Activism, Science and the Infinite Game: Exploring the relationship between science and environmental activism

According to James Carse, humanity plays two types of games. We play games that are finite and games that are infinite. As human activity alters the biosphere, ecosystems are collapsing, biodiversity is declining, and the climate is changing. In the face of these challenges, the games of scientists, science communicators and environmental activists often align or intersect. This thesis explores the relationship between science and environmental activism, and how they affect one another’s finite and infinite games. The discussion covers how they positively affect one another’s games and how they negatively affect one another’s games, with case studies to illustrate each relationship. I found that science can be a tool in activists’ games to reform policy, challenge industries, and empower communities at the forefront of environmental conflicts. Activism can motivate scientific investigations, strategically further the public and political reach of research, and contribute to the epistemic integrity of the sciences. Activism can negatively affect science by obscuring scientific findings, jeopardising the credibility of scientific efforts, and perpetuating a combative approach to environmental challenges. Furthermore, science can negatively affect activism by diverting the public imagination from relationships that enable environmental injustice, by perpetuating epistemic injustice, and undermining emotions in environmental conflicts. This exploration sheds light on how the games of activists and scientists can further the infinite game for environmental justice, but also on the ways their games reinforce socio-political systems that underpin environmental injustices

The Idea of Absolute Ethical Life: Hegel’s Account of Freedom and Natural Law in His Early Philosophical Works

This dissertation project focuses on G.W.F. Hegel’s early philosophical writings, though primarily on the Natural Law essay (1802/3), and how, through those writings, Hegel positions himself in relation to other thinkers, such as Fichte. Broadly, the modern period saw with it the rise of accounts of what is called natural law. Philosophers prior to Hegel argued that the proper account of natural law must be rooted in some kind of universal framework: either the basis of law must be the shared empirical facts of human nature (empiricism), or the basis of law must be found in the universal demands on what it means to be a rational being (a priorism). Hegel’s essay presents a compelling argument for why such accounts for natural law are inadequate. The first part of this dissertation engages in the exegetical project of understanding Hegel’s critique of prior philosophical methods for generating accounts of natural law. Through an engagement with Fichte’s philosophical works related to the sciences of morality and legality, I recapitulate Hegel’s critique of key elements within Fichte’s philosophical system. These critiques focus on what Hegel argues are the problematic aspects of a philosophical system that is rooted in merely the concept of the Absolute, a one-sided articulation of reality that gives undue primacy to the subjective aspect of human life. I argue that these critiques frame the important philosophical insights that Hegel brings to bear on his account of natural law. Next, I provide an account of why Hegel thinks that the philosophical programs of empiricism and a priorism fail to capture the heart of what it means to think about law within a community. The second part of this dissertation provides an account of Hegel’s conception of absolute ethical life and its ramifications on our thinking about communal life. Beginning with Hegel’s conception of freedom, I explore Hegel’s argument for why a domain of meaning that is prior to individual reveals itself in both positive and negative ways. Furthermore, I show that this argument sets the stage for articulating the impossibility of a system of laws that address the real demands of freedom. Hegel’s argument for why the underlying logic of ethical life is on a path towards a point of indifference provides a compelling answer to the question of how we should understand the relationship between law and the community. One main conclusion of the Natural Law essay is that the basic mode of communal life is grounded in an ongoing tension between the positive content of the community and its institutions and the negative power of the individual to either participate or deny the claims of the community. I articulate why, given the logic of ethical life, the basic mode of participating in communal life involves participating in the birth, life, and death of laws, where the truth of this cycle is in the growth and maintenance of the community through its own tragic self-consumption. Furthermore, I argue that the Natural Law essay provides a framework for incorporating the empirical into an account of natural law through history. Finally, I close by offering some insights from Hegel’s account that are relevant to our current dialogues about what it means to live in a community, specifically that his account of natural law places a demand on how we should engage in dialogues within a historical perspective

