Rice Husk Shredding as a Means of Increasing the Long-Term Mechanical Properties of Earthen Mixtures for 3D Printing

This paper is part of a study of earthen mixtures for 3D printing of buildings. To meet the ever-growing environmental needs, the focus of the paper is on a particular type of biocomposite for the stabilization of earthen mixtures—the rice husk-lime biocomposite—and on how to enhance its effect on the long-term mechanical properties of the hardened product. Having assumed that the shredding of the vegetable fiber is precisely one of the possible ways to improve the mechanical properties, we compared the results of uniaxial compression tests performed on cubic specimens made with both shredded and unaltered vegetable fiber, for three curing periods. The results showed that the hardened earthen mixture is not a brittle material in the strict sense, because it exhibits some peculiar behaviors, anomalous for a brittle material. However, being a “designable” material, its properties can be varied with a certain flexibility to get as close as possible to the desired ones. One of the peculiar properties of the hardened earthen mixture deserves further investigation, rather than corrections. This is the vulcanization that occurs (in a completely natural way) in the long term, thanks to the mineralization of the vegetable fiber by carbonation of the lime.

POLISH REGULATORY POLICY AIMED AT COUNTERACTING ALCOHOLISM AS AN ELEMENT OF ENSURING SAFETY IN TOURISM – THE CASE OF TRAVEL INSURANCE

Purpose. The aim of the article is to assess whether the current legal framework on travel insurance contracts allows the regulations in question to be included in the legal instruments that both ensure safety in tourism and constitute an element of the regulatory policy aimed art counteracting alcoholism and the negative effects of alcohol consumption. Method. The main method used in the submitted article is the legal dogmatic method, which, however, is not used in the strict sense. Additionally, analysis of the normative text is supplemented with the author's independent reference to judicial decisions and legal doctrine. Findings. Analysis of legal regulations and judicial decisions allows to indicate that the structure of travel insurance makes it an element of the regulatory policy aimed at counteracting alcoholism. Accidents can often be classified as insurance events within the meaning of various types of insurance contracts, including travel insurance. Therefore, the structure of these agreements cannot assume the form of a specific sanction for alcohol consumption. However, to ensure the fullest possible safety in tourism, insurance events of this type should not be excluded from the liability of insurers without deeper reflection on the purpose of this kind of protection, also within the context of the policy aimed at counteracting addictions and their effects on health and life. Research and conclusions limitations. The legal analysis is focused on the Polish legal regulation of the issue. Practical implications. The conducted research may be an indication for the creation of mandatory regulations regarding travel insurance contracts, as well as the content of the contracts themselves and general insurance conditions. Originality. Research on regulatory policy that is rarely of interest to legal scientists. Type of paper. In the article, theoretical concepts are presented. This text is an overview in nature.

THE EMPLOYER’S RISK PRINCIPLE

The article discusses the employer’s risk as a principle of labour law. The idea of employer’s risk is that the employer bears the consequences of obstacles in the performance of the employment relationship that it has not caused. The author distinguishes the obstacles: not related (the employer’s risk in a strict sense) and related to the employee (personal risk). As a rule, the employer bears the risk of circumstances not related to the employee. The nature as well as the application scope of regulations allow to formulate a normative principle of the labour law. At the same time the employer bears the risk of the obstacles related to the employee only in cases specified in the labour law, both: statutory standards as well as autonomous provisions. As a result, the personal risk of the employer cannot be considered to be a normative principle of the labour law.

Rice Husk Shredding as a Means of Increasing the Long-Term Mechanical Properties of Earthen Mixtures for 3D Printing

This paper is part of a study of earthen mixtures for 3D printing of buildings. To meet the ever-growing environmental needs, the focus of the paper is on a particular type of bio-composite for the stabilization of earthen mixtures – the rice husk-lime bio-composite – and on how to enhance its effect on the long-term mechanical properties of the hardened product. Having assumed that the shredding of the vegetable fiber is precisely one of the possible ways to improve the mechanical properties, we compared the results of uniaxial compression tests performed on cubic specimens made with both shredded and raw vegetable fiber, for three curing periods. The results showed that the hardened earthen mixture is not a brittle material in the strict sense, because it exhibits some peculiar behaviors, anomalous for a brittle material. However, being a “designable” material, its properties can be varied with a certain flexibility to get as close as possible to the desired ones. One of the peculiar properties of the hardened earthen mixture deserves further investigation, rather than corrections. This is the vulcanization that occurs (in a completely natural way) in the long term, thanks to the mineralization of the vegetable fiber by carbonation of the lime.

