Journal articles on the topic 'DRASTIC index. eng'

Abstract The groundwater vulnerability assessment is normally applied to rural watersheds. However, urbanization modifies the hydrogeological processes. A modified DRASTIC model was adopted to establish a groundwater vulnerability map in an urbanized watershed. The modified DRASTIC model incorporated a land-use map, and net recharge was calculated taking into account the specificity of the urban hydrogeological system. The application of the proposed approach to the Mannouba watershed demonstrates that the groundwater vulnerability indexes range from 80 to 165. The study's results shows that 30 percent of the Mannouba watershed area has a high vulnerability index, 45 percent of the area has a medium index, and 25 percent of the study area has a low vulnerability index. To specify the effect of each DRASTIC factor on the calculated vulnerability index, sensitivity analyses were performed. Land use, topography, and soil media have an important theoretical weight greater than the effective weight. The impact of the vadose zone factor has the most important effective weight and affects the vulnerability index. The sensitivity assessment explored the variation in vulnerability after thematic layer removal. In this analysis, the removal of hydraulic conductivity and impact of vadose zone modified the vulnerability index. Groundwater vulnerability assessment in urbanized watersheds is difficult and has to consider the impact of urbanization in the hydrogeological parameters.

SUMMARY It is maintained that the basic semiotic concepts of icon and index in the Peircean sense give the best tools for both describing and explaining change. The notion of iconic index is used to explicate assimilation, morphophonemics, sociolectal pronunciation variation, grammatical agreement, and semantic change. In all these cases, the iconic index gives an accurate and insightful explanation. As a real demonstration of the worth of the concept of the iconic index, drastic lexical change is analyzed through the examples of Cockney rhyming slang and Australian avoidance (e.g., 'mother-in-law') languages. The iconic index also allows one to draw some parallels to certain Western taboos. Even in these instances of drastic lexical change, the iconic index holds its ground as a descriptive and explanatory tool. RÉSUMÉ Les auteurs maintiennent que les concepts fondamentaux de C. S. Peirce de 'icon' et de 'index' offrent les meilleurs outils pour la description et l'explication du changement linguistique. La notion de 'iconic index' est utilisée pour expliquer l'assimilation, la morphophonologie, la variation dans la prononciation individuelle, l'accord grammatical et le changement sémantique. Dans tous ces cas, l'index iconique donne une explication précise et perspicace. Pour démontrer l'utilité de ce concept, des exemples de changement lexical abrupt tirés du rime patois du Cockney et des langues australiennes qui connaissent un système qui fait les locuteurs éviter certains mots (e.g., ceux qui ont affaire avec la belle-mère). L'index iconique permet également d'établir certains parallèles ä des tabous occidentaux. Même dans ces cas de changement abrupt dans le lexique, le concept d'index iconique maintient son utilité comme moyen de description et d'explication. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Die Autoren stellen die Behauptung auf, daß von Charles Sanders Peirce entwickelte Begriffe wie 'Ikon' und 'Index' uns die besten Mittel an die Hand geben, Veränderungen zu beschreiben und zu erklaren. Der 'ikonische Index' dient dazu, Assimilation, Morphophonologie, Variationen in der individuellen Aussprache, grammatische Übereinstimmung sowie Bedeutungswandel zu erklären. In all diesen Fällen bietet der 'ikonische Index' genaue und erhellende Erklärungen. Um den Wert dieses Konzepts zu illustrieren, werden Beispiele aus volkstumlichen Reimen des Cockney und aus australischen Sprachen ge-wählt, die ein Prinzip kennen, demzufolge bestimmte lexikalische Bereiche (z.B. die Schwiegermutter betreffend) umgangen werden. Der 'ikonische Index' erlaubt uns auch, Parallelen zu bestimmten abendländischen Tabus zu ziehen. Selbst in diesen Fallen eines drastischen lexikalischen Wechsels erweist sich das Konzept als ein wichtiges Beschreibungs- und Erklärungs-mittel.

Drought is one of the most drastic events, which has imposed irreparable damages on human societies and may occur in any climate regime. To define drought, given its properties of multidimensionality and randomity, one cannot rely on a single variable/index (e.g., precipitation, soil moisture, and runoff). Accordingly, implementing a novel approach, this study investigated drought events in two basins with different climatic regimes, using multivariate frequency analyses of drought duration, severity, and severity peak, based on developing a Two-variate Standardized Index (TSI). The index was developed based on the concept of copula, by applying rainfall-runoff data (1974–2019) and comparing them with two popular drought indices, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Stream Flow Index (SSFI), in terms of derived drought characteristics. The results show that TSI determined more severe drought conditions with fewer return periods than SPI and SSFI in a specific drought event. This implies that the disadvantages of SPI and SSFI might not be found in TSI. The developed index can be employed by policymakers and planners to protect water resources from drought.

Abstract The effect of increased fiber charge on refining, cationic starch adsorption, and hornification was examined. Two pulps were investigated: (1) a softwood (SW) kraft pulp (KP) which was bleached elementally chlorine-free (ECF) and served as control; and (2) a control pulp treated with alkaline peroxide, which had a higher fiber charge. It was shown that increased fiber charge can improve the efficiency of the refining treatment, as indicated by differences in tensile index refined from 0 to 1000 revolutions. When the control pulp was refined from 4000 to 8000 revolutions, the tensile index decreased. In contrast, the tensile index of the higher fiber charge pulp (HCP) was higher under the same refining conditions. Upon addition of 2% cationic starch to both pulps, the tensile index of the control pulp increased by 13.7% and that of HCP by 23.7%. Atomic force microscopy did not reveal differences in the surface morphology of the two pulps with and without cationic starch adsorption. Peroxide treatment enhanced the fiber charge of the never-dried pulp. This was beneficial in reducing hornification when pulp was dried at 105°C. However, if the once dried pulp at 105°C was treated with peroxide, this resulted in a drastic decrease in intrinsic viscosity of the pulp and lower tensile and burst indices of the test sheets.

SummaryThis work evaluated if an in vitro test, with the combined power of the statistical evaluation of spermatozoa and zona pellucida (ZP) competitive binding ability and a rapid method for accessory sperm counts, could predict the bull fertility. Ten Holstein Friesian bulls of known field fertility (five of high and five of low fertility) were selected. An in vitro heterospermic insemination approach, based on differential staining, was tested on 45 possible pairs of bulls (two batches per bull). Motility and quality (abnormalities and membrane status) seminal characteristics and estimated relative conception rates (ERCR) highlighted only one association between membrane integrity and ERCR (p = 0.007). Differences in ZP binding allowed us to rank bulls into two categories based on low and high binding ability. For eight bulls, this classification reflected the ERCR. Differences between batches were reported for two bulls, in which the effect of heterospermic insemination (the number of sperm binding to ZP from different bulls not in a 1:1 ratio) showed a significant bull-related effect (p < 0.001) in the first batch and no effect (p > 0.05) in the second batch for both bulls. Reduction of the number of oocytes per assay from 25 to 5 had no effect (p > 0.5) on the bulls’ ranking. Our results suggest that in vitro competitive binding is a promising approach for estimating bull fertility and support concepts for further implementation, e.g. drastic reduction of oocyte number in a single pair assay and larger scale testing for batches.

In the past decades, food consumption in China has undergone a rapid increase and a significant structure transition, as a result of population growth and economic development. The food system is increasingly threatening the environment by depleting water resources, deteriorating water bodies, aggravating climate change, degrading ecosystems, etc. It is significant to understand how food consumption affected the environment and how its impacts were driven in the historical period. This study reveals the environmental impacts of China’s food system from 1961 to 2017 from a consumption perspective by assessing water, carbon, and ecological footprints. The logarithmic mean Divisia index method was used to examine the drivers of the growing environmental footprints. The assessment results show that all three environmental footprints have had a drastic increase of more than two times during the studied period, which indicates the high environmental pressure posed by food consumption. We also found that, before the 1980s, the main driving forces of the increasing footprints were population and per capita energy intake. From 1984, the diet pattern started to take a positive effect and then became the dominant driver of the growing environmental footprints after the end of the 1990s.

<p>Aiming to analyze biological character of reproduction and to realize effective breeding activity, annual patin breeding activity 2006 was examined in JFADC Indonesia. Females of two generations, strain of 2001 and 2003 were induced during the year. Various parameters, such as body weight, collected egg weight, number of 1g egg, harvested larvae, were recorded in every trial of breeding. After collecting all of data in 2006, correlation of productivity with fish size and age were analyzed integrating data. All female were also identified by using PIT tag system and alteration of maturity was monitored monthly, observing development of abdomen, from January to June. Accumulated parameters during the year showed negative correlation of egg somatic index (ESI) with fish body weight. Furthermore, hatching rate showed declined tendency as increasing body weight, suggesting less productivity by too-big female. All of elder female performed low productivity due to the low reading of some parameters such as ESI, hatching rate, larvae number/kg. Proportion of matured female was quite high from January until April. Individual monitoring of maturation showed quick reproduction of gonad in 2 month, from January to March, suggesting active reproductive stimulation on this season. Other many females also performed high gonadal maturity and its duration until April in many case. However, maturation has decreased suddenly on May and low maturation had lasted until November. It suppose due to the seasonal alteration of precipitation and remains as awkward issue for stable patin production in Jambi.</p> <p>Keywords: breeding, Asian catfish, <em>egg somatic index</em>, maturation</p> <p> </p> <p>ABSTRAK</p> <p>Evaluasi kegiatan pembenihan patin siam Tahun 2006 di BBAT Jambi Indonesia dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk analisa karakter biologi reproduksi ikan patin siam dan untuk mewujudkan kegiatan pembenihan yang efektif. Betina dari 2 generasi yaitu generasi 2001 dan 2003 dipijahkan selama Tahun 2006. Beberapa parameter seperti bobot tubuh, bobot telur yang diovulasikan (<em>egg somatic index</em>), jumlah 1 gram telur, dan jumlah larva yang dihasilkan dicatat setiap kegiatan pemijahan. Data yang terkumpul dan dianalis, hubungan produktivitas dengan ukuran dan umur induk dievaluasi secara terpadu. Semua betina ditandai dengan menggunakan PIT <em>tag system</em> (<em>micro chip</em>). Perkembangan kematangan gonad dimonitor tiap bulan. Data yang terkumpul menunjukkan adanya korelasi negatif antara <em>egg somatic index</em> dengan bobot tubuh ikan. Selain itu daya tetas cendrung menurun dengan meningkatnya bobot tubuh.. Semua betina yang lebih tua menunjukkan produktivitas yang rendah, hal ini ditunjukkan dengan rendahnya ESI, daya tetas dan jumlah larva/kg induk. Prosentase induk matang gonad cukup tinggi dari bulan Januari sampai April. Pengamatan kematangan gonad per individu menunjukkan siklus reproduksi yang cepat dalam 2 bulan.dari Januari sampai Maret. Beberapa induk lain ditemukan dengan tingkat kematangan gonad yang tinggi pada periode tersebut sampai bulan April. Secara umum tingkat kematangan menurun secara drastis pada bulan Mei dan kematangan yang rendah sampai bulan Nopember.</p> <p>Kata kunci : pembenihan, patin siam, <em>egg somatic index</em>, kematangan</p>

Background: An interferon-free regimen including sofosbuvir and ribavirin (RBV) for patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 2 (G2) infection leads to a drastic improvement of sustained virological response (SVR). However, the safety, tolerability, and efficacy in patients aged 75 or older have not been completely understood. Summary: Fifty-six patients with HCV G2 infection who were treated with sofosbuvir and weight-based dose of RBV were enrolled. Thirty-seven patients aged ≥75 and 19 patients aged ≤74 were classified as the aged and non-aged groups, respectively. The aged group was characterized by significantly more number of women, history of hepatocellular carcinoma, low serum albumin (ALB) level, low hemoglobin (Hb) concentration, low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and high fibrosis-4 index (p = 0.0029). Forty-one patients were evaluated for SVR at 12 weeks after the end of therapy (SVR12); of them, all but one completed the treatment scheduled for 12 weeks. The aged group showed lower SVR12 rate than the non-aged group (81.3% for aged and 96.0% for non-aged groups). Although the Hb concentration and eGFR are significantly lower in the aged group throughout the clinical course, all patients in the aged group completed the 12-week treatment with a gradual increase of serum ALB level. Key Messages: The combination of sofosbuvir plus RBV is tolerable and beneficial in patients aged >75. However, intensive management of anemia by dose reduction of RBV is necessary, which could lead to a low SVR12 rate compared to that observed in patients younger than 75 years.

Changes in land use and agricultural landscapes are primarily the result of socio-political and economic changes. This research is based on the analysis of old maps, pertaining to different historical periods, aiming to capture the dynamics of the landscape in the Central Bărăgan Plain. The cartographic materials used have the Map of Southern Romania from 1864, the Firing Master Plans and the Corine Land Cover dataset (1990, 2000, 2018) as reference. For the case studies, these sources are supplemented by the orthophotoplan from 2012 and the remotely-sensed image acquired by Corona satellites in 1974. The results highlight the fact that between 1864 and 2018, the Central Bărăgan Plain recorded important changes in land resources. The most significant transformations took place in the period between 1864 and 1959, when 58% of the plain area was purposed for another use in that large areas of land were introduced in the agricultural use. If in 1864 the agricultural lands represented less than half (196.896 ha) of the Central Bărăgan area, the natural areas being dominant (201.473 ha), in the first half of the 20th century, they increased exponentially (361.674 ha), the natural vegetation occupying much smaller areas (28.481 ha) mainly along the Ialomița and Călmățui rivers and near lakes. This trend is also expressed by the values of the index of naturalness which shows a drastic decrease, from 51.7% in 1864, to 10.6% in 1916–1959. There is also an increase of the area cover by settlements which should be explained by the occurrence of new villages and the increase in size of the existing villages. Another result of the approach concerns the changes that occurred in the agricultural landscape in the middle, respectively at the end of the 20th century, which is a fact quantified by computing the index of land fragmentation. The dynamics of land use and the changes in the features of the agricultural landscape, as far as the analyzed area is concerned, are due to the agrarian reforms pertaining to different historical periods, as well as to the forced relocations during the communist regime. Therefore, the study aims to highlight changes during historical, socio-economic and political time in land use and to reduce the degree of naturalness of the territory at the same time.

Abstract. During the past decades, human water use has more than doubled, yet available freshwater resources are finite. As a result, water scarcity has been prevalent in various regions of the world. Here, we present the first global assessment of past development of water stress considering not only climate variability but also growing water demand, desalinated water use and non-renewable groundwater abstraction over the period 1960–2001 at a spatial resolution of 0.5°. Agricultural water demand is estimated based on past extents of irrigated areas and livestock densities. We approximate past economic development based on GDP, energy and household consumption and electricity production, which are subsequently used together with population numbers to estimate industrial and domestic water demand. Climate variability is expressed by simulated blue water availability defined by freshwater in rivers, lakes, wetlands and reservoirs by means of the global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB. We thus define blue water stress by comparing blue water availability with corresponding net total blue water demand by means of the commonly used, Water Scarcity Index. The results show a drastic increase in the global population living under water-stressed conditions (i.e. moderate to high water stress) due to growing water demand, primarily for irrigation, which has more than doubled from 1708/818 to 3708/1832 km3 yr−1 (gross/net) over the period 1960–2000. We estimate that 800 million people or 27% of the global population were living under water-stressed conditions for 1960. This number is eventually increased to 2.6 billion or 43% for 2000. Our results indicate that increased water demand is a decisive factor for heightened water stress in various regions such as India and North China, enhancing the intensity of water stress up to 200%, while climate variability is often a main determinant of extreme events. However, our results also suggest that in several emerging and developing economies (e.g. India, Turkey, Romania and Cuba) some of past extreme events were anthropogenically driven due to increased water demand rather than being climate-induced.

Abstract Introduction The COVID-19 Pandemic and mitigation efforts have led to drastic increases in acute insomnia symptoms, which left untreated may contribute to increased risk for other negative mental health outcomes, including depression. However, the impact of treating acute insomnia symptoms on future depression outcomes remains unknown. Moreover, whether sleep improvements as a result of an insomnia treatment mediate subsequent reduction of depression symptoms similarly remains unknown. Methods At this writing, 44 individuals experiencing insomnia symptoms (Insomnia Severity Index; ISI ≥ 10) that began during the COVID-19 pandemic have been randomized to receive a brief, telehealth Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI) waitlist control. Treatment was delivered in 4 sessions over a 5-week period. CBTI is the gold-standard behavioral intervention for chronic insomnia and has been applied successfully via telemedicine. Outcome measures were depressive symptoms as measured by the Patient Health Questionnare-9 (PHQ-9) minus the sleep item and insomnia symptom severity as measured by the ISI. Both outcome measures were collected at baseline (week 0), throughout treatment phase (weeks 2–6), and at the post-treatment (week 7). Linear mixed models determined the impact of treatment on depression and insomnia symptom severity. Mediation was tested using the MacArthur framework. Results There was a significant Group x Time interaction, with CBTI leading to a greater rate of improvement in ISI (b = -1.14, p &lt; 0.001) and PHQ-9 (b = -0.61, p = 0.002) than the control. Critically, the rate of improvement in insomnia symptoms to the last session of treatment, was associated with the subsequent improvement in depressive symptoms post-treatment (b = 2.06, p = 0.017). In contrast, depressive symptom improvement was not associated with insomnia symptom improvement (b = 4.28, p = 0.102). Conclusion This preliminary data suggests that brief CBTI can reduce pandemic onset insomnia and other depressive symptoms. The preliminary mediation results further suggest that sleep may be an important treatment target for reducing situational depressive symptoms and supports the need to examine the physiological mechanisms of sleep using high-density EEG in a larger sample. Support (if any):

Climate change scenarios reveal that Turkey’s wheat production area is under the combined effects of heat and drought stresses. The adverse effects of climate change have just begun to be experienced in Turkey’s spring and the winter wheat zones. However, climate change is likely to affect the winter wheat zone more severely. Fortunately, there is a fast, repeatable, reliable and relatively affordable way to predict climate change effects on winter wheat (e.g., testing winter wheat in the spring wheat zone). For this purpose, 36 wheat genotypes in total, consisting of 14 spring and 22 winter types, were tested under the field conditions of the Southeastern Anatolia Region, a representative of the spring wheat zone of Turkey, during the two cropping seasons (2017–2018 and 2019–2020). Simultaneous heat (>30 °C) and drought (<40 mm) stresses occurring in May and June during both growing seasons caused drastic losses in winter wheat grain yield and its components. Declines in plant characteristics of winter wheat genotypes, compared to those of spring wheat genotypes using as a control treatment, were determined as follows: 46.3% in grain yield, 23.7% in harvest index, 30.5% in grains per spike and 19.4% in thousand kernel weight, whereas an increase of 282.2% in spike sterility occurred. On the other hand, no substantial changes were observed in plant height (10 cm longer than that of spring wheat) and on days to heading (25 days more than that of spring wheat) of winter wheat genotypes. In general, taller winter wheat genotypes tended to lodge. Meanwhile, it became impossible to avoid the combined effects of heat and drought stresses during anthesis and grain filling periods because the time to heading of winter wheat genotypes could not be shortened significantly. In conclusion, our research findings showed that many winter wheat genotypes would not successfully adapt to climate change. It was determined that specific plant characteristics such as vernalization requirement, photoperiod sensitivity, long phenological duration (lack of earliness per se) and vulnerability to diseases prevailing in the spring wheat zone, made winter wheat difficult to adapt to climate change. The most important strategic step that can be taken to overcome these challenges is that Turkey’s wheat breeding program objectives should be harmonized with the climate change scenarios.

Abstract. Most regional scale studies of vegetation in the Sahel have been based on Earth observation (EO) imagery, due to the limited number of sites providing continuous and long term in situ meteorological and vegetation measurement. From long time series of coarse resolution normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data a greening of the Sahel since the 1980s has been identified. The greening appears highly related to a general increase in rainfall following the severe droughts of the 1970s and 80s. In the same time period the region has experienced a drastic population boom and a resulting increase in numbers of livestock. However, it is poorly understood how commonly applied remote sensing techniques reflect the extensive influence of grazing on natural rangeland vegetation. This paper analyses time series of parameterized Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI data by comparison with data from the Widou Thiengoly test site in northern Senegal. Field data include grazing intensity, vegetation productivity, and species composition from sizeable areas suitable for comparison with moderate – coarse resolution satellite imagery. It is established that sampling plots excluded from grazing have higher Net Primary Production (NPP) and different species composition as compared to plots under controlled grazing or communal grazing. The seasonal small integrated NDVI, derived using absolute thresholds to estimate start and end of growing seasons, is identified as the parameter most strongly related to vegetation productivity for all grazing regimes. However plot-pixel comparisons demonstrates how the NDVI/biomass relationship changes due to grazing induced variation in annual plant species composition and the NDVI values for grazed plots are only slightly lower than the values observed for the ungrazed plots. Hence, average biomass in ungrazed plots since 2000 was 0.93 t ha−1, compared to 0.51 t ha−1 for plots subjected to controlled grazing and 0.49 t ha−1 for communally grazed plots, but the average integrated NDVI values for the same period were 1.56, 1.49, and 1.45 for ungrazed, controlled and communal respectively, i.e. a much smaller difference. This indicates that a grazing induced development towards less standing crop biomass and limited ability to turn additional water in wet years into biomass can cause neutral or even increasing NDVI trends over time. It is important to note that these findings are based on limited data and needs to be further verified, as it ultimately indicates that the greening of Sahel could partly be an indicator of increasingly intensified grazing.

Abstract Morphological changes observed in ammonites at the Lias-Dogger (Toarcian-Aalenian) boundary are analyzed here. The study covers all known ammonites worldwide over some 2 m.y. (the last two biozones of the Toarcian: Pseudoradiosa and Aalensis and the first biozone of the Aalenian: Opalinum). Ammonite taxonomy at this boundary is still open to question, the main disagreements being over groupings at family or super-family level. The evolutionary schema developed by Tintant and Mouterde [1981] shows two main sets of Ammonitina for the time: (1) the dominant Hammatocerataceae (Graphoceratidae+Hammatoceratidae) and (2) the final representatives of the Hildocerataceae. Two conservative ammonite stocks coexisted alongside these Ammonitina: Phylloceratina and Lytoceratina. The ammonites under review are those that made the transition from the "typically Liassic stock" to the "post-Liassic stock" prefiguring all subsequent Jurassic ammonites. A morphometric procedure is used to quantify ammonite morphological disparity rather than taxonomic diversity. A set of 35 characters were considered, corresponding to the end of the phragmocone and to the body chamber. We selected 64 morphologies covering the entire range of shapes found at the subzone scale. Morphological disparity is expressed graphically by morphospaces (first factorial plane of correspondence analysis) and arithmetically by a space occupation index (sum of variances on the factor axes). The FAD and LAD of the selected species allow us to study morphospace changes at the subzone scale. The results clearly show changes occurring in the course of the seven subzones. The earliest subzone (Levesquei) has points weakly grouped around two poles (negative and positive F1 values) with an isolated point characterized by a very negative F2 value. Changes in this morphospace from the Pseudoradiosa subzone to the Lugdunensis subzone are marked by increased dispersion around the two poles. By contrast, an increasing number of morphologies have clearly negative F2 values. The Lias-Dogger boundary displays further dispersion of the two morphological poles, leading to them becoming indistinct. Continuation after the boundary shows a very similar pattern with shapes scattered and covering most of the morphospace. The morphospace changes analyzed previously were quantified by the sum of variances of the first 15 factorial axes, representing more than 90% of the information contained in the original matrix. For the Ammonoidea as a whole, the poorest coverage of the morphospace occurred in the Levesquei subzone, while the best coverage occurred in the Comptum and Bifidatum subzones. Between-times, morphological disparity increased at varying rates with no drastic changes at the Lias-Dogger boundary. A similar procedure was performed for the Ammonitina only. Indeed, the occurrence of two conservative sets (Lytoceratina and Phylloceratina) could be suspected of inducing -- at least initially -- two peculiar morphological poles and introducing a bias into the quantification. The results are similar, bringing out more clearly the increase in morphological disparity at the end of the Lias, and its stagnation thereafter. It is difficult to say why morphological disparity increased as it did. The main problem is the lack of any clearly resolved phylogeny for the ammonites under study. However, if we accept the hypothesis of Tintant and Mouterde [1981] recognizing five homogeneous clusters for ammonites of these times, it can be seen that two of them alone (Graphoceratidae first, and Hammatoceratidae later) account for the increased disparity. Within this phylogenetic assumption, it is improbable that external constraints alone, such as eustasy or physico-chemical phenomena, could have brought about the increase, for they would probably have affected all of the ammonoids, or at least the three Ammonitina groups that were initially quite similar in shape (in the Levesquei sub-zone). It is more likely then that internal factors (e.g. heterochrony) leading to two consecutives biological "explosions" (Graphoceratidae and Hammatoceratidae) were instrumental in bringing about this increased disparity. Finally, if the Lias-Dogger boundary is clearly marked by changes at any taxonomic level, our results--based on a quantification of morphological disparity and not on taxonomy--show that changes in ammonites can only be properly understood in a broader context: there was some morphological change at the Lias-Dogger boundary but it was initiated at the beginning of the Pseudoradiosa subzone. The Lias-Dogger event was thus not an unusual or major one, but more the end of a sustained event initiated two zones earlier. This period of time (final two zones of the Toarcian) witnessed progressive growth in disparity, which ceased only at the beginning of the Dogger.

Om nationalitet og kirke hos. Grundtvig og i hans virkningshistorie med henblik på naboforholdet mellem Tyskland og DanmarkAf Jens Holger SchjørringForholdet mellem Tyskland og Danmark har været bestemt af et dybtliggende modsætningsforhold, der blev væsentligt forstærket gennem krigene i det 19. århundrede og fik yderligere næring som følge af Tysklands andel i de to verdenskrige i vort århundrede. De modsætninger, der lå bag krigene, fandt på begge sider af grænsen udtryk i fjendebilleder, der i flere tilfælde har vist sig at være dybt rodfæstede og at besidde forbavsende livskraft. Det hermed skitserede perspektiv er såre velkendt både nord og syd for grænsen.Det er formentlig lige så alment anerkendt, at Grundtvig har haft væsentlig indflydelse, dels i kraft af det syn på Tyskland, han gav udtryk for i sin egen levetid, dels i kraft af den rolle, den grundvigske arv siden hans død har spillet for dansk national identitet med særligt henblik på forholdet til Tyskland. Men netop fordi forholdet har haft stor betydning, kan der være grund til at undersøge det nærmere for at overveje, om forholdet nu også er helt så enkelt som det ofte fremtræder.Når det gælder Grundtvig selv, er der fremfor alt grund til at stille til overvejelse, om hans syn på Tyskland ikke er farvet af skiftende historiske omstændigheder inden for hans egen levetidDesuden er der anledning til at spørge, hvordan Grundtvigs kristelige og folkelige hovedtanker lader sig forene med et tilsyneladende permanent had til alt tysk. Hvordan kan Grundtvigs universalhistoriske syn og tankerne om folkelig frihed og national ukrænkelighed gå sammen med en tendens til dæmonisering af tyskhed slet og ret?Ligger der bag Grundtvigs udfald mod tysk militarisme og det tyske storriges trang til at underlægge sig nabolande som f.eks. det lille fredselskende og værgeløse Danmark en trodsig, hævntørstig reaktion mod den nedgang for det danske rige, som fandt sted inden Grundtvigs egen levetid ?De overvejelser, der fremlægges i denne kortfattede analyse, har som formål at nuancere billedet ud fra historiske kendsgerninger. Uden at ville bortforklare at Grundtvig i en række situationer, ikke mindst under krigene 1848-1851, udtalte sig særdeles drastisk om den nationale hovedfjende, er det vigtigt at fastholde, at Grundtvigs hovedærinde ikke var dikteret af nationalistisk snæversyn eller hævntørst over for landets fjender. Udgangspunktet var derimod hans bestræbelse på at vække forståelse for tankerne om folkeliv og national integritet. I kristeligt perspektiv må Grundtigs tanker om den danske kirke hele tiden anskues i sammenhæng med hans universal-historiske syn.Det er tanken hermed at føje nogle brikker til en større historisk mosaik, der belyses med større udførlighed i den afhandling, som Anders Pontoppidan Thyssen har skrevet til denne udgave af årbogen. Inden for rammerne af nærværende artikel tages et par aspekter af Grundtvigs virkningshistorie op for at supplere af det billede, der aftegnede sig ud fra Grundtvigs egne tanker. Det drejer sig om Grundtigs plads i det nationale modsætningsforhold, der prægede perioden mellem de to verdenskrige. På dansk side havde Valdemar Ammundsen, den første biskop i Haderslev efter genforeningen, på den ene side stor respekt for Grundtvig, men var på den anden side skeptisk over for den fare for nationalistisk snæversyn, Ammundsen ikke mente at kunne se bort fra, hverken historisk eller i samtiden. På tysk side havde den tysksindede nordslesviger Johannes Tiedje et lige så spaltet billede af Grundtvig. I forbindelse med sin udgivelse på tysk af et udvalg af Grundtvigs skrifter gav Tiedje udtryk for tanker, der i første omgang røbede beundring og tilslutning til Grundtvigs hovedtanker, men dernæst afspejlede en højreekstremistisk holdning til politisk-ideologiske problemer i samtiden ( omkring 1930). Man kan herudfra ane en del af forklaringen på, at Grundtvig fra tysk side siden Hitler-tiden ofte er blevet betragtet med modvilje.Med henvisning hertil anføres afsluttende nogle synspunkter, der er fremsat af den tyske kirkehistoriker Martin Greschat. Han er en af de betydeligste kendere af moderne kirkehistorie og har i særlig grad undersøgt den tyske protestantismes til tider skæbnesvangre rolle i forhold til samfundsudviklingen. I forlængelse heraf har han også redegjort for, hvorfor han ud fra tyske forudsætninger er på vagt overfor en forståelse af »folkekirke«, der ubekymret sætter sig ud over de dyrekøbte erfaringer, der blev indvundet under det nazistiske diktatur; samtidig har Greschat åbent indrømmet, at han skal overvinde en betragtelig skepsis, inden han kan komme til rette med Grundtvigs tanker, sådan som de indtil videre foreligger ham bekendt.Disse overvejelser har vi fra dansk side ikke råd til at være ligegyldige overfor. Der er grund til af såvel historiske som aktuelle årsager at gå ind i denne tysk-danske samtale med stor opmærksomhed.

Current information retrieval systems are limited to text in documents for helping users with their information needs. With the progress in the field of natural language processing, there now exists the possibility of enriching large document collections with accurate semantic annotations. Annotations in the form of part-of-speech tags, temporal expressions, numerical values, geographic locations, and other named entities can help us look at terms in text with additional semantics. This doctoral dissertation presents methods for search and analysis of large semantically annotated document collections. Concretely, we make contributions along three broad directions: indexing, querying, and mining of large semantically annotated document collections. Indexing Annotated Document Collections. Knowledge-centric tasks such as information extraction, question answering, and relationship extraction require a user to retrieve text regions within documents that detail relationships between entities. Current search systems are ill-equipped to handle such tasks, as they can only provide phrase querying with Boolean operators. To enable knowledge acquisition at scale, we propose gyani, an indexing infrastructure for knowledge-centric tasks. gyani enables search for structured query patterns by allowing regular expression operators to be expressed between word sequences and semantic annotations. To implement grep-like search capabilities over large annotated document collections, we present a data model and index design choices involving word sequences, annotations, and their combinations. We show that by using our proposed indexing infrastructure we bring about drastic speedups in crucial knowledge-centric tasks: 95× in information extraction, 53× in question answering, and 12× in relationship extraction. Hyper-phrase queries are multi-phrase set queries that naturally arise when attempting to spot knowledge graph facts or subgraphs in large document collections. An example hyper-phrase query for the fact 〈mahatma gandhi, nominated for, nobel peace prize〉 is: 〈{ mahatma gandhi, m k gandhi, gandhi }, { nominated, nominee, nomination received }, { nobel peace prize, nobel prize for peace, nobel prize in peace }〉. Efficient execution of hyper-phrase queries is of essence when attempting to verify and validate claims concerning named entities or emerging named entities. To do so, it is required that the fact concerning the entity can be contextualized in text. To acquire text regions given a hyper-phrase query, we propose a retrieval framework using combinations of n-gram and skip-gram indexes. Concretely, we model the combinatorial space of the phrases in the hyper-phrase query to be retrieved using vertical and horizontal operators and propose a dynamic programming approach for optimized query processing. We show that using our proposed optimizations we can retrieve sentences in support of knowledge graph facts and subgraphs from large document collections within seconds. Querying Annotated Document Collections. Users often struggle to convey their information needs in short keyword queries. This often results in a series of query reformulations, in an attempt to find relevant documents. To assist users navigate large document collections and lead them to their information needs with ease, we propose methods that leverage semantic annotations. As a first step, we focus on temporal information needs. Specifically, we leverage temporal expressions in large document collections to serve time-sensitive queries better. Time-sensitive queries, e.g., summer olympics implicitly carry a temporal dimension for document retrieval. To help users explore longitudinal document collections, we propose a method that generates time intervals of interest as query reformulations. For instance, for the query world war , time intervals of interest are: [1914; 1918] and [1939;1945]. The generated time intervals are immediately useful in search-related tasks such as temporal query classification and temporal diversification of documents. As a second and final step, we focus on helping the user in navigating large document collections by generating semantic aspects. The aspects are generated using semantic annotations in the form of temporal expressions, geographic locations, and other named entities. Concretely, we propose the xFactor algorithm that generates semantic aspects in two steps. In the first step, xFactor computes the salience of annotations in models informed of their semantics. Thus, the temporal expressions 1930s and 1939 are considered similar as well as entities such as usain bolt and justin gatlin are considered related when computing their salience. Second, the xFactor algorithm computes the co-occurrence salience of annotations belonging to different types by using an efficient partitioning procedure. For instance, the aspect 〈{usain bolt}, {beijing, London}, [2008;2012]〉 signifies that the entity, locations, and the time interval are observed frequently in isolation as well as together in the documents retrieved for the query olympic medalists. Mining Annotated Document Collections. Large annotated document collections are a treasure trove of historical information concerning events and entities. In this regard, we first present EventMiner, a clustering algorithm, that mines events for keyword queries by using annotations in the form of temporal expressions, geographic locations, and other disambiguated named entities present in a pseudo-relevant set of documents. EventMiner aggregates the annotation evidences by mathematically modeling their semantics. Temporal expressions are modeled in an uncertainty and proximity-aware time model. Geographic locations are modeled as minimum bounding rectangles over their geographic co-ordinates. Other disambiguated named entities are modeled as a set of links corresponding to their Wikipedia articles. For a set of history-oriented queries concerning entities and events, we show that our approach can truly identify event clusters when compared to approaches that disregard annotation semantics. Second and finally, we present jigsaw, an end-to-end query-driven system that generates structured tables for user-defined schema from unstructured text. To define the table schema, we describe query operators that help perform structured search on annotated text and fill in table cell values. To resolve table cell values whose values can not be retrieved, we describe methods for inferring null values using local context. jigsaw further relies on semantic models for text and numbers to link together near-duplicate rows. This way, jigsaw is able to piece together paraphrased, partial, and redundant text regions retrieved in response to structured queries to generate high-quality tables within seconds. This doctoral dissertation was supervised by Klaus Berberich at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and htw saar in Saarbrücken, Germany. This thesis is available online at: https://people.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~dhgupta/pub/dhruv-thesis.pdf.

This study investigated the antihypertensive and immunomodulatory effects of defatted corn germ hydrolysates (DCGHs) in vivo and their potential regulatory mechanisms. The systolic blood pressure (SBP) of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) was significantly reduced (10.30%) by the long-term intragastric administration of DCGHs (high doses). Also, there was drastic inhibition of angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) activity in the lung, kidney, and heart tissues by 24.53, 22.28, and 12.93%, respectively. It could regulate the blood pressure by adjusting the balance between endothelium-derived vasoconstrictor factors and endothelium-derived relaxing factors. Meanwhile, DCGHs enhanced the phagocytosis of mononuclear macrophages, cellular immunity, and humoral immunity of ICR mice by increasing the phagocytic index of mononuclear macrophages (23.71%), ear swelling degree (44.82%), and antibody levels (52.32%). Moreover, it stimulated the release of immunoactive substances (e.g., lysozyme, interferon-γ, immunoglobulin G, and complement 3). Consequently, DCGHs could suitably be used in the formulation of novel functional foods with antihypertensive and immunomodulatory properties.

Globally used pesticides contains zinc phosphide (ZnP) which are toxic. This present study was carried out to investigate the potency of bioactive curcumin in ameliorating the toxicity of zinc phosphide on biochemical enzymes present in kidney and liver of Wistar rats. A total of 30 (120–150 g) male adult Wistar rats were used. Experimental animals were divided into five groups and treated as follows for a period of 21 days: Group I rats, serving as the control, orally received 1 ml/kg body weight of corn oil with administration of same volume of saline. Group II rats were orally administered Zinc phosphide at a dose of 4.57 mg/kg body weight (one-tenth LD50) in corn oil. Group III rats orally received curcumin at a dose of 100 mg/kg body weight. Groups IV and V rats were orally administered curcumin at graded doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight respectively, 2 hours before administration of Zinc phosphide. At the end of the time interval, experimental animals were anesthesized with diethylether and organs (kidney and liver) were harvested for biochemical assays. The oral administration of Zinc phosphide at 4.57 mg/kg body weight for 21 days resulted in a significant increase in hepatic and nephridial malondialdehyde. This index of lipid peroxidation, was accompanied by decreased activity of the antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase) followed by a drastic reduction in the non-enzymatic antioxidant indices of reduced glutathione when compared to control. Pre-administration of Curcumin significantly ameliorated zinc phosphide-induced hepatic and nephrotic effects by subduing oxidative stress indices and improving antioxidant status. The result of the present study shows that curcumin has a protective effect against zinc phosphide induced liver and kidney damage in male Wistar rats.

Abstract Introduction Prior to the utilization of continuous flow devices in 2010, Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding was a common adverse event related to LVADs. Background Given the drastic increase in the use of new LVADs with continuous flow (CF), we sought to determine if CF-LVADs are associated with an increased number of GI bleeds and higher mortality. Methods We analysed the data from a national inpatient sample database using the International Classification of Disease (ICD)-9 procedure code for LVAD use in end-stage heart failure among patients 18 years or older. Included were 2,359 patients with a mean age of 55±13.7 years and 77% males and 59% Caucasians. Results The Incidence of GI bleed from 2010 to 2014 was 7.46%. There was no significant yearly change in the incidence over five years (p=0.793). After controlling for age, sex, and length of stay (LOS), hierarchical multivariate logistic regression revealed that significant predictors of GI bleed were acute kidney injury (AOR=1.87, 95% CI: 1.26, 2.80), peripheral vascular disease (AOR=1.77, 95% CI: 1.02, 2.94), body mass index ≥25 (AOR=0.46, 95% CI: 0.22, 0.87), hemiplegia and paraplegia (AOR=3.01, 95% CI: 1.17, 7.05), moderate or severe liver disease (AOR=2.40, 95% CI: 0.97, 5.34), peptic ulcer disease (PUD) (AOR=18.13, 95% CI: 7.86, 42.38), surgical aortic valve replacement (AOR=2.46, 95% CI: 1.12, 5.15), and venous thromboembolism (AOR=2.58, 95% CI: 1.57, 4.15). Conclusion Earlier studies showed an increase in the rate of GI bleed in CF-LVADs when compared to pulsatile flow devices. However, our study has indicated that CF-LVADs display no improvement in rates of GI bleed over five years, but that there was an increased likelihood of mortality in patients with GI bleed. These findings pose further questions in regard to considering newer device designs and improved patient selection criteria. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None

Introduction The current social climate of Western societies understands fatness as the self-inflicted disease ‘obesity’; a chronic illness of epidemic proportions that carries accompanying risks of additional disease and that will eventually lead to death. In recent years, the stigmatisation and general negative societal evaluation of fatness and thus fat identities has increased (Sobal). Primarily, fatness has become a sign of medical deviance in that it is perceived to be a product of unhealthy eating behaviours and physical inactivity (Rothman). As a result, to be fat has become a barrier to entry in terms of employment opportunities, and has restricted the availability of health and insurance services for many (Sobal). Recently there has been a drastic increase in the availability of radical weight-loss solutions that strictly regulate and police fat-bodied deviants, namely in the form of surgery. Bariatric surgery, or weight-loss surgery, physically enforces the achievement of ‘health’ by curing obesity by reducing the size and functionality of the stomachs of the morbidly obese. However, bariatric ‘post-ops’ (short for post-operative) often encounter harmful consequences following their surgery in the form of increased self-surveillance, regulation and control in order to maintain their health through thinness. This article seeks to examine these consequences of surgery as a way to problematise the achievement of health through thinness overall. In order to address this issue, this article first establishes a framework of obesity discourse which enables us to understand how obesity is perceived as a self-inflicted disease in need of medical intervention within modern Western societies. From this position, we can begin to understand the purpose of interventions such as bariatric surgery. While it is acknowledged that surgery provides the morbidly obese with a gateway to health through the achievement of thinness and an escape from a heavily stigmatised identity, it is argued that this is done at the expense of placing increased regulations and surveillance upon individuals. Finally, in drawing on post-op experiences collected for research examining the life impacts of bariatric surgery, this article will examine how post-ops are subjected to intense policing, monitoring and regulating from themselves and others as a result of achieving and maintaining ‘health’ through body size. Obesity Discourse: Establishing a FrameworkScholars Evans, Rich, Davies and Allwood argue that contemporary Western responses to obesity can be conceptualised as operating within an ‘obesity discourse’ which provides a framework of “thought, talk and action concerning the body in which ‘weight’ is privileged not only as a primary determinant but as a manifest index of well-being” (13). Predominantly, this framework draws upon two key assumptions; that obesity is a legitimate and measurable disease that poses significant medical risks to populations, and that both the cause of and solution to obesity are individual lifestyle choices (Rich, Monaghan and Aphramor). More specifically, the obesity discourse is the result of the combined efforts of an extensive process of medicalisation in conjunction with an increasingly neoliberal approach to healthcare. Since the 1950s, fatness has been widely regarded as the disease ‘obesity’. Sobal argues that this occurred through an extensive process of medicalisation, which can be defined as when non-medical issues and behaviour are redefined and understood as medical problems through the use of medical jargon and medical solutions (Conrad). In particular, fat was portrayed as pathological and requiring medical intervention through “frequent, powerful and persuasive claims that [medicine] should exercise social control over fatness” (Sobal 69). In particular this has been exercised through the widespread implementation of the body mass index [BMI] into healthcare settings, as it is seen as an accessible, practical and affordable measure of ‘health’ (Ministry of Health). Unlike other markers of health, body weight is highly visible, and thus using it as an overall indicator of health increases surveillance of the self and others within populations. In this way we can see how the medicalisation of fatness works to produce what Bordo refers to as:one of the most powerful normalizing mechanisms of our century, insuring the production of self-monitoring and self-disciplining ‘docile bodies’ sensitive to any departure from social norms and habituated to self-improvement and self-transformation in the service of these norms. (186)Primarily, this is created through a construction of a ‘normal’ body shape or an ‘ideal’ weight, which can be specified using the BMI, and acts as a health imperative for individuals to achieve and maintain (Rich and Evans). However, these constructions do not factor in individual variations in body composition and thus represent a medically defined ‘thin ideal’, in that they are unobtainable and unrealistic for most people (Metzl 5). Consequently, the idea of a ‘normal weight’ strengthens contemporary body ideals (Burns and Gavey).The recent move in contemporary Western societies towards a neoliberal model of healthcare has significantly impacted societal attitudes towards fatness. The neoliberal healthcare model emphasises an individual’s choice and responsibility with respect to their health, and the privatisation of healthcare systems overall (Fries). While there is a general belief that this change gives patients more autonomy and input within the medical encounter (Lupton), the move towards a ‘democratisation’ of healthcare in reality further entrenches self-surveillance behaviours within populations by asserting that the responsibility for achieving and maintaining ‘health’ lies at the feet of the individual (Fox, Ward and O’Rourke). In particular, there is an assumption that ‘health’ can be ‘unproblematically’ achieved through individual efforts to discipline and regulate body size (Crawford) and thus individuals are obliged to engage in acts of self-discipline as both a personal and public service (Throsby, War). In this way, those who are labelled as ‘obese’ are not only questioned on their ability to appropriately care for themselves, but also their ability to be a good citizen (Throsby, War). Overall, the obesity discourse has intensified the stigmatisation of the obese in that they are portrayed as morally bad and weak-willed (Sobal) and ultimately reinforced the need for external regulatory bodies such as the weight-loss industry to monitor and control the obese. The combined efforts of the medical and weight-loss industry have produced a single message which suggests that if individuals want to maintain ‘health’ and prevent disease, there must be an enduring commitment to a ‘lifestyle change’. A ‘lifestyle change’ implies that in order to achieve successful weight loss and thus ‘health’, there needs to be enduring amendments to diet and exercise that are perceived as a ‘way of life’ rather than the ‘means to an end’ message marketed by other diet regimes (Fullagar). These changes are necessitated through an assumption that excess body weight is a sign of laziness and poor personal habits (Evans and Colls). Similar to the causes of obesity, there is a definitive notion that individual choices predicate the outcomes of weight loss endeavours. Thus, weight-loss successes and failures directly reflect how well individuals adhered to their ‘lifestyle change’ rather than the reliability and validity of the weight-loss regimes themselves (Saguy and Riley).Addressing Bariatric Surgery: The Solution to Morbid ObesityOver the past decade there has been a drastic increase in the availability of radical weight-loss solutions that strictly regulate and police fat-bodied deviants, namely in the form of surgery. While there appears to be support from the medical community for the effectiveness of a ‘lifestyle change’ as the primary solution to obesity, it should be highlighted that a ‘lifestyle change’ is only seen as a realistic option for certain obesity cohorts. In particular, surgery is reserved for the very highest of obesity cohorts – the morbidly obese – and is presented as their only viable option. ‘Morbid obesity’ is defined as having a BMI of 40 or higher and is associated with the most risk of comorbid diseases such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension (Foo et al.). According to the Ministry of Health, for individuals classified as morbidly obese, clinicians in New Zealand should strongly recommend bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery describes a group of surgical procedures that physically restrict and redesign the stomachs of morbidly obese patients to achieve weight-loss as most procedures are permanent, and are associated with the greatest long-term weight loss in patients (Ministry of Health). Bariatric surgical procedures became popular due to their long-term effectiveness in weight-loss, and cost-effectiveness particularly for countries with public healthcare, through the drastic reduction in public health expenditure for co-morbid diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Sampalis et al.). These procedures are considered the only effective treatment option for morbid obesity or a ‘last resort’ (Cranwell and Seymour-Smith; Ogden, Clementi and Aylwin), and consequently the amount of surgeries performed annually within Australasia has increased at an exponential rate (Buchwald and Williams).What makes bariatric surgery so important as a weight-loss method is that it offers the ‘morbidly obese’, who are seen as persistently deviating from idealised body norms and unable or unwilling to conform to standardised forms of self-regulation, a reprieve from their stigmatising identity. Indeed, many morbidly obese individuals who are seeking weight loss state that bariatric surgery is their only ‘hope’ or choice, or the ‘right’ choice for them (Morgan; Ogden, Clementi and Aylwin). In particular, the fear of, or the onset of, illnesses associated with obesity can be a major factor in their decision to undergo surgery (Ogden, Clementi and Aylwin). In this way, motivations to have surgery are heavily reflective of obesity discourse in that the presence of body fat is a marker of ‘impending doom’ (Rich, Monaghan and Aphramor). Indeed as Wann highlights:I really do understand why someone would consider this extreme option. The stigma attached to even the slightest amount of body fat can be daunting, and the surgeon’s sales pitch can be very slick. (41)However, as Morgan argues, more must be done to critique bariatric surgery as it largely exemplifies the social forces that control and regulate modern societies. Bariatric surgery physically enforces weight-loss and adherence to acceptable eating practices, and makes dissent both punishable and difficult (203). The removal of a large portion of the stomach means that, bariatric surgery imposes “corporeal order and discipline” (Morgan 203) upon individuals. The stomach not only enforces strict self-surveillance protocols but also an unyielding control over the individual through the “forceful prohibition or ejection” (Morgan 202) of substances. Thus, if individuals fail to regulate and govern their intake, the surgical intervention does it for them. The side-effects of vomiting and dumping syndrome act as a regulation failsafe and a form of punishment – an ‘internal policeman’ (Morgan) – that rejects deviant behaviour and punishes the individual through unpleasant and often painful experience. In this way, bariatric surgery can be viewed as the ‘ultimate weapon’ in the war against obesity as it is a means through which deviant individuals and bodies can be controlled and normalised (Glenn, McGannon and Spence).Bariatric Surgery: For Better or for Worse?In order to interrogate the dominant notion perpetuated through obesity discourse that fatness is a disease and body weight more generally is a legitimate way of measuring ‘health’ overall, this article will now draw on key findings generated from recent research examining the life impacts of bariatric surgery conducted with a support group for bariatric surgery in Auckland, New Zealand. While bariatric surgery is portrayed as a gateway to health, Throsby (Re-Birthday) argues that ultimately it is constructed as a ‘tool’ for weight-loss, rather than a cure-all ‘magic pill’ (130). This means that users are required to engage in normative dieting practices in the midst of developing new techniques of discipline that are specific to the post-surgery experience. In this way bariatric surgery creates new levels of self-surveillance that are unique to post-surgery life (Throsby, Re-Birthday 120). Self-surveillance and policing are methods in which bariatric post-ops are subjected to critique, monitoring and maintenance by both themselves and others. A key aspect of this involves the moral construction of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods, which often influenced eating behaviours and narratives whereby bariatric post-ops adhere to normalised understandings of diet, nutrition and health (Simpson 84). This dichotomy of good and bad foods reflects dominant understandings of the causal relationship between food, health and body size. Researchers have noted that there is a significant change in the relationship individuals have with food following surgery, and that often this comes with a serious fear of weight regain, and thus an intense policing of food (Cranwell & Seymour-Smith; Ogden, Clementi and Aylwin). Often, further restrictions are placed on an already restricted diet in order to achieve thinness, which emphasises the importance of achieving and maintaining thinness through the micromanagement of food intake (Simpson). In part, this reflects the way that the rhetoric that equates obesity with individual responsibility can equally ascribe blame to patients for any subsequent weight gain following surgery (Throsby, Re-Birthday 130) and indeed previous research has highlighted extensive fear of weight regain, particularly when users encounter fluctuations in their weight (Cranwell and Seymour-Smith). This is arguably what makes discussions around the concept of ‘maintenance’ so important. Maintenance refers to the monitoring process post-ops enter into after losing a significant portion of their weight and reaching a ‘plateau’, or a point where they stop losing weight; in essence it involves discussions around how to maintain and manage a ‘healthy’ weight (Simpson 79). Largely this draws on the assumption that despite being treated for obesity through a surgical intervention, one can never be recovered or truly ‘cured’ of obesity and thus individuals must engage in consistent monitoring as a preventative measure through ‘maintenance’ (Throsby, Re-Birthday). Maintenance is a complex process for bariatric post-ops; it is inextricably linked to weight management and is therefore a visible and moral indicator as to how ‘well’ post-ops are doing in their weight loss endeavours (Simpson). In this way maintenance is heavily couched in obesity discourse as individuals are expected to integrate self-surveillance and regulation practices into a ‘lifestyle change’ in order to prevent future weight gain (Cranwell and Seymour-Smith). For most, maintenance is difficult, and is understood to require a consistent consciousness of food related behaviours in order to be successful. In the observed support group, participants discussed the observations that they had made about their difficulties with resisting ‘crave’ or ‘bad’ foods (primarily those associated with high calories) that they enjoy, as well as revealing the ways in which they had altered their behaviour to address maintenance concerns (Simpson 79). One participant revealed that recent weight gain was making maintenance ‘very hard’, and it was clear that they attributed this weight gain to personal failings despite admitting that there had been no change to their ‘healthy’ eating behaviour (80). In order to address this issue, the participant admitted that they had resorted to traditional dieting rhetoric and removed dairy from their diet (83). Other support group members encouraged the participant to also remove carbohydrates from their diet (83), which further reinforced the notion that weight is a product of personal choice and individual responsibility (Crawford; Donaghue and Clemitshaw). As a result of the rapid weight loss achieved through bariatric surgery, many post-ops struggle to adjust to their ‘new’ bodies. This makes maintenance increasingly difficult as many individuals continue to see themselves as ‘fat’ despite having achieved a ‘normal’ weight (Simpson). Arguably a key factor in their misinterpretation of their body size and composition is the abundance of excess skin that is left over after rapid weight-loss. Excess skin, which has to be surgically removed and cannot be lost through diet or exercise, is a sore issue for bariatric post-ops, as it is a reminder of their former ‘fat’ selves, and thus a source of continuous dissatisfaction and lowered self-esteem (Groven, Råheim and Engelsrud). This is a common problem for many bariatric post-ops, with many citing that their low-hanging stomach or ‘apron’ is a primary source of anguish. Indeed, one post-op admitted that it was “even harder now because … it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere” (Simpson 63), and another revealed that while they consciously understood that their ‘apron’ was excess skin and not fat, they still used it as a sign that they must continue to lose weight. In this way, the reduction of the ‘apron’ has become a dangerous fixation for this post-op and the way in which they measure their success (Simpson 63). Further, post-ops were monitored by family and friends, primarily through concerns over their small portion sizes, which led them to develop techniques to escape the scrutiny of others (Simpson 78). One technique that was particularly popular was the use of a smaller side plate during dinner time (Simpson 78). A smaller plate was both an easy way for post-ops to monitor and regulate their portions, and a method of avoiding criticism and monitoring from others as it effectively masked their reduced portions from the gaze of others. Indeed many post-ops lamented over the consistent external pressures from friends and family to increase their intake and discussed further masking techniques such as moving food around the plate to convince others that they were eating (Simpson 78). These behaviours are troubling as they mimic many primarily observed within the eating disorder community (Prestwood) and indeed Rich and Evans highlight that the level of stigmatisation surrounding fat and body size may push obese individuals into disordered relationships with food, exercise and the body (354). This would suggest that the discourses surrounding the bariatric and the eating disorder communities have lines of similarity in that weight and in particular, thinness is privileged as the primary method in which health and overall personal success is measured (Burns and Gavey; Rich and Evans). Concluding RemarksThe existence of behaviours such as maintenance, food policing and body fixation forces us to question the extent to which bariatric surgery is a gateway at all to ‘health’. 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