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The aim of this paper is to examine the concept of ‘in-betweenness’ as a potential frame of reference for Zoë Wicomb’s writing, particularly her latest novel . Hence, my primary intent is to focus on the novelist as equipped with a faculty for crossing over separate cultural traditions and embracing different formative experiences. Interestingly enough, in this case, the notion of indeterminate identity begins from, yet is not limited to, a South African version of racial profiling. Therefore, the author’s interest in adaptable identities might be discussed apropos of skin color, but also in terms of oscillating between different geographical, cultural locations. In light of the above, a perspective accommodated here examines Wicomb’s thematization and confirmation of transitional experiences elaborated on a story of two females as becoming autonomous coloureds as well as mutable/unfixed/migrating characters. And, on top of that, this singular focus coincides with a broader pattern, filtered through the author’s aggregate account. As a person of South African descent, yet currently living in Europe, Wicomb acknowledges a specific adaptive domain, which in turn serves as a fitting backdrop for construing contemporary South African-ness from a more nuanced, in-between/cosmopolitan position.

This paper aims to present the main contours of Burns’s literary output which, interestingly enough, grows into a personal understanding of the collective mindset of (post)-Troubles Northern Ireland. It is legitimate, I argue, to construe her fiction (No Bones, 2001; Little Constructions, 2007; Milkman, 2018) as a body of work shedding light on certain underlying mechanisms of (post-)sectarian violence. Notwithstanding the lapse of time between 1998 and 2020, the Troubles’ toxic legacy has indeed woven an unbroken thread in the social fabric of the region. My reading of the novelist’s selected works intends to show how the local public have been fed by (or have fed themselves upon) an unjustified—maybe even false—sense of security. Burns, in that regard, has positioned herself amongst the aggregate of writers who feel anxious rather than placated, hence their persistence in returning to the roots of Northern Irish societal divisions. Burns’s writing, in the above context, though immersed in the world of the Troubles, paradoxically communicates “an idiosyncratic spatiotemporality” (Maureen Ruprecht Fadem’s phrase), namely an experience beyond the self-imposing, historical time limits. As such, it gains the ability to provide insightful commentaries on conflict-prone relations, the patterns of which can be repeatedly observed in Northern Ireland’s socio-political milieu. Overall, the main idea here is to discuss and present the narrative realm proposed by Burns as (in)determinate, liminal in terms of time and space, positioning readers between “then” and “now” of the region.

Due to the constant trend of building wind turbine sets and photovoltaic cells, the so-called renewable energy sources, it is important to develop a mathematical model that will allow us to analyse the economic viability of their operation. By using this model, multivariate calculations should be carried out and developed in the form of universal nomograms that will allow us to estimate this viability almost on an immediate basis. In this paper, such a model for the unit cost of electricity production from renewable energy sources is presented. It is based on a continuous-time Net Present Value notation. The multi-variant calculations performed with it take into account different subsidy levels and operating time of the renewable energy sources. The paper presents values of unit costs of electricity production from renewable energy sources and values of maximum subsidies for this production. It turns out that subsidies are necessary for renewable energy sources to exist on the energy market. An additional disadvantage is the fact that renewable energy sources are not able to provide a stable electricity supply throughout the year.

This study analyzes the thermodynamic and economic viability of modified high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) gas-steam combined heat and power (CHP) systems compared to conventional CHP plants. The research addresses the critical need for efficient and sustainable energy production methods. Using comprehensive thermodynamic modeling and economic analysis, the study evaluates system performance under various operating conditions. Key findings reveal that modified CHP plants with HTGR and turboexpanders (TEs) demonstrate significantly higher efficiency and lower heat generation costs compared to conventional gas turbine (GT) CHP plants, despite higher initial capital investments. The modified systems achieve electricity generation efficiencies up to 48%, surpassing traditional nuclear power plants. The absence of CO2 emissions and lower fuel costs in HTGR systems contribute to their economic advantage. This research provides novel insights into the potential of HTGR technology in CHP applications, offering a promising solution for future energy systems. The study’s originality lies in its comprehensive comparison of conventional and modified CHP systems, considering both thermodynamic and economic aspects, which has not been extensively explored in existing literature.

In this article I argue that the developments of countries going through transition from authoritarian to democratic rule are always stamped by numerous references to formerly sanctioned and fully operational institutionalized violence. A perfect exemplification of this phenomenon is [post-] apartheid South Africa and its writing. In the context of the above, both the social and the literary realm of the 1990s might be perceived as resonant with Giorgio Agamben’s ‘concentrationary’, deeply divisive imaginary. Escaping from, and concurrently remembering, past fears, anxieties, yet seeking hope and consolation, the innocent but also the formerly outlawed and victimized along [interestingly enough] with [ex]perpetrators exemplify, as discussed in J. M. Coetzee’s and Z. Mda’s novels, the necessity of an exposure of the mechanism of South African ‘biopoliticization’ of life. Their stories prove how difficult the uprooting of the mentality of segregation, hatred and the policy of bracketing ’s life as insubstantial, thus vulnerable to instrumental violence, in [post-] apartheid society was. In view of the above what is to be highlighted here is the authorial perception of various attempts at disavowing past and present violence as detrimental to South African habitat. In the end, coming to terms with the past, with the belligerent nature of local mental maps, must inevitably lead to the acknowledgement of guilt and traumatic suffering. Individual and collective amnesia conditioned by deeply-entrenched personal culpability or personal anguish is then construed as damaging, and as such is subject do deconstructive analysis.

