John Lubbock, science, and the liberal intellectual

John Lubbock's longest-standing scientific research interest was entomology. Some of his earliest systematic investigations of insect and marine life began under the tutelage of Darwin. Darwin shaped the trajectory of, and the programme for, Lubbock's natural history work. However, to understand John Lubbock's identity as a scientist, he must be located within the context of the Victorian ‘intellectual’. This paper traces Lubbock's entomological work from its early development under Darwin to his later work on insect sensory physiology and comparative psychology. Far from being the death of his scientific career, Lubbock's entry into Parliament marked the pinnacle of his career as a scientific intellectual. He built on his early work on invertebrate anatomy, physiology and taxonomy, and on his archaeological and anthropological research to expound his vision of mental evolution. His research on ‘savages’, on ants, bees and wasps, and on his dog, ‘Van’, permitted him to expatiate upon the psychic unity of all sentient beings, which, in turn, underpinned his overarching educational programme.PostprintPeer reviewe

Mathematical programming modelling tools for resource-poor countries and organisations

In recent years, powerful mathematical modelling languages have enabled Operational Research practitioners to rapidly develop prototype tools capable of modelling complex managerial decisions such as staff shift scheduling, or production and supply chain planning. However, such tools have often required expensive commercial optimisation solvers that are sometimes beyond the financial reach of small companies and organisations, particularly in the low-income and emerging economies. Fortunately, the worldwide scope of the internet has put powerful free optimisation tools within the reach of anyone with a modest PC and even a slow internet connection. This article will present examples showing just how beneficial such an approach can be for resource-poor organisations

Mountains Without End

Monograph/artist book exploring my relationship to landscape and mountains within my art practice. Includes essays from Thomas A Clark, (UK) Dr David Watson (Australia), introduction from Sandie Macrae (UK) and a contribution from Alec Finlay (UK). This book was a monograph featuring recent works that explored how we experience and participate in the experience of landscape, and in particular, remote, wild landscapes and mountainous terrain. Both Thomas A Clark and Dr David Watson wrote essays on my practice, Alec Finlay contributed a poem "Pataphysical Cuillin" and Sandie Macrae wrote an introduction. The book was published by ROOMBOOKS - I am represented in the UK by ROOM (now called Roaming ROOM). The book features works made over the last 4 years, including drawings, text based drawings, photographs, paintings, and digitally altered images. It ended with a selection of my on writings on my experiences of different landscapes, texts that emerged initially through my blog "living mountains". The book was published by ROOMBOOKS in 2013, ISBN 978-0-95499-156-2

Living standards and plague in London, 1560–1665

This article uses individual records of 930,000 burials and 630,000 baptisms to reconstruct the spatial and temporal patterns of birth and death in London from 1560 to 1665, a period dominated by recurrent plague. The plagues of 1563, 1603, 1625, and 1665 appear of roughly equal magnitude, with deaths running at five to six times their usual rate, but the impact on wealthier central parishes falls markedly through time. Tracking the weekly spread of plague, we find no evidence that plague emerged first in the docks, and in many cases elevated mortality emerges first in the poor northern suburbs. Looking at the seasonal pattern of mortality, we find that the characteristic autumn spike associated with plague continued into the early 1700s. Natural increase improved as smaller crises disappeared after 1590, but fewer than half of those born survived childhood

The significance of lifeworld and the case of hospice

Questions on what it means to live and die well are raised and discussed in the hospice movement. A phenomenological lifeworld perspective may help professionals to be aware of meaningful and important dimensions in the lives of persons close to death. Lifeworld is not an abstract philosophical term, but rather the opposite. Lifeworld is about everyday, common life in all its aspects. In the writings of Cicely Saunders, known as the founder of the modern hospice movement, facets of lifeworld are presented as important elements in caring for dying patients. Palliative care and palliative medicine today are, in many ways, replacing hospices. This represents not only a change in name, but also in the main focus. Hospice care was originally very much about providing support and comfort for, and interactions with the patients. Improved medical knowledge today means improved symptomatic palliation, but also time and resources spent in other ways than before. Observations from a Nordic hospice ward indicate that seriously ill and dying persons spend much time on their own. Different aspects of lifeworld and intersubjectivity in the dying persons’ room is presented and discussed

Starting to develop self-help for social anxiety associated with vitiligo: using clinical significance to measure the potential effectiveness of enhanced psychological self-help

