Diploma thesis is dealing with the possibility of use of discrete event simulations in a production planning. The connection of the work measurement and the production planning is described. The thesis describes the modeling methodology, design and realization of the experiment with the model. The production planning part describes the processing of the data generated from the model, which are further used to demonstrate the planning method and optimization of the production plan.

This diploma thesis is based on creation of a simulation model of paint shop in the company ŠKODA AUTO a.s. The model was created in the simulation software Tecnomatix Plant Simulation. It is tested by simulation model whether the planned modifications in a buffer for sorting cars by their color would have positive effect on Perlenkette principle. The Perlenkette principle will help to stabilize supplier processes and reduction of running production times. Conclusions are deduced from carried out simulation experiments.

The presented thesis solves a flow through the artificial heart valves. The thesis concerns with a historic development of mechanical heart valves and their basic parameters. It also includes a short research about Dynamic mesh module, which is contained within ANSYS Fluent. An experiment with a real mechanical heart valve was done within the diploma thesis and obtained data were compared with physiological ones. One part of this work was a design of 3D model of real heart valve replacement. The model was used for fluid dynamic computations using the Dynamic mesh of ANSYS Fluent software. In the end are the results of experimental part and numerical solutions used for few suggestions that could improve the function of the artificial heart valve.

Presented diploma thesis deals with development of the autonomous electric energy source for Health and Usage Monitoring Systems placed at the rear part of a helicopter. Firstly, the HUMS systems were described briefly and the research of available energy sources was made after that. After that, the magnetic properties of the materials were described with the special focus on the permanent magnets. The draft also includes the creation of model of the magnetic field using the final element method. Prototype was assembled and the other design solutions were evaluated. The evaluation of various designs passed in the use of SOMA optimization algorithms. The generator is followed by the draft of the electronics, which streamlines and regulates a voltage supplied by the generator. At the end of the thesis, the complete source prototype was assembled and tested with two different regulators

The ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is dedicated to studying the deconfined medium called the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), which is formed at extreme energy densities in heavy-ion collisions. ALICE can study hadrons, photons, electrons and muons up to the highest multiplicities expected at the LHC and down to very low transverse momentum (p_T ~ 30 MeV/c) by employing excellent particle identification (PID) and tracking over a broad momentum range (p ~ 100 MeV/c – 100 GeV/c). It consists of the central barrel which covers mid-rapidity (|y|< 0.9) and the Muon Spectrometer covering the forward rapidity region (2.5<y<4). The Muon Spectrometer detects dimuons decaying from heavy quarkonia (e.g. J/Ψ) which are hard, penetrating probes as well as high-p_T single muons from W^± bosons which are initial-state observables. These probes are essential tools for determining medium induced effects and studying the initial conditions of the interaction. The W^± boson has a high mass of M_W = 80.385 ± 0.015 GeV and is therefore formed in the early stages of the collision. It decays to single muons (μ^±←W^±) which are detected in the high-p_T region (30 – 80 GeV/c). The high centre-of-mass energies (√s) obtained during proton-proton (pp) and lead-lead (Pb-Pb) collisions at the LHC are sufficient for the formation of the W^± boson. Due to the increase in luminosity for the LHC in 2011 it is now thought possible to perform a data analysis of the W^± boson in ALICE. The results can then be compared to previous performance studies and to results from other LHC experiments (ATLAS, CMS and LHCb). As a first requirement of the analysis, the effect of the alignment of the Muon Spectrometer has to be determined. Misalignment of the Muon Spectrometer could result in a systematic uncertainty in the measurement of the muon track, thereby influencing the efficiency of the detector. By analysing simulations of W^± boson signals generated with PYTHIA in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV with ideal and residual misalignment configurations of the detector, these alignment effects on the p_T and pseudorapidity (η) distributions, as well as the ratio (μ^+←W^+)/(μ^-←W^- ) (charge asymmetry) were studied using the AliROOT framework. It was found that the misalignment does cause a systematic uncertainty in the p_T distributions and charge asymmetry, especially in the region p_T > 40 GeV/c where the systematic uncertainty grows above 50 %. Analyses of Pb-Pb collisions conducted in 2011 at √(s_NN ) = 2.76 TeV were then performed on data reconstructed with original alignment information and data refitted with improved alignment information. They were compared to establish the effect of alignment on the single muon distributions. The improved alignment has a limited effect in the high-p_T region and therefore also on possible W^± boson studies. Due to lack of statistics at high-p_T the W^± boson signal and the nuclear modification factor (R_AA) could not be extracted, but it is foreseen that the extraction will later be possible with the use of 2012 pp and Pb-Pb data. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Physics / unrestricted

