The Multiple Remote Tower Center concept (mRTC) is a cutting edge project which allows one air traffic control officer (ATCO) to be in charge of multiple remotely situated airports simultaneously. When implemented, it will revolutionise how air traffic is managed at smaller airports and allow for increased efficiency and decreased operational costs. Consequently, at the time of writing a lot of effort is going into evaluating this new way of air traffic management from a safety perspective. Air traffic management has been defined as an issue maintaining situational awareness and exercising control. This thesis aims to investigate how the phenomenon target fascination affects the ATCOs ability to exercise control over its controlled airspace and maintain its situation awareness. It does so by creating a baseline scenario of work in a mRTC, and then comparing the ATCOs performance in the baseline scenario with its performance in the same corresponding scenario, but with elements of target fascination introduced. The differences in the scenarios are analysed using the Contextual Control Model, the Extended Control Model and a holistic framework for studying situation awareness. The analysis shows that target fascination does affect the ATCOs ability to maintain control, but not radically so, and only for a short period of time. The target fascination forces the ATCO to rely on information in the immediate environment to a higher degree than during regular work, as opposed to making decisions based on a holistic understanding of the situation and high level goals. However, once the understanding of the situation have been re-established, the level of control quickly returns to normal levels. Situation awareness is thus a key concept in maintaining control. The situation awareness analysis show that target fascination affects situation awareness by causing the ATCOs understanding of the situation to become outdated without the ATCOs knowledge. Because of this, there may be developments in the situation that the ATCO is not aware of, which hinders it from acting as it normally would. In some cases an intervention from an external actor or element may be necessary to break the fascination and re-establish the ATCOs understanding for the situation. As soon as the fascination is broken, the ATCO quickly takes steps to re-establish its situation awareness and return to normal operations.

Univ., Diss.--Gießen, 2007. / Literaturverz. S. [265] - 284.

This thesis is aimed at exploring the relation of socio-cultural characteristics and policies with post-quake reconstruction of rural areas of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan. The primary concern of the study is limited to examine the traditional architectural practice ; dhajji-dewari and social composition of the community during and after reconstruction. It is analyzed that how the socio-cultural aspects of rural communities are affected by the policies, how policies are affected by the socio-cultural aspects of the community and how both of these can influence the final product. The thesis was rooted in the fact that 80% of the 600,000 damaged/destroyed buildings during 8th October, 2005 Kashmir earthquake were rural temporary (Katcha) houses. It was hence to be investigated that how far the Rural Housing Reconstruction Program (RHRP) has reduced (or increased) the vulnerability of the area for future. The impact of any policy launched during this program was not limited to few housing units rather more than 0.1 million dhajji houses could be affected through this. The rural Kashmir reconstruction was commenced with the in-hand knowledge of several previous post-quake reconstruction programs and was appreciated widely by experts. It was yet to be explored that which mistakes were committed/repeated by the stakeholders during policy making, delivery, implementation and post implementation phases. Covering the phases of policy making, delivery and implementation, the major findings of the thesis are categorized into three sections ; the sustainability generating aspects of reconstruction, vulnerability enhancing dimensions of reconstruction, and, those outcomes of reconstruction which are not yet categorized under "sustainability" or "vulnerability" by the experts focusing particularly rural Kashmir. Community satisfaction is given primary focus to rate different outcomes.The study concludes that ignoring socio-cultural aspects of the community during reconstruction may lead to vulnerability in post-reconstruction scenario. Considering the post implementation phase, the current trends are observed by examining under-construction houses. By pictorially presenting the architectural details of these houses it is examined that deviations from guidelines are in practice. People start forgetting the disaster impacts after few years and their immediate needs drive their decision priorities. It is suggested that after reconstruction program ends up, some authorities must be present in the reconstructed area to guide people for their current requirements and future needs and also to control the spread of non compliant construction.

In response to global climate change, many important earth-systems-oriented science programs have been established in the past. One such program, the Fluxnet program, studies the response of world forests and other natural ecosystems by measuring biospheric fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapour, and energy with eddy-covariance (EC) techniques to assess the role of world ecosystems in offsetting increases in CO2 emissions and related impacts on global climate. The EC methodology has its limitations particularly when weather is inclement and during system stoppages. These limitations create non-trivial problems by creating data gaps in the monitored data stream, diminishing the integrity of the dataset and increasing uncertainty with data interpretation. This Thesis deals with the development of a parsimonious, semi-empirical approach for gap filling of net ecosystem productivity (NEP) data. The approach integrates the effects of environmental controls on diurnal NEP. The approach, because of its limited number of parameters, can be rapidly optimized when appropriate meteorological, site, and NEP target values are provided. The procedure is verified by applying it to several gap-filling case studies, including timeseries collected over balsam fir (Abies Balsamea (L.) Mill.) forests in New Brunswick (NB), Canada and several other forests along a north-south temperaturemoisture gradient from northern Europe to the Middle East. The evaluation showed that the model performed relatively well for most sites; i.e., r2 ranged from 0.68-0.83 and modelling efficiencies, from 0.89-0.97, demonstrating the possibility of applying the model to forests outside NB. Inferior model performance was associated with sites with less than complete input datasets.

