The purpose of this paper is two-fold. The first goal is to qualitatively explore what ethics is and how companies can create a lasting culture of ethics. I explore the meanings of ethics, corporate ethics, and the responsibilities that companies have to shareholders and the public. The second goal is to demonstrate how a culture of ethics can help to prevent product recalls by creating a control environment that catches potentially dangerous products before they leave the facility. This is achieved through an analysis of three case studies: 1) Johnson & Johnson’s response to the Chicago Tylenol Murders of 1982, 2) Peanut Corporation of America’s response to its peanut butter recalls in 2009, and 3) Toyota Motor Corp’s response to the recalls of 2009-2011. The paper concludes by discussing trends in product safety over the last forty years and explaining why business ethics are an economic imperative, not just in preventing product recalls but also in protecting consumers.

The subject of this thesis is the motion planning algorithm known as the continuation method. To solve motion planning problems, the continuation method proceeds by lifting curves in state space to curves in control space; the lifted curves are the solutions of special initial value problems called path-lifting equations. To validate this procedure, three distinct obstructions must be overcome. The first obstruction is that the endpoint maps of the control system under study must be twice continuously differentiable. By extending a result of A. Margheri, we show that this differentiability property is satisfied by an inclusive class of time-varying fully nonlinear control systems. The second obstruction is the existence of singular controls, which are simply the singular points of a fixed endpoint map. Rather than attempting to completely characterize such controls, we demonstrate how to isolate control systems for which no controls are singular. To this end, we build on the work of S. A. Vakhrameev to obtain a necessary and sufficient condition. In particular, this result accommodates time-varying fully nonlinear control systems. The final obstruction is that the solutions of path-lifting equations may not exist globally. To study this problem, we work under the standing assumption that the control system under study is control-affine. By extending a result of Y. Chitour, we show that the question of global existence can be resolved by examining Lie bracket configurations and momentum functions. Finally, we show that if the control system under study is completely unobstructed with respect to a fixed motion planning problem, then its corresponding endpoint map is a fiber bundle. In this sense, we obtain a necessary condition for unobstructed motion planning by the continuation method. / Thesis (Ph.D, Chemical Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2012-12-18 20:53:43.272

Climate change coupled with land-use change will likely alter habitats and affect state parameters of the animal populations that dwell in them. Affected parameters are anticipated to include site occupancy and abundance, population range, and phenophase cycles (e.g., arrival dates on breeding grounds for migrant bird species). Detecting these changes will require monitoring many sites for many years, a process that is well suited for an automated system. We developed and tested monitoR, an R package that is designed for long-term, multi-taxa automated passive acoustic monitoring programs. monitoR correctly identified presence for black-throated green warbler and ovenbird in 64% and 72% of the 52 surveys using binary point matching, respectively, and 73% and 72% of the 52 surveys using spectrogram cross-correlation, respectively. Of individual black-throated green warbler song events, 73% of 166 black-throated green warbler songs and 69% of 502 ovenbird songs were identified by binary point matching. Spectrogram cross correlation identified 64% of 166 black-throated green warbler songs and 64% of 502 ovenbird songs. False positive rates were We describe a method to identify the probability of survey presence in a template-based automated detection system using known false positive rates for each template. True and false positive detection rates were observed in 146 training surveys. These probabilities were used in a Bayesian approach that discriminates between detections in occupied surveys and unoccupied surveys. We evaluated this approach in 146 test surveys. A total of 1142 Black-throated green warbler (Setophaga virens) songs were observed in the training surveys and test surveys, which we attempted to locate with 3 different binary point matching templates. When only posterior probabilities greater than 0.5 were considered detections, the average ratio of accurate identifications of survey presence to false positive identifications in 500 bootstrapped samples improved from 1.2:1 using a standard score cutoff approach to 2.8:1 using all 3 templates and a likelihood-based discriminator. With the selected score cutoffs the average true positive and false positive rates for the combined three templates were 0.18 and 0.002, respectively. Automated detection methods are increasingly being used for identification and monitoring of landscape-scale responses to climate change and land-use change. Skepticism of automated acoustic monitoring software is largely due to higher false positive and negative error rates than those in traditional human surveys, but the false positive multiple method occupancy model is capable of estimating detection parameters and occupancy state when one method has occasional false positive detections. We test the accuracy of the model when automated detection of black-throated green warbler is mixed with human detection in 4 recorded surveys at 60 sites. Precision and accuracy are evaluated by simulation, and we use the results to optimize future sampling. In simulation, parameter estimates by the multiple method occupancy model are close to those we computed manually when two surveys are manually analyzed. Our results support the use of the multiple method false positive occupancy model to track detection rates in automated monitoring programs.

Aus der Einleitung "Der Einsatz von Virtual Reality (VR) Methoden in der Fabrikplanung und Absicherung ist bei großen produzierenden Unternehmen heute in allen Phasen des Produktentwicklungsprozesses (PEP) „State of the Art“ (Runde 2012). Virtual Reality ermöglicht die frühzeitige Visualisierung eines Entwicklungsstands in Originalgröße. Dadurch lassen sich Design- oder Konzeptentwürfe visualisieren, frühzeitig Fehler erkennen und Absicherungen hinsichtlich Ergonomie, oder Ein- und Ausbauuntersuchung durchführen (Rademacher, 2014). Diese Absicherungen, insbesondere die Prüfung von Produktionsanlagen wird heute vor allem mit statische Modellen durchgeführt (Westkämper & Runde 2006). Weiterhin resultiert die zunehmende Vernetzung und Intelligenz von Produktionsanlagen im Kontext von Industrie 4.0 in hochkomplexen Anlagensteuerungen. Zur frühzeitigen Überprüfung der Datenquellen bzw. Planungsdaten für die reale Anlage hinsichtlich ihrer Korrektheit, Vollständigkeit und Konsistenz bereits während der Entwicklung werden daher zunehmend auch Techniken der funktionellen Virtualisierung eingesetzt. ..."

Harsh environment acoustic emission and ultrasonic wave sensing applications often benefit from placing the sensor in a remote and more benign physical location by using waveguides to transmit elastic waves between the structural location under test and the transducer. Waveguides are normally designed to have high fidelity over broad frequency ranges to minimize distortion - often difficult to achieve in practice. This thesis reports on an examination of using nonlinear ball chain waveguides for the transmission of acoustic emission and ultrasonic waves for the monitoring of thermal protection systems undergoing severe heat loading, leading to ablation and similar processes. Experiments test the nonlinear propagation of solitary, harmonic and mixed harmonic elastic waves through a copper tube filled with steel and elastomer balls and various other waveguides. Triangulation of pencil lead breaks occurs on a steel plate. Data are collected concerning the usage of linear waveguides and a water-cooled linear waveguide. Data are collected from a second water-cooled waveguide monitoring Atmospheric Reentry Materials in UVM's Inductively-Coupled Plasma Torch Facility. The motion of the particles in the dimer waveguides is linearly modeled with a three ball and spring chain model and the results are compared per particle. A theoretical nonlinear model is presented which is capable of exactly modeling the motion of the dimer chains. The shape of the waveform propagating through the dimer chain is modeled in a sonic vacuum. Mechanical pulses of varying time widths and amplitudes are launched into one end of the ball chain waveguide and observed at the other end in both time and frequency domains. Similarly, harmonic and mixed harmonic mechanical loads are applied to one end of the waveguide. Balls of different materials are analyzed and discriminated into categories. A copper tube packed with six steel particles, nine steel or marble particles and a longer copper tube packed with 17 steel particles are studied with a frequency sweep. The deformation experienced by a single steel particle in the dimer chain is approximated. Steel ball waveguides and steel rods are fitted with piezoelectric sensors to monitor the force at different points inside the waveguide during testing. The corresponding frequency responses, including intermodulation products, are compared based on amplitude and preloads. A nonlinear mechanical model describes the motion of the dimer chains in a vacuum. Based on the results of these studies it is anticipated that a nonlinear waveguide will be designed, built, and tested as a possible replacement for the high-fidelity waveguides presently being used in an Inductively Coupled Plasma Torch facility for high heat flux thermal protection system testing. The design is intended to accentuate acoustic emission signals of interest, while suppressing other forms of elastic wave noise.

The increasingly punitive nature of immigration control across the Western world and the overrepresentation of foreign nationals in European prisons has revitalised criminological interest in issues of migration. Alessandro De Giorgi (2010: 153) and others contend that restrictive, 'illegalising' immigration admission policies and 'hyper-criminalising' immigration controls create a population of migrant workers on European territory, whose legal precarity makes them ideal fodder for employment in post-Fordist neoliberal labour markets. This thesis refines the neoliberal-materialist analysis of immigration policy, as described most succinctly by De Giorgi (2010), through a comparative case study of the UK and Germany. To this end, it explores the various economic, political and cultural factors that have driven the development of a punitive regulation of immigration in the two countries and compares immigration control practices. It also examines the ways in which immigration status siphons immigrants into precarious work and how this process occurs differently in the UK and Germany. An underlying concern is to examine the extent to which differences in the underlying labour markets of the two countries, as described in Hall and Soskice's (2001) Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) typology, structure differences in the processes outlined in the neoliberal-materialist analysis. While the development of immigration controls is motivated by a wide variety of factors outside of the labour market, the fact that motivating factors are largely shared among countries of the same VoC type suggests some relationship with the underlying economic structure. In addition, the thesis argues that foreigners are vulnerable to specific forms of workplace exploitation and social marginalisation in 'coordinated' Germany because of factors associated with the VoC – a finding that also has important connotations for understanding the more intense overrepresentation of foreign nationals in German prisons. At the same time, it highlights the importance of other cultural and social factors, unique to each country, in the politics of immigration. The final section reverses the previous line of the enquiry by examining whether immigration 'neoliberalises' industrial relations in Germany. It finds that immigration's effects depend, to a significant extent, on the degree to which foreigners are constructed as precarious workers through state policy. In turn, immigration policy's wider effects on the labour market suggest native workers might also have an interest in preventing the precaritisation of their immigrant counterparts. Finally, immigration status may become less and less important in understanding the exploitation of workers in Europe, as citizenship is associated with fewer rights.

