Magister Educationis - MEd / The main aim of the study was to investigate change of programmes of study at University of the Western Cape (UWC). This involved examining the extent, nature and possible range of factors which shape change of programmes. The factors influencing choice to study at UWC and choice of programmes formed the background for understanding the link between choice and change of programmes. The study focused on first-time entering undergraduates in selected faculties: Arts, Economics and Management Sciences (EMS) and Community and Health Sciences (CHS). The progression “pathways†of these students were tracked from first year of enrolment in 2001 to 2004. The findings of the longitudinal data showed that the percentage of students who changed their programmes in the Faculty of Arts and in CHS was very minimal. In total 5% changed their programmes in CHS in three-year programmes while in four-year programmes only 2% changed their programmes. In the Faculty of Arts in three-year and four-year programmes change of programmes ranged from 6% to 10%. The significant change of programmes of study happened in EMS which also had the highest enrolments. In total 18% of the students changed their programmes. It appeared from the statistical data that failure and academic exclusion could be associated with change of programmes of study. Other factors such as financial problems, poor grouping of courses, exploring and changing to preferred programmes as well came out from the interviews as major influences of change of programmes. / South Africa

This thesis presents a reliability analysis of a technical system. It is divided into three main sections. The first section introduces some of the most significant problems of reliability. It deals with a definition and an expresion of reliability, a reliability diagram selection and a detailed description of the reliability analysis. This part also includes an overview of reliability analysis types. Some of the most widely used reliability analyses are briefly described; further advantages and disadvantages of using each method are listed. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis - FMEA is then described in a greater detail. The second section contains an analysis of aviation conditions as well as a design of a reliability analysis that concerns a selected digital system; the system under analysis is a pitch trim indicator. The main design issue lies in a choice of a most suitable method. This choice stems from the overview of reliability analyses presented in the first section of the thesis. In the last section, a FMEA reliability analysis of the pitch trim indicator is conducted. This part includes a discussion of the results as well as a design action that is to lead to an increase in reliability of the analyzed system.

The object of this diploma thesis is to perform Functional Hazard Assessment of small four-seat aircraft according to Federal Aviation Regulations Part 23, which would be similar to present aircrafts on market. Input data were acquired by research of systems aircrafts use on current market. On this basis the Functional Hazard Assessment was performed ad aircraft level. Total loss of power supply was qualified as Catastrophic therefore is used in following assessment. A preliminary failure rate assessment of typical parts used in electrical system was performed at the end of diploma thesis. For the most crucial parts a simple model was created and failure rate computed.

The dissertation describes the technical analysis of the pipe material of gray cast iron, which is developed on the basis of historical documents and standards. The technical analysis is a methodology for determining the technical state and theoretical residual life of the pipe section made of cast iron, which is processed into a software application Kozel 1.0. The proposed methodology operates on the basis of multi-criteria decision making. For input the data methodologies are designed to monitor the operators of water supply networks. The output of the methodology is to determine the category of the technical condition of the pipe section and time stamp, minimum and maximum residual lifetime analysis pipeline segment. Outputs of the methodology are compared with the outputs of medium-term plans of Ostrava and Brno.

Marine renewable energy promises to provide a significant contribution to the future electricity supply. It is estimated that 17% of today's UK electricity demand could be generated from wave and tidal sources. The ambition to harvest this resource is in the public interest, as it eases the pressures on energy security, holds the potential to reduce carbon emissions and has the prospect to create a new UK industry sector worth £15 billion. From an engineering perspective, marine energy is one of the least developed renewable energy technologies and has to be regarded as unproven. The reliability of components and devices in the harsh marine environment is one of the main engineering challenges. Reliability assessments and the assurance of acceptable reliability levels are dependant on the adequacy of failure information, which is scantily available for marine energy. This thesis shows that large failure rate uncertainties impede the reliability assessment for wave energy converters and how a suite of experimental, numerical and statistical methods can be applied to improve scarcely available reliability information. The analysis of component load conditions identifies fatigue as failure mode of concern and the fatigue life of mooring lines and marine power cables is quantified in a floating wave energy application. A Bayesian statistical approach and dedicated service-simulation component testing is proposed, and implemented to improve the quality of reliability estimates and to provide relevant data and assurance. The methods presented, along with the results, will assist reliability assessment and design during early development stages, and will inform the prediction of maintenance requirements during operation. Reliable marine energy systems will be the technical enabler for the successful transition of prototype devices to a commercially viable marine energy industry.

