Wavelike spiral asymmetries are an intriguing aspect of Tropical Cyclone dynamics. Previous work hypothesized that some of them are Vortex Rossby Waves propagating on the radial gradient of mean–flow relative vorticity. In the Intermittently Forced Vortex Rossby Wave theory, intermittent convection near the eyewall wind maximum excites them so that they propagate wave energy outward and converge angular momentum inward. The waves’ energy is absorbed as the perturbation vorticity becomes filamented near the outer critical radii where their Doppler–shifted frequencies and radial group velocities approaches zero. This process may initiate outer wind maxima by weakening the mean–flow just inward from the critical radius. The waves are confined to a relatively narrow annular waveguide because of their slow tangential phase velocity and the narrow interval between the Rossby wave cut–off frequency, where the radial wavenumber is locally zero, and the zero frequency, where it is locally infinite.

Vikten av överraskning är känd och bevisad inom krigsvetenskapen och i de svenska doktrinerna anges att överraskning uppnås genom att agera oväntat och oförutsägbart. Men har verkligen svenska arméofficerare förmågan att göra det oväntade och oförutsägbara? Denna kvalitativa enfallsstudie studerar svenska officerares planering på taktiska nivå i syfte att undersöka vilken variation som finns i resultatet då en brist på variation tyder på en risk att vara förutsägbar. I ett första steg genomförs som en innehållsanalys av 13 stridsplaner och studien finner en oroväckande likhet där 77% möter fienden på liknande sätt. Denna brist på variation funnen på taktiska nivå riskerar också att sprida sig till högre nivåer via gemensam planering och personalförsörjning. I ett andra steg med hjälp av en enkät beskriver studien påverkan på variationen utifrån tre olika perspektiv: kontexten, den militära organisationen och beslutsfällor.  Där finner studien att kontexten har haft störst påverkan följt av beslutsfällor och slutligen den militära organisationen. Resultatet från studiens första del avseende variation bedöms generaliserbart till en större population medan resultatet avseende orsaker är för sammanhangsbundna för att innehålla en stor generaliserbarhet. Slutsatsen hos studien är att det finns en brist på variation som riskerar att motståndaren kan förutsäga stridsplanerna. Orsakerna bland annat sprungna ur kontexten, den militära organisation och beslutsfällor är viktiga alla tre att ta i beaktande som hämmande faktorer och hantera som en helhet för att råda bot på bristen av variation. Här identifieras metoden som en viktig komponent för att hantera hämmande likväl som stimulerande faktorer.

There is an ongoing debate about the components and processes of creativity. Within the subfield of creative insight, which is often considered to be the first measurable part of creativity, the role of working memory is discussed. Since creative insight appears to happen without conscious planning, the involvement of working memory appears to be limited; a hypothesis supported by several studies. However, there are several studies that support an opposing hypothesis. Namely, that creativity, including creative insights, is a form of divergent thinking and that working memory is needed for divergent thinking. This study investigated the role of working memory in creative insight through correlation analyses between working memory capacity, the frequency of insight and divergent thinking ability. The study was performed using Operation Span to test working memory capacity, Compound Word Association to assess the frequency of insight, and a part of Torrance Test of Creative Thinking to assess the ability for divergent thinking. The result show that working memory have little involvement in creative insight, but that it is involved in divergent thinking. This indicates that the nature of insight is different from divergent thinking.

This study explores the latent operation of Western gender norms in popular female-centred Young Adult (YA) dystopian texts. By examining adolescent female protagonists and the nature of their social havoc-making, this study investigates how reconstructed and recalibrated definitions of femininity ultimately re-inscribe a patriarchal status quo. The five havoc-making heroines under consideration are: Katniss Everdeen of Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games” trilogy, Saba in Moira Young’s “Dustlands” trilogy, Deuce in Ann Aguirre’s “Razorland” trilogy, Tris Prior in Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” series, and finally, Cassie Sullivan in Rick Yancey’s THE 5TH WAVE. Although these YA havoc-making heroines rebel against oppressive governmental regimes, I recognize the implicit and explicit construction of their bodies and their behaviours through male-influence. Their male counterparts play a large role in shaping how these heroines look and behave—they perform and appear as masculinized warriors and as feminized delicate beauties in accordance with the political and personal desires of male characters. Through such constructions, these contemporary havoc-makers demonstrate a collision of heroisms: they look and act as conventional action heroines and romance heroines. Including theoretical texts from the 1990s and onward that feature feminist scholarly writing on the textual and filmic representations of women—such as Dawn Heinecken’s THE WARRIOR WOMEN OF TELEVISION and Sherrie A. Inness’ TOUGH GIRLS—I investigate how these young heroines are shaped as per the genres of Action/Adventure and Romance fiction. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / This study looks at depictions of Young Adult heroines in popular YA dystopian fictions. Works under consideration: Collins' THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, Young's "Dustlands" series, Aguirre's ENCLAVE, Roth's DIVERGENT and Yancey's THE 5TH WAVE.

No description available.

No description available.

