Madhubani Art: A Journey of an Education Researcher Seeking Self-Development Answers through Art and Self-Study

This study is situated within a self-study research methods course to scaffold doctoral students’ explorations of the intersections of their culture, and research interests using arts as a tool. Embracing the arts as a research method, the first author painted a self-portrait using the vibrant colors of Madhubani art which holds cultural significance to her. She utilized Blumer’s (1986) and Mead’s (1934) theory of symbolic interactionism to explain the process of her self-development as a researcher. Combining her self-portrait with an earlier research study proved valuable as a conduit for understanding and interpreting her work as a research methodologist. This study is valuable to others interested in studying their practice and research identity through an arts-based research metho

Tumore des biliären Trakts: Häufigkeit, Diagnostik und Therapie

Die malignen Tumoren des biliären Trakts, unterteilt in Gallenblasen- und Gallengangskarzinome, sind eher selten. Dennoch wurden in den vergangenen Jahren Fortschritt in Diagnostik und Therapie erzielt. Neben Verbesserung der operativen Techniken als einzige kurative Option konnte auch ein chemotherapeutischer Standard bei fortgeschrittenen Tumoren etabliert werden. Multimodal Konzepte stehen im Fokus des Forschungsinteresses

Lung Function in Gypsies in Greece

The relationship between lung function and smoking and dietary habits was examined in 121 Gypsies (62 males, 59 females) who were 14-70 y of age and who lived in Greece. All were examined clinically, after which they all participated in spirometry tests. Half of the study group had abnormal (< 80% of predicted) forced vital capacity, 36.4% had abnormal (< 80% of predicted) forced expiratory volume in 1 sec, and 5% had serious lung function disturbances (forced vital capacity < 50% of predicted). Approximately 70% of subjects were smokers, and their diets were rich in alcohol and meat; they ate very few salads and oranges. Consequently, decreased lung function might be a major health problem in Gypsies in Greece. Organization of preventive health strategies should improve the overall health of this study group

Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of passenger cars over the New Worldwide Harmonized Test Protocol

AbstractIn 2014 the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) adopted the global technical regulation No. 15 concerning the Worldwide harmonized Light duty Test Procedure (WLTP). Having significantly contributed to its development, the European Commission is now aiming at introducing the new test procedure in the European type-approval legislation for light duty vehicles in order to replace the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) as the certification test.The current paper aims to assess the effect of WLTP introduction on the reported CO2 emissions from passenger cars presently measured under the New European Driving Cycle and the corresponding test protocol. The most important differences between the two testing procedures, apart from the kinematic characteristics of the respective driving cycles, is the determination of the vehicle inertia and driving resistance, the gear shifting sequence, the soak and test temperature and the post-test charge balance correction applied to WLTP. In order to quantify and analyze the effect of these differences in the end value of CO2 emissions, WLTP and NEDC CO2 emission measurements were performed on 20 vehicles, covering almost the whole European market. WLTP CO2 values range from 125.5 to 217.9g/km, NEDC values range from 105.4 to 213.2g/km and the ΔCO2 between WLTP and NEDC ranges from 4.7 to 29.2g/km for the given vehicle sample. The average cold start effect over WLTP was found 6.1g/km, while for NEDC it was found 12.3g/km. For a small gasoline and a medium sized diesel passenger car, the different inertia mass and driving resistance is responsible 63% and 81% of the observed ΔCO2 between these two driving cycles respectively, whereas the other parameters (driving profile, gear shifting, test temperature) account for the remaining 37% and 19%

Promoting Methodological Creativity and Innovations: Editorial Learning from a Poetic Self-Study Journal Special Issue

