Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2017-04-19T17:26:52Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) RODRIGUES_Laís TESE.pdf: 1965791 bytes, checksum: af0a124f4cb484fe8fa3852a9df20023 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-19T17:26:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) RODRIGUES_Laís TESE.pdf: 1965791 bytes, checksum: af0a124f4cb484fe8fa3852a9df20023 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-04 / CNPQ / Este trabalho versa sobre as experiências de parto de mulheres que participaram de um grupo de discussão pela humanização do parto e do nascimento em Recife/PE, tendo como objetivo compreender como o parto é vivenciado e significado por estas mulheres para que seja classificado como evento transformador. Nele argumento que as mulheres que escolhem um parto humanizado experienciam-no como estratégia de poder e alternativa para subverter as hierarquias presentes nas relações de gênero e outras, de modo a reafirmar suas autonomias, buscar o autoconhecimento e exercitar o cuidado de si. O parto seria vivido como possibilidade de subjetivação e prática de liberdade. Como estratégias de investigação, utilizei o método etnográfico, com ênfase para as técnicas de observação participante em um grupo presencial e na sua versão virtual e a realização de entrevistas com algumas mulheres que frequentaram o grupo durante o período da minha inserção no campo. Privilegiei a análise do discurso como forma de leitura das informações construídas. Minhas interlocutoras parecem operar, em relação ao parto, a partir de continuidades, de elementos que dialogam e têm liminaridades movediças. A participação no grupo, além do papel informativo, é um importante apoio afetivo-emocional, que acolhe e fortalece a decisão das mulheres. Assim, a humanização do parto pode direcioná-las para que assumam o domínio sobre o próprio corpo e o processo de gestar e parir, quando é exercitada a elaboração de um conhecimento de si e de seus corpos. A escolha pelo parto humanizado salta como estratégia de poder, como alternativa para o exercício da autonomia, para escapar de formas de dominação que são praticamente imperceptíveis, mas que constrangem, culpabilizam, classificam e criam hierarquias. Daí algumas mulheres comentarem que parir é libertário. No entanto, independente de como o parto realmente ocorreu, o que parece importar é o questionamento, a posição ativa, o não dobrar-se ao que está posto. Ou seja, o que parece ser transformador é justamente a reflexão, a busca, o exercício de si sobre si mesmo, o cuidado de si. Entre elas, natureza parece ser compreendida como muito além do que o pensamento ocidental está habituado. O uso do termo comporta uma sensação de conexão com o cosmos, com algo maior, em um processo que é, a um só tempo, de transcendência e imanência, na medida em que essa sensação brota do corpo e a ele retorna. Assim, racional e irracional, espiritual e material, controle e descontrole, dor e satisfação, risco e segurança, e outros, assumem composições fluidas e harmônicas que expressam uma continuidade, na qual a experiência de parto se dá e convoca as mulheres à percepção de si como parte da natureza, como iguais a qualquer espécie e como portadoras do divino em si. Isto engendra a produção de subjetividades e a crença em uma mudança social expressa pelo reposicionamento da mulher na sociedade, pelo questionamento do poder de categorias técnicas-profissionais e pela possibilidade de construção de outros saberes e verdades sobre si, sobre o parto, sobre a mulher, sobre a maternidade e além. / This work reflects on birth experiences of women participating in a group discussion for the humanization of child labor and birth in Recife / PE, aiming to understand how childbirth is experienced and its meaning for these women to be classified as a transforming event. In it I argue that women who choose a humanized childbirth experience it as a strategy of power and alternative to subvert hierarchies present in gender relations and other, in order to reaffirm their autonomy, to seek selfknowledge and exercise care of oneself. The birth would be lived as a possibility for subjectivity and practice of freedom. As research strategies, I used the ethnographic method, with emphasis on participant observation techniques in a present group and its virtual version, and conducting interviews with some women who attended the group during the period of my insertion in the field. I privileged discourse analysis as a way of reading the built information. My interlocutors seem to operate, in relation to labor, from continuities, from elements that dialogue and have shifting liminality. Participation in the group, besides the informative role, is an important affective and emotional support. It receives and strengthens the decision of women. Thus, the humanization of childbirth can direct them to take over their own body and the process of gestation and giving birth, when they exercise the development of knowledge of themselves and their bodies. The choice of humanized birth is a power strategy as an alternative for the exercise of autonomy, to escape forms of domination that are almost imperceptible, but that embarrass, blame, classify and create hierarchies. Hence some women comment that giving birth is libertarian. However, regardless of how the birth actually occurred, what seems to matter is the questioning, the active position, to not bend to what is set before oneself. In other words, what seems to transform is precisely the reflection, the search, the exercise of oneself about oneself, taking care of oneself. Among them, nature seems to be understood as beyond what the Western thought is accustomed to. The use of the term carries a sense of connection to the cosmos, to something greater, in a process that is, at once, of transcendence and immanence, to the extent that this feeling flows from the body and returns to it. Thus, rational and irrational, spiritual and material, control and lack of control, pain and satisfaction, risk and safety, and others, they assume fluid and harmonic compositions that express a continuity, in which the birth experience takes place and summons women to the perception of themselves as part of nature, as equal to any species and as one that brings the divine within themselves. This engenders the production of subjectivities and the belief in social change expressed by women's repositioning in society, by questioning the power of technical-professional categories and the possibility of building other knowledge and truths about themselves, about childbirth, about women, about motherhood and beyond.

Continuum robots mimic the principle of a special biological structure known as the muscular hydrostat. These robots have an ability to bend at any location on along its backbone and have potential applications in disaster relief, medical surgeries and nuclear waste disposal. This thesis presents the modeling and verification of a multi-section continuum robot by applying the Cosserat theory of rods. Next, 2D verification is performed on a continuum robot based on a backbone composed of a nickel titanium alloy. In addition, the thesis develops the theoretical foundations for a cable-driven continuum robot by studying the effects of cable guide mass which cause additional deformation of the robot The results of this thesis show that the multi-section model is accurate within 3.4% in predicting the Cartesian tip coordinates, and the model with the cable guides accurate within 1.26% error in predicted versus the observed Cartesian tip coordinates of the backbone.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

The propagation of stress waves in long polymer rods forms the basis of two major experimental techniques. The first is a modified Split-Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) arrangement that employs polymer Hopkinson bars (as opposed to metallic bars) in order to determine the high strain-rate mechanical properties of soft materials. The second experimental technique consists of a group of methods for determining the viscoelastic properties of polymer rods within a frequency range of 20 Hz to 30 kHz. An experimental, analytical and finite element study of stress waves propagating in viscoelastic rods is reported. A propagation coefficient is used to account for the attenuation and dispersion of stress waves propagating in polymer rods. Through experimental investigations, an optimal experimental arrangement is used to determine the propagation coefficient of a PMMA rod with an improved level of accuracy in comparison with results available in the open literature. Analytical investigations show difficulties associated with experimental arrangements as well as the numerical procedure adopted which tend to reduce the accurate frequency range of the determined propagation coefficient. The FE analysis of stress waves propagating in polymer rods suggests end effects are important; these end effects are not accounted for in any analytical bar wave theory. The high strain-rate mechanical properties of Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) are measured via a viscoelastic SHPB set-up. A scheme for processing the strain signals from the tests that allows for large strain measurement (approximately 60%) is presented. The use of viscoelastic SHPB set-up is able to produce a more sensitive measurement when compared with test results in the literature which are obtained using conventional metallic bars. A Finite element model of a viscoelastic Hopkinson bar set-up is developed. The applicability of the model in viscoelastic SHPB testing is validated.

The continuum damage mechanics (CDM) approach is widely used to model damage in polymer matrix composite materials which are represented using the homogenized properties of the fiber and matrix constituents. CDM simplifies the problem of accounting for a large number of defects in a material by considering the homogenized effect of the defects as a change in constitutive properties of the material. However, recent investigations of textile composites have shown that CDM inaccurately predicts the direction of damage zone growth for some composite architectures which fail under shear load, tending to predict failure transverse to the fibers. This behavior is fundamentally attributable to the fact that shear failure in textiles results in large (tow-scale) matrix cracks, while CDM is intended to model distributed micro-cracks. It is shown that when CDM is used to model shear failure in anisotropic continua, material anisotropy tends to cause CDM to predict failure contrary to what is expected for these structures. An approach is presented that may allow CDM to better predict damage growth for shear failure in composites by encouraging the creation of an intial damage zone with sufficient directional bias to overcome the effect of material anisotropy.

The continuum damage mechanics (CDM) approach is widely used to model damage in polymer matrix composite materials which are represented using the homogenized properties of the fiber and matrix constituents. CDM simplifies the problem of accounting for a large number of defects in a material by considering the homogenized effect of the defects as a change in constitutive properties of the material. However, recent investigations of textile composites have shown that CDM inaccurately predicts the direction of damage zone growth for some composite architectures which fail under shear load, tending to predict failure transverse to the fibers. This behavior is fundamentally attributable to the fact that shear failure in textiles results in large (tow-scale) matrix cracks, while CDM is intended to model distributed micro-cracks. It is shown that when CDM is used to model shear failure in anisotropic continua, material anisotropy tends to cause CDM to predict failure contrary to what is expected for these structures. An approach is presented that may allow CDM to better predict damage growth for shear failure in composites by encouraging the creation of an intial damage zone with sufficient directional bias to overcome the effect of material anisotropy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1988.

This study presents a test and analysis method to determine both damage and healing characteristics of asphalt composites using the same test specimen. The test involves applying multiple stretches of load cycles, each separated by a period of zero load introduced at several different levels of reduced stiffness. The analytical procedure involves (1) using modified correspondence principles to transform the time-dependent physical quantities (stress, strain and energy density) into time-independent pseudo-elastic quantities, and then (2) using viscoelastic continuum damage mechanics to quantify damage and healing properties of the material based on the transformed quantities. The results obtained using two different asphalt mortars subjected to uniaxial and shear load cycles confirmed the findings from the previous researchers that the characteristic pseudo stiffness versus damage relationship for a given material is independent of testing conditions. More importantly, this study demonstrated that the aforementioned relationship was also independent of the rest periods introduced intermittently during the cyclic tests. Results also show that healing defined in terms of the change in the internal state variable for damage represents the true healing potential of a material. Furthermore, healing properties obtained using the proposed test method (a) agreed with the properties obtained using a more rigorous protocol with multiple test specimens, and (b) were independent of the loading conditions used to induce fatigue damage. These observations strongly suggest that the proposed method can be used to predict damage and healing properties for any arbitrary loading condition from properties determined using the proposed protocol. / text