Charles Marcellis and Arthur Vierendeel: a century of Belgian bridge building (1835-1940)

The Belgian bridge builders Charles Marcellis (1798-1864) and Arthur Vierendeel (1852-1940) were jack-of-all-trades in the 19th century, but both were mostly known as bridge designers, trying to have a grip on new structural possibilities. Though the mechanical behaviour of their bridges is very different, Tom Peters already noticed the visual resemblances between Marcellis' girder and box bridges made out of pierced cast-iron plates (1835-1860) and Vierendeel's development of the bridge type named after him (1890-1940). The non-simultaneous yet very similar evolution of these two characters is a duet with consonants and dissonances. Marcellis was an industrialist whereas Vierendeel was an engineer, professor and self-made art critic. Marcellis had imported the idea of cast-iron girder and box bridges from England (e.g. from Fairbairn and Stephenson) and he did not shrink from calling this a Belgian system to erect bridges. Vierendeel on the other hand, after having seen bridge collapses where the diagonals were hardly deformed, developed a simplified arithmetic method to calculate a beam that consists only of a series of rectangular frames, a system that still finds use in design problems today. This recurring pattern of engineering feats is the connecting thread between Marcellis and Vierendeel in this paper. Within a time frame of 100 years both men stood in a fascinating period on new materials (transition from cast iron to steel) and new calculation methods (transition from elementary formulas and trial-and-error testing to full understanding of secondary stresses and mechanical behaviour of materials)

Les oeuvres romanesques de Théophile Gautier à l'écran (un siècle de lecture filmique)

Après une phase de purgatoire critique, l'œuvre de Gautier fait l'objet d'une redécouverte par l'Université depuis les années 70 : qu'en est-il du grand public, qui ne lit d'ailleurs plus guère l'auteur ? L'étude de la réception de l'œuvre romanesque aux XXe et XXIe siècles par le biais des adaptations au cinéma et à la télévision, les deux grands media populaires contemporains, se révèle très fructueuse. À côté de l'exploitation commerciale de thèmes et de techniques relevant du mélodrame de cape et d'épée ou du vaudeville, nombre de problématiques posées par Gautier ont été réactualisées avec pertinence, de manière différenciée, tout au long du siècle dernier. La trentaine d'adaptations dessinent dans leur ensemble une vision philosophique du monde, qui va de la revendication libertine et libertaire du corps, à l'affirmation d'une exigence de réel dans les adaptations du Capitaine Fracasse, dans la lignée des Jeunes-France dont le formalisme (M. Crouzet) tend à inverser les signes du fictif et du réel. Aux premières œuvres succède en effet un rapport de plus en plus inquiet à l'Idéal, incarné par des mortes-vivantes qui ne se contentent plus d'amour pour alimenter leur existence factice, mais qui vampirisent physiquement et mentalement les vivantsAfter being sent to purgatory by the critics, the work of Gautier has been rediscovered by the University since the 70's: but what about the general public who, for that matter, hardly read the author? The study of how the novels in the XX and XXI centuries have been received through adaptations in the cinema and on television, the two major contemporary mass media, turns out to be a very fruitful one. Alongside the commercial exploitation of themes and techniques belonging to the melodrama of cloak and dagger and vaudeville, a number of issues raised by Gautier were brought up to date, with pertinence and in diverse ways, throughout the last century. The thirty-odd adaptations present a philosophical view of the world on the whole, which ranges from the dissolute and libertarian assertion of the body to the affirmation of the demand for reality in the adaptations of Capitaine Fracasse in the tradition of Jeunes-France, whose formalism (M. Crouzet) tends to reverse the signs of fiction and reality. Indeed, the early works are succeeded by an increasingly uneasy relationship with the Ideal , personified by the living dead who can no longer make do with love to sustain their artificial existence, but who physically and mentally suck the life blood from the livingROUEN-BU Lettres (764512101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Lap shear tests on repaired wrought-iron riveted connections

International audienc

Mécanisation de la technologie du rivetage en construction métallique (1830-1940) : fabrication et installation des rivets

International audienc

Lap shear tests on adhesive bonds of historic iron and mild steel

Putty has been used for ages to seal the connection between glass plates and glazing bars in window frames or iron and glass roofs. Nowadays, putty can be replaced by adhesive, to make the two materials structurally work together. To gain insight in the structural behaviour, this article examines the magnitude of the stresses that can be transmitted between glass panels and historic iron which are bonded with modern adhesive. Experiments on single-lap joints were carried out to determine the influence of parameters, specific for renovation, on the shear strength. The material of the substrate (modern construction steel/19th century mild steel), its surface roughness (obtained by grit blasting) and its treatment (application of zinc-phosphate epoxy paint) were tested. All substrates were bonded with an MS polymer adhesive. The experiments demonstrated that a variation in surface roughness has a small effect on the average shear strength, which is positive for the renovation practice. However, the time period between grit blasting and bonding/applying a paint layer seemed crucial

Technical improvements in 19th-century Belgian window glass production

Glass was used since the Roman age in the building envelope, but it became widely applied together with iron since the 19th century. Belgium was a major producer of window glass during the nineteenth century and the majority of the produced window glass was exported all over the world. Investigating the literature on the development of 19th century Belgian window glass production is therefore internationally relevant. In the 17th century, wood was replaced as a fuel by coal. In the 19th century, the regenerative tank furnace applied gas as a fuel in a continuous glass production process. The advantages were a clean production, a more constant and higher temperature in the furnace and a fuel saving. The French chemist Nicolas Leblanc (1787-1793) and later the Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay (1863) invented processes to produce alkali out of common salt. The artificial soda ash improved the quality and aesthetics of the glass plates. During the 19th century, the glass production was industrialized, influencing the operation of furnaces, the improvement of raw materials as well as the applied energy sources. Although the production process was industrialized, glassblowing was still the work of an individual. By improving his work tools, he was able to create larger glass plates. The developments in the annealing process followed this evolution. The industry had to wait until the invention of the drawn glass in the beginning of the 20th century to fully industrialise the window glass manufacture process

Development of riveting technology through an analysis of Belgian patents (1830-1940)

peer reviewedThe development of riveting technology in iron and steel structures in the 19th and 20th centuries were highly promoted by patents. Although riveting was widely used in buildings and civil engineering structures, little information about the development of this technology – how rivets were manufactured, various installation techniques – is available in literature. This paper discusses a database of patents related to riveting technology that was created to better understand the innovations in riveted connections and their technological evolution. The database includes patents relating to rivets registered in Belgium between 1830 and 1940. Belgian patents are a good proxy for inventiveness in riveting technology in this period, in industrialized countries generally, not only Belgium. As one of the most industrialized countries, Belgium attracted inventors from many countries seeking to register their inventions: foreign inventions represented approximately 75% of all patents. Breakthroughs by important Belgian, French, British, and American inventors/companies are represented in this source. A methodology based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses was implemented. The quantitative analysis dealt with the entire database and explored several key parameters, for example, the subject of the patent and the patenting organization/person. The database also permitted qualitative analyses; specifically, it helped enlarge our understanding of pioneering inventors and their inventions, in the important categories of rivet manufacturing (1855-1870) and installation techniques (1895-1910). As background for the conservation and renovation of historic iron and steel structures, it is vital to have an understanding of the know-how that was available over time. This kind of information is revealed in the patent recor

Aggressive recurrent respiratory papillomatosis: A series of five consecutive patients successfully treated with adjuvant intravenous bevacizumab. A single Belgian academic center experience.

Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is a currently incurable benign neoplasm caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. It usually reduces voice, respiratory, and general quality of life, and is sometimes life-threatening. Patients usually need repeated operations. The use of adjuvant bevacizumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting vascular endothelial growth factor A, has been described in several case reports, with a good efficacy and safety profile. We report the cases of five patients with aggressive RRP who were treated with adjuvant systemic bevacizumab in a single Belgian tertiary center. A complete response was achieved in four patients after a median of 4.5 months, and a partial response in one. In all cases, the number of surgeries was drastically reduced, and quality of life improved. Toxicity was easily managed. Systemic bevacizumab seems to be an effective and safe adjuvant treatment for aggressive RRP

H3.3K27M Mutation Controls Cell Growth and Resistance to Therapies in Pediatric Glioma Cell Lines

International audienceHigh-grade gliomas represent the most lethal class of pediatric tumors, and their resistance to both radio- and chemotherapy is associated with a poor prognosis. Recurrent mutations affecting histone genes drive the tumorigenesis of some pediatric high-grade gliomas, and H3K27M mutations are notably characteristic of a subtype of gliomas called DMG (Diffuse Midline Gliomas). This dominant negative mutation impairs H3K27 trimethylation, leading to profound epigenetic modifications of genes expression. Even though this mutation was described as a driver event in tumorigenesis, its role in tumor cell resistance to treatments has not been deciphered so far. To tackle this issue, we expressed the H3.3K27M mutated histone in three initially H3K27-unmutated pediatric glioma cell lines, Res259, SF188, and KNS42. First, we validated these new H3.3K27M-expressing models at the molecular level and showed that K27M expression is associated with pleiotropic effects on the transcriptomic signature, largely dependent on cell context. We observed that the mutation triggered an increase in cell growth in Res259 and SF188 cells, associated with higher clonogenic capacities. Interestingly, we evidenced that the mutation confers an increased resistance to ionizing radiations in Res259 and KNS42 cells. Moreover, we showed that H3.3K27M mutation impacts the sensitivity of Res259 cells to specific drugs among a library of 80 anticancerous compounds. Altogether, these data highlight that, beyond its tumorigenic role, H3.3K27M mutation is strongly involved in pediatric glioma cells’ resistance to therapies, likely through transcriptomic reprogrammin