Books on the topic 'P factor'

<p>This document provides case studies of structural rehabilita-tion, repair, retrofitting, strengthening, and upgrading of structures, which might be encompassed – in short – by the convenient umbrella terms “Conservation / Upgrading of Existing Structures”. The selected studies presented in this SED cover a variety of structural types from different countries.</p> <p>Strengthening and rehabilitation of structures is usually a challenge because of uncertainties associated with old struc-tures and difficulties due to restrictions on the geometry and materials used, as well as other structural or functional con-straints. When repairing an existing structure the engineers involved have plenty of possibilities, lots of constraints, and in some cases there are no applicable codes. Strengthening and rehabilitating is sometimes a complex and exciting work; an art.</p> <p>The book is a summary of practices to help structural engineers. The reader of this book will discover different approaches to put forward strengthening or rehabilitation projects. Even identical technical problems could have very different efficient solutions, as discussed in the papers, considering structural, environmental, economic factors, as well as contractor and designer experience, materials, etc.</p>

<p>Koror Babeldaob Bridge, also called Koror Babelthuap Bridge or simply Koror Bridge, connects the islands of Koror and Babeldaob in the Republic of Palau. The design of the bridge began in 1974 and was based on the prevailing AASHO Standard Specifications at that time and was supplemented by ACI and CEB-FIP design recommendations on an as-needed basis. When the Koror Bridge was opened to traffic in April 1977, it was the world's longest concrete girder span. A few years later, the bridge began to deflect more than had been anticipated. The owner commissioned a Japanese engineering firm in 1985 and then a US engineering firm in 1993 to conduct in-depth investigations of the structure. Both firms came to the same conclusion that the bridge was structurally safe and that the excessive deflection was an unexplainable phenomenon. Nevertheless, in order to improve the driving quality of the bridge deck, the owner decided to repair the bridge. The repair scheme made changes to the structural system and added a large amount of post-tensioning force to the bridge. Unfortunately, less than three months after the repair, late in the afternoon on 26 September, 1996,nineteen and a half years after it was opened to traffic, the bridge collapsed. Thereafter, most of the documents were sealed as a result of litigation between the various parties and the debris was cleared. For a long time, it was impossible to study the facts surrounding the bridge's collapse. Only recently, through continuous probing by a group of engineers, were these documents made accessible to researchers.</p>

Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) and Klotho have emerged as major hormonal regulators of phosphorus (P) and vitamin D metabolism. FGF23 is secreted by bone cells and acts in the kidneys to increase urinary P excretion and inhibit the synthesis of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D) and in the parathyroid glands to inhibit the synthesis and secretion of parathyroid hormone. Phosphorus excess stimulates FGF23 secretion, likely as an appropriate physiological adaptation to maintain normal P homeostasis by enhancing urinary P excretion and diminishing intestinal P absorption via lower 1,25(OH)2D. The FGF23 concentrations are elevated early in the course of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and may be a primary initiating factor for the development of secondary hyperparathyroidism in this setting. Klotho exists in two forms: a transmembrane form and a secreted form, each with distinct functions. The transmembrane form acts as the key co-factor needed for FGF23 to bind to and activate its cognate receptor in the kidneys and the parathyroid glands. The secreted form of Klotho has FGF23-independent effects on renal P and calcium handling, insulin sensitivity, and endothelial function. Disturbances in the expression of Klotho may play a role in the development of altered bone and mineral metabolism in early CKD. In addition, abnormal circulating concentrations of both FGF23 and Klotho have been linked to excess cardiovascular disease, suggesting that both play an important role in maintaining cardiovascular health.

Chapter 2 surveys the philosophical reasons and empirical evidence for assuming that there are a number of puzzling patterns of knowledge ascriptions. Three effects on folk knowledge ascriptions are considered in turn. The first one is an alternatives effect—roughly, the inclination to deny S knowledge that p in the face of a salient alternative, q. The second effect is a contrast effect—roughly, the idea that whether an alternative, q, to S’s knowledge is “in contrast” partly determines our inclination to ascribe knowledge. The third effect is a practical factor effect—roughly, the effect of salient practical factors on our inclination to ascribe knowledge. Overall, Chapter 2 provides a state-of-the-art presentation of the shifty patterns of knowledge ascriptions.

