A postmodern approach to ecological sustainability : the re-enchantment of Fiji's forests

"Na cava na i sau ni taro ni kena tamusuki na veikau e Viti?”, a vuqa era taroga. Au nanuma ni bibi cake na taro. Kevaka e cala na veitaro e tarogi sa dredre sara me kunei na kena i sau a veiganiti. E gadrevi li me vakavinakataki na kena vakatulewataki? Se na navunavuci vinaka li? Na bula toro cake vakailavo li? Se na i tovo vakavanua? Au nanuma ni vu ni nodra vakacacana na tamata na veika e tu tikivi keda a Viti me vaka na musu kau e vakatau mai na noda i tovo vakavanua. Ia na mataqali tovo vakavanua cava a tokoni e Viti me baleta na kena i tuvaki ni vanua, se tiki ni tovo cava e cala? E Viti e kunei kina na bula veimaliwai ni veimatatamata, ia sa bula ka donumaka e dua na gauna ni veisau you. Na veisau vovou sa kena i tovo na kila ka, kei na i tovo e bucini cake ena yavu ni vakasama e taucoko. Na veisau vovou sa veisautaka na i rairai ni vanua e Viti ka kidomoka na veika kece e vakamareqeti ki na dua na kena yaga e qiqo. Ia, na tamusuki ni vaikau sa vakayacori makawa e Viti ni bera na gauna ni veisau oqo, e na gauna ni bula va-Koloni, ka sa dodonu me rau beitaki ruarua na i tovo e rua oqo. Na nona dusi e dua me beitaki ena sega ni vukea na leqa, ia na veika e rawa ni vakayacori sa i koya na noda taqomaki keda mai na noda vakalecalecava ni sega ni cala na i tovo ena kena vakacacani na veika e tu tikivi keda. Na vei tovo kece sara e dodonu me ra vakaitavi ena kena kunei na bula toro caki. Na i vakarau ena sega ni vunitaki dua mai na i tavi me qaravi. Na kena rawati na i naki ni nodra karoni me tudei na veika bula e tu tikivi keda sa gadrevi kina na vakatulewa matau ka ni veika e dau yaco e sega ni vaka i vakarau. Sa gadrevi talega kina na i tovo ka sega ni okata na kila ka me gaunisala duadua ni kena veivosakitaki na i tuvaki ni vanua. Na kena vakaduavatataki ni veivakasama kei na rokovi ni veika tawa kilai vakakina na veika e tawa siqemi rawa sa rawa ni kunei ena vuqa na i tovo, ka okati kina na vei tovo makawa vaka-Viti kei na nodra na vavalagi. Kevaka e vakasaqarai dina me tudei tu na vanua era bula voli kina na veika bula tikivi keda, na i tavi e tu sa i koya na kena vakasaqarai se kunei vou tale eso na veivakasama vovou kei na kena vakauqeti na nodra bula vakataki ira ga na veika bula. "What is the answer to deforestation in Fiji?" many people are asking. To find an answer we first need a question. If the wrong question is asked the possibility of an appropriate answer is out of reach. Is better management needed? Is it better planning? Perhaps it is a greener economy? Or is it culture? I argue that the causes of human induced environmental degradation in Fiji such as deforestation lie in the character of culture. But what culture or cultures do the landscapes of Fiji support, and what aspect of culture is at fault? Fiji is culturally diverse but currently dominated by modernity. Modernity is a culture of knowledge, and a culture built upon the foundations of a steady state rationality. Modernity has disenchanted the landscapes of Fiji and squeezed all forms of value into the narrow framework of utility. However, deforestation also happened in Fiji before modernity arrived with the colonial British, and so both pre-modern and modern cultures in Fiji must share the blame. Pointing at someone to blame does not solve our problem, but what it can do is prevent us from pretending that cultures are innocent when it comes to environmental disharmony. All cultures are responsible for enacting a sustainable life. Tradition will not hide anyone from that responsibility. Fulfilling the obligation of ecological sustainability requires a rationality of process because reality is in a constant state of flux. It also requires a culture that does not see knowledge as the only way of engaging in a conversation about or with a landscape. A rationality of process and a respect for the unknown and unknowable can be found in many different cultures, including the non-modern Fijian culture and non-modern cultures in the West. If ecological sustainability is what is sought, the task is a discovery or re-discovery of process thinking and a re-enchantment of Nature

