Dative intervention is a gang effect

This paper addresses two restrictions regarding agreement with nominative arguments in Icelandic DAT-NOM constructions. The first is the reported asymmetry in intervention effects in mono-clausal versus bi-clausal environments. The second regards the well-known Person Restriction that prohibits agreement with non-3rd person arguments. It is argued that both of these phenomena can be viewed as instances of cumulative constraint interaction, where less important constraints in the grammar ‘gang up’ to block some higher constraint. In order to account for this, I adopt a model of syntax with both weighted constraints and serial optimization that is known as Serial Harmonic Grammar in the phonological literature. It will be demonstrated that such a system can offer a more principled analysis of the construction-specific nature of the aforementioned phenome

Computational Analysis of Flow Around a Scaled Axial-Flow Hydro Turbine

Water power energy harvesting has become an important and growing industry supported by research and significant interest and impetus from the government and commercial sector. Due to waters high power density, marine current energy is an attractive addition to other renewable energy technologies. That said, there is still much to be understood about the design, application, installation, operation, and maintenance of current-driven marine-hydrokinetic devices and with new designs coming out frequently it is imperative to understand the physics and dynamics involved. Recently, testing of the Sandia turbine, designed by University of California, Davis, Pennsylvania State and Sandia National Laboratories, took place at Pennsylvania State\u27s Applied Research Laboratory. The testing was performed with a 1:8.7 scale model of the Sandia turbine. The experiment successfully assessed the turbine\u27s power and cavitation performance, unsteady driveshaft loading, blade strain, unsteady tower pressure, flow field, and acoustics. Given the expense and time required for experimentation, commercial computational fluid dynamics codes, such as CD-Adapco\u27s Star-CCM+ can be used to simulate new designs both quickly and inexpensively. The goal of this research is to validate the results obtained using Star CCM+ to model the Sandia turbine as compared to the experimental results obtained by Pennsylvania State. To carry out the simulation, several unstructured grids were generated on which several unsteady simulations were run at the design point of a tip-speed ratio of 4. For this design point at 95% blade span, the chord Reynolds number is approximately 500,000 which equates to about 2,000,000 for the full scale turbine. In comparing model results to experimental data there was good agreement for power performance parameters, such as thrust and power coefficients, as well as downstream velocity profiles. With such good agreement it is optimistic that computational fluid dynamics models can be used to accurately predict the performance of future water turbine designs, thus reducing the high cost of research needed to develop novel current-driven marine-hydrokinetic devices.\u2

Selected Topics in the Utilization of Natural Resources: Production of Transportation Fuel and Potential Biomass source for use in Biorefinery

As the price of corn-based ethanol products is estimated to continue increasing in the near future, lignocellulosics remains the only viable candidate as a renewable source of ethanol production. Wheat straw is grown in over 115 nations under a wide range of conditions, with 300 million tons being produced every year in North America and Europe alone. The Biorefinery proposed at SUNY ESF is based on the first, environmentally acceptable step of hot-water extraction {HWE) as a pretreatment, which removes easily accessible hemicelluloses. Most of the studies of HWE have been performed on different hardwoods (model species: sugar maple, Acer saccharum), and confirmed the dissolution of the majority of xylans. This study looked into the use of wheat straw in the HWE-based biorefinery. The chemical composition of wheat straw before HWE was determined by following several TAPPI and other methods used to analyze chemical composition. The HWE was performed in standard conditions proposed for hardwoods {2 hours, 160°(). The effect of HWE on the calorific value of the wheat straw was evaluated and confirmed that the loss of hemicelluloses during HWE results in an increase of energy of combustion of the extracted wheat straw which is a beneficial feature for potential use of hot-water extracted wheat straw as pellets for CHP (Combined Heat & Power) use. In addition, the delignification and deashing effects of HWE were evaluated

Elite rowing : technique and performance

In elite rowing competition the difference between Gold and Silver is often less than one second, and there is a high incidence of injury amongst the sport’s athletes. Previous studies into rowing have described kinetic and kinematic profiles, commented on the effects of factors such as fatigue and training status, and identified some aspects of rowing technique that may be associated with improvements in performance, or with injury mechanisms. However, such work has often been subject to significant errors and limitations, such as: restricting kinematic analysis to two-dimensions, small sample sizes, and lack of clinical and performance relevance. Furthermore there has been no one body of work to date that has published a comprehensive analysis of elite rowers’ technique and described its relevance to performance. This represents a gap in the performance literature. The primary aim of this thesis was to describe and analyse the kinetic output and three-dimensional kinematics of elite rowers. It was hypothesised that a comprehensive and explicit description of athletes’ technique could be compiled, and that aspects of this technique would be influenced by exercise intensity and longitudinal training. Furthermore, it was thought that discrete aspects of technique could be used to predict high levels of athletic performance, and individual’s risk of spinal and knee injuries. A custom experimental methodology was developed and several pilot studies optimised and validated the method. More than eleven hundred rowing trials were completed by members of the Great Britain elite rowing squad over a period of twenty six months. This provided kinetic and kinematic data that was treated and analysed using custom written software, and subjected to statistical modelling. The thesis described the method and kinematic model that was utilised. A detailed description of elite athletes’ rowing technique and kinematics was produced. Increasing exercise intensity influenced some of the measured parameters, and longitudinal feedback, and coaching interventions were effective in influencing the elite participants. Adopting a kyphotic posture in the lumbar region of the spine at any point in the rowing stroke was found to be detrimental to rowing performance, and may be linked to an increased risk of lumbar injury. Rapid extension of the lumbar spine was also thought to pose an injury risk, however it was found that athletes who extended the lumbar spine at the finish of the stroke exhibited better performance than those who did not. The kinematic characteristics of the lower limbs may positively influence rowers’ performance, and provide protection against spinal injury.Open acces