Global Moment Research Articles

Practical stability in relation to a part of variables for stochastic reaction–diffusion systems driven by G-Brownian motion

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the practical stability in relation to a part of the variables of stochastic reaction–diffusion systems driven by G-Brownian motion (G-SRDSs, in short). With the aid of G-Lyapunov techniques and G-Itô's formula, the criteria of the global practical uniform kth moment exponential stability and the global practical uniform quasi surely exponential stability in relation to a part of variables of G-SRDSs are established. An example is given to illustrate the usefulness and feasibility of the proposed results.

Sacrificial heroes: Masculinity, class, and waste picking in Iran

This article examines how five male waste pickers in Khorramabad, Iran, negotiate the stigmatization and criminalization associated with their work against the backdrop of escalating social inequality. I demonstrate how the men use embodied compliance and discursive narratives of masculine self-sacrifice to position themselves as innocent, sacrificial heroes. In changing the narrative from one of humiliation to valor, the men both amplify the classed and gendered hierarchy while simultaneously critiquing the social order that has led to their marginalization. This gendered identity work arises as a response to both classism and everyday occupational denigration, enabling waste pickers to construct distinct moral selves in Iran’s current global moment, but at the expense of disparaging devalued others and creating new forms of inequality.

Ab initio study of ultrafast spin dynamics in Gdx(FeCo)1−x alloys

Using an ultrashort laser pulse, we explore ab initio the spin dynamics of Gdx(FeCo)1−x at femtosecond time scales. Optical excitations are found to drive charges from Fe majority d-states to unoccupied Gd f-minority states with f-electron character excited occupation lagging behind that of the d-electron character, leading to substantial demagnetization of both species while leaving the global moment almost unchanged. For x > 0.33, this results in the creation of an ultrafast ferromagnetic (FM) transient by the end of the laser pulse with the Gd demagnetization rate slower than that of Fe. For all concentrations, the Gd moments begin to rotate from their ground state orientations developing in-plane moments of between 0.2 and 0.5 μB. Thus, the ultrafast spin dynamics of the material captures three important ingredients of all optical switching that occurs at much later (picosecond) times: (i) the development of a FM transient, (ii) the different rates of demagnetization of Fe and Gd, and (iii) the breaking of the collinear symmetry of the ground state. Furthermore, several predictions are made about the behavior of Fe–Gd alloys that can be experimentally tested and can lead to a spin-filtering device.

DFT study on the structural and chemical properties of Janus kinase inhibitor drug Baricitinib

Baricitinib is a small molecule used to treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in adults. It is an inhibitor of Janus kinase 1 and 2 (JAK1 and JAK2). It has also been repurposed as a potential treatment for Covid 19. The current study has been carried out to understand the structural and chemical properties of this molecule. The molecule is optimized by using density functional theory (DFT) method. The DFT calculations are performed using Gaussian 09 W software package. The bond lengths and bond angles between atoms in the molecules are investigated. The intramolecular interaction within the molecule is identified using the natural bond orbital (NBO) study. The atom in molecule (AIM) study is performed using Multiwfn software. All the calculations are performed at B3LYP /6311G++ (d, p) level of theory. The molecular parameters, such as first-order hyperpolarizability, HOMO-LUMO energy gap, global electrophilicity index, dipole moment, chemical potential, hardness, ionization energy and electron affinity are determined from the calculation. The molecular docking analysis of Baricitinib is also carried out against different target proteins such as 6VSB, 6W9C and 6LU7.

A New Stress Intensity Factor Solution Based on the Response Surface Method for Nozzle Corner Cracks in Nuclear Reactor for Thermal Energy Generation

As considered carbon-free, the use of nuclear energy for thermal energy generation may expand in the future, with the guarantee of safe operation of the nuclear reactor. In a nuclear reactor pressure vessel (RPV), the nozzle area is an important part of the safe operation. It bears internal pressure, axial force, and overall moment, and at the same time bears higher stress than the rest of the vessel. To assess the integrity of the nozzle structure with a crack under combined load, an accurate solution of stress intensity factors (SIF) along the crack front is necessary. To obtain the SIF, this paper proposes a solution method that uses the stress on the crack surface and the response surface method to fit the stress under the framework of the linear superposition technique. This method is the first choice to determine a series of influence coefficients under unit pressure load. Then, one can estimate the SIFs by superposition method for an arbitrary stress distribution resulted from combined loads. The proposed solution is verified for a typical RPV with cracks under internal pressure, axial force, and global bending moment. The results reveal that the proposed solution is in good agreement with the existing solutions under internal pressure. Therefore, it can be obtained that this solution can be effectively used for the structural integrity assessment of RPV with nozzle corner cracks.

