Romanticism in Law & Art German Romanticism, Creativity, and European Legal Culture

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Numerical simulation of the flexural behaviour of composite glass-GFRP beams using smeared crack models

This paper presents a numerical study about the flexural behaviour of rectangular composite glass-GFRP beams, comprising annealed glass and GFRP pultruded profiles bonded with two different adhesives: (soft) polyurethane and (stiff) epoxy. The main objectives of this study were: (i) to fully characterize the non-linear behaviour of glass using the smeared crack approach; and (ii) to assess the applicability of different options to simulate adhesively bonded glass-GFRP joints. An extensive parametric study was developed to evaluate the influence of five parameters on the glass post-cracking non-linear behaviour: (i) glass fracture energy, Gf, (ii) crack band width, h, (iii) glass tensile strength, fg,t, (iv) shape of the tension-softening diagram, and (v) shear retention factor, β. The wide range of the joints’ shear stiffness was simulated by either (i) assuming a perfect bond between glass and GFRP (i.e., neglecting the presence of the adhesive), or (ii) explicitly considering the adhesive, by means of using (ii.1) plane stress elements, or (ii.2) interface elements. For the beams analysed in this paper, the following material model for glass provided a good agreement with experimental results: Gf in the range of 3 to 300 N/m, h equal to the square root of the finite element area, fg,t = 50 MPa, linear softening diagram and β according to a power law. It was also shown that the hypothesis of perfect bond at the GFRP-glass interfaces allows for an accurate simulation of joints with high levels of interaction (epoxy), while calibrated interface elements are needed for joints with low level of interaction (polyurethane).The authors wish to acknowledge FCT, ICIST/CERIS and ISISE for funding the research, and companies SIKA, Guardian and ALTO for supplying the adhesives, the glass panes and the GFRP pultruded profiles used in the experiments. The first author also wishes to thank FCT for the financial support through his PhD scholarship SFRH/BD/80234/2011

Sovjets arvlösa barnbarn? : Den ryska diasporans politiska och kulturella situation i dagens Lettland

The aim of this study is to examine the political and cultural situation of the Russian speaking minority, who remained in the Baltic states after the fall of the Soviet Union. This essay is based on previous research and theories regardning the Diaspora politics in order to understand the underlying reasons for the political dissatifaction of the Diaspora. The research findings show deficiencies in the Latvian normalization process which are historically and culturally conditioned and that there are significant ethnic differences between the Latvian majority and the Russian-speaking minority. The study confirms Diaspora research and theories regardning the need for territorial belonging and national cohesion as a prerequisite for the Diaspora's ability to integrate into the nationalized homeland. The Soviet occupation of Latvia constitutes the fundamental reasons for the Latvian governments reluctance to include the Diaspora in their nation-building process after its independence. The external homeland Russia and Russian culture has become a substitute for the cultural rootlessness of the Diaspora. Russia's military actions in the surrounding countries and political propagranda in Latvia have negatively effected the integration of the Diaspora. These actions are today considered a potential challenge to Latvian democracy

Första tiden hemma En litteraturstudie över mäns upplevelser av första tiden efter radikal prostatektomi.

Bakgrund. Prostatacancer är den vanligaste formen av cancer i Sverige. Det finns två botande behandlingar; strålning och operation då hela prostatan avlägsnas, radikal prostatektomi. Den vanligaste operationsmetoden är en robotassisterad titthålsteknik, så kallad robotassisterad laporoskopisk radikal prostatektomi (RALP). På Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset område Urologi utförs 250 – 300 RALP-operationer per år och patienterna skrivs ut till hemmet dagen efter ingreppet. Omvårdnaden under den första tiden efter RALP utgörs framför allt av egenvård som baseras på patientens behov av – och förmåga till densamma. Efter en vecka kommer patienterna tillbaka till Prostatacancercentrum för att avveckla kateter. Kontaktsjuksköterskorna önskar mer kunskap kring hur patienterna upplever första tiden tiden hemma efter operation. Syftet med examensarbetet är att undersöka hur patienter som har genomgått en RALP-operation upplever den första postoperativa tiden. Metod. Med en strukturerad litteratursökning sammanställs det forskningsmaterial som finns inom problemområdet. Studien är ett verksamhetsförlagt examensarbete (VFE) vilket innebär att problemområdet och frågeställningen kommer från en verksamhet, i detta fall Prostatacancercentrum. Huvudfynd. Patienter hade ett stort informationsbehov, men uppfattade ofta informationen som bristande. Tydlig och vältajmad information bidrog till trygghet kring egenvårdsåtgärder och förmåga till återhämtning. Patienter hade ett stort behov av stöd från hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal, närstående och framför allt andra som genomgått samma behandling. Flera studier visade att män var oförberedda på upplevelsen av att ha kateter och även påföljande urininkontinens. Den tidiga postoperativa perioden präglades ofta av obehag och oro men även strategier för att återgå till sitt vanliga liv. Slutsatser. Sjuksköterskor har en viktig roll att fylla inför och under den tidiga postoperativa perioden som undersökts. Såväl information, utbildning och stöd kring biverkningar, postoperativa besvär, oro eller ångest, egenvård samt kontakt med andra i likande situation är viktiga områden enligt deltagarna i dessa studier

Skapandet av en modernistisk trädgård

Examensarbetet "Skapandet av en modernistisk trädgård" är resultatet av ett samarbete mellan en TRING odlare och en TRING designer som bestämde sig för att arbeta gränsöverskridande och dra nytta av varandras specialområden för att skapa en vacker och hållbar trädgård i modernistisk anda till ett fritidshus i Stora Rör på Öland

Body mass index and dental caries in children and adolescents : a systematic review of literature published 2004 to 2011

The objectiveThe authors undertook an updated systematic review of the relationship between body mass index and dental caries in children and adolescents.MethodThe authors searched Medline, ISI, Cochrane, Scopus, Global Health and CINAHL databases and conducted lateral searches from reference lists for papers published from 2004 to 2011, inclusive. All empirical papers that tested associations between body mass index and dental caries in child and adolescent populations (aged 0 to 18 years) were included.ResultsDental caries is associated with both high and low body mass index.ConclusionA non-linear association between body mass index and dental caries may account for inconsistent findings in previous research. We recommend future research investigate the nature of the association between body mass index and dental caries in samples that include a full range of body mass index scores, and explore how factors such as socioeconomic status mediate the association between body mass index and dental caries.<br /

Pathological periodontal pockets are associated with raised diastolic blood pressure in obese adolescents

BACKGROUND: Obesity, a well-known risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), is associated with chronic periodontitis in adults. This cross-sectional pilot study on obese adolescents was designed to investigate whether periodontal disease in terms of pathological periodontal pockets is associated with raised blood pressure and other risk markers for CVD. METHODS: The study included 75 obese subjects between 12 to 18 years of age, mean 14.5. Subjects answered a questionnaire regarding health, oral hygiene habits and sociodemographic factors. A clinical examination included Visible Plaque Index (VPI %), Gingival inflammation (BOP %) and the occurrence of pathological pockets exceeding 4 mm (PD ≥ 4 mm). Blood serum were collected and analyzed. The systolic and diastolic blood pressures were registered. RESULTS: Adolescents with pathological periodontal pockets (PD ≥ 4 mm; n = 14) had significantly higher BOP >25% (P = 0.002), higher diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.008), higher levels of Interleukin (IL)-6 (P < 0.001), Leptin (P = 0.018), Macrophage Chemoattractant Protein-1 (MCP-1) (P = 0.049) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) (P = 0.004) in blood serum compared with subjects without pathological periodontal pockets (PD ≥ 4 mm; n = 61). The bivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated that PD ≥ 4 mm (P = 0.008) and systolic blood pressure (P < 0.001) were significantly associated with the dependent variable “diastolic blood pressure”. The association between PD ≥ 4 mm and diastolic blood pressure remained significant (P = 0.006) even after adjusting for potential confounders BMI-sds, age, gender, mother’s country of birth, BOP >25%, IL-6, IL-8, Leptin, MCP-1, TSH and total cholesterol in the multiple regression analysis. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this study indicates an association between pathological periodontal pockets and diastolic blood pressure in obese adolescents. The association was unaffected by other risk markers for cardiovascular events or periodontal disease. The results call for collaboration between pediatric dentists and medical physicians in preventing obesity development and its associated disorders

Project Status of the Polish Synchrotron Radiation Facility Solaris

Abstract in Undetermined The Polish synchrotron radiation facility Solaris is being built at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The project is based on an identical copy of the 1.5 GeV storage ring being concurrently built for the MAX IV project in Lund, Sweden. A general description of the facility is given together with a status of activities. Unique features associated with Solaris are outlined, such as infrastructure, the injector and operational characteristics