The Problem of Anti-Slavery in the Age of Capital, c. 1830-1888

This thesis explores the relationship between Britain and transatlantic slavery in the post-emancipation period. Following West Indian emancipation various types of British capitalists continued to profit from both the slave trade and slave-ownership. These economic connections had to be rationalised within a Britain politically and ideologically committed to anti-slavery. I propose that the British government, abolitionists, and capitalists were faced with the problem of anti-slavery, namely the question of whether it was possible to operate morally in an Atlantic economy built upon chattel slavery. I explore a number of controversies relating to both British slave-ownership and involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. I argue that these debates must be considered as part of a longer tradition of slavery apologism that stretched back to the struggles over slave trade abolition and West Indian emancipation. In doing so I complicate our understanding of Britain as anti-slavery nation. Debates over British involvement of in transatlantic slavery blended economic and moral arguments. As such my thesis stresses the historically contingent nature of appeals to economic rationality, a key strategy of British capitalists justifying profiting from slavery. By examining business records, private correspondence, and government papers I establish the material basis of British involvement with transatlantic slavery. I also analyse debates that took place in newspapers, journals, and parliament to explore the arguments advanced about Britain, commerce, and slavery. I demonstrate how British capitalists justified profiting from transatlantic slavery through a construction of Britons as more civilized than foreign slave owners, slave traders, and enslaved people. That this imagined geography provided a solution the problem of anti-slavery speaks to the heterogeneous nature of anti-slavery ideology in Victorian Britain

Optimal measurement of visual motion across spatial and temporal scales

Sensory systems use limited resources to mediate the perception of a great variety of objects and events. Here a normative framework is presented for exploring how the problem of efficient allocation of resources can be solved in visual perception. Starting with a basic property of every measurement, captured by Gabor's uncertainty relation about the location and frequency content of signals, prescriptions are developed for optimal allocation of sensors for reliable perception of visual motion. This study reveals that a large-scale characteristic of human vision (the spatiotemporal contrast sensitivity function) is similar to the optimal prescription, and it suggests that some previously puzzling phenomena of visual sensitivity, adaptation, and perceptual organization have simple principled explanations.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, 2 appendices; in press in Favorskaya MN and Jain LC (Eds), Computer Vision in Advanced Control Systems using Conventional and Intelligent Paradigms, Intelligent Systems Reference Library, Springer-Verlag, Berli

Automated data analysis to rapidly derive and communicate ecological insights from satellite-tag data: A case study of reintroduced red kites

Analysis of satellite-telemetry data mostly occurs long after it has been collected, due to the time and effort needed to collate and interpret such material. Such delayed reporting does reduce the usefulness of such data for nature conservation when timely information about animal movements is required. To counter this problem we present a novel approach which combines automated analysis of satellite-telemetry data with rapid communication of insights derived from such data. A relatively simple algorithm (comprising speed of movement and turning angle calculated from fixes), allowed instantaneous detection of excursions away from settlement areas and automated calculation of home ranges on the remaining data Automating the detection of both excursions and home range calculations enabled us to disseminate ecological insights from satellite-tag data instantaneously through a dedicated web portal to inform conservationists and wider audiences. We recommend automated analysis, interpretation and communication of satellite tag and other ecological data to advance nature conservation research and practice

Use of antibiotic and prevalence of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in-patients with spinal cord injuries: a UK national spinal injury centre experience

BACKGROUND: This was a retrospective audit, with the aims being to (1) record the use of antibiotics; (2) establish the prevalence of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (AAD) and Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea (CDAD); and (3) assess if there was any seasonal variation in antibiotic use and incidence of AAD. METHODS: The study was performed at a single spinal cord injury (SCI) centre in the UK. Data were collected using a standardised questionnaire during October 2014 to June 2015. We define AAD as two or more watery stools of type 5, 6 or 7 (Bristol stool scale) over 24 h. RESULTS: Three-hundred-and-nineteen adults (mean age: 55.9 years, 29.2% female) with SCI (58.2% tetraplegia; 43.7% complete SCI) were included. Of 70 (21.9%) patients on antibiotics, the top three indications for antibiotics were urinary-tract infections, infected pressure ulcers and other skin infections. Seventeen of 78 (21.8%) developed AAD and three of 319 (0.94%) developed CDAD. AAD was more common in the summer season than in spring, autumn and winter (47.1%, 10.0%, 10.0%, 23.8%, P=0.025). AAD was associated with older adults greater than 65 years (70.6% vs 23.8%, P=0.007). Polypharmacy and the summer season were identified as independent predictors for AAD. CONCLUSION: This survey found that AAD is common in SCI patients and may be a risk factor for a poorer outcome and increased hospital costs. A multicentre study is underway to establish the incidence and risk factors for AAD

Cardiovascular disease in a cohort exposed to the 1940-45 Channel Islands occupation

