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No description available.

Thesis advisor: James P. Morken / (+)-Discodermolide is a marine natural product and is one of the most potent microtubule stabilizers in human cell lines. Because of its unique linear structure and important properties, a number of total syntheses of (+)-discodermolide and its derivatives have been reported. Herein, an efficient, highly convergent, and stereocontrolled total synthesis is presented (Chapter 2). The synthesis relied on the development of three catalytic and stereoselective processes: platinum-catalyzed asymmetric diene diboration, nickel-catalyzed diastereoselective hydroboration of chiral dienes (Chapter 1), and nickel-catalyzed borylative diene-aldehyde coupling (see Chapter 4). Combination of these reactions allows preparation of the target in a short sequence. Moreover, the development of rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric hydroformylation (Chapter 3) makes this approach the first Roche ester free (+)-discodermolide synthesis. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.

The condition monitoring of multi-component systems utilizes multiple sensors to capture the functional condition of the systems and allows the sensor information to be used to reason about the health information of the systems or components. Chapter 3 considers the situation when sensor signals capture unknown mixtures of component signals and proposes a two-stage vibration-based methodology to identify component degradation signals from mixed sensor signals in order to predict component-level residual lives. Specifically, we are interested in modeling the degradation of systems that consist of two or more identical components operating under similar conditions. Chapter 4 focuses on the interactive relationship between tool wear (component degradation) and product quality degradation (sensor information) that widely exists in multistage manufacturing processes and proposes a high-dimensional stochastic differential equation model to capture the interaction relationship. Then, real-time quality measurements are incorporated to online predict the residual life of the system. Chapter 5 develops a strategy of dynamic workload adjustment for parallel multi-component systems in order to control the degradation processes and failure times of individual components, for the purpose of preventing the overlap of component failures. This chapter opens a new research direction that focuses on the active control of degradation rather than only the modeling part.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第23924号 / 工博第5011号 / 新制||工||1782(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科合成・生物化学専攻 / (主査)教授 浜地 格, 教授 古川 修平, 教授 杉安 和憲 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DGAM

För att åstadkomma samarbete mellan agenter i dataspel har utvecklare under lång tid använt sig av traditionella AI-tekniker såsom skriptning och tillståndsmaskiner. Dessa tekniker har dock ett flertal problem som gör att alternativa tekniker där samarbete istället evolveras fram blir intressanta att studera. I detta arbete har effekterna av egenskaperna begränsade synfält, brusig indata samt hinder på evolution av samarbete med en sådan teknik, Multi-Component ESP, utvärderats. En experimentmiljö utvecklades baserad på samarbetsproblemet CMOMMT. I denna miljö utfördes sedan fem olika experiment där respektive egenskap först testades enskilt och sedan alla tre i kombination. Resultaten av dessa visade att ingen av egenskaperna enskilt har någon effekt men däremot att kombinationen av alla egenskaper har en stark negativ effekt på evolutionen. Eventuella framtida inriktningar inkluderar att undersöka vilken kombination av två egenskaper som bidragit mest till detta resultat samt hur egenskapernas effekter kan variera mellan olika problemdomäner.

Although the suspended droplet evaporation and combustion have been studied for decades, fundamental research pertaining to the stochastic phenomena of complex multicomponent mixtures is extremely rare. In this work, an experimental suspended droplet study of Arabian light oil was held to study the frequency of puffing and micro-explosion phenomena during the evaporation/pyrolysis process. The experiments were conducted at three different evaporation temperatures (350 C, 440 C, and 570 C), chosen in accordance with the TGA profle obtained. The suspended droplet experiments were conducted on a furnace with optical access and a gas controlled-preheating system. The droplet size was optically registered at 500 fps by a LaVision Imager Pro HS high-speed camera coupled with a magnification lens Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 105 mm. Furthermore, a computer-vision data postprocessing program was developed to identify contours and measure the size of the objects in the frame in order to register the temporal evolution of the droplet size. Additionally, a new approach for characterizing the droplet vaporization of complex multi-component fuels is proposed. This method allowed us to study the continuum (ideal evaporation) and stochastic processes separately, by following the profile of the average normalized square diameter ((D=D0)2) and quantifying the breakup intensity (β) of each stochastic event. Based on the behavior of (D=D0)2, two consecutive stages were identified at every temperature investigated, the swelling and the regression stage. At 350 ◦C and 440 ◦C, the evaporation was finally controlled purely by the diffusion evaporation, whereas at 570 ◦C a pure diffusion stage was not spotted. Instead, a second swelling was registered, where an amorphous carbonaceous structure was formed. Due to the pyrolysis of the heavy hydrocarbons dominated the process. The stochastic events involved during the evaporation were successfully identified and classified in breakup modes depending on their β. Additionally, the effect of the temperature on the breakup events was assessed. Showing that the number of breakup events increased exponentially with temperature.

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No description available.

This dissertation will investigate how Product Performance Contracts are organized in Multi Component Systems contexts that proliferate contemporary OEM industries. The last two decades have seen a big change in both practice as well as the product engineering technologies that form the ecosystem within which suppliers and buyers negotiate the scale and scope of their transaction contracts. While we have seen the focus of industrial procurement move from specifications based contracts to performance based contracts, we are also witnessing a burgeoning technological capability that allows remote monitoring of product performance. These capabilities are part of the interconnectivity driving the much-touted Internet of Things (IoT) technology and at the heart of the Industrial Big Data ecosystem. The dissertation will attempt to explain three major phenomena in the industrial buyer and seller relationship in the context of Multi Component System Industries. First, we uncover the factors that explain the choice of product performance contract specificity between the OEM and suppliers. We first set up an analytical model to explain the notion of an optimal contract specificity level and predict and further empirically test the role of different factors in the choice of contract specificity. We find that while the technology uncertainty decreases the level of optimal contract specificity, OEM’s transaction specific investment, unconstrained mixing-and-matching of branded component, and extent of product monitoring technology increases the level of optimal contract specificity. Second, we provide empirical evidence that any deviation from optimal contract specificity erodes value in the form of an increase in total transaction cost. In our transaction cost efficiency model, we also illustrate with a precise granularity that under-specified contracts lead to more ex-post dispute costs, and over-specified contracts lead to more ex-post contract monitoring cost and ex-ante contract writing cost. Third, we investigate how contracts, investments in strategic capabilities such as monitoring technology, the overall firm strategy, and transaction costs determine the firm performance. We find that not every transaction cost is a dead weight loss in terms of product performance. Most notably we find that ex-post dispute costs are associated with higher product performance when there is a major incident such as component failure between the OEM and the supplier. Methodologically, this dissertation proposes to use a combination of field work, mathematical modeling, conceptual theory building, and empirical analysis of primary data about firm practices. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)