Journal articles on the topic 'DEM void filling'

The digital elevation model (DEM) generates a digital simulation of ground terrain in a certain range with the usage of 3D point cloud data. It is an important source of spatial modeling information. Due to various reasons, however, the generated DEM has data holes. Based on the algorithm of deep learning, this paper aims to train a deep generation model (DGM) to complete the DEM void filling task. A certain amount of DEM data and a randomly generated mask are taken as network inputs, along which the reconstruction loss and generative adversarial network (GAN) loss are used to assist network training, so as to perceive the overall known elevation information, in combination with the contextual attention layer, and generate data with reliability to fill the void areas. The experimental results have managed to show that this method has good feature expression and reconstruction accuracy in DEM void filling, which has been proven to be better than that illustrated by the traditional interpolation method.

Digital elevation models (DEMs) are an important information source for spatial modeling. However, data voids, which commonly exist in regions with rugged topography, result in incomplete DEM products, and thus significantly degrade DEM data quality. Interpolation methods are commonly used to fill voids of small sizes. For large-scale voids, multi-source fusion is an effective solution. Nevertheless, high-quality auxiliary source information is always difficult to retrieve in rugged mountainous areas. Thus, the void filling task is still a challenge. In this paper, we proposed a method based on a deep convolutional generative adversarial network (DCGAN) to address the problem of DEM void filling. A terrain texture generation model (TTGM) was constructed based on the DCGAN framework. Elevation, terrain slope, and relief degree composed the samples in the training set to better depict the terrain textural features of the DEM data. Moreover, the resize-convolution was utilized to replace the traditional deconvolution process to overcome the staircase in the generated data. The TTGM was trained on non-void SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) 1-arc-second data patches in mountainous regions collected across the globe. Then, information neighboring the voids was involved in order to infer the latent encoding for the missing areas approximated to the distribution of training data. This was implemented with a loss function composed of pixel-wise, contextual, and perceptual constraints during the reconstruction process. The most appropriate fill surface generated by the TTGM was then employed to fill the voids, and Poisson blending was performed as a postprocessing step. Two models with different input sizes (64 × 64 and 128 × 128 pixels) were trained, so the proposed method can efficiently adapt to different sizes of voids. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can obtain results with good visual perception and reconstruction accuracy, and is superior to classical interpolation methods.

Abstract. In 2016, the first processing of the semi-global digital surface models (DSMs) utilizing all the archives of stereo imageries derived from the Panchromatic Remote sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) was successfully completed. The dataset was freely released to the public in 30 m grid spacing as the ‘ALOS World 3D - 30m (AW3D30)’, which was generated from its original version processed in 5 m or 2.5 m grid spacing. The dataset has been updated since then to improve the absolute/relative height accuracies with additional calibrations. However, the most significant update that should be applied for improving the data usability is the filling of void areas, which correspond to approx. 10% of semiglobal coverage, mostly due to cloud covers. In 2020, we completed the filling process by using other open-access digital elevation models (DEMs) such as Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global DEM (ASTER GDEM), ArcticDEM, etc., except for Antarctica. In this paper, we report on the filling process of the remaining voids in Antarctica by using other open-access DEMs such as Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) DSM, TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement (TanDEM-X, TDX) 90m DEM, and ASTER GDEM to complete the void-free semi-global AW3D30 datasets.

The digital elevation model (DEM) acquired through photogrammetry or LiDAR usually exposes voids due to phenomena such as instrumentation artifact, ground occlusion, etc. For this reason, this paper proposes a multiattention generative adversarial network model to fill the voids. In this model, a multiscale feature fusion generation network is proposed to initially fill the voids, and then a multiattention filling network is proposed to recover the detailed features of the terrain surrounding the void area, and the channel-spatial cropping attention mechanism module is proposed as an enhancement of the network. Spectral normalization is added to each convolution layer in the discriminator network. Finally, the training of the model by a combined loss function, including reconstruction loss and adversarial loss, is optimized. Three groups of experiments with four different types of terrains, hillsides, valleys, ridges and hills, are conducted for validation of the proposed model. The experimental results show that (1) the structural similarity surrounding terrestrial voids in the three types of terrains (i.e., hillside, valley, and ridge) can reach 80–90%, which implies that the DEM accuracy can be improved by at least 10% relative to the traditional interpolation methods (i.e., Kriging, IDW, and Spline), and can reach 57.4%, while other deep learning models (i.e., CE, GL and CR) only reach 43.2%, 17.1% and 11.4% in the hilly areas, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that the structural similarity surrounding the terrestrial voids filled using the model proposed in this paper can reach 60–90% upon the types of terrain, such as hillside, valley, ridge, and hill.

Based on Discrete Element Method(DEM), initial state models of steel balls were establisheded by Particle Flow Code in three Dimensions (PFC 3D), the initial void rate of steel balls at different filling rate were calculated. The results showed that at the same filling rate, the initial void rate of steel balls decreased as steel ball’s diameter decreased. The initial void rate of steel balls with one diameter and grading steel balls both increased gradully as ball filling rate increased, but the initial void rate of grading steel balls were smaller than that of steel balls with one diameter. The Stratification phenomenon will occur after steel balls in grading scheme reached to the initial equilibrium sates, that is, Large steel balls moved near the mill’s center, but small steel balls moved away from the mill’s center and close to the cylinder of mill, which is benifical to improve grinding effeciency.

Abstract. In 2016 we first completed the global data processing of digital surface models (DSMs) by using the whole archives of stereo imageries derived from the Panchromatic Remote sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS). The dataset was freely released to the public in 30 m grid spacing as the ‘ALOS World 3D - 30m (AW3D30)’, which was generated from its original version processed in 5 m or 2.5 m grid spacing. The dataset has been updated since then to improve the absolute/relative height accuracies with additional calibrations. However the most significant update that should be applied for improving the data usability is the filling of void areas, which correspond to approx. 10% of global coverage, mostly due to cloud covers. In this paper we introduce the updates of AW3D30 filling the voids with other open-access DSMs such as Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global DEM (ASTER GDEM), ArcticDEM, etc., through inter-comparisons among these datasets.

Herein, two-dimensional (2D) single-action die compaction process of copper (Cu) powder was simulated by the multiparticle finite element method (MPFEM) at particulate scale. The initial packing structure, generated by the discrete element method (DEM), was used as an input for the FEM model, where the mesh division of each particle was discretized. The evolution of macro- and microscopic properties, such as relative density, stress distribution, particle deformation, void filling behavior, and force transmission, during compaction and pressure release processes have been systematically studied. The results revealed that the force is mainly concentrated on largely deformed regions of the particles during compaction and formed a contact force network, which hindered the densification process. In the compact, the shorter side of the large void edges rendered higher stress than the longer side. On the other hand, the stress distribution of small void edges remained uniform. After pressure release, large residual stress was observed at the contact area of the adjacent particles and the maximum stress was observed at the particles’ edges. Moreover, the residual stress did not proceed to the interior of the particles. Meanwhile, the stress of large void edges has been completely released but exhibited a nonuniform distribution. The smaller fraction of void filling resulted in a larger reduction of the released stress after pressure removal. Also, the particles closer to the upper die exhibited higher average equivalent von Mises stress inside the particles during compaction and pressure release processes.

The Landsat Collection-2 distribution introduces a new global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for scene orthorectification. The new global DEM is a composite of the latest and most accurate freely available DEM sources and will include reprocessed Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) data (called NASADEM), high-resolution stereo optical data (ArcticDEM), a new National Elevation Dataset (NED) and various publicly available national datasets including the Canadian Digital Elevation Model (CDEM) and DEMs for Sweden, Norway and Finland (SNF). The new DEM will be available world-wide with few exceptions. It is anticipated that the transition from the Collection-1 DEM at 3 arcsecond to the new DEM will be seamless because processing methods to maintain a seamless transition were employed, void filling techniques were used, where persistent gaps were found, and the pixel spacing is the same between the two collections. Improvements to the vertical accuracy were realized by differencing accuracies of other elevation datasets to the new DEM. The greatest improvement occurred where ArcticDEM data were used, where an improvement of 35 m was measured. By using theses improved vertical values in a line of sight algorithm, horizontal improvements were noted in some of the most mountainous regions over multiple 30-m Landsat pixels. This new DEM will be used to process all of the scenes from Landsat 1-8 in Collection-2 processing and will be made available to the public by the end of 2020.

