Muscle strength capabilities are a determinant in the ability to successfully accomplish everyday tasks. As such, the quantification of this aspect of human performance is of interest in many settings. Currently, the validity of muscle strength test results is reliant on the notion that during testing, the participant exerted an effort that is sincere, and that consisted of maximal voluntary contractions. Therefore, the ability to differentiate between maximal and non maximal muscular exertions is of importance. The purpose of this dissertation was to develop and validate probability-based decision rules for differentiating between maximal and non-maximal voluntary exertions of the knee and shoulder joint musculature during isokinetic dynamometry-based testing. For development of the decision rules, healthy participants performed a series of maximal and non-maximal exertions at different testing velocities through a prescribed range of motion. Two different theory-based approaches were subsequently used for decision rule development: the first approach was based on expected better consistency in strength waveform shapes and relative magnitudes during performance of maximal efforts in comparison to non-maximal efforts. The second approach was based on the known force-velocity dependency in skeletal muscles. In terms of discriminatory performance, several of the decision rules pertaining to the knee joint markedly improve upon those previously reported. In addition, a separate investigation demonstrated that the decision rules offer excellent discriminatory performance when applied to test results of participants that have undergone surgical reconstruction of their anterior cruciate ligament. As such, clinicians and researchers may be able to ascertain voluntary maximal effort production during isokinetic testing of the knee joint musculature with a high degree of confidence, and thus be able to rely on such scores for decision-making purposes With regards to the shoulder musculature decision rules, several methodological issues related to test positioning and signal processing need to be addressed prior to consideration of their use in the clinical domain. / Thesis (Ph.D, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-06-19 01:12:53.454

L'optimisation du rendement des turboréacteurs impose de limiter les fuites inter-étages et de réduire les jeux de fonctionnement entre le rotor et le stator. Cependant, l'adoption de jeux réduit conduit à des contacts rotor/stator qui peuvent avoir des conséquences désastreuses. Afin de prévenir les effets destructeurs de ces interactions, des revêtements "abradables" sont déposés sur le stator. La compréhension et la modélisation de ces interactions sont primordiales pour permettre la conception de nouveaux moteurs plus efficients et plus surs. Toutefois, la modélisation précise de ces phénomènes réclame des données expérimentales difficiles à obtenir du fait de la complexité de l'interaction, des matériaux mis en jeu et de leurs conditions extrêmes d'utilisation (500 m/s et 300 °C). L'objectif de ces travaux est donc de fournir de nouvelles données expérimentales relatives aux efforts générés lors d'un contact aube/abradable. Une nouvelle technique expérimentale a donc été développée. Elle permet de générer une interaction à très grande vitesse entre un outil représentant l'aube et une éprouvette de matériau abradable et de mesurer les efforts d'interaction. Du fait des très hautes vitesses d'interaction, le dispositif de mesure d'effort est associé à une méthode de correction des signaux. Ce protocole expérimental est appliqué à la caractérisation d'un matériau abradable Metco M601, employé à l'étage basse pression du compresseur dans les turboréacteurs d'avions civils. L'influence sur les efforts d'interaction de la vitesse tangentielle, la profondeur d'incursion ainsi que des caractéristiques géométriques de l'extrémité de l'aube est étudiée / Increasing efficiency of aircraft engines require optimization of the clearance between the rotor and the stator. However, the important thermo-mechanical solicitations undergone by the engines lead to unavoidable high speed interactions between the moving parts and the casing. To achieve reduced clearance without endangering the blading, abradable seals are deposited inside the casing. This coating is designed to wear out in case of contact with the blade tip. Characterization and understanding of the different phenomena which take place during interactions are essential to prevent premature failure and to design safer aircraft engines but accurate modeling of these phenomena requires experimental data which are difficult to obtain because of the extreme conditions in which contacts occur (500 m/s, 300 °C) and of the complexity of the involved materials. The purpose of this work is to provide new experimental data relating to the forces generated during blade-casing contacts. Thus, a new experimental technique has been developed in order to generate high speed interactions between a tool impersonating a blade tip and a sample of abradable material and to measure the interaction forces. Because of the high interaction velocities reached up, a signal correction method has been implemented. Finally, this new experimental technique has been applied on the characterization of the abradable material Metco M601 used in low-pressure compressor of commercial aircraft engines. The influence on the interaction forces of the blade velocity, the incursion depth and the mechanical and geometrical characteristics of the blade tip has been studied

The fashion industry is a recurring topic in the media, especially regarding the responsibility the fashion companies should take, which has created skepticism from stakeholders. This skepticism is based on that the stakeholders do not know what the companies do concerning corporate social responsibility and the companies communicate CSR with the hope of creating legitimacy on the market. How apparel and footwear communicate their CSR efforts and their performances in self-assessed tools compared to their actual efforts have not been researched before, hence the purpose of this thesis. The purpose of this research is to map and analyze how apparel and footwear companies communicate CSR efforts in comparison to their claimed CSR performance. This in order to reach a better understanding of how apparel and footwear companies communicate their CSR efforts how consistent they are with their self-assessed performance they communicate to their stakeholders. Content analyses have been conducted on the sample, which contained 59 companies in the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). First, the content analysis has been performed on communication channels used by the sample when communicating CSR and the claimed CSR performances been collected from the Higg Index. The sustainability efforts in comparison to the performances have been analyzed based on a discourse analysis on five of the chattiest companies in SAC, which was performed after the content analysis in order to create a mixed method approach. This study has presented how frequently apparel and footwear companies communicate their CSR efforts and performances. It has also shown what channels primarily used when communicating CSR and how they choose to prioritize their performances. Additionally, the result and analysis in this study have shown that the most talkative companies in SAC, namely H&M, Inditex, Patagonia, PVH and Salomon, communicate quality in their available sustainability information. The way they all incorporate CSR in their business model is also a way of showing dedication and perhaps even quality in their sustainability efforts and claimed performances.

Abstract Introduction: Swedish soldiers expose themselves to significant risks in international efforts, despite the risks soldiers are still motivated to participate in operations for Försvarsmakten (FM). Most often, expert assessments of risks have been formed before a specific effort that excludes the soldiers 'subjective perception of the threats and risks that may arise, this can mean that soldiers risk getting inadequate information about future risks and that training prior to intervention lacks important and central parts of the soldiers' risk assessment. Aim: The study aims to investigate risk understanding and risk perception by interviewing Swedish soldiers who have been in place in Afghanistan. Method: The study uses a case study based on the implementation of qualitative interviews. Results: When collecting data and during the analysis process, three main themes were identified with the following subcategories. Conclusion: The respondents' experience of the international effort highlights that their risk perception does not correlate with the risk understanding they had with them from home. The assignment changed the respondents' subjective risk understanding and risk perception.

This study examined sexual orientation change efforts, identity conflict, and psychosocial health in a sample of 1,612 same-sex attracted Mormons. A minimum of 66% of participants reported engaging in sexual orientation change efforts, usually through multiple methods, and across more than 10 years (on average). Religious change efforts such as personal righteousness (e.g., prayer, fasting, scripture study, improved relationship with Jesus Christ) and counseling with church leaders (e.g., bishops), along with individual methods (e.g., introspection, private study, mental suppression) were found to be far more prevalent and significantly more damaging than therapist- (e.g., psychotherapy, psychiatry) or group-led change efforts. Overall, 0% of those attempting change reported an elimination of same-sex attraction, and less than 4% reported any change in sexual orientation. Conversely, the majority of participants reported these efforts to be either ineffective or damaging. Regarding the navigation of sexual and religious identity conflict, the vast majority of participants were found to have either rejected their religious identity (53%) or compartmentalized their religious and sexual identities (37%), with significantly fewer reporting the rejection of their same-sex sexual identity (6%) or the successful integration of the two identities (4%). Overall, the (a) acceptance of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender identity and (b) “coming out” to family, friends, work, and religious associates correlated positively with quality of life and self-esteem, and negatively with internalized homophobia, identity confusion, depression, and sexual identity distress. Regarding various religion-based approaches to same-sex attraction, the following were generally positively associated with psychosocial health (e.g., quality of life, selfesteem) and negatively correlated with psychosocial harm (e.g., internalized homophobia, sexual identity distress, depression): (a) embracing biological (vs. developmental) views on the causes of same-sex sexuality, (b) decreased LDS Church participation, (c) eschewing celibacy, and (d) pursuing committed, legal same-sex relationships. Heterosexual marriages for same-sex attracted participants were estimated to have a 69% divorce rate, with very low average quality of life ratings for those remaining in the marriages.

<p>The aim of this study was to increase our knowledge about how the “Conversational-contact with the social services” is experienced by the parents who attend it. The research was based on a qualitative method consisting of four individual interviews.</p><p>Main issues of the study:</p><p>• The parents experience of the content of the meetings with the social workers</p><p>• Do the parents experience that the conversational-contact has contributed to some changes in their lives?</p><p>Results indicated that all parents were positiv to the conversational-contact. Afterwards they felt more secure and stable both as persons and in their role as parents. The parents experienced a change in both thoughts and how to handle troublesome situations in life. The social workers knowledge about family relations and their promotive professional approach towards the parents, was recognized as contributing to these changes. In general results agree with earlier research, except from one distinction which indicates that the social workers knowledge about the family dynamics is just as important as their approach. The interviews and the interpretation of the interviews were framed by a cognitive- and conversational perspective.</p>

Ce travail porte sur l'industrialisation de procédé et en particulier du tréflage ou fraisage vertical. Il s'inscrit dans le cadre de la maîtrise d'opération d'usinage en vue de définir les limites et performances du procédé et des processus associés. Nous positionnons le tréflage en comparaison aux opérations de fraisage existantes puis, présentons brièvement ses domaines d'applications et les technologies associées. La démarche d'industrialisation de procédé a consisté à définir les paramètres pilotant l'opération de tréflage. Nous avons défini les grandeurs cinématiques de l'opération de tréflage en fonction de la trajectoire spécifique de cette opération. Ensuite à partir des mouvements des parties génératrices, nous avons défini les paramètres caractérisant la géométrie de coupe. Enfin, nous avons proposé une modélisation des efforts de coupe. Notre modélisation est fondée sur l'approche de la définition mécanistique des efforts. A l'issu, nous avons validé par expérimentation la modélisation des efforts de coupe en particulier dans les matériaux destinés à la fabrication d'outillage. Ce modèle permet la prédiction des efforts de manière rapide et simple. Par ailleurs, nous avons proposé des stratégies de tréflage permettant l'emploi de cette opération en définissant les critères pertinents et limitatifs comme le débit de copeau et la qualité des surfaces obtenues. Ensuite, nous avons comparé le tréflage au fraisage classique dans le cadre de la réalisation d'entité poche profonde (cavité), domaine réservé à cette opération. Au final, l'industrialisation du procédé de tréflage, ainsi décrite, permet la maîtrise de cette opération en tenant compte de contraintes technologiques (conditions opératoires, stratégie d'usinage...). Elle est complémentaire aux approches comme le COM ou encore Couple Outil Arête par exemple. Plus généralement, cette démarche conduit à une meilleure prise en compte du domaine d'emploi du tréflage et peut être généralisable pour de nouvelles technologies en usinage. De plus, la modélisation mécanistique des efforts, les choix des conditions opératoires ainsi que les stratégies d'usinage peuvent conduire à l'optimisation de l'opération de tréflage.

Face aux problèmes vibratoires en usinage, deux approches ont été développées. L'une consiste à prédire les vibrations grâce à des modélisations de plus en plus élaborées des opérations d'usinage. La deuxième est une approche plus expérimentale, d'instrumentation des machines dans le but de surveiller et de comprendre le comportement de l'outil pendant l'usinage. Dans le cadre de cette deuxième approche, de nombreuses technologies de capteurs sont utilisées. Le but de ces travaux est d'étudier le comportement de l'outil grâce à des capteurs de déplacement sans contact qui mesurent directement les vibrations de l'outil pendant l'opération d'usinage. Ces capteurs d'abords utilisés en fraisage puis en tournage permettent l'étude des différents aspects de l'interaction entre l'outil et la pièce. Le premier point étudié est l'investigation du phénomène de la coupe, avec la possibilité de tracer en trois dimensions ou dans le plan la trajectoire de l'outil. Le deuxième point est l'étude de la stabilité ou de l'instabilité de l'usinage. Par la suite, les mesures de déplacement sont utilisées pour déterminer les efforts de coupe, que ce soit en fraisage ou en tournage. Les efforts appliqués sur l'outil vont provoquer sa déformation qui sera mesurée par les capteurs sans contact. Dans le cas du fraisage, une méthode de calcul spécifique à partir de la Fonction de Réponse en Fréquence (FRF) de l'outil a été mise en œuvre pour calculer ces efforts de coupe pour des vitesses de rotation importantes. Le dernier aspect traité est la reconstruction de l'état de surface de la pièce usinée. Les déplacements mesurés de l'outil sont superposés à la trajectoire théorique de l'outil pour déterminer l'aspect et le profil de la surface réellement usinée lors de l'opération.

The aim of this study was to increase our knowledge about how the “Conversational-contact with the social services” is experienced by the parents who attend it. The research was based on a qualitative method consisting of four individual interviews. Main issues of the study: • The parents experience of the content of the meetings with the social workers • Do the parents experience that the conversational-contact has contributed to some changes in their lives? Results indicated that all parents were positiv to the conversational-contact. Afterwards they felt more secure and stable both as persons and in their role as parents. The parents experienced a change in both thoughts and how to handle troublesome situations in life. The social workers knowledge about family relations and their promotive professional approach towards the parents, was recognized as contributing to these changes. In general results agree with earlier research, except from one distinction which indicates that the social workers knowledge about the family dynamics is just as important as their approach. The interviews and the interpretation of the interviews were framed by a cognitive- and conversational perspective.

The aim of this study was to analyze society's efforts for girls who are victims of honorrelatedviolence and oppression. More specifically its aim was to examine what efforts thesociety can offer girls who are exposed to honor-related violence and oppression, and howsocial services and shelters cooperate on issues of honor. We have chosen to focus on girlswho are victims of honor-related violence, but we are aware that even boys and men face thisproblem. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach through interviews. Tocomplete the study we have conducted eight interviews throughout Sweden. We haveinterviewed staff at three different social services and four different shelters. This was toexamine how society operates with honor-related problems but also to investigate how thedifferent services and activities interact. The key findings that emerged from our study arethat girls from honor cultures find themselves in a dilemma when they decide to seek helpbecause of violence and oppression. On one hand, they are unable to live by familyconstraints while on the other hand they do not get the possibility of total freedom if they fleethe home. Society's efforts today include protection, support and guidance for these girls, butaccording to our informants, this is not enough. They feel that what is missing is an effort tohelp the girls after their stay at shelters because they often become isolated when they begin anew life, in a new city, all alone.