Books on the topic 'Contact crack'

Many modern engineering structures are composed of brittle heterogenous (a.k.a. quasibrittle) materials. These materials include concrete (an archetype), composites, tough ceramics, rocks, cold asphalt mixtures, and many brittle materials at the microscale. Understanding the failure behavior of these materials is of paramount importance for improving the resilience and sustainability of various engineering structures including civil infrastructure, aircraft, ships, military armors, and microelectronic devices. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of quasibrittle fracture mechanics. It first presents a concise but rigorous and complete treatment of the linear elastic fracture mechanics, which is the foundation of all fracture mechanics. The topics covered include energy balance analysis of fracture, analysis of near-tip field and stress intensity factors, Irwin's relationship, J-integral, calculation of compliance function and deflection, and analysis of interfacial crack. Built upon the content of linear elastic fracture mechanics, the book presents various fundamental concepts of nonlinear fracture mechanics, which include estimation of inelastic zone size, cohesive crack model, equivalent linear elastic fracture mechanics model, R-curve, and crack band model. The book also discusses some more advanced concepts such as the effects of the triaxial stress state in the fracture process zone, nonlocal continuum models, and discrete computational model. The significant part of the book is devoted to the discussion of the energetic and statistical size effects, which is a salient feature of quasibrittle fracture. The book also presents probabilistic fracture mechanics, and its consequent reliability-based structural analysis and design of quasibrittle structures. Finally, the book provides an extensive review of various practical applications of quasibrittle fracture mechanics.

Second-order texture illusions, corresponding to Mach bands, Chevreul, and Craik-O’Brien-Cornsweet illusions in brightness perception, are generated by replacing luminance modulations in the classic stimuli with modulations of texture contrast. Whereas the classic (first-order) illusions exhibit changes in lightness or darkness near boundaries, the second-order stimuli exhibit analogous perceptual effects that are increases or decreases in apparent texture contrast with no concomitant change in apparent brightness. The magnitudes of the second-order texture-contrast changes are comparable to brightness changes in the classic first-order illusions. These results indicate that second-order (texture) illusions involve spatial interactions that are remarkably similar to those in first-order (luminance) processing.

The use of non-prescription drugs is widespread and has a major impact on the health of the individual user and society. In 2006, the British Crime Survey reported that 10% of adults had used one or more illicit drugs in the preceding year, with 3% reporting using a Class A drug. Over 11 million people in the UK are estimated to have used an illicit drug at least once in their lifetime (35%). Drugs abused vary in their intrinsic potential to cause addiction and, with it, more regular and harmful use. Drug users are influenced by trends and fashions, adopting new compounds such as crack cocaine and experimenting with routes of ingestion. Some drugs may become less popular over time, such as LSD, while others, such as cannabis, experience a revival as more potent strains (e.g. Skunk) are developed. A problem drug user is best defined as a person whose drug taking is no longer controlled or undertaken for recreational purposes and where drugs have become a more essential element of the individual’s life. The true economic and social cost of drug use is likely to be substantially greater than the published figures, which are derived from a variety of health and crime surveys which may overlook vulnerable groups such as the homeless. The majority of non-prescription drugs used in the UK are illegal and covered by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The drugs most commonly abused gave rise in 2003–4 to an estimated financial cost in England and Wales of 15.4 billion pounds to the economy, with Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine accounting for the majority of this. Some 90% of the cost is due to drug-related crime, with only 3% (£488 million) due to health service expenditure, which is mainly spent on inpatient care episodes. This still represents a major health pressure, which in 2006–7 amounted to 38 000 admissions, in England, for primary and secondary drug-related mental or behavioural problems, and over 10 000 admissions recorded for drug poisoning. Clinicians in all specialities can expect to encounter harmful drug use, especially those working in primary care, A & E, and psychiatric services. Presenting problems are protean, ranging from mood disorders, delirium, and psychosis to sepsis, malnutrition, and hepatitis. Blood-borne infections such as hepatitis C and HIV are widespread, as contaminated needles and syringes are shared by up to a quarter of problem drug users. Even smoking drugs such as crack cocaine can lead to increased transmission of hepatitis C through oral ulceration and contact with hot contaminated smoking pipes. Amongst the UK population, over half of IV drug users have hepatitis C, a quarter have antibodies to hepatitis B, and, by 2006, 4662 had been diagnosed with HIV. Non-prescription drug abuse is a leading cause of death and morbidity amongst the young adult population (those aged 16–35). In 2006 there were 1573 deaths where the underlying cause was poisoning, drug abuse, or dependence on substances controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act. The vast majority (79%) were male. Young men, in particular, are at greater risk of violent death through associated criminal activity such as drug supplying and from deliberate and accidental overdose. The male-to-female ratio for deaths associated with mental and behavioural disorder is 6:1.

This chapter accounts for the “cupcake craze” by analyzing the distinctly feminized pleasures the confections signify in the postfeminist cultural context. Feminist media scholars have critiqued postfeminist popular culture for producing hegemonic representations that depoliticize feminist ideals. While cupcakes may indeed reify postfeminist ideologies, the chapter argues that they also point toward resistant pleasures; cupcakes invite cultural consumers to take pleasure in depictions of sisterhood that challenge neoliberal individuality by celebrating bonds between women and the liberating potential of difference. By tracing popular representations of cupcakes as items of consumption and production, this chapter finds moments in which viewers are invited to take pleasure in sweet indulgences and feminine friendships that reproduce but also expose the cracks in contemporary gender politics.

This book raises the question of what it means to engage in theological reflection in an authentic way in the present context of global coloniality. In response to the historical manifestations of the coloniality of power on the levels of being, knowledge, and eschatology, it searches for a decolonized image of salvation that can unsettle historical structures of coloniality. The book starts by analyzing modern/colonial structures that shape the present context and the ways Christian theology is entangled in these structures. I then argues that the theological work of Ignacio Ellacuría and Jon Sobrino points to the theoretical possibility of a theology that contests the patterns of domination that continue after political decolonization. Using the work of Ellacuría and Sobrino, it turns to the ways Frantz Fanon and James Baldwin responded to colonial modernity by exposing idols and revealing illusionary notions of stasis in light of alternative commitments to orientations of decolonial love. This decolonial love, and the ways it is historicized in praxis, is perceived as violent from the perspective of Western modernity. This book argues that the orientations of decolonial from which Fanon and Baldwin operate break open cracks in Western modernity and make salvation present in history. Decolonial love thus becomes theologically pedagogic—that is, it provides a source from which to make theological claims. Decolonial love offers one way of doing theology and one way of shaping the content of a decolonized image of salvation.

The book examines, from the perspective of feminist disability theories, the concepts and role of women in selected Spanish discourses and literary texts from the late fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. It explores a wide range of Spanish medical, regulatory and moral discourses in order to show how these inherit, reproduce and propagate an amalgam of Western traditional concepts of the female embodiment. The book also examines concrete representations of deviant female characters, with a focus in the figure of the syphilitic prostitute and the physically decayed aged women, in a variety of literary texts such Celestina, Lozana andaluza and selected works by Cervantes and Quevedo. The analysis of the personal testimony of Teresa de Avila, a nun suffering neurological disorders, complements the discussion of early modern women’s disability. By expanding the meanings of present materiality/social construction disability theories, the book concludes that femininity, bodily afflictions, and mental instability characterize the new literary heroes in paradoxical contrast with the Spanish apex of imperial power. The broken female bodies of pre-industrial Spanish literature reveal the cracks in the foundational principles of established masculine truths such as physical and moral integrity and religious and ethnic intolerance.

Analyzing published and archival oral histories of formerly enslaved African Americans, Libra R. Hilde explores the meanings of manhood and fatherhood during and after the era of slavery, demonstrating that black men and women articulated a surprisingly broad and consistent vision of paternal duty across more than a century. Complicating the tendency among historians to conflate masculinity within slavery with heroic resistance, Hilde emphasizes that, while some enslaved men openly rebelled, many chose subtle forms of resistance in the context of family and local community. She explains how a significant number of enslaved men served as caretakers to their children and shaped their lives and identities. From the standpoint of enslavers, this was particularly threatening--a man who fed his children built up the master’s property, but a man who fed them notions of autonomy put cracks in the edifice of slavery. Fatherhood highlighted the agonizing contradictions of the condition of enslavement, and to be an involved father was to face intractable dilemmas, yet many men tried. By telling the story of the often quietly heroic efforts that enslaved men undertook to be fathers, Hilde reveals how formerly enslaved African Americans evaluated their fathers (including white fathers) and envisioned an honorable manhood.

This handbook of Classical Chinese literature from 1000 bce through 900 ce aims to provide a solid introduction to the field, inspire scholars in Chinese Studies to explore innovative conceptual frameworks and pedagogical approaches in the studying and teaching of classical Chinese literature, and facilitate a comparative dialogue with scholars of premodern East Asia and other classical and medieval literary traditions around the world. The handbook integrates issue-oriented, thematic, topical, and cross-cultural approaches to the classical Chinese literary heritage with historical perspectives. It introduces both literature and institutions of literary culture, in particular court culture and manuscript culture, which shaped early and medieval Chinese literary production. It problematizes the gap between traditional concepts and modern revisionary definitions of literary categories and fosters critical awareness of how this has shaped the transmission and reception of literature and literary history. It discusses both canonical works and works that fall between the cracks of modern disciplinary divisions of “philosophy,” “religion,” “history,” and “literature.” Adopting a thematic approach, it traces the trajectory of ideas and motifs articulated across different genres, periods, and cultural spheres and lays the groundwork for comparisons with other literary cultures. Finally, it places early and medieval China in its regional context by including chapters on translation, on cultural interactions with the Northwestern regions, and on the literatures produced in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam in Literary Chinese, recapturing the functioning of the East Asian Sinographic Sphere.

Centripetal democracy is the idea that legitimate democratic institutions set in motion forms of citizen practice and representative behaviour that serve as powerful drivers of political identity formation. Partisan modes of political representation in the context of multifaceted electoral and direct democratic voting opportunities are emphasized on this model. There is, however, a strain of thought predominant in political theory that doubts the democratic capacities of political systems constituted by multiple public spheres. This view is referred to as the lingua franca thesis on sustainable democratic systems (LFT). Inadequate democratic institutions and acute demands to divide the political system (through devolution or secession), are predicted by this thesis. By combining an original normative democratic theory with a comparative analysis of how Belgium and Switzerland have variously managed to sustain themselves as multilingual democracies, this book identifies the main institutional features of a democratically legitimate European Union (EU) and the conditions required to bring it about. Part I presents a novel theory of democratic legitimacy and political identity formation on which subsequent analyses are based. Part II defines the EU as a demoi-cracy and provides a thorough democratic assessment of this political system. Part III explains why Belgium has largely succumbed to the centrifugal logic predicted by the LFT, while Switzerland apparently defies this logic. Part IV presents a model of centripetal democracy for the EU, one that would greatly reduce its democratic deficit and help to ensure that this political system does not succumb to the centrifugal forces expected by the LFT.

In May 1950, five years after the second of two catastrophic wars, European nations began building a magnificent structure of institutional cooperation and open trade borders to secure peace and prosperity. Then, in 1969, they took an astonishingly ill-advised leap towards a single currency—requiring a single monetary policy for vastly divergent economies. This was economic folly, critics untiringly warned. Worse, it carried the seeds of political division. Europe’s leaders went forward unheeding, and in January 1999, the tragedy of the euro began. This vivid and compelling chronicle describes how the euro improbably emerged through a narrow historical window as a flawed compromise wrapped in a false pro-European rhetoric of peace and unity. The book then situates the tragedy in a fast-paced global context and guides the reader through forced—and unforced—errors eurozone authorities committed during their long financial crisis. The euro unfolded as both economic and political tragedy. It weakened the growth potential of member states, which made financially vulnerable Europeans more anxious. It deepened the sense of unfairness and widened the division between nations. Now, the burden falls upon younger Europeans, a generation with a discouragingly bleak future. A compassionate view of European possibilities, EuroTragedy makes clear that the euro’s structural flaws will continue to haunt—especially along cracks in the Italian economy. Instead of centralizing authority to prop up an ossified pro-Europeanist model, it is time to loosen ties that bind too tightly so that a liberal order can once more flourish.

“Discipline” explores how the performance of justice, with its associated aesthetics and normative codes, involves disciplines that seek to “translate” discourse, bodily movement, and subjectivity into a juridical form, one that asserts the liberal democratic, right-bearing subjectivity the transitional justice imaginary aspires to produce. Drawing in part on translation theory, this chapter notes that such translation involves power, discourse, control, and a sort of exile as speech and actions are shaped into a form according with juridical order. These attempts to realize the transitional justice imaginary, however, are unable to contain an excess—a surplus of meanings creating cracks in the justice facade—that emerges from the lived experience and understandings of particular actors. These juridical disciplines were manifest at a 2008 Reenactment described in the section preamble, as the victims and defendants were invested with rights and agency that enabled (and constrained) their actions within this juridical performance. They were also evident in the testimony given by another S-21 artist and survivor, Bou Meng, who participated as a civil party in Duch’s trial and is the focus of Chapter 6. In particular, the chapter explores how the court disciplined Bou Meng, “translating” what he said, how he felt, and even how he moved his body into a legalistic form. Despite this juridical canalization, an excess of meaning was evident throughout Bou Meng’s testimony, as illustrated by his invocation of Buddhist understandings and spirit beliefs, including the soul of his wife. This “bushy undergrowth” of meaning is largely occluded by the justice facade even as it remains central to lived experience and practice.

Bones are multifunctional passive organs of movement that supports soft tissue and directly attached muscles. They also protect internal organs and are a reserve of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. Each bone is covered with periosteum, and the adjacent bone surfaces are covered by articular cartilage. Histologically, the bone is an organ composed of many different tissues. The main component is bone tissue (cortical and spongy) composed of a set of bone cells and intercellular substance (mineral and organic), it also contains fat, hematopoietic (bone marrow) and cartilaginous tissue. Bones are a tissue that even in adult life retains the ability to change shape and structure depending on changes in their mechanical and hormonal environment, as well as self-renewal and repair capabilities. This process is called bone turnover. The basic processes of bone turnover are: • bone modeling (incessantly changes in bone shape during individual growth) following resorption and tissue formation at various locations (e.g. bone marrow formation) to increase mass and skeletal morphology. This process occurs in the bones of growing individuals and stops after reaching puberty • bone remodeling (processes involve in maintaining bone tissue by resorbing and replacing old bone tissue with new tissue in the same place, e.g. repairing micro fractures). It is a process involving the removal and internal remodeling of existing bone and is responsible for maintaining tissue mass and architecture of mature bones. Bone turnover is regulated by two types of transformation: • osteoclastogenesis, i.e. formation of cells responsible for bone resorption • osteoblastogenesis, i.e. formation of cells responsible for bone formation (bone matrix synthesis and mineralization) Bone maturity can be defined as the completion of basic structural development and mineralization leading to maximum mass and optimal mechanical strength. The highest rate of increase in pig bone mass is observed in the first twelve weeks after birth. This period of growth is considered crucial for optimizing the growth of the skeleton of pigs, because the degree of bone mineralization in later life stages (adulthood) depends largely on the amount of bone minerals accumulated in the early stages of their growth. The development of the technique allows to determine the condition of the skeletal system (or individual bones) in living animals by methods used in human medicine, or after their slaughter. For in vivo determination of bone properties, Abstract 10 double energy X-ray absorptiometry or computed tomography scanning techniques are used. Both methods allow the quantification of mineral content and bone mineral density. The most important property from a practical point of view is the bone’s bending strength, which is directly determined by the maximum bending force. The most important factors affecting bone strength are: • age (growth period), • gender and the associated hormonal balance, • genotype and modification of genes responsible for bone growth • chemical composition of the body (protein and fat content, and the proportion between these components), • physical activity and related bone load, • nutritional factors: – protein intake influencing synthesis of organic matrix of bone, – content of minerals in the feed (CA, P, Zn, Ca/P, Mg, Mn, Na, Cl, K, Cu ratio) influencing synthesis of the inorganic matrix of bone, – mineral/protein ratio in the diet (Ca/protein, P/protein, Zn/protein) – feed energy concentration, – energy source (content of saturated fatty acids - SFA, content of polyun saturated fatty acids - PUFA, in particular ALA, EPA, DPA, DHA), – feed additives, in particular: enzymes (e.g. phytase releasing of minerals bounded in phytin complexes), probiotics and prebiotics (e.g. inulin improving the function of the digestive tract by increasing absorption of nutrients), – vitamin content that regulate metabolism and biochemical changes occurring in bone tissue (e.g. vitamin D3, B6, C and K). This study was based on the results of research experiments from available literature, and studies on growing pigs carried out at the Kielanowski Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition, Polish Academy of Sciences. The tests were performed in total on 300 pigs of Duroc, Pietrain, Puławska breeds, line 990 and hybrids (Great White × Duroc, Great White × Landrace), PIC pigs, slaughtered at different body weight during the growth period from 15 to 130 kg. Bones for biomechanical tests were collected after slaughter from each pig. Their length, mass and volume were determined. Based on these measurements, the specific weight (density, g/cm3) was calculated. Then each bone was cut in the middle of the shaft and the outer and inner diameters were measured both horizontally and vertically. Based on these measurements, the following indicators were calculated: • cortical thickness, • cortical surface, • cortical index. Abstract 11 Bone strength was tested by a three-point bending test. The obtained data enabled the determination of: • bending force (the magnitude of the maximum force at which disintegration and disruption of bone structure occurs), • strength (the amount of maximum force needed to break/crack of bone), • stiffness (quotient of the force acting on the bone and the amount of displacement occurring under the influence of this force). Investigation of changes in physical and biomechanical features of bones during growth was performed on pigs of the synthetic 990 line growing from 15 to 130 kg body weight. The animals were slaughtered successively at a body weight of 15, 30, 40, 50, 70, 90, 110 and 130 kg. After slaughter, the following bones were separated from the right half-carcass: humerus, 3rd and 4th metatarsal bone, femur, tibia and fibula as well as 3rd and 4th metatarsal bone. The features of bones were determined using methods described in the methodology. Describing bone growth with the Gompertz equation, it was found that the earliest slowdown of bone growth curve was observed for metacarpal and metatarsal bones. This means that these bones matured the most quickly. The established data also indicate that the rib is the slowest maturing bone. The femur, humerus, tibia and fibula were between the values of these features for the metatarsal, metacarpal and rib bones. The rate of increase in bone mass and length