ARAB MUSICIANS IN WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA: ETHNICITY AND IDENTITY

Musicians living in the Arab Diaspora around the Washington, D.C. metro area are a small group of multi-faceted individuals with significant contributions and intentions to propagate and disseminate their music. Various levels of identity are discussed and analyzed, including self-identity, group/ collective identity, and Arab ethnic identity. The performance and negotiation of Arab ethnic identity is apparent in selected repertoire, instrumentation, musical style, technique and expression, shared conversations about music, worldview on Arabic music and its future. For some musicians, further evidence of self-construction of one's ethnic identity entails choice of name, costume, and venue. Research completed is based on fieldwork, observations, participant-observations, interviews, and communications by phone and email. This thesis introduces concepts of Arabic music, discusses recent literature, reveals findings from case studies on individual Arab musicians and venues, and analyzes Arab identity and ethnicity in relation to particular definitions of identity found in anthropological and ethnomusicological writings. Musical lyrics, translations, transcriptions, quotes, discussions, analyses, as well as charts and diagrams of self-identity analyses are provided as evidence of the performance and negotiation of Arab identity.

Facial and expression recognition for the blind using computer vision

Gemstone Team FACE

Maladaptive trauma appraisals mediate the relation between attachment anxiety and PTSD symptom severity.

OBJECTIVE: In a large sample of community-dwelling older adults with histories of exposure to a broad range of traumatic events, we examined the extent to which appraisals of traumatic events mediate the relations between insecure attachment styles and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. METHOD: Participants completed an assessment of adult attachment, in addition to measures of PTSD symptom severity, event centrality, event severity, and ratings of the A1 PTSD diagnostic criterion for the potentially traumatic life event that bothered them most at the time of the study. RESULTS: Consistent with theoretical proposals and empirical studies indicating that individual differences in adult attachment systematically influence how individuals evaluate distressing events, individuals with higher attachment anxiety perceived their traumatic life events to be more central to their identity and more severe. Greater event centrality and event severity were each in turn related to higher PTSD symptom severity. In contrast, the relation between attachment avoidance and PTSD symptoms was not mediated by appraisals of event centrality or event severity. Furthermore, neither attachment anxiety nor attachment avoidance was related to participants' ratings of the A1 PTSD diagnostic criterion. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that attachment anxiety contributes to greater PTSD symptom severity through heightened perceptions of traumatic events as central to identity and severe. (PsycINFO Database Record

Role of bonding time and temperature on the physical properties of coupled anisotropic conductive–nonconductive adhesive film for flip chip on glass technology

Using thermosetting epoxy based conductive adhesive films for the flip chip interconnect possess a great deal of attractions to the electronics manufacturing industries due to the ever increasing demands for miniaturized electronic products. Adhesive manufacturers have taken many attempts over the last decade to produce a number of types of adhesives and the coupled anisotropic conductive-nonconductive adhesive film is one of them. The successful formation of the flip chip interconnection using this particular type of adhesive depends on, among factors, how the physical properties of the adhesive changes during the bonding process. Experimental measurements of the temperature in the adhesive have revealed that the temperature becomes very close to the required maximum bonding temperature within the first 1s of the bonding time. The higher the bonding temperature the faster the ramp up of temperature is. A dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) has been carried out to investigate the nature of the changes of the physical properties of the coupled anisotropic conductive-nonconductive adhesive film for a range of bonding parameters. Adhesive samples that are pre-cured at 170, 190 and 210°C for 3, 5 and 10s have been analyzed using a DMA instrument. The results have revealed that the glass transition temperature of this type of adhesive increases with the increase in the bonding time for the bonding temperatures that have been used in this work. For the curing time of 3 and 5s, the maximum glass transition temperature increases with the increase in the bonding temperature, but for the curing time of 10s the maximum glass transition temperature has been observed in the sample which is cured at 190°C. Based on these results it has been concluded that the optimal bonding temperature and time for this kind of adhesive are 190°C and 10s, respectively.

