In modern business of machine manufacturing, there is a growing tendency towards design of custom tailored products. The construction of the product usually is changed during the customization according to the requirements of the customer. The examples of such products are refrigerators, metal and wood processing machines, elevators, escalators, hoisting cranes, trucks, etc. Customizable products of this type are more expensive than mass or batch produced ones, but they are much less expensive than one-off or small batch production. The product configuration methods are used for creating construction variants. These methods contain two main phases: initially a set of all available variants of product construction are modeled, later a specific product variant is selected with respect to the customer’s criteria. This set of all product variants is further called the product configuration model. If there is no such construction variant that meets customer’s requirements in the product configuration model created in advance, then the new variant has to be designed and included into the configuration model. The aim of this work is to develop the method for defining variants of product’s construction. Using this method, new variants of product construction model should be created faster and easier, being composed from the constituent parts, their properties, and constraints defining relations of the parts. Following tasks were accomplished in this work: to analyze the existing... [to full text] / Užsakovams pritaikytų gaminių projektavimo procesas šiuo metu yra paplitęs mašinų gamyboje ir kitose pramonės šakose. Šio proceso metu gaminio konstrukcija keičiama atsižvelgiant į užsakovo poreikius. Tokie gaminiai yra metalo ir medžio apdirbimo staklės, liftai, eskalatoriai, kranai, sunkvežimiai ir pan. Nors pritaikytas pagal poreikius gaminys yra brangesnis už serijiniu būdu padarytus gaminius, tačiau jis žymiai pigesnis už vienetinius gaminius. Mašinų ir įrenginių konstrukcijos projektams sudaryti iš sudedamųjų dalių yra naudojami gaminio konfigūravimo metodai. Šių metodų pagrindinis trūkumas yra tas, kad papildyti gaminio konfigūravimo modelį yra sudėtinga. Kuriant naujus gaminių konstrukcijų variantus yra naudojamos tik modelyje esančios sudedamosios dalys, bet nenumatomas būdas kurti naują konstrukcijos projektą iš labiausiai panašios modelyje esančios gaminio konstrukcijos. Nepakankamai įvertinama, kad gaminio konfigūravimo modelis dažnai keičiamas ir tobulinamas. Taip pat reikalinga galimybė gaminio konfigūravimo modelyje kurti naujas sudedamąsias dalis, plečiant gaminių pasiūlą ir atsiradus naujiems užsakovų poreikiams. Šio darbo tikslas – sukurti gaminio konstrukcijos variantų sudarymo ir parinkimo metodą, kurį taikant būtų greičiau ir lengviau kuriami nauji gaminio konstrukcijos modelio variantai naudojant sudedamąsias dalis, jų savybes ir galimų ryšių tarp sudedamųjų dalių ribojimus. Siekiant tikslo, buvo sprendžiami šie uždaviniai: ištirti esamus gaminio... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

In contemporary transpersonal theory, women‟s experiences of transformation have largely been overlooked. This study seeks to answer the question, what are women‟s lived experiences of the path of transformation through self-other relationships? In setting the stage for the study, the researcher identifies two transpersonal theorists, Wilber and Almaas, and describes their models of consciousness development. She then outlines the feminist critique of existing psychological literature and the need for exclusively female research. Following is an inclusion of themes that have been extracted from the existing literature, themes which represent the biases of the researcher in what she expected to encounter in the current research. Further is a description of existentialism and the role it plays in inviting women to embark on a journey of transformation. The methods employed by the researcher were qualitative phenomenological-hermeneutics. Seven females participated in a three-stage interview process, whereby information was gathered via interviews, then further transcribed and interpreted. This information was then synthesized and presented in a thematic analysis where women‟s experiences were categorized into four separate stages. Finally, the sub-themes of each stage were compared to the stages of development as illustrated by Wilber and Almaas. Ultimately it is concluded that women‟s experiences are highlighted by the relational nature of self-development, and the cyclical process of the journey itself. / ix, 218 leaves ; 29 cm

A phenomenological-hermeneutic method of study was employed to ascertain whether archetypal psychology could contribute to the biopsychosocial model's understanding of gambling pathology. After analysis, four-stage process was brought to light, consisting of 16 themes. These themes chronologically illustrated the journey of becoming and recovering from pathological gambling disorder from inception to the present day. Equally, these themes illustrated developmental aspects of the individuation process and displayed how the archetypes' manifestation and integration helped to restore ego functioning leading to an established and sustained recovery process. In all, these stages demonstrate and suggest that archetypal psychology can make a viable contribution to the biopsychosocial model's understanding of gambling pathology. Therefore, the study's findings may support further study between archetypal psychology and gambling pathology, as this perspective may have important insights toward helping pathological gamblers gain a foothold on their addictive process leading to a meaningful and purposive future. / ix, 232 leaves ; 29 cm.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.

