Published Article / Personalised funerals are defined as modernised, innovative, customised and specialised types of funerals. Personalised funerals are performed to reflect the individual's life and what he or she has accomplished (Broadbent 2002; Wolcott 1999). The aim of this study was to establish if there is a niche in South Africa for graphic material for personalised funerals. The importance of a personalised funeral is to comfort the attendees and avoid the funeral being too traumatic. One of the main questions that arose during this study is how well South Africans react to the idea of personalised funerals? Traditional funerals are gradually being improved by means of creating a more modernised and customised funeral. Funerals now include pictures, photographs and even slide shows of the deceased person (Jenga 2001). Informal receptions with bright colours and even a party after the services are becoming the preferred method (Edwards 2002). Orchids instead of roses, favourite songs instead of Bach, touching poems instead of traditional prayers (Wolcott 1999), slay coffins instead of a plain wooden coffin (Eybers 2007) all emphasise the need for personalised funerals. The aim of the first questionnaire was to establish if there is a niche in South Africa for graphic design material for personalised funerals and to assist with the various design implications that can be used in a funeral pamphlet. A second questionnaire was developed in order to include the opinion of a professional in the funeral industry, which could be beneficial in the design process. Through analysing these questionnaires, various design concepts were developed and applied to funeral pamphlets. The funeral industry already provides various services, for example catering, hiring of tents and vehicles. Why not graphic designers? The author of this study postulates that this could possibly develop a trend or need in South Africa, and expose more and more South Africans to personalised funerals.

No description available.

Published Article / Extensive work has been done in the area of manufacturing implants for medical purposes, and more recently the development of customised implants. Areas of application include cranio/maxillo-facial implants, dental drill guides, hip, knee and shoulder replacements, as well as different implants for the spine. Due to their high prevalence and complex anatomical geometry the purpose of this study is to investigate the current state of the industry regarding customised medical implants for cranio/maxillofacial and orthopaedic surgery. Implant customisation has far-reaching benefits, and a collective approach to solving current difficulties will require an in-depth study of successes already achieved. Several issues in this regard are examined, including what defines customisation, regulatory issues that govern customisation and design constraints, trends in different areas of application, suitable materials, and finally which manufacturing techniques are being employed, with a focus on the use of Layer Manufacturing technologies and their role in custom-made medical implants.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019 / This study assessed the impact of a customised management development programme on the senior staff in the Cape Town branch of a logistics organisation. The study analysed the staff’s development and determined the challenges that the senior staff and middle managers were facing after the organisation had gone through a number of management changes. The organisation was committed to creating a learning culture. Thus, the organisation had embarked on a clear strategic direction to enhance the leadership skills of the mid-level managers in the business. From an impact and cost-effectiveness point of view, the focus was on the middle management to start creating a learning culture in the organisation. To gather data, this qualitative study used a questionnaire with open-ended questions sent to the middle managers of the logistics organisation. This gave the researcher the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and to ask for clarification. The sample size used was 30 middle managers. The study found that the customisation of the management development programme aimed at the middle managers played a pivotal role in retaining staff and in increasing the performance of both the employees and the organisation. The findings showed the employees felt they could relate to operational goals and efficiencies much better after the focused intervention. The employees realised that they are an esteemed resource of the organisation, and that the success or failure of the organisation relies on the performance of the management staff of the organisation. Furthermore, in order to get employees to perform optimally and to improve their performance, they required the right tools, equipment and working environment.

The reduction in visual performance typically found in keratoconic patients is believed to be associated with large magnitudes of uncorrected irregular astigmatism and higher-order aberrations (HOAs). Previous studies indicate that correcting HOAs in keratoconus patients may result in an improvement in visual performance. This thesis explores the correction of HOAs using standard sphero-cylindrical and customised aberration-controlling soft contact lenses in 22 patients with keratoconus. The findings of this work may be useful from a clinical perspective, as some keratoconic patients cannot tolerate rigid gas-permeable (RGP) contact lenses and have few alternatives, excluding surgical intervention, for vision correction. This thesis firstly describes a series of preliminary studies conducted to improve our current understanding of the HOAs manifested in keratoconus. The results of these investigations suggested that alterations in aberrations, due to changes in accommodation or variations in the pre-corneal tear film post-blink, were unlikely to hinder the correction of HOAs for keratoconic patients. Equally, it was ascertained that subjective refraction data provided significantly better visual acuity compared to objective, aberrometry-derived refractions for patients with keratoconus. The findings also show that both lower-order aberrations (LOAs) and HOAs displayed a larger degree of variability in keratoconic eyes compared to those previously reported for visually-normal subjects. Furthermore, significant increases in 3rd-order coma root mean square aberrations were found after temporarily suspending RGP contact lens wear for 16 keratoconic patients. The results of two clinical studies suggested that standard sphero-cylindrical soft lenses can, to some extent, mask HOAs in keratoconic patients; however, the visual performances achieved were found to be poorer compared to RGP lenses. Equally, the results showed that RGP lenses provide superior visual performances compared to customised, aberration-controlling lenses, in spite of the customised lenses providing comparable reductions in uncorrected HOAs. The inducement of superfluous HOAs and LOAs, through customised contact lens translations and rotations, were modelled using MatLab (version 7.6.0.324; The Mathworks, Natick, MA, US). The results confirmed that minimising the decentration of aberration-controlling contact lenses, to less than 5 degrees of rotation and less than 0.50 mm of translation, will help to achieve an optimal correction of HOAs. However, more stringent criteria were required for LOAs, where rotational displacements should be reduced to less than 3 degrees and translational displacements should be limited to less than 0.10 mm. In conclusion, the correction of HOAs for patients with keratoconus is possible using customised, aberration-controlling soft contact lenses; however, several factors will govern their success, including the repeatability and accuracy of HOA measurements for these irregular corneas, and the stability of the customised lenses on-eye.

The standardised approach of producing fashion products in conjunction with the fast fashion trend has triggered a throwaway culture where premature disposal of well- functioning fashion products is a major problem. However, a shift has been revealed with the emerging demand for personalised fashion, as opposed to standardised garments. Generation Z is known for its urge to showcase personal identity, which makes this consumer group a driver in the growing trend of customisation. The relevance of customisation in fashion is further fuelled by its capability to enhance consumers’ emotional attachment towards the customised product, which often results in the product being kept longer. The perceived consumer value of customisation is acquired from the final product as well as the co-design process. The purpose of this study is to investigate Generation Z’s perceived value of customised fashion products and the co-design process. The underlying objective is to explore if the concept of customisation has the potential of becoming more established in the future fashion industry. The study follows an abductive reasoning and adopts a mixed method research with the explanatory sequential design. This mixed method design is a two-phase approach starting with the collection and analysis of quantitative data, followed by the compiling and analysis of qualitative data. For the first phase, a self-administered online questionnaire was conducted. The second phase entailed semi-structured interviews, which were designed to make up for obscure results in the survey. The Consumer Perceived Value Tool (CPVT) served as a theoretical lens for analysis and guided the construction of the data collection tools. By means of the CPVT the study found that Generation Z particularly perceive value in the utilitarian and creative-achievement benefits of customised fashion. Moreover, the perceived self-expressiveness and hedonic value were deemed significant to the generation. Generation Z showed little evidence of perceiving value in the uniqueness benefit of customised fashion. Lastly, an additional perceived value of customisation was proposed and is related to environmental sustainability, which is acquired from the benefit of acting more responsibly.

