Truth, obligation and ethics in the propagation of democracy

In this paper I present an analysis of the language used by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) on its website (NED, 2008). The specific focus of the analysis is on the NED's high usage of the word “should” revealed in computer assisted corpus analysis using Leximancer. Typically we use the word “should” as a term to propose specific courses of action for ourselves and others. It is a marker of obligation and “oughtness”. In other words, its systematic institutional use can be read as a statement of ethics, of how the NED thinks the world ought to behave. As an ostensibly democracy-promoting institution, and one with a clear agenda of implementing American foreign policy, the ethics of NED are worth understanding. Analysis reveals a pattern of grammatical metaphor in which “should” is often deployed counter intuitively, and sometimes ambiguously, as a truth-making tool rather than one for proposing action. The effect is to present NED's imperatives for action as matters of fact rather than ethical or obligatory claims.

Foreseeability of pure economic loss and causation

In Bonny Glen Pty Ltd v Country Energy [2009] NSWCA 26 (24 February 2009) the New South Wales Court of Appeal held that the pure economic loss suffered by the appellant was recoverable. However, rather than arguments as to whether the appellant was vulnerable and a member of an ascertainable class, whether the respondent had knowledge of the risk to the appellant and was in a position of control and considerations as to indeterminate liability as in Perre v Apand Pty Ltd (1999) 198 CLR 180, the arguments raised related to the foreseeability of the loss and causation.

Space-frequency block code with matched rotation for MIMO-OFDM system with limited feedback

This paper presents a novel matched rotation precoding (MRP) scheme to design a rate one space-frequency block code (SFBC) and a multirate SFBC for MIMO-OFDM systems with limited feedback. The proposed rate one MRP and multirate MRP can always achieve full transmit diversity and optimal system performance for arbitrary number of antennas, subcarrier intervals, and subcarrier groupings, with limited channel knowledge required by the transmit antennas. The optimization process of the rate one MRP is simple and easily visualized so that the optimal rotation angle can be derived explicitly, or even intuitively for some cases. The multirate MRP has a complex optimization process, but it has a better spectral efficiency and provides a relatively smooth balance between system performance and transmission rate. Simulations show that the proposed SFBC with MRP can overcome the diversity loss for specific propagation scenarios, always improve the system performance, and demonstrate flexible performance with large performance gain. Therefore the proposed SFBCs with MRP demonstrate flexibility and feasibility so that it is more suitable for a practical MIMO-OFDM system with dynamic parameters.

In vitro cultivation of adult human chondrocytes : importance of culture system, oxygen and zonal differences

Articular cartilage exhibits limited intrinsic regenerative capacity and focal tissue defects can lead to the development of osteoarthritis (OA), a painful and debilitating loss of cartilage tissue. In Australia, 1.4 million people are affected by OA and its prevalence is increasing in line with current demographics. As treatment options are limited, new therapeutic approaches are being investigated including biological resurfacing of joints with tissue-engineered cartilage. Despite some progress in the field, major challenges remain to be addressed for large scale clinical success. For example, large numbers of chondrogenic cells are required for cartilage formation, but chondrocytes lose their chondrogenic phenotype (dedifferentiate) during in vitro propagation. Additionally, the zonal organization of articular cartilage is critical for normal cartilage function, but development of zonal structure has been largely neglected in cartilage repair strategies. Therefore, we hypothesised that culture conditions for freshly isolated human articular chondrocytes from non-OA and OA sources can be improved by employing microcarrier cultures and a reduced oxygen environment and that oxygen is a critical factor in the maintenance of the zonal chondrocyte phenotype. Microcarriers have successfully been used to cultivate bovine chondrocytes, and offer a potential alternative for clinical expansion of human chondrocytes. We hypothesised that improved yields can be achieved by propagating human chondrocytes on microcarriers. We found that cells on microcarriers acquired a flattened, polygonal morphology and initially proliferated faster than monolayercultivated cells. However, microcarrier cultivation over four weeks did not improve growth rates or the chondrogenic potential of non-OA and OA human articular chondrocytes over conventional monolayer cultivation. Based on these observations, we aimed to optimise culture conditions by modifying oxygen tension, to more closely reflect the in vivo environment. We found that propagation at 5% oxygen tension (moderate hypoxia) did not improve proliferation or redifferentiation capacity of human osteoarthritic chondrocytes. Moderate hypoxia increased the expression of chondrogenic markers during redifferentiation. However, osteoarthritic chondrocytes cultivated on microcarriers exhibited lower expression levels of chondrogenic surface marker proteins and had at best equivalent redifferentiation capacities compared to monolayer-cultured cells. This suggests that monolayer culture with multiple passaging potentially selects for a subpopulation of cells with higher differentiation capacity, which are otherwise rare in osteoarthritic, aged cartilage. However, fibroblastic proteins were found to be highly expressed in all cultures of human osteoarthritic chondrocytes indicating the presence of a high proportion of dedifferentiated, senescent cells with a chondrocytic phenotype that was not rescued by moderate hypoxia. The different zones of cartilage support chondrocyte subpopulations, which exhibit characteristic protein expression and experience varying oxygen tensions. We, therefore, hypothesised that oxygen tension affects the zonal marker expression of human articular chondrocytes isolated from the different cartilage layers. We found that zonal chondrocytes maintained these phenotypic differences during in vitro cultivation. Low oxygen environments favoured the expression of the zonal marker proteoglycan 4 in superficial cells, most likely through the promotion of chondrogenesis. The putative zonal markers clusterin and cartilage intermediate layer protein were found to be expressed by all subpopulations of human osteoarthritic chondrocytes ex vivo and, thus, may not be reliable predictors of in vitro stratification using these clinically relevant cells. The findings in this thesis underline the importance of considering low oxygen conditions and zonal stratification when creating native-like cartilaginous constructs. We have not yet found the right cues to successfully cultivate clinically-relevant human osteoarthritic chondrocytes in vitro. A more thorough understanding of chondrocyte biology and the processes of chondrogenesis are required to ensure the clinical success of cartilage tissue engineering.

Appetite sensations and satiety quotient : predictors of energy intake and weight loss

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to further evaluate the validity and clinical meaningfulness of appetite sensations to predict overall energy intake as well as body weight loss. METHODS: Men (n=176) and women (n=139) involved in six weight loss studies were selected to participate in this study. Visual analogue scales were used to measure appetite sensations before and after a fixed test meal. Fasting appetite sensations, 1 h post-prandial area under the curve (AUC) and the satiety quotient (SQ) were used as predictors of energy intake and body weight loss. Two separate measures of energy intake were used: a buffet style ad libitum test lunch and a three-day self-report dietary record. RESULTS: One-hour post-prandial AUC for all appetite sensations represented the strongest predictors of ad libitum test lunch energy intake (p0.001). These associations were more consistent and pronounced for women than men. Only SQ for fullness was associated with ad libitum test lunch energy intake in women. Similar but weaker relationships were found between appetite sensations and the 3-day self-reported energy intake. Weight loss was associated with changes in appetite sensations (p0.01) and the best predictors of body weight loss were fasting desire to eat; hunger; and PFC (p0.01). CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that appetite sensations are relatively useful predictors of spontaneous energy intake, free-living total energy intake and body weight loss. They also confirm that SQ for fullness predicts energy intake, at least in women.

Predicting loss and fragmentation of habitat of the vulnerable subtropical rainforest tree Macadamia integrifolia with models developed from compiled ecological data

Habitat models are widely used in ecology, however there are relatively few studies of rare species, primarily because of a paucity of survey records and lack of robust means of assessing accuracy of modelled spatial predictions. We investigated the potential of compiled ecological data in developing habitat models for Macadamia integrifolia, a vulnerable mid-stratum tree endemic to lowland subtropical rainforests of southeast Queensland, Australia. We compared performance of two binomial models—Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Generalised Additive Models (GAM)—with Maximum Entropy (MAXENT) models developed from (i) presence records and available absence data and (ii) developed using presence records and background data. The GAM model was the best performer across the range of evaluation measures employed, however all models were assessed as potentially useful for informing in situ conservation of M. integrifolia, A significant loss in the amount of M. integrifolia habitat has occurred (p < 0.05), with only 37% of former habitat (pre-clearing) remaining in 2003. Remnant patches are significantly smaller, have larger edge-to-area ratios and are more isolated from each other compared to pre-clearing configurations (p < 0.05). Whilst the network of suitable habitat patches is still largely intact, there are numerous smaller patches that are more isolated in the contemporary landscape compared with their connectedness before clearing. These results suggest that in situ conservation of M. integrifolia may be best achieved through a landscape approach that considers the relative contribution of small remnant habitat fragments to the species as a whole, as facilitating connectivity among the entire network of habitat patches.

