Why is there still so much confusion about VO2 plateau? A re-examination of the work of A.V. Hill

Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) is regarded as the gold standard for assessing aerobic fitness. In 1923, Hill et al. proposed that VO2max represents the maximal ability of the body to take in and consume O2 during strenuous exercise. Recently, however, controversy has arisen over the issue of whether a leveling off, or plateau in VO2 is necessary to verify attainment of VO2max. Purpose: To compare two different VO2max protocols and determine if both protocols show direct evidence of an upper limit on VO2. Methods: Nine runners (18-35 years old) completed a continuous graded exercise test (CGXT), followed by a discontinuous graded exercise test (DGXT). The CGXT consisted of gradually increasing treadmill running speed to the point of volitional exhaustion; the highest speed attained was labeled the peak treadmill speed. Over the next several days, participants ran at 80%, 90%, 100%, 105%, and 110% of peak treadmill speed for 10 minutes, or until volitional exhaustion was reached. Results: All participants (n=9) achieved a VO2 ceiling (or upper limit) on the DGXT, while only 44% (n=4) achieved a VO2 plateau on the CGXT. There was no significant difference between the VO2max obtained from a CGXT (57.4 ± 2.6 mL*kg-1min-1) and DGXT (60.0 ± 3.1 mL*kg-1min-1). There was no difference between oxygen uptake measured at 90%, 100%, 105%, and 110% of PTV (p\u3e0.05). However, the highest VO2 recorded at 80% PTV was significantly lower than that recorded at all other velocities (p\u3c0.05). Conclusion: The VO2 ceiling effect on a DGXT is inherently different than the VO2 plateau effect on a CGXT. In this study, a ceiling was always seen on the DGXT, but a plateau was not always seen on the CGXT

A Model of Regulatory Burden in Technology Diffusion: The Case of Plant-Derived Vaccines.

Plant-derived vaccines may soon displace conventional vaccines. Assuming there are no major technological barriers undermining the feasibility of this innovative technology, it is worthwhile to generate quantitative models of regulatory burden of producing and diffusing plant-derived vaccines in industrialized and developing countries. A dynamic simulation model of technology diffusion—and the data to populate it—has been generated for studying regulatory barriers in the diffusion of plant-derived vaccines. The role of regulatory burden is evaluated for a variety of scenarios in which plant-derived vaccines are produced and diffused. This model relates the innovative and conventional vaccine technologies and the effects of the impact of the uptake of the innovative technology on mortality and morbidity. This case study demonstrates how dynamic simulation models can be used to assess the long-term potential impact of novel technologies in terms of a variety of socio-economic indicators.dynamic simulation model; plant-derived vaccines; regulatory burden; technology transfer; vaccines;

Manufacturing management of advanced technologies

This Thesis is published for the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Adelaide as a requirement for a Master of Engineering Science Degree. The focus of the research is based on Management of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. The Thesis was compiled on a part-time basis from 1990 to 1994. During this period rapid changes to Australia's economy occurred as Australia continued to disengage itself from European connections and commenced to attached itself to the Asian and Pacific Rim nations. Also the O.E.C.D. countries experienced a massive downturn in demand and Australia experienced the "Recession we had to have", as stated by our Prime Minister, Mr Paul Keating who at the time of the statement was the Federal Treasurer of the Australian Government. These factors plus the globalisation of competition put immense strains on Australia's manufacturers, and their competitive situation deteriorated seriously. This Thesis researches some aspects of management of Advance Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) that manufacturers should consider to help them become competitive in a global market. To get a perspective on the importance of Manufacturing Trade to Australia, statistics from the Balance of Payments (BOP) and the Manufacturing Trade Balance are discussed. A typical listing of AMT's is described and two additional technologies are introduced, Activity Based Costing (ABC) and Socio Technical Systems (STS). Benchmarking and Best Practice also became prevalent activities in manufacturing circles during the course of study, hence they are also discussed. This Thesis is based on the belief that management (people) are the cause of failure of AMT's, not the AMT itself. Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRPII) was selected as the AMT to review for this Thesis, particularly how it has been managed, how it was selected, who was involved, what functions of the business were involved in making the system work, what depth of knowledge was available to make the MRP installation successful and what basic data was available. People make a system work, most research on MRP focuses on the technical review of the system, this Thesis reviews the people interaction in making a system useable. Functional cross relationships are reviewed together with emphasis on the basic system discipline and type of background people have who install and run systems. Training is important, this is reviewed together with techniques of how training was organised. A questionnaire was developed to assess industry in relationship to MRP management. Also included were some questions on Socio Technical Systems and Activity Based Costing, particularly Self-Managed Workteams (SMWT). The results are published in the text in questionnaire number sequence, followed by comments by the author, plus associated comments from collated written work on the topics from resources in Australia and overseas. The results show that there is a serious credibility gap in understanding the basic requirements of running a successful MRP system. They also show that existing forms of rating a MRP system are too complex for many Australian users and that a much simpler rating system could much more easily define progressive steps to being a successful MRP user. These are shown in the recommendations. Socio technical systems are discussed since installing any form of AMTs without considering people issues is a mistake. Many organisations are changing their current management structure by using SMWT, this is reviewed. Similarly the author believed ABC, was an AMT that would advance the pace of change in manufacturing, the results showed this was not the case. Recommendations are made for MRP users to use their systems and their people more effectively to meet the challenge of global manufacturing and conclusions are drawn that AMT's must be managed with acknowledgement that people's involvement in all phases of the use of the AMT should be a paramount consideration.Thesis (M.Ens.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 199

Photographic Landscape Work Exhibited in 'Spotlight Works from the Modern and Contemporary Art Collection', Norwich Castle, Norwich, (25 January 2020 to 3 January 2021).

This exhibition showcases Norwich Castle’s collection of modern and contemporary art with monthly changing displays of ten recent acquisitions

High coercivity, anisotropic, heavy rare earth-free Nd-Fe-B by Flash Spark Plasma Sintering

The authors wish to extend their gratitude to neo Magnequench for providing the materials used in this study. The research was supported by EU-FP7 MAG-DRIVE project (No. 605348) [http://www.mag-drive-fp7.eu/]. MJR and SG would like to acknowledge the EPSRC Programme Grant XMAT [EP/K008749/2]

A half-century diversion of monetary policy? An empirical horse-race to identify the UK variable most likely to deliver the desired nominal GDP growth rate

open access articleThe financial crisis of 2007–2008 triggered monetary policy designed to boost nominal demand, including ‘Quantitative Easing’, ‘Credit Easing’, ‘Forward Guidance’ and ‘Funding for Lending’. A key aim of these policies was to boost the quantity of bank credit to the non-financial corporate and household sectors. In the previous decades, however, policy-makers had not focused on bank credit. Indeed, over the past half century, different variables were raised to prominence in the quest to achieve desired nominal GDP outcomes. This paper conducts a long-overdue horse race between the various contenders in terms of their ability to account for observed nominal GDP growth, using a half-century of UK data since 1963. Employing the ‘General-to-Specific’ methodology, an equilibrium-correction model is estimated suggesting a long-run cointegrating relationship between disaggregated real economy credit and nominal GDP. Short-term and long-term interest rates and broad money do not appear to influence nominal GDP significantly. Vector autoregression and vector error correction modelling shows the real economy credit growth variable to be strongly exogenous to nominal GDP growth. Policy-makers are hence right to finally emphasise the role of bank credit, although they need to disaggregate it and specifically target bank credit for GDP-transactions

Case Study: Producer concerns and perceptions regarding the effect of methane on cattle production and the environment: A survey of Nebraska producers

Enteric methane production from cattle and its effect on climate change has been a topic of debate. Multiple studies have explored methods to reduce cattle enteric methane production while simultaneously improving performance. However, most strategies developed have not been widely implemented by cattle producers. Knowledge of producer concerns and perceptions on methane production from cattle and its effect on the environment may be limited. Therefore, the objectives of this survey were to determine what Nebraska producers know about methane production by cattle and how it affects performance and to determine whether different age groups, regions of Nebraska, and production size and type affects producer opinions on enteric methane production and climate change. The survey had a response rate of 22%. Regarding climate change, approximately 39% of producers disagreed, 33% were neutral, and 28% agreed they were concerned. However, producers in central and eastern Nebraska were closer to neutral than producers in western Nebraska (P \u3c 0.05). Younger producers perceived cattle to have a more positive effect on the environment and reported that they were more likely to adopt new management techniques that have been shown to improve animal performance than older producers (P \u3c 0.05). Most producers reported receiving production-related information from veterinarians (47.6%), followed by the “other” category (34.9%), the University of Nebraska (15.6%), and state and federal governments, which were the lowest (1.4 and 0.6%, respectively). In the last 3 yr, approximately 57% of producers attended one or fewer extension meetings, but 37% had not attended any extension meetings

Case Study: Producer concerns and perceptions regarding the effect of methane on cattle production and the environment: A survey of Nebraska producers

Enteric methane production from cattle and its effect on climate change has been a topic of debate. Multiple studies have explored methods to reduce cattle enteric methane production while simultaneously improving performance. However, most strategies developed have not been widely implemented by cattle producers. Knowledge of producer concerns and perceptions on methane production from cattle and its effect on the environment may be limited. Therefore, the objectives of this survey were to determine what Nebraska producers know about methane production by cattle and how it affects performance and to determine whether different age groups, regions of Nebraska, and production size and type affects producer opinions on enteric methane production and climate change. The survey had a response rate of 22%. Regarding climate change, approximately 39% of producers disagreed, 33% were neutral, and 28% agreed they were concerned. However, producers in central and eastern Nebraska were closer to neutral than producers in western Nebraska (P \u3c 0.05). Younger producers perceived cattle to have a more positive effect on the environment and reported that they were more likely to adopt new management techniques that have been shown to improve animal performance than older producers (P \u3c 0.05). Most producers reported receiving production-related information from veterinarians (47.6%), followed by the “other” category (34.9%), the University of Nebraska (15.6%), and state and federal governments, which were the lowest (1.4 and 0.6%, respectively). In the last 3 yr, approximately 57% of producers attended one or fewer extension meetings, but 37% had not attended any extension meetings