excitations and Nonlinear Optic Properties of Polymers via Symmetrized Density Matrix Renormalization Group Method
A symmetrized Density Matrix Renormalization Group procedure together with
the correction vector approach is shown to be highly accurate for obtaining
dynamic linear and third order polarizabilities of one-dimensional Hubbard and
models. The model is seen to show characteristically different
third harmonic generation response in the CDW and SDW phases. This can be
rationalized from the excitation spectrum of the systems.Comment: 4 pages Latex; 3 eps figures available upon request; Proceedings of
ICSM '96, to appear in Synth. Metals, 199
Critical exponents of the two-layer Ising model
The symmetric two-layer Ising model (TLIM) is studied by the corner transfer
matrix renormalisation group method. The critical points and critical exponents
are calculated. It is found that the TLIM belongs to the same universality
class as the Ising model. The shift exponent is calculated to be 1.773, which
is consistent with the theoretical prediction 1.75 with 1.3% deviation.Comment: 7 pages, with 10 figures include
Dynamical nonlinear optical coefficients from the symmetrized density-matrix renormalization-group method
We extend the symmetrized density-matrix renormalization-group method to compute the
dynamic nonlinear optical coefficients for long chains. By computing correction vectors in the
appropriate symmetry subspace, we obtain the dynamic polarizabilities,
αij(ω), and third-order polarizabilities
γijkl(ω,ω,ω) of the Hubbard and "U-V" chains in an all
transpolyacetylene geometry, with and without dimerization. We rationalize the behavior of
α̅ and γ̅ on the basis of the low-lying excitation gaps in the system.
This is the first study of the dynamics of a fermionic system within the DMRG
framework
Thorium-doping induced superconductivity up to 56 K in Gd1-xThxFeAsO
Following the discovery of superconductivity in an iron-based arsenide
LaO1-xFxFeAs with a superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of 26 K[1], Tc
was pushed up surprisingly to above 40 K by either applying pressure[2] or
replacing La with Sm[3], Ce[4], Nd[5] and Pr[6]. The maximum Tc has climbed to
55 K, observed in SmO1-xFxFeAs[7, 8] and SmFeAsO1-x[9]. The value of Tc was
found to increase with decreasing lattice parameters in LnFeAsO1-xFx (Ln stands
for the lanthanide elements) at an apparently optimal doping level. However,
the F- doping in GdFeAsO is particularly difficult[10,11] due to the lattice
mismatch between the Gd2O2 layers and Fe2As2 layers. Here we report observation
of superconductivity with Tc as high as 56 K by the Th4+ substitution for Gd3+
in GdFeAsO. The incorporation of relatively large Th4+ ions relaxes the lattice
mismatch, hence induces the high temperature superconductivity.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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