This doctoral thesis presents the results of the development of two software programs for the design of progressive distributors and progressive lubrication systems. One of these programs implements a genetic algorithm and the other, which is used to design progressive lubrication systems, implements a parallel genetic algorithm of the island model. The program for the design of progressive distributors was implemented in Java using the NetBeans development environment and the other program was created in Matlab. The thesis further focuses on analytical and computational solutions of the flow of compressible greases seen as viscoplastic fluids. Equations for the numerical solution of the non-steady flow of compressible viscoplastic Bingham fluids were derived and solved by the Lax-Wendroff method in Matlab. As several constants had to be set in the equations, experiments were conducted with the ecological grease Plantogel 2S in the laboratory of the Kaplan Department of Hydraulic Machines, mainly to determine the sound velocity in this grease. The sound velocity was calculated based on the experimental results by applying Fourier transformation and the transition matrix method. In addition to this, the rheological measurements of greases were used. As seen from the results, the ecological greases are actually thixotropic viscoplastic fluids with a significant elastic element. Since a Newton fluid was assumed when calculating the sound velocity, the possibilities of using the transition matrix method for viscoplastic fluids were then considered. No analytical solution of the flow of viscoplastic fluids in a frequency spectrum has been published so far. Because it emerged that greases had a significant elastic stress factor, the problem of the non-steady flow of elastic-viscoplastic fluids was solved numerically between two infinite parallel plates by applying the finite difference method (FDM). The computation was done in Matlab. This doctoral thesis makes a contribution to solving problems related to the design of progressive distributors and progressive lubrication systems used to distribute compressible greases. Considering the complex approach to this field and the achieved results, the thesis also represents a significant contribution to design work.

What explains the inconsistency of female empowerment in South America, despite high levels of institutional inclusion? Generally, the social sciences tend to lean on the tenets of liberal feminism in order to measure the development of gender-inclusive policy changes; however, their findings indicate that higher levels of institutional inclusion does not necessarily translate into the empowerment of women as a group. Further, within political science, there is little research addressing the relationship between feminist movements and the feminist opinion of individuals within a state. I argue that strong feminist social movements provide a context in which feminist opinion is magnified, and where individuals will be more likely to support progressive policy changes. Using questions from the World Values Survey, I operationalize progressive policies as the Justifiability of Abortion. My primary independent variables are the presence feminist movements and the presence of feminist opinion, which is measured by support for female sexual freedom. After using a multilevel mixed-effects linear regression, I find support for my hypotheses, indicating that feminist opinion is magnified by the presence of feminist movements.

Reinforcer assessments have largely relied on the use of progressive ratio (PR) schedules to identify stimuli that function as reinforcers. PR schedules evaluate the reinforcing efficacy of a stimulus by measuring the number of responses produced in order to access a stimulus as the number of required responses increases. The current evaluation extends the literature on reinforcer assessments by measuring responding under a progressive force (PF) schedule, in addition to progressive ratio requirements. We compared responding under PR and PF schedules with two children with autism using a multielement design embedded within a reversal experimental design. Results were mixed and implications for further development of reinforcer assessment methods (particularly PF schedules) are discussed.

Die Ausstellung und die Broschüre mit dem Titel „arbeiten. sprechen. spielen. feiern.“ laden dazu ein, anhand fotografischer Quellen einen kritischen Blick auf die Praxis der Reformpädagogik im 20. Jahrhundert zu werfen und neue Impulse für die eigene Beschäftigung mit diesen Ansätzen aufzunehmen. Sie richtet sich insbesondere an Studierende des Lehramtes, an angehende und aktive Lehrer, an Wissenschaftler in den Bereichen Historische Bildungsforschung, Erziehungswissenschaft und Schulpädagogik sowie an Interessierte aus Berufen der pädagogischen Praxis. Darüber hinaus ist die Ausstellung so konzipiert, dass sie für universitäre Lehrveranstaltungen, z. B. für Einführungen in das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten, genutzt werden kann. Sie möchte dementsprechend das Vorhaben unterstützen, Kenntnisse der Fotoanalyse zu vermitteln, um somit grundlegende Kompetenzen im wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten mit der Quelle Foto aufzubauen. / The exhibition and the brochure with the title “working. speaking. playing. celebrating.” encourages taking a critical look at the practice of the progressive educational movement in the 20th century and provides a new impetus for taking up practical experience with this pedagogical approach by oneself. It is especially aimed at students to become a teacher, future and regular teachers, scientists in the fields of Historical Educational Research, Education and School Pedagogy, as well as other interested educators in practice. Furthermore, the exhibition is designed in a way that it can be used for lectures at university, e.g. for the introduction of scientific work. Consequently, it supports the idea of conveying knowledge of photographic analysis to build up basic competences in the scientific work of photos used as sources.

This essay aims to investigate intermedial studies and to analyze the intermedial narrative that appears out of the cooperation between music, lyrics and song cover of the Swedish progressive djent metal band Vildhjarta. The narrative that appears out of the intermedial cooperation between the medias is then analyzed with literal studies and narratological concepts to put intermedial studies into a bigger context. This essay also explores different intertextual connections to other works of literature which shows is quite a lot. Since previous research about progressive metal and the band Vildhjarta is practically nonexistent research from the closely related genres of black metal and death metal have been applied to create a new base of previous research. The research in this essay concludes that Vildhjarta, in sometimes complex ways, use different medias to create and amplify the narrative and they also include a lot of different intertextual connections. / Den här uppsatsen undersöker det narrativ som uppstår i det intermediala samspelet mellan musik, låttext och låtomslag. Narrativet undersöks sedan med hjälp av litteraturvetenskapliga och narratologiska begrepp för att sätta in den intermediala analysen i ett större kontextualiserande perspektiv. I uppsatsen undersöks även intertextuella kopplingar och det framkommer flera referenser och kopplingar till andra litterära verk. Då forskningsläget kring genren men även bandet i princip är icke existerande har i stället forskning om black metal och death metal använts för att skapa ett användbart forskningsläge. I resultatet framkommer det att Vildhjarta på ett komplext vis använder olika medier för att skapa och förstärka narrativet men även att de olika låtarna innehåller mängder med intertextuella kopplingar.

The progressive metal style "djent" emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s with bands that modeled their use of extended range instruments and complex rhythmic cycles after that of Swedish metal band Meshuggah. The addition of a new vocabulary of melody and harmony by bands such as Periphery, Tesseract, and Animals as Leaders has come to define djent in a new way and provided fruitful ground for voice-leading and metrical analysis. In this dissertation, I approach analysis in two steps. The first step is the production of detailed transcriptions of four djent songs. The process of transcription has allowed for the development of Transcription Preference Rules, modeled after Lerdahl and Jackendoff's preference rule approach in their Generative Theory of Tonal Music. The Transcription Preference Rules account for the selection of key signatures, time signatures, and other features of the scores that may affect analysis. Second, using these scores, I examine the connection between the textual topic of change and the voice-leading and metrical structures in Periphery's "Insomnia" and Tesseract's "Of Matter." I show how this topic is reflected by techniques such as change melodic direction, multidimensional metrical dissonance, and auxiliary cadential events. Finally, I apply voice-leading and metrical analysis to Animals as Leaders's "Tempting Time" and Mute the Saint's "Sound of Scars" in order to show what these analytical techniques reveal about instrumental djent pieces. I show how shifts in meter in "Tempting Time" can be represented cyclically. I conclude by showing how the interaction of metal and North Indian Classical techniques produces a unique representation of Mute the Saint's topic of longing and frustration in "Sound of Scars."

Hyperpedagogy seeks to actualize social justice pedagogies and poststructuralist theorizing in digitally enhanced and online learning environments. Hyperpedagogy offers ways to incorporate transactional pedagogies into digital curricula so that learners throughout the United States' pluralistic culture can participate in e-learning. Much of the hyperbole promoting e-learning is founded on social-efficiency pedagogies (i.e. preparing tomorrow's workers for the information-based, new global economy) that tend to homogenize culturally pluralistic learners. The premium placed on a strict adherence to rigid learning systems inculcated within standards-based reform movements typically, moreover, discriminate against historically marginalized learners. Hyperpedagogy seeks to elucidate the closeting of privilege in e-learning so that learners of color, female learners, and homosexual learners can be better represented in the literature than is currently practiced. / Ph. D.

Composite materials are being widely used in light weight structural applications due to their high specific stiffness and strength properties. However, predicting their mechanical behaviour accurately is a difficult task because of the complicated nature of these heterogeneous materials. This behaviour is not easily modeled with most of existing macro mechanics based models. Designers compensate for the model unknowns in failure predictions by generating overly conservative designs with relatively simple ply stacking sequences, thereby mitigating many of the benefits promised by composites. The research presented in this dissertation was undertaken with the primary goal of providing efficient methodologies for use in the design of composite structures considering inherent material variability and model shortcomings. A micromechanics based methodology is proposed to simulate stiffness, strength, and fatigue behaviour of composites. The computational micromechanics framework is based on the properties of the constituents of composite materials: the fiber, matrix and fiber/matrix interface. This model helps the designer to understand in-depth the failure modes in these materials and design efficient structures utilizing arbitrary layups with a reduced requirement for supporting experimental testing. The only limiting factor in using a micromechanics model is the challenge in obtaining the constituent properties. The overall novelty of this dissertation is to calibrate these constituent properties by integrating the micromechanics approach with a Bayesian statistical model. The early research explored the probabilistic aspects of the constituent properties to calculate the stiffness characteristics of a unidirectional lamina. Then these stochastic stiffness properties were considered as an input to analyze the wing box of a wind turbine blade. Results of this study gave a gateway to map constituent uncertainties to the top-level structure. Next, a stochastic first ply failure load method was developed based on micromechanics and Bayesian inference. Finally, probabilistic SN curves of composite materials were calculated after fatigue model parameter calibration using Bayesian inference. Throughout this research, extensive experimental data sets from literature have been used to calibrate and evaluate the proposed models. The micromechanics based probabilistic framework formulated here is quite general, and applied on the specific application of a wind turbine blade. The procedure may be easily generalized to deal with other structural applications such as storage tanks, pressure vessels, civil structural cladding, unmanned air vehicles, automotive bodies, etc. which can be explored in future work. / Graduate / 0548 / enginer315@gmail.com

Thesis (DMed (Medicine. Internal Medicine))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Progressive Myoclonic Epilepsies (PME) are characterized by progressive neurological impairment with myoclonus, seizures and dementia. In contradistinction, Familial Adult Myoclonic Epilepsy (FAME) is characterized by a benign course with rare seizures and cortical tremor. Both conditions have neurophysiological features suggestive of a cortical origin for their myoclonus. This dissertation reports on a novel form of PME. Many of those who were affected had no or minimal progression of their illness, low seizure frequency and were cognitively intact, suggestive of non-progressive disorders linked to the FAME loci. The majority of patients had features of cortical myoclonus, with generalized spike and wave discharges on electroencephalography, enlarged evoked potentials, enhanced C reflexes, and evidence of cortical excitability with magnetic stimulation. However, there was evidence of cerebellar dysfunction both pathologically and on imaging. With regard to similar conditions, dentatorubral pallidoluysian atrophy and Unverricht-Lundborg syndrome were excluded by linkage analysis. Similarly, linkage was not present for either the FAME 1 or FAME 2 loci. This syndrome is both clinically and genetically novel, and has a nosology which is difficult to characterize, in which the condition appears to lie on the spectrum between FAME and PME. The dissociation between the pathological and radiological findings which suggest subcortical dysfunction, and the neurophysiological findings of cortical myoclonus is striking. Review of the literature associated with the neurophysiology of related conditions associated with PME and FAME suggests that: 1. The assumption that generalized forms of myoclonic disorders represent multifocal forms of focal cortical discharges is an oversimplification. 2. The dissociation between initial and later components of the evoked potential is less robust than is generally supposed, and that subcortical inputs may affect later components of the evoked potential. 3. In a high proportion of cases the latency from cortical spike discharge to myoclonic jerk obtained with jerk locked averaging is incompatible with a cortical origin for the spike discharge. 4. The proposal that myoclonus is a form of long latency reflex and that myoclonus represents a reflex arising from subclinical sensory input, is unproven. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Progressiewe Miokloniese Epilepsie (PME) word gekenmerk deur progressiewe neurologiese agteruitgang met mioklonus, konvulsies en demensie. Daarenteen word Familiële Volwasse Miokloniese Epilepsie (FAME) gekenmerk deur 'n benigne verloop met ongereelde konvulsies en kortikale tremor. Beide entiteite het neurofisiologiese kenmerke suggestief van 'n kortikale oorsprong vir die mioklonus. Hierdie manuskrip beskryf 'n nuwe vorm van PME. Baie van die aangetaste persone toon geen of min agteruitgang van die siekte oor tyd nie, met 'n lae frekwensie van konvulsies en is kognitief intak, wat suggestief is van 'n nie-progressiewe siekte gekoppel aan die FAME loci. Die oorgrote meerderheid van pasiente het kenmerke van kortikale mioklonus gehad, met algemene spits en boog ontladings op elektroensefalografie, hoë amplitude ontlokte potensiale, versterkte C-reflekse, en tekens van kortikale eksiteerbaarheid met magnetiese stimulasie. Met neurobeelding en patologie was daar egter bewyse van serebellêre disfunksie. Soortgelyke toestande, naamlik dentatorubro-pallidoluysiese atrofie en Unverricht-Lundborg sindroom is uitgeskakel deur middel van koppelingsanalise. Koppeling met die FAME1 of FAME2 loci kon ook nie aangetoon word nie. Die sindroom is beide klinies sowel as geneties nuut en het 'n nosologie wat moeilik gekaraktiseer kan word. Dit wil voorkom of die siekte op 'n spektrum lê tussen FAME en PME. Die dissosiasie tussen die patologiese en radiologiese bevindinge, wat suggestief is van subkortikale disfunksie, en die neurofisiologiese bevindinge van kortikale mioklonus is opmerklik. ’n Oorsig van die literatuur in verband met die neurofisiologie van toestande geassosieer met PME en FAME suggesteer die volgende: 1. Die aanname dat algemene vorme van miokloniese toestande multifokale vorme van fokale kortikale ontladings verteenwoordig, is ’n oorvereenvoudiging. 2. Die dissosiasie tussen inisiële en latere komponente van die ontlokte potensiaal is minder robuust as wat algemeen aanvaar word, en subkortikale invoer mag latere komponente van die ontlokte potensiaal beïnvloed. 3. In ’n groot proporsie van gevalle is die latensie van kortikale spits ontlading tot miokloniese ruk, verkry deur “jerk locked averaging”, nie verenigbaar met met ’n kortikale oorsprong vir die spits ontlading nie. 4. Geen bewyse bestaan vir die teorie dat mioklonus ’n vorm van ’n lang latensie refleks is en dat mioklonus ’n refleks is wat ontstaan uit subkliniese sensoriese invoer nie.

Test bias is a current focus of concern in both education and psychology. No where are the polemics of test bias stronger than in the area of ethnic/racial group differences on measures of intellectual functioning. Th problem of test bias is exacerbated when verbal intelligence tests are administered to students in a language in which they have limited facility and/or cultural reference. This problem is most evident in the United States with Hispanics. This study was designed to evaluate the Raven's Progressive Matrices (RPM) as a measure of non-biased assessment for Mexican-Americans. The RPM was selected because it is a non-verbal intelligence measure. The subjects were 230 Anglo and 230 Mexican-American elementary school children from Douglas, Arizona. The data were evaluated by analysis of regression with the Total Reading and Total Math scores of the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT). Both groups were analyzed together to identify any significant slope or intercept differences. All regression analyses were by grade level. Group validity coefficients were also computed for both math and reading by grade level and across grade level. The results of regression analysis indicated no test bias against Mexican-Americans. Slopes were equal at all grade levels. Some intercept variance occurred which would result in bias against Anglos, rather than Mexican-Anericans, if common regression lines were used. Also, validity coefficients of academic prediction for the RPM compared favorably to coefficients of the WISC-R Performance Scale for Mexican-Americans. Limitations of the study and areas of further research are discussed.