“Antiscience Zealotry”? Values, Epistemic Risk, and the GMO Debate

This paper argues that the controversy over GM crops is not best understood in terms of the supposed bias, dishonesty, irrationality, or ignorance on the part of proponents or critics, but rather in terms of differences in values. To do this, the paper draws upon and extends recent work of the role of values and interests in science, focusing particularly on inductive risk and epistemic risk, and it shows how the GMO debate can help to further our understanding of the various epistemic risks that are present in science and how these risks might be managed

“Antiscience Zealotry”? Values, Epistemic Risk, and the GMO Debate

This paper argues that the controversy over GM crops is not best understood in terms of the supposed bias, dishonesty, irrationality, or ignorance on the part of proponents or critics, but rather in terms of differences in values. To do this, the paper draws upon and extends recent work of the role of values and interests in science, focusing particularly on inductive risk and epistemic risk, and it shows how the GMO debate can help to further our understanding of the various epistemic risks that are present in science and how these risks might be managed

Climate Skepticism and the Manufacture of Doubt: Can Dissent in Science be Epistemically Detrimental?

The aim of this paper is to address the neglected but important problem of differentiating between epistemically beneficial and epistemically detrimental dissent. By "dissent," we refer to the act of objecting to a particular conclusion, especially one that is widely held. While dissent in science can clearly be beneficial, there might be some instances of dissent that not only fail to contribute to scientific progress, but actually impede it. Potential examples of this include the tobacco industry's funding of studies that questioned the link between smoking and lung cancer, and the attempt by the petroleum industry and other groups to cast doubt upon the conclusion that human consumption of fossil fuels contributes to global climate change. The problem of distinguishing between good and bad dissent is important because of the growing tendency of some stakeholders to attempt to delay political action by 'manufacturing doubt' (Oreskes & Conway 2010). Our discussion in this paper focuses on climate science. This field, in our view, is rife with instances of bad dissent. On the basis of our discussion of climate science, we articulate a set of sufficient conditions for epistemically problematic dissent in general, which we call “the inductive risk account of epistemically detrimental dissent.

Algebraically modelling object-orientated programs.

We explore the process of building algebraic models of the behaviour of Java classes. A fundamental building block of object-oriented programs is the class that can typically contain multiple fields, constructors, and methods. In Java a programmer can control access to the various methods, fields and constructors of a class. We will be formally specifying and documenting a class' public behaviour algebraically. In practice even a simple Java class can have complex behaviour. A full algebraic specification (FAS) of a class can be complicated and hard to understand for someone who wishes to quickly ascertain the behaviour of a class. This complexity is largely as a result of machinery needed to define class behaviours that are implicit, that is behaviour that is considered part of Java's general language behaviour and defines the general structure of classes, methods, fields and constructors. However, it is unreasonable to expect a programmer to write such full specifications. Therefore we introduce the concept of an Algebraic Class Specification (ACS) that provides a much reduced version of the FAS of a class. The ACS is therefore more readable and is aimed at showing what we consider to be key information in the specification of a class that cannot be programmatically inferred from the language definition. Using the ACS we present a methodology for generating an FAS thus reducing the complexity of specification for the user. We will show that the ACS provides a reader with a clear formal understanding of a class' behaviour using a minimum of information. The ACS is designed to be human readable yet still machine readable. We will show that in order to aid users in creating specifications of classes we have mimicked the Java syntax closely in the specification syntax. We will, in addition, present a methodology for embedding the formal semantic description for a Java class within javadoc comments thus allowing Java API documentation to contain both a formal specification of the behaviour of a class and its components and an informal general textual description. These techniques have been developed by the analysis of case studies. We will demonstrate all of these techniques applied to a wide and varied range of both invented and existing examples of Java classes

Analysis of the Crab Nebula and Pulsar

Although the Crab Nebula is well understood, the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) still regularly observes the Crab\u27s highest energy emissions. These emissions are used to calibrate the telescopes, further, document the system, and investigate the validity of physical models. Our research this summer is geared to analyze data from 2018-2022 to add to an ongoing research project investigating the long term variability of the Crab Nebula’s emission

An Introduction to the VERITAS Observatory

Located at the base of Mount Hopkins, Arizona, at an elevation of approximately 4200 feet, the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) is a ground-based gamma ray observatory containing four Cherenkov telescopes designed to detect very high energy gamma rays with energies ranging from 100GeV to 10TeV using the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique. In April 2007, VERITAS began successful operations with all four telescopes. As of today, over 15 years of data has been taken by the VERITAS array, stored in an archive of data, and used for a wide variety of research, publications, PhD theses, and conventions examining some of the most violent and energetic processes in our universe

Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) Data Portal - World-leading infrastructure facilitating innovative multi-modal research

Introduction Modern team science requires effective sharing of data and skills. The DPUK Data Portal is a collection of tools, datasets and networks that allows for epidemiologists and specialist researchers alike to access, analyse and investigate cohort and different modalities of routine data across UK and international sources. Objectives and Approach The Portal is housed on an instance of UKSeRP (UK Secure eResearch Platform), that allows customisable infrastructure to be used for multi-modal research (thus far live in genetics, imaging and clinical data) for researchers across the world using remote access technology whilst allowing governance to remain with the data provider. A central team at Swansea University is responsible for data curation and processing, and runs an access procedure for researchers to apply to use data from multiple sources to be analysed in a central analysis environment. Other modalities are similarly hosted, with input from partner sites in Cardiff and Oxford. Results DPUK facilitates data access and research on 49 cohorts, 40 UK-based and 9 international. The centralised repository model including remote access and ability to store and make available different modalities of data, from phenotypic data, to genetic and imaging data, has allowed DPUK to begin to support research of varying topics, from those studying cognitive decline and Dementia as a disease, to those maturing analytical models. By providing access to data platforms specialising in genetics, imaging and routine clinical data, as well as to specialists in disease and biology to aid with its understanding, DPUK has realised a large-scale research exercise combining major data modalities on a central platform, and allow access to such rich data across the world under an umbrella of robust governance. Conclusion/Implications Globally, cohorts are pooling data, expertise and desire to enrich their own aims in partnership with a federated research community to enable in-depth scrutiny of the biological origins of dementia and the development and evaluation of novel approach to disease prevention and cure

Physical activity for cognitive and mental health in youth: A systematic review of mechanisms

Context: Physical activity can improve cognitive and mental health, but the underlying mechanisms have not been established. Objective: To present a conceptual model explaining the mechanisms for the effect of physical activity on cognitive and mental health in young people and to conduct a systematic review of the evidence. Data Sources: Six electronic databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, Ovid Medline, SportDiscus, and Embase) were used. Study Selection: School-, home-, or community-based physical activity intervention or laboratory-based exercise interventions were assessed. Studies were eligible if they reported statistical analyses of changes in the following: (1) cognition or mental health; and (2) neurobiological, psychosocial, and behavioral mechanisms. Data Extraction: Data relating to methods, assessment period, participant characteristics, intervention type, setting, and facilitator/delivery were extracted. Results: Twenty-five articles reporting results from 22 studies were included. Mechanisms studied were neurobiological (6 studies), psychosocial (18 studies), and behavioral (2 studies). Significant changes in at least 1 potential neurobiological mechanism were reported in 5 studies, and significant effects for at least 1 cognitive outcome were also found in 5 studies. One of 2 studies reported a significant effect for self-regulation, but neither study reported a significant impact on mental health. Limitations: Small number of studies and high levels of study heterogeneity. Conclusions: The strongest evidence was found for improvements in physical self-perceptions, which accompanied enhanced self-esteem in the majority of studies measuring these outcomes. Few studies examined neurobiological and behavioral mechanisms, and we were unable to draw conclusions regarding their role in enhancing cognitive and mental health

TRE-FX:Delivering a federated network of trusted research environments to enable safe data analytics

Trusted Research Environments (TREs) are secure locations in which data are placed for researchers to analyse. TREs host administrative data, hospital data or any other data that needs to remain securely isolated, but it is hard for a researcher to perform an analysis across multiple TREs, requesting and gathering the outputs from each one. This is a common problem in the UK's devolved healthcare system of geographical and governance boundaries. There are different ways of implementing TREs and the analysis tools that use them. A solution must be straightforward for existing, independent systems to adopt, must cope with the variety of system implementations, and must work within the "Five Safes" framework that enables data services to provide safe research access to data. TRE-FX assembled leading infrastructure researchers, analysis tool makers, TRE providers and public engagement specialists to streamline the exchange of data requests and results. The "Five Safes RO-Crate" standard packages up (Crates) the Objects needed for Research requests and results with the information needed for the tools and TRE providers to ensure that the crates are reviewed and processed according to Five Safes principles. TRE-FX showed how this works using software components and an end-to-end demonstrator implemented by a TRE in Wales. Two other TREs, in Scotland and England, are preparing to follow suit. Two analysis tool providers (Bitfount and DataSHIELD) modified their systems to use the RO-Crates. The next step is practical implementation as part of the HDR UK programme. Two large European projects will develop the approach further. TRE-FX shows that it is possible to streamline how analysis tools access multiple TREs while enabling the TREs to ensure that the access is safe. The approach scales as more TREs are added and can be adopted by established systems. Researchers will then be able to perform an analysis across multiple TREs much more easily, widening the scope of their research and making more effective use of the UK's data. If we had had this for COVID-19 data analysis, it would have super-charged researchers to be able to quickly answer pressing questions across the UK. This work was funded by UK Research & Innovation [Grant Number MC_PC_23007] as part of Phase 1 of the DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) programme, delivered in partnership with Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK)

Don't worry, be happy:cross-sectional associations between physical activity and happiness in 15 European countries

Background: Mental health disorders are major contributors to the global burden of disease and their inverse relationship with physical activity is widely accepted. However, research on the association between physical activity and positive mental health outcomes is limited. Happiness is an example of a positive construct of mental health that may be promoted by physical activity and could increase resilience to emotional perturbations. The aim of this study is to use a large multi-country dataset to assess the association of happiness with physical activity volume and its specificity to intensity and/or activity domain. Methods: We analysed Eurobarometer 2002 data from 15 countries (n = 11,637). This comprised one question assessing self-reported happiness on a six point scale (dichotomised: happy/unhappy) and physical activity data collected using the IPAQ-short (i.e. walking, moderate, vigorous) and four domain specific items (i.e. domestic, leisure, transport, vocation). Logistic regression was used to examine the association between happiness and physical activity volume adjusted for sex, age, country, general health, relationship status, employment and education. Analyses of intensity and domain specificity were assessed by logistic regression adjusted for the same covariates and physical activity volume. Results: When compared to inactive people, there was a positive dose-response association between physical activity volume and happiness (highly active: OR = 1.52 [1.28-1.80]; sufficiently active: OR = 1.29 [1.11-1.49]; insufficiently active: OR = 1.20 [1.03-1.39]). There were small positive associations with happiness for walking (OR = 1.02 [1.00-1.03]) and vigorous-intensity physical activity (OR = 1.03 [1.01-1.05). Moderate-intensity physical activity was not associated with happiness (OR = 1.01 [0.99-1.03]). The strongest domain specific associations with happiness were found for “a lot” of domestic (OR = 1.42 [1.20-1.68]) and "some" vocational (OR = 1.33 [1.08-1.64]) physical activity. Happiness was also associated with "a lot" of leisure physical activity (OR = 1.15 [1.02-1.30]), but there were no significant associations for the transport domain. Conclusions: Increasing physical activity volume was associated with higher levels of happiness. Although the influence of physical activity intensity appeared minimal, the association with happiness was domain specific and was strongest for "a lot" of domestic and/or "some" vocational physical activity. Future studies to establish causation are indicated and may prompt changes in how physical activity for improving mental health is promoted