published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

<p>The aim of this study was to investigate if there exists a prototypical example of the notion <em>game</em> in two cultures, Sweden and Minnesota, USA, and in that case, if it is the same or if possible similarities are greater within generations, regardless of nationality.</p><p>A questionnaire asking informants to name, in their eyes, typical games was sent to 48 Americans and 53 Swedes. The informants from each country were divided into age groups. The answers were analyzed and compared in different ways. Five out of six groups showed a great similarity in mentioning the game <em>Monopoly</em> as a typical game. Differences were also found. For example, sports were brought up to a higher degree in Minnesota than in Sweden, and the young groups differed from the other groups in the way that many respondents mentioned <em>Computer games </em>and <em>Video games.</em></p>

People continually make evaluations of their own and other people’s romantic relationships using various terms of relationship quality. Although relationship quality has been examined intensely among relationship researchers, existing theories have different views on what constitutes relationship quality (e.g., Rusbult, 1980; Sternberg, 1986). In five studies, I used a prototype approach to identify core features of relationship quality which are important for relationship functioning. I proposed that these core features are shared across relationship quality concepts (i.e., commitment, intimacy, love, passion, satisfaction, trust, and relationship quality; Fletcher, Simpson, & Thomas, 2000). Thus, I examined how shared and unique features of relationship quality concepts play a role in romantic relationship functioning. In Study 1, university students listed characteristics of each of the relationship quality concepts. These lists showed both shared features across concepts (e.g., caring, honesty, loyalty, and good communication) and unique features for each concept. In Study 2, another group of university students and a community sample rated how central each feature is to a corresponding concept. The results indicated that shared features were rated as more central to each of the concepts than the unique features. In Study 3, university students rated how important each feature is for good relationship functioning. Overall, as predicted, shared features were rated as more important for relationship functioning than unique features. I recorded reaction times in Study 4 as an implicit measure of judgments about whether shared and unique features were good indicators of relationship functioning. Participants made judgments on shared features more quickly than on unique features. Finally, Study 5 examined how the presence of these prototype features would be related to people’s evaluation of their ongoing romantic relationships. The presence of shared features and unique prototypical features predicted positive relationship evaluation more strongly than the presence of unique non-prototypical features. Overall, the results of these five studies support the idea that there are core characteristics of relationship quality across concepts (i.e., shared features). The current research makes contributions to the area of relationship research by identifying important aspects in evaluating the quality of romantic relationships.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

People continually make evaluations of their own and other people’s romantic relationships using various terms of relationship quality. Although relationship quality has been examined intensely among relationship researchers, existing theories have different views on what constitutes relationship quality (e.g., Rusbult, 1980; Sternberg, 1986). In five studies, I used a prototype approach to identify core features of relationship quality which are important for relationship functioning. I proposed that these core features are shared across relationship quality concepts (i.e., commitment, intimacy, love, passion, satisfaction, trust, and relationship quality; Fletcher, Simpson, & Thomas, 2000). Thus, I examined how shared and unique features of relationship quality concepts play a role in romantic relationship functioning. In Study 1, university students listed characteristics of each of the relationship quality concepts. These lists showed both shared features across concepts (e.g., caring, honesty, loyalty, and good communication) and unique features for each concept. In Study 2, another group of university students and a community sample rated how central each feature is to a corresponding concept. The results indicated that shared features were rated as more central to each of the concepts than the unique features. In Study 3, university students rated how important each feature is for good relationship functioning. Overall, as predicted, shared features were rated as more important for relationship functioning than unique features. I recorded reaction times in Study 4 as an implicit measure of judgments about whether shared and unique features were good indicators of relationship functioning. Participants made judgments on shared features more quickly than on unique features. Finally, Study 5 examined how the presence of these prototype features would be related to people’s evaluation of their ongoing romantic relationships. The presence of shared features and unique prototypical features predicted positive relationship evaluation more strongly than the presence of unique non-prototypical features. Overall, the results of these five studies support the idea that there are core characteristics of relationship quality across concepts (i.e., shared features). The current research makes contributions to the area of relationship research by identifying important aspects in evaluating the quality of romantic relationships.

With the recent advancement on robotics and CAD/CAM technologies, an articulated robot has been applied as a multi-axis CNC machine for producing complex/large prototypes. However, the single-robot machining technology can only offer limited machining capability due to its limited degrees of freedom, restricted reach and inherent singular points. To overcome the problems, a dual-robot workcell has been developed. / The development of the dual-robot workcell is presented in this thesis. It consists of four main parts, namely: kinematic modelling and postprocessor development; dual-robot programme generation and its control; robot calibration; and implementation of the system. / Kinematic models were constructed to establish the analytical description for both robots in the workcell, and therefore an accurate control of positions and orientations of each robot could be achieved in the machining process. In addition, a postprocessor was successfully developed for the dual-robot workcell to achieve the integration of three major types of five-axis machining configurations. These are the tool/workpiece-tilting type, the workpiece-tilting type and the tool-tilting type. / A robot path generation module was developed to automatically generate the programmes required for both robots to machine components. Furthermore, a PC-based distributed control architecture for the dual-robot workcell was implemented to control the robots to execute concurrent motions for machining operations. The robot controllers communicated successfully with each other via the architecture / A camera-aided method was proposed for calibrating the positioning accuracy of the dual-robot workcell. The method was implemented and provided sufficiently good results for prototyping tasks, with the calibrated accuracy approaching to the robot's repeatability. / Finally, several experiments were conducted to verify the current prototyping capability of the dual-robot workcell. From the results of prototyping spherical and sculptured surfaces, the dual-robot machining shows greater advantages over single-robot machining in terms of machining productivity and quality. / The result shows that the proposed scheme is an effective approach to complement existing CNC and single-robot machining techniques for achieving rapid and flexible prototyping. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.