This degree project studies the future regulations for the installation of electronic flight bags (EFB) with focus on the hardware and its safety implications in which the task was given by Bromma Air Maintenance (BAM). The aim is to ease the operator to handle issues dealing with EFB; such as lithium battery fire in the cockpit, placement of EFB in the cockpit, etc. This also addresses flight safety, flight controls, emergency evacuation and solutions in dealing with such issues. Flight safely is a vital factor to be considered since it jeopardizes lives. As recent reports indicate an increase in lithium battery powered devices incidents on aircrafts, this paves the way to find new solutions and procedures to mitigate them. By studying the current regulations, Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC), Advisory Circular (AC) regarding the usage/installation of EFB and future regulation draft (NPA) this study analyzed the changes, which indicated that there were not many significant changes made to the future regulation (new AMC). Although many chapter of the current AMC have been removed and introduced into a new section under AMC & GM (Guidance Material). Different placement of the EFB in cockpit has also been studied in this degree project, which has shown that depending on the placement choice of the aircraft operator there are advantages and disadvantages. This follows by studying the lithium (Li-ion) batteries: technology, mitigation of fire and procedures for lithium battery fire while also studying the recent incidents regarding lithium batteries fire and explosion in commercial and cargo flights. The solutions consist of using the latest technology to propose a new approach to charge the batteries, and store the burning batteries as well. This lead to a smart inductive charger and a smart fire contamination bag to be integrated into the procedures. / Detta examensarbete studerar de framtida installationskrav för Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) med fokus på hårdvaran och dess påverkan på säkerheten. Rapporten kan användas som manual som tydliggör vilka procedurer och rekommendationer operatören kan ta hänsyn till vid installation och användning av EFB. I flygbranschen har de flesta flygbolag redan börjat använda surfplattor istället för dokument och manualer. EFB är ett elektroniskdisplaysystem som i första hand används i flygplanets cockpit. EFB:s funktion är att förse piloten med en mängd olika data om flygplanet t.ex. prestanda, balans och vikt beräkningar, bränsle mm. Displayen är en ersättning av det traditionella ”Flight Bag” som för i tiden var i pappersform och innehöll alla kartor och manualer skriftligt. Som alla andra teknologier har EFB sina begränsningar såsom batteriproblem, påverkan på säkerheten och ”Flight Controls” i flygplanets cockpit. Genom studier och sammanfattning av skillnaden mellan nuvarande och framtida regelverk har man kommit fram till att inga märkbara förändringar har skett. Fältstudien var till nytta för att analysera vilka säkerhetsproblem varje installationstyp har. Utrustningar som smart induktiv laddare och smart brandskyddsväska har fåtts som resultat i arbetet. Dessa utrustningar är till att motverka faror som är möjliga att ske under användning av EFB i cockpit.

Master of Science / Department of Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering / Dale Schinstock / This thesis describes the design, development, and initial testing of the Mobile Reduced Gravity Simulator (MoRGS). MoRGS is a hoist with active force control, to be used in terrestrial environments with human test subjects for the simulation of partial gravity or zero gravity environments. It is to be used with the subject performing activities while being harnessed to the hoist. The following work here describes the mechanical design, structural and dynamic analyses, simulations used to aid in the control design and component selection, the development of unique control algorithms tailored to the objectives and uncommon dynamics of MoRGS, and initial testing performed without the use of human subjects. Major components of the MoRGS system include: AC servo motor, gearbox, custom-designed drum, pneumatic muscle, load cell, and a microprocessor. The system is designed to track the motion of the test subject over several meters of vertical travel at speeds of up to 2 Gs of acceleration. This allows for high performance during subject’s physical tests, including running on a treadmill and a climbing ladder. It is capable of offloading 50 lb. to 600 lb. and the level of desired reduced gravity is programmable. Results from testing of the system demonstrate that MoRGS system achieves its goals. It performs well, and the sensitivity of the force controller enables it to compensate for the most minute human motion disturbance.

M.Ing. (Mechanical Engineering) / The purpose of this study was to investigate the accuracy of SOAP84-simulations of delay and percentage stops at isolated signalized intersections. In the application, capacity was distinguished in terms of lane configuration only. Results at the intersections showed SOAP overestimating both delay and percentage stops by as much as 100%. It is recommended that the same investigations be repeated with more accurate information on the capacity of the intersections.

Electromechanical systems dynamics analysis is approached through nonlinear differential equations and further creating a state space model for the system. There are three modules analyzed and validated, first module consists two magnet coupled with a mass spring damper system as a band-pass system, Low-pass equivalent system and Low-pass equivalent system through perturbation analysis. Initially Band Pass frameworks for the systems are formulated considering the relation between the mechanical forcing and current. Using Mathematical tools such as Hilbert transforms, Low-Pass equivalent of the systems are derived. The state equations of the systems are then used to design a working model in MATLAB and simulations investigated completely. The scope of the modules discussed for further development of tools various applications.