Les mécanismes hyperstatiques sont souvent utilisés dans l’industrie pour garantir une bonne tenue mécanique du système et une bonne robustesse aux écarts de fabrication des surfaces. Même si ces assemblages sont très courants, les méthodologies d’analyse de tolérances de ces mécanismes sont difficiles à mettre en oeuvre.En fonction de ses écarts de fabrication, un assemblage hyperstatique peut soit présenter des interférences de montage, soit être assemblé avec jeu. Dans ces travaux de thèse, nous avons appliqué la méthode des polytopes afin de détecter les interférences de montage. Pour un assemblage donné, le polytope résultant du mécanisme est calculé. Si ce polytope est non vide, l’assemblage ne présente pas d’interférence. Si ce polytope est vide, l’assemblage présente des interférences de montage. En fonction du résultat obtenu, deux méthodes d’analyse distinctes sont proposées.Si l’assemblage est réalisable sans interférence le polytope résultant du mécanisme permet de conclure sur sa conformité au regard de l’exigence fonctionnelle. Si l’assemblage présente des interférences de montage, une analyse prenant en compte la raideur des pièces est réalisée. Cette approche est basée sur une réduction de modèle avec des super-éléments. Elle permet de déterminer rapidement l’état d’équilibre du système après assemblage. Un effort de montage est ensuite estimé à partir de ces résultats pour conclure sur la faisabilité de l’assemblage. Si l’assemblage est déclaré réalisable, la propagation des déformations dans les pièces est caractérisée pour vérifier la conformité du système au regard de l’exigence fonctionnelle.La rapidité de mise en oeuvre de ces calculs nous permet de réaliser des analyses de tolérances statistiques par tirage de Monte Carlo pour estimer les probabilités de montage et de respect d’une Condition Fonctionnelle. / Over-constrained mechanisms are often used in industries to ensure a good mechanical strength and a good robustness to manufacturing deviations of parts. The tolerance analysis of such assemblies is difficult to implement.Indeed, depending on the geometrical deviations of parts, over-constrained mechanisms can have assembly interferences. In this work, we used the polytope method to check whether the assembly has interferences or not. For each assembly, the resulting polytope of the mechanism is computed. If it is non empty, the assembly can be performed without interference. If not, there is interferences in the assembly. According to the result, two different methods can be implemented.For an assembly without interference, the resulting polytope enables to check directly its compliance. For an assembly with interferences, a study taking into account the stiffness of the parts is undertaken. This approach uses a model reduction with super elements. It enables to compute quickly the assembly with deformation. Then, an assembly load is computed to conclude on its feasibility. Finally, the spreading of deformation through the parts is calculated to check the compliance of the mechanism.The short computational time enables to perform stochastic tolerance analyses in order to provide the rates of compliant assemblies.

La mise à l'échelle de la technologie CMOS classique augmente les performances des circuits numériques grâce à la possibilité d'incorporation de composants de circuit supplémentaires dans la même zone de silicium. La technologie FDSOI 28nm de ST Microélectroniques est une stratégie d'échelle innovante qui maintient une structure de transistor planaire et donc une meilleure performance sans augmentation des coûts de fabrication de puces pour les applications basse tension. Il est important de s'assurer que l'augmentation des fonctionnalités et des performances ne se fasse pas au détriment de la fiabilité réduite, ce qui est assuré en répondant aux exigences des normes internationales ISO26262 pour les applications critiques dans les environnements automobile et industriel. Les entreprises de semi-conducteurs, pour se conformer à ces normes, doivent donc présenter des capacités d'estimation de la fiabilité au stade de la conception du circuit, qui est pour l'instant évaluer qu'après la fabrication d'un circuit numérique. Ce travail se concentre sur le vieillissement des standard cell et des circuits numériques avec le temps sous l'influence du mécanisme de dégradation du NBTI pour une large gamme de variations de processus, de tension et de température (PVT) et la compensation de vieillissement avec l'application de la tension à la face arrière (Body-Bias). L'un des principaux objectifs de cette thèse est la mise en place d'une infrastructure d'analyse de fiabilité composée d'outils logiciels et d'un modèle de vieillissement dans un cadre industriel d'estimation du taux de défaillance des circuits numériques au stade de la conception des circuits développés en technologie ST 28nm FDSOI. / Scaling of classical CMOS technology provides an increase in performance of digital circuits owing to the possibility of incorporation of additional circuit components within the same silicon area. 28nm FDSOI technology from ST Microelectronics is an innovative scaling strategy maintaining a planar transistor structure and thus provide better performance with no increase in silicon chip fabrication costs for low power applications. It is important to ensure that the increased functionality and performance is not at the expense of decreased reliability, which can be ensured by meeting the requirements of international standards like ISO26262 for critical applications in the automotive and industrial settings. Semiconductor companies, to conform to these standards, are thus required to exhibit the capabilities for reliability estimation at the design conception stage most of which, currently, is done only after a digital circuit has been taped out. This work concentrates on Aging of standard cells and digital circuits with time under the influence of NBTI degradation mechanism for a wide range of Process, Voltage and Temperature (PVT) variations and aging compensation using backbiasing. One of the principal aims of this thesis is the establishment of a reliability analysis infrastructure consisting of software tools and gate level aging model in an industrial framework for failure rate estimation of digital circuits at the design conception stage for circuits developed using ST 28nm FDSOI technology.

