170 research outputs found
Possible integrated coastal interventions in Playa Unión and Puerto Rawson: An area prone to coastal erosion
No full textPlaya Unión and Puerto Rawson are facing severe coastal erosion and increasingly the negative effects. Since the first half of the 20th century there have been signs of erosion, but also of sedimentation. However, the coastline in the project area is retreating over the years. The situation has recently been declared an emergency. Furthermore, there are several expansion plans for the port consisting of new quay walls and dredging. It is unsure if these plans will influence the erosion. In this report, the following research question is formed: ”What are valued, preferably nature-based, interventions that can mitigate the coastal erosion in Playa Unión and Puerto Rawson considering the planned expansion of the port?” Due to the limited information and data available, assumptions have been made during the research. A site analysis and a CoastSat analysis are conducted to research the morphology of the coastline and its drivers. The coast has been shaped into a steep upper section of coarse granular material and a gentle lower slope with finer material. The main driver of longshore sediment transport in the area are swell waves, with predominant directions SSE and E. This transport is directed from south to north, resulting in the inflow and outflow of sediments. Furthermore, there is a sediment flow from the Chubut river. Due to the construction of the port’s breakwaters, the longshore sediment transport is interrupted, which causes an imbalance in the sediment flow in the system. More sediment flows out of the system than enters, causing coastal erosion. The development of the port contains public as well as private expansion plans and maintenance dredging. The expansion plans will have little effect on its surroundings. The private plan include a parallel breakwater, which alters the natural balance in the area and dredging works, for which the stability of the existing breakwaters has to be figured out. A stakeholder analysis was done to get insights in the opinions and visions of the stakeholders. This was done by interviewing stakeholders and by doing a questionnaire, resulting in a power-interest grid and overview of interests and attitudes. The boundary conditions for the interventions and criteria for the multi-criteria analysis are partly formulated as a result of the stakeholder analysis. The following interventions were considered in this report: • Permeable pile groynes and low crested groynes• Opening the northern breakwater: opening and reshaping with a curve, constructing tunnels underneath the breakwater and a sediment bypass• Port expansion and a sediment bypass with power supply southern of the port• Dredging and moving sediment• Sediment trap• Plant vegetation with beach nourishment• Gravel engine• Temporary longitudinal flood barrier as a short term intervention.A conceptual multi-criteria analysis in combination with a nature-based assessment has been conducted to distinguish the most promising interventions in the conceptual design phase. The criteria formulated were effectiveness, easiness of implementation, maintenance, environmental impact and the benefits for recreation. From this, it can be concluded that the gravel engine and the plant vegetation with beach nourishment score the best. Civil Engineerin
Fuckhead
No full textWhat is a fuckhead? David Rawson’s Fuckhead is a surreal exploration of the literature, film, nature and expectations of disability, and of fuckheads in literature and film. Part lyric essay, part fictional memoir, Rawson’s work tells the story of an unnamed narrator whose familial relationships are defined by his VATER syndrome. Abused by his mother and stripped of a voice by his brother’s need to be Tom Cruise via Rain Man, he sets out into a universe of literary tropes. I have always been of the mind that the novelist is allowed access to all experiences, as long as he ultimately has something to say. Plutarch and Samuel Johnson are typing somewhere in the desert of the next world, composing the ultimate collection of biographical criticism, explaining how David Lynch’s entire filmography owes a debt to his club feet. But I and the friends who bought my novel agree the author is dead. The work is particularly interested in the relationship between Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and what the narrator argues is Denis Johnson’s reimagining of that work in the short story “Emergency” (in Johnson’s Jesus’ Son). But in accumulating characters with disabilities as widely diverse as Darth Vader, Benjy of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and the TV sitcom Community’s Abed Nadir, Rawson movingly, and with wry humor, articulates the assumptions and clichés faced by persons with disabilities, all the while creating a new family with his unlikely gathering of “fuckheads.
Fuckhead
No full textWhat is a fuckhead? David Rawson’s Fuckhead is a surreal exploration of the literature, film, nature and expectations of disability, and of fuckheads in literature and film. Part lyric essay, part fictional memoir, Rawson’s work tells the story of an unnamed narrator whose familial relationships are defined by his VATER syndrome. Abused by his mother and stripped of a voice by his brother’s need to be Tom Cruise via Rain Man, he sets out into a universe of literary tropes. I have always been of the mind that the novelist is allowed access to all experiences, as long as he ultimately has something to say. Plutarch and Samuel Johnson are typing somewhere in the desert of the next world, composing the ultimate collection of biographical criticism, explaining how David Lynch’s entire filmography owes a debt to his club feet. But I and the friends who bought my novel agree the author is dead. The work is particularly interested in the relationship between Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and what the narrator argues is Denis Johnson’s reimagining of that work in the short story “Emergency” (in Johnson’s Jesus’ Son). But in accumulating characters with disabilities as widely diverse as Darth Vader, Benjy of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and the TV sitcom Community’s Abed Nadir, Rawson movingly, and with wry humor, articulates the assumptions and clichés faced by persons with disabilities, all the while creating a new family with his unlikely gathering of “fuckheads.
What can the Derveni Papyrus tell us about the religious milieu of the author?
No full textThe discovery at Derveni in 1962 of the remains of a fourth-century BC papyrus, consisting largely of a philosophical commentary on a religious text, has provided a unique opportunity to investigate the religious milieu in which the author worked. This study concentrates neither on the author’s philosophical views nor on the text on which he is commenting, but on the clues he gives to the religious practices and beliefs of himself and his audience. It discusses the evidence it provides for the rites they practised, and for the role of the beings, the daimons, Erinyes, Eumenides and souls, to which he refers. It also examines the role of the magi who conduct the rites, concluding that they are private religious practitioners who are Greek rather than Persian, regarded positively rather than negatively, and that the author himself was one. In relation to recent scholarly debate on the nature of Orphism, this study shows that there is little evidence in the papyrus or elsewhere for the existence of a contemporary Orphic cult linked with the gold leaves found in tombs, the later Orphic theogonies, and a doctrine of the primal guilt of humanity. In conclusion, a link is made with Pythagorean ideas to characterise what is described in the papyrus as essentially a private initiation cult
The chemistry of some dithiadiazolyls and their platinum complexes
No full textThe work outlined in this thesis is mainly concerned with the preparation and reactions of dithiadiazolylium salts, dithiadiazolyls and their Pt complexes. Chapter one outlines the chemistry, the synthesis and properties of dithiadiazolylium salts and dithiadiazolyls. Chapter two is concerned with the preparation and characterisation of some dithiadiazolyls and their platinum complexes, and comprehensive DSC and Ultraviolet/visible spectroscopic studies of these complexes, highlights some of their properties. Chapter three outlines the preparation and characterisation of some fluorine substituted dithiadiazolyls and their platinum complexes. It also discusses the crystal structures of the complex Pt(_3)[PPh(_3)](_4)[3,4-F(_2).C(_6)H(_3).CNSSN](_2) and the fluorine substituted dithiadiazolyls (2,3-F(_2).C(_6)H(_3).CNSSN)(_2) and (2,5-F(_2).C(_6)H(_3).CNSSN)-Chapter four outlines the main experimental techniques which were employed throughout my research. Appendix I contains additional crystallographic data, for the crystal structures mentioned previously, while Appendix II lists all the colloquia, lectures and seminars attended by the author
Network master planning for a global manufacturing company
No full textProduction in global, intra-organisational networks is becoming more common. In this
context, the allocation of production quantities to constrained manufacturing capacity is
a challenging process. Due to a volatile environment it is argued to be impossible to
achieve a ‘clean’ system design with dedicated resources which exactly meets future
demand. Thus, recursive ‘Network Master Planning’ (NMP) becomes necessary.
The aim of this research is to generate an understanding of the unusual situation
of Network Master Planning and enable improvement of NMP practice. The author
introduces a specification of requirements that was derived from observation of the
real-life NMP planning activity. The relevant literature is presented to focus and position
NMP in the field of tactical production planning in the literature and business context.
Solution principles, design rules, and an architecture are proposed and combined to a
planning methodology.
The research is problem-solving in nature and based in management research.
The author seeks to develop new understanding by testing hypotheses in practice.
Thus, knowledge originates in real world situations. The thesis describes how NMP
concepts have been derived in a single-case-study and validated by implementing and
testing tool modules incorporating these concepts.
