Due to environmental awareness and realization of cost savings, disassembly-to-order (DTO) concept has become popular. One of the main obstacles to making optimal DTO decisions is the uncertainty involved in end-of-life products (EOLPs). This uncertainty is due to the lack of information about the condition and the quantity of EOLPs returned. This uncertainty is removed by advanced disassembly/repair-to-order systems utilizing sensors to monitor the products in their life-cycle. Sensor technology enables remaining life estimation, thus allows advanced DTO models to deal with sophisticated component and product demands with remaining life adjustment.

I confirm that the thesis is my own work and that all published or other sources of material consulted have been acknowledged in notes to the text or the bibliography. I confirm that the thesis has not been submitted for a comparable academic award. This dissertation considers space, the figure of the ghost and the practice of haunting in contemporary fiction. Through textual analysis of contemporary literary hauntings, the principal argument throughout this thesis is that haunting highlights an enigmatic, multifaceted violence within space. Such violent traces disturb a preexisting historical trauma that punctures all spaces; an obscure scarring that philosophy attempts to erase, contributing its own violence as it does so. Through the remainder of the trace, the insecurity of a philosophical system based upon binary oppositions is disclosed. Hence, this study is predominantly theoretical and philosophical in its approach. Texts under examination are Lunar Park, House of Leaves, The Sea, Beyond Black, The Gathering, The Sea, The Sea, and Life: A User's Manual. Chapter One evaluates how the impossibility of mourning results in a haunted memorial crypt that incorporates the mourned within the mourner, and Chapter Two expands on the cryptiike nature of writing, as exemplified through the sending and receiving of letters. The relation of the law, finance and textual material of ownership (as outlined through mortgage) is the focus for Chapter Three, and Chapter Four considers the inheritance of the gothic trace; the influence of haunting upon the patriarchal lineage of father to son. Chapter Five explores the relationship between language and space, in particular, the ability to build through writing. Chapter Six examines the complex relationship between creation and erasure, and the ethics of the gift of death. Finally, Chapter Seven surveys the significance of the border crossing guest: a threshold anxiety experienced through the law of Hospitality

Failures of high mast illumination poles (HMIP) around the US have raised the concerns of officials because of their location close to areas with important human activity. Previous research, conducted at the University of Texas proved that those failures were fatigue type failures and that cracking initiated at the shaft to baseplate connection, specifically at the bends of the shaft. However, no research has been conducted on the remaining fatigue life of poles after they have been in service. This thesis investigates the remaining fatigue life of a pole, removed from service after severe cracking has been observed on it, via laboratory testing. Moreover, nondestructive and destructive testing procedures were implemented to investigate the initiation and evolution of fatigue cracks. The results validated the procedures for the in-situ validation of the remaining fatigue life of those poles. Last, the destructive test results enhanced the arguments that initial cracking at the toe of the weld at the shaft to baseplate connection is a result of the galvanizing process. / text

A qualitative study, using grounded theory methodology, was conducted to explore the decision-making process of at-risk older adults who chose to remain living in a situation which did not meet their functional needs. The six subjects participating in the study ranged in age from 72 to 91 years of age. Each of the subjects lived alone in a private residence. The development of a framework began with subcategories and their properties derived from data bits which led to emerging categories, to core variables and finally to the resultant substantive theory of managing survival and its implications. Insight into the decision making process of the older adult to remain at risk was identified. Implications suggest ways nurse case managers can help clients achieve their goals while containing cost and assisting the older adult to maintain their independence.

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This thesis is sequestered till May 2014 / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Anthropology

This study presents a skeletal analysis of the burials from the Elrod (12CL 1) site. This site, excavated by E.Y. Guernsey in the 1930s, has exhibited extreme commingling and loss of context. The early date, before the implementation of archaeological standards, and lack of publication are the primary sources of commingling. An outline for dealing with commingling, as well as a demographic profile and overview of health, were created during this research. The Elrod site has been characterized as a Middle to Late Archaic shell midden, though literature and analyses presented here support a stratified excavation of the Elrod burials. The stature, dentition and pathology suggest that this series contains individuals from several temporal periods and is not confined to the Middle-Late Archaic. / Department of Anthropology