In the 80s and 90s in America, residential developers believed that the best way to make money was to build a golf course community. Premiums of homes on golf courses ranged from 30% to 100% more than the price of a similar home not adjacent to a course. Today, the bottom has fallen out of the golf market leaving over 2,400 courses closed in America. Residential homes bordering a closed golf course experience an 11.7% loss of value. Many owners and potential developers want these large parcels of land to be up-zoned so they can build higher density residential and make a profit. Neighbors do not want to lose their greenspace and public officials do not want to be seen as harming single-family residential. This thesis argues that to retrofit a closed golf course, developers, community members and other stakeholders must first understand the morphological and environmental implications of the different types of golf courses, the context surrounding closed courses and the location of these courses in a greater regional area. By understanding closed golf courses in this way, a framework can be established that results from negotiation among golf course residents, neighbors, developers and public officials.

More than one million people are living with spinal cord injury (SCI) in North America alone. Restoring lost motor function can alleviate SCI-related health problems, as well as markedly increase the quality of life enjoyed by individuals with SCI. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) can replace motor function in individuals with SCI by using short electrical pulses to generate contractions in paralyzed muscles. A wide range of FES applications have been proposed, but few application are actually available for community use by SCI consumers. A major factor contributing to this shortage of real-world FES applications is the lack of a feasible closed-loop control algorithm. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a closed-loop control algorithm that is suitable for use in practical FES applications. This thesis consists of three separate studies. The first study examined existing closed-loop control algorithms for FES applications, and showed that a method of testing FES control algorithms under realistic conditions is needed to evaluate their likely real-world performance. The second study provided such a testing method by developing a non-idealities block that can be used to modify the nominal response of electrically stimulated muscle in simulations of FES applications. Fatigue, muscle spasm, and tremor non-idealities are included in the block, which allows the user to specify the severity level for each type of non-ideal behaviour. This nonidealities block was tested in a simulation of electrically induced knee extension against gravity, and showed that the nominal performance of the controllers was substantially better than their performance in the realistic case that included the non-idealities model. The third study concerned the development and testing of a novel observer-based sliding mode control (SMC) algorithm that is suitable for use in real-world FES applications. This algorithm incorporated a fatigue minimization objective as well as co-contraction of the antagonist muscle group to cause the joint stiffness to track a desired value. The SMC algorithm was tested in a simulation of FES-based quiet standing, and the non-idealities block was used to determine the probable performance of the controller in the real world. This novel controller performed very well in simulation, and would be suitable for use in selected practical FES applications. The work contained in this thesis can easily be extended to a wide range of FES applications. This work represents a significant step forward in closed-loop control for FES applications, and will facilitate the development of sophisticated new electrical stimulation systems for use by consumers in their homes and communities.

Industries want to add value to their offerings but to do this, rather than just accepting customer requirements, they now need to know how their products and/or services have been embedded within their customer’s process to achieve a goal that the customer has; any gaps within the process then present an opportunity for the provider to fill these gaps. The System-In-Use (SIU) Methodology presented in this thesis facilitates customer issues in “pulling” the supply chain into creating new solutions as well as the supply chain “pushing” new value propositions into improving customer processes. It does this by drawing on a detailed theory of value and capability which was developed as part of this research. The method has been applied in five industries in processes encompassing high value-assets with very positive outcomes for each of the stakeholders involved: notably, three solutions have been adopted in industry for which a KT-Box award was granted by Cambridge University. Cont/d.

Industries want to add value to their offerings but to do this, rather than just accepting customer requirements, they now need to know how their products and/or services have been embedded within their customer’s process to achieve a goal that the customer has; any gaps within the process then present an opportunity for the provider to fill these gaps. The System-In-Use (SIU) Methodology presented in this thesis facilitates customer issues in “pulling” the supply chain into creating new solutions as well as the supply chain “pushing” new value propositions into improving customer processes. It does this by drawing on a detailed theory of value and capability which was developed as part of this research. The method has been applied in five industries in processes encompassing high value-assets with very positive outcomes for each of the stakeholders involved: notably, three solutions have been adopted in industry for which a KT-Box award was granted by Cambridge University. Cont/d.

As CMOS technologies advance to 22-nm dimensions and below, constructing analog circuits are difficult to design within permitted specifications. One of the reasons for this is a limit of voltage resolution. In this situation, time-mode processing is a technique that is believed to be well suited for solving many of these challenges. A primary advantage of this technique is the ability to achieve analog functions using digital logic structures. Time difference amplifiers (TDA) can be a key component to realize fine time solutions. TDA are an innovative method to improve the time resolution as well as the evolution of ADC. This thesis introduces a TDA that amplifies the input time difference between two signals by a fractional gain. The closed loop gain control system used in this work consists of a pseudo differential current starved delay element (PDCSDE) and a monotonic digitally controlled delay element (DCDE). By using these elements to create a delay chain and a control loop, the result is a stable fractional time difference gain (TD gain). The system was designed and simulated in 65nm process at 1.2V power supply. The measured results show that this TDA achieves a fractional TD gain offset lower than 1.3%, with supply variation of ±15%, and input range as wide as ±250ps. The new design was also more resilient to process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variations

The paper will describe one of David Miller’s arguments for limiting immigration by concluding that immigration is a threat to a successful democratic welfare state. There is a threat to a democratic welfare state when there is lack of trust in a heterogeneous society. Immigration contributes to heterogeneity. The paper will present flaws in Miller’s argument, which include the unacknowledged concepts of ignorance and fear that can lead to mistrust in cultural heterogeneous communities. I will then consider Miller’s response to the critiques. Lastly, I will mention some proposals for increasing trust and addressing the real issues in a multicultural society.

Due to national environmental goals, 191 closed landfills were inventoried according to a national methodology for inventory of polluted areas. The inventory took place in thirteen of the municipalities in the region of Västerbotten during the summer of 2013. 159 of the landfills were classified to risk class 3 on a scale of 4. Landfills in this category consist of diverse nature, ranging from adequate coverage but poor placement, to insufficient coverage and visible leakage, but without urgent risk. The purpose of this report was to follow up on the inventory. It resulted in identifying and prioritizing the actions required and a general plan of action for the landfills in the region. The focus was mainly on landfills in class 3, but those in risk class 2 are also included. This report was based mostly on forms for the closed landfills and a survey aimed at regional administrations. The result showed that the most common actions required were clean up, coverage, investigation of leakage and information about the unsuitability of depositing waste, including yard waste, at a closed landfill. A status division of the landfills in class 3 was determined, where the landfills that required actions were assigned the statuses +, 0 or -. Criteria for + includes proximity to vulnerable nature, risk for contamination of drinking water, poor coverage, or visible leakage. The landfills in class 2 should be prioritized for further actions, and after that those in risk class 3 with the + status.

More than one million people are living with spinal cord injury (SCI) in North America alone. Restoring lost motor function can alleviate SCI-related health problems, as well as markedly increase the quality of life enjoyed by individuals with SCI. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) can replace motor function in individuals with SCI by using short electrical pulses to generate contractions in paralyzed muscles. A wide range of FES applications have been proposed, but few application are actually available for community use by SCI consumers. A major factor contributing to this shortage of real-world FES applications is the lack of a feasible closed-loop control algorithm. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a closed-loop control algorithm that is suitable for use in practical FES applications. This thesis consists of three separate studies. The first study examined existing closed-loop control algorithms for FES applications, and showed that a method of testing FES control algorithms under realistic conditions is needed to evaluate their likely real-world performance. The second study provided such a testing method by developing a non-idealities block that can be used to modify the nominal response of electrically stimulated muscle in simulations of FES applications. Fatigue, muscle spasm, and tremor non-idealities are included in the block, which allows the user to specify the severity level for each type of non-ideal behaviour. This nonidealities block was tested in a simulation of electrically induced knee extension against gravity, and showed that the nominal performance of the controllers was substantially better than their performance in the realistic case that included the non-idealities model. The third study concerned the development and testing of a novel observer-based sliding mode control (SMC) algorithm that is suitable for use in real-world FES applications. This algorithm incorporated a fatigue minimization objective as well as co-contraction of the antagonist muscle group to cause the joint stiffness to track a desired value. The SMC algorithm was tested in a simulation of FES-based quiet standing, and the non-idealities block was used to determine the probable performance of the controller in the real world. This novel controller performed very well in simulation, and would be suitable for use in selected practical FES applications. The work contained in this thesis can easily be extended to a wide range of FES applications. This work represents a significant step forward in closed-loop control for FES applications, and will facilitate the development of sophisticated new electrical stimulation systems for use by consumers in their homes and communities.

Recycling and remanufacturing returned goods are economically beneficial for companies since the cost of obtaining used parts is lower in many cases and selling price is close to that of a new product. This leads to decreased costs and thereby increased profits for the company. In addition, there are also great environmental benefits by keeping the structural integrity of a part; the energy used for disassembly and refurbishing is much lower than the energy required for raw material extraction and machining. Encompassing the returned goods makes the supply chain to closed loop supply chain, which is different from the traditional supply chain due to reverse logistics. A reverse flow of material is however usually more complex than a forward flow of parts and components from suppliers. This means that inventory management becomes critical and needs to be viewed from a new perspective. The purpose of the report is to study FAW Co., Ltd’s inventory situation in reverse logistics. The report analysed the inventory management in the company, specifically focusing on one product as the instance Motor Engine LFTS-2000since it is in the maturity stage of product life cycle. Two scenarios were designed to consider how different parameters affect inventory levels in reverse logistics. The report analysed how different parameters affect the inventory levels and minimum cost. With the increasing returned goods are processed, inventory levels and minimum cost will decrease correspondingly.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University (Division of Information & Communication Sciences, Dept. of Mathematics), 2007. / Thesis by publication. Bibliography: p. 119-123.