Modern jewellery making techniques can be very seductive, not least the ease with which an artist can design a piece on a computer and forego the time-consuming, and often frustrating, process of manufacture. But, the question needs to be asked: is something being lost by the artist who absents themselves from that part of the process? In this essay, I argue that such artists are subjected to a truncated creative process. Their design doesn’t come up against the limits of the material, and that of their own abilities. They aren’t forced to modify or refine their design in the face of such obstacles. By contrast, the artist with a handmade approach, such as Peter Bauhuis or Karl Fritsch, continues to have input by physically participating in the manufacture of the piece. The hurdles they must overcome in realizing their idea stimulate and extend the creative process, and the result can be a superior piece. But it doesn’t always turn out that way. The nature of the process is such that the artist can hit a brick wall and have nothing to show for their efforts other than wasted time and material. But it’s worth the risk. The increasing homogenization of culture has lead to a reaction of individuality, and a return to some old ways: the artisanal approach. Adorning one’s body with jewellery is part of a person’s attempt to define and express that individuality, and nothing can express that uniqueness like a custom, one-off piece. A handmade piece. This isn’t a new idea, of course, and it finds expression in ancient aesthetics, such as the raw beauty of wabi-sabi, right up to the work of more contemporary practitioners, whose work is discussed here.

The growth of the heterotrophic plate count in distribution system, causing deterioration of drinking water quality, is called biological re-growth or after-growth. There are many methods to solve above problems such as disinfecting and washing in pipeline. Among them, to lower the concentration of assimilable organic carbon(AOC) in drinking water under a certain level is showed the best control method for inhibiting the growth of microorganisms. AOC is showed as an item of the organic amounts by using microorganisms. The samples of water after disinfecting is took into bacterial of P17 and NOX. Then we measure the growth number counts of two kind of bacterial in their plate to transfer and obtain the concentration of AOC. In this study we investigate the variation of AOC in a tradition water treatment plant and its distribution system by using the results of sampling and analysis of the related items of water quality. Results showed the proportional of AOC-P17 was highest in contains of AOC. The removal of AOC during processes of water treatment was effectively found. But the pre-chlorination caused the increase of AOC level in water let the concentration of AOC be detected over 50£gg acetate-C/L in treated water and the distribution system. AOC level decreased with the increasing distance of distribution system. For the well relation with drinking water quality and treatment units, we should control the biological stability to obtain a good water quality of treated water. Finally we analysis 13 items of water quality by using AutoNet(6.03) with AOC to do the prediction model work. After data simulation and training analysis, three models of AOC prediction (denoted as WTP, Distribution system and WTP& Distribution system) were obtained. The comparisons of three models in inner and outer verification showed good correlation results as well.

Environmental microbiology has traditionally been performed using culture-based methods. However, in the last few decades, the emergence of molecular methods has changed the field considerably. The latest development in this area has been the introduction of next-generation sequencing, including pyrosequencing. These technologies allow the massively parallel sequencing of millions of DNA strands and represent a major development in sequencing technologies. The purpose of this study was to use both pyrosequencing and traditional culture-based techniques to investigate the diversity and dynamics of bacterial populations within milk and untreated sewage sludge samples. Pasteurized and raw milk samples were collected from grocery stores and dairies within Texas. Milk samples were analyzed by plating, pyrosequencing, and an assay for the presence of cell-cell signaling molecules. Samples were processed, stored, and then evaluated again for spoilage microflora. The results of this study showed that raw milk had a considerably higher bacterial load, more diversity between samples, and a significantly higher concentration of pathogens than pasteurized milk. Additionally, this study provided evidence for varying spoilage microflora between raw and pasteurized milk, as well as evidence for the production of cell-cell signaling molecules by bacterial organisms involved in milk spoilage. Four samplings of untreated sewage sludge were collected from wastewater treatment plants in seven different municipalities across the United States. Samples were subjected to quantification of selected bacterial organisms by culture and a pyrosequencing analysis was performed on extracted community DNA. The results of this study showed that untreated sewage sludge is inhabited by a huge diversity of microorganisms and that certain municipalities may have distinct bacterial populations that are conserved over time. Additionally, this study provided some evidence for seasonal differences in several of the major bacterial phyla. Lastly, this study emphasized the challenges of comparing results obtained by culture and pyrosequencing. In conclusion, this study showed that both milk and sewage are highly diverse, dynamic environments that can contain organisms of public health concern. The use of both culture-based methods and pyrosequencing in this study proved a complementary approach, providing a more comprehensive picture of both microbial environments.