We investigate the dynamics of regolith on rubble-pile asteroids to explain granular processes observed in reality. In particular, we explain how the appearance of boulders on the surface of asteroid Itokawa could have resulted from a size sorting process in granular media called the Brazil Nut Effect (BNE). The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is implemented to perform numerical simulations of the BNE in a micro-gravity environment caused by inter-particle collisions during seismic vibrations. Firstly, we present the results of how the BNE depends on the magnitude of surface gravity. It is estimated that segregation processes on Itokawa occur over much longer time-scales (in the order of a few hundred years) than the same processes would require in the presence of a strong gravitational field, like on Earth. Secondly, we also find that the size sorting could also result from kinetic sieving encountered during granular avalanches. Finally, we discuss how the void-filling mechanism becomes more efficient when there is a higher relative size difference between the boulders and the surrounding grains. Our model has important implications in understanding the resurfacing of Itokawa by trying to explain one of the many complex geophysical processes that occur in such unique conditions.

OBJECTIVEPrevious patient surveys have shown that patients with spinal cord or cauda equina injuries prioritize recovery of bladder function. The authors sought to determine if nerve transfer after long-term decentralization restores bladder and sphincter function in canines.METHODSTwenty-four female canines were included in this study. Transection of sacral roots and hypogastric nerves (S Dec) was performed in 6 animals, and 7 animals underwent this procedure with additional transection of the L7 dorsal roots (L7d+S Dec). Twelve months later, 3 L7d+S Dec animals underwent obturator-to-pelvic nerve and sciatic-to-pudendal nerve transfers (L7d+S Dec+Reinn). Eleven animals served as controls. Squat-and-void behaviors were tracked before and after decentralization, after reinnervation, and following awake bladder-filling procedures. Bladders were cystoscopically injected with Fluoro-Gold 3 weeks before euthanasia. Immediately before euthanasia, transferred nerves were stimulated to evaluate motor function. Dorsal root ganglia were assessed for retrogradely labeled neurons.RESULTSTransection of only sacral roots failed to reduce squat-and-void postures; L7 dorsal root transection was necessary for significant reduction. Three L7d+S Dec animals showing loss of squat-and-void postures post-decentralization were chosen for reinnervation and recovered these postures 4–6 months after reinnervation. Each showed obturator nerve stimulation–induced bladder contractions and sciatic nerve stimulation–induced anal sphincter contractions immediately prior to euthanasia. One showed sciatic nerve stimulation–induced external urethral sphincter contractions and voluntarily voided twice following nonanesthetized bladder filling. Reinnervation was confirmed by increased labeled cells in L2 and the L4–6 dorsal root ganglia (source of obturator nerve in canines) of L7d+S Dec+Reinn animals, compared with controls.CONCLUSIONSNew neuronal pathways created by nerve transfer can restore bladder sensation and motor function in lower motor neuron–lesioned canines even 12 months after decentralization.

Based on field compaction test of Nuozhadu I district rockfill engineering, numerical simulation was conducted to study the rolling compaction (RC) process using Particle Flow Code (PFC). Effects of different particle content to the quality of dam filling were discussed based on both numerical and filed test results. Numerical results also revealed the particle movement of the rockfill, the density of the formation mechanism and compaction characteristics during the RC process. Field test and simulated results both indicated that the RC process can be divided into three stages of vibration compaction, void filling and the unloading rebound phase

As a result of developing technology and scientific studies, employing dam tailings as critical raw material and vital economic reserve has become widespread recently. Employing dam tailings as a main ingredient of CPB (cemented paste backfill) can offer benefits to mining operations. This study deals with the use of dam tailings in CPB, considering the mechanical and geotechnical aspects. CPB was prepared at fixed solid and cement contents (72%, and 5%, respectively) and tested for different cure ages varying from 3 to 56 days. The results disclosed that the strength of filling increased over time, with the exception of 56-day cured CPB having high sulfur minerals where strength decreased sharply. The reasons behind these strength surges could be clarified by CPB’s basicity, which quickens the hydration of cement. Voids between tailings grains are also occupied by hydration products, resulting in the high strengths. Due to the fact that higher sulfate contents can cause lower pH values within CPB, this is one of the factors that should be considered for the backfill’s strength performance. The cement tends to increase the backfill’s pH in short term, but pH of long-term cured backfills decreases because of dam tailings which is inclined to acid formations and erosions. This is a sign that the deformation properties of CPB are deteriorated. Depending on curing time, CPB’s water content and void ratio decrease, but their surface areas increase. The resulting data will endow to better apprehend the effects of dam tailings on CPB quality integrating cost and quality.

