title: Injection-Molding Performance and Mechanical Properties of Blood Meal-Based Thermoplastics

authors: Adamy, Maximilian

subjects: biodegradable

abstract: Protein-based thermoplastics offer an attractive alternative to petroleum-based plastics if their properties allow for large volume production using processes such as injection molding. A fractional factorial design was used to analyze the influence of injection-molding parameters (melt temperature, tool temperature, injection rate, holding pressure, and cooling time) on the injection-molding process (maximum injection pressure, injection pressure curve) and mechanical properties (tensile strength, elongation at break, secant modulus) of blood meal–based thermoplastics. Optimal mechanical properties were obtained at higher tool and melt temperatures while the injection rate was unimportant. The most important injection parameter was the holding pressure, which has to be lowered when using a higher melt temperature, which was preferred for better elongation at break. A lower holding pressure also produced moldings with a higher modulus, which could be good for demolding. Blood meal–based thermoplastics behaved mostly like standard thermoplastics, without any significant deviations. Within a workable processing window, its mechanical properties were largely unaffected by processing conditions, but as with any thermoplastic, care must be taken to select the best injection-molding parameter settings to achieve optimal part quality and high processability.

text: Injection-Molding Performance and Mechanical Properties of Blood Meal-Based Thermoplastics Protein-based thermoplastics offer an attractive alternative to petroleum-based plastics if their properties allow for large volume production using processes such as injection molding. A fractional factorial design was used to analyze the influence of injection-molding parameters (melt temperature, tool temperature, injection rate, holding pressure, and cooling time) on the injection-molding process (maximum injection pressure, injection pressure curve) and mechanical properties (tensile strength, elongation at break, secant modulus) of blood meal–based thermoplastics. Optimal mechanical properties were obtained at higher tool and melt temperatures while the injection rate was unimportant. The most important injection parameter was the holding pressure, which has to be lowered when using a higher melt temperature, which was preferred for better elongation at break. A lower holding pressure also produced moldings with a higher modulus, which could be good for demolding. Blood meal–based thermoplastics behaved mostly like standard thermoplastics, without any significant deviations. Within a workable processing window, its mechanical properties were largely unaffected by processing conditions, but as with any thermoplastic, care must be taken to select the best injection-molding parameter settings to achieve optimal part quality and high processability.

year: 2013

title: Colonial grievances, justice and reconciliation in the Pacific

authors: van Meijl, Toon

subjects: Pacific

abstract: The paradox of the decolonization process in the Pacific is that colonial grievances seem to have proliferated in the recent past. Indeed, anticolonial sentiments often seem to be more directly spurred by the process of decolonization than by the practices of colonial regimes revelling in earlier peaks of power. This workshop was concerned with the question how to address this contemporary form of counter-hegemonic resistance in the Pacific. The aim of the session was, first, to examine the similarities and differences in colonial grievances throughout the Pacific and, second, to discuss the various strategies that may be developed to establish justice and to realize reconciliation.

text: Colonial grievances, justice and reconciliation in the Pacific The paradox of the decolonization process in the Pacific is that colonial grievances seem to have proliferated in the recent past. Indeed, anticolonial sentiments often seem to be more directly spurred by the process of decolonization than by the practices of colonial regimes revelling in earlier peaks of power. This workshop was concerned with the question how to address this contemporary form of counter-hegemonic resistance in the Pacific. The aim of the session was, first, to examine the similarities and differences in colonial grievances throughout the Pacific and, second, to discuss the various strategies that may be developed to establish justice and to realize reconciliation.

year: 2007

title: Exploring female art-making through reflective practice: A multi-dimensional cultural, spiritual and embodied experience