The effects of exercise-induced weight loss on appetite-related peptides and motivation to eat

Context: The magnitude of exercise-induced weight loss depends on the extent of compensatory responses. An increase in energy intake is likely to result from changes in the appetite control system toward an orexigenic environment; however, few studies have measured how exercise impacts on both orexigenic and anorexigenic peptides. ---------- Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of medium-term exercise on fasting/postprandial levels of appetite-related hormones and subjective appetite sensations in overweight/obese individuals. ---------- Design and Setting: We conducted a longitudinal study in a university research center. ---------- Participants and Intervention: Twenty-two sedentary overweight/obese individuals (age, 36.9 ± 8.3 yr; body mass index, 31.3 ± 3.3 kg/m2) took part in a 12-wk supervised exercise programme (five times per week, 75% maximal heart rate) and were requested not to change their food intake during the study. ---------- Main Outcome Measures: We measured changes in body weight and fasting/postprandial plasma levels of glucose, insulin, total ghrelin, acylated ghrelin (AG), peptide YY, and glucagon-like peptide-1 and feelings of appetite. ---------- Results: Exercise resulted in a significant reduction in body weight and fasting insulin and an increase in AG plasma levels and fasting hunger sensations. A significant reduction in postprandial insulin plasma levels and a tendency toward an increase in the delayed release of glucagon-like peptide-1 (90–180 min) were also observed after exercise, as well as a significant increase (127%) in the suppression of AG postprandially. ---------- Conclusions: Exercise-induced weight loss is associated with physiological and biopsychological changes toward an increased drive to eat in the fasting state. However, this seems to be balanced by an improved satiety response to a meal and improved sensitivity of the appetite control system.

Prandial subcutaneous injections of glucagon-like peptide-1 cause weight loss in obese human subjects

Recombinant glucagon-like peptide-1 (7–36)amide (rGLP-1) was recently shown to cause significant weight loss in type 2 diabetics when administered for 6 weeks as a continuous subcutaneous infusion. The mechanisms responsible for the weight loss are not clarified. In the present study, rGLP-1 was given for 5d by prandial subcutaneous injections (PSI) (76nmol 30min before meals, four times daily; a total of 302·4nmol/24h) or by continuous subcutaneous infusion (CSI) (12·7nmol/h; a total of 304·8nmol/24h). This was performed in nineteen healthy obese subjects (mean age 44·2 (sem 2·5) years; BMI 39·0 (sem 1·2)kg/m2) in a prospective randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study. Compared with the placebo, rGLP-1 administered as PSI and by CSI generated a 15% reduction in mean food intake per meal (P=0·02) after 5d treatment. A weight loss of 0·55 (sem 0·2) kg (P<0·05) was registered after 5d with PSI of rGLP-1. Gastric emptying rate was reduced during both PSI (P<0·001) and CSI (P<0·05) treatment, but more rapidly and to a greater extent with PSI of rGLP-1. To conclude, a 5d treatment of rGLP-1 at high doses by PSI, but not CSI, promptly slowed gastric emptying as a probable mechanism of action of increased satiety, decreased hunger and, hence, reduced food intake with an ensuing weight loss.

A new method for improving reliability and line loss in distribution networks

In this paper, both Distributed Generators (DG) and capacitors are allocated and sized optimally for improving line loss and reliability. The objective function is composed of the investment cost of DGs and capacitors along with loss and reliability which are converted to the genuine dollar. The bus voltage and line current are considered as constraints which should be satisfied during the optimization procedure. Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization as a heuristic based technique is used as the optimization method. The IEEE 69-bus test system is modified and employed to evaluate the proposed algorithm. The results illustrate that the lowest cost planning is found by optimizing both DGs and capacitors in distribution networks.

Low fat loss response after medium-term supervised exercise in obese is associated with exercise-induced increase in food reward

Objective: To examine exercise-induced changes in the reward value of food during medium-term supervised exercise in obese individuals. ---------- Subjects/Methods: The study was a 12-week supervised exercise intervention prescribed to expend 500 kcal/day, 5 d/week. 34 sedentary obese males and females were identified as responders (R) or non-responders (NR) to the intervention according to changes in body composition relative to measured energy expended during exercise. Food reward (ratings of liking and wanting, and relative preference by forced choice pairs) for an array of food images was assessed before and after an acute exercise bout. ---------- Results. 20 responders and 14 non-responders were identified. R lost 5.2 kg±2.4 of total fat mass and NR lost 1.7 kg±1.4. After acute exercise, liking for all foods increased in NR compared to no change in R. Furthermore, NR showed an increase in wanting and relative preference for high-fat sweet foods. These differences were independent of 12-weeks regular exercise and weight loss. ---------- Conclusion. Individuals who showed an immediate post-exercise increase in liking and increased wanting and preference for high-fat sweet foods displayed a smaller reduction in fat mass with exercise. For some individuals, exercise increases the reward value of food and diminishes the impact of exercise on fat loss.