Submitted by Kleber Silva (kleberbs@ufba.br) on 2017-02-06T18:04:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Silas.pdf: 11647491 bytes, checksum: 9f9927fc1762e0964a036f5a662fd6ff (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vanessa Reis (vanessa.jamile@ufba.br) on 2017-02-07T13:25:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Silas.pdf: 11647491 bytes, checksum: 9f9927fc1762e0964a036f5a662fd6ff (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-07T13:25:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silas.pdf: 11647491 bytes, checksum: 9f9927fc1762e0964a036f5a662fd6ff (MD5) / Existem inúmeras ferramentas para auxliar os engenheiros de CAE no desenvolvimento de novos produtos, como por exemplo: CAD (computer aided design), CAE (computer aided engineering), CAM (computer aided manufacturing), QFD e TRIZ, entre outros. Este trabalho apresenta uma aplicação dos conceitos de gerenciamento de projetos para a simulação computacional da durabilidade virtual afim de auxiliar os profissionais da área de CAE no design de componentes automotivos. Neste trabalho, foram aplicados os conceitos do dFmea para aprimorar os resultados obtidos na utilização dos conceitos do QFD e da TRIZ. Em adicional, serão aplicados os conceitos do diagrama P, matriz morfológica e matriz de Pugh. O método apresentado para aperfeiçoar a durabilidade utiliza a simulação computacional para correlacionar os resultados obtidos com a aplicação das ferramentas de gerenciamento de projetos. Para realizar a simulação computacional foi utilizado o software MSC_Nastran 2004 R2, Sol 103 (modos normais). Apresenta tambem as diferenças entre dois tipos de modelamentos matemáticos utilizando os pontos de fixação da peça avaliada de maneiras diferentes. Por fim, apresenta os resultados dos testes de laboratório, com o objetivo de comprovar a abordagem teórica apresentada nesta dissertação.

Parental involvement is legally mandated requirement in schools across the United States, and prevalent in special education legislation. However, methods for increasing and promoting parent involvement of minority subgroups in low socioeconomic areas are scarce. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and describe Haitian parents’ perceptions of their involvement in a structured parent intervention program and to describe the perceptions of their children’s teachers concerning the parents’ involvement in the program. In this study, the researcher used a descriptive qualitative case study methodology. All participants in the 5-month program implementation were interviewed at three points throughout the program. (pre, mid, and post). Findings of the present study revealed that these parents’ feelings towards parent involvement evolved throughout their participation in the program. Participants went from reported feelings of separation between home and school, to understanding the important role they can play in education. Additionally, as reported by the students’ teachers, the parents’ increased involvement and presence in the school/classroom had a positive impact on their children’s social and academic development. Through their participation in the program, as evidenced through interview responses, parents’ confidence increased as well as their ability to overcome initially identified barriers to involvement including English language acquisition, lack of time, an unclear understanding of special education services, and feeling un-wanted. This study found that parents’ perceptions of their participation were guided by two categories of motivators as identified through coding of interview responses: intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators. Through the program, parents who were intrinsically motivated to be involved in their child’s education embraced the whole program. Those who were extrinsically motivated also became more involved, however, their motivation was more dependent on society and perceived success of their child and their parenting. Perceptions of parent participants concerning their involvement in the program was found to be defined by the American culture in which their children are growing up, but equally in part by their Haitian roots and remaining ties to the island. Through their participation in the program, the parents were able to identify and explore opportunities for involvement, develop relationships with their children’s teachers, better understand the purpose of an IEP, and better themselves as individuals to in turn better the lives of their children.

The aim of this research is to explore the influence of magnetic field on early somatic embryos (ESEs) of spruce and pine. The magnetic field is gradual. This is important for the experiment, each cluster of ESE was exposed to magnetic field of different intensity. The resulting report of this experiment consists of the comparison between various methods of image analysis and the difference in growth of ESEs due to different exposure to magnetic field and surrounding temperature. Enclosed is a proposal of ESE size computing algorithm from a given image.

