Animal preferences in choice tests have frequently been used within animal welfare research to make recommendations about animal handling and husbandry. It is therefore important that these results are obtained in a way that, as far as possible, respects the behavioural capabilities of the animal. Stress has been shown to affect cognitive processes in animals and could therefore affect the decision making process. To examine the effects of stress on decision making, 16 laying hens were trained to distinguish between two different quantities of a food reward. A decision balance point was found, by increasing the cost of reaching the large reward, in lines with the theory of demand curves. Hens were then tested in a t-maze choice test with both balanced and unbalanced sets of options, with and without prior stress treatment. Choice, latency to choose, heart rate and temperatures were recorded. Hens that received stress treatment prior to their first test session were affected by this even in subsequent sessions where they did not receive stress treatment. This effect was not found in hens that first received stress treatment prior to their second test session. This shows the influence of previous experiences on animal decision making. Also, a decrease in heart rate during the decision making period was found, when making a choice between balanced options, indicating anticipation of difficulty. Additionally, this shows that physiological measurements such as heart rate could be of importance for future studies and greater understanding of underlying processes of animal decision making.

ABSTRACT DESIGN OF A MECHANISM FOR OPENING HACTHBACK CAR BAGGAGE DOOR Duran, Yusuf M.S., Department of Mechanical Engineering Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Eres S&ouml / ylemez September 2009, 65 Pages In this thesis, a new mechanism design for opening hatchback-car baggage door is introduced. Unlike the classical hinged doors used, this new design will include a mechanism so that the door will be opened vertically and thus occupy less space behind the car during the opening. In this fashion even the hatchback doors of closely parked cars may be opened. First, considering type synthesis, different mechanism types are investigated. In dimensional synthesis, with the help of Burmester theory, motion generation is applied. Using the circle and center point curves, considering link dimensions, transmission angle characteristics, branching and some order issues possible solutions that satisfy the position requirements are found. To actuate the mechanism, an appropriate gas-spring is sought. As a case study a prototype is manufactured and mounted on a sample hatchback car to check the mechanism performance.

<p>Problem- In the townships and rural areas of the Western Cape province of South Africa unemployment can be as high as 60%. For many, starting a business is the only viable option to survive. There are many organizations seeking to help entrepreneurs to successfully start and manage a business, but services are significantly lacking. We therefore wish to determine what business service providers in the Western Cape are doing today to help necessity entrepreneurs succeed, and what can be done better in the future to facilitate entrepreneurship in the region.</p><p>Purpose- The purpose of our research is to identify measures necessary to facilitate successful entrepreneurial start-up activities in the Western Cape province of South Africa for necessity entrepreneurs.</p><p>Method- To address our purpose we have used snowball sampling to conduct six in-depth interviews with necessity entrepreneurs and eight with Business Service Providers using semistructured interviews. In addition, we have utilized convenience sampling to interview 27 necessity entrepreneurs with whom we conducted brief interviews.</p><p>Results- From our research it can be concluded that the most important measure necessary to facilitate entrepreneurship for necessity entrepreneurs in the Western Cape is to increase the entrepreneurial capacity of the people. People must be provided with the resources to develop the skills and mindsets necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur and see entrepreneurship as a way of making a career. Secondly, resources must be diverted so that those necessity entrepreneurs with a viable business plan and necessary capacities are provided financial assistance to establish their business. Thirdly, the provincial government must make significant improvements in the abilities of entrepreneurs to access markets. Currently entrepreneurs cannot efficiently access markets and are thereby withheld from valuable business opportunities. Fourthly, the services offered by business service providers must be made more effective and achieve a much greater standard of quality in order to help those most in need better. We are optimistic with regards to development of entrepreneurship in the Western Cape, but must emphasize the fact that there is a significant need for change with regards to services offered to necessity entrepreneurs.</p>

This study focuses on investigating if specific aspects in texture design, used in the 3D-Models implemented in 3D-digital games, can influence a player's action. The method used is a minor section of a game called a level being constructed for player testing. The level has 6 rooms each with 2 out of 6 different designs of doors. The player will choose one, and with an interview tell us why he or she picked that door. I found that the players choose logic, rather than discomfort, when choosing a door as the choice often was about where the door lead. As the test shows interesting results, it validated my hypthesis in terms of whether a design can affect the player’s choices. / Den här studien fokuserar på att undersöka specifika sidor I textur design som kan påverka en spelares val. Metoden som användes är ett mindre område i spel kallad Level som designades för spelare att testa. Level består av 6 rum med 2 av 6 olika designs på dörrar i varje rum, spelaren väljer en dörr och med en intervju förklarar varför han eller hon valde just den dörren. Jag fann att spelare hellre gjorde logiska val än ett val ledd av obehag när de valde dörr då valet ofta var om vart dörren leder till. Testet visar intressanta resultat men bekräftar också min hypotes när det gäller om en dörr design kan påverka en spelares val.

