We demonstrate the generation of chiral modes-vortex flows with fixed handedness in exciton-polariton quantum fluids. The chiral modes arise in the vicinity of exceptional points (non-Hermitian ...spectral degeneracies) in an optically induced resonator for exciton polaritons. In particular, a vortex is generated by driving two dipole modes of the non-Hermitian ring resonator into degeneracy. Transition through the exceptional point in the space of the system's parameters is enabled by precise manipulation of real and imaginary parts of the closed-wall potential forming the resonator. As the system is driven to the vicinity of the exceptional point, we observe the formation of a vortex state with a fixed orbital angular momentum (topological charge). This method can be extended to generate higher-order orbital angular momentum states through coalescence of multiple non-Hermitian spectral degeneracies. Our Letter demonstrates the possibility of exploiting nontrivial and counterintuitive properties of waves near exceptional points in macroscopic quantum systems.
The paper dwells on the modern phenomenon of the clergy going online and exploring new audiences. The empirical study conducted by the author concerned the activities of popular Orthodox ...Russian-speaking bloggers whose heightening media presence is aimed at digital missionary work and catechism. The research was organized in accordance with the theoretical framework of the concept of communicative figurations that was coined by Andreas Hepp. This constructivist approach implies that mediatization blurs the borders between previously disentangled actors and encourages the growth of their interactions and, thus, a tighter social reality. To embody a communicative figurations-oriented study, the author lays down the methodological foundations that are able to express the nature of personal practices and the reflections on them. So, the methods consisted of case studies, expert and field interviews, and online text analysis. The findings can be set out in the following manner. Online media activity and social networking allow wider transparency and a wider span of audience. Despite stereotype and politicized doxa, the online demand for a specific niche of purely catechetic Orthodox priest blogging has existed for a decade and a half. Over the years, the media practices of missionary work, catechism, and preaching have been formed, mainly in such social networks as VK.com, LiveJournal, Instagram, and in YouTube channels. This dynamic has been growing: priest blogs have acquired the audiences of some tens of thousands of subscribers. It is due to the fact that priest offer a contemporary language when addressing the public for the purpose of missionary work and catechism. They attract an audience of the Russian-speaking network of actors that is diverse in age, gender, and country of residence. Seeing and aiming beyond the conservative confines of an offline parish and church, blogging priests have the opportunity to create their own audience — reach out to a particular generation, choose the style and content of a sermon or testimony of faith. In turn, the audiences choose priest bloggers according to their interests and the preferable ways of religious participation. Orthodox blogger priests strive to consolidate their efforts, to promote various forms of testimony of faith in the digital space. The central direct consequence of the mediatization of catechism and missionary practices is the promotion of a new image of a priest and a new version of the priest‒layman interaction, both contributing to a new church construct.
A pilot post-mortem study identifies a strong correlation between the attenuation coefficient estimated from the OCT data and some morphological features of the sample, namely the number of nuclei in ...the field of view of the histological image and the fiber structural parameter introduced in the study to quantify the difference in the myelinated fibers arrangements. The morphological features were identified from the histopathological images of the sample taken from the same locations as the OCT images and stained with the immunohistochemical (IHC) staining specific to the myelin. It was shown that the linear regression of the IHC quantitative characteristics allows adequate prediction of the attenuation coefficient of the sample. This discovery opens the opportunity for the usage of the OCT as a neuronavigation tool.
In the realities of the millennium the transcendent is banalized – at any moment the user of web 2.0 can find himself in the meditation space of the Buddhist ritual of building a sand mandala or ...order a moleben in one of the Orthodox churches of the world. The Internet and new media technologies provide an opportunity to host and store data that is potentially accessible to many people. Sacred texts of various religious traditions, rituals and practical instructions to them, liturgies, molebens, magic formulas and so on, are no longer the domain of a narrow circle of charismatic professionals. And that in itself raises the question of authenticity and authority to any user of such information and practices. Are genuine and credible online ritual practices, digitized sacred and teacher texts, symbolic images, icons, tanks, vlogs with detailed instructions on the rules of prayers by agreement or online collective pujas? And, if the adept of the religion is an offline authority to which this question may be forwarded, what should do a neophyte, an interested person or a researcher of religions? The focus of the article is the methodology of studying digital discourse of Orthodoxy concerning the epistemic authority and the legitimacy of online rituals. The author analyzes in detail the key concepts of digital studies interdisciplinary research field. The typology of online religious epistemic authorities by H. Kempbell, the concept of «strategic arbitration» by P.H. Chon and the concept of «religious digital third space» by S. Huve and N.Ash-Sheibiare examined in depth. The results of the author’s probing online study of the Orthodox online practices and digital discourse around them are of particular interest. As a final chord, the article offers specific promising directions of online research of digital Orthodox discourse of Orthodoxy. As such, the paper presents the narrative practices of theological bloggers and theo bloggers, the strategic arbitration of theological bloggers regarding the epistemic authority of the repertoire of variations of the practice of «prayer by agreement» on the digital platforms of the Orthodox social network «Elica» and the mobile application «Prayer by Agreement» and, finally, the hybrid digital proposal on rituals and practices of the network «Elica», «Notes».
The original PDF version of this Article had an incorrect Published online date of 25 December 2018; it should have been 9 August 2018. This has been corrected in the PDF version of the Article. The ...HTML version was correct from the time of publication.
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