Sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 and climate to explosive volcanic eruptions

Impacts of low-latitude, explosive volcanic eruptions on climate and the carbon cycle are quantified by forcing a comprehensive, fully coupled carbon cycle-climate model with pulse-like stratospheric aerosol optical depth changes. The model represents the radiative and dynamical response of the climate system to volcanic eruptions and simulates a decrease of global and regional atmospheric surface temperature, regionally distinct changes in precipitation, a positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation, and a decrease in atmospheric CO2 after volcanic eruptions. The volcanic-induced cooling reduces overturning rates in tropical soils, which dominates over reduced litter input due to soil moisture decrease, resulting in higher land carbon inventories for several decades. The perturbation in the ocean carbon inventory changes sign from an initial weak carbon sink to a carbon source. Positive carbon and negative temperature anomalies in subsurface waters last up to several decades. The multi-decadal decrease in atmospheric CO2 yields a small additional radiative forcing that amplifies the cooling and perturbs the Earth System on longer time scales than the atmospheric residence time of volcanic aerosols. In addition, century-scale global warming simulations with and without volcanic eruptions over the historical period show that the ocean integrates volcanic radiative cooling and responds for different physical and biogeochemical parameters such as steric sea level or dissolved oxygen. Results from a suite of sensitivity simulations with different magnitudes of stratospheric aerosol optical depth changes and from global warming simulations show that the carbon cycle-climate sensitivity γ, expressed as change in atmospheric CO2 per unit change in global mean surface temperature, depends on the magnitude and temporal evolution of the perturbation, and time scale of interest. On decadal time scales, modeled γ is several times larger for a Pinatubo-like eruption than for the industrial period and for a high emission, 21st century scenario.

Metacommunity Dynamics Of Benthic Macroinvertebrates In A Large River

Metacommunity ecology focuses on the interaction between local communities and is inherently linked to dispersal as a result. Within this framework, communities are structured by a combination of in-site responses to the immediate environment (species sorting), stochasticity (patch dynamics), and connections to other communities via distance between communities and dispersal (neutrality), and source-sink dynamics (mass effects; see Chapter 1 for a detailed description of metacommunity theory, the study site, and macroinvertebrate communities found). In Chapter 2 I describe spatial scale of study and dispersal ability as both have the ability to influence the degree to which communities interact. However, little is known about how these factors influence the importance of all metacommunity dynamics. I compared dispersal mode of immature aquatic insects and dispersal ability of winged adults across multiple spatial scales in a large river. The strongest drivers of river communities were patch dynamics, followed by species sorting, then neutrality. Active dispersers during aquatic lifestages on average exhibited lower patch dynamics, higher species sorting, and significant mass effects compared to passive dispersers. Active and strong dispersers also had a scale-independent influence of neutrality, while neutrality was stronger at broader spatial scale for passive and weak dispersers. These results indicate as dispersal ability increases patch dynamics decreases, species sorting increases, and neutrality should decrease. The perceived influence of neutrality may also be dependent on spatial scale and dispersal ability. In Chapter 3 I describe how river benthic macroinvertebrate communities may influence tributary invertebrate communities via adult flight and tributaries may influence mainstem communities via immature drift. This relationship may also depend on relative mainstem and tributary size, as well as abiotic tributary influence on mainstem habitat. To investigate the interaction between a larger river and tributary I sampled mainstem benthic invertebrate communities and quantified habitat of a 7th order river (West Branch Susquehanna River) above and below a 5th order tributary confluence, as well as 0.95-3.2 km upstream in the tributary. Non-metric multidimensional scaling showed similar patterns of clustering between sampling locations for both habitat characteristics and invertebrate communities. In addition, mainstem river communities and habitat directly downstream of the tributary confluence cluster tightly together, intermediate between tributary and mid-channel river samples. In Bray-Curtis dissimilarity comparisons between tributary and mainstem river communities the furthest upstream tributary communities were least similar to river communities. Middle tributary samples were also closest by Euclidean distance to the upstream mainstem riffle and exhibited higher similarity to mid-channel samples than the furthest downstream tributary communities. My results indicate river and tributary benthic invertebrate communities may interact and likely result in direct and indirect mass effects of a tributary on the downstream mainstem community by invertebrate drift and habitat restructuring via material delivery from the tributary. I also showed likely direct effects of adult dispersal from the river and oviposition in proximal tributary locations where Euclidian, rather than river, distance may be more important in determining river-tributary interactions.

Using Micro-Gravity Techniques to Map Alluvium Thickness and Pleistocene Location of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River Near Muncy, Pennsylvania

Laurentide glaciation during the early Pleistocene (~970 ka) dammed the southeast-flowing West Branch of the Susquehanna River (WBSR), scouring bedrock and creating 100-km-long glacial Lake Lesley near the Great Bend at Muncy, Pennsylvania (Ramage et al., 1998). Local drill logs and well data indicate that subsequent paleo-outwash floods and modern fluvial processes have deposited as much as 30 meters of alluvium in this area, but little is known about the valley fill architecture and the bedrock-alluvium interface. By gaining a greater understanding of the bedrock-alluvium interface the project will not only supplement existing depth to bedrock information, but also provide information pertinent to the evolution of the Muncy Valley landscape. This project determined if variations in the thickness of the valley fill were detectable using micro-gravity techniques to map the bedrock-alluvium interface. The gravity method was deemed appropriate due to scale of the study area (~30 km2), ease of operation by a single person, and the available geophysical equipment. A LaCoste and Romberg Gravitron unit was used to collect gravitational field readings at 49 locations over 5 transects across the Muncy Creek and Susquehanna River valleys (approximately 30 km2), with at least two gravity base stations per transect. Precise latitude, longitude and ground surface elevation at each location were measured using an OPUS corrected Trimble RTK-GPS unit. Base stations were chosen based on ease of access due to the necessity of repeat measurements. Gravity measurement locations were selected and marked to provide easy access and repeat measurements. The gravimeter was returned to a base station within every two hours and a looping procedure was used to determine drift and maximize confidence in the gravity measurements. A two-minute calibration reading at each station was used to minimize any tares in the data. The Gravitron digitally recorded finite impulse response filtered gravity measurements every 20 seconds at each station. A measurement period of 15 minutes was used for each base station occupation and a minimum of 5 minutes at all other locations. Longer or multiple measurements were utilized at some sites if drift or other externalities (i.e. train or truck traffic) were effecting readings. Average, median, standard deviation and 95% confidence interval were calculated for each station. Tidal, drift, latitude, free-air, Bouguer and terrain corrections were then applied. The results show that the gravitational field decreases as alluvium thickness increases across the axes of the Susquehanna River and Muncy Creek valleys. However, the location of the gravity low does not correspond with the present-day location of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River (WBSR), suggesting that the WBSR may have been constrained along Bald Eagle Mountain by a glacial lobe originating from the Muncy Creek Valley to the northeast. Using a 3-D inversion model, the topography of the bedrock-alluvium interface was determined over the extent of the study area using a density contrast of -0.8 g/cm3. Our results are consistent with the bedrock geometry of the area, and provide a low-cost, non-invasive and efficient method for exploring the subsurface and for supplementing existing well data.

Scales of Impact: Settlement History and Landscape Change in the Gordion Region, Central Anatolia

The expansion of agriculture in the Near East during the middle Holocene significantly altered the physical landscape. However, the relationship between the scale of agriculture and the magnitude and timing of the environmental impacts is not well known. The Gordion Regional Survey provides a novel dataset to compare settlement density during archaeological periods to rates of environmental disruption. Sediment samples from alluvial cores directly date the environmental disruption, which can be matched to period-specific settlement intensities in the watershed as constructed from archaeological survey ceramics. Degradation rates rose sharply within a millennium of the earliest Chalcolithic occupation. Early Bronze Age (EBA) land use induced the greatest rates of environmental degradation, although settlement density was relatively low on the landscape. The degradation rate subsequently decreased to one-third its early peak by the Iron Age, even as settlement intensity climbed. This trajectory reveals how complex interaction effects can amplify or subdue the responses of the landscape-land use system. Prior to settlement, landscape soil reservoirs were highly vulnerable, easily tipped by early agricultural expansion. Subsequent reduced rates of erosion are tied both to changes in sociopolitical organization and to depletion of the vulnerable soil supply.

