58 research outputs found
Spontaneous Pyogenic Spondylodiscitis in the Thoracic or Lumbar Spine: A Retrospective Cohort Study Comparing the Safety and Efficacy of Minimally Invasive and Open Surgery Over a Nine-Year Period
No full textConflict & Compassie: een hedendaagse blik op Wagner en een wagneriaanse blik op onszelf.
No full text(text in Dutch) Mediated by the so-called Dream-organ ('Traumorgan') which opera composer Richard Wagner mentions in his writings, the author engages in a fictitious dialogue with Wagner. Their dialogue focuses on a few topics related to the conference theme 'Conflict and compassion' that were of concern to Wagner in his days and which have undergone some serious changes since his death. The author discusses with Wagner the 'death of tragedy', sexuality and desire after the sexual revolution, the attractivity of musical genres like film and dance music, and the role of travel
Therapeutic options of Spondylodiscitis through the ages : the minimally invasive operations open up new ways of treatment spondylodiscitis
No full textZiel dieser retrospektiven Analyse war ein Vergleich des traditionell offenen Operations-verfahrens mit der seit einigen Jahren mit Erfolg durchgeführten perkutanen Operations-technik für dorsale operative Eingriffe im Rahmen der Therapie der Spondylodiszitis. Aufgrund der Einschlusskriterien - operativ behandelte thorakale, lumbale oder sakrale Spondylodiszitis - konnten wir 46 Männer und 38 Frauen in die retrospektive Analyse ein-beziehen. Die von uns in die Studie aufgenommenen Patienten entsprachen in der Alters- sowie Geschlechterverteilung als auch in der beobachteten Lokalisation der Spondylodiszitis den in der einschlägigen Fachliteratur zu findenden charakteristischen Angaben. Der Durchschnittspatient war hiernach 64,25 Jahre alt, männlich und litt unter einer lumbalen Spondylodiszitis, die sich über ein Segment erstreckte. Die retrospektive Analyse konnte zeigen, dass das perkutane Operationsverfahren eine sinnvolle und gute Alternative zu dem etablierten offenen Vorgehen darstellt. Die deskriptive Auswertung der beiden operativen Verfahren konnte die positiven Aspekte des neu eingeführten minimal invasiven Verfahrens deutlich aufzeigen. Es zeigte sich eine niedrigere postoperative Komplikationsrate bei den Patienten die nach dem perkutanen Operationsverfahren thera-piert worden sind. Nur 10% der Patienten der perkutanen Gruppe zeigten postoperative Komplikationen, hingegen traten diese bei 20,4% der Patienten, die nach dem traditionell offenen Verfahren operiert wurden auf. Auch die postoperative stationäre Verweildauer unterschied sich innerhalb beider operativer Gruppen. Patienten der offenen Gruppe wur-den durchschnittlich 3 Tage länger postoperativ stationär behandelt. Patienten der perkuta-nen Operationsgruppe waren während ihres stationären Aufenthaltes signifikant weniger auf die Gabe von Blutprodukten angewiesen, als Patienten, die nach dem traditionell offe-nen Verfahren behandelt worden sind. Patienten, die nach dem perkutanen Verfahren ope-riert wurden, wiesen ebenfalls statistisch signifkant eine höhere Bestrahlungszeit pro Schraube auf, was sich durch die notwendigen Bildwandlerkontrollen innerhalb des perku-tanen, minimal-invasiven Verfahrens erklärt. Es wäre wünschenswert bei derzeit fehlenden Therapieempfehlungen zur Behandlung der Spondylodiszitis in Zukunft weitere Studien durchzuführen, die die derzeit durchgeführten Therapien kritisch hinterfragen, vergleichen und auswerten
Development of the DNDC model to improve soil hydrology and incorporate mechanistic tile drainage: A comparative analysis with RZWQM2
No full textThe Denitrification Decomposition model (DNDC) has known limitations for simulating soil hydrology which can strongly influence biogeochemical processes. For this study, DNDC's soil hydrological framework was enhanced by including a new sub-model for mechanistic tile drainage, improved water flux, root growth dynamics, and a deeper and heterogeneous soil profile. Comparisons were then conducted against the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2), using measurements of soil water storage, runoff, and drainage in eastern Canada and the US Midwest. Simulation of soil water storage (DNDC 0.81 ≤ d ≤ 0.90; RZWQM2 0.76 ≤ d ≤ 0.84), daily water flow (DNDC 0.76 ≤ d ≤ 0.88; RZWQM2 0.77 ≤ d ≤ 0.90) and nitrogen loading to tile drains were improved post-development. DNDC was able to capture the observed differences in water and N losses between conventional drainage and controlled drainage management with sub-irrigation. The enhancements to DNDC's hydrological framework should enable the development of improved biogeochemical processes.This article is published as Smith, Ward, Brian Grant, Zhiming Qi, Wentian He, Andrew VanderZaag, Craig F. Drury, and Matthew Helmers. "Development of the DNDC model to improve soil hydrology and incorporate mechanistic tile drainage: A comparative analysis with RZWQM2." Environmental Modelling & Software 123 (2020): 104577. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104577. Copyright 2019 The Author(s). Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Posted with permission
Another Thorn in the Semantic Briar Patch of the Hanging Paragraph: Is Negative Equity a Purchase Money Security Interest?
