In the field of sustainable manufacturing, a wide range of research has been carried out to attain the more effective use of natural resources and the reduction of environmental impacts during the whole product life cycle. This goal can be best achieved by promoting multiple-reuse of parts, sub-assemblies, or entire products. However, the decision toward reusing an old product depends on a variety of parameters with many uncertainties. Therefore, a comprehensive model to assess the reusability of products prior to the reuse decision is urgently needed. The objective of this research has been to develop a comprehensive assessment model, integrating technical, environmental, social, and economic aspects to evaluate the reusability of industrial products. The assessment model consists of four sub-models, which are a methodology to assess the quality and reliability of products, a model to translate the social responsibility aspect into warranty cost, a methodology to integrate environmental costs, and an economic model to accumulate total life cycle cost as the basis of the evaluation. The model also facilitates trade-offs between the factors to investigate the possibility to improve the reusability of a product. To apply the assessment model in the real business environment, a set of decisionmaking methodologies under different take-back scenarios has been developed as a guideline for manufacturers. Furthermore, as the existence of uncertainty in the reuse strategy is undeniable, a methodology to integrate uncertainties into the assessment model is also developed. The model validation, using three real cases collected from industrial partners on consumer and commercial products, has confirmed the applicability of the model to provide a useful tool to evaluate products at the end of their life cycle. The model also enables decision makers to disclose the risk associated with the decision, thus improving the quality of the decision. The results are in good agreement with the basic theory that the reuse and remanufacturing strategy is highly recommended from both environmental and economic reasons.

This thesis tells two intertwined stories about stories about nature. One, theoretical, asks what stories and histories do and why storytelling matters in place-making and policy-making. The second questions the effect of narratives of pristine nature on place-meanings in southwest New Zealand, serving as a case study to illustrate the abstract relationships of the first. Throughout reflexive consideration of my research journey as academic storytelling contributes to my theoretical arguments. Narratives help humans make sense of time and their place in the world. Stories and histories both shape new and reflect current understandings of the world. Thus narratives of nature and place are historically, geographically, and culturally specific. Place-meanings result from the geography of stories layered over time on a physical location. In the iterative process of continually re-presenting landscapes in specific places, negotiation between storytellers with variable power shapes physical environments and future place-meanings. This thesis uses the pristine story to explore these links between stories and histories, place-meanings, and policy decisions. From the arrival of New Zealand's first colonists to today's perceived "clean green" landscape, narratives distinguishing timeless nature from human culture have influenced policy-making in multiple ways. Focusing specifically on understandings of the conservation lands now listed by UNESCO as Te Wāhipounamu South-West World Heritage Area, I trace the origins and evolution of three dominant narrative strands - world heritage, national parks, and Ngāi Tahu cultural significance. Using post-colonial understandings of conservation as cultural colonization, I consider how the pristine narrative obscured Ngāi Tahu understandings of the area. I explore how the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 has begun to shift place-meanings by altering power-geometries between storytellers. Participant-observation in Department of Conservation visitor centres, however, illustrates that legislated stories and storytelling processes are expressed differently in representations of land in specific locations

Thesis (MFA)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 18).

Thesis (Ph. D. -- Systems and Industrial Engineering)--University of Arizona. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. - Watershed Management)--University of Arizona. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Colorado at Boulder, 2005. / Director: Marie T. Banich. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2007. / Thesis Advisor(s): Gordon McCormick. Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Jan 15, 2008). "June 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-52).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 279-306)

Project (D. Min.)--Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, 1976. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-108).

Thesis (M.S.)--Villanova University, 2007. / Psychology Dept. Includes bibliographical references.