Properties of a new quasi-axisymmetric configuration

A novel, compact, quasi-axisymmetric configuration is presented which exhibits low fast-particle losses and is stable to ideal MHD instabilities. The design has fast-particle loss rates below 8\% for flux surfaces within the half-radius, and is shown to have an MHD-stability limit of a normalised pressure of $\langle\beta\rangle=3\%$ where $\langle\beta\rangle$ is volume averaged. The flux surfaces at various plasma betas and currents as calculated using the SPEC equilibrium code are presented. Neoclassical transport coefficients are shown to be similar to an equivalent tokamak, with a distinct banana regime at half-radius. An initial coil design study is presented to assess the feasibility of this configuration as a fusion-relevant experiment

Soy consumption and obesity

Obesity is now present worldwide, including China, India and developing countries. It now seems no longer acceptable to argue that obesity can simply be explained in terms of caloric consumption only using simple concept of energy in and energy out. There may be specific causes of altered metabolism that produce nutritional imbalances. Individual variation in response to food intake may also be considered. Specific substances in the food chain can influence meta-bolism towards an increase in fat deposits. Xenoestrogens have been suggested to have such an influence. Soy contains phytoestrogens plus phytates, protease inhibitors and other anti-nutrients which block or compromise the body’s uptake of essential vitamins and minerals. This may contribute to nutritional anomalies. We analyzed data from WHO and FAO for 167 countries. These contained percentage of obese individuals (BMI > 30 kg/m2), GDP, caloric consump-tion per capita, and sugar and soy consumption per capita. Regressions and partial correlations were used. Soy con-sumption correlates significantly with levels of obesity, irrespective of GDP and caloric intake. For instance, poor Latin America with soy consumption of 28.9 kg/person/year has more obesity (18.4%) than better off European Union (14.1%) consuming 16.1 kg/person/year of soy. Soy consumption seems to contribute approximately 10% - 21% to the worldwide variation in obesity, depending on the method of statistical analysis. The ubiquitous presence of unfermented soy products in mass produced foods seems to be an important contributor to the obesity epidemic.Dante Roccisano and Maciej Henneber

Dietary fats and oils: some evolutionary and historical perspectives concerning edible lipids for human consumption

Consumption of fats and oils in the ancient world was examined as a window to human nutritional needs and compared with lipid usage in the modern world, post-1900. In earlier periods, the natural and only source of edible fats and oils came from both animals and plants. These fats and oils played a vital role in the evolution of the human body structure, supporting many biochemical functions. Artifacts from prehistoric periods and the ancient world had indicated that humans were evolutionarily adapted to consume saturated lipids. They also consumed unsaturated fats and oils extracted from animals and plants, now identified as omega-3 to omega-6 in the fatty acid ratio of 1:1, commonly derived from naturally consumed unprocessed products and food sources. These fats and oils assisted in providing the ingredients for the building up of cells and maintaining their structural integrity in tissues, including the brain and other important internal organs, as well as providing energy for many biochemical processes in the body. The double bonds distributed throughout fatty acid carbon chains are a characteristic of unsaturated vegetable oils. They are more structurally diverse in polyunsaturated fats and oils with the greater preponderance for carbon-to-carbon double bonds distributed in the carbon chains. These double bonds are susceptible to generating free radicals. This article considers potential problems that proponents of the prevailing diet-heart cholesterol paradigm of the past 60 years may have neglected. It also presents the possible consequences of abandoning the evolutionarily inherited foods containing extracted natural saturated and monounsaturated fats and oils. Furthermore, the article addresses the contribution of docosahexaenoic and eicosapentaenoic acids to immunity and the possible connection of excess consumption of omega-6 fatty acid to the marked rise in obesity and other non-communicable diseases in modern civilization.Dante Roccisano, Jaliya Kumaratilake, Arthur Saniotis, Maciej Henneber

Heredity, Environment, and Cranial Form: A Reanalysis of Boas's Immigrant Data

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65137/1/aa.2003.105.1.125.pd

Circling in on convective organization

Cold pools (CPs) contribute to convective organization. However, it is unclear by which mechanisms organization occurs. By using a particle method to track CP gust fronts in large eddy simulations, we characterize the basic collision modes between CPs. Our results show that CP interactions, where three expanding gust fronts force an updraft, are key at triggering new convection. Using this, we conceptualize CP dynamics into a parameter‐free mathematical model: circles expand from initially random points in space. Where two expanding circles collide, a stationary front is formed. However, where three expanding circles enclose a single point, a new expanding circle is seeded. This simple model supports three fundamental features of CP dynamics: precipitation cells constitute a spatially interacting system; CPs come in generations; and scales steadily increase throughout the diurnal cycle. Finally, this model provides a framework for how CPs act to cause convective self‐organization, clustering, and extremes

New perspectives on evolutionary medicine: the relevance of microevolution for human health and disease

Evolutionary medicine (EM) is a growing field focusing on the evolutionary basis of human diseases and their changes through time. To date, the majority of EM studies have used pure theories of hominin macroevolution to explain the present-day state of human health. Here, we propose a different approach by addressing more empirical and health-oriented research concerning past, current and future microevolutionary changes of human structure, functions and pathologies. Studying generation-to-generation changes of human morphology that occurred in historical times, and still occur in present-day populations under the forces of evolution, helps to explain medical conditions and warns clinicians that their current practices may influence future humans. Also, analyzing historic tissue specimens such as mummies is crucial in order to address the molecular evolution of pathogens, of the human genome, and their coadaptations.Frank Jakobus Rühli and Maciej Henneber

Energetic particle transport in optimized stellarators

Nine stellarator configurations, three quasiaxisymmetric, three quasihelically symmetric and three non-quasisymmetric are scaled to ARIES-CS size and analyzed for energetic particle content. The best performing configurations with regard to energetic particle confinement also perform the best on the neoclassical {\Gamma}c metric, which attempts to align contours of the second adiabatic invariant with flux surfaces. Quasisymmetric configurations that simultaneously perform well on {\Gamma}c and quasisymmetry have the best overall confinement, with collisional losses under 3%, approaching the performance of ITER with ferritic inserts.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 1 Tabl

Two interpretations of human evolution: Essentialism and Darwinism

Despite intensive studies of a large number of fossils discovered during the 20th century there is no consensus as to the interpretation of the process of hominin evolution. Some authors see as many as six genera and some 17 species, while others argue for a single lineage from Plio/Pleistocene until today. Such diversity of interpretations of the same facts indicates lack of a uniform theoretical basis underlying studies of human evolution. Debates can be resolved using basic principles of scientific inquiry - parsimony and falsification of null hypotheses. Hypothesis testing is now possible with respect to the evolution of basic hominin characteristics such as brain size, body size and the size of the dentition that have sample sizes of a few hundred individual data points each. These characters display a continuous change with time. Analyses of variance do not falsify the null hypothesis of the existence of only one species at any time - variances around regression lines on time do not differ from the variance observed in the single species of Homo sapiens - distributions of residuals are normal. Thus, splitting of the hominin lineage into coeval species can only be based on descriptive characteristics that are liable to errors of subjective judgment.Maciej Henneber