Shrouded small wind turbines

The goal of this project is to improve the energy production of small wind turbines (rated less than 100 kW) by increasing wind velocity at the turbine blades through the design of a shroud attachment. The design process involves the analysis of various computer aided design (CAD) nozzle/diffuser shroud geometries. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling is used to analyze the effect of shroud features on velocity and pressure fields. A 3D printed scale model is tested in a wind tunnel with strain gauges and pressure transducers to validate the CFD data. The resulting design locally increases velocity by a factor of 1.47, and subsequent energy yield by a factor of 3.18 when compared to the performance of an unshrouded turbine. Additionally, the CFD modeling of the shroud was validated through pressure measurements along the shroud

Multimodal characterization of the late effects of traumatic brain injury: a methodological overview of the Late Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury Project

Epidemiological studies suggest that a single moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with an increased risk of neurodegenerative disease, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease (AD and PD). Histopathological studies describe complex neurodegenerative pathologies in individuals exposed to single moderate-to-severe TBI or repetitive mild TBI, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). However, the clinicopathological links between TBI and post-traumatic neurodegenerative diseases such as AD, PD, and CTE remain poorly understood. Here we describe the methodology of the Late Effects of TBI (LETBI) study, whose goals are to characterize chronic post-traumatic neuropathology and to identify in vivo biomarkers of post-traumatic neurodegeneration. LETBI participants undergo extensive clinical evaluation using National Institutes of Health TBI Common Data Elements, proteomic and genomic analysis, structural and functional MRI, and prospective consent for brain donation. Selected brain specimens undergo ultra-high resolution ex vivo MRI and histopathological evaluation including whole mount analysis. Co-registration of ex vivo and in vivo MRI data enables identification of ex vivo lesions that were present during life. In vivo signatures of postmortem pathology are then correlated with cognitive and behavioral data to characterize the clinical phenotype(s) associated with pathological brain lesions. We illustrate the study methods and demonstrate proof of concept for this approach by reporting results from the first LETBI participant, who despite the presence of multiple in vivo and ex vivo pathoanatomic lesions had normal cognition and was functionally independent until her mid-80s. The LETBI project represents a multidisciplinary effort to characterize post-traumatic neuropathology and identify in vivo signatures of postmortem pathology in a prospective study

“More to please than to instruct”: Eighteenth-century Responses to Chaucerian Obscenity

By the time that John Dryden published selected Canterbury Tales in Fables Ancient & Modern (1700), Chaucer’s most famous work had, for all intents and purposes, lain dormant for nearly a century. While a flurry of editions of Chaucer’s collected works had been produced between 1532 and the close of the sixteenth century, no new editions had been published since then. Alongside translations from Homer, Ovid, and Boccaccio, Fables Ancient & Modern included both Middle English and — for the first time — modern English versions of The Knight’s Tale, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale and The Wife of Bath’s Tale. In his preface, Dryden explained his choice of Chaucerian tales as follows: ‘I have confin’d my Choice to such Tales of Chaucer, as savour nothing of Immodesty’, though he also noted that, if he ‘had desir’d more to please than to instruct’, he would have included the more ribald tales of the Reeve, Miller, Shipman, Merchant, and Summoner, ‘and above all, the Wife of Bathe, in the Prologue to her Tale’. The same publication that ushered Chaucer back into the literary limelight was also a turning point in the reception of Chaucerian obscenity (the sexual and scatological language and content that feature in those tales that Dryden deliberately excludes). This joint presentation takes a closer look at this and other eighteenth-century responses to Chaucer’s ribaldry and literary legacy, the starting point for the ongoing research project on ‘Canonicity, Obscenity, and the Making of Modern Chaucer (1700-2020)’ (COMMode) at the University of Bern

Conceptualizing coastal and maritime cultural heritage through communities of meaning and participation

Coastal zones are historically rich with unique land/seascapes, tangible artifacts, and intangible cultural heritage. Coastal and maritime cultural heritage (CMCH) contends with various constraining conditions of the sea and shore—both geophysical and socially constructed—which we delineate to identify risks and threats to its sustainable management. In response to calls for the greater incorporation of CMCH in the name of regional development and blue growth, we propose a conceptual framework as a means to identify risks and sustainably manage CMCH. We develop the concepts of communities of meaning and communities of participation to address how CMCH is created and contested and identify key considerations for its management. Building on theories of space, place, and identity, the paper constructs communities of meaning in order to elaborate the various opportunities but also tensions in preserving CH and cultivating reliant enterprises as a part of wider regional development strategies. Working from this understanding of place and identity in degrees of inclusivity/exclusivity, the paper draws upon literature on deliberative and participatory governance, framed as communities of participation. These two concepts provide a vocabulary for managers to address calls for the promotion of CMCH and determine appropriate management strategies and governance based on policy objectives and the will of potentially multiple communities of meaning.</p