title: Variable stiffness of metamaterial composite structure

authors: Yang, Fan

abstract: In recent years, numerous researchers have studied metamaterials because of their extraordinary mechanical properties that other materials do not possess. The concept of metamaterials has been widely introduced into the field of earthquake engineering. [1]
This thesis presents the results of research aimed at finding a metamaterial structure with adaptive stiffness that could be used in the design of isolators and protective barriers. Such a material would reduce impact force transmission experienced by a vehicle in the event of an accident, and could also protect people in buildings during an earthquake. The goal is to develop the concept of a metamaterial that would have non-linear stiffness, and offer higher resistance against small displacements (high stiffness) but lower resistance (low stiffness) in the event of sudden impacts experienced during large dynamic excitations, While deformation in the plastic zone also results in non-linearity, the metamaterial will have the advantage of being fully elastic, and it can be used repeatedly which is environmentally friendly and reduces maintenance costs. The reversible nonlinearity is obtained by using stiffness changes associated with change in geometry.
Theoretical analysis and numerical results show that it may be possible to develop such a metamaterial from cells which contain adaptive mechanisms embedded in a flexible matrix. Metamaterial can provide variable stiffness and enable significant reductions in the transmission of dynamic forces.

text: Variable stiffness of metamaterial composite structure In recent years, numerous researchers have studied metamaterials because of their extraordinary mechanical properties that other materials do not possess. The concept of metamaterials has been widely introduced into the field of earthquake engineering. [1]
This thesis presents the results of research aimed at finding a metamaterial structure with adaptive stiffness that could be used in the design of isolators and protective barriers. Such a material would reduce impact force transmission experienced by a vehicle in the event of an accident, and could also protect people in buildings during an earthquake. The goal is to develop the concept of a metamaterial that would have non-linear stiffness, and offer higher resistance against small displacements (high stiffness) but lower resistance (low stiffness) in the event of sudden impacts experienced during large dynamic excitations, While deformation in the plastic zone also results in non-linearity, the metamaterial will have the advantage of being fully elastic, and it can be used repeatedly which is environmentally friendly and reduces maintenance costs. The reversible nonlinearity is obtained by using stiffness changes associated with change in geometry.
Theoretical analysis and numerical results show that it may be possible to develop such a metamaterial from cells which contain adaptive mechanisms embedded in a flexible matrix. Metamaterial can provide variable stiffness and enable significant reductions in the transmission of dynamic forces.

year: 2022

title: The history of number words in the world's languages-what have we learnt so far?

authors: Calude, Andreea S.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: For over 100 years, researchers from various disciplines have been enthralled and occupied by the study of number words. This article discusses implications for the study of deep history and human evolution that arise from this body of work. Phylogenetic modelling shows that low-limit number words are preserved across thousands of years, a pattern consistently observed in several language families. Cross-linguistic frequencies of use and experimental studies also point to widespread homogeneity in the use of number words. Yet linguistic typology and field documentation reports caution against positing a privileged linguistic category for number words, showing a wealth of variation in how number words are encoded across the world. In contrast with low-limit numbers, the higher numbers are characterized by a rapid and morphologically consistent pattern of expansion, and behave like grammatical phrasal units, following language-internal rules. Taken together, the evidence suggests that numbers are at the cross-roads of language history. For languages that do have productive and consistent number systems, numerals one to five are among the most reliable available linguistic fossils of deep history, defying change yet still bearing the marks of the past, while higher numbers emerge as innovative tools looking to the future, derived using language-internal patterns and created to meet the needs of modern speakers.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Reconstructing prehistoric languages’.

text: The history of number words in the world's languages-what have we learnt so far? For over 100 years, researchers from various disciplines have been enthralled and occupied by the study of number words. This article discusses implications for the study of deep history and human evolution that arise from this body of work. Phylogenetic modelling shows that low-limit number words are preserved across thousands of years, a pattern consistently observed in several language families. Cross-linguistic frequencies of use and experimental studies also point to widespread homogeneity in the use of number words. Yet linguistic typology and field documentation reports caution against positing a privileged linguistic category for number words, showing a wealth of variation in how number words are encoded across the world. In contrast with low-limit numbers, the higher numbers are characterized by a rapid and morphologically consistent pattern of expansion, and behave like grammatical phrasal units, following language-internal rules. Taken together, the evidence suggests that numbers are at the cross-roads of language history. For languages that do have productive and consistent number systems, numerals one to five are among the most reliable available linguistic fossils of deep history, defying change yet still bearing the marks of the past, while higher numbers emerge as innovative tools looking to the future, derived using language-internal patterns and created to meet the needs of modern speakers.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Reconstructing prehistoric languages’.

