Peace, Postmodernism, and Praxis: \u27Binding and Loosing\u27 as a Model for Conflict Transformation

First, let\u27s explore how the postmodern turn strengthens the peace position of the contemporary Mennonite church. With our society\u27s awareness of pluralism and the growing recognition that there is no such thing as a common public realm, Mennonite have learned not to be embarrassingly apologetic by the particularity of their peace perspective, nor to let others accuse us as apolitical or irrelevant. Secondly, postmodernism, more than not, values heterogeneous voices ·and respects countercultures. Believers who embrace their convictions of pacifism are being heard and taken seriously in the academia and larger church.1 Thirdly, theological postmodernism questions the adequacy of doctrine without practice. It is now more common to here emphasis on orthopraxy as well as orthodoxy. This ethical turn, or better put, this \u27return\u27 to ethics reinforces the Anabaptist focus on peace and war as key issues in ecumenical conflict

Nanowire and core-shell-structures on flexible Mo Foil for CdTe solar cell applications

CdTe films, nanowires, film-nanowire combinations and CdS-CdTe core-shell structures have been fabricated in a preliminary survey of growth methods that will generate structures for PV applications. Selectivity between film, nanowire and film plus nanowire growth was achieved by varying the pressure of N2 gas present during Au-catalysed VLS growth of CdTe, on either Mo or Si substrates. Metamorphic growth of CdTe nanowires on sputtered CdTe films, deposited on glass substrates, was demonstrated. Coating of CdTe nanowires with CBD CdS gave conformal coverage whereas coating with MOCVD (Cd,Zn)S yielded highly crystallographic dendritic growth on the wires

Thermal antenna behavior for thin films structures

We show that under proper conditions thin films structures behave like thermal sources that are able to emit radiation in well defined directions over a broad spectral band for both polarization states of light. This effect results from the quantization of modes inside the structure as in a Fabry-Perot resonator. A theoretical demonstration of this effect is given using the matrix transfer method. This result is similar to the best efficient reported results with gratings but using a completely different physical principle [J. J. Greffet et al., Nature 416, 61 (2002)].Comment: Submitted to J. Opt. Soc. Am. A on 2003-August 01 Accepeted for publication 2004-February-2

Scotland, Malawi and the post-development critique: an analysis of power and equality in international development

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse contemporary efforts to make international development more equal, through the application of the post-development critique to the relationship between Scotland and Malawi. Post-development theorists posit that international development is a neo-colonial form of action that is premised on, and perpetuates, conceptual and material inequalities between ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries. The Scotland and Malawi relationship is presented by its proponents as an example of a contemporary development practice that challenges these embedded inequalities, based on its people-to-people approach which emphasises mutuality, reciprocity and friendship between the two countries. This thesis therefore brings the post-development critique to this relationship to understand the enduring power inequalities in the contemporary development discourse. An interpretivist qualitative methodology was utilised to explore the perceptions and practices of a variety of organisations and individuals working within the Scotland-Malawi relationship. These methods included semi-structured interviews, participant observation, textual analysis and focus groups. This included a longitudinal focus group study with student groups travelling from Scotland to Malawi before, during and after their trips, to analyse how young people's perceptions were shaped by the contemporary development discourse. This research uncovered the precise ways that contemporary development discourse perpetuates power inequalities in development interactions. These inequalities are shown to be embedded in the colonial cross-national relationships that development relations are often based on, and through the process of othering of people in countries that receive aid. By deploying Bayart’s theory of extraversion, and applying this as an analytical tool, this thesis also offers a new way of understanding agency in post-development theory. Though this analysis, this thesis demonstrates the enduring value of the post-development critique as a means of understanding the dynamic and complex ways that power is negotiated in development. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that the development discourse requires unequal power relations in order to function, and efforts to challenge this from within the industry are unsuccessful

Surging Versus Continuous Turbidity Currents: Flow Dynamics and Deposits in an Experimental Intraslope Minibasin

Small intraslope basins (~100 km^2), or "minibasins," such as those found on the continental slope of the Gulf of Mexico, have been filled predominantly by turbidity currents. Each minibasin is the result of local subsidence and is partially or completely isolated from neighboring basins by ridges formed from compensational uplift. We undertook a series of experiments to investigate the relationship between the flow dynamics of turbidity currents entering a minibasin and the stratal architecture of their deposits. The experiments were performed using continuous-feed turbidity currents and surge-feed turbidity currents. A dimensionless ponding number is developed to compare the geometry of the deposits with the dynamics of the flows that filled the basins. The experimental surging turbidity currents created a deposit that was notably more ponded than the deposits of continuous turbidity currents