This paper presents the results of analysis of energy and economic efficiency of the hierarchical gas-gas engine, with a note that a trigeneration system was analyzed, in which the production of electricity, heat and cold are combined. This solution significantly increases the energy efficiency of the gas and gas system compared to a system without cold production. The analysis includes a system comprising a compressor chiller which is driven by an electric motor in the system, as well as a system applying the mechanical work that is carried out via a rotating shaft of rotor-based machines, i.e., a gas turbine and a turboexpander. The comfort of the regulation of the refrigerating power rather promotes the use of a solution including an electric motor. Analysis contains also a schematic diagram of the system with a absorption chiller, which is driven by low-temperature enthalpy of exhaust gases extracted from a hierarchical gas-gas engine. Application of turboexpander with heat regeneration in the trigeneration system is also analyzed. Based on the multi-variant economic and thermodynamic calculations, the most favorable system variant was determined using, among others, the specific cost of cold production.

A very important task of power units with high power capacity is their participation in the control of the national power system. One of the most important questions posed at work is whether a 370 MW power unit superstructured with a gas turbine in parallel and a heat recovery steam generator be able to take part in the national power system control and if such an upgrade will be economically effective. The analysis was carried out using a proprietary and novel mathematical model. The model takes into account, among others, the influence of the ambient temperature on the parameters of the gas turbine and the changes in thermal steam parameters at its steam extractions as a result of load changes. The results of the analyses showed that it is possible for the modernized unit to participate in the power system control. It can be done only by using a gas turbine with a variable power and a shut off option. The presented results of economic calculations show that at price and cost levels assumed for calculations, the turbine gas superstructure is at the threshold of viability and the investment carries a high degree of risk.

This paper contains the results of a study in which a novel approach using continuous time notation was applied in the search for the optimum capacity of a gas turbine designed for a dual-fuel gas-steam combined heat and power plant in a parallel system. As a result of the application of mathematical models of any functions that account for variations in time of all integrand quantities, for example prices of energy carriers, the model that was developed provides a way to analyze complex dependencies. The results of calculations obtained as a result of using this notation provide a rational selection of technologies and equipment designed for the energy industry. The results are based on an analysis involving a combined heat and power plant with an extraction-condensing steam turbine and extraction backpressure steam turbine for a wide range of the variability in energy prices and environmental charges corresponding to the current prices and environmental charges. All the curves were obtained using innovative methodology and mathematical model in which the total, discounted profit is calculated at the given moment and expressed as NPV achieved from the operation of dual-fuel gas-steam combined heat and power (CHP) plant.

This article is devoted to Sumia Sukkar, a young British author, whose debut novel The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War seems an important voice in debates on the repercussions of the Syrian conflict. The novelist’s decision, due to her national descent (she is of Syrian origin), to create a fictional narrative, which serves more as a moral intervention in matters of public concern, derives from Sukkar’s personal conviction that one cannot hold aloof from the carnage going on in Syria. Although written in 2013, the book, with its emphasis on the unending war ‘games’ and unrelenting violence in the Middle East, turns out to be even more valid today than before. With this voice of moderation, Western readers have been given yet another chance to delve into the nature of the Syrian conflict, presented from the position of a devout Muslim believer as well as a person of ethical integrity. Hers is the narrative in which changing colors symbolically reflect a slow deterioration of individual mindsets. In this sense, Sukkar’s novel seems more like an important attempt to ‘find an adequate objective correlative’ that in a comprehensive way enables one to gain insight into traumas of the local conflict/war.

This article is devoted to Sumia Sukkar, a young British author, whose debut novel The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War seems an important voice in debates on the repercussions of the Syrian conflict. The novelist's decision, due to her national descent (she is of Syrian origin), to create a fictional narrative, which serves more as a moral intervention in matters of public concern, derives from Sukkar's personal conviction that one cannot hold aloof from the carnage going on in Syria. Although written in 2013, the book, with its emphasis on the unending war 'games' and unrelenting violence in the Middle East, turns out to be even more valid today than before. With this voice of moderation, Western readers have been given yet another chance to delve into the nature of the Syrian conflict, presented from the position of a devout Muslim believer as well as a person of ethical integrity. Hers is the narrative in which changing colors symbolically reflect a slow deterioration of individual mindsets. In this sense, Sukkar's novel seems more like an important attempt to 'find an adequate objective correlative' that in a comprehensive way enables one to gain insight into traumas of the local conflict/war.