3,603 research outputs found
Interview With P.C. Hodgell
No full textP.C. Hodgell, author of God Stalk and Dark of the Moon, was one of the many authors who attended Mythcon XIX in Berkeley last summer. She was good enough to meet with the Mythic Circle writers\u27 roundtable and share some of her experiences with us. The following is transcribed from a low-quality tape; when it was possible to recognize a speaker’s voice I have identified them - others are noted as ct. Hope you enjoy it
Nonequilibrium and classical dissipation scalings in DNS of homogeneous isotropic decaying turbulence
No full textWe present data from direct numerical simulations of homogeneous isotropic decaying turbulence showing both the non-equilibrium and the classical dissipation scalings reported in wind-tunnel experiments of both regular and fractal grid-generated turbulence, i.e. Cε ∼ (Re0/Reλ)n with n of order unity and Cε ∼ constant, respectively (Re0 and Reλ are global and local Reynolds numbers). These two dissipation behaviours lead to different power-law decay exponents in both regimes also in accord with the experiments. Finally, we show that in both regimes the maximum non-linear energy cascade flux, Π, reasonably satisfies the classical expectation that Π ∼ K3/2/l
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A randomised clinical trial to assess the effect of total enteral and total parenteral nutritional support on metabolic, inflammatory and oxidative markers in patients with predicted severe acute pancreatitis (APACHE II ?6)
No full textBackground:
Total enteral nutrition (TEN) within 48 h of admission has recently been shown to be safe and efficacious as part of the management of severe acute pancreatitis. Our aim was to ascertain the safety of immediate TEN in these patients and the effect of TEN on systemic inflammation, psychological state, oxidative stress, plasma glutamine levels and endotoxaemia. Methods:
Patients admitted with predicted severe acute pancreatitis (APACHE II score >5) were randomised to total enteral (TEN; n = 8) or total parenteral nutrition (TPN; n = 9). Measurements of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein), fatigue (visual analogue scale), oxidative stress (plasma thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances), plasma glutamine and anti-endotoxin IgG and IgM antibody concentrations were made on admission and repeated on days 3 and 7 thereafter. Clinical progress was monitored using APACHE II score. Organ failure and complications were recorded. Results:
All patients tolerated the feeding regime well with few nutrition-related complications. Fatigue improved in both groups but more rapidly in the TEN group. Oxidative stress was high on admission and rose by similar amounts in both groups. Plasma glutamine concentrations did not change significantly in either group. In the TPN group, 3 patients developed respiratory failure and 3 developed non-respiratory single organ failure. There were no such complications in the TEN group. Hospital stay was shorter in the TEN group [7 (4-14) vs. 10 (7-26) days; p = 0.05] as was time to passing flatus and time to opening bowels [1 (0-2) vs. 2 (1-5) days; p = 0.01]. The cost of TEN was considerably less than of TPN. Conclusion:
Immediate institution of nutritional support in the form of TEN is safe in predicted severe acute pancreatitis. It is as safe and as efficacious as TPN and may be beneficial in the clinical course of this disease.<br/
Reinforcing glass with glass: Application of transport reinforcement in structural glass beams
No full textDue to the increasing demand of transparency in buildings, it is no longer unusual to apply transparent elements into the bearing structure. Glass is a strong but very brittle material, which means safety is rather problematic should it break. Safety is an issue that has to be improved before glass can be considered suitable for structural elements. Earlier studies have shown that reinforcing glass beams will provide reasonable residual load-bearing capacity, which could provide this safety. Glass fibre is suitable as reinforcement material when the transparency is regarded as important. In February 2009 at the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology, P.C. Louter designed and tested a laminated glass beam with embedded glass fibre rods. The bonding interlayer consisted of SentryGlas foil, developed by DuPont and often applied for lamination in hurricane-resistant windows. The results were promising and the concept showed high potential for further research. The study of this thesis project is focussed on improving the concept of embedding reinforcement in laminated glass beams.Design and ConstructionCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Foreign Direct Investment. The key determinants of foreign direct investment in Poland. Case company: ArgusPack P.C.
No full textThe aim of this thesis was to provide a better understanding of the determinants of foreign direct invest-ment (referred to hereafter as “FDI”). The company ArgusPack P.C. is a flexible packaging manufacturer located in Greece which decided to engage using FDI in Poland. Thus, the factors that favors FDI into the selected region had to be determined.
This thesis was a qualitative research, an empirical non-numerical data research. For primary data a series of interviews was conducted by the author and for secondary data peer-reviewed articles and literatures that fully-describe the determinants of FDI were utilized. There are numerous theories that define the FDI, such as Vernon’s product life cycle (Vernon, 1966), Buckley and Casson’s internalization theory (P. Buckley, 1976) and Dunning’s eclectic paradigm (Dunning J. , 2001). In this project, the Dunning’s eclectic paradigm theory was selected and applied, aiming to provide a better understanding of the factors that motivates a company or an organization to become involved using FDI. Through a research study the primary data were collected and through excessive academic research the secondary data were collected as well. In conclu-sion, an analysis of the primary data in combination with the secondary data was done mainly focusing on the participants’ point of view and the way it aligns with the theoretical aspect given by this thesis. In the end a conclusion and recommendation were formed based on all data mentioned and the personal belief of the author.