Neste trabalho é proposta uma nova distribuição de quatro parâmetros denominada distribuição log-logística exponenciada geométrica, baseada em um mecanismo de dupla ativação para modelar dados de tempo de vida. Para esta nova distribuição, foi realizado um estudo da função de densidade de probabilidade, da função de distribuição acumulada, da função de sobrevivência e da função de taxa de falha, a qual apresenta formas que podem modelar dados de tempo de vida, tais como: forma crescente, decrescente, unimodal, bimodal e forma de U. Obteve-se expansões da função de densidade, expressões para os momentos de probabilidade ponderada, função geradora de momentos, desvios médios e as curvas de Bonferroni e de Lorenz. Considerando dados censurados, foi utilizado o método de máxima verossimilhança para estimação dos parâmetros. Analogamente também é proposto um modelo de regressão baseado no logaritmo da distribuição log-logística exponenciada geométrica com dupla ativação, que é uma extensão dos modelos de regressão logística exponenciada e logística. Este modelo pode ser usado na análise de dados reais, por fornecer um melhor ajuste que os modelos de regressão particulares, logística exponenciada e logística. Finalmente, são apresentados duas aplicações para ilustrar a utilização da nova distribuição. / In this work, we propose a new distribution with four parameters the so called exponentiated log-logistic geometric distribution based on a double mechanism of activation for modeling lifetime data. For this new distribution, we study the density function, cumulative distribution, survival function and the failure rate function which allows major harzad rates: increasing, decreasing, bathtub, unimodal and bimodal failure rates. We also obtain the density function expansions and the expressions for the probability-weighted moments, moment generating function, mean deviation and Bonferroni and Lorenz curves. Considering censored data, we use the maximum likelihood method for estimating the parameters. Similarly, we also propose the regression model based on the logarithm of the exponentiated log-logistic geometric distribution with double activation, which is an extension of the exponential logistic and logistic regression models. This new model could be widely used in the analysis of real data to provide a better fit than exponetial logistic and logistic regression models. Finally, two applications are presented to illustrate the application of the new distribution.

Magister Public Health - MPH / This is a qualitative study, the aim of which is to explore experiences influencing the academic performance of 1st Year nursing students at the Western Cape College of Nursing, South Africa, during 2008 when the College was confronted with unprecedented failure rates among 1st Year students. It describes the College's collaboration with a higher education institution and the changes that emanated from this collaboration. The influence of situational factors on 1st Year nursing students is explored. These include the legacy of the inequality of past learning opportunities, institutional factors which hamper students' sense of belonging, and the social and academic integration of students into their learning environment. The methodology used in the process of exploring these factors included focus group discussions with students and in-depth interviews with staff in order to explore their respective perceptions of the problem. From this it is hoped that the quality of human resources for health will be enhanced. / South Africa

<p>This is a qualitative study, the aim of which is to explore experiences influencing the<br /> academic performance of 1st Year nursing students at the Western Cape College of Nursing,<br /> South Africa, during 2008 when the College was confronted with unprecedented failure rates<br /> among 1st Year students. It describes the College‟s collaboration with a higher education<br /> institution and the changes that emanated from this collaboration. The influence of<br /> situational factors on 1st Year nursing students is explored. These include the legacy of the<br /> inequality of past learning opportunities, institutional factors which hamper students‟ sense of<br /> belonging, and the social and academic integration of students into their learning<br /> environment. The methodology used in the process of exploring these factors included focus<br /> group discussions with students and in-depth interviews with staff in order to explore their<br /> respective perceptions of the problem. From this it is hoped that the quality of human<br /> resources for health will be enhanced.</p>