Development of Object-Oriented Design and Specifications for Iowa DOT and Urban Standards: Phase I, TR-487, 2004

Currently, individuals including designers, contractors, and owners learn about the project requirements by studying a combination of paper and electronic copies of the construction documents including the drawings, specifications (standard and supplemental), road and bridge standard drawings, design criteria, contracts, addenda, and change orders. This can be a tedious process since one needs to go back and forth between the various documents (paper or electronic) to obtain information about the entire project. Object-oriented computer-aided design (OO-CAD) is an innovative technology that can bring a change to this process by graphical portrayal of information. OO-CAD allows users to point and click on portions of an object-oriented drawing that are then linked to relevant databases of information (e.g., specifications, procurement status, and shop drawings). The vision of this study is to turn paper-based design standards and construction specifications into an object-oriented design and specification (OODAS) system or a visual electronic reference library (ERL). Individuals can use the system through a handheld wireless book-size laptop that includes all of the necessary software for operating in a 3D environment. All parties involved in transportation projects can access all of the standards and requirements simultaneously using a 3D graphical interface. By using this system, users will have all of the design elements and all of the specifications readily available without concerns of omissions. A prototype object-oriented model was created and demonstrated to potential users representing counties, cities, and the state. Findings suggest that a system like this could improve productivity to find information by as much as 75% and provide a greater sense of confidence that all relevant information had been identified. It was also apparent that this system would be used by more people in construction than in design. There was also concern related to the cost to develop and maintain the complete system. The future direction should focus on a project-based system that can help the contractors and DOT inspectors find information (e.g., road standards, specifications, instructional memorandums) more rapidly as it pertains to a specific project.

Design and optimization of selfnanoemulsifying drug delivery systems for enhanced dissolution of gemfibrozil

Self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems of gemfibrozil were developed under Quality by Design approach for improvement of dissolution and oral absorption. Preliminary screening was performed to select proper components combination. BoxBehnken experimental design was employed as statistical tool to optimize the formulation variables, X1 (Cremophor® EL), X2 (Capmul® MCM-C8), and X3 (lemon essential oil). Systems were assessed for visual characteristics (emulsification efficacy), turbidity, droplet size, polydispersity index and drug release. Different pH media were also assayed for optimization. Following optimization, the values of formulation components (X1, X2, and X3) were 32.43%, 29.73% and 21.62%, respectively (16.22% of gemfibrozil). Transmission electron microscopy demonstrated spherical droplet morphology. SNEEDS release study was compared to commercial tablets. Optimized SNEDDS formulation of gemfibrozil showed a significant increase in dissolution rate compared to conventional tablets. Both formulations followed Weibull mathematical model release with a significant difference in td parameter in favor of the SNEDDS. Equally amodelistic parameters were calculated being the dissolution efficiency significantly higher for SNEDDS, confirming that the developed SNEDDS formulation was superior to commercial formulation with respect to in vitro dissolution profile. This paper provides an overview of the SNEDDS of the gemfibrozil as a promising alternative to improve oral absorption.

Visual performance in preterm infants with brain injuries compared with low-risk preterm infants

Background: Neonatal brain injuries are the main cause of visual deficit produced by damage to posterior visual pathways.While there are several studies of visual function in low-risk preterm infants or older children with brain injuries, research in children of early age is lacking. Aim: To assess several aspects of visual function in preterm infants with brain injuries and to compare them with another group of low-risk preterm infants of the same age. Study design and subjects: Forty-eight preterm infants with brain injuries and 56 low-risk preterm infants. Outcome measures: The ML Leonhardt Battery of Optotypes was used to assess visual functions. This test was previously validated at a post-menstrual age of 40 weeks in newborns and at 30-plus weeks in preterm infants. Results: The group of preterminfants with brain lesions showed a delayed pattern of visual functions in alertness, fixation, visual attention and tracking behavior compared to infants in the healthy preterm group. The differences between both groups, in the visual behaviors analyzed were around 30%. These visual functions could be identified from the first weeks of life. Conclusion: Our results confirm the importance of using a straightforward screening test with preterminfants in order to assess altered visual function, especially in infants with brain injuries. The findings also highlight the need to provide visual stimulation very early on in life.

Conceptual Design of Embedded Weather Display

The objective of this thesis work is to describe the Conceptual Design process of an embedded electronic display device. The work presents the following sub processes: definition of device specifications, introduction to the technological alternatives for system components and their comparison, comparative photometric measurements of selected display panels, and the design and building of a functional concept prototype. This work focuses mainly on electronics design, albeit the mechanical issues and fields of the software architecture that significantly affect the decisions are also discussed when necessary. The VESA Flat Panel Display Measurement (FPDM) 2.0 Standard was applied to the appropriate extent into photometric measurements. The results were analyzed against the requirement standards of a customer-specific display development project. An Active Matrix LCD was selected as the display of concept prototype, but also the excellent visual characteristics of Active Matrix OLED technology were noted. Should the reliability of the OLED products be significantly improved in the future, utilizing such products in the described application must be reconsidered.

Reframing the relationship between service design and operations: a service engineering approach

The significance of services as business and human activities has increased dramatically throughout the world in the last three decades. Becoming a more and more competitive and efficient service provider while still being able to provide unique value opportunities for customers requires new knowledge and ideas. Part of this knowledge is created and utilized in daily activities in every service organization, but not all of it, and therefore an emerging phenomenon in the service context is information awareness. Terms like big data and Internet of things are not only modern buzz-words but they are also describing urgent requirements for a new type of competences and solutions. When the amount of information increases and the systems processing information become more efficient and intelligent, it is the human understanding and objectives that may get separated from the automated processes and technological innovations. This is an important challenge and the core driver for this dissertation: What kind of information is created, possessed and utilized in the service context, and even more importantly, what information exists but is not acknowledged or used? In this dissertation the focus is on the relationship between service design and service operations. Reframing this relationship refers to viewing the service system from the architectural perspective. The selected perspective allows analysing the relationship between design activities and operational activities as an information system while maintaining the tight connection to existing service research contributions and approaches. This type of an innovative approach is supported by research methodology that relies on design science theory. The methodological process supports the construction of a new design artifact based on existing theoretical knowledge, creation of new innovations and testing the design artifact components in real service contexts. The relationship between design and operations is analysed in the health care and social care service systems. The existing contributions in service research tend to abstract services and service systems as value creation, working or interactive systems. This dissertation adds an important information processing system perspective to the research. The main contribution focuses on the following argument: Only part of the service information system is automated and computerized, whereas a significant part of information processing is embedded in human activities, communication and ad-hoc reactions. The results indicate that the relationship between service design and service operations is more complex and dynamic than the existing scientific and managerial models tend to view it. Both activities create, utilize, mix and share information, making service information management a necessary but relatively unknown managerial task. On the architectural level, service system -specific elements seem to disappear, but access to more general information elements and processes can be found. While this dissertation focuses on conceptual-level design artifact construction, the results provide also very practical implications for service providers. Personal, visual and hidden activities of service, and more importantly all changes that take place in any service system have also an information dimension. Making this information dimension visual and prioritizing the processed information based on service dimensions is likely to provide new opportunities to increase activities and provide a new type of service potential for customers.

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.

What happens in the first 200 ms of word reading : ERP studies on visual word recognition with top-down and bottom-up approaches /

In this thesis, three main questions were addressed using event-related potentials (ERPs): (1) the timing of lexical semantic access, (2) the influence of "top-down" processes on visual word processing, and (3) the influence of "bottom-up" factors on visual word processing. The timing of lexical semantic access was investigated in two studies using different designs. In Study 1,14 participants completed two tasks: a standard lexical decision (LD) task which required a word/nonword decision to each target stimulus, and a semantically primed version (LS) of it using the same category of words (e.g., animal) within each block following which participants made a category judgment. In Study 2, another 12 participants performed a standard semantic priming task, where target stimulus words (e.g., nurse) could be either semantically related or unrelated to their primes (e.g., doctor, tree) but the order of presentation was randomized. We found evidence in both ERP studies that lexical semantic access might occur early within the first 200 ms (at about 170 ms for Study 1 and at about 160 ms for Study 2). Our results were consistent with more recent ERP and eye-tracking studies and are in contrast with the traditional research focus on the N400 component. "Top-down" processes, such as a person's expectation and strategic decisions, were possible in Study 1 because of the blocked design, but they were not for Study 2 with a randomized design. Comparing results from two studies, we found that visual word processing could be affected by a person's expectation and the effect occurred early at a sensory/perceptual stage: a semantic task effect in the PI component at about 100 ms in the ERP was found in Study 1 , but not in Study 2. Furthermore, we found that such "top-down" influence on visual word processing might be mediated through separate mechanisms depending on whether the stimulus was a word or a nonword. "Bottom-up" factors involve inherent characteristics of particular words, such as bigram frequency (the total frequency of two-letter combinations of a word), word frequency (the frequency of the written form of a word), and neighborhood density (the number of words that can be generated by changing one letter of an original word or nonword). A bigram frequency effect was found when comparing the results from Studies 1 and 2, but it was examined more closely in Study 3. Fourteen participants performed a similar standard lexical decision task but the words and nonwords were selected systematically to provide a greater range in the aforementioned factors. As a result, a total of 18 word conditions were created with 18 nonword conditions matched on neighborhood density and neighborhood frequency. Using multiple regression analyses, we foimd that the PI amplitude was significantly related to bigram frequency for both words and nonwords, consistent with results from Studies 1 and 2. In addition, word frequency and neighborhood frequency were also able to influence the PI amplitude separately for words and for nonwords and there appeared to be a spatial dissociation between the two effects: for words, the word frequency effect in PI was found at the left electrode site; for nonwords, the neighborhood frequency effect in PI was fovind at the right elecfrode site. The implications of otir findings are discussed.