This study concerns the development of a gap-fill process technology for isolating trench patterns. There are various gap-filling techniques in the case of trench patterns; nevertheless, a processing technology adopting the DED (deposition/etch/deposition) method was developed in this study. After the etch step, an Ar/O2 (1:2) plasma treatment technology reduced the residual amount of F in the films to 0.05%. By improving the etch uniformity, the deposition uniformity after the DED process on a 12-inch flat wafer was secured within <1%, and a high-quality SiO2 thin film with a dielectric constant of 3.97 and a breakdown field of 11.41 MV/cm was fabricated. The DED method can be used for gap-filling even in patterns with a high aspect ratio by changing process parameters, such as RF power and division of etch steps, according to the shape, depth, and CD size of the pattern. This study confirmed that a void-free gap-fill process can be developed in a trench pattern with a maximum aspect ratio of 40:1.

Objectives: The purpose of the current study is to evaluate and compare the effect of three different bone void fillers; autogenous bone (auto), calcium phosphate cement (cement), and demineralized bone matrix (DBM), on anterior knee pain following anterior cruciate (ACL) reconstruction with bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB) autograft. Methods: This is a single-center randomized, controlled trial conducted in 150 patients. Patients undergoing ACL reconstruction with BTPB autograft were equally randomized into the three bone void filler cohorts; 1) auto, 2) cement, or 3) DBM. Baseline day of surgery, postoperative 1 week, and postoperative 1.5, 3, and 6 months VAS scores and KOOS and KUJALA scores at 1.5, 3, 6, and 12 months were evaluated. To compare primary and secondary outcomes between the three groups with auto group as control, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed. A p-value of 0.05 was set to determine statistical significance. Results: An interim analysis was conducted on 70 patients with 6 month follow-up outcomes. There were no significant differences in VAS scores between groups at baseline (p =0.919), 1 week postoperatively (p = 0.75), 1.5 months postoperatively (p = 0.708), 3 months postoperatively (p = 0.529), and 6 months postoperatively (p = 0.115). In addition, no significant differences in KOOS scores were seen between the groups at 1.5 months (p = 0.365), 3 months (p = 0.964), or 6 months (p = 0.917). Similarly, no significant differences in KOOS scores were seen between the groups at 1.5 months (p =0.514), 3 months (p =0.763), or 6 months (p =0.815). Conclusions: There is no difference in the level of anterior knee pain or patient-reported functional outcome scores between the auto, cement and DBM for patellar bone void filling following ACLR with BPTB.

Abstract. We present the generation and validation of an updated version of the TanDEM-X digital elevation model (DEM) of Antarctica: the TanDEM-X PolarDEM 90 m of Antarctica. Improvements compared to the global TanDEM-X DEM version comprise filling gaps with newer bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) acquisitions of the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites, interpolation of smaller voids, smoothing of noisy areas, and replacement of frozen or open sea areas with geoid undulations. For the latter, a new semi-automatic editing approach allowed for the delineation of the coastline from DEM and amplitude data. Finally, the DEM was transformed into the cartographic Antarctic Polar Stereographic projection with a homogeneous metric spacing in northing and easting of 90 m. As X-band SAR penetrates the snow and ice pack by several meters, a new concept for absolute height adjustment was set up that relies on areas with stable penetration conditions and on ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite) elevations. After DEM generation and editing, a sophisticated height error characterization of the whole Antarctic continent with ICESat data was carried out, and a validation over blue ice achieved a mean vertical height error of just −0.3 m ± 2.5 m standard deviation. The filled and edited Antarctic TanDEM-X PolarDEM 90 m is outstanding due to its accuracy, homogeneity, and coverage completeness. It is freely available for scientific purposes and provides a high-resolution data set as basis for polar research, such as ice velocity, mass balance estimation, or orthorectification.

Several global digital elevation models (DEMs) have been developed in the last two decades. The most recent addition to the family of global DEMs is the TanDEM-X DEM. The original version of the TanDEM-X DEM is, however, a nonedited product (i.e., it contains local artefacts such as voids, spikes, and holes). Therefore, subsequent identification of local artefacts and their editing is necessary. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of the original TanDEM-X DEM and its improved edited version, the Copernicus DEM, in three major European mountain ranges (the Alps, the Carpathians, and the Pyrenees) using a digital surface model derived from airborne laser scanning data as a reference. In addition, to evaluate the applicability of data acquisition characteristics (coverage map, consistency mask, and height error map) and terrain characteristics (slope, aspect, altitude) to the localization of problematic sites, we modeled their associations with the TanDEM-X DEM error. We revealed local occurrences of large errors in the TanDEM-X DEM that were typically found on steep ridges or in canyons, which were largely corrected in the Copernicus DEM. The editing procedure used for the Copernicus DEM construction was evidently successful as the RMSE for the TanDEM-X and Copernicus DEMs at the 90 m resolution improved from 45 m to 12 m, from 16 m to 6 m, and from 24 m to 9 m for the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Carpathians, respectively. The Copernicus DEM at the 30 m resolution performed similarly well. The boosted regression trees showed that acquisition characteristics provided as auxiliary data are useful for locating problematic sites and explained 28–50% of deviance of the absolute vertical error. The absolute vertical error was strongly related to the height error map. Finally, up to 26% of cells in the Copernicus DEM were filled using DEMs from different time periods and, hence, users performing multitemporal analysis or requiring data from a specific time period in the mountain environment should be wary when using TanDEM-X and its derivations. We suggest that when filling problematic sites using alternative DEMs, more attention should be paid to the period of their collection to minimize the temporal displacement in the final products.

Inspired by the size of the voids in closest packing structures, we propose to use the combination of spherical particles with different size scales to increase the loading fraction of the fillers in epoxy-based composites. In this study, high loading up to 79 vol% has been achieved with multiscale particle sizes of spherical Al2O3 particles. The highest thermal conductivity of Al2O3-filled liquid epoxy measured by steady-state method is 6.7 W m−1 K−1 at 25°C, which is approximately 23 times higher than the neat epoxy (0.28 W m−1 K−1). Three models based on Maxwell mean-field scheme (MMF), differential effective medium (DEM) and percolation theory model (PTM) were utilized to assess our measured thermal conductivity data. We found that both DEM and PTM models could give good results at high volume fraction regime. We have also observed a considerable reduction (10–15%) of thermal conductivity in our Al2O3-filled cured epoxy samples. We attribute this reduction to the increasing of thermal interfacial resistance between Al2O3 particles and cured epoxy matrix, induced by cure shrinkage during the reaction. Our experiments have demonstrated that systems with multiscale particle sizes exhibit lower viscosity and can be filled with much higher fraction of fillers. We thus expect that higher thermal conductivity (probably >12 W m−1 K−1 based on DEM) can be achieved in future via filling higher thermal conductivity spherical fillers (e.g., AlN, SiC), increasing loading fraction by multiscale-disperse packing and reducing the effect from cure shrinkage.

The design and construction of civil engineering structures in karst regions confronts many problems due to unpredictable location, dimensions and geometry of the karst structure and voids. Karst terrain is one of the most intricate grounds to be assessed for civil engineering purposes. Conventional methods of site exploration like desk studies, site reconnaissance, borings, test pits, geophysical techniques, have their advantages and disadvantages; none of them are 100% accurate; therefore they should be used in concert, adapted to each project, the available budget and the undertaken risk. As not two sides are identical in karst, site investigation should be tailored to each site. Factors that should be considered when designing site investigation in karst are: maturity of karst landforms, depth of the karst features, overburden thickness, lateral extent of the karst features, hydrogeology of the area, laoding, etc. The main problems confronted by engineers designing structures on or in karst terrain are: difficulties in excavation and grading the ground over pinnacled rockheads; collapse of the roof over subsurface voids, subsidence of cover soil over sinkhole, difficulties in founding a structure over an irregular or pinnacled rockhead, loss of water from dam reservoirs, pollution of groundwater, etc. A number of solutions have been practiced by engineers to solve these problems like: relocating the structure on a safer site, filling the voids and the fractures with concrete, improving the foundation ground with grouting and/or geogrids, replacing foundation soil, bridging the voids with rigid mats orbeams, using deep foundations (piling, drilled shafts, etc.), minimizing future sinkhole development by controlling surface and ground water, etc.

Headlines High clinical success rate is expected when each step of the root canal treatment adheres to high quality standard of care. An aseptic working field is maintained throughout the treatment using a tightly placed rubber dam preventing microbial contamination. Access cavity with adequate size and shape enables a straight-line entry to the root canals. Chemomechanical preparation using chemically-active irrigants removes microbial products and dissolve necrotic tissues. A root-filling material with adequate length and size without any voids obturate the root canals, and the final restoration is placed in a timely manner.