Background Vitiligo can be associated with high levels of distress, yet there are currently no self-help interventions available. Objectives To describe the initial development of a psychosocial self-help intervention designed to reduce social anxiety associated with vitiligo. Also to examine whether including a planning exercise, aimed at increasing use of the intervention (termed implementation intentions), has the potential to achieve a clinically significant reduction in distress. Methods Participants (n = 75) were randomized to one of three groups: cognitive behavioural self-help (CBSH), CBSH augmented with implementation intentions (CBSH+), or no intervention. Participants were assessed at baseline and after 8 weeks on measures of social anxiety, anxiety and depression, and appearance-related concern. The two intervention groups also completed a questionnaire evaluating their use of, and satisfaction with, the intervention. Results High levels of social anxiety and concern over appearance were reported. Twenty-four per cent of participants in the CBSH+ group experienced clinically significant change on the measure of social anxiety compared with 8% in the CBSH group and 0% in the control group. In addition, 58% of the control group deteriorated during the study period. There were no significant differences between the conditions on the other outcome measures. Participants reported that the self-help leaflets were helpful. Conclusions The findings demonstrate that augmented CBSH provides a relatively simple and accessible intervention that can result in a clinically significant reduction in social anxiety. The augmented intervention has potential and might be further developed and evaluated in subsequent trials

Arithmetic Brownian motion subordinated by tempered stable and inverse tempered stable processes

In the last decade the subordinated processes have become popular and found many practical applications. Therefore in this paper we examine two processes related to time-changed (subordinated) classical Brownian motion with drift (called arithmetic Brownian motion). The first one, so called normal tempered stable, is related to the tempered stable subordinator, while the second one - to the inverse tempered stable process. We compare the main properties (such as probability density functions, Laplace transforms, ensemble averaged mean squared displacements) of such two subordinated processes and propose the parameters' estimation procedures. Moreover we calibrate the analyzed systems to real data related to indoor air quality

Interpretation and application of carbon isotope ratios in freshwater diatom silica

Carbon incorporated into diatom frustule walls is protected from degradation enabling analysis for carbon isotope composition (δ13Cdiatom). This presents potential for tracing carbon cycles via a single photosynthetic host with well-constrained ecophysiology. Improved understanding of environmental processes controlling carbon delivery and assimilation is essential to interpret changes in freshwater δ13Cdiatom. Here relationships between water chemistry and δ13Cdiatom from contemporary regional data sets are investigated. Modern diatom and water samples were collected from river catchments within England and lake sediments from across Europe. The data suggest dissolved, biogenically produced carbon supplied proportionately to catchment productivity was critical in the rivers and soft water lakes. However, dissolved carbon from calcareous geology overwhelmed the carbon signature in hard water catchments. Both results demonstrate carbon source characteristics were the most important control on δ13Cdiatom, with a greater impact than productivity. Application of these principles was made to a sediment record from Lake Tanganyika. δ13Cdiatom co-varied with δ13Cbulk through the last glacial and Holocene. This suggests carbon supply was again dominant and exceeded authigenic demand. This first systematic evaluation of contemporary δ13Cdiatom controls demonstrates that diatoms have the potential to supply a record of carbon cycling through lake catchments from sediment records over millennial timescales

The importance of mindfulness in psychosocial distress and quality of life in dermatology patients

Background: Mindfulness, defined as purposively and non-judgementally paying attention in the present moment, could be used within psychosocial interventions to reduce the distress associated with social anxiety and avoidance found in many skin conditions. However, little is known about the relationship between naturally occurring levels of mindfulness and distress in dermatology patients. Objective: This study sought to examine the relationship between mindfulness and psychosocial distress in a dermatological sample. It was hypothesised that higher levels of mindfulness would be associated with lower levels of social anxiety, anxiety, depression, and skin shame, and with better quality of life. Method: Adult dermatology outpatients (N=120) from one hospital completed items assessing subjective severity, skin shame, fear of negative evaluation (BFNE), anxiety and depression (HADS), quality of life (DLQI), and levels of mindfulness (FFMQ). Results: Considering depression, 14% reported mild, 5% moderate and 2.5% severe symptoms. For anxiety, 22% reported mild, 23% moderate and 6% severe symptoms. In addition, 33.4% reported clinically significant social anxiety. After controlling for subjective severity, mindfulness explained an additional 19% of the variance in depression, 39% in anxiety, 41% in social anxiety, 13% in skin shame, and 6% in dermatological quality of life. One specific facet of mindfulness (acting with awareness) was found to be the most consistent predictor of distress. Conclusions: The findings indicate that higher levels of mindfulness are associated with lower distress. This suggests that facilitating mindfulness may be helpful in reducing distress in dermatology patients and the use of mindfulness techniques warrants further investigation