Engineers and technicians : the effect of cognitive style and gender on visual information processing

The purpose of this project was to identify in a subject group of engineers and technicians (N = 62) a preferred mode of representation for facilitating correct recall of information from complex graphics. The modes of representation were black and white (b&w) block, b&w icon, color block, and color icon. The researcher's test instrument included twelve complex graphics (six b&w and six color - three per mode). Each graphics presentation was followed by two multiple-choice questions. Recall performance was better using b&w block mode graphics and color icon mode graphics. A standardized test, the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) was used to identify a cognitive style preference (field dependence). Although engineers and technicians in the sample were strongly field-independent, they were not significantly more field-independent than the normative group in the Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, and Karp study (1971). Tests were also employed to look for any significant difference in cognitive style preference due to gender. None was found. Implications from the project results for the design of visuals and their use in technical training are discussed.

Miss-understand-ing: design education in Ontario secondary schools : an exploration of the issues with stakeholders and recommendations for change /

For most people design is a mystery. The products of design are integrated into our daily lives to the point that design has become invisible to us. However. what is subsumed in design practice is a creative problem-solving process that is applicable as a teaching strategy as well as a method for teaching the subject of design. The purpose of this study was to inquire into the current classroom practice of Ontario Visual Arts and Technological Education teachers, understand the goals of Ontario government curriculum developers, and explore the position held by the professional design community on secondary school design education. Data for this study were collected from: (a) a textual analysis of 4 Ministry curriculum documents; (b) interviews with JO stakeholders; (c) unobtrusive observations and informal conversations conducted at 7 secondary school open house events; and (d) observation of 2 sessions of an AQ course for Design and Technology. The research design modeled the design process and was divided into 2 parts: a discovery or problem-finding phase and a discussion or problem-solving phase. The results showed that design is misunderstood and misused; it has become lost between visual arts and technology where neither program holds responsibility for its delivery; students mistake working on computers for design practice; and while there is a desire within the professional community to have a voice in secondary school design education. there is no forum for participation. The technology-driven paradigm shift taking place in society today calls for a new framework for tellching and practicing dcsign. Further research is required; howcvcr. in the meantime. secondary school educators might benefit from professional development and classroom support from the professional dcsign community.

Sustainability, Fashion Design, and Consumerism: Undergraduate Entry Level Fashion Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Habits

This qualitative inquiry explored 7 undergraduate students' attitudes, habits, and knowledge of consumerism, fashion design, and sustainability. The postmodern study employed crystallization as its methodological framework to gain insight into how participants' knowledge is manifested in their daily habits, and used 4 methods of data gathering: semistructured interviews, visual exercises, journal entries, and the researcher's own reflections. Four major themes emerged: Knowledge-Concepts Linked and Fragmented; Dissonance Between Knowledge Versus Attitudes and Consumer Habits; Surrendering to the Unsustainable Structures; Design Process and Caring Attitude. Findings indicate that participants possessed some knowledge of sustainability but lacked a well-rounded understanding of environmental and humanitarian implications of Western consumer society. Findings also reveal a dissonance between participants' knowledge and attitudes-affecting how their knowledge influences their behaviour-and how reflection, creative thinking, and drawing initiate change in participants' underlying attitudes. Recommendations are made to merge a variety of theoretical frameworks into the educational system in order to create curricula that offer a holistic overview and unique insights into sustainability challenges, particularly in specialized areas of the fashion industry.

À la recherche d'un cadre théorique pour la pratique du design graphique

Les schémas en annexe ont été réalisés avec le logiciel Adobe Illustrator.

