Identity and Perception Among Aspec Consumers of Mass Media

The portrayals of sex and romance, as well as asexuality and aromanticism, in mass media can have a profound impact on the way asexual and aromantic media consumers view relationships and their own identities, and affect the perception and treatment of the aspec community as a whole. This study uses mixed qualitative methods of online discourse analysis and participant interviews to examine the how mass media has shaped the self-perception and life experiences relating to sex and romance among aspec audience members

Hegemonic Masculinity in the Australian Defence Force – the Exclusion of Women from Combat Service as State Policy, 1973-2013

This thesis uses qualitative content analysis methods and aims to identify the dominant cultural and political themes elites seek to arouse when they defend Australia’s Gendered Combat Policy in the public domain. Male Defence personnel and Federal Government Ministers lead these discussions. No prior study explores how or why male elites and other men who benefit from hegemonic masculinity in state institutions actively defend the bio-political regime the Executive enforces over the gendered combat body. In recent decades, debates have shifted from away from criteria of gender to criteria of biology as public support for gender equality grows. Elites argue that the biophysical performance limitations of the female combat body justify the state enforcing this regime. Excluding women from combat duties is not just another case of discrimination against women that occurs in Australia’s work sector. The social problems that transpire from this policy extend beyond women’s diminished citizenship status. Excluding women from frontline military roles replicates the patriarchal makeup of key institutions of state power, locally and globally. The military is a formidable entity that defends Australia’s sovereignty and protects key institutions that uphold the state as a patriarchal construct. Excluding women from frontline military duties denies them the opportunity to accrue the experience required to lead Australia’s military institution locally and on the world stage. The absence of women in these senior roles is a dominant factor that upholds hegemonic masculinity within Australia’s civil–military relations and the realm of global warfare and international security. The exclusion of women from combat roles for over a century explains why Australia’s martial narratives and war images do not celebrate a feminised warrior archetype. This absence is a factor that replicates the way women are naturalised in passive roles that are subordinate to men in their nation’s collective consciousness

The American Hunting Story and the Formation of Environmental Literature.

This dissertation addresses the almost complete absence of American hunting stories in the subfield of environmental literature within American literature. Since environmental literature’s inception in the early 1990s with The Norton Book of Nature Writing (1990) and American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (2008), environmental literary scholars have failed to take into account the roles of hunters in advancing conservationist measures to protect and preserve wildlife and lands throughout America from the early nineteenth century through the present day. This project seeks to build a bridge between environmental literary scholars and environmentalists far removed from hunting traditions and those whose involvement in hunting furthers both their commitment to improving their local surroundings and their support for conservationist measures. The study begins with a reflection about preservationist icon Henry David Thoreau’s complicated relationship with hunting. Because Thoreau’s Walden (1854) remains so largely influential and because Thoreau expresses disapproval of hunting in that work, readers fail to realize that Thoreau’s later writings reveal a more ambivalent response about the benefits and drawbacks of hunting. In addition to analysis of Thoreau’s writings, this dissertation begins by briefly focusing on the writings of well-known American preservationist John Muir and conservationist Aldo Leopold. Then, it provides more extensive analyses of the works of nineteenth-century American writers Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper; nineteenth-century traveller Francis Parkman; nineteenth-century whale hunters Owen Chase and Thomas Nickerson; nineteenth-century Appalachian subsistence hunters Meshach Browning and Philip Tome; nineteenth-century African-American slaves John Thompson, Frederick Douglass, and Solomon Northup; twentieth-century authors William Faulkner, Fred Gipson, and Wilson Rawls; twenty-first-century writers Lily Raff McCaulou and Georgia Pellegrini. More broadly, I argue that hunting stories comprise part of American environmentalism’s beginnings and that they depict the evolving ways that humans have approached hunting in America since the country’s founding. In a different manner than environmental literature that stresses sublime or pastoral appreciations of the outdoors, hunting stories interrogate humananimal boundaries by forcing readers to consider the complex relationships among humans, companion animals, and prey animals throughout the course of American hunting history. In presenting direct engagements with nonhuman life and in revealing the dangers of overhunting, of ignoring of the lives of animals and of not developing discernible, geographic-specific ethics and legislation, hunting stories ask readers to consider what humans demand from the natural world and what they should be prepared to do if hunting is to continue to remain sustainable. For these reasons, hunting stories should become a larger part of American environmental literature as the canon seeks to elucidate and grapple with human-animal and posthumanist relationships within the natural world

Bin Packing Problem Formulation for LNG Distribution Optimization for Power Plants in Riau Islands

Permintaan energi Indonesia setiap tahun selalu meningkat, sumber RUPTL menyatakan peningkatan kebutuhan listrik di Indonesia rata-rata 8.6% setiap tahun dan merujuk kepada program pemerintah untuk Indonesia Terang yaitu 35.000 MW. Pada program ini, pemerintah ingin mengubah konsumsi bahan bakar pembangkit dari solar ke LNG. Kepulauan Riau terdiri dari Pulau Bintan, Pulau Karimun, Pulau Dabo Singkep dimana 77.5% pembangkit listrik menggunakan solar. Merujuk kepada RUPTL PLN 2015-2025 bahwa PT. PLN (Persero) merencanakan mendistribusikan LNG untuk pembangkit listrik di Kepulauan Riau yang tersebar. Berdasarkan PT. Perta Arun sumber gas, terdapat kapasitas 12,5 MTPA yang dapat menjadi pilihan untuk supplai LNG pada pembangkit listrik di Kepulauan Riau. Terdapat 16 pembangkit listrik diesel yang akan di supplai tersebar di Kepulauan Riau. Untuk mendistribusikan LNG kepada 16 pembangkit listrik, membutuhkan optimasi untuk mendapatkan investasi yang minimum. Pada tesis ini, membahas tentang LNG sebagai bahan bakar di Kepulauan Riau dengan menetapkan jalur distribusi yang cocok. Metode Bin Packing Problem dan data fasilitas harus terpenuhi dan juga kajian ekonomi nya. Dengan mengambil sumber dari kilang Arun dan mendistribusikan ke Kepulauan Riau menggunakan Barge Container Skid (BCS) dimana paling memungkinkan untuk mendistribusikan LNG dari kilang Arun. BCS terdapat berbagai jenis kapasitas yaitu 12.000 m3, 7.500 m3, dan 5.000 m3 sebagai pilihan. Pada jalur darat, direncanakan menggunakan dua jenis kapasitas dari trailer LNG yaitu 48,1 m3 dan 61,7 m3. Optimasi distribusi kemudian menentukan jumlah kapal, jenis kapal, jalur kapal, dan jumlah trailer yang akan digunakan. Hasil dari tesis ini diharapkan dapat menganalisa rute optimal untuk kapal mendistribusikan, ukuran kapal dan kajian ekonomi jika pembangkit listrik menggunakan bahan bakar LNG. Dengan optimasi, diperoleh dua kapal BCS ukuran 5.000 m3 dengan rute tertentu dan enam trailer ukuran 61,7 liter dengan rute tertentu juga. Total biaya dari distribusi LNG ini adalah US $24,091,145 (CAPEX) dan US$1,102,110 (OPEX). Untuk kajian ekonomi yang telah dihitung untuk margin penjualan diantara US $1.75 – US$2 dengan payback period 2.4-6.9 tahun selama operasi 20 tahun. ================================================================= Indonesia's energy demand always increases on each year, from RUPTL that increased electricity needs in Indonesia are on an average of 8.6% each year and according to Government planning program for Indonesia Terang of 35,000 MW. In this program, the government wants to convert power plant that using diesel oil into LNG. Riau Islands are divided into Bintan Island, Karimun Island, and Dabo Singkep Island which has 77,5% power plant that using diesel oil. Based on RUPTL PLN 2015-2025 that PT. PLN (Persero) plans to build mini LNG plant in Riau Islands for the much small power plant which is spread around Riau Islands. From PT. Perta Arun Gas source, there is 12,5 MTPA capacity that can be an option to supply LNG for a power plant in Riau Islands. There are 16 diesel power plant will be supplied spread in Riau Islands. To distribute LNG for 16 power plants need optimization method to get the minimum investment. In this thesis, discusses the LNG as a fuel power plant in Riau Islands by specifying a suitable distribution pattern, Bin Packing Problem as a method, and the data facilities are should provided also the economic study. With the location LNG sourced from Arun Regas Facility and will be distributed to the Riau Islands with Barge Container Skid (BCS) which is possible to distribute the LNG from Arun Regas Facility. BCS supported with several capacities of LNG ship which are 12.000 m3, 7.500 m3, and 5.000 m3 as an option. On land, supported with two capacity of LNG trailers are 48,1 m3 and 61,7 m3. Optimization distribution later will determine the number of selected transport ships, as well as the route of distribution, type of ship and numbers of the trailer, will be used. The result of the thesis is expected to analyze the optimal route for the ship to distribute with certain possibilities type of ship and the economic study if the plant uses LNG as fuel. With optimization, obtain two BCS size 5.000 m3 with a certain route and requires six trailers size of 61.7 liters with certain routes. The total cost of this distribution of LNG are US $24,091,145 (CAPEX) and US$1,102,110 (OPEX). For the economic study which has been calculating the most optimal sales margins between the US $1.75 – US$2 with payback period 2.4-6.9 years of operating time for 20 years

