Homogenization Methods for Full Core Solution of the Pn Transport Equations with 3-D Cross Sections.

The design of advanced light water reactors having reduced moderation and axially varying fuel has exposed the limitations of diffusion theory methods based on two-dimensional homogenized group constants. Instead, an alternative approach is required to account for the axial neutron streaming within the core. The development of three-dimensional Monte Carlo cross sections and axial discontinuity factors has improved upon the lower-order diffusion solution, but numerical instabilities can still arise from large discontinuity factors. Therefore the use of higher-order transport corrections is necessary for the solution of full core problems. In this thesis the spherical harmonics (Pn) and Quasidiffusion equations are derived for one-dimensional applications to improve upon the angular approximation implicit in diffusion. Discontinuity factors for each method were determined based on finite difference, as well as the generation of Eddington factors from Monte Carlo results. A subplane method based on refining the Pn and Quasidiffusion solution was introduced to reduce the spatial discretization error. An alternative definition of the discontinuity factor based on an additive relation was investigated to improve the numerical stability. Numerical results based on an axially heterogeneous assembly demonstrate that P3 and Quasidiffusion improved the accuracy of the spatial flux distribution the most. Discontinuity factors allowed each of the lower-order methods to reproduce the reference Monte Carlo eigenvalue and flux. Minor improvement was seen when bounding the discontinuity factors compared to diffusion. The addition of the subplane method reduced the spatial discretization error and improved the range of discontinuity factors seen for all four methods at the cost of increased computational run time. Additive discontinuity factors for each method eliminated the possibility of large discontinuity factors and were able to reproduce the reference solution. The combination of the Quasidiffusion and subplane methods provided the most accurate axial solution.PhDNuclear Engineering and Radiological SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116697/1/halland_1.pd

Effectivness of a 12-week Fitness Intervention for People with Metabolic Syndrome

To see the effectiveness of a 12-week fitness intervention for individuals with metabolic syndrome. The sample included 11 adults (6 females, 5 males) all of which were classified with metabolic syndrome. The intervention consisted of moderate intensity aerobic exercise 3 times a week (30 mins each session) for 12 weeks. Every 2 weeks the subjects HR Reserve would be increased by 5% until reaching 65% at the end of the 12 weeks. Cholesterol, HDL, LDL, glucose, triglycerides, weight, girth, risk factors of metabolic syndrome, blood pressure, resting heart rate, flexibility, and muscular endurance were measured before and after the 12 weeks. Results: Out of the 13 pre/post-intervention assessments, only 6 showed a significant difference (p < 0.05): pre/post weight (p =.003), pre/post girth (p =.000), pre/post risk factors for metabolic syndrome (p =.004), pre/post sit and reach test (p =.025), pre/post bench press test (p =.004) and pre/post resting heart rate (p =.015). There was not however a significant difference in (pre/post cholesterol (p =.386), pre/post HDL (p =.326), pre/post LDL (p =.102), pre/post triglycerides (p =.229), pre/post glucose (p =.332), pre/post systolic blood pressure (p =.636), and pre/post diastolic blood pressure (p =.873). The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome in this study decreased from 100% pre-intervention to 63% post-intervention. After the 12-week fitness intervention 63% of the subjects reduced their risk factors associate with metabolic syndrome and 36% of those subjects were below the criteria for having metabolic syndrome (< 3 risk factors). In summary, this study showed evidence that exercise does in fact help reduce some of the risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome.Education (all programs

He ys a swyre of worchyp: Articulations of masculinity in the Paston correspondence.

This thesis examines the gendered experience of the fifteenth-century provincial gentleman through the letters of the Paston family. On the whole, the men of the gentry did not consciously ponder their identities as men. However, in their articulations of daily social concerns, these men often engaged in discussions about masculinity and male sexuality. To contextualize an analysis of men in the later Middle Ages a study of the numerous competing discourses on male sexuality and masculinity is provided. In their missives men discussed with other male associates ideas of male sexuality and defined their own sexualities in moral or more earthly and carnal terms. Moving from the sexual to the more social aspects of masculinity, this study illuminates the masculine ideology of aspiring gentry families which emphasized men\u27s participation and willingness to engage in ostensibly masculine activities, such as protection and providing. Individuals, men and women, by participating in a discussion of what constituted masculine identity and activity, engaged with and manipulated masculine ideologies to gain personal power. Exercising personal choice, men either accepted and reinforced their identities according to the class-based gender standards or affiliated themselves with other masculinities despite their family\u27s derision. Despite their agency as individuals, the men and women of the provincial gentry were subject to cultural ideologies which shaped how they articulated ideas of male gender identity.Dept. of History, Philosophy, and Political Science. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1997 .H35. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 37-01, page: 0099. Adviser: Jacqueline Murray. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1997

