Minorities in a “Homogeneous” State: The Case of Japan

2021 ◽  
pp. 211-233
Author(s):  
Edward Fowler
Keyword(s):  
1975 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 607-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon Van Dyke

In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls assumes that the principles of justice are for individuals in a society, and in general he assumes that the society is an ethnically homogeneous state. He thus follows the tradition associated with the dominant form of the social contract theory, which focuses on the individual and the state. His assumptions neglect the fact that almost all states are ethnically plural or heterogeneous, and that many of them confer special status and rights on ethnic groups as collective entities; for example, many of them confer special status and rights on indigenous groups, on groups disadvantaged by prior discrimination, and on minorities and other groups conceded a right to survive as distinct cultural entities. Status and rights for groups necessarily mean differentiation among individuals depending on their membership; and this in turn means that a theory of justice that focuses on the individual and neglects the group both fails to account for existing practices and fails to give guidance where the practices are at issue.


2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
AKHIL R GARG ◽  
KLAUS OBERMAYER ◽  
BASABI BHAUMIK

Recent experimental studies of hetero-synaptic interactions in various systems have shown the role of signaling in the plasticity, challenging the conventional understanding of Hebb's rule. It has also been found that activity plays a major role in plasticity, with neurotrophins acting as molecular signals translating activity into structural changes. Furthermore, role of synaptic efficacy in biasing the outcome of competition has also been revealed recently. Motivated by these experimental findings we present a model for the development of simple cell receptive field structure based on the competitive hetero-synaptic interactions for neurotrophins combined with cooperative hetero-synaptic interactions in the spatial domain. We find that with proper balance in competition and cooperation, the inputs from two populations (ON/OFF) of LGN cells segregate starting from the homogeneous state. We obtain segregated ON and OFF regions in simple cell receptive field. Our modeling study supports the experimental findings, suggesting the role of synaptic efficacy and the role of spatial signaling. We find that using this model we obtain simple cell RF, even for positively correlated activity of ON/OFF cells. We also compare different mechanism of finding the response of cortical cell and study their possible role in the sharpening of orientation selectivity. We find that degree of selectivity improvement in individual cells varies from case to case depending upon the structure of RF field and type of sharpening mechanism.


Author(s):  
Damià Gomila ◽  
Edgar Knobloch

Abstract In this work, we revisit some general results on the dynamics of circular fronts between homogeneous states and the formation of localized structures in two dimensions (2D). We show how the bifurcation diagram of axisymmetric structures localized in radius fits within the framework of collapsed homoclinic snaking. In 2D, owing to curvature effects, the collapse of the snaking structure follows a different scaling that is determined by the so-called nucleation radius. Moreover, in the case of fronts between two symmetry-related states, the precise point in parameter space to which radial snaking collapses is not a ‘Maxwell’ point but is determined by the curvature-driven dynamics only. In this case, the snaking collapses to a ‘zero surface tension’ point. Near this point, the breaking of symmetry between the homogeneous states tilts the snaking diagram. A different scaling law is found for the collapse of the snaking curve in each case. Curvature effects on axisymmetric localized states with internal structure are also discussed, as are cellular structures separated from a homogeneous state by a circular front. While some of these results are well understood in terms of curvature-driven dynamics and front interactions, a proper mathematical description in terms of homoclinic trajectories in a radial spatial dynamics description is lacking.


2013 ◽  
Vol 184 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 299-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Lisle

AbstractThe assumption is widely made that slip on faults occurs in the direction of maximum resolved shear stress, an assumption known as the Wallace-Bott hypothesis. This assumption is used to theoretically predict slip directions from known in situ stresses, and also as the basis of palaeostress inversion from fault-slip data. This paper examines different situations in relation to the appropriateness of this assumption. Firstly, it is shown that the magnitude of the shear stress resolved within a plane is a function with a poorly defined maximum direction, so that shear stress values greater than 90% of the maximum occur within a wide angular range (± 26°) degrees. The situation of simultaneous movement on pairs of faults requires slip on each fault to be parallel to their mutual line of intersection. However, the resolved shear stresses arising from a homogeneous state of stress do not accord with such a slip arrangement except in the case of pairs of perpendicular faults. Where fault surfaces are non-planar, the directions of resolved shear stress in general give, according to the Wallace-Bott hypothesis, a set of slip directions of rigid fault blocks, which is generally kinematically incompatible. Finally, a simple model of a corrugated fault suggests that any anisotropy of the shear strength of the fault such as that arising from fault surface topography, can lead to a significant angular difference between the directions of maximum shear stress and the slip direction.These findings have relevance to the design of procedures used to estimate palaeostresses and the amount of data required for this type of analysis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (6) ◽  
pp. 545-551
Author(s):  
E. V. Radkevich ◽  
O. A. Vasil’eva ◽  
M. I. Sidorov

A model was constructed for the reconstruction of the initial stage of crystallization of binary alloys as a nonequilibrium phase transition, the mechanism of which is diffusion stratification. Numerical experiments were performed. Self-excitation of a homogeneous state by the edge control melt cooling condition.


1986 ◽  
Vol 233 (2) ◽  
pp. 459-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Osada ◽  
K Isono

A nucleoside antibiotic, ascamycin (9-beta-[5′-0-(N-L-alanyl) sulphamoyl-D-ribofuranosyl]-2-chloroadenine), has a selective antibacterial activity against Xanthomonas species. When ascamycin was dealanylated, dealanylascamycin showed a broad antibacterial activity against various Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Xanthomonas citri is susceptible to ascamycin by virtue of the ascamycin-dealanylating enzyme on the cell surface [Osada & Isono (1985) Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 27, 230-233]. The enzyme (Xc aminopeptidase) was purified from X. citri cells by successive DEAE-cellulose, chromatofocusing and Sephadex G-100 column chromatography to a homogeneous state. The purified enzyme exhibited a single band with an Mr of 38 000 in SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. Gel filtration on a calibrated column indicated a similar Mr value. The isoelectric point of the enzyme was 5.7. The enzyme catalysed the hydrolysis of the alanyl group of ascamycin and liberated alanine from the sulphamoyl nucleoside. The enzyme also catalysed the hydrolysis of L-proline beta-naphthylamide and L-alanine beta-naphthylamide. The optimal pH and temperature for enzyme activity were pH 7.5-8.0 and 35-40 degrees C respectively. The enzyme was inhibited by thiol-enzyme inhibitors (i.e. rho-chloromercuribenzoate and N-ethylmaleimide), but was not affected by various naturally occurring aminopeptidase inhibitors (i.e. amastatin, bestatin, pepstatin and leupeptin). Mn2+ and Mg2+ activated the enzyme, whereas Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+ were inhibitory.


Fluids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Mark Dostalík ◽  
Josef Málek ◽  
Vít Průša ◽  
Endre Süli

We revisit some classical models for dilute polymeric fluids, and we show that thermodynamically consistent models for non-isothermal flows of these fluids can be derived in a very elementary manner. Our approach is based on the identification of energy storage mechanisms and entropy production mechanisms in the fluid of interest, which, in turn, leads to explicit formulae for the Cauchy stress tensor and for all of the fluxes involved. Having identified these mechanisms and derived the governing equations, we document the potential use of the thermodynamic basis of the model in a rudimentary stability analysis. In particular, we focus on finite amplitude (nonlinear) stability of a stationary spatially homogeneous state in a thermodynamically isolated system.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (81) ◽  
pp. 20121016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Grace ◽  
Marc-Thorsten Hütt

In many biological systems, variability of the components can be expected to outrank statistical fluctuations in the shaping of self-organized patterns. In pioneering work in the late 1990s, it was hypothesized that a drift of cellular parameters (along a ‘developmental path’), together with differences in cell properties (‘desynchronization’ of cells on the developmental path) can establish self-organized spatio-temporal patterns (in their example, spiral waves of cAMP in a colony of Dictyostelium discoideum cells) starting from a homogeneous state. Here, we embed a generic model of an excitable medium, a lattice of diffusively coupled FitzHugh–Nagumo oscillators, into a developmental-path framework. In this minimal model of spiral wave generation, we can now study the predictability of spatio-temporal patterns from cell properties as a function of desynchronization (or ‘spread’) of cells along the developmental path and the drift speed of cell properties on the path. As a function of drift speed and desynchronization, we observe systematically different routes towards fully established patterns, as well as strikingly different correlations between cell properties and pattern features. We show that the predictability of spatio-temporal patterns from cell properties contains important information on the pattern formation process as well as on the underlying dynamical system.


Author(s):  
Salvatore Babones

When Henry Luce famously called the twentieth century the "American Century," he strongly implied that it was the "first" American century (i.e., not the only one). Subsequent commentators have misunderstood Luce because they have failed to identify the relevant "width of a time point" for world-historical analysis. World-historical trends unfold over centuries, not decades. Demographic change is also slow but sure. China's low fertility rate means that China's population will soon by declining. By 2100 China may have roughly the same population as the Anglo-Saxon core of the American Tianxia. Francis Fukuyama's famous "end of history" is thus much more stable than he has subsequently maintained. The American Tianxia is the universal homogeneous state that Fukuyama once claimed was to be found at the end of history. The Pax Americana of the American Tianxia is very stable because it is based on personal incentives, not interstate relations. It constitutes a new, postmodern world-system, the millennial world-system, that is likely to last for several centuries.


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