Lateral bracing systems consisting of cross frames and their connections play a significant role in the elastic buckling strength of steel girder bridges. By providing lateral and torsional stability, they prevent lateral torsional buckling of the girder during bridge construction prior to the concrete bridge deck curing. To perform this function, the bracing system must possess adequate strength and stiffness. And since each component of the bracing system acts in series, the overall stiffness of the system is less than the least stiff component. In skewed bridges, cross frames at the ends of the girders are installed parallel to the bridge skew angle, and their connection to the girder requires that the cross frames be at an angle that prohibits welding a stiffener from the cross frame directly to the girder web. To make this connection, many states use a bent plate to span the angle between the web stiffener and cross frame. While this bent plate connection is now being widely used, it has never been rationally designed to account for its strength or stiffness in the bracing system. Results from field studies show that the bent plate connection may be limiting the cross frame stiffness thereby hampering its ability to provide stability to the girder during construction. The result is significant girder end rotations. The purpose of this research is to classify the impact of the bent plate connection on the end cross frame stiffness in skewed straight steel girder bridges and propose methods to improve the end cross frame’s structural efficiency. This research uses laboratory testing, finite element modeling, and parametric studies to recommend design guidance and construction practices related to the end cross frames of skewed steel girder bridges. In addition to recommending methods to stiffen the existing bent plate connection, an alternative pipe stiffener connection is evaluated. The pipe stiffener not only offers the possibility of a stiffer connection, but can also provide warping restraint to the end of the girder which may significantly increase the girder elastic buckling capacity. / text

Sexual minority youth (i.e., youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or who report same-sex attractions) disproportionally experience negative mental health and academic outcomes. Yet, few studies have examined positive youth development for this population. The goal of these three manuscripts is to add new information about positive developmental contexts for sexual minority youth in order to generate ideas for intervention and prevention. More specifically, the focus of these three manuscripts is on school-based extracurricular activity involvement of sexual minority youth.Manuscript one presents results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health that compare sexual minority and heterosexual youth involvement in school-based extracurricular activities. Results documented that sexual minority youth are involved in school-based extracurricular activities at the same frequency as their heterosexual peers. For all youth, there was a small, but positive association between extracurricular activity involvement and school connectedness. School connectedness was associated with better mental health (i.e., higher self-esteem and lower depression), and these associations were stronger for sexual minority youth.Manuscript two presents results from the Preventing School Harassment Study that examine lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth involvement in Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs). GSAs are extracurricular clubs that are tailored to the needs of LGBQ youth. This study examined the concurrent associations among GSA presence, GSA membership, and participation in GSA-related social justice activities, with victimization based on sexual orientation and school-based and civic outcomes. GSA presence and participation in GSA-related social justice activities were positively associated with school belongingness and grade-point average (GPA), and GSA membership was associated with greater school belongingness. Results suggested, however, that the positive benefits of GSA presence and social justice involvement dissipate at high levels of school victimization.Manuscript three extends findings from manuscript two by examining the associations among GSA presence, GSA membership, perceived GSA effectiveness, and young adult well-being. The study utilized the Family Acceptance Project and found that the presence of a GSA, membership in a GSA, and GSA effectiveness differentially predicted LGBT young adult well-being. In some cases, these three facets of GSAs buffered the negative effect of LGBT-specific school victimization.

In 1994 there was an earthquake occurred in Northridge, California which caused damage in structures built with Steel Moment Frames (SMF) due to the brittle fractures in the beam and column connections. It has led to the major modifications and improvements in the connection detailing prior to the earthquake occurred in the Northbridge. These changes came up with better materials for welding and introduced the use of cover plate and Reduced Beam Section (RBS). RBS connections are the most widely used connection today and it allows the SMF systems to yield extensively and deform plastically by avoiding brittle fracturing at connections. The most important factors that affect the response along with the design of Steel Moment Frames (SMF) and Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connections are connection strength, stiffness, connection type, use of deep columns and phenomena associated with its instability, the strength of ductility of the column panel zone-beam instability.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:21:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Walisson Pereira Fernandes.pdf: 3336996 bytes, checksum: 5e0932a05bfd9f262378354964e1b59b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-09 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Straight edge is the word used to describe persons who, in their everyday lives, are allied to the punk to not use substances considered addictive as alcohol, tobacco and psychoactive. Its beginnings derive from the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States. However, the genealogical analysis of their practices through the centuries, going back to abstainers movements of the United States and England between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and its ballast in the formation of moral, instilling in policy that determine behavior. With the emergence of punk in the 1970s as criticism of moralism, society and the state, the straight edge emerges in this context bringing a punk hygiene and, over the years, has become more violent and reductionist, emancipating itself from protoform and pouring a new ways to build and to solidify. The straight edge approached the environmental movements, looking to list anarchist aspects in their practice, but only reiterated other political forms that are linked more to progressivism that, in fact, to anarchism. In this purpose, several straight edgers who sought anarchism as a way of life, broke with the straight edge to proceed their libertarian path, and kept at the same time, the practical abstainers without the use of the nomenclature that identified previously. In Brazil, similar to what happened in the United States and Europe, the intensification of the straight edge scene brought also the anarchist cells of eruption for the construction of a group of vegan orientation appropriating an anarchist nomenclature for its consolidation among young libertarians causing not only the bedlam among their peers, but catches of anarchism and punk / Straight edge é a palavra utilizada para descrever os sujeitos que, em suas vidas cotidianas, aliam-se ao punk de modo a não utilizarem substâncias consideradas viciantes, como álcool, tabaco e psicoativos. Seus começos derivam do final da década de 1970 e começo da década de 1980 nos Estados Unidos. No entanto, a análise genealógica de suas práticas atravessa os séculos, remontando aos movimentos abstêmios dos Estados Unidos e da Inglaterra entre os séculos XIX e XX e seu lastro na formação da moral, infundindo na elaboração de políticas que determinariam condutas. Com o surgimento do punk na década de 1970 como crítica aos moralismos, à sociedade e ao Estado, o straight edge emerge neste contexto trazendo uma higienização do punk e, com o passar dos anos, se tornou mais violento e reducionista, desvinculando-se de sua protoforma e vertendo novos meios para se construir e se solidificar. O straight edge aproximou-se dos movimentos ambientalistas, procurando elencar aspectos anarquistas em sua prática, mas reiterou apenas outras formas políticas que vinculam-se mais a progressismos que, de fato, aos anarquismos. Neste intento, vários straight edgers que procuraram os anarquismos como forma de vida, romperam com o straight edge para dar prosseguimento a sua trajetória libertária, e mantiveram, ao mesmo tempo, as práticas abstêmias sem o uso da nomenclatura que os identificava anteriormente. No Brasil, semelhantemente ao ocorrido nos Estados Unidos e na Europa, a intensificação da cena straight edge trouxe, ainda, o irrompimento de células anarquistas para a construção de um grupo de orientação vegana apropriando-se de uma nomenclatura anarquista para sua consolidação entre jovens libertários, causando não apenas a balbúrdia entre seus pares, mas capturas dos anarquismos e do punk

Este trabalho busca, num primeiro momento, caracterizar a problemática aprendizagem do número real na Escola Básica, aplicando questionários-sondagem, analisando livros didáticos e comparando-os com os Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais. Num segundo momento desenvolvemos um efetivo estudo de Matemática: as maneiras mais comuns de se construir números reais e a equivalência entre todas elas. Mostramos também como, a partir de cada uma destas abordagens, chega-se à representação decimal de um número real positivo. Finalizamos com uma proposta pedagógica para o Ensino Fundamental, e uma experiência didática, numa 8ª série, de construção de um número real via medição exata de segmentos de reta. / The first part of this work is an attempt to characterize the problem of learning the concept of real number in Elementary School, making use of questionnaires and analyzing school books as well as the National Parameters for the teaching of Mathematics. The second part deals with the Mathematics involved in the construction of the real numbers, namely, different ways of constructing this set and also the equivalence between all those constructions. We also show how each one of those constructions leads to the decimal representation of a positive real number. The last part of this work consists of a pedagogic proposal for the construction of the real number making use of the (exact) measure of a line segment and the description and conclusions of its implementation in an 8th year of Elementary School.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:55:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Walisson Pereira Fernandes.pdf: 3336996 bytes, checksum: 5e0932a05bfd9f262378354964e1b59b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-09 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Straight edge is the word used to describe persons who, in their everyday lives, are allied to the punk to not use substances considered addictive as alcohol, tobacco and psychoactive. Its beginnings derive from the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States. However, the genealogical analysis of their practices through the centuries, going back to abstainers movements of the United States and England between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and its ballast in the formation of moral, instilling in policy that determine behavior. With the emergence of punk in the 1970s as criticism of moralism, society and the state, the straight edge emerges in this context bringing a punk hygiene and, over the years, has become more violent and reductionist, emancipating itself from protoform and pouring a new ways to build and to solidify. The straight edge approached the environmental movements, looking to list anarchist aspects in their practice, but only reiterated other political forms that are linked more to progressivism that, in fact, to anarchism. In this purpose, several straight edgers who sought anarchism as a way of life, broke with the straight edge to proceed their libertarian path, and kept at the same time, the practical abstainers without the use of the nomenclature that identified previously. In Brazil, similar to what happened in the United States and Europe, the intensification of the straight edge scene brought also the anarchist cells of eruption for the construction of a group of vegan orientation appropriating an anarchist nomenclature for its consolidation among young libertarians causing not only the bedlam among their peers, but catches of anarchism and punk / Straight edge é a palavra utilizada para descrever os sujeitos que, em suas vidas cotidianas, aliam-se ao punk de modo a não utilizarem substâncias consideradas viciantes, como álcool, tabaco e psicoativos. Seus começos derivam do final da década de 1970 e começo da década de 1980 nos Estados Unidos. No entanto, a análise genealógica de suas práticas atravessa os séculos, remontando aos movimentos abstêmios dos Estados Unidos e da Inglaterra entre os séculos XIX e XX e seu lastro na formação da moral, infundindo na elaboração de políticas que determinariam condutas. Com o surgimento do punk na década de 1970 como crítica aos moralismos, à sociedade e ao Estado, o straight edge emerge neste contexto trazendo uma higienização do punk e, com o passar dos anos, se tornou mais violento e reducionista, desvinculando-se de sua protoforma e vertendo novos meios para se construir e se solidificar. O straight edge aproximou-se dos movimentos ambientalistas, procurando elencar aspectos anarquistas em sua prática, mas reiterou apenas outras formas políticas que vinculam-se mais a progressismos que, de fato, aos anarquismos. Neste intento, vários straight edgers que procuraram os anarquismos como forma de vida, romperam com o straight edge para dar prosseguimento a sua trajetória libertária, e mantiveram, ao mesmo tempo, as práticas abstêmias sem o uso da nomenclatura que os identificava anteriormente. No Brasil, semelhantemente ao ocorrido nos Estados Unidos e na Europa, a intensificação da cena straight edge trouxe, ainda, o irrompimento de células anarquistas para a construção de um grupo de orientação vegana apropriando-se de uma nomenclatura anarquista para sua consolidação entre jovens libertários, causando não apenas a balbúrdia entre seus pares, mas capturas dos anarquismos e do punk

In this qualitative study, gay and straight men's experiences in male friendships were examined in order to explore differences and similarities between the participants' construction of masculinities. A social constructionist approach to understanding human experience was utilised, through an examination of in-depth interviews with 21 men (10 straight, 11 gay). The data was interpreted following a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, utilising the lens of Gestalt therapy theory, resulting in a series of essence statements, which expressed the underlying structures of the participants' experiences of masculinity. These findings revealed constructions of masculinities which were explored in relation to the participants' close male friendships and support seeking processes. A major finding was the importance of shame as a regulating variable in the gay and straight participants' construction of their masculinity. Shame or avoidance of shame appeared to be linked to the influence of a dominant heterosexual masculine ideology. It was revealed that whilst dominant masculine ideologies were experienced as powerful 'background' beliefs, the participants were able to construct contemporaneous masculinities that were contextual and field sensitive. Thus the concept of masculinities appears inherently fluid, and changeable. Furthermore, the results indicated different definitions of friendship which appeared to be related to different constructions of masculinity. The gay participants' friendships were described in interpersonal terms compared with the straight participants' friendships which appeared more focussed on external activities. The experience of shame, or fear of the potential for shame emerged as important variables that influenced intimacy, closeness and distance in gay and straight participants' friendships and their ability to seek and receive emotional social support. The finding that men appear to seek help from male friends in ways that are consistent with their constructions of masculinity has important implications for fostering supportive interactions between men. Furthermore, an understanding of men's experiences regarding what constitutes a supportive interaction and defines intimacy appears important as these views will most likely guide their decision making processes about from whom and how they might seek support. Finally, the possibilities for constructing new masculinities are explored as men's friendships and support behaviour are both influenced by, and in turn influence, the construction of masculinities.

For any animator either working in stop-motion or 3D-animation the knowledge of the first animation techniques are most important. For it is based on these principles that animation today can create such vibrant characters. With the extreme development 3D-animation has undergone the last twenty years it is easy to lose track of the old ways. But with this thesis a hope to show that it is these old ways that will take animation to its next stage. My aim with this thesis is to find out if it is possible to identify the characteristic features of stop-motion and apply these onto 3D-animation with purpose to create a more expressive style of animation. To be able to do this the method of this thesis is divided in two parts: the production and the perception. First the two work methods straight ahead and pose to pose are analyzed and the biggest differences are then identified. With this information two basic walk cycle animations are created, one with the work method of straight ahead and the other with pose to pose. These animations are kept as simple as possible so that all focus can be directed at the feel of the movement. In the perception part a survey is done where five participants observes the two animations and with a questionnaire answer how they perceive the differences. They answer which of the two they prefer, is most interesting and pleasant. According to the participants, they feel a difference and the majority prefer the animation done with the work method of stop-motion. They feel that it shows more personality and feel more natural. However the result is relatively even. My conclusion is that to achieve an animation that appeals to a larger group, a combination of the two work methods is optimal.

Traditionally, men are expected to arrange their lifestyle in a way that allows them to obtain the “package deal” of a career, becoming a husband, and fatherhood. This study quantitatively studies the effects of partnering on gay and straight men as mediated through the bar scene, aiming to explore how bar participation alters their social networks and their perceptions of social expectations. The ultimate goal is to determine if gay and straight men report differing social expectations such as becoming a husband and father. This investigation explores their beliefs on commitment, monogamy, and parenthood and seeks to determine whether these beliefs differ due to sexuality. Collecting data about how the men participate in the bar scene and if their participation differs after partnering will help reveal differences in social network composition, social expectations, and commitment. The data were collected from people 18 and older through a web-based survey linked directly to particular bars and other community sites within one urban region of Kentucky. Bar participation between gay men and straight men, particularly when partnered, did not differ significantly, suggesting similarities in social network composition. Social expectations did not vary much between gay and single men, but the commitment each group reported was conceptually different. Ultimately, the study both supported and opposed previous literature concerning traditional gendered social expectation

Closing the control loop of a manipulator robot with vision feedback is widelyknown. It concerns nowadays all areas of robotics. Such a return can make a comparison between a desired state and current state, using visual measurements. The main objective of this doctoral thesis is to design several types of kinematic control laws for stereo visual servoing. It strongly involves the formalism of the task function which is a well-known and useful mathematical tool to express the visual error as a function of state vectors.We have investigated the decoupling between the rotational and translational velocities control laws together with the epipolar constraint with a stereo visual feedback.That is why, the visual measurements and features used in this thesis are the 3Dstraight lines.The interests of this type of visual features rely on the robustness against the noise, and the possibility to represent straight lines or other features like points or planes pairs by the Plücker coordinates, as a 3D straight line can be represented as well by two points or the intersection of two planes. This makes all the control laws designed in this thesis valid for another visual features like points