Call number: LD2668 .T4 1952 H34 / Master of Science

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Purpose – The purpose is to: Improve the efficiency of warehouses operations as well as reduce its workload imbalances by altering the warehouse layout and work zones at a storage area. This was done by answering the following research questions: What is the current state of the sites efficiency and workload imbalances? How can the warehouse layout be designed to increase the efficiency? How can warehouse work zones be altered to reduce workload imbalances? Method – The purpose was achieved through a case study at a vehicle manufacturing facility. By studying established methods of efficiency, layout designs and workload imbalances, ways of improving the operations was discovered. The effects of these methods were then tested through the case.   Findings –There are two categories improving efficiency, namely increasing output or decreasing input. The study also provides examples of ways to do both, and verifies them at the case company. The focus of both methods is a decrease in travel distance which proved to be a reliable way of increasing efficiency. Workload imbalances can be decreased by sharing workload between the resources. The case shows the result of two different resources with unequal workload and discusses the trade-off between efficiency and workload equality. Implications – The practical implications of the study is guidelines for how efficiency can be increased and how workload imbalances can be decreased. The academic implications are verifications of the used theories. Limitations – This study focuses on a restricted part of the storage process, namely traveling. There are more processes which could be included to further benefit the overall efficiency, these have however been excluded to limit the scope. The study also uses a heuristic approach based on prior research which means that the optimal solution might still be unknown. Keywords – Efficiency, workload imbalances, storage management, family grouping

Current hard drive technology shows a widening gap between the ability to store vast amounts of data and the ability to process. To overcome the problems of this secular trend, we explore the use of available distributed RAM resources to effectively replace a mechanical hard drive. The essential approach is a distributed Linux block device that spreads its blocks throughout spare RAM on a cluster and transfers blocks using network capacity. The presented solution is LAN-scalable, easy to deploy, and faster than a commodity hard drive. The specific driving problem is I/O intensive applications, particularly digital forensics. The prototype implementation is a Linux 2.4 kernel module, and connects to Unix based clients. It features an adaptive prefetching scheme that seizes future data blocks for each read request. We present experimental results based on generic benchmarks as well as digital forensic applications that demonstrate significant performance gains over commodity hard drives.

<p>Storage systems play a vital part in modern IT systems. As the volume of data grows explosively and greater requirement on storage performance and reliability is put forward, effective and efficient design and operation of storage systems become increasingly complicated. </p><p>Such efforts would benefit significantly from the availability of quantitative analysis techniques that facilitate comparison of different system designs and configurations and provide projection of system behavior under potential operational scenarios. The techniques should be able to capture the system details that are relevant to the system measures of interest with adequate accuracy, and they should allow efficient solution so that they can be employed for multiple scenarios and for dynamic system reconfiguration. </p><p>This dissertation develops a set of quantitative analysis methods for modern storage systems using stochastic modeling techniques. The presented models cover several of the most prevalent storage technologies, including RAID, cloud storage and replicated storage, and investigate some major issues in modern storage systems, such as storage capacity planning, provisioning and backup planning. Quantitative investigation on important system measures such as reliability, availability and performance is conducted, and for this purpose a variety of modeling formalisms and solution methods are employed based on the matching of the underlying model assumptions and nature of the system aspects being studied. One of the primary focuses of the model development is on solution efficiency and scalability of the models to large systems. The accuracy of the developed models are validated through extensive simulation.</p> / Dissertation

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Johannesburg, 2016 / The thesis investigated the effect of partial substitution of Cr or Ti with 2-6 at.% Fe, or 0.05-0.10 at.% Rh/Pd on the structure, hardness, corrosion behaviour and hydrogen storage characteristics of an arc-melted Ti35V40Cr25 at.% alloy. The effects of an annealing and a quenching heat treatment on the properties were also investigated. Melting of the eight alloys was done in a water-cooled, copper-hearth arc melting furnace under an argon atmosphere. Each of the eight ingots was cut into three: one as the as-cast sample and the other two separately quartz-sealed and loaded in two batches in a heat treatment oven and heated to 1000 °C for 1 hour. The first set of quartz tubes were immediately removed and broken in cold water to quench the alloy, hence locking the microstructure. The second batch was loaded into the furnace, heated to 1000 °C for 1 hour and then slowly furnace-cooled. The alloys (as-cast and heat treated) were characterised for phase identification using optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with Electron Diffraction X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) using an Oxford system. Thermo-Calc software was used to model the phases using the Solid Solution 4 and Titanium 3 Databases. The hardness values (under a 2 kg load) of all samples were recorded. Potentiodynamic corrosion tests were performed in 6M KOH at 25 °C, and Tafel curves were recorded from -1.4V to -0.2V with a scanning rate of 1mV/sec. A Sievert’s apparatus was used for pressure composition temperature (PCT) measurements at 30, 60 and 90 °C. All the alloys contained a primary bcc (V) phase. The secondary phases were a combination of αTi, Ti(Cr,V)2 Laves phases (C14, C15 or C36) and a minor ωTi phase. The cell volume of the primary (V) phase decreased with addition of Fe and 0.05 Rh but increased with 0.1 Rh and Pd. The hardness of the base alloy increased with additions of Fe and 0.10 at.% Pd, but decreased with additions of Rh and 0.05 at.% Pd. Additions of Rh, Pd and 2 at.% Fe decreased the corrosion rate, while additions of 5 and 6 at.% Fe increased the corrosion rate. The reversible hydrogen storage capacity (RHSC) of the base alloy, otherwise known as useful capacity, was enhanced with addition of Pd and Rh, but decreased with Fe addition. Both annealing and quenching increased the hardness of the 0.05 at.% Rh and all the Fe containing alloys. Heat treatment decreased the hardness of the base alloy, both Pd alloys and v the 0.10 at.% Rh samples. Quenching decreased the hardness of the 0.10 at.% Rh and both Pd-containing alloys. The corrosion rate of the 0, 5 and 6 at.% Fe, 0.05 at.% Rh and the Pd-containing alloys decreased after annealing.at.% FeThe rate increased after annealing the 2 at.% Fe and 0.10 at,% Rh samples. The as-cast sample containing 2 at.% Fe had the lowest corrosion rate (0.0004 mm/y) and the quenched 6 at.% Fe was the least corrosion resistant sample with a corrosion rate of 0.037 mm/y. The quenched 5% Fe alloy had the highest hardness (460 MPa), while the annealed 0.10 at.% Rh sample had the lowest (388 MPa). The quenched 0.05 at.% Pd sample had the highest RHSC (2.28 wt%) while the lowest RHSC of 0.44 wt% was observed in the as-cast 2 at.% Fe sample. Annealing improved the RHSC of all samples except the base Ti35V40Cr25 and 6 at.% Fe alloys, while quenching was detrimental to RHSC of all the samples but the 2 at.% Fe, 0.05 at.% Pd and 0.10 at.% Rh alloys. Increasing the addition of palladium from 0.05 to 0.10 at.% Pd showed no significant improvement on RHSC of the base alloy, thus addition of 0.05 at.% Pd would be sufficient. The RHSC of the annealed 0.05 Rh alloy (2.25 wt% H) was close to the value of the 0.10 at.% Pd, so rhodium could be considered as an alternative to the quenched 0.05 at.% Pd. The RHSC was 1.56, 0.44, 0.75 and 0.68 wt% for 0, 2, 5 and 6 at.% Fe as-cast alloys respectively. Although the 2 at.% Fe alloy had the lowest RHSC, it could find its application as electrode in 6M KOH solution electrolyte because of its low corrosion rate. / MT2016

Thesis advisor: Shih-Yuan Liu / The first three chapters of this dissertation elaborate on certain facets of the isosteric relationship between different types of boron-nitrogen-containing heterocycles and the corresponding all-carbon compounds. In this vein, Chapter 1 describes selective photoisomerization of aromatic 1,2-dihydro-1,2-azaborines to BN-analogues of bicyclo[2.2.0]hexa-2,5-diene (Dewar benzene). In one instance, the photoisomer product was further derivatized into a series of disubstituted cyclobutanes through manipulations of the boron functionality. Chapter 2 discloses a combined experimental/theoretical mechanistic investigation of preliminary hydrogen release from the amine borane unit in a pair of BN-cycloalkanes. In Chapter 3, the kinetics of complementary dehydrogenation of the alkyl units in a BN-cyclohexene derivative are compared with those of related six-membered carbocycles. Chapter 4 treats with the separate subject of enantioselective silylation of glycerol by a catalytic strategy centered around reversible covalent binding of substrate hydroxyl groups. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.

The hydrocarbon combustion process used to generate electricity releases harmful levels of Carbon, Sulfur and Nitrogen Oxides into the atmosphere. The alternative to environmentally toxic hydrocarbon based fuel, is electricity generated from solar powered microgrids. Solar photovoltaic microgrids represent a clean, renewable and economically viable energy alternative to hydrocarbon based fuel. The microgrid project outlined the specifications required to the charge the battery powered material handling vehicles at General Stamping & Metalworks. The project was designed to replace utility supplied electrical power with a solar microgrid to charge three lead acid type batteries. The solar microgrid project specifies the system requirements, equipment selection and installation methodology. Operational strategies for additional photovoltaic applications within the organization are discussed. Outlined in the report are the costs of installation and return on investment. The project was designed to demonstrate a practical application of microgrids within a manufacturing environment. The goal of the project was to design and build a small scale installation to provide a proof of concept. The overarching goal was to reduce the toxic emissions produced by utility supplied electrical power by installing a solar powered microgrid. The end result of the analysis was that photovoltaic powered microgrids represent a viable energy generating system for battery powered applications. However, based on the regional utility price of .092 $/kWh, the solar installation did not meet the organizations investment acceptance criteria.

The development of safe and efficient hydrogen storage materials will aid in the transition away from fossil fuels toward a renewable, hydrogen-based energy infrastructure. Boron-nitrogen (BN) containing materials have attracted much attention due to their high hydrogen storage capacity and fast kinetics of hydrogen release. Furthermore, computational studies predict that hydrogen storage materials based on the BN-heterocycle 1,2-azaborine may enable reversible H2 uptake and release, with little additional energy input. This thesis develops the basic science needed for a hydrogen storage platform based on BN-heterocycles such as 1,2-azaborine. Chapter I is a review of recent developments in azaborine chemistry. Chapter II describes a regeneration scheme from a "spent" 1,2-azaborine hydrogen storage material to "fully charged" fuel using molecular H2 and H-/H+ equivalents. Chapter III describes the experimental determination of the resonance stabilization energy of 1,2-azaborines using reaction calorimetry. Chapter IV explores the effect of boron-substitution on the rate and extent of hydrogen release from BN materials. Chapter V describes work on a project unrelated to hydrogen storage, the synthesis and electronic parameter determination of the first 1,2- azaborine-containing phosphine ligand analog. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material.

Thanks to the advances in technology, people are storing a massive amount of visual information in the online databases. Today it is normal for a person to take a photo of an event with their smartphone and effortlessly upload it to a host domain. For later quick access, this enormous amount of data needs to be indexed by providing metadata for their content. The challenge is to provide suitable captions for the semantics of the visual content. This thesis investigates the possibility of extracting and using the valuable information stored inside human’s eye movements when interacting with digital visual content in order to provide information for image annotation implicitly. A non-intrusive framework is developed which is capable of inferring gaze movements to classify the visited images by a user into two classes when the user is searching for a Target Concept (TC) in the images. The first class is formed of the images that contain the TC and it is called the TC+ class and the second class is formed of the images that do not contain the TC and it is called the TC- class. By analysing the eye-movements only, the developed framework was able to identify over 65% of the images that the subject users were searching for with the accuracy over 75%. This thesis shows that the existing information in gaze patterns can be employed to improve the machine’s judgement of image content by assessment of human attention to the objects inside virtual environments.