BACKGROUND To clarify the nature of the relationship between food deprivation/undernutrition during pre- and postnatal development and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in later life, this study examined the relationship between birth weight (as a marker of prenatal nutrition) and the incidence of hospital admissions for CVD from 1997–2005 amongst 873 Guernsey islanders (born in 1923–1937), 225 of whom had been exposed to food deprivation as children, adolescents or young adults (i.e. postnatal undernutrition) during the 1940–45 German occupation of the Channel Islands, and 648 of whom had left or been evacuated from the islands before the occupation began. METHODS Three sets of Cox regression models were used to investigate (A) the relationship between birth weight and CVD, (B) the relationship between postnatal exposure to the occupation and CVD and (C) any interaction between birth weight, postnatal exposure to the occupation and CVD. These models also tested for any interactions between birth weight and sex, and postnatal exposure to the occupation and parish of residence at birth (as a marker of parish residence during the occupation and related variation in the severity of food deprivation). RESULTS The first set of models (A) found no relationship between birth weight and CVD even after adjustment for potential confounders (hazard ratio (HR) per kg increase in birth weight: 1.12; 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.70 – 1.78), and there was no significant interaction between birth weight and sex (p = 0.60). The second set of models (B) found a significant relationship between postnatal exposure to the occupation and CVD after adjustment for potential confounders (HR for exposed vs. unexposed group: 2.52; 95% CI: 1.54 – 4.13), as well as a significant interaction between postnatal exposure to the occupation and parish of residence at birth (p = 0.01), such that those born in urban parishes (where food deprivation was worst) had a greater HR for CVD than those born in rural parishes. The third model (C) found no interaction between birth weight and exposure to the occupation (p = 0.43). CONCLUSION These findings suggest that the levels of postnatal undernutrition experienced by children, adolescents and young adults exposed to food deprivation during the 1940–45 occupation of the Channel Islands were a more important determinant of CVD in later life than the levels of prenatal undernutrition experienced in utero prior to the occupatio

Developing cardiac and skeletal muscle share fast-skeletal myosin heavy chain and cardiac troponin-I expression

Skeletal muscle derived stem cells (MDSCs) transplanted into injured myocardium can differentiate into fast skeletal muscle specific myosin heavy chain (sk-fMHC) and cardiac specific troponin-I (cTn-I) positive cells sustaining recipient myocardial function. We have recently found that MDSCs differentiate into a cardiomyocyte phenotype within a three-dimensional gel bioreactor. It is generally accepted that terminally differentiated myocardium or skeletal muscle only express cTn-I or sk-fMHC, respectively. Studies have shown the presence of non-cardiac muscle proteins in the developing myocardium or cardiac proteins in pathological skeletal muscle. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that normal developing myocardium and skeletal muscle transiently share both sk-fMHC and cTn-I proteins. Immunohistochemistry, western blot, and RT-PCR analyses were carried out in embryonic day 13 (ED13) and 20 (ED20), neonatal day 0 (ND0) and 4 (ND4), postnatal day 10 (PND10), and 8 week-old adult female Lewis rat ventricular myocardium and gastrocnemius muscle. Confocal laser microscopy revealed that sk-fMHC was expressed as a typical striated muscle pattern within ED13 ventricular myocardium, and the striated sk-fMHC expression was lost by ND4 and became negative in adult myocardium. cTn-I was not expressed as a typical striated muscle pattern throughout the myocardium until PND10. Western blot and RT-PCR analyses revealed that gene and protein expression patterns of cardiac and skeletal muscle transcription factors and sk-fMHC within ventricular myocardium and skeletal muscle were similar at ED20, and the expression patterns became cardiac or skeletal muscle specific during postnatal development. These findings provide new insight into cardiac muscle development and highlight previously unknown common developmental features of cardiac and skeletal muscle. © 2012 Clause et al

A proposal for a coordinated effort for the determination of brainwide neuroanatomical connectivity in model organisms at a mesoscopic scale

In this era of complete genomes, our knowledge of neuroanatomical circuitry remains surprisingly sparse. Such knowledge is however critical both for basic and clinical research into brain function. Here we advocate for a concerted effort to fill this gap, through systematic, experimental mapping of neural circuits at a mesoscopic scale of resolution suitable for comprehensive, brain-wide coverage, using injections of tracers or viral vectors. We detail the scientific and medical rationale and briefly review existing knowledge and experimental techniques. We define a set of desiderata, including brain-wide coverage; validated and extensible experimental techniques suitable for standardization and automation; centralized, open access data repository; compatibility with existing resources, and tractability with current informatics technology. We discuss a hypothetical but tractable plan for mouse, additional efforts for the macaque, and technique development for human. We estimate that the mouse connectivity project could be completed within five years with a comparatively modest budget.Comment: 41 page

Spatial contrast sensitivity in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

Adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing (TD) controls underwent a rigorous psychophysical assessment that measured contrast sensitivity to seven spatial frequencies (0.5-20 cycles/degree). A contrast sensitivity function (CSF) was then fitted for each participant, from which four measures were obtained: visual acuity, peak spatial frequency, peak contrast sensitivity, and contrast sensitivity at a low spatial frequency. There were no group differences on any of the four CSF measures, indicating no differential spatial frequency processing in ASD. Although it has been suggested that detail-oriented visual perception in individuals with ASD may be a result of differential sensitivities to low versus high spatial frequencies, the current study finds no evidence to support this hypothesis