An evaluation of distributed cogeneration for disaggregated consumer populations on Islands : the case of Guernsey

There is currently no strategic energy conservation management on the island of Guernsey, nor may it be adequate to leave energy management entirely to market forces. Market mechanisms of themselves may not be adequate to balance the intrinsically conflicting objectives of obtaining the cheapest possible energy, ensure security of supply, reduce the risks associated with over-dependence on particular energy sources (such as petroleum products), whilst protecting the environment. Properly formed data sets, together with time-based capital budgeting, are necessary prerequisites for balanced political choice. The thesis deals with the central issues of strategy by use of a soft systems methodology. It develops the proposition that energy needs for communities, or 'clusters' of demand, might be better met and matched by taking local needs for energy and matching them to locally, parish based, generated supplies. This approach runs counter to much current public energy policy in relation to utilities and supply-demand relationships. Quality, Quantity and Timing (QQT) computer based models are developed for each parish on Guernsey which reflect diurnal/seasonal patterns of demand and explain how variability of demand on various time scales may influence supply technology choices. Parish energy sources are compared on a least-cost basis and a simulation model is used to take into account the variability in the supply potential of alternative renewable sources of energy, and it® relationship to variability of demand (as exposed by QQT modelling). The work described uses computer models based upon SuperCalc 5 advanced spreadsheet modelling techniques, dBASE III Plus database/programming language and compiled under Clipper. A TurboPascal simulation programme was also considered but ultimately rejected in the present context. As well as dealing with the central issues of strategy, and the tactics for achieving them, the thesis analyses the prospect that decentralisation of the power and energy base (through distributed cogeneration) could be a much better strategy to follow for an island such as Guernsey. One outcome of the soft system and simulation modelling approaches was a proposed formal 'States of Guernsey Energy Management System' to provide a mobilising strategy and an environment for market forces to operate within. This focuses on the energy service requirements of each parish and attempts to answer such questions as; "do we expand the present centralised Island supply of fuels and electricity, or do we instead use less fossil fuels to meet the energy services we want by other means, at lower cost ?". The fundamental proposition of the thesis is that much improved means exist for the efficient utilisation of important resources (energy, capital, manpower) within Guernsey and importantly, a wide range of other well populated ‘energy clusters’

Criminal Masculinities and the Newgate Novel

This dissertation builds upon the seminal work of Keith Hollingsworth in his The Newgate Novel, 1830-1847 and expands analysis of the contentious Victorian subgenre into the realm of studies in masculinities. Outside of critical opinion that the novels were defined by the reactionary and conservative reception of Victorian reviewers who saw the novels as morally outrageous and socially dangerous, the genre, as this dissertation argues, was markedly concerned with specifically male readerships. Victorian critics were concerned about the effects reading criminal literature had on boys becoming men, and, accordingly, this dissertation argues that the reformative political and social climate of the 1830s and 40s was also a great period of examination and literary reflection upon the growth of the boy into the man. This dissertation considers the major canon of Newgate novels identified by Hollingsworth and includes chapters on William Godwin’s Caleb Williams and Fleetwood, Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Paul Clifford and Eugene Aram, Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Barnaby Rudge, and William Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard. The dissertation examines how and why each of these texts is concerned with depicting, in often meticulous detail, the growth of a young male protagonist into manhood in a society that demands or necessitates his transformation into criminal. As masculinities and crime are conflated, masculinities are often essentially criminal, and criminalities often masculine. The dissertation engages with James Eli Adams’ and John Tosh’s writings on Victorian masculinities, ultimately discovering that the various masculinities depicted in Newgate novels were against established programs of self-discipline and “gentlemanliness”, instead favouring zones of literal and figurative illegality, alternative gender expression, queerness and excarceration. The novels dramatise criminal dress, male bodies, homosocial bands/bonds and societies, the penal spectacle, father-son relationships, and jailbreaking, demonstrating a need for the expression of masculinities that transcend programs of discipline and heteronormativity into the often fraught and dangerous realms of criminal-masculine excarceral jouissance, as feats of excarcerality become expressions of alternative masculinities

Towards a Conceptual Design of an Intelligent Material Transport Based on Machine Learning and Axiomatic Design Theory

Reliable and efficient material transport is one of the basic requirements that affect productivity in sheet metal industry. This paper presents a methodology for conceptual design of intelligent material transport using mobile robot, based on axiomatic design theory, graph theory and artificial intelligence. Developed control algorithm was implemented and tested on the mobile robot system Khepera II within the laboratory model of manufacturing environment. Matlab© software package was used for manufacturing process simulation, implementation of search algorithms and neural network training. Experimental results clearly show that intelligent mobile robot can learn and predict optimal material transport flows thanks to the use of artificial neural networks. Achieved positioning error of mobile robot indicates that conceptual design approach can be used for material transport and handling tasks in intelligent manufacturing systems