Curating the Agenda: A Review of the Tenement Museum’s Twitter

Most museums have established strong online presences, due in part to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. To stay relevant in the social media sphere, museums must keep up with the speed at which the internet operates. One way of doing this is to follow the current trends and events that are already piquing the interest of those on the internet. However, is it the museum account that follows the current events, or are current events influenced by the museum’s presence? By examining the Tenement Museum’s Twitter account through the agenda-setting and agenda-melding theories, this paper seeks to answer the following research questions: who sets the agenda for discussion on museum social media sites? What subjects or issues are discussed on these sites? This paper is situated at the intersection of museology and communication theory. After collecting and analyzing data from March 2020 to March 2022, it was found that the Museum was significantly more likely to post than users. In addition, the Museum was significantly more likely to generate responses, supporting the agenda-setting theory. In a world where “truth” is an ever-changing subjectivity, museums can fill the gap to set the agenda and bring their institutional perspective to current events. By setting the agenda for their community, a museum can influence the way that community talks about and perceives the world around them. When all is said and done, the employees at the Tenement Museum do more than curate the Museum’s exhibitions, they curate the agenda

A Generalized Model of Cognitive Workload

Numerous catastrophic accidents have been the result of human operators making poor judgement calls stemming from suboptimal decision making. This suboptimal decision making, in many cases, arises when an operator is either in a high cognitive workload state, overwhelmed with information leading to a greater chance of missing an important detail, or in a low cognitive workload state, distracted and overall not paying attention to the task at hand. If the cognitive workload of an individual can be properly monitored, suboptimal operator conditions can be recognized or prevented, reducing the chance of an accident. While previous research has led to specialized, single subject classifiers of cognitive workload, little work has been done in the way of generalizing the classification model across multiple people, which would reduce the amount of training needed and provide insight into underlying patterns. This thesis explores the effectiveness of a cognitive workload model under conditions in which the test participant is not included in the training dataset. Additionally, two loading tasks are used to evaluate how well a model trained on one task can perform on another task. The results gathered support the idea that a generalized cognitive workload model that can be utilized with individuals and tasks not included in the training dataset is possible. This novel classification model opens up the possibility for future research into the similarities and differences of individuals with regards to cognitive workload. Additionally, if the model can be expanded upon to increase the classification accuracy, a system can be developed that monitors the operator in real time to provide warnings or modulate automation

Have Objects, Will Travel: Object-Based Outreach to Solstice Independent Living at Fairport, New York

This thesis details my process in designing and delivering a program, “The Evolution of the Erie Canal,” to residents of the Solstice Senior Living at Fairport, New York, utilizing objects from the Rochester Museum & Science Center’s teaching collection. Given the ever-increasing population of American adults aged 55 and older, it is more important than ever for museums to create engaging programs aimed at this sector of the population. The goal of this project was to create a meaningful object-based experience for participants through discussion and reminiscence. My sources include findings from similar projects, literature on working with adult audiences, and research-based best practices for presenting to an older audience. This paper details my process in choosing objects, doing research, creating a PowerPoint presentation, and organizing the program content. The findings reported in this thesis include an analysis of the participant evaluations and my own post-program assessment. These are then synthesized into recommendations for anyone interested in doing a similar project in the future

An economic analysis of grid-connected residential solar photovoltaic power systems

Prepared for the United States Dept. of Energy under Contract no. EX-76-A-01-2295, Task order 37.The question of the utility grid-connected residential market for photovoltaics is examined from a user-ownership perspective. The price is calculated at which the user would be economically indifferent between having a photovoltaic system and not having a system. To accomplish this, a uniform methodology is defined to determine the value to the user-owner of weather-dependent electric generation technologies. Two models are implemented for three regions of the United States, the first of which is a previously developed simulation of a photovoltaic residence. The second is an economic valuation model which is required to translate the ouputs from the simulation into breakeven array prices. Special care is taken to specify the input assumptions used in the models. The accompanying analysis includes a method for analyzing the year-to-year variation in hourly solar radiation data and a discussion of the appropriate discount rate to apply to homeowner investments in photovoltaic systems. The results of this study indicate that for the regions characterized by Boston, Omaha, and Phoenix, under the assumptions noted, photovoltaic module breakeven costs for the residential application are in the range of $.68,$.43 and $1.27 per peak system watt respectively (.42, .24, .89 per peak module watt)

Lagrange constraints for transient finite element surface contact

International audienceA new approach to enforce surface contact conditions in transient non-linear finite element problems is developed in this paper. The method is based on the Lagrange multiplier concept and is compatible with explicit time integration operators. Compatibility with explicit operators is established by referencing Lagrange multipliers one time increment ahead of associated surface contact displacement constraints. However, the method is not purely explicit because a coupled system of equations must be solved to obtain the Lagrange multipliers. An important development herein is the formulation of a highly efficient method to solve the Lagrange multiplier equations. The equation solving strategy is a modified Gauss-Seidel method in which non-linear surface contact force conditions are enforced during iteration. The new surface contact method presented has two significant advantages over the widely accepted penalty function method: surface contact conditions are satisfied more precisely, and the method does not adversely affect the numerical stability of explicit integration. Transient finite element analysis results are presented for problems involving impact and sliding with friction. A brief review of the classical Lagrange multiplier method with implicit integration is also included

Some energy conservative schemes for vibro-impacts of a beam on rigid obstacles

Caused by the problem of unilateral contact during vibrations of satellite solar arrays, the aim of this paper is to better understand such a phenomenon. Therefore, it is studied here a simplified model composed by a beam moving between rigid obstacles. Our purpose is to describe and compare some families of fully discretized approximations and their properties, in the case of non-penetration Signorini’s conditions. For this, starting from the works of Dumont and Paoli, we adapt to our beam model the singular dynamic method introduced by Renard. A particular emphasis is given in the use of a restitution coefficient in the impact law. Finally, various numerical results are presented and energy conservation capabilities of the schemes are investigated