Application of acute whole-body vibration and lower-body exercise: effects on concentric torque in lower-limb muscles

Study aim: With contrary evidence regarding the effectiveness of acute whole-body vibration training (WBVT) on sporting performance, the current study examined WBVT’s effect on concentric torque of the quadriceps (Q) and hamstrings (H)

District heating in the UK: Prospects for a third national programme

The UK has seen periodic attempts to develop large district heating (DH) networks to make use of residual heat from industry and power generation. Under concerns about climate change and energy security, DH has recently re-emerged in policy visions for future heat systems with small decentralised combined heat and power (CHP) generators playing a key role in the establishment of such networks. This paper draws on Stewart Russell’s accounts of earlier DH programmes, asking to what extent the reasons he concluded CHP and DH were systematically excluded continue to marginalise the technologies. In spite of governance changes which ostensibly open new opportunities for experimentation, key structural issues challenge the development of decentralised energy, particularly the alignment of the electricity sector to a centralised system and the dependency of local governments with limited capacity on central government. The reluctance of central government to engage in system planning and the failure to integrate policies related to energy production and energy consumption limit the eff ectiveness of support for DH

Developing Correspondence Between the Verbal and Actual Behavior of Staff Members and Changing their Actual Behavior by Manipulating Their Verbal Behavior

23 leaves. Advisor: Margaret E. LloydThe problem. This study investigated chanqinq hospital staff's frequency of actual interactions with residents by manipulating the staff's planning estimate of interactions. Procedure. In a hospital for the developmentally handicapped, the interactions between two staff and four residents were coded by a supervisor as following appropriate, inappropriate, or neutral resident behavior. The staff gave the supervisor planning and reporting estimates of their interactions which followed appropriate resident behavior. After Baseline, the supervisor's approval was given at different times for high or low planninq or correspondence between hiqh planning and actual behavior. Findings. The data from this study indicated that a change in the frequency of actual interactions could be made by manipulatinq the planning estimate alone, but only after correspondence had been established between the frequencies of actual interactions and the planning estimates. Conclusions. After developing correspondence between verbal and actual behaviors, the staff's actual behavior can be changed by manipulating their verbal behavior. Recommendations. Supervisors in hospitals for the developmentally handicapped might establish procedures to develop correspondence between the staff's verbal and actual behaviors so that, after training, changes in actual behavior could be produced by altering planning behavior

Beyond the individual in the evolution of language

This thesis concerns the evolution of language. A proliferation of theoretical models have been presented in recent years purporting to offer evolutionary accounts for various aspects of modern languages. These models rely heavily on abstract mechanistic models of the production and reception of language by modern humans, drawn from various approaches in linguistics which aim at such models. A very basic and ubiquitous assumption is that expressions have meaning in virtue of being associated with internal representations, and that therefore the evolution of language can be modelled on the basis of individuals trying to produce external manifestations of these internal “meanings”. I examine the role of this assumption in language evolution theorising, and review evidence from neuroscience and first language acquisition relevant to the validity of this assumption. The chaotic nature of the relationship between “meaning” and the brain undermines the supposition that the evolution of language was driven by spontaneous association between internal structures and external forms. I then turn to the philosophical basis of language evolution theorising, adopting a Wittgensteinian perspective on the cognitive interpretation of linguistic theories. I argue that the theoretical apparatus of such approaches is embedded in language games whose complicated rules relate to linguistic behaviour (and idealisations of that behaviour) but not to neural organisation. The reinterpretation of such descriptions of language as descriptions of the internal structures of language users is rejected as a grammatical confusion: if the rules for constructing linguistic theory descriptions do not mention neural structures, then theoretical descriptions of the linguistic abilities of an individual say nothing non-trivial about their internal brain structure. I do not deny that it would, in principle, be possible to reduce linguistic theories (reinterpreted as mechanistic descriptions) to neural structures, but claim that this possibility is guaranteed only by leaving the practice of re-describing physical brain descriptions entirely unconstrained. Thus the idea that we can reasonably infer the behaviour of humans and prehumans in more primitive communicative environments by manipulation of the models of linguistic theories is unfounded: we have no idea how such a manipulation would translate into statements about neural organisation, and so no idea how plausible such statements about earlier neural organisation (and the resultant behaviours) are. As such, cognitive interpretations of linguistic theories provide no better ground for statements about behaviour during earlier stages in the evolution of language than guessing. Rejecting internal-mechanism based accounts as unfounded leaves the evolution of language unexplained. In the latter parts of this thesis, I offer a more neutral approach which is sensitive to the limited possibilities available for making predictions about human (and pre-human) behaviour at earlier stages in the evolution of language. Rather than focusing on the individual and imputed internal language machinery, the account considers the communicative affordances available to individuals. The shifts in what individuals can learn to do in interaction with others, that result in turn from the learning of interactive practices by others, form the basis of this account. General trends in the development of communicative affordances are used to account for generalisations over attested semantic change, and to suggest how certain aspects of modern language use developed without simply assuming that it is “natural” for humans to (spontaneously) behave in these ways. The model is used in an account of the evolution and common structure of colour terms across different languages

Salmonella enterica serovar hvittingfoss in bar-tailed godwits (limosa lapponica) from Roebuck Bay, Northwestern Australia

Salmonella enterica serovar Hvittingfoss is an important foodborne serotype of Salmonella, being detected in many countries where surveillance is conducted. Outbreaks can occur, and there was a recent multistate foodborne outbreak in Australia. S. Hvittingfoss can be found in animal populations, though a definitive animal host has not been established. Six species of birds were sampled at Roebuck Bay, a designated Ramsar site in northwestern Australia, resulting in 326 cloacal swabs for bacterial culture. Among a single flock of 63 bar-tailed godwits (Limosa lapponica menzbieri) caught at Wader Spit, Roebuck Bay, in 2018, 17 (27%) were culture positive for Salmonella. All other birds were negative for Salmonella. The isolates were identified as Salmonella enterica serovar Hvittingfoss. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a close relationship between isolates collected from godwits and the S. Hvittingfoss strain responsible for a 2016 multistate foodborne outbreak originating from tainted cantaloupes (rock melons) in Australia. While it is not possible to determine how this strain of S. Hvittingfoss was introduced into the bar-tailed godwits, these findings show that wild Australian birds are capable of carrying Salmonella strains of public health importance. IMPORTANCE Salmonella is a zoonotic pathogen that causes gastroenteritis and other disease presentations in both humans and animals. Serovars of S. enterica commonly cause foodborne disease in Australia and globally. In 2016-2017, S. Hvittingfoss was responsible for an outbreak that resulted in 110 clinically confirmed human cases throughout Australia. The origin of the contamination that led to the outbreak was never definitively established. Here, we identify a migratory shorebird, the bar-tailed godwit, as an animal reservoir of S. Hvittingfoss. These birds were sampled in northwestern Australia during their nonbreeding period. The presence of a genetically similar S. Hvittingfoss strain circulating in a wild bird population, 2 years after the 2016-2017 outbreak and ~1,500 km from the suspected source of the outbreak, demonstrates a potentially unidentified environmental reservoir of S. Hvittingfoss. While the birds cannot be implicated in the outbreak that occurred 2 years prior, this study does demonstrate the potential role for wild birds in the transmission of this important foodborne pathogen. © 2020 American Society for Microbiology