In this study, mixing is identified to be the most crucial step during the pre-processing process of extruded food and feed stocks. This study therefore aimed to investigate different mixing techniques in an effort to identify the most effective method and its feasibility to pilot plant application for food extrusion processing. The study furthermore considered the methods of mixing with the view to incorporating the identified method in a standard portable cargo container. The research included an investigation and the design of an inexpensive pre-processing control system that would also save space in such applications where storing facilities for ingredients are housed. After investigating different mixing solutions, a V-blender was identified to be a feasible option. It is suggested that by adding a third leg to the V-blender, to obtain what is dubbed as a “Y”-blender, the effectiveness of mixing would be improved upon - not only in the specified application but with respect to mixing in general. In order to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of the mixers, rapid prototyping models of a V- and a Y- blender, with capacities of about 7.6 litres each, were produced from medium density fibreboard (MDF) with the aid of a laser cutter. It was found that, for a recipe consisting of 87% fine yellow maize, 12.75% fine sugar and 0.25% colorant, the effectiveness of mixing within the V-blender was greatly influenced by the level to which it was filled. This was not the case for the Y-blender. This therefore suggested that a Y-blender is the ideal solution for the given application. A layout of a pre-processing system that fits in a standard shipping container and can accommodate six funnel-shaped raw material storage bins with a feed conveyor leading to a Y-blender is designed and a rapid prototyping model of the most vital components of the system is produced. A novel control system using the IOIO USB controller coupled to an Andriod device is developed and this sub-system, with dedicated software, is coupled to the prototyped pre-processing set-up and operated successfully. / MIng (Mechanical Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 2, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Dept. of Political Science, University of Alberta. "Spring 2010." Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on April 27, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Dept. of Political Science, University of Alberta. "Spring 2010." Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on April 27, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

Based on dissertation, Berlin. / Bibliography: p. 205-208.

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In recent years, batch processes have been getting more attention due to their suitability for the production of small volume, high value added products. The flexibility of batch plants allows the production of different products within the same facility which mandates equipment sharing. Batch manufacturing is typically used in the pharmaceutical, polymer, food and specialty chemical industries as demands for such products are highly seasonal and are influenced by changing markets. Despite the advantage of batch plants being flexible, they also pose a challenging task to design, synthesize and operate, compared to their continuous counterparts. The profitability of these batch plants is highly dependent on the way the synthesis, design and operation is optimized. Since different types of resources (raw materials, equipment, utilities and manpower) need to be shared by a number of process operations to produce a variety of products, modeling and optimizing the design and operation of batch plants are important for economic benefits. The growing awareness of civil society for the environment and the resulting regulations introduced by national states have resulted in chemical industries considering process integration to reduce their energy and process water requirements. Energy optimization and the optimization of water use have mainly been treated as separate problems in literature. The batch production schedules resulting from each of these formulations do not guarantee that the plant is operated optimally. Consequently, it is required to develop a formulation that caters for opportunities that exist for both wastewater minimization and energy integration. This may result in production schedules that improve the operation of the batch plant when compared to optimizing water and energy separately. Presented in this thesis is a mathematical technique that addresses optimization of both water and energy, while simultaneously optimizing the batch process schedule. The scheduling framework used in this study is based on the formulation by Seid and Majozi (2012). This formulation has been shown to result in a significant reduction of computational time, an improvement of the objective function and leads to fewer time iii points required to solve the scheduling problem. The objective is to improve the profitability of the plant by minimizing wastewater generation and utility usage. From a case study it was found that through only applying water integration the total cost is reduced by 11.6%, by applying only energy integration the total cost is reduced by 29.1% and by applying both energy and water integration the total cost is reduced by 34.6%. This indicates that optimizing water and energy integration in the same scheduling framework will reduce the operating cost and environmental impact significantly. This thesis also presents a mathematical model for design and synthesis of batch plants. The conceptual design problem must determine the number and capacity of the major processing equipment items, pipe connections and storage tanks so as to meet production objectives at the lowest possible capital and operating cost. A recent robust scheduling model based on continuous-time representation is used as a platform for the synthesis and design problem. An improved objective value (revenue) of 228.6% is obtained by this work compared to the recent published models for the design and synthesis problem. Compared with other formulations, the formulation presented in this thesis gives a smaller size mathematical model that required less binary variables, continuous variables and constraints. The presented model also considers costs that arise from the pipe network and consequently, determines the optimal pipe network which should exist between different pieces of equipment. Finally, the medium-term scheduling problem for a multiproduct batch plant is addressed. The intractability of the short-term scheduling models when directly applied to the medium-term scheduling problems is solved by applying a decomposition method. The decomposition method has two level mathematical models. The first level determines the type of products and their amount to be produced in each scheduling subproblem to satisfy the market requirement. The second level determines the detailed sequencing of tasks for the tractable size of the subproblems. The recently published robust short-term scheduling model based on continuous time is extended for solving the scheduling supbroblems of the second level decomposition model. The model is applied in solving the medium-term scheduling problem of a pharmaceutical facility specializing in animal vaccines using the actual plant data. The model effectively solved a makespan minimization problem for the medium-term scheduling horizon of almost 13 weeks. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted