The first experiment consisted of the making and testing of a cardboard model of a beam fixed at both ends. The results obtained from the model compared very favorably with the mathematical solution as there was a variation of only 1.8 percent. The second experiment was performed with a cardboard model of a bent fixed at both supports. The results from the model as compared to the mathematical solution could not be made to check very closely. There was a variation up to 10 percent in the influence lines for moment for horizontal loads, and a difference as high as 50 percent for vertical loads. It was found after the experiment was performed that the modulus of elasticity of the columns was about four times as great as the modulus in the girder. Then after making the correction in the mathematical solution for the difference in the modulus of elasticity there were only three points that showed a variation of over six percent, and most of the points were under 3½ percent. / M.S.

Moment Distribution Method was modified so that simple techniques applicable to symmetrical and anti-symmetrical frames may be applied to non-symmetrical rigid frames consisting of prismatic members. This approach simplifies considerably the calculations. Using the above approach, two different "Simplified Moment Distribution Methods" were introduced. Method No. l, an “exact” method, makes it possible to execute moment distribution in a single cycle. The “exact" values of the unknown moments are obtained by solving a set of simultaneous equations. This method is applicable to single-bay frames having an arbitrary number of stories. In the solution there is one unknown moment and one equation for each story. Method No. 2 simplifies the analysis of multiple-bay, multiple-story frames. It is a modified version of the standard moment distribution. Only half of the total number of joints has to be considered in this analysis and the convergence of the iteration process is accelerated. The presentation of the theory is preceded by the definition of a set of modified constants pertinent to the two methods. Illustrative examples for the analysis of single-bay as well as multiple-bay frames are included. / Master of Science

Situated within the larger scholarship on the women's liberation movement of the 1970s exists a body of literature that analyzes the rhetorical functions of pro- and anti- Equal Rights Amendment messages in relation to communication studies. Although limited in scope, this literature acknowledges the tremendous impact of Phyllis Schlafly's STOP ERA campaign in the prevention of the ratification and unratification of states. However, with the exception of a few theses and dissertations, a lion's share of published articles proclaim the STOP ERA and Schlafly herself to be predominantly negative and serve solely as prevailing threats to the women's movement. As a result, heterogeneous scholarship grounded in communication theory proves limited when applied to critical rhetorical analyses of anti-feminist rhetoric. Using Kenneth Burke's frames of acceptance and rejection as a perspective for rhetorical criticism, this thesis demonstrates how Schlafly's conservative ideals functioned rhetorically through acceptance-based frames in the past, and through rejection-based frames after the failed ERA ratification in 1982. In doing so, I provide today's scholars with an important body of knowledge to further examine the ERA debate and its influence on contemporary feminism. Until rhetoric is fully explored within the cultural and historical conditions distinctive to Schlafly's main speeches during the ERA debate, meaningful debate about the women's movement and feminism's current state is subject to remain truncated. / Master of Arts

Experiments were conducted to measure the three-dimensional static and free vibrational response of two graphite-epoxy, thin-walled, open section frames. The frames are semi-circular with a radius of three feet, and one specimen has an I cross section and the other has a channel cross section. The flexibility influence coefficients were measured in static tests for loads applied at midspan with the ends of the specimens clamped. Natural frequencies and modes were determined from vibrational tests for free and clamped end conditions. The experimental data is used to evaluate a new finite element which was developed specifically for the analysis of curved, thin-walled structures. The formulation of the element is based on a Vlaysov-type, thin-walled, curved beam theory. The predictions from the finite element program generally correlated well with the experimental data for the symmetric I-specimen. Discrepancies in some of the data were found to be due to flexibility in the â clamped' end conditions. With respect to the data for the channel specimen, the correlation was less satisfactory. The finite element analysis predicted the out-of-plane response of the channel specimen reasonably well, but large discrepancies occurred between the predicted in-plane response and the experimental data. The analysis predicted a much more compliant in-plane response then was observed in the experiments. / Master of Science

With a great amount of research currently being aimed towards dynamic analysis and control of very large, flexible structures, the need for accurate knowledge of the properties of a structure in terms of the mass, damping, and stiffness matrices is of extreme importance. Typical problems associated with existing structural model identification methods are: (i) non-unique solutions may be obtained when utilizing only free-response measurements (unless some parameters are fixed at their nominal values), (ii) convergence may be difficult to achieve if the initial estimate of the parameters is not "close" to the truth, (iii) physically unrealistic coupling in the system matrices may occur as a consequence of the identification process, (iv) large, highly redundant parameter sets may be required to characterize the system, and (v) large measurement sets may be required. To overcome these problems, a novel identification technique is developed in this dissertation to determine the mass, damping, and stiffness matrices of an undamped, lightly damped, or significantly damped structure from a small set of measurements of both free-response data (natural frequencies, damping factors) and forced-response data (frequency response functions). The identification method is first developed for undamped structures. Through use of the spectral decomposition of the frequency response matrix and the orthogonality properties of the mode shapes, a unique identification of the mass and stiffness matrices is obtained. The method is also shown to be easily incorporated into a substructure synthesis package for identifying high-order systems. The method is then extended to include viscous damped structures. A matrix perturbation approach is developed for lightly damped structures, in which the mass and stiffness matrices are identified using the imaginary components of the measured eigenvalues and, as a post-processor, the damping matrix is obtained from the real components of the measured eigenvalues. For significantly damped structures, the mass, dauping, and stiffness matrices are identified simultaneously. A simple, practical method is also developed for identification of the time-varying relaxation modulus associated with a viscoelastic structure. By assuming time-localized elastic behavior, the relaxation modulus is determined from a series of identification tests performed at various times throughout the response history. Many interesting examples are presented throughout the dissertation to illustrate the applicability and potential of the identification method. It is observed from the numerical results that the uniquely identified structure agrees with simulated measurements of both free and forced·response records. / Ph. D.

No description available.

In this dissertation, the seismic behavior and design of AAC-infilled steel moment frames are investigated systematically. The fundamental vehicle for this investigation is the ATC-63 methodology, which is intended for the establishment of seismic design factors for structural systems. The ATC-63 methodology is briefly reviewed, including the concepts of archetypical structures, design rules and mathematical models simulating the behavior of those archetypes. A limited experimental investigation on the hysteretic behavior of an AAC-infilled steel moment frame is developed, conducted, and discussed. Using the experimental results of that investigation, the draft infill design provisions of the Masonry Standards Joint Committee (MSJC) are extended to AAC infills, and a mathematical model is developed and calibrated to simulate the behavior of AAC infills under reversed cyclic loads. Prior to application of ATC-63 methodology to AAC-infilled steel moment frames, the methodology is applied to an example steel moment frame to demonstrate the methodology and verify understanding of it. Then, archetypical infilled frames to be evaluated by the ATC-63 methodology are developed using a series of pushover analyses. Infill configurations whose total lateral strength in a particular story exceeds about 35% of the lateral strength of the bare frame in that story are observed to provoke story mechanisms in the frame. Based on this observation, archetypical infilled frames are selected conforming to two infill configurations: uniformly infilled frames, and open ground story frames. Each infill configuration includes archetypes whose ratio of infill strength to bare-frame strength at each story is less than 35%, and archetypes whose ratio is greater than 35%. The former archetype is typical of steel moment frames infilled with AAC; the latter archetype is typical of steel moment frames infilled with conventional (clay or concrete) masonry. The ATC-63 methodology, specialized for application to infilled frames, is applied to the archetypical infilled frames developed above. The performance of those archetypical infilled frames is evaluated, and seismic design factors are proposed for AAC-infilled steel moment frames. The extension of this work to other types of infilled frames is discussed. / text

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-10-28T12:55:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Carolina Müller_.pdf: 7010149 bytes, checksum: dea9fca340fddaec536a1d6bc89582d7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-28T12:55:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carolina Müller_.pdf: 7010149 bytes, checksum: dea9fca340fddaec536a1d6bc89582d7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-26 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / CNJ/CAPES - Conselho Nacional de Justiça / Esta tese apresenta uma metodologia fundamentada na teoria da Semântica de Frames (FILLMORE, 1982) para a construção de ontologias de domínio. A metodologia proposta segue passos reinterpretados a partir de metodologias vigentes, porém embasados no conceito de frames semânticos (cenas com seus participantes e diferentes papéis) para a descrição dos significados. O principal objetivo desta pesquisa reside em refletir sobre as convergências entre ontologias (GRUBER, 1996; GUARINO, 1998) e frames, de modo a acreditar-se que a combinação destas duas formas de organizar o conhecimento garantem a representação mais precisa de conceitos do domínio jurídico. A proposta assume que a inserção da informação dos frames, especialmente a relacionada aos diferentes papéis que os participantes podem exercer, é capaz de prover uma descrição detalhada dos conceitos do domínio e, assim, prover mais significado à ontologia. A metodologia prevê cinco etapas que correspondem ao ciclo de vida da ontologia, porém têm como foco o estágio de conceitualização, no qual são descritos os conceitos do domínio através do uso dos frames. Realizou-se a construção de uma ontologia piloto tomando como base os Juizados Especiais Criminais, cujos processos tramitam em primeira instância e correspondem a crimes de menor potencial ofensivo. O estudo resultou em uma metodologia linguística para o desenvolvimento de ontologias de domínio capaz de ampliar a descrição dos conceitos, provendo detalhamentos sobre os eventos, seus participantes e os diferentes papéis por eles exercidos, de modo a prover mais significado à estrutura ontológica, contribuindo com a recuperação da informação. A etapa de avaliação da ontologia foi realizada com base no cálculo da abrangência, obtendo um resultado de 84,4% de informações representáveis na estrutura ontológica, demonstrando a proficuidade da metodologia proposta no que se refere à identificação de informações relevantes advindas dos documentos jurídicos. / This thesis presents a methodology for the construction of domain ontologies based on the theory of Semantic Frames (FILLMORE, 1982). The proposed methodology reinterprets existents methodologies, but grounded in the concept of semantic frames (scenes of its participants and different roles) for the description of meanings. The main objective of this research lies in reflecting on the similarities between ontologies (GRUBER, 1996; GUARINO, 1998) and frames in order to believe that the combination of these two ways of organizing knowledge ensures the most accurate representation of legal domain concepts. The proposal assumes the inclusion of information of frames, especially those related to the different roles that scene participants may assume, is capable of providing a detailed description of domain concepts and thus provide more meaning to the ontology. The methodology provides five steps that correspond to the ontology life cycle, but are focused on the conceptualization stage, in which describes the domain concepts through the use of frames. A pilot ontology was built based on the Special Criminal Courts context, whose cases proceed through at first instance and account for crimes of lesser offensive potential. The study resulted in a linguistic methodology to develop domain ontologies able to expand the description of the concepts, providing detailing of events, its participants and the different roles they assume in order to provide more meaning to the ontological structure, aiming at contributing specially in information retrieval of documents. The evaluation stage of ontology was based on calculation of coverage (recall), getting a score of 84.4% of representable information on the ontological structure, demonstrating the usefulness of the proposed methodology with regard to the identification of relevant information from legal documents

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-04-26T17:22:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Aline Nardes dos Santos_.pdf: 4200145 bytes, checksum: 80da7128e71652952b4d557f7816937f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T17:22:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Aline Nardes dos Santos_.pdf: 4200145 bytes, checksum: 80da7128e71652952b4d557f7816937f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-24 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / CNJ - Conselho Nacional de Justiça / O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar as diferentes conceptualizações de feto anencéfalo a partir de um estudo de caso do processo da Arguição de Preceito Fundamental 54-8 (ADPF 54), cuja decisão final autorizou a interrupção de gravidez de fetos anencefálicos. Como aporte teórico, propõe-se uma articulação entre a Semântica de Frames, na perspectiva dos frames de compreensão (ZIEM, 2014), e o conceito de perfilamento (LANGACKER, 1987; 2008). Além disso, busca-se discutir a relação entre a interrupção de gestação de anencéfalo e os modelos culturais ligados ao aborto (COULSON, 1997; 2001; D’ANDRADE, 1987). O conceito de frame semântico é o cerne da teoria da Semântica de Frames, postulada por Fillmore (1982; 1985), a qual defende que os falantes entendem o significado de uma palavra ou expressão a partir de sua associação a uma cena esquemática mental. A partir dos trabalhos do linguista, Ziem (2014) retoma o conceito fillmoriano de frame de compreensão, o qual implica um espaço de compreensão ativado por determinado uso linguístico, que abrange conhecimento enciclopédico. Dentre os constituintes dessa estrutura esquemática conceptual, estão os slots e fillers, que podem ser identificados a partir de análises baseadas em corpora. Já a noção de perfilamento pressupõe que a evocação de um frame também envolve perspectivas diferentes sobre o mesmo evento ou entidade, o que faz com que falantes perfilem ou contrastem determinada situação contra frames ou facetas de conhecimento diferentes, dependendo de seus propósitos (CROFT; CRUSE, 2004; KÖVECSES, 2006; ZIEM, 2014). Como corpus de estudo, foram utilizados acórdão da ADPF 54, bem como as notas taquigráficas que registram os depoimentos das quatro audiências públicas realizadas. O corpus foi dividido em três subcorpora: (i) as notas taquigráficas da primeira audiência pública, na qual predominam os posicionamentos de representantes de instituições religiosas (Corpus NT1); (ii) as notas taquigráficas das três audiências públicas seguintes, em que predominam os posicionamentos de representantes de entidades médicas (Corpus NT2); e (iii) o acórdão de inteiro teor, em que consta a votação dos ministros e o proferimento da decisão final (Corpus Acórdão). O primeiro passo da análise consistiu na descrição do frame feto anencéfalo a partir das facetas de conhecimento presentes em cada subcorpus, seguindo a metodologia de identificação de slots proposta por Ziem (2014). Em seguida, verificou-se como essas facetas resultavam em perfilamentos diferentes. Os resultados mostraram que, no Corpus NT1, feto anencéfalo é mais frequentemente perfilado contra slots como [presença de atividade neurológica], [características fisiológicas e sociais], [vida] e [utilidade para transplante de órgãos]. No processo como um todo, predominam as conceptualizações emergentes dos corpora NT2 e Acórdão, em que feto anencéfalo é conceptualizado por meio de perfilamentos contra slots como [anomalia], [morte], [ausência de atividade neurológica], [inutilidade para transplante de órgãos] e [risco para a gestante], o que resulta no perfilamento contra o slot [desamparo jurídico], negando ao feto anencéfalo a proteção jurídica dada a outros fetos, no cenário brasileiro, por meio da Constituição. Além disso, essas facetas de conhecimento indicam uma ligação direta entre o modelo cultural de Punição e a situação de gravidez de feto anencefálico. / This study aims at investigating different conceptualizations for anencephalic fetus through a case study of the Allegation of Violation of a Fundamental Precept No. 54 (ADPF 54) process, in which the Supreme Court authorized the interruption of pregnancy in cases of anencephaly. Concerning the theoretical framework, a combination between Frame Semantics, from the perspective of frames of understanding (ZIEM, 2014), and the concept of profiling (LANGACKER, 1987; 2008) is proposed. Moreover, this dissertation seeks to discuss the relation between pregnancy interruption in cases of anencephaly and cultural models related to abortion (COULSON, 1997; 2001; D'ANDRADE, 1987). The concept of semantic frame is the core of Frame Semantics, postulated by Fillmore (1982; 1985), which defends that speakers understand the meaning of a word or expression from its association to a mental schematic scene. Based on his works, Ziem (2014) retakes the Fillmorian concept of frame of understanding, which implies a space of understanding activated by linguistic use that encloses encyclopedic knowledge. Amongst the constituent of this conceptual schematic structure, there are slots and fillers, which can be identified through corpus-based analyses. The concept of profiling presupposes that the evocation of a frame also involves different perspectives on the same event or entity, which makes speakers profile or contrast some situation against different frames or knowledge facets, depending on their intentions (CROFT; CRUSE, 2004; KÖVECSES, 2006; ZIEM, 2014). The corpus is constituted by the ADPF 54 decision, as well as the tachygraphic notes that registered the depositions on the four public audiences. The corpus was divided in three subcorpora: (i) the tachygraphic notes of the first audience, in which the positioning of representatives of religious institutions predominate (NT1 Corpus); (II) the tachygraphic notes of the three following audiences, in which the positioning of representatives of medical entities predominate (NT2 Corpus); e (III) the entire content of the Supreme Court decision, which consists of the voting of the ministers and the statement of the final decision (Acórdão Corpus). The first step of the analysis was the description of the anencephalic fetus frame from the knowledge facets that were found in each subcorpus, following the methodology of identification of slots proposed by Ziem (2014). After that, it was verified how these facets resulted in different profilings. The results showed that, in the NT1 Corpus, anencephalic fetus is more frequently profiled against slots such as [presence of neurological activity], [physiological and social characteristics], [life] and [utility for organ transplantation]. In the process as a whole, conceptualizations emerging from NT2 and Acórdão corpora are predominant, in which anencephalic fetus is conceptualized by means of profilings against slots such as [anomaly], [death], [absence of neurological activity], [uselessness for organ transplantation] and [health risk for the pregnant woman], which results in the profiling against the [legal abandonment] slot, which denies the anencephalic fetus the legal protection given to other fetuses, in the Brazilian context, through the Constitution. Moreover, these knowledge facets indicate a direct bonding between the cultural model of Punishment and the pregnancy anencephalic fetus scenario.

The construction of horizontally curved bridges with skewed supports requires careful consideration. These types of bridges exhibit three-dimensional response characteristics that are not commonly seen in straight bridges with normal supports. As a result, engineers may face difficulties during the construction, when the components of the bridge do not fit together or the final geometry of the structure does not correspond to that intended by the designer. These complications can lead to problems that compromise the serviceability aspects of the bridge and in some cases, its structural integrity. The three dimensional response that curved and skewed bridges exhibit is directly influenced by the bracing system used to configure the structure. In I-girder bridges, cross-frames are provided to integrate the structure, transforming the individual girders into a structural system that can support larger loads than when the girders work separately. In general, they facilitate the construction of the structure. However, they can also induce undesired collateral effects that can be a detriment to the performance of the system. These effects must be considered in the design of a curved and skewed bridge because, in some cases, they can modify substantially its response. This research is focused on understanding how the bracing system affects the performance of curved and skewed I-girder bridges, as well as, the ability of the approximate analysis methods to capture the structural behavior. In this research, techniques that can be implemented in the creation of 2D-grid models are developed to overcome the limitations of this analysis method. In addition, efficient cross-frame arrangements that mitigate the collateral effects of skew are developed. These mitigation schemes reduce the undesired cross-frame forces and flange lateral bending stresses associated with the transverse stiffness of the structure, while ensuring that the bracing system still performs its intended functions.