Translation correlations in anisotropically scattering media

Controlling light propagation across scattering media by wavefront shaping holds great promise for a wide range of communications and imaging applications. But, finding the right shape for the wavefront is a challenge when the mapping between input and output scattered wavefronts (that is, the transmission matrix) is not known. Correlations in transmission matrices, especially the so-called memory effect, have been exploited to address this limitation. However, the traditional memory effect applies to thin scattering layers at a distance from the target, which precludes its use within thick scattering media, such as fog and biological tissue. Here, we theoretically predict and experimentally verify new transmission matrix correlations within thick anisotropically scattering media, with important implications for biomedical imaging and adaptive optics.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Observation of a robust zero-energy bound state in iron-based superconductor Fe(Te,Se)

In superconductors, electrons are paired and condensed into the ground state. An impurity can break the electron pairs into quasiparticles with energy states inside the superconducting gap. The characteristics of such in-gap states reflect accordingly the properties of the superconducting ground state1. A zero-energy in-gap state is particularly noteworthy, because it can be the consequence of non-trivial pairing symmetry1 or topology2, 3. Here we use scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy to demonstrate that an isotropic zero-energy bound state with a decay length of ~10 Å emerges at each interstitial iron impurity in superconducting Fe(Te,Se). More noticeably, this zero-energy bound state is robust against a magnetic field up to 8 T, as well as perturbations by neighbouring impurities. Such a spectroscopic feature has no natural explanation in terms of impurity states in superconductors with s-wave symmetry, but bears all the characteristics of the Majorana bound state proposed for topological superconductors2, 3, indicating that the superconducting state and the scattering mechanism of the interstitial iron impurities in Fe(Te,Se) are highly unconventional.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Adaptation to sensory input tunes visual cortex to criticality

A long-standing hypothesis at the interface of physics and neuroscience is that neural networks self-organize to the critical point of a phase transition, thereby optimizing aspects of sensory information processing1, 2, 3. This idea is partially supported by strong evidence for critical dynamics observed in the cerebral cortex4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, but the impact of sensory input on these dynamics is largely unknown. Thus, the foundations of this hypothesis—the self-organization process and how it manifests during strong sensory input—remain unstudied experimentally. Here we show in visual cortex and in a computational model that strong sensory input initially elicits cortical network dynamics that are not critical, but adaptive changes in the network rapidly tune the system to criticality. This conclusion is based on observations of multifaceted scaling laws predicted to occur at criticality4, 11. Our findings establish sensory adaptation as a self-organizing mechanism that maintains criticality in visual cortex during sensory information processing.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Linear magnetoresistance in mosaic-like bilayer graphene

The magnetoresistance of conductors usually has a quadratic dependence on magnetic field1, however, examples exist of non-saturating linear behaviour in diverse materials2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Assigning a specific microscopic mechanism to this unusual phenomenon is obscured by the co-occurrence and interplay of doping, mobility fluctuations and a polycrystalline structure7, 8. Bilayer graphene has virtually no doping fluctuations, yet provides a built-in mosaic tiling due to the dense network of partial dislocations9, 10. We present magnetotransport measurements of epitaxial bilayer graphene that exhibits a strong and reproducible linear magnetoresistance that persists to B = 62 T at and above room temperature, decorated by quantum interference effects at low temperatures. Partial dislocations thus have a profound impact on the transport properties in bilayer graphene, a system that is frequently assumed to be dislocation-free. It further provides a clear and tractable model system for studying the unusual properties of mosaic conductors.

Website:  http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance in ferromagnet/normal metal bilayers

Magnetoresistive effects are usually invariant on inversion of the magnetization direction. In non-centrosymmetric conductors, however, nonlinear resistive terms can give rise to a current dependence that is quadratic in the applied voltage and linear in the magnetization. Here we demonstrate that such conditions are realized in simple bilayer metal films where the spin–orbit interaction and spin-dependent scattering couple the current-induced spin accumulation to the electrical conductivity. We show that the longitudinal resistance of Ta|Co and Pt|Co bilayers changes when reversing the polarity of the current or the sign of the magnetization. This unidirectional magnetoresistance scales linearly with current density and has opposite sign in Ta and Pt, which we associate with the modification of the interface scattering potential induced by the spin Hall effect in these materials. Our results suggest a route to control the resistance and detect magnetization switching in spintronic devices using a two-terminal geometry, which applies also to heterostructures including topological insulators.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Synchronous universal droplet logic and control