Le rôle de la rhétorique dans le projet en design : une exploration du concept d’argumentation de Perelman et Olbrechts-Tyteca

Les projets interdisciplinaires constituent rarement le terrain des études 
sur le processus de conception en design. Les théories générales du design, en tentant de définir ce qui est commun à toutes les disciplines du design, ont davantage étudié les cas typiques que les cas atypiques. Or, nous croyons qu’il existe dans les projets interdisciplinaires une négociation argumentative et une ouverture vers l’autre, propice à l’analyse du processus de conception en design. Pour réaliser l’étude de ce processus, la stratégie empruntée a été la «recherche-projet» qui propose une participation active sur le terrain. 
À l’intérieur de cette stratégie méthodologique, nous avons réalisé l’étude de cas d’un projet hybride, une signalétique identitaire destinée à marquer les écocentres montréalais et orienter leurs usagers. Comme plusieurs autres pratiques du design, la complexité des projets interdisciplinaires demande l’apport de plusieurs acteurs dans le processus. 
Ces personnes conçoivent le projet à travers des représentations visuelles et des échanges verbaux, nous avons choisi de faire porter notre étude principalement sur le second. Pour ce faire, nous avons choisi comme cadre théorique le Traité de l’argumentation de Chaïm Perelman et Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca en nous intéressant plus spécifiquement aux concepts d’«accord» et d’«auditoire». Parce que le véhicule de l’action en design est la notion de «projet», l’Anthropologie du projet de Jean-Pierre Boutinet sera notre guide à travers cette conduite. L’objet de recherche de ce mémoire sera donc le processus de conception en design qui sera étudié à travers le regard de l’argumentation. L’argumentation s'est révélée la clé du problème que posent les jugements de valeur, commune à toutes les disciplines du design. Qu’est-ce qu’un «bon» projet réalisé? Est-il possible de répondre à cette question, sans tomber dans un cadre argumentatif, sans devoir révéler les arguments qui nous permettent de croire vraisemblable une telle proposition? C’est en mettant en lien la théorie du projet en design et la théorie de l’argumentation que nous avons éclairé la pratique du designer, sa relation à ses collègues et ultimement avec lui-même. L’argumentation s’est avérée un outil permettant la construction de la réalité dans le projet interdisciplinaire.

Le processus de design visuel communicationnel : tensions et négociations dans l’industrie publicitaire

L’industrie publicitaire est un travail quotidien de collaboration entre deux « hémisphères » distincts : l’un de nature commercial et l’autre de nature créatif. Des individus qui favorisent des aspects logiques et rationnels se doivent de collaborer avec des individus qui favorisent des aspects intuitifs et artistiques, ce qui suscite des tensions. Cette mise en relation s’opère au travers d’un processus, que nous nommerons processus de design visuel communicationnel car il permet de relier la communication au design, approche que nous adoptons dans ce mémoire. L’industrie publicitaire s’est dotée d’outils permettant de faciliter le processus de design visuel communicationnel, dont le brief créatif. Notre recherche propose d’observer la manière dont les « commerciaux » et les « créatifs » perçoivent leur travail quotidien en agence et comment le brief créatif est réquisitionné. Nous adoptons une posture interprétative pour tenir compte de la complexité du phénomène et nous mobilisons une série d’entrevues pour répondre à nos questions de recherche. Nos questions de recherche sont les suivantes : de quelle manière les « commerciaux » et les « créatifs » négocient-ils les tensions lors du processus de design visuel communicationnel? Quels rôles le brief créatif occupe-t-il au sein de ce processus? Les résultats nous renseignent sur les transformations et les innovations qui émergent des tensions entre les « commerciaux » et les « créatifs » et sur l’importance que revêtent les caractéristiques communicationnelles du brief créatif dans le cadre du processus de design visuel communicationnel.

Decimation Filter Design Toolbox for Multi-Standard Wireless Transceivers using MATLAB.

The demand for new telecommunication services requiring higher capacities, data rates and different operating modes have motivated the development of new generation multi-standard wireless transceivers. A multi-standard design often involves extensive system level analysis and architectural partitioning, typically requiring extensive calculations. In this research, a decimation filter design tool for wireless communication standards consisting of GSM, WCDMA, WLANa, WLANb, WLANg and WiMAX is developed in MATLAB® using GUIDE environment for visual analysis. The user can select a required wireless communication standard, and obtain the corresponding multistage decimation filter implementation using this toolbox. The toolbox helps the user or design engineer to perform a quick design and analysis of decimation filter for multiple standards without doing extensive calculation of the underlying methods.