IntroductionIn Britain, hunger is often hidden in the privacy of the home. Yet otherwise private hunger is currently being rendered public and visible in the growing queues at charity-run food banks, where emergency food parcels are distributed directly to those who cannot afford to feed themselves or their families adequately (Downing et al.; Caplan). Food banks, in providing emergency relief to those in need, are responses to crisis moments, actualised through an embodied feeling of hunger that cannot be alleviated. The growing queues at food banks not only render hidden hunger visible, but also serve as reminders of the corporeal vulnerability of the human body to political and socio-economic shifts.A consideration of corporeality allows us to view the world through the lived experiences of the body. Human beings are “creatures of the flesh” who understand and reason, act and interact with their environments through the body (Johnson 81). The growing academic interest in corporeality signifies what Judith Butler calls a “new bodily ontology” (2). However, as Butler highlights, the body is also vulnerable to injury and suffering. An application of this ontology to hunger draws attention to eating as essential to life, so the denial of food poses an existential threat to health and ultimately to survival. The body’s response to threat is the physiological experience of hunger as a craving or longing that is the “most bodily experience of need […] a visceral desire locatable in a void” in which an empty stomach “initiates” a series of sounds and pangs that “call for action” in the form of eating (Anderson 27). Food bank queues serve as visible public reminders of this precariousness and of how social conditions can limit the ability of individuals to feed themselves, and so respond to an existential threat.Corporeal vulnerability made visible elicits responses that support societal interventions to feed the hungry, or that stigmatise hungry people by withdrawing or disparaging what limited support is available. Responses to vulnerability therefore evoke nurture and care or violence and abuse, and so in this sense are ambiguous (Butler; Cavarero). The responses are also normative, shaped by social and cultural understandings of what hunger is, what its causes are, and whether it is seen as originating in personal or societal failings. The stigmatising of individuals by blaming them for their hunger is closely allied to the feelings of shame that lie at the “irreducible absolutist core” of the idea of poverty (Sen 159). Shame is where the “internally felt inadequacies” of the impoverished individual and the “externally inflicted judgments” of society about the hungry body come together in a “co-construction of shame” (Walker et al. 5) that is a key part of the lived experience of hunger. The experience of shame, while common, is far from inevitable and is open to resistance (see Pickett; Foucault); shame can be subverted, turned from the hungry body and onto the society that allows hunger to happen. Who and what are deemed responsible are shaped by shifting ideas and contested understandings of hunger at a particular moment in time (Vernon).This exploration of corporeal vulnerability through food banks as a historically located response to hunger offers an alternative to studies which privilege representations, objectifying the body and “treating it as a discursive, textual, iconographic and metaphorical reality” while neglecting understandings derived from lived experiences and the responses that visible vulnerabilities elicit (Hamilakis 99). The argument made in this paper calls for a critical reconsideration of classic political economy approaches that view hunger in terms of a class struggle against the material conditions that give rise to it, and responses that ultimately led to the construction of the welfare state (Vernon). These political economy approaches, in focusing on the structures that lead to hunger and that respond to it, are more closed than Butler’s notion of ambiguous and constantly changing social responses to corporeal vulnerability. This paper also challenges the dominant tradition of nutrition science, which medicalises hunger. While nutrition science usefully draws attention to the physiological experiences and existential threat posed by acute hunger, the scientific focus on the “anatomical functioning” of the body and the optimising of survival problematically separates eating from the social contexts in which hunger is experienced (Lupton 11, 12; Abbots and Lavis). The focus in this article on the corporeal vulnerability of hunger interweaves contested representations of, and ideas about, hunger with the physiological experience of it, the material conditions that shape it, and the lived experiences of deprivation. Food banks offer a lens onto these experiences and their complexities.Food Banks: Deprivation Made VisibleSince the 1980s, food banks have become the fastest growing charitable organisations in the wealthiest countries of North America, Europe, and Australasia (Riches), but in Britain they are a recent phenomenon. The first opened in 2000, and by 2014, the largest operator, the Trussell Trust, had over 420 franchised food banks, and more recently was opening more than one per week (Lambie-Mumford et al.; Lambie-Mumford and Dowler). British food banks hand out emergency food relief directly to those who cannot afford to feed themselves or their families adequately, and have become new sites where deprivation is materialised through a congregation of hungry people and the distribution of food