Integrated farm management for sustainable agriculture:lessons for knowledge exchange and policy

As a response to the environmentally and socially destructive practices of post-war mechanization and intensification, the concept of sustainable agriculture has become prominent in research, policy, and practice. Sustainable agriculture aims to balance the economic, environmental, and social aspects of farming, creating a resilient farming system in the long-term. Over the last few decades, various concepts have been used in research and policy to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices. Within such a congested space, this paper assesses the value of ‘integrated farm management’ as a concept for the promotion of sustainable agriculture. The concept is the subject of renewed policy interest in England and Wales and it is also being promoted in Europe. Previous research, however, has suggested that integrated farm management may not be well understood or widely practised. There are also criticisms that it can be impractical and poorly differentiated from similar ideas. As such, renewed insights are required into how useful the concept might be for encouraging sustainable agriculture. Using a mixed methods approach, we gathered the views of farmers, farm advisors, and industry representatives about integrated farm management in England and Wales, and interpreted these through a theoretical framework to judge the strength of the concept. Overall, the general principles of Integrated Farm Management were found to be coherent and familiar to most of our respondents. However, the concept performed poorly in terms of its resonance, simplicity of message, differentiation from other similar terms and theoretical utility. We reflect on our findings in the context of other ways to promote sustainable agriculture, drawing out messages for policy and knowledge exchange in England and Wales, as well as elsewhere.This research was funded as part of Defra's Sustainable Intensification Platform (Project Code LM0201). In addition, WJS was funded by Arcadia, LVD was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council partly under the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) programme, grant codes NE/K015419/1 and NE/N014472/1

Differential transcriptomic responses to heat stress in surface and subterranean diving beetles

Subterranean habitats are generally very stable environments, and as such evolutionary transitions of organisms from surface to subterranean lifestyles may cause considerable shifts in physiology, particularly with respect to thermal tolerance. In this study we compared responses to heat shock at the molecular level in a geographically widespread, surface-dwelling water beetle to a congeneric subterranean species restricted to a single aquifer (Dytiscidae: Hydroporinae). The obligate subterranean beetle Paroster macrosturtensis is known to have a lower thermal tolerance compared to surface lineages (CTmax 38°C cf. 42–46°C), but the genetic basis of this physiological difference has not been characterized. We experimentally manipulated the thermal environment of 24 individuals to demonstrate that both species can mount a heat shock response at high temperatures (35°C), as determined by comparative transcriptomics. However, genes involved in these responses differ between species and a far greater number were differentially expressed in the surface taxon, suggesting it can mount a more robust heat shock response; these data may underpin its higher thermal tolerance compared to subterranean relatives. In contrast, the subterranean species examined not only differentially expressed fewer genes in response to increasing temperatures, but also in the presence of the experimental setup employed here alone. Our results suggest P. macrosturtensis may be comparatively poorly equipped to respond to both thermally induced stress and environmental disturbances more broadly. The molecular findings presented here have conservation implications for P. macrosturtensis and contribute to a growing narrative concerning weakened thermal tolerances in obligate subterranean organisms at the molecular level

Tiger on the prowl: invasion history and spatio-temporal genetic structure of the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Skuse 1894) in the Indo-Pacific

Background: Within the last century, increases in human movement and globalization of trade have facilitated the establishment of several highly invasive mosquito species in new geographic locations with concurrent major environmental, economic and health consequences. The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is an extremely invasive and aggressive daytime-biting mosquito that is a major public health threat throughout its expanding range. Methodology/Principal findings: We used 13 nuclear microsatellite loci (on 911 individuals) and mitochondrial COI sequences to gain a better understanding of the historical and contemporary movements of Ae. albopictus in the Indo-Pacific region and to characterize its population structure. Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) was employed to test competing historical routes of invasion of Ae. albopictus within the Southeast (SE) Asian/Australasian region. Our ABC results show that Ae. albopictus was most likely introduced to New Guinea via mainland Southeast Asia, before colonizing the Solomon Islands via either Papua New Guinea or SE Asia. The analysis also supported that the recent incursion into northern Australia's Torres Strait Islands was seeded chiefly from Indonesia. For the first time documented in this invasive species, we provide evidence of a recently colonized population (the Torres Strait Islands) that has undergone rapid temporal changes in its genetic makeup, which could be the result of genetic drift or represent a secondary invasion from an unknown source. Conclusions/Significance: There appears to be high spatial genetic structure and high gene flow between some geographically distant populations. The species' genetic structure in the region tends to favour a dispersal pattern driven mostly by human movements. Importantly, this study provides a more widespread sampling distribution of the species' native range, revealing more spatial population structure than previously shown. Additionally, we present the most probable invasion history of this species in the Australasian region using ABC analysis

‘I’m not your mother’: British social realism, neoliberalism and the maternal subject in Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley (BBC1 2014-2016)

This article examines Sally Wainwright's Happy Valley (BBC1, 2014–2016) in the context of recent feminist attempts to theorise the idea of a maternal subject. Happy Valley, a police series set in an economically disadvantaged community in West Yorkshire, has been seen as expanding the genre of British social realism, in its focus on strong Northern women, by giving it ‘a female voice’ (Gorton, 2016: 73). I argue that its challenge is more substantial. Both the tradition of British social realism on which the series draws, and the neoliberal narratives of the family which formed the discursive context of its production, I argue, are founded on a social imaginary in which the mother is seen as responsible for the production of the selves of others, but cannot herself be a subject. The series itself, however, places at its centre an active, articulate, mobile and angry maternal subject. In so doing, it radically contests both a tradition of British social realism rooted in male nostalgia and more recent neoliberal narratives of maternal guilt and lifestyle choice. It does this through a more fundamental contestation: of the wider cultural narratives about selfhood and the maternal that underpin both. Its reflective maternal subject, whose narrative journey involves acceptance of an irrecoverable loss, anger and guilt as a crucial aspect of subjectivity, and who embodies an ethics of relationality, is a figure impossible in conventional accounts of subject and nation. She can be understood, however, in terms of recent feminist theories of the maternal

Patients undergoing surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis experience unique courses of pain and disability: A group-based trajectory analysis

© 2019 Hebert et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Objective Identify patient subgroups defined by trajectories of pain and disability following surgery for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis, and investigate the construct validity of the subgroups by evaluating for meaningful differences in clinical outcomes. Methods We recruited patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis from 13 surgical spine centers who were deemed to be surgical candidates. Study outcomes (leg and back pain numeric rating scales, modified Oswestry disability index) were measured before surgery, and after 3, 12, and 24 months. Group-based trajectory models were developed to identify trajectory subgroups for leg pain, back pain, and pain-related disability. We examined for differences in the proportion of patients achieving minimum clinically important change in pain and disability (30%) and clinical success (50% reduction in disability or Oswestry score ≤22) 12 months from surgery. Results Data from 548 patients (mean[SD] age = 66.7[9.1] years; 46% female) were included. The models estimated 3 unique trajectories for leg pain (excellent outcome = 14.4%, good outcome = 49.5%, poor outcome = 36.1%), back pain (excellent outcome = 13.1%, good outcome = 45.0%, poor outcome = 41.9%), and disability (excellent outcome = 30.8%, fair outcome = 40.1%, poor outcome = 29.1%). The construct validity of the trajectory subgroups was confirmed by between-trajectory group differences in the proportion of patients meeting thresholds for minimum clinically important change and clinical success after 12 postoperative months (p \u3c .001). Conclusion Subgroups of patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis can be identified by their trajectories of pain and disability following surgery. Although most patients experienced important reductions in pain and disability, 29% to 42% of patients were classified as members of an outcome trajectory subgroup that experienced little to no benefit from surgery. These findings may inform appropriate expectation setting for patients and clinicians and highlight the need for better methods of treatment selection for patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis

A multi-hit hypothesis for an APOE4-dependent pathophysiological state

The APOE gene encoding the Apolipoprotein E protein is the single most significant genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. The APOE4 genotype confers a significantly increased risk relative to the other two common genotypes APOE3 and APOE2. Intriguingly, APOE4 has been associated with neuropathological and cognitive deficits in the absence of Alzheimer's disease-related amyloid or tau pathology. Here, we review the extensive literature surrounding the impact of APOE genotype on central nervous system dysfunction, focussing on preclinical model systems and comparison of APOE3 and APOE4, given the low global prevalence of APOE2. A multi-hit hypothesis is proposed to explain how APOE4 shifts cerebral physiology towards pathophysiology through interconnected hits. These hits include the following: neurodegeneration, neurovascular dysfunction, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, endosomal trafficking impairments, lipid and cellular metabolism disruption, impaired calcium homeostasis and altered transcriptional regulation. The hits, individually and in combination, leave the APOE4 brain in a vulnerable state where further cumulative insults will exacerbate degeneration and lead to cognitive deficits in the absence of Alzheimer's disease pathology and also a state in which such pathology may more easily take hold. We conclude that current evidence supports an APOE4 multi-hit hypothesis, which contributes to an APOE4 pathophysiological state. We highlight key areas where further study is required to elucidate the complex interplay between these individual mechanisms and downstream consequences, helping to frame the current landscape of existing APOE-centric literature