Assessment of a fire-damaged concrete overpass: the Verona bus crash case study

PurposeThis study aims to develop an assessment strategy for fire damaged infrastructures based on the implementation of quick diagnostic techniques and consistent interpretation procedures, so to determine the residual safety margin and any need for repair works.Design/methodology/approachIn this perspective, several tailored non-destructive test (NDT) methods have been developed in the past two decades, providing immediate results, with no need for time-consuming laboratory analyses. Moreover, matching their indications with the calculated effects of a tentative fire scenario allows harmonizing distinct pieces of evidence in the coherent physical framework of fire dynamics and heat transfer.FindingsThis approach was followed in the investigations on a concrete overpass in Verona (Italy) after a coach violently impacted one supporting pillar and caught fire in 2017. Technical specifications of the vehicle made it possible to bound the acceptable ranges for fire load and maximum rate of heat release, while surveillance video footage indicated the duration of the burning stage. Some established NDT methods (evaluation of discolouration, de-hydroxylation and rebar hardness) were implemented, together with advanced ultrasonic tests based on pulse refraction and pulse-echo tomography.Originality/valueThe results clearly showed the extension of the most damaged area at the intrados of the box girders and validated the maximum heating depth, as predicted by numerical analysis of the heat transient ensuing from the localized fire model.

IZBOR I SASTAV USTAVNOG SUDA REPUBLIKE SRBIJE

The Constitutional Judiciary is one of the basic state functions embodied in an independent state body called the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court protects constitutionality and legality, as well as human and minority rights and freedoms, by exercising the various and numerous competencies established by the highest legal act. Its role in the legal system is extremely important and irreplaceable, which implies an analysis of the organization of the Constitutional Court. Every organ or organization is made up of people. The human staff is the supporting pillar on the composition of which the efficiency, success and professionalism of the institution depend. Carefully selected members, based on quality criteria, are a guarantee for timely and productive work. By interpreting the legal norms that regulate the issues of election and composition of the Constitutional Court through different stages of the constitutional development of our state, we will create a comprehensive picture of the solution and come to a conclusion about possible improvements to existing rules.

“Claim vs. Reality”—A German Case Study on Modes and Functions of Sports-Pedagogical Communication

Academic sports pedagogy continuously assures itself of its disciplinary foundations and determines its position in the structure of modern sciences. While communication is based on differences, the distinction between claim and reality plays a crucial role in sports pedagogy. However, the forms and functions in which the distinction appears have not been more closely investigated in sports pedagogic. This article starts with this in mind, exemplarily focusing on academic sports pedagogy in Germany. While analyzing 212 scientific texts of sports-pedagogical provenance, three central variations of the distinction could be identified, which persist until today and are present in the discipline's central discussion lines: (1) hierarchical demarcation, (2) unsystematic approach, (3) direct synthesis. From a functional point of view, the distinction between claim and reality continuously (re)organizes the relationship of sports pedagogy to other scientific disciplines, educational policy guidelines, and school practice expectations, thus proving to be a supporting pillar of disciplinary identity work.

CHANGING FOOD HABIT - A RE-EVALUATION

The supporting pillar of our body includes food, sleep & Bramacharya (Stay in conduct). A proper, optimum and skilful use of these triad maintains the integrity, physical, immunological strength, complexion, growth, nourish- ment, till full length of life. Among them food acts as the foundation or rather energy provider for the other two components. Most health problems develop due to the wrong eating habits and cooking methods. When we look back, to 1970’s Kerala state had already achieved the criteria similar to the health status which was to be achieved in 2000 as per the WHO criteria. But unfortunately, the condition got altered and the state got into the list of top ten among the lifestyle disorders. Foods are altered, treated, processed, coloured, sulphurated, embalmed, adulterated, preserved, pickled, cooked sterilised and pasteurized leading to deprivation of nutritional values, which is the curse of this age. The modern society got merged into the regimens of tea, coffee, cold- drinks, instant food, bottled and canned foods, alcohol consumption, smoking, drug addiction and so on. The commercial advertisement seems to bind a ready sale to the credulous miss informed public about the nutrition supplements. There is a high demand among the public for imported vegetables, fruits etc which actually do not suit the climate of India. This article will throw the light in the necessity of rethinking the suitability according to seasons, places, climates, occupation, way of life etc, which is the matter of the hour. This in turn will ponder over the problem in a verycritical manner and analyse various merits and demerits to rearrange them for the upliftment of good health and living. Keywords: food, Nidra (Sleep)

The structure of an infectious immature flavivirus redefines viral architecture and maturation

Flaviviruses are the cause of severe human diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks. These viruses use a potent fusion machinery to enter target cells that needs to be restrained during viral assembly and egress. A molecular chaperone, premembrane (prM) maintains the virus particles in an immature, fusion-incompetent state until they exit the cell. Taking advantage of an insect virus that produces particles that are both immature and infectious, we determined the structure of the first immature flavivirus with a complete spike by cryo–electron microscopy. Unexpectedly, the prM chaperone forms a supporting pillar that maintains the immature spike in an asymmetric and upright state, primed for large rearrangements upon acidification. The collapse of the spike along a path defined by the prM chaperone is required, and its inhibition by a multivalent immunoglobulin M blocks infection. The revised architecture and collapse model are likely to be conserved across flaviviruses.

