This study follows a postcolonial approach towards Polish and Ruthenian national master narratives in Habsburg Galicia by assuming that Galician historians placed past Polish-Ruthenian relations in a colonial setting and emphasized Ruthenian subalternity. The investigation focuses on one of the most controversial issues in Polish-Ruthenian historiography: the era of Casimir the Great and the incorporation of Red Ruthenia into the Polish Kingdom in the 14th century. The central question is how Galician historians depicted this period in their works and to what extent they interpreted it as the beginning of a hegemonic relationship between Poles and Ruthenians. Which discursive strategies were utilized either to justify a Polish civilizing mission in Red Ruthenia or to refute the necessity of Polish colonial rule in this region?
Size-dependent dynamic instability of cylindrical nanowires incorporating the effects of Casimir attraction and surface energy is presented in this research work. To develop the attractive intermolecular force between the nanowire and its substrate, the proximity force approximation (PFA) for small separations, and the Dirichlet asymptotic approximation for large separations with a cylinder-plate geometry are employed. A nonlinear governing equation of motion for free-standing nanowires – based on the Gurtin-Murdoch model – and a strain gradient elasticity theory are derived. To overcome the complexity of the nonlinear problem in hand, a Garlerkin-based projection procedure for construction of a reduced-order model is implemented as a way of discretization of the governing differential equation. The effects of length-scale parameter, surface energy and vacuum fluctuations on the dynamic instability threshold and adhesion of nanowires are examined. It is demonstrated that in the absence of any actuation, a nanowire might behave unstably, due to the Casimir induction force.