Drag Kinging in Amsterdam: Queer Identity Politics, Subcultural Spaces, and Transformative Potentials

In this ethnography of the drag king subculture in Amsterdam I locate the transformative and subversive potential of drag king performances on the larger queer community. Based upon four months of fieldwork spent interviewing drag king performers and queer community members while also attending queer parties, I will show how the burgeoning community of drag kings in Amsterdam work to reconfigure structures of domination within and outside of the LGBTQ community. Despite the history of Dutch tolerance and the sexually liberal atmosphere of Amsterdam, many members of the queer community, including but not limited to lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer identified people, still do not have a space to network, gather, make visible their identities, and voice their political beliefs. The sudden resurgence of interest in drag kinging as both a subjective exploration of gender and sexuality as well as a political act has the potential to establish specifically queer venues and spaces. Through as synthesis of ethnographic methods, queer theory, performance theory, and poststructuralism, the study draws some conclusions about the queer potentiality of drag kinging in Amsterdam through the voices of the performers themselves. By placing these practices within the context of Dutch culture and society the ethnography attempts to situate these practices within the historical context of queer life and politics in Amsterdam

NATURAL GAS MARKET DEVELOPMENT - IMPLICATIONS FOR DIVERSIFICATION OPTIONS OF EU: CASE STUDY OF SLOVAKIA

European Union has been exposed to major changes on global natural gas markets since beginning of 21.century. Shale gas, development, liberalization on Russian market accompanied by lower consumption due to economic crises and interconnecting of natural gas network created a matrix of interacting elements which can clearly influence energy security of EU. The aim of this article was to analyze how the global trends on natural gas market from recent years so far affected the EU natural gas market in terms of diversification with special focus being dedicated to Slovakia. We came to conclusion that shale gas has so far only indirect implications, LNG impact is limited and EU will be in the closest future affected mainly by Russian natural gas export politics. As case of Slovakia documents EU diversification efforts have not been successful so far and EU internal energy market suffers from policies distorting market environment

EU Energy Security - Multidimensional Analysis of 2005-2014 Development

Concept of energy security has been subject to multiple attempts for its conceptualization. Nowadays generally accepted approach is based on multiple dimensions and incorporates factors of energy availability, energy affordability, energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. This paper used z-scored standardization methodology in order to empirically examine the development of overall energy security via synthesizing the contributions of individual dimensions. We took into account eleven distinct variables which describes the each dimension. We found out, that most important common denominator that distinguishes the most secured countries from its peers within EU is their ability to generate energy indigenously due to its natural endowments. Our analysis further revealed that dimensions that are covered under common energy policies (energy efficiency and environmental stewardship) show signs growing cohesion across countries. However countries which improved their overall energy security relied primarily on their affordability dimension. We need to add that each dimension contributed its significant share to the total energy security index development. Keywords: Energy Security, European Union, Energy Security Index, Z-score Standardization JEL Classifications: Q2, Q3, Q

Assessment of the effect of low viscosity oils usage on a light duty diesel engine fuel consumption in stationary and transient conditions

Regarding the global warming due CO2 emissions, the crude oil depletion and its corresponding rising prices, OEMs are exploring different solutions to increase the internal combustion engine efficiency, among which, the use of Low Viscosity Oils (LVO) represents one attractive cost-effective way to accomplish this goal. Reported in terms of fuel consumption, the effect of LVO are round 2%, depending on the test conditions, especially if the test has taken place in laboratory or "on road" conditions. This study presents the fuel consumption benefits of a commercial 5W20, compared against higher SAE grade oils, on a light duty diesel engine, when it is running under motored test, stationary fired test and the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC).The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y competitividad Direccion General de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnica for supporting the FUECOMOIL project (TRA2012-30907).Macian Martinez, V.; Tormos Martínez, BV.; Bermúdez, V.; Ramírez Roa, LA. (2014). Assessment of the effect of low viscosity oils usage on a light duty diesel engine fuel consumption in stationary and transient conditions. Tribology International. 79:132-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.triboint.2014.06.003S1321397