There has been widespread interest in corneal biomechanics over recent years, driven largely by the advancements in, and the popularity of refractive surgery techniques and subsequent concerns over their safety. Lately there has been interest into whether crosslinking, which is currently used for the treatment of keratoconus, could be developed as a minimally invasive technique to change the refractive power of the cornea by selectively changing the corneal biomechanics in specific regions to induce a shape change. Successful application of this technique requires a detailed understanding of corneal biomechanics and so far, little is known about the biomechanics of this complex tissue. The current lack of understanding can be mostly attributed to the absence of a suitable measurement technique capable of examining the dynamic behaviour of the cornea under physiological loading conditions. This thesis describes the development of a novel full-field, ex vivo, measurement method incorporating speckle interferometric techniques, to examine the biomechanics of the cornea before and after crosslinking in response to hydrostatic pressure fluctuations representative of those that occur in vivo during the cardiac cycle. The eventual measurement system used for the experiments detailed in this thesis incorporated; an Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometer (ESPI), a Lateral Shearing Interferometer (LSI) and a fringe projection shape measurement system. The combination of these systems enabled the 3-dimensional components of surface displacement and the 1st derivative of surface displacement to be determined in response to small pressure fluctuations up to 1 mmHg in magnitude. The use of both ESPI and LSI together also enabled the applicability of LSI for measurement of non-flat surfaces to be assessed, and limitations and error sources to be identified throughout this work. To enable the measurement of corneal biomechanics, part of this thesis was concerned with the design of a bespoke loading rig. A chamber was designed that could accommodate tissue of both porcine and human origin. This chamber was linked to a hydraulic loading rig, whereby the cornea could be held at a baseline pressure representative of normal intraocular pressure and small pressure variations could be introduced by the automated vertical movement of the reservoir supplying the chamber. Experiments were conducted on a range of non-biological samples with both flat and curved surface topography, and both uniform and non-uniform mechanical properties, to determine if the measurement configuration was giving the expected measurement data and the loading rig was stable and repeatable. Following experiments on non-biological samples, a range of experiments were conducted on porcine corneas to develop a suitable testing methodology and address some of the challenges associated with corneal measurement, including transparency and hydration instability. During these investigations, a suitable surface coating was identified to generate an adequate return signal from the corneal surface, while not interfering with the response. Alongside this, the natural variation in the response of the cornea was investigated over the total experimental time, and a range of data was presented on corneas before and after crosslinking, which confirmed the suitability of the measurement methods for the assessment of crosslinking. Ultimately, a small sample size of six human corneas were investigated before and after crosslinking in specific topographic locations. From the experiments on human and porcine corneas, full-field maps of surface deformation have been presented, and a compliant region incorporating the peripheral and limbal areas has been identified as being fundamental to the response of the cornea to small pressure fluctuations. In addition to this, the regional effects of crosslinking in four different topographic locations on corneal biomechanics have been evaluated. From this, it has been demonstrated that crosslinking in specific regions in isolation can influence the way the cornea deforms to physiological-scale fluctuations in hydrostatic pressure and this could have implications for refractive correction.

