Characterization of design of a product for additive manufacturing

The purpose of conducting this thesis is to gather around information about additive manufacturing and to design a product to be additively manufactured. The specific manufacturing method dealt with in this thesis, is powder bed fusion of metals. Therefore when mentioning additive manufacturing in this thesis, it is referred to powder bed fusion of metals. The literature review focuses on the principle of powder bed fusion, the general process chain in additive manufacturing, design rules for additive manufacturing. Examples of success stories in additive manufacturing and reasons for selecting parts to be manufactured with additive manufacturing are also explained in literature review. This knowledge is demanded to understand the experimental part of the thesis. The experimental part of the thesis is divided into two parts. Part A concentrates on finding proper geometry for building self-supporting pipes and proper parameters for support structures of them. Part B of the experimental part concentrates on a case study of designing a product for additive manufacturing. As a result of experimental part A, the design process of self-supporting pipes, results of visual analysis and results of 3D scanning are presented. As a result of experimental part B the design process of the product is presented and compared to the original model.

Exploring the impact of celebrity endorsement and product class involvement on advertising effectiveness: an eye tracking approach

Celebrity endorsement has increased in popularity over the past decades and companies are willing to spend increasingly excessive amounts of money into it. Even though multiple studies support celebrity endorsement, further research on its impact on advertising effectiveness is called for. Fur-ther, the role of consumers’ product class involvement in advertising needs to be further studied. The purpose of this study is to explore if consumers’ product class involvement and exposure to celebrity endorsers affect consumers brand recall. Supported by earlier studies, brand recall was used as a measure for advertising effectiveness in this study. In general, a psychological approach was chosen for building the theoretical framework. Concept of classical conditioning was presented in order to understand why people act how they do. Balanced theory and meaning transfer model were presented in order to study how celebrities can be used effectively in advertising context. Further, the importance of product class involvement in advertising effectiveness was evaluated. Hypotheses were formulated based on a literature review of the existing research. Because of the versatility of the research design, a mixed methods approach for this study was adopted. Empirical part of the study was conducted in three stages. First, a pre-test was conducted in order to choose suitable product endorsers for the advertisement stimuli used in the experiment. Second, an eye-tracking experiment with 30 test subjects was conducted in order to study how people view advertisements and whether the familiarity of the product endorser and consumers’ product class involvement affects brand recall. For the experiment, a fictional brand was created in order to avoid bias on brand recall. Third, qualitative interviews for 15 test subjects were conducted in the post-experiment stage in order to gain deeper understating of the phenomenon and to make sense of the findings from the experiment. Findings from this study support celebrity endorsement by suggesting that a famous spokesperson does not steal attention from brand information more than a non-celebrity product endorser. As a result, the use of a celebrity endorser did not decrease brand recall. Results support earlier research as consumer’ higher product class involvement resulted in a better brand recall. Findings from the interviews suggest that consumers have positive perceptions of celebrity endorsement in general. However, the celebrity–brand congruence is a crucial factor when creating attitudes towards the advertisement. Future research ideas were presented based on the limitations and results of this study

Design and implementation of machine vision system for the mobile assembly robot

The review of intelligent machines shows that the demand for new ways of helping people in perception of the real world is becoming higher and higher every year. This thesis provides information about design and implementation of machine vision for mobile assembly robot. The work has been done as a part of LUT project in Laboratory of Intelligent Machines. The aim of this work is to create a working vision system. The qualitative and quantitative research were done to complete this task. In the first part, the author presents the theoretical background of such things as digital camera work principles, wireless transmission basics, creation of live stream, methods used for pattern recognition. Formulas, dependencies and previous research related to the topic are shown. In the second part, the equipment used for the project is described. There is information about the brands, models, capabilities and also requirements needed for implementation. Although, the author gives a description of LabVIEW software, its add-ons and OpenCV which are used in the project. Furthermore, one can find results in further section of considered thesis. They mainly represented by screenshots from cameras, working station and photos of the system. The key result of this thesis is vision system created for the needs of mobile assembly robot. Therefore, it is possible to see graphically what was done on examples. Future research in this field includes optimization of the pattern recognition algorithm. This will give less response time for recognizing objects. Presented by author system can be used also for further activities which include artificial intelligence usage.

Impact of Product-harm Crisis on Brand Equity: the Moderating Role of Corporate Social Performance

There is an increasing amount of product-harm crisis in the past few years; and the impact of a product-harm crisis becomes more and more influential due to the high increasing speed of globalization. And it is believed that the negative damages to a firm leading to a loss of the intangible assets is bigger than other costs such as the cost of the product recall. Brand equity is a very important and valuable intangible asset for a firm; and it is particularly vulnerable during the crisis. And CSP (CSP) is a hot concept associated with product-harm crisis and brand equity. The aim of this study is to understand how product-harm crisis influences by simultaneously involving CSP as a moderator in a consumer-based level. An experimental study was conducted through an online questionnaire among 198 students in Finland. The questionnaire mainly assessed the consumers’ attitudes towards CSP and brand before/after a fictional product-harm crisis. The results shows that the brand equity was negatively related to the product-harm crisis. And the extent level of crisis’s severity was positively related to the loss of the brand equity; whereas, acknowledged blame was more useful to compensate the loss of brand equity in the low-severity crisis. CSP acted as a moderator role which could compensate the loss of brand equity caused by the product-harm crisis. Managerial implications are also offered for crisis managers, brand managers, and CSR managers.

Fostering product innovation by learning through exporting in Eastern Europe

This study discusses the importance of learning through the process of exporting, and more specifically how such a process can enhance the product innovativeness of a company. The purpose of this study is to investigate the appropriate sources of learning and to suggest an interactive framework for how new knowledge from exporting markets can materialize itself into product innovation. The theoretical background of the study was constructed from academic literature, which is related to concepts of learning by exporting, along with sources for learning in the market and new product development. The empirical research in the form of a qualitative case study was based on four semi-structured interviews and secondary data from the case company official site. The interview data was collected between March and April 2015 from case company employees who directly work in the department of exporting and product development. The method of thematic analysis was used to categorize and interpret the collected data. What was conclusively discovered, was that the knowledge from an exporting market can be an incentive for product innovation, especially an incremental one. Foreign customers and competitors as important sources for new knowledge contribute to the innovative process. Foreign market competitors’ influence on product improvements was high only when the competitor was a market leader or held a colossal market share, while the customers’ influence is always high. Therefore, involving a foreign customer in the development of a new product is vital to a company that is interested in benefiting from what is learned through exporting. The interactive framework, which is based on the theoretical background and findings of the study, suggests that exporting companies can raise their product innovativeness by utilizing newly gained knowledge from exporting markets. Except for input, in the form of sources of learning, and product innovation as an output, the framework contains a process of knowledge transfer, the absorptive capacity of a firm and a new product development process. In addition, the framework and the findings enhance the understanding of the disputed relationship between an exporting experience and product innovation. However, future research is needed in order to fully understand all the elements of the framework, such as the absorptive capacity of a firm as well as more case companies to be processed in order to increase the generalization of the framework

Product recall process development for exported nonfood consumer products

The purpose of this research is to examine the different opportunities that companies operating on international level has for conducting a product recall. The main subject of the research is strategic decision-making of recall and product recall process. The theoretical framework, core of the research, is based on research questions. The research is performed as qualitative case study and the material has been collected by combining results of previous studies and by observing the case company. Different opportunities for conducting a recall are examined in the empirical part of this study. As a result, different product recall models have been created, which all require deep cooperation between different entities of the supply chain.

Development of a New Welding Product Quality Control and Management System Model for China

The Chinese welding industry is growing every year due to rapid development of the Chinese economy. Increasingly, companies around the world are looking to use Chinese enterprises as their cooperation partners. However, the Chinese welding industry also has its weaknesses, such as relatively low quality and weak management. A modern, advanced welding management system appropriate for local socio-economic conditions is required to enable Chinese enterprises to enhance further their business development. The thesis researches the design and implementation of a new welding quality management system for China. This new system is called ‗welding production quality control management model in China‘ (WQMC). Constructed on the basis of analysis of a survey and in-company interviews, the welding management system comprises the following different elements and perspectives: a ‗Localized congenital existing problem resolution strategies‘ (LCEPRS) database, a ‗human factor designed training system‘ (HFDT) training strategy, the theory of modular design, ISO 3834 requirements, total welding management (TWM), and lean manufacturing (LEAN) theory. The methods used in the research are literature review, questionnaires, interviews, and the author‘s model design experiences and observations, i.e. the approach is primarily qualitative and phenomenological. The thesis describes the design and implementation of a HFDT strategy in Chinese welding companies. Such training is an effective way to increase employees‘ awareness of quality and issues associated with quality assurance. The study identified widely existing problems in the Chinese welding industry and constructed a LCEPRS database that can be used in efforts to mitigate and avoid common problems. The work uses the theory of modular design, TWM and LEAN as tools for the implementation of the WQMC system.

