In today's globalized world traveling has become an integral part of many people's lives. Whether traveling for pleasure, entertainment, or business, you always have to find a place to stay during your travels. There are many options - sleeping on a park bench, on a sofa at some stranger's house, in a tent, in a small hotel room or in a luxury apartment in one of the world's famous hotel chains. One such chain is Hyatt. Yet, Hyatt is one of the last worldwide hotel chains not represented in the Czech Republic. Why is this so? Is there still a potential for a new luxury hotel chain to enter this market? And if so, which entering strategy shall the chain choose? The aim of the thesis is to answer these questions.

n/a---Introduction--- This thesis deals with an investigation od a Professional Development Scheme which gave three Teaching Service teachers working experience in one of Australia's largest research organisations, a Canberra hotel, and an ACT office furniture business (one of the largest manufacturers of its kind within Australia) during the September school vacation of 1988.-----Aim----The aim of the thesis is to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of the Professional Development Scheme in the context of the relationship between the school and the world of work.

Innovative multifunctional materials are essential to many new sensor applications. Piezoresistive nano-composites make up a promising class of such materials that have the potential to provide a measurable response to strain over a much wider range than typical strain gages. Commercial strain gages are currently dominated by metallic sensors with a useable range of a few percent strain at most. There are, however, many applications that would benefit from a reliable wide-range sensor. These might include the study of explosive behavior, instrumentation of flexible components, motion detection for compliant mechanisms and hinges, human-technology interfaces, and a wide variety of bio-mechanical applications where structural materials may often be approximated as elastomeric. In order to quantify large strains, researchers often use optical methods which are tedious and difficult. This thesis proposes a new material and technique for quantifying large strain (up to 40%) by use of piezoresistive nano-composite strain gages. The nano-composite strain gage material is manufactured by suspending nickel nano-strands within a biocompatible silicone matrix. Study and design iteration on the strain gage material requires an improved understanding of the electrical behavior and conduction path within the material when strained. A percolation model has been suggested for numerical approximations, but has only provided marginal results for lack of data. Critical missing information in the percolation model is the nano-strand cluster size, and how that size changes in response to strain. These data are gathered using a dynamic technique in the scanning electron microscope called voltage contrast. Cluster sizes were found to vary in size by approximately 6% upon being strained to 10%. A feasibility study is also conducted on the nano-composite to show its usability as a strain gage. High Displacement Strain Gages (HDSGs) were manufactured from the nano-composite. HDSGs measured the strain of bovine ligament under prescribed loading conditions. Results demonstrate that HDSGs are an accurate means for measuring ligament strains across a broad spectrum of applied deformations.

This item contains the agenda, minutes, and attachments for the Faculty Senate meeting on this date. There may be additional materials from the meeting available at the Faculty Center.