bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reconfiguring Scale and Power: The Khong-Chi-Mun Project in Northeast Thailand
Authors: Sneddon Chris
Published: March 2004

This paper uses the case of the Khong-Chi-Mun (KCM) interbasin transfer project in northeast Thailand to explore questions of power and scale in the context of state intervention in river basins. The KCM project figures strongly in the Thai state's long-term aim of transforming its water-poor northeast region through large-scale irrigation works and agroindustrial development. The project has also become a key element in interstate negotiations over coordinated development of the Lower Mekong Basin. The early stages of the project have met with resistance in the form of both national and local Thai social movements arguing against it on social justice and ecological grounds. Proponents of the project in the Thai government are employing different scalar narratives to justify and legitimate implementation of the scheme. Scale and power are intimately related within complex environmental conflicts, and tracing their linkages through an array of actors and across a variety of scales, the approach associated with actor-network methodologies, can reveal a great deal about how power and scale are co-created.
Space, Citizenship, and Voluntarism: Critical Reflections on the Voluntary Welfare Sector in Glasgow
Authors: Fyfe Nicholas R , Milligan Christine
Published: March 2004

Faced with anxieties about meeting welfare needs, and worries about the nature and meaning of citizenship, there is evidence of increasing state-initiated moves to develop the role and responsibilities of voluntary associations. Existing research suggests, however, that there are tensions between the spatial distribution of voluntary resources and welfare needs, and that the relationship between voluntary activity and active citizenship is more complex than is often acknowledged. Focusing on the voluntary welfare sector in Glasgow, the authors first examine the uneven distribution of voluntary activity across the city and its relationship to ‘need’. Although in contrast to previous research this reveals strong representation of voluntary organisations in deprived areas of the city (largely as a result of state funding programmes), important tensions and conflicts remain between where organisations are funded to provide services and the needs of vulnerable populations. In the second part of the paper the relationship between voluntarism and citizenship in Glasgow is examined. Highlighting the existence of a distinction between ‘grass-roots’ and ‘corporatist’ voluntary organisations, the authors illustrate the ways in which voluntarism can be associated with both the empowerment and the disempowerment of citizens. In the conclusions it is emphasised that developments in Glasgow resonate with wider concerns about the impact of welfare reform on the voluntary sector.
The Logic of Funding European Pension Restructuring and the Dangers of Financialisation
Authors: Engelen Ewald
Published: March 2004

During the 1990s, pension funds seemed to dominate the world's capital markets, reaping unprecedented rates of return. This stands in glaring contrast to the budgetary difficulties of most nonfunded European pension arrangements, which are a result of the changing demographic composition of the population. As a result, a growing number of European states is trying to transform the existing pay-as-you-go systems into funded pension arrangements. After a critical examination of these demographic projections, the claim that funded pension systems are not subject to ‘demographic stress’ is critically assessed. Finally, given the logic to which funded pension arrangements are subject, it is argued that the introduction of such institutions could result in a growing financialisation of the economy. It is claimed here that this is not without dangers for the long-term wealth-generating capacity of firms. So, not only are the reasons for pension restructuring less compelling than is generally thought, restructuring could also result in unwanted side-effects.
Cutting It: European Integration, Trade Regimes, and the Reconfiguration of East–Central European Apparel Production
Authors: Begg Bob , Pickles John , Smith Adrian
Published: March 2004

Since the late 1980s the European apparel sector has witnessed a dramatic transformation. Driven by increasing costs in Western Europe, major Western apparel retailers and buyers have expanded their contracting of production into lower cost regions of ‘postcommunist’ Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. One consequence of these changes is a burgeoning of apparel producers in peripheral European and North African regions, locked into supply relations with Western buyers. Equally apparent is a dramatic growth in apparel trade between the European Union (EU) and the countries of East–Central Europe (ECE). For much of the 1990s these processes were driven by outward processing trade arrangements between EU countries and applicant states in ECE, along with the EU customs union with Turkey. Further liberalization of trade regimes during the 1990s removed these outward processing customs arrangements, but outward-processing forms of assembly production continue. The authors chart these transformations, and signal one part of the emerging architecture of trade relations between the EU and ECE after 1989. They explore the trade regulation changes that have provided a context for outsourcing and examine the different strategies of EU retailers and manufacturers in the governance of pan-European apparel production and trade.
Don't Let the Bastards See you Sweat: Masculinity, Public and Private Space, and the Volunteer Firehouse
Authors: Yarnal Careen Mackay , Dowler Lorraine , Hutchinson Susan
Published: March 2004

