Search

The desire for order, harmony and balance is a crucial aspect of all fields of art, from architecture to music, from literature to poetry, and symmetry has long been among the tools to achieve some sort of order in chaos. Yet the approach to symmetry, differs in various contexts and eras. This paper intends to discuss the questions of symmetry in a specific context in order to re- think the definitions and boundaries of symmetry in a particular era in order to make a juxtaposi- tion to a more contemporary understanding of symmetry. The chosen study case is the Naqsh-e- Jahan square of Ispahan which is among the prototypes of the Persian urban design and of a great significance. Symmetry is among the key architectural elements of the square, yet arguably how symmetry plays its role in Naqsh-e-Jahan is not limited to the more traditional definitions of the era. Hence this paper has analysed some elements of the square in order to better explain the corre- lation between symmetry and the questions of harmony and balance in the square. Furthermore, this paper extends to mention the differences between Symmetry and Dynamic symmetry and that symmetry in Naqhs-e-Jahan is not absolute and rather relative, in other words, one is observing asymmetry within a symmetry.

Esta dissertação procura compreender algumas questões proeminentes na arquitetura e as bases sobre as quais uma narrativa fenomenológicas é construída. Assim, o trabalho faz uma leitura inversa sobre algumas das importantes obras teóricas fenomelógicas. O primeiro capítulo é composto por nove legendas que compõem uma visão panorâmica, destacando algumas das obras fenomenológicas predominantes. A referência às obras teóricas de alguns dos filósofos de renome que lançaram as bases de uma abordagem fenomenológica é de grande importância para a compreensão das obras dos arquitetos que trataram do mesmo tema. As questões da perceção e sa dualidade do corpo e da mente estão entre os temas focais do primeiro capítulo que são posteriormente referidos ao longo da obra. Numa etapa posterior, as questões teóricas são discutidas na perspetiva de quatro arquitetos de renome que discutiram e escreveram sobre o tema da replicação da presença da experiência na arquitetura. Desde a abordagem formal de Alberto Campo Baeza na criação da arquitetura poética até numa abordagem mais tectónica de Peter Zumthor, baseada em observações pessoais do espaço que são justapostas umas em relação às outras. Daí surge a necessidade de mencionar a abordagem de Álvaro Siza, pois na sua obra ele valoriza tanto os temas formais quanto os tectónicos. A etapa final desta dissertação é uma narrativa fenomenológica da praça Naqsh-e Jahan na cidade de Ispaão. Com base nos trabalhos teóricos discutidos no primeiro capítulo e na abordagem mais prática do segundo capítulo, é recontada uma narrativa pessoal.Uma narriva pessoal porque existe um sentido existencial do espaço que é baseado na experiência do indíviduo, mas essa narrariva é acompanhada por trabalhos de pesquisa que analisam o caso de estudo em várias dimensões. Diante dos pontos, esta dissertação remete a questões relevantes que podem contribuir para o discurso fenomenológico, especialemente no contexto persa. This dissertation is in the pursuit of understanding some of the prominent phenomenological questions in architecture, and the foundations upon which a phenomenological narrative is built. To do so, the work undergoes an inverse reading of some of the important theoretic works on phenomenology and deducts the first chapter where in nine subtitles a panoramic view and an assignment of some of the prevailing phenomenological works are composed. Referring to the theoretic works of some of the renowned philosophers who laid the foundation for a phenomenological approach is of great importance in understanding the works of architects who dealt with the same topic. The questions of perception and the duality of body and mind are among the focal themes of the first chapter which are later referred to throughout the work. In a further step, the theoretical questions are discussed from the perspective of four renowned architects who have discussed and written on the topic of replicating the presence of experience in architecture. The formal approach of Alberto Campo Baeza in creating poetic architecture is juxtaposed to a more tectonic-based approach of Peter Zumthor based on personal observations. In addition the necessity to mention Alvaro Siza's approach rises, as in his work, he enhances both the formal and tectonic themes. The final stage of this dissertation is a phenomenological narrative of Naqsh-e Jahan square in the city of Ispahan. Based on the theoretical works discussed in the first chapter and the more practical approach of the second chapter, a personal narrative is recounted. Personal because an existential sense of space is based on the individual's experience, yet this personal narrative is accompanied by research papers that analyze the case study from various dimensions. Given the points, this dissertation refers to important questions which could contribute to the phenomenological discourse, especially in the Persian context.

Holy Family Academy (HFA) is a private Catholic high school in which funding for students is provided largely by organizations, many of whom sponsor work-study positions for students. Each student must work one day per week. HFA seeks to group its students into teams based on the day of work-study and then assign students to specific jobs. We develop weighted mixed-integer linear goal-programming models as a means of decision support for HFA to assign students to teams for each school year, and to assign each student on each team to a job. The models increase the transparency of student assignments for HFA administrators, while effectively determining well-balanced, diversified student team and job assignments. The decision support tool provides tremendous value to HFA in terms of time and reproducibility, requiring only minutes to solve, rather than weeks. This enables HFA to conduct quick what-if analyses, such as varying the number of students assigned to each team, a task that was impossible to perform manually.

An inventory system is considered for continuous decaying items with non-zero lead time and stochastic demand when shortages are allowed and all unsatisfied demands are backlogged. In this research we consider orders as separate packages where replenishment is one-for-one and a modified base stock policy is applied. In this paper, a penalty cost is introduced for stochastic inventory models with decaying items when less than one unit of the product is delivered to the customers. The objective of the warehouse is to maximize his average profit. Since the concavity analysis of the model is extremely complicated, an upper bound is introduced and an algorithm is presented for finding the optimal solution. Finally, a numerical example is presented and sensitivity analysis is carried out for a number of important parameters.