Embodying Bhakti Rasa in Bharata Natyam: An Indian-Christian Interpretation of Gayatri Mantra through Dance

As the five female dancers from the Indian-Christian fine art college of Kalai Kaviri encircle the South Indian brass lamp, or vilakku, awakening it to life with the flames from their own individual votives, the beginning melody of a song cues the women to stretch out their arms in preparation to rise from their seated positions and dance. As they raise their arms in unison, the light glinting off their bangles and gold threaded costumes, the Sanskrit words Om Bhur Bhuvah Svah signal the invocatory phrase of the popular Gayatri mantra chanted daily by many Hindus all over the world. By the time the second repetition of the mantra is completed, the bodies of the dancers are fanned out from behind a single dancer, creating the visual image of the sun with its rays beaming outwards to all directions of the universe

Book Review: Body Parts: A Theological Anthropology

Book review of Body Parts: A Theological Anthropology. By Michelle Voss Roberts. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017, xlvii + 181 pages

Book Review: \u3cem\u3eA Matter of Belief: Christian Conversion and Healing in North- East India\u3c/em\u3e

A review of A Matter of Belief: Christian Conversion and Healing in North- East India by Vibha Joshi

Electrical Characterization of PbZr0.4Ti0.6O3 Capacitors

We have conducted a careful study of current-voltage (I-V) characteristics in fully integrated commercial PbZr0.4Ti0.6O3 thin film capacitors with Pt bottom and Ir/IrO2 top electrodes. Highly reproducible steady state I-V were obtained at various temperatures over two decades in voltage from current-time data and analyzed in terms of several common transport models including space charge limited conduction, Schottky thermionic emission under full and partial depletion and Poole-Frenkel conduction, showing that the later is the most plausible leakage mechanism in these high quality films. In addition, ferroelectric hysteresis loops and capacitance-voltage data were obtained over a large range of temperatures and discussed in terms of a modified Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory accounting for space charge effects.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Silicon nanoparticles and interstellar extinction

To examine a recently proposed hypothesis that silicon nanoparticles are the source of extended red emission (ERE) in the interstellar medium, we performed a detailed modeling of the mean Galactic extinction in the presence of silicon nanoparticles. For this goal we used the appropriate optical constants of nanosized Si, essentially different from those of bulk Si due to quantum confinement. It was found that a dust mixture of silicon nanoparticles, bare graphite grains, silicate core-organic refractory mantle grains and three-layer silicate-water ice-organic refractory grains works well in explaining the extinction and, in addition, results in the acceptable fractions of UV/visible photons absorbed by silicon nanoparticles: 0.071-0.081. Since these fractions barely agree with the fraction of UV/visible photons needed to excite the observed ERE, we conclude that the intrinsic photon conversion efficiency of the photoluminescence by silicon nanoparticles must be near 100%, if they are the source of the ERE.Comment: Latex2e, uses emulateapj.sty (included), multicol.sty, epsf.sty, 6 pages, 3 figures (8 Postscript files), accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, complete Postscript file is also available at http://physics.technion.ac.il/~zubko/eb.html#SNP

Peculiarities of the underground mining of high-grade iron ores in anomalous geological conditions

This paper is dedicated to research into the geological peculiarities, shape of the ore body and the occurrence of the host rocks in the hanging wall of the Pivdenno-Bilozerske deposit , as well as their influence on the degrees and quality of high-grade iron ore extraction. It is noted that in the interval of 480 – 840 m depths, a decrease is observed in the stability of the natural and technogenic massif, which is caused by the increase in rock pressure with depth, the influence of blasting operations on the massif and the difference in geological conditions. This has led to the collapse of hanging wall rocks and backfill into the mined-out space of chambers in certain areas of the deposit, the dilution of the ore and deterioration of the operational state of the underground mine workings. Attention is focused on the causes and peculiarities of consequences of the collapse of the hanging wall rocks during ore mining, which reduce the technical and-economic indexes of the ore extraction from the chambers. A 3D-model of an ore deposit with complex structural framework has been developed, which makes it possible to visually observe in axonometric projection the geological peculiarities and the shape of the ore body. The parameters have been studied of mining chambers in the 640 – 740 m floor under different changing geological conditions of the ore deposit and hanging wall rocks occurrence – the northern, central and southern parts. The difference in the iron content in the mined ore relative to the initial iron content in the massif has been defined as an indicative criterion of the influence of changing conditions on the production quality. The reasons have been revealed which contribute to the collapse of the rocks and the subsequent decrease in the iron content of the mined ore in ore deposit areas dif- fering by their characteristics. It has been determined that within the central and half of the southern ore deposit parts with a length of 600 m, an anomalous geological zone is formed, the manifestation of which will be increased with the depth of mining. It was noted that within this zone, with the highest intensity and density of collapse of hanging wall rocks, the influence of decrease in the slope angle and change in the strike direction are of greatest priority, and such geological factors as a decrease in hardness, rock morphology, deposit thickness increase this influence significantly. To solve the problems of the hanging wall rocks’ stability, it is recommended to study the nature and direction of action of gravity forces on the stope chambers in the northern, central and southern parts, as well to search for scientific solutions in regard to changes in the geometric shapes of stope chambers and their spatial location, improving the order of reserves mining in terms of the ore deposit area, the rational order of breaking-out ore reserves in the chambers with changing mining and geological conditions of the fields’ development