Wittgenstein\u27s Liberating Word: A Meditation on Philosophy and God

This project is an attempt to understand the nature of religious belief through the lens of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophical perspective. Chapter One outlines Wittgenstein’s approach to language and meaning and explores the tension that many contemporary analytic philosophers of religion find in Wittgensteinian approaches to religious belief. Chapter Two addresses concerns Wittgenstein had with Frege’s understanding of logic and the limits of thought and ties it to criticism from Wittgensteinian philosophers about the possibility of making any sense of religious belief. Chapter Three pulls together the concerns of the previous two chapters and attempts to reconcile them. A schematic outline of religious belief is presented and then put into conversation with work done by Iris Murdoch

Artificial Dendritic Computation: The case for dendrites in neuromorphic circuits

Bio-inspired computing has focused on neuron and synapses with great success. However, the connections between these, the dendrites, also play an important role. In this paper, we investigate the motivation for replicating dendritic computation and present a framework to guide future attempts in their construction. The framework identifies key properties of the dendrites and presents and example of dendritic computation in the task of sound localisation. We evaluate the impact of dendrites on an BiLSTM neural network's performance, finding that dendrite pre-processing reduce the size of network required for a threshold performance.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Replacement to correct an author's nam

Open Access: Is OA Ok?

Open Access (OA) publishing is growing exponentially across many disciplines. What do UNE students and faculty need to know about it? UNE Librarian Beth Dyer presents its opportunities and pitfalls, with advice on how to approach OA both as an author and a consumer. UNE College of Pharmacy’s Dr. Dan Brazeau talks about his experiences with OA publishing. UNE Librarian Bethany Kenyon discusses UNE\u27s open access digital repository, DUNE: Digital UNE, where UNE community members can deposit and share original content

UV excess galaxies: Wolf-Rayet galaxies

We discuss V and R band photometry for 67% of the Sullivan et al. 2000 SA57 ultraviolet-selected galaxy sample. In a sample of 176 UV-selected galaxies, Sullivan et al. 2000 find that 24% have (UV-B) colors too blue for consistency with starburst spectral synthesis models. We propose that these extreme blue, UV excess galaxies are Wolf-Rayet (WR) galaxies, starburst galaxies with strong UV emission from WR stars. We measure a median (V-R)=0.38+-0.06 for the UV-selected sample, bluer than a sample optically selected at R but consistent with starburst and WR galaxy colors. We demonstrate that redshifted WR emission lines can double or triple the flux through the UV bandpass at high redshifts. Thus the (UV-B) color of a WR galaxy can be up to 1.3 mag bluer at high redshift, and the expected selection function is skewed to larger redshifts. The redshift distribution of the extreme blue, UV excess galaxies matches the selection function we predict from the properties of WR galaxies.Comment: 4 pages, including 4 figures. Uses AASTeX and emulateapj5.sty. Includes referee change

Cohomology of quantum groups: An analog of Kostant's Theorem

We prove the analog of Kostant's Theorem on Lie algebra cohomology in the context of quantum groups. We prove that Kostant's cohomology formula holds for quantum groups at a generic parameter $q$, recovering an earlier result of Malikov in the case where the underlying semisimple Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g} = \mathfrak{sl}(n)$. We also show that Kostant's formula holds when $q$ is specialized to an $\ell$-th root of unity for odd $\ell \ge h-1$ (where $h$ is the Coxeter number of $\mathfrak{g}$) when the highest weight of the coefficient module lies in the lowest alcove. This can be regarded as an extension of results of Friedlander-Parshall and Polo-Tilouine on the cohomology of Lie algebras of reductive algebraic groups in prime characteristic.Comment: 12 page

Unipolar potentiation and depression in memristive devices utilising the subthreshold regime

We present a resistance switching device that exhibits analogue potentiation and depression of conductance under the same voltage polarity. This contrasts with previously studied devices that potentiate and depress under opposite polarities. We refer to this mode of operation as the subthreshold regime due to it occurring at voltage or current biases that are insufficient to produce discrete or non-volatile switching. This behaviour has the potential to reduce the complexity of neuronal and synaptic circuitry in neuromorphic computing by removing the need for voltage pulses of both positive and negative polarities. The characteristically long timescales may also help replicate bio-realistic timings. In this paper, we detail how to induce this unique behaviour, how to tune its properties to a desired response, and finally, we demonstrate one potential application

Fitness costs of parasites explain multiple life history tradeoffs in a wild mammal

Reproduction in wild animals can divert limited resources away from immune defence, resulting in increased parasite burdens. A longstanding prediction of life history theory states that these parasites can harm the individual, reducing the organism's subsequent fitness and producing reproduction-fitness tradeoffs. Here, we examined associations among reproductive allocation, immunity, parasitism, and subsequent fitness in a wild population of individually identified red deer ( Cervus elaphus ). Using path analysis, we investigated whether costs of lactation for downstream survival and fecundity were mediated by changes in strongyle nematode count and mucosal antibody levels. Lactating females exhibited increased parasite counts, which were in turn associated with substantially decreased fitness in the following year in terms of overwinter survival, fecundity, subsequent calf weight, and parturition date. This study offers observational evidence for parasite regulation of multiple life history tradeoffs, supporting the role of parasites as an important mediating factor in wild mammal populations.The anonymised data files are present in the `DataList.rds` object; the scripts will run the path analysis and generate the figures, using these datasets. Funding provided by: Natural Environment Research CouncilCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000270Award Number: NE/L00688X/1Funding provided by: Natural Environment Research CouncilCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000270Award Number: NE/L002558/1Noninvasive faecal collection from the Isle of Rum red dee