One Nation Under Melville. An Analysis of Nationalism, Imperialism, and Race in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Moby-Dick, or The Whale is a novel famed for its multifaceted nature, due to the myriad of both literary themes and political views that critics can explicate from it. In this thesis I will show how the novel Moby Dick, or the Whale can be interpreted in a manner that engender nation and myth building for the United States, in which the contemporary greatness of the nation makes up for the lack of an aggrandized past. Furthermore, I will attempt to show how the text uses critique of ideologies such as slavery, colonization, and imperialism (through the Pequod and its crew) to both criticize American ideologies and political agendas, whilst simultaneously (and perhaps a bit hypocritically) making use of the very same patriotic and nationalistic ideology and language it itself criticizes. In the thesis, concepts and theories such as nationalism, community, nationhood, nation as narration, and imperialism are defined through the theories established by critics such as Anderson, Bhabha, and Said, as a means to engender a better understanding of what is meant by them when used in the analysis of the novel, as well as why these concepts are relevant for the thesis As such, this thesis is another piece of evidence for the limitlessness of Moby-Dick, as it recognizes the vast openness of the text, that enables the myriad of interpretations, explications, and understandings of the novel. All which adds further evidence in favor of the continued canonization and importance of Melville’s Work

Organizational Resilience and Crisis Management in SMEs

This thesis looks at how small and medium-sized enterprises might create resilience and prepare for future disasters. The research question is, "How can SMEs build resilience and prepare for future crises?" In recent years, the business environment has seen a few crises, ranging from economic downturns to worldwidepandemics, all of which have had an influence on SMEs. It has become increasingly important for these organizations to develop strategies and capabilities that enable them to navigate and withstand such challenges. The goal of this study is to discover and examine effective techniques for improving SMEs'resilience in the event of future crises. A qualitative research approach will be used to accomplish this. Semi structured interviews with SMEs' owners and managers will be conducted. The conceptual framework will be based on current literature on organizational resilience and crisis management. This framework will provide a foundation for understanding the key components of resilience as well as some of the techniques that SMEs may use to successfully prepare for future crises. The findings of this research should hopefully add to the academic literature and have practical implications for SMEs. This research will provide some help for SMEs aiming to improve their resilience capabilities by identifying some effective practices and methods. Overall, the purpose of this thesis is to give some useful insights on how SMEs might develop resilience and prepare for future crises. Understanding the elements that contribute to resilience and experimenting with successful techniques may help SMEs improve their capacity to endure and recover from crises, resulting in long-term success and sustainability

Organizational Resilience and Crisis Management in SMEs

This thesis looks at how small and medium-sized enterprises might create resilience and prepare for future disasters. The research question is, "How can SMEs build resilience and prepare for future crises?" In recent years, the business environment has seen a few crises, ranging from economic downturns to worldwide pandemics, all of which have had an influence on SMEs. It has become increasingly important for these organizations to develop strategies and capabilities that enable them to navigate and withstand such challenges. The goal of this study is to discover and examine effective techniques for improving SMEs' resilience in the event of future crises. A qualitative research approach will be used to accomplish this. Semi structured interviews with SMEs' owners and managers will be conducted. The conceptual framework will be based on current literature on organizational resilience and crisis management. This framework will provide a foundation for understanding the key components of resilience as well as some of the techniques that SMEs may use to successfully prepare for future crises. The findings of this research should hopefully add to the academic literature and have practical implications for SMEs. This research will provide some help for SMEs aiming to improve their resilience capabilities by identifying some effective practices and methods. Overall, the purpose of this thesis is to give some useful insights on how SMEs might develop resilience and prepare for future crises. Understanding the elements that contribute to resilience and experimenting with successful techniques may help SMEs improve their capacity to endure and recover from crises, resulting in long-term success and sustainability

Måling og sammenligning av fleksibilitet i arkitektkonkurranser for nye skolebygg

Bygg- og anleggsbransjen står i dag for en betydelig andel av det globale CO2-utslippet. For å bygge bærekraftig må vi produsere bygninger med design som tillater lang levetid, med fleksible løsninger som kan tilpasse seg endrede behov. Dette gjelder også for skolebygg der samfunnsendringer, nye reformer og utfordringer kan kreve at skolebyggene skal kunne endres raskt. Forenklet forteller et byggs fleksibilitet oss hvilken evne det har til å endres. Hensikten med denne oppgaven er å utforske fleksibilitetsbegrepet og beskrive en metode for å vurdere fleksibilitet i nye skolebygg som et designprinsipp. Oppgavens overordnede problemstilling lyder: Hvordan kan fleksibilitet måles og sammenliknes i anskaffelsesprosedyrer med design for skoleprosjekter?, med utgangspunkt i følgende forskningsspørsmål: * Hvordan bedømmes grad av fleksibilitet i dagens konkurranser om skoleprosjekter? * Hva er de viktigste parameterne for å måle fleksibilitet i skolebygg? * Hvordan blir fleksibilitet påvirket av valgt konstruksjonsprinsipp? * Kan det etableres en kvantitativ metode for å måle fleksibilitet? For å besvare forskningsspørsmålene er det gjort en casestudie av fire anbudskonkurranser for skoleprosjekter i Norge mellom 2017 og 2022. De utlyste konkurransedokumentene samt alle løsningsforslagene i de fire anbudskonkurransene er undersøkt for å kartlegge hvor godt den enkelte tilbyder besvarer fleksibilitet og hvordan dette blir vurdert i anskaffelsesprosessen. Ved å måle viktige parametere for fleksibilitet i disse løsningsforslagene, sammenlignes og evalueres tilbyderne på deres besvarelse. Resultatene viser at det er et betydelig fokus på fleksibilitet i konkurransedokumentene til samtlige av skoleprosjektene. Imidlertid inneholder konkurransedokumentene i stor grad generelle formuleringer rundt fleksibilitet, fremfor faktiske tiltak som ønskes levert. Resultatene viser også at det i flere tilfeller er uoverensstemmelse mellom hva som blir beskrevet rundt fleksibilitet i konkurransedokumentene og hva som faktisk blir vurdert. Oppgaven presenterer en kvantitativ metode for å måle fleksibilitet i anskaffelsesprosedyrer for skolebygg. Metoden fokuserer på viktige parametere som etasjehøyde, dagslysforhold og bæresystem, og søker å gi en enkel og intuitiv brukbarhet for jurymedlemmer. En firedelt karakterskala er utviklet for hver parameter basert på faktiske data fra undersøkte skoleprosjekter.The construction industry currently accounts for a significant share of global CO2 emissions. To build sustainably, it is crucial to produce buildings with designs that allow for long lifespans and incorporate flexible solutions to adapt to changing needs. This applies to school buildings as well, where societal changes, new reforms, and challenges may require rapid modifications. Simply put, a building's flexibility refers to its ability to accommodate changes. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the concept of flexibility and propose a method for assessing flexibility as a design principle in new school buildings. The main research question of this study is: How can flexibility be measured and compared in procurement procedures with design for school projects? To answer this question, the following research sub-questions are addressed: * How is the degree of flexibility assessed in current competitions for school projects? * What are the key parameters for measuring flexibility in school buildings? * How is flexibility influenced by the chosen construction principle? * Can a quantitative method be established to measure flexibility? To address the research questions, a case study of four tender competitions for school projects in Norway between 2017 and 2022 was conducted. The competition documents and all proposed solutions in these four tenders were examined to assess how well each provider addressed flexibility and how it was evaluated in the procurement process. By measuring key parameters for flexibility in these proposed solutions, the providers' responses were compared and evaluated. The results reveal a significant focus on flexibility in the competition documents for all the school projects. However, these documents predominantly contain general formulations about flexibility rather than specific measures desired. The results also indicate inconsistencies between the descriptions of flexibility in the competition documents and the actual evaluation process. This thesis presents a quantitative method for measuring flexibility in procurement procedures for school buildings. The method emphasizes important parameters such as floor height, daylight conditions, and structural systems, aiming to provide a simple and intuitive usability for jury members. A four-point grading scale has been developed for each parameter based on actual data from the examined school projects

