yes / Trips over obstacles are one of the main causes of falling in older adults, with vision playing an important role in successful obstacle negotiation. We determined whether a horizontal-vertical illusion, superimposed onto low-height obstacles to create a perceived increase in obstacle height, increased foot clearances during obstacle negotiation thus reducing the likelihood of tripping. Eleven adults (mean ± 1 SD: age 27.3 ± 5.1 years) negotiated obstacles of varying heights (3, 5, 7 cm) with four different appearance conditions; two were obstacles with a horizontal-vertical illusion (vertical stripes of different thickness) superimposed on the front, one was a plain obstacle and the fourth a plain obstacle with a horizontal black line painted on the top edge. Foot clearance parameters were compared across conditions. Both illusions led to a significant increase in foot clearance when crossing the obstacle, compared to the plain condition, irrespective of obstacle height. Superimposing a horizontal-vertical illusion onto low-height obstacles can increase foot clearance, and its use on the floor section of a double-glazing door frame for example may reduce the incidence of tripping in the home.

My dissertation offers the first complete compilation of all known examples of the door motif in Roman Italy, from its initial appearance in the second century BCE, to its disappearance in the early fourth century CE. My research expands the corpus from 91 examples to 242 examples. The door motif can be defined as the fundamental rather than incidental rendering of a door found in various media in Roman art. In this project, I examine seven types of works with this motif: domestic decorations, urns, altars, cippi, loculus slabs, stelae, and sarcophagi. Particular attention is paid to the distribution of this extant material, their chronology, context, formal characteristics, and any unusual features related to the door motif’s appearance. In addition, this dissertation includes catalogue entries with the most up-to-date information on the location, date, findspot, descriptions, and images of every example of the door motif found on the Italian peninsula. Despite considerable earlier literature on the door motif, the subject has not been systematically investigated. In current and previous scholarship, the door motif is often mentioned but almost always in passing, and primarily in relation to its appearance in funerary contexts or occasionally in domestic wall paintings. The two most extensive publications on the door motif, now forty-five years old, are incomplete and focus largely on the door’s symbolic meaning. My dissertation compiles and updates this existing scholarship to present the only comprehensive catalogue of door motif examples in Roman Italy. In addition, by gathering this previously disparate material, I use the catalogued group of objects to open new discussions that focus specifically on the depiction of the door. These discussions include the door’s formal characteristics, context, and frequency of its appearance. In re-examining the door motif and its representation more closely, this dissertation also provides a foundation for future scholars to ask new questions about the image’s meaning. Altogether, the materials presented in this dissertation provide a new foundation for the examination of the popular door motif and a springboard for future scholarship.

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Opening a door is still a hard problem in robotics. Many robotic manipulators use open-loop position control to open doors, which reduces reusability and reliability in the face of slight differences or sensor errors. Many others use force feedback or impedance control but skip past the problem of grabbing the handle, which could lead to failures due to sensor errors. This research assumes that perception is faulty, and uses joint-level force feedback to probe the location of the door and its handle before attempting to open it. The resulting control strategy is at least 33% faster than the open-loop control system it replaces, and had an 83% success rate during testing in place of the previous method's 60% success rate. / Master of Science

Recent exponential increases in attendance at wine tasting rooms resulted in growing research in this subject area as producers seek to learn more about wine tasting room customers and identify ways to capitalize on additional revenue-generating opportunities. Direct wine sales are big business with $3.4 billion in sales in the United States in 2010. Research has shown that small and medium-sized wineries have become financially dependent on direct sales linked to wine tasting rooms with an average of 70 percent of winery sales coming from the tasting room. With limited sources outlining best practices within wine marketing, there is a clear need to identify and classify the literature on this topic. This research applies a marketing theoretical approach using the 4Ps (product, place, price, and promotion) of the marketing mix in conjunction with a comprehensive citation-based global literature review, with the goal of assessing those factors, if any, which may impact wine tasting room profitability. Our findings highlight key differences in individual wine tasting room marketing mix strategies which emphasize the need to understand consumer tastes and preferences for the wine tasting experience. Research shows that investing in the product and promotion of the wine tasting room has a positive impact on profitability. Key profit drivers include investing in branding, tasting room staff, and aggressively pursuing word-of-mouth recommendations to enhance wine tasting room profitability. / Master of Science

