Print Culture, Social Change, and the Process of Redefining Imagined Communities in Egypt; Response to the Review by Charles D. Smith of Redefining the Egyptian Nation (IJMES 29, 4 [1997]: 606–22)

1999 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Israel Gershoni ◽  
James Jankowski
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Print Culture ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Imagined Communities ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
Misleading Interpretation ◽  
Benedict Anderson ◽  
Selection Of

Charles D. Smith's review essay on our book Redefining the Egyptian Nation in the October 1997 issue of IJMES undertakes a critical analysis of the work. Simultaneously, it raises broader questions about the relevance of some of the insights of theoreticians of nationalism, particularly Benedict Anderson, to the case of Egyptian nationalism. The essay's attempt to evaluate the utility of recent theoretical writing on nationalism for the study of the Middle East is a worthwhile endeavor. However, we believe that the essay's analysis of the book itself is based on a familiarity with only a small selection of the sources relevant to understanding Egyptian nationalism, and that it provides a misleading interpretation of the contents of the work. We also feel that its observations about nationalist theory sometimes misconstrue our use of the same, and in general underestimate the importance of recent theoretical work on nationalism for the study of Egypt and the Middle East.

“Cultural Constructs” and other Fantasies: Imagined Narratives in Imagined Communities; Surrejoinder to Gershoni and Jankowski's “Print Culture, Social Change, and the Process of Redefining Imagined Communities in Egypt”

1999 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles D. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Print Culture ◽  
Imagined Communities ◽  
Extensive Reading ◽  
Present Issue ◽  
Cultural Constructs ◽  
Cultural Construct ◽  
Benedict Anderson ◽  
Egyptian History

Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski provide a spirited defense of their book, Redefining the Egyptian Nation, which I critiqued in the November 1997 issue of IJMES. They explain their ideas on nationalism and how they purportedly applied them in the book, and conclude that I have misread “both modern nationalism and Egyptian history.” That remains to be seen. What is certain is that one cannot find in Redefining the Egyptian Nation the analysis of the thought of Benedict Anderson and Anthony D. Smith presented in their response (“Print Culture, Social Change, and the Process of Redefining Imagined Communities in Egypt,” present issue). Neither can one find in Imagined Communities the ideas and the stress on “nationalism as a cultural construct” that they attribute to Anderson. Gershoni and Jankowski now allege intentions and arguments for books whose texts do not contain what they ascribe to them. Their claims here for Redefining the Egyptian Nation appear to reflect the more extensive reading on nationalism which they did for their recent co-edited book Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East rather than a familiarity with the literature evidenced in the book under discussion, which was published four years ago.

scholarly journals Peasants and Partisans, Stranger Selves: Stuart Hood’s Memoir Project and Second World War Life Writing

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-215
Author(s):  
Martin Stollery
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
Multiple Texts ◽  
Military Life ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
Second World

This essay is the first detailed critical analysis of Pebbles from My Skull/ Carlino (1963/1985), Stuart Hood’s account of the 1943/4 period he spent fighting as part of the Italian Resistance. It situates Hood’s work in relation to the prevailing ‘Colditz Myth’ associated with British Second World War prisoner of war escapees and the conceptions of England and Europe underlying this myth. It also considers Hood’s ‘memoir project – the self-reflexive narrative of self he was compelled to tell, extending across multiple texts, and to which he was reluctant to give final form or finished meaning – in relation to recent theoretical work on life writing and military life writing in particular.

The light-scattering Mueller matrices for Rayleigh and Rayleigh-Gans-Debye approximation

1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (12) ◽  
pp. 2889-2897
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Holoubek
Keyword(s):  
Light Scattering ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Matrix Elements ◽  
Elastic Light Scattering ◽  
Yield Information ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
Particle Parameters ◽  
Complete Set ◽  
Single Matrix ◽  
Scattering Matrix Elements

Recent theoretical work has shown that the complete set of polarized elastic light-scattering studies should yield information about scatterer structure that has so far hardly been utilized. We present here calculations of angular dependences of light-scattering matrix elements for spheres near the Rayleigh and Rayleigh-Gans-Debye limits. The significance of single matrix elements is documented on examples that show how different matrix elements respond to changes in particle parameters. It appears that in the small-particle limit (Rg/λ < 0.1) we do not loose much information by ignoring "large particle" observables.

scholarly journals Magnetospheric Structure of Rotation-Powered Neutron Stars

1992 ◽  
Vol 128 ◽  
pp. 56-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Arons
Keyword(s):  
Radio Emission ◽  
Gamma Radiation ◽  
Heavy Ions ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Observational Constraints ◽  
Polar Caps ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
Density Flow ◽  
Promising Avenue

AbstractI survey recent theoretical work on the structure of the magnetospheres of rotation-powered pulsars, within the observational constraints set by their observed spindown, their ability to power synchrotron nebulae and their ability to produce beamed collective radio emission, while putting only a small fraction of their energy into incoherent X- and gamma radiation. I find no single theory has yet given a consistent description of the magnetosphere, but I conclude that models based on a dense outflow of pairs from the polar caps, permeated by a lower density flow of heavy ions, are the most promising avenue for future research.

scholarly journals THE EXOTIC BARIUM BISMUTHATES

1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (08) ◽  
pp. 863-955 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. TARAPHDER ◽  
RAHUL PANDIT ◽  
H. R. KRISHNAMURTHY ◽  
T. V. RAMAKRISHNAN
Keyword(s):  
Bound States ◽  
Random Phase ◽  
Density Wave ◽  
Mean Field ◽  
Experimental Tests ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
Effects Of Disorder ◽  
Exotic Physics ◽  
Transport Gaps