Internet Access in the New Brazilian Normal: A Basic Need for Access to Income, Health, and Education

Remote access to information and services has become a latent reality in Brazil since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This paper discusses the importance of the community’s access to the internet, and as the web’s worldwide is an essential tool for remote working and a supporting pillar for essential services remotely offered such as education, banking, and medical care.

MENGQADHA SHALAT DALAM PERSPEKTIF FIQH ISLAM

Prayer is the second pillar of Islam after two sentences of shahada. Prayer has a very important position for Islam, so the Prophet sallallaahu'alaihiWasallam likened it like a pillar to a building, so that a building will not be able to stand firmly without a supporting pillar. Likewise a person's Islam cannot be established without establishing prayer. However, sometimes intentionally or not, a Muslim leaves the prayer until out of time. By remembering the importance of prayer, can the missed prayer be replaced (qada’)? In this paper, the author presents a discussion of three things related to qada’ prayer: the arguments about qada’ prayer, the law of qada’ prayer and various types of prayers that can be replaced (qada’), as well as the requirements that must be fulfilled in qada’ prayer.

Epidemics and Reforms: Experience of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is one of the key countries in the Middle East and the Arab-Muslim world. The processes developing in this country, determined by both internal and external factors, are directly related to the development of the surrounding geopolitical space. In this regard, there arises the need to study the essence of such processes, their circumstances as well as the driving forces behind them. One of these factors is the epidemic of such diseases as A/ H1N1, MERS, and the coronavirus COVID-19. The author views this factor as an accelerator of socio-political transformations taking place in Saudi Arabia after 2009. These transformations were based on the experience of previous years already accumulated by the Saudi authorities. They took the form of implementing “national projects” aimed at restructuring the national education and health system. The results of the implementation of these projects were manifested in the country’s ever-wider opening to the outside world, consistent reduction of the influential religious establishment, and increasing role of the new “educated class,” which has been turned into a supporting pillar to the authorities. The government took on new forms of legitimation and won in the struggle for the minds of people, pushing the ulema away from influencing their political decision. The post-traditional Saudi society, as it was in the early 2000s, acquired features of modernity under the influence of the “educated class,” while Saudi Arabia itself began to be considered as an integral and a full-fledged element of the international community.

Futuristic perception and carrier aspects of nursing profession among nursing students at Kalaburagi city, Karnataka

Background: The nursing profession is one of the important and integral parts of health care delivery system. Hence nursing profession is rated as one of the most trusted profession in the health care industry and also considered as one of the exiting and in demand profession. Our study aims to know the futuristic perception of young and dynamic students of nursing colleges across the Kalaburagi city. As nursing profession is a supporting pillar for the health care sector. It is very important to understand the significant social professional values and the urge and intense of our nursing students at this region and time.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to identify the nursing students’ attitudes toward nursing profession. The study was carried out in 240 nursing students in different nursing colleges at Kalaburagi city.Results: Only 27.9% students had family members or relatives in the nursing profession. The reasons for joining nursing revealed 80.42% students were self motivated to perceive nursing as a carrier. Regarding perception 97.08% perceived nursing as an opportunity to serve humanity and 92.52% perceive nursing as a caring profession.Conclusions: Though nursing is regarded as a caring, dignify and respectful profession still many don’t want to work locally. More than half of the students were interested to work in abroad.

Entrada en vigor, general y para España, del Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales

<p>The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESC) entered into force on 5 May 2013, generally and for Spain, thereby establishing, as an essential procedure, the filing of communications by individuals or groups of individuals claiming to be victims of a violation by a State Party of any one of the rights set forth in the Covenant. The principle of indivisibility and interdependence between all human rights acts as its supporting pillar for the correction of the discriminatory protective regime brought about in 1966 by the <em>twin covenants </em>(International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). The process through which the Protocol to the ICESC came into being, however, did not ignore the insistent debate arising from the <em>justiciability </em>of economic, social and cultural rights, which has an effect on the limits set for the monitoring procedures provided forth therein in order to ensure compliance with the rights protected by the Covenant; that is, the filing of <em>individual communications</em>, its main <em>leitmotiv</em>, of <em>communications between States </em>and <em>inquiry </em>into grave or systematic violations of this range of rights, as well as the complementary mechanisms of <em>international assistance and cooperation </em>of the trust fund in particular.</p><p><strong>Published online</strong>: 11 December 2017</p>