This study offers a philosophical hermeneutic of design. It aims to achieve this by exploring William Desmond’s metaphysics, specifically his fourfold sense of being, and how it relates to design. Desmond’s fourfold sense of being is a valuable lens through which to understand being and the dynamic relations that constitute being. It consists of the following: the univocal sense of being; the equivocal sense of being; the dialectical sense of being; and the metaxological sense of being. This study suggests that Desmond’s fourfold sense of being not only speaks to the rich complexity of being, but can also be a valuable lens through which to understand the ontological richness of design and to explore different approaches to problem-solving methodologies in design. / Dissertation (MA (Information Design))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / UP Postgraduate Masters Research Bursary (2020) / Visual Arts / MA (Information Design) / Unrestricted

A broadband coupling approach applied to a single mode, sol-gel, planar integrated optical waveguide (IOW) was used to create a multichannel attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectrometer. Initial attempts to create an achromatic coupling element for sol-gel waveguides, based upon previous work applied to vacuum deposited glass devices, did not lead to an easily achievable design. Instead a simplified, non-achromatic approach based upon impinging an incident light beam with a large numerical aperture onto an incoupling prism was used. This simplified broadband coupling approach was used to create a sol-gel IOW-ATR spectrometer that transmitted light down to at least 400 nm, and produced a measurable bandwidth of ~ 250 nm; both phenomena are marked improvements upon the capabilities of previously reported devices. An experimental demonstration of this device proved it capable of measuring the visible spectrum of a thin film of horse heart cytochrome c adsorbed to the sol-gel surface at a submonolayer coverage. The broadband spectral capabilities of this sol-gel device were also used to experimentally validate a new method for determining the angular orientation of molecules bound to an arbitrary waveguide surface. In addition to the sol-gel IOW work, the simplified broadband coupling approach was applied to a previously reported multilayered electroactive waveguide device, which was used to collect electrically modulated, broadband spectra for thin films of cytochrome c, as well as a dicarboxyferrocene moiety. Both of these IOW-ATR spectrometers represent improved tools for probing the near-surface chemical environments of molecular assemblies.

In thin film solar cells there is a front contact layer called TCO, transparent conducting oxide. This layer requires high conductivity and high transmittance. Different materials such as Tin doped indium oxide (ITO) and Aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) are current good alternatives but several other materials are investigated to find even better materials. One of them is tungsten doped indium oxide (IOW). This project was about investigating the deposition process for IOW and characterize the properties of IOW thin film to investigate the possibilities for implementing this material as a contact layer in thin film solar cells. The results from the two batches of depositions varied a lot. Some samples came out dark, but some were transparent and had a high transmittance, suitable for a TCO. The highest transmittance reached through this process was around 95 % in the infrared (IR) range and around 90 % in the visible range. When it comes to the resistivity, no IOW-samples reaches desired levels for a TCO. The lowest resistivity reached was 6.36 * 10-4 W cm. The results showed that the sample with the lowest resistivity was the undoped material, which is contradicting the current theory on the subject. The lowest resistivity for the IOW film was 6.50 * 10-3 W cm.

Ces travaux de recherche portent sur l’étude de l’injection du cuivre. Dans une optique d’amélioration des propriétés du cuivre injecté sous pression, deux grands thèmes de réflexion ont été abordés. La première voie de réflexion porte sur l’influence des paramètres de fusion et d’éléments d’alliages ajoutés en faible quantité sur les caractéristiques des démonstrateurs technologiques produits. La seconde partie discute de l’influence du procédé de fonderie en lui-même, notamment au travers de l’étude de deux paramètres : l’influence du régime d’écoulement du métal en fusion dans l’empreinte, et l’influence de l’emprisonnement de l’air sur les propriétés des pièces injectées. / This research focuses on the study of high pressure die casting (HPDC) of copper. In order to improve the properties of die-cast copper, two main issues were investigated. In the first part, attention is paid to the influence of melting parameters and of addition of alloying elements in small amounts on the characteristics of the specimen produced. The second part discusses the influence of the foundry process itself on properties of die cast part, in particular by studying two parameters : the metal flow type during cavity filling, and the air entrapment.