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Architecture as an act of social intervention is the concept of this project. Careful consideration of context and surrounding as well as community needs are the forces behind the creation of a building that is both a place of transition and interaction; a place that both philosophically and programmatically intends to enhance the life of the town's population by promoting social and civic togetherness. Through the architectural concept of flexibility it is my intention to make a center that would not only house several permanent activities at once, but will also be able to host as many types of temporary activities as the community can imagine. The building intervening as a social unifier provides both the local and the university communities a place to interact and play together. The chosen site is ideal for this project, since its location is considered as a bridge between downtown and the university campus, thus making it easier to generate an activity space where both could meet throughout the year. The proposed building design reflects this "bridge" condition of the site by turning itself into an urban icon of different qualities; the building that becomes a plaza, the plaza that becomes a building. / Master of Architecture

Abstract Today’s business environment involves a globalised market, greater than before competition and more challenging customers, all factors which contribute to higher uncertainty and variability. Manufacturing flexibility is becoming more important in order to cope with the complexity of products through frequency volume changes and evaluations of the technological requirements of products. The research for this thesis was performed within a subcontractor company, Laserkraft AB, who focus on laser cutting, turning and welding processes in their production. The company utilises a variety of volume and product mixes, which is in correlation with the objective of this study. The purpose of this research was to investigate the common source drivers in order to achieve volume and product mix flexibility on batch production systems. First, a literature review was conducted in order to build the framework of common source factors between volume and product mix flexibility. Then, a single case study was conducted to examine the outcomes of framework on batch production. In this case, qualitative techniques included interviews and an observation of the shop floor. The analysis of this study was conducted with empirical research on a case study and theoretical framework from literature. From the literature stand point; it was found that flexible manufacturing competencies (FMC) and strategic flexibility approaches are two main elements to determine internal source drivers between volume and product mix flexibility. The groups of common source factors were then analysed with respect to characteristics of batch production systems at the chosen company. A comparison between the framework and the empirical findings identified source drivers in order to achieve volume and product mix flexibility. Due to the limited nature of the study, all source factors that have an impact on achieving volume and product mix flexibility might not be presented in this thesis. Besides, it is difficult to generalise the result on a single case study. As a result, each organisation and industry refers to their product, process and type of layout, and requires a group of practices to achieve volume and product mix flexibility. This thesis concludes with the top three common source factors between volume and product mix flexibility such as: set-up time reduction, multi-trained employees and advanced manufacturing technology.

Design problems in engineering are typically complex, and are therefore decomposed into a hierarchy of smaller, simpler design problems by the design management. It is often the case in a hierarchical design problem that an upstream design team’s achievable performance space becomes the design space for a downstream design team. A Bayesian network classifier is proposed in this research to map and classify a design team’s attainable performance space. The classifier will allow for enhanced collaboration between design teams, letting an upstream design team efficiently identify and share their attainable performance space with a downstream design team. The goal is that design teams can work concurrently, rather than sequentially, thereby reducing lead time and design costs. In converging to a design solution, intelligently narrowing the design space allows for resources to be focused in the most beneficial regions. However, the process of narrowing the design space is non-trivial, as each design team must make performance trade-offs that may unknowingly affect other design teams. The performance space mapping provided by the Bayesian network classifier allows designers to better understand the consequences of narrowing the design space. This knowledge allows design decisions to be made at the system-level, and be propagated down to the subsystem-level, leading to higher quality designs. The proposed methods of mapping the performance space are then applied to a hierarchical, multi-level metamaterial design problem. The design problem explores the possibility of designing and fabricating composite materials that have desirable macro-scale mechanical properties as a result of embedded micro-scale inclusions. The designed metamaterial is found to have stiffness and loss properties that surpass those of conventional composite materials. / text

The model of psychological flexibility and inflexibility presented within an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) framework is one that is multifaceted and complex. Until recent years, however, measurement of the construct of psychological flexibility has largely been conducted in a unidimensional manner across research and clinical contexts. The emergence of the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI; Rolffs et al., 2016) has remedied this situation by providing the first assessment of its kind to simultaneously capture each dimension of the full psychological flexibility model in a theoretically consistent manner. The current study intends to provide independent validation of the MPFI’s psychometric properties and to further solidify the measure’s utility in more comprehensively measuring ACT constructs for research and clinical contexts. The study will examine the MPFI’s convergence with related measures, its predictive validity with pertinent outcomes, and its utility in relation to the current standard of psychological flexibility measurement.

Sweden has since a few years back suffered from a bottleneck in the power transmission lines stemming from a lack of “space” on the grid that transports the power that is generated in the northern parts to the middle and southern parts of the country. A long-term solution would be to increase the grid's capacity by building more transmission lines, however in the meantime, a short-term solution would be to increase our power flexibility. Meaning that the energy consumption gets moved from hours of high demand to hours with low demand and by shutting off equipment. This is called power flexibility and has been researched more in recent times in projects like this. This project will mainly focus on demand-side flexibility which is about how the consumers use their electrical power. In collaboration with Uppsala Arenor och Fastigheter, power usage in one of the company’s properties will be made more flexible. This is achieved by mapping how much power each part of the property utilizes and estimating how much power the electrical equipment in that area consumes. Then determining if that piece of equipment can be either rescheduled to avoid hours of high-powerdemand in Uppsala or turned off without causing major consequences to the property. From this it will be decided if it can be added as a flexibility resource and after that the total power flexibility of the facility will be tallied. Lastly, suggestions on how to implement the power flexibility resources and recommendations for further improvements in future projects will be made. The results of the project were that the selected property Studenternas had an average power usage of 185kW during the day and of that 38% could be utilized as a power flexibility resource. The total power flexibility was therefore 71.2 kW which comes from the laundry rooms and the arena lighting while the other places in the facility contributed with a neglectable amount.

Delay discounting (DD) and self-regulation are important predictors of substance use disorder (SUD) outcomes. Further, regulatory flexibility (RF; i.e., selecting, monitoring, and adapting coping techniques based on contextual demands) is related to psychological resilience. However, studies have yet to examine associations between DD, RF, and remission from SUDs. Individuals (N = 148) in SUD recovery completed the Context Sensitivity Index (CSI), the Flexible Regulation of Emotional Expression (FREE) Scale, and the Perceived Ability to Cope with Trauma (PACT) Scale to assess RF and, an Adjusting Amount Delay Discounting Task. T-tests were used to examine differences in RF and DD by remission status. Univariate linear regressions were used to examine the relationship between RF and DD. Finally, mediation models examined the dynamic relationship between DD, RF, and remission status. Remitted individuals (n=82) had significantly lower DD rates (p<0.001) and higher context sensitivity (p<0.001) and coping flexibility (p<0.001). There were significant negative associations between DD and context sensitivity (p=0.008), coping flexibility (p=0.002), and emotion regulation flexibility (p<0.001). Finally, context sensitivity (p=0.023) and coping flexibility (p=0.007) mediated the relationship between DD and SUD remission. Results suggest that individuals in recovery with broader temporal windows can better identify contextual demands and flexibly cope, contributing to improved SUD recovery outcomes. / M.S. / Preference for immediate gratification (also called delay discounting), and self-regulation (the ability to control one’s emotions) are related to addiction outcomes. Regulatory flexibility - a self-regulation process by which individuals select and adapt their coping strategies based on their situation - is related to improved mental health outcomes. However, research studies have yet to examine the relationship between regulatory flexibility and delay discounting in individuals with a history of drug and/or alcohol dependence. Using a sample from an online addiction recovery research and support community called the International Quit and Recovery Registry, the current thesis examined the relationship between delay discounting and regulatory flexibility grouped by substance use disorder clinical diagnoses amongst 148 individuals. Group comparisons suggested that individuals in remission (i.e., no longer meet criteria for clinical diagnosis of addiction) were better able to delay gratification and were better able to flexibly regulate their emotions compared to individuals who relapsed. When examining the relationship between delay discounting and regulatory flexibility, we found that individuals’ who preferred delayed rewards over immediate rewards were better able to flexibly self-regulate, suggesting that being able to delay gratification is an important component of effective coping, together contributing to improved addiction recovery outcomes.

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The Labor Pension Act¡]LPA¡^was passed by the Taiwan Legislative Yuan on June 11, 2004 and the implementation date is July 1, 2005. The significant difference between the existing Taiwan Labor Standards Law (TLSL) and LPA is that LPA is a portable defined contribution (DC) type of scheme. Employers shall contribute on a monthly basis to the Labor Pension Fund by contributing maximum 6% of monthly wage into the individual pension fund accounts. The raised staffing cost is foreseeable and was expected to turn into a heavy burden to employers. To decrease the cost of staffing and the turnover rate, this study focuses on the reactions that enterprises would plan to take and response to. However, the new LPA was not carried out officially during the study period, we conclude the exploratory findings through the questionnaire to understand what type of flexibility practice that employers¡¦ plan to take and what kind of impact on organizational performance will be made. We selected the sample companies from manufacturing, services and financial industries from¡m2003 CommonWealth Magazine Top 1600 Enterprises Ranking¡n. In all, 137 of 630 HR managers to whom we sent surveys returned the questionnaires, this yielding a response rate of 21.75%. The findings are summarized as follows: 1.The larger scale of organization, the more tendencies toward numerical flexibility and financial flexibility practice. 2.Organizations that plan to exercise numerical flexibility practices e.g., layoff, severance, downsizing etc, expect the negative effects on organizational performance. 3.Organizations that plan to exercise functional flexibility expect the positive effects on organizational performance. Organizations plan to adopt job-rotations expect the enhancement of organizational performance. 4.Organizations that plan to exercise financial flexibility do not expect the noticeable positive effects on organizational performance. Among financial flexibility practices, organizations that plan to adjust current fringe benefits expect the negative effect on organizational performance. 5.Organizations that plan to execute the improved HRM exercises expect the improvement of the organizational performance. 6.Organizations that plan to exercise the numerical and financial flexibility expect to lead to tense relationships between workers and employers in the future.