This chapter explores the actual reading event. It considers what kinds of pleasure readers seek from book reading and rereading (in different settings and at different times), and the ways in which an e-book does or does not deliver such satisfactions. Examining aspects such as tactile dimensions of embodied reading, the role of the material object, convenience and access, optimisation and customisation, and narrative immersion, it contextualises original findings with recent empirical research on screen reading and offers insights on how, where, and when intimacy, sense of achievement, and the feeling of being ‘lost in a book’ can be found in e-reading. Pleasures such as immersion and sense of achievement appear to be impeded by digital for some readers but facilitated for others. The chapter further examines how an e-book can be framed as an incomplete book (frequently as ‘content’ or ‘story’ and hence the ‘most important part’) without losing its power to satisfy.

The concept of the cultural landscape represents a liminal space where physical and digital geographies intersect, creating a dynamic terrain where consumers, brands, and the landscape itself interact to create meaning and establish value. This introduction highlights the intricate relationship between brands and consumers within this landscape, exploring the fluid exchange of power and identity construction that occurs in these interactions. With a focus on how brands and consumers co-create meaning and value, the book examines the formation and exchange of capital, gender, authenticity, activism, and the power dynamics that come into play between consumers and brands.

This chapter covers the period starting with the first emergence of commercial banking in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland leading up to the First World War. The chapter emphasises the role of nineteenth-century banking literature in shaping the ideas of what adequate capital meant in numbers. Moreover, the chapter looks at individual banks in all three countries and how they determined the size of their capital. In Switzerland, simple rules of thumb, such as the 1:3 capital/deposits ratio, were surprisingly persistent, while the English banks abandoned such strict guidelines very early on. In the United States, capital ratios were important from the beginning of banking. The chapter argues that the decentral or central organisation of the banknote issuance was a crucial determinant for the relevance of capital in the respective countries.

In this chapter, we shall discuss three paradigmatic models that show symmetry-protected topological features and are resilient to local perturbations as long as the relevant symmetries are not disturbed. They are Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH) model and a Kitaev chain with superconducting correlations in one-dimensional (1D) and a ladder system, known as the Creutz ladder in a quasi-1D setup.

Su—Schrieffer—Heeger (SSH) Model

Introduction

To make our concepts clear on the topological phase, and whether a model involves a topological phase transition, we apply it to the simplest model available in the literature. The SSH model denotes a paradigmatic 1D model that hosts a topological phase. It also possesses a physical realization in polyacetylene, which is a long chain organic polymer (polymerization of acetylene) with a formula [C2H2]n (shown in Fig. 3.1). The C–C bond lengths are measured by NMR spectroscopy technique and are found to be 1.36 Å and 1.44 Å for the double and the single bonds respectively. The chain consists of a number of methyne (= CH−) groups covalently bonded to yield a 1D structure, with each C-atom having a p electron. This renders connectivity to the polymer chain.

Possibly intrigued by this bond-length asymmetry, one can write down a tight-binding Hamiltonian of such a system with two different hopping parameters for spinless fermions hopping along the single and the double bonds. These staggered hopping amplitudes are represented by t1 and t2. Let us consider that the chain consists of N unit cells with two sites (that is, two C atoms) per unit cell and denote these two sites as A and B. The hopping between A and B sites in a cell be denoted by t1, while those from B to A across the cell can be denoted by t2. Because of the presence of a single π electron at each of the C atoms, the interparticle interaction effects are completely neglected. We shall show that the staggered hopping or the dimerization has got serious consequences for the topological properties of even such a simple model.

This chapter may be viewed as a brief treatment of such parts of descriptive set theory as are needed in the main body of the text. The Borel hierarchy and analytic sets (Chapter 1) are developed further. The theorems of Souslin (analytic plus co-analytic imply Borel), Nikodym (preservation of the Baire property under the Souslin operation) and Marczewski (preservation of measurability under the Souslin operation) are stated (proved in more generality in Chapter 12). The Cantor Intersection Theorem is extended from closed (or compact) sets to analytic sets (Analytic Cantor Theorem). The Borel hierarchy is extended to the projective hierarchy: starting with the analytic sets $\sum^1_1$, their complements $\prod^1_1$ and the intersection of these, $\Delta^1_1$ (the Borel sets), one proceeds inductively: $\sum^1_{n+1}$ contains projections of $\prod^1_n$; their complements give $\prod^1_{n+1}$; intersections of these give $\Delta^1_{n+1}$, etc. The special importance of $\Delta^1_2$ is discussed.

This chapter shifts focus to consider to what extent the behaviours viewed in Chapters 3 and 4 were unique to learners. This is achieved by using a new corpus, the TLC L1 corpus, which is composed of the same exam as in the TLC corpus. However, in this case it is L1 speakers sitting the exam. This allows us to see an overlap between the discourse unit functions selected by L1 speakers undertaking the same tasks as the L2 speakers. The role of micro-structural features, specifically grammatical features, in forming similarities and differences between the two sets of examinees (L1 and L2 speakers) is considered. As part of this, the chapter focuses in on four particular grammatical features – demonstrative determiners, numeral nouns, passives and relative clauses – which seem to link discourse unit to proficiency in the TLC to the extent that they generate differences between discourse unit functions when the TLC and TLC L1 are compared. The chapter also considers, however, the normative nature of the analysis undertaken and notes that individual learners’ performance may vary from the norms examined.

By the 1910s, the Indian independence movement was well under way. Intellectuals such as Rabindranath Tagore, apprehensive about drawing scrutiny from the British government, hesitated to use the US as a base for actively spreading Indian independence propaganda. However, Indians such as Lala Har Dayal and Taraknath Das rejected such qualms as they sought to build an internationalist coalition to fight against White supremacy and colonialism. The center of this coalition was the Ghadar Party, a political organization created by Har Dayal and other Indian revolutionaries such as Sant Baba Wasakha Singh Dadehar, Baba Jawala Singh, Santokh Singh, and Sohan Singh Bhakna in 1913 in Astoria, Oregon. Mark Naidis argues that the Ghadar Party built alliances with the Irish independence movement and was primarily a promoter of Indian nationalism, seeking only to liberate India from the British. However, the party also had a platform of global decolonization and establishing democracy for all colonized peoples was one of their goals.

The Ghadar Party operated primarily along the West Coast, in states such as California and Washington due to the larger Indian population in the region, and as a result it did not reach many Black or Indigenous Americans, who lived in other areas of the US. Similarly, Ghadar Party members did not actively try to enlist Black Americans, focusing instead on the anti-colonial and self-determination struggles of subjects of European colonization. Lala Har Dayal, however, did compare the Black American experience to the situation of Indians under British colonialism, and theorized that American racism mirrored caste discrimination in India. Other Ghadar Party members such as Das and Ram Chandra believed that the condition of Indians under British rule was akin to the experience of Black slaves in the US prior to the Civil War. However, the party as a whole did not see the plight of Black Americans in the early twentieth century as a direct parallel to their own struggle in India, and they did not believe that the Black American struggle was one of self-determination. That outlook, and the fact that Har Dayal only led the Ghadar Party until 1914, may offer an additional explanation as to why the organization did not foster solidarity with African Americans.

In the digital age, the landscape of information dissemination has undergone a profound transformation. The traditional boundaries between information and news have become increasingly blurred as technology allows anyone to create and share content online. The once-excusive realm of authoritative media outlets and professional journalists has given way to a decentralized public square, where individuals can voice their opinions and reach vast audiences regardless of mainstream coverage. The evolution of the digital age has dismantled the conventional notions of journalism and reshaped how news is obtained and interpreted. This shift has paved the way for the proliferation of fake news and online disinformation. The ease with which false information can be fabricated, packaged convincingly and rapidly disseminated to a wide audience has contributed to the rise of fake news. This phenomenon gained global attention during the 2016 US presidential election, prompting nations worldwide to seek strategies for tackling this issue.