With the ability to navigate natural and man-made environments and utilize standard human tools, humanoid robots have the potential to transform emergency response and disaster relief applications by serving as first responders in hazardous scenarios. Such applications will require major advances in humanoid control, enabling robots to traverse difficult, cluttered terrain with both speed and stability. To advance the state of the art, this dissertation presents a complete dynamic locomotion and whole-body control framework for compliant (torque-controlled) humanoids. We develop low-level, mid-level, and high-level controllers to enable low-impedance balancing and walking on compliant and uneven terrain. For low-level control, we present a cascaded joint impedance controller for series elastic humanoids with parallel actuation. A distributed controller architecture is implemented using a dual-axis motor controller that computes desired actuator forces and motor currents using simple models of the joint mechanisms and series elastic actuators. An inner-loop force controller is developed using feedforward and PID control with a model-based disturbance observer, enabling naturally compliant behaviors with low joint impedance. For mid-level control, we implement an optimization-based whole-body control strategy assuming a rigid body model of the robot. Joint torque setpoints are computed using an efficient quadratic program (QP) given desired joint accelerations, spatial accelerations, and momentum rates of change. Constraints on the centroidal dynamics, contact forces, and joint limits ensure admissibility of the optimized setpoints. Using this approach, we develop compliant standing and stepping behaviors based on simple feedback controllers. For high-level control, we present a dynamic planning and control approach for humanoid locomotion using a novel time-varying extension of the Divergent Component of Motion (DCM). By varying the natural frequency of the DCM, we are able to achieve generic vertical center of mass (CoM) trajectories during walking. Complementary reverse-time integration and model predictive control (MPC) strategies are proposed to generate dynamically feasible DCM plans over a multi-step preview window, supporting locomotion on uneven terrain. The proposed approach is validated through experimental results obtained using THOR, a 34 degree of freedom (DOF) series elastic humanoid. Rough terrain locomotion is demonstrated in simulation, and compliant locomotion and push recovery are demonstrated in hardware. We discuss practical considerations that led to a successful implementation on the THOR hardware platform and conclude with an application of the presented control framework for humanoid firefighting onboard the ex-USS Shadwell, a decommissioned Navy ship. / Ph. D.

Import sanctions were used to a very limited extent against South Africa in the early sixties and latter half of the seventies to clearly signal the international community's disapproval of the country's apartheid policy. In the middle eighties South Africa was further exposed to a two year wave of export and financial sanctions. This was after the government had already committed itself to move away from apartheid as a policy that was no longer deemed feasible. All these sanctions were lifted in the early nineties after the abolition of apartheid but before negotiations for a new constitutional dispensation had firmly got under way. Contrary to some popular impressions, the 1985-87 sanctions were also severe1y limited in scope and nature, with the result that their economic impact was only marginal at best. They were introduced at a time when the country unexpectedly had to face a foreign debt crisis and had to drastically adjust the economy downward, not unlike that experienced by many other developing countries. The severe recession and greater socio-political unrest that followed did not lead to an escalation of sanctions, but nevertheless threatened to make large parts of the country ungovernable. The evidence is that sanctions only played a minor role in bringing about this poor and deteriorating state of affairs. The political aims of abolishing apartheid and preparing the way for negotiations was achieved mainly as a result of certain internal political developments, together with the political implications of such major other outside developments as the economic collapse of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Soviet Union. South Africa's experience with sanctions confirms that as elsewhere their economic impact as an instrument of foreign policy was invariably exaggerated, whereas their contribution in explaining the subsequent course of political events was at best uncertain. / Department of Economics / Ph.D. (Economics)

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Reissued 5 May 2017 with typographic corrections to degree, abstract. / Broadly, this thesis argues that success in Afghanistan—for Afghans and their neighbors alike—entails establishing state-building measures, supremacy of law and human rights, rapid economic growth, and strong Afghan National Security Forces who can encourage the Afghan public to accept the practices of stable democracy and good neighborly relations. To fix some of the myriad variables in Afghanistan's likely state in 2026, which will mark the end of the transformation decade following the U.S. withdrawal in 2016, the proposed project installs three hypothetical scenarios: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. These scenarios do not predict the future in Afghanistan but rather shed light on the factors and variables that will shape the postwar period. Examining such scenarios may allow strategic planners to develop alternative measures for complex situations. Sustained political stability and the will to reform by the Afghan establishment, fortified by consistent international financial and military support for at least 10 to 15 or more years, would likely be the key to success in the Afghanistan end game. Otherwise, Afghanistan will slip back into a situation much like the one that emerged once after the Soviet withdrawal—extremism, war, and instability. The scenarios are developed by examining several factors: the criticality of the Afghan issue throughout history; Afghanistan's indigenous facts and prospects; Pak–Afghan cross-interests and policy dimensions; Global War on Terror implications; conflicting interests; and regional and extra-regional politics. / Commander, Pakistan Navy

With creative thinking we can identify general methods of problem solving, look at real life from another point of view. The method of 6 Thinking Hats is one of the creative ways to do so. The aim of this thesis is a complex review of using this method when solving a problem in a group. It tries to show creative thinking by which the group should get a certain outcome in solving the problem. The thesis analyses thoroughly all the parts of the 6 Hats method, and at the same time, it tries to view other perspectives on the workings of the method. A significant part of the thesis is aimed at the instructor, who decides to use this particular method, and his work. It should be an instrument to use for application of the 6 Thinking Hats method on a specific company problem.