Toxic Roots: The Remnants of White Minority Rule in Zimbabwe

Honorable Mention for Best Work of Criticism2018 Northwest Undergraduate Conference in the HumanitiesThis paper discusses the complex history of the intersection of sexuality and gender within Zimbabwe, specifically the chiShona tribe. It builds on the work of Zimbabwean anthropologist Josiah Taru, and African Studies scholar Tabona Shoko to uncover queer tribal identities and their position within precolonial chiShona tradition. This challenges efforts to naturalize homophobia in Zimbabwe in its current context. In relation, the role of colonial masculinity, power, and how it is interconnected in current political discourse is examined, problematized and complicated. Finally, the ways in which lesbian chiShona women challenge this discourse and lesbian invisibility is highlighted through the work of Tinashe Mupedzapasi. Colonization has left toxic roots within chiShona masculinity, sexuality, power dynamics, and gender identity reinforcing hierarchical understandings within chiShona culture. Yet non-normative identities persist. Thus, this project also addresses the critical question: can this discourse be decolonized?Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Linda Heidenreich-Zuñig

Propulsion system safety analysis methodology for commercial transport aircraft

Airworthiness certification of commercial transport aircraft requires a safety analysis of the propulsion system to establish that the probability of a failure jeopardising the safety of the aeroplane is acceptably low. The needs and desired features of such a propulsion system safety analysis are discussed, and current techniques and assumptions employed in such analyses are evaluated. It is concluded that current assumptions and techniques are not well suited to predicting behaviour of the propulsion system in service. The propulsion accident history of the high bypass ratio commercial transport fleet is reviewed and an alternate approach to propulsion system safety analysis is developed, based on this accident history. Features of the alternate approach include quantified prediction of propulsion related crew error, engine-level reliability growth modelling to realistically predict engine failure rates, and quantified credit for design features which mitigate the effects of propulsion system failures. The alternate approach is validated by applying it to two existing propulsion systems. It is found to produce forecasts in good agreement with service experience. Use of the alternate approach to propulsion system safety analysis during design and development will enable accurate prediction of the expected propulsion related accident rate and identification of opportunities to reduce the accident rate by incorporating mitigating features into the propulsion system/ aeroplane design

Toxic Roots: The Remnants of White Minority Rule in Zimbabwe

Honorable Mention for Best Work of Criticism 2018 Northwest Undergraduate Conference in the Humanities This paper discusses the complex history of the intersection of sexuality and gender within Zimbabwe, specifically the chiShona tribe. It builds on the work of Zimbabwean anthropologist Josiah Taru, and African Studies scholar Tabona Shoko to uncover queer tribal identities and their position within precolonial chiShona tradition. This challenges efforts to naturalize homophobia in Zimbabwe in its current context. In relation, the role of colonial masculinity, power, and how it is interconnected in current political discourse is examined, problematized and complicated. Finally, the ways in which lesbian chiShona women challenge this discourse and lesbian invisibility is highlighted through the work of Tinashe Mupedzapasi. Colonization has left toxic roots within chiShona masculinity, sexuality, power dynamics, and gender identity reinforcing hierarchical understandings within chiShona culture. Yet non-normative identities persist. Thus, this project also addresses the critical question: can this discourse be decolonized

Development of Knife-Edge Ridges on Ion-Bombarded Surfaces

We demonstrate in both laboratory and numerical experiments that ion bombardment of a modestly sloped surface can create knife-edge like ridges with extremely high slopes. Small pre-fabricated pits expand under ion bombardment, and the collision of two such pits creates knife-edge ridges. Both laboratory and numerical experiments show that the pit propagation speed and the precise shape of the knife edge ridges are universal, independent of initial conditions, as has been predicted theoretically. These observations suggest a novel method of fabrication in which a surface is pre-patterned so that it dynamically evolves to a desired target pattern made of knife-edge ridges.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Research of a fibrous layer at refining in the refiners

A subject of research-a fibrous layer in the refiners at refining. By means of the tension compression chart it is shown that parameters of a fibrous layer are adequately described by Maxwell-Thompson's model for liquid friction and the Hooke model for boundary friction of a plate. Deborah's number of a fibrous layer is also investigated. Deborah's number of a fibrous layer at refining changes in the range from 7 to 2.1•106 and depends on a nature and concentration of the refining material, the angle of knife crossing, the frequency of rotation of rotor and width of the platform of contact. For decrease in power consumption at refining both chips and pulp of high concentration it is recommended to increase the speed of sliding of knife of rotor along stator knife. It is possible to reach by increase in frequency of rotation of rotor and by decrease of an angle of crossing of knife. At refining of pulp of low concentration for decrease in power consumption of refining it is recommended to reduce the frequency of rotation of rotor and to increase the angle of crossing of knife of rotor and stator. At the high density of contact of plate knife in the range from 5 to 106 of Deborah number the deformation component of friction coefficient decreases together with power consumption of refining process. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved

A Cryptographic Moving-Knife Cake-Cutting Protocol

This paper proposes a cake-cutting protocol using cryptography when the cake is a heterogeneous good that is represented by an interval on a real line. Although the Dubins-Spanier moving-knife protocol with one knife achieves simple fairness, all players must execute the protocol synchronously. Thus, the protocol cannot be executed on asynchronous networks such as the Internet. We show that the moving-knife protocol can be executed asynchronously by a discrete protocol using a secure auction protocol. The number of cuts is n-1 where n is the number of players, which is the minimum.Comment: In Proceedings IWIGP 2012, arXiv:1202.422

Analytical and experimental investigation of rubbing interaction in labyrinth seals for a liquid hydrogen fuel pump

Cracking of the titanium knife edges on the labyrinth seals of the liquid hydrogen fuel pump in the Space Shuttle main engine is considered. Finite element analysis of the thermal response of the knife edge in sliding contact with the wear ring surface shows that interfacial temperatures can be quite high and they are significantly influenced by the thermal conductivity of the surfaces in rubbing contact. Thermal shock experiments on a test specimen similar to the knife edge geometry demonstrate that cracking of the titanium alloy is possible in a situation involving repeated thermal cycles over a wide temperature range, as might be realized during a rub in the liquid hydrogen fuel pump. High-speed rub interaction tests were conducted using a representative knife edge and seal geometry over a broad range of interaction rates and alternate materials were experimentally evaluated. Plasma-sprayed aluminum-graphite was found to be significantly better than presently used aluminum alloy seals from the standpoint of rub performance. Ion nitriding the titanium alloy knife-edges also improved rub performance compared to the untreated baseline

Troublesome youth groups, gangs and knife carrying in Scotland

"... the research reported here set out to: Provide an overview of what is known about the nature and extent of youth gang activity and knife carrying in a set of case study locations; Provide an in-depth account of the structures and activities of youth gangs in these settings; Provide an in-depth account of the knife carrying in these settings; Offer a series of recommendations for interventions in these behaviours based on this evidence." - exec. summary