year: 2021

title: Schooling  for  'lesser beings'

authors: Holdom, Jim

subjects: Maori

abstract: Using Edward Said’s notion of ‘lesser beings’, it is argued that the political culture of schooling for Maori was and still is part of a pervasive Western European intellectual climate and culture which has a quite recent history, and which provided powerful support for the notion of Europe possessing a categorical superiority over all other continents, which in turn justified imperialism or neo-colonialism as civilising missions.
Racism and violence were endemic in colonialism and, despite the claimed moral high ground, were endemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand.  War was eulogised in the Native School system more than once.  The rise and demise of the World War II Maori War Organisation is illustrative of the rejection of Maori aspirations.  There were still no Maori in the senior echelons of the Maori Department in 1972.
The Native, later Maori, School system was overtly designed to 'Europeanise' Maori children and therefore Maori society.  Individualism was deeply embedded in English and set-tler thinking, whilst communal, ‘communist’ Maori society was to be destroyed.
The thesis examines images of colonialism, empire and imperialism in fiction and non-fiction, New Zealand and British, for adults and children, and notes the attitudes of think-ers like J S Mill and Darwin, of children’s authors Jules Verne and G H Henty, and of New Zealand author William Satchell.  The images continue, pervasive and endemic, in recent adult novels.  Science also played a role, as did history.
 Ranginui Walker, who is Maori, is the only historian to have written a history of New Zea-land which addressed the issue of waste lands, an issue on which Pakeha historians have a blind spot.  New Zealand encyclopedia do not index ‘waste land’ or ‘confiscation’.  Only two Waikato histories deal adequately, or even accurately, with confiscation, the central episode in the history of the Waikato.  Tourist material is equally illustrative.
The Native Schools section of the Education Department ran the Native Schools like a fiefdom, operating in legislative and regulatory black holes for the first thirty years and for much of the time after that.  Teachers were moved around at will.  
The practice of James H Pope, the first inspector of Native Schools, is closely and critically examined, and negatively assessed.  His official writings were consistently derogatory of Maori, and his decisions in respect of Te Kopua Native School were at times detrimental to the pupils.  Pope was a product of his times.
The Te Kopua record is closely scrutinised, and the practice of the Education Department is frequently found wanting.  It is probable that the establishment of the school was aimed to destabilise King Country Maori, not to benefit the children.  It is a story of Maori co-operation and contribution.
Part Two is a detailed partial biography of Te Kopua, it being argued that until there is a significant corpus of studies of Native Schools a valid history of the Native/Maori School system and of schooling for Maori is not possible

text: Schooling  for  'lesser beings' Using Edward Said’s notion of ‘lesser beings’, it is argued that the political culture of schooling for Maori was and still is part of a pervasive Western European intellectual climate and culture which has a quite recent history, and which provided powerful support for the notion of Europe possessing a categorical superiority over all other continents, which in turn justified imperialism or neo-colonialism as civilising missions.
Racism and violence were endemic in colonialism and, despite the claimed moral high ground, were endemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand.  War was eulogised in the Native School system more than once.  The rise and demise of the World War II Maori War Organisation is illustrative of the rejection of Maori aspirations.  There were still no Maori in the senior echelons of the Maori Department in 1972.
The Native, later Maori, School system was overtly designed to 'Europeanise' Maori children and therefore Maori society.  Individualism was deeply embedded in English and set-tler thinking, whilst communal, ‘communist’ Maori society was to be destroyed.
The thesis examines images of colonialism, empire and imperialism in fiction and non-fiction, New Zealand and British, for adults and children, and notes the attitudes of think-ers like J S Mill and Darwin, of children’s authors Jules Verne and G H Henty, and of New Zealand author William Satchell.  The images continue, pervasive and endemic, in recent adult novels.  Science also played a role, as did history.
 Ranginui Walker, who is Maori, is the only historian to have written a history of New Zea-land which addressed the issue of waste lands, an issue on which Pakeha historians have a blind spot.  New Zealand encyclopedia do not index ‘waste land’ or ‘confiscation’.  Only two Waikato histories deal adequately, or even accurately, with confiscation, the central episode in the history of the Waikato.  Tourist material is equally illustrative.
The Native Schools section of the Education Department ran the Native Schools like a fiefdom, operating in legislative and regulatory black holes for the first thirty years and for much of the time after that.  Teachers were moved around at will.  
The practice of James H Pope, the first inspector of Native Schools, is closely and critically examined, and negatively assessed.  His official writings were consistently derogatory of Maori, and his decisions in respect of Te Kopua Native School were at times detrimental to the pupils.  Pope was a product of his times.
The Te Kopua record is closely scrutinised, and the practice of the Education Department is frequently found wanting.  It is probable that the establishment of the school was aimed to destabilise King Country Maori, not to benefit the children.  It is a story of Maori co-operation and contribution.
Part Two is a detailed partial biography of Te Kopua, it being argued that until there is a significant corpus of studies of Native Schools a valid history of the Native/Maori School system and of schooling for Maori is not possible

year: 1998