A statistical tolerance analysis approach for over-constrained mechanism based on optimization and Monte Carlo simulation

Tolerancing decisions can profoundly impact the quality and cost of the mechanism. To evaluate the impact of tolerance on mechanism quality, designers need to simulate the influences of tolerances with respect to the functional requirements. This paper proposes a mathematical formulation of tolerance analysis which integrates the notion of quantifier: ‘‘For all acceptable deviations (deviations which are inside tolerances), there exists a gap configuration such as the assembly requirements and the behavior constraints are verified’’ & ‘‘For all acceptable deviations (deviations which are inside tolerances), and for all admissible gap configurations, the assembly and functional requirements and the behavior constraints are verified’’. The quantifiers provide a univocal expression of the condition corresponding to a geometrical product requirement. This opens a wide area for research in tolerance analysis. To solve the mechanical problem, an approach based on optimization is proposed. Monte Carlo simulation is implemented for the statistical analysis. The proposed approach is tested on an over-constrained mechanism

Laruelle Qua Stiegler: On Non-Marxism and the Transindividual

Alexander R. Galloway and Jason R. LaRiviére’s article “Compression in Philosophy” seeks to pose François Laruelle’s engagement with metaphysics against Bernard Stiegler’s epistemological rendering of idealism. Identifying Laruelle as the theorist of genericity, through which mankind and the world are identified through an index of “opacity,” the authors argue that Laruelle does away with all deleterious philosophical “data.” Laruelle’s generic immanence is posed against Stiegler’s process of retention and discretization, as Galloway and LaRiviére argue that Stiegler’s philosophy seeks to reveal an enchanted natural world through the development of noesis. By further developing Laruelle and Stiegler’s Marxian projects, I seek to demonstrate the relation between Stiegler's artefaction and “compression” while, simultaneously, I also seek to create further bricolage between Laruelle and Stiegler. I also further elaborate on their distinct engagement(s) with Marx, offering the mold of synthesis as an alternative to compression when considering Stiegler’s work on transindividuation. In turn, this paper seeks to survey some of the contemporary theorists drawing from Stiegler (Yuk Hui, Al-exander Wilson and Daniel Ross) and Laruelle (Anne-Françoise Schmidt, Gilles Grelet, Ray Brassier, Katerina Kolozova, John Ó Maoilearca and Jonathan Fardy) to examine political discourse regarding the posthuman and non-human, with a particular interest in Kolozova’s unified theory of standard philosophy and Capital

Modern Information Systems

The development of modern information systems is a demanding task. New technologies and tools are designed, implemented and presented in the market on a daily bases. User needs change dramatically fast and the IT industry copes to reach the level of efficiency and adaptability for its systems in order to be competitive and up-to-date. Thus, the realization of modern information systems with great characteristics and functionalities implemented for specific areas of interest is a fact of our modern and demanding digital society and this is the main scope of this book. Therefore, this book aims to present a number of innovative and recently developed information systems. It is titled "Modern Information Systems" and includes 8 chapters. This book may assist researchers on studying the innovative functions of modern systems in various areas like health, telematics, knowledge management, etc. It can also assist young students in capturing the new research tendencies of the information systems' development

Gilles Deleuze’s Ontological Functionalism and The Problem of Intensity

This thesis argues that Deleuze’s metaphilosophical constructivism develops a notion of metaphysics based on an ontological conception of principles as functions. Whereas ‘constructivism’ refers to both immanent and transcendent metaphysics, the latter posits principles that operate on a supplementary dimension to that which they condition, thus remaining ‘hidden’ and their power unexplained. By contrast, immanent metaphysics relies on principles whose functioning develops on the same plane and in direct relation with that to which ‘they give rise’. They refer to ‘transparent’ ontological functions whose product merges with the process of production itself. Accordingly, I argue that Deleuze develops his metaphysics based on the immanent functioning of the principle of intensity. The latter’s constitutive and individuating power extends beyond the genesis of real experience to the production of the ethico-aesthetic determinations of experience, namely its pragmatics or how ‘real experience works’. As I aim to demonstrate, intensity’s immanent functionalism originates in Deleuze’s commitment to the critical methodology of superior empiricism, developed in his early historical writings. Deleuze derives from Hume the idea that principles are functions and that immanence depends on the logic of external relations, and from Bergson, Deleuze derives an ontological principle of internal difference and the concept of multiplicity. However, as I argue, it is through his readings of Spinoza and Nietzsche that Deleuze obtains the specifications of intensity as the principle of his immanent metaphysics. The first two chapters discuss Deleuze’s Spinozism and Nietzscheanism, wherein intensity operates immanently: in Spinoza, the individuation of modal essences as degrees of power, and in Nietzsche, the productive synthesis of forces as the will to power. In both cases, intensity constitutes an immanent corporeal plane of affective and ethical determinations. In the last two chapters, I discuss the role of principles in Deleuze’s two solo works, Difference and Repetition and The Logic of Sense, where Deleuze theorises intensity’s immanent functioning to develop his concept of sense as simulacrum – phantasm