Droplets are versatile digital materials; they can be produced at high throughput, perform chemical reactions as miniature beakers and carry biological entities. Droplets have been manipulated with electric, optical, acoustic and magnetic forces, but all these methods use serial controls to address individual droplets. An alternative is algorithmic manipulation based on logic operations that automatically compute where droplets are stored or directed, thereby enabling parallel control. However, logic previously implemented in low-Reynolds-number droplet hydrodynamics is asynchronous and thus prone to errors that prevent scaling up the complexity of logic operations. Here we present a platform for error-free physical computation via synchronous universal logic. Our platform uses a rotating magnetic field that enables parallel manipulation of arbitrary numbers of ferrofluid droplets on permalloy tracks. Through the coupling of magnetic and hydrodynamic interaction forces between droplets, we developed AND, OR, XOR, NOT and NAND logic gates, fanouts, a full adder, a flip-flop and a finite-state machine. Our platform enables large-scale integration of droplet logic, analogous to the scaling seen in digital electronics, and opens new avenues in mesoscale material processing.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Thermal spin-transfer torque driven by the spin-dependent Seebeck effect in metallic spin-valves

The coupling of spin and heat gives rise to new physical phenomena in nanoscale spin devices. In particular, spin-transfer torque (STT) driven by thermal transport provides a new way to manipulate local magnetization. We quantify thermal STT in metallic spin-valve structures using an intense and ultrafast heat current created by picosecond pulses of laser light. Our result shows that thermal STT consists of demagnetization-driven and spin-dependent Seebeck effect (SDSE)-driven components; the SDSE-driven STT becomes dominant after 3 ps. The sign and magnitude of the SDSE-driven STT can be controlled by the composition of a ferromagnetic layer and the thickness of a heat sink layer.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Spin-disordered quantum phases in a quasi-one-dimensional triangular lattice

Large quantum fluctuations drive the spins in solids into magnetically disordered phases that are not simply paramagnetic. This class of system includes the valence bond crystals and quantum spin liquids, in which spin singlets—the basic unit of entangled pairs of spins—form solids and liquids, respectively. In both phases, geometrical frustration is expected to play a role. So far, very few candidate quantum-spin-liquid materials have been found, including an organic Mott insulator, κ-(ET)2Cu2(CN)3, which is based on a regular triangular lattice. Here, we report a material, κ-(ET)2B(CN)4, with different geometry—a highly distorted quasi-one-dimensional triangular lattice. The magnetic susceptibility follows that of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on this distorted lattice. The material sustains a magnetically disordered Mott insulating state with enhanced quantum fluctuations over a wide temperature range, and undergoes a transition into a spin-gapped phase at 5 K.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Corrigendum: Observation of two-orbital spin-exchange interactions with ultracold SU(N)-symmetric fermions

In the version of this Article originally published the assignment of states with symmetric electronic wavefunctions (|eg⁺) and with antisymmetric electronic wavefunctions (|eg⁻) to the observed spectral lines was inverted throughout. This has now been corrected in the online versions.

Website:  http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Magnon spintronics

Magnon spintronics is the field of spintronics concerned with structures, devices and circuits that use spin currents carried by magnons. Magnons are the quanta of spin waves: the dynamic eigen-excitations of a magnetically ordered body. Analogous to electric currents, magnon-based currents can be used to carry, transport and process information. The use of magnons allows the implementation of novel wave-based computing technologies free from the drawbacks inherent to modern electronics, such as dissipation of energy due to Ohmic losses. Logic circuits based on wave interference and nonlinear wave interaction can be designed with much smaller footprints compared with conventional electron-based logic circuits. In this review, after an introduction into the basic properties of magnons and their handling, we discuss the inter-conversion between magnon currents and electron-carried spin and charge currents; and concepts and experimental studies of magnon-based computing circuits.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

A polynomial time algorithm for the ground state of one-dimensional gapped local Hamiltonians

The density matrix renormalization group method has been extensively used to study the ground state of 1D many-body systems since its introduction two decades ago. In spite of its wide use, this heuristic method is known to fail in certain cases and no certifiably correct implementation is known, leaving researchers faced with an ever-growing toolbox of heuristics, none of which is guaranteed to succeed. Here we develop a polynomial time algorithm that provably finds the ground state of any 1D quantum system described by a gapped local Hamiltonian with constant ground-state energy. The algorithm is based on a framework that combines recently discovered structural features of gapped 1D systems with an efficient construction of a class of operators called approximate ground-state projections (AGSPs). The combination of these tools yields a method that is guaranteed to succeed in all 1D gapped systems. An AGSP-centric approach may help guide the search for algorithms for more general quantum systems, including for the central challenge of 2D systems, where even heuristic methods have had more limited success.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Nonlocal adiabatic response of a localized system to local manipulations

We examine the response of a system localized by disorder to a time-dependent local perturbation that varies smoothly with a characteristic timescale τ. We find that such a perturbation induces a nonlocal response, involving a rearrangement of conserved quantities over a length scale ~ln τ. This effect lies beyond linear response, is absent in undisordered insulators and highlights the remarkable subtlety of localized phases. The effect is common to both single-particle and many-body localized phases. Our results have implications for numerous fields, including topological quantum computation in quantum Hall systems, quantum control in disordered environments, and time-dependent localized systems. For example, they indicate that attempts to braid quasiparticles in quantum Hall systems or Majorana nanowires will not succeed if the manipulations are performed asymptotically slowly, and thus using such platforms for topological quantum computation will require considerable engineering. They also establish that disorder-localized insulators suffer from a statistical orthogonality catastrophe.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Measurement of the mobility edge for 3D Anderson localization

Anderson localization is a universal phenomenon affecting non-interacting quantum particles in a disordered environment. In three spatial dimensions, theory predicts a quantum phase transition from localization to diffusion at a critical energy, the mobility edge, which depends on the disorder strength. Although it has been recognized already long ago as a prominent feature of disordered systems, a complete experimental characterization of the mobility edge is still missing. Here we report the measurement of the mobility edge for ultracold atoms in a disordered potential created by laser speckles. We are able to control both the disorder strength and the energy of the system, so as to probe the position of the localization threshold in the disorder–energy plane. Our results might allow a direct experiment–theory comparison, which is a prerequisite to study the even more challenging problem of disorder and interactions.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Translation correlations in anisotropically scattering media

Controlling light propagation across scattering media by wavefront shaping holds great promise for a wide range of communications and imaging applications. But, finding the right shape for the wavefront is a challenge when the mapping between input and output scattered wavefronts (that is, the transmission matrix) is not known. Correlations in transmission matrices, especially the so-called memory effect, have been exploited to address this limitation. However, the traditional memory effect applies to thin scattering layers at a distance from the target, which precludes its use within thick scattering media, such as fog and biological tissue. Here, we theoretically predict and experimentally verify new transmission matrix correlations within thick anisotropically scattering media, with important implications for biomedical imaging and adaptive optics.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Pressure is not a state function for generic active fluids

Pressure is the mechanical force per unit area that a confined system exerts on its container. In thermal equilibrium, it depends only on bulk properties—such as density and temperature—through an equation of state. Here we show that in a wide class of active systems the pressure depends on the precise interactions between the active particles and the confining walls. In general, therefore, active fluids have no equation of state. Their mechanical pressure exhibits anomalous properties that defy the familiar thermodynamic reasoning that holds in equilibrium. The pressure remains a function of state, however, in some specific and well-studied active models that tacitly restrict the character of the particle–wall and/or particle–particle interactions.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Central engine of a gamma-ray blazar resolved through the magnifying glass of gravitational microlensing

Gamma-ray emission from blazars is known to originate from jets emitted by supermassive black holes¹. However, the exact location and size of the γ-ray emitting part of the jets is uncertain^{2, 3, 4,5, 6}. The main difficulty is the very small angular size of these sources, beyond the angular resolution of γ-ray telescopes. Here, we report a measurement of the projected size of the γ-ray jet, revealed by the detection of microlensing in the gravitationally lensed blazar PKS 1830-211. This measurement is consistent with a constraint from the intrinsic variability timescale of the blazar. Our measurement shows that the γ-ray emission originates from the vicinity of the central supermassive black hole. Combining the X-ray and γ-ray data, we use the microlensing effect to constrain the size of the X-ray source. We show that the effect of pair production of γ-rays on X-ray photons does not make the source opaque, owing to the large size of the X-ray emission region.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Probing molecular chirality on a sub-femtosecond timescale

Chiral molecules that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other, known as enantiomers, have identical chemical and physical properties unless they interact with another chiral entity, such as chiral light. Chiroptical1 effects arising from such interactions are used to detect enantiomers in mixtures and to induce enantioselective synthesis and catalysis. Chiroptical effects often arise from the interplay between light-induced electric- and magnetic-dipole transitions in a molecule and evolve on ultrafast electronic timescales. Here we use high-harmonic generation2, 3 from a randomly oriented gas of molecules subjected to an intense laser field, to probe chiral interactions on these sub-femtosecond timescales. We show that a slight disparity in the laser-driven electron dynamics in the two enantiomers is recorded and amplified by several orders of magnitude in the harmonic spectra. Our work shows that chiroptical detection can go beyond detecting chiral structure4, 5, 6, 7 to resolving and controlling chiral dynamics on electronic timescales.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Anomalous critical and supercritical phenomena in explosive percolation

The emergence of large-scale connectivity on an underlying network or lattice, the so-called percolation transition, has a profound impact on the system’s macroscopic behaviours. There is thus great interest in controlling the location of the percolation transition to either enhance or delay its onset and, more generally, in understanding the consequences of such control interventions. Here we review explosive percolation, the sudden emergence of large-scale connectivity that results from repeated, small interventions designed to delay the percolation transition. These transitions exhibit drastic, unanticipated and exciting consequences that make explosive percolation an emerging paradigm for modelling real-world systems ranging from social networks to nanotubes.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Accessing the fundamentals of magnetotransport in metals with terahertz probes

Spin-dependent conduction in metals underlies all modern magnetic memory technologies, such as giant magnetoresistance (GMR). The charge current in ferromagnetic transition metals is carried by two non-mixing populations of sp-band Fermi-level electrons: one of majority-spin and one of minority-spin. These electrons experience spin-dependent momentum scattering with localized electrons, which originate from the spin-split d-band. The direct observation of magnetotransport under such fundamental conditions, however, requires magnetotransport measurements on the same timescale as the electron momentum scattering, which takes place in the sub-100 fs regime. Using terahertz electromagnetic probes, we directly observe the magnetotransport in a metallic system under the fundamental conditions, and determine the spin-dependent densities and momentum scattering times of conduction electrons. We show that traditional measurements significantly underestimate the spin asymmetry in electron scattering, a key parameter responsible for effects such as GMR. Furthermore, we demonstrate the possibility of magnetic modulation of terahertz waves, along with heat- and contact-free GMR readout using ultrafast terahertz signals.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

Spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry in high-temperature superconductors

Conventional superconductors are strong diamagnets that, through the Meissner effect, expel magnetic fields. It would therefore be surprising if a superconducting ground state would support spontaneous magnetics fields. Such time-reversal symmetry-broken states have been proposed for the high-temperature superconductors, but their identification remains experimentally controversial. Here we show a route to a low-temperature superconducting state with broken time-reversal symmetry that may accommodate currently conflicting experiments. This state is characterized by an unusual vortex pattern in the form of a necklace of fractional vortices around the perimeter of the material, where neighbouring vortices have opposite current circulation. This vortex pattern is a result of a spectral rearrangement of current-carrying states near the edges.

website: http://www.arjonline.org/physical-sciences/american-research-journal-of-physics/

The impact of colonial rule on the agricultural economy of Mbaise, Imo State, 1500-1960

At present, there is no reasonably full account of the economic history of Mbaise in Imo State, Nigeria. The reason for this is obvious. Among others, enough attention has not been given to economic and social developments of mini-polities that dot Igbo land, east of the Niger. Existing historical studies in the area though valuable, are politically biased as early scholars on African past concentrated on documenting political developments in 'mega states'. This has inevitably left a yawning gap in our knowledge of economic developments especially in the agricultural economy sub-sector. No doubt, this present study has helped to narrow the gap and consequently revise the trend whereby political history gained importance, which for quite a long time, remained the focus of historical studies and scholarship. It is against this backdrop that the article examined the impact of colonial rule on the Mbaise agricultural economy and argues that alien influences did not do much to transform the traditional economy, but rather concentrated on improving cash crops that aided the metropolitan economy and wellbeing.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Animated graphic film for the rejuvenation of a fading culture: The case of an African oral heritage

Many Nigerian folk heritages including that of the Igbo race are going extinct. The oral nature of folklore is largely responsible for this gradual extinction. One way of preserving such heritage is by making folk stories accessible to the very young because generational transfer of folk heritage ensures that cultures do not die out. Therefore, a paradigm for transmitting culture to the children must be developed and deployed. Beyond entertainment, Igbo folktales are a veritable means of transmitting pristine traditional values that distinguish the race and transfer race memory encoded in symbols, idioms, allegory and other mechanisms of ancient non-literary cultures. This makes it imperative that these heritages be properly transmitted to the young for the purposes of continuity, entertainment, and storing of knowledge. Yet, there seems to be a weak interface between the children and the adults regarding the transmission of folk heritage. Traditional grandmothers that had the duty of telling didactic stories to children hardly play that role in present societies and communities due to urbanization and atomization of families, among other factors.  This problem was investigated through personal observation and bibliothecal inquiry which indicated that Igbo children prefer new-fangled ‘gizmo’ and new media as channel and forms of entertainment.  This paper investigates the bleak future of Igbo folk heritage under the circumstances. It notes that writers have stored these race memories in books, but recommends that for their dynamic propagation through children, the electronic platforms must be adopted through the adaptation of Igbo folktales to drama, developmental theatre, video and television formats of cartoon animation and video games. This paradigm shift should bring the benefits of the Igbo folktale to the children of today, thereby propagating and sustaining it.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Syncretism of Basotho traditional religion and Christianity: Gateway to the syncretistic teaching of Basotho traditional religion and Christianity in Lesotho schools

The article recommends that the teaching and learning of religious education in Lesotho schools should capitalize on the existing syncretism of Basotho Traditional Religion and Christianity in the church to extend it to the classroom setting. The discussion begins with a brief history leading to the acceptance of syncretism in the Church, then argues for the use of the term “syncretism” instead of the theologically accepted term “inculturation.” Factors that necessitated the formalization of syncretism in the church and which may be even more demanding to the school setting have been discussed. The avenues of why syncretism is needed in Lesotho schools in the teaching of religious education have been explored and the recommendations of how such venture could be advanced have been made.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

The contributions of Ilorin scholars to Islam in West Africa: A study of Alfa Salaudeen (a.k.a. Alfa Parakoyi) in Ijesha land

Despite the fact that, the actual date of the introduction of Islam to the Yoruba speaking people of south western Nigeria is not known, it is believed that the Muslim empires in West Africa knew of Yoruba land long before its introduction to Islam. The spread of Islam to other areas is very important in Islam and this serves as a challenge to all Islamic scholars to champion the course of evangelizing the non-believers or idol worshippers as the case may be. Ilorin scholars cannot be exempted from this role. Even though there were many systems in which Islam was introduced to many areas but the emergence of Islam in Yoruba land and Ijesha land to be specific is a unique one. In this case, this article discussed one Ilorin Islamic scholar called Alfa Salaudeen (aka. Alfa Parakoyi) as one of the indispensable dramatic personae in the spread of Islam in Ijesha land. Even though, the land was dominated by pagans but Alfa Salaudeen has done fantastic Jihad diplomatically without any chaos to Islamise the people of Ijesha land. And his legacies can be felt through his mosque and Madrasat (school) that he built couple with his role in converting Ijesha people to Muslim. Apart from that, to show the extent of his role and the appreciation from Ijesha people, Alfa Salaudeen (aka Alfa Parakoyi) were conferred a title by their traditional ruler despite the fact that he was not from the area.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Skewed rural development policies and economic malaise in Zimbabwe

Rural development hinges on the dictates of the growth poles theory. François Perroux introduced the idea of economic Growth Poles in 1949 whose central notion is based on the concept of abstract economic space. The theory argues that decentralization of activities from the centre to the periphery enables the general populace to access services and opportunities better and helps to curtail migration to the centre. In line with the dictates of the growth poles theory, Zimbabwe in 1980 established growth points which helped in the curtailment of rural-urban migration through the decentralization of services to rural areas and the creation of employment opportunities for the rural folk. This paper deliberates on the practicalities and challenges of implementing the growth poles theory and the theory impacted on rural development in Zimbabwe, on the backdrop of skewed rural development policies and economic malaise. The author suggests that political will and a stable economic environment would unlock the prospects and propensity held by the growth pole theory.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Slavery, Mission, and the Perils of Providence in Eighteenth-Century Christianity: The Writings of Whitefield and the Halle Pietists

Centered on understudied manuscript sources located in the Archive of the Francke Foundations, this essay argues that defenses of slavery among eighteenth-century protestants developed from a longstanding tradition of providential thought and narration. This tradition of providential thought and narration was informed by protestants’ transatlantic missionary efforts. Far from encouraging human passivity, faith in God's providential direction motivated protestants to wide-ranging evangelistic endeavors. By focusing on the correspondence and writings of George Whitefield, August Hermann Francke, Gotthilf August Francke, and several missionary Pietists in the colony of Georgia, the essay shows how eighteenth-century protestants confirmed God's providential oversight through the practice of retrospective reflection in their writings and publications. The providential pulse of these writings was integral to knitting together a transatlantic community of protestants in their evangelical zeal and encouraging them to new efforts. Whitefield and the Pietists continued to rely on this providential faith and narrative style as they interpreted their acceptance of slavery in terms of God's direction over the success of their missions, the decisions of temporal authorities, and the conversion of slaves to Christianity.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Slavery, Mission, and the Perils of Providence in Eighteenth-Century Christianity: The Writings of Whitefield and the Halle Pietists

Centered on understudied manuscript sources located in the Archive of the Francke Foundations, this essay argues that defenses of slavery among eighteenth-century protestants developed from a longstanding tradition of providential thought and narration. This tradition of providential thought and narration was informed by protestants’ transatlantic missionary efforts. Far from encouraging human passivity, faith in God's providential direction motivated protestants to wide-ranging evangelistic endeavors. By focusing on the correspondence and writings of George Whitefield, August Hermann Francke, Gotthilf August Francke, and several missionary Pietists in the colony of Georgia, the essay shows how eighteenth-century protestants confirmed God's providential oversight through the practice of retrospective reflection in their writings and publications. The providential pulse of these writings was integral to knitting together a transatlantic community of protestants in their evangelical zeal and encouraging them to new efforts. Whitefield and the Pietists continued to rely on this providential faith and narrative style as they interpreted their acceptance of slavery in terms of God's direction over the success of their missions, the decisions of temporal authorities, and the conversion of slaves to Christianity.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Ecclesiology, Piety, and Presbyterian and Independent Polemics During the Early Years of the English Revolution

Religious controversy swept across England during the revolutionary decades of the 1640s and 1650s. Historians have studied the attendant ecclesiological debates meticulously. The piety as practiced by the puritans has also been carefully examined. Yet generally, these two subjects of ecclesiology and piety have been kept as separate compartments of analysis. The plethora of tracts that rolled off the press during the initial years of the 1640s, nevertheless, shows that many contemporary polemicists were keen to tie the two themes together. The Presbyterian and Independent polemicists were no exception. As this article seeks to demonstrate, a common feature of their publications was the belief that their preferred ecclesiastical polity best served the purpose of promoting individual piety and creating a godly society. Thus the Presbyterian and Independent conflict waged not only over issues of ecclesiology proper such as categories of church offices and of governing councils or composition of church membership to which historians have directed their attention hitherto, but also over questions of how ecclesiology affected piety. Such conflict was a reflection of the commitment of Presbyterians and Independents to their respective vision of reformation for the country. More broadly, this article shows a facet of religious controversy that ultimately led to the disintegration of the godly community and weakened the base of support for the Commonwealth and the Protectorate.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Historicizing Allegory: The Jew as Hagar in Medieval Christian Text and Image