SOIL MOISTURE VARIABILITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE HYDROLOGY, EROSION AND MANAGEMENT OF GULLIED CATCHMENTS IN CENTRAL SPAIN

In semi-arid environments, the combination of a non-uniform distribution of vegetation, an often highly irregular terrain and complex geological, pedological and management histories have frequently given rise to considerable spatial variability in the physical and hydrological properties of soils. Heterogeneity within the soil's physical and hydrological properties can result in pronounced differences in infiltration and soil moisture. The hydrological response of semi-arid landscapes to rainfall events may therefore be spatially non-uniform. Quantifying the spatial pattern of hydrological response is important for identifying those areas within the landscape which arc vulnerable to runoff and erosion. Since soil moisture is considered to be a key factor in determining hydrological response and its spatial distribution is a function of the soil's physical and hydrological properties, the spatial and temporal measurement of soil moisture may be used to identify contrasting areas of hydrological response. In a badlands environment located approximately 70 km north of Madrid, central Spain, an experiment was established to describe the temporal and spatial variability in soil moisture at three scales, with the primary aim of furthering the understanding of the hydrological and geomorphological processes operating in semi-arid landscapes. At each measurement scale, the macroscale (25m sampling interval), the mesoscale (gully catchments, 5m sampling interval) and the microscale (1 m sampling interval), two distinct groups of soil moisture conditions emerged related to dry and wet weather conditions. At each measurement scale the maximum variability in soil moisture is similar (>20% volumetric content difference between immediately adjacent sampling points). At the meso and microscale the spatial pattern of soil moisture could be described as a mosaic pattern which during the dry period was more fragmented and variable than during the wet period. The spatial pattern of soil moisture during wet conditions is more uniform due to the development of extensive wet areas within the catchments. During these conditions the range of spatial correlation in soil moisture may double (to greater than 30m) compared to dry conditions, indicating an increase in the spatial continuity of soil moisture. The spatial variability in soil moisture therefore displays a temporal dependency; the mosaic soil moisture pattern is more fragmented and spatially discontinuous during dry than wet conditions. A striking characteristic of the study area is the near horizontal interbedding of sediment horizons which may strongly contrast in their textural composition over relatively short distances. This variability in soil texture and the associated changes in pore size characteristics, were the principal controlling factors in determining the spatial patterns of soil moisture and overrides the known influence of vegetation and topography on soil moisture. During dry conditions the non-uniform uptake of soil moisture by vegetation may partly explain the greater variability in soil moisture observed during this period. The mosaic patterns of soil moisture represent areas of contrasting hydrological response. During dry periods when the mosaic pattern is more fragmented, source areas of overland flow are spatially isolated and surrounded by 'sink' areas capable of re-absorbing runoff and sediment deposition. Hydrological pathways are therefore discontinuous resulting in minimal runoff reaching the catchments channels. Since soil moisture values during this period are below saturation, any runoff which does occur is generated as infiltration excess overland flow. In semi-arid areas spatial variability in soil properties or vegetation patterns may therefore be beneficial for runoff and erosion control by creating a self-regulating system in which runoff producing areas are surrounded by buffer zones capable of re-absorbing the runoff. During wet periods extensive areas of the catchments may be saturated. source areas are no longer spatially isolated and continuous hydrological pathways may develop rapidly during this period. During the wet period when conditions arc above a critical saturation threshold value widespread runoff will occur regardless of the spatial variability in the soil's physical and hydrological properties. The creation of a mosaic pattern in which buffer zones are adjacent to potential runoff producing areas, as identified from spatial soil moisture patterns, may provide the most effective management strategy in runoff and erosion control for degraded semi-arid environments. The creation of a mosaic pattern is most applicable at the watershed scale allowing several land uses, including those which are potentially degrading, to co-exist. Increasing the critical threshold value above which widespread runoff occurs should also.be included as part of this management strategy

SLSC Harford School Letter Regarding Political Unrest

Correspondence from William Fitzjohn to Dr. Addington, mentioning the political unrest and violence in Sierra Leone

Differential trafficking of AMPA receptors following activation of NMDA receptors and mGluRs

The removal of AMPA receptors from synapses is a major component of long-term depression (LTD). How this occurs, however, is still only partially understood. To investigate the trafficking of AMPA receptors in real-time we previously tagged the GluA2 subunit of AMPA receptors with ecliptic pHluorin and studied the effects of NMDA receptor activation. In the present study we have compared the effect of NMDA receptor and group I mGluR activation, using GluA2 tagged with super ecliptic pHluorin (SEP-GluA2) expressed in cultured hippocampal neurons. Surprisingly, agonists of the two receptors, which are both able to induce chemical forms of LTD, had clearly distinct effects on AMPA receptor trafficking. In agreement with our previous work we found that transient NMDA receptor activation results in an initial decrease in surface GluA2 from extrasynaptic sites followed by a delayed reduction in GluA2 from puncta (putative synapses). In contrast, transient activation of group I mGluRs, using DHPG, led to a pronounced but more delayed decrease in GluA2 from the dendritic shafts. Surprisingly, there was no average change in the fluorescence of the puncta. Examination of fluorescence at individual puncta, however, indicated that alterations did take place, with some puncta showing an increase and others a decrease in fluorescence. The effects of DHPG were, like DHPG-induced LTD, prevented by treatment with a protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) inhibitor. The electrophysiological correlate of the effects of DHPG in the SEP-GluA2 infected cultures was a reduction in mEPSC frequency with no change in amplitude. The implications of these findings for the initial mechanisms of expression of both NMDA receptor- and mGluR-induced LTD are discussed

Neural activity in the reward-related brain regions predicts implicit self-esteem: A novel validity test of psychological measures using neuroimaging

Self-esteem, arguably the most important attitudes an individual possesses, has been a premier research topic in psychology for more than a century. Following a surge of interest in implicit attitude measures in the 90s, researchers have tried to assess self-esteem implicitly in order to circumvent the influence of biases inherent in explicit measures. However, the validity of implicit self-esteem measures remains elusive. Critical tests are often inconclusive, as the validity of such measures is examined in the backdrop of imperfect behavioral measures. To overcome this serious limitation, we tested the neural validity of the most widely used implicit self-esteem measure, the implicit association test (IAT). Given (1) the conceptualization of self-esteem as attitude toward the self, and (2) neuroscience findings that the reward-related brain regions represent an individual’s attitude or preference for an object when viewing its image, individual differences in implicit self-esteem should be associated with neural signals in the reward-related regions during passive-viewing of self-face (the most obvious representation of the self). Using multi-voxel pattern analyses (MVPA) on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, we demonstrated that the neural signals in the reward-related regions were robustly associated with implicit (but not explicit) self-esteem, thus providing unique evidence for the neural validity of the self-esteem IAT. In addition, both implicit and explicit self-esteem were related, although differently, to neural signals in regions involved in self-processing. Our finding highlights the utility of neuroscience methods in addressing fundamental psychological questions and providing unique insights into important psychological constructs

Automated breast cancer diagnostics using a Digital Image Elasto Tomography (DIET) system.

Breast cancer was the most common cancer in the world in 2020 and is a major worldwide health concern. For women it accounts for a quarter of all cancer cases with high mortality of 680,000 annual deaths in women. Screening programs are necessary to reduce breast cancer mortality by finding cancer at an earlier, more curable stage, increasing treatment options, reducing treatment costs, and improving outcomes. Ideally, screening would equitably cover women of all ages, as 2% and 11% of breast cancer occurs in women under 30 and 40 years of age, respectively. Currently, the only approved large-scale breast screening technology is x-ray mammography, which has a number of issues making it unsuitable as an equitable breast screening tool. Limitations of mammography include painful breast compression, harmful radiation exposure and poorer performance in younger women and women with dense breast tissue (50% of women). Small radio-density contrast results in radiologist-dependent performance and a high false positive rate. In addition, mammography is expensive and requires infrastructure, such as x-ray shielded rooms, making it unsuitable for screening programs in developing countries and much less accessible for many women who live rurally. These issues contribute to a lower screening participation, as well as no publicly funded screening solution for younger women, which leads to cancer being found at later stages with consequently worse outcomes. This thesis presents a breast screening technology capable of overcoming these screening limitations and develops clinically feasible, automated diagnostic algorithms to be used in con- junction with this technology to provide higher diagnostic accuracy than mammography. First, the need for a different breast screening technology is identified by analysing the 2004 Kew Zealand change in screening eligibility age and using this analysis to quantify the socio-economic benefits of providing a more equitable breast screening solution. This analysis clearly showed the high number of women found with larger tumors when they initially enter into screening, where previously cancer has grown unchecked. This incidence of larger tumors highlights inequity based on age, where younger women contracting breast cancer are more likely to have worse outcomes and lower survival than those eligible for screening. Ethnic inequities also exist with M-aori women, the indigenous people of Kew Zealand, who are 21% more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than non-M-aori, and 68% more likely to die from it. Worse outcomes for M-aori are likely a result of lower breast screening participation due to a large portion of M-aori living rurally, away from main centres were mammography is exclusively provided, which demonstrates inequity based on access. Further, a 'diffi cult' history of poor interaction between M-aori and health providers means some may skip screening and/or experience inequity due to current or post racial bias. Quantification of socio-economic benefits showed increasing screening age eligibility to all women 20+ could potentially save 43 lives (∼7%) annually and reduce treatment costs by 10.1%. Increasing screening participation for the currently screened age group (45-69) to 90% could save 37 lives (∼5.5%) annually and reduce costs by 14.5%. Implementing a screening device with the capacity for both increased screening participation and expansion of screening age eligibility could save 102 lives (∼16%) annually and result in a 33.1% reduction in breast cancer treatment costs. Thus, significant social and economic benefits could be realised with the use of a new screening technology capable of overcoming mammography's limitations, such as increasing access and providing safe screening for all women. Second, this thesis suggests a technology capable of providing these socio-economic benefits and critically analyses the diagnostic accuracy of mammography to generate diagnostic criteria to assess diagnostic algorithms. Digital Image Elasto Tomography (DIET) has been developed as a breast screening technology to overcome limitations of mammography. The technology is portable, low-cost and with no requirement for additional infrastructure, making it suitable for use in any clinic and giving it the ability to increase access to breast screening for all women. Further, DIET testing is non-invasive with no harmful radiation exposure and is thus suitable for women of all ages. Breast screening using DIET is comfortable involving a women lying face down, with low-amplitude steady state vibration of one free hanging breast. Surrounding cameras capture images of breast surface motion, which are converted to displacement data using surface volume and optical flow techniques. Diagnostic analysis uses this displacement data to identify underlying breast tissue properties, such as stiffness and damping. Cancerous tissue is 400∼1000% stiffer than healthy tissue and, as such, can provide much higher diagnostic contrast than radio-density used in mammography (5∼10%). Diagnostic algorithms are able to be fully automated, removing requirements for skilled personnel to interpret diagnostic images, providing more consistent diagnosis. Critical analysis of mammography's diagnostic accuracy identified a number of issues with studies including using cohorts inclusive of larger palpable and/or prevalent tumors, resulting in disproportionately high sensitivity. Furthermore, accuracy based on interval cancers presenting between screens is flawed and highly dependent on screening interval resulting in higher than