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In dieser Arbeit wollte ich einen Vergleich zwischen dem toten und lebendigen Materialen schaffen. Dafür habe ich mit Zement eine Skulptur von intuitiver und abstrakter Form geschaffen und darauf Moos eingepflanzt. Dadurch habe ich gehofft, dass diese Skulptur wie ein natürliches Objekt aussehen würde.

I investigate the role of organizational form and ownership structure in corporate governance by examining CEO turnover decision in the property-casualty insurance industry. The likelihoods of turnover and non-routine turnover are significantly and negatively associated to firm performance, and the outside succession dominates when non-routine turnover occurs. Further, the firm's magnitude of turnover-performance sensitivity depends on its quality of the corporate governance mechanisms which are determined by organizational form and ownership structure. The sensitivity of non-routine turnover to firm performance is lower in mutuals than publicly held non-family firms. Non-family-member CEOs in publicly listed family firms have the highest likelihoods of turnover and performance-turnover sensitivity among all types of companies. Manager-owned stock insurance companies have the lowest turnover rate and sensitivity of non-routine turnover to firm performance. Also incoming successors mainly come from the controlling family no matter what the turnover type is. / Business Administration/Risk Management and Insurance

Bulk Metallic Glass (BMG) possesses a variety of extraordinary properties including ultra high elastic limit and strength and has been applied in diverse fields such as industrial coatings, sporting foods, medical devices, defense and aerospace sectors. The cross-section thickness of a few millimeters for cast BMG alloy components limits their application to manufacturing structural components. However, continuing global efforts are underway to increase the critical part size cast with BMG alloys. There are two phases tot his project. Phase 1 investigates the feasibility of using suitable BMG alloys to manufacture a pivot assembly in an Airborne Gravity Gradiometer (AGG) via net shape manufacturing techniques. Success of Phase 1 will enable a quantum leap in the capabilities of the present day AGG devices to successfully and accurately scope the vast untapped mineral and petroleum resources globally. Requirements of high tolerances in the pivot assembly with very specific material properties and a net shape manufacturing route coupled with the lack of any database for BMG alloys were the inherent challenges. Suitable BMG alloys have been identified for this purpose and continued efforts are underway to manufacture the pivot assembly. Phase 2 of this project lays the foundation for a much needed tool to predict the Glass forming Ability of BMG alloys. This will enable to scientifically develop novel BMG alloys to suite specific application in lieu of the current ad-hoc development trends. A viable thermal model to understand the relationship between growth rate of solid phase and melt undercooling during uni-directional solidification coupled with a solidification model based on competitive growth principles have been developed. Novel experiment program and setup have been developed to verify these models. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

I detta arbete har jag undersökt hur användningen av H.P. Lovecrafts text Ex Oblivione som utgångspunkt till mitt komponerande har påverkat den musikaliska formen i mitt orkesterverkmed samma titel - Ex Oblivione. Syftet är att få bättre förståelse av vad som händer i mitt komponerande när jag använder en text som utgångspunkt för förmedlandet av ett narrativ, och på så sätt förhoppningsvis berika mitt framtida komponerande. Jag har med hjälp av litteratur reflekterat över hur texten kan ha påverkat formen på olika nivåer. Genom att analysera mitt stycke och dess arbetsprocess med hjälp av loggbok och sparade arbetssessioner i notskrivningsprogrammet Sibelius kom jag fram till att texten främst påverkade mitt styckes storform och estetik. Genom att dyka djupare i begreppet form undersökte jag begreppet mikroform och dess betydelse i mitt stycke. Mikroform innebär strukturen på den mindre nivån, som motiv och fraser. Jag kom fram till att mikroformen i mitt stycke påverkades av en generativ process i stället för texten.

How can the convergence of human interaction and form activate underused spaces and catalyze future community developments? Architecture is defined by human needs, such as that of shelter, comfort, and place. However, we as humans have other needs; the need to create, to make, to play, to thrive, to inhabit, and to interact. The interaction between humans and architecture can serve as fuel to answer the question of how these ideas converge. This thesis examines the dynamic between humans and architecture, and how this interaction can catalyze future change by creating space and place utilized within the underused areas of urban communities. The debate of form versus function is not new, but this thesis continues to question this relationship. It questions what happens when we are allowed to change form – what happens to the function? If we are allowed to change the function, what happens to the form? What can we control through these changes, and what can we create? These questions can be answered through the development of a series of dynamic structures with the ability to expand and contract. Through the process of this expansion and contraction, function becomes variable. Form becomes dynamic. These structures inhabit the leftover spaces of urban settings, using the limited space between buildings to the advantage of creating a dynamic, ever-changing space for community placemaking and architectural intervention, and allowing future community developments to thrive in these leftover spaces. These modular, compact, built environments have the potential to blend the literal and metaphorical boundaries of surface, program, and human interaction. By allowing the individuals of an urban community to gather within an otherwise ignored space, and by giving them the ability to physically transform this space establishes a place to create, make, play, grow, perform, learn, relax, and socialize.

The sprawl of U.S. cities has attracted criticism from many sources in recent years. Among the greatest of the cited harms of sprawl is the alleged travel time burden that it imposes on its residents. Previous research has tested the relationship between the sprawl of business activity and travel times by examining only its effects on commuting times and has concluded that people do not choosing housing and work locations to minimize commutes. This research takes a more comprehensive approach by analyzing the relationship between household travel times and sprawl by testing the relationship between access to economic centers and daily household travel time. The relatively minor increase in household travel times with decrease in access to economic centers found by the analysis shows that people logically reduce trips to centers when choosing housing locations with less access to centers. The ability of people to make these reductions in travel is clearly increased by the dispersal of activity from the central business district and other centers. Comparison of predicted household travel times with an estimated rent gradient show that the increase in housing prices with improved access to subcenters is far less than would be expected given the predicted household travel times, contradicting the relationship between household travel time and housing prices embodied in central place theory and its limited polycentric extensions. An analysis of joined trips suggests that households with less access to economic centers used joined trips, in which multiple destinations are visited on a single trip from the home, to reduce household travel. All of the results suggest that auto use enables households throughout the metropolitan area to reduce travel time. The car has greater flexibility and speed than other modes, particularly in areas of lower density. The travel time savings and flexibility that are provided by the dispersal of economic activity have allowed people to choosing housing that they prefer at lower prices with little added transportation cost. Given these benefits we should carefully consider the manner and method we choose to reduce any negative externalities of sprawl and auto use. / Ph. D.