On the Evaluation of the Mechanical Behaviour of Structural Glass Elements

Glass can be considered to be a high-technology engineering material with a multifunctional potential for structural applications. However, the conventional approach to the use of glass is often based only on its properties of transparency and isolation. It is thus highly appropriate and necessary to study the mechanical behaviour of this material and to develop adequate methods and models leading to its characterisation. It is evident that the great potential of growth for structural glass applications is an important opportunity of development for the glass industry and the building/construction sectors. The work presented in this paper is a reflection of this conclusion. The authors shortly present the state-of-the-art on the application of glass as a structural element in building and construction, and refer to other potential fields of application and available glass materials. The experimental procedures and methods adopted in three-point bending tests performed on 500 × 100 [mm2] float, laminated and tempered glass specimens with thicknesses between 4 and 19 mm are thoroughly described. The authors evaluated the mechanical strength and stiffness of glass for structural applications. This work contributes to a deeper knowledge of the properties of this material

Engendering pain management practices: the role of physician sex on chronic low-back pain assessment and treatment prescriptions

The impact of physician sex on dimensions of medical care such as treatment prescriptions and referrals has been underexplored, especially in a pain context. Also, few studies have analyzed whether physician sex moderates the influence of patients' or clinical situations' characteristics on pain management practices or its mediating processes. Therefore, our goal was to explore whether physician sex moderates the effects of patient (distressed) pain behaviors and diagnostic evidence of pathology (EP) on treatment prescriptions and referrals for chronic low-back pain, and to explore the mediating role of pain credibility judgments and psychological attributions on these effects. A total of 310 general practitioners (GPs; 72.6% women) participated in a between-subjects design, 2 (patient pain behaviors) x 2 (EP) x 2 (GP sex) x 2 (patient sex). GPs were presented with vignettes depicting a fe(male) chronic low-back pain patient, with(out) distress and with(out) EP (eg, herniated disc). GPs judged the patient's pain and the probability of treatment prescriptions and referrals. Results showed that EP had a larger effect on male than on female physicians' referrals to psychology/psychiatry. Also, GP sex moderated the pain judgments that accounted for the effect of EP and pain behaviors on prescriptions. These findings suggest framing medical decision-making as a process influenced by gender assumptions.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Hierarchical Spatial Organization of Geographical Networks

In this work we propose the use of a hirarchical extension of the polygonality index as a means to characterize and model geographical networks: each node is associated with the spatial position of the nodes, while the edges of the network are defined by progressive connectivity adjacencies. Through the analysis of such networks, while relating its topological and geometrical properties, it is possible to obtain important indications about the development dynamics of the networks under analysis. The potential of the methodology is illustrated with respect to synthetic geographical networks.Comment: 3 page, 3 figures. A wokring manuscript: suggestions welcome

As Potencialidades do vidro como material estrutural

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Quantum Particles Constrained on Cylindrical Surfaces with Non-constant Diameter

We present a theoretical formulation of the one-electron problem constrained on the surface of a cylindrical tubule with varying diameter. Because of the cylindrical symmetry, we may reduce the problem to a one-dimensional equation for each angular momentum quantum number $m$ along the cylindrical axis. The geometrical properties of the surface determine the electronic structures through the geometry dependent term in the equation. Magnetic fields parallel to the axis can readily be incorporated. Our formulation is applied to simple examples such as the catenoid and the sinusoidal tubules. The existence of bound states as well as the band structures, which are induced geometrically, for these surfaces are shown. To show that the electronic structures can be altered significantly by applying a magnetic field, Aharonov-Bohm effects in these examples are demonstrated.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Thermodynamic properties of QCD in external magnetic fields

We consider the effect of strong external electromagnetic fields on thermodynamic observables in QCD, through lattice simulations with 1+1+1 flavors of staggered quarks at physical quark masses. Continuum extrapolated results are presented for the light quark condensates and for their tensor polarizations, as functions of the temperature and the magnetic field. We find the light condensates to undergo inverse magnetic catalysis in the transition region, in a manner that the transition temperature decreases with growing magnetic field. We also compare the results to other approaches and lattice simulations. Furthermore, we relate the tensor polarization to the spin part of the magnetic susceptibility of the QCD vacuum, and show that this contribution is diamagnetic.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, talks presented by FB and GE at Xth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, 8-12 October 2012, TUM Campus Garching, Munich, German