Social Policy Facing the Problems of Youth Employment

Rumiana Stoilova (Bulgaria). Social Policy Facing the Problems of Youth Employment. Ms. Stoilova is a researcher in the Institute of Sociology in Sofia and worked on this project from October 1996 to September 1998. This project involved collecting both statistical and empirical data on the state of youth employment in Bulgaria, which was then compared with similar data from other European countries. One significant aspect was the parallel investigation of employment and unemployment, which took as a premise the continuity of professional experience where unemployment is just a temporary condition caused by external and internal factors. These need to be studied and changed on a systematic basis so as to create a more favourable market situation and to improve individuals' resources for improving their market opportunities. A second important aspect of the project was an analysis of the various entities active on the labour market, including government and private institutions, associations of unemployed persons, of employers or of trade unions, all with their specific legal powers and interests, and of the problems in communication between these. The major trends in youth unemployment during the period studied include a high proportion of the registered unemployed who are not eligible for social assistance, a lengthening of the average period of unemployment, an increase in the percentage of people who are unemployed for the first time and an increasing percentage of these who are not eligible for assistance, particularly among newly registered young people. At the same time the percentage of those for who work has been found is rising and during the last three years an increasing number of the unemployed have started some independent economic activity. Regional differences are also considerable and in the case of the Haskovo region represent a danger of losing the youngest generation, with resulting negative demographic effects. One major weakness of the existing institutional structure is the large scale of the black labour market, with clear negative implications for the young people drawn into it. The role of non-governmental organisations in providing support and information for the unemployed is growing and the government has recently introduced special preferences for organisations offering jobs to unemployed persons. Social policy in the labour market has however been largely restricted to passive measures, mostly because of the risk that poverty poses to people continuously excluded from the labour market. Among the active measures taken, well over half are concerned with providing jobs for the unemployed and there are very limited programmes for providing or improving qualifications. The nature of youth employment in Bulgaria can be seen in the influence of sustained structures (generation) and institutions (family and school). Ms. Stoilova studied the situation of the modern generation through a series of profiles, mostly those of continuously unemployed and self-employed persons, but also distinguishing between students and the unemployed, and between high school and university students. The different categories of young people were studied in separate mini-studies and the survey was carried out in five town in order to gather objective and subjective information on the state of the labour market in the different regions. She conducted interviews with several hundred young people covering questions of family background, career plans, attitudes to the labour situation and government measures to deal with it, and such questions as independence, mobility, attitude to work, etc. The interviews with young people unemployed for a long period of time show the risk involved in starting work and its link with dynamics of economic development. Their approval of structural reforms, of the financial restrictions connected with the introduction of a currency board and the inevitability of unemployment was largely declarative. The findings indicate that the continuously unemployed need practical knowledge and skills to "translate" the macroeconomic realities in concrete alternatives of individual work and initiative. The unemployed experience their exclusion from the labour market not only as a professional problem but also as an existential threat, of poverty, forced mobility and dependence on their parents' generation. The exclusion from the market of goods and services means more than just exercising restraint in their consumption, as it places restrictions on their personal development. Ms. Stoilova suggests that more efficient ways of providing financial aid and mobilisation are needed to counteract the social disintegration and marginalisation of the continuously unemployed. In measuring the speed of reform, university students took both employment opportunities and the implementation of the meritocratic principle in employment into account. When offered a hypothetical choice between a well-paid job and work in one's own profession, 62% would prefer opt for the well-paid job and for working for a company that offered career opportunities rather than employment in a family or own company. While most see the information gained during their studies as useful and interesting, relatively few see their education as competitive on a wider level and many were pessimistic about employment opportunities based on their qualifications. Very similar attitudes were found among high school students, with differences being due rather to family and personal situations. The unemployed, on the other hand, placed greater emphasis on possibilities of gaining or improving qualifications on a job and for the opportunities it would offer for personal contacts. High school students tend to attribute more significance to opportunities for personal accomplishment. A significant difference that five times fewer high school students were willing to work for state-owned companies, and many fewer expected to find permanent employment or to find a job in the area where they lived, Within the family situation, actual support for children seems to be higher than the feelings of confidence expressed in interviews. The attitudes of the families towards past experience seems to be linked with their ability to cope with the difficulties of the present, with those families which show an optimistic and active attitude towards the future having a greater respect for parents experience and tolerance in communication between parents and children.

Design of custom-shaped vascularized tissues using microtissue spheroids as minimal building units

Tissue engineering strategies are gathering clinical momentum in regenerative medicine and are expected to provide excellent opportunities for therapy for difficult-to-treat human pathologies. Being aware of the requirement to produce larger artificial tissue implants for clinical applications, we used microtissues, produced using gravity-enforced self-assembly of monodispersed primary cells, as minimal tissue units to generate scaffold-free vascularized artificial macrotissues in custom-shaped agarose molds. Mouse myoblast, pig and human articular-derived chondrocytes, and human myofibroblast (HMF)-composed microtissues (microm3 scale) were amalgamated to form coherent macrotissue patches (mm3 scale) of a desired shape. Macrotissues, assembled from the human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC)-coated HMF microtissues, developed a vascular system, which functionally connected to the chicken embryo's vasculature after implantation. The design of scaffold-free vascularized macrotissues is a first step toward the scale-up and production of artificial tissue implants for future tissue engineering initiatives.

