Girlhood, bride-kidnapping and the postsocialist moment in Mángshān (Blind Mountain) (Li, 2007) and Boz Salkyn (Pure Coolness) (Abdyjaparov, 2007)

China and Kyrgyzstan are at the point of national development where the interplay between a national past and a globalised future are still hotly debated. Both nations are at the crux of the global questions related to the universal dilemmas posed by the collapse of the revolutionary socialist challenge to the hegemony of capitalism (Sakwa 1999). This article will examine the interplay between gender and the vision of postsocialist modernity that is found in two films. Blind Mountain (Li, 2007) and Pure Coolness (Abdyjaparov, 2007) both present the respective stories of teenagers forced into marriage as part of a "tradition" that is supported by the broader local community (as opposed to been the act of an individual male kidnapper). I will explore how the girl simultaneously represents a vision of a localised space while operating as an indicative sign of cultural difference. In short, she is the site of the transmission of ideals of gender and modernity between moments in national development. We, therefore, see the girl caught in the crosshair of modernity, sexuality, tradition, nostalgia and capitalism in communities that, as will be explored, are struggling to find a sense of self in the Asian post-socialist moment

Peatland hydrology and carbon release: why small-scale process matters

Peatlands cover over 400 million hectares of the Earth's surface and store between one-third and one-half of the world's soil carbon pool. The long-term ability of peatlands to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere means that they play a major role in moderating global climate. Peatlands can also either attenuate or accentuate flooding. Changing climate or management can alter peatland hydrological processes and pathways for water movement across and below the peat surface. It is the movement of water in peats that drives carbon storage and flux. These small-scale processes can have global impacts through exacerbated terrestrial carbon release. This paper will describe advances in understanding environmental processes operating in peatlands. Recent (and future) advances in high-resolution topographic data collection and hydrological modelling provide an insight into the spatial impacts of land management and climate change in peatlands. Nevertheless, there are still some major challenges for future research. These include the problem that impacts of disturbance in peat can be irreversible, at least on human time-scales. This has implications for the perceived success and understanding of peatland restoration strategies. In some circumstances, peatland restoration may lead to exacerbated carbon loss. This will also be important if we decide to start to create peatlands in order to counter the threat from enhanced atmospheric carbon

Would Functional Agricultural Foods Improve Human Health?

Concern over diet-health relationships has moved to the forefront of public health concerns in the UK and much of the developed world. It has been estimated, for example, that obesity costs the UK National Health Service up to £6b per year (Rayner and Scarborough, 2005), but if all consumers were to follow recommended healthy eating guidelines there would be major implications for food consumption, land use and international trade (Srinivasan et al, 2006). This is unlikely to happen, at least in the short term, but it is realistic to anticipate some dietary adjustment toward the recommendations, resulting in an improvement in diet quality (Mazzocchi et al, 2007). Although consumers are reluctant to make major changes to their diets, they may be prepared to substitute existing foods for healthier alternatives. Three of the most prominent nutritional recommendations are to consume more fruit and vegetables, which contain phytochemicals beneficial to health, reduce consumption of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and increase intake of long-chain n-3 fatty acids (FA). In the first case, consumption of fruit and vegetables has been stable at around three 80 g portions per person per day according to the Health Survey for England. It is estimated that 42,200 deaths per year could be avoided in England and 411,000 Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) could be saved if fruit and vegetable consumption were increased to the recommended 5 portions per day (Ofcom 2006). As well as continuing to encourage people to eat more, it could be desirable to ‘intensify’ the beneficial phytochemical content of existing fruit and vegetables.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

MobiHealth: Ambulant Patient Monitoring Over Next Generation Public Wireless Networks

The wide availability of high bandwidth public wireless networks as well as the miniaturisation of medical sensors and network access hardware allows the development of advanced ambulant patient monitoring systems. The MobiHealth project developed a complete system and service that allows the continuous monitoring of vital signals and their transmission to the health care institutes in real time using GPRS and UMTS networks. The MobiHealth system is based on the concept of a Body Area Network (BAN) allowing high personalization of the monitored signals and thus adaptation to different classes of patients. The system and service has been trialed in four European countries and for different patient cases. First results confirm the usefulness of the system and the advantages it offers to patients and medical personnel

The interaction of human microbial pathogens, particulate material and nutrients in estuarine environments and their impacts on recreational and shellfish waters

Anthropogenic activities have increased the load of faecal bacteria, pathogenic viruses and nutrients in rivers, estuaries and coastal areas through point and diffuse sources such as sewage discharges and agricultural runoff. These areas are used by humans for both commercial and recreational activities and are therefore protected by a range of European Directives. If water quality declines in these zones, significant economic losses can occur. Identifying the sources of pollution, however, is notoriously difficult due to the ephemeral nature of discharges, their diffuse source, and uncertainties associated with transport and transformation of the pollutants through the freshwater–marine interface. Further, significant interaction between nutrients, microorganisms and particulates can occur in the water column making prediction of the fate and potential infectivity of human pathogenic organisms difficult to ascertain. This interaction is most prevalent in estuarine environments due to the formation of flocs (suspended sediment) at the marine-freshwater interface. A range of physical, chemical and biological processes can induce the co-flocculation of microorganisms, organic matter and mineral particles resulting in pathogenic organisms becoming potentially protected from a range of biotic (e.g. predation) and abiotic stresses (e.g. UV, salinity). These flocs contain and retain macro- and micro- nutrients allowing the potential survival, growth and transfer of pathogenic organisms to commercially sensitive areas (e.g. beaches, shellfish harvesting waters). The flocs can either be transported directly to the coastal environment or can become deposited in the estuary forming cohesive sediments where pathogens can survive for long periods. Especially in response to storms, these sediments can be subsequently remobilised releasing pulses of potential pathogenic organisms back into the water column leading to contamination of marine waters long after the initial contamination event occurred. Further work, however, is still required to understand and predict the potential human infectivity of pathogenic organisms alongside the better design of early warning systems and surveillance measures for risk assessment purposes