Legal myth-making: Medea and the legal representation of the feminine ‘other'

The Law operates by, and through, the creation of ideal benchmarks of conduct that are deemed to be representative of the behavioural norm. It is in this sense that it could be contended that the Law utilises, and relies on, myths in the same way as do other disciplines, notably psycho-analysis. It is possible to go even further and argue that the use of a created narrative mythology is essential to the establishment of a defined legal benchmark of behaviour by which the female defendant is assessed, judged and punished. While mythology expresses and symbolizes cultural and political behaviour, it is the Law that embodies and prescribes punitive sanctions. This element represents a powerful literary strand in classical mythology. This may be seen, for instance, in Antigone’s appeal to the Law as justification for her conduct, as much as in Medea’s challenge to the Law though her desire for vengeance. Despite its image of neutral, objective rationality, the Law, in creating and sustaining the ideals of legally-sanctioned conduct, engages in the same literary processes of imagination, reason and emotion that are central to the creation and re-creation of myth. The (re-)presentation of the Medea myth in literature (especially in theatre) and in art, finds its echo in the theatre of the courtroom where wronged women who have refused to passively accept their place, have instead responded with violence. Consequently, the Medea myth, in its depiction of the (un)feminine, serves as a template for the Law’s judgment of ‘conventional’ feminine conduct in the roles of wife and mother. Medea is an image of deviant femininity, as is Lady Macbeth and the countless other un-feminine literary and mythological women who challenge the power of the dominant culture and its ally, the Law. These women stand opposed to the other dominant theme of both literature and Law: the conformist woman, the passive dupe, who are victims of male oppression – women such as Ariadne of Naxos and Tess of the D’Ubervilles – and who are subsequently consumed by the Law, much as Semele is consumed by the fire of Jupiter’s gaze upon her. All of these women, the former as well as the latter, have their real-life counterparts in the pages of the Law Reports. As Fox puts it, “these women have come to bear the weight of the cultural stereotypes and preconceptions about women who kill.”

The evaluation of time series: their scientific value and contribution to policy needs. Occasional Publication of the Marine Biological Association 22

In 2000 a Review of Current Marine Observations in relation to present and future needs was undertaken by the Inter-Agency Committee for Marine Science and Technology (IACMST). The Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN) was initiated in 2002 as a direct response to the recommendations of the report. A key part of the current phase of the MECN is to ensure that information from the network is provided to policy makers and other end-users to enable them to produce more accurate assessments of ecosystem state and gain a clearer understanding of factors influencing change in marine ecosystems. The MECN holds workshops on an annual basis, bringing together partners maintaining time-series and long-term datasets as well as end-users interested in outputs from the network. It was decided that the first workshop of the MECN continuation phase should consist of an evaluation of the time series and data sets maintained by partners in the MECN with regard to their ‘fit for purpose’ for answering key science questions and informing policy development. This report is based on the outcomes of the workshop. Section one of the report contains a brief introduction to monitoring, time series and long-term datasets. The various terms are defined and the need for MECN type data to complement compliance monitoring programmes is discussed. Outlines are also given of initiatives such as the United Kingdom Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy (UKMMAS) and Oceans 2025. Section two contains detailed information for each of the MECN time series / long-term datasets including information on scientific outputs and current objectives. This information is mainly based on the presentations given at the workshop and therefore follows a format whereby the following headings are addressed: Origin of time series including original objectives; current objectives; policy relevance; products (advice, publications, science and society). Section three consists of comments made by the review panel concerning all the time series and the network. Needs or issues highlighted by the panel with regard to the future of long-term datasets and time-series in the UK are shown along with advice and potential solutions where offered. The recommendations are divided into 4 categories; ‘The MECN and end-user requirements’; ‘Procedures & protocols’; ‘Securing data series’ and ‘Future developments’. Ever since marine environmental protection issues really came to the fore in the 1960s, it has been recognised that there is a requirement for a suitable evidence base on environmental change in order to support policy and management for UK waters. Section four gives a brief summary of the development of marine policy in the UK along with comments on the availability and necessity of long-term marine observations for the implementation of this policy. Policy relating to three main areas is discussed; Marine Conservation (protecting biodiversity and marine ecosystems); Marine Pollution and Fisheries. The conclusion of this section is that there has always been a specific requirement for information on long-term change in marine ecosystems around the UK in order to address concerns over pollution, fishing and general conservation. It is now imperative that this need is addressed in order for the UK to be able to fulfil its policy commitments and manage marine ecosystems in the light of climate change and other factors.