differed significantly between the examined bones, but in all cases it was lower (coefficient b <1) than the growth rate of the whole body of the animal. The fastest growth rate was estimated for the rib mass (coefficient b = 0.93). Among the long bones, the humerus (coefficient b = 0.81) was characterized by the fastest rate of weight gain, however femur the smallest (coefficient b = 0.71). The lowest rate of bone mass increase was observed in the foot bones, with the metacarpal bones having a slightly higher value of coefficient b than the metatarsal bones (0.67 vs 0.62). The third bone had a lower growth rate than the fourth bone, regardless of whether they were metatarsal or metacarpal. The value of the bending force increased as the animals grew. Regardless of the growth point tested, the highest values were observed for the humerus, tibia and femur, smaller for the metatarsal and metacarpal bone, and the lowest for the fibula and rib. The rate of change in the value of this indicator increased at a similar rate as the body weight changes of the animals in the case of the fibula and the fourth metacarpal bone (b value = 0.98), and more slowly in the case of the metatarsal bone, the third metacarpal bone, and the tibia bone (values of the b ratio 0.81–0.85), and the slowest femur, humerus and rib (value of b = 0.60–0.66). Bone stiffness increased as animals grew. Regardless of the growth point tested, the highest values were observed for the humerus, tibia and femur, smaller for the metatarsal and metacarpal bone, and the lowest for the fibula and rib. Abstract 12 The rate of change in the value of this indicator changed at a faster rate than the increase in weight of pigs in the case of metacarpal and metatarsal bones (coefficient b = 1.01–1.22), slightly slower in the case of fibula (coefficient b = 0.92), definitely slower in the case of the tibia (b = 0.73), ribs (b = 0.66), femur (b = 0.59) and humerus (b = 0.50). Bone strength increased as animals grew. Regardless of the growth point tested, bone strength was as follows femur > tibia > humerus > 4 metacarpal> 3 metacarpal> 3 metatarsal > 4 metatarsal > rib> fibula. The rate of increase in strength of all examined bones was greater than the rate of weight gain of pigs (value of the coefficient b = 2.04–3.26). As the animals grew, the bone density increased. However, the growth rate of this indicator for the majority of bones was slower than the rate of weight gain (the value of the coefficient b ranged from 0.37 – humerus to 0.84 – fibula). The exception was the rib, whose density increased at a similar pace increasing the body weight of animals (value of the coefficient b = 0.97). The study on the influence of the breed and the feeding intensity on bone characteristics (physical and biomechanical) was performed on pigs of the breeds Duroc, Pietrain, and synthetic 990 during a growth period of 15 to 70 kg body weight. Animals were fed ad libitum or dosed system. After slaughter at a body weight of 70 kg, three bones were taken from the right half-carcass: femur, three metatarsal, and three metacarpal and subjected to the determinations described in the methodology. The weight of bones of animals fed aa libitum was significantly lower than in pigs fed restrictively All bones of Duroc breed were significantly heavier and longer than Pietrain and 990 pig bones. The average values of bending force for the examined bones took the following order: III metatarsal bone (63.5 kg) <III metacarpal bone (77.9 kg) <femur (271.5 kg). The feeding system and breed of pigs had no significant effect on the value of this indicator. The average values of the bones strength took the following order: III metatarsal bone (92.6 kg) <III metacarpal (107.2 kg) <femur (353.1 kg). Feeding intensity and breed of animals had no significant effect on the value of this feature of the bones tested. The average bone density took the following order: femur (1.23 g/cm3) <III metatarsal bone (1.26 g/cm3) <III metacarpal bone (1.34 g / cm3). The density of bones of animals fed aa libitum was higher (P<0.01) than in animals fed with a dosing system. The density of examined bones within the breeds took the following order: Pietrain race> line 990> Duroc race. The differences between the “extreme” breeds were: 7.2% (III metatarsal bone), 8.3% (III metacarpal bone), 8.4% (femur). Abstract 13 The average bone stiffness took the following order: III metatarsal bone (35.1 kg/mm) <III metacarpus (41.5 kg/mm) <femur (60.5 kg/mm). This indicator did not differ between the groups of pigs fed at different intensity, except for the metacarpal bone, which was more stiffer in pigs fed aa libitum (P<0.05). The femur of animals fed ad libitum showed a tendency (P<0.09) to be more stiffer and a force of 4.5 kg required for its displacement by 1 mm. Breed differences in stiffness were found for the femur (P <0.05) and III metacarpal bone (P <0.05). For femur, the highest value of this indicator was found in Pietrain pigs (64.5 kg/mm), lower in pigs of 990 line (61.6 kg/mm) and the lowest in Duroc pigs (55.3 kg/mm). In turn, the 3rd metacarpal bone of Duroc and Pietrain pigs had similar stiffness (39.0 and 40.0 kg/mm respectively) and was smaller than that of line 990 pigs (45.4 kg/mm). The thickness of the cortical bone layer took the following order: III metatarsal bone (2.25 mm) <III metacarpal bone (2.41 mm) <femur (5.12 mm). The feeding system did not affect this indicator. Breed differences (P <0.05) for this trait were found only for the femur bone: Duroc (5.42 mm)> line 990 (5.13 mm)> Pietrain (4.81 mm). The cross sectional area of the examined bones was arranged in the following order: III metatarsal bone (84 mm2) <III metacarpal bone (90 mm2) <femur (286 mm2). The feeding system had no effect on the value of this bone trait, with the exception of the femur, which in animals fed the dosing system was 4.7% higher (P<0.05) than in pigs fed ad libitum. Breed differences (P<0.01) in the coross sectional area were found only in femur and III metatarsal bone. The value of this indicator was the highest in Duroc pigs, lower in 990 animals and the lowest in Pietrain pigs. The cortical index of individual bones was in the following order: III metatarsal bone (31.86) <III metacarpal bone (33.86) <femur (44.75). However, its value did not significantly depend on the intensity of feeding or the breed of pigs.