Quality management approach of product data models for shipbuilding

A quality management approach to manage the quality of ship product model data is discussed. It aims to improve and to automate product data model control to make the design and production processes more reliable. This approach is supporting an efficient correction of decient structural designs under visual guidance towards the identied problems. Two international standards ISO STEP-59 and ISO/PAS 26183:2006 are utilized in this thesis

Artefacts, Technicity and Humanisation industrial design and the problem of anoetic technologies

This thesis concerns the intellectual heritage and autonomy of West European and American industrial design as a discourse community at a moment when biotechnological developments are challenging the certainty of what it means to be human. Proceeding from the assumption that industrial design is an autonomous intellectual engagement played out through the interpretation of technology as an artefact, the thesis identifies how this is a critical moment for industrial designers, who appear to be unable to respond to a problem of the apparent disconnection and the progressive displacement of the human in reference to technology. The thesis identifies the cause of this as the understanding of the artefact, which has conventionally been placed at the centre of its analysis. The way that this has been constructed has not only impacted on design solutions but has led to a particular understanding of technology. It is this understanding of the artefact that has ceased to be sustainable and has precipitated the crisis. The thesis argues that, by revisiting the artefact as a mutable consequence of culture, it is possible to relieve the problem by opening up the scope for finding new methodological approaches. These can be used to develop design strategies that are sufficiently subtle and coherent in their terms to engage with the open complexity of future discussions of the distributed and enacted human

Synthetic models of distribution gas networks in low-carbon energy systems

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

What Might Democratic Self-Governance in a Complex Social World Look Like?

The crisis facing democratic self-government is first and foremost a crisis of self-governance, not of democracy. Section II reviews the nature of complex systems and why our contemporary social and economic order qualifies as technically complexindeed, increasingly so—and why explicit overall, directed reform of our social world is hopeless. But hope is not easily abandoned: Section III critically looks at two continuing sources of hope. Section IV then turns to a critical issue: If not by central direction, how do such complex systems achieve orderliness and functionality? Section V turns to the heart of the matter: is democratic self-governance viable in our increasingly complex systems—or, more subtly, what form of self-governance seems the most viable? Section VI argues that effective self-governance is not a freestanding exercise of a general will but must be embedded in the deontic principles of a liberal order

Improving resilience in Critical Infrastructures through learning from past events

Modern societies are increasingly dependent on the proper functioning of Critical Infrastructures (CIs). CIs produce and distribute essential goods or services, as for power transmission systems, water treatment and distribution infrastructures, transportation systems, communication networks, nuclear power plants, and information technologies. Being resilient, where resilience denotes the capacity of a system to recover from challenges or disruptive events, becomes a key property for CIs, which are constantly exposed to threats that can undermine safety, security, and business continuity. Nowadays, a variety of approaches exists in the context of CIs’ resilience research. This dissertation starts with a systematic review based on PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) on the approaches that have a complete qualitative dimension, or that can be used as entry points for semi-quantitative analyses. The review identifies four principal dimensions of resilience referred to CIs (i.e., techno-centric, organizational, community, and urban) and discusses the related qualitative or semi-quantitative methods. The scope of the thesis emphasizes the organizational dimension, as a socio-technical construct. Accordingly, the following research question has been posed: how can learning improve resilience in an organization? Firstly, the benefits of learning in a particular CI, i.e. the supply chain in reverse logistics related to the small arms utilized by Italian Armed Forces, have been studied. Following the theory of Learning From Incidents, the theoretical model helped to elaborate a centralized information management system for the Supply Chain Management of small arms within a Business Intelligence (BI) framework, which can be the basis for an effective decision-making process, capable of increasing the systemic resilience of the supply chain itself. Secondly, the research question has been extended to another extremely topical context, i.e. the Emergency Management (EM), exploring the crisis induced learning where single-loop and double-loop learning cycles can be established regarding the behavioral perspective. Specifically, the former refers to the correction of practices within organizational plans without changing core beliefs and fundamental rules of the organization, while the latter aims at resolving incompatible organizational behavior by restructuring the norms themselves together with the associated practices or assumptions. Consequently, with the aim of ensuring high EM systems resilience, and effective single-loop and double-loop crisis induced learning at organizational level, the study examined learning opportunities that emerge through the exploration of adaptive practices necessary to face the complexity of a socio-technical work domain as the EM of Covid-19 outbreaks on Oil & Gas platforms. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been adopted to analyze the resilience of this specific socio-technical system. On this consciousness, with the intention to explore systems theoretic possibilities to model the EM system, the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) has been proposed as a qualitative method for developing a systematic understanding of adaptive practices, modelling planning and resilient behaviors and ultimately supporting crisis induced learning. After the FRAM analysis, the same EM system has also been studied adopting a Bayesian Network (BN) to quantify resilience potentials of an EM procedure resulting from the adaptive practices and lessons learned by an EM organization. While the study of CIs is still an open and challenging topic, this dissertation provides methodologies and running examples on how systemic approaches may support data-driven learning to ultimately improve organizational resilience. These results, possibly extended with future research drivers, are expected to support decision-makers in their tactical and operational endeavors