VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Dynamics of macro/micro manipulator systems

This thesis seeks to provide an effective way for developing the dynamics of a modular manipulator system consisting of a micro manipulator mounted on the tip of a macro manipulator. A modular dynamic formulation method is developed to establish the equations of motion of the macro/micro (M/m) manipulator system. The modular equations of the overall system can be constructed by directly using the equations of individual sub-systems and calculating the couplings between the subsystems. The coupling torques are directly calculated using closed-form coupling equations. The modular formulation method is first applied on a rigid M/m manipulator system, and then extended to flexible M/m manipulators mounted on a flexible base (M/m+B). The kinematic redundancy of the M/m system is solved based on the criterion of peak torque reduction. Instead of minimizing the joint torques or kinetic energy at the current instant of time, the proposed Peak Torque Reduction method uses the current torque to approach an optimum velocity at the next instant of time, which, along with joint acceleration, minimizes the torque at that time, while at the same time keeps the current torque within the limits. To model the flexible M/m+B system, the modes of a flexible beam with a flexible joint are first derived. The obtained modes, called flexible-free modes, incorporate the link flexibility with the joint flexibility. By using the flexible-free modes, the flexible-link, flexible-joint macro manipulator can be treated as a flexible-link, rigid-joint manipulator. As a result, the flexible joint coordinates do not appear in the equations of motion and the order of the equations is reduced, while the accuracy remains unaffected. By applying the modular formulation method and the flexible-free modes, the equations of motion of the system consisting of flexible M/m manipulators mounted on a flexible base are finally established. The resultant equations are modular and order-reduced. Closed-form coupling equations are also obtained, which allow direct calculations of the couplings between the subsystems. Simulation is performed on a 3-DOF model to study the dynamic behavior of the system.
A new perspective on elder abuse, hardiness in victims

Elder abuse in Canada is a problem of considerable proportion and significance. Only in the past decade has this problem begun to receive increasing attention. Still, too little is known about the extent of the problem, about factors contributing to abuse of the elderly and factors that help sustain them, and about ways to forestall, intervene, or help the elderly to cope with an abusive situation. A recent National Survey (1990) determined that from a sample population of 2,008 elderly persons living in private homes, about 4% had experienced some form of serious abuse in the previous year. Projected to the total population of Canada, this would mean approximately 100,000 elderly persons abused in private homes, and with the proportion of the elderly increasing in our national population, we face the prospect of even larger numbers of abused elderly persons. This thesis uses the quantitative data developed in the National Survey, and through personal telephone interviews with 42 abused elderly persons identified from that survey, provides more in-depth information and understanding of the life experience and current living circumstances of these individuals. There is strong evidence of adaptive strengths of older victims in dealing with their maltreatment circumstances, evidence which represents important new findings in this field. It is, therefore, argued that the concept of hardiness is both applicable and useful. There are two parts to this study. The first part provided quantitative data on the prevalence rate of elder abuse in Canada; the second part, is qualitative. Here the data explores a theme of continuity that connects social change and life experience: a theme of loss and adaptation--particularly in the 1930s--in the life course development of a cohort of older Canadians who were born in the early part of the century and who were victims of some form of maltreatment in their older years. Life experiences emerge from the personal narratives of abuse survivors, and such experiences have rarely been the subject of sociological investigation. From the accounts of the elderly who have encountered abuse, themes may emerge that provide a fresh perspective on the social background and interactions from the informants. The concept of elder hardiness is a major focus of this thesis.
The Middle Bronze Age of the Euphrates Valley, Syria, chronology, regional interaction and cultural exchange

The essential purpose of this study was to formulate a Middle Bronze Age ceramic chronology that could be used to determine the relative dates of archaeological sites located in the Euphrates Valley of Syria. Through a study of the pottery from the Middle Bronze sequence at the site of Tell Hadidi, I identified diagnostic vessel types that were thought best to characterize successive phases of the Middle Bronze Age. Following this, I reviewed the current ceramic evidence from excavated sites along the river and attempted to fix those sites' occupations within the newly defined phases of the Middle Bronze Age on the basis of the presence or absence of these diagnostic categories. The study successfully determined the relative placement of nearly all of the major sites located in the "Big Bend" and the Mari region of the Euphrates Valley within distinct phases of the Middle Bronze Age. The formulation of the Middle Bronze Euphrates chronology made it possible to study two important issues. First, it was possible to clarify the Euphrates Valley's chronological position relative to the Levant, based on a re-evaluation of the Levantine evidence and its correspondence with the newly structured Euphrates pottery sequence. Second, the chronology facilitated an investigation of cultural relationships between contemporary Euphrates sites. This inquiry led to new insights about intra-riverine relationships, particularly those involving political and economic exchange.
A systematic review of the Megatheriinae (Mammalia: xenarthramegatheriidae)

The subfamily Megatheriinae is known from the Friasian (Late Miocene) through the Lujanian (Late Pleistocene). Megatheriines were generally confined to South America, but Eremotherium laurillardi spread north into the southeastern United States. Most Megatheriinae are large ground sloths; they are morphologically conservative, and less diverse than the megalonychids and mylodontids. A hypothesis of a monophyletic Megatheriinae is corroborated by the following characters: possession of 5/4 molariforms that have squared corners, are functionally similar and equidistantly spaced, and bear mesial and distal transverse crests separated by a V-shaped valley; the ectotympanic is very large with extremely rugose anterior and posterior crura; the olecranon process of the ulna is markedly reduced; and the tibia and fibula are fused proximally. Several taxa contained in the literature are considered invalid. Eremotherium laurillardi is the valid name for the Panamerican, large-sized megatheriine. Various Pleistocene species of Megatherium are synonyms of M. americanum, such as M. gallardoi, M. parodii, M. lundi, and M. filholi. The presumed Pliocene (Montehermosan) M. gaudryi is actually Pleistocene in age and a synonym of M. americanum. The specific status of three other Pleistocene species of Megatherium (M. medinae, M. tarijense, and M. sundti) is maintained based on well-preserved and diagnostic remains. Other species of Megatherium (M. elenense, M. istilarti) are provisionally maintained because their remains apparently preserve useful phylogenetic characters, but are too sparse to permit confident taxonomic decisions at present. Pre-Pleistocene megatheriines are generally poorly known, but Pyramiodontherium bergi, Megatheriops rectidens, Megathericulus, and "Plesiomegatherium" halmyronomum may be unambiguously defined, although the generic assignment of the latter is uncertain. The status of other species, such as Plesiomegatherium hansmeyeri, Pliomegatherium lelongi, and Megatherium antiquum, and the genera Eomegatherium and Promegatherium are uncertain.
Confucianism and its modern relevance, a dialogue with the west

As the Four Mini-Dragons have joined Japan in modernizing East Asia, and the Dragon--mainland China--seems to begin to awake, the Japanese "economic miracle" turns out to be an East Asian cultural shock. Samuel P. Huntington's idea of "civilizational clash" (1993) is only a postponed conception of the political mood of the post-Cold-War West in face of East Asian modernity (among other persisting and evolving civilizations). Meanwhile, East Asia watchers generally relate the modern development of East Asia to, among other factors, the Confucian tradition--a common cultural heritage of East Asian societies, hence the "post-Confucian hypothesis." Therefore, partly in response to Huntington's conception, and partly as a reflection of the "post-Confucian hypothesis," this thesis attempts to explore how the Confucian tradition is comparable to the mentality of Western modernity--mainly but not exclusively the Enlightenment spirit, and how the Confucian or post-Confucian values have been shaping the distinction of East Asian modernity. The main assumptions or conclusions of this thesis are: First, in theoretical terms, the Confucian tradition is relevant to East Asian modernity, because on the one hand, Confucianism, for all its peculiarity in contrast with its counterpart(s) in the modern West, is essentially a rationalist and humanist tradition; and on the other, despite the religious tolerance of and religious elements in Confucianism, its ultimate concern is the secular world or the life-world. Second, the surviving Confucian tradition, embedded in the fabric of modern East Asian societies, functions as a key part of their economic culture (personalism, groupism), political culture (paternalism, meritocracy), and everyday life (family values). In substantiating these conclusions, this thesis also tries to demonstrate that as far as its cultural dimension is concerned, East Asian modernity is, far from being exclusively Confucian, a cultural mosaic in which the Confucian tradition coexists and mingles with other--indigenous and Western--traditions, and together they constitute the modern mentality in East Asia.
The critical heritage of the York cycle

This thesis is a chronological survey of the history of scholarship on the York cycle of mystery plays (British Library MS Additional 35290). Beginning with the late nineteenth century context into which the editio princeps by Lucy Toulmin Smith emerged, this thesis explores the critical currents which have shaped the development of the study of medieval drama as an academic discipline. The York cycle was selected as the vehicle for this study because its performance and questions relating to its staging have profoundly affected the field as a whole. After the late sixteenth-century suppression of the Biblical play cycles in England, they remained obscure, well beyond the boundaries of "literature", until they began to spark the interest of antiquarians who studied them to discover archaic word-forms and behaviours. The paradigm of evolutionary development permitted their acceptance as literature under the category of "pre-Shakespearean drama"; in the early twentieth century, studies focused on their origins and relations to other surviving examples of early drama. The increasing precision of these studies, and the popular performances of an abridged version for the York Festival from 1951 onward, led to a radical re-evaluation of the cycle's literary qualities which discarded the evolutionary framework. Since the late 1950s, three interconnected branches of scholarship have developed: theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches, performance scholarship, and records research. These final three chapters examine each of these in greater detail. The question of whether the York cycle is "literature" remains current: I argue that it is, although surprisingly few studies have effectively addressed the point.
A novel hydrogel anchored lipid bilayer system

The present study demonstrates the feasibility of a new self-assembled micro-particulate system which combines the complementary properties of liposomes and hydrogel microspheres. This system, termed "lipobeads", consists of a lipid bilayer shell anchored on a hydrated-polymer core (polyvinyl alcohol; PVA) resembling the structure of cytoskeleton. The experimental procedure starts with the preparation of PVA xerogel microspheres, followed by a surface-modification process, termed "lipocoating". The latter step consists of chemically grafting lipid molecules onto hydrogel bead surfaces followed by the spontaneous assembly of a phospholipid membrane shell after exposing these beads to a liposomal suspension. The chemical modification, which involves the reaction of surface hydroxyl groups of PVA, was characterized using attenuated total reflectance FTIR and angle-resolved XPS. It is shown that these analytical techniques can be used to indicate whether the surface modification is limited mainly to the top surface region as well as the proportion of hydroxyl sites in this region that have been involved in the reactions. Contact angle measurements and Langmuir-Blodget (LB) deposition were also carried out to characterize the process of self-assembly of the lipid membrane. Self assembly is driven by the hydrophobic interaction of liposomal components with the grafted surface anchors. The results obtained are consistent with the proposed structure of a unilamellar lipid bilayer on the hydrogel surface. The properties of the anchored lipid bilayer (lateral mobility and cross membrane permeability) were studied using fluorescence confocal microscopy. With a photo-bleach protocol, the diffusion coefficient of fluorescent labeled lipids through the bilayer was measured to be 1.5 $\times$ 10$\sp{-9}$ cm$\sp2$/sec, comparable to that observed in normal bilayers (10$\sp{-8}$ cm$\sp2$/sec). Results on the entrapment of calcium ions and a model drug (Lucifer yellow) confirm that this bilayer shell also functions as a permeability barrier to ions and lipophobic molecules. Also observed was that the entrapped calcium ions can be spontaneously released upon addition of an ionophore, consistent with the bilayer nature of the lipid coating. Based on these observed properties, the advantages and potential biomedical applications of are discussed.
Shaping the subject of policing, autonomy, regulation and the police constable

This dissertation uses a 'governmentality' approach to show how changes in styles of policing have required adaptations in the orientations of its agents. The police constable, as one such agent, has been continuously 'retooled' to further and realize changing protocols of management and governance. Several of the tools or technologies which have been deployed to shape police constables are analyzed and the interrelationship between subjectivities, technologies and governmental logics is explored. It is found that while technologies are sometimes quite deliberately installed to reshape subjectivities, they are sites which also harbour counter-narratives which may stand opposed to top-down shaping interventions. The dissertation provides an account of various policing reforms through the technologies by which they were made real. It assesses 19th century 'disciplinary' reforms in Ontario by contrasting enabling technologies, like appointment criteria and the oath, to shaping technologies, like drill, and comprehensive regulations on conduct. It then looks at early twentieth century occupational professionalization through a further package of people-shaping tools, including an emergent corpus of police knowledge and discourses, professional ethics, and in-house evaluation mechanisms such as examinations. While the fee for service constable had been encouraged to be enterprising, disciplinary reforms worked in the direction of tight regulation through individual supervision and surveillance, and through institutional consolidation and normalization. The police academy is taken up as a site in which a further restructuring of the regulation and autonomy of the police constable is seen. In the traditional training academy a disciplinary shaping asserted itself through a depersonalization of authority and disembedding strategies. But the constable was also reshaped to understand his autonomy in the celebration of personal power and charismatic authority. Post-disciplinary or new managerial technologies are reviewed as a corrective to this distribution of autonomy and regulation. These technologies 'of the self' reframe government strategy as the outcome of personal, enterprising action. They shape the constable through his or her autonomy.
Mathematical modelling of gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) and gas metal arc welding (GMAW) processes

