5,892 research outputs found

    An experimental and finite element study of the low-cycle fatigue failure of a galvanised steel lighting column

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    This paper presents the results of a low-cycle fatigue test on a lighting column. The wind induced vibration phenomena responsible for low cycle fatigue in such structures is discussed and the failure mechanism is examined. It was initially thought that poor quality weld detail was the major influence on the fatigue life of such columns. However, the significant role of the galvanised coating in the failure process is also highlighted. The experimental results are compared with those from a detailed 3D finite element model. Various methods of calculating hot-spot stresses at welded joints are examined and use of a simple peak stress removal approach is shown to produce significantly different values compared with the other methods examined

    Planting a Community of Gentlemen and Ladies on the Cumberland Plateau: Thomas Hughes and the East Tennessee Rugby

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    On 5 October 1880, Thomas Hughes gave the Opening Day address at the Rugby colony on the Cumberland Plateau in rural East Tennessee. Hughes, a noted English author, philanthropist, and politician, was president of the Board of Aid to Land Ownership, Limited. This colonization company was formed in London in 1879 to assist the emigration of young well-to-do Britons who could not find suitable employment at home. Hughes envisioned the Board\u27s colony as a place where classically educated young men might engage in manual labor without losing status. He thought Rugby\u27s rugged environment would encourage these youth to reject the rampant materialism of the age and to live simply. Sending a stream of fine young Britons to the South was meant to strengthen the region and to heal divisions between the United States and Britain. Hughes\u27s fame ensured that he would be identified as the colony\u27s sole founder in the Rugby myth which was created in 1880. However, Hughes was not the colony\u27s only founder nor did he play the central role in the colony that his fame or his role as president of the Board led everyone to expect. The Rugby myth perpetuated numerous misconceptions about the colony which this dissertation aims to refute. The Rugby colony never achieved Hughes\u27s noble goals. Nonetheless, this colonization project remains a visible reminder of intentions to establish a community where leading simple, godly lives would trump self-indulgence and self-promotion

    Assembling fear, practicing hope: geographies of gender and generation in Newcastle upon Tyne

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    This thesis explores young people’s emotional experiences of fear of crime. It is based on a long-term and in-depth piece of participatory fieldwork in a low-income urban area in Newcastle upon Tyne. I engaged in the use of participatory diagramming, group discussions and individual interviews in order to access the lived experiences and material realities of local residents, to identify and understand how fear works in the neighbourhood. The research includes insights from a variety of groups: the emphasis is mainly on the young, but with a perspective from older people too. It shows that fear is tied to power and has a bearing on people’s freedom, including their access to and use of space, their participation in social life and their ability to control their future. The theoretical contribution is to enhance understandings of fear, by showing that it is bound up with a practice of citizenship; and to enhance understandings of what citizenship means, by documenting its entanglement with fear. Methodologically, the work contributes to the development of participatory geographies. In both an empirical and a theoretical sense, the thesis brings to light how participating in research as well as in wider community activities enabled participants to envision ways that fear can be negated through increasing ‘confidence’ of all kinds. As such, the thesis concludes that participation – in the fullest sense of the word – can be empowering in the face of fear. It enables us to imagine the possibility of a more hopeful future trajectory

    Optimising Uptake of Mandated Workplace Training in the Western Australian Public Health Sector.

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    This research explored WA public health sector workers' perceptions of mandated workplace training to identify strategies to optimise the uptake and impact of the training. The key finding was that staff are more likely to engage in mandated training when it meets their personal learning needs or when there is evidence that it impacts on safe practice. A Mandated Workplace Training Practice Framework based on the study findings was developed to guide future practice

    A Qualitative Study of African American Female Administrators in the Academy: Identification of Characteristics that Contribute to Their Advancement to Senior Level Positions of Authority

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    The qualitative study explored the (a) self-identity and individual experiences of five African American female higher education administrators, (b) educational and background preparedness of each African American female administrator, (c) individual support mechanisms of each African American female administrator, (i.e., mentoring, community and family support), and (d) whether or not religion, soul, and spirituality played a role in their advancement within the ranks of higher education administration. The study included an overview of the history and preparedness of African American female higher education administrators and the growth and significance of changes during the last few decades relative to their advancement and challenges encountered in pursuit of senior level positions of authority within the academe (Gregory, 1995; Jacobs, 1999; Rusher, 1996; Turner, 2002b). Participants were selected from current and former African American female senior level higher education administrators located in the southern regions of the continental United States, with emphasis on the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. A questionnaire, field studies, and observations were utilized by the researcher in addition to interviews (Patton, 1990). Information was collected for review and analysis regarding the attitudes, values, beliefs, morals, and ethics of African American women leaders. Documentation relative to the number of years of experience in higher education administration, years of education and training, number of siblings, etc., was collected for review and analysis. A multiple case study design that employs purposive sampling (Patton, 2002; Merriam, 2009) was used in order to enhance external validity and to provide a broader view of the findings (Merriam, 2009). This type of sampling allowed subjective selection by the researcher to obtain a sample that appears to be representative of the diversity of the targeted population while providing an overall, typical depiction of the administrators’ lived experiences (Merriam, 2009; Merriam & Associates, 2002)

    Proteomics of the human alcoholic brain: Implications for the pathophysiology of alcohol-related brain damage

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    Proteomics is rapidly achieving recognition as a complimentary and perhaps superior approach to examine global changes in protein abundance in complex biological systems and the value of these techniques in neuropsychiatry is beginning to be acknowledged. Characterizing the brain’s regional proteomes provides a foundation for the detection of proteins that may be involved in disease-related processes. Firstly, optimal conditions were achieved for the application of two dimensional-gel electrophoresis (2D-GE)-based proteomics with postmortem human brain tissue. These optimized techniques were then applied to soluble fractions of adjacent grey and white matter of a single cytoarchitecturally defined area (Brodmann area 9; BA9) and of two adjacent regions of frontal white matter (BA9 and CC body) from healthy individuals. These normative proteomic comparisons highlighted the importance of correct tissue sampling, i.e. proper separation of regional white matter, as heterogeneity in the respective proteomes was demonstrated. Furthermore, they stressed the necessity for future molecular brain mapping studies. The main focus of this thesis however, was to examine the proteomes of brain regions specifically vulnerable to alcohol-induced damage underlying cognitive dysfunction. Alcoholic patients commonly experience mild to severe cognitive decline. It is postulated that cognitive dysfunction is caused by an alcohol-induced region selective brain damage, particularly to the prefrontal cortex. The cerebellum is increasingly recognized for its role in various aspects of cognition and alcohol–induced damage to the cerebellar vermis could indirectly affect neurocognitive functions attributed to the frontal lobe. We used a 2D-GE-based proteomics approach to compare protein abundance profiles of BA9 grey and white matter and the cerebellar vermis from human alcoholics (neurologically uncomplicated and alcoholics complicated with liver cirrhosis) and healthy control brains. Among the protein level changes observed are disturbances in the levels of a number of thiamine-dependent enzymes. A derangement in energy metabolism perhaps related to thiamine deficiency seems to be important in all regions analysed, even where there are no clinical or pathological findings of Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. Evidence of oxidative changes was also seen in all regions and effects of liver dysfunction in the vermis found. However, overall, these results highlight the complexity of this disease process in that a number of different proteins from different cellular pathways appear to be affected. By identifying changes in protein abundance levels in the prefrontal grey and white matter and the cerebellar vermis, hypotheses may draw upon more mechanistic explanations as to how chronic ethanol consumption causes the structural and functional alterations associated with alcohol-related brain damage. Furthermore, by comparing these results, we may be able to isolate disturbances in molecular pathways specific to the brain damage caused by alcohol, severe liver dysfunction and thiamine deficiency

    Proteomics of the human alcoholic brain: Implications for the pathophysiology of alcohol-related brain damage

    Get PDF
    Proteomics is rapidly achieving recognition as a complimentary and perhaps superior approach to examine global changes in protein abundance in complex biological systems and the value of these techniques in neuropsychiatry is beginning to be acknowledged. Characterizing the brain’s regional proteomes provides a foundation for the detection of proteins that may be involved in disease-related processes. Firstly, optimal conditions were achieved for the application of two dimensional-gel electrophoresis (2D-GE)-based proteomics with postmortem human brain tissue. These optimized techniques were then applied to soluble fractions of adjacent grey and white matter of a single cytoarchitecturally defined area (Brodmann area 9; BA9) and of two adjacent regions of frontal white matter (BA9 and CC body) from healthy individuals. These normative proteomic comparisons highlighted the importance of correct tissue sampling, i.e. proper separation of regional white matter, as heterogeneity in the respective proteomes was demonstrated. Furthermore, they stressed the necessity for future molecular brain mapping studies. The main focus of this thesis however, was to examine the proteomes of brain regions specifically vulnerable to alcohol-induced damage underlying cognitive dysfunction. Alcoholic patients commonly experience mild to severe cognitive decline. It is postulated that cognitive dysfunction is caused by an alcohol-induced region selective brain damage, particularly to the prefrontal cortex. The cerebellum is increasingly recognized for its role in various aspects of cognition and alcohol–induced damage to the cerebellar vermis could indirectly affect neurocognitive functions attributed to the frontal lobe. We used a 2D-GE-based proteomics approach to compare protein abundance profiles of BA9 grey and white matter and the cerebellar vermis from human alcoholics (neurologically uncomplicated and alcoholics complicated with liver cirrhosis) and healthy control brains. Among the protein level changes observed are disturbances in the levels of a number of thiamine-dependent enzymes. A derangement in energy metabolism perhaps related to thiamine deficiency seems to be important in all regions analysed, even where there are no clinical or pathological findings of Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. Evidence of oxidative changes was also seen in all regions and effects of liver dysfunction in the vermis found. However, overall, these results highlight the complexity of this disease process in that a number of different proteins from different cellular pathways appear to be affected. By identifying changes in protein abundance levels in the prefrontal grey and white matter and the cerebellar vermis, hypotheses may draw upon more mechanistic explanations as to how chronic ethanol consumption causes the structural and functional alterations associated with alcohol-related brain damage. Furthermore, by comparing these results, we may be able to isolate disturbances in molecular pathways specific to the brain damage caused by alcohol, severe liver dysfunction and thiamine deficiency

    How overconfident are current projections of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions?

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    Analyzing the risks of anthropogenic climate change requires sound probabilistic projections of CO2 emissions. Previous projections have broken important new ground, but many rely on out-of-range projections, are limited to the 21st century, or provide only implicit probabilistic information. Here we take a step towards resolving these problems by assimilating globally aggregated observations of population size, economic output, and CO2 emissions over the last three centuries into a simple economic model. We use this model to derive probabilistic projections of business-as-usual CO2 emissions to the year 2150. We demonstrate how the common practice to limit the calibration timescale to decades can result in biased and overconfident projections. The range of several CO2 emission scenarios (e.g., from the Special Report on Emission Scenarios) misses potentially important tails of our projected probability density function. Studies that have interpreted the range of CO2 emission scenarios as an approximation for the full forcing uncertainty may well be biased towards overconfident climate change projections.economics of climate change, scenarios, data assimilation

    How Overconfident are Current Projections of Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Emissions?

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    Analyzing the risks of anthropogenic climate change requires sound probabilistic projections of CO2 emissions. Previous projections have broken important new ground, but many rely on out-of-range projections, are limited to the 21st century, or provide only implicit probabilistic information. Here we take a step towards resolving these problems by assimilating globally aggregated observations of population size, economic output, and CO2 emissions over the last three centuries into a simple economic model. We use this model to derive probabilistic projections of business-as-usual CO2 emissions to the year 2150. We demonstrate how the common practice to limit the calibration timescale to decades can result in biased and overconfident projections. The range of several CO2 emission scenarios (e.g., from the Special Report on Emission Scenarios) misses potentially important tails of our projected probability density function. Studies that have interpreted the range of CO2 emission scenarios as an approximation for the full forcing uncertainty may well be biased towards overconfident climate change projections.Carbon Dioxide, Emissions, Scenarios, Data Assimilation, Markov Chain Monte Carlo

    Arrange a place to sleep : 2B

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    February, 1959."University of Missouri College of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture Cooperating"--Page [4].Title from caption
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