Earning Legitimacy: Participation, Intellectual Property and Informed Consent

A booklet linking politics and practice aimed at museum practitioners and researchers working with museum

The glory of god in Pauline thought

It is clear that for Paul the motif has some precise meaning. There are occasions when he would seem to use it in a general sense when he wishes to express the unutterable in greatness and majesty of God. Particularly is this so in concluding words in letters where he expresses the hope that the name of God will he ascribed glory for ever. However, by far the majority of uses can be given a more precise definition. When it is used in reference to God is, on most occasions, not just an attribute of God, as has often been thought, but denotes the sum of his eternal perfections, the nature of his being. Further, it is because God’s nature is that he has purposed to create and especially redeem a people for himself so that he might receive glory. God is not dependent in any way for his existence upon his creation, but in his glory he has willed to create and recreate. Furthermore, it is in the person of Jesus Christ, that God's glory is supremely manifest to men. This is true not just of the pre-Easter Jesus, but especially so of the post-Easter exalted Christ, who, because of his sacrificial death bestows his own glory, that is the Glory of God, upon God's sons and heirs. Again, it is because God is the eternal God of glory that it is right that he should expect men whom he has created in his own image to express their relation to him in glorifying him in their lives by trust, obedience and thankfulness. However, man has chosen to attempt to ignore God and has suffered the consequences. Nevertheless God seeks to bestow glory upon man, but can only do this when his righteousness is made manifest in the shedding of the blood of the perfect man, God's own son. Through faith in the person of Jesus Christ men can be assured that they receive the glory of God. But is not simply an eschatological idea. While the main thrust of the motif is forward-looking to the day when the glory of God will be revealed and the glorification of believing men will be manifest to all, there is also the present aspect. Just as here and now God declares his people to be his sons, so too does he already bestow upon them his nature of glory, that is, he changes the inward direction of Christians so that they may be transformed from one glory to another in the present age

Evaluation of Struthio camelus eggshell as an in vitro alternative to extracted human teeth in preliminary screening studies on dental erosion

Abstract Objectives This in vitro work investigates the potential of ostrich eggshell as a substitute for extracted human teeth in preliminary screening studies on dental erosion. Additionally, it aims to demonstrate the potential of ostrich eggshell compared to human enamel in evaluating the efficacy of a preventive agent in protecting against dental erosion, using an artificial mouth model. Methods The experiment utilized 96 erosion testing specimens from each substrate, human enamel, and ostrich eggshell. The specimens were subjected to six different experimental regimens of increasing erosive challenge, simulating the consumption of an acidic drink. The acidic drink was delivered at a consistent volume and duration range. Both artificially stimulated and unstimulated saliva flowed throughout the experimental regimens. Surface hardness was measured using a Through‐Indenter Viewing hardness tester with a Vickers diamond, while surface profiling was done using a surface contacting profilometer with a diamond stylus. An automated chemistry analyzer system was used to detect calcium and phosphate ions. Results The study found that ostrich eggshell specimens demonstrated predictable surface loss, hardness drop, and ion loss due to the acidic challenge. Meanwhile, enamel appeared to fall short in terms of surface hardness predictability. The transient hardness loss phase, which manifests as an overlooked decrease in surface hardness despite significant ion and structural loss, may explain this phenomenon. Conclusions The experiment showed that assessing surface loss is essential in addition to hardness testing, particularly as certain experimental conditions may produce a false perception of tissue recovery despite the actual surface loss. By analyzing the response of ostrich eggshell specimens to erosive challenges, researchers were able to identify an “overlooked” reduction in hardness in enamel specimens. The differences in the structure, chemical composition, and biological response to erosion in the presence of artificial saliva between enamel and ostrich eggshell could explain their distinct behaviors

