Beyond ourselves: Passion and the dark side of identification in an ethical organization

How are organizational discourses enacted by people at work? In this article, instead of treating subjects as somewhat distinct from such discourses, I argue that the two are inescapably intertwined. The concept of 'ek-stasis' helps us to understand this. Ekstasis invokes an idea of the 'self ' that, through processes of identification, is always located outside of itself, embedded in a wider sociality. I explore this dynamic through an in-depth study of the powerful discourse of 'ethical living', and its enactment in one contemporary development sector organization, EWH. This ek-static enactment was somewhat ambivalent: involving mutual recognition between colleagues, but also processes of exclusion and policing. I highlight how attention to feeling and passion was important in understanding the relation between workplace discourse and identification processes, in this setting. This study shows that a view of workplace selves as ek-static is useful for understanding the enactment of discourse at work, and that this enactment can be both passionate and ambivalent. © The Author(s) 2010.

Design and testing of transonic linear cascade tunnel with optimized slotted walls

In linear cascade wind tunnel tests, a high level of pitchwise periodicity is desirable to reproduce the azimuthal periodicity in the stage of an axial compressor or turbine. Transonic tests in a cascade wind tunnel with open jet boundaries have been shown to suffer from spurious waves, reflected at the jet boundary, that compromise the flow periodicity in pitch. This problem can be tackled by placing at this boundary a slotted tailboard with a specific wall void ratio s and pitch angle a. The optimal value of the s-a pair depends on the test section geometry and on the tunnel running conditions. An inviscid two-dimensional numerical method has been developed to predict transonic linear cascade flows, with and without a tailboard, and quantify the nonperiodicity in the discharge. This method includes a new computational boundary condition to model the effects of the tailboard slots on the cascade interior flow. This method has been applied to a six-blade turbine nozzle cascade, transonically tested at the University of Leicester. The numerical results identified a specific slotted tailboard geometry, able to minimize the spurious reflected waves and regain some pitchwise flow periodicity. The wind tunnel open jet test section was redesigned accordingly. Pressure measurements at the cascade outlet and synchronous spark schlieren visualization of the test section, with and without the optimized slotted tailboard, have confirmed the gain in pitchwise periodicity predicted by the numerical model. Copyright © 2006 by ASME.

The sustainability and assessment of drystone retaining walls

The art of drystone walling is a highly sustainable traditional practice which uses local materials and craftsmen. As no
mortar is used they have low embodied carbon, and much repair work or rebuilding can be carried out using very little if any new
materials. However local practices developed to suit local materials, leading to a range of construction styles, making them difficult to
assess. This paper examines a range of construction styles of drystone retaining walls in use across the United Kingdom.
Understanding of the substantial variations of construction style is essential to enable proper assessment of these structures. Different
frictional and weathering characteristics, and the naturally occurring shapes of stone found in an area, all affect the ways in which the
stones have traditionally been assembled into walls. Ease of construction also plays a part, as the craftsman will naturally wish to
achieve a robust construction in a way that is economical of time and effort. Aesthetics may be very important, for both client and
craftsman. It is also shown that construction style is influenced by the location and function of the structures, with harbour walls
particularly likely to have unique characteristics, and the reasons for this are explored.

Influence of a Single Grain Boundary on Domain Wall Motion in Ferroelectrics

Epitaxial tetragonal 425 and 611 nm thick Pb(ZrTi)O (PZT) films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition on SrRuO-coated (100) SrTiO 24° tilt angle bicrystal substrates to create a single PZT grain boundary with a well-defined orientation. On either side of the bicrystal boundary, the films show square hysteresis loops and have dielectric permittivities of 456 and 576, with loss tangents of 0.010 and 0.015, respectively. Using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), a decrease in the nonlinear piezoelectric response is observed in the vicinity (720-820 nm) of the grain boundary. This region represents the width over which the extrinsic contributions to the piezoelectric response (e.g., those associated with the domain density/configuration and/or the domain wall mobility) are influenced by the presence of the grain boundary. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images collected near and far from the grain boundary indicate a strong preference for (101)/(1-01) type domain walls at the grain boundary, whereas (011)/(01-1) and (101)/(1-01) are observed away from this region. It is proposed that the elastic strain field at the grain boundary interacts with the ferro-electric/elastic domain structure, stabilizing (101)/(1-01) rather than (011)/(01-1) type domain walls, which inhibits domain wall motion under applied field and decreases non-linearity. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.