Postmortem analyses of vitreous fluid

The identification of various various medical conditions postmortem is often difficult. Results from analysis of postmortem blood and urine samples are not as appropriate as in living subjects, due to bacterial contamination and postmortem cell degradation. Therefore, vitreous humour – the fluid in the eyeball – has been of substantial value in forensic pathology. Vitreous fluid is easily collected, isolated, and almost bacteria- and cell free, and shows relatively stable conditions after death, making it a better matrix for postmortem biochemical analyses than e.g. blood and serum. Although postmortem analyses of vitreous fluid have been studied quite extensviely, there are still many unanswered questions. Vitreous fluid from over 3,000 deceased subjects were consecutivley collected and analysed for glucose, lactate, pH, electrolytes and gas pressures. Paper I focuses on the postmortem diagnosis of hyperglycemia. We show that vitreous glucose levels decrease the first 12-24 hours after death and are relatively stable after that. We also suggest that lactate should not be used to diagnose antemortem hyperglycemia, due to massive lactate increase from other sources – instead, glucose alone should be used. A vitreous glucose level of 10 mmol/L indicates severe antemortem hyperglycemia. In paper II, we studied the postmortem increase in vitreous potassium levels, which can be used to estimate the time of death. Our results show that postmortem potassium levels are affected by the surrounding temperature and the age of the deceased. We have developed a new equation for the estimation of the time of death that includes potassium, surrounding temperature and decedent age. To facilitate the calculation for the user, we have developed a web application. Paper III deals with the interpretation of postmortem vitreous sodium and chloride levels. We show that vitreous sodium and chloride levels slowly decrease with time of death. Postmortem vitreous sodium and chloride levels correlate well with antemortem serum sodium and chloride levels if corrected for time since death, and may be used to diagnose various antemortem sodium/chloride imbalances, such as dehydration or water intoxication. Sodium imbalances in cases of drownings are most likely due to postmortem diffusion between water and vitreous, rather than the drowning process

Nomi di marca del settore alimentare italiano

I nomi di marca costituiscono un elemento importante del nostro ambiente linguistico quotidiano. Dato che li incontriamo tanto nella stampa, nella pubblicità radiofonica e televisiva quanto su cartelloni pubblicitari ed insegne luminose, si può dire che giorno per giorno veniamo a contatto con più di 300 marchi (cfr. Latour, 1992, p. 140)

Microphase separation, stress relaxation and creep behavior of polyurethane nanocomposites

The microphase separation of polyurethane (PU) nanocomposite was studied. The result suggests that the addition of clay leads to a decrease in the size of hard domain and an increase in the degree of microphase separation. The stress relaxation and creep behavior of blank PU and PU/clay nanocomposites were investigated. The relaxation time spectrum and retardant time spectrum were derived according to the generalized Maxwell model and Voigt model with a Tikhonov regularization method. The characteristic relaxation time was identified with the corresponding relaxation process. At a small strain, the relaxation was mainly attributed to uncoiling/disentangling of soft segment chain network in the soft phase, with a single characteristic relaxation time in the range of 5~100s. The increase in the hard segment content leads to a decrease in the relaxation time, and the addition of clay leads to an increase in the relaxation time. At large strains, the multi-peak relaxations occurred, and they were attributed to the breakup of interconnected hard domains and pull-out of soft segment chains from hard domains, together with the disentangling of soft segment chain network in the soft phase. The creep results are in consistent with that of the stress relaxation. The relaxation and creep behavior were related to microphase separation of polyurethane. This study suggested that the relaxation spectrum H(ï´) can be used to examine the complicated relaxation processes for a multi-phase and multi-component polymer system

Session Paper

Für die linguistische Forschung gelten Markennamen aufgrund ihres ausgeprägten Praxisbezugs und der Vielfalt des verwendeten sprachlichen Materials als wesentliche Bereicherung. Unter allen Namenarten stellen Bezeichnungen für Produkte den wohl am stärksten expandierenden Bereich dar. Die Notwendigkeit, für immer neue Produkte Namen zu finden, hat einen sprachlichen Notstand geschaffen, der Kreativität erfordert. Die Bildungsprinzipien und -tendenzen italienischer Markennamen des Lebensmittelmarktes sind anhand von 950 Markennamen beschrieben worden, die in einer Feldforschung in italienischen Lebensmittelmärkten zusammengetragen worden sind. Im Vordergrund der Analyse stehen graphische, lautliche, morphologische, semantische, lexikalische sowie stilistische Charakteristika italienischer Markennamen. Auch kulturelle Aspekte werden berücksichtigt. Die Analyse mündet in eine Typologie der Markennamen, die Bildungsmodelle für die Kreation zukünftiger Namen enthält. Bei der Untersuchung der Markennamen eröffnet sich noch ein weites Forschungsfeld. So soll nun eine Antwort geliefert werden auf die Frage, ob bestimmte Formen, z. B. bestimmte Fremdsprachen, oder Inhalte produktgruppenspezifisch verwendet werden. Dass in diesem Bereich gewisse Regelmäßigkeiten bestehen, beweist die Tatsache, dass das Adjektiv "fresco" in der italienischen Markennamengebung überwiegend zur Bezeichnung von Käse eingesetzt wird: FRESCOCOLLE, FRESCONEVE, I GHIOTTOFRESCHI. Zur Bezeichnung von Gebäck, wiederum, wird vielfach lexikalisches Material aus dem Bereich der Zärtlichkeit eingesetzt: ABBRACCI, COCCOLE, DOLCEZZE DI CAMPO, TENEREZZE

Nomi di marca del settore alimentare italiano

I nomi di marca costituiscono uno tra i settori più vitali dell¿analisi linguistica. La descrizione della struttura formale e del significato di nomi di marca italiani si fonda su un corpus contenente 950 unità lessemiche relative all¿ambito dei prodotti alimentari. Dallo studio di questi nomi di marca emerge in primo luogo l¿elevato grado di creatività linguistica. L¿analisi, il cui procedimento è induttivo, si concentra su aspetti grafici, fonetici, morfologici, semantici, lessicali e retorici. Essa ha per intento ultimo la stesura di una tipologia che serva da modello per la creazione di ulteriori nomi di marca. Concludiamo che la ricerca linguistica potrebbe rivelarsi utile per altri settori professionali come quello della creazione di nomi

Epoxy-based fibre reinforced nanocomposites

The modification of epoxy resins with nanoparticles could endow the materials with some superior properties such as broadening of the glass transition temperatures, modest increases in the glassy modulus, low dielectric constant, and significant increases in key mechanical properties. In the last 15 years, some studies have shown the potential improvement in properties and performances of fibre reinforced polymer matrix materials in which nano and micro-scale particles were incorporated. From the existing literature, considerable effort has been given to the synthesis and processing of these unique polymers, but relatively little work has focused on the fibre reinforced epoxy composites. The purpose of this work, therefore, is to review the available literature in epoxy- fibre reinforced composites manufactured using carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibre and nanoclays for reinforcement