The Personal is still Political: Museums, Participation and Copyright

Copyright is a means of managing the interests of individual authors and those of the ‘public interest’. In a museum context, copyright is a technical practice which illuminates how museums imagine and manage their own organizational legitimacy – a settlement which has often operated through a ‘public interest argument’ (‘we need you to hand over control of your object/story for the benefit of all’). Drawing on interviews with people who work in museums and those who have taken part in a museum participation project, we focus on a digital storytelling project to show how copyright was deployed to make an in-practice argument for the how museums might legitimately relate personal story telling with the ‘public interest’. The project did this through three processes: coming into the public via managing informed consent through evoking future audiences, making an author through creating intentional decisions and ‘responsibilization’ and making an object by transforming a digital story into a ‘finished’ object which is, in turn, transferred into the museum collections. While those involved in the project recognized they had signed over the rights to their story and were, in most cases, broadly happy with this – ‘that’s what the form was for’, as one put it – the personal nature of the story itself (linked to personal memories, friends and family) and the sociality of the process of making it (in a group; through interactions with museum staff) was also emphasized. This sociality was expressed in the sense that participants would like to be told when a story is going to be re-displayed, be sent drafts of interpretation and be invited to the opening of the exhibition – a mode of relationship with the museum consistently described as ‘courtesy’. The article concludes by suggesting that the expectation of courtesy – though it might seem like a very modest claim – does something to museums and makes way for more nuanced asymmetries within the public interest argument. Rather than assuming that ‘the public interest’ lies in treating people (slightly coldly) in the same way, the lens of courtesy might suggest ways of both respecting the importance of the public ethos (for institutions to address themselves to ideas of fairness, inclusion and equality) yet might also work to socialize this impulse and reimagine a responsive public museum from the bottom up

A method for ensemble expansion and improved definition of forecast distributions from climate simulations

Because of the inherently chaotic nature of the atmosphere, ensemble simulations are required to characterize a model’s response to the prescribed boundary forcing in probabilistic terms, particularly if the focus is on the probabilities of extreme events. At the same time, substantial computer resources are needed to produce routinely ensemble seasonal climate forecasts of sufficient size to make suitably reproducible estimates of such probabilities. We describe a method for artificially expanding the effective number of members in ensemble climate simulations on a seasonal basis, thereby reducing uncertainty in estimated probability distributions. As described here, the method involves calculating seasonal statistics using monthly values from all possible combinations of ensemble members. Under certain assumptions, this method is able to increase the effective ensemble size of an N-member M-month seasonal forecast by a factor of (asymptotically) M. One key assumption in this regard is that, aside from the effects of prescribed boundary conditions, the month-to-month values from a particular ensemble member are linear independent. This paper describes the behaviour of the ensemble expansion technique using both idealized and actual ensemble forecast data under a variety of conditions, drawing comparisons with an alternative parametric approach for ensemble expansion. A method for testing the assumption of linear independence in model simulations is also presented

Conditional probabilities, relative operating characteristics, and relative operating levels

The relative operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a highly flexible method for representing the quality of dichotomous, categorical, continuous, and probabilistic forecasts. The method is based on ratios that measure the proportions of events and nonevents for which warnings were provided. These ratios provide estimates of the probabilities that an event will be forewarned and that an incorrect warning will be provided for a nonevent. Some guidelines for interpreting the ROC curve are provided. While the ROC curve is of direct interest to the user, the warning is provided in advance of the outcome and so there is additional value in knowing the probability of an event occurring contingent upon a warning being provided or not provided. An alternative method to the ROC curve is proposed that represents forecast quality when expressed in terms of probabilities of events occurring contingent upon the warnings provided. The ratios used provide estimates of the probability of an event occurring given the forecast that is issued. Some problems in constructing the curve in a manner that is directly analogous to that for the ROC curve are highlighted, and so an alternative approach is proposed. In the context of probabilistic forecasts, the ROC curve provides a means of identifying the forecast probability at which forecast value is optimized. In the context of continuous variables, the proposed relative operating levels curve indicates the exceedence threshold for defining an event at which forecast skill is optimized, and can enable the forecast user to estimate the probabilities of events other than that defined by the forecaster

Non-linear and quantum optics of a type II OPO containing a birefringent element Part 1: Classical operation

We describe theoretically the main characteristics of the steady state regime of a type II Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) containing a birefringent plate. In such a device the signal and idler waves are at the same time linearly coupled by the plate and nonlinearly coupled by the $\chi^{(2)}$ crystal. This mixed coupling allows, in some well-defined range of the control parameters, a frequency degenerate operation as well as phase locking between the signal and idler modes. We describe here a complete model taking into account all possible effects in the system, \emph{i.e.} arbitrary rotation of the waveplate, non perfect phase matching, ring and linear cavities. This model is able to explain the detailed features of the experiments performed with this system.Comment: To be published in EPJ