Följande rapport bygger på examensarbetet inom CAD-teknikerprogrammet påHögskolan i Halmstad. Arbetet innefattar framtagning av ett höjdjusterbartarmstöd till bilförare, en produkt som inte finns på marknaden idag.Utförandet av arbetet har bl.a. inneburit kriterieuppställning med krav ochönskemål, framtagning av produktförslag i form utav skisser och 3D-modeller, valav material genom undersökningar, även protoyptillverkning och produktanalyser.En del vikt har lagts på att genomföra marknadsundersökningar för att se om detfinns ett intresse för produkten. / The following report is based on the final thesis within the CAD-technicianprogram at Halmstad University. The work includes the development of a heightadjustable armrest for the driver, a product that’s not available on the market yet.The execution of the work has involved a criterion lineup with demands andrequirements, development of product proposals in the shape of sketches and 3Dmodels, choice of materials through studies, prototypes were produced for producttesting. Some attention has been given to carry out market research to see if thereis an interest in the product.

This thesis presents a product development process, where an existing solution on a cab door have been analysed and developed, with the aim to result in a cost-effective concept solution for handling tolerances on the door frame. The methodological approach in this thesis is based on Volvo Construction Equipment’s development model; The Global Development Process, which started with a pre-study phase where the problem formulation was established. The problem formulation in short is to find a solution for how to handle narrow tolerances in steel profiles for the door weldment on cab doors. Various solution ideas were discussed and concepts were generated with focus to design a new cab door corner that would solve the problems addressed by the project. The applied method resulted in a final concept consisting of the same steel profiles but with new dimensions, and two new concepts in each corner; one corner module that is placed inside the steel profiles and joined by welding, and a plastic shell that covers the welded corner. The concept was validated using a prototype of the proposed solution, where tests show that the requirements were achieved, besides a few deficiencies. A cost comparison between the existing and the proposed solution was made within limitations for this thesis. The result of the cost comparison shows an indication of that the proposed solution can be more cost-effective than the existing solution. Some of the recommendations after have completing the project are to make a complete cost comparison to ensure that the indication is correct and to analyse the new components to optimize and define the dimensions of them.

La porte a été l’un des premiers éléments de l’architecture grecque a être monumentalisé. Le terme de «porte» fait ici référence à l’ensemble du dispositif, aussi bien les battants que l’encadrement. Ces deux éléments sont eux-mêmes composés de plusieurs parties mais seules celles en pierre, à savoir le seuil, les montants, le linteau et le couronnement nous sont parvenus. On retrouve également des scellements métalliques et des traces de scellement ou de placage en bois. Ces vestiges, associés à une étude des textes (traités, comptes de construction, récits de voyageurs), de l’iconographie (céramiques et reliefs) et à une comparaison avec d'autres monuments (trésors, tombes macédoniennes, etc.), permettent une reconstitution de l’ensemble. Outre son aspect fonctionnel, la porte du temple détient un rôle symbolique fort puisqu'elle fait le lien entre la sphère humaine et la sphère divine. La porte pose la question de l'accessibilité à la cella. S'ajoutent les clôtures d'entrecolonnement et les diverses barrières pouvant être autant de nouvelles limites à la circulation. L’étude porte sur les portes de temple de l’époque archaïque jusqu’aux Antonins en Grèce égéenne. Le choix des limites chronologiques et géographiques du sujet est motivé par une volonté d’uniformité et de continuité. Il s’agit d’une analyse systématique de la morphologie des portes ainsi que de la portée symbolique du dispositif dans son contexte architectural et de son rôle dans la scénographie du temple et du sanctuaire et dans les rites. / The door was one of the first element of Greek architecture to be monumentalized. The term "door" refers here to the whole system, as well as the door panels and the door frame. These two elements are themselves composed of several parts but only those in stone, namely the threshold, the jambs, the lintel and the coronation remain. There are also metal seals and traces of wood seals or veneer. These remains, together with a study of texts (treaties, construction accounts, travelers' tales ), iconography (ceramics and reliefs), and a comparaison with other monuments (treasuries, Macedonian tombs) allow a reconstruction of all in many cases . In addition to its functional aspect, door monumentalised has a strong symbolic impact as it separates the human world from the one of the gods. The study of the door is connected with the question of the access to the cella. We also consider the intercolumnation screens and various barriers that can be encountered in temples as they all are limits to the circulation within the building. The study will focus on the temple doors of the Archaic period to the Antonines constructions in aegean Greece. The choice of chronological and geographical limits of the subject was motivated by a desire for consistency and continuity. It will be a systematic analysis of the doors morphology and of the symbolic significance of the device in its architectural context and its role in the temple and sanctuary scenography and in the rituals.