GTAW process. Models for the GTAW arc and the weld pool were developed. In the arc model, the shape of the electrode tip was addressed and the effect of the electrode tip angle in the range of 10 to 150 degrees on the arc properties, especially on the anode current density, the heat flux and the gas shear stress over the weld pool, was studied. It was found that by increasing the electrode tip angle, the anode spot at the weld pool surface tended to be more localized. This led to higher maximum heat flux and anode current density. On the other hand, the gas shear stress increased with decreasing electrode tip angle. The variation in the anode current density, the heat flux and the gas shear stress with the electrode tip angle has significant effect on the weld pool properties. By developing a model for the weld pool the variation in the weld pool due to variation in the electrode tip angle was studied. In the weld pool model, by considering the four flow driving forces into the weld pool, it was found that, in determining the flow pattern into the weld pool and hence its shape, the gas shear stress and surface tension are dominant forces. GMAW process. A model for GMAW arc is developed. In this model a cathode spot defined such that the electrons with a constant current density emit from the cathode surface. It was found that the radius of the cathode spot is a function of applied current, and length, electrode diameter and shielding gas. This model can successfully predict the arc properties, such as temperature, gas velocity and gas pressure at the surface of the cathode in both argon and helium for 2-10 mm arc of applied currents from 100 to 250 A.
William of Ockham's theory of conscience

This work is designed to show that there is an implicit connection between Ockham's academic and political careers in his theory of conscience. Thomas Aquinas offers a theory of moral responsibility according to which the conscientious individual has knowledge of the rightness of her act which does not preclude her doing otherwise. His account of the will, however, proves that this state of affairs never obtains. Ockham's alternative presupposes that we freely choose our own ends. He is therefore entitled to assert that conscience is the knowledge of one's own acts as right or wrong. The libertarian metaphysics underlying Ockham's ethics is tested by the problem of unfulfilled prophecy. Thomas Bradwardine argues that the Antichrist is free not to come because it is possible for God to undo the past. Thomas Buckingham argues for the possibility that the prophecy never meant that the Antichrist was going to come. Meanwhile, Ockham is left with the possibility that God lied. Ockhamist John of Mirecourt shows why this 'heretical' solution is the only way to save the faith. Ockham's theory of conscience provides a sound basis for interpreting his treatise on heresy. Heresy is disobedience, not to authority, but to the truth. Since the condemnation of heresy is itself a paradigm instance of this kind of perversity, freedom of speech prevails by default. Ockham's conception of a community united by this realization provides an answer to twentieth-century speech-regulation advocates. Ockham thought that it is through our obedience to the truth that Jesus's promise to be with his disciples 'always, to the end of the age' will be fulfilled. According to Walter Burley, 'I promise you a Christian' converts with 'A Christian is promised to you by me.' According to Ockham, in contrast, it is an opaque construction. This account of the logic of indefinite promises implies that no individual can claim to be one of the disciples to whom Jesus was referring. I hope to leave the reader in a better position to appreciate the sense in which the claim that Ockham's two careers are united by his nominalism may be considered correct.
Structural analysis of an osseointegrated dental implant system

A dental implant restoration is analyzed as a structure to determine how loads are distributed to the implants. The first part of the work examines the flexibility of the structural components. Measurements are made of the stiffness of an implant embedded in simulated interfacial bone in tension, compression, bending, shear and torsion. The stiffnesses of the mandible and prosthesis are estimated analytically. Comparisons show that only the mandible can be considered rigid in any structural analysis. The implants, interfacial bone and prosthesis must be treated as flexible components in the structure. With this information, a new structural model is formulated. The prosthesis is represented as a flexible beam with a constant cross-section. The implants are tightly connected to the prosthesis, and the implants and interfacial bone are modelled as elastic materials. The mandible provides a rigid base. Strain energy theory and equations of equilibrium are used to derive a set of equations which can be solved to yield the forces, moments and torques on each implant. When measured stiffnesses of the implants and interfacial bone are incorporated, the model predicts that, for cantilever loading, the largest compressive forces and moments are generally concentrated on the implant closest to the applied load. It is also found that increasing the cantilever length generally increases the forces and has an even greater effect on the moments. Other clinical factors affecting the force and moment distributions are investigated: the number of implants, implant spacing, implant alignment, prosthesis fit and the degree of implant/interfacial bone stiffness. Predictions from the model are compared to results from in vitro laboratory models and from finite element studies. The comparisons show good agreement for the force distributions. With limited data for comparisons of the moments, there is at least qualitative agreement. Further comparisons to in vivo studies also show qualitative agreement. Hence the new model can be used with a certain degree of confidence to estimate forces, moments and torques in dental implant systems.
Seasonal and calendar estimation for count data

Monthly time series which represent a total of the series for each month are typically decomposed into trend, seasonal, calendar effects and noise. To do this decomposition many of the currently available algorithms depend on an assumption of constant variation of the underlying data. In this thesis, an algorithm which is an extension of the STL algorithm developed for decomposing 'normal' time series, will be discussed to decompose time series of counts. A score test is investigated to obtain inferences for calendar effects, and a penalized likelihood approach, together with cross-validation, is discussed as a solution to some estimation problems that were encountered. Extensions to overdispersed cases are developed, and the methods presented in the thesis are applied to two case studies.