Physical education as Olympic education

Introduction In a recent paper (Parry, 1998, p. 64), I argued that the justification of PE activities lies in their capacity to facilitate the development of certain human excellences of a valued kind. Of course, the problem now lies in specifying those ‘human excellences of a valued kind’, and (for anyone) this task leads us into the area of philosophical anthropology. I suggested that the way forward for Physical Education lies in the philosophical anthropology (and the ethical ideals) of Olympism, which provide a specification of a variety of human values and excellences which: •have been attractive to human groups over an impressive span of time and space •have contributed massively to our historically developed conceptions of ourselves •have helped to develop a range of artistic and cultural conceptions that have defined Western culture. •have produced a range of physical activities that have been found universally satisfying and challenging. Although physical activities are widely considered to be pleasurable, their likelihood of gaining wide acceptance lies rather in their intrinsic value, which transcends the simply hedonic or relative good. Their ability to furnish us with pleasurable experiences depends upon our prior recognition in them of opportunities for the development and expression of valued human excellences. They are widely considered to be such opportunities for the expression of valued human excellences because, even when as local instantiations, their object is to challenge our common human propensities and abilities. I claimed that Olympic ideals may be seen not merely as inert ‘ideals’, but living ideas which have the power to remake our notions of sport in education, seeing sport not as mere physical activity but as the cultural and developmental activity of an aspiring, achieving, well-balanced, educated and ethical individual. This paper seeks to make good that claim by trying to develop a case for Physical Education as Olympic Education. I begin by setting out various accounts and conceptions of the Olympic Idea; then I suggest a unifying and organising account of the philosophical anthropology of Olympism; and this is followed by the practical application of that account in two examples of current ethical issues. Finally, I seek to present an account of Physical Education as Olympic Education

FUSION OF AIRBORNE AND TERRESTRIAL IMAGE-BASED 3D MODELLING FOR ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT – VISION AND FIRST EXPERIMENTS

In this paper we present the vision and proof of concept of a seamless image-based 3d modelling approach fusing airborne and mobile terrestrial imagery. The proposed fusion relies on dense stereo matching for extracting 3d point clouds which – in combination with the original airborne and terrestrial stereo imagery – create a rich 3d geoinformation and 3d measuring space. For the seamless exploitation of this space we propose using a new virtual globe technology integrating the airborne and terrestrial stereoscopic imagery with the derived 3d point clouds. The concept is applied to road and road infrastructure management and evaluated in a highway mapping project combining stereovision based mobile mapping with high-resolution multispectral airborne road corridor mapping using the new Leica RCD30 sensor

Diskussion plastischer Instabilitaeten eines Druckbehaelters mit Hilfe der Methode der Finiten Elemente

Im vorliegenden Bericht wurde mittels des Finite-Elemente Programms ABAQUS der Einfluss geometrischer und thermischer Imperfektionen auf den Versagensdruck von Druckbehaeltern bestimmt. Im Rahmen der Theorie grosser Deformationen wurde ausgehend von einem Materialmodell der Thermoplastizitaet Versagen durch plastische Instabilitaet berechnet. Die dazu notwendigen Materialparameter wurden anhand einachsiger Zugversuche identifiziert. Die Parameter wurden so angepasst, dass das Einschnuerverhalten der Zugprobe gut wiedergegeben wurde. Ausgehend vom Zugstab wurde der Einfluss vom Imperfektionen auf das Einschnuerverhalten diskutiert. In 2D- und 3D-Rechnungen wurde gezeigt, dass bei Druckbehaeltern durch ausreichend grosse Imperfektionen eine Verformungslokalisierung erzielt werden kann. Erwartungsgemaess zeigte sich, dass der maximal ertragbare Innendruck sowie der Beginn der Verformungslokalisierung von der Groesse der Imperfektion abhaengt. (orig.)In this report the influence of geometrical and thermal imperfections on the load-carrying capacity of pressure vessels has been studied by means of the ABAQUS finite element code. Using a thermo-plasticity model for finite strains failure due to plastic instability has been investigated. The parameters needed for this model were identified with uniaxial tensile tests. The parameters were fitted in such a way that necking of the tensile rod was described in a satisfactory manner. Starting from the tensile rod the influence of imperfections on necking of a structure is discussed. Axisymmetric and three dimensional calculations showed that for a sufficient size of the imperfection necking can be obtained. As expected, the maximum internal pressure at failure and the beginning of localization of plastic deformations depend on the size of the imperfection. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: ZA 5141(5362) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Thermoplastizitaet und Thermoviskoplastizitaet mit Schaedigung bei kleinen und grossen Deformationen

This report deals with the formulation and numerical integration of constitutive models with isotropic damage. Based on the irreversible thermodynamics and the internal state variable theory, damage-thermoplasticity and -thermoviscoplasticity models incorporating nonlinear isotropic and nonlinear kinematic hardening are presented. Care is taken that the evolution equations governing the hardening response satisfy the second law of thermodynanmics in the form of the Clausius-Duhem inequality for every admissible process. For three elastoplastic damage models, a possibility to generalize the constitutive equations from small to finite deformations is shown. A damage evolution equation for ductile damage is formulated taking into account the nucleation and growth of voids. The generalization of the constitutive equations to finite deformations is based on the concept of so-called dual variables. The characteristic features of the theoretical framework adopted, are the choice of the strain and stress tensors and suitable associated time derivatives as well as the modeling of the kinematic hardening. In view of an efficient numerical integration procedure, small elastic strains and a simplified kinematic hardening rule is assumed. For this simplified version of the consitutive models some restrictions must be fulfilled in order to satisfy the Clausius-Duhem inequality in a sufficient way. For a simplified version of a damage-thermoviscoplasticity model an efficient, implicit time integration algorithm making use of the operator splitting methodology is presented. The special structure of the system of differential equations allows a reduction of the equations to be solved by means of Newton's method. The contributions to the consistent tangent modulus are calculated analytically. The resulting integration algorithm has been implemented as a UMAT-subroutine into the ABAQUS finite element code. Some numerical examples for displacement and force controlled processes are discussed. Based on a coupled thermomechanical FE analysis, the necking of an axisymmetric tensile specimen and the deformation behavior of a thin cylinder under internal pressure and thermal loading is simulated. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: ZA 5141(6053) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Retinal imaging and axonal degeneration in later onset multiple sclerosis

BACKGROUND: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the CNS typically affecting younger adults and resulting in neuro-axonal degeneration already at early stages of the disease. Less is known about the effects of a later disease onset (LOMS, onset >50years of age). Analysis of retinal layers by optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive method to investigate retinal and neuro-axonal degeneration. We applied OCT to detect differences in retinal damage depending on a later disease manifestation. METHODS: 14 LOMS patients, 14 age- and 14 disease duration-matched normal onset (NOMS) patients with a relapsing remitting disease course and 15 healthy controls (HC) were included. OCT measurement of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), total macular volume (TMV), combined ganglion cell/inner plexiform layer (GCIPL), inner nuclear layer (INL) and outer retinal layers (ORL) was conducted. Furthermore, analysis of clinical features and of effects of previous optic neuritis (ON) was performed RESULTS: In a GEE based analysis of age- and disease duration matched NOMS, LOMS patients show no significant differences in retinal layer thickness whereas ON significantly reduced thickness of retinal layers. All MS groups display lower retinal layer thickness as compared to HC independently of type of onset. DISCUSSION: Our LOMS findings are well in line with published OCT data of normal onset MS. As the degree of retinal layer thinning was similar in MS subgroups, retinal neurodegeneration in MS may occur independently of time of disease onset