Social Work and theatre: considering intersections

Theatre is a cultural and artistic form that involves a process of communication between creators and is received in a space and time located in the public sphere, which has meant that, over the centuries, it has acted as a space for expression, exchange and debate regarding all manner of ideas, causes and struggles. Implicit within this process are processes of expression, creation and reception, by way of which people demonstrate, analyse and question ways of seeing and understanding life, and ways of being and existing in the world. This gives rise to educational, cultural, social and political potential, which has been endorsed in numerous studies and investigations. In this work, in which theoretical orientation is established through a review of the relevant literature, we consider different intersections that occur between theatre and social work in order to also show that dramatic and theatrical expression offers substantive methodologies for achieving some objectives of social work, particularly in areas such as critical literacy, reflexivity and recognition, awareness raising, social participation, personal and/or community development, ownership of cultural capital and access to personal and social wellbeing.

Presbyterian Religion, Historiography and Ulster Scots Identity, c. 1800 to 1914

The links between Presbyterians in Scotland and the north of Ireland are obvious but have been largely ignored by historians of the nineteenth century. This article addresses this gap by showing how Ulster Presbyterians considered their relationship with their Scottish co-religionists and how they used the interplay of religious and ethnic considerations this entailed to articulate an Ulster Scots identity. For Presbyterians in Ireland, their Scottish origins and identity represented a collection of ideas that could be deployed at certain times for specific reasons – theological orthodoxy, civil and religious liberty, and certain character traits such as hard work, courage, and soberness. Ideas about the Scottish identity of Presbyterianism were reawakened for a more general audience in the first half of the nineteenth century, during the campaign for religious reform and revival within the Irish church, and were expressed through a distinctive denominational historiography inaugurated by James Seaton Reid. The formulation of a coherent narrative of Presbyterian religion and the improvement of Ulster laid the religious foundations of a distinct Ulster Scots identity and its utilization by unionist opponents of Home Rule between 1885 and 1914.

Thisness and Events

This essay is an investigation into the existence of primitive thisness, i.e. the property of being a particular individual. I begin with a look at what is commonly taken to be the test for primitive thisness, namely, the failure of application of the principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles for some class of individuals. The two classes that I look at are those of material objects and events. I then discuss Hacking’s objection to the general project of seeking counterexamples to the Identity of Indiscernibles, and consider a response due to Adams. I argue that Hacking’s objection does, indeed, count against the instantiation of thisness by material objects. I go on to argue, however, that Hacking’s objection does not hold against the instantiation of thisness by events, and that this is due to a fundamental disanalogy between space and time.

Sonic Geography, Place and Race in the Formation of Local Identity: Liverpool and Scousers

The concept of identity has attracted significant academic attention. This article unpacks what constitutes the Scouse identity, how it is constructed and its different dimensions, with particular reference to place, phonology and race. Its novelty lies in developing the underused concept of “sonic geography” to examine the extent to which sound, for example a distinctive accent and/or dialect, affects the construction of local identity. Empirically this is conducted through a detailed analysis of the Scouse, or Liverpudlian, identity. The article also deploys the concept of “sonic exclusion” to examine the role a distinguishing vernacular plays in shaping local identity and the extent to which it determines “who is in” and “who is out” as a Scouser. The conclusion is that an effective understanding of a Scouser is not only spatial – someone born in Liverpool – because the sonoric landscape of spoken Scouse, and thereby Scouse identity, extends beyond the contemporary political and geographic boundaries of the City of Liverpool.