Esta tese trata do desenvolvimento de materiais de apoio para o ensino de leitura em inglês em cursos técnicos e tecnológicos do Brasil, especialmente no âmbito da formação em Eletrotécnica e Engenharia Elétrica. Os objetivos do trabalho são dois: a) apresentar a Terminografia Didático-Pedagógica (TD-P), uma metodologia inédita para desenvolvimento de materiais didáticos para professores de ESP (English for Specific Purposes - Inglês para Fins Específicos); b) verificar, junto a professores, se a metodologia é útil e replicável. Essa metodologia baseia-se nos preceitos teóricos do ensino do ESP, da Terminologia de perspectiva Textual, da Teoria Sócio-Cognitiva da Terminologia e da Linguística de Corpus. Seguindo o trajeto da metodologia da TD-P, extraíram-se dados lexicais e gramaticais de um corpus composto pelo gênero textual relevante ao ambiente de ensino da Eletrotécnica e Engenharia Elétrica, a fim de construir um protótipo de um glossário idealizado para o trabalho com a área especializada em questão. Para tanto, primeiramente, compilaram-se 30 datasheets de 11 componentes elétricos, somando 21.467 tokens. A coleta de candidatos a termos se deu através das ferramentas AntConc (ANTHONY, 2004) e TermoStat (DROUIN, 2003). Procedeu-se então ao levantamento de necessidades dos aprendizes através da distribuição dos mesmos datasheets a 108 alunos de cursos técnicos e de graduação da área, os quais apontaram as construções lexicais que lhes causavam dúvidas. As informações obtidas foram contrastadas e cotejadas com a análise de um especialista da área de aplicação. Os dados obtidos com a comparação das coletas resultaram em diferenças específicas que auxiliaram a desenvolver o protótipo de ferramenta terminográfica, o GlossElectric. Para a verificação da opinião de outros profissionais sobre a replicabilidade da metodologia da TD-P, foi produzido um vídeo sobre a mesma, e este foi distribuído juntamente com um questionário a 11 professores especialistas em ensino de Inglês para fins específicos. Os resultados da verificação da metodologia apontam para um grau satisfatório de replicabilidade, com uma média de 84% de participantes considerando a metodologia altamente reproduzível em seu ambiente de trabalho. / The current thesis concerns the development of support material for the teaching of reading skills in English in technical courses in Brazil, especially regarding the areas of Electrotechnical/Electrical Engineering. There are two aims for this work: a) introducing the Didatic-Pedagogical Terminography (TD-P), a methodology for developing and building didatic material for ESP (English for Specific Purposes) teachers and professors; b) verify, among ESP professors, if they consider the methodology useful and replicable in other areas. This methodology is based on the theoretical precepts of the teaching of ESP, the Terminology of Textual Perspective, the Socio-Cognitive Theory of Terminology and Corpus Linguistics. Following the methodology’s steps, lexical and gramatical data was extracted from a corpus composed by the textual genre relevant to the teaching environment of Electrotechnical/Electrical Engineering, with the aim of building a prototype of an idealized glossary, in order to work with the mentioned technical area. 30 datasheets from 11 diffrent electrical components were compiled, with the total of 21.467 tokens. The term extraction was carried out using the tools AntConc (ANTHONY, 2004) and TermoStat (DROUIN, 2003). After that, there was a data collection to determine the needs of the learners of the technical area, who need to deal with the datasheets during their professional preparation. The same datasheets used on the term extraction were distributed to 108 students of technical and graduation courses in the Electrotechnical/Electrical Engineering domain. These students were asked to point out the lexical features that caused doubts regarding meaning. The data obtained was contrasted and submitted to the analysis of a specilist in the technical domain. The data obtained from the crossing resulted in specific differences which helped to develop the prototype of the terminographic tool, named GlossElectric. In order to verify the opinion of other professionals regarding the replicability of the TD-P methodology, a video was produced and sent together with a questionnaire to 11 professors who were specialised in ESP. The results of the methodology verification point to a satisfactory degree of replicability, with an average of 84% of participants considering the methodology highly reproducible in their work environment.

Thesis (MScEng (Industrial Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Current technology enables researchers to identify a broad spectrum of opportunities in the biomedical industry to develop new and innovative products. Imaging technology, such as Computerised Tomography (CT) scanners or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners, allow doctors to visualise a patient’s internal organs and bone structure in high quality three-dimensional images. Rapid Prototyping Technology (RPT) can already produce high quality complex parts, such as concept parts for the automobile industry and medical models for preoperative planning. These parts are divided into thin layers and manufactured layer by layer. At the same time the layers