Search

This study focuses on the very beginning of lacquerware production with chinoiserie decoration in Spa from the end of the seventeenth century to the third quarter of the eighteenth century. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the historical and material-technical context of this important historical lacquer production is elucidated. Archival research was conducted along with a stylistic study of thirty objects, mainly boxes. Furthermore, seventeen of the objects from this study group were chemically analysed for their organic ingredients, pigments and metal applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A set of 19th-century furniture in black lacquer, on papier-mâché or on turned wood, has been subjected to an in-depth observational, historical and chemical study. The results show four different technological approaches: two for the papier-mâché objects and two for the wooden chairs. The cyclic labour-intensive lacquering procedure of repeated stoving and polishing lacquer on papier-mâché with mother-of-pearl inclusions is reflected in the cross-sections. Pinaceae resin and heated oil are frequently found, conform with surviving recipes. A variant of 'the old form of varnish', as historically described, was likely used. In the two pairs of wooden chairs, the lacquer layers are thinner than on the papier-mâché items. They contain copal and show different stratigraphies. These observations can be the starting point to relate technological and chemical variations to different origins. New art historical findings on lacquer production and trade in England, France and Belgium, and the study of contemporary recipes, frame the analytical results in a historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hygrothermal analysis of building envelopes requires high-quality input data and thoroughly tested models. To improve a model developed in Comsol Multiphysics for assessing the hygrothermal performance of rammed earth constructions, flexible dynamic small-scale experiments are presented. First, an experimental study shows the sample production, test setup and methodology and some preliminary test results are included. Next, a numerical study to simulate and further design the experiments is carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even small air paths around the insulation layer in cavity walls may result in a significant reduction of its thermal resistance. This topic of air flow patterns bypassing the insulation layer has been studied in detail from the '80s and '90s on and let to clear recommendations for building practice [1]. However, the question remains to which extend the proposed research results of that time are adopted in today's building practice and if so, to which extent they are still valid for current building techniques. The overall aim of the present article is to gain insights into the current installation quality of the insulation layer in cavity walls in Belgium. Moreover, the present article targets to quantify at the same time the impact of workmanship inaccuracies on the thermal performance of these building elements. In a first step the current building practice is mapped in relation to the installation quality of rigid insulation panels in cavity walls in Belgium. A high number of building construction sites has been visited and the installation methods and accuracy are documented. The outcome of this work provides an overview of the configuration of typical air leakage paths in and around the rigid insulation boards in cavity walls for today's building practice. In the second step of the research, the air flow resistances of the observed air flow paths (e.g. air gap between inner leaf and insulation board, tongue and groove connection of the insulation boards,...) have been measured in laboratory conditions. The characterization of these air flow resistances allows modelling the thermal behaviour of these elements in a following step. Numerical simulations, taking both heat and air transport into account, have been conducted to assess the performance of today's levels of workmanship. Based on this numerical parameter study, recommendations are proposed to obtain optimal thermal performance in cavity walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including black lacquer papier mache; intriguing career of lacquer worker Johann Adalbert Kratochwill; and study on resins from the Pinaceae species.

Abstract: Objective: Patients operated on for hypospadias often display a range of emotional and functional postoperative problems at an early age. This study explores the social, psychosocial and sexual development of adolescent boys operated on for hypospadias at an early age. Patients and method: Ten boys between the ages of 11 and 18 years and an age-matched reference group of 10 boys completed three mailed questionnaires: the Child Behavior Checklist/4–18, the Youth Self Report, and the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. Data on body image and genital perception, and on social, psychosocial and sexual development were gathered by interview and standardized questionnaire. Results: Internalizing or externalizing problems were not reported to be increased. Boys operated on for hypospadias had a significantly lower score on the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents, Social Acceptance subscale. Fewer boys in the clinical group considered their penis to be normal or judged their penis as similar to that of friends. No difficulties were found regarding psychosocial or sexual development; there was however a tendency towards a more negative genital appraisal. Conclusion: Boys operated on for hypospadias appear to experience normal social, psychosocial and sexual development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Elevated levels of fear and avoidance are core symptoms across the anxiety disorders. It has long been known that fear serves to motivate avoidance. Consequently, fear extinction has been the primary focus in pre-clinical anxiety research for decades, under the implicit assumption that removing the motivator of avoidance (fear) would automatically mitigate the avoidance behaviors as well. Although this assumption has intuitive appeal, it has received little scientific scrutiny. The scarce evidence from animal studies is mixed, while the assumption remains untested in humans. The current study applied an avoidance conditioning protocol in humans to investigate the effects of fear extinction on the persistence of low-cost avoidance. Online danger-safety ratings and skin conductance responses documented the dynamics of conditioned fear across avoidance and extinction phases. Anxiety- and avoidance-related questionnaires explored individual differences in rates of avoidance. Participants first learned to click a button during a predictive danger signal, in order to cancel an upcoming aversive electrical shock (avoidance conditioning). Next, fear extinction was induced by presenting the signal in the absence of shocks while button-clicks were prevented (by removing the button in Experiment 1, or by instructing not to click the button in Experiment 2). Most importantly, post-extinction availability of the button caused a significant return of avoidant button-clicks. In addition, trait-anxiety levels correlated positively with rates of avoidance during a predictive safety signal, and with the rate of pre- to post-extinction decrease during this signal. Fear measures gradually decreased during avoidance conditioning, as participants learned that button-clicks effectively canceled the shock. Preventing button-clicks elicited a sharp increase in fear, which subsequently extinguished. Fear remained low during avoidance testing, but danger-safety ratings increased again when button-clicks were subsequently prevented. Together, these results show that low-cost avoidance behaviors can persist following fear extinction and induce increased threat appraisal. On the other hand, fear extinction did reduce augmented rates of unnecessary avoidance during safety in trait-anxious individuals, and instruction-based response prevention was more effective than removal of response cues. More research is needed to characterize the conditions under which fear extinction might mitigate avoidance.