Over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Christian thinkers turned rhetorically to the biblical servant Hagar (Genesis 16 and 21) to establish, or at least support, specific policies restricting Jewish interaction with Christians. Referencing St. Paul's allegorical interpretation of Abraham, Sarah, and her servant Hagar in his Epistle to the Galatians, they transformed a longstanding association of Hagar with the old law, synagogue, or a vague Jewish “other” into a figure representative of Jews living in their midst. The centrality of St. Paul's allegory in western Christian liturgical and exegetical traditions made it a useful framework for thinking about contemporary Christian-Jewish relations. This article is a consideration of the intertwining of biblical typology and history; an examination of the way one particularly rich typological reading came to give meaning to relationships between real Christians and Jews in medieval Europe. A proliferation of Hagar imagery in word and image offered a structure for thinking about Jewish policies in a way that moved beyond Augustine's insistence on toleration. The association of living Jews with the haughty, disrespectful, ungrateful servant sent away by Abraham provided an effective support for increasingly harsh treatment of Jews in Christian society.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

The Power Ballad and the Power of Sentimentality

That intensity results from the ways in which the songs transform aspects of sentimentality developed in nineteenth- and twentieth-century repertoires, particularly parlor songs and torch songs. Power ballads energize sentimental topics and affects with rapturous feelings of uplift. Instead of concentrating on individual emotions like earlier sentimental songs do, power ballads create charged clouds of mixed emotions that produce feelings of euphoria. The emotional adrenaline rushes in power ballads are characteristic of larger experiences in popular culture in which emotions are to be grand, indiscriminate, and immediate.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

The Making of an Asian American Short-Story Cycle

Significantly, the writer changed the ethnic identity of some characters from white American to Asian American. He also added and highlighted Asian American themes and issues. In short, Lee made an “Asian American” short-story cycle par excellence by coloring his stories yellow. This essay examines Lee's rewriting and arrangement of his magazine stories for an Asian American short-story cycle. It first compares the differences between the magazine and cycle versions of the stories. It goes on to examine totalizing devices such as the common setting, recurrent places, connective characters, and unifying themes. Lastly, it elucidates the arrangement of the eight stories and significance of the title story in the cycle. It ultimately argues that Don Lee retrofitted his magazine stories extensively and meticulously for a short-story cycle in order to portray the diverse aspects of post-immigrant Asian America at the turn of the century from his positionality as a third-generation Korean American.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

“The Real Thing”: Election Campaigns and The Question of Authenticity in American Film and Television

This involves close textual analysis of the four examples identified, examining the contrasting visual styles, strategies and tones. The textual discussions will not take place in isolation, however: this article will chart the simultaneous developments in real-world electoral politics, with particular focus on the influence of the media in the election campaigns contemporaneous with the fictional examples discussed. The article charts a shift in the representation of political authenticity, from a cynical attitude towards its possibility in the 1970s, to an uncomplicated reversion to traditional markers of this elusive concept in the 2000s.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

“Can't Repeat the Past?” Gatsby and the American Dream at Mid-Century

The essay uses Ernst Bloch's theory of disappointment and utopianism to dwell, in particular, upon the novel's representations of the American Dream as intimately related to failure and the promise of the New World. Bloch's insistence that disappointment is embedded within utopian formations suggests that the novel's tragic take on Gatsby's dreams is the key to its mid-century fame and its continued cultural appeal.


Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

“It Has to Come from the Hearts of the People”: Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, Race, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act

The churches that these fundamentalists and evangelicals belonged to would grow tremendously in the coming decades, eventually claiming roughly 26 percent of the American population. From the 1960s forward, conservative Protestants would also become key political players, helping to decide national elections. Their responses to the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, which intended to end discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin, and the heated debates that led up to the law reveal much about how conservative Christians related to the state and to a changing society. Responses to the bill ranged from resigned acceptance to racist denunciation. But believers were united in their antistatism and in their opposition to political and theological liberalism. This article examines how evangelicals and fundamentalists engaged in politics and understood race and racism in personal terms. It also analyzes the religious dimensions of modern American conservatism.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Strange Whims of Crest Fiends: Marketing Heraldry in the United States, 1880–1980

Over the course of a century, heraldic entrepreneurs sought to broaden the market for family crests, and in doing so Americanized heraldic practice. The early projects of Albert Welles, Frank Allaben and Frances M. Smith linked heraldry with new approaches to genealogical research and encouraged its use by a broad cross section of American society. In the late twentieth century, entrepreneur Gary Halbert sold millions of heraldic mementos that epitomized the modern commodification of history and identity. The result of a century of marketing is an American heraldry that is both more accessible than its European antecedents and less closely tied to verifiable genealogical relationships.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

The Irony of Southern Modernism

In the first half of the 20th century, the US South lagged behind the Northeast in social and economic development, but in the 1920s and 1930s writers from the US South produced texts that used modernist aesthetic forms to depict poor, rural living conditions. This essay argues that ruralism in the South was a product of modernization, and that cultural development in southern literature preceded modernization, yielding texts that employ a discontinuous narrative technique to depict the rural regions, such as William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and James Agee and Walker Evans's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Music Physicianers: Blues Lyric Form and the Patent Medicine Show

Patent medicine shows became popular in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century by selling their products alongside free musical and theatrical entertainments. The “doctors” promised a range of cures, but usually mixed their remedies with alcohol or narcotics – using the promise of health to evade religious authorities and law enforcement, even in dry counties. Many talented black performers toured with medicine shows, including a number of artists later associated with the blues. I argue that the medicine show had a decisive impact on the blues by providing not simply training in performance, but also an impetus for the notorious suggestiveness of its lyric code. The blues borrows from the medicine show its lawless appeal to ailments uncategorized and ignored by socially sanctioned experts.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Achieving Human Perfection: Benjamin Franklin contra George Whitefield

Two competing strands of intellectual history, which arose from divergent interpretations of human nature, impacted the democratic tradition in the United States. This paper examines this divergence through a succinct comparison of Benjamin Franklin's and George Whitefield's teachings on human perfection. Whitefield's view of perfection is derived from Protestant Christianity and argues that man is called to constantly pursue a personal and earthly unattainable goal. Franklin sought to replace the religious view with one grounded upon enlightenment and sought to establish an earthly perfection, which aligned with his democratic ideal. This view of perfection was attainable to all through the education of the citizens of the new nation in a liberal tradition.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

Television from the Superlab: The Postmodern Serial Drama and the New Petty Bourgeoisie in Breaking Bad

This essay considers the television series Breaking Bad in light of Nicos Poulantzas's concept of the new petty bourgeoisie and Bruno Latour's notion of the production of “monsters” in modern society as a result of the compartmentalization of science from society. Breaking Bad, which has received near universal praise from the popular press, established itself as the most recent dominant show in the recent wave of serial dramas. As a show that resembles the experimental vacuum chamber described by Latour, Breaking Bad succeeds in naturalizing its own terms so that they go unquestioned by viewers. My article views the character Walter White not as the everyman antihero presented by the show, but rather as a representative of what Poulantzas has termed the new petty bourgeoisie. A contention made in this essay is that the quarantined nature of such serial dramas allows them to work as vehicles for ideologies that go unexamined by their viewers.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/

The Exceptionalist Optics of 9/11 Photography

During and after the 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, thousands of photographs were taken. None, however, would become as iconic as Thomas Franklin's photo of three firefighters raising an American flag above the rubble of the World Trade Center. Franklin's photo, I argue in this essay, casts 9/11 in the familiar myth of American exceptionalism, screening out but still gesturing to the heterogeneous memories left unsettled and animate in amateur photographs, missing-person posters, bodies in pain, and performance. In considering the struggle over the visual memory of the attacks, I first consider how, in the wake of 9/11, the discourse of exceptionalism served to disavow the exceptions historically taken by the state and to rationalize the War on Terror. I show how this system of myths works in dialectical relation to other disruptive forms of cultural memory. I then read Franklin's iconic photograph as a screen by which traumatic memories are masked and onto which nationalist desires are projected. Finally, I analyze 9/11 photography that troubles the exceptionalist optics of Franklin's photo by evoking the visual legacy of the Vietnam War and so challenging the logic of righteous warfare.

Website: http://www.arjonline.org/social-sciences-and-humanities/american-research-journal-of-history-and-culture/