are joined together to produce the desired part. Generic artificial intervertebral disc implants already exist. However, these discs are only available in standard geometrical dimensions. The possibility of using imaging technology and RPT to design and manufacture a customized, patient specific implant will be investigated. A simple design (ball and socket) is used to illustrate the design process of a customized disc. It should be noted that this project does not attempt to design a new artificial intervertebral disc implant, but rather describes the design process. The research question is: How accurate can the customised disc implant’s inverse geometry represent the geometry of the vertebrae’s endplates? A preliminary research was done and the results were used to calculate the sample size for this study. A cadaver, provided by Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Health Sciences’ Anatomy and Histology Department, was CT scanned. The L4- and L5-vertebrae were dissected, cleaned and measured using a photogrammetry measuring machine. Meanwhile, the data gathered from the CT scan is used to design the customised disc implant. The disc is manufactured from Ti6Al4V using a RPT technique called Direct Metal Laser Sintering. After the part is manufactured it is also measured using a photogrammetry measuring machine. The photogrammetry data from the vertebrae and the manufactured customised disc implant are compared, analysed and a hypothesis is formed. It can now be determined, with a certain degree of confidence, how accurate the customised disc implant’s geometry can represent the geometry of the vertebrae’s endplates. The design of a customised disc implant demands many work hours from a qualified engineer or designer, which in turn increases the production costs. This study describes a user-friendly program which will semi-automate the design process. Only limited input from the physician will be required. This program will decrease design time, which will have a direct effect on the production costs. The manufacturing costs are investigated as well. The results from this study indicates that it is possible to design a customized prosthetic, with the help of a custom disc generator, within 27 minutes. The customized disc can then be manufactured with an accuracy of 0.37 mm using rapid prototyping. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Huidige tegnologie maak dit vir navorsers moontlik om ʼn breë spektrum geleenthede in die biomediese bedryf te identifiseer en nuwe produkte te ontwikkel. ʼn Pasiënt kan met ʼn Gerekenariseerde Tomografie (GT) -flikkergram of ʼn Magnetiese Resonansiebeelding (MRB) - masjien geskandeer word om sodoende ʼn drie-dimensionele beeld van sy of haar interne organe en beenstrukture te verkry. Deur gebruik te maak van snelle prototiperingstegnologie (SPT) kan daar alreeds enige komplekse geometriese vorm vervaardig word. Hierdie tegnologie word ingespan om parte, ontwerp met die hulp van RGO (Rekenaargesteunde Ontwerp), te vervaardig. Die spesifieke part word in dun lae opgedeel en daarna laag vir laag vervaardig. Terselfdertyd word die lae aan mekaar geheg, totdat die gewenste vorm gegenereer is. Die moontlikheid om ʼn GT-flikkergram én SPT te gebruik, met die doel om ʼn pasklaar-vervaardigde, persoon-spesifieke implantaat te ontwerp en te vervaardig, word in hierdie projek ondersoek. Daar bestaan alreeds generiese kunsmatige intervertebrale skyf-implantate (KISI’s). Hierdie skywe word egter beperk deurdat dit slegs in standaard geometriese dimensies vervaardig word. Met dié projek word die moontlikheid van ʼn pasklaar-vervaardigde intervertebrale skyf-implantate (PVKISI) vir ʼn bepaalde pasiënt, ondersoek. ʼn Eenvoudige meganiese ontwerp (bal-en-pootjie) word gebruik om die ontwerpproses van ʼn pasklaar-skyf in hierdie projek te beskryf. Let daarop dat die projek nie poog om ʼn nuwe kunsmatige intervertebrale skyf te ontwerp nie, maar om die ontwerpproses te beskryf. Die vraag wat ondersoek word, is: Hoe akkuraat kan ʼn PVKISI die inverse geometrie van die pasiënt se intervertebrale kontakoppervlaktes voorstel? ʼn Voorafgaande ondersoek is gedoen en die resultate is gebruik om die steekproef-grootte vir hierdie studie te bepaal. ʼn Kadawer, voorsien deur die Universiteit van Stellenbosch se Fakulteit Gesondheidwetenskappe se Departement Anatomie en Histologie, is met ʼn GT-flikkergram geskandeer. Die L4- en L5-werwels is gedissekteer, skoon gemaak en met ʼn fotogrammetriemeetmasjien gemeet. Intussen is die data, verkry van die GT-flikkergram, gebruik om die PVKISI te ontwerp. Die PVKISI is van Ti6Al4V vervaardig deur Direkte Metaal Laser-Sintering (DMLS). Die part is ook met ʼn fotogrammetrie-meetmasjien gemeet. Die fotogrammetrie-data van die werwels en die PVKISI is vergelyk, geanaliseer en ʼn hipotese is daar gestel. Daar kan dus met statistiese sekerheid bepaal word hoe akkuraat die PVKISI die inverse geometrie van die intervertebrale kontakoppervlaktes kan voorstel. Die ontwerp van ʼn PVKISI vereis baie werksure van ʼn gekwalifiseerde ingenieur of ontwerper, wat veroorsaak dat die vervaardigingskoste van so ʼn implantaat kan verhoog. In dié projek word ʼn gebruikersvriendelike koppelprogram beskryf wat die ontwerpproses semi-outomatiseer. Daar sal slegs beperkte bystand van die betrokke medici vereis word. Dié koppelprogram behoort heelwat te bespaar aan die hoeveelheid werksure bestee aan die ontwerp van die PVKISI, wat direk die koste van ʼn implantaat sal verlaag. Die kostes vir die vervaardiging van die PVKISI met DMLS is ook ondersoek om te bepaal hoe kostes bespaar kan word. Daar is getoon dat ʼn pasklaar-prostese se kontakoppervlaktes met ʼn akkuraatheid van 0.37 mm, deur snelle prototipering, vervaardig kan word. Deur van die koppelprogram, wat in die studie beskryf word, gebruik te maak, sal dit moontlik wees om ʼn pasklaar-protese binne 27 minute te ontwerp.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / People with physical disabilities recently had a great reintegration into society, this achievement together with new medical treatments, medicines and sports provided an increase in life expectancy. The sports practice as large contributor, requires special attention because it must be performed from prior evaluations to make suitable or not their realization. The heart is the main affected organ, therefore, cardiovascular evaluation is the prior way to diagnose diseases related to this.The ergometric test is the analysis most commonly used to diagnose an anomaly, however its performance in people with disabilities still uses adaptation in protocols and ergometers developed for people without disabilities.Therefore, it was proposed to develop a methodology for these people. Based on energy expenditure (MET) and in a specific ergometer for wheelchair, in consideration of based on each individual\'s physiological parameters. Such action was direct to the elimination of adjustments and minimization of results, sometimes not relevant to the real patient\'s condition. For the generation of such a protocol was created an app with a written algorithm in Matlab® program language. The app performs the most appropriate choice of the work to be overcome by each person during testing. Moreover, this paper also showed the direction to be taken for the improvement of ergometers of wheelchairs, in addition to a methodology that can be adopted for the development of protocols for other types of ergometers. In summary, the protocol/methodology proposed together with ergometers suitable for people with disabilities, will allow to perform more proper test for people with lower limb disabilities. / Pessoas com deficiência nos últimos tempos apresentaram uma grande reinserção na vida social, essa conquista aliada a novos tratamentos médicos, medicamentos e a prática de esportes proporcionaram um aumento na expectativa de vida. A prática de esportes como grande contribuinte, requer uma atenção especial, pois deve ser realizada a partir de avaliações prévias para tornar apta ou não a sua realização. O coração é o principal órgão afetado, sendo assim, a avaliação cardiovascular é o principal meio para diagnosticar doenças relacionadas este. O teste ergométrico é o exame mais utilizado para diagnosticar alguma anomalia, mas, no entanto, a sua realização em pessoas com deficiência ainda utiliza adaptações em protocolos e ergômetros desenvolvidos para pessoas sem deficiência. Sendo assim, foi proposto o desenvolvimento de uma metodologia própria para essas pessoas. Baseado no gasto energético (MET) e em um ergômetro específico de cadeira de rodas foi gerado um protocolo personalizado levando em conta os parâmetros fisiológicos de cada indivíduo. Tal ação foi direcionada para a eliminação de adaptações e minimização de resultados, às vezes, não pertinentes ao verdadeiro quadro clínico do paciente. Para a geração de tal protocolo foi criado um aplicativo com um algoritmo escrito na linguagem de programação Matlab®. O aplicativo realiza a escolha mais pertinente do trabalho a ser superado por cada indivíduo durante o teste. O trabalho mostrou ainda, a direção a ser tomada para o aperfeiçoamento de ergômetros de cadeiras de rodas, além de uma metodologia que pode ser adotada para o desenvolvimento de protocolos para outros tipos de ergômetros. Em suma, o protocolo/metodologia proposto aliado a ergômetros adequados para pessoas portadoras de deficiência, permitirá a realização de teste mais adequados para portadores de deficiência de membros inferiores. / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica