Running Research Projects Research Articles

Pleasure and danger: a running-woman in ‘public’ space

ABSTRACT The French existentialist philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, long ago signalled the potentially empowering force of outdoor exercise and recreation for women, drawing on feminist phenomenological perspectives. Feminist phenomenological research in sport and exercise, however, remains relatively scarce, and this article contributes to a small, developing research corpus by employing a feminist phenomenological theoretical framework to analyse lived experiences of running in ‘public’ space. As feminist theorists have argued, such space is gendered and contested, and women’s mobility remains constrained by fears of harassment and violent attack. Running also generates intense pleasure, however, and embodied empowerment. Drawing on findings from two separate but linked automethodological running research projects, here I explore salient and overlapping themes cohering around lived experience of pleasure and danger in both urban and rural spaces.

Działalność naukowo-badawcza studentów na przykładzie Studenckiego Koła Naukowego Prawników UMCS

<p>The students’ research activity defined as a system of forms aimed at meeting and developing scientific interests of academic youth is pursued mainly in such areas as holding scientific conferences, publishing, running research projects, organisation of competitions, study trips, and expert meetings. This activity cannot only be perceived as a form of student’s activity but also as one of the factors that shape the Polish academia by early influencing young scholars. It allows the young people to learn appropriate attitudes and acquire expertise and experience necessary for the development of innovation and internationalisation of the Polish higher education system. This article was written as a contribution for the 60<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the Law Students’ Scientific Club at UMCS.</p>

An Initial Demonstration of Polyester Monomer Coordination Properties: Synthesis and Biological Activity of Metal Complexes Derived from a New Nanosized Diol

A part of a running research project directed to building coordinated polymers based on the rigid aromatic s-triazine, the researchers reported the synthesis, characterization, antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of four new transition metal complexes derived from the nanosized diol monomer (H2L ligand) as early representatives of its nanosized o-naphthol-based polyester. The reaction of the new nanosized N2O2 donor diimine containing sulfone with zinc (II), copper (II), nickel (II) and cobalt (II) ions offered nonconducting metal complexes. The SEM image showed the diol monomer was organized as well-defined nanosized rod-like morphology. Spectroscopic and magnetic susceptibility studies displayed the tetrahedral geometries for Zn (II), Co (II) and Ni (II) complexes while the Cu (II) complex had square planar geometry. The antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities were in the order [Cu2L2].4H2O > [Zn2L2] > [Ni (HL)2] > [Co2L2] > H2L. Despite the ligand, [Cu2L2].4H2O, [Zn2L2] and [Co2L2] complexes displayed no efficacy against the screened microbes, only the tetrahedral Ni (II) complex exhibited moderate activity. The reporting complexes possessed several notable advantages that render them as promising alternatives for the development of therapeutic agents. Selection of the rigid O-substituted naphthol ring as a source of Odonor ligands is expected to construct high dimensional frameworks and more easily contributing and controlling metallic topology.

Textile reinforcement in the bed joint of basement masonry – First findings from a current research project

AbstractThe successful structural verification of basement walls under earth pressure loading with light imposed loading is often difficult. This situation is often encountered for external basement walls under terrace doors, stairs, masonry light wells etc., where the theoretically necessary imposed loading is missing. This makes it impossible to resist the acting bending forces from earth pressure using a vertical arch model. In such cases, the earth pressure has to be resisted in a horizontal direction. Since however the bending moment capacity of unreinforced masonry parallel to the bed joint is low, another possibility is to use a textile‐reinforced bed joint with longitudinal fibres of alkali‐resistant glass or carbon fibre. With an appropriately adapted textile reinforcement in the bed joints, the masonry can fulfil the requirements for load‐bearing capacity against earth pressure with horizontal load transfer, even under a small imposed load. Textile reinforcement has the advantage above all of corrosion resistance compared to conventional steel reinforcement, and textiles can also be inserted into thin bed joints. The Chair of Structural Design in the Faculty of Architecture of the TU Dresden is currently carrying out extensive numerical and experimental studies for this purpose. The objective is to develop an optimal configuration of material and textile form for use as bed joint reinforcement. The investigations are concentrating on the tension strength, bonding and durability of the composite material ”textile mortar“. This report should give a brief overview of the state of the work in the currently running research project.

Social values and species conservation: the case of Baudin's and Carnaby's black-cockatoos

SUMMARYWe investigated how the socio–political and ecological environment are associated with the conservation management strategies for two rare, endemic and almost identical Australian white-tailed black-cockatoos: Baudin's (Calyptorhynchus baudinii) and Carnaby's black-cockatoo (C. latirostris). Substantially less investment and action has occurred for Baudin's black-cockatoo. Interviews with key informants revealed that this disparity has probably arisen because Baudin's black-cockatoo has long been considered a pest to the apple industry, lives primarily in tall forests and has had little research undertaken on its biology and threats. By contrast, Carnaby's black-cockatoo has been the subject of one of the longest running research projects in Australia, is highly visible within the urban environment and does not appear to affect the livelihoods of any strong stakeholder group. We suggest the social context within which recovery efforts occur could be an important determinant in species persistence. We argue that social research is fundamental to a better understanding of the nature of efforts to conserve particular species, the factors associated with these efforts and their likelihood of success.

Influence of chemical composition, form and morphology of surface of NaCl grains on mechanical properties of water soluble cores

With development of a number of branches (automobile industry) the demand of increasingly more complex and more exacting castings that are mechanically cleanable with difficulties only is growing. Application of the technology of disposable water soluble cores from inorganic salts is one of solutions of troublesome problems of removing the cores from places hardly accessible for cleaning. Solubility in water enables reversal crystallization of the salt from the water solution what is a precondition for forming a closed ecological cycle of the core manufacture. Application of salt cores can be met in processes of low-pressure casting, gravity casting in dies, and in connection with just running research project in pressure castings from Al-alloys. The article brings results of checking the cores made from cooking salts (NaCl) predominantly available on the Czech market. It is aimed at two main technologies (shooting and high-pressure squeezing) of their manufacture and it investigates the influence of chemical composition, form and morphology of the grain surface on mechanical properties (bending strength) of water soluble salt cores for their application for high-pressure die casting of Al-alloys.

The Student Committee of Sports Medicine Research Center: To be Independent or Not to Be? That Is the Question

Respecting the recent promotion of sports medicine in different communities as a new field in medicine, involvement of medical students in sport medicine research similar to other medical research fields seems to be necessary. In this letter, we describe our experience regarding establishment of a student research committee in Sports Medicine Research Center (SMRC) of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Fortunately, many medical students joined to this committee. These students can guarantee the successful future of this new branch of medicine. In the light of immense successes of sports medicine specialists in treatment, preventions and rehabilitation of some non-communicable diseases and also increasing number of sports-related injuries, more investigators have been attracted to this new branch of medicine. Quite enough manuscripts have been published to show the importance of sport medicine training for medical students [1]. However, to our knowledge, no study has implied on necessity and method of research training for young medical students who are interested in this area. In 2007, we established the Student Committee of SMRC of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The aim of this committee was to provide an appropriate academic atmosphere for training and research of those students who want to focus on sports medicine or related fields as their future specialty. To achieve the goals of the committee, we tried to learn from previous experiences of our friends in other research centers[2]. On this base, holding some research-associated workshops by knowledgeable volunteered members and weekly research methodological and epidemiologic books review meetings were some parts of the research education program applied in this committee. These workshops and meetings could improve the theoretical research knowledge of the members. In addition, running research projects under direct supervision of sports medicine faculty has provided this opportunity for the medical students to involve practically in sports medicine research. Indeed, members of the committee were not allowed to be involved in more than two specific topics of sports medicine researches at the same time. This could help them to concentrate on research projects assigned to them which might lead to better quality of the final work. We believe that if students involve in specific research topics, they will become more expert in that topic in a shorter time. According to the glowing recommendations of the faculty and those who experienced any kind of collaboration with members of the Student Committee of the SMRC in course of their research, almost all of our members have a quite high level of theoretical and practical knowledge for performing standard research projects. Nevertheless, it seems that for training well-qualified sports medicine scientists in the future, medical students should be encouraged to participate not only in implementation, data acquisition, analysis and manuscript writing, but also in designing, criticizing, and reviewing research studies and articles. Even running research projects by medical students (without supervision of sports medicine faculty) who have been well trained in different aspects of the research is not far from our idea. This can be considered as a double-edged sword; on one hand this might be a jumpstart for the talented members of the Student Committee to have a new experience (research without any supervision by the faculty); on the other hand this might open the gate for wasting research budgets of the SMRC without satisfying outputs. However, in our opinion conducting research projects by very well-trained medical students prepare them to meet demands of their future responsibility as leaders of sport medicine research in Iran. Remarkable ability and enthusiasm of the Students Committee's members have been noticed during the past four years. It may be reasonable that the Scientific Board and chairman of the SMRC should pay more attention to this committee and consider allocating a part of the yearly budget of the SMRC as an independent grant for research projects of medical student without involvement of the SMRC faculty as supervisor.

Looking for the linguistic knowledge behind the curtains of contemporary dance: the case of Rui Horta's creative process

This paper is composed of two main parts: the first one consisting of theoretical reflections both on the implicit knowledge we believe is contained in the making-of processes of contemporary dance performances and on the relations between concepts and their corresponding terms; the second one describing a practice-oriented case study, based on original video recordings of the creation and rehearsal process of a dance piece (SetUp) by contemporary choreographer Rui Horta. The case study is framed by the presently running research project A Transmedia Knowledge Base for contemporary dance (TKB), which is also briefly presented.

Hazard Identification of Nanomaterials

It is considered that the materials with new properties may lead to novel biological effects or unknown adverse health effects. To gather proper hazard information, it is important to develop both experimental protocols and detection/measurement methods for nanomaterials in the body, in parallel. Since 2005, we are running research projects to develop methods to monitor health risk effects for the assessment of manufactured nanomaterials funded by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. For the experimental protocols, these projects focus on the development of 1) in vitro experimental systems, 2) in vivo experimental systems (mainly focusing on long-term health implication, especially carcinogenesis), and 3) proper inhalation system. Firstly, fullerene (C60), titanium dioxide and multi-walled carbon nanotube were chosen to be tested because of their high production volume. Safety issues for new materials such as nanoparticles is a new paradigm. The key is that the full scale exposure to the public has not been started yet. Therefore, there is a good chance that information from hazard identification studies can be directly fed back to the product development plan. Manufacturers can produce safer products without risking themselves waiting for the toxicology studies to be finished after their products are widely marketed.

EXPERIMENTS ON BUCKLING AND POSTBUCKLING OF THIN-WALLED CFRP STRUCTURES USING ADVANCED MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS

The aircraft and space industry strives for significantly reduced development and operating costs. Reduction of structural weight at safe design is one possibility to reach this objective which is aimed by the following two running research projects: the EC project "COCOMAT" and the ESA study "Probabilistic Aspects of Buckling Knock Down Factors". These projects develop improved concepts and tools for a fast and reliable simulation of the buckling and the postbuckling behavior of thin-walled structures up to collapse, respectively, which allow the exploitation of considerable reserves in primary fibre composite structures in aerospace applications. For the validation of the concepts and tools, a sound database of experiments is needed which is also performed within these projects. This paper focuses on the experimental activities within these projects performed at the buckling test facility of the Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems (DLR). It presents an overview about the DLR buckling, postbuckling and collapse tests which are already finished and gives an outlook to the results which are expected until the end of the running projects. This paper explains the working of the buckling test facility, the advanced measurement systems, which are running in parallel to the tests, and gives exemplarily two test results. The structures considered are unstiffened cylinders (ESA study) as well as panels, which are understood as sections of cylinders, stiffened by stringers (COCOMAT project). The unstiffened cylinders are more related to space applications (e.g. Ariane busters or parts of the international space station ISS) and the stiffened panels focus more on aircraft structures (e.g. fuselage). The load case considered for all investigations presented in this paper is axial compression under static loading although the test facility is also ready to apply torsion and internal pressure, as well as dynamic axial impact.

Degradation of marine ecosystems and decline of fishery resources in marine protected areas in the US Virgin Islands

The large number of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Caribbean (over 100) gives a misleading impression of the amount of protection the reefs and other marine resources in this region are receiving. This review synthesizes information on marine resources in two of the first MPAs established in the USA, namely Virgin Islands National Park (1962) and Buck Island Reef National Monument (1961), and provides compelling evidence that greater protection is needed, based on data from some of the longest running research projects on coral reefs, reef fish assemblages, and seagrass beds for the Caribbean. Most of the stresses affecting marine resources throughout the Caribbean (e.g. damage from boats, hurricanes and coral diseases) are also causing deterioration in these MPAs. Living coral cover has decreased and macroalgal cover has increased. Seagrass densities have decreased because of storms and anchor damage. Intensive fishing in the US Virgin Islands has caused loss of spawning aggregations and decreases in mean fish size and abundance. Groupers and snappers are far less abundant and herbivorous fishes comprise a greater proportion of samples than in the 1960s. Effects of intensive fishing are evident even within MPA boundaries. Although only traditional fishing with traps of ‘conventional design’ is allowed, commercial trap fishing is occurring. Visual samples of fishes inside and outside Virgin Islands National Park showed no significant differences in number of species, biomass, or mean size of fishes. Similarly, the number of fishes per trap was statistically similar inside and outside park waters. These MPAs have not been effective because an unprecedented combination of natural and human factors is assaulting the resources, some of the greatest damage is from stresses outside the control of park managers (e.g. hurricanes), and enforcement of the few regulations has been limited. Fully functioning MPAs which prohibit fishing and other extractive uses (e.g. no-take marine reserves) could reverse some of the degradation, allowing replenishment of the fishery resources and recovery of benthic habitats.