This dissertation examines three novels by the author and critic A.S. Byatt, namely Possession (1990), Babel Tower (1996) and The Biographer’s Tale (2000), using a hermeneutic method of analysis. The investigation pays specific attention to the structure of the novels and how this compares to the structure of the ancient palimpsest. Theoretical information on the palimpsest as model is based on relevant writings by Thomas Carlyle (1830, 1833), Thomas De Quincey (1845) through to Josephine McDonagh (1987), Gérard Genette (1997) and Sarah Dillon (2007). The ensuing argument is that Byatt’s use of postmodernist pseudo-intertextuality and intertextuality cause her novels to have a palimpsestic structure of various layers, with the effect that textual boundaries are transgressed. Ultimately Byatt’s writing strategies result in ontological uncertainty for the reader. / MA (English), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014.

The focus of this study is to investigate what images of Sweden are transmitted in the novel The road to Ithaca (1994), by the Uruguayan author Carlos Liscano. The study focuses on the first half part of the novel for this taking place in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early nineties. The aim is to investigate by what literary strategies and literary subgenres the images of Sweden are transmitted.    The theoretical framework applied derives from studies of the literary genre of the picaresque novel and its bufonesco mood, such as the literary strategies irony and laconism. For the analysis Mieke Bal´s concept of focalization and semantic axes are used.      The study shows that in Sweden there are parallel worlds to the official world of the welfare state; in the shadow side of society there are the metecos, unwanted residents: the undocumented and the mentally ill. Through a picaresque and ironic style, the author shows that Sweden is a neat, clean, but culturally hermetic society; almost perfect on the surface, but with a lot of hidden “trash” beneath.    The welfare state of Sweden seams benevolent in its integrative intention, but is, at the same time, blind, or even worse, disinterested in the new reality of the country; that of the welfare state in dissolution and Sweden as a Tower of Babel.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The need for transmission lines expansion (TL) is evident in the face of growing electrical energy demand in Brazil as well as the great distances between generation and consumption centers. It is known that numerous failures can interrupt the energy transmission and the towers collapse is among the main reasons, causing huge losses to both electrical energy companies and final users. Thus, it is crucial to understand the mechanical behavior of these structures, considering the different actions that they can act so that the energy transmission can take place in a safe, efficient and economical way. In this context, this paper deals with the static and dynamic response evaluation of guyed lattice metallic towers of TLs submitted to broken conductor and broken lightning-rod cable. For this purpose, numerical models of isolated tower and completed stretch of TL were developed, including all components, towers, insulator chains, lightning-rod cables, conductor cables and prestressed stay cables. The models are subjected to static analysis through "equivalent static loads" application coming from the broken cable and dynamic analysis, in the time domain, using the method of direct integration of equations of motion explicitly, with central finite differences. The static and dynamic responses are given in terms of nodal displacements at the top and normal stresses in the tower bars. Finally, the results of the dynamic analysis in the time domain are compared with those determined by static analysis, employed in the usual design practice, that is, the peak and final values (after the structure stops vibrating) are compared with the static response values in order to verify the validity of the model used in the design practice. / A necessidade da expansão de linhas de transmissão (LTs) fica evidente diante da crescente demanda por energia elétrica no Brasil, além das grandes distâncias entre a geração e os centros consumidores. Sabe-se que inúmeras falhas podem interromper a transmissão da energia, e o colapso de torres está entre as principais, causando enormes prejuízos, tanto as companhias de energia elétrica quanto aos consumidores finais. Dessa forma, torna-se fundamental o conhecimento do comportamento mecânico destas estruturas, frente às diferentes ações que podem atuar, para que o transporte de energia ocorra de maneira segura, eficiente e econômica. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho trata da avaliação da resposta estática e dinâmica de torres metálicas treliçadas estaiadas de LTs submetidas à ruptura de cabo condutor e de cabo para-raios. Para isso, foram desenvolvidos modelos numéricos de torre isolada e de um trecho completo de LT, incluindo todos componentes, torres, cadeias de isoladores, cabos para-raios, cabos condutores e cabos de estais pré-tensionados. Os modelos são submetidos a análises estáticas, através da aplicação de cargas estáticas equivalentes oriundas da ruptura de cabo, e análises dinâmicas, no domínio do tempo, empregando o método de integração direta das equações do movimento, de forma explícita, com diferenças finitas centrais. As respostas estática e dinâmica são dadas em termos de deslocamentos nodais no topo e esforços normais nas barras da torre. Por fim, os resultados da análise dinâmica no domínio do tempo são comparados com os determinados por meio da análise estática, empregada na prática usual de projeto, ou seja, são comparados os valores de pico e os valores finais (após a estrutura parar de vibrar) com os valores da resposta estática, a fim de verificar a validade do modelo empregado na prática de projeto.

A Engenharia de Ventos Baseada em Desempenho (Performance-based Wind Engineering - PBWE) é uma filosofia de projeto que preconiza identificar e quantificar as incertezas envolvidas no projeto estrutural a fim de assegurar níveis previsíveis de desempenho às edificações, não mais gerenciando o risco através da clássica abordagem determinística. Contudo, devido à recente proposição da metodologia, ainda há poucos estudos relacionados à PBWE, cada qual apresentando diferentes limitações. Assim, o presente trabalho propõe uma adaptação da metodologia da Engenharia de Ventos Baseada em Desempenho à análise probabilística do comportamento de torres metálicas, avaliando diferentes modelos de cálculo para estimativa das forças do vento neste tipo de estrutura. Para tanto, investigou-se as incertezas envolvidas na caracterização do campo de ventos e da resistência estrutural e foram analisados quatro métodos distintos para a estimativa das forças de vento em torres metálicas: dois procedimentos de cálculo correspondentes à norma brasileira de ventos ABNT NBR 6123:1988 (ABNT, 1988), a metodologia de Davenport (1993) e a de Holmes (1994). Um estudo de caso envolvendo a estimativa da confiabilidade de uma torre de telecomunicação também foi conduzido. Constatou-se que ambos os procedimentos de cálculo admitidos conduzem a níveis de segurança de mesma ordem de grandeza e que a elaboração de projetos de torres considerando a direção de incidência do vento como sendo a mais desfavorável à estrutura é demasiadamente conservadora. Como contribuição, verifica-se que o projeto ótimo de torres pode ser alcançado com base no nível de segurança desejado para diferentes velocidades máxima de vento associadas a intervalos de recorrência específicos. / Performance-based Wind Engineering (PBWE) is a design philosophy that aims to identify and quantify the uncertainties involved in the structural design in order to ensure predictable performance levels to buildings, no longer managing risk through the classical deterministic approach. However, due to the recent proposal of the methodology, there are few studies related to PBWE, each presenting different limitations. Thus, this paper proposes an adaptation of the Performance-based Wind Engineering methodology to the probabilistic analysis of the behavior of steel towers, evaluating different calculation models for estimating wind forces on this type of structure. To this end, uncertainties involved in the characterization of the wind field and structural strength were investigated and four different methods for the estimation of wind forces on steel towers were analyzed: two procedures relative to the Brazilian winds standard ABNT NBR 6123:1988 (ABNT, 1988), and the methodologies of Davenport (1993) and Holmes (1994). A case study concerning the reliability estimation of a telecommunication tower was also conducted. It was found that both assumed calculation procedures lead to security levels of the same order of magnitude and that the design of towers considering that the wind always blows from the worst direction is too conservative. As a contribution, it is found that the optimum design of towers can be achieved based on the desired security level for different maximum wind speeds associated to specific recurrence intervals.

L’objet de cette thèse est l’étude de la propagation de la 2-birationalité pour les 2-extensions de corps de nombres. Le problème étudié se présente comme suit : étant donnés un corps 2-rationnel totalement réel K, une extension quadratique totalement imaginaire L de K, et une 2-extension totalement réelle de K de K, à quelles conditions la 2-birationalité du compositum L = KL se lit-elle sur L ? La thèse se structure en trois parties : l’étude du cas absolument quadratique d’abord, le cas relativement quadratique ensuite ; le cas général enfin. Le résultat principal de la thèse résout complètement le problème posé en toute généralité. En fin de thèse, diverses illustrations numériques sont proposées à l’aide du PARI, ainsi qu’une étude des tours d’extensions 2-birationnelles. / This thesis deals with the propagation of 2-birationality for 2-extensions of numbers fields. More precisely, le t K be a 2-rational totally real number field, L a CM quadratic extension of K, and let K be a totally real 2-extension of K. Under which conditions can one read the 2-birationaltiy of the compositum L = LK from L ? This work is divided into three parts : we first study the absolute quadratic case, then the relatively quadratic case, then finally the general case. The thesis’s main result solves the whole problem. We also illustrate the result with various numeric examples, obtained with PARI and a focus at the end on 2-birational extensions’ towers.