The understanding of fundamentals and requirements for NMP, proposed concepts
to tackle NMP, and generic findings represent the major contribution to knowledge
of this thesis. The core findings of this work are that:
• NMP is a series of steps not an isolated task.
• Aggregation does not solve the problems of NMP.
• Dynamic, multi-objective planning needs human decision makers.
• Tool support in NMP means complementing human actions; not replacing them
by ‘automatic optimisation’.
• It is possible to implement the proposed NMP concepts in a practical procedure.
Additionally to building the basis for further work, the findings of this research work are
transformed into recommendations particularly for practitioners who are in a similar
situation to the case company. The individual points may serve as guidelines to support
practitioners working in the field of NMP or restructuring an existing planning system
EM as a tool to study structure and function to guide inhibitor design
No full textRational drug design is underpinned by structural biology, in particular X-ray crystallography. This work aimed to explore a simple question; can electron microscopy (EM) play a useful role in the drug discovery process? To this end, two biological systems, the V-ATPase and Imidazoleglycerol-phosphate dehydratase (IGPD), were studied via EM.
A modest (~1 nm) structure of the V-ATPase was solved via cryo-EM, permitting existing high resolution crystal structures to be accurately fitted in the context of the whole 1 MDa complex. This allowed new mechanistic insights to be uncovered. The dissociated V1 domain was studied to see if the mechanism of ATP silencing, used as a regulatory control, could provide new inhibitor targets to be identified. Although the specific mechanism could not be identified the resulting structures have shown a much more complicated regulatory mechanism than previously thought. The ubiquitous nature of the V ATPase makes selectivity a significant challenge. To address this the binding mode of the selective V-ATPase inhibitor, Pea Albumin 1 subunit b (PA1b), was studied at low resolution using negative stain EM. Combined with biochemical analysis this has successfully identified the subunits responsible for binding PA1b. Furthermore, IGPD was used as a model system for high resolution cryo EM studies to directly visualise inhibitor binding. A 3.1 Å reconstruction was obtained which allowed the de novo building of the atomic model and the identification of a small molecule inhibitor within the EM map.
This work shows the potential of EM to provide valuable information for drug design at a wide range of resolutions, from rapid low resolution binding studies to direct visualisation of inhibitors at ~3 Å
Listening at the threshold: Perceptive play with voice, word and body
No full textThis article offers a brief overview of the intentions and methods which the author has pursued in his years of leading artistic workshops at the Waldorf English Week, an annual in-service training week for Waldorf English teachers. It includes a reflection on the effects and possible benefits of the processes in these workshops for language teachers
Compositional variability in mafic arc magmas over short spatial and temporal scales: Evidence for the signature of mantle reactive melt channels
No full textAbstractUnderstanding arc magma genesis is critical to deciphering the construction of continental crust, understanding the relationship between plutonic and volcanic rocks, and for assessing volcanic hazards. Arc magma genesis is complex. Interpreting the underlying causes of major and trace element diversity in erupted magmas is challenging and often non-unique. To navigate this complexity mafic magma diversity is investigated using sample suites that span short temporal and spatial scales. These constraints allow us to evaluate models of arc magma genesis and their geochemical implications based on physical arguments and recent model results. Young volcanic deposits (≲18 kyr) are analysed from the Southern Volcanic Zone (SVZ), Chile, in particular suites of scoria cones on the flanks of arc stratovolcanoes that have erupted relatively primitive magmas of diverse compositions. Our study is centred on the high-resolution post-glacial tephrochronological record for Mocho-Choshuenco volcano where tight age constraints and a high density of scoria cones provide a spatially well-resolved mafic magma dataset. Two compositional trends emerge from the data. Firstly, magmas from cones on the flanks of the main edifice become more mafic with distance from the central vent. This is attributed to fractional crystallisation processes within the crust, with distal cones sampling less differentiated magmas. Secondly, there is a set of cones with distinct major and trace element compositions that are more primitive but enriched in incompatible elements relative to the central system and other ‘normal SVZ’ magmas. This distinct signature – termed the ‘Kangechi’ signature – is observed at three further clusters of cones within the SVZ. This is attributed to greater preservation of the enriched melt signature arising from reactive melt transport within the mantle wedge. Our model has important implications for arc magma genesis in general, and in particular for the spatial and temporal scales over which compositional variations are preserved in erupted magmas
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