This project recognizes photographic space as a visualized form of spatial experience and tries to read unspecified spatial information in photos shared in social media. By exploring a photograph, I research how photography, which is a framing activity, has affected spatial experience and cognition. I try to re-build a space with photographs and compare the different characters of original space and photographic space by juxtaposition. The combination of original space and photographic space through a mechanism tool makes designers understand people’s experiential space over spatial hierarchy planned by designers. The project shows three-dimensional space made with photos using a photogrammetry method. It places original space and photographic space within a tool that mechanized the principle of Filippo Brunelleschi’s linear perspective. It highlights the multiple identities of space and visual form of photographic space. Also, by applying Henri Lefebvre’s theory to two different spaces and spatial practices, it gives a clue how designers can understand a photograph as a social product of spatial identity, an independent element from real space. A piece of space is an experiment spatial tool that draws people into multiple experienced spaces. It is tightly connected with spatial contexts; original space, photographic space and spatial practice by people. The whole process in the project consists of experiments that can explore the meaning of photographic space and how it can be positioned in reality. / <p>Some images have been removed for copyright reason.</p>

Lo studio presenta un analisi dettagliata sul comportamento dei giocatori d'azzardo. I dati sono stati raccolti tramite un esperimento condotto “sul campo” che ha osservato i giocatori durante la loro attività di gioco in un agenzia di scommesse. L'esperimento ha permesso di ottenere il grado di severità del disordine da gioco d’azzardo e i principali tratti comportamentali dei partecipanti. La misurazione di tali tratti ha permesso di comprendere quali tra questi, meglio prediceva l’insorgere del disordine da gioco d’azzardo. La seconda parte del lavoro è stata rivolta a studiare la possibile relazione causale tra attività di gioco e una possibile modifica dei tratti comportamentali. Inoltre la diretta osservazione dei giocatori durante l’attività di gioco ha permesso di avere una traccia dettagliata del loro comportamento di gioco. I risultati sottolineano importanti differenze tra i comportamenti dei giocatori osservati usando procedure sperimentali e i comportamenti osservati durante l’attività di gioco. Nel primo caso non è stato rilevato nessun impatto significativo sulle preferenze individuali dovuto all’attività di gioco. Nel secondo caso, invece, si trova conferma del fenomeno conosciuto come “diminishing sensitivity”. In altre parole, all’aumentare delle perdite subite durante l’attività di gioco aumenta la propensione al rischio dei giocatori. / The thesis presents a lab-in-the-field experiment collecting data on gamblers’ behaviour. The study provides an estimate of the incidence of Problematic Gambling (PG) among the usual customers of a large betting agency in Milan. We elicit in an incentivized manner a large battery of behavioural traits in order to investigate which of them are mostly characterizing PG. Moreover, we investigate a causal relationship between gambling activity and behavioural traits. We also keep detailed track of the gambling activity during the day of the interview to see which are the more interest patterns of the gambling activity. The results underline important differences between real and experimental observation. When we use experimental task to investigate a possible variation in risk preferences due to gambling activity we do not observe any significant impact on risk preferences. When we inspect risk preferences using data coming from the real gambling activity we find evidence of the diminishing sensitivity phenomenon. The more losses they have collected during gambling, the more is the risk that gamblers are likely to take in the subsequent bets. These results indicate that gamblers are not risk-seekers in general, but their risk propensity seems to rise when they are involved in gambling.

My dissertation consists of four chapters. In the first chapter, I use a laboratory experiment to analyze how individuals resolve an exploration versus exploitation trade-off. The experiment implements a single-agent exponential bandit model. I find that, as predicted, subjects respond to changes in the prior belief, safe action, and discount factor. However, I commonly find that subjects give up on exploration earlier than predicted. I estimate a structural model that allows for risk aversion, base rate neglect/conservatism, and probability mis-weighting. I find support for risk aversion, conservatism, and probability mis-weighting as potential factors that influence subject behavior. Risk aversion appears to contribute to the finding that subjects explore less than predicted. <div><br></div><div>In the second chapter, I use a laboratory experiment to analyze how a group of voters experiment with a new reform. The experiment implements the continuous time Strulovici (2010) collective experimentation model. I analyze a subset of data where groups and single decision makers should eventually prefer to stop experimentation and abandon the reform. I find three results that are consistent with the modeled experimentation incentives. In this subset of data, groups stop experimentation earlier than single decision makers, wait longer to stop experimentation as the number of revealed winners increases, and stop experimentation earlier than the utilitarian optimum predicts. However, I also find that both groups and single decision makers stop experimentation earlier than predicted. Additional treatments show that this result is unlikely to be explained by standard explanations such as incorrect belief updating or risk aversion. </div><div><br></div><div>In the third chapter, I use a laboratory experiment to investigate the role of group size in an innovation contest. Subjects compete in a discrete time innovation contest, based on Halac et al. (2017), where subjects, at the start of each period, are informed of the aggregate number of innovation attempts. I compare two innovation contests, a two-person and four-person contest, that only differ by contest size and have the same probability of obtaining an innovation in equilibrium. The four-person contest results in more innovations and induces more aggregate innovation attempts than the two-person contest. However, there is some evidence that the two-person contest induces more innovation attempts from an individual than the four-person contest. Subjects' behavior is consistent with subjects placing more weight on their own failed innovation attempts, when updating their beliefs, than their competitors' failed innovation attempts.</div><div><br></div><div>In the fourth chapter, I investigate the role of performance feedback, in the form of a public leaderboard, in innovation competition that features sequential search activity and a range of possible innovation qualities. I find that in the subgame perfect equilibrium of contests with a fixed ending date (i.e., finite horizon), providing public performance feedback results in lower equilibrium effort and lower innovation quality. I conduct a controlled laboratory experiment to test the theoretical predictions and find that the experimental results largely support the theory. In addition, I investigate how individual characteristics affect competitive innovation activity. I find that risk aversion is a significant predictor of behavior both with and without leaderboard feedback and that the direction of this effect is consistent with the theoretical predictions.</div>

