Fit to mother: women, architecture, and the performance of health, 1865-1930

In the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, evolving scientific ideas about the body and its vulnerabilities, about women’s education, and about appropriate gendered behavior each contributed to the emergence of physical culture and healthy living environments for women and girls. Decrying the physical state of American mothers, health reformers and educators promoted new habits and routines meant to establish bodily health, and ushered physical culture programs into educational institutions and private homes. Bound together by their unwavering faith in the ability of the material world to produce healthy bodies, reformers evoked the language of efficiency, of maternal fitness, and of a fallible body that could be bolstered through material objects and spaces. This dissertation provides at once a cultural history of the female body, a study of architecture and material culture, and a critical examination of the ways in which race has been historically constructed. While scholars have begun to take up the diverse threads of this story, an architectural and material analysis of spaces and objects for exercise has thus far been overlooked. Drawing on prescriptive literature, building manuals, advertisements, and images, this dissertation argues that in the decades between 1865 and 1930, scientific ideas about racial reproduction tangibly effected the design of women’s spaces. Chapter One locates the roots of women’s physical culture in the aftermath of the Civil War and elucidates its relationship to the dress reform movement. Chapter Two considers architectural space for women’s exercise from 1881 to 1912. These three decades mark a crucial moment as the typology of the American gymnasium solidified, and women’s physical culture slowly moved out-of-doors. Chapter Three examines the middle-class house through the lens of health, and the ways in which reformers and medical experts projected scientific beliefs about gendered and racialized fitness onto the home, its contents, and the moments of performance required to maintain household and personal health. It concludes with a discussion of performative health in each of these three instances, and the specialized knowledge required of women to maintain their own health and the health of their households

« Par ung miroir en obscurté » ? Le conseil politique dans les œuvres de Noël de Fribois ( ?-c.1467-1468) et de Mathieu Thomassin (c. 1391-post 1457)

Though history provided exempla for political texts and moral Mirrors alike, it was in many respects a ‘dark mirror’ that posed a number of problems for both writers and readers when used as the main vehicle for offering political advice. This paper explores how Fribois and Thomassin, lawyers and officers by profession, incorporated political advice to Charles VII and the dauphin Louis II into their historical writing, and examines how their political and historical thought evolved in response to political circumstances. Fribois is predominantly an ‘homme de bureau’ and he gives general advice, rather than dealing with specific problems of government. In contrast, Thomassin is a practitioner of the law, drawing heavily on his long career spent protecting the dauphin’s interests, first as general fiscal procurator then as delphinal counsellor and founder member of the Parlement delphinal. Each author acts as an expert witness and adviser, sign-posting the lessons that their reader should learn from the past and apply to the present.Bien que l’histoire ait donné des exempla pour les textes politiques et les Miroirs moraux, elle demeurait, à de nombreux égards, un « miroir obscur » qui n’était pas sans poser un certain nombre de problèmes, pour les auteurs comme pour les lecteurs, lorsqu’elle était utilisée comme principal support pour le conseil politique. Cette contribution analyse la manière dont Fribois et Thomassin, hommes de loi et officiers par leur profession, intégrèrent le conseil politique à Charles vii et au dauphin Louis ii dans leurs écrits historiques, et de quelle façon leur pensée politique et historique se développa en réaction aux circonstances politiques. Fribois est avant tout un homme de bureau, et il dispense des conseils généraux plutôt que de traiter des problèmes spécifiques de gouvernement. À l’opposé, Thomassin est un praticien, qui se repose lourdement sur sa longue carrière passée à protéger les intérêts du dauphin, d’abord comme procureur fiscal général, ensuite comme conseiller delphinal et membre fondateur du Parlement delphinal. Tous les deux agissent comme témoins et conseillers experts, soulignant les leçons que leur lecteur doit tirer du passé, et la manière de les appliquer au présent

« Par ung miroir en obscurté » ? Le conseil politique dans les œuvres de Noël de Fribois ( ?-c.1467-1468) et de Mathieu Thomassin (c. 1391-post 1457)

Though history provided exempla for political texts and moral Mirrors alike, it was in many respects a ‘dark mirror’ that posed a number of problems for both writers and readers when used as the main vehicle for offering political advice. This paper explores how Fribois and Thomassin, lawyers and officers by profession, incorporated political advice to Charles VII and the dauphin Louis II into their historical writing, and examines how their political and historical thought evolved in response to political circumstances. Fribois is predominantly an ‘homme de bureau’ and he gives general advice, rather than dealing with specific problems of government. In contrast, Thomassin is a practitioner of the law, drawing heavily on his long career spent protecting the dauphin’s interests, first as general fiscal procurator then as delphinal counsellor and founder member of the Parlement delphinal. Each author acts as an expert witness and adviser, sign-posting the lessons that their reader should learn from the past and apply to the present.Bien que l’histoire ait donné des exempla pour les textes politiques et les Miroirs moraux, elle demeurait, à de nombreux égards, un « miroir obscur » qui n’était pas sans poser un certain nombre de problèmes, pour les auteurs comme pour les lecteurs, lorsqu’elle était utilisée comme principal support pour le conseil politique. Cette contribution analyse la manière dont Fribois et Thomassin, hommes de loi et officiers par leur profession, intégrèrent le conseil politique à Charles vii et au dauphin Louis ii dans leurs écrits historiques, et de quelle façon leur pensée politique et historique se développa en réaction aux circonstances politiques. Fribois est avant tout un homme de bureau, et il dispense des conseils généraux plutôt que de traiter des problèmes spécifiques de gouvernement. À l’opposé, Thomassin est un praticien, qui se repose lourdement sur sa longue carrière passée à protéger les intérêts du dauphin, d’abord comme procureur fiscal général, ensuite comme conseiller delphinal et membre fondateur du Parlement delphinal. Tous les deux agissent comme témoins et conseillers experts, soulignant les leçons que leur lecteur doit tirer du passé, et la manière de les appliquer au présent

Students’ perceptions of the value of stakeholder engagement during engineering design

BackgroundHuman‐centered design approaches promote and facilitate comprehensive understanding of stakeholders to inform design decisions. Successful engagement with stakeholders is critical to favorable design outcomes and requires skillful information gathering and synthesizing processes, which present unique challenges to student designers.Purpose/HypothesisOur study sought to answer the following research question: What factors influence design teams’ perceptions of the value of stakeholder engagement during design decision‐making?Design/MethodDuring a capstone design experience, we conducted four semistructured group interviews with seven capstone undergraduate student design teams and collected their design reports. We analyzed the data across teams to identify factors that influenced teams’ perceptions of the value of stakeholder engagement.ResultsTeams perceived stakeholder specific interactions to be more useful when they prespecified a goal for the interaction, interacted with stakeholders who had specific subject matter expertise, or ceded control of the decision‐making process to stakeholders. Students perceived interactions to be less useful when information gathered varied across stakeholders or when information was not directly applicable to the design decision at hand.ConclusionsThe factors this study identified that influenced students’ perceptions of the usefulness of stakeholder interactions elucidate specific challenges students encounter when engaging with stakeholders. Students could benefit from pedagogical structures that assist them throughout design‐related engagement with stakeholders and when applying the information gathered through engagements with stakeholders to design decision‐making.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163394/2/jee20356.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163394/1/jee20356_am.pd

Crack opening behavior in ceramic matrix composites

The evolution of matrix cracks in a melt‐infiltrated SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composite (CMC) under uniaxial tension was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with digital image correlation (DIC) and manual crack opening displacement (COD) measurements. CMC modeling and life prediction strongly depend a thorough understanding of when matrix cracks occur, the extent of cracking for given conditions (time‐temperature‐environment‐stress), and the interactions of matrix cracks with fibers and interfaces. In this work, strain relaxation due to matrix cracking, the relationship between CODs and applied stress, and damage evolution at stresses below the proportional limit were assessed. Direct experimental observation of strain relaxation adjacent to regions of matrix cracking is presented and discussed. Additionally, crack openings were found to increase linearly with increasing applied stress, and no crack was found to pass fully through the gage cross‐section. This calls into question the modeling assumption of through‐cracks for all loading conditions and fiber architectures, which can obscure oxidation mechanisms that are active in realistic cracking conditions. Finally, the combination of SEM with DIC is demonstrated throughout to be a powerful means for damage identification and quantification in CMCs at stresses well below the proportional limit.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138389/1/jace14976_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138389/2/jace14976.pd

Walking alongside: a qualitative study of the experiences and perceptions of academic nurse mentors supporting early career nurse academics

Purpose: This study explores the experiences and perceptions of academic nurse mentors supporting early career nurse academics (ECNAs). Methods: Interviews were undertaken with mentors following a mentoring partnership with ECNAs. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a process of thematic analysis. Findings: Four themes emerged from the data, namely; motivation for mentoring; constructing the relationship; establishing safe boundaries and managing expectations. Conclusions: This study provides a unique insight into the experiences of mentoring within the context of an academic leadership programme for nurses. Such insights highlight the issues facing academics from professional disciplines and can inform strategies to support their career development. Clinical relevance: A sustainable academic nursing workforce is crucial to ensure that effective preparation of future generations of expert clinical nurses. Therefore, it is important to consider strategies that could strengthen the academic nursing workforce