Using data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we examine the impact of the Great Recession on subjective well-being (as measured by life satisfaction) and attempt to identify disparate effects by age. We find that those approaching retirement age (aged 55 to 64) experienced reduced life satisfaction after the recession, whereas younger working-aged adults did not. The disparate effects by age cannot be explained by income or unemployment trends, but may be explained by wealth effects. For example we find that the life satisfaction of those approaching retirement age, but not of younger working-age adults, is closely correlated with wealth indices (e.g. the Case–Shiller Housing Price Index and the S&P 500 Index).

The theory of mentalizing and epistemic trust introduced by Peter Fonagy and colleagues at the Anna Freud Centre has been an important perspective on mental health and illness. This book is the first comprehensive account and evaluation of this perspective. The book explores 20 primary concepts that organize the contributions of Fonagy and colleagues: adaptation, aggression, the alien self, culture, disorganized attachment, epistemic trust, hypermentalizing, reflective function, the p-factor, pretend mode, the primary unconscious, psychic equivalence, mental illness, mentalizing, mentalization-based therapy, non-mentalizing, the self, sexuality, the social environment, and teleological mode. The biographical and social context of the development of these ideas is examined. The book also specifies the current strengths and limitations of the theory of mentalizing and epistemic trust, with attention to the implications for both clinicians and researchers.

This article reviews research and theory dealing with the psychology of creativity. It begins with a discussion of the most influential and widely known theory of creativity, which is based on the structure of the intellect model. It then considers four aspects of divergent thinking that are frequently mentioned in the literature, along with two models for classifying creativity: the “four P” model and the four C model. The article describes other theories of creativity, including the chance configuration theory, the propulsion model, and the five-factor theory of personality. Finally, it examines other important issues in creativity research, such as mental illness, gender differences, birth order, and IQ. It also looks at some of the approaches used in the assessment of creativity, including the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and the consensual assessment technique. Finally, it explores the issue of teaching creativity.

The principle that when one knows p, one is in a good enough epistemic position to treat p as a reason for action is used to motivate pragmatic encroachment. When combined with fallibilism, this principle (Sufficiency) results in the rejection of purism, the view that pragmatic factors are irrelevant to knowledge. Fallibilism, purism, and Sufficiency each have substantial prima facie intuitive support; and yet the three seem to form an inconsistent triad. The author of this chapter challenges the account of reasons that underlies one prominent way of arguing for Sufficiency and then she delineates a position that manages to avoid the trilemma.

Explanationism is an attractive family of theories of epistemic justification. In broad terms, explanationism is the idea that what a person is justified in believing depends on their explanatory position. At its core, explanationism involves commitment to the claim that the fact p would best explain a body of evidence if p were true is itself evidence that p is true. In slogan form: explanatoriness is evidentially relevant. Despite its plausibility, explanationism has been criticized for various reasons. This chapter strengthens the case for explanationism by defending it from a recent attack by Elliott Sober and William Roche.

This chapter explores the fine structure of R-pronouns, spatial PPs, and P-stranding constructions. The guiding hypothesis and theoretical backdrop is that an extended clausal structure is generalized to all categories, including adpositions, (P). The empirical evidence comes from a comparison of the morphosyntactic distribution of the ‘r’ in German and Dutch so-called R-pronouns (locative pronouns) and P-stranding constructions, and from complex spatial PPs in Colloquial German. The chapter argues that a comparative approach to these closely related Germanic languages warrants the decomposition of function words into parts not traditionally recognized as morphemes. The morphemes making up locative pronouns (e.g. Dutch daar ‘there’) and place adpositions (e.g. German auf ‘on’) are shown to pronounce different parts of the clausal structure. A ramification of the analysis is that P-stranding in Dutch and German is in fact the stranding of a remnant phrase that contains the R-pronoun by a projection containing the preposition.

Multifocal atrial tachycardia (MAT) is an atrial arrhythmia arising in the left or right atrium, or both, with multiple different P wave morphologies (at least three), with an atrial rate usually faster than 100 min−1. The atrial rhythm may be irregular; however, the defining difference between MAT and atrial fibrillation is the presence of a P wave prior to each QRS complex in MAT (but the absence of P waves in atrial fibrillation). MAT may be compared to sinus rhythm with very frequent polymorphic atrial ectopic beats, and in fact similar pathophysiologic mechanisms underlie both conditions; thus, differentiating one from the other may be difficult—the principle difference is the lack of a single dominant sinus pacemaker in MAT.

Essential Cases: Land Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Albany Home Loans Ltd v Massey (1997) 73 P & CR 509, Court of Appeal. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Aruna Nair.

At least when we restrict our attention to the epistemic domain, it seems clear that only considerations which bear on whether p can render a subject’s belief that p epistemically justified, by constituting the reasons on the basis of which she believes that p. And we ought to expect any account of epistemic normativity to explain why this is so. Extant accounts generally appeal to the idea that belief aims at truth, in an effort to explain why there is a kind of evidential constraint on the sorts of considerations that can be epistemic reasons. However, there are grounds for doubting that belief, in fact, aims at truth in the way that these accounts propose. This chapter develops an alternative explanation of why it is that non-evidential considerations cannot be epistemic reasons by taking seriously the idea that the constitutive aim of belief is fundamentally action-oriented.

Essential Cases: EU Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council of the European Union (Case C-50/00 P), ECLI:EU:C:2002:462, [2002] ECR I-6677, 25 July 2002. The document also included supporting commentary from author Noreen O’Meara.

Essential Cases: EU Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Unión de Pequeños Agricultores v Council of the European Union (Case C-50/00 P), EU:C:2002:462, [2002] ECR I-6677, 25 July 2002. The document also included supporting commentary from author Noreen O’Meara.

Bootstrap model selection is proposed for the difficult problem of selecting important factors in non-orthogonal linear models when the number of factors, P, is large. In the method, the full model is first fitted to the original data. Then B parametric bootstrap samples are drawn from the fitted model, and the full model fitted to each. A submodel is obtained from each fitted full model by rejecting those factors found unimportant in the fit. Each distinct selected submodel is then fitted to the original data and its Mallows Cp statistic calculated. A subset of good submodels based on the Cp values is then obtained. A reliability check can be made by fitting this subset to the BS samples also, to see how often each submodel is found to be a good fit. Use of the method is illustrated using a real-data sample.

T&SK sets out and defends a theory of self-knowledge—knowledge of one’s mental states. Inspired by Gareth Evans’ discussion of self-knowledge in his The Varieties of Reference, the basic idea is that one comes to know that one is in a mental state M by an inference from a worldly or environmental premise to the conclusion that one is in M. (Typically the worldly premise will not be about anything mental.) The mind, on this account, is “transparent”: self-knowledge is achieved by an “outward glance” at the corresponding tract of the world, not by an “inward glance” at one’s own mind. Belief is the clearest case, with the inference being from ‘p’ to ‘I believe that p.’ One serious problem with this idea is that the inference seems terrible, because ‘p’ is at best very weak evidence that one believes that p. Another is that the idea seems not to generalize. For example, what is the worldly premise corresponding to ‘I intend to ϕ‎,’ or ‘I feel a pain’? T&SK argues that both problems can be solved, and explains how the account covers perception, sensation, desire, intention, emotion, memory, imagination, and thought. The result is a unified theory of self-knowledge that explains the epistemic security of beliefs about one’s mental states (privileged access), as well as the fact that one has a special first-person way of knowing about one’s mental states (peculiar access).

I explore and develop the idea, due to Peter Unger, that knowledge is non-accidentally true belief. Non-accidental truth is different from the absence of epistemic luck, as discussed by Pritchard. The original analysis faces two counterexamples, the Meson Case and the Light Switch Case. The former concerns knowledge of nomological necessities; the latter turns on the direction-of-fit between a belief and the facts. I propose: (ENA) S knows that P when S’s belief that P is non-accidentally true because (i) it is based on good evidence, and (ii) in and of themselves, beliefs based on good evidence tend to be true. ENA gets the two examples right, and compares favorably with safety, defeasibility, and knowledge-as-credit accounts. Lackey has claimed that the credit-based approach mishandles knowledge via testimony. I critically examine her objection, and show that ENA faces no difficulty of that sort.

Anglophone epistemologists have devoted a great deal of attention to the English word “know” and to English sentences used to attribute knowledge. Many contemporary epistemologists, including contextualists and subject-sensitive invariantists, are concerned with the truth-conditions of “S knows that p,” or the proposition it expresses. However, there are over 6,000 languages in the world. Thus, it is not clear why we should think that subtle facts about the English verb “know” have important implications for epistemology. Are the properties of the English word “know” and sentences of the form “S knows that p” shared in their translations into most or all other languages? This, what has been termed the universality thesis, raises many novel questions in the field of epistemology, whether it turns out to be true or false. The essays collected in this volume discuss these questions and related issues, and aim to contribute to the important new field of cross-cultural epistemology, as well as to epistemology in general.

The semantics of good places strong constraints on the better-studied and near-synonymous items ought and should. I argue that comparative goodness fact constrain – but do not determine – the interpretation of ought, and propose “Sloman’s Principle”: ought p implies that p is better than all of its alternatives. This is not yet a semantics for ought, but it takes us surprisingly far, as I show by analysing a number of puzzles involving ought and probabilistic information. It is also incompatible with the classically valid inference patterns “agglomeration” and “deontic detachment”. Several examples and an experiment show that this consequence is correct. The account can be strengthened to enforce validities such as the “Smith argument” (Horty 2003) and Weakening (Cariani 2015). Finally, I provide data showing that ought and should are actually the positive forms of gradable verbs, and discuss prospects for deriving their behaviour from the structure of their scales.

This chapter considers well-known objections to fallibilism from practical reasoning and the infelicity of concessive knowledge attributions. In reply, it argues that, in fact, fallibilism and infallibilism face similar puzzles and have the same broad options of response. Since the fallibilist and the infallibilist each take their views to allow that most of our ordinary claims to knowledge are correct, they both face the puzzle that, as stakes rise, one no longer seems to be in a good enough epistemic position to rely on what one knows in one’s practical reasoning. Further, it argues that they both have the same broad options of reply to this puzzle, depending on what notion of probability they hold is relevant to practical reasoning. Relatedly, they have the same broad options for explaining the infelicity of concessive knowledge attributions of the form ‘I know that p, but it might be that not-p’.

This chapter examines John Locke's use of the word “person” as the root cause of the misunderstanding about his theory of personal identity. Most of Locke's readers tend to take the term “person” as if it were only a sortal term of a standard kind, that is, a term for a standard temporal continuant, like “human being” or “thinking thing.” However, they fail to take into account the fact that Locke is using “person” as a “forensic” term, that is, a term that finds its principal use in contexts in which questions about the attribution of responsibility (praise and blame, punishment and reward) are foremost. The chapter explains how a Lockean person, or more specifically Person [P], differs from the standard person and describes the three components of [P]: a whole human material body, an immaterial soul, and a set of actions both present and past.

This chapter argues that the unqualified attribution of the radical theory to John Locke is mistaken if we are to take into account the fact that the theory allows for freaks like [Sₓ]. It first considers [I]-transfer without [P]-transfer—that is, [I]-transfer preserving personal identity—before discussing Locke's response to the idea that personal identity might survive [I]-transfer from an a priori point of view. It suggests that [I]-transfer is possible in such a way that the existence of a single Person [P₁] from t₁ to t₂ can successively (and non-overlappingly) involve the existence of two immaterial substances. It also explains how Locke's claim that [I]-transfer is possible opens up the possibility that it could go wrong, in such a way as to lead to injustice. Finally, it examines Locke's notion of “sensible creature,” which refers to a subject of experience who is a person.

This paper develops and defends a new account of B-theoretic endurantism and a new account of the metaphysics of the quantum state, and highlights the parallels between the considerations that motivate them. These new accounts are both fragmentalist, in the sense that they follow Fine (2005) in invoking a symmetric coordination relation between facts, such that facts that are pairwise incompatible (like Hugh?s being happy and Hugh?s being sad) can both obtain provided that they are not related by this relation. However, while Fine allows that fragments can be logically incoherent—P can obtain in one fragment while ØP obtains in another—the fragmentalist accounts defended here are motivated even if we insist on logical coherence between fragments.

This chapter discusses some central themes in a dispute between J. L. Austin and P. F. Strawson over the nature of truth. The dispute is of contemporary interest in part because it prefigures elements in a more recent discussion concerning the objects of perceptual experience, between for example Charles Travis and John McDowell. The dispute turned in particular on a pair of Austin’s claims: (i) that facts are able to serve as truth-makers for some statements; and (ii) that facts are (in at least some cases) worldly particulars that are capable of being perceived. The chapter considers arguments deriving from the work of Strawson and Zeno Vendler that are widely held to have undermined (i) and (ii) and shows that those arguments fail to decide the issue.

Tiffany D. Barnes and Mark P. Jones provide an analysis of women’s representation in Argentina. Argentina no longer retains the title of the most successful case of women’s representation in the region. Women’s legislative representation is just over the quota threshold—33%. They point out that the country has had more female presidents than any other Latin American country but lags behind in women’s representation among subnational executives, in national and subnational cabinets, and in party leadership. Gender quotas and electoral rules explain legislative representation, while political factors and informal institutions related to party selection processes for candidate and elected leadership positions are key for executives and parties. The consequences of women’s representation in Argentina have been significant in getting women’s issues represented and increasing men’s and women’s trust in government, and political engagement of women highlights that quotas have had pros and cons for women in Argentina.

We in Erewhon will have the means, the motive and the confidence to avow many of our beliefs. A means of avowing the belief that p is to assert that p, since this forecloses the misleading-mind excuse. A motive for doing so is that the communication thereby becomes more expensive and more credible; I deny myself a way of getting off the hook in the event of a miscommunication: viz., by claiming I must have misread my own mind. And the confidence required is supplied by the fact that I can consciously make up my mind on various issues by consulting the data and seeing where they lead me; I do not have to resort to introspective self-scanning. By parallel arguments we in Erewhon will be led to avow not only beliefs but also desires and intentions, relying on desiderata to play a role analogous to that of data in the case of beliefs. And we will be led by the same token to pledge various intentions—and intentions only—foreclosing the possibility of changing our mind as well as the possibility of having been misled about our minds. Avowals and pledges of these kinds are commitments in the non-moral, game-theory sense: they represent wagers in which we stake our reputations on living up to our words.

This chapter examines what John Locke means by consciousness in relation to his account of personal identity. It begins with the statement that the only things of which one can be Conscious are: [M] human material body, [I] immaterial soul (if any), and [A] one's actions and experiences (including one's thoughts in the narrower cognitive sense). In other words, these, presumably, are what wholly constitute one as a person, in Locke's view, at any given time: [P] = [M] ± [I] + [A]. If the notion of a person were a wholly or merely moral notion, one would expect the being or extent of oneself as person to be identical to the being or extent of one's field of responsibility. In fact, the notion of oneself as person also includes one's substantial makeup, material and/or immaterial. The chapter also considers the link between memory and consciousness.

This chapter examines Oscar Wilde’s annotations to his undergraduate copy of Herodotus in the light of contemporary debates about the trustworthiness of Herodotus as a historian. It relates Wilde’s annotations to the mid-nineteenth-century archaeological discoveries of the Near East and to the commentaries of William Mure, Karl Ottfried Müller, George Grote, George Rawlinson, John P. Mahaffy, and William Blakesley. It demonstrates that, in reading Herodotus, Wilde sought evidence that Hellenism was a dynamic cultural phenomenon in which both Greeks and non-Greeks could participate. It relates Wilde’s annotations to his account of Herodotus in his graduate essay ‘Historical Criticism’ and to his use of Herodotus in his critical dialogue ‘The Decay of Lying’ as an originary instance of the primacy of imagination over fact. Finally it considers what Wilde’s proposed translation of tales from Herodotus for the publishers Macmillan might have been like.

Our own body seems to be the object that we know the best for we constantly receive a flow of internal information about it. Yet bodily awareness has attracted little attention in the literature, possibly because it seems reducible to William James’s description of a “feeling of the same old body always there” (1890, p. 242). But it is not true that our body always feels so familiar. In particular, puzzling neurological disorders and new bodily illusions raise a wide range of questions about the relationship between the body and the self. Although most of the time we experience our body as our own, it is possible to report feeling parts of our body as alien. It is also possible to experience extraneous objects, such as prosthetic hands, as our own. Hence, what makes us feel this particular body as our own? The fact that we feel sensations there? The fact that we can voluntarily move it? Or the fact that it needs protection for self-preservation? To answer these questions, we need a better understanding of the various aspects of bodily self-awareness, including the spatiality of bodily sensations, their multimodality, their role in social cognition, their relation to action, and to self-defence. Mind the Body thus provides a comprehensive treatment of bodily awareness and of the sense of bodily ownership, combining philosophical analysis with recent experimental results from cognitive science.

Reúnem-se neste 2º tomo dos Opera Omnia de Manuel Pimenta todas as composições poéticas que nos foi possível coligir deste esquecido vate latino escalabitano, com exclusão daquelas que eram do conhecimento mais ou menos restrito de alguns quantos eruditos e se encontravam recolhidas no volume póstumo dos Poemata, publicado em Coimbra, no ano de 1622, graças à diligência dos seus confrades da Companhia de Jesus, e que constituem na íntegra o conteúdo do tomo I desta série, saído a lume em novembro de 2016, também em Coimbra. Conforme se prometeu na Introdução geral que antepusemos a esse livro, as poesias que agora vêem a luz da publicidade, com a transcrição do seu rosto latino original e respetiva versão para vernáculo, procedem tanto de fontes impressas como manuscritas, cabendo no entanto a estas uma bem folgada maioria. No que tange às primeiras, nada teremos a acrescentar ao que então ali ficou exarado e pensamos que a genuinidade dos seus textos e certeza na atribuição não suscitam quaisquer dúvidas, com a possível exceção do breve poema laudatório consagrado a Filipe III de Portugal, que pode ler-se na p. 373 das Anacephalaeoses, o qual, ou não pertence a Pimenta, ou teve inicialmente outro destinatário, uma vez que aquele monarca foi coroado em 1621 e, facto ainda mais decisivo, nasceu em 8 de abril de 1605, ou seja, dois anos depois da morte do nosso Autor.

Bones are multifunctional passive organs of movement that supports soft tissue and directly attached muscles. They also protect internal organs and are a reserve of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. Each bone is covered with periosteum, and the adjacent bone surfaces are covered by articular cartilage. Histologically, the bone is an organ composed of many different tissues. The main component is bone tissue (cortical and spongy) composed of a set of bone cells and intercellular substance (mineral and organic), it also contains fat, hematopoietic (bone marrow) and cartilaginous tissue. Bones are a tissue that even in adult life retains the ability to change shape and structure depending on changes in their mechanical and hormonal environment, as well as self-renewal and repair capabilities. This process is called bone turnover. The basic processes of bone turnover are: • bone modeling (incessantly changes in bone shape during individual growth) following resorption and tissue formation at various locations (e.g. bone marrow formation) to increase mass and skeletal morphology. This process occurs in the bones of growing individuals and stops after reaching puberty • bone remodeling (processes involve in maintaining bone tissue by resorbing and replacing old bone tissue with new tissue in the same place, e.g. repairing micro fractures). It is a process involving the removal and internal remodeling of existing bone and is responsible for maintaining tissue mass and architecture of mature bones. Bone turnover is regulated by two types of transformation: • osteoclastogenesis, i.e. formation of cells responsible for bone resorption • osteoblastogenesis, i.e. formation of cells responsible for bone formation (bone matrix synthesis and mineralization) Bone maturity can be defined as the completion of basic structural development and mineralization leading to maximum mass and optimal mechanical strength. The highest rate of increase in pig bone mass is observed in the first twelve weeks after birth. This period of growth is considered crucial for optimizing the growth of the skeleton of pigs, because the degree of bone mineralization in later life stages (adulthood) depends largely on the amount of bone minerals accumulated in the early stages of their growth. The development of the technique allows to determine the condition of the skeletal system (or individual bones) in living animals by methods used in human medicine, or after their slaughter. For in vivo determination of bone properties, Abstract 10 double energy X-ray absorptiometry or computed tomography scanning techniques are used. Both methods allow the quantification of mineral content and bone mineral density. The most important property from a practical point of view is the bone’s bending strength, which is directly determined by the maximum bending force. The most important factors affecting bone strength are: • age (growth period), • gender and the associated hormonal balance, • genotype and modification of genes responsible for bone growth • chemical composition of the body (protein and fat content, and the proportion between these components), • physical activity and related bone load, • nutritional factors: – protein intake influencing synthesis of organic matrix of bone, – content of minerals in the feed (CA, P, Zn, Ca/P, Mg, Mn, Na, Cl, K, Cu ratio) influencing synthesis of the inorganic matrix of bone, – mineral/protein ratio in the diet (Ca/protein, P/protein, Zn/protein) – feed energy concentration, – energy source (content of saturated fatty acids - SFA, content of polyun saturated fatty acids - PUFA, in particular ALA, EPA, DPA, DHA), – feed additives, in particular: enzymes (e.g. phytase releasing of minerals bounded in phytin complexes), probiotics and prebiotics (e.g. inulin improving the function of the digestive tract by increasing absorption of nutrients), – vitamin content that regulate metabolism and biochemical changes occurring in bone tissue (e.g. vitamin D3, B6, C and K). This study was based on the results of research experiments from available literature, and studies on growing pigs carried out at the Kielanowski Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition, Polish Academy of Sciences. The tests were performed in total on 300 pigs of Duroc, Pietrain, Puławska breeds, line 990 and hybrids (Great White × Duroc, Great White × Landrace), PIC pigs, slaughtered at different body weight during the growth period from 15 to 130 kg. Bones for biomechanical tests were collected after slaughter from each pig. Their length, mass and volume were determined. Based on these measurements, the specific weight (density, g/cm3) was calculated. Then each bone was cut in the middle of the shaft and the outer and inner diameters were measured both horizontally and vertically. Based on these measurements, the following indicators were calculated: • cortical thickness, • cortical surface, • cortical index. Abstract 11 Bone strength was tested by a three-point bending test. The obtained data enabled the determination of: • bending force (the magnitude of the maximum force at which disintegration and disruption of bone structure occurs), • strength (the amount of maximum force needed to break/crack of bone), • stiffness (quotient of the force acting on the bone and the amount of displacement occurring under the influence of this force). Investigation of changes in physical and biomechanical features of bones during growth was performed on pigs of the synthetic 990 line growing from 15 to 130 kg body weight. The animals were slaughtered successively at a body weight of 15, 30, 40, 50, 70, 90, 110 and 130 kg. After slaughter, the following bones were separated from the right half-carcass: humerus, 3rd and 4th metatarsal bone, femur, tibia and fibula as well as 3rd and 4th metatarsal bone. The features of bones were determined using methods described in the methodology. Describing bone growth with the Gompertz equation, it was found that the earliest slowdown of bone growth curve was observed for metacarpal and metatarsal bones. This means that these bones matured the most quickly. The established data also indicate that the rib is the slowest maturing bone. The femur, humerus, tibia and fibula were between the values of these features for the metatarsal, metacarpal and rib bones. The rate of increase in bone mass and length differed significantly between the examined bones, but in all cases it was lower (coefficient b <1) than the growth rate of the whole body of the animal. The fastest growth rate was estimated for the rib mass (coefficient b = 0.93). Among the long bones, the humerus (coefficient b = 0.81) was characterized by the fastest rate of weight gain, however femur the smallest (coefficient b = 0.71). The lowest rate of bone mass increase was observed in the foot bones, with the metacarpal bones having a slightly higher value of coefficient b than the metatarsal bones (0.67 vs 0.62). The third bone had a lower growth rate than the fourth bone, regardless of whether they were metatarsal or metacarpal. The value of the bending force increased as the animals grew. Regardless of the growth point tested, the highest values were observed for the humerus, tibia and femur, smaller for the metatarsal and metacarpal bone, and the lowest for the fibula and rib. The rate of change in the value of this indicator increased at a similar rate as the body weight changes of the animals in the case of the fibula and the fourth metacarpal bone (b value = 0.98), and more slowly in the case of the metatarsal bone, the third metacarpal bone, and the tibia bone (values of the b ratio 0.81–0.85), and the slowest femur, humerus and rib (value of b = 0.60–0.66). Bone stiffness increased as animals grew. Regardless of the growth point tested, the highest values were observed for the humerus, tibia and femur, smaller for the metatarsal and metacarpal bone, and the lowest for the fibula and rib. Abstract 12 The rate of change in the value of this indicator changed at a faster rate than the increase in weight of pigs in the case of metacarpal and metatarsal bones (coefficient b = 1.01–1.22), slightly slower in the case of fibula (coefficient b = 0.92), definitely slower in the case of the tibia (b = 0.73), ribs (b = 0.66), femur (b = 0.59) and humerus (b = 0.50). Bone strength increased as animals grew. Regardless of the growth point tested, bone strength was as follows femur > tibia > humerus > 4 metacarpal> 3 metacarpal> 3 metatarsal > 4 metatarsal > rib> fibula. The rate of increase in strength of all examined bones was greater than the rate of weight gain of pigs (value of the coefficient b = 2.04–3.26). As the animals grew, the bone density increased. However, the growth rate of this indicator for the majority of bones was slower than the rate of weight gain (the value of the coefficient b ranged from 0.37 – humerus to 0.84 – fibula). The exception was the rib, whose density increased at a similar pace increasing the body weight of animals (value of the coefficient b = 0.97). The study on the influence of the breed and the feeding intensity on bone characteristics (physical and biomechanical) was performed on pigs of the breeds Duroc, Pietrain, and synthetic 990 during a growth period of 15 to 70 kg body weight. Animals were fed ad libitum or dosed system. After slaughter at a body weight of 70 kg, three bones were taken from the right half-carcass: femur, three metatarsal, and three metacarpal and subjected to the determinations described in the methodology. The weight of bones of animals fed aa libitum was significantly lower than in pigs fed restrictively All bones of Duroc breed were significantly heavier and longer than Pietrain and 990 pig bones. The average values of bending force for the examined bones took the following order: III metatarsal bone (63.5 kg) <III metacarpal bone (77.9 kg) <femur (271.5 kg). The feeding system and breed of pigs had no significant effect on the value of this indicator. The average values of the bones strength took the following order: III metatarsal bone (92.6 kg) <III metacarpal (107.2 kg) <femur (353.1 kg). Feeding intensity and breed of animals had no significant effect on the value of this feature of the bones tested. The average bone density took the following order: femur (1.23 g/cm3) <III metatarsal bone (1.26 g/cm3) <III metacarpal bone (1.34 g / cm3). The density of bones of animals fed aa libitum was higher (P<0.01) than in animals fed with a dosing system. The density of examined bones within the breeds took the following order: Pietrain race> line 990> Duroc race. The differences between the “extreme” breeds were: 7.2% (III metatarsal bone), 8.3% (III metacarpal bone), 8.4% (femur). Abstract 13 The average bone stiffness took the following order: III metatarsal bone (35.1 kg/mm) <III metacarpus (41.5 kg/mm) <femur (60.5 kg/mm). This indicator did not differ between the groups of pigs fed at different intensity, except for the metacarpal bone, which was more stiffer in pigs fed aa libitum (P<0.05). The femur of animals fed ad libitum showed a tendency (P<0.09) to be more stiffer and a force of 4.5 kg required for its displacement by 1 mm. Breed differences in stiffness were found for the femur (P <0.05) and III metacarpal bone (P <0.05). For femur, the highest value of this indicator was found in Pietrain pigs (64.5 kg/mm), lower in pigs of 990 line (61.6 kg/mm) and the lowest in Duroc pigs (55.3 kg/mm). In turn, the 3rd metacarpal bone of Duroc and Pietrain pigs had similar stiffness (39.0 and 40.0 kg/mm respectively) and was smaller than that of line 990 pigs (45.4 kg/mm). The thickness of the cortical bone layer took the following order: III metatarsal bone (2.25 mm) <III metacarpal bone (2.41 mm) <femur (5.12 mm). The feeding system did not affect this indicator. Breed differences (P <0.05) for this trait were found only for the femur bone: Duroc (5.42 mm)> line 990 (5.13 mm)> Pietrain (4.81 mm). The cross sectional area of the examined bones was arranged in the following order: III metatarsal bone (84 mm2) <III metacarpal bone (90 mm2) <femur (286 mm2). The feeding system had no effect on the value of this bone trait, with the exception of the femur, which in animals fed the dosing system was 4.7% higher (P<0.05) than in pigs fed ad libitum. Breed differences (P<0.01) in the coross sectional area were found only in femur and III metatarsal bone. The value of this indicator was the highest in Duroc pigs, lower in 990 animals and the lowest in Pietrain pigs. The cortical index of individual bones was in the following order: III metatarsal bone (31.86) <III metacarpal bone (33.86) <femur (44.75). However, its value did not significantly depend on the intensity of feeding or the breed of pigs.