2821 research outputs found
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The wanderer’s promise: Nietzsche’s philosophy of the "nearest things"
Get PDFIn this essay I explore what might be meant by the “nearest things” in Nietzsche’s philosophy. In the first part of the essay I contextualise Nietzsche’s concerns with “the closest things of all” in the “free spirit” period (1878-1882) and raise the question of how knowledge of them is possible. This idea is developed in the second part of the paper in relation to the claim that dominant (Platonic/Christian) habits of thought impede our understanding of the body. In the third section, I suggest that Nietzsche’s interest in Epicurean thinking in this period enables us to situate the nearest things within the political aesthetics of a transfigured physis. In the final section, I examine how Nietzsche’s 1881 notes on eternal return provide a less-well known locus for his philosophy of the nearest things, one which suggests that to “incorporate” eternal return we need to become “good neighbours” to what is close
A comparative case study: towards sustainable management of e-waste in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Get PDFManagement of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) becomes an increasing global concern because of rapid changing in technologies associated with tendency of people to keep up with the most recent technologies causing an increased volume rate of e-waste. This study compared and critically appraised three e-waste management models (producer responsibility, not producer responsibility, and sharing responsibility) currently applied in Malaysia and the United States of America (USA), in an attempt to explore best management practices that can be adopted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The data presented in this paper are secondary data derived from a wide range of authoritative sources. This study recommends the sharing responsibility model to effectively manage the growing rate of e-waste in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Dominic J. O’MEARA, Plotin Traité 19 (I, 2) Sur les Vertus
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Dominic J. O’Meara, Plotin Traité 19 (I, 2) Sur les Vertus
Introduction, traduction, commentaires et notes par Dominic J. O’Meara, Paris, Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2018 (Bibliothèque des textes philosophiques. Les écrits de Plotin
Dental anxiety in first- and final-year Indian dental students.
Get PDFObjectives:The study aims to investigate dental anxiety in first- and final-year undergraduate dental students in India. Design:Questionnaire Study Setting: BDS Students in four University dental colleges in India carried-out during 2013 and 2014. Subjects materials and methods:The students (n = 614) were assessed using a pre-tested questionnaire. We estimated the level of dental anxiety by using the Modified-Dental-Anxiety-Scale (MDAS). ANCOVA and Mann-Whitney U, and Chi-squared contingency tests were employed to analyze the extensive dataset acquired. Univariate clustering analysis and principal component regression were also applied. Students had similar demographic and lifestyle patterns. Interventions:Assessments of the level of dental anxiety amongst undergraduate dental students. Main outcome measures:Mean ± SD MDAS scores for first- and final-year Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) students were 12.96 ± 4.00 and 10.54 ± 3.41, respectively. Results:Six hundred and fourteen (n = 614) students from four dental colleges were included in this study. In total 77% were female (n = 478) and 23% were male (n = 136). The mean age of the first- and final-year students were 18.31 and 21.54 years, respectively. First-year BDS students had dental anxiety score (Mean ± SD 12.96 ± 4.00) compared to that of the final year (10.54 ± 3.41), a difference which was very highly statistically significant (p < 0.0001). Conclusions:Dental anxiety was moderately higher amongst first year BDS students over that of final-year students but it is lesser than the dental phobic threshold level
Development of 3D biocomposite aerogels for soft tissue engineering applications
Get PDFCurrent approaches in developing porous 3D scaffolds face various challenges, such as failure of mimicking extracellular matrix’s (ECM) native building blocks and its functionality. Biopolymer based aerogels have shown to provide structural similarities to the ECM owing to their 3D format and a highly porous structure with interconnected pores. Utilising functional biopolymers (such as hydrophilic polysaccharides and proteins) to fabricate aerogels through freeze-drying technique is found to improve swelling degree, support cell growth and offer rapid enzymatic biodegradation, making such biomaterials appropriate as 3D scaffolds in tissue regeneration. Utilising hydrophilic natural biopolymers is associated with drawbacks such as poor mechanical properties and fast dissolvability. The present research focuses on using cellulose nanofibers (CNF) as a suspension to support the development of porous 3D aerogel biocomposites, compensating the drawbacks associated with natural biopolymers. To develop the biocomposites, CNF is blended with gelatine and starch to obtain aerogels with optimal physicochemical, mechanical and biological characteristics intended to be used as 3D scaffolds for tissue regeneration. The CNF biocomposites with various ratios of CNF: starch (CNF-starch) and CNF: gelatine (CNF-GEL)) were synthesized, and their properties were investigated in terms of physicochemical, mechanical and biological characteristics. Furthermore, Epichlorohydrin (EPH) was used to investigate the effect of chemical crosslinking on the molecular interaction of CNF-starch and CNF-GEL. Ultimately, chemical crosslinking helped to improve the mechanical resilience of the aerogels. The tunability of the physiochemical, mechanical and biological properties of the developed biocomposites makes such structure a great candidate as scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Both in-vitro and in-vivo studies revealed satisfactory biocompatibility for the crosslinked CNF-GEL biocomposites using dermal fibroblasts. Furthermore, curcumin, a natural material with inherent antimicrobial properties, was added into the CNF-GEL biocomposite as an active molecule agent to improve the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory responses of the scaffolds. The addition of curcumin was effective against both gram-positive and gram-negative due to the lack of existing antimicrobial characteristics in both CNF and gelatine
Design of mobile band subsurface antenna for drainage infrastructure monitoring
Get PDFThis paper presents an underground subsurface wireless sensor for drainage infrastructure water level monitoring. It operates from 800 to 2170 MHz to cover the required GSM850/900, GSM1800/1900 and UMTS bands. The system consists of a wideband antenna, transceiver, data acquisition unit and an ultrasonic sensor. The proposed antenna is a 3-dimensional inverted double F antenna and has an envelope size of 90 × 63.5 × 32 mm^3 , which is acceptably small for a cramped subsurface passageway environment. The antenna design was developed using software simulation to optimise its key parameters of return loss and radiation pattern, these being evaluated both in free space and in the partially underground environment. The design developed was then realised in hardware and tested in a representative subsurface location: a utility manhole chamber. It was found that the location of the antenna in the chamber had a significant effect on its performance, but a location that was acceptable for operational purposes was found by experiment. The overall system, including a transceiver, was demonstrated to operate satisfactorily for utility monitoring purposes, including acceptable levels of path loss for communication with mobile communication base stations
Towards optimal control of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles
Get PDFGlobal warming, the decline of natural resources as well as the strengthening of emission regulations have led to a research focus in new drive
technologies. Within the group of alternative propulsion systems, fuel
cell hybrid electric vehicle (FHEV) are considered especially promising.
Since system efficiency as well as the operation characteristics are determined by the chosen energy management system (EMS) scheme, an
optimal approach is a key aspect to guarantee optimal system operation
in terms of power and energy efficiency, as well as component lifetime
and costs. Existing research efforts mostly focus on the optimisation of
the hydrogen consumption, while neglecting component degradation as
additional important part of total system and operation cost. Furthermore,
almost no published work considers the thermal management of a FHEV.
Therefore, the presented work propose a novel model predictive control
based energy management approach with a special focus on preventing
fuel cell (FC) and battery (BAT) degradation and the vehicle’s thermal
management. In order to minimise component ageing and degradation,
the objective function which is used in the developed method, includes
cost which account for both decreasing BAT state of health as well as
FC operation conditions which accelerate the degradation of the FC. To
be able to test the developed EMS, a model and a hardware based test
environment were developed. Since there are no thermal management
systems for FHEV presented in literature, a new concept with a hierarchical control scheme was designed. Because the newly developed energy
management shall be tested based on real world data, a method to generate test cases representing typical driving scenarios based on real world
driving data was developed and implemented. Finally, the hardware system was used to validate the simulation model and vice versa, the model
based approach was validated on real hardware
The challenges of prioritising low carbon in public sector Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) construction
No full textPurpose – Low carbon solutions in infrastructure have been well documented and promoted in most areas of
the UK except in the context of public sector Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM)
infrastructure. With the UK Government providing £2.5bn capital investment to reduce risk of flooding and
coastal erosion between 2015 and 2020, the carbon impact of this construction programme will have a
significant impact on the UK’s carbon targets. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive
literature review focusing on the effect of carbon on climate change, the role of UK public sector FCERM
construction and organisational cultural challenges in promoting low carbon.
Design/methodology/approach – An electronic survey of practising professionals in a leading
government agency that procures major FCERM construction projects has been undertaken. The survey
covers participants from the whole value chain within the project life cycle, since many authoritative sources
call for integration, and for change to be implemented in partner organisations.
Findings – The survey shows that although carbon is considered, it is not yet at the level of importance nor
is it prioritised to the extent at which cost is. This is for both public and private sector supply chain
organisations. Low carbon, although included in discussions, does not feature as prominently throughout all
project stages.
Research limitations/implications – The utilisation of a survey for this research is limited as it merely
supports current industry findings, albeit having focused on a specific infrastructure area. Further qualitative
research is required to fully explore the findings within the survey, and to establish whether the
implementation of a new whole life carbon calculator within FCERM construction will have an impact on the
organisational culture and future successful implementation of low carbon construction.
Practical implications – The results of this research identify the specific areas in which industry
practitioners involved in promoting and prioritising low carbon could focus on to facilitate the change
required to fully embed low carbon into FCERM construction.
Social implications – This research supports industry knowledge specifically for public sector FCERM
construction, and the changes to organisational culture required to fully embed low carbon solutions in public
sector construction. These changes may have an impact on the amount of carbon being used, which can
positively affect climate change as a whole.
Originality/value – The literature review shows that carbon has a clear impact on climate change, and
organisational culture and leadership can facilitate the successful implementation of new initiatives. However,
previous attempts to embed low carbon into infrastructure construction practice have had limited success to
date. The survey findings support the view that organisational culture and leadership can influence the
successful embedding of low carbon solutions, and why this has been a challenge
Trauma characteristics and posttraumatic growth: The mediating role of avoidance coping, intrusive thoughts, and social support.
Get PDFPrevious research suggests trauma characteristics can impact on posttraumatic growth (PTG). The current study considers whether previously identified predictors of PTG may produce different outcomes dependent on the characteristics of the trauma experienced. Active coping, avoidant coping, emotional coping, intrusive thoughts, social support, and spirituality were examined as potential mediators of relationships between trauma characteristics (interpersonal trauma, number of trauma types, and childhood trauma) and PTG. The responses of 268 adults exposed to multiple and wide-ranging stressors were used to generate three multiple mediation models. Intrusive thoughts and social support exerted small but significant indirect effects in all three multiple mediation models. Avoidant coping mediated associations between the number of trauma types and PTG, and the relationship between childhood trauma to PTG. Relationships between trauma characteristics and PTG appear to be explained through the presence of avoidant coping strategies, intrusive thoughts, and the individual's social environment, which could be the focus of intervention efforts to promote positive change
Increasing the use of simulation in training
Get PDFThe focus of this paper is to explore the role and development of simulated learning within the
apprenticeship assistant practitioner foundation degree programme. It will also discuss the challenge
of influencing a change in practice within a competency-based learning programme.
In order to shape and develop a supportive, effective and indeed inclusive teaching strategy, the
use of the simulated learning environment will be incorporated across a number of mandatory nonclinical
modules, such as communication, group dynamics and principles of care, among others. The
key aims and philosophy behind simulated teaching and learning are to improve competence,
communication and confidence and ultimately patient safety within all healthcare environments
(Forrest et al, 2013).
The aim of this article is:
To provide a wider understanding of the simulated learning environment
To give an overview of how simulated learning can be incorporated into non-clinical
teaching modules
To demonstrate how the concept of simulation can widen participation and allow students to
experience and flourish in a non-traditional environment.
Key words
Simulated learning Curriculum Trainee assistant practitioners (TAPs)
Patient safety Real-life learning Holistic approac