Within the collections of the Museu de Angra do Heroismo (Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal) are nine cast bronze guns from the 16th century. Most were raised from the seafloor between the 1960s and 1990s, but this study comprises the first in-depth research into their design and manufacture. The importance of this kind of study lies in the fact that ordnance is commonly found on shipwrecks of this time. A greater knowledge of guns will help provide information about the ships from which they came. Careful documentation and study of the Museu de Angra cannon will add greatly to their value as museum exhibits, by allowing museum patrons to better understand where the guns came from, how they were cast, and why they were important. This documentation adds to our knowledge of Western European gunfounding technology during the sixteenth century, as four different countries commissioned the guns: Portugal, Spain, France, and England. With detailed documentation and publication, the Museu de Angra bronze guns can be added to the bibliography of ordnance of this period, which will aid future researchers who encounter similar pieces. The Museu de Angra bronze guns, as symbols of the military and naval power of the countries that commissioned them, were sent aboard ships, into the field, and mounted on fortress walls. Bronze guns of this time period are particularly important, as bronze was an expensive commodity, and the demand for ordnance was increasing rapidly. Countries developed more effective ways to make use of iron for the founding of guns, and the use of bronze became more symbolic of wealth. The information that each gun contains includes both the cutting-edge military technology of the time and the artistic statement of the founder. Some of the finest metalwork of the period was displayed in cast bronze guns, and due to the founding techniques, no two are the same, making each an important piece of history.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): John E. Mutty, Joseph G. San Miguel. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-61). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Title from title screen (viewed July 18, 2003). Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-61). Also issued in paper format.

Les trois dernières guerres ont laissé dans le sous-sol français des millions de tonnes de munitions non explosées (en anglais, unexploded ordnance ou UXO) qui constituent un risque pour l'homme et l'environnement. La géophysique et particulièrement les méthodes magnétiques offrent des solutions pour localiser et caractériser ces objets qui sont le plus souvent aimantés. Mon travail de thèse consiste d'abord à réaliser une synthèse bibliographique des méthodes de recherche d'UXO en détaillant en particulier la méthode magnétique. Le dispositif de cartographie magnétique multi-capteur conçu par I'EOST et utilisé pour la recherche d'UXO subit un certain nombre de défauts. Ainsi (i) la fabrication d'un nouveau numériseur, (ii) l'acquisition d'un nouveau système de géolocalisation plus complet et (iii) l'utilisation d'un capteur supplémentaire afin de corriger les variations temporelles du champ permettent d'améliorer la qualité de nos cartographies. De même la mesure à différentes altitudes nous permet de gérer au mieux le temps imparti et le niveau de détail que l'on souhaite obtenir. Selon l'approximation habituellement employée en méthodes potentielles, l'anomalie du champ magnétique est négligeable par rapport au champ magnétique régional. En parallèle du travail de terrain décrit précédemment, une étude plus poussée du dipôle m'a permis d'évaluer que cette approximation entraîne une erreur non négligeable pouvant atteindre 16% de l'anomalie. Cette différence se ressent aussi sur les résultats obtenus par inversion. J'ai pu de plus développer un algorithme utilisant la méthode d'Euler et réévaluer la méthode que l'on utilisait déjà auparavant, basée sur le signal analytique. Après comparaison des différentes méthodes d'inversion, cette dernière semble le mieux contraindre la cible. / Last three wars have left millions of tons of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in French subsoil. They put the population and the environment at risk. Geophysics and particularly the magnetic methods present some solutions to characterise and locate those generally magnetised objects. The multi-sensor magnetic cartography device designed at EOST has some faults. Consequently, (i) the production of a new digitizer, (ii) the acquisition of a new geo-spatial positioning system and (iii) the use of an extra sensor to correct the time-related variations of the magnetic field allow us to improve our cartography quality. Likewise, multi-altitude measurement allow us to optimise the time in relation to the wanted cartography definition. According to the approximation generally used in magnetism theory, the anomaly is insignificant compared to the regional magnetic field. At the same time as my previously described field work, a thorough study of the dipole theory, allowed me to evaluate that this approximation results in a non-negligible mistake reaching 16% of the anomaly. The inversion results are sensible to this mistake. Moreover, l've developed an algorithm based on Euler deconvolution and l've re-evaluated the method already used which is based on analytic signal. After I compared some of the inversion methods, the one based on the analytic signal seems to ascertain the better the object characteristics.

