The problem with environmental security: challenging the either/or approach of national versus human security in the context of the Mekong River Basin

One of the most important ideas to emerge from security studies in the past forty years is the field of research known as ‘environmental security studies’ (ESS). It has not, however, had the impact on security studies in general that it might have expected to – given the growing concerns regarding the scale and pace of environmental changes in the 20th and 21st centuries. This thesis therefore firstly seeks to understand the nature of ESS, asking whether ESS has a central theoretical core that enables it to analyse the links between the environment and security. The research shows that the ESS literature does not have a central tenet, nor a united epistemological or methodological approach. The second area of research therefore asks if there is a common theme that can be discerned within the literature. Research indicates that there is a way of understanding ESS in a more coherent fashion in that the majority of ESS scholars endeavour to comprehend the systemic security impact of environmental processes. The problem is that there is no analytical bridge between the environment, the state and the individual. This thesis therefore forwards a unique approach that argues that rather than the current either state-centric or a human security approach to ESS, it must be understood as a combination of both. This approach is termed “Systemic Environmental Security” (SES). SES is an analytical framework that takes into account the way that environmental processes give rise to both state security and human security concerns simultaneously. The thesis finally explores the unique insights provided by SES. This is achieved through a relevant case study of the Mekong River Basin. It is hoped that these unique insights provided by Systemic Environmental Security can be applied in a range of contexts, providing clearer conceptualisations of the complex relationship between security and the environment

CrossTalk opposing view: the hypoxic ventilatory response does not include a central, excitatory hypoxia sensing component

Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom

CrossTalk opposing view: Peripheral and central chemoreceptors have hyperadditive effects on respiratory motor control

Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom

Integration of Central and Peripheral Respiratory Chemoreflexes

AnesthesiologyPerioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom

The Ventilatory Response to Hypoxia in Mammals: Mechanisms, Measurement, and Analysis

Teppema LJ, Dahan A. The Ventilatory Response to Hypoxia in Mammals: Mechanisms, Measurement, and Analysis. Physiol Rev 90: 675-754, 2010; doi:10.1152/physrev.00012.2009.-The respiratory response to hypoxia in mammals develops from an inhibition of breathing movements in utero into a sustained increase in ventilation in the adult. This ventilatory response to hypoxia (HVR) in mammals is the subject of this review. The period immediately after birth contains a critical time window in which environmental factors can cause long-term changes in the structural and functional properties of the respiratory system, resulting in an altered HVR phenotype. Both neonatal chronic and chronic intermittent hypoxia, but also chronic hyperoxia, can induce such plastic changes, the nature of which depends on the time pattern and duration of the exposure (acute or chronic, episodic or not, etc.). At adult age, exposure to chronic hypoxic paradigms induces adjustments in the HVR that seem reversible when the respiratory system is fully matured. These changes are orchestrated by transcription factors of which hypoxia-inducible factor 1 has been identified as the master regulator. We discuss the mechanisms underlying the HVR and its adaptations to chronic changes in ambient oxygen concentration, with emphasis on the carotid bodies that contain oxygen sensors and initiate the response, and on the contribution of central neurotransmitters and brain stem regions. We also briefly summarize the techniques used in small animals and in humans to measure the HVR and discuss the specific difficulties encountered in its measurement and analysis.Anesthesiolog

Relationship between blood pressure and cerebral blood flow during supine cycling: influence of aging

Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom

Rebuttal from Luc J. Teppema and Curtis A. Smith

Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom

Response to the reply of J. Duffin to our letter entitled 'Acetazolamide and cerebrovascular function at high altitude'

Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom

The intersection of disuse-induced muscle atrophy and satellite cell content: reply to Snijders, Nederveen, and Parise Reply

Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom

Acetazolamide and cerebrovascular function at high altitude

Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom