Effect of rear walls on the rocking response of rock blocks under seismic excitations

The rocking response of rigid free standing bodies subjected to seismic excitation has been studied by many researchers interested in different slender elements such as ancient stone columns, tombstones, rigid building structures. The extension of this model to rock mechanics has been proposed by a few authors. The rocking response of rectangular free standing bodies subjected to horizontal accelerations of natural recorded motions showed that the pseudo-static approach, based on Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), permits only the determination of the uplift conditions and the beginning of rocking. It does not permit to evaluate the overturning of the blocks. The combined effect of vertical and horizontal seismic motions is negligible and, in some cases, beneficial. This paper presents a new mechanical model, called "one-sided rocking", that takes into account the presence of a rear rigid wall, that is a typical scenario for the rock blocks completely detached from the cliff but close to it. The dynamic response of a great number of rectangular rigid blocks, subjected to 62 recorded earthquake motions on rock soil (from US, Europe and Asia), has been analysed considering only the horizontal acceleration. The results show that the presence of the wall is detrimental for the rocking stability. However, there is still a safety reserve more significant for large blocks and rich frequency content time histories. This reserve could be taken into account in simplified (pseudo-static) analyses through reductive coefficient of PGA

A bizarre complication of shoulder arthroscopy

A case is presented of an unusual complication of shoulder arthroscopy, which was caused by incorrect location of the posterior portal, inducing neurapraxia of both the axillary and radial nerves, with significant clinical and functional sequelae. A subsequent open surgical neurolysis was required to restore normal nerve function. This type of lesion has not been reported previously

Meat quality traits and fatty acid composition of breast muscles from ducks fed with yellow lupin

Abstract The protein sources in feed have a huge impact on good-quality and -quantity meat traits. Yellow lupin (YL) seeds have a similar level of protein as soybean meal (SBM). The most popular is SBM that is genetically modified (GMO). During this age, the consumer market requires non-GMO products. Yellow lupin used as a high-protein substitute for SBM in feed has an effect on the quality of meat from broiler ducks. The aim of the study was to analyse and compare meat quality traits in breast and leg muscles as well as fatty acid (FA) composition in breast muscles from ducks fed mixtures containing YL as an alternative to SBM. Two hundred 1-day-old Cherry Valley ducks were kept in pens on litter in two equal dietary groups, four replications with 25 birds per group. The control group (1) received balanced feed containing SBM. The treatment group (2) received balanced feed containing YL. The feed provided to both groups contained 55% of concentrate and 45% of wheat. Birds received feed and water ad libitum and were reared for 8 weeks. After that, 16 ducks (eight from each group) of BW close to the mean for the whole group were slaughtered. Plucked and gutted carcasses were analysed in a laboratory for quality parameters. Meat was analysed for pH, colour, water-holding capacity and drip loss. Samples of breast muscles were analysed for the content of cholesterol, collagen, intramuscular fat and FA composition. The proposed feed mixture containing YL had no impact on meat traits, content of muscles or fat in duck carcasses (P > 0.05). The values of lightness (L*) and yellowness (b*) and collagen content in breast muscles were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in group 2 (YL). A lower ability to retain water, that is, higher water-holding capacity (percentage of water lost from meat) (P < 0.05), was found for leg muscles from group 2 (YL). The content of C16:0, C18:0, C20:4 n-6, C22:4 n-6, C22:5 n-3, total content of saturated fatty acids (SFA), values of atherogenic index and thrombogenic index were significantly lower (P < 0.05) in group 2 (YL) than in group 1 (SBM). The content of C18:2 n-6 and the polyunsaturated fatty acids-to-SFA ratio (P/S) were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in ducks fed the diet with the inclusion of YL. Diets with YL could be proposed as a partial substitute for SBM in duck-rearing

Disorder chaos in spin glasses

We investigate numerically disorder chaos in spin glasses, i.e. the sensitivity of the ground state to small changes of the random couplings. Our study focuses on the Edwards-Anderson model in d=1,2,3 and in mean-field. We find that in all cases, simple scaling laws, involving the size of the system and the strength of the perturbation, are obeyed. We characterize in detail the distribution of overlap between ground states and the geometrical properties of flipped spin clusters in both the weak and strong chaos regime. The possible relevance of these results to temperature chaos is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, replaced with accepted versio

Failure envelopes of pile groups under inclined and eccentric load

A novel numerical procedure for defining failure envelopes of pile groups under inclined and eccentric load is proposed. The starting point is a closed-form exact solution for interaction diagram of pile groups under combined axial-moment loading recently published in the literature. Failure envelopes in the generalised force space are then derived as an extension of this solution by means of an incremental algorithm. It is shown that the axial load at foundation level has always a beneficial effect on the lateral capacity of the pile group, even if this favourable effect is often neglected in practice. On the contrary, the amount of interaction between the horizontal and moment components of the resultant action at failure is usually very small, with the exception of piles groups with end-bearing piles. Some example applications of the proposed method are provided and a simple, yet reliable procedure for ultimate limit-state analysis of pile groups subjected to inclined and eccentric loads is suggested

How Implicit Attitudes toward Vaccination Affect Vaccine Hesitancy and Behaviour: Developing and Validating the V-IRAP

Vaccination is one of the most important ways of fighting infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. However, vaccine hesitancy and refusal can reduce adherence to vaccination campaigns, and therefore undermine their effectiveness. Although the scientific community has made great efforts to understand the psychological causes of vaccine hesitancy, studies on vaccine intention have usually relied on traditional detection techniques, such as questionnaires. Probing these constructs explicitly could be problematic due to defense mechanisms or social desirability. Thus, a measure capable of detecting implicit attitudes towards vaccination is needed. To achieve this aim, we designed and validated a new test called the Vaccine-IRAP, or V-IRAP, which is a modified version of the original Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, or IRAP, task. The V-IRAP allows the unspoken reasons behind vaccine hesitancy to be investigated, and is able to distinguish between positive and negative beliefs on vaccination. The test was assessed in a sample of 151 participants. The V-IRAP showed good internal reliability and convergent validity, with meaningful correlational patterns with explicit measures. Moreover, it revealed incremental validity over such explicit measures. Lastly, the V-IRAP was able to shed light on the implicit attitudes involved in vaccine refusal, revealing negative attitudes relative to vaccine-related risks in non-vaccinated participants. Overall, these results support V-IRAP as a sensitive and reliable tool that could be used in future studies on implicit attitudes toward vaccination

Nutritional and physicochemical meat properties of wild boar (Sus scrofa ferus) x Duroc pig slaughtered to different live weights

AbstractDuring the past few years, an increasing interest has been shown for wild and autochthonous pig, that can offer meat of high culinary, technological and health-promoting value. Production of hybrids (wild boar x swine) can be a valid way to give back some properties to pig meat, lost in commercial swine breeding. This study, conducted in a farm in Wronie (Poland), was designed to investigate the effects of slaughter weight and gender on nutritional and physicochemical meat properties derived from crossing the European wild boar (Sus scrofa ferus) with sows of Duroc breed. Twenty-six hybrids (16 barrows and 10 gilts) were reared in pens, housed according to sex, and were fed ad libitum, from a hog feeder, with a feed containing 12,5 MJ of EM/kg and 160g of CP/kg. Animals were slaughtered at two different live weights: 8 barrows and 5 gilts at 92,0 ± 4,2 kg and 8 barrows and 5 gilts at 108,1 ± 4,3 kg. Animals were electrically stunned; following exsanguination, the carcasses were dehaired and evisce..

Cholesterol content and intramuscular collagen properties of pectoralis superficialis muscle of quail from different genetic groups

ABSTRACT To study growth performance and meat quality traits (cholesterol content and intramuscular collagen properties) of quail, 3 trials were carried out. Trial 1 used males of generation 19 of the egg type Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) selected previously (until generation 17) for low (n = 8) or high (n = 7) yolk cholesterol content as well as an unselected control (n = 11). Trial 2 used males of meat Pharaoh quail selected earlier (generations 1 to 6 and 9 to 11) on the basis of BW decrease after periodic deprivation of food (high decrease of weight, n = 10; low decrease of weight, n = 8) and unselected control (n = 10). Trial 3 compared males of English White quail, Manchurian Golden quail, and British Range quail. The birds were raised to 35 d of age. Quail were fed ad libitum commercial diets according to age and had free access to water. At slaughter, all birds were individually weighed (after a fasting period of 12 h), stunned, and decapitated. After the refrigeration period (24 h at 4°C), the left pectoralis superficialis muscle was removed from the carcasses, weighed, vacuum packaged, and stored frozen (−40°C) for analyses of cholesterol and intramuscular collagen (IMC; collagen and crosslink concentration). In trial 1, divergent selection for yolk cholesterol content did not significantly influence pectoralis superficialis muscle weight and IMC crosslinking of Japanese quail, whereas it significantly reduced growth and IMC amount. In addition, it had greater effect on the amount of cholesterol in meat; in fact, the meat of quail with low yolk cholesterol content contained lower cholesterol (−36.6%) than that of birds with high yolk cholesterol content. In trial 2, divergent selection on the basis of Pharaoh quail BW decrease altered IMC crosslinking, leading to variability in meat tenderness of Pharaoh quail. In trial 3, English White quail were significantly heavier than the other breeds