Constraints and Language

More information on the Publisher's webpage: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/constraints-and-languageInternational audienceThe concept of "constraint" is widely used in linguistics, computer science, and psychology. However, its implementation varies widely depending on the research domain: namely, language description, knowledge representation, cognitive modelling, and problem solving. These various uses of constraints offer complementary views on intelligent mechanisms. For example, in-depth descriptions implementing constraints are used in linguistics to filter out syntactic or discursive structures by means of dedicated description languages and constraint ranking. In computer science, the constraint programming paradigm views constraints as a whole, which can be used, for example, to build specific structures. Finally, in psycholinguistics, experiments are carried out to investigate the role of constraints within cognitive processes (both in comprehension and production), with various applications such as dialog modelling for people with disabilities. In this context, Constraints and Language builds an extended overview of the use of constraints to model and process language

Maximum Loads on a One Degree of Freedom Model-scale Offshore Wind Turbine

AbstractThis paper presents the results of an experiment carried out in a wave flume aiming at reproducing a 50-year wave condition on an extra-large bottom-fixed offshore wind turbine mounted on a monopile. The model is a stiff cylinder mounted on a spring allowing rotation of the system around its base only in the wave propagation direction. Under these conditions, the turbine is assumed to be idling, and the damping ratio of the system is 2.4%. The overturning moment at the base of the cylinder is measured, and it is found that the maximum responses are recorded when long steep breaking or near-breaking waves hit the cylinder and excite the first eigenperiod of the structure. For a selected event involving a breaking wave, the response of the system is compared to numerical simulations using the FNV method. The higher order excitation loads from the FNV are approximated as sinusoid pulse loads, and it is shown that since the duration of these pulses lies close to the eigenperiod of the structure, they suffice to trigger the first mode motion, without the need for a slamming model. A consequence of the low damping is that if the structure has been previously excited at its 1st mode (linearly or by higher order phenomena such as springing), the structure can already have a motion that adds up to the transient response to the pulse loads. The findings of this study also challenge some of the load models currently used by the industry to estimate the response of offshore wind turbines during extreme events

Theoretical and Experimental Analysis for Cleaning Ice Cores from EstisolTM 140 Drill Liquid

Featured ApplicationThis work gives indications for cleaning and preservation of ice cores, which will be drilled in Antarctica during the EU project Beyond EPICA Oldest Ice and provides general guidelines for ice drilling activities and preservation of ice cores.To reconstruct climate history of the past 1.5 Million years, the project: Beyond EPICA Oldest Ice (BEOI) will drill about 2700 m of ice core in East Antarctica (2021-2025). As drilling fluid, an aliphatic ester fluid, Estisol(TM) 140, will be used. Newly drilled ice cores will be retrieved from the drill soaked in fluid, and this fluid should be removed from the cores. Most of it will be vacuum-cleaned off in a Fluid Extraction Device and wiped off with paper towels. Based on our experiences in Greenland deep ice coring, most of the residual fluid can be removed by storing the cores openly on shelves in a ventilated room. After a week of "drying", the cores have a dry feel, handling them do not give "wet" gloves and they can easily be marked with lead pencils. This paper presents a theoretical investigation and some simple testing on the "drying" process. The rates of sublimation of ice and evaporation of fluid have been calculated at different temperatures. The calculations show that sublimation of the ice core should not occur, and that evaporation of fluid should be almost negligible. Our test results support these calculations, but also revealed significant fluid run-off and dripping, resulting in the removal of most of the fluid in a couple of days, independent of temperature and ventilation conditions. Finally, we discuss crucial factors that ensure optimal long-term ice core preservation in storage, such as temperature stability, defrosting cycles of freezers and open core storage versus storage of cores in insulated crates