A life of piety: aging and dying in a rural Sinhala Buddhist village

This paper explores the relationship between aging, care, and death in a rural village in Sri Lanka from an anthropological perspective. It examines how the Buddhist concept of merit acts as a link between these elements. Through a 14-month ethnographic study, I observed how elders, and their younger caregivers engage in a reciprocal exchange of care and merit. Elders in the village engage in various pious activities to accumulate merit, which in turn leads to the care they receive from others as a meritorious deed. The responsibility of caring for the elderly primarily falls on women, who seek to accumulate more merit to alleviate their suffering. Both elders and caregivers believe that accumulating merit reduces suffering, leads to a good death, and ensures a good rebirth. These beliefs are reinforced and evaluated by Buddhist clergy in funeral sermons. This article illustrates how Buddhist ideas of accumulating merit give rise to an emerging ‘economy of merit,’ wherein elders are cared for by their families and communities. This finding has significant implications for understanding and addressing the challenges of an aging population in Sri Lanka

Blaming the house: women's efforts to preserve marriage in a rural Sinhala village

In rural Sri Lanka, marital tension, frequently leading to violence, is an increasing problem. This article explores how the house becomes both the source of problems and a possible solution to them. By examining the way that the social, material, and symbolic dimensions of houses are made to interact, I show how women effect the shaping of social relations and homemaking. Specifically, I focus on how houses become spaces where women are expected to embody the ideals of wifehood and motherhood, thereby creating and maintaining a ‘good house’. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted over fourteen months in a rural village, I illustrate the ways in which women actively engage in strategies to construct and preserve their houses as spaces free from violence. I describe how women, in addition to their traditional caregiving roles, employ the science of architecture (vāstu vidyava) to restructure their houses as a way to promote peace and prosperity. As a result, houses emerge as strategic allies in women's lives, facilitating their pursuit of the desired ‘good life’

Optimization and Computer Control of the Sub-100 nm, Proton Beam Writing Facility at CIBA

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Modeling the point-spread function in helium-ion lithography

We present here a hybrid approach to modeling helium-ion lithography that combines the power and ease-of-use of the Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM) software with the results of recent work simulating secondary electron (SE) yield in helium-ion microscopy. This approach traces along SRIM-produced helium-ion trajectories, generating and simulating trajectories for SEs using a Monte Carlo method. We found, both through simulation and experiment, that the spatial distribution of energy deposition in a resist as a function of radial distance from beam incidence, i.e. the point spread function, is not simply a sum of Gauss functions.Semiconductor Research Corporation. Nanoscale Research InitiativeNational Science Foundation. Graduate Research Fellowship Progra

Groundwater : Making the Invisible Visible : FCDO Briefing Pack on Water Governance, Finance and Climate Change

Did you know that more people use groundwater for drinking than use rainwater or surface water and that agriculture is responsible for 70% of global water withdrawal? Groundwater is water found underground in aquifers which, although hidden from view, are vital to agriculture, economic growth, nature and health. Groundwater is an especially important source of water as rainfall varies due to Climate Change - see the latest IPCC report for more details. This briefing pack provides some of the latest evidence and information about groundwater. It also presents information on how the Climate and Environment Department at FCDO is tackling water security to reach two overarching goals: > Tackle and reverse growing water insecurity and its consequences caused by depletion and degradation of natural water sources > Address poor water management and increasing demand In this pack we discuss the UK’s Water action at COP26; programme activities around water and climate, water governance, finance, and gender and the UK’s welldeveloped water ‘offer’, that together, can help reach the goal of global water security. Here you will find key facts, messages and videos,– all intended for colleagues invited to World Water Day events or wanting to engage in some water diplomacy! For more info please contact Andy Roby, CED Senior Water Security Adviser at FCD