Practical Magic: Shapeshifting As Survival Tactic

This article argues for a decolonising, democratic engagement with environmental knowledges formed outside the academy in the Global South. Drawing upon Bruno Latour's claim that our contemporary environmental precarity was first trialled upon colonised peoples, I argue that historically remote – and even conceptually obscure – African popular knowledges should be treated as forms of theory in their own right. Sigmund Freud's teleological account of animism – inspired by Edward Burnett Tylor – saw animism as an evolutionary stage in the development of universal reason. Refusing Freud's and Tylor's perspectives, I argue instead that indigenous animism presages the imminent crisis in global food security. In this sense, animism is an early stage in the teleology of environmental precarity. Retranslating an indigenous song, 'The Broken String', from the nineteenth century Southern African Bleek-Lloyd archive, I show that the /Xam language engineered animist techniques and linguistic protocols for securing food and water. Specifically, /Xam was a template for transmutation – a language that instructed polyvalent conversions between species and lifespans. These versatile changes were geared towards the community's survival of catastrophic environmental change. Faced with their own colonial disposability, the /Xam opted to metamorphose and live on. Accordingly, the indigene's 'magical' metamorphoses were straightforward strategic gambles with life and death amid scant survival options. As forerunners of our own global moment, the /Xam prompt us to identify 'animistically' with our object-world. I argue that /Xam 's shapeshifting poetics might lead us to derive replenishing registers of address for our world. Furthermore, institutionalising new protocols of embodiment, as the /Xam once did, might help us to order the urgent task of replenishing our planet, by allowing environmental political interest and global species' behaviours to iterate themselves through us.

Practical Magic: Shapeshifting As Survival Tactic

This article argues for a decolonising, democratic engagement with environmental knowledges formed outside the academy in the Global South. Drawing upon Bruno Latour's claim that our contemporary environmental precarity was first trialled upon colonised peoples, I argue that historically remote – and even conceptually obscure – African popular knowledges should be treated as forms of theory in their own right. Sigmund Freud's teleological account of animism – inspired by Edward Burnett Tylor – saw animism as an evolutionary stage in the development of universal reason. Refusing Freud's and Tylor's perspectives, I argue instead that indigenous animism presages the imminent crisis in global food security. In this sense, animism is an early stage in the teleology of environmental precarity. Retranslating an indigenous song, 'The Broken String', from the nineteenth century Southern African Bleek-Lloyd archive, I show that the /Xam language engineered animist techniques and linguistic protocols for securing food and water. Specifically, /Xam was a template for transmutation – a language that instructed polyvalent conversions between species and lifespans. These versatile changes were geared towards the community's survival of catastrophic environmental change. Faced with their own colonial disposability, the /Xam opted to metamorphose and live on. Accordingly, the indigene's 'magical' metamorphoses were straightforward strategic gambles with life and death amid scant survival options. As forerunners of our own global moment, the /Xam prompt us to identify 'animistically' with our object-world. I argue that /Xam 's shapeshifting poetics might lead us to derive replenishing registers of address for our world. Furthermore, institutionalising new protocols of embodiment, as the /Xam once did, might help us to order the urgent task of replenishing our planet, by allowing environmental political interest and global species' behaviours to iterate themselves through us.

Artist of Liminality: Miwa Yanagi’s Myth Machines as Heterotopia

In February 2020, Miwa Yanagi: Myth Machines (2019-2020), a traveling exhibition of works by the Japanese contemporary artist Miwa Yanagi (1967-), concluded its tour across Japan after failing to incite meaningful critical response from art historians and critics. The year-long, five-museum itinerary of the solo show reflected the public’s keen interest in Yanagi’s first major exhibition in a decade, but the enthusiasm was betrayed by the paucity of scholarly attention; beyond the four essays included in the catalogue, hardly any scholar or critic seriously engaged with the artist who previously represented Japan at the Venice Biennale and whose work continues to be exhibited internationally. The few texts that appeared display a noticeable anxiety toward Myth Machines—in particular its unapologetic juxtaposition of photography and theater—which suggests a failure of the prevailing art historical language to speak and write about Yanagi’s career. In response to this laconic condition, this paper identifies the concept of heterotopia, delineated by Michel Foucault on three occasions between 1966 and 1967, as a useful device to activate a discourse on Yanagi’s exhibition. A reading of Myth Machines as a heterotopia reveals an exhibition that astutely comments on the ongoing global political moment defined by divisions along racial, gender and national boundaries, visually symbolized by former American president Donald Trump’s divisive border wall.

Synthesis and DFT studies of 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles using expeditious and magnetically recoverable CoFe2O4/Cu(OH)2 nanocomposite under solvent-free condition

This communication addresses a simple, speedy, strong and reusable cobalt ferrite magnetic nanocomposite [CoFe2O4/Cu(OH)2] as heterogeneous catalysts for the synthesis of biologically active 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazole derivatives using 1,2-phenylenediamine (1.0 mmol), aromaticaldehyde (2.0 mmol) and catalytic amount (5 mol%) of CoFe2O4/Cu(OH)2 magnetic nanocomposite are extremely imperative in organic and medicinal chemistry. The synthesized CoFe2O4/Cu(OH)2 magnetic nanocomposite characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). The DFT Studies for the synthesized 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles derivatives have been carried out at DFT/B3LYP/6-311G* level of theory to predict the optimized molecular geometry and various molecular properties like HOMO–LUMO analysis, MEP mapping, global reactivity descriptors, dipole moment and thermodynamic parameters.

The end of the maternal health moment: an examination of Canada’s evolving global reproductive policy commitments

ABSTRACT Global maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) policy has been in ascendancy over the past ten years. It is an issue that at one time struggled to garner the attention of governments and donors, but then became a “cause célèbre,” evidenced by showpiece policies that committed billions of dollars to improving the health of mothers and infants worldwide. At the same time, the status of the maternal subject, as a social and political figure in the Global North, and as a global health policy subject, has been in decline. In this article, I explain the Canadian government’s evolving commitments to this policy domain and posit that the global maternal health moment might be coming to an end. I argue that while the shift from MNCH to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) expands the (feminist) focus of previous MNCH commitments, recent Canadian government initiatives are unsuccessful in addressing human rights goals, contradict the partnership model of development that implements policy and fosters relationships with communities, fail to meet the requirements of gender justice at both global and local/contextualized levels, and threaten to further diminish the political authority of the maternal subject.

Deserving and Undeserving Welfare States: Cash Transfers and Hegemonic Struggles in South Africa

The South African social grant programme appeared as if it might suddenly end on 1 April 2017. The potential termination of grants kicked off a significant public outcry by members of parliament, the judiciary, the treasury, the press and civil society organisations. At the time, popular explanations of this crisis contended that grants were about to stop because of corruption and state capture. Instead I argue that the 2017 grant crisis extended and amplified the hegemonic struggle within the African National Congress (ANC) between two contradictory neoliberal tendencies, which grew out of the post-apartheid transition and the global conjunctural moment of the end of the Cold War. Following Gillian Hart, I define these as a ‘liberal’, technocratic neoliberal capitalist tendency and a ‘populist’, affective neoliberal capitalist tendency. Adherents of each tendency wielded the discourse of deservedness – common in welfare discourse for centuries – both against people receiving welfare and against the political formations vying to deliver welfare. Each claimed to be more deserving of the task of delivering grants and therefore more deserving of holding state power. Ultimately, the 2017 grant crisis helped to lead to a shift in political power, shoring up South Africa’s very unequal social formation without addressing the exploitation upon which it was based.

