Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-28).

Thesis (M.A.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2007. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert Bennett. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-91).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-144).

Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

In the information era of the 21st century, information is communicated through various ways or media. These include electronic media, print media for example publications, exhibitions and open days and face-to -face interaction, for example with consultants. The current situation is that the existing distribution of information through the different media is not successfully integrated causing the isolation of entities that distribute and communicate information. The solution proposed in this paper is to design an information hub where information is communicated through various media. The interior design should support and be conducive for an effective and integrated model for the communication of information. In addition to this, the problem of the identity crisis of the discipline of Interior Architecture within the Built Environment Profession will be addressed. Public perception still is that Interior Architecture cannot stand firm in its responsibilities and identity. Interior Architecture therefore must in itself acknowledge and celebrate its legitimacy before pursuing greater recognition and formal acknowledgement. “Interior Architecture is an essential need and it is important” (Caan, 2007:53) Interior Architecture occupies and inhabits a space, which does not need to be fully enclosed but should rather reflect the condition of control over the space. This reveals the opportunity of exclusion as much as it reveals the ability of inclusion. The line between the two bodies carries an important weight and brings the argument back to the division of space. This paper argues that the line itself represents more than a division of space, for the line holds in it the opportunity of being part of either space. This line becomes an issue of ‘betweeness’ which should be exposed to reveal the grey area that exist between Interior Architecture and Architecture. / Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted

This thesis describes applications of the ac Josephson effect. Firstly, results are presented from bicrystal grain boundary YBa2Cu3O7-d junctions shunted with a YBa2Cu3O7-d/SrTiO3/Au multilayer external capacitor, to make a junction with a hysteretic current voltage characteristic operating at high temperatures. A hysteretic junction with a McCumber parameter of 1.01 at 72.3K, with a critical current of 451mA and a resistance of 0.56W was achieved for a junction shunted with a 150mm2 external capacitor with a 50nm SrTiO3 dielectric. The measured capacitance was less than that expected from a calculation of the parallel plate shunt capacitance. The explanation was thermal noise suppression of the hysteresis and the junction saw the shunt capacitor as a distributed impedance rather than a lumped circuit element. It was found during these investigations that the influence of the SrTiO3 substrate on the intrinsic junction capacitance was poorly understood. The permittivity of SrTiO3 is 24000 at 4.2K. A series of YBa2Cu3O7-d Josephson junctions of lengths from 2mm to 20mm was patterned on a SrTiO3 bicrystal and the Fiske resonance dispersion relation was measured. The dispersion relation consisted of two branches, one at low frequencies with a high resonator capacitance per unit length and a high frequency branch with a low resonator capacitance per unit length. This was due to the frequency dependence of the permittivity of bulk SrTiO3, which drops above the soft optic phonon frequency. From the dispersion relation, the permittivity of bulk SrTiO3 was 750 and the soft optic phonon frequency was 145GHz. The ac Josephson effect was exploited to measure the permittivity of thin films of SrTiO3 at microwave frequencies using Josephson junctions coupled to external resonators. The permittivity of 50nm, 100nm and 200nm SrTiO3 films was frequency independent between 100GHz and 900GHz and to decrease with film thickness. The permittivity of the 50nm film was 35 and that of the 200nm film was 187 at 4.2K. The permittivity of the 200nm film was tunable with a dc voltage bias between 245 and 112 at 30K and 116GHz. The grain boundary capacitance was used to probe grain boundary current transport. The capacitance per unit area scaled inversely with resistance area product and increased linearly with critical current density, for undoped and Ca doped YBa2Cu3O7-d grain boundaries on 24° bicrystals. This behaviour could not be explained by tunneling models of grain boundary current transport, and requires current flow over a fraction of the area of the grain boundary.

The area of investigation for this study falls within a small urban island called Westbury. Situated 7km to the West of Johannesburg’s CBD, it is isolated from the adjacent urban fabric as a result of its historical and also recent development. Westbury itself also consists of a series of fragmented islands with undefined boundaries, weak urban blocks and a disorientated grid. The area has recently been identified as a high priority region for densification1 by the city of Johannesburg, supported by transport-oriented infra-structural investment. The questions raised by this study are contextualized against this backdrop. How could densification in Westbury be achieved towards the creation of a more inter-connected, cohesive, accessible and therefore sustainable urban environment? Following from this: How could Westbury be better integrated with the immediate surrounding urban fabric whilst combating its own fragmentation? What is the role of urban blocks and boundary conditions to help shape a future more integrated Westbury, and also towards meaningful place-making? In what ways can architecture contribute in order to improve the urban fabric that operates on various scales: from the very scale of the house to that of an urban boundary to that of the urban block and ultimately the greater urban network? The hypothesis outlined in this study is that architecture is too weak to stand in isolation, that a network of buildings is necessary to achieve a more sustainable, accessible, cohesive, and inter-connected urban environment. This is tested through a rigorous analysis of boundary conditions at different scales as reflected in the urban blocks of Westbury and the resultant architectural strategies. Finally, a block and its attendant boundaries is singled out to test the architectural contribution towards densification of the suburb, the making of place, and better inter-connectivity. The process is envisaged as driven from both the scale at which urban issues inform the architecture, and the reverse scale the architecture in Westbury informs the urban master plan. The architecture in style and scale sets the conditions for the proposed urban blocks. The boundary wall being the medium where urban meets architecture. “For these dreams to flourish in reality, we must recognise that there can be no ready-made solutions in housing, no recipes or / Mini Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

The concept of boundaries in group theory gained prominence in the 70s and 80s mainly as a construct to describe significant group events. A contributing factor was when general systems theory, in which boundaries are central, was applied to living systems. Boundaries continued to be used predominantly to refer to structural aspects of a group, such as time structuring, membership, role, subgroupings, and task, and, to a lesser extent, as an abstract construct to refer to group processes and dynamics. In group practice, the use of boundaries as a guide and instrument to gauge group dynamics has been limited. In general, boundaries are not used to assess group events in order to determine a course of action or intervention. The first part of the research explores the concept of boundaries in three theoretical frameworks. The second part of the research explores the application of boundaries as a construct central to the understanding of group dynamics in an experiential time-limited training group. It also examines ways in which this can lead to enhanced group practice. The focus was on boundaries as psychological dimensions in the group space. In the exploration of boundaries in existing theoretical frameworks, an important link between boundaries and trauma, which inevitably involves a breach and violation of boundaries, was highlighted. A novel qualitative content analysis method was designed to reveal boundary changes systematically and to show how boundaries were redefined over a period of time. A unique feature of this computer assisted (Atlas.ti) method is that boundary shifts are quantitatively tracked, allowing further qualitative exploration. This method was applied in a case study of a training group, so demonstrating the applicability of the method to the study of small groups. Results of the case study revealed the impact that events prior the group had on group boundary development, in particular emotional linking in the group. Shifts in psychological boundaries were clearly visible in the quantitative analysis of boundaries in focus, across boundaries, indicated by transactions across boundaries. South Africa, as is the case in other societies in transition, is characterised by continuous breaches and violations of boundaries. By viewing group interactions through a boundary lens, group leaders can understand the complexity of group dynamics better. With this understanding, facilitators and leaders of groups can deliberately influence psychological boundaries. In so doing they can create opportunities for individual transitions and societal transformation. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Psychology / Unrestricted

No description available.

The thesis addresses two topics in the study of material properties as determined by the microstructure. The first topic involves percolation as a tool in relating the grain boundary structure to global properties such as fracture and corrosion resistance. The second investigates optimization techniques in order to find the space of values that properties of a material can take, from consideration of the microstructure. In part I, the applicability of standard lattice percolation models to a random 2-D grain structure is explored. A random network based on the triangle lattice is proposed as a more appropriate model, and results in a higher percolation threshold (0.711 compared with 0.653 for the standard hexagonal lattice). The triple junction constraint inherent in grain boundary structures is subsequently applied to the new network. This results in a lowering of the percolation threshold to 0.686, which turns out to be very close to the value obtained from the hexagonal lattice under the same constraint. In Part II, an efficient method for finding the closure of a bi-objective optimization problem involving two material properties is formulated. The method is based upon two algorithms developed to find the Pareto front in multi-objective problems — the weighted sum, and the normal boundary intersection methods. The resultant procedure uses quadratic programming (QP) to find as many points on the closure as possible, changing to the less efficient sequential quadratic programming (SQP) only where necessary to find points on concave, or almost concave, regions. Improvements on the method are demonstrated using extra linear constraints in the generalized weighted sum (GWS) algorithm, and multiple GWS trials at each stage. Optimization using only the linear part of the problem is shown to give excellent results for the particular example used, and may help to achieve an approximate closure more quickly for larger problems. An adaptation of a common Pareto front method from genetic algorithms — the maxmin algorithm — is also demonstrated. The efficiency of the method is found to be reasonable for finding closures in the test case. Other general optimization techniques for the form of the problem in-hand are explored for completeness of the study. These include a survey of unconstrained techniques that might be useful in large-scale problems, and an in-depth application of QP for the constrained case.