Documentation of computer program GRIDDEL

The GRIDDEL computer program which generates finite element meshes for NASTRAN in a manner convenient to the study of laminated composite flat plates is discussed. The program is capable of creating 8 node HEXA elements, GRID coordinates, and PSOLID data in the appropriate NASTRAN format. It is more convenient for this purpose than use of NASTRAN's preprocessors

Research priorities for advanced fibrous composites

Priorities for research in advanced laminated fibrous composite materials are presented. Supporting evidence is presented in two bodies, including a general literature survey and a survey of aerospace composite hardware and service experience. Both surveys were undertaken during 1977-1979. Specific results and conclusions indicate that a significant portion of contemporary published research diverges from recommended priorites

Narrative enquiry

It is falling increasingly to international organisations and institutions to provide a coherent and workable global value system which embraces difference internally and externally with compliance expected from every level of the organisation. International human rights conventions and statutory regulations require compliance to human rights principles putting such organisations at the forefront of cultural relations. A global values framework gives them the opportunity to shake off colonial pasts and to strive to make a good business case for adherence to such principles. As principles are more challenging to enact than to formulate, to support this values portfolio, research is needed into how principles can be enacted in every day matters of the organisation. Current literature highlights the use of storytelling as sense-making and, as such, has become a growing trend in the use of the narrative approach across disciplines and professional sectors. Its contributors are from anthropology, education, linguistics, translation studies, literature, politics, psychology and sociology, organization studies and history. This chapter surfaces the link between local and grand narratives through an ethno narrative approach contextualised within a recent study of EDI and specifically Global Diversity Management

Education and the Image of God

Christian educators rightfully desire to offer an education that reflects both the goals and processes which are consistent with biblical truth. This requires that educators be sensitive to those doctrines and concepts which best inform theory and practice. In this article we examine the doctrine of the image of God and its implications for education. Threats to the image which can be seen in the society are briefly presented as well as some suggestions for the administration and practice of schooling

Coral symbiodinium community composition across the Belize Mesoamerican barrier reef system is influenced by host species and thermal variability

Accepted manuscrip

High power 405 nm diode laser fiber-coupled single-mode system with high long-term stability

Fiber-coupled 405 nm diode laser systems are rarely used with fiber output powers higher than 50 mW. A quick degradation of fiber-coupled high power modules with wavelengths in the lower range of the visible spectrum is known for several years. Meanwhile, the typical power of single-mode diode lasers around 400 nm is in the order of 100 to 300 mW, leading to single-mode fiber core power densities in the 1 MW/cm² range. This is three magnitudes of order below the known threshold for optical damage. Our profound investigations on the influence of 405 nm laser light irradiation of single-mode fibers found the growth of periodic surface structures in the form of ripples responsible for the power loss. The ripples are found on the proximal and distal fiber end surfaces, negatively impacting power transmission and beam quality, respectively. Important parameters in the generation of the surface structures are power density, surface roughness and polarization direction. A fiber-coupled high-power 405 nm diode laser system with a high long-term stability will be introduced and described

Nonsupersymmetric brane vacua in stabilized compactifications

We derive the equations for the nonsupersymmetric vacua of D3-branes in the presence of nonperturbative moduli stabilization in type IIB flux compactifications, and solve and analyze them in the case of two particular 7-brane embeddings at the bottom of the warped deformed conifold. In the limit of large volume and long throat, we obtain vacua by imposing a constraint on the 7-brane embedding. These vacua fill out continuous spaces of higher dimension than the corresponding supersymmetric vacua, and have negative effective cosmological constant. Perturbative stability of these vacua is possible but not generic. Finally, we argue that anti-D3-branes at the tip of the conifold share the same vacua as D3-branes.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX. v2: references added, typo fixed. v3: version appearing in JHE

Desensitizing Inflation from the Planck Scale

A new mechanism to control Planck-scale corrections to the inflationary eta parameter is proposed. A common approach to the eta problem is to impose a shift symmetry on the inflaton field. However, this symmetry has to remain unbroken by Planck-scale effects, which is a rather strong requirement on possible ultraviolet completions of the theory. In this paper, we show that the breaking of the shift symmetry by Planck-scale corrections can be systematically suppressed if the inflaton field interacts with a conformal sector. The inflaton then receives an anomalous dimension in the conformal field theory, which leads to sequestering of all dangerous high-energy corrections. We analyze a number of models where the mechanism can be seen in action. In our most detailed example we compute the exact anomalous dimensions via a-maximization and show that the eta problem can be solved using only weakly-coupled physics.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figures

Penetrance and predictive value of genetic screening in acute porphyria

Objective: Penetrance, predictive value and female patients' perspectives on genetic testing were evaluated among Finnish patients with acute porphyria. We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate prognosis among at-risk female family members depending on the primary method of diagnosis. Methods: The penetrance was calculated among 23 genetically heterogeneous families selected from the Finnish porphyria registry (n = 515, AIP 333; VP 182). We included kindreds with >= 9 patients in a family (range 9-23 patients, total 216 AIP; 129 VP). In 2015, the registry included 164 living female subjects between 14 and 85 years of age. A questionnaire was sent to 143 women, of whom 107 (75%, AIP 67; VP 40) replied. Female at-risk relatives (AIP 54; VP 30) were divided into two groups based on the primary method of diagnosis: mutation analysis (Group A, n = 40) or biochemical analysis (Group B, n = 44). Results: Mean penetrance for all acute symptoms was 35% among AIP and 40% among VP families. In both study groups, the penetrance was higher among female (AIP 50%; VP 44%) than male patients (AIP 17%; VP 33%). Penetrance for hospitalized attacks was 30% among AIP families (range 10-80%, for women 41%) and 25% in VP (range 0-50%, for women 27%) demonstrating wide variations among families even with the similar genotype. Acute porphyria was diagnosed at the median age of 26 years (range 0-76 years) among female patients, commonly after the onset of acute symptoms. Diagnostic delay was an average of 7.4 years (range 1-30 years). Acute symptoms occurred at the median age of 24 years (range 10-57 years) and the first hospitalization at the median age of 26.5 years (range 15-57 years). At the onset of symptoms, 38% of the women were Conclusions: Among female at-risk relatives the annual risk for hospitalization due to an acute attack is <1% and for acute symptoms <2% during the fertile years. Genetic testing of relatives diminishes the risk of acute attacks. Diagnosis before symptom onset is key for subjects to remain asymptomatic during follow-up, and genetic screening should be done earlier than currently.Peer reviewe