The piano action is the mechanism that transforms the finger force applied to a key into the motion of a hammer that strikes a piano string. This thesis focuses on improving the fidelity of the dynamic model of a grand piano action which has been already developed by Hirschkorn et al. at the University of Waterloo. This model is the state-of-the-art dynamic model of the piano in the literature and is based on the real components of the piano action mechanism (key, whippen, jack, repetition lever, and hammer). Two main areas for improving the fidelity of the dynamic model are the hammer shank and the connection point between the key and the ground. The hammer shank is a long narrow wooden rod and, by observation with a high-speed video camera, the flexibility of this part has been confirmed. In previous work, the piano hammer had been modelled as a rigid body. In this work, a Rayleigh beam model is used to model the flexible behaviour of the hammer shank. By comparing the experimental and analytical results, it turns out that the flexibility of the hammer shank does not significantly affect the rotation of the other parts of the piano mechanism, compared with the case that the hammer shank has been modelled as a rigid part. However, the flexibility of the hammer shank changes the impact velocity of the hammer head, and also causes a greater scuffing motion for the hammer head during the contact with the string. The connection of the piano key to the ground had been simply modelled with a revolute joint, but the physical form of the connection at that point suggests that a revoluteprismatic joint with a contact force underneath better represents this connection. By comparing the experimental and analytical results, it is concluded that incorporating this new model significantly increases the fidelity of the model for the blows. In order to test the accuracy of the dynamic model, an experimental setup, including a servo motor, a load cell, a strain gauge, and three optical encoders, is built. The servo motor is used to actuate the piano key. Since the purpose of the motor is to consistently mimic the finger force of the pianist, the output torque of the motor is controlled. To overcome the problem associated with the motor torque control method used in previous work, a new torque control method is implemented on a real-time PC and a better control of the motor torque output is established. Adding a more realistic model of the piano string to the current piano action model and finding a better contact model for the contacts that happen between the surfaces that are made of felt (or leather), are two main areas that can be worked on in the future research. These two areas will help to further increase the fidelity of the present piano action model.

Many of our daily activities are achieved through goal-oriented routines which illustrates the adaptability and efficiency of information processing. Nevertheless, slips of action do occur. This study was designed to determine if slips of action can be induced in a well learned task and if so, how these slips affect specific indicators of task performance. Thirty (12 male) right-handed undergraduate participants were taught, with arrow cues, a sequence of dominant hand movements. Following this learning phase, a portion of the sequences were altered by either changing the spatial location of the arrow cue or by changing the actual movement goal. Results revealed that participants made numerous action slips which were most prevalent when the movement goal was altered. This suggests that participants were unable to disengage their expected movement plan and thus were vulnerable to errors. In addition to exploring the frequency of action slips we also looked at participants’ reaction and movement times on trials that preceded and followed errors and found that a speed-accuracy trade-off could not account for the slips. We also showed that frequency of slips on our task could reliably predict performance on the SART, a measure of inhibitory control, and the frequency of attention failures in daily living on the ARCES. Overall, the results of this study reveal that action slips can be induced by manipulating a well learned action routine and that the frequency of these induced slips reflects a participant’s tendency to commit action slips in everyday life.

Recently, researchers have found evidence that after a concussion, residual visuomotor control deficits may linger longer than working memory or psychomotor speed deficits. All of the major computer administered test batteries currently in use for concussion management rely on examination of the latter tasks, and lack any measure of visuomotor control. The present research set out to develop a task to measure visuomotor performance. Using a touch-screen computer, the task required participants to point towards or away from (i.e., antipointing) a target in a design simmilar to an anti-saccade task. The task required participants to use visual information to execute controlled movements, and is designed to measure movement planning, execution performance and accuracy. The task was delivered to a large sample of healthy individuals to develop a normative performance data set. A self-report questionnaire was used to identify a small group of individuals from the normative population who were identified with a prior history of concussion. These individuals were directly contrasted with the healthy individuals. While only a few reported moderate or severe concussions, and information about recency and number of occurrences was unavailable, performance differences were observed --providing evidence of residual deficits. In particular, while concussed individuals were not slower, or less accurate overall than the healthy population on the task, they demonstrated unusual hand and spatial asymmetries. Future research will compare recently concussed individuals with the normative set developed here, and will make direct comparisons with existing computer administered test batteries to determine the efficacy of visuomotor tasks for detecting the long-term effects of concussion.

