The intention with this imaginary storm in the form of a decorative lamp ‘Harmonious Storm’ is meant to hang from the ceiling, sculptural and often glowing with artificial light. Meanwhile it enhances the attractive value in the specific public space. The relation between importance of aesthetics and interior public environment is discussed in this thesis, with a purpose of achieving emotional and social needs that are excitement and happiness. / Program: Konstnärligt masterprogram i mode- och textildesign

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Lai Yuen-hoo. / Thesis submitted in: November 2004. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-102). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.ii / Acknowledgment --- p.iii / List of Figures --- p.iv / Table of Content --- p.vii / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- Problem Definition --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2. --- Proposed Solution --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3. --- Thesis Contributions --- p.2 / Chapter 2. --- Modeling Approaches --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1. --- Polygon Modeling --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2. --- Patch Modeling --- p.6 / Chapter 2.3. --- Freehand Sketch-based Modeling --- p.7 / Chapter 2.4. --- Template Based Modeling --- p.8 / Chapter 2.5. --- Curve Interpolation Method --- p.9 / Chapter 3. --- Surface Operations --- p.11 / Chapter 3.1. --- Surface Blending --- p.11 / Chapter 3.2. --- Surface Trimming --- p.13 / Chapter 3.3. --- Boolean Operations --- p.14 / Chapter 4. --- Subdivision Surface --- p.16 / Chapter 4.1. --- Basic Principle --- p.16 / Chapter 4.2. --- Catmull-Clark Surface --- p.17 / Chapter 5. --- Modeling Algorithm Overview --- p.21 / Chapter 6. --- Subdivision Surface Generation --- p.23 / Chapter 6.1. --- Input Curves --- p.23 / Chapter 6.2. --- Surface Sweeping --- p.24 / Chapter 6.3. --- Subdivision Surface Fitting --- p.29 / Chapter 7. --- Surface Blending --- p.32 / Chapter 7.1. --- Introduction --- p.32 / Chapter 7.2. --- Problem Definition --- p.32 / Chapter 7.3. --- Algorithm Overview --- p.36 / Chapter 7.4. --- Blend Region Detection --- p.39 / Chapter 7.4.1. --- Collision Detection --- p.40 / Chapter 7.4.2. --- Result and Analysis --- p.42 / Chapter 7.5. --- "Mesh Refinement, Surface Fitting and Region Removal" --- p.46 / Chapter 7.5.1. --- Mesh Refinement --- p.46 / Chapter 7.5.1.1. --- Adaptive Subdivision --- p.46 / Chapter 7.5.1.2. --- Additional Subdivision Constraint --- p.47 / Chapter 7.5.2. --- Surface Fitting --- p.49 / Chapter 7.5.2.1. --- General Approach --- p.49 / Chapter 7.5.2.2. --- Surface Point Correspondence --- p.50 / Chapter 7.5.2.3. --- Numerical Fitting Method --- p.51 / Chapter 7.5.3. --- Unwanted Region Removal --- p.55 / Chapter 7.5.4. --- Result and Analysis --- p.56 / Chapter 7.6. --- Boundary Smoothing --- p.58 / Chapter 7.6.1. --- General Approach --- p.59 / Chapter 7.6.2. --- Constraint on Deformation Direction of Vertex --- p.61 / Chapter 7.6.3. --- Result and Analysis --- p.63 / Chapter 7.7. --- Blend Curves --- p.65 / Chapter 7.7.1. --- Problem Definition --- p.65 / Chapter 7.7.2. --- Proposed Solution Overview --- p.66 / Chapter 7.7.3. --- Maintenance of Regular Vertex Valence along Blend Curve --- p.67 / Chapter 7.7.3.1. --- Pairing Up Blend Boundary Vertices --- p.70 / Chapter 7.7.4. --- Minimization of Distortion Caused by Extraordinary Vertices --- p.72 / Chapter 7.7.5. --- Blend Vertex Position Optimization Function --- p.74 / Chapter 7.7.5.1. --- Face Normal Expression --- p.74 / Chapter 7.7.5.2. --- Face Normal Difference Energy Function --- p.77 / Chapter 7.7.5.3. --- Midpoint Distance Energy Function --- p.78 / Chapter 7.7.5.4. --- Weighted Least Square Energy Minimization --- p.78 / Chapter 8. --- Implementation --- p.81 / Chapter 8.1. --- Data Structure --- p.81 / Chapter 8.2. --- User Interface --- p.82 / Chapter 9. --- Results --- p.83 / Chapter 9.1. --- Surface Generation --- p.83 / Chapter 9.2. --- Surface Blending --- p.86 / Chapter 9.2.1. --- Ideal Case --- p.86 / Chapter 9.2.2. --- Angle of Insertion --- p.87 / Chapter 9.2.3. --- Surface Feature Near Intersection --- p.88 / Chapter 9.2.4. --- Comparison --- p.89 / Chapter 9.2.5. --- Other Examples --- p.92 / Chapter 9.3. --- Overall Performance --- p.94 / Chapter 9.4. --- Limitations --- p.97 / Chapter 9.4.1. --- Limitation on Generated Shape --- p.97 / Chapter 9.4.2. --- Limitation on Input Surfaces --- p.98 / Chapter 10. --- Conclusion and Future Work --- p.99 / References --- p.100

One of the cultural traditions in Saudi Arabia is that the Saudi female patient has to be accompanied by a third-party on her medical visits, thus giving rise to consultations between three parties. By third-party, I mean a chaperone or a family member who can be a patient’s spouse, parent, adult child, sibling, or relative. This person shares responsibility for the patient’s health and the patient relies on them to support them generally with assistance in terms of their health care needs and especially for medical visits. In this research, I focus on the presence of a third party in medical consultations with reference to patient satisfaction, how patients perceive the role of their chaperones during the medical visit and the nature of three-party medical interactions. To investigate these aspects, a convergent parallel mixed method design was used in order to develop a better understanding of doctor-patient-three party interactions, as no mixed method study has been conducted on these issues in medical consultations in Saudi Arabia. Hence, this study addresses this gap in literature by focusing on the interaction between the Saudi female patients, their male physicians and their chaperones. I have concentrated on the Saudi female patients (from different age groups, i.e. 19-75) for religious and cultural reasons. Therefore, the overall aim of this thesis is to understand the phenomenon of three-party consultations in Saudi Arabia through a variety of aspects including patient satisfaction, patients’ perceptions, and what actually happens in three-party medical interactions (e.g., alignment and epistemic asymmetry). The data for this study included quantitative (i.e. questionnaires) and qualitative (i.e. four open-ended questions and observational and audio-recorded) data collected in one phase from 20 clinics in 3 hospitals in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia (two private and one governmental). A total of 117 female patients along with their chaperones were recruited. Statistical analysis of the questionnaire ratings showed that only patient’s education has a positive effect on patient satisfaction with chaperone involvement. Findings from thematic analysis of the open-ended questions data revealed that patients described three supportive roles of the chaperones, namely emotional, informational and logistical support. The patients’ perceptions regarding their chaperones’ supportive roles are re-evaluated in a real-life context by observing the chaperone’s facilitative role in three-party consultations. Therefore, conversation analysis of the audio-recorded data showed three main patterns of alignment: (1) doctor-patient, (2) chaperone-patient (and patient-chaperone), and (3) chaperone-doctor (and chaperone-patient) alignments. All these actions indicate that the participants were collaboratively involved in the positive interaction and this enhanced patient participation. However, in analysing three exceptional cases from the Chemotherapy and Haematology clinics, it was found that the presence of a chaperone dominates as well as complicates doctor-patient interaction and thus can significantly override or ostracise the patient who does not know her illness. For example, by using the Conversation Analysis approach, various epistemic resources used by the interlocutors (i.e. the oncologist and chaperones) are displayed by which the patient’s epistemic primacy is usurped and her epistemic access is controlled in terms of participation and the amount of information given. In comparing the mixed methods used in this study, congruent and discrepant results are found between the quantitative and qualitative data. In terms of congruent results, overall, the findings of this study concurred on the importance of having a supportive chaperone during a female patient’s medical appointment. Chaperones’ supportive roles appear to differently influence female patients’ symptoms, diagnosis or treatment plan. Chaperones in the current study have provided a useful contribution to the doctor-patient interactions. However, in terms of discrepancy, findings yielded by the conversation analysis (in Chapters 6 and 7) showed a discrepancy between what patients reported (see Chapter 5) about their chaperones’ supportive roles and what their chaperones did in the consultation. For example, the thematic analysis of the open-ended questions found that both genders were equally likely to be active in speaking for the patient. However, the conversation analysis of observational data adds and clarifies to what patients reported about their chaperones speaking on their behalf. The conversation analysis has given a good picture of the chaperone’s supportive role during medical visits in orienting towards patients as being the actual owners of their bodies and illness (see Chapter 6). Therefore, patients were given the chance to present their problem. Chaperones, in working collaboratively with patients and physicians, support the patient and facilitate the physician’s understanding. However, in only two exceptional cases (see Chapter 7) of actual medical interactions, the chaperone acts as a surrogate patient and restricts the patient’s own knowledge of their illness. Therefore, the current study contributes to three important areas, namely: (1) the literature of three-party interactions, (2) three-party interactions in Saudi Arabia, and (3) clinical practices in Saudi Arabia.

This paper discusses my thesis piece Dear...,. It describes how the piece was put together and the deeper symbolism of aspects of the music.

This dissertation studies how society views corruption at different stages of economic development. It develops a theoretical framework that shows that at low levels of income or development, corruption increases and at high levels of income and development, corruption decreases. This theoretical proposition is also investigated empirically. The empirical analyses support the proposed theory and hint that fiscal policy, socioeconomic conditions, and incidences of war play significant roles in determining a country’s corruption level. In addition, this dissertation also explores the relationship between merchandise and service trade. I show theoretically that the two are related and determined simultaneously. An empirical investigation also confirms this proposition. Lastly, I investigate the issue of pollution in developing countries. I explore the existence of an inverted u-shaped relationship between emissions and income. I examine the role played by foreign investment in improving emissions in developing countries. The results support the inverted u-shaped relationship and suggest that environmental aid does not reduce emissions in developing countries.

The clinical success of Total Hip Arthroplasty is enhanced by matching hip implant geometry to femoral geometry. Traditionally, the shapes of hip implant designs have been based on data collected from patient populations using X-ray, CT Scan, digitized sliced bone, and other physical methods. The morphology of interest and the frame of reference often vary across researchers and the resulting numeric data are difficult to use in a Computer Aided Design package to build an implant model. This goal of this thesis was to develop procedures and automated programs for the design and evaluation of femoral hip implants using CT data. The procedures bridge the gap between patient specific "custom" prosthesis design and the so-called "averaged femur" implant designs. By automating the measurement, orientation and averaging of any user selected grouping of femora, these programs allow construction of an average femur template for small subsets of a population or populations. The programs allow grouping of femora using either dimensional attributes and/or patient attributes such as pathology, ethnic background, etc. The average femur template created for each group can then be used as the design boundary for a discrete implant size. Additional functionality is also provided for comparing average femur templates to their constitutive femora and for comparison of average femur templates against each other. To illustrate that the goals of this theses were realized, an example of the use of the system for a population of 192 Japanese is included in this thesis. The criteria for evaluation of the average femur templates was the gap or interference of the template to that of each constitutive femur along the medial and lateral endosteal contours. Testing 24 template sizes, the average of the worst fitting template to femur combination for each size resulted in a gap or interference of less than 2mm in the metaphysis and less than 4mm proximally.

The general method of Reshetikhin and Turaev is followed to develop topological invariants of closed, connected, orientable 3-manifolds from a new class of algebras called pseudomodular Hopf algebras. Pseudo-modular Hopf algebras are a class of Z_2-graded ribbon Hopf algebras that generalise the concept of a modular Hopf algebra. The quantum superalgebra Uq(osp(1|2n)) over C is considered with q a primitive Nth root of unity for all integers N &gt = 3. For such a q, a certain left ideal I of U_q(osp(1|2n)) is also a two-sided Hopf ideal, and the quotient algebra U^(N)_q(osp(1|2n)) = U_q(osp(1|2n))/I is a Z_2-graded ribbon Hopf algebra. For all n and all N &gt = 3, a finite collection of finite dimensional representations of U^(N)_q(osp(1|2n)) is defined. Each such representation of U^(N)_q(osp(1|2n)) is labelled by an integral dominant weight belonging to the truncated dominant Weyl chamber. Properties of these representations are considered: the quantum superdimension of each representation is calculated, each representation is shown to be self-dual, and more importantly, the decomposition of the tensor product of an arbitrary number of such representations is obtained for even N. It is proved that the quotient algebra U(N)^q_(osp(1|2n)), together with the set of finite dimensional representations discussed above, form a pseudo-modular Hopf algebra when N &gt = 6 is twice an odd number. Using this pseudo-modular Hopf algebra, we construct a topological invariant of 3-manifolds. This invariant is shown to be different to the topological invariants of 3-manifolds arising from quantum so(2n+1) at roots of unity.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.