In this paper we examine the ways that traditional definitions of masculinity are challenged within the domestic space of the volunteer firehouse. Our aim is to blur the dichotomies of public–private, masculine–feminine, heroic–weak, and moral–immoral. By examining practices associated with being a volunteer firefighter we present deeper and expanded notions of what it means to be a man in this context. Volunteer firefighters create a private space within the firehouse that offers escape from the public demands of masculinity. It is within this space that they can receive and give comfort and experience bonding, friendship, and a deep sense of belonging by embracing emotions normally off limits to men, including self-disclosure, familiarity, and affection. Although acknowledging the masculine hegemony that constructs men's involvement in firefighting and the firehouse, we also highlight the emotional work done by men as they engage in their public and private firefighting roles.
The Changing Regulatory Environment for Speculative Housebuilding and the Construction of Core Competencies for Brownfleld Development
Authors: Adams David
Published: March 2004

Speculative housebuilding in the United Kingdom faces an ever tighter regulatory environment owing to the increasing impact of the sustainable development agenda. For example, 60% of all new homes in England are now expected to be constructed on previously developed land or provided through the conversion of existing buildings. As speculative housebuilders are responsible for about 80% of all new dwellings built in the United Kingdom, the achievement of this important government target is critically dependent on the ability and willingness of the private sector to respond to public policy. By exploring the main components of the residential development process, the author investigates how far speculative housebuilding will need to change to ensure the successful implementation of the government's brownfield housing target. He suggests that those speculative housebuilders that are enthusiastically building up core competencies in brownfield housing are likely to emerge as the market leaders of the future whereas those companies that continue to rely on past practices and technologies will face an uncertain future as greenfield development opportunities begin to reduce.
Witnessing Space: ‘Knowledge without Contemplation’
Authors: Dewsbury John-David
Published: March 2004

This paper is about the importance of witnessing and how such an act, or call, makes place or our place in the world. Pushing forward the agenda of nonrepresentational theory, this is about attending to differences—those imperceptible, sometimes minor, and yet gathering, differences that script the world in academically less familiar but in no less real ways. I am thinking here about the folded mix of our emotions, desires, and intuitions within the aura of places, the communication of things and spaces, and the spirit of events. Such folds leave traces of presence that map out a world that we come to know without thinking. Throughout, I argue the political importance of our current debates concerning a performative appreciation of society's unfolding. In the first part of the paper I sketch out the academic territory that makes witnessing space potentially unfamiliar by problematizing the representational setup and the interpretation of empiricism that facilities knowledge production. In the second part I present an overview of the operation of Gilles Deleuze's thinking as a possible apprecenticeship in becoming able to perceive, and hence better able to express, the folded mix of the witnessed and witnessing world. In the third part of the paper I investigate the philosophical and ethical mechanics of the act of witnessing itself, translating the arguments found here to question the laws regulating the act of representation. Throughout, as an exemplary witness to that which I am trying to present, the paper is haunted by Olga Tokarczuk's novella The Hotel Capital.
Doing Organisational Space: Practices of Voluntary Welfare in the City
Authors: Conradson David
Published: March 2004

In this paper I consider the doing of organisational space. Within a sociopolitical context that presents opportunities and constraints, my interest is in how a particular set of organisational spaces—those of a voluntary welfare agency—are brought into being within the city and in how we might best apprehend their experiential texture. Drawing on research undertaken in a community drop-in centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, I explore the utility of two bodies of thought which emphasise social practices for this task. The first of these is actor-network theory. This frames organisation as a relational achievement, rooted in the successful translation of various actors, resources, and other material entities into a network through which an agency is constituted over time. Although an actor-network perspective affords insights into organisational formation and subsequent durability, I argue that it functions less well when one is seeking to apprehend the intersubjective spaces of affect that constitute so much of the daily goings-on of organisational life. As a way of approaching these matters, I turn to a second and related body of work that foregrounds notions of embodied practice. This, I suggest, enables us to attend more fully to the sometimes fleeting immaterial and affective dimensions of organisational space. It helps us, as Thrift (1997) has written, to touch the invisible in the visible.
Research, Performance, and Doing Human Geography: Some Reflections on the Diary-Photograph, Diary-Interview Method
Authors: Latham Alan
Published: March 2004

The past decade has seen a remarkable turn towards the cultural in human geography. This shift has been marked by a strange gap between theory and empirical practice. Radical though the turn to the cultural has been in reconstituting the ways that human geography thinks of itself as a discipline, its impact on ways that geographers actually do empirical research has been in certain respects relatively limited. Indeed, while the cultural turn has become strongly associated with a valorisation of qualitative methodologies, the actual range of methods used has been relatively narrow. Drawing on the work of Nigel Thrift and a range of other human geographers who are exploring the metaphor of performance to understand this realm of practical action, I argue that not only can social action be viewed as performance, so too is it productive to reframe the research process itself as a kind of performance. This reframing allows for a more experimental and more flexible attitude towards both the production and interpretation of research evidence. It also makes it easier to think of new ways of engaging with how individuals and groups inhabit their worlds through practical action. Drawing on my own experimentation with written and photographic research diaries, I explore a number of ways through which the performative ethos can inform and invigorate the human geographic imagination. I conclude by arguing that human geography needs to be more imaginative, pluralistic, and pragmatic in its attitude towards both (a) methodology and (b) the kinds of final research accounts it produces.
Replication/Prediction Problems in the Journey to Work
Authors: Jörnsten Kurt , Thorsen Inge , Ubøe Jan
Published: March 2004

In this paper we will consider gravity models for journeys to work. In applications of the theory it is sometimes assumed that the parameters in such models are fixed. We will provide examples to show that this is not always a reasonable assumption, for instance, when the model is applied to predict how changes in the road transportation network influence commuting flows. Models where the parameters are subject to change usually comply with C-efficiency and random utility theory.
The Effect of Knowledge Spillovers on Productivity Growth Inequalities in Spanish Regions
Authors: Serrano Guadalupe , Cabrer Bernardí
Published: March 2004

We investigate the impact of local and foreign forms of knowledge spillover on productivity growth inequalities in Spanish regions. In each sector and region such inequalities will depend on the innovative capacity of the region and on local spillovers emanating from proximity to innovation producers and from the composition of economic activity in the region. Foreign spillovers will be mainly from trade with other regions or countries. Panel estimation results indicate that local sector human capital and specialisation patterns, public-R&D efforts—both local and from other regions—and international technological imports reduce these growth differentials. The regional level of development and sector technological characteristics will qualify these results.
Unblocking the City? Growth Pressures, Collective Provision, and the Search for New Spaces of Governance in Greater Cambridge, England
Authors: While Aidan , Jonas Andrew E G , Gibbs David C
Published: March 2004

A somewhat overlooked aspect of the geography of ‘after-Fordist’ regulation concerns the precise role of different branches of the state in managing tensions between local economic development and the collective provision of social and physical infrastructure. In the United Kingdom, the state's reluctance to manage or spatially redistribute growth in the South East has resulted in localised pressures on housing markets, the land-use planning system, infrastructure, and the environment, intensifying struggles between progrowth and antigrowth factions in certain places. In this paper the authors examine conflicts arising from the rapid growth of new economic spaces in and around the Cambridge subregion and explore various attempts by different branches of the state and locally dependent factions of capital to overcome barriers to further growth within existing and proposed frameworks for territorial management. A key arena of conflict in this instance centres upon land-use planning and provision of infrastructure. The Cambridge ‘growth crisis’ raises a series of issues about the ability of interests claiming to represent nationally important city-regions to detach such places from their formative local and national modes of regulation.
On the Quality Variation of Primary Health Care Services: A Test of the ‘Inverse Care Law’ for General Practice
Authors: Williams Huw , White Sean , Senior Martyn , Williams Stephanie , Davies Brynley
Published: March 2004

Tudor Hart's 1971 study, based in Wales, was the first to hypothesise the existence of an inverse relationship which often prevails between those communities with the most pressing health needs and the lack or poor quality of health services provided locally. Over the last thirty years there have been many demonstrations of the validity of Hart's ‘inverse care law’ in relation to the provision of, and access to, particular services in the primary and secondary health care sectors. In this paper we provide a direct test of the relationship between an aggregate measure of quality of general practitioner (GP) services and a measure of health need of local populations. We examine the variation in quality of GP services, derived from eligibility for sustained quality payments, over the 131 practices of the former Bro Taf Health Authority in South Wales. Using logit regression analysis we have explored the extent to which the local deprivation of practice populations and the size of practice account for the variation in the quality of provision within the authority. The analysis supports the conclusion that the ‘inverse care law’ is a strong feature of provision. Both the eligibility of GP practices for quality payments and the availability of training practices are significantly higher in the least deprived wards than those in the most deprived ones.
Aggregation of Gravity Models for Journeys to Work
Authors: Ubøe Jan
Published: March 2004

This paper deals with the use of gravity models to examine journeys to work. The purpose of the paper is to study very simple examples demonstrating that gravity models may be subject to serious misspecification in aggregate systems. As an outcome of the theoretical analysis, the paper has several implications to empirical work. It suggests a variety of modifications, experiments, and testing regimes that can be carried out to examine the performance of gravity models for journeys to work.
Area Studies after Poststructuralism
Authors: Gibson-Graham J K
Published: March 2004

In this paper we address the question of ‘what next after poststructuralism’ through a reassessment of area studies. In a narrative of our own involvement with place-oriented research and institutions, we examine the traditional position of area studies in geography and anthropology and its reevaluation by poststructuralist scholars in a number of disciplines. We argue that both prestructuralist and poststructuralist treatments of areas are oriented by a narrative of capitalist development; at the same time, we recognize that traditional area studies has a deep interest in noncapitalist economic practices and relations. It is therefore a resource for those of us who want to create a discourse of economic diversity as a contribution to a politics of economic innovation. The latter half of the paper presents an extended example of reading for economic difference drawn from fieldwork in the oil-palm sector in Papua New Guinea. We conclude with a ‘post-poststructuralist’ reflection on geographic field research. From our evolving perspective, the fieldwork practices that are the principal research methods of area studies constitute a relatively untheorized form of academic politics, creating differences in thought (and thus in the world) via new interpenetrations of concepts and ‘matter’.
Old News: Representation and Academic Novelty
Authors: Castree Noel , MacMillan Thomas
Published: March 2004

The new outstrips the old—but only sometimes. This short paper identifies four forms of ‘novelty’ in Anglophone human geography. In taking the case of a nascent ‘nonrepresentational geography’ some concerns are raised about the seeming ennui with representation as a research issue and as a practical and political resource. Far from insisting that ‘old’ intellectual fashions are better than new ones, we simply caution against travelling forward minus some important baggage. By way of seven theses, we finesse critical geography's engagement with representation and argue that any nonrepresentational ‘alternative’ should not be seen as jettisoning the substantial power of representational acts.
Waiting for Geography
Authors: Doel Marcus A
Published: March 2004

The editors of this issue of the journal called for a response to the question: ‘What next?’ Instead of offering a programmatic or visionary statement, I endeavour to amplify the sense of suspense that would ordinarily be foreclosed by answering the question directly. This is achieved by playing off the literal and colloquial meanings of the question: ‘What next?’, ‘What more absurd, shocking, or surprising thing is possible?’ The upshot of this encounter is an undecidable vacillation between the probable and the improbable, the rational and the irrational, and the expected and the unexpected. By alluding to both realism and surrealism, and drawing on programmation, speculation, and fabulation, I deploy some poststructuralist and materialist motifs in order to ensure that the future of human geography will remain in perpetual suspense and thereby open to those aleatory encounters that come from who knows where.
Ethnoarchaeology and Undefined Investigations
Authors: Laurier Eric , Philo Chris
Published: March 2004

The historical archaeology of Foucault and the ethnnomethodology of Garkinkel and Sacks may be regarded as rather different traditions in sociocultural inquiry, and for human geography, but there are arguably a number of distinctive points of overlap. In this paper, and following the example of McHoul's consideration of the affinities between Foucault and Garfinkel, we explore these overlaps, paying particular attention to what Foucault, Garfinkel, Sacks, and others have to say about both ‘local rules' as opposed to ‘transcendent laws' and the prioritising of ‘surfaces’ over ‘depths’. In so doing a window is opened on the possibilities for an ‘ethnoarchaeological’ human geography inspired by both traditions, not as a definitive answer to the question ‘what next’ in the discipline but as another lens through which ongoing manoeuvres might be viewed.
Towards an Ecology of Retail Financial Services: Understanding the Persistence of Door-to-Door Credit and Insurance Providers
Authors: Leyshon Andrew , Burton Dawn , Knights David , Alferoff Catrina , Signoretta Paola
Published: March 2004

In this paper we explore the relationship between knowledge, trust, and space in the production and consumption of retail financial services as part of a wider enquiry into processes of financial exclusion. We argue that the relationship between knowledge and trust helps to explain the evolution of financial services and the production over time of distinctive ecologies of financial service production and use. We discuss the changing scales of financial knowledge and trust in relation to the evolution of the UK financial services industry. We identify two idealised ecologies and networks of retail financial services. The middle-class suburb represents an ecology and network of privilege within the contemporary retail financial services market. It displays relatively high levels of aggregate knowledge about the financial system and constitutes an important part of the retail financial services network, with strong and frequent connections to the financial services industry as a whole. Poor inner-city areas and peripheral local authority housing estates, meanwhile, have very different financial ecologies. Areas of relative deprivation and poverty, they constitute ‘relic’ financial ecologies that have been bypassed and mostly ignored by the mainstream financial services industry. They are colonised by a distinctive set of financial institutions that include firms that operate door-to-door. We look at the formation and evolution of these ecologies over time and discuss the potential of enriching the ecology of the poor inner-city and peripheral local authority housing estate through public policy.
Industrial Agglomerations as Localised Networks: The Case of the Portuguese Injection Mould Industry
Authors: Mota João Q , de Castro Luís M
Published: March 2004

A resurgence of interest in industrial agglomerations can be found among many different academic disciplines. This trend has been accompanied by a focus on how spatial proximity and the emergence of links between colocated actors may generate benefits for firms, namely, in the generation and diffusion of knowledge. By conceiving industrial agglomerations as territorially based networks, we argue that the dynamics in connections internal to those networks affect and are affected by local institutions as well as connections external to the territory. Our study of the injection mould industry cluster at Marinha Grande in Portugal suggests that firms profit from the emergence of relationships between colocated actors and other agglomeration benefits. However, we suggest that the potential of the industry to generate new knowledge appears to be founded on the patterns of interfirm connections, which selectively connect diverse capabilities both within and outside the agglomeration.
How Many Faces Can Be Processed during a Single Eye Fixation?
Authors: Näsänen Risto , Ojanpää Helena
Published: March 2004

The purpose of our study was to estimate the perceptual span for facial information: how many faces can be processed during a single eye fixation. We used a visual-search task, in which the targets and distractors were facial photographs. The task of the observer was to search for and identify a target face in an array of faces. We measured the time needed for one search—threshold search time—by using a multiple-alternative staircase method. The threshold represents the duration of stimulus presentation at which the probability of correct responses was 79%. The array size was varied from 2 × 2 to 8 × 8 faces. Simultaneously with the performance measurements we measured eye movements with a video eye tracker. We found that threshold search time increased with increasing set size nearly linearly. The number of fixations also increased linearly from unity at the smallest set size to about fifteen at the largest set size. The result of 2 × 2 faces during a single fixation gave an estimate of 4 faces for the perceptual span. If, on average, only half of the elements had to be scanned for finding the target, 15 fixations at the largest set size (8 × 8) gave another estimate of 2.13 faces. The mean fixation duration was around 200 ms. Thus, the results suggest that 2–4 faces can be processed during one fixation of about 200 ms.
Vibro-Tactile and Visual Asynchronies: Sensitivity and Consistency
Authors: van Erp Jan B F , Werkhoven Peter J
Published: March 2004

We investigated the consistency between tactually and visually designated empty time intervals. In a forced-choice discrimination task, participants judged whether the second of two intervals was shorter or longer than the first interval. Two pulses defined the intervals. The pulse was either a vibro-tactile burst presented to the fingertip, or a foveally presented white square. The comparisons were made for uni-modal and cross-modal intervals. We used four levels of standard interval durations in the range of 100–800 ms.

The results showed that tactile empty intervals must be 8.5% shorter to be perceived as long as visual intervals. This cross-modal bias is larger for small intervals and decreases with increasing standard intervals. The Weber fractions (the threshold divided by the standard interval) are 20% and are constant over the standard intervals. This indicates that the Weber law holds for the range of interval lengths tested. Furthermore, the Weber fractions are consistent over uni-modal and cross-modal comparisons, which indicates that there is no additional noise involved in the cross-modal comparisons.
Reduced Discriminability following Perceptual Learning with Odours
Authors: Case Trevor I , Stevenson Richard J , Dempsey Rochelle A
Published: March 2004

In this experiment, the effects of prior experience on odour perception and discrimination were explored. Participants repeatedly sniffed a mixture composed of two odours, AX, as well as smelling two further odours alone, B and Y. After this training phase, participants were asked to rate the similarity of the odours A and X, B and Y, and a non-exposed pair C and Z. A and X were judged as significantly more alike than the other pairs. Exactly the same pattern emerged on a second test, in which participants were asked to select the odd odour out of sets of three. It was consistently harder for participants to pick the odd odour when the stimuli were drawn from the AX pair (eg A versus AX versus AX). Not only do these findings demonstrate that prior experience can affect odour perception, a finding not predicted by theories of odour perception based solely upon the physiochemical properties of odours, they also suggest that experience can act to selectively decrease discriminability.
T-Junctions and Perceived Slant of Partially Occluded Surfaces
Authors: Grove Philip M , Ono Hiroshi , Kaneko Hirohiko
Published: March 2004

Häkkinen and Nyman (1997 Perception26 29–38) reported that perceived slant is reduced when occlusion is a possible interpretation for the visual system. We present data from three experiments that confirm and expand on their finding. Our stimuli consisted of four types of stereograms depicting white central rectangles flanked on either side by two grey rectangles. The central white rectangles varied in height, thus manipulating the polarity of the T-junction information between the central and flanking rectangles. Perceived slant was smallest or not apparent when T-junction information indicated the central rectangles were nearer than the flanking rectangles and greatest when T-junction information indicated a farther central rectangle. Slant estimates for a stimulus containing a subjective pacmen-induced central rectangle were biased towards a depth step when an occlusion interpretation was possible.
Thatcher's Children: Development and the Thatcher Illusion
Authors: Lewis Michael B
Published: March 2004

Children do not show the same recognition disadvantage for inverted faces as adults do. It has been suggested that this is because the configural encoding (which is disrupted by inversion) becomes more useful or available as we get older. The distinction between configural processing and featural processing, however, is not always clear—it may be a dichotomy or a continuum. The perceived normal-to-grotesque switch in the Thatcher illusion was investigated, as the image was rotated, by people aged between 6 and 75 years. No effect of age was found, with young children showing the same effects as adults—the switch occurring at about 72°. The development of face processing and the nature of facial configural encoding are discussed in the light of this result.
Dietary lipids and vascular function: UK Food Standards Agency workshop report
Authors: Sanderson Peter , Olthof Margreet , Grimble Robert F. , Calder Philip C. , Griffin Bruce A. , de Roos Nicole M. , Belch Jill J. F. , Muller David P. R. , Vita Joseph A.
Published: March 2004

The UK Food Standards Agency convened a group of expert scientists to review current research investigating the effect of dietary lipids on vascular function. The workshop highlighted the need for intervention studies to be sufficiently powered for these measures and that they should be corroborated with other, more validated, risk factors for CVD. Work presented at the workshop suggested a beneficial effect of long-chainn-3 PUFA and a detrimental effect oftransfatty acids. The workshop also considered the importance of the choice of study population in dietary intervention studies and that ‘at risk’ subgroups within the general population may be more appropriate than subjects that are unrepresentatively healthy.
Experimental demonstration of human weight homeostasis: implications for understanding obesity
Authors: Macias Alejandro E.
Published: March 2004

The existence of a set-point for homeostatic control of human body weight is uncertain. To investigate its existence, technically difficult determinations of energy expenditure must be performed: this has resulted in contradictory reports. The present study was performed with new methods in two stages (77 and 133d respectively). Two healthy male subjects with rigorously controlled physical activity ingested three standardized diets of processed foods from the same manufacturer. Hypo-, iso- and hyperenergetic diets containing 6255kJ (1494kcal), 10073kJ (2406kcal) and 13791kJ (3294kcal) respectively were ingested during alternate periods; changes in body weight were measured. A new index of energy expenditure was calculated as the amount of weight lost in an 8h overnight period (WL8H). A digital scale was used in stage 1 and a mechanical scale in stage 2. The change in body weight in response to the isoenergetic diet differed according to the circumstances. In basal conditions, it was associated with weight stability. After weight loss from energy restriction, the isoenergetic diet led to weight gain. After weight gain from overeating, it led to weight loss. Diets of higher energy content were associated with greater WL8H (F>20; P<0·0001 for both subjects). Measurement variability was lower using a mechanical scale. The present study demonstrates the existence of a homeostatic control of human weight and describes a new index of energy expenditure measured in weight units. It also demonstrates that strict dietary supervision for months is possible. Investigation of the human body weight set-point is vital in understanding obesity.
Acute tryptophan depletion slows gastric emptying in females
Authors: van Nieuwenhoven Michiel A. , Valks Sabine D. M. , Sobczak Sjacko , Riedel Willem J. , Brummer Robert-Jan M.
Published: March 2004

Serotonin (5-HT) is an important neurotransmitter involved in the brain–gut axis. It is possible to lower the 5-HT level in the body by means of a nutritional intervention using an amino acid mixture; the acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) method. We studied the effect of ATD on gastric emptying in healthy females, who received both ATD and placebo in a random order. Gastric emptying was measured using the [13C]octanoic acid breath test. The present data demonstrate significant differences in both gastric emptying and lag phase (Tlag) between the ATD and placebo experiment. Eight out of ten subjects showed a delayed gastric emptying in the ATD experiment. Both the gastric half-emptying time (T1/2) and the Tlag were significantly higher in the ATD experiment. T1/2 in the ATD experiment was 137·2 (range 76·2–634·8) min; T1/2 for the placebo experiment was 98·5 (range 63·7–168·8) min (P=0·028). Tlag in the ATD experiment was 83·7 (range 45·1–356·2) min; Tlag for the placebo experiment was 56·9 (range 23·2–101·2) min (P=0·007). We conclude that lowering the 5-HT level in the body using the ATD method leads to a significantly delayed gastric emptying of a solid meal. Nutritional manipulation of the serotonergic system in healthy volunteers may lead to alterations in gastrointestinal motility.
Starch digestion, large-bowel fermentation and intestinal mucosal cell proliferation in rats treated with the α-glucosidase inhibitor acarbose
Authors: Dehghan-Kooshkghazi Mahshid , Mathers John C.
Published: March 2004

Acarbose (Glucobay®; Bayer) is an α-glucosidase inhibitor used to treat diabetes and which may have a role in the prevention of type 2 diabetes. The present study investigated the effects of acarbose treatment on the site and extent of starch digestion, large-bowel fermentation and intestinal mucosal cell proliferation. Eighteen young male Wistar rats were fed ‘Westernised’ diets containing 0, 250 and 500mg acarbose/kg (six rats/diet) for 21d. For most variables measured, both acarbose doses had similar effects. Acarbose treatment suppressed starch digestion in the small bowel but there was compensatory salvage by bacterial fermentation in the large bowel. This was accompanied by a substantial hypertrophy of small- and large-bowel tissue and a consistent increase in crypt width along the intestine. Caecal total SCFA pool size was increased more than 4-fold, with even bigger increases for butyrate. These changes in butyrate were reflected in increased molar proportions of butyrate in blood from both the portal vein and heart. There was little effect of acarbose administration on crypt-cell proliferation (significant increase for mid-small intestine only). This is strong evidence against the hypothesis that increased fermentation and increased supply of butyrate enhances intestinal mucosal cell proliferation. In conclusion, apart from the increased faecal loss of starch, there was no evidence of adverse effects of acarbose on the aspects of large-bowel function investigated.
Acculturation and dietary habits of Korean Americans
Authors: Kim Jeongseon , Chan Mabel M.
Published: March 2004

This is the first study to investigate how food and nutrient intakes vary with the levels of acculturation of Korean Americans using a dietary assessment tool tested for validity and reliability. The respondents were Korean Americans (n486) resident in the Greater New York metropolitan area, USA. They were divided into two groups according to the total score of acculturation: low- and high-acculturated groups. Using a food-frequency questionnaire and a modified Suinn-Lew Asian self-identity acculturation scale, differences in the frequencies of food items, food groups and nutrient intakes consumed were analysed by level of acculturation. The low-acculturated group tended to consume significantly more rice, mixed rice, soyabean paste chigae (pot stew), saengsun (fish) chigae, kimchi chigae, other fish broiled or baked, eggs, kimchi, spinach, persimmons, and white or brown sugar in coffee or tea. The high-acculturated group demonstrated a statistically greater tendency to consume bread, cereal, spaghetti, ham, green salad, sweetcorn, chocolate, candies and diet soft drinks. The more acculturated an individual, the more significant was the tendency to consume sweets. The more acculturated group had significantly (P<0·05) higher intakes of % energy from total fat, thiamin, vitamin E and folate, while the low-acculturated group consumed greater amounts of Na, niacin and dietary fibre. The information from the present study can be used to describe dietary habits according to various aspects of acculturation, and allows a better understanding of the dynamics of acculturation and dietary habits.
Effects of glutamine supplementation on innate immune response in rats with gut-derived sepsis
Authors: Yeh Sung-Ling , Lai Yu-Ni , Shang Huey-Fang , Lin Ming-Tsan , Chen Wei-Jao
Published: March 2004

The present study examined the effect of glutamine (Gln)-enriched diets before sepsis or Gln-containing total parenteral nutrition (TPN) after sepsis, or both, on the phagocytic activity and blood lymphocyte subpopulation in rats with gut-derived sepsis. Rats were assigned to a control group or one of four experimental groups. The control group and groups 1 and 2 were fed a semipurified diet; groups 3 and 4 had part of casein replaced by Gln. After feeding the diets for 10d, sepsis was induced by caecal ligation and puncture (CLP); TPN was maintained for 3d after CLP. The control group and groups 1 and 3 were infused with conventional TPN and groups 2 and 4 were supplemented with Gln in the TPN solution. All rats were killed 3d after CLP or sham operation to examine their immune responses. The results showed that compared with the control group, the phagocytic activities of peritoneal macrophages were enhanced in groups 3 and 4, but not in groups 1 and 2. The proportion of CD3+cells in group 1 was significantly lower (P<0·05) than that of the control group, whereas no differences were observed among the control and Gln-supplemented groups. The CD4+cell proportion was significantly lower (P<0·05) in group 1 compared with the control group and groups 3 and 4. These findings suggest that Gln-enriched diets before CLP significantly enhanced peritoneal macrophage phagocytic activity, preserved CD4+cells and maintained blood total T lymphocytes in gut-derived sepsis. However, parenteral Gln administration after caecal ligation and puncture had no favourable effects on modulating immune response in septic rats.
Effects of green tea on weight maintenance after body-weight loss
Authors: Kovacs Eva M. R. , Lejeune Manuela P. G. M. , Nijs Ilse , Westerterp-Plantenga Margriet S.
Published: March 2004

The present study was conducted to investigate whether green tea may improve weight maintenance by preventing or limiting weight regain after weight loss of 5 to 10% in overweight and moderately obese subjects. The study had a randomised, parallel, placebo-controlled design. A total of 104 overweight and moderately obese male and female subjects (age 18–60 years; BMI 25–35kg/m2) participated. The study consisted of a very-low-energy diet intervention (VLED; 2·1MJ/d) of 4 weeks followed by a weight-maintenance period of 13 weeks in which the subjects received green tea or placebo. The green tea contained caffeine (104mg/d) and catechins (573mg/d, of which 323mg was epigallocatechin gallate). Subjects lost 6·4 (sd 1·9) kg or 7·5 (sd 2·2) % of their original body weight during the VLED (P<0·001). Body-weight regain was not significantly different between the green tea and the placebo group (30·5 (sd 61·8) % and 19·7 (sd 56·9)%, respectively). In the green tea treatment, habitual high caffeine consumption was associated with a higher weight regain compared with habitual low caffeine consumption (39 (sd 17) and 16 (sd 11)%, respectively; P<0·05). We conclude that weight maintenance after 7·5% body-weight loss was not affected by green tea treatment and that habitual caffeine consumption affected weight maintenance in the green tea treatment.
False belief and sentence complement performance in children with specific language impairment
Authors: Miller Carol A.
Published: March 2004

Background: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have language abilities not commensurate with other cognitive abilities. This pattern makes the SLI population of interest when investigating the relationship between language and theory of mind. One view regarding this relationship is that theory of mind develops independently of language, but certain language skills are required to meet the demands of tasks used to measure theory of mind, such as false belief. Another view is that language development facilitates theory of mind development, and specifically, that mastery of sentence complement structures is necessary for false belief.

Aims: The study asked (1) if children with SLI can succeed on false belief, despite their language deficits, when the linguistic demands of the false belief task are low, and (2) if performance on sentence complement structures predicts false belief performance.

Methods & Procedures: Fifteen children with SLI, 15 children matched for age and 15 children matched for language comprehension level participated in a false belief task with four conditions of differing linguistic complexity, and a test of sentence complementation understanding. Spontaneous production of sentence complements was also measured. Group differences for false belief and sentence complementation, and condition differences for false belief, were tested non‐parametrically. Partial correlation analysis, log–linear analysis, and Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney tests were used to explore relationships among the complementation and false belief measures for all children and for each group.

Outcomes & Results: Children with SLI performed similarly to age‐matched peers on false belief when linguistic complexity of the task was low, and performed more poorly than age‐matched peers on understanding of sentence complements. For all children, sentence complement performance was correlated with false belief (controlling for age), and those who performed well on sentence complements had higher mean rates of false belief success. Log–linear analysis showed the sentence complement–false belief relationship to hold for a condition with relatively low linguistic demands.

Conclusions: The study provides evidence that children with SLI can perform at age‐appropriate levels when false belief tasks are less demanding, and that mastery of sentence complementation is a predictor of false belief ability.
Cost‐effectiveness analysis of current practice and parent intervention for children under 3 years presenting with expressive language delay
Authors: Gibbard Deborah , Coglan Louisa , MacDonald John
Published: March 2004

Background: Parents and professionals can both play a role in improving children's expressive language development and a number of alternative models of delivery exist that involve different levels of input by these two groups. However, these alternative treatments have not been subject to rigorous comparative analysis in terms of both cost and clinical effectiveness.

Aims: To compare, from the viewpoint of the healthcare provider, parent‐based intervention (PBI) for preschool children presenting with expressive language delay with current practice observed in an actual healthcare setting where parents of the child follow a professional's advice on a review basis.

Methods & Procedures: Two groups of children were compared on a variety of expressive and receptive language assessment measures. One group (n=10) received standard individual general care. The comparison group (n=12) received PBI.

Outcomes & Results: After the 6‐month study, the results indicated that children who received PBI made significantly greater language gains that children who received current practice. In addition, a cost‐effective analysis was conducted. This showed that although the language gains delivered by PBI did incur some additional costs for the healthcare provider, there was no significant increase in cost per outcome gain over general care.

Conclusions: Options in the implementation of PBI are discussed that could potentially save costs for the healthcare providers and increase the value of a PBI‐based approach.