Finally, since the key determinants have been identified and examined. Foreign direct investment seems to be an adequate business strategy for ArgusPack P.C. in Polan
The Quest for Citations: Drivers of Article Impact
No full textWhy do some articles become building blocks for future scholars, while many others remain unnoticed? We aim to answer this question by contrasting, synthesizing and simultaneously testing three scientometric perspectives – universalism, social constructivism and presentation – on the influence of article and author characteristics on article citations. To do so, we study all articles published in a sample of five major journals in marketing from 1990 to 2002 that are central to the discipline. We count the number of citations each of these articles has received and regress this count on an extensive set of characteristics of the article (i.e. article quality, article domain, title length, the use of attention grabbers and expositional clarity), and the author (i.e. author visibility and author personal promotion). We find that the number of citations an article in the marketing discipline receives, depends upon “what one says†(quality and domain), on “who says it†(author visibility and personal promotion) and not so much on “how one says it†(title length, the use of attention grabbers, and expositional clarity). Our insights contribute to the marketing literature and are relevant to scientific stakeholders, such as the management of scientific journals and individual academic scholars, as they strive to maximize citations. They are also relevant to marketing practitioners. They inform practitioners on characteristics of the academic journals in marketing and their relevance to decisions they face. On the other hand, they also raise challenges towards making our journals accessible and relevant to marketing practitioners: (1) authors visible to academics are not necessarily visible to practitioners; (2) the readability of an article may hurt academic credibility and impact, while it may be instrumental in influencing practitioners; (3) it remains questionable whether articles that academics assess to be of high quality are also managerially relevant.Impact;Citation Analysis;Referencing;Scientometrics;Cite
Differential operators degenerating at the boundary as infinitesimal generators of semi-groups
No full textElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Magnetic Density Separation of Polyolefin Wastes
No full textPolymer recycling has significantly positive impacts on the environment, economics and society. Using recycled polymer to replace virgins reduces the growing amount of post-consumer polymer wastes, decreases the demand for fossil fuel and creates local jobs. As the most used polymer types, polyolefins certainly have attracted attention of recycling. Mechanical sorting has been pointed out as the preferred route for the recovery of relatively clean and homogeneous plastic waste streams. Whereas washing and compounding technologies for polymer scrap have dramatically improved over the last decade, there is as yet no sorting technology commercially available that is both cheap and effective. Consequently, the amount of recycled post-consumer mixed plastics remains low and the recycled polymer value is even worse. Innovative recycling technologies for post-consumer wastes should be extremely powerful, simple, cost-effective and accurate enough to create high quality products. Magnetic density separation (MDS) is such a technology. Early research showed that MDS has the potential to turn around the poor image of polyolefin recycling. However substantial research was needed to improve the separation process before high quality secondary polyolefins could be obtained from complex waste mixtures. This thesis starts with the characterization of the main resources of secondary polyolefins to determine the proper input streams for MDS. Concerning the lifetimes and the total consumption of polyolefin applications, household packaging and car components are two interesting streams for MDS. To reach the necessary separation accuracy for gaining high quality secondary PP and PE in one single step, MDS needs to be sensitive to very small differences in the physical properties of the input materials. Therefore, three main aspects influencing the separation process were studied: wettability of polymers, quality of the process liquid and flow turbulence. For this thesis, a new wetting process to eliminate the effect of air bubbles on the apparent polymer density was developed, a simple method to avoid the segregation of the process liquid was provided, and the sources of turbulence were studied and reduced. Based on all of these achievements, two MDS setups were designed and their performance on the post-consumer polyolefins was evaluated. For both setups, over 98% of the polyolefin waste can be successfully recycled with sufficient separation accuracy: 10 kg/m3. The output products of the MDS were analysed to assess their quality: composition, rheological and mechanical properties. According to the analyses, the derived products from MDS were high purity PP and PE. Based on the mechanical analyses, the separated household wastes showed good and consistent properties, independently from their origin, which were comparable with neat polymers. A model that simulates the MDS process was constructed on the basis of the fundamental principle of MDS and the major factors affecting the process. The study concluded that the separation accuracy of MDS in polymer recycling is determined by the flow turbulence and the uneven magnetic field. The combined effect of these two factors indicates that for most of the polymers turbulence is the major cause of an inaccurate separation. Both the experiments and the simulations concluded that MDS can accurately separate polyolefin mixtures based on their density. With such high accuracies in density, polyolefin mixtures can be separated into different polymers according to their type by MDS in a single step.Structural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
On a differential equation and the Laplace-Stieltjes transform in the theory of linear positive operators
No full textApplied SciencesApplied Science
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