1998-99 Annual Report : Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center

Report year ends June 3

Relationship between enamel mechanical, chemical, ultrastructural properties and mammalian bite force

Mammalian enamel is one of the hardest and most mineralized tissues in the body. Its main function is to support the loads generated during the chewing process. Mechanical, chemical and ultrastructural properties are responsible for providing it with the high resistance necessary to withstand constant loads and for making the animal’s tooth functional through its life. Animal bite forces as well as their feeding patterns can influence enamel ultrastructure, improving its behavior when facing chewing loads. A brief review of enamel mechanical and chemical properties as well as a brief review on mammalian enamel decussation characteristics are presented in chapter 2. The methodology used in this study is shown in chapter 3, experimental results in terms of mechanical, chemical and ultrastructural properties are presented in chapter 4. In Chapter 5 the results of the experimentation are analyzed in terms of their statistical correlations and the relationship between enamel properties, bite force, and feeding patterns of the analyzed specimens. Finally the conclusions of this investigation are shown in chapter 6. The bite force of the analyzed animals (BFQ) is related to the elastic modulus of the enamel and that the enamel of the analyzed species shows similar characteristics to human enamel in terms of the variations in mechanical and chemical properties. The properties analyzed were compared in terms of the taxonomic classification or the feeding patterns of the analyzed specimens. The mechanical variables (elastic modulus and hardness) do not seem to be related to taxonomic classification or feeding patterns. The decussation fraction is greater than 0:8 regardless of the taxonomic classification or feeding patterns, enamel thickness and decussated thickness are statistically correlated with decussated band thickness, this could indicate that these variables are important in delaying crack growth. Ultrastructural variables do not seem to depend on taxonomic classification or feeding patterns

Determining cutting stock patternswhen defects are present

This paper investigates the problem of obtaining the best arrangement for cutting stockpatterns in the presence of defective material in the paper, which is a common problem inthe industry. This problem is modeled as a multiple subset sum problem and its structure isexploited in order to obtain a practical solution procedure. The solution methodologyemploys the subset sum problem as a subprocedure. Computational results are reported

Biomechanical Spectrum of Human Sport Performance

Writing or managing a scientific book, as it is known today, depends on a series of major activities, such as regrouping researchers, reviewing chapters, informing and exchanging with contributors, and at the very least, motivating them to achieve the objective of publication. The idea of this book arose from many years of work in biomechanics, health disease, and rehabilitation. Through exchanges with authors from several countries, we learned much from each other, and we decided with the publisher to transfer this knowledge to readers interested in the current understanding of the impact of biomechanics in the analysis of movement and its optimization. The main objective is to provide some interesting articles that show the scope of biomechanical analysis and technologies in human behavior tasks. Engineers, researchers, and students from biomedical engineering and health sciences, as well as industrial professionals, can benefit from this compendium of knowledge about biomechanics applied to the human body

Into Complexity. A Pattern-oriented Approach to Stakeholder Communities

The NWO-programme ”the societal aspects of genomics”, has called for stronger means of collaboration and deliberative involvement between the various stakeholders of genomics research. Within the project group assembled at the University for Humanistics, this call was translated to the ‘lingua democratica’, in which the prerequisites of such deliberative efforts were put to scrutiny. The contribution of this thesis has taken a more or less abstract angle to this task, and sought to develop a vocabulary that can be shared amongst various stakeholders with different backgrounds, interests and stakes for any complex theme, although genomics has more or less been in focus throughout the research. As ‘complexity thinking’ is currently a theme in both the ‘hard’ sciences as the social sciences and the humanities, and has always been an issue for professionals, this concept was pivotal in achieving such an inclusive angle. However, in order to prevent that complexity would become fragmented due to disciplinary boundaries, it is essential that those aspects of complexity that seem to return in many discussions would be made clear, and stand out with respect to the complexities of specialisation. The thesis has argued that the concept of ‘patterns’ applies for these aspects, and they form the backbone of the vocabulary that has been developed. Especially patterns of feedback have been given much attention, as this concept is pivotal for many complex themes. However, although patterns are implicitly or explicitly used in many areas, there is little methodological (and philosophical) underpinning of what they are and why they are able to do what they do. As a result, quite some attention has been given to these issues, and how they relate to concepts such as ‘information’,‘order’ and complexity itself. From these explorations, the actual vocabulary was developed, including the methodological means to use this vocabulary. This has taken the shape of a recursive development of a so-called pattern-library, which has crossed disciplinary boundaries, from technological areas, through biology, psychology and the social sciences, to a topic that is typical of the humanities. This journey across the divide of C.P. Snow’s ‘two cultures’ is both a test for a lingua democratica, as well as aimed to demonstrate how delicate, and balanced such a path must be in order to be effective, especially if one aims to retain certain coherence along the way. Finally, the methodology has been applied in a very practical way, to a current development that hinges strongly on research in genomics, which is trans-humanist movement

Fighting for a Living

Fighting for a Living investigates the circumstances that have produced starkly different systems of recruiting and employing soldiers in different parts of the globe over the last 500 years. It does so on the basis of a wide range of case studies taken from Europe, Africa, America, the Middle East and Asia. The novelty of "Fighting for a Living" is that it is not military history in the traditional sense (concentrating at wars and battles or on military technology) but that it looks at military service and warfare as forms of labour, and at the soldiers as workers. Military employment offers excellent opportunities for this kind of international comparison. Where many forms of human activity are restricted by the conditions of nature or the stage of development of a given society, organized violence is ubiquitous. Soldiers, in one form or another, are always part of the picture, in any period and in every region. Nevertheless, Fighting for a Living is the first study to undertake a systematic comparative analysis of military labour. It therefore speaks to two distinct, and normally quite separate, communities: that of labour historians and that of military historians. This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched