Law, Social Movements, and the Political Economy of Domestic Violence

This article uses the occasion of the 2013 Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to review the circumstances by which legal theory and social movement discourse have circumscribed the scope of VAWA and the dominant approach to domestic violence. This article seeks to explore the relationship between domestic violence advocacy and feminist theory, which has functioned as “the ideological reflection of one’s own place in society” with insufficient attention to superstructures. Additionally, it argues for a reexamination of the current domestic violence/criminal justice paradigm and calls for the consideration of economic uncertainty and inequality as a context for gender-based violence. As an epistemology, domestic violence scholarship has fallen behind other fields of study due to its failure to address the structural context of gender-based violence. This article proposes a redefinition of the parameters of domestic violence law and presents new (and provocative) ways to think about law-related interventions to ameliorate gender violence

Two-step phase changes in cubic relaxor ferroelectrics

The field-driven conversion between the zero-field-cooled frozen relaxor state and a ferroelectric state of several cubic relaxors is found to occur in at least two distinct steps, after a period of creep, as a function of time. The relaxation of this state back to a relaxor state under warming in zero field also occurs via two or more sharp steps, in contrast to a one-step relaxation of the ferroelectric state formed by field-cooling. An intermediate state can be trapped by interrupting the polarization. Giant pyroelectric noise appears in some of the non-equilibrium regimes. It is suggested that two coupled types of order, one ferroelectric and the other glassy, may be required to account for these data.Comment: 27 pages with 8 figures to appear in Phys. Rev.

Indirect induction of radiation lymphomas in mice. Evidence for a novel, transmissible leukemogen.

The transmission of a lymphomagenic agent(s) from the bone marrow of irradiated mice to thymic target cells has been demonstrated by: (a) the induction of T cell lymphomas in nonirradiated thymic grafts implanted in irradiated, Thy-l-congenic mice, (b) the induction of T cell lymphomas of host origin in mice infused with bone marrow from irradiated, Thy-l-congenic donors. The latter procedure also yields an appreciable number of pre-B cell lymphomas of uncertain origin. The results confirm Kaplan's theory that radiation induces thymic lymphomas in mice by an indirect mechanism. However, the previously described radiation leukemia virus is clearly not involved in the majority of transferred lymphomas. We propose that the mediating agent in radiation lymphomagenesis is a novel, transmissible agent induced in the bone marrow, but exerting its transforming activity on cells in the thymus. The nature and mode of action of the agent are under investigation

Keck Pencil-Beam Survey for Faint Kuiper Belt Objects

We present the results of a pencil-beam survey of the Kuiper Belt using the Keck 10-m telescope. A single 0.01 square degree field is imaged 29 times for a total integration time of 4.8 hr. Combining exposures in software allows the detection of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) having visual magnitude V < 27.9. Two new KBOs are discovered. One object having V = 25.5 lies at a probable heliocentric distance d = 33 AU. The second object at V = 27.2 is located at d = 44 AU. Both KBOs have diameters of about 50 km, assuming comet-like albedos of 4%. Data from all surveys are pooled to construct the luminosity function from red magnitude R = 20 to 27. The cumulative number of objects per square degree, N (< R), is fitted to a power law of the form log_(10) N = 0.52 (R - 23.5). Differences between power laws reported in the literature are due mainly to which survey data are incorporated, and not to the method of fitting. The luminosity function is consistent with a power-law size distribution for objects having diameters s = 50 to 500 km; dn ~ s^(-q) ds, where the differential size index q = 3.6 +/- 0.1. The distribution is such that the smallest objects possess most of the surface area, but the largest bodies contain the bulk of the mass. Though our inferred size index nearly matches that derived by Dohnanyi (1969), it is unknown whether catastrophic collisions are responsible for shaping the size distribution. Implications of the absence of detections of classical KBOs beyond 50 AU are discussed.Comment: Accepted to AJ. Final proof-edited version: references added, discussion of G98 revised in sections 4.3 and 5.

Barkhausen Noise in a Relaxor Ferroelectric

Barkhausen noise, including both periodic and aperiodic components, is found in and near the relaxor regime of a familiar relaxor ferroelectric, PbMg$_{1/3}$Nb$_{2/3}$O$_3$, driven by a periodic electric field. The temperature dependences of both the amplitude and spectral form show that the size of the coherent dipole moment changes shrink as the relaxor regime is entered, contrary to expectations based on some simple models.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX4, 5 figures; submitted to Phys Rev Let

Aging in the Relaxor Ferroelectric PMN/PT

The relaxor ferroelectric (PbMn$_{1/3}$Nb$_{2/3}$O$_3$)$_{1-x}$(PbTiO$_3$)$_{x}$, $x=0.1$, (PMN/PT(90/10)) is found to exhibit several regimes of complicated aging behavior. Just below the susceptibility peak there is a regime exhibiting rejuvenation but little memory. At lower temperature, there is a regime with mainly cumulative aging, expected for simple domain-growth. At still lower temperature, there is a regime with both rejuvenation and memory, reminiscent of spin glasses. PMN/PT (88/12) is also found to exhibit some of these aging regimes. This qualitative aging behavior is reminiscent of that seen in reentrant ferromagnets, which exhibit a crossover from a domain-growth ferromagnetic regime into a reentrant spin glass regime at lower temperatures. These striking parallels suggest a picture of competition in PMN/PT (90/10) between ferroelectric correlations formed in the domain-growth regime with glassy correlations formed in the spin glass regime. PMN/PT (90/10) is also found to exhibit frequency-aging time scaling of the time-dependent part of the out-of-phase susceptibility for temperatures 260 K and below. The stability of aging effects to thermal cycles and field perturbations is also reported.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX4, 11 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.