The genome incorporated: constructing biodigital identity

The Genome Incorporated examines the proliferation of human genomics across contemporary media cultures. It explores questions about what it means for a technoscience to thoroughly saturate everyday life, and places the interrogation of the science/media relationship at the heart of this enquiry. The book develops a number of case studies in the mediation and consumption of genomics, including: the emergence of new direct-to-the-consumer bioinformatics companies; the mundane propagation of testing and genetic information through lifestyle television programming; and public and private engagements with art and science institutions and events. Through these novel sites, this book examines the proliferating circuits of production and consumption of genetic information and theorizes this as a process of incorporation. Its wide-ranging case studies ensure its appeal to readers across the social sciences

Effects of transporting bulls at different space allowances on physiological, haematological and immunological responses to a 12-h journey by road

peer-reviewedThe effects of space allowance during transportation on physiological, haematological and immunological responses in nine-month old bulls (250 kg) were assessed before and after a 12-h road journey. Following transport, animals transported at a spatial allowance of 1.27 m2 had higher (P ≤0.001) non-esterified fatty acid concentrations than control. The stimulated production of interferon-, in response to concanavalin-A and keyhole limpet haemocyanin, and plasma cortisol were not different at the 0.85 m2 and 1.27 m2 stocking densities. Glucose and albumin concentrations were higher (P ≤0.001) post-transport in all transported animals than control. The percentage lymphocytes was reduced (P ≤0.001) and neutrophil percentage and the number of neutrophils were increased (P ≤0.001) in all transported treatments. There were no changes (P 0.05) in monocyte numbers, monocyte percentage or platelet numbers following transportation. The haematocrit values were higher (P ≤0.001) in the transported treatments while RBC numbers were higher (P ≤0.001) in the animals transported at a spatial allowance of 1.27 m2 than control. Protein, globulin, urea and lactate concentrations, and white blood cell numbers were not changed at any time during the study. The concentration of -hydroxybutyrate was lower (P ≤0.001) in all animals following transport. Plasma haptoglobin concentrations were unchanged following transportation while plasma fibrinogen concentrations were reduced in all transported treatments. There were no differences among treatments in rectal temperature or live weights pre- and post-transport. The results indicate that within the conditions of the study, there was no welfare advantage in transporting bulls at 1.27 m2 versus the standard spatial allowance of 0.85 m2 on a 12-h road journey

Cultural Learning in a Dynamic Environment: an Analysis of Both Fitness and Diversity in Populations of Neural Network Agents

Evolutionary learning is a learning model that can be described as the iterative Darwinian process of fitness-based selection and genetic transfer of information leading to populations of higher fitness. Cultural learning describes the process of information transfer between individuals in a population through non-genetