A Case Study Of Determinants Of An Effective Cloud Computing Strategy

The cloud continues to be an area of information systems that is being adopted cautiously by business firms. The authors of this study analyze factors that can determine the effectiveness of a cloud strategy as firms invest in this computing method. The authors examine cloud computing strategy from a detailed case study and statistical interpretation of a sample of projects of firms and organizations. The findings impute that technical factors are driving cloud computing projects more than procedural factors and that projects in the study exhibit less discipline in methodology than might otherwise be helpful in enabling an initial cloud computing strategy. This study contributes a framework for a prudent cloud computing strategy that can help firms as they further invest in this method of technology

They Call Me Joy: Philippine Protestantism as Local Culture

In this paper, we use the narrative of an award-winning Filipino film from 1998 as a window into contemporary Filipino spirituality and religious consciousness. Giving narrative details and literary content, with a particular focus on those aspects we feel are most salient for our discussion here, we argue that the commercially and critically successful film suggests important cultural themes. Specifically, this paper draws on the medium of film as a window into the contemporary ethos of Philippine spirituality and thought, and applies that insight to an analysis of ethnographic data on Philippine Baptist Christianity. Through conversion narratives as they were shared with us, we offer analogies to the messages of popular culture and the streams of thought they represent. In the end we argue that this is fruitful in interpreting contemporary non-Western Protestantism as, at least potentially, a locally meaningful phenomenon

UNO Community Engagement Landscape Analysis (11.2.16)

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is a nationally recognized engaged institution that wishes to expand the quantity and quality of its partnerships and outreach through its community engagement activities. Additionally, the University wants to assess, measure and evaluate the outcomes, impacts, and quality of its community engagement. This report presents findings from a landscape analysis which was conducted by the Office of Academic Affairs with the purpose of gaining more knowledge about current activities and practices in order to inform future data collection, analysis and measurement techniques. Additionally, the landscape analysis aims to comprehend how community engagement is institutionalized at UNO

Interaction between a cantilivered-free flexible plate and ideal flow

We develop a new computational model of the linear fluid-structure interaction of a cantilevered flexible plate with an ideal flow in a channel. The system equation is solved via numerical simulations that capture transients and allow the spatial variation of the flow-structure interaction on the plate to be studied in detail. Alternatively, but neglecting wake effects, we are able to extract directly the system eigenvalues to make global predictions of the system behaviour in the infinite-time limit. We use these complementary approaches to conduct a detailed study of the fluid-structure system. When the channel walls are effectively absent, predictions of the critical velocity show good agreement with those of other published work. We elucidate the single-mode flutter mechanism that dominates the response of short plates and show that the principal region of irreversible energy transfer from fluid to structure occurs over the middle portion of the plate. A different mechanism, modal-coalescence flutter, is shown to cause the destabilisation of long plates with its energy transfer occurring closer to the trailing edge of the plate. This mechanism is shown to allow a continuous change to higher-order modes of instability as the plate length is increased. We then show how the system response is modified by the inclusion of channel walls placed symmetrically above and below the flexible plate, the effect of unsteady vorticity shed at the trailing edge of the plate, and the effect of a rigid surface placed upstream of the flexible plate. Finally, we apply the modelling techniques in a brief study of upper-airway dynamics wherein soft-palate flutter is considered to be the source of snoring noises. In doing so, we show how a time-varying mean flow influences the type of instability observed as flow speed is increased and demonstrate how localised stiffening can be used to control instability of the flexible plate. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

On the use of computational fluid dynamics for predicting natural displacement ventilation flows through a large enclosure

One of the major barriers to the adoption of passive engineering strategies in buildings, such as the provision for ventilation by natural means, is the limitation of the predictive techniques currently available for their design. At present there are three generic predictive methods for buoyancy-drivenn atural ventilation flows: simple analyticalm odelling,e xperimentawl ater-baseds cale-modetle stinga nd computational fluid dynamics( CFD). In addition,t here is a shortageo f experimentadl ata from real buildingsf or the validationo f such predictivem ethods. This work was concerned with current and emerging methods for predicting buoyancy-driven natural displacement ventilation flows within buildings. There were two main objectives for this research; to conduct a thorough experimental study on the natural ventilation flow through a full-scale enclosure representative of a real building with air as the fluid medium in order to provide benchmark data for model validation and to use this benchmark data to identify the preferred method for predicting detailed airflow patterns and thermal stratification for natural displacement ventilation flows within buildings. A single benchmark case that has received much attention in the past 15 years was identified for the experimental program: the natural displacement ventilation flow through an enclosure with low-level and high-level openings, driven by a point source of buoyancy at floor level. A simple mathematical model was proposed to describe this flow, which was validated experimentally using the small-scale water-based salt-bath technique (Linden et. al., 1990). More recently, another small-scale water-based technique has been developed and used to verify the mathematical models (Chen et. al., 2001). The simple models have also been validated numerically using the CFD approach (Cook, 1998). Despite the widespread interest in this class of ventilation flow, there had not yet been any experimental validation work reported to the authors knowledge using a full-scale air-based enclosure. To address this, a full-scale air-enclosure was constructed as part of this work and the natural displacement ventilation flow through the space investigated for a number of heat sources and for a range of opening configurations. In particular, the temperature stratification established within the enclosure and the displacement flow rates through the space were monitored and are presented. The rate of heat transfer through the walls of the enclosure and the surface temperatures of the walls were not recorded. In terms of its geometrical size, the full-scale experimental enclosure was representative of an occupied space within a real building. Due to budgetary constraints, however, it was constructed from chipboard sheet material rather than more traditional building materials, so that the thermal properties of the walls were not necessarily representative of a real building. Nonetheless, the experimental data presented does form a valuable set of benchmark data for a natural ly-d riven ventilation flow with air as the fluid medium that does not suffer from geometrical scaling problems. It was found that the simple analytical models that have been proposed to date and the water-based scale-modelling do not compare favourably with the data from the experimental study. It is thought that this is because the analytical models and the water-based scale-models effectively assume that the only significant transport mechanism within the space is convection, so that the mechanisms of diffusion and thermal radiation are neglected. Realistic predictions for this type of ventilation flow can be achieved using the CFD technique, which is not affected by scaling restrictions and can be easily extended to model additional physical processes including turbulent transport and thermal radiative transfer. This approach does, however, require further development before it can be used routinely, particularly with respect to the prediction of rates of heat transfer at solid walls. Reasonable agreement with the experimental benchmark data from the full-scale enclosure was observed only when the thermal radiation model was incorporated within the CFD-model. Improved agreement was observed when the radiation absorption characteristics of air due to the content of water vapour in the atmosphere were properly represented. The choice of which turbulence closure should be employed was found to be of secondary importance. It would, therefore, appear that thermal radiative transfer is an important transport mechanism within enclosures with air as the fluid medium. It is concluded that the CFD-technique has the potential to accurately predict the detailed airflow patterns and thermal stratification for buoyancy-driven natural ventilation flows within buildings where simpler analytical models or water-based experimental methods have limitations. A FV-radiation model should be incorporated into the CFD-model, and the absorption coefficient ic should be in the range 0.1 Orn" < ic< 0.1 5m". If possible, the rate of heat transfer at the walls of an enclosure should be prescribed in advance, as further work is required before this information can be realistically determined as part of a CIFID-simulation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceCundall Johnston and Partners LLP : Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)GBUnited Kingdo