We are teacher educators and methodological innovators who have been practicing and facilitating co-creativity (collaborative creativity) for ourselves and for others through poetic self-study. This article examines our professional learning as editors of a journal special issue on poetic self-study scholarship. Our study was built on the conceptual foundation of polyvocal poetic play using the self-study virtual bricolage method and the layering of co-creative data and data analysis. The multidimensional data set and analysis comprised solicited feedback poems from the special issue contributors, our individual found poems developed from the contributors’ poems, a tapestry poem, and our dialogue from a recorded, transcribed online video meeting. In considering the professional impetus and impact of our work as editors, we asked, ‘What difference did editing a special issue make to our understanding of promoting methodological creativity and innovations through poetic self-study? How did poetic feedback from the contributors inform our understanding?’ We discovered four central features of our learning through several data generation and analysis phases: plurality, methodological and epistemological inventiveness, academic–personal intersections, and relational scaffolding. This set of features contributes to the body of knowledge on supporting methodological creativity and innovations in self-study and qualitative research. Editors, reviewers, and authors may find our study’s explanations, examples, and findings useful in their efforts to promote transformative and innovative research

Destructive and non-destructive mechanical characterisation of chocolate with different levels of porosity under various modes of deformation

Chocolate exhibits a complex material response under the varying mechanical loads present during oral processing. Mechanical properties such as Young’s modulus and fracture stress are linked to sensorial attributes such as hardness. Apart from this link with hardness perception, these mechanical properties are important input parameters towards developing a computational model to simulate the first bite. This study aims to determine the mechanical properties of chocolate with different levels of micro-aeration, 0–15%, under varying modes of deformation. Therefore, destructive mechanical experiments under tension, compression, and flexure loading are conducted to calculate the Young’s modulus, yield, and fracture stress of chocolate. The values of Young’s modulus are also confirmed by independent ultrasonic mechanical experiments. The results showed that differences up to 35% were observed amongst the Young’s modulus of chocolate for different mechanical experiments. This maximum difference was found to drop with increasing porosity and a negligible difference in the Young’s modulus measurements amongst the different mechanical experiments is observed for the 15% micro-aerated chocolate. This phenomenon is caused by micro-pores obstructing the microscopic inelastic movement occurring from the early stages of the material’s deformation. This work provides a deeper understanding of the mechanical behaviour of chocolate under different loading scenarios, which are relevant to the multiaxial loading during mastication, and the role of micro-aeration on the mechanical response of chocolate. This will further assist the food industry’s understanding of the design of chocolate products with controlled and/or improved sensory perception

Your Digital News Reading Habits Reflect Your Personality

The way people read digital news - as distinct from what news they read - has emerged as a significant concern for research in user modelling and personalisation. Intuitively, some people read the news frequently and broadly whilst others read it occasionally and selectively. It is likely that these differences in news reading behaviour arise in part from differences in peoples' personalities. We report a study that surveyed the digital news reading habits and personality traits of 241 people. We find correlations between most news reading characteristics (e.g., how much time over a day a person reads news) and some personality traits (e.g Openness-to-Experience). The correlations provide a better understanding of the different types of news reading user and why they read news in different ways. They indicate the value of extending user model profiles to include personality traits along with domain specific activity factors

A micromechanical based finite element model approach to accurately predict the effective thermal properties of micro-aerated chocolate

Micro-aeration is a method to modify the sensorial attributes of chocolate but also affects the material properties of chocolate, which in turn, determine its material response during manufacturing and oral processes. This study aims to define the effect of micro-aeration on the thermal properties of chocolate by considering the changes of chocolate microstructure due to micro-aeration. Micro-aeration was found to alter the chocolate microstructure creating a layer of a third phase at the porous interfaces, which is argued to consist of cocoa butter of higher melting properties. A multiscale Finite Element Model is developed, which was confirmed by macroscale heat transfer measurements, to parametrically simulate the structural changes of micro-porous chocolates at the microscale level and estimate their effective properties, such as thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity. The developed multiscale computational model simulates the porous chocolate as a two-phase (chocolate- pores) or three-phase material (chocolate-cocoa butter layer- pores). The investigation identified a new, complex transient thermal mechanism that controls the behaviour of micro-aerated chocolate during melting and solidification. The results showed a maximum 13% reduction of keff and 15% increase of Cpeff with 15% micro-aeration resulting to a slower transient heat transfer through the micro-aerated chocolate. The reason is that the micro-aerated chocolate can store a larger amount of thermal energy than its solid counterpart. This effect slows down the transient heat transfer rate in the chocolate and modifies melting/solidification rate and impacts sensorial attributes during oral processing and cooling during manufacturing