648 research outputs found
Ambiguity and interpretive politics in the crisis of European values: evidence from Hungary
As the number of European countries that recognise same-sex unions increases, so does the number of countries that resists this institution. This trend runs counter to the conventional wisdom, which links anti-LGBTI policies to domestic demands and developments. Instead, this paper argues that political homophobia needs to be situated within an international context. Using the Slovak case as a plausibility probe, the article shows that the bans on same-sex marriage were adopted as a precautionary measure: worried by the growing support for LGBTI rights elsewhere in Europe, conservative lawmakers feared that their traditional family values would come under threat.Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou
Codeless App Development: Evaluating A Cloud-Native Domain-Specific Functions Approach
Mobile applications play an important role in the economy today and there is
an increasing trend for app enablement on multiple platforms. However,
creating, distributing, and maintaining an application remain expert tasks.
Even for software developers, the process can be error-prone and
resource-consuming, especially when targeting different platforms
simultaneously. Researchers have proposed several frameworks to facilitate
cross-platform app development, but little attention has been paid to
non-technical users. In this paper, we described the Flow framework, which
takes the advantage of domain-specific languages to enable no-code
specification for app modeling. The cloud-native coordination mechanism further
supports non-technical users to execute, monitor, and maintain apps for any
target platforms. User evaluations were conducted to assess the usability and
user experience with the system. The results indicated that users can develop
apps in Flow with ease, but the prototype could be optimized to reduce learning
time and workload
Tendon Cell Behavior and Matrix Remodeling in Degenerative Tendinopathy
Tendon injuries are common in human athletes [1-4]. Furthermore, such injuries are also
prevalent in the ageing sedentary population [5-7]. In recent decades, the incidence of tendon
injuries has risen due to both an increase in an elderly population and a rise in participation in
recreational and competitive sporting activities. In the general population the lifetime cumulative
incidence of Achilles tendinopathy is 5.9 % among sedentary people and 50 % among elite
endurance athletes [2]. Despite the high frequency, there are still many unsolved questions and
differences of opinion concerning pathology, etiology, and even terminology.
Until several years ago the most often used word for tendon disease in the clinical practice of
orthopaedic and sports medicine was âtendonitis/ tendinitisâ, literally meaning tendon inflammation,
reflecting the general idea that overuse tendinopathies were due to inflammation.
However, this common wisdom was challenged by that time, as the histopathological feature
usually described in tendinopathies was a degenerative process and inflammation was not
typically seen [8-11]. Therefore Nicola Maffulli suggested to use the term âtendinopathyâ as a
general descriptor of the clinical conditions in and around tendons arising from overuse [12,
13]. In addition the term âtendinosisâ, literally meaning tendon degeneration, should be used
after histopathological examination. This nomenclature is gradually being integrated now in
research communication and clinicial practice.
The clinical presentation of tendinopathy is characterized by a combination of pain, swelling,
and impaired performance. A variety of tendons in humans may be affected including the
supraspinatus tendon in the shoulder, the forearm extensor and flexor muscle tendons in the
elbow, and the Achilles tendon and the patellar tendon in the lower limb. The respons of tendinopathy
to the currently available treatment options is often unsatisfactory requiring lengthy
periods of rehabilitation or even surgical intervention [14, 15]
In search for the etiology of the complex regional pain syndrome
The complex regional pain syndrome is poorly elucidated. In line with this its diagnosis
and clinical management have remained suboptimal. The multifaceted nature makes it a
fascinating study topic for scientists with varying interests, but unraveling the etiology
has been proven a laborious mission.
The first notification of what could have been (what is currently named) complex regional
pain syndrome (CRPS) stems from 1634, when the surgeon Ambroise Pare described
that King Charles IX suffered from persistent pain and contractures of his arm following
a bloodletting procedure.1 The next remarks came from the military physician Scott
Mitchell and date from the American Civil War: ââŠLong after the trace of the effect
of a wound has gone neuralgic symptoms are apt to linger, and too many carry with
them throughout long years this final reminder of the battle field...â.2 The first scientific
publication on CRPS was issued in 1900 from a German surgeon named Paul Sudeck.3
His name became tied to the syndrome for long (Sudecksâ dystrophy)
Measurements and scaling of buoyancy-induced flows in ventilated tunnels
We investigate the ventilation conditions required to control the propagation of smoke, produced by a tunnel fire, in the presence of two inertial forcings: a transverse extraction system and a longitudinal flow. For that purpose, we performed a series of experiments in a reduced-scale tunnel, using a mixture of air and helium to simulate the release of hot smoke during a fire. Experiments were designed to focus on the ventilation flows that allow the buoyant release to be confined between two adjacent extraction vents. Different source conditions, in terms of density and velocity of the buoyant release, were analysed along with different vent configurations. Experiments allowed us to quantify the increase of the extraction velocity needed to confine the buoyant smoke, overcoming the effect of an imposed longitudinal velocity. Vents with a rectangular shape, and spanning over the whole tunnel width, provide the best performance. Finally, we studied the stratification conditions of the flow, individuating four regimes. Interestingly, when the stratification conditions fade out, as both the longitudinal flow and vertical extraction flows increase, the flow dynamics becomes almost independent of the forcing induced by the presence of buoyant smoke, which eventually acts as a passive scalar transported by the flow
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