Simulated predator extinctions: Predator identity affects survival and recruitment of oysters

The rate of species loss is increasing at a global scale, and human-induced extinctions are biased toward predator species. We examined the effects of predator extinctions on a foundation species, the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica). We performed a factorial experiment manipulating the presence and abundance of three of the most common predatory crabs, the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), stone crab (Menippe mercenaria), and mud crab (Panopeus herbstii) in estuaries in the eastern United States. We tested the effects of species richness and identity of predators on juvenile oyster survival, oyster recruitment, and organic matter content of sediment. We also manipulated the density of each of the predators and controlled for the loss of biomass of species by maintaining a constant mass of predators in one set of treatments and simultaneously using an additive design. This design allowed us to test the density dependence of our results and test for functional compensation by other species. The identity of predator species, but not richness, affected oyster populations. The loss of blue crabs, alone or in combination with either of the other species, affected the survival rate of juvenile oysters. Blue crabs and stone crabs both affected oyster recruitment and sediment organic matter negatively. Mud crabs at higher than ambient densities, however, could fulfill some of the functions of blue and stone crabs, suggesting a level of ecological redundancy. Importantly, the strong effects of blue crabs in all processes measured no longer occurred when individuals were present at higher-than-ambient densities. Their role as dominant predator is, therefore, dependent on their density within the system and the density of other species within their guild (e.g., mud crabs). Our findings support the hypothesis that the effects of species loss at higher trophic levels are determined by predator identity and are subject to complex intraguild interactions that are largely density dependent. Understanding the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning or addressing practical concerns, such as loss of predators owing to overharvesting, remains complicated because accurate predictions require detailed knowledge of the system and should be drawn from sound experimental evidence, not based on observations or generalized models.

Legitimacy Through Neutrality: Probation and Conflict in Northern Ireland

The conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles presented numerous challenges for the administration of traditional forms of criminal justice and has led to a variety of adaptations that have been widely discussed in the literature in criminology and transitional justice. The role of Northern Ireland's probation service is often forgotten or ignored in such analyses. This brief article is intended to begin to fill this gap by exploring how the Troubles impacted on probation practice during the Conflict and beyond. In particular, we argue that the 'neutrality stance' taken by probation in the mid-1970s, when officers decided to cease mandated work with individuals charged with 'politically-motivated' offences, has had a lasting impact on the identity and role of probation in the region. The deep immersion into, and engagement with, marginalised communities during this time, facilitated by this neutrality stance, has overlooked implications for probation practice more widely in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Self-Care, the Body and Identity: The Non-Abelist Consumer Perspective

Consumers confined to the home due to disability or long term illness are the subjects of this study. Home confined consumers are not subject to the public gaze but are nevertheless just as conscious of idealised conceptions of what constitutes a normalised body and strive to attain this by means of highly disciplined body self-care practices. This paper examines their consumption experiences and finds that they strive to create a disciplined approach to inner and outer body maintenance. They do so in order to maintain and develop self-identity, and even the survival of the self in their self-created marketplaces.

Combined R-matrix eigenstate basis set and finite-difference propagation method for the time-dependent Schrodinger equation: The one-electron case

In this work we present the theoretical framework for the solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) of atomic and molecular systems under strong electromagnetic fields with the configuration space of the electron’s coordinates separated over two regions; that is, regions I and II. In region I the solution of the TDSE is obtained by an R-matrix basis set representation of the time-dependent wave function. In region II a grid representation of the wave function is considered and propagation in space and time is obtained through the finite-difference method. With this, a combination of basis set and grid methods is put forward for tackling multiregion time-dependent problems. In both regions, a high-order explicit scheme is employed for the time propagation. While, in a purely hydrogenic system no approximation is involved due to this separation, in multielectron systems the validity and the usefulness of the present method relies on the basic assumption of R-matrix theory, namely, that beyond a certain distance (encompassing region I) a single ejected electron is distinguishable from the other electrons of the multielectron system and evolves there (region II) effectively as a one-electron system. The method is developed in detail for single active electron systems and applied to the exemplar case of the hydrogen atom in an intense laser field.