Modulated nematic structures induced by chirality and steric polarization

What kind of one-dimensional modulated nematic structures (ODMNS) can form nonchiral and chiral bent-core and dimeric materials? Here, using Landau-deGennes theory of nematics, extended to account for molecular steric polarization, we study a possibility of formation of ODMNS, both in nonchiral and intrinsically chiral liquid crystalline materials. Besides nematic and cholesteric phases, we find four bulk ODMNS for nonchiral materials, two of which have not been reported so far. These new structures are longitudinal ($N_{LP}$) and transverse ($N_{TP}$) periodic waves where the polarization field being periodic in one dimension stays parallel and perpendicular, respectively, to the wave vector. The other two phases have all characteristic features of the twist-bend nematic phase ($N_{TB}$) and the splay-bend nematic phase ($N_{SB}$), but their fine structure appears more complex than that considered so far. The presence of molecular chirality converts nonchiral $N_{TP}$ and $N_{SB}$ into new $N_{TB}$ phases. Interestingly, the nonchiral $N_{LP}$ phase can stay stable even in the presence of intrinsic molecular chirality. Exemplary phase diagrams provide further insights into the relative stability of these new modulated nematic structures.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Shapes for maximal coverage for two-dimensional random sequential adsorption

The random sequential adsorption of various particle shapes is studied in order to determine the influence of particle anisotropy on the saturated random packing. For all tested particles there is an optimal level of anisotropy which maximizes the saturated packing fraction. It is found that a concave shape derived from a dimer of disks gives a packing fraction of 0.5833, which is comparable to the maximum packing fraction of ellipsoids and spherocylinders and higher than any other studied shape. Discussion why this shape is so beneficial for random sequential adsorption is given.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, 3 table

Political Activity of Women and Men – the Psychosocial Determinants of Conventional Political Activity

Political activity is a type of social activity displayed by citizens. Observations and research indicate that gender can be a factor which conditions its degree and forms. Apart from biological gen­der, which shapes the societal roles of women and men, additional factors that are supposedly respon­sible for their activities include elements of the system of beliefs (i.e. acknowledged political values, conviction that political activity has an importance, level of satisfaction with democracy as well as individualism and collectivism understood as an element of individual’s mentality). The impact of those factors on degree of conventional political activities among women and men is the subject of surveys which were conducted in 2004, 2010, and 2014 on a group of 1048 students from Polish universities. The received results show that differences in political activity between surveyed men and women as well as varying determinants in both groups are slowly fading away. The most important predictors of women’s political activity include: conviction of its significance in democracy and (dis)satisfaction with the way it functions

Koncert i kwestia czasu

The focus on the structural and semantic role of time is one of the key features of modernist cinema in the period after the Second World War. Modernist filmmakers experiment with means of aesthetic expression, such as montage, mise-en-scène, camera work, which define the story time and consequently make time the subject of film story. Concert (1954) directed by Branko Belan initiates the modernist experiment with time in the Croatian feature film. Belan achieves a radical temporal discontinuity and the condensation of time thanks to extensive ellipses, expanded flashback, deep space composition, variable narrative perspective, variable position of the characters in the story and genre hybridity. In this way he specifies two dimensions of time – historical and personal. In Concert historical time does not always affect personal time that can be subjected to fate. By that means the director contests the communist belief in the positive impact of historical changes on the life of an individual.The focus on the structural and semantic role of time is one of the key features of modernist cinema in the period after the Second World War. Modernist filmmakers experiment with means of aesthetic expression, such as montage, mise-en-scène, camera work, which define the story time and consequently make time the subject of film story. Concert (1954) directed by Branko Belan initiates the modernist experiment with time in the Croatian feature film. Belan achieves a radical temporal discontinuity and the condensation of time thanks to extensive ellipses, expanded flashback, deep space composition, variable narrative perspective, variable position of the characters in the story and genre hybridity. In this way he specifies two dimensions of time – historical and personal. In Concert historical time does not always affect personal time that can be subjected to fate. By that means the director contests the communist belief in the positive impact of historical changes on the life of an individual

Moments of liberty. (Self-)censorship Games in the Essays of Virginia Woolf

What is surprising in Virginia Woolf’s essays is the scale and the audacity of her intellectual searches – in the time of increased repressive censorship and growing totalitarianisms, she approached the themes of freedom which have remained controversial ever since. The article presents the essayistic nature as a strategy applied by Woolf in her personal essays to avoid censorship, and intentionally expand the limits of freedoms important to her. The author offers an outline of the mechanism of repressive censorship and the chilling effect it worked in the interwar United Kingdom based on the examples of suspensions of outstanding modernist works and show-trials of writers. She presents three areas of study of freedom in Woolf’s essays: women’s emancipation, tolerance towards non-heteronormative persons, and pacifism, as well as the areas of private and public (self-)censorship which existed therein

Early 21st-century Serbian exploitation cinema

Exploitation films are one of the main trends of the Serbian cinema of the beginning of the 21st century, when Serbia enters the second phase of systemic transformation, striving to neutralize the effects of the crisis in the first phase of transformation – towards the end of the 20th century – due to the authoritarian policy of Slobodan Milošević and Yugoslav wars. This non-film context allows better understanding of the phenomenon of these films, which in many respects are a continuation of the cinema of self-balkanization cultivated in the 1990s, and at the same time differ from it, because they do not offer a compromise with difficult transformational reality, but express the need to release the social trauma born of experience of political violence in the Milošević era

FUZZY MODEL OF THE OPERATIONAL POTENTIAL CONSUMPTION PROCESS OF A COMPLEX TECHNICAL SYSTEM

During the operation process of a system its technical state is changed. The changes take place because of the wearing factors impact. The impact depends on the flow and intensity of the operation process what is characterized by the time histories of the working parameters. Simultaneously, the changes of the technical state are correlated with the changes of the amount of the operational potential included in a system. In order to avoid the inability state occurrence the amount of this potential should be higher than the boundary value. The amount of the operational potential included in a system is determined by the values of the cardinal features of it but in the case of the real technical system the values cannot always be measured. Therefore, the amount of the operational potential and the technical state of the system cannot always be determined online. To solve this problem the model of the operational potential consumption process was created and presented in the paper. The model uses artificial intelligence techniques to calculate the change of the operational potential amount by determining the changes of the cardinal features of the system on the basis of the time histories of the working parameters. The verification of the model quality was performed using the pulverized boiler OP-650k-040 operating in the power plant. The description of the conducted research and the results of the verification were presented in the end of the paper proving the adequacy of the model implementation in the case of industrial objects

Zmierzch bogów w Dubrowniku

The Croatian film Occupation in 26 pictures (1978), directed by Lordan Zafranović is considered as one of the most controversial vision of the Second World War in Yugoslav cinema. The director uses the ornamental style, modeled on Italian cinema, to portray the change of power in Dubrovnik in 1941 – at the beginning of the fascist occupation of the city. He juxtaposes the licentiousness of Italian, German and Croatian fascists and the fall of the Dubrovnik aristocracy and the rebellion of communists. The political changes in the city are presented against the background of its rich cultural tradition. Zafranović highlights the beauty of Dubrovnik’s architectural and natural landscape that fascists desecrate. Decadent poetics with its aesthetic excess allows him to refresh and deepen the communist interpretation of the fascist occupation.The Croatian film Occupation in 26 pictures (1978), directed by Lordan Zafranović is considered as one of the most controversial vision of the Second World War in Yugoslav cinema. The director uses the ornamental style, modeled on Italian cinema, to portray the change of power in Dubrovnik in 1941 – at the beginning of the fascist occupation of the city. He juxtaposes the licentiousness of Italian, German and Croatian fascists and the fall of the Dubrovnik aristocracy and the rebellion of communists. The political changes in the city are presented against the background of its rich cultural tradition. Zafranović highlights the beauty of Dubrovnik’s architectural and natural landscape that fascists desecrate. Decadent poetics with its aesthetic excess allows him to refresh and deepen the communist interpretation of the fascist occupation