Short columns composed of concrete-filled steel tubes in a fire situation – Numerical model and the “air-gap” effect

The increase in temperature reduces the strength of steel and concrete, in such a way that it is essential to verify concrete-filled steel tube columns in fire situations. Numerical simulations, with lower costs than laboratory tests, have great importance in checking resistance and defining simplified methods for design practice. However, peculiarities of the thermal and mechanical behavior of heated confined concrete and the air-gap effect (a phenomenon inherent to concrete-filled steel columns) must still be better understood. Therefore, this study presents the development of a numerical model performed in the ABAQUS software (Dassault Systemes SIMULIA Corp., 2014) for the thermomechanical analysis of short columns composed of circular and square concrete-filled steel tubes considering the air-gap effect. The air-gap phenomenon is presented and analyzed according to possibilities of implementation to the numerical model and, finally, the proposed numerical model is validated with experimental results presented in the literature. According to the study results, the numerical model can be used to define and adjust simplified methods for verification of composite columns in fire situation. The importance of considering the air-gap effect in numerical modeling was confirmed, taking into account that disregarding its effect may result in overestimated responses of the steel tube resistance in fire situations. Moreover, it was suggested thermomechanical joint analysis and the use of the explicit solver as a strategy to minimize processing time.

The Effect of Healthcare Education on Future Doctors’ Moral Competence in Poland. Joining to the Competitive League with a Beneficial Delay?

<p>In competitive education test scores and scientometric indicators are 'the alpha and omega'. This can be mis-educative for healthcare students’ moral competence. A pilot research study with <i>n=</i>114 Polish healthcare students was conducted to examine how their moral competence development was affected by learning environment with the focus on competition. Data were obtained with the standard Moral Competence Test. <i>Results. </i>The sample allowed the identification of a regress in moral competence during students’ pre-clinical curriculum, and then progress during their clinical curriculum. Also, a reverse gender gap effect concerning participants’ C-scores (C for moral competence) was observed, but no significant segmentation effect was noticed. <i><u>Explanations</u></i>. Scholarly literature usually suggests a decrease or stagnation of medical and healthcare students’ C-scores (particularly during their clinical curriculum) resulting from, e.g., competitive trends in higher education. Polish tertiary education only tries hard to increase its competitiveness and position in national and international rankings. This delay effect seems beneficial for the development of students’ moral competence against trends in moral competence education during medical education documented between 1983 and 2021, and additionally discussed in the following article. </p>

The effect of healthcare education on students’ moral competence in Poland. Entering the dog-eats-dog world with a beneficial delay?

<p>In competitive education test scores and scientometric indicators are 'the alpha and omega'. This can be mis-educative for healthcare students’ moral competence. A pilot research study with <i>n=</i>114 Polish healthcare students was conducted to examine how their moral competence development was affected by learning environment with the focus on competition. Data were obtained with the standard Moral Competence Test. <i>Results. </i>The sample allowed the identification of a regress in moral competence during students’ pre-clinical curriculum, and then progress during their clinical curriculum. Also, a reverse gender gap effect concerning participants’ C-scores (C for moral competence) was observed, but no significant segmentation effect was noticed. <i><u>Explanations</u></i>. Scholarly literature usually suggests a decrease or stagnation of medical and healthcare students’ C-scores (particularly during their clinical curriculum) resulting from, e.g., competitive trends in higher education. Polish tertiary education only tries hard to increase its competitiveness and position in national and international rankings. This delay effect seems beneficial for the development of students’ moral competence against trends in moral competence education during medical education documented between 1983 and 2021, and additionally discussed in the following article. </p>

The effect of healthcare education on students’ moral competence in Poland. Entering the dog-eats-dog world with a beneficial delay?

<p>In competitive education test scores and scientometric indicators are 'the alpha and omega'. This can be mis-educative for healthcare students’ moral competence. A pilot research study with <i>n=</i>114 Polish healthcare students was conducted to examine how their moral competence development was affected by learning environment with the focus on competition. Data were obtained with the standard Moral Competence Test. <i>Results. </i>The sample allowed the identification of a regress in moral competence during students’ pre-clinical curriculum, and then progress during their clinical curriculum. Also, a reverse gender gap effect concerning participants’ C-scores (C for moral competence) was observed, but no significant segmentation effect was noticed. <i><u>Explanations</u></i>. Scholarly literature usually suggests a decrease or stagnation of medical and healthcare students’ C-scores (particularly during their clinical curriculum) resulting from, e.g., competitive trends in higher education. Polish tertiary education only tries hard to increase its competitiveness and position in national and international rankings. This delay effect seems beneficial for the development of students’ moral competence against trends in moral competence education during medical education documented between 1983 and 2021, and additionally discussed in the following article. </p>

Saccades, attentional orienting and disengagement: the effects of anodal tDCS over right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and frontal eye field (FEF)

ABSTRACTIn the present work, we applied anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and frontal eye field (FEF) of the right hemisphere in healthy subjects to modulate attentional orienting and disengagement in a gap-overlap task. Both stimulations led to bilateral improvements in saccadic reaction times (SRTs), with larger effects for gap trials. However, analyses showed that the gap effect was not affected by tDCS. Importantly, we observed significant effects of baseline performance that may mediate side- and task-specific effects of brain stimulation.