Mycologg: a new accelerated test method for wood durability above ground
If not properly handled, selected and protected, wood will be degraded by bacteria, fungi and also insects. In order to ensure service life, durability tests are needed. Most accelerated laboratory tests on wood durability are focused either on fungi attacks or the uptake of moisture. Accelerated field tests in ground contact are of limited use since they could be difficult to reproduce and are sensitive to the characteristics of the soil in which the wood is placed. In addition, the results cannot be directly transferred to wood in use above ground because such wood is subjected to different set of conditions. The Mycologg is a new accelerated test method for estimating the durability of wood in above ground applications. The Mycologg allows the test panels to be subjected to the discolouring fungi and different RH (relative humidity) cycles simultaneously. Every 30 min, the temperature, the RH, and the moisture content in each test panel are measured and saved in special software. This allows for a constant update of the moisture patterns during a fungi attack. A trial was made with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) heartwood samples, where fungal growth after 6, 8 and 10 weeks in the Mycologg were compared to weather exposure of duplicate samples after 12, 16, and 26 months. The results showed that 10 weeks into the Mycologg accelerated test method corresponds well to real-time weather exposure with respect to fungal discolouration.
Gendered Physiotherapy in Transition - the Swedish Case
In order to determine gender distributions in Swedish physiotherapy, mail questionnaires were sent to approximately 1100 physiotherapists (77.5% response rate) in 1996 inquiring about male-female differences in professional strategies, focusing on two questions regarding power structure in the workplace and relation to the professional knowledge base. Some findings support the idea that there are male-female differences, specific to different specialities. A generational pattern is also visible, possibly related to external changes in the composition of patient groups, the social insurance system, the healthcare system and the labour market. Younger female physiotherapists work with elderly care more often than their older colleagues do. In addition, the younger group works more closely with its horizontal neighbours, as do female physiotherapists compared to males. The younger ones are not so bound to physicians as their older colleagues were. One possible explanation is that younger physiotherapists are...
Influence of the residual stress on the magnetization process in mild steel
The influence of residual stress on the hysteresis properties of mild steel is studied in detail. Magnetic measurements were done in different directions to investigate the stress-induced anisotropy. The hysteresis loops measured in any fixed direction at different levels of deformation crossed at two points known as the coincident points. One possible explanation of this effect is proposed and it makes an assumption about the stress-induced term in the effective field model. Loops measured in different directions at any fixed level of deformation also crossed at two points. It was found that the hysteresis loop follows a very simple formula when changing the direction of the measurement from the easy axis to the hard one. This explained not only the crossing of these loops at the two points but also the results of measurements on ring-shaped samples where all the directions are possible.