This thesis assessed whether rape is an adaptive mating strategy. which was naturally selected for in our ancestral past. It investigated a number of constructs. namely: fertility value; victim-offender relationship; socio-economic status; rape proclivity; actual sexual aggression; and sociosexual orientation. There were two types of studies: studies 1-3 involved archival data, e.g. the use of criminal statistics. and studies 4-7 assessed participant data, e.g. rape attitudes. Study 1 found that fertility value (FV) was related to rape prevalence, as was reproductive value (RV). In addition, offenders with a nonreproductive sexual preference tended to rape a victim with a low FV. and offenders who committed a secondary offence tended to rape a victim with high FV. Study 2 found that there was a smaller number of offences committed against strangers and partners, and a larger number committed against step-relatives and acquaintances. More rapes were committed by low status than high status men. even when the base rate was accounted for. Study 3, showed that there was a relationship between the population gender ratio and rape prevalence. However. the covariable population density was positively related to rape prevalence. Study 4- found that there was more disapproval of a depicted rape committed by a low status offender. A low status offender who raped a victim with low RV attracted more disapproval. Study 5 showed that marital rape was disapproved of more than both stranger and acquaintance rape. Individuals with a short-term mating strategy disapproved of rape more than those with a long-term strategy, and a long-term strategist disapproved of a marital rape less than a short-term strategist. Study 6 found that those who possessed a promiscuous ideology perceived their future life to be limited, in particular the likelihood of being happily married. There was no relationship found between perceived future life and sexual aggression. In study 7. it was found that those who had a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation were more likely to have asymmetrical bodily traits (e.g. ear height. finger length). and that the right hand 20:40 digit ratio (a measure of prenatal testosterone)was significantly related to actual sexual aggression. Overall. there was partial support for rape as an adaptive mechanism. but the studics wcre also consistent with a by-product explanation of rape.

The goal with this work is to study the settlement during the Middle Neolithic B. Looking at the settlement pattern of the Battle Axe C culture (BAC) in Scania we might be able to get a picture of how the social structure of the BAC looked like and how it differed from' earlier and later culture groups.. What can a change in settlement tell archaeologists today about this and what problems do archeologist have to take into consideration.

William Butler Yeats published the first section of the Autobiographies in 1915 with the appearance of Reveries Over Childhood and Youth and published the last contribution to the final volume of 1955 with Dramatis Personae in 1935. For a period of twenty years, Yeats was formulating this official version of his life. The constant building and selecting for this version created a volume that, for the most part, carefully edited out too personal reflections and also served to present an incomplete and disjointed autobiography.

Laboratory experimentation was once considered impossible or irrelevant in economics. Recently, however, economic science has gone through a real ‘laboratory revolution’, and experimental economics is now a most lively subfield of the discipline. The methodological advantages and disadvantages of controlled experimentation constitute the main subject of this thesis. After a survey of the literature on experiments in philosophy and economics (chapter one), the problem of testing normative theories of rationality is tackled (chapter two). This philosophical issue was at the centre of a famous controversy in decision theory (the ‘Allais controversy’), during which a methodology of normative falsification was first articulated and used to assess experimental results. In the third chapter, the methodological advantages of controlled experimentation are illustrated and discussed with examples taken from the experiments on the so-called ‘preference reversal’ phenomenon. Laboratory testing allows to establish with a high degree of certainty that certain phenomena lie behind the experimental data, by means of independent testing, elimination of alternative hypotheses, and the use of different instruments of observation. The fourth chapter is devoted to a conceptual analysis of the problem of ‘parallelism’. This is the problem of inferring from the occurrence of a phenomenon in the laboratory, to its (possible) instantiation also in non-laboratory environments. Experimental economists have discussed parallelism at length, and their views are presented and criticised. Eventually, it is argued that parallelism is a factual matter and as such can only be established on empirical grounds. The fifth chapter provides an example of how one can argue for parallelism, focusing on the case of experimentation on the ‘winner’s curse’ phenomenon. The role of experiments as ‘mediators’ between theoretical models and their target domain of application is illustrated, and the structure of parallelism arguments analysed in detail. Finally, in the last chapter, economic experiments are compared to simulations, in order to highlight their specific characteristics.

This dissertation presents a synthesis of methods for structural optimization of aircraft wing boxes. The optimization problem considered herein is the minimization of structural weight with respect to component sizes, subject to stress constraints. Different aspects of structural optimization methods representing the current state-of-the-art are discussed, including sequential quadratic programming, sensitivity analysis, parameterization of design variables, constraint handling, and multiple load treatment. Shortcomings of the current techniques are identified and a B-spline parameterization representing the structural sizes is proposed to address them. A new configurable B-spline parameterization method for structural optimization of wing boxes is developed that makes it possible to flexibly explore design spaces. An automatic scheme using different levels of B-spline parameterization configurations is also proposed, along with a constraint aggregation method in order to reduce the computational effort. Numerical results are compared to evaluate the effectiveness of the B-spline approach and the constraint aggregation method. To evaluate the new formulations and explore design spaces, the wing box of an airliner is optimized for the minimum weight subject to stress constraints under multiple load conditions. The new approaches are shown to significantly reduce the computational time required to perform structural optimization and to yield designs that are more realistic than existing methods.

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition which affects up to 1% of the general population and results in episodes of mania and depression. Molecular biological studies have shown that several components of the signal transduction pathways are affected in bipolar illness. However, the precise systems and components involved in the disorder still remain unknown. Our goal was to identify some of the differences in signal transduction pathways of B-lymphocytes. Using cultured lymphocytes obtained from bipolar patients, we found that there exist no difference in the levels of protein kinase C, Galphas and Galphai proteins, and tubulin between control and bipolar cell lines following stimulation of the PI pathway with the 5-HT 2 receptor agonist, alpha-methyl serotonin. These data are not consistent with previous findings. The lack of a significant difference between control and bipolar with respect to PKC might be due to the fact that we studied a different cell type or to poor stimulation conditions, and/or possibly to a high PKC content in the membrane of these cells, thereby masking the effect of stimulation. The results obtained for the G proteins can be attributed to a lack of effect of the agonist on these proteins which are associated with the adenylate cyclase pathway.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of arterial blood vessels, characterized by deposition of lipoproteins in the arterial wall. Atherosclerotic plaques form preferentially in distinct regions of the vasculature such as branch points, curvatures and bifurcations, suggesting that local hemodynamic forces may contribute to disease susceptibility. Shear stress imparted on endothelial cells (ECs) by the flowing blood has been shown to modulate gene expression and remodelling of the artery. In this thesis, an in vitro model was established to recreate the contrasting environments found in atherosclerosis-prone and atherosclerosis-resistant regions of the vasculature to demonstrate a direct causal-relationship between shear stress and expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and p65 in ECs. In vitro assessment of cell shape and expression patterns of these anti- and atherogenic genes demonstrated that shear stress can induce cell morphology and gene expression patterns that are similar to ECs in atherosclerosis-prone and atherosclerosis-resistant regions of the mouse vasculature. Regulation of eNOS transcription by shear stress was demonstrated using a transgenic mouse model and in vitro heterogeneous nuclear RNA (hnRNA) quantification. Similar to ECs in atherosclerosis-prone regions, epithelial cells lining the small intestine lumen express high levels of p65. To investigate the effects of p65 expression levels on constitutive and tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα)-induced nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signalling, p65 expression was suppressed in HeLa cells by RNA interference. Lower p65 expression resulted in reduced TNFα-induced expression of NF-κB target genes, including many subunits of inhibitor of nuclear factor κB (IκB), demonstrating modulation of NF-κB priming by p65 expression levels. Suppression of p65 also affected constitutive expression levels of IκB, and resulted in re-setting of the NF-κB/IκB equilibrium. Experiments using inhibitors of canonical NF-κB signalling found that basal expression of NF-κB components is independent of nuclear factor κB kinase β (IKKβ) activity and proteasome-mediated degradation of IκBα. Together, these studies elucidate the mechanism of flow-mediated gene regulation and the effect of resulting changes in p65 expression on NF-κB signalling.

Three experiments were conducted to characterize the fate of B-vitamins in the gastrointestinal tract of dairy cows. Experiment 1 was undertaken to verify if differences among published studies could be explained by methods of collection and preparation of ruminal fluid, using four ruminally cannulated non-lactating Holstein cows. Acidification of fresh ruminal fluid, causing the lysis of bacterial cells, yielded higher B-vitamin concentrations than differential centrifugation, while the method of collection used did not have an important impact. Results suggested that most of the vitamins are present in the bacterial fractions, and that only limited amounts are present in the surrounding fluid. Experiment 2 looked at the vitamin concentrations in ruminal bacterial fractions and particle-free fluid as influenced by diet composition. Six lactating ruminally cannulated Holstein cows were used in a cross-over design, and the diets were formulated to have forage to concentrate ratios of 60:40 (high-forage) and 40:60 (low-forage). B-vitamins were present mainly in the bacterial fractions of the rumen, with greater effects of the forage to concentrate ratio on vitamin concentrations in the bacteria associated to the solid fraction than on those present in the liquid portion of the rumen. These results strongly suggested that ruminal B-vitamin synthesis is influenced by the forage to concentrate ratio. Experiment 3 investigated the fate of supplementary B-vitamins, using four cows equipped with cannulae in the rumen, the proximal duodenum and the distal ileum. Extensive losses of dietary supplements appeared prior to the duodenum for all vitamins, but intestinal disappearance rates of most vitamins were increased by supplementation.

Rule following is a central concept in the philosophy of Wittgenstein who was one of the pioneers of modern philosophy. Wittgenstein criticizes the traditional concepts of rule, because they were vague, ambiguous, and idealized. He thinks that it is not possible to isolate rules from practice and that a rule takes its meaning in a certain context or in practice. Wittgenstein&rsquo / s concept of rule following is closely related to a set of concepts: internal relation, understanding, criterion. These concepts explains the intimate relation between rule following and practice. Wittgenstein believes that his theory of rule following does not generate some problems such as paradox of interpretation and regression. Furthermore, the concept of practice plays a central role in Wittgenstein&rsquo / s view of rule following. He removes metaphysical speculations that are put forward concerning the &ldquo / essence&rdquo / of rule following and locates rule following in a form of life, that is in a natural context. With this, he provides an explanation that clarifies misuses of language and establishes a correct relation between theory and practice.

The aim of this thesis is to try to establish a relationship between Heidegger&rsquo / s thought on authenticity and art, and to show the role of art in authentic being of Dasein. Dasein&rsquo / s being authentic depends on Dasein&rsquo / s revealing of itself as itself. In this respect art plays an important role in revealing Dasein as itself. Thus, the relation between art and authenticity can be based on alethia which is the revealing of being as itself. At the same time art plays an important role in authenticating Dasein by its world-disclosing feature as it allows Dasein&rsquo / s own world to reveal itself in its own way.