Electromagnetic effects of lightning currents during a direct hit to tall communication towers, other instrumented towers and chimneys can be hazardous to associated cables, as well as, electrical and electronics systems. The standard practice in telecommunication and other related fields is to bond the cable sheath to the tower and ground connection is made before it enters the base station. However, in some specific cases when power, signal and data logging cables are to be supported on the same tower, isolation of power cables is demanded. In a totally different situation, attempts are also made to have a dedicated isolated down conductor. A critical review of the situation demanded a more quantitative answer to the following questions: (i) whether it is possible to electrically isolate a dedicated down conductor, (ii) is it possible to electrically isolate the cables and their terminal equipment both mounted on towers serving as down conductor and if so, what will be the nature of current induced in the cables and (iii) as per the standard practice, if the cable sheaths are connected to the tower/structure, what will be the nature of the current shared by them. Addressing these important issues formed the scope of the present work. For the tall structures considered in this work, for the critical time periods, wave nature of the current dominates. This called for electromagnetic modeling covering Transverse Magnetic (TM) mode of the wave propagation. Owing to the complex geometrical features involved with the problem, both experiments on electromagnetically scaled laboratory models, as well as, theoretical simulation is attempted. An electromagnetically scaled laboratory model is employed for the time domain experimental investigation. This approach, which has been validated earlier, is further scrutinized to ensure its adequacy. In order to achieve generality and noting the fact that the associated parameters are rather difficult to be varied in the experimentation, theoretical investigation is also employed. For this, both NEC-2, as well as, an in-house thin wire time domain code developed for this work is employed. NEC-2 could handle multi-wire multi-radius junctions, while in-house time domain code could handle proximity and non-cylindrical shapes encountered with tower lattice elements. The investigation of induction to isolated cables on simple down conductors and towers is considered first. The induced current is shown to be bipolar oscillatory with the period of oscillation governed by the length of the cable. It is shown that the level of induction for good earth termination is below 5 – 10 % while that with moderate inductance in the earth termination can enhance the induction to higher levels. The level of induction is shown to be not critically dependent on the length of the cable, gap between cable and down conductor/tower. When multiple cables are mounted, they seem to influence each other and individually carry currents of lower amplitude. Also, the effect of shape and proximity of the tower lattice elements on induction is investigated. If the cable is housed inside a metallic tray, the amplitude of induced current is shown to be quite small. Subsequently, the evaluation of electrical stress between the isolated down conductor on tower and simplified representation of the structure is considered. A suitable definition of the electric stress for the wave regime is evolved and then it is shown that, at present, the voltage difference defined by the path integral of electric field across shortest path between the two entities is the best indicator for the stress. The electrical stress in the case of isolated down conductor on tower, as well as, down conductor with isolated cable is shown to reach very dangerous levels. On the other hand, the stress on the isolated cables on towers also serving as down conductors is shown to be relatively moderate. Interestingly, it is shown that the electrical stress and the voltage difference is dependent on the gap and for the critical time period, can be much lower than that calculated as a product of equivalent tower surge impedance and the stroke current, even before the arrival of ground end reflections. Finally, the current shared by cables connected to the down conductor is investigated. For the case of simple cylindrical down conductor with cable connected to it at the top, it is shown that the amount of current shared by the cable is not dependent on its length and the relative radii (cross section) have only a weak influence. For the case with down conductor formed by L and + angles, it is shown that the placement of cable at their interior corner can reduce the initial current shared by the cable. In order to model best possible situation with towers, experiments are conducted with cable inside an aluminum pipe. Even in this case, cable current builds up with successive reflections to become comparable with the current through the pipe itself. Subsequent investigation with 1:40 and 1:20 tower models lead to several interesting observations. Cables running along leg/face of the tower whether placed inside or outside the tower, always shares good amount of current. Further, frequent bonding of the sheath to the tower increases the current shared by the cable. Cable when housed in a metallic tray shares less than 50% of the current shared without the tray. Even though a complete quantification is not to be achieved in this work, it has made a good beginning with some significant contribution towards lightning protection issues pertaining to tall towers and structures.