QUARANTINE VLOGS: DIGITAL AFFECTIVE LABOR AND SELF-GOVERNANCE DURING COVID-19

This research explores how did influencers incorporate the Covid-19 pandemic into their regular content production on YouTube by specifically examining the recent genre of "quarantine vlog," which emerged in concurrence with global lockdowns. I adopt a grounded theory approach to analyze the YouTube transcriptions of purposefully selected 9 quarantine vlogs filmed by women influencers during the early months of the pandemic, along with 250 user comments. My analysis shows that quarantine vlogs are significantly different than ordinary vlogs. I draw on existing research on influencer cultures to explain this dissimilarity as a tension between influencers' struggle to form an intimacy with the viewers - which can have a soothing effect in a moment of a crisis - and the use of vlogs as a neoliberal device in order to preserve their aspirational image. I demonstrate that quarantine vlogs reveal that influencers are no longer able to perform an aspirational ideal in their videos without first engaging with the mental stress, anxiety, confusion, and loneliness brought by COVID-19 or apologizing for their relative privilege and demonstrating sympathy towards their followers who are in hardship. At the same time, to preserve their aspirational persona, they reframe the pandemic moment as an opportunity for productivity and self-growth. As a result, influencers carry out substantial affective labor and engage in a delicate self-governance to preserve their relevance and online visibility during a global moment of crisis.

Assessment of global wave forces and moments on porous vertical barriers in random wave fields

Experimental investigations were carried out to assess the global wave forces and wave induced moments on slotted vertical barriers (SVB). Fourty two different wave barrier configurations (5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% porosities and 1 to 6 number of slotted walls) were tested in random wave fields of JONSWAP spectra for wide range of significant wave heights and peak periods. It is found that the wave force is very sensitive to the change in porosity of the SVB. It is also found that relatively long waves and low porosity on SVB results in the highest wave force and short waves and high porosity on the SVB results in the lowest wave force. For most of the conditions, the wave force on SVB is less than the wave force on a single impervious vertical wall and force reduction to an extent of 20% to 80% is possible for the range of porosity and number of porous walls studied. A predictive equation to estimate the wave induced significant moment is provided with high regression coefficient. The average lever arm for assessing the wave induced moment is 0.6145 times the local water depth.

Decadal Timescale Correlations Between Global Earthquake Activity and Volcanic Eruption Rates

AbstractAt the global scale, large tectonic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are believed to be random and independent events. Here, we compare global time‐series of large earthquakes ( 7) and explosive volcanic eruptions (VEI 2) spanning 1960–2019. Both time‐series exhibit decadal timescale trends, over which annual earthquake and eruption rates vary by a factor of 2. Moreover, global seismic moment release is positively correlated with global eruption rate, with Monte Carlo permutation tests showing that this correlation is significant with a ‐value of 0.05. Although large earthquakes can trigger eruptions at nearby volcanoes, the magnitude of this effect is insufficient to cause the observed global correlation. Other mechanisms, such as triggering of distant eruptions (>1000 km) by earthquake‐induced dynamic stress changes, modulation of global earthquake and eruption rates by variations in Earth's rotational velocity, or natural synchronization of events over repeating cycles, are therefore required to explain the correlation.

Global Moments and the Rise of Area Studies and Development Theory in Germany, 1914–1945

Abstract Scholars have often portrayed development theory as a new discipline that grew out of America’s rise to global power during and after the Second World War. This article adds to the complex origin story of development theory by showing how questions of population growth in agrarian countries, poverty and unemployment, and anxieties about supply chains led German economists in the interwar years to anticipate post-1945 theories of and strategies for the economic development of ‘Third World’ countries. It argues that development theory arose not only from discrete intellectual or political trends affecting a single country, but also from broader structural processes that were changing the nature of global relations, such as world war and the increased movement of refugees. More specifically, this discipline was an imperial tool used by German elites, then later by Americans, to try to manage the effects of population growth and global interdependence in their nation’s favour by learning more about their less economically developed commercial partners. In contrast to American or British experts who saw migration as the best solution to the challenge of rural unemployment and ‘overpopulation’—a term new to the post-1919 world—German economists crafted new agrarian development schemes. They saw the development of south-eastern Europe as a way to embed these smaller states in a larger, regional German bloc.

Limit load for cylinders with axial internal surface cracks under combined internal pressure and global bending moment

The global and local limit loads for cylinders with axial internal surface cracks under combined internal pressure and global bending moment are investigated using the elastic-perfectly plastic finite element (FE) method. An ellipse function is recommended to describe the relationship between the normalised global limit pressure and normalised global limit bending moment. The predictions using the ellipse function are conservative compared with the global FE results except for the cases with bending moment dominance, where the predictions may be slightly non-conservative. The investigation shows that the local limit load FE results can be well described by the local limit load model recommended by Lei and the predictions are all reasonably conservative except for cases with very long and deep cracks. Further work is required to validate the recommended global and local limit load solutions for J predictions when they are used in the reference stress J scheme.