parcels. The food relief parcels are intended as short-term immediate responses to crisis moments felt within the body when the individual cannot alleviate hunger through their own resources; they are for “emergency use only” to ameliorate individual crisis and acute vulnerability, and are not intended as long-term solutions to sustained, chronic poverty (Perry et al.). The need for food banks has emerged with the continued shrinkage of the welfare state, which for the past half century sought to mediate the impact of changing individual and social circumstances on those deemed to be most vulnerable to the vicissitudes of life. The proliferation of food banks since the 2009 financial crisis and the increased public discourse about them has normalised their presence and naturalised their role in alleviating acute food poverty (Perry et al.).Media images of food bank queues and stacks of tins waiting to be handed out (Glaze; Gore) evoke collective memories from the early twentieth century of hunger marches in protest at government inaction over poverty, long queues at soup kitchens, and the faces of gaunt, unemployed war veterans (Vernon). After the Second World War, the spectre of communism and the expansionist agenda of the Soviet Union meant such images of hunger could become tools in a propaganda war constructed around the failure of the British state to care for its citizens (Field; Clarke et al; Vernon). The 1945 Labour government, elected on a social democratic agenda of reform in an era of food rationing, responded with a “war on want” based on the normative premise that no one should be without food, medical care, shelter, warmth or work. Labour’s response was the construction of the modern welfare state.The welfare state signified a major shift in ideational understandings of hunger. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ideas about hunger had been rooted in a moralistic account of divine punishment for individual failure (Vernon). Bodily experiences of hunger were seen as instruments for disciplining the indigent into a work ethic appropriate for a modern industrialised economy. The infamous workhouses, finally abolished in 1948, were key sites of deprivation where restrictions on how much food was distributed served to punish or discipline the hungry body into compliance with the dominant work ethic (Vernon; Foucault). However, these ideas shifted in the second half of the nineteenth century as the hungry citizen in Britain (if not in its colonies) was increasingly viewed as a victim of wider forces beyond the control of the individual, and the notion of disciplining the hungry body in workhouses was seen as reprehensible. A humanitarian treatment of hunger replaced a disciplinarian one as a more appropriate response to acute need (Shaw; Vernon). Charitable and reformist organisations proliferated with an agenda to feed, clothe, house, and campaign on behalf of those most deprived, and civil society largely assumed responsibility for those unable to feed themselves. By the early 1900s, ideas about hunger had begun to shift again, and after the Second World War ideational changes were formalised in the welfare state, premised on a view of hunger as due to structural rather than individual failure, hence the need for state intervention encapsulated in the “cradle to grave” mantra of the welfare state, i.e. of consistent care at the point of need for all citizens for their lifetime (see Clarke and Newman; Field; Powell). In this context, the suggestion that Britons could go to bed hungry because they could not afford to feed themselves would be seen as the failure of the “war on want” and of an advanced modern democracy to fulfil its responsibilities for the welfare of its citizens.Since the 1980s, there has been a retreat from these ideas. Successive governments have sought to rein in, reinvent or shrink what they have perceived as a “bloated” welfare state. In their view this has incentivised “dependency” by providing benefits so generous that the supposedly work-shy or “skivers” have no need to seek employment and can fund a diet of takeaways and luxury televisions (Howarth). These stigmatising ideas have, since the 2009 financial crisis and the 2010 election, become more entrenched as the Conservative-led government has sought to renew a neo-liberal agenda to shrink the welfare state, and legitimise a new mantra of austerity. This mantra is premised on the idea that the state can no longer afford the bloated welfare budget, that responsible government needs to “wean” people off benefits, and that sanctions imposed for not seeking work or for incorrectly filling in benefit claim forms serve to “encourage” people into work. Critics counter-argue that the punitive nature of sanctions has exacerbated deprivation and contributed to the growing use of food banks, a view the government disputes (Howarth; Caplan).Food Banks as Sites of Vulnerable CorporealityIn these shifting contexts, food banks have proliferated not only as sites of deprivation but also as sites of vulnerable corporeality, where people unable to draw on individual resources to respond to hunger congregate in search of social and material support. As growing numbers of people in Britain find themselves in this situation, the vulnerable corporeality of the hungry body becomes more pervasive and more visible. Hunger as a lived experience is laid bare in ever-longer food bank queues and also through the physiological, emotional and social consequences graphically described in personal blogs and in the testimonies of food bank users.Blogger Jack