Blended wing body with boundary layer ingestion conceptual design in a multidisciplinary design analysis optimization environment

This paper introduces the GENUS multidisciplinary concept level aircraft design and analysis environment developed by Cranfield University in recent years and it has been applied to the conceptual design of blended wing body (BWB) aircraft. Analytical disciplines include a variety of low-to-medium fidelity, physics-based and empirical methods, and aerodynamic analysis of high-order panel method. Boundary layer ingestion (BLI), as a special module, has been incorporated into the aerodynamic and propulsion analysis. The results of the Cranfield BW-11 are presented. In the highly-constrained design space, a type of highly fuel- efficient BWB concept can be studied, and the advantages of the BLI concept can also be explored based on this framework

How to speak of God? Toward a postsecular apologetics

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Practical Theology on 11/04/2018, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1756073X.2018.1460522Against most expectations religion has not vanished from Western culture. If anything, it exercises a greater fascination than ever before. Broadly, we might think of ourselves as occupying a new, 'postsecular' space between a renewed visibility of religion in public life, and a corresponding acknowledgement of the importance of religious values and actors; and persistent and widespread disillusion and scepticism towards religion, and objections to religion as a source of legitimate public discourse. In a world that is more sensitive than ever to religious belief and practice, yet often struggles to accommodate it into secular discourse, how do religious institutions justify their position in a contested and volatile public square? This article argues that the contemporary postsecular context requires a recovery of the ancient practices of Christian apologetics as a form of public, theological witness to the practical value of faith, articulated in both deed and word

Automated Generation of Indoor Accessibility Information for Mobility-Impaired Individuals

t One important issue in developing assistive navigation systems for people with disability is the accuracy and relevancy of the systems’ knowledge bases from the perspective of these special user groups. The theory of affordances coupled with computer-based simulation offers a solution for automating the extraction of the relevant information from readily available sources—architectural floor plans. Simulation of movement in a wheelchair can be used to compute the accessible space of an indoor environment by comparing the degree of match between geometrical demands of navigation and the relevant physical properties of the environment. We also investigate what constitutes the right level of representation of the environment and adopt the grid graph model as suitable both for accessibility computation and for deriving higher-level networks of places and their connections that facilitate orientation and user-system interaction

Pluralismo cultural e cidadania democrática Cultural pluralism and democratic citizenship

Com base no exame da questão do "multiculturalismo" da perspectiva do pluralismo em sociedades democráticas, discute-se, num registro normativo, a tensão intrínseca à combinação desses termos, para finalmente enfrentar a dimensão institucional do problema.<br>On the basis of an examination of the question of "multiculturalism" from the perspective of pluralism in democratic societies the tension intrinsic to the combination of these terms is discussed in its normative dimension. Finally, the institutional dimension of the problem is addressed