We review the remarkable properties, including superconductivity, charge-density-wave ordering and metal–insulator transitions, of lead- and potassium-doped barium bismuthate. We will discuss some of the early theoretical studies of these systems. Our recent theoretical work, on the negative-U, extended-Hubbard model for these systems, will also be described. Both the large- and intermediate-U regimes of this model were examined, using mean-field and random-phase approximations, particularly with a view to fitting various experimental properties of these bismuthates. On the basis of our studies, we point out possibilities for exotic physics in these systems. We also emphasize the different consequences of electronic and phonon-mediated mechanisms for the negative U. We show that, for an electronic mechanism, the semiconducting phases of these bismuthates must be unique, with their transport properties dominated by charge±2eCooperon bound states. This can explain the observed difference between the optical and transport gaps. We propose other experimental tests for this novel mechanism of charge transport and comment on the effects of disorder.

scholarly journals Landauer in the age of synthetic biology: energy consumption and information processing in biochemical networks

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pankaj Mehta ◽  
Alex H Lang ◽  
David J Schwab
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Protein Modification ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Biochemical Networks ◽  
Fundamental Physics ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
Cellular Circuits ◽  
Molecular Components

A central goal of synthetic biology is to design sophisticated synthetic cellular circuits that can perform complex computations and information processing tasks in response to specific inputs. The tremendous advances in our ability to understand and manipulate cellular information processing networks raises several fundamental physics questions: How do the molecular components of cellu- lar circuits exploit energy consumption to improve information processing? Can one utilize ideas from thermodynamics to improve the design of synthetic cellular circuits and modules? Here, we summarize recent theoretical work addressing these questions. Energy consumption in cellular cir- cuits serves five basic purposes: (1) increasing specificity, (2) manipulating dynamics, (3) reducing variability, (4) amplifying signal, and (5) erasing memory. We demonstrate these ideas using several simple examples and discuss the implications of these theoretical ideas for the emerging field of synthetic biology. We conclude by discussing how it may be possible to overcome these limitations using “post-translational” synthetic biology that exploits reversible protein modification.

scholarly journals Mixed-polarity random-dot stereograms alter GABA and Glx concentration in the early visual cortex

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reuben Rideaux ◽  
Nuno Goncalves ◽  
Andrew E Welchman
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Dimensional Structure ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Gaba Concentration ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
Random Dot Stereograms ◽  
Mixed Polarity ◽  
Early Visual Cortex

ABSTRACTThe offset between images projected onto the left and right retinae (binocular disparity) provides a powerful cue to the three-dimensional structure of the environment. It was previously shown that depth judgements are better when images comprise both light and dark features, rather than only dark or only light elements. Since Harris and Parker (1995) discovered the “mixed-polarity benefit”, there has been limited evidence supporting their hypothesis that the benefit is due to separate bright and dark channels. Goncalves and Welchman (2017) observed that single- and mixed-polarity stereograms evoke different levels of positive and negative activity in a deep neural network trained on natural images to make depth judgements, which also showed the mixed-polarity benefit. Motivated by this discovery, here we seek to test the potential for changes in the balance of excitation and inhibition that are produced by viewing these stimuli. In particular, we use magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure Glx and GABA concentration in the early visual cortex of adult humans while viewing single- and mixed-polarity random-dot stereograms (RDS). We find that observers’ Glx concentration is significantly higher while GABA concentration is significantly lower when viewing mixed-polarity RDS than when viewing single-polarity RDS. These results indicate that excitation and inhibition facilitate processing of single- and mixed-polarity stereograms in the early visual cortex to different extents, consistent with recent theoretical work (Goncalves & Welchman, 2017).

scholarly journals Imaging Mueller matrix determination of transparent, unpolarizing samples using a classically entangled polarization state

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 407
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Isamar Muro-Ríos ◽  
R. Espinosa-Luna
Keyword(s):  
Open Space ◽  
Polarization State ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Mueller Matrix ◽  
Experimental Setup ◽  
Wave Plate ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Theoretical Proposal

Inspired in a recent theoretical work for the determination of the Mueller matrix, using as incidence a single classically entangled polarization state (F. Töppel et al., New J. Phys. 16 (2014) 073019), an experimental setup is proposed and tested.  The open space and two wave plate retarders are used as the transparent, nondepolarizing samples under study. Results show some experimental improvements are necessary in order to implement accurately the theoretical proposal in which this work is based.

scholarly journals Task-evoked pupil responses reflect internal belief states

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Colizoli ◽  
J.W. de Gee ◽  
A.E. Urai ◽  
T.H. Donner
Keyword(s):  
Pupil Diameter ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Decision Confidence ◽  
Uncertain Evidence ◽  
Recent Theoretical Work ◽  
The Face ◽  
Belief States ◽  
State Of The Environment ◽  
Made In

AbstractPerceptual decisions about the state of the environment are often made in the face of uncertain evidence. Internal uncertainty signals are considered important regulators of learning and decision-making. A growing body of work has implicated the brain’s arousal systems in uncertainty signaling. Here, we found that two specific computational variables, postulated by recent theoretical work, evoke boosts of arousal at different times during a perceptual decision: decision confidence (the observer’s internally estimated probability that a choice was correct given the evidence) before feedback, and prediction errors (deviations from expected reward) after feedback. We monitored pupil diameter, a peripheral marker of central arousal state, while subjects performed a challenging perceptual choice task with a delayed monetary reward. We quantified evoked pupil responses during decision formation and after reward-linked feedback. During both intervals, decision difficulty and accuracy had interacting effects on pupil responses. Pupil responses negatively scaled with decision confidence prior to feedback and scaled with uncertainty-dependent prediction errors after feedback. This pattern of pupil responses during both intervals was in line with a model using the observer’s graded belief about choice accuracy to anticipate rewards and compute prediction errors. We conclude that pupil-linked arousal systems are modulated by internal belief states.

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