This study is about the child’s perspective when it comes to work with financial assistance. The purpose of the study was partly to describe how social workers regard the child’s perspective in their work with financial assistance and partly to look into whether they impose a child’s perspective in their practical work. To fulfill this purpose the authors used a quantitative method and sent out a web based survey to all the social workers actively working with financial assistance in Stockholm town. This study is based on the results of 93 replies. The results show that the social workers believe to a great extent that they have an understanding for the child’s perspective. They also claim to practice the child’s perspective to a relatively great extent. The social workers are less inclined to acknowledge the principle of children’s right to make themselves heard. According to the Convention on the Rights of Children as well as Swedish law children have the right, when it comes to matters that involve them, to express their opinion and have it taken into consideration, with regards to their age and maturity, but in the financial assistance procedure that right is not being met

This dissertation focuses upon the question, "how are we called to live?", relying on the thought and dialogue of Thomas Merton, a 20th Century Catholic monk, and Sallie McFague, a 21st Century Protestant theologian. This question is approached by examining Merton and McFague's understandings of God, self, and the world as these aspects relate to the question and issue of Christian living. In exploring these areas this project brings together aspects of Christian spirituality, theology, and ethics to grasp the intimate relationship between faith and action, which is the essence of authentic Christian discipleship. Ultimately, the merging of faith and action seen in Merton and McFague's lives and work suggest that they both possess and advocate for "engaged spirituality," or spiritually rooted social action, as the central expression of Christian faith called for today. Their examples, brought together, convey truth and inspire all of us to live more authentically and to more fully contribute to the making of a better world. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Theology / PhD; / Dissertation;

This dissertation looked for to study the charisma of the religious mediator us " Movements of Christianity of Liberation " in the Diocese Sergipana of Propriá, during the decade from sixty to eighty. Centering our debate in the understanding of the social action, we have as main subject to understand the " poor " influence in the adoption of actions on the part of the mediators, in that public's favor, mainly in Fazenda Betume conflicts (1974) and of Santana dos Frades (1979). The hypotheses, we became pregnant that the mediators as D. José Brandão de Castro and the nun Maria Joana Hermínia exercised an important influence in the construction of the identity of the movements as CEBs, MEB and CPT in the area. Such influence was motivated by a conversion of the mediator D. Brandão, constituted starting from a relationship maintained between him and the members of the movements and proportionate for the critics and demands done by the popular ones. They resulted in actions in favor of the rural ones, what characterized the Church of Propriá as allied of the involved in the conflicts and no mere middleman. Before the collected material, we made use of the Analysis of Content using the poor " term " as analysis category, complemented by interviews done to members of the mentioned movements. Esta dissertação buscou estudar o carisma do mediador religioso nos “Movimentos de Cristianismo de Libertação” na Diocese Sergipana de Propriá, durante a década de sessenta a oitenta. Centrando nosso debate na compreensão da ação social, temos como questão principal entender a influência dos “pobres” na adoção de ações por parte do mediador, em favor desse público, principalmente nos conflitos da Fazenda Betume (1974) e de Santana dos Frades (1979). Como hipóteses, concebemos que os mediadores como D. José Brandão de Castro e a freira Maria Joana Hermínia exerceram uma importante influência na construção da identidade dos movimentos como as CEBs, o MEB e a CPT na região. Tal influência foi motivada por uma conversão do mediador D. Brandão, constituída a partir de uma relação mantida entre ele e os membros dos movimentos e proporcionada pelas críticas e demandas feita pelos populares. Elas resultaram em ações em favor dos campesinos, o que caracterizou a Igreja de Propriá como aliada dos envolvidos nos conflitos e não mera intermediária. Ante o material coletado, fizemos uso da Análise de Conteúdo utilizando o termo “pobre” como categoria de análise, complementada por entrevistas feitas à membros dos movimentos citados.

No description available.

While some attempts have been made to model the behaviour of the grand piano action (the mechanism that translates a key press into a hammer striking a string), most researchers have reduced the system to a simple model with little relation to the components of a real action. While such models are useful for certain applications, they are not appropriate as design tools for piano makers, since the model parameters have little physical meaning and must be calibrated from the behaviour of a real action. A new model for a piano action is proposed in this thesis. The model treats each of the five main action components (key, whippen, jack, repetition lever, and hammer) as a rigid body. The action model also incorporates a contact model to determine the normal and friction forces at 13 locations between each of the contacting bodies. All parameters in the model are directly measured from the physical properties of individual action components, allowing the model to be used as a prototyping tool for actions that have not yet been built. To test whether the model can accurately predict the behaviour of a piano action, an experimental apparatus was built. Based around a keyboard from a Boston grand piano, the apparatus uses an electric motor to actuate the key, a load cell to measure applied force, and optical encoders and a high speed video camera to measure the positions of the bodies. The apparatus was found to produce highly repeatable, reliable measurements of the action. The behaviour of the action model was compared to the measurements from the experimental apparatus for several types of key blows from a pianist. A qualitative comparison showed that the model could very accurately reproduce the behaviour of a real action for high force blows. When the forces were lower, the behaviour of the action model was still reasonable, but some discrepancy from the experimental results could be seen. In order to reduce the discrepancy, it was recommended that certain improvements could be made to the action model. Rigid bodies, most importantly the key and hammer, should be replaced with flexible bodies. The normal contact model should be modified to account for the speed-independent behaviour of felt compression. Felt bushings that are modelled as perfect revolute joints should instead be modelled as flexible contact surfaces.

The piano action is the mechanism that transforms the finger force applied to a key into the motion of a hammer that strikes a piano string. This thesis focuses on improving the fidelity of the dynamic model of a grand piano action which has been already developed by Hirschkorn et al. at the University of Waterloo. This model is the state-of-the-art dynamic model of the piano in the literature and is based on the real components of the piano action mechanism (key, whippen, jack, repetition lever, and hammer). Two main areas for improving the fidelity of the dynamic model are the hammer shank and the connection point between the key and the ground. The hammer shank is a long narrow wooden rod and, by observation with a high-speed video camera, the flexibility of this part has been confirmed. In previous work, the piano hammer had been modelled as a rigid body. In this work, a Rayleigh beam model is used to model the flexible behaviour of the hammer shank. By comparing the experimental and analytical results, it turns out that the flexibility of the hammer shank does not significantly affect the rotation of the other parts of the piano mechanism, compared with the case that the hammer shank has been modelled as a rigid part. However, the flexibility of the hammer shank changes the impact velocity of the hammer head, and also causes a greater scuffing motion for the hammer head during the contact with the string. The connection of the piano key to the ground had been simply modelled with a revolute joint, but the physical form of the connection at that point suggests that a revoluteprismatic joint with a contact force underneath better represents this connection. By comparing the experimental and analytical results, it is concluded that incorporating this new model significantly increases the fidelity of the model for the blows. In order to test the accuracy of the dynamic model, an experimental setup, including a servo motor, a load cell, a strain gauge, and three optical encoders, is built. The servo motor is used to actuate the piano key. Since the purpose of the motor is to consistently mimic the finger force of the pianist, the output torque of the motor is controlled. To overcome the problem associated with the motor torque control method used in previous work, a new torque control method is implemented on a real-time PC and a better control of the motor torque output is established. Adding a more realistic model of the piano string to the current piano action model and finding a better contact model for the contacts that happen between the surfaces that are made of felt (or leather), are two main areas that can be worked on in the future research. These two areas will help to further increase the fidelity of the present piano action model.

Many of our daily activities are achieved through goal-oriented routines which illustrates the adaptability and efficiency of information processing. Nevertheless, slips of action do occur. This study was designed to determine if slips of action can be induced in a well learned task and if so, how these slips affect specific indicators of task performance. Thirty (12 male) right-handed undergraduate participants were taught, with arrow cues, a sequence of dominant hand movements. Following this learning phase, a portion of the sequences were altered by either changing the spatial location of the arrow cue or by changing the actual movement goal. Results revealed that participants made numerous action slips which were most prevalent when the movement goal was altered. This suggests that participants were unable to disengage their expected movement plan and thus were vulnerable to errors. In addition to exploring the frequency of action slips we also looked at participants’ reaction and movement times on trials that preceded and followed errors and found that a speed-accuracy trade-off could not account for the slips. We also showed that frequency of slips on our task could reliably predict performance on the SART, a measure of inhibitory control, and the frequency of attention failures in daily living on the ARCES. Overall, the results of this study reveal that action slips can be induced by manipulating a well learned action routine and that the frequency of these induced slips reflects a participant’s tendency to commit action slips in everyday life.