Animating archaeology: local theories and conceptually open-ended methodologies

Animists’ theories of matter must be given equivalence at the level of theory if we are to understand adequately the nature of ontological difference in the past. The current model is of a natural ontological continuum that connects all cultures, grounding our culturally relativist worldviews in a common world. Indigenous peoples’ worlds are thought of as fascinating but ultimately mistaken ways of knowing the world. We demonstrate how ontologically oriented theorists Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Karen Barad and Tim Ingold in conjuncture with an anti-representationalist methodology can provide the necessary conditions for alternative ontologies to emerge in archaeology. Anthropo-zoomorphic ‘body-pots’ from first-millennium ad northwest Argentina anticipate the possibility that matter was conceptualized as chronically unstable, inherently undifferentiated, and ultimately practice dependent

Interpretation in Social Anxiety: Measurement, Modification, Mechanism and Mood.

Cotemporary cognitive models of emotion, in particular social anxiety, emphasise the role of biases in in information processing. Interpretive bias is central to this biased cognition, however research concerning it currently features a number of deficits. In particular, methods of measuring and modifying interpretations are currently of limited scope. The mechanism of action of interpretation modification and its interface with affective processing is also currently not directly evidenced. The current thesis begins by considering methods of improving cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) by including explicit instructions and participant generated content. An innovative measure of interpretation is integrated and applied alongside conventional outcome measures for these tasks. The thesis moves on to consider the role of mood manipulation in interfering with or accentuating the outcomes gained in CBM-I work, and the roles of state and trait anxiety in interpretation in general. The primary findings were an absence of evidence for a training effect from both the conventional and newly-applied CBM-I techniques used across the experiments (making mood investigation inconclusive), but varied state and trait associations for the different measures of bias applied. Taken together, these results suggest a more conservative impression of the effects of CBM-I than that found in prior literature and imply caution with its application and assumptions regarding its mechanism of effect. Furthermore, they suggest that a conventional closed-resolution measure is responsive to state and trait variation in social anxiety, and that there is a trait associated bias in likelihood approximation but not generation or evaluation of negative material by socially anxious individuals. Implications of these results for theory and further empirical practice are discussed

Effects of POD control on a DFIG wind turbine structural system

This paper investigates the effects power oscillation damping (POD) controller could have on a wind turbine structural system. Most of the published work in this area has been done using relatively simple aerodynamic and structural models of a wind turbine which cannot be used to investigate the detailed interactions between electrical and mechanical components of the wind turbine. Therefore, a detailed model that combines electrical, structural and aerodynamic characteristics of a grid-connected Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) based wind turbine has been developed by adapting the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 5MW wind turbine model within FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) code. This detailed model is used to evaluate the effects of POD controller on the wind turbine system. The results appear to indicate that the effects of POD control on the WT structural system are comparable or less significant as those caused by wind speed variations. Furthermore, the results also reveal that the effects of a transient three-phase short circuit fault on the WT structural system are much larger than those caused by the POD controller

Helicopter tail rotor orthogonal blade vortex interaction

The aerodynamic operating environment of the helicopter is particularly complex and, to some extent, dominated by the vortices trailed from the main and tail rotors. These vortices not only determine the form of the induced flow field but also interact with each other and with elements of the physical structure of the flight vehicle. Such interactions can have implications in terms of structural vibration, noise generation and flight performance. In this paper, the interaction of main rotor vortices with the helicopter tail rotor is considered and, in particular, the limiting case of the orthogonal interaction. The significance of the topic is introduced by highlighting the operational issues for helicopters arising from tail rotor interactions. The basic phenomenon is then described before experimental studies of the interaction are presented. Progress in numerical modelling is then considered and, finally, the prospects for future research in the area are discussed

Controlling a mobile robot with a biological brain

The intelligent controlling mechanism of a typical mobile robot is usually a computer system. Some recent research is ongoing in which biological neurons are being cultured and trained to act as the brain of an interactive real world robot�thereby either completely replacing, or operating in a cooperative fashion with, a computer system. Studying such hybrid systems can provide distinct insights into the operation of biological neural structures, and therefore, such research has immediate medical implications as well as enormous potential in robotics. The main aim of the research is to assess the computational and learning capacity of dissociated cultured neuronal networks. A hybrid system incorporating closed-loop control of a mobile robot by a dissociated culture of neurons has been created. The system is flexible and allows for closed-loop operation, either with hardware robot or its software simulation. The paper provides an overview of the problem area, gives an idea of the breadth of present ongoing research, establises a new system architecture and, as an example, reports on the results of conducted experiments with real-life robots