1. The psychodynamic processes related to the involvement in peacekeeping missionsBranko Lobnikar, Špela Vesel, Emanuel Banutai, 2011, original scientific article Abstract: Purpose:
The purpose of this paper is to review the decade of Slovenian police officer’s experiences with international peacekeeping operations. The main goal of police officers, involved in these missions, is to prevent conflicts between opposite sites, to implement basic agreements, protect humanitarian missions and reinforce policing operations in the conflict area. The purpose of the paper is to acknowledge the lessons learned while planning and implementing further cooperation of Slovenian police officers in peacekeeping (police) operations. The main purpose of the paper is to analyze the consequences of deployment to peacekeeping missions for police officers as well as their family members (partners and children) by analyzing the psychodynamic processes related to the involvement in peacekeeping missions.
Design/Methods/Approach:
The paper is based on the review of literature. The empirical part of the paper presents the results of the research on a small sample of police officers (n = 36) and their family members (n = 25 partners + 35 children).
Findings:
Police peacekeepers should be well prepared for different stress situations; they are exposed to various stress factors before, during, and after serving in a mission. That is why training and reintegration programmes are of great importance. We establish that respondents assess that deployment to a peacekeeping mission has a positive and negative impact on the relationships between family members. As many as ¾ of mission members believe deployment can have a positive impact above all in the sense of strengthening the emotional ties between partners, increased mutual trust and strengthening of the partnership. For them, deployment to a peacekeeping mission is a challenge and personal experience, which can change the way they see the world. 2/3 of partners state similar positive impacts and they also believe that there is more trust between the partners after the experience with the peacekeeping mission, they treasure their time together and thus represent bigger support for each other in difficult times. As the most common problem, respondents perceived marital problems and the occurrence of negative feelings among family members (anger, avoidance, judgment ...). A large share of respondents stressed problems with children. 43.8% of respondents also named depression as a problem.
Research limitations/implications:
The findings are limited to the Slovenian police and their police officer’s experiences, serving in various police peacekeeping missions and their family members.
Practical implications:
Based on lessons learned this paper complements the results of different surveys of the researched topic. The results cannot be completely generalized, although some findings could also be useful to similar police organizations in Europe.
Originality/Value:
This paper addresses and explores different small scale surveys, conducted on sampled Slovenian police officers who served in peacekeeping missions and their family members. Findings could be of interest for the general as well as expert audience.
Keywords: police, police officer’s family, peacekeeping missions, Slovenia, stress, training and reintegration programmes, SE Europe
Published: 05.05.2020; Views: 386; Downloads: 21
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2. Personality profiles and stress-coping strategies of Slovenian military pilotsMaja Meško, Damir Karpljuk, Mateja Videmšek, Iztok Podbregar, 2009, original scientific article Abstract: The performance of a pilot also depends on the pilot's personality profile and their stresscoping style. In our study we aimed to analyze, by means of the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) and the Coping Responses Inventory (CRI), the personality profiles, stress-coping strategies and the relationship between them among Slovenian military pilots. The study involved 120 respondents: 30 of whom were military pilots in the experimental group, while the other 90 were in the control groups. The control groups included sport pilots, the general population and soldiers with no involvement in aviation. The members of the control group were selected with regard to the characteristics of the experimental group members, so that both groups were equivalent in terms of relevant factors (e.g. gender, age, health state, level of education etc), thus participating in a study of equivalent pairs. A statistical analysis identified statistically significant differences between the groups in the following BFQ dimensions: energy, conscientiousness and emotional stability; in the dimensions of CRI 'cognitive avoidance' (cognitive effort to avoid realistic consideration of a problem); and 'emotional discharge or emptying' (behavioural attempts to alleviate tension by venting negative emotions). Results revealed that certain personality characteristics were differentially and significantly related to specific stress coping strategies adopted by military pilots.