true sensitivity and specificity. The most sound methodology for assessing accuracy came from mammography studies, which compared mammography to other breast imaging modalities, such as ultrasound or MRI, resulting in average sensitivity and specificity values of 60% and 80%, respectively. These values determined the first criteria used to assess the diagnostic performance of DIET diagnostic algorithms, the second was to achieve a highly sensitive diagnostic with sensitivity and specificity 80% and 65%, respectively. A clinical trial involving 14 patients (28 breasts, 13 cancerous, 15 healthy) was carried out using the DIET technology following mammography screening. This clinical cohort is varied breast sizes from 200-1100cm3 and tumor diameters from 7-48 mm, and was used to test di- agnostic algorithms presented in this thesis. This unique clinical dataset is used to test novel diagnostic algorithms presented in this thesis. The core of this thesis presents diagnostic algorithms capable of providing higher diagnostic accuracy than mammography using DIET to realise the many potential benefits of this safe, portable, and non-invasive screening technology. The first diagnostic method uses a model developed in this thesis, based of Rayleigh damping, to describe the viscous damping distribution in the breast. The computationally efficient diagnostic algorithm segments the breast into four radial segments and fits this viscous damping model (VDM) to the viscous damping distribution of reference points in each segment. One model coefficient, related to stiffness, was then compared between segments using percentage thresholds, with healthy breasts hypothesised to have similar coefficient values between segments and cancerous breasts expected to have more varied coefficient values, indicative of a tumor. Twelve breast segmentation configurations were tested to ensure robustness. The optimal configuration, located on the outer more neutral side of the breast, resulted in optimal sensitivity and specificity of 80% and 75%, respectively, with a receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve area (A-CC) of 0.84. The second diagnostic algorithm involves assessment of response frequency with higher frequency response associated with increased stiffness, and potential tumor presence. A similar segmentation methodology, with increased breast segmentation in the vertical direction was used to attempt to increase diagnostic resolution of smaller tumors. Second dominant response frequencies for all reference points in each segment were averaged, providing frequency component magnitudes were sufficient. Mean frequencies in segments around each vertical band were compared using diagnostic tolerances with segments outside the tolerance indicating high variability in frequency composition and, thus, potential cancer. As with the VDM method, twelve segmentation configurations were tested. Optimal configuration resulted in sensitivity and specificity of 81% and 75%, respectively and ROC curve A-CC of 0.85. Further combining of diagnostic results from two segments on opposite sides of the breast resulted in 100% sensitivity and 69% specificity. All diagnostic criteria were exceeded in both methods and diagnostic accuracy exceeds mammography. Finally, two clinically feasible methods were developed to combine and optimise these individual, tissue mechanics based diagnostic algorithms. The first uses opposite configurations in the frequency decomposition (FD) method. Consistent diagnosis in the two configurations are considered true and inconsistent results are diagnosed using the VDM method. This method results in sensitivity and specificity of 92% and 86%, respectively. The second combined method uses DIET measured breast volume to dictate the method used with small breast volumes diagnosed using the VDM method and large breast volumes diagnosed using the FD method. This method gives 100% sensitivity and 80% specificity. These clinically feasible methods show further diagnostic improvements resulting in a high diagnostic accuracy for this proof-of-concept clinical cohort. These diagnostic algorithms and optimal combinations prove high diagnostic accuracy using DIET can be achieved. This thesis shows implementation of DIET into breast screening programs could provide fast, automated breast cancer diagnosis and consequently faster treatment, improving outcomes and lowering treatment costs. DIET can increase equity for younger women, and positively impact breast screening for M-aori women and women living rurally, with portability enabling mobile screening services to reduce physical barriers to receiving breast care and increase equity of access. These benefits will also impact breast screening programs in developing countries, where mammography is not feasible due to excessive infrastructure cost and requirement for trained radiologists and technicians. Overall, this thesis quantifies the need and potential benefits of a new breast screening solution and critically analyses the diagnostic accuracy presented by mammography, identifying issues of infiated sensitivity values, which are commonly believed to be valid. Most importantly, this thesis develops automated diagnostic methods including combined clinically feasible algorithms, resulting in sensitivity and specificity, which far exceed mammography in this cohort. These diagnostic methods take DIET from a technology with undisputed benefits in terms of screening procedure, to a clinically feasible technology with proven diagnostic potential, thus, worthy of further research and investment