No full textNon
Money, politics and a future for the international financial system
No full textIn developing the architecture for a financial system, the challenge is to combine deregulation and safety nets against systemic failure with effective prudential regulation and oversight. The author analyzes three approaches to choosing an adequate regulatory framework for a financial system. a) Those most worried about panic and herd behavior tend to favor relatively extensive controls on financial institutions'activities, including controls on interest rates and on the volume and direction of lending. b) Those most concerned about moral hazard advocate abolishing controls and safety nets, seeing the solution is stronger market discipline and reduced powers and discretion for regulators. c) Mainstream opinion advocates a mix of measures, to both strengthen market discipline and improve regulatory oversight. The approach a county opts for depends on 1) which monetary and exchange rate regime it chooses, 2) whether it is more concerned about moral hazard or about panic and herd behavior, and 3) how the politics of reform shape its solutions. The author suggests a scenario for development of the global financial system over the next two or three decades that assumes that the final outcome will resemble the market solution - not because that is the optimal policy choice but because of how political weakness will interact with advances in settlement technology. In the author's scenario, the world moves toward a monetary system in which fixed exchange rate systems or de facto currency competition limit the power of central banks. This limits options for discretionary and open-ended liquidity support to help deal with systemic financial crises. The costs of inflexible exchange rates are moderated by new types of wage contracts, using units of account that are correlated with the shocks a particular industry or kind of contract faces -- thus maintaining the positive aspects of monetary systems with flexible nominal exchange rates. Mistrust in monetary authorities and the emergence of private settlements lead to a return of asset-backed money as the means of payment. The disciplines on financial systems come to resemble somewhat those of historical"free banking"systems, with financial institutions requiring high levels of equity and payments systems protected only by limited, fully funded safety nets.Banks&Banking Reform,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Financial Intermediation,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Macroeconomic Management,Financial Intermediation,Financial Economics
Reconstruction of the 3D pressure field and energy dissipation of a Taylor droplet from a μ PIV measurement
No full textIn this study, we reconstruct the 3D pressure field and derive the 3D contributions of the energy dissipation from a 3D3C velocity field measurement of Taylor droplets moving in a horizontal microchannel (Ca c= 0.0050 , Re c= 0.0519 , Bo = 0.0043 , λ=ηdηc=2.625). We divide the pressure field in a wall-proximate part and a core-flow to describe the phenomenology. At the wall, the pressure decreases expectedly in downstream direction. In contrast, we find a reversed pressure gradient in the core of the flow that drives the bypass flow of continuous phase through the corners (gutters) and causes the Taylor droplet’s relative velocity between the faster droplet flow and the slower mean flow. Based on the pressure field, we quantify the driving pressure gradient of the bypass flow and verify a simple estimation method: the geometry of the gutter entrances delivers a Laplace pressure difference. As a direct measure for the viscous dissipation, we calculate the 3D distribution of work done on the flow elements, that is necessary to maintain the stationarity of the Taylor flow. The spatial integration of this distribution provides the overall dissipated energy and allows to identify and quantify different contributions from the individual fluid phases, from the wall-proximate layer and from the flow redirection due to presence of the droplet interface. For the first time, we provide deep insight into the 3D pressure field and the distribution of the energy dissipation in the Taylor flow based on experimentally acquired 3D3C velocity data. We provide the 3D pressure field of and the 3D distribution of work as supplementary material to enable a benchmark for CFD and numerical simulations. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]Fluid Mechanic
Radio Biblical Drama
No full textThis study is concerned with only one phase of the Church’s use of radio, Radio Biblical Drama. By this is meant simply the dramatization of Bible Stories (episodes from the Bible), and the expansion of individual Biblical Texts. This study will not include the strictly moral or ethical stories which are based on Biblical principles, but only those stories which have their foundation in Christ as the Savior from sin and the Author of the New Life
The Royalist Republic: Literature, Politics, and Religion in the Anglo-Dutch Public Sphere, 1639–1660
No full textµPIV measurement of the 3D velocity distribution of Taylor droplets moving in a square horizontal channel
No full textAbstract: This paper presents a µPIV measurement of the 3D2C velocity distribution of Taylor droplets moving in a square horizontal microchannel at Cac= 0.005 and Rec= 0.051. We reconstruct the third velocity component and present an accuracy assessment of the reconstruction based on a volume flow balance of the 3D3C velocity field. The velocity field allows the investigation of the 3D flow features such as stagnation regions and the shear rate distribution. The maximum shear rate is located at the entrances and exits of the wall films and at the corner flow (gutter) bypassing the Taylor droplet. The regions of high strain correspond to the cap positions of the Taylor droplets. An experimental data set allows visualization of the streamlines of the velocity distribution on the interface of a Taylor droplet and to directly relate it to the main and secondary vortices of the droplet phase velocity field. The measurement data are provided as a digital resource for the validation of numerical simulation or further assessment. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]Fluid Mechanic
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