Romance revisited: transformations of the marital love triangle in women’s fictions.

First paragraph: Introduction The triangle is a model of a sort, or rather a whole family of models. [...] They always allude to the mystery, transparent yet opaque, of human relations. (Girard, 1976: 2-3). The graphic schema and the theoretical frame of analysis of this study is what David Lodge has aptly described as a familiar novelistic situation: the ‘eternal’ love triangle (Lodge, 1981: 143). As a structural literary device, the love triangle artificially stabilises impulses of desire into a fixed set of erotic positions. In other words, it is a ‘figure by which the “commonsense” of our intellectual tradition schematizes erotic relations’ (Sedgwick, 1985: 21). From the legendary Tristan and Iseult to the American soap epic Dynasty1, from Jewish mythology to postfeminist fiction, triangular models have always engaged the interest of generations of listeners/readers/viewers and, over the centuries, the notoriously enduring and seemingly transhistorical appeal of the love triangle has affirmed itself. Narratives abound with love triangles and triadic configurations construct standard and paradigmatic narrative situations that, using Umberto Eco’s terminology, could be termed ‘intertextual archetypes’ (Eco, 1988: 448).3 Triangular constellations of human interaction are not only inscribed within Western culture but are also formative erotic models that are 2 embedded in a shared socio-cultural script and that, as a result, contribute to the ideological construction of the iconography of love

Evolution of interfaces in two-phase problems with ninety degree contact angle

In this thesis we are concerned with the analysis of contact angle problems for the free boundary in two-phase flows. In particular, we consider the Mullins-Sekerka and the Two-phase Navier-Stokes/Mullins-Sekerka problem with a ninety degree angle condition at the points where the free interface meets the boundary. We prove the existence and uniqueness of local-in-time strong solutions and discuss qualitative behaviour. We then introduce a thermodynamically consistent model for the Two-phase Navier-Stokes/Mullins-Sekerka equations with gravity and prove the presence of Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Contact Allergy:Occurrence and Susceptibility

Contact allergy is a commonly acquired immunological condition. It is caused by exposure of the skin to certain substances in the environment. Besides, individual susceptibility also plays a role. This thesis focuses on the diagnosis of contact allergy and exposure to allergens (particularly scented products). In addition, an element of individual susceptibility to contact allergy is evaluated. We examined the added value of a second (late) patch reading and found that in 13.6% of patients a positive patch test response to at least one contact allergen would have been missed if a second (late) reading had not been performed. This was especially true for allergens found in topical medications other than topical corticosteroids, in topical corticosteroids and in metals. A major source of exposure to environmental substances is scented products. Therefore, we studied exposure to scented products and the association between exposure to scented products and the occurrence of contact allergy to fragrances in the general European population. We found that exposure to scented products that remain on the skin for a long time is associated with fragrance contact allergy. In addition, we examined a few patients where the allergen responsible for contact dermatitis was present in seemingly innocent products, such as a hospital wristband or toothpaste. In the second part of the thesis, we investigated the expression pattern of the enzyme N-acetyltransferase in healthy human skin. We found expression in the nucleus, perinuclear and in the cytosol. Expression was strongest in the stratum basale

The Effects of Internal Stress and Lithium Transport on Fracture in Storage Materials in Lithium-Ion Batteries

Fracture of storage particles is considered to be one of the major reasons for capacity fade and increasing power loss in Li-ion batteries. In this work, we tackle the problem by merging a coupled model of mechanical stress and diffusion of Li-ions with a phase field description of an evolving crack. The novel approach allows us to study the evolution of the Li concentration together with the initiation and growth of a crack in an arbitrary geometry and without presuming a specific crack path

Ineslatic analysis of geometrically exact rods

In this work, a formulation for rod structures, able to consider coupled geometric and constitutive sources of nonlinearity in both the static and the dynamic range, is developed. It is extended for allowing the inclusion of passive energy dissipating elements as a special rod element and geometric irregularities as a full three-dimensional body connected to the framed structure by means of a two-scale model. The proposed formulation is based on the Reissner-Simo geometrically exact formulation for rods considering an initially curved reference configuration and extended to include arbitrary distribution of composite materials in the cross sections. Each material point of the cross section is assumed to be composed of several simple materials with their own thermodynamically consistent constitutive laws. The simple mixing rule is used for treating the resulting composite. Cross sections are meshed into a grid of quadrilaterals, each of them corresponding to a fiber directed along the axis of the beam. A mesh independent response is obtained by means of the regularization of the energy dissipated at constitutive level considering the characteristic length of the mesh and the fracture energy of the materials. Local and global damage indices have been developed based on the ratio between the visco-elastic and nonlinear stresses. The consistent linearization of the weak form of the momentum balance equations is performed considering the effects of rate dependent inelasticity. Due to the fact that the deformation map belongs to a nonlinear manifold, an appropriated version of Newmark's scheme and of the iterative updating procedure of the involved variables is developed. The space discretization of the linearized problem is performed using the standard Galerkin finite element approach. A Newton-Raphson type of iterative scheme is used for the step-by-step solution of the discrete problem. A specific element for energy dissipating devices is developed, based on the rod model but releasing the rotational degrees of freedom. Appropriated constitutive relations are given for a wide variety of possible dissipative mechanisms. Several numerical examples have been included for the validation of the proposed formulation. The examples include elastic and inelastic finite deformation response of framed structures with initially straight and curved beams. Comparisons with existing literature is performed for the case of plasticity and new results are presented for degrading and composite materials. Those examples show how the present formulation is able to capture different complex mechanical phenomena such as the uncoupling of the dynamic response from resonance due to inelastic incursions and suppression of the high frequency content. The study of realistic flexible pre-cast and cast in place reinforced concrete framed structures subjected to static and dynamic actions is also carried out. Detailed studies regarding to the evolution of local damage indices, energy dissipation and ductility demands are presented. The studies include the seismic response of concrete structures with energy dissipating devices. Advantages of the use of passive control are verified

Internationales Kolloquium über Anwendungen der Informatik und Mathematik in Architektur und Bauwesen : 04. bis 06.07. 2012, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

The 19th International Conference on the Applications of Computer Science and Mathematics in Architecture and Civil Engineering will be held at the Bauhaus University Weimar from 4th till 6th July 2012. Architects, computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers from all over the world will meet in Weimar for an interdisciplinary exchange of experiences, to report on their results in research, development and practice and to discuss. The conference covers a broad range of research areas: numerical analysis, function theoretic methods, partial differential equations, continuum mechanics, engineering applications, coupled problems, computer sciences, and related topics. Several plenary lectures in aforementioned areas will take place during the conference. We invite architects, engineers, designers, computer scientists, mathematicians, planners, project managers, and software developers from business, science and research to participate in the conference

Complexity Reduction in Image-Based Breast Cancer Care

The diversity of malignancies of the breast requires personalized diagnostic and therapeutic decision making in a complex situation. This thesis contributes in three clinical areas: (1) For clinical diagnostic image evaluation, computer-aided detection and diagnosis of mass and non-mass lesions in breast MRI is developed. 4D texture features characterize mass lesions. For non-mass lesions, a combined detection/characterisation method utilizes the bilateral symmetry of the breast s contrast agent uptake. (2) To improve clinical workflows, a breast MRI reading paradigm is proposed, exemplified by a breast MRI reading workstation prototype. Instead of mouse and keyboard, it is operated using multi-touch gestures. The concept is extended to mammography screening, introducing efficient navigation aids. (3) Contributions to finite element modeling of breast tissue deformations tackle two clinical problems: surgery planning and the prediction of the breast deformation in a MRI biopsy device