Explanations for patterning in the ‘package of traits’ of modern human behaviour within Sahul

Late Pleistocene Sahul has provided a test for the debate surrounding the appearance of the ‘package’ of modern human behaviour within the archaeological record. A detailed review of the late Pleistocene archaeological record of Sahul (Franklin and Habgood 2007; Habgood and Franklin 2008) found both chronological and geographical patterning for the appearance of the individual traits - four broad Phases and seven ‘Zones of Innovation’. We consider potential causes for this patterning including taphonomy and artefact function, but conclude that it reflects material culture differences and cultural preferences

Outnumb3r3d : intrinsically motivating mathematics for the PlayStation 4

This paper and accompanying poster describes the design of an intrinsically integrated educational game to improve children’s competencies in mental mathematics. A number of researchers have suggested that educational games are more effective when they are closely integrated with their learning content. Specifically work by the lead author has showed that a closer integration between an educational game's core-mechanics and its learning content can be both more appealing (in terms of time spent on-task) and more educationally effective (in terms of learning outcomes) than a less integrated "edutainment" approach. However, cursory approaches to integrating learning content remain common in contemporary educational software, and the literature lacks an exemplar of what can be achieved using an integrated approach. The Outnumb3r3d game was conceived to provide a commercial and theoretical exemplar of intrinsic integration for the Nintendo Wii, but was never completed. This project is now porting the original Wii prototype onto the PlayStation 4 in order to revive Outnumb3r3d as a research project. This paper details the design of Outnumb3r3d with reference to the key theoretical constructs that underlie its pedagogical design. In doing so it provides an example of a game design created to integrate mathematical learning content seamlessly into the game's core mechanics, ensuring that the mathematics is what makes the game intrinsically motivating to play rather than trying to hide or "sugar coat" its learning content. At the time of writing the game’s implementation is still a “work in progress”, but is expected to be the subject of future empirical evaluations into its effectiveness as a teaching tool

Collective practical Knowledge is a Fragmented Interrogative capacity

What does it take for a group of people to know how to do something? An account of collective practical knowledge ought to be compatible with the linguistic evidence about the semantics for collective knowledge-how ascriptions, be able to explain the practicality of collective knowledge, be able to explain both the connection between individual and collective know-how and the possibility of a group knowing how to do something none of its members know, and be applicable to a suitably wide range of groups. In this paper I develop a view which can meet all of these desiderata, which combines a Fragmented account of collective knowledge (Habgood-Coote, 2019a), with the view that practical knowledge is an Interrogative Capacity (Habgood-Coote, 2019b)

Group Inquiry

Group agents can act, and they can have knowledge. How should we understand the species of collective action which aims at knowledge? In this paper, I present an account of group inquiry. This account faces two challenges: to make sense of how large-scale distributed activities might be a kind of group action, and to make sense of the kind of division of labour involved in collective inquiry. In the first part of the paper, I argue that existing accounts of group action face problems dealing with large-scale group actions, and propose a minimal alternative account. In the second part of the paper, I draw on an analogy between inquiry and conversation, arguing that work by Robert Stalnaker and Craige Roberts helps us to think about the division of labour. In the final part of the paper I put the accounts of group action and inquiry together, and consider how to think about group knowledge, deep ignorance, and the different kinds of division of labour

The Red Horizontal-Branch Star HD 17072

We summarize the results of a spectroscopic analysis of HD 17072, finding it to be a metal-poor ([Fe/H] = -1.17) red horizontal-branch star with Teff = 5375 K and log g = 2.4. We also derive a radial velocity of 62.8 km s-1. It has the best determined Hipparcos trigonometric parallax among the metal-poor field horizontal-branch stars and supports the fainter luminosities for such stars found from statistical parallax and Baade-Wesselink analyses, in contradiction to the results of main-sequence fitting of metal-poor field dwarfs to globular cluster main sequences

S52 Suberanilohydroxamic acid (SAHA) inhibits collagen deposition in a transforming growth factor β1-driven precision cut lung slice (PCLS) model of pulmonary fibrosis

Introduction and objectives Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive interstitial lung disease that is refractory to current treatment options. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 is a key pro-fibrotic cytokine that plays a crucial role in IPF pathogenesis. Our group previously demonstrated distinct epigenetic modifications involved in repression of the antifibrotic gene cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in fibroblasts from IPF (F-IPF) lungs compared with fibroblasts from non-fibrotic lungs (F-NL). Epigenetic drugs capable of inhibiting DNA and histone modifications may, therefore, represent a putative novel therapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of 4 epigenetic inhibitors to regulate TGF-β-driven fibrosis in ex vivo mouse lung. Methods A precision-cut lung slice (PCLS) model of fibrosis was established using the previously described1 CC10-tTS-rtTA-TGFβ1 transgenic (tgTGF-β1) mouse. The model was first assessed by investigating PCLS overexpression of TGF-β1 in response to stimulation of the transgene by doxycycline treatment. Gene expression of COX-2 and fibrotic markers including collagen were assessed after 4 days of treatment. The anti-fibrotic potential of 4 epigenetic inhibitors; BIX01294 (BIX, inhibitor of G9a histone methyltransferase), 3-deazaneplanocin A (DZNep, inhibitor of EZH2 histone methyltransferase), SAHA (inhibitor of histone deacetylases, HDACs) and Decitabine (DAC, DNA demethylating agent) was investigated. Viability of PCLS was assessed by MTT and Prestoblue® assay. Results Treatment of PCLS from tgTGF-β1 mice with doxycycline induced a concentration-dependent increase in global TGF-β1, pro-fibrotic markers including collagen and pro-inflammatory COX-2, which was comparable to recombinant TGF-β1 treatment. Treatment with three of the epigenetic inhibitors BIX01294, DZNep and DAC did not reduce the pro-fibrotic response following doxycycline treatment. However SAHA demonstrated a significant suppressive effect on COX-2 and collagen expression, while not directly affecting TGF-β1 transgene expression. Conclusions The data suggests that SAHA has the potential to reduce fibrosis in a TGF-β1 driven model of pulmonary fibrosis. Further work is currently underway to assess the anti-fibrotic potential of this drug in tgTGF-β1 animals

Endogenous fantasy and learning in digital games.

Many people believe that educational games are effective because they motivate children to actively engage in a learning activity as part of playing the game. However, seminal work by Malone (1981), exploring the motivational aspects of digital games, concluded that the educational effectiveness of a digital game depends on the way in which learning content is integrated into the fantasy context of the game. In particular, he claimed that content which is intrinsically related to the fantasy will produce better learning than that which is merely extrinsically related. However, this distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic (or endogenous and exogenous) fantasy is a concept that has developed a confused standing over the following years. This paper will address this confusion by providing a review and critique of the empirical and theoretical foundations of endogenous fantasy, and its relevance to creating educational digital games. Substantial concerns are raised about the empirical basis of this work and a theoretical critique of endogenous fantasy is offered, concluding that endogenous fantasy is a misnomer, in so far as the "integral and continuing relationship" of fantasy cannot be justified as a critical means of improving the effectiveness of educational digital games. An alternative perspective on the intrinsic integration of learning content is described, incorporating game mechanics, flow and representations

Suberanilohydroxamic acid (SAHA) inhibits collagen deposition in a transforming growth factor β1-driven precision cut lung slice (PCLS) model of pulmonary fibrosis

Introduction and Objectives: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive interstitial lung disease that is refractory to current treatment options. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 is a key pro-fibrotic cytokine that plays a crucial role in IPF pathogenesis. Our group previously demonstrated distinct epigenetic modifications involved in repression of the antifibrotic gene cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in fibroblasts from IPF (F-IPF) lungs compared with fibroblasts from non-fibrotic lungs (F-NL). Epigenetic drugs capable of inhibiting DNA and histone modifications may, therefore, represent a putative novel therapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of 4 epigenetic inhibitors to regulate TGF-β-driven fibrosis in ex vivo mouse lung. Methods: A precision-cut lung slice (PCLS) model of fibrosis was established using the previously described [1] CC10-tTS-rtTA-TGFβ1 transgenic (tgTGF-β1) mouse. The model was first assessed by investigating PCLS overexpression of TGF-β1 in response to stimulation of the transgene by doxycycline treatment. Gene expression of COX-2 and fibrotic markers including collagen were assessed after 4 days of treatment. The anti-fibrotic potential of 4 epigenetic inhibitors; BIX01294 (BIX, inhibitor of G9a histone methyltransferase), 3-deazaneplanocin A (DZNep, inhibitor of EZH2 histone methyltransferase), SAHA (inhibitor of histone deacetylases, HDACs) and Decitabine (DAC, DNA demethylating agent) was investigated. Viability of PCLS was assessed by MTT and Prestoblue® viability assay. Results: Treatment of PCLS from tgTGF-β1 mice with doxycycline induced a concentration-dependent increase in global TGF-β1, pro-fibrotic markers including collagen and pro-inflammatory COX-2, which was comparable to recombinant TGF-β1 treatment. Treatment with three of the epigenetic inhibitors BIX01294, DZNep and DAC did not reduce the pro-fibrotic response following doxycycline treatment. However SAHA demonstrated a significant suppressive effect on COX-2 and collagen expression, while not directly affecting TGF-β1 transgene expression. Conclusions: The data suggests that SAHA has the potential to reduce fibrosis in a TGF-β1 driven model of pulmonary fibrosis. Further work is currently underway to assess the anti-fibrotic potential of this drug in tgTGF-β1 animals

Commentary on “Can a Good Philosophical Contribution Be Made Just By Asking a Question?”

This paper explains some of the reasoning behind “Can a Good Philosophical Contribution Be Made Just by Asking a Question?,” a paper which consists solely in its title and which is published in the same issue of the journal as the present paper. The method for explaining that reasoning consists in making available a lightly edited version of a letter the authors sent to the editors when submitting the title-only paper. The editors permitted publication of that paper on the condition that the authors also separately publish a version of that letter; the present paper aims to fulfil that condition