De novo transcriptome assembly and annotation of the isopod Idotea balthica

The Baltic Sea is a unique environment that contains unique genetic populations. In order to study these populations on a genetic level basic molecular research is needed. The aim of this thesis was to provide a basic genetic resource for population genomic studies by de novo assembling a transcriptome for the Baltic Sea isopod Idotea balthica. RNA was extracted from a whole single adult male isopod and sequenced using Illumina (125bp PE) RNA-Seq. The reads were preprocessed using FASTQC for quality control, TRIMMOMATIC for trimming, and RCORRECTOR for error correction. The preprocessed reads were then assembled with TRINITY, a de Bruijn graph-based assembler, using different k-mer sizes. The different assemblies were combined and clustered using CD-HIT. The assemblies were evaluated using TRANSRATE for quality and filtering, BUSCO for completeness, and TRANSDECODER for annotation potential. The 25-mer assembly was annotated using PANNZER (protein annotation with z-score) and BLASTX. The 25-mer assembly represents the best first draft assembly since it contains the most information. However, this assembly shows high levels of polymorphism, which currently cannot be differentiated as paralogs or allelic variants. Furthermore, this assembly is incomplete, which could be improved by sampling additional developmental stages.

At a special session of the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, held at Hartford, on the twenty third day of February, A.D. 1809 ... An address of the General Assembly, to the people of Connecticut. --

Caption title.

Kinetic and product studies for the oxidtion of organic sulfides and sulfoxides in the presence of transition metal complexes

Rates and products of the oxidation of diphenyl sulfide, phenyl methyl sulfide, p-chlorophenyl methyl sulfide and diphenyl sulfoxide have been determined. Oxidants included t-Bu02H alone, t-Bu02H plus molybdenum or vanadium catalysts and the molybdenum peroxo complex Mo0(02)2*HMPT. Reactions were chiefly carried out in ethanol at temperatures ranging from 20° to 65°C. Oxidation of diphenyl sulfide by t-Bu02H in absolute ethanol at 65°C followed second-order kinetics with k2 = 5.61 x 10 G M~1s"1, and yielded only diphenyl sulfoxide. The Mo(C0)g-catalyzed reaction gave both the sulfoxide and the sulfone with consecutive third-order kinetics. Rate = k3[Mo][t-Bu02H][Ph2S] + k^[Mo][t-Bu02H][Ph2S0], where log k3 = 12.62 - 18500/RT, and log k^ = 10.73 - 17400/RT. In the absence of diphenyl sulfide, diphenyl sulfoxide did not react with t-Bu02H plus molybdenum catalysts, but was oxidized by t-Bu02H-V0(acac)2. The uncatalyzed oxidation of phenyl methyl sulfide by t-Bu02H in absolute ethanol at 65°C gave a second-order rate constant, k = 3.48 x 10~"5 M^s""1. With added Mo(C0)g, the product was mainly phenyl methyl sulfoxide; Rate = k3[Mo][t-Bu02H][PhSCH3] where log k3 = 22.0 - 44500/RT. Both diphenyl sulfide and diphenyl sulfoxide react readily with the molybdenum peroxy complex, Mo0(02)2'HMPT in absolute ethanol at 35°C, yielding diphenyl sulfone. The observed features are mainly in agreement with the literature on metal ion-catalyzed oxidations of organic compounds by hydroperoxides. These indicate the formation of an active catalyst and the complexation of t-Bu02H with the catalyst. However, the relatively large difference between the activation energies for diphenyl sulfide and phenyl methyl sulfide, and the non-reactivity of diphenyl sulfoxide suggest the involvement of sulfide in the production of an active species.

Polyglutamine monomer structure and its implications for molecular self-assembly

Polyglutamine is a naturally occurring peptide found within several proteins in neuronal cells of the brain, and its aggregation has been implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's disease. The resulting aggregates have been demonstrated to possess ~-sheet structure, and aggregation has been shown to start with a single misfolded peptide. The current project sought to computationally examine the structural tendencies of three mutant poly glutamine peptides that were studied experimentally, and found to aggregate with varying efficiencies. Low-energy structures were generated for each peptide by simulated annealing, and were analyzed quantitatively by various geometry- and energy-based methods. According to the results, the experimentally-observed inhibition of aggregation appears to be due to localized conformational restraint placed on the peptide backbone by inserted prolines, which in tum confines the peptide to native coil structure, discouraging transition towards the ~sheet structure required for aggregation. Such knowledge could prove quite useful to the design of future treatments for Huntington's and other related diseases.

Report of the Committee of the General Assembly, at their special session, August 25, 1812, on that part of His Excellency the Governor's speech which relates to his correspondence with the Secretary of War, andc

Printed by Walter and Steele

Proceedings of the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York, 1823

Seven pages of proceedings of the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York dated February 27, March 1 and March 6, 1823. Proceedings include a report of the Committee of the Canal System , Memorial of Samuel Wilkeson on the subject of Black Rock and Buffalo Harbors, a report from the Surveyor General of the land reserved to the state at Black Rock, and an Act to incorporate the Niagara Canal Company.

The Effects of Perceived Product-Association Incongruity on Consumption Experiences

[unavailable]