Accuracy and precision: A new viewon kinematic assessment of solid-state hinges and compliant mechanisms

Compliant mechanisms are alternatives to conventional mechanisms which exploit elastic strain to produce desired deformations instead of using moveable parts. They are designed for a kinematic task (providing desired deformations) but do not possess a kinematics in the strict sense. This leads to difficulties while assessing the quality of a compliant mechanism’s design. The kinematics of a compliant mechanism can be seen as a fuzzy property. There is no unique kinematics, since every deformation need a particular force system to act; however, certain deformations are easier to obtain than others. A parallel can be made with measurement theory: the measured value of a quantity is not unique, but exists as statistic distribution of measures. A representative measure of this distribution can be chosen to evaluate how far the measures divert from a reference value. Based on this analogy, the concept of accuracy and precision of compliant systems are introduced and discussed in this paper. A quantitative determination of these qualities based on the eigenvalue analysis of the hinge’s stiffness is proposed. This new approach is capable of removing most of the ambiguities included in the state-of-the-art assessment criteria (usually based on the concepts of path deviation and parasitic motion).

Seiten aufschlagen. Saiten anschlagen

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] Zu den bitteren Erfahrungen einer Corona-Erkrankung kann der Verlust des Geschmackssinns gehören. Es hat sich jedoch gezeigt, dass Menschen auch aufgrund vorangegangener Geschmackserfahrungen schmecken können. Kann der Geschmack eines Gerichts im Gehirn erinnernd abgerufen werden, ist es also möglich zu schmecken, obwohl der Geschmackssinn (temporär) verloren gegangen ist? Ein solches Aufrufen sinnlicher Erfahrungen ist integrativer Bestandteil rezeptionsästhetischer Lektüreaspekte und kann die Bereiche aller Sinneskanäle umfassen: Wird eine innerdiegetische Saite angeschlagen, überträgt sich der Klang aufgrund von Erfahrungswerten in unsere Wahrnehmung. Open the Book, Strike Up the MusicForms and Functions of a Literary Soundtrack This article is based on the premise that literary texts exhibit a diversity of sounds that are not audible in the strict sense of the word. Instead, the literary sound experience is delegated to readers’ imaginations. It is only during the reading process that, depending on the readers’ experiences, sounds can be made ›audible.‹ Within the text, sounds are evoked by different literary devices. These include the use of literary soundtracks, which are generated when individual (pop) songs are quoted or alluded to in the text or the paratext. They also encompass references to band names, song titles or lyrics, or to sound storage media and their specific characteristics or to objects of everyday and popular culture (e.g. T-shirts). For the text analysis, a tool from the field of film music studies is employed: Georg Maas’s differentiation between a tectonic, a syntactic, a semantic and a mediating function of film music is used to discriminate between the diverse functions of pop music literary soundtracks. Thus, a theory that spans different media is deployed across another media boundary in order to illustrate the role of pop music in contemporary literary texts for young adults.

The medical futility experience of nursing professionals in Greece

Background Providing futile medical care is an ever-timely ethical problem in clinical practice. While nursing personnel are very closely involved in providing direct care to patients nearing the end of life, their role in end-of-life decision-making remains unclear. Methods This was a prospective qualitative study conducted with experienced nursing professionals from December 2020 through May 2021. Individual in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with sixteen participants. We performed a thematic analysis of the data. Results Importantly, many participants were half-hearted in their attitude towards accepting or defining futile medical care. Furthermore, interestingly, a list of well-described circumstances emerged, under which the dying process is most likely to be a “bad and undignified” process. These circumstances reflected situations revolving around a) pain and suffering, b) treating patients with respect, c) the appearance and image of the patient body, and d) the interaction between patients and their relatives. Fear of legal action, the lack of a regulatory framework, physicians being pressured by (mostly uninformed) family members and physicians’ personal motives were reported as important reasons behind providing futile medical care. The nursing professional’s role as a participant in decisions on futile care and as a mediator between physicians and patients (and family members) was highlighted. Furthermore, the patient’s role in decisions on futile care was prioritized. The patient’s effort to keep themselves alive was also highlighted. This effort impacts nursing professionals’ willingness to provide care. Providing futile care is a major factor that negatively affects nursing professionals’ inner attitude towards performing their duties. Finally, the psychological benefits of providing futile medical care were highlighted, and the importance of the lack of adequately developed end-of-life care facilities in Greece was emphasized. Conclusions These findings enforce our opinion that futile medical care should be conceptualized in the strict sense of the term, namely, as caring for a brain-dead individual or a patient in a medical condition whose continuation would most likely go against the patient’s presumed preference (strictly understood). Our findings were consistent with prior literature. However, we identified some issues that are of clinical importance.

Modern Evolutionist Naturalism And Šankara’s Arguments Contra Sankhya

This comparative study aims at juxtaposition of modern Western naturalistic evolutionism and the mostly similar attitude in the classic Indian philosophy in the shape of Sankhya’s cosmology in the context of their corresponding critiques by contemporary creationists and Advaita-Vedanta. The long and pointed polemics with Sankhya in the Brahmasutrabhasya by Šankaracharya (7th-8th centuries A.D.) is in the focus of this investigation along with numerous references to the Sankhya-karika by Isvarakrsna (5th century A.D.) as the basic text of the philosophical school criticized by its most powerful opponent. Comparing Western and Indian evolutionism reveals some very important differences to such a degree that the Indian species of the genus would be, in the author’s opinion, better identified as not evolutionism in the strict sense but as a “développisme” combining features of evolutionism with those of emanationism. As to Sankhya’s naturalism, it turns to be much more “sophisticated” than that, e.g., of Thomas Huxley or the so-called New Atheists because its “stuff” is more psychological than material. Nevertheless, crucial logical gaps remain the same in both cases (along with an antitheistic “faith” instead of rationalism), while their taking into account by opponents of naturalism offers a challenge for comparative philosophical theology.

Strategien zur Vermeidung von V-S im Französischen

French is a heavily postdetermining iambic language. This also implies that, in contrast to German, the subject-predicate sequence is dominant even though this is not a relationship of determination in the strict sense of the term. Despite the predominant iambic intonation pattern, postposition of rhematic subjects is only possible under certain conditions in modern French. This contrasts with Italian or Spanish in cases like Domani viene Maria/Mañana llega María. A French equivalent Demain vient Marie instead of Marie vient demain or also Demain Marie vient is no longer common today for reasons to be discussed. The central question to be answered is “By which means does French resolve the conflict of linearisation arising from the tension between the dominant rising intonation pattern and the ‘phobia’ of subject inversion even when the subject is rhematic?” A comparative analysis of translations is a viable method for discovering how French marks rhematic subjects when simple postposition is not a possible strategy. This approach shows how constructions with the subject in postposition, for instance in Italian, are rendered in their French translation.

Verbal reduplication as an aspectual marker and manifestation of cultural values in Amondawa (Brazil, Amazon)

In this paper we analyse verbal reduplication in the Amondawa language, focusing on the aspectual function. We argue that verbal reduplication may be linked to Amondawa’s cultural values, such as the counting system and the event-based concept of time. We analysed 100 verbal predicates, considering: (i) transitivity (active and stative intransitive and transitive), (ii) semantic properties (state, activity, achievements and accomplishments); and (iii) morphological structure. The results suggest that, for the Amondawa, verbal reduplication presents notions of pluractionality, notably aspectual, and reflects cultural values related to their ways of counting things in the world and their conception of time. Thus, in this language/culture, it is preferable to say that this phenomenon evidences a decomposition of the event into micro-events, rather than verbal plurality. In this sense, reduplication works as a kind of aspectual marker and not as a plural mark, in the strict sense, whether in nouns or verbs.