La micro-finance vise à favoriser l'accès aux services financiers pour les personnes vulnérables exclues du système bancaire traditionnel. Elle apparaît en cela comme un outil de réduction des inégalités, notamment de genre, vis-à-vis de l'accès au crédit. Toutefois, en s'appuyant sur le cas de la principale institution de micro-finance tunisienne, ce travail de recherche montre que lorsque les conditions de crédit octroyées sont examinées, l'objectif de réduction des inégalités ne semble pas pleinement atteint. En effet, si l'institution favorise effectivement les femmes en ce qui concerne l'accès au microcrédit, et malgré le moindre risque qui représentent les femmes pour l'institution, celles-ci reçoivent malgré tout des montants de crédit inférieurs aux hommes, et ce tout au long de leur historique de crédit. En particulier, les femmes les plus ambitieuses sont les plus rationnées. La mise en perspective des analyses sur micro-données, données expérimentales et sur l'impact d'une formation sur les agents de crédit laisse penser que les inégalités hommes-femmes existantes en Tunisie et chez les clients participent de la construction de stéréotypes de genre chez les agents de crédit. Dans la mesure où une certaine place est laissée à la subjectivité dans les procédures d'octroi actuelles, certaines inégalités se reproduisent plus qu'elles ne se réduisent. / Microfinance aims at facilitating access to financial services for vulnerable people excluded from the traditional banking system. In that regard, it appears as a key tool to reduce inequalities, especially between men and women, to access credit. However, on the basis of a case study about the main Tunisian microfinance institution, this research work shows that when considering the loan conditions granted, the objective of inequality reduction is not fully achieved. If the institution indeed favors women in terms of access to credit, and despite the lesser risk female clients represent for the institution, women still receive lower loan amounts than men all along their credit history. The most ambitious women are in particular the most rationed ones. Putting the analyses on microdata, experimental data and impact assessment of a training on loan officers into perspective suggests that gender inequalities existing in Tunisia and among clients contribute to create gender-based stereotypes among loan officers. Since current granting procedures leave some room for subjectivity, some inequalities are reproduced instead of reduced.

Cette recherche propose de déployer le concept de fétichisme afin d’étudier des rapports d’ordre magique entre les consommateurs et les produits dans le contexte de la consommation contemporaine. Le fétichisme du produit est conceptualisé comme un construit multi-dimensionnel, mettant en exergue l’attribution d’une aura et d’un pouvoir extraordinaire au produit. Elle explore le mécanisme pouvant mener un consommateur exposé à une publicité exagérée à développer à terme un rapport fétichiste au produit annoncé. Pour ce faire, cette recherche propose une conceptualisation et un instrument de mesure du fétichisme dans le contexte de la consommation contemporaine en se fondant sur une étude qualitative et deux études visant à la construction d’une échelle de mesure valide et fiable de ce construit. Une survey est menée afin de montrer que le fétichisme du produit découle d’une attente transformationnelle vis-à-vis du produit. Enfin, une expérimentation est mise en œuvre pour mettre en évidence l’influence de la mobilisation d’un slogan exagéré dans une annonce publicitaire sur le développement d’attentes transformationnelles chez le consommateur. Les résultats de cette étude montrent que l’usage d’un slogan exagéré dans une publicité a bien une influence sur les attentes transformationnelles vis-à-vis du produit dans le cas où la publicité est associée à une marque inconnue. Pour une marque connue, un slogan factuel est plus à même de susciter des attentes transformationnelles vis-à-vis du produit présenté dans la publicité et donc potentiellement un rapport fétichiste au produit. / This research studies the concept of fetishism as a magical relationship to products in the context of contemporary consumption. Fetishism is conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct underlining the attribution of an aura and magical powers to a product. This research explores the way consumers develop fetishist relationships to products through exposure to puffed ads. To do this, this research introduces a conceptualization and a scale of fetishism in the context of contemporary consumption by conducting a qualitative exploratory study as well as two scale development studies. We also carry out a survey to show how product fetishism stems from transformation expectations about the product. Finally, we conduct an experiment to demonstrate the way a magical puffed claim in an ad influences the emergence of transformation expectations for the consumer. The results show that magical puffed claims positively influence transformation expectations only if the advertised brand is unknown by the respondent. The results also suggest that a known brand rather provoke transformation expectations through factual claims.