The IKEA sliding door system is widely employed on IKEA’s wardrobes. In view of the massive usage of it, any optimization for reducing production costs is crucial. This work attempts to develop a special static test rig for a component of IKEA’s sliding door system. It will be used to check the quality of the component in production. The simulation-driven design method will be used in the entire process. Therefore, before proceeding with the details of the test rig, the priority should be given to the simulation. In particular, the nonlinear finite element method (FEM) will be used to identify the break load of the studied component. Finite element models were created in ABAQUS/Standard. Four kinds of POM were used to define the model’s material properties. Meanwhile the compression experiment were also conducted. Finite element models were used to predict the load capacity and compare it with the experimental results. The closest prediction in relation to the test results was 2124N, merely 6N smaller than the experimental results, giving the proof of a good finite element analysis. Based on the results of simulations and compression tests, a proper test rig consisting of a pneumatic system and load cell was selected from four concepts. The air cylinder can provide 3175N when the supplied air is 0.7MPa, which is fully met the design requirements with reasonable price.

Many companies around the world have implemented Six Sigma as a problem solving methodology especially useful for dealing with recurring problems in business processes. Since the 1980s when it was developed at Motorola, many companies have tried to implement Six Sigma to fit their own company’s culture and goals. This thesis presents a longitudinal case study describing the evolution of ‘Six Sigma Management’ at Siemens in Sweden. The success of the programme was to a large degree built on previous failures, confirming Juran’s old saying ‘Failure is a gold mine’. From the case study, success factors for implementing Six Sigma at Siemens are identified and compared to those given in the literature. Some of the most critical success factors identified at Siemens had not been mentioned as such in the literature before. The main conclusion of the study is that, in order to succeed and get sustainable results from a Six Sigma programme, Six Sigma should be integrated with Process Management, instead of just running Six Sigma as a separate initiative in an organisation. Furthermore, the thesis includes papers presenting methods and tools to be used in a Six Sigma programme or in Six Sigma projects. They deal with: how to identify suitable Six Sigma projects, how to select which Six Sigma methodology to use, how to find hidden misunderstandings between people from different knowledge domains, and how to simulate the impact of improvements to iterative processes. All these methods and tools have been developed and tested at Siemens. This has been an action research project, where the author has been employed by the company under investigation for eleven years and has actively influenced the changes in the company based on knowledge gained at the company as well as on research studies conducted at universities. In action research the change initiative under investigation is conducted and analysed in a single context. The readers are invited to draw their own conclusions on the applicability of the results to their own specific cases. In addition to this, some conclusions derived using analytical generalisation, applicable to a more general case, are presented in the thesis. / <p>Defended att Chalmers University of Technolgy in 2007.</p>

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French literary translators have traditionally translated in an ethnocentric fashion in such a way that the translated work did not seem translated. They tried to write their translations in the same way the author would have, had he been French. Readers of French translations seemed quite satisfied with that approach. Yet there are translators who do not feel comfortable with this ethnocentric approach. They have done a great deal of reflection on their work, and are introducing new ways of translating literature. One of these is Antoine Berman. We have dedicated the first half of our work to his theories and the second half to a possible application of these theories to a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, I Lock my Door upon Myself. This novel was translated in France by Marie-Lise Marliere and its French title is Un amour noir. We will quote examples from the translation where we feel we can apply Berman's theory of "distorting tendencies" and make practical suggestions of alternative French translations. Our conclusion leads us to explore ways to better serve the French readers of Joyce Carol Oates.

In the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD), three doors are presented with a prize behind one and participants are instructed to choose a door. One of the unchosen doors is then shown to not have the prize and the participant can choose to stay with their door or switch to the other one. The optimal strategy is to switch. Herbranson and Schroeder (2010) found that humans performed poorly on this task, whereas pigeons learned to switch readily. However, we found that pigeons learned to switch at level only slightly above humans. We also found that pigeons stay nearly exclusively when staying is the optimal strategy and when staying and switching are reinforced equally (Stagner, Rayburn-Reeves, & Zentall, 2013). In Experiment 1, rats were trained under these same conditions to observe if possible differences in foraging strategy would influence performance on this task. In Experiment 2, pigeons were trained in an analogous procedure to better compare the two species. We found that both species were sensitive to the overall probability of reinforcement, as both switched significantly more often than subjects in a group that were reinforced equally for staying and switching and a group that was reinforced more often for staying. Overall, the two species performed very similarly within the parameters of the current procedure.

Standup forklift trucks are extensively used primarily for material handling in high density warehouses. These forklifts over the years have been involved in severe accidents causing injuries and taking lives of the operator and that of people on the floor. The major accidents involving these trucks are tip-over, off the dock accidents, compartment intrusions and under the rack injuries. The objective of the work is to analyze the accident data and to provide a conceptual design to ensure safety of the operator riding the standup forklift trucks. The operator is assumed to be safe when retained within the compartment similar to that of the safe space environment of a sit down forklift truck or tractors. Thus a door on the standup forklift would provide a safer compartment. This design would help in preventing severe injuries to the operator in case of any accidents. The important criterion of this design is to provide a door with latch and slide mechanism to ensure easy egress and ingress of the operator. The compartment is designed ergonomically for 95th percentile industrial male population. The accident data is studied by performing statistical and failure analysis. Weibull plots are fitted for life time distribution data and are found to be of increasing rate. This suggests that present safety precautions are increasingly ineffective.