DOE/NASA wind turbine data acquisition system. Part 4: Operations and maintenance manual (Plumbrook Station)

Preventive maintenance, calibration procedures, system verification, system operating procedures, systems software fundamentals, data base (program files), and patchboard layout are discussed

State policy innovation and transfer: The role of bureaucratic professional communication networks

The central question of this research is, what is the role of state administrative agencies in the innovation and transfer of public policy? One of the theoretical perspectives of the study of public policy examines the borrowing of one nation or U.S. state\u27s policy by another followed by adaptation to the new jurisdiction. The past focus of most of this research has been on legislative policy adoptions. This study draws upon a different perspective, bureaucratic adoptions of public policy.;A two-fold approach is employed, using both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. Information was gathered on both state agencies and their lead officials by telephone, in person, and through written survey instruments. Further documentary data were drawn from a variety of sources on state public health agencies and other political and economic characteristics of individual U.S. states. This information was used in two ways.;First, a detailed depiction describes the professional communication networks of state public health agency officials. The literature on policy transfer assumes the use of such a network, but past research has neither described the network and its mechanisms of communication nor substantiated its existence. The primary finding of this section is that such a communication network exists but that it occurs on an ad hoc rather than systematic basis. This research also demonstrates the importance of various specific communication mechanisms to state public health officials for the transfer of policy and programmatic information.;Secondly, this research addresses the possible differences between legislative and bureaucratic policy adoption. Using OLS regression, two different models of the determinants of policy innovation are tested. A comparison is made between legislative adoption of policy and bureaucratic adoption of policy. The central finding is that the determinants of legislative policy adoption do different from the determinants of bureaucratic policy adoption.;This research demonstrates the importance of examining policy innovation and transfer from the perspective of multiple political and policymaking institutions, in particular, the bureaucracy. It also broadens our understanding of the coalitions of policymakers that exist that create U.S. state public policy

Ruminations on Time (2005–2009)

Because the apocalypse did not occur, but the time of linear progress did come to a crashing halt. Because the post-modern rumours of utter temporal fragmentation seem quite silly. Because although we are very good at wearing watches, are positively wedded to our diaries, even so we seem to be suffering from a peculiar kind of temporal drift. Hhhmmm. If each era is both burdened and held loosely together by one temporal modality that figures most strongly in the cultural imagination, what happens when that temporality collapses

“I’m a spawts guay”: Comparing the Use of Sociophonetic Variables in Speech and Twitter

This paper compares the rates of use of phonological variation across speech and, through variant spellings, Twitter data. Speech data came from New York sports personality Mike Francesa and one of his fans parodying him. The fan\u27s tweets, which include a large number of variant spellings, were also analyzed. Two patterns emerged. For the most salient variables, th-stopping and r deletion, the fan overshot Francesa\u27s use in speech and used them at that same higher rate in his tweets. However, for less-salient variables the fan used them at the same rate in speech as Francesa and used them at a far lower rate in their tweets. This suggests that the rate of use of a variable on Twitter can be used to investigate salience

The only language they understand: the production and circulation of propaganda

The Bush administration-led ‘war on terror’ saw the dissemination of a plethora of visual and linguistic rhetoric aimed at galvanising different audiences. Using an interdisciplinary approach to draw on French intellectual Bruno Latour’s analytical tool of inscription and Cottle and Rai’s framing theory, this thesis interrogates notions of ‘propaganda’, its mediatised diffusion in the US-led invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) and the robust contestations of this. The durability and malleability of propaganda in these conflicts and antecedents, such as the Vietnam War, along with the ‘otherness’ of designated and dehumanised enemies, is also examined. The utility of other propaganda models for examining rhetorical devices, particularly Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model, is considered. Key research aims include analysing the continuing use of specific rhetorical devices justifying violence and presenting it as unavoidable and unchallengeable. By analysing varied rhetorical devices including but not limited to photographs, cartoons, speeches and specific phraseology, the thesis examines the persuasion of audiences as to the necessity of violence, related militaristic valour and its reflection in political figures, along with the coterminous distancing of specific constituencies from the consequences of bloody carnage carried out in their name. The thesis departs from prevailing liberal conceptions of propaganda and Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model to extrapolate from Latour’s work to indicate the rhetorical persuasiveness of propaganda in terms of the ‘hard facts’ of repetitive inscriptions

Utilizing 3D Printing Technology In Well Stimulation Research

Multi-stage hydraulic fracturing has become common practice for economically enhancing production from unconventional oil and gas reservoirs in recent years. The process of hydraulic fracturing is continuously refined as we discover new techniques through field studies and laboratory investigations. However, in modern well stimulation research, it is often difficult or impossible to obtain core samples with consistent properties for experimental studies. In these cases, isolating & evaluating stimulation design parameters with differing samples can be problematic, as large variations in rock properties can lead to inconsistent or incorrect conclusions. Therefore, the ability to reliably procure core samples with the identical characteristics would serve to benefit the confidence in the results of laboratory investigations. The aim of this work is to design a framework for utilizing 3D printing technology to consistently generate detailed artificial samples suitable for use in experimental laboratory research. Many readily available modern 3D printers can produce samples with up to 20-75 micrometers of accuracy. Stereolithographic (SLA) resin 3D printers accomplish this by using an ultraviolet light source to selectively illuminate and cure a photopolymer onto a travelling build platform, building a physical model in a layer-by-layer fashion. Recent developments in this technology also allow SLA 3D printers to generate large-volume samples without sacrificing speed and resolution. For this study, two areas of well stimulation research were chosen to demonstrate the successful implementation of the presented workflow. In the first part of this work, we created a realistic, rough-walled fracture system with 3D printed surfaces that mimic those of actual fractured rock for use in proppant transport experiments. While the rough topography of fracture walls likely influences the proppant transport process in the reservoir, nearly all historical laboratory flow studies of proppant transport have used parallel smooth surfaces to represent these fracture walls. The transparent, rough-walled fracture system created in this study allowed for the direct observation of proppant behavior as slurries were pumped. With transparent 3D printed samples that more accurately represent the surfaces of actual rock, we can elevate our understanding of the behavior of proppants, fluids, and additives in hydraulic fractures. In the second focus of this study, casts of 3D printed samples with simulated rough fracture surfaces were used to create artificial cement replicas suitable for conductivity experiments. Core samples, even when originating from the same source, still can possess a large variability in surface topography due to the inherent irregular nature of fractures. To address this, 3D printed conductivity samples were used as a mold for producing cement samples to serve as an alternative for core. In this investigation, we found that these cement replicas were able to retain the desired surface geometry and resolution while maintaining the required compressive strength to withstand the closure stresses required for conductivity testing. This work presents the detailed workflow for generating 3D printed samples and demonstrates the successful implementation of this workflow in the types of experimental studies mentioned above, aiming to serve as the foundation for the continued use throughout future investigations

Silences

How is it possible to write of the myriad kinds of silence with which we are surrounded? I am thinking especially of those dense or jagged silences so impervious to words, which increasingly appear in a world become too much, and too little, to bear