A new nonlinear fracture analysis framework is developed for the mode-I and II fracture response of thick-section fiber reinforced polymeric (FRP) composites. This framework employs 3D micromechanical constitutive models for the nonlinear material behavior along with cohesive elements for crack growth. Fracture tests on various cracked geometries are used to verify the prediction of the failure loads and the crack growth behavior. A commercially available pultruded E-glass/polyester and vinylester thick-section FRP composite material was used to demonstrate the proposed fracture approach along with the nonlinear constitutive modeling. A new Infra-red thermography technique is derived to measure the surface strain field near the crack tip in the linear response range. Mode I and II fracture toughness tests for pultruded composites are also examined using the eccentrically loaded, single-edge-notch tension, ESE(T), single-edge-notch tension, SEN(T), and a butterfly specimen with an Arcan-type fixture. Material nonlinearity and crack growth effects were observed during the tests and investigated using the proposed analysis framework. The effect of material orthotropy on the stress intensity factor solutions was addressed using the virtual crack closure technique. The analytic and experimental results support the use of the ESE(T) specimen for the measuring the mode-I fracture toughness and the butterfly shaped specimen for measuring the mode-II toughness. The calibrated cohesive models were able to predict the measured crack growth in both modes I and II for various crack geometries. A mixed mode failure criterion is proposed and verified with test results. Examples are presented for using this criterion and crack growth analyses. The experimental and analytical results of this study can form a foundation for using fracture-based methods for the design of structures using these materials.

In this thesis the focus is on upper secondary school students’ meaning-making in sustainability in science civic education. The aim is to study how meaning is created, if/how natural science is used and how democratic participation is constructed in students’ group discussions. The thesis also aims to create an awareness of the role science has in both the creation of meaning and the construction of democratic participation. The study is based on audio-recorded group discussions arising from two different sustainability tasks. Discursive psychology is used as an analytical framework, through the concepts of interpretative repertoires, ideological dilemmas and subject positions. The students use different interpretative repertoires that draw on different conceptions of the “world” (discourses) in their meaning-making. These different conceptions create ideological dilemmas that recur several times during the discussions and are therefore negotiated in different ways. The students then use strategies where these dilemmas are solved in a relatively simple manner. They construct the sustainability issue they discuss so that their ways to live and act/not act are portrayed as acceptable in the current situation. The students use their knowledge in and about science in their meaning-making. Science is used to make the "world" more understandable and raise questions; to evaluate, decide and act; to give authority to arguments; and to solve societal problems. The students’ science-making process contains various kinds of use of scientific knowledge, for example, clarify the conditions, identify consequences, scrutinize information, compare, assess, evaluate and use scientific methods. The discussions increase the students’ experience of using scientific knowledge and which functions scientific knowledge can have. The students construct democratic participation in various ways: trust in science and technology are expressed and awareness of what is considered as actions that are “good” for the environment; different perspectives are expressed and ideological dilemmas discussed; students use their scientific knowledge in socioscientific reasoning to create a deeper understanding of the issues discussed; scientific knowledge is also used for evaluating actions in relation to sustainability issues. However, the students see themselves having a major responsibility to act “good”, but without power to influence the development of society as a whole. The students have two projects going on during their discussions: to discuss and learn about the sustainability issue and make their own existence acceptable.

La question de la compétence de l’entrepreneur est tout à fait centrale. Cependant la prise en compte de cette notion demeure un problème persistant qui inhibe les performances de l’accompagnement et entrave ainsi le développement du phénomène entrepreneurial. Dans ce travail de recherche, nous avons orienté notre intérêt vers le concept des compétences entrepreneuriales afin de repositionner la relation accompagnateur/créateur au centre du processus d’accompagnement. Nous avons mis en œuvre une recherche axée sur l’analyse de l’auto-perception des compétences entrepreneuriales par les entrepreneurs naissants faisant l’objet d’un accompagnement dans une structure d’appui.Sur la base de l’ensemble des classifications typologiques des compétences des entrepreneurs, nous avons arrêté le choix de l’objet de notre étude sur la typologie proposée par Man et al. (2002). Les auteurs proposent un modèle conceptuel permettant de relier les caractéristiques des entrepreneurs des PME et la performance de leur entreprise. Partant de la conviction selon laquelle la prise en compte des compétences est susceptible de produire des nouveaux outils et pratiques d'accompagnement mieux adaptés à la compréhension et la valorisation des différentes dimensions du phénomène entrepreneurial, la problématique soulevée dans cette recherche est de savoir : dans quelle mesure une structure d’accompagnement en phase post-création contribue-t-elle à l’amélioration de l’auto-perception des entrepreneurs de leurs compétences entrepreneuriales?Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons opté pour une étude empirique quantitative et longitudinale. Dans le but d’accéder au terrain et de collecter le maximum de données, notre étude a été réalisée dans le cadre d’un partenariat entre le centre de recherche en Entrepreneuriat de l’EM Lyon Business School (CRE) et Réseau Entreprendre® (RE®). Nous avons réalisé, parallèlement, trois études longitudinales à travers lesquelles nous avons administré, à deux reprises et avec 8 mois d’intervalle le même questionnaire auprès de trois populations différentes : lauréats de Réseau Entreprendre® (population de base), les accompagnateurs et candidats non retenus (groupe témoin). Les trois premières vagues de questionnaires ont été lancées le 29 février 2012, les secondes, vers la fin du mois d’octobre 2012.Pour réaliser les traitements d’analyse, nous avons utilisé l’approche des régressions linéaires avec le logiciel SPSS.11 pour tester la nature des relations entre les variables clés de notre étude. Dans une deuxième partie d’analyse, nous avons réalisé deux études comparatives. / The issue of entrepreneur’s competence is quite central. However, the taking into account of this concept remains a persistent problem that inhibits the performance of new venture support and/or incubation programs and thereby hinders the development of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. In this research, we focused our interest on the concept of entrepreneurial competencies in order to replace accompanying person/new venture creator relationship at the center of new venture support process. We implemented a research based on nascent entrepreneurs self-perception of entrepreneurial competencies. Based on some typologies of entrepreneurial competencies, we used the typology proposed by Man et al. (2002). The authors proposed a conceptual model that links the SME’ entrepreneurs characteristics with the business performance.We started with the belief that it is very important to consider entrepreneurial competencies because our research is likely to produce new tools and help support’s practices to better understand and enhance the different dimensions of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. The issue raised in this research is as follows: to what extent a post-creation support structure contributes to the improvement of entrepreneurs self- perception of his entrepreneurial competencies? To answer this question, we opted for a quantitative and longitudinal empirical study. In order to access the research field and to collect the maximum of data, our study was conducted as part of a partnership between the Research Center in Entrepreneurship of EM Lyon Business School (CRE) and Réseau Entreprendre® (RE®). We carried out three longitudinal studies through which we administered twice, with 8 months interval between each time, the same questionnaire to three different populations namely: the winners of Réseau Entreprendre® (Lauréats) (baseline population), the accompanying persons and non-selected applicants (control group). The first three waves of questionnaires were launched on February 29, 2012, the second towards the end of October 2012. To achieve the treatment analysis, we used the approach of linear regressions with SPSS.11 software to test the nature of the relationships between key variables in our study. In the second part of analysis, we conducted two comparative studies.

Improvisation is a construct that uses a set of minimal heuristic guidelines to create a highly flexible scaffold that fosters extemporaneous communication. Scholars from diverse domains: such as psychology, business, negotiation, and education have suggested its use as a method for preparing professionals to manage complexity and think on their feet. A review of the literature revealed that while there is substantial theoretical scholarship on using improvisation in diverse domains, little research has verified these assertions. This dissertation evaluated whether improvisation, a specific type of dramatic technique, was effective for training pre-service teachers in specific characteristics of teacher-child classroom interaction, communication and affective skills development. It measured the strength and direction of any potential changes such training might effect on pre-service teacher’s self-efficacy for teaching and for implementing the communication skills common to improvisation and teaching while interacting with student in an inclusive classroom setting. A review of the literature on teacher self-efficacy and improvisation clarified and defined key terms, and illustrated relevant studies. This study utilized a mixed-method research design based on instructional design and development research. Matched pairs ttests were used to analyze the self-efficacy and training skills survey data and pre-service teacher reflections and interview transcripts were used to triangulate the qualitative data. Results of the t-tests showed a significant difference in participants’ self-efficacy for teaching measured before and after the improvisation training. A significant difference in means was also measured in participants’ aptitude for improvisation strategies and for self-efficacy for their implementation pre-/post- training. Qualitative results from pre-service teacher class iv artifacts and interviews showed participants reported beneficial personal outcomes as well as confirmed using skills from the training while interacting with students. Many of the qualitative themes parallel individual question items on the teacher self-efficacy TSES scale as well as the improvisation self-efficacy scale CSAI. The self-reported changes in affective behavior such as increased self-confidence and ability to foster positive interaction with students are illustrative of changes in teacher agency. Self-reports of being able to better understand student perspectives demonstrate a change in participant ability to empathize with students. Participants who worked with both typically developing students as well as with students with disabilities reported utilizing improvisation strategies such as Yes, and…, mirroring emotions and body language, vocal prosody and establishing a narrative relationship to put the students at ease, establish a positive learning environment, encourage student contributions and foster teachable moments. The improvisation strategies showed specific benefit for participants working with nonverbal students or who had commutation difficulties, by providing the pre-service teachers with strategies for using body language, emotional mirroring, vocal prosody and acceptance to foster interaction and communication with the student. Results from this investigation appear to substantiate the benefit of using improvisation training as part of a pre-service teacher methods course for preparing teachers for inclusive elementary classrooms. Replication of the study is encouraged with teachers of differing populations to confirm and extend results.