Virtual Reality Environment Recreation

This project will consist of a virtual reality based program that is capable of showing the user both the modern day state of a site of historic or archaeological significance, along with a recreation of what said site or area may have looked like in the past, primarily during the time that gave the site its historical significance. The virtual reality program itself is to be run on modern day Windows hardware and used with the VIVE virtual reality head-mounted display and controllers. Alongside the completed program, the creation of the environments themselves will be documented, resulting in an organized method to create more environments in the future allowing for the application itself to be added to and greatly increasing its versatility in future educational or recreational use. The project itself has resulted in the creation of the initial program made to showcase the environment switching capabilities of the project along with a toolset made for the Unity engine. This toolset allows for a simple method to import a three-dimensional scan of an environment into the Unity editor, and for that scan to be made into an environment that can be explored using the project

From the Coils of the Anaconda, Restriction of Constitutional Amendment by Popular Initiative in \u3cem\u3eMontana Association of Counties v. State\u3c/em\u3e

This note examines the ways in which Montana Association of Counties concerns Montana law, elections, and history. While it is now nearly futile to suggest any regulation of campaign speech based on the speaker\u27s corporate identity, it is possible to limit the influence of outsiders on the political process and fundamental text of the state. Part II discusses the historical development of the statutory initiative and referendum regime that existed under the 1889 Constitution and tracks its transition to the constitutional amendment by popular initiative process that emerged as part of Montana\u27s 1972 Constitution. Part III describes the factual background, holding, and dissent of Montana Association of Counties. Part IV provides analysis of the separate amendment rule as articulated by the Court. Part V explains how invalidating a constitutional initiative supported by a majority of the electorate serves to protect the citizens of Montana from the pervasive influence of outside interests, but in doing so also runs the risk of blocking future generations of Montanans from enacting meaningful reform to their own Constitution

Making Assembly More Lean: A Case Study In Malaysia

Penyelidikan ini adalah untuk meneroka sebahagian daripada pelaksanaan Lean Manufacturing (penyingkiran pembaziran melalui pembaikan berterusan) di sebuah syarikat elektronik di Malaysia. This research explores the partial implementation of Lean Manufacturing at an electronics company in Malaysia

Unsteady Aerodynamics and Blade-Row Interactions in the Embedded Stage of an Axial Compressor

In a mature engineering field like compressor aerodynamics, the most accessible advances in machine technology, translating to performance and efficiency, have been discovered and have found industry design applications. As the community continues to make progress, increasingly challenging aspects of the involved physics must be exploited. Modern turbomachinery operates with larger bypass ratios, smaller cores, and lighter, thinner, and more flexible materials resulting in the maintenance of higher operating pressures and temperatures. As the performance and efficiency of these machines continues to climb, the same technological advances reinforce challenges like forced-response vibration, high-cycle fatigue of engine components, and large relative tip clearances in an engine core. Accounting for these challenges increasingly depends on the investigation of the unsteady domain for solutions. Tools at the disposal of the designer include progressively improving computational simulations through both computational resources and attainable model fidelity. As essential as these tools are for modern turbomachinery design, the confidence in their results is only as good as the experimental data used to validate them. The objective of this research is the experimental investigation and characterization of the transient aerodynamics and blade-row interactions near forced-response resonant vibratory operating conditions in a multi-stage environment. Experimental methods are focused on fast-response pressure transducers with the high frequency response capable of capturing the unsteady pressure fluctuations associated with the high-speed rotation and blade-pass frequency of a modern high-pressure core axial compressor. Investigation is centered on an engine-representative embedded rear stage, with adjacent stages establishing realistic flow conditions and resulting boundary conditions for model comparison. Aerodynamic characterization of several flow conditions and the examination of the effect of a reduced vane-count stator configuration upstream of the embedded stage are performed with measurements of the embedded rotor at the casing endwall and rotor exit plane, as well as within a passage of the embedded stator. Circumferential vane traverse around stationary instrumentation provide a full vane passage of phase-locked, time-resolved pressure measurements of the rotor aerodynamics and the unsteady loading of the embedded stator is distinguished for a single vane position. Results from this investigation identify and describe the inception and trajectory of tip clearance flows, including the tip leakage vortex and double-leakage tip clearance flow. Evidence of an upstream vane wake interaction with the rotor occurs for limited regions of vane passage positions. Spectral analyses and pressure unsteadiness provide further insight into the blade-row interactions

Monitoring of the piston ring-pack and cylinder liner interface in diesel engines through acoustic emission measurements

Investigation of novel condition monitoring systems for diesel engines has received much recent attention due to the increasing demands placed upon engine components and the limitations of conventional techniques. This thesis documents experimental research conducted to assess the monitoring capabilities of Acoustic Emission (AE) analysis. In particular it focuses on the possibility of monitoring the piston ring-pack and cylinder liner interface, a critical engine sub-system for which there are currently few practical monitoring options. A series of experiments were performed on large, two-stroke and small, four-stroke diesel engines. Tests under normal operating conditions developed a detailed understanding of typical AE generation in terms of both the source mechanisms and the characteristics of the resulting activity. This was supplemented by specific tests to investigate possible AE generation at the ring-pack/liner interface. For instance, for the small engines measures were taken to remove known AE sources in order to accentuate any activity originating at the interface whilst for the large engines the interfacial conditions were purposely deteriorated through the removal of the lubricating oil supply to one cylinder. Interpretation of the results was based mainly upon comparisons with published work encompassing both the expected ring-pack behaviour and AE generation from tribological processes. This provided a strong indication that the source of the ring-pack/liner AE activity was the boundary frictional losses. The ability to monitor this process may be of significant benefit to engine operators as it enhances the diagnostic information currently available and may be incorporated into predictive maintenance strategies. A further diagnostic technique considered was the possibility of using AE parameters combined with information of crankshaft speed fluctuations to evaluate engine balance and identify underperforming cylinders.EU Competitive and Sustainable Growth Programme, Project no: GRD2-2001-5001

The Marcellus Shale and Public Health

The Marcellus Shale formation is being harvested for its methane by gas drilling companies in the state of Pennsylvania. The gas extraction method being used is hydraulic fracturing. This operation has public health significance because the chemicals injected beneath the earth's surface during the hydraulic fracturing process are known to have adverse health effects on humans and aquatic life when in their undiluted form. There is much controversy among the communities involved surrounding the use of these chemicals in the Marcellus Shale. Despite communication efforts by government agencies with these affected communities, health concerns continue to run high. A literature review performed in regards to the chemicals found in fracturing fluids and their affects on aquatic life, found eleven chemicals to have adverse affects. A qualitative analysis performed on public comments regarding a proposed EPA assessment on hydraulic fracturing found several common themes. The most prevalent of which were concerns regarding the possibility of hydraulic fracturing affecting water resources and public and environmental health. Themes that emerged from three stakeholder interviews coincided with those found in the public comment analysis. In regards to the issue of hydraulic fracturing and the Marcellus Shale, this paper proposes increased community involvement in government studies, social action methods to help communities achieve the desired change and possible leverage points for interventions to help improve the health of the public and environments involved

Impacts of non-renewable resource extraction on shrubland songbird nest success and abundance

