Smart structures become highly popular with the developing technology. The aim of this study is to develop a basic model, which can be also used in the design of more complex systems by performing simultaneous optimization of a structure and associated controller with respect to some design parameters and feedback gains. In this thesis work, two smart structures are used as case studies and their results are compared with the available results in the literature. The first case study is simple twobar truss problem controlled by either one or two actuators. This problem is solved both numerically and analytically. The latter is a twenty-element parabolic truss, which is controlled by four actuators. This problem is solved numerically only. In the optimization process, the design parameters are taken as the cross sectional areas of bar elements, positions and/or number of actuators, and the elements of closed loop gain matrix. In the second case study, in addition to these parameters, shape design parameters are also optimized. A coordinate transformation is applied in both cases from the displacement space to the modal space. The modal model reduction method is used in the design of second problem. The optimization goal in both cases studies is to minimize the system energy while satisfying some frequency and mass constraints. In the second case study, in addition to the original objective function, system controllability and stability robustness are also maximized. In the solution of design problem, two optimization algorithms are used one embedded within the other. In the outer loop, a hide and seek simulated annealing algorithm optimizes structural design parameters, and positions and/or number of actuators. In order to generate a candidate design family for this level, optimal closed loop gain matrices are calculated by using MATLAB&reg / .

The importance of skin processing technologies, in the history and dispersal of humankind around the planet cannot be overstated. This area of material culture is often underrepresented as a research topic, and has been hampered, in part, by the lack of a systematic analysis methodology targeted at specifically this material type. This research aimed to develop a methodology for determining the tanning technologies in use during prehistory, from extant archaeologically recovered processed skin objects. The methodology is a product of macroscopic and microscopic observations of a large sample reference collection, used to produce a database of defining characteristics and tendencies for each of six tannage types. The sample collection is made up of twenty-two species identified as economically important from both Europe and North America. Six sample pieces of skin were taken from a single individual of each of the twenty-two species, and processed using six tanning technologies, the use of which covered a large geographic area and time frame. A second reference collection of clothing and utilitarian items, made from traditionally processed skins, was used to add a section of in-life use traces to the database of discriminating traits. The developed methodology was tested by examining archaeologically recovered and ethnographically collected skin objects, from museum collections across North America and Europe. Objects from many different preservation contexts, including wet, dry, and frozen sites were analysed to determine whether or not the discriminating traits survived interment. It was found that defining characteristics and tendencies do exist between the main tannage technologies, and can be recorded at multiple levels of observation. The analysis of skin objects in museum collections confirmed that at least some defining characteristics and tendencies survived in all preservation contexts. In addition, the preservation of in-life use traces proved to be diagnostic of not only tannage type, but small sections of chaîne opératoire and object biography as well. Overall, this research has demonstrated that archaeologically preserved objects made from processed skin can provide information about the tannage technologies in use prehistorically, as well as more detailed information such as manufacturing sequences and the conditions of use an object was subjected to. Thus, analysis of this nature can be used to access information on a more individual level than previously believed.

L’eau est chez Terrence Malick une figure emblématique de la nature, ce dans une certaine continuité avec l’ensemble du cinéma américain le plus populaire (Steven Spielberg). Malick, en dépit d’une formation en philosophie, n’apparaît pas comme une figure isolée dans son pays.La nature se cache (Héraclite). Elle présente un visage insouciant à l’enfance avant de revêtir le masque de l’indifférence à l’âge adulte. Mais l’invisible de la nature traduit moins de l’effroi que du mystère (Jacques Tourneur). L’indifférence cède la place au véritable étonnement philosophique, celui de la création du monde (naissance de Vénus). Le voile de la nature peut susciter de la violence (le monde de la technique de Heidegger). Y renoncer au profit de la contemplation est possible (Henry Hathaway et le film Peter Ibbetson). La posture du retrait sera privilégiée à la force (Minnelli au cinéma, Marc Aurèle ou Leibniz en philosophie). La piscine et le pont illustrent le rapport de distance existant entre l'individu et l’eau. S’agissant de l’eau prise comme symbole de l’écoulement temporel, l’écueil est de l’appréhender comme un motif de dislocation entre les âges de la vie. Elle est dans le même ordre d’idées une figure privilégiée de la mort. Cette illusion peut être écartée par une appréhension renouvelée des âges de la vie, qui ne se succèdent pas mais s’unissent en permanence en une union qui rappelle la leçon de Proust et bien avant lui d’Héraclite, avec son enfant qui joue présenté comme symbole du temps. Le pont figure là encore un symbole de ce temps retrouvé capable de soigner des maux souvent rencontrés dans le cinéma américain (syndromes de Carlotta et Lolita). / Water constitutes with Terrence Malick a fundamental figure representative of nature, in the lineage of the most popular American cinema (Spielberg). Malick, despite the importance of his philosophical culture, appears the contrary of an isolated figure in his country.The main characteristic of nature is to hide (Heraclitus). Nature presents a friendly face to the child and becomes indifferent for the adult. The invisibility of nature in water conveys less fright than a sense of mystery (Jacques Tourneur). Indifference gives way to philosophical wonder linked to the creation of the world from water (the birth of Venus).Violence can respond to the veil (the technical world of Heidegger). But contemplation can replace cold reason (Henry Hathaway and his movie Peter Ibbetson). The idea is not to force nature to deliver its message, but to step back in a way announced by philosophers Marcus Aurelius and Leibniz, and movie maker Minnelli. The swimming pool and the bridge represent two space figures which permit to illustrate the distance between the individual and water.As to water as a symbol of time flowing, the mistake is to understand time as fragmented periods of life without any connection. Water is also a symbol of death. The illusion can vanish when apprehending time in a renewed manner. The ages of life do not follow each other but are permanently combined in a union reminiscent of Proust’s teachings. The bridge represents once more this time newly found able to heal psychological diseases often encountered in American cinema (syndromes of Carlotta and Lolita).

This study assesses the organization and intensity of hide processing from sequential occupations at the Late Fort Ancient (A.D. 1400-1680) Hardin Site located in the central Ohio Valley. Historical and archaeological sources were drawn on to develop expectations for production intensification: 1) an increase in production tool quantity, 2) an increase in production debris quantity, and 3) an increase in tool utilization intensity. Many Native groups situated on the periphery of early European colonies intensified hide production to meet demand generated by an emerging global trade in hides. As this economic activity intensified in the 16th and 17th centuries it incorporated and ever greater network of native communities. By documenting production intensification at the Hardin Site, this study evaluates the degree to which global markets incorporated regions beyond the colonial periphery before A.D. 1680. This study also examines the social dimensions of economic activity by asking who processed hides, who may have benefited from the products of this labor, and whether or not either of these were influenced by participation in the tumultuous interaction sphere of the eastern North American Contact Period.

Foundry technology is an industrial sector, where progress is still the important aspect for reducing the environmental impact and increasing competitiveness. Master's thesis is focused on the possibilities of influencing residual strength of the core moulding mixtures with the biogenic binders, which forms a new group of binder systems.

This study sets out to explore first person theatre as a means of opening the individual to the problems of contemporary capitalism and its increasing pervasion of the personal in an era of embeddedness enabled by networked pervasive technology. Firstly setting out key definitions and a theoretical analysis of the problems of being in the digital age in chapter 1, and then setting this against the history of interaction in performance in chapter 2. The study then goes on (in chapters 3-5) to investigate three key aspects of first person performance as personal-as-political; sound and the city, play and games, and interactive theatre. In the final chapter, The Umbrella Project develops a piece of first person theatre as practice, a method of investigation that is vital to a thesis that discusses politics, late capitalism, and the means to resist the message-sending of private interests as fundamentally only to be understood in practice. For this reason, too, chapters 3, 4 and 5 are supported by key case studies discussing other first person theatre practice. By placing the participant at the centre of the world-constituting process of theatre in the hot space between what is and what if this study suggests that first person theatre is able to open the contemporary individual to an inbetween where they might re-see, reflect and react to what is. To imagine and, if wished, act upon a what if. In an age of the disrupted near and far, the vanishing of the interface, of the false rhetoric of choice of personalisation , and the often false rhetoric of agency at the end of the era of broadcast, first person theatre offers the subject a route to individual agency, an understanding of the urban environment as construct, and to their relationship with the subjective other something which this thesis suggests is a personal-as-political practice to rival the Spectacle of late capitalism.

En définissant les notions de „travail“ et de „ métier“, nous avons observé l’importance du „système d’information“ dans la réinvention du „travail“. Constatant la disparition ainsi que la modification des métiers ; en atteste les licenciements et les réorganisations des entreprises ; le travail ne disparait pas pour autant et s’invite sous de nouvelles formes, comme les statuts auto-entrepreneur et stagiaire, mais aussi en positionnant le consommateur comme travailleur. Du travail visible, sous la forme d’un travail salarié, au travail „caché“, c‘est la société tout entière qui s’en trouve réinventée, et invite à de nouvelles perspectives sociales.Au travers de l’étude de deux SSII (société de services en ingénierie informatique), pendant une durée de 5 ans, nous nous sommes intéressés aux différentes formes de mise au travail de 152 ingénieurs informaticiens. Appréhender le contexte des SSII comme un laboratoire de formes modernes de mise au travail, nous a permis d‘identifier ces mises au travail novatrices et leurs valorisations.Le système d’information se constituant comme l’axe incontestable de cette modification du travail, permet la mise en place d‘un travail normé et standardisé, dessine les nouveaux contours du travail, et ouvre vers de nouvelles perspectives sociales et économiques enrichissantes.Si le système d’information contribue à la mise en œuvre de ces nouvelles formes de travail, les décisions managériales se constituent comme étant à l’origine de cette l’utilisation.Vers quel paradigme nous oriente, cette utilisation du système d‘information ? / Defining the concepts of "work" and "job", we observed the importance of "information system " in the reinvention of "work".Noting the loss and modification of „jobs“ ; evidenced by layoffs and reorganization of enterprises , the work does not disappear , however, and invites new forms , such as statutes of freelance and student , but also by positioning the consumer as a worker.Work visible, in the form of wage labor, to work "hidden" , it is the whole society that is reinvented, and calls for new social perspectives.Through the study of two IT compagnies, for a period of 5 years , we are interested in various forms of work activity concerning 152 computer engineers .Understand the context of IT compagnies as a laboratory for modern forms of development work has enabled us to identify these updates in innovative work and valuations.The information system is forming as the undisputed center of this change of work, allows the establishment of normalized and standardized work , draws the new border of work, and open to new rewarding social and economic opportunities.If the information system contributes to the implementation of these new forms of work , managerial decisions are to be at the origin of this use.To what paradigm directs us, this use of information system?

The researcher conducted a critical analysis of the policing of counterfeit crime in South Africa. A pure qualitative research design and approach was adopted. A literature review, interviews and observations were conducted to provide an overview of this problem nationally and internationally. Interview schedules were designed with pre-determined open-ended questions, which allowed participants to explain their perceptions, opinions and viewpoints on the policing of counterfeit in South Africa. Some of the designed questions were mailed to respondents. Questions were posed to members of the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit, members of the South African Police Service’s Crime Prevention Unit, members of the Department of Trade and Industry who deal with counterfeit, prosecutors who normally prosecute counterfeit cases, brand owners/holders/representatives, and attorneys who assist in the policing of counterfeit crime. The findings of this study informed the proposed recommendations for preventative and reactive response mechanisms. These proposed recommendations suggest ways of improving efficiency and effectiveness in policing counterfeit in South Africa. / Criminology and Security Science / Ph. D. (Criminal Justice)

The thesis has been written on the basis of main architectural concepts and their application in real life within a historical context investigation. Main architectural concepts are represented in a harmony of architectural composition that deals with relations among form, structure and space in the unique art work. Genius loci play very important role in the architectural creation - it represents a special and extra-ordinary urban locality and its architectural value in the historical, geographical and cultural context. The origin of Ostravice village within the historical frame concept of Moravia domain is the topic of this thesis. Other historical documents gave information about Bruneswerde as the Brno Castle. That means Brno Castle had to be founded not in Brno (as it has been consid-ered for many years) but it was located in Beskydy at Ostravice. The sacred city – Civitas Dei had been located in Bruneswerde region in early ages as the centre of European culture, education and spiritual life. Civitas Dei – divine Jerusalem in the transcription of St. Augustine's book De civitate Dei – is not only glorification of God and religious fantasy. It is also one of significant clues for recognition of historical architecture. The depiction of unknown settlement from the book of unde-fined origin is a superb testimony about extinct architectural works. They are legible from cadastral maps. Brno Castle - residence of nobility and power served shelter to St. Vojtěch, St. Prokop, St. Václav and St. Ludmila as it is obvious for the mentioned picture. Three major temples, three com-position axes symbolized by three towers on coins are in analogical relation to Brno triangle of four saints - the Saint family of Brno temples. Powerful ambitions of Brno City principals and clergy are inscribed into the urban structure in the way of composition relations which are legible to them who devoted themselves to the mystery of harmony. The absence of historical continuity affects personal attitudes and also identity of the whole community. The architecture truly reflects the past state of polis and it is eloquent even after its death. The architectural composition relations influence the natural environment for long time, longer than the architectural work existence. The geometric order of Renaissance Brno existence has not been in attention of architects so far. The features were discovered in characteristic paintings by Albrecht Durer. They are evidently secret works of the genius. A meaningful collaborator and follower in the extensive project was also his friend Jan Čert from Brno and lately from Vienna. His noble genealogy played a significant role in history of Silesia and Moravia for centuries. It is tendency to consider him as Austrian or even German architect. It is because of the fact that the genealogy tree of his noble family had roots in Moravia. It is supposed that Durer with Jan Čert´s support created the extraordinarily monumental architectural and urban works in Brno. A remarkable consensus in the urban composition of two squares and transition of traditional urban structure of Ostravice Civitas Dei into the modern Brno is also confirmed due to the identification of noble creators and owners, who were at the foundation, transformation and extinction of elements of the Moravian urban structure.