If it can be said that Native culture is hidden behind the facade of mainstream America, there is a facet of that culture hidden even to many Native Americans. One of today's generation of outstanding Native writers, Esther Belin is an urban Indian. Raised in the city, she speaks with an entirely different voice from that of her reservation kindred as she expresses herself on subjects of urban alienation, racism, sexism, substance abuse, and cultural estrangement. In this bold new collection of poems, Belin presents a startling vision of urban California--particularly Los Angeles--contrasted with Navajo life in the Four Corners region. She presents aspects of Din, life and history not normally seen by readers accustomed to accounts written by Navajos brought up on the reservation. Her work reveals a difference in experience but a similarity in outlook. Belin's poems put familiar cultural forms in a new context, as Coyote "struts down east 14th / feeling good / looking good / feeling the brown." Her character Ruby dramatizes the gritty reality of a Native woman's life ("I laugh / sit / smoke a Virginia Slim / and talk to the spirits"). Her use of Dine language and poignant descriptions of family life will remind some of Joy Harjo's work, but with every turn of the page, readers will know that Belin is making her own mark on Native American literature. "From the Belly of My Beauty" is also a ceremony of affirmation and renewal for those Native Americans affected by the Federal Indian Relocation Program of the 1950s and '60s, with its attempts to "assimilate" them into the American mainstream. They have survived by remembering who they were and where they came from. And they have survived so that they might bear witness, as Esther Belin so powerfully does. Belin holds American culture accountable for failing to treat its indigenous peoples with respect, but speaks for the ability of Native culture to survive and provide hope, even for mixed-blood or urban Indians. She is living proof that Native culture thrives wherever its people are found.

This book will be the last one in a series of 4 books issued yearly as a deliverable of the research school established within the European Network of Excellence CMA (for Complex Metallic Alloys). It is written by reputed experts in the fields of metal physics, surface physics and chemistry, metallurgy and process engineering, combining expertise found inside as well as outside the network. The CMA network focuses on the huge group of largely unknown multinary alloys and compounds formed with crystal structures based on giant unit cells containing clusters, with many tens up to more than thousand atoms per unit cell. In these phases, for many phenomena, the physical length scales are substantially smaller than the unit-cell dimension. Hence, these materials offer unique combinations of properties, which are mutually excluded in conventional materials: metallic electric conductivity combined with low thermal conductivity, combination of good light absorption with high-temperature stability, combination of high metallic hardness with reduced wetting by liquids, electrical and thermal resistance tuneable by composition variation, excellent resistance to corrosion, reduced cold-welding and adhesion, enhanced hydrogen storage capacity and light absorption, etc. The series of books will concentrate on: development of fundamental knowledge with the aim of understanding materials phenomena, technologies associated with the production, transformation and processing of knowledge-based multifunctional materials, surface engineering, support for new materials development and new knowledge-based higher performance materials for macro-scale applications.

This book is the third in a series of 4 books issued yearly as a deliverable of the research school established within the European Network of Excellence CMA (for Complex Metallic Alloys). It is written by reputed experts in the fields of surface physics and chemistry, metallurgy and process engineering, combining expertise found inside as well as outside the network.The CMA network focuses on the huge group of largely unknown multinary alloys and compounds formed with crystal structures based on giant unit cells containing clusters, with many tens or up to more than thousand atoms per unit cell. In these phases, for many phenomena, the physical length scales are substantially smaller than the unit-cell dimension. Hence, these materials offer unique combinations of properties, which are mutually excluded in conventional materials: metallic electric conductivity combined with low thermal conductivity, combination of good light absorption with high-temperature stability, combination of high metallic hardness with reduced wetting by liquids, electrical and thermal resistance tuneable by composition variation, excellent resistance to corrosion, reduced cold-welding and adhesion, enhanced hydrogen storage capacity and light absorption, etc.The series of books will concentrate on: development of fundamental knowledge with the aim of understanding materials phenomena, technologies associated with the production, transformation and processing of knowledge-based multifunctional materials, surface engineering, support for new materials development and new knowledge-based higher performance materials for macro-scale applications.

Complex metal alloys (CMAs) comprise a huge group of largely unknown alloys and compounds, where many phases are formed with crystal structures based on giant unit cells containing atom clusters, ranging from tens of to more than thousand atoms per unit cell. In these phases, for many phenomena, the physical length scales are substantially smaller than the unit-cell dimension. Hence, these materials offer unique combinations of properties which are mutually exclusive in conventional materials, such as metallic electric conductivity combined with low thermal conductivity, good light absorption with high-temperature stability, high metallic hardness with reduced wetting by liquids, etc.This book is the second of a series of books issued yearly as a deliverable to the European Community of the School established within the European Network of Excellence CMA. Written by reputed experts in the fields of metal physics, surface physics, surface chemistry, metallurgy, and process engineering, this book brings together expertise found inside as well as outside the network to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge in CMAs.

Modern American Indian life is urban, rural, and everything in-between. Lobo and Peters have compiled an unprecedented collection of innovative scholarship, stunning art, poetry, and prose that documents American Indian experiences of urban life. A pervasive rural/urban dichotomy still shapes the popular and scholarly perceptions of Native Americans, but this is a false expression of a complex and constantly changing reality. When viewed from the Native perspectives, our concepts of urbanity and approaches to American Indian studies are necessarily transformed. Courses in Native American studies, ethnic studies, anthropology, and urban studies must be in step with contemporary Indian realities, and American Indians and the Urban Experience will be an absolutely essential text for instructors. This powerful combination of path-breaking scholarship and visual and literary arts from poetry and photography to rap and graffiti will be enjoyed by students, scholars, and a general audience. A Choice Outstanding Academic Book."