Shrubland songbirds are a highly imperiled guild across much of North America due to wide-scale land use changes and resulting loss of shrubland habitat. Land management practices which produce early-successional habitat, namely field abandonment and clearcut timber harvests, have become increasingly uncommon in the eastern United States, and natural maintenance processes such as fires and floods are often suppressed. The Appalachian region is rich in natural resources; it has historically seen high amounts of surface mining for coal and is currently experiencing prolific development of shale gas. Both of these practices alter local habitats and the landscape, and it is essential to understand their impacts on shrubland songbirds in order to inform conservation efforts for this declining guild. Research for this thesis was composed of three studies during the breeding seasons of 2012-2013 on four shrubland sites in southwestern Pennsylvania and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. This work aimed to fill knowledge gaps in shrubland songbird ecology and responses to extractive land uses. In my second chapter I focus on habitat selection patterns and nesting ecology of one species, the Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora cyanoptera). This species has not been studied much outside of its antagonistic relationship to the closely related and highly imperiled Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera). A quantitative habitat selection study for the species has never been done, although knowing habitat requirements is key to effective conservation measures. I found significant differences in vegetative structure between territories and random plots using non-parametric MANOVA, indicating strong patterns of territory selection. Blue-winged Warblers placed territories in later stages of succession relative to the sites as a whole, having more woody structure, taller vegetation, more shrub, sapling, and canopy cover, and were closer to forest edge than random points. My third chapter is a study on the impact of unconventional shale gas development on shrubland songbird nest success, abundance, and community composition. The practice of unconventional gas development is new to the eastern United States and has become controversial due to concern over environmental impacts, but few studies have been done on the potential effects to terrestrial biota, especially in the east. My objective was to fill a specific research gap, the impacts of development on shrubland songbirds in an already-fragmented landscape context, because this is where both shale gas development and shrubland songbirds are more likely to occur. During the 2013 breeding season, I determined the effects of gas development presence at different spatial scales on shrubland songbird nest success and community dynamics and quantified noise and light emissions from developed pads. There were no differences in noise or light emissions between impacted and non-impacted shrublands, or at a developed site with increasing distance from the wellpad. The presence of gas wells and related infrastructure were important influences on Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla) nest success; survival was reduced close to the wellpad and increased near pipelines and roads. However, nest survival was higher site-wide for the Field Sparrow and other early successional species on the impacted site than on non-impacted shrublands in the region. Nest predators were important in explaining nest survival variation at the site-level. Within the developed site, nest abandonment was a more likely force near wells and a paved road, while predation better explained variation in survival by distance to the pipeline and unpaved access road. Avian communities significantly differed between impacted and non-impacted sites but the differences were not extractable from vegetative differences. Shannon\u27s diversity and species richness did not differ between impacted and non-impacted sites and had no significant trend with increasing distance from the developed well. Although unconventional gas extraction is new to the region, surface mining has historically been a common practice in Appalachia. Once mining has ceased, these areas stay in early succession conditions for extended durations due to poor topsoil quality, providing habitat for early-successional species which endures on the landscape much longer than habitats in abandoned fields or recent clearcuts. Reclamation of surface mines to a vegetated state is mandated by federal law, but questions have been raised on the habitat quality of the resulting areas. Many studies have assessed the use of former surface mines by various species and the success of grassland-nesting songbirds in these habitats, but none have quantitatively compared nest survival and avian community composition between former surface mines and non-mined shrublands. In my fourth chapter, I determined the utility of former surface mines as breeding habitat for shrubland songbirds. I performed site-level comparisons of community composition, species abundances, and nest survival of three focal species to determine if these metrics differed between former surface mines and non-mined shrublands and also between a reclaimed and a non-reclaimed former surface mine. Whether a site was mined or not was an important factor influencing nest success, as was whether a mined site was reclaimed or not. Daily survival rates of nests for all three species were higher on mined sites and higher on the reclaimed former surface mine. Avian communities did not differ between mined and non-mined sites. Community composition on the reclaimed and non-reclaimed former surface mine sites differed, but most species were detected on both. Vegetative conditions on mined sites were broader and encompassed the range of structure at non-mined sites, providing similar habitat for species found at unmined shrublands, plus more. All sites significantly differed in vegetative characteristics. Higher nest survival on mined sites may result from the higher vegetative heterogeneity there. The reclaimed site may have had higher nest survival due to lower rodent and corvid nest predator abundances. This research informs conservation efforts of the declining early-successional songbird guild and answers questions about the impacts of common energy extraction practices on these species. Blue-winged Warblers select conditions of later succession for nesting, which demonstrates that the early-successional sere should not be treated as a homogeneous management unit which spans only a few years after disturbance, but maintained over a range of ages on the landscape. Unconventional gas development in an already-fragmented landscape context may not degrade shrubland songbird habitat as much as it does interior forests, but does impact nest success and results in the displacement of large amounts of habitat. Former surface mines provide productive, lasting habitats for breeding shrubland songbirds that accommodate the early-successional songbird guild comparably to unmined shrublands. Shrubland songbirds can coexist with the ever-expanding extraction of fossil fuels from Appalachia if their habitat requirements are met. These species rely upon ephemeral conditions, and the key to retaining them remains management of the landscape in a dynamic fashion to provide ample habitat