My thesis exhibition, ‘A PART OF THE WHOLE,’ explores self-portraiture by assembling paintings of close-up images of my skin from underappreciated body parts. I paint the textures of my hands and feet as evidence of artistic labor striving for the continuation of artistic creativity. The thesis exhibition includes conventional paintings assembled paintings, installations, and items from the studio. The easels serve two purposes: presenting the paintings and functioning as metaphorical backbone supporting skin paintings. Lastly, a cast of my own face serves as a death mask that functions as an authentic seal of artistic authorship for my thesis exhibition.

Capacity pooling in production systems, in the form of production capacity or inventory pooling, has been extensively studied in the literature. While production capacity pooling has been proven to be beneficial, the impact of inventory pooling has been less significant. These results cannot be easily extended to repairable systems due to fundamental differences between repairable and production systems. For one thing, in repairable systems, the demand rate is a function of the number of operational machines, whereas it is exogenous and constant in production systems. In this Thesis, to serve different fleets of machines possibly at different locations, we study whether repair shop pooling is more cost effective than having dedicated on-site repair shops for each fleet. In the first model, we consider transportation delays and related costs, which have been traditionally ignored in the literature. We include on-site spare-part inventories that operate according to a continuous-review base-stock policy. Our numerical findings indicate that when transportation costs are reasonable, repair shop pooling is a better alternative. Next, we model a pooled repair shop that fixes failed components from different k-out-of-n:G systems. We permit a shared spare parts inventory serving all systems and/or reserved spare parts inventories for each system; we call this a hybrid model. The destination for a repaired component can be chosen either on a first-come-first-served basis or by following a static priority rule. Our findings show that both hybrid policies are more cost effective than having separate repair shops and inventories for each system. We propose implementing the multilevel rationing (MR) policy in systems with shared inventory. The MR policy prioritizes classes, and stops serving a class from inventory if the inventory level is below the inventory threshold identified for that class. When there is no inventory, the repaired component is sent to the highest priority class among those with down machines. To approximate the cost of the MR policy, we study an M/G/1//N queueing system serving multiple classes of customers with an unreliable server. Our numerical findings indicate that the MR policy performs as well as the epsilon-optimal policy and outperforms the hybrid policies.

Capacity pooling in production systems, in the form of production capacity or inventory pooling, has been extensively studied in the literature. While production capacity pooling has been proven to be beneficial, the impact of inventory pooling has been less significant. These results cannot be easily extended to repairable systems due to fundamental differences between repairable and production systems. For one thing, in repairable systems, the demand rate is a function of the number of operational machines, whereas it is exogenous and constant in production systems. In this Thesis, to serve different fleets of machines possibly at different locations, we study whether repair shop pooling is more cost effective than having dedicated on-site repair shops for each fleet. In the first model, we consider transportation delays and related costs, which have been traditionally ignored in the literature. We include on-site spare-part inventories that operate according to a continuous-review base-stock policy. Our numerical findings indicate that when transportation costs are reasonable, repair shop pooling is a better alternative. Next, we model a pooled repair shop that fixes failed components from different k-out-of-n:G systems. We permit a shared spare parts inventory serving all systems and/or reserved spare parts inventories for each system; we call this a hybrid model. The destination for a repaired component can be chosen either on a first-come-first-served basis or by following a static priority rule. Our findings show that both hybrid policies are more cost effective than having separate repair shops and inventories for each system. We propose implementing the multilevel rationing (MR) policy in systems with shared inventory. The MR policy prioritizes classes, and stops serving a class from inventory if the inventory level is below the inventory threshold identified for that class. When there is no inventory, the repaired component is sent to the highest priority class among those with down machines. To approximate the cost of the MR policy, we study an M/G/1//N queueing system serving multiple classes of customers with an unreliable server. Our numerical findings indicate that the MR policy performs as well as the epsilon-optimal policy and outperforms the hybrid policies.

The implicit and low-level part definition data, provided by geometric modeling cannot be used by downstream applications. Therefore, feature based modeling concept has been introduced to integrate CAD and downstream applications. However, due to the lack of implicit and explicit standard representations for features and unmanageable number of possible predefined features without standardization, feature based modeling approach has proved to be inadequate. STEP AP224 provides a standard for both implicit and explicit representations for manufacturing features. This thesis presents STEP AP224 features based modeling for rotational parts. The thesis covers features extracted from STEP AP224 for rotational parts and their definitions, classifications, attributes, generation techniques, attachment methods and geometrical constraints. In this thesis a feature modeler for rotational parts has been developed. STEP AP224 features generated are used as the basic entities for part design. The architecture of the proposed system consists of two three phases: (1) feature library, (2) feature modeler and (3) preprocessor. Preprocessor responsible from STEP-XML data file creation. The data file created can be used in the integration CAPP/CAM systems without using a complex feature recognition process. An object-oriented design approach is used in developing the feature modeler to provide incremental system development and reusability.

In this thesis, the numerical solution of time-dependent partial differential equations (PDE) is studied. In particular high-order finite difference methods on Summation-by-parts (SBP) form are analysed and applied to model problems as well as the PDEs governing aerodynamics. The SBP property together with an implementation of boundary conditions called SAT (Simultaneous Approximation Term), yields stability by energy estimates. The first derivative SBP operators were originally derived for Cartesian grids. Since aerodynamic computations are the ultimate goal, the scheme must also be stable on curvilinear grids. We prove that stability on curvilinear grids is only achieved for a subclass of the SBP operators. Furthermore, aerodynamics often requires addition of artificial dissipation and we derive an SBP version. With the SBP-SAT technique it is possible to split the computational domain into a multi-block structure which simplifies grid generation and more complex geometries can be resolved. To resolve extremely complex geometries an unstructured discretisation method must be used. Hence, we have studied a finite volume approximation of the Laplacian. It can be shown to be on SBP form and a new boundary treatment is derived. Based on the Laplacian scheme, we also derive an SBP artificial dissipation for finite volume schemes. We derive a new set of boundary conditions that leads to an energy estimate for the linearised three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. The new boundary conditions will be used to construct a stable SBP-SAT discretisation. To obtain an energy estimate for the discrete equation, it is necessary to discretise all the second derivatives by using the first derivative approximation twice. According to previous theory that would imply a degradation of formal accuracy but we present a proof that this is not the case.

The investigation of the dynamics of chemical reactions, both from the theoretical and experimental side, has drawn an increasing interest since Ahmed H. Zewail was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. On the experimental side, new techniques such as femtosecond lasers and attosecond lasers enable laser control of chemical reactions. Numerical simulations serve as a valuable complement to experimental techniques, not only for validation of experimental results, but also for simulation of processes that cannot be investigated through experiments. With increasing computer capacity, more and more physical phenomena fall within the range of what is possible to simulate. Also, the development of new, efficient numerical methods further increases the possibilities. The focus of this thesis is twofold; numerical methods for chemical reactions including dissociative states and methods that can deal with coexistence of spatial regions with very different physical properties. Dissociative chemical reactions are reactions where molecules break up into smaller components. The dissociation can occur spontaneously, e.g. by radioactive decay, or be induced by adding energy to the system, e.g. in terms of a laser field. Quantities of interest can for instance be the reaction probabilities of possible chemical reactions. This thesis discusses a boundary treatment model based on the perfectly matched layer (PML) approach to accurately describe dynamics of chemical reactions including dissociative states. The limitations of the method are investigated and errors introduced by the PML are quantified. The ability of a numerical method to adapt to different scales is important in the study of more complex chemical systems. One application of interest is long-range molecules, where the atoms are affected by chemical attractive forces that lead to fast movement in the region where they are close to each other and exhibits a relative motion of the atoms that is very slow in the long-range region. A numerical method that allows for spatial adaptivity is presented, based on the summation-by-parts-simultaneous approximation term (SBP-SAT) methodology. The accuracy and the robustness of the numerical method are investigated. / eSSENCE