Ageing and Degradation of Multiphase Polymer Systems

Ageing can be defined as a slow and irreversible variation as a function of time (in use conditions) of a material structure, morphology or composition leading to a detrimental change in its use properties. The cause of this change can be the own material instability or its interaction with the environment of exposure. The definition so given is that viewed from an application point of view. There are issues associated with this definition that deserve to be mentioned. First, there are ageing mechanisms, essentially of a physical nature as detailed below, that are not irreversible in nature (e.g. crystallinity change, structural recovery, water uptake without loss of the integrity of the chemical structure, etc.), but may lead to a change in the use properties of these materials. The reversibility is in principle achievable by, e.g. thermal treatment or drying. However, this is not necessarily compatible with the use of materials as pieces, or the material will evolve again anyway when exposed to use environmental stresses. Second, irreversible material evolution in itself does not necessarily imply a detrimental change of use properties. It can even result in an improvement of properties. This represents indeed a marked difficulty when attempting to define so-called ‘ageing markers’ for materials, i.e. material properties to be monitored for health monitoring purpose: the marker must be sensitive enough so as to provide the early signs of material evolution but, at the same time, there should be a correlation between the evolution of the marker and the changes in use properties

The effect of soot and diesel contamination on wear and friction of engine oil pump

The effect of oil contamination and oil degradation on friction and wear of engine oil pump are addressed in this paper. It provides a summary of an experimental study on the effects of oil contamination and oil degradation on tribological performance of a Variable Displacement Vane Pump (VDVP); a particular focus is on the vane-rotor contact. Firstly, a lab-based artificial ageing of fully-formulated engine oil (FFO) with the addition of contaminants such as carbon black (CB) and diesel is conducted. Secondly, the impact of these contaminants on the bulk property of the oil during the ageing process is investigated, using rheometry and Attenuated Total Reflectance/Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR/FTIR). Thirdly, the performance of these oils on friction and wear of the vane-rotor contact under boundary lubrication regime is evaluated. The wear mechanism and chemical nature of tribofilms formed in tribological tests are addressed using Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX) and Raman spectroscopy. It is found that the consumption of the additives by soot (additive adsorption) in the engine oil during the ageing process has a significant effect on wear of the components. This mechanism has a higher impact on producing high wear than abrasion by soot particles

Aging behavior and modeling studies of unsaturated polyester resin and unsaturated polyester resin-based blends

This chapter deals with various cases of degradation of unsaturated polyester resin (UPR)-based materials (composites with polyester matrices and polyester interpenetrated networks). The consequences of degradation mainly on mechanical and engineering properties are presented from a structure-relationships point of view. Two main kinds of mechanisms are presented, namely physical (chemicals and water penetration) and chemical mechanisms (hydrolysis, radiolysis, photolysis and photooxidation, and thermal oxidation) together with experimental trackers, existing kinetic models, and some of their available parameters. It seems in particular that the lifetime prediction of UPR-based materials submitted to chemical aging remains an open issue due to the nonideality of networks

Impact of Oxygen Transport Properties on Polypropylene Thermal Oxidation, Part 1: Effect of Oxygen Solubility

A general kinetic model is proposed to describe the polypropylene thermal oxidation of thin polypropylene films in a wide range of temperatures (from 60 to 200°C) and oxygen partial pressures (from 0.02 to 5 MPa) using a single set of parameters. This model was calibrated with several series of experimental data including analyses of primary (hydroperoxides) and secondary oxidation products (carbonyl species), and subsequent changes in macromolecular properties (average molecular masses). It predicts the experimental data previously published in the literature in terms of induction times and maximal oxidation rates. The variability of the oxygen solubility coefficient allows to explain the scattering of induction times and oxidation rates among the whole iPP family, but also the dependence of this latter quantity with oxygen partial pressure. This variability is presumably due to iPP polymorphism in the temperature range where oxygen permeability is commonly measured. It is concluded that the kinetic model can be used to study the direct effect of iPP morphology on its thermal oxidation kinetics (chemistry of oxidation)