Large Eddy Simulation Of Surface Pressure Fluctuations Generated By Elevated Gusts

Wind gusts cause substantial damage to wind turbines. If these damaging winds could be detected prior to their interaction with the turbine, the turbine rotor can be decoupled from the generator and gearing system to prevent damage during the gust event. This would significantly reduce wind turbine repair costs. Wind gusts can also create unsafe conditions for aircraft landing. A ground based detection system that monitored elevated wind gusts can provide new information for pilots to use when determining whether or not it is safe to land. In addition, the ability to monitor elevated gust events would provide a new probe to study features in the atmospheric boundary layer. Previous research indicates that elevated velocity events, such as gusts, may trigger pressure fluctuations on the ground. If that is true, it should be possible to monitor elevated wind gusts by measuring these pressure fluctuations. The goal of this project is to develop a ground based detector that monitors the behavior of pressure fluctuations on the ground for indicators that a gust event may be taking place at higher altitudes. In order to recognize these indicators from the pressure measurements on the ground, cross-correlation analysis between the time evolution of the frequency structures corresponding to elevated wind gusts and the pressure on the ground below were investigated. The data for these analysis was generated using a large eddy simulation. This numerical approach was chosen because the nature of the cross-correlation analysis demanded full field wind velocities and pressures at several altitudes. Collecting this data outdoors would be impractical. Correlation coefficients between 0.75 - 0.90 were found. These high correlations indicate that the two signals are causally related. Several comfeatures of the pressures caused by elevated gusts were identified. These features were used to develop a tracking program that monitors fast moving high amplitude pressure fluctuations and to design a ground based pressure sensing array. The array design and tracking software was used to identify several new gust events within the simulated atmosphere. In total, eight gust events have been identified. These events show that the group velocities of the pressure fluctuations measured on the ground increase with the altitude location of the corresponding wind gust source. The methods, tracking software, and array design are ready to be used for experimental research outdoors

De-Westernizing The Far East

Isolated by the Tibetan highlands which frame Yunnan’s northwest fringes, the ethnic minorities who call the region home live in rural settings ranging from rice-terraced fields to tropical forests; lifestyle unchanged for hundreds of years. However, with globalization causing an exposure to western standards of living, in conjunction with the country’s predisposition towards all things foreign, the people of Yunnan have begun forgoing generations of vernacular architecture in favor of modern materials and regionally defunct construction methods. Here, we will seek to address this foible of architectural development by offering theoretical construction methods for housing types found throughout the region, successfully bridging the gap between regional practicality and modern amenity. The goal is to get away from uninformed mimicry, and offer alternative ways for the people of Yunnan to use modern materials, such that they enhance, rather than hinder, their vernacular architecture