Keywords: military pilots, Slovenia, personality, personality traits, coping behavior, coping, stress
Published: 19.03.2020; Views: 357; Downloads: 12
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3. Influence of temperature on epigenetic changes of common duckweed (Lemna minor L.) in aseptic cultureStella Prelovšek, 2018, master's thesis Abstract: Epigenetics is a study of heritable changes in gene expression and function that do not change the DNA sequence itself. One of the commonly described epigenetic modifications is DNA methylation where a methyl group is added to the fifth carbon of the cytosine (Lim & Maher, 2010). This may lead to gene silencing, regulation of gene expression and allows for plant plasticity to changing environment (Verhoeven et al., 2010). Epigenetic variation is often studied in species with asexual reproduction, due to the absence of genetic variation between individuals and because clonal species do not go through a germline and meiosis between generations which epigenetic resetting occurs. Lemna minor, also known as common duckweed, is the smallest flowering macrophyte that consist of modified leaf structures (fronds) and one hanging root. It is known for its rapid asexual reproduction (Ziegler et al., 2015). Daughter fronds are genetically identical to the mother plant and are produced without involvement of male or female germlines. Fast asexual reproduction makes Lemna minor a perfect candidate to study epigenetic effects of de novo gene regulatory evolution. The aim of this project is to screen divergence of environmentally-induced DNA methylation between different experimental treatments over multiple generations. The aim of this project is to screen divergence of temperature-induced DNA methylation between different experimental treatments over multiple generations. Results show that, temperature stress has a strong influence on L. minor growth and reproduction, and induces significant change in the DNA methylation in the CG and CHG methylation context. Temperature-induced DNA methylation was inherited over multiple clonal generation of L. minor in the CHG contexts, although since we did not detect any performance difference the functional consequences of this DNA methylation are unclear. This study contributes to the knowledge of environmentally-induced DNA methylation changes, which is essential regarding the increasing frequency of global climate changes.
Keywords: DNA methylation, duckweed, epigenetics, epiGBS, abiotic stress, transgenerational inheritance, asexual reproduction
Published: 29.01.2019; Views: 714; Downloads: 72
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4. Work-Home conflict and strain: the role of work-related smartphone use, job insecurity and segmentation preferencesTjaša Srnko, 2018, master's thesis Abstract: Nowadays, through organisational and technological changes, organizations expect availability and work from their employees not just during working hours, but also in their free time. Work can be done from anywhere and at any time, also with the help of smartphones, which is one of the main constructs of the current research. If the employee is working from home on their smartphone, this can have an important contribution to managing work and private life, and also to strain. The individual’s preference of whether to segment his or her work from home also plays an important role in experiencing internal conflicts. As the motivation for work-related smartphone use is not fully clear, job insecurity was additionally explored as a potential predictor. In an online study, conducted in Austria, we collected data from 454 participants of different ages, gender and working backgrounds. For the analysis, multiple moderated regression and mediation analyses were used. Results showed significant relations between work-home interference and strain but no significant results between those constructs while adding work-related smartphone use. Segmentation preferences did not have an influence on the relationship between work-home interference and strain. Job insecurity was revealed to be related to work-related smartphone use and smartphone use to work-home interference. Smartphone use was also found to partially mediate the path from job insecurity to work-home interference. Finally, to prevent negative outcomes of strain, work-home interference and job insecurity, organizations should focus on: providing culture that fits their employees, try to plan availability free time and provide a clear communication.
Keywords: Smartphone use, work-home interference, strain, stress, job insecurity, segmentation preferences
Published: 14.01.2019; Views: 813; Downloads: 85
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6. Rheological properties of marine sediments from the port of KoperJasna Smolar, Matej Maček, Ana Petkovšek, 2016, original scientific article Abstract: Subaqueous, fine-grained, cohesive sediments are continuously fluidized by waves and other disturbances that cause their movement, which can be described with numerical models incorporating rheological parameters. The rheological behaviour depends on the soil (solid) type, the volume concentration, the salinity and the testing methods.
In this study, rheological investigations of marine sediments from the Port of Koper were carried out by using two coaxial cylinder rheometers (DV3T HB, Brookfield and ConTec Viscometer 5). The influence of the specimen volume, the size of the gap and the type of measuring spindles were analysed and compared.
The measured data were evaluated using the Bingham model. For each data set, the boundary between the sheared (“fluid”) and the un-sheared (“solid”) material was calculated and then the calculated boundary was used instead of the outer radius of the cylinder for the evaluation of the rheological parameters, where necessary.
A good comparison of the results was found when using this approach. The results are also in agreement with the literature data. The ConTec Viscometer 5, primarily designed for mortars and concrete, was shown to be also suitable for the investigation of sediments.
Keywords: marine sediments, Bingham model, yield stress, plastic viscosity, coaxial cylinder rheometer, plug flow, Bay of Koper
Published: 18.06.2018; Views: 498; Downloads: 43
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7. Evaluation of the plastic critical depth in seismic active lateral earth pressure problems using the stress-characteristics methodAmin Keshavarz, 2016, original scientific article Abstract: The plastic critical depth or the conventional tension crack depth has a considerable effect on the active lateral earth pressure in cohesive soils. In this paper the depth for c-ϕ soils has been evaluated in the seismic case using the stress-characteristics or slip-line method. The plastic critical depth was calculated on the basis of the theory of the stress-characteristics method and by considering the horizontal and vertical pseudo-static earthquake coefficients. The proposed solution considers the line of discontinuity in the stress-characteristics network. The earth slope, wall slope, cohesion and friction angle of the soil and the adhesion and the friction angle of the soil-wall interface were considered in the analysis as well. The results show that the plastic critical depths of this study are smaller than those of the other methods and are closer to the modified Mononobe-Okabe method. The effects of the wall and the backfill geometry, the mechanical properties of the soil and the pseudo-static coefficients were studied.
Keywords: plastic critical depth, stress characteristics, active lateral earth pressure, seismic
Published: 15.06.2018; Views: 669; Downloads: 32
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8. The dry fraction of unsaturated soilsJulio César Leal Vaca, Gustavo Gallegos Fonseca, Eduardo Rojas González, 2015, original scientific article Abstract: An equation to account for the shear strength of unsaturated soils is proposed in this paper. This equation is defined as the equivalent stress, and is an extension of Murray’s equation. This approach applies to the general case of bi-modal structured soils showing a macrostructure and microstructure. The theoretical development considers the existence of a dry fraction in addition to the saturated and unsaturated fractions of the soil. These different fractions are included in a porous model, which allows an evaluation of the parameters of the equivalent stress equation. Finally, the paper includes a comparison between theoretical and experimental results. The comparison shows that the proposed equation can be used to estimate the shear strength of unsaturated soils.
Keywords: unsaturated soil, shear strength, equivalent stress, water retention curve
Published: 15.06.2018; Views: 733; Downloads: 39
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9. Lateral resistance of a short rigid pile in a two-layer cohesionless soilErdal Uncuoğlu, Mustafa Laman, 2011, original scientific article Abstract: The behavior of a laterally loaded short rigid pile founded in a two-layer sand soil profile has been investigated. For this purpose, a series of model tests were carried out on model piles. The effects of the elasticity modulus, dilatancy and interface behavior of the sand have been explored numerically by performing a series of three-dimensional non-linear finite-element analyses. The lateral load capacities in the layered sand conditions have been calculated using the methods proposed by Brinch Hansen (1961) and Meyerhof et al. (1981). The results obtained from experimental studies, numerical analyses and a conventional method were compared with each other. The results proved that the parameters investigated had a considerable effect on the behavior of short rigid piles subjected to lateral loads. It was also shown that the value of the ultimate lateral load capacity could vary significantly, depending on the methods used.
Keywords: lateral load, short pile, two-layered sand, model test, finite element, lateral effective stress
Published: 13.06.2018; Views: 427; Downloads: 48
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10. Load transfer and stress in a piled gravity retaining wallQun Chen, Li Wan, Changrong He, Zihui Lai, 2010, original scientific article Abstract: The piled retaining wall is a new type of railway retaining structure in China. In the current design, the retaining wall, the beam and the piles are assumed to be independent components. Both the mutual action of the retaining wall, the piles and beam, and the influence of the soil or rock foundation on the structure are not fully considered, so that there are some limitations in the current design method. In this paper, using field observations and a three-dimensional finite-element analysis, the lateral earth pressure on the wall back, the stress distributions and the forces of the reinforcements in the beam and the pile were studied. The simulation results were in good agreement with the field observation data. These results revealed that the tensile stresses were very small and that these stresses were positive in most zones in the beam and the pile. It can also be observed that the tensile stresses or forces in the beam and pile obtained in this study were much smaller than those obtained using the current design method. This clarified the fact that the current design method used for the beam and the pile was very conservative and that it should be optimized to consider the effect of the foundation on the whole structure and the interactions among the different components.
Keywords: piled gravity retaining wall, field observation, finite-element analysis, stress, load transfer mechanism
Published: 11.06.2018; Views: 454; Downloads: 49
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