Thresholds : Gesture, idea and action in the Performance Art of Andrew Drummond, Di ffrench and David Mealing

This thesis examines the work of three New Zealand artists who engaged with processes of performance art during the 1970s and 1980s. David Mealing, Andrew Drummond and Di ffrench integrated performance gestures that mutated into object or conceptual based practices in the 1980s and 1990s. An analysis of their work reveals both similarities and differences, all adjacent to corporeal, political and aesthetic issues and ideas that stem from international and national events particular to the milieu in which they worked. The three artists stand apart from their contemporaries due to their focussed positions as socio-political commentators during a turbulent time in New Zealand history. A large body of written and oral research on their work provides an historical view of the period from 1969 - 1999 that will focus specifically on their aesthetic experimentation and concerns with the fragmentation of the body, self and identity, and, importantly, their intended use of art to effect change. Performance art in New Zealand underwent a burst of energy from 1969 as time-based activity offered an alternative to the static painterly or totemic art practices, as found in much international late modernism. Mealing, Drummond and ffrench explored a notion of performance art that resided in and beyond the margins of mainstream activity. A concept of the limen or the margin, the threshold and the littoral zone - a metaphorical place of creativity is applied to this analysis of their work. These individuals expressed through ritual and symbol found in notions of the-limen, socio-political beliefs that reflected a view of artistic responsibility toward pressing issues of identity, freedom of expression, ecological wellbeing and the human condition. Each artist concentrated on phenomenological themes surrounding the body, explored alternative sculptural material and enjoyed instances of imaginative communication. The body trace that evolved from the temporal moment, their relationship to the land and the urban environment, and an intersubjective exchange with the audience were all engaged with. This is articulated in their practices of socio-political interaction, as expressed through Mealing's interventions, a spatial/kinetic continuum, as seen in Drummond's sculptures, and a performative materialisation of difference as evident in the cibachromes of Di ffrench. Historical international precedents of performance art will interweave with this specific New Zealand study in order to further highlight the diversity of performance art that these artists employed in their idiosyncratic journeys along the borderlands of art making

Weakly Trapped, Charged, and Free Excitons in Single-Layer MoS2 in the Presence of Defects, Strain, and Charged Impurities

Few- and single-layer MoS2 host substantial densities of defects. They are thought to influence the doping level, the crystal structure, and the binding of electron-hole pairs. We disentangle the concomitant spectroscopic expression of all three effects and identify to what extent they are intrinsic to the material or extrinsic to it, i.e., related to its local environment. We do so by using different sources of MoS2 - a natural one and one prepared at high pressure and high temperature - and different substrates bringing varying amounts of charged impurities and by separating the contributions of internal strain and doping in Raman spectra. Photoluminescence unveils various optically active excitonic complexes. We discover a defect-bound state having a low binding energy of 20 meV that does not appear sensitive to strain and doping, unlike charged excitons. Conversely, the defect does not significantly dope or strain MoS2. Scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory simulations point to substitutional atoms, presumably individual nitrogen atoms at the sulfur site. Our work shows the way to a systematic understanding of the effect of external and internal fields on the optical properties of two-dimensional materials

Laser- und Systementwicklung

Die Erfahrungen aus dem Lasereinsatz in der Fertigungstechnik zeigen die Notwendigkeit, den Laser auf Bearbeitungsprozess und Werkstoff abzustimmen. Dies erfordert Laser, deren Intensitaet zeitlich steuerbar ist. Die Zeitkonstanten der Steuerung liegen im Bereich von Milli- bis Mikrosekunden. Als naechster Entwicklungsschritt bietet sich der Uebergang zu Lasersystemen an, deren Intensitaet zeitlich durch den Produktionsprozess gesteuert wird. Parallel zu diesen grundlegenden Problemen sind eine Vielzahl von Detailproblemen zu bearbeiten, die insgesamt zu einer Verbesserung der Zuverlaessigkeit bei hoeherer Leistung und Strahlqualitaet fuehren. (ILT

Laserschweißen im Schiffbau.

Laser processing has been proved to be the more favourable alternative from the technological and economic point of view for a lot of industrial applications. The state of technology development shows that laser welding is even promising for shipbuilding industry. Increase of productivity, new constructions and improvement of the working conditions at the shipyard can be expected by the introduction of laser technology. Based on the state of the art, the necessary development steps for the utilization of laser technology for shipbuilding are shown