A four year longitudinal sero-epidemiological study of bovine herpesvirus type-1 (BHV-1) in adult cattle in 107 unvaccinated herds in south west England

Background: Bovine herpesvirus type-1 (BHV-1) is an important pathogen of cattle that presents with a variety of clinical signs, including the upper respiratory tract infection infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR). A seroepidemiological study of BHV-1 antibodies was conducted in England from 2002 – 2004: 29,782 blood samples were taken from 15,736 cattle from 114 herds which were visited on up to three occasions. Antibody concentration was measured using a commercial ELISA. Farm management information was collected using an interview questionnaire, and herd size and cattle movements were obtained from the cattle tuberculosis testing database and the British Cattle Movement Service. Hierarchical statistical models were used to investigate associations between cattle and herd variables and the continuous outcome percentage positive (PP) values from the ELISA test in unvaccinated herds. Results: There were 7 vaccinated herds, all with at least one seropositive bovine. In unvaccinated herds 83.2% had at least one BHV-1 seropositive bovine, and the mean cattle and herd BHV-1 seroprevalence were 42.5% and 43.1% respectively. There were positive associations between PP value, age, herd size, presence of dairy cattle. Adult cattle in herds with grower cattle had lower PP values than those in herds without grower cattle. Purchased cattle had significantly lower PP values than homebred cattle, whereas cattle in herds that were totally restocked after the foot-and-mouth epidemic in 2001 had significantly higher PP values than those in continuously stocked herds. Samples taken in spring and summer had significantly lower PP values than those taken in winter, whereas those taken in autumn had significantly higher PP values than those taken in winter. The risks estimated from a logistic regression model with a binary outcome (seropositive yes/no) were similar. Conclusion: The prevalence of BHV-1 seropositivity in cattle and herds has increased since the 1970s. Although the study population prevalence of BHV-1 was temporally stable during study period, the associations between serological status and cattle age, herd size, herd type, presence of young stock and restocked versus continuously stocked herds indicate that there is heterogeneity between herds and so potential for further spread of BHV-1 within and between herds

A four year longitudinal sero-epidemiology study of Neospora caninum in adult cattle from 114 cattle herds in south west England : associations with age, herd and dam-offspring pairs

Background: Neosporosis caused by the protozoan parasite Neospora caninum, is an economically important cause of abortion, stillbirth, low milk yield, reduced weight gain and premature culling in cattle. Consequently, a seroepidemiological study of N. caninum antibodies was conducted in England with 29,782 samples of blood taken from 15,736 cattle from 114 herds visited on three occasions at yearly intervals. Herds were categorised into lower (< 10%) and higher (≥ 10%) median herd seroprevalence. Hierarchical models were run to investigate associations between the sample to positive (S/P) ratio and herd and cattle factors. Results: Ninety-four percent of herds had at least one seropositive cow; 12.9% of adult cattle had at least one seropositive test. Approximately 90% of herds were seropositive at all visits; 9 herds (8%) changed serological status between visits. The median N. caninum seroprevalence in positive herds was 10% (range 0.4% to 58.8%). There was a positive association between the serostatus of offspring and dams that were ever seropositive. In the hierarchical model of low seroprevalence herds there was no significant association between S/P ratio and cattle age. There was a significantly lower S/P ratio in cattle in herds that were totally restocked after the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001 compared with those from continuously stocked herds and cattle purchased into these herds had a higher S/P ratio than homebred cattle. In the model of high seroprevalence herds the S/P ratio increased with cattle age, but was not associated with restocking or cattle origin. Conclusion: There were no strong temporal changes in herd seroprevalence of N. caninum but 90% of herds had some seropositive cattle over this time period. Vertical transmission from seropositive dams appeared to occur in all herds. In herds with a high seroprevalence the increasing S/P ratio in 2–4 year old cattle is suggestive of exposure to N. caninum: horizontal transmission between adult cattle, infection from a local source or recrudescence and abortions. Between-herd movements of infected cattle enhance the spread of N. caninum, particularly into low seroprevalence herds. Some restocked herds had little exposure to N. caninum, while in others infection had spread in the time since restocking