Growing awareness of world-wide environmental degradation has prompted the global community to explore alternatives to present human activities, and present economic development models. One concept which has emerged within this exploration is that of Sustainable Development. This thesis specifically uses the concept of Sustainable Development as Rees (1988, 1988a, 1989) and Gardner (1989) define it. Sustainable development will require substantial changes in the productive sphere. An 'energy spiral' is used to depict each stage necessary in the creation, use and disposal of a good. The social and environmental costs of each of these stages of production are explored. The positive impact of integrating re-use, recycling, recovery and replacement strategies into the consumption, production and disposal cycle for goods is described. In this thesis dry-cell batteries are used as an example of products which create problems in their disposal: heavy metals contained in these batteries exist in concentrations which require these spent batteries to be considered hazardous waste. Responses to this problem in other countries are described and critiqued. Present methods and planned strategies for hazardous waste disposal within the GVRD and the city of Vancouver are noted, and analyzed as to the sustainability of these methods and strategies. Specific plans for the disposal of dry-cell batteries are described and critiqued. Using the principles for sustainable development from Gardner (1989) and the 'energy spiral' together provides a synthesis of these two concepts. This framework provides planners and analysts a base from which strategies for sustainable production can be determined. The possibilities for use of this framework are explored, with a specific focus on dry-cell batteries. In considering the whole life-cycle of such a product, and not just focussing on the disposal stage of that cycle, responses that are more useful and pro-active can be devised. Some of the organizations and structures which presently exist and will be useful in establishing a base for the kinds of change that sustainable development will require are mentioned. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The dominant liberal peacebuilding critiques tends to focus on ‘states’ and the failure of interventions in rebuilding them. Consequently, a standardised critique has emerged largely because the critics apply a broad brush across a diverse range of contexts, programmes, issues and activities as illustrated by the lack of scrutiny on mine action and emerging contexts such as Somaliland. The liberal peacebuilding critics critique the standardised ‘one size fits all approach’ employed by interveners, yet they take the same approach. I therefore argue for the need to broaden the critique to include other elements and contexts of peacebuilding. I demonstrate that as an intervention mine action has intrinsic peacebuilding potential. However, the way mine action is implemented both globally and in Somaliland reflects the same dominant characteristics of the liberal peacebuilding critique i.e.; it is externally led; uses technical and standardised formulaic approaches; disregards local context thus failing to secure local ownership. Attributes that the critics argue have led to the failure and/or limited success of peacebuilding interventions. I therefore contend with the critics and demonstrate how these attributes have contributed to the challenges of implementing mine action activities thereby limiting mine actions ‘peace-ability’ potential in Somaliland. However, beyond the implementation modalities there are other factors that further contribute to limiting this potential; these include the Sector Actors; the Somaliland context i.e. the historical and political context, and the perception of Somaliland people. Thus in conclusion I argue for a nuanced critique that acknowledges the challenging realities of implementing programmes in challenging post conflict environments.

No description available.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Portuguese

<p>In the modern sensing environment, large numbers of sensor tasking decisions must be made using an increasingly diverse and powerful suite of sensors in order to best fulfill mission objectives in the presence of situationally-varying resource constraints. Sensor management algorithms allow the automation of some or all of the sensor tasking process, meaning that sensor management approaches can either assist or replace a human operator as well as ensure the safety of the operator by removing that operator from a dangerous operational environment. Sensor managers also provide improved system performance over unmanaged sensing approaches through the intelligent control of the available sensors. In particular, information-theoretic sensor management approaches have shown promise for providing robust and effective sensor manager performance.</p><p>This work develops information-theoretic sensor managers for a general static target detection problem. Two types of sensor managers are developed. The first considers a set of discrete objects, such as anomalies identified by an anomaly detector or grid cells in a gridded region of interest. The second considers a continuous spatial region in which targets may be located at any point in continuous space. In both types of sensor managers, the sensor manager uses a Bayesian, probabilistic framework to model the environment and tasks the sensor suite to make new observations that maximize the expected information gain for the system. The sensor managers are compared to unmanaged sensing approaches using simulated data and using real data from landmine detection and unexploded ordnance (UXO) discrimination applications, and it is demonstrated that the sensor managers consistently outperform the unmanaged approaches, enabling targets to be detected more quickly using the sensor managers. The performance improvement represented by the rapid detection of targets is of crucial importance in many static target detection applications, resulting in higher rates of advance and reduced costs and resource consumption in both military and civilian applications.</p> / Dissertation

The response of geological materials at the scale of meters and the response of buried targets of different shapes and sizes using controlled-source electromagnetic induction (CSEM) is investigated. This dissertation focuses on three topics; i) frac- tal properties on electric conductivity data from near-surface geology and processing techniques for enhancing man-made target responses, ii) non-linear inversion of spa- tiotemporal data using continuation method, and iii) classification of CSEM transient and spatiotemporal data. In the first topic, apparent conductivity profiles and maps were studied to de- termine self-affine properties of the geological noise and the effects of man-made con- ductive metal targets. 2-D Fourier transform and omnidirectional variograms showed that variations in apparent conductivity exhibit self-affinity, corresponding to frac- tional Brownian motion. Self-affinity no longer holds when targets are buried in the near-surface, making feasible the use of spectral methods to determine their pres- ence. The difference between the geology and target responses can be exploited using wavelet decomposition. A series of experiments showed that wavelet filtering is able to separate target responses from the geological background. In the second topic, a continuation-based inversion method approach is adopted, based on path-tracking in model space, to solve the non-linear least squares prob- lem for unexploded ordnance (UXO) data. The model corresponds to a stretched- exponential decay of eddy currents induced in a magnetic spheroid. The fast inversion of actual field multi-receiver CSEM responses of inert, buried ordnance is also shown. Software based on the continuation method could be installed within a multi-receiver CSEM sensor and used for near-real-time UXO decision. In the third topic, unsupervised self-organizing maps (SOM) were adapted for data clustering and classification. The use of self-organizing maps (SOM) for central- loop CSEM transients shows potential capability to perform classification, discrimi- nating background and non-dangerous items (clutter) data from, for instance, unex- ploded ordnance. Implementation of a merge SOM algorithm showed that clustering and classification of spatiotemporal CSEM data is possible. The ability to extract tar- get signals from a background-contaminated pattern is desired to avoid dealing with forward models containing subsurface response or to implement processing algorithm to remove, to some degree, the effects of background response and the target-host interactions.