Bacterial decontamination of surgical wounds treated with Lavasept

In a prospective randomized controlled double-blind study in 50 acutely injured patients, bacterially contaminated type 2-4 soft tissue wounds were treated with moist dressings of 0.2% Lavasept (fractionated polyhexamethylenbiguanide and macrogolum 4000) solution (n=28) in comparison with Ringer solution (n=22). Standardized swabs were taken on days 0, 2, 8 and 15 and investigated for microorganisms. For a quantitative evaluation, the number of colony forming units (CFU) was determined by a serial dilution technique. The tissue compatibility and anti-inflammatory effect were rated on a scale of 0 (=bad) to 3 (=very good). The most frequently found microorganism was Staphylococcus aureus, which was isolated from 13 wounds. Use of Lavasept led to a faster and significant reduction in microorganisms on the wound surfaces. The number of CFU per wound remained constant or decreased, in contrast to the wounds treated with Ringer solution. This was true for both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. There was no evidence of impaired wound healing in either group. The anti-inflammatory effect and the tissue compatibility of Lavasept were rated significantly better than that of Ringer solution. It is concluded that Lavasept combines antiseptic action with good tissue compatibility.

Fine-scale genetic structure and dispersal in the common vole (Microtus arvalis)

The genetic structure and demography of local populations is tightly linked to the rate and scale of dispersal. Dispersal parameters are notoriously difficult to determine in the field, and remain often completely unknown for smaller organisms. In this study, we investigate spatial and temporal genetic structure in relation to dispersal patterns among local populations of the probably most abundant European mammals, the common vole (Microtus arvalis). Voles were studied in six natural populations at distances of 0.4-2.5 km in three different seasons (fall, spring, summer) corresponding to different life-history stages. Field observations provided no direct evidence for movements of individuals between populations. The analysis of 10 microsatellite markers revealed a persistent overall genetic structure among populations of 2.9%, 2.5% and 3% FST in the respective season. Pairwise comparisons showed that even the closest populations were significantly differentiated from each other in each season, but there was no evidence for temporal differentiation within populations or isolation by distance among populations. Despite significant genetic structure, assignment analyses identified a relatively high proportion of individuals as being immigrants for the population where they were captured. The immigration rate was not significantly lower for females than for males. We suggest that a generally low and sex-dependent effective dispersal rate as the consequence of only few immigrants reproducing successfully in the new populations together with the social structure within populations may explain the maintenance of genetic differentiation among populations despite migration.

Late presentation of HIV-infected individuals

Late presentation remains a major concern despite the dramatically improved prognosis realized by ART. We define a first presentation for HIV care during the course of HIV infection as 'late' if an AIDS-defining opportunistic disease is apparent, or if CD4+ T-cells are <200/microl. In the Western world, approximately 10 and 30% of HIV-infected individuals still present with CD4+ T-cells <50 and <200/microl, respectively; estimates are substantially higher for developing countries. Diagnosis and treatment of opportunistic diseases and intense supportive in-hospital care take precedence over ART. Benefits of starting ART without delay, that is, when opportunistic diseases are still active, include faster resolution of opportunistic diseases and a decreased risk of recurrence. The downside of starting ART without delay could include toxicity, drug interactions and immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). Among asymptomatic or oligosymptomatic individuals presenting late, where ART and primary prophylaxis are initiated, approximately 10-20% will become symptomatic from drug toxicity or undiagnosed opportunistic complications, including IRIS, which require appropriate therapies. In this review we describe late presentation to HIV care, the scale of the problem, the evaluation of a late-presenting patient and challenges associated with initiation of potent antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the setting of acute opportunistic infections and other comorbidities.

Using water balance models to approximate the effects of climate change on spring catchment discharge : Mt. Hanang, Tanzania

This project addresses the potential impacts of changing climate on dry-season water storage and discharge from a small, mountain catchment in Tanzania. Villagers and water managers around the catchment have experienced worsening water scarcity and attribute it to increasing population and demand, but very little has been done to understand the physical characteristics and hydrological behavior of the spring catchment. The physical nature of the aquifer was characterized and water balance models were calibrated to discharge observations so as to be able to explore relative changes in aquifer storage resulting from climate changes. To characterize the shallow aquifer supplying water to the Jandu spring, water quality and geochemistry data were analyzed, discharge recession analysis was performed, and two water balance models were developed and tested. Jandu geochemistry suggests a shallow, meteorically-recharged aquifer system with short circulation times. Baseflow recession analysis showed that the catchment behavior could be represented by a linear storage model with an average recession constant of 0.151/month from 2004-2010. Two modified Thornthwaite-Mather Water Balance (TMWB) models were calibrated using historic rainfall and discharge data and shown to reproduce dry-season flows with Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies between 0.86 and 0.91. The modified TMWB models were then used to examine the impacts of nineteen, perturbed climate scenarios to test the potential impacts of regional climate change on catchment storage during the dry season. Forcing the models with realistic scenarios for average monthly temperature, annual precipitation, and seasonal rainfall distribution demonstrated that even small climate changes might adversely impact aquifer storage conditions at the onset of the dry season. The scale of the change was dependent on the direction (increasing vs. decreasing) and magnitude of climate change (temperature and precipitation). This study demonstrates that small, mountain aquifer characterization is possible using simple water quality parameters, recession analysis can be integrated into modeling aquifer storage parameters, and water balance models can accurately reproduce dry-season discharges and might be useful tools to assess climate change impacts. However, uncertainty in current climate projections and lack of data for testing the predictive capabilities of the model beyond the present data set, make the forecasts of changes in discharge also uncertain. The hydrologic tools used herein offer promise for future research in understanding small, shallow, mountainous aquifers and could potentially be developed and used by water resource professionals to assess climatic influences on local hydrologic systems.

Understanding volcanic processes using UV camera measurements of sulfur dioxide and coincident infrasound and seismicity

The exsolution of volatiles from magma maintains an important control on volcanic eruption styles. The nucleation, growth, and connectivity of bubbles during magma ascent provide the driving force behind eruptions, and the rate, volume, and ease of gas exsolution can affect eruptive activity. Volcanic plumes are the observable consequence of this magmatic degassing, and remote sensing techniques allow us to quantify changes in gas exsolution. However, until recently the methods used to measure volcanic plumes did not have the capability of detecting rapid changes in degassing on the scale of standard geophysical observations. The advent of the UV camera now makes high sample rate gas measurements possible. This type of dataset can then be compared to other volcanic observations to provide an in depth picture of degassing mechanisms in the shallow conduit. The goals of this research are to develop a robust methodology for UV camera field measurements of volcanic plumes, and utilize this data in conjunction with seismoacoustic records to illuminate degassing processes. Field and laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effects of imaging conditions, vignetting, exposure time, calibration technique, and filter usage on the UV camera sulfur dioxide measurements. Using the best practices determined from these studies, a field campaign was undertaken at Volcán de Pacaya, Guatemala. Coincident plume sulfur dioxide measurements, acoustic recordings, and seismic observations were collected and analyzed jointly. The results provide insight into the small explosive features, variations in degassing rate, and plumbing system of this complex volcanic system. This research provides useful information for determining volcanic hazard at Pacaya, and demonstrates the potential of the UV camera in multiparameter studies.

Spatial and temporal analysis of land cover and landscape structure change in Zagros Forests

The Zagros oak forests in Western Iran are critically important to the sustainability of the region. These forests have undergone dramatic declines in recent decades. We evaluated the utility of the non-parametric Random Forest classification algorithm for land cover classification of Zagros landscapes, and selected the best spatial and spectral predictive variables. The algorithm resulted in high overall classification accuracies (>85%) and also equivalent classification accuracies for the datasets from the three different sensors. We evaluated the associations between trends in forest area and structure with trends in socioeconomic and climatic conditions, to identify the most likely driving forces creating deforestation and landscape structure change. We used available socioeconomic (urban and rural population, and rural income), and climatic (mean annual rainfall and mean annual temperature) data for two provinces in northern Zagros. The most correlated driving force of forest area loss was urban population, and climatic variables to a lesser extent. Landscape structure changes were more closely associated with rural population. We examined the effects of scale changes on the results from spatial pattern analysis. We assessed the impacts of eight years of protection in a protected area in northern Zagros at two different scales (both grain and extent). The effects of protection on the amount and structure of forests was scale dependent. We evaluated the nature and magnitude of changes in forest area and structure over the entire Zagros region from 1972 to 2009. We divided the Zagros region in 167 Landscape Units and developed two measures— Deforestation Sensitivity (DS) and Connectivity Sensitivity (CS) — for each landscape unit as the percent of the time steps that forest area and ECA experienced a decrease of greater than 10% in either measure. A considerable loss in forest area and connectivity was detected, but no sudden (nonlinear) changes were detected at the spatial and temporal scale of the study. Connectivity loss occurred more rapidly than forest loss due to the loss of connecting patches. More connectivity was lost in southern Zagros due to climatic differences and different forms of traditional land use.

