Translating the intimate: digital renderings of bio-matter into material forms through artistic research.

"Art invites us and allows us to linger at the frontier of what there is, and it gives us an outlook on what might be." Henk Borgdorff (2010, p. 61). Developing a body of work that explores an intimate relationship between my blood and the machinic in a practice-led process of fabrication, this PhD enquiry considers how the materiality of my body is translated, dispersed amongst the non-representational “froth of code”; becoming techno-corporeal abstractions through techno-scientific processes. This is my distinct contribution to knowledge. Throughout the written exegesis, poetic praxis is developed as my unique method of approach—both initiated and grounded by the nature of practice-led artistic research (praxis)—and philosophically inflected by poesis: processes of questioning and reflection that reanimate key aspects of current techno-scientific practice. I reflect upon a series of works fabricated through both two and three- dimensional print practices: articulations which I read (after Chadwick) as my "Enfleshings"; a virtual fleshy materiality. I also provide a critical analysis of emergent material practices of 3D Print (also known as Additive Layer Manufacture). The exegesis elucidates the artworks, their materiality (as Nylon 12) and concludes by considering future scenarios of biological techno-scientific practice, in which the body itself becomes 'fabricated'. A portfolio of practice is presented as a parallel volume, which enables the reader to navigate documentation of the artistic research process. These stem from early studio-based experiments; tacit-intuitive approaches to materials and processes which foreground later, lab-based fabricated works. The portfolio includes photographs of the completed series of art works, collectively named as Untitled_Force (2011-2015) alongside documentation of their public exhibitions, reconfigured as sculptural installation at three different sites. I argue throughout that poetic praxis as a methodology is a vital means of approach, revealing the unknown within existing instrumental research paradigms

Magnetically driven preparation of 1-D nano-necklaces capable of MRI relaxation enhancement

We report a novel magnetically-facilitated approach to produce 1-D ‘nano-necklace’ arrays composed of 0-D magnetic nanoparticles, which are assembled and coated with an oxide layer to produce semiflexible core@shell type structures. These ‘nano-necklaces’ demonstrate good MRI relaxation properties despite their coating and permanent alignment, with low field enhancement due to structural and magnetocrystalline anisotropy

Quantifying the impact of vegetation-based metrics on species persistence when choosing offsets for habitat destruction

Developers are often required by law to offset environmental impacts through targeted conservation actions. Most offset policies specify metrics for calculating offset requirements, usually by assessing vegetation condition. Despite widespread use, there is little evidence to support the effectiveness of vegetation-based metrics for ensuring biodiversity persistence. We compared long-term impacts of biodiversity offsetting based on area only; vegetation condition only; area x habitat suitability; and condition x habitat suitability in development and restoration simulations for the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. We simulated development and subsequent offsetting through restoration within a virtual landscape, linking simulations to population viability models for 3 species. Habitat gains did not ensure species persistence. No net loss was achieved when performance of offsetting was assessed in terms of amount of habitat restored, but not when outcomes were assessed in terms of persistence. Maintenance of persistence occurred more often when impacts were avoided, giving further support to better enforce the avoidance stage of the mitigation hierarchy. When development affected areas of high habitat quality for species, persistence could not be guaranteed. Therefore, species must be more explicitly accounted for in offsets, rather than just vegetation or habitat alone. Declines due to a failure to account directly for species population dynamics and connectivity overshadowed the benefits delivered by producing large areas of high-quality habitat. Our modeling framework showed that the benefits delivered by offsets are species specific and that simple vegetation-based metrics can give misguided impressions on how well biodiversity offsets achieve no net loss.Peer reviewe

A Device for Quantitative Analysis of the Thumb Ulnar Collateral Ligament

A device to quantitatively assess the ulnar collateral ligament of the thumb was developed to facilitate rapid and accurate diagnosis of the ligamentous injury known as Skier’s thumb. Topics: Wound

Two-decade change in prevalence of cognitive impairment in the UK.

Identification of individuals at high risk of dementia has usually focused attention on the clinical concept of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which captures an intermediate state between normal cognitive ageing and dementia. In many countries age specific risk of dementia has declined, but whether this is also the case for subclinical cognitive impairment is unknown. This has important implications for prevention, planning and policy. Here we describe subclinical cognitive impairment and mild dementia prevalence changes, in the UK, over 2 decades. The Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies have examined the full spectrum of cognition, from normal to dementia, in representative populations of people aged ≥ 65 years in the UK over the last 2 decades 7635 participants were interviewed in CFAS I in Cambridgeshire, Newcastle, and Nottingham in 1991, with 1457 being diagnostically assessed. In the same geographical areas, the CFAS II investigators interviewed 7796 individuals in 2011. Using established criteria, the population was categorised into seven groups: no cognitive impairment, Mild cognitive Impairment (defined using consensus criteria), other cognitive impairment no dementia without functional impairment, OCIND with functional impairment, cognitive impairment (MMSE < 24 and no functional impairment), mild dementia (MMSE < 24 with functional impairment, not captured by CFAS dementia criteria), and CFAS dementia criteria. Multinomial logistic regression, adjusted for age and sex, was used to estimate the prevalence of impairment in both studies. Results were standardized to the age-sex specific UK and global population. There is a clear increase in the prevalence of other cognitive Impairment no Dementia (without functional impairment), with the purer MCI remaining stable. In the UK, mild dementia is estimated to fall from 520,704 cases (5.7%, 95% CI 3.8, 8.1) in 1991 to 315,142 (3.0%, 95% CI 2.4, 3.8) in 2011, cognitive impairment, has fallen from 1,225,984 (13.5%, 95% CI 10.1, 17.5) to 654,436 (6.3%, 95% CI 5.4, 7.3) cases. Using additional categories which reflect the continuum of cognitive decline and impairment in populations we see that the mildest dementia declines, but that there is stability in estimates of those who meet MCI criteria. Increases were found in the Other Cognitive Impairment no Dementia group. The decline observed in severe impairment thus seems to have resulted in larger proportions of the population in milder forms, seen alongside physical illnesses