The influence of borderline personality traits on clinical outcomes in bipolar disorder

Objectives: Systematic reviews suggest comorbid borderline personality disorder is presentin approximately 20% of individuals who have bipolar disorder, but current diagnosticsystems demonstrate a move towards dimensional rather than categorical approaches toclassifying personality pathology. We aimed to examine the presence and severity ofborderline personality traits in bipolar I and bipolar II disorder, and to explore associationsbetween the presence/severity of borderline personality traits and clinical outcomes inbipolar disorder. Methods: Borderline personality traits were measured in 1447 individuals with DSM-IVbipolar disorder (1008 bipolar I disorder and 439 bipolar II disorder) using the BorderlineEvaluation of Severity over Time (BEST) questionnaire. Lifetime clinical outcomes wereassessed via Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) semi-structuredinterview and clinical case-notes. Results: Borderline personality traits were common in both bipolar disorder groups, with86.2% participants reporting at least one trait. These included traits that overlap with (forexample, mood instability) and those that are distinct from the symptoms of bipolardisorder (for example, fear of abandonment). Borderline personality traits weresignificantly more frequent and more severe in bipolar II disorder compared to bipolar Idisorder. More severe borderline traits, and even the presence of a single borderlinepersonality trait, were significantly associated with younger age of bipolar disorder onsetand higher prevalence of lifetime alcohol misuse in both bipolar disorder groups. Conclusions: The presence of comorbid borderline personality traits should be considered inthe management of all patients with bipolar disorder irrespective of whether criteria for acategorical borderline personality disorder diagnosis are met

Synovial incorporation of polyacrylamide hydrogel after injection into normal and osteoarthritic animal joints

Polyacrylamide hydrogel (PAAG) is a non-toxic, non-degradable synthetic product, used for years in the augmentation of soft tissues. Preliminary results in animals and humans have suggested long-lasting beneficial effects on symptoms of osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of this histopathological study was to investigate whether intra-articular injection of PAAG is integrated into synovial tissue in normal and OA animal joints, and if this integration is sustained.(A) A prospective, controlled, longitudinal study of normal knee joints injected with PAAG was performed in 10 rabbits, following the animals up to 1 year, and (B) a post mortem examination was carried out up to 2 years post-injection on 18 horse joints which had previously been treated with 1-2 injections of 2 ml PAAG for clinically and radiologically diagnosed OA.Integration of the injected gel was evident at day 10 in the rabbit and by day 14 in the horse, with proliferation and invasion of synovial cells into the gel. By day 90 in rabbit joints and day 30 in horse joints, the gel had formed a sub-synovial layer, which was traversed by thin strands of connective tissue with vessels and covered by a synovial lining facing the joint cavity. This histological appearance persisted up to 2 years post-injection in horse joints.Intra-articular injection of PAAG results in a stable, long-lasting sub-synovial layer of gel traversed with thin strands of connective tissue. Further studies to explore potential effects on synovial inflammation and pain are warranted

Summer CO2 evasion from streams and rivers in the Kolyma River basin, north-east Siberia

Inland water systems are generally supersaturated in carbon dioxide (CO2) and are increasingly recognized as playing an important role in the global carbon cycle. The Arctic may be particularly important in this respect, given the abundance of inland waters and carbon contained in Arctic soils; however, a lack of trace gas measurements from small streams in the Arctic currently limits this understanding.We investigated the spatial variability of CO2 evasion during the summer low-flow period from streams and rivers in the northern portion of the Kolyma River basin in north-eastern Siberia. To this end, partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) and gas exchange velocities (k) were measured at a diverse set of streams and rivers to calculate CO2 evasion fluxes. We combined these CO2 evasion estimates with satellite remote sensing and geographic information system techniques to calculate total areal CO2 emissions. Our results show that small streams are substantial sources of atmospheric CO2 owing to high pCO2 and k, despite being a small portion of total inland water surface area. In contrast, large rivers were generally near equilibrium with atmospheric CO2. Extrapolating our findings across the Panteleikha-Ambolikha sub-watersheds demonstrated that small streams play a major role in CO2 evasion, accounting for 86% of the total summer CO2 emissions from inland waters within these two sub-watersheds. Further expansion of these regional CO2 emission estimates across time and space will be critical to accurately quantify and understand the role of Arctic streams and rivers in the global carbon budget

Vapour-liquid coexistence in many-body dissipative particle dynamics

Many-body dissipative particle dynamics is constructed to exhibit vapour-liquid coexistence, with a sharp interface, and a vapour phase of vanishingly small density. In this form, the model is an unusual example of a soft-sphere liquid with a potential energy built out of local-density dependent one-particle self energies. The application to fluid mechanics problems involving free surfaces is illustrated by simulation of a pendant drop.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, revtex