INVESTIGATING THE IMPACTS OF STREAMBED HABITAT HETEROGENEITY ON ECOSYSTEM STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES USING BASIC AND APPLIED PERSPECTIVES

Stream restoration often focuses on increasing habitat heterogeneity to reverse ecosystem degradation. However, the connection between heterogeneity and ecosystem structure and processes is poorly understood. We looked to investigate this interaction from both applied and basic science perspectives. For the applied study, we examined two culvert replacements designed to mimic natural stream channels, to see if they were better at maintaining ecosystem processes within as well as upstream and downstream of culverts compared to non-replaced culverts. We measured three ecosystem processes (nutrient uptake, hydrologic characteristics, and coarse particulate organic matter retention) and found that stream simulation culvert restoration improved organic matter retention within culverts, and that there were no differences in processes measured upstream and downstream of both restoration designs. Our results suggest that measurements of ecosystem processes are more likely to show a response to restoration if they match the scale of the restoration activity. For the basic science study, we quantified the longitudinal spatial heterogeneity of physical and biofilm characteristics at microhabitat to segment scales on streams with different streambed variability. We found that all physical characteristics and biofilm characteristics were spatially independent at the macro-habitat scale and greater. Together, these studies demonstrate the importance of scale in ecological interactions and the value of incorporating considerations of scale into restoration activities.

Experience and attitudes towards CAM--a survey of internal and psychosomatic patients in a German university hospital

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is popular in Germany. In a consecutive survey the experiences with CAM and the need for a CAM consultation among inpatients of the departments of cardiology (CL), gastroenterology (GE), oncology (OL) and psychosomatics (PS) of the University Hospital Freiburg (FUH) were questionned. Exclusion criteria were inability to understand the questions or a Karnofsky Index < 30%. Four hundred thirty-five patients were included. Three hundred and fifty patients, 100 each in the departments of CL, GE and OL, and 50 in PS answered the questionnaires. Eighty-five patients (20%) refused. Among the 350 patients 26% had previously visited a CAM physician and 19% had visited a CAM therapist (Heilpraktiker). Information about CAM was obtained mainly by television, radio and family members. Frequently used therapies for the current disease were physical training (21%), diet (19%), massage (19%), vitamins/trace elements (19%), herbs (13%), acupuncture (10%) and homeopathy (7%). The highest frequency of CAM use had PS patients, followed by GE, OL and CL patients. High effectivity (> or = 70%) for the current disease, rated on a scale of 4 degrees, had for CL patients physical exercise and massage, for GE patients herbal treatment and for OL patients diet. Physical exercise, diet, massage and herbal treatment generally had better ratings than homeopathy, acupuncture and vitamins. 65% would welcome a CAM center and 53% asked for a consultation about CAM at FUH. OL and GE patients had the strongest (58%), PS patients a lower (52%) and patients with cardiovascular diseases the lowest (43%) interest in a CAM consultation. Twenty-five percent believed, that CAM can help to cope better with their disease. Predictors for a positive attitude towards CAM were young age, aversion to chemical medications (Spearman correlation r = 0.22), desire to participate in therapeutic decisions (r = 0.29), motivation to change, if recommended, the life style (r = 0.31) and desire for a holistic treatment (r = 0.37).

De-Territorialization and Re-Territorialization of “the social”. A debate

Deterritorialization has been used as an anthropological concept to designate the weakened ties between culture and place: Certain cultural/social processes and relations seem to increasingly transcend their previously given territorial boundaries in flexible capitalist societies. At the same time, policy studies, especially Studies on Governmentality, have emphasized the re-territorialization of the social, in which the former national welfare arrangements (welfare and nation state) as the scale of bio-political integration patterns are more and more substituted by small scaled inclusion areas (e.g. neighbourhoods, districts and communities). Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari, de-territorialization processes have therefore always to be understood as combined with processes of a re-territorialization, producing new spatial formations. In this view, spatial arrangements and connections are not given and static structures, but controversial and unstable – nevertheless they are influential.