Introduction: Our knowledge of normal human colonic motility remains incomplete. Historically, this has been due to the relative inaccessibility of this organ for study, and the lack of standardisation of methods used to investigate it. Recent device development has provided us with advanced tools by which to assess colonic motility, namely pancolonic manometry, and the wireless motility capsule (WMC). Using traditional diagnostic tests, a subgroup of patients presenting with severe intractable symptoms, but without organic disease, are found to have slow transit constipation (STC). This is believed to be primarily due to colonic dysmotility, although colonic motor functions remain poorly understood in this group also. Aims: The principal aims of this thesis were to: (1) explore the effect of pancolonic manometric recording technique on colonic motility; (2) describe pancolonic motility in STC, compared to healthy control subjects; (3) using the wireless motility capsule (WMC), validate the precise location of the pH fall around the ileo-caecal junction as a landmark for measuring colonic motility; (4) obtain normative data for colonic motility (transit and contractility) and intraluminal pH in a large cohort of healthy volunteers using the WMC, and compare this to patients with STC. Methods: The following methods were used: (1) prolonged pancolonic manometry in healthy volunteers and patients with STC; (2) a dual scintigraphic technique, involving radioactive-labelling of the WMC in healthy volunteers; (3) wireless motility capsule studies of colonic motility in healthy volunteers and in patients with STC. Results: Colonic manometric recording technique (bowel preparation or not, and different catheter types) significantly influences some characteristics of propagating sequence (PS) activity, including frequency, amplitude, polarity, relationship between consecutive PSs, and circadian rhythm. Patients with STC display dysregulated colonic motor function represented by disorganised spatiotemporal patterning and loss of 'regional linkage' among PSs. The fall in pH measured by the WMC was confirmed to be either in the caecum, ascending colon, or as the capsule moved from the caecum to the ascending colon. Using the WMC, the upper limit of normal colonic transit time (CTT) was found to be 51 h; however, CTT is not a continuous variable and exhibits peaks every 24 h. CTT is significantly prolonged in females and affected by the study protocol employed. In patients with STC, colonic contractility (motility index) is increased in comparison with healthy controls, and intraluminal pH is more acidic in the proximal colon, and more alkaline in the distal colon. Conclusions: The method of pancolonic manometry requires standardisation. However, novel metrics derived from prolonged pancolonic recordings have improved our understanding of the physiology of colonic motor function in health, and also pathophysiology in constipation. The WMC provides an alternative, less invasive method to investigate colonic motility; this technique also requires standardisation, but early results in patients with STC complement those from manometry, and also reveal alterations in intraluminal pH that may be of pathophysiological significance.

The aim of this project is to design and craft sustainable fabrics according to slow fashion principles. Furthermore the intention is to develop these fabrics, to make them exciting and congenial for use as trouser fabric for skateboarders.

Inner hair cells (IHCs) are the actual sensory receptors in hearing. Immature IHCs generate spontaneous calcium-dependent action potentials. Changing the characteristic of the Ca2Å signals modulates the amplitude and duration of the action potentials in these cells. These spontaneous action potential firing patterns are thought to be important for the development of the auditory system. The aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of the electrical activity and calcium signalling during development of IHCs from a mathematical point of view. A numerical bifurcation analysis is performed to delineate the relative contributions of the model parameters to the asymptotic behaviour of the model. In particular, we investigate the pattern of periodic solutions including single (normal) spiking, pseudoplateau burstings and complex solutions using two-parameter sections of the parameter space. We also demonstrate that a simplified (three-dimensional) model can generate similar dynamics as the original (four-dimensional) IHC model. This reduced model could be characterised by two fast and one slow or one fast and two slow variables depending on the parameters’ choice. Hence, the mechanisms underlying the bursting dynamics and mixed mode oscillations in the model are studied applying 1-slow/2-fast and 2-slow/1-fast analysis, respectively.

With over 100,000 members in 153 countries, the Slow Food movement emphasizes the ethical and social dimensions of eating habits by creating a new kind of socially and ecologically aware consumerism. However, Slow Food's rhetorical emphasis on the agency of the consumer obscures the parallel role of the food producer, complicating inquiry into the broad claims for social justice presented by the movement. This dissertation examines the tension between the ideologies and practices of Slow Food and the locally-situated goals of small-scale food producers working to create economic, ecologic and cultural sustainability on daily basis. Multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Italy between 2006-2009 explores 1) international, national, and regional Slow Food events and 2) everyday life and work on a Tuscan agriturismo (farm-based tourism estate). Through an analysis of discursive messages that consumers receive, on the one hand, and the experiences of food producers on the other, I argue that Slow Food's restructuring of the consumer/producer relationship may play out on paper and at conferences--and sometimes even at the table--but it does so less often and less obviously on fields and farms. Current scholarly work on alternative food networks emphasizes the structural and economic processes that connect food producers to politically-conscious consumers. I extend and elaborate this discussion through a critical analysis of Slow Food's rhetorical and discursive strategies, and link these findings to my ethnographic study of small-scale, organic food producers in Italy. An emphasis on the relationships between producers and consumers underscores the changing nature of society's relationship to food production and consumption, highlighting the reflexivity of Slow Food in response to local, national, and global change.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the reported educational level and occupation of a child's parents affects school psychologists' judgments about the child. Specifically, given data which might support recommendations for either inclusion in or exclusion from programs for the learning disabled, the question is, would the parents' socioeconomic status significantly affect conclusions reached by school psychologists about placement in learning disability classes? A secondary purpose of the study was to determine the affects of implied socioeconomic status on psychologists' recommendations for integration in regular classes and prognosis for future school success, with and without provision of special help to the child.Three hundred subjects were selected from the 1979 Membership Directory of the National Association of School Psychologists. The Ss were selected randomly by assigning a number to each and drawing the numbers at random from a box. One hundred subjects were randomly assigned to each of three groups, two for experiemntal and one for control purposes. In February of 1980 all subjects were mailed psychological reports which included identifying and background information, referral reasons, and test results. Three versions of this report were used. These reports were identical in every respect except for information on parental education and occupation. The report provided to subjects in one experimental group indicated that the parents of the child in question had attained relatively high educational and occupational status. The report provided to subjects in the second experimental group indicated that the parents of the child in question had not finished high school and had public assistance as their main source of income. The subjects in the control group were given no information on parental education or occupation.The subjects in all three groups were asked to make judgments on four Likert-type affirmative statements. These pertained to the subjects' judgments regarding the appropriateness of placement in programs for the learning disabled, the likelihood of future academic success with and without the provision of special services, and the desirable percentage of integration in regular classes. The subjects were also asked to provide information on their own age, experience, education, certification status, and state where employed.172 of the 300 subjects (57.) returned usable response forms. Inspection of the demographic information revealed similar characteristics among the subjects in the three groups on mean age, mean years of experience, education certification status, and geographic location.Chi-Square and one-way analysis of variance were used to determine significant relationships and differences among the three groups' judgments or the Likert-type scales. Hypothesis I, which stated no significant relationship existed between the subjects' recommendations for placement in classes for the learning disabled and the parents' education and occupation, was not rejected.Hypothesis II, which stated that no significant relationship existed between the subjects' judgment regarding the likelihood of future academic success without the provision of special help and the parents' education and occupation, was not rejected. No significant relationship was found between the subjects' judgment regarding future academic success with the provision of special help and the parents' education and occupation. Thus, Hypothesis III was also not rejected.A one-way analysis of variance indicated no significant differences between the three groups on the mean percentage of integration in regular classes; thus, Hypothesis IV was not rejected.Within the limitations of the present study, several conclusions were made based on the statistical analyses of the data. In the present study parental education and occupation did not influence school psychologists' judgments regarding placement of a child in classes for the learning disabled, prognosis for future academic success with or without special help, and percentage of integration in regular classes.Recommendations were made for further research on the effects of bias caused by socioeconomic status and other variables. These included research utilizing similar designs in vivo studies, and matched group comparison of children already placed in classes for the learning disabled.

The purpose of this study was to determine if instructing secondary learning disabled students in how to use semantic maps and requiring the students to use semantic maps to study a passage would affect the recall of the passage after a 24 hour delay. An attempt was also made to determine if using a sequential list of the main points of the passage would affect delayed recall in the same positive way as did the use of the semantic maps. Four secondary learning disabled students who evidenced difficulty in recalling prose material after a 24 hour delay were selected for this study.A multiple baseline design across subjects using a multiple probe technique was used in this study. During baseline, students read a prose passage and were told to study it as they usually studied for a test since they would be asked questions about the passage the following day. Twenty-four hours later students were read 10 short-answer questions and their answers were recorded. Each student was in turn trained to use a semantic map to study a prose passage after reading it. When students exhibited Proficiency in using the semantic maps, daily assessments ofrecall were again made. Results showed that each of the four students recalled substantially more items when using the semantic map than during baseline.A changing elements design was then used to determine if using a sequential list of the main items from the passage would result in the same high recall scores which resulted from using the semantic maps. The results from this part of the study were inconclusive.It was concluded that training in the use of semantic maps and the requirement that a semantic map be used for study, resulted in increased recall for the secondary leaning disabled students in this study. The question of whether some other organizational format would be as effective as the use of the map needs further investigation.

This essay is concerned with the workings of hospitality towards the other in J.M. Coetzee’s novel Slow Man. The reading proposed here is that the bicycle accident which befalls protagonist Paul Rayment on the novel’s first page, costing him his leg and a large portion of his previous vitality, renders him momentarily “unstrung,” understood here as a state of passive openness to the unknown, of absolute  responsiveness or hospitality towards the other. The other is here defined as that which is—more or less—ungraspable in the self, in another being or in an unexpected event. A key argument put forward is that the accident also accentuates Paul Rayment’s enduring sense of unhomedness, his alienation in relation to body, language and self. The desire for home or belonging with other people brings about deliberate acts of hospitality on his part, as he tries to find a home for himself by inviting others in. The essay examines how these two strands of ideas—being unhomed and being unstrung—intersect in moments of hospitality in Slow Man, and reflects on how hospitality can and cannot succeed in creating a home for the subject. Theories of hospitality by Jacques Derrida, Derek Attridge and Mike Marais are discussed and serve as inspiration to the reading.

This essay is based on a critical review of dominant form of tourism industry that causes a system of meaning, making as consequences of reproducing of ‘image’ in media. Images of promised destinations bombard us everywhere, on billboards, small advertisement bar on social networks websites, on magazine and even in movies and TV series in designated smart way. These images define what we should experience when we are in such destinations and at the same time affirm any other forms of experience which is not recognized in these matrixes of images are not welcome. This means for example the meaning of safety and comfort in a travel is only achieved by the way that  has been already constructed in media through series of campaigns of a special tourism agency. One can say this mechanism forces us to accept that there is no other ways of having comfortable travel without going by airplanes and tourist packages without accommodating in hotels, without going to designated touristic areas in destination and so on and so forth. Here I draw on other alternative ways of doing travel like Slow tourism as a way of breaking such image making system in media as well as a way of experiencing what seems to be un-experience-able. For this I conducted a series of interviews with an experienced slow traveler who cycled several times between various countries. This essay is a qualitative/analytical text based on experiences of one slow traveler and critical reviews of  literature provided in this area.

Thesis--Ph. D., University of Hong Kong. / Includes reprints of 4 papers by the author and others in the appendices.

Abstract The aim of this trial was to evaluate the effect of embryo cryopreservation techniques on the survivability of embryos and fertility following transfer to Boer goat does. The oestrous cycles of 27 mature recipients Boer goat does were synchronised using controlled internal drug release dispensers (CIDR’s) for 16 days. At CIDR removal, does were injected with 300 IU eCG. The recipient does were allocated to 3 groups (n = 9 per group), based on the technique of cryopreservation used for the embryos transferred. The in vivo produced embryos used were at blastocyst stage and surgically collected on day 6 following AI from Boer goat donors superovulated with pFSH. The first group received fresh embryos and served as the control, the second group of does received conventional slow frozen/thawed embryos and the third group received vitrified/thawed embryos. Two blastocysts were transferred per doe. A pregnancy rate of 85.7% (n = 6) was obtained following the transfer of fresh embryos and tended to be better than in does receiving slow frozen and vitrified embryos, (n = 4; 50.0% and n = 3; 37.5% does pregnant, respectively). The overall gestation period recorded for all does was 146.3 ± 3.0 d, with an overall litter size of 1.7 ± 0.5 being recorded. The kidding rate of the recipient does declined to 57.0% (4) and 25.0% (2) for fresh and conventional slow frozen groups, respectively. An embryo survival rate of 35.7% (n = 5) for fresh, 25.0% (n = 4) for conventional slow freezing and 31.3% (n = 5) for vitrification was recorded and was not affected by the number of CL’s present on the respective ovaries at the time of transfer. There was a tendency for more females to be born than males (ratio 1 : 2, male : female) but this could not be related to the cryopreservation technique. Although the pregnancy rate following the transfer of fresh embryos was satisfactory, the embryo survival rate following the transfer of either fresh or cryopreserved embryos tended to be less acceptable. More research is warranted with larger numbers of animals, directed at improving the survivability of embryos following fresh and cryopreserved goat embryo transfer.