Torsional load-bearing capacity of half-shell segments for prestressed concrete towers

This article deals with the torsional load-bearing behaviour of concrete half-shell structures. The analogy between the bending stressed tension members according to second order theory and torsional members with warping hindered cross-section leads to a significantly simplified calculation of the additionally occurring warping stresses. This eliminates the need for the laborious solution of complex differential equations of the classical torsional warping theory to determine the load-bearing behaviour of warped cross-sections. The load redistribution approach projects the global torsion load of the segment tower onto the individual half-shell. The combination of the two approaches enables the analytical calculation of the torsional load-bearing behaviour of the concrete half-shell construction as a function of the global torsional moment and the system variables of the half-shell.The objective is to investigate and describe the torsional load-bearing behaviour of segmented half-shell structures in an engineering model. Compared to closed circular ring segments, the vertical joints have a significant influence, especially on the torsional rigidity. In order to determine the horizontal joint bearing capacity of these innovative constructions, it is essential to understand the load transfer of the torsional load. The presented approach allows to separate the individual effects of the load transfer in half-shell constructions from each other and thus to identify the factors influencing the torsional load-bearing behaviour.

Narratives of Systemic Barriers and Accessibility: Poverty, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and the Call for a Post-Pandemic New Normal

This paper captures the intimate, intensely lived, and storied experiences during the pandemic, on teachers’ narratives of teaching and education. The narratives illuminate deep knowledge and insight into pre-existing school systemic barriers prior to the pandemic, and how those same barriers are magnified during the pandemic in what has become a global watershed moment that calls for equity reform in school systems. A narrative theoretical framework is used, as well as an ethic of care framework that informs the study. Issues of poverty, diversity, equity, and inclusion are illuminated, with further focus on topics of technology access, streaming, resilience, and teacher-student identity and relationship. Recommendations to eradicate systemic barriers in schools are explored, highlighting suggestions for equity reform in areas that include: enhancing professional practice; building a school culture of care, and; developing partnerships and relationships.

New non-fullerene electron acceptors-based on quinoxaline derivatives for organic photovoltaic cells: DFT computational study

In this work, we develop a new non-fullerene electron acceptor for organic photovoltaic cells. Precisely, we present a computational study of new engineered molecules-based quinoxaline derivative (R, C1-C5) using density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent-density functional theory (TD-DFT). In particular, we investigate the frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs), density of states (DOS) analysis, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP), global reactivity descriptors, dipole moment, charge mobilities and optical properties of designed compounds. Among others, we find that all engineered compounds involve a small band gap, good optical aspects and charge mobilities. Considering PTB7-Th as an electron donor, we study the photovoltaic properties of novel acceptors. Consequently, designed compounds provide a strong charge conduction ability and effective electron transport from the donor to the acceptor. The obtained results encourage to test experimentally such molecules which could enhance the performance of non-fullerene organic photovoltaic cells.

Direct measurement of steady fluid forces upon a deformed cylinder in confined axial flow

This paper addresses the case of a cylinder array in axial flow at Reynolds numbers from 60000 to 110000. A comprehensive experimental and numerical study of the steady fluid forces arising from a geometrical perturbation in the array arrangement is carried out and compared with a semi-empirical model from the literature. The test rig consists of a 3x3 confined cylinder bundle with a pitch-to-diameter ratio equal to 1.33. The central cylinder can be rotated, translated or bent. Global forces and moments as well as pressure profiles at several sections are measured. Velocity profiles at both sides of the cylinder are also collected. Additionally, RANS simulations (Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes) are carried out. Pressure loss effects similar to the ones occurring in hydraulic pipes are found to play a major role on the velocity field. Rotation tests are in agreement with the literature: at low angles of incidence, the lift force is proportional to the angle. The supporting rod at the centre of the cylinder strongly disturbs the local lift force but does not change the global linear trend. In translation, the wake of the support generates a fluid stiffness effect. Bending tests allow to assess all terms of the semi-empirical model from the literature, which proves to be quite accurate at a sufficient distance from the ends and from the supports. In addition, the investigation provides refined quantitative measurements of local and global force coefficients of the statically deformed cylinder in rotation, translation and bending.