authors: Bright, Deborah Ann

subjects: female

abstract: This thesis explores some of the many elements and influences of lived experience that are present in acts of art-making. Reflective practice in art-making adds the intentional and purposive act of reflective learning to the experience of art-making. In an academic context the challenge arises for a researcher to adequately represent the breadth and richness of the lived experiences of reflective practice in artmaking. This breadth and richness may embrace elements of art production and influences including gender, culture, spirituality, creativity, creative processes, embodied knowing, the place of conversations and learning as a result of facilitated reflective practice. Adequate representation is particularly vital because art-makers may communicate best through non-verbal means, including embodied knowing and their artmaking, rather than through words. Flexibility of approach and representation is even more important when the art-maker participants engage in various art-making areas and identify themselves as part of indigenous, dominant and/or non-dominant cultures within Aotearoa New Zealand. In this thesis, by applying a feminist participatory approach, informed by kaupapa Maori, I affirmed that the lived experiences of reflective practice in art-making can be adequately represented in a thesis. By such means, I sought to empower the participants, including myself, by providing a process through which they might increase confidence in their own art-making practices and professional artistry. This approach was necessary because no single or even double blending of worldviews can embrace such a range of variables. However, an interweaving of feminist and participatory, informed by indigenous peoples’ worldviews, provides the scope for such a study in terms of fundamental beliefs, ways of knowing, values, issues of power, methodologies and methods. The ways of knowing include collaborative, constructed, cultural, embodied, experiential, indigenous, presentational, propositional, spiritual and subjective and writing as a way of knowing; such a range was vital to this thesis. As artmaker co-participant, I was able to engage in conversation with the other art-makers as facilitator of their reflective practice in art-making and to represent their lived experiences of reflective practice in art-making through verbal and non-verbal means and art-making, in ways that were comfortable culturally to all participants. ii I represent and discuss my findings through formal academic writing, personal narrative and a DVD. The DVD includes a video montage and an image narrative that contribute to the discussion on embodied knowing (Chapter 7), a video of my own dance work, which contributes to the discussion on creativity and visual images (Chapter 6), and a copy of a poster referred to at various times in the findings and discussion chapters. Finally, I conclude that a feminist participatory approach, informed by indigenous peoples’ worldviews and including facilitated reflective practice, may have application to other fields of research and practice including other areas of the arts, teaching, sport and leisure and in the wider field of social sciences.

text: Exploring female art-making through reflective practice: A multi-dimensional cultural, spiritual and embodied experience This thesis explores some of the many elements and influences of lived experience that are present in acts of art-making. Reflective practice in art-making adds the intentional and purposive act of reflective learning to the experience of art-making. In an academic context the challenge arises for a researcher to adequately represent the breadth and richness of the lived experiences of reflective practice in artmaking. This breadth and richness may embrace elements of art production and influences including gender, culture, spirituality, creativity, creative processes, embodied knowing, the place of conversations and learning as a result of facilitated reflective practice. Adequate representation is particularly vital because art-makers may communicate best through non-verbal means, including embodied knowing and their artmaking, rather than through words. Flexibility of approach and representation is even more important when the art-maker participants engage in various art-making areas and identify themselves as part of indigenous, dominant and/or non-dominant cultures within Aotearoa New Zealand. In this thesis, by applying a feminist participatory approach, informed by kaupapa Maori, I affirmed that the lived experiences of reflective practice in art-making can be adequately represented in a thesis. By such means, I sought to empower the participants, including myself, by providing a process through which they might increase confidence in their own art-making practices and professional artistry. This approach was necessary because no single or even double blending of worldviews can embrace such a range of variables. However, an interweaving of feminist and participatory, informed by indigenous peoples’ worldviews, provides the scope for such a study in terms of fundamental beliefs, ways of knowing, values, issues of power, methodologies and methods. The ways of knowing include collaborative, constructed, cultural, embodied, experiential, indigenous, presentational, propositional, spiritual and subjective and writing as a way of knowing; such a range was vital to this thesis. As artmaker co-participant, I was able to engage in conversation with the other art-makers as facilitator of their reflective practice in art-making and to represent their lived experiences of reflective practice in art-making through verbal and non-verbal means and art-making, in ways that were comfortable culturally to all participants. ii I represent and discuss my findings through formal academic writing, personal narrative and a DVD. The DVD includes a video montage and an image narrative that contribute to the discussion on embodied knowing (Chapter 7), a video of my own dance work, which contributes to the discussion on creativity and visual images (Chapter 6), and a copy of a poster referred to at various times in the findings and discussion chapters. Finally, I conclude that a feminist participatory approach, informed by indigenous peoples’ worldviews and including facilitated reflective practice, may have application to other fields of research and practice including other areas of the arts, teaching, sport and leisure and in the wider field of social sciences.

year: 2010