Monroe, for example, has recounted giving what little food she had to her child and going to bed hungry with a pot of ginger tea to “ease the stomach pains”; saying to her curious child “I’m not hungry,” while “the rumblings of my stomach call me a liar” (Monroe, Hunger Hurts). She has also written that her recourse to food banks started with the “terrifying and humiliating” admission that “you cannot afford to feed your child” and has expressed her reluctance to solicit the help of the food bank because “it feels like begging” (Monroe, Austerity Works?). Such blog accounts are corroborated in reports by food bank operators and a parliamentary enquiry which told stories of mothers not eating for days after being sanctioned under the benefit system; of children going to school hungry; of people leaving hospital after a major operation unable to feed themselves since their benefits have been cut; of the elderly having to make “hard choices” between “heat or eat” each winter; and of mixed feelings of relief and shame at receiving food bank parcels (All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry; Beattie; Cooper and Dumpleton; Caplan; Perry et al.). That is, two different visibilities have emerged: the shame of standing or being seen to stand in the food bank queue, and blogs that describe these feelings and the lived experience of hunger – both are vulnerable and visible, but in different ways and in different spaces: the physical or material, and the virtual.The response of doctors to the growing evidence of crisis was to warn that there were “all the signs of a public health emergency that could go unrecognised until it is too late to take preventative action,” that progress made against food poverty since the 1960s was being eroded (Ashton et al. 1631), and that the “robust last line of defence against hunger” provided by the welfare state was failing (Loopstra et al. n.p). Medical professionals thus sought to conscript the rhetorical resources of their professional credibility to highlight that this is a politically created public health crisis.This is not to suggest that acute hunger was absent for 50 years of the welfare state, but that with the closure of the last workhouses, the end of hunger marches, and the shutting of the soup kitchens by the 1950s, it became less visible. Over the past decade, hunger has become more visible in images of growing queues at food banks and stacked tins ready to be handed out by volunteers (Glaze; Gore) on production of a voucher provided on referral by professionals. Doctors, social workers or teachers are therefore tasked with discerning cases of need, deciding whose need is “genuine” and so worthy of food relief (see Downing et al.). The voucher system is regulated by professionals so that food banks are open only to those with a public identity constructed around bodily crisis. The sense of something as intimate as hunger being defined by others contrasts to making visible one’s own hunger through blogging. It suggests again how bodies become caught up in wider political struggles where not only is shame a co-construction of internal inadequacies and external judgements, but so too is hunger, albeit in different yet interweaving ways. New boundaries are being established between those who are deprived and those who are not, and also between those whose bodies are in short-term acute crisis, and those whose bodies are in long-term and chronic crisis, which is not deemed to be an emergency. It is in this context that food banks have also become sites of demarcation, shame, and contestation.Public debates about growing food bank queues highlight the ambiguous nature of societal responses to the vulnerability of hunger made visible. Government ministers have intensified internal shame in attributing growing food bank queues to individual inadequacies, failure to manage household budgets (Gove), and profligate spending on luxury (Johnston; Shipton). Civil society organisations have contested this account of hunger, turning shame away from the individual and onto the government. Austerity reforms have, they argue, “torn apart” the “basic safety net” of social responses to corporeal vulnerability put in place after the Second World War and intended to ensure that no-one was left hungry or destitute (Bingham), their vulnerability unattended to. Furthermore, the benefit sanctions impose punitive measures that leave families with “nothing” to live on for weeks. Hungry citizens, confronted with their own corporeal vulnerability and little choice but to seek relief from food banks, echo the Dickensian era of the workhouse (Cooper and Dumpleton) and indict the UK government response to poverty. Church leaders have called on the government to exercise “moral duty” and recognise the “acute moral imperative to act” to alleviate the suffering of the hungry body (Beattie; see also Bingham), and respond ethically to corporeal vulnerability with social policies that address unmet need for food. However, future cuts to welfare benefits mean the need for relief is likely to intensify.ConclusionThe aim of this paper was to explore the vulnerable corporeality of hunger through the lens of food banks, the twenty-first-century manifestations of charitable responses to acute need. Food banks have emerged in a gap between the renewal of a neo-liberal agenda of prudent government spending and the retreat of the welfare state, between struggles over resurgent ideas about individual responsibility and deep disquiet about wider social responsibilities. 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