Kultywując sztukę umierania. W;t Margaret Edson – pomiędzy dramatem a filmem

As death returned to make its mark on the world with the COVID-19 pandemic and, consequently, resurfaced in the social imaginary, we have found ourselves once again full-throatedly asking questions about what it means to die well. These issues lie at the heart of W;t, an American play penned in the early 1990s by Margaret Edson, which could be situated alongside other fictional and true stories that “provide social scripts for dying” (Knox). The play might also be viewed as a modern reference to the medieval tradition of ars bene moriendi and the morality plays linked with that tradition in a symbiotic, synergistic manner. The essay attempts to demonstrate that the meaning underlying Edson’s play (and its television adaptation of 2001) derives primarily from its grappling with the subject of human’s agency in the face of the inevitable. In its close reading of the play, the essay moves between the text, first published in print in 1999, and the screen, to best tap into the interpretive potential of comparing the drama and its film adaptation.As death returned to make its mark on the world with the COVID-19 pandemic and, consequently, resurfaced in the social imaginary, we have found ourselves once again full-throatedly asking questions about what it means to die well. These issues lie at the heart of W;t, an American play penned in the early 1990s by Margaret Edson, which could be situated alongside other fictional and true stories that “provide social scripts for dying” (Knox). The play might also be viewed as a modern reference to the medieval tradition of ars bene moriendi and the morality plays linked with that tradition in a symbiotic, synergistic manner. The essay attempts to demonstrate that the meaning underlying Edson’s play (and its television adaptation of 2001) derives primarily from its grappling with the subject of human’s agency in the face of the inevitable. In its close reading of the play, the essay moves between the text, first published in print in 1999, and the screen, to best tap into the interpretive potential of comparing the drama and its film adaptation

Structural and physical properties of Fe-Nb-B-RE type of bulk magnetic nanocrystalline alloys

The subject of hard magnetic materials is important from the both practical as well as scientific point of view. Researches in this field are focused on new materials with strong enough hard magnetic properties but with lower rare earth content than for the classical Nd rich alloys. The presented PhD thesis refers to preparation, structural and magnetic properties of the Fe-Nb-B-RE type of bulk nanocrystalline alloys. As the preparation technology of the bulk alloys, the so-called vacuum suction casting was chosen. The chemical compositions of the examined alloys is originated from the Fe-Nb-B (NANOPERM) amorphous melt spun ribbons in which niobium, as an alloying addition, slows down crystallization of iron leading to some optimization of magnetic properties. The PhD thesis is focused on: i) magnetic interactions in multi-phase magnetic materials, ii) magnetism in TM-RE disordered structure, iii) influence of microstructure on selected physical properties and iv) numerical modeling and characterization of the nanomagnetic structures. From application point of view, especially important is a combination of chemical compositions and technology parameters (cooling rate, melting current) of the studied alloys, in order to improve hard magnetic characteristics and / or decrease the RE content without deterioration of their desired properties. The performed investigations consist of fabrication of about 80 different alloys characterized by several structural and magnetic measurement techniques like X-ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, DSC, SEM, AFM / MFM, Kerr microscopy, magnetic balance as well as SQUID magnetometer. It was shown that the phase structure, microstructure and magnetic properties strongly depends on the chemical composition (the RE and Nb content) as well as technology parameters (the sample diameter and the melting current). The optimal parameters were established as: i) Tb as the RE element with the content of 10-12 at. %, ii) Nb content of 6-8 at. %, iii) sample diameter ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 mm and iv) melting current I = 35 A. The alloys reveal hard magnetic properties with a high and ultra-high coercivity depending on the niobium content. Particularly, for the field-annealed (Fe80Nb6B14)0.88Tb0.12 alloy, the coercive field measured at room temperature exceeds 7 T which is a unique feature in the case of bulks. The observed magnetic hardening effect is controlled by the niobium content in the combination with the specific solidification rate (during casting). The observed phase segregation leads to the formation of grain microstructure with the irregularly shaped dendrites separated by inter-dendritic regions. This structure is responsible for an additional shape as well as surface anisotropy and thereby it is a source of some ultra-hard magnetic objects. The carried out simulations proved the proposed micro-magnetic picture of the alloys and indicate a significant role of the ultra-hard magnetic objects in the magnetization processes. Generally, as was shown in the presented thesis, the examined alloys can be considered as high and ultra-high coercive materials with application potential in the fields of permanent magnets where increasing resistance to external magnetic field is required

Magnetization processes of nanoparticles embedded into ferromagnetic matrix

The paper refers to computer simulations of interactions between magnetically hard particle embedded into ultra-hard matrix. We used simulated annealing and Monte Carlo simulations in a frame of the 3D Heisenberg model. The performed simulations reveal that the particles show additional exchange anisotropy dependent on frozen spin direction in the matrix and the angle between matrix and particle easy magnetization axes. The particle matrix coupling are responsible for multi-phase magnetic hysteresis shape and exchange-bias like eff ect

Influence of cooling rate on magnetic properties of (Fe80Nb6B14)(1-x)Tb-x type of bulk nanocrystalline alloys

The paper refers to magnetic properties of the (Fe80Nb6B14)1xTbx (x = 0:06 and x = 0:08) bulk nanocrystalline alloys prepared using the vacuum suction casting technique. The samples were in the form of rods with diameters of d = 1:5 mm, 1 mm and 0.5 mm. It was shown that for the alloys with x = 0:08 the signi cant magnetic hardening with the decrease of sample diameter was observed. For d = 0:5 mm the coercive eld equals 2.46 T and the maximum energy product jJHjmax = 77:2 kJ/m3

Impact of antisymmetric anisotropy on magnetisation of ultra-hard nanocrystalline alloys

This paper describes an application of two-level Stoner–Wohlfarth model including antisymmetric anisotropy and two-level energetic model for simulations of magnetization processes in nanocrystalline, ultra-hard magnetic alloys. The simulation results have been compared with the experimental data obtained for the (Fe80Nb6B14)0:88Tb0:12 alloy. Moreover, the correctness of the proposed model was confirmed by the quantitative agreement with the direct Monte Carlo simulations of similar magnetic systems

Magnetization processes of irregular dendrite structures - a Monte Carlo study

The paper refers to micromagnetic simulations of magnetization processes of dendrite-like object. The objects were generated by the DLA fractal algorithm that allows obtaining fractals with different ratio of the spins attributed to the surface to volume. The simulations were carried out using the cluster Monte Carlo algorithm designed for spin continuous and multiphase magnetic systems. The presented researches include different magnetic anisotropy of the surface and volume reflected magnetically soft, hard and ultra-high coercive phases. As it was shown, the influence of microstructure on the coercivity mechanism is a complex phenomenon. In the case of the fractals with magnetically soft volume the increasing surface contribution causes either increse or decrease of the coercive field for relatively high or low magnetic anisotropy of the surface, respectively. For the fractals with ultra-high coercive volume the occurrence of the surface anisotropy leads to the significant deterioration of their hard magnetic properties. The obtained spin configurations show that this effect is related to non-colinear directions of the surface anisoropy and strong enough exchange coupling between the surface and volume

Nanoscale analysis of superparamagnetic systems

The paper refers to a kind of nanoscale characterization of superparamagnetic materials above and below the so-called blocking temperature. It is propose to apply the Stoner–Wohlfarth model of nanoparticles magnetization supplemented by the two-level kinetic model, determining behavior in T > 0. This approach allows determination of distribution of magnetic moments and energetic barriers of magnetic objects based on magnetization curves. In many cases, the determined distribution of magnetic moments can be recalculated into average size of the magnetic objects giving finally a nano/microscaled picture of the material. The proposed method was successfully used in characterization of diluted magnetics, nanocomposites, powders and even for human hemoglobin. In the paper the basic theory and its application to the nanoscale characterization is discussed in detail

Samospalenie: akt-widowisko. Kilka słów o sprawczej mocy (pewnej) fotografii

Self-immolation: Act-performanceSelf-immolation is understood in this text as a public act of self-sacrifi ce and a type of altruistic suicide. In order to capture its specifi city it seems necessary to employ a compound category of ‘act--performance’ because – on the one hand – it is an act of sacrifi cial suicide, and on the other – it is carried out publicly and demonstratively, like a performance (i.e. with attention to every element of the event, just as happens in other types of public performance). Acts of this type have become a part of the arsenal of peaceful protest activities since the second half of the twentieth century. Th is happened aft er the media publicized act-performance (11 June 1963) of Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Th ích Quảng Ðức, which becomes the main point of focus in this study

Application of Local Information Entropy in Cluster Monte Carlo Algorithms

The chapter refers to a modification of the so-called adding probability used in cluster Monte Carlo algorithms. The modification is based on the fact that in real systems, different properties can influence its clusterization. Finally, an additional factor related to property disorder was introduced into the adding probability, which leads to more effective free energy minimization during MC iteration. As a measure of the disorder, we proposed to use a local information entropy. The proposed approach was tested and compared with the classical methods, showing its high efficiency in simulations of multiphase magnetic systems where magnetic anisotropy was used as the property influencing the system clusterization

Phase stability of (Fe80Nb6B14)(0.9)Tb-0.1 bulk nanocrystalline magnet

The paper refers to phase stability of the (Fe80Nb6B14)0:9Tb0:1 bulk nanocrystalline alloys prepared using the vacuum suction casting technique. The samples were in the form of rods with diameters d = 2, 1.5, 1 and 0.5 mm. Heating up to 900 K reveals structural changes that occur at temperatures above 680 K (DSC and M(T) measurements). The phase analysis, using Mössbauer spectra, indicates the decrease of Tb2Fe14B and increase of Fe content in the samples after the heat treatment. The most stable is the alloy with d = 1 mm, where the formation of -Fe phase was not observed. The decrease of d causes signi cant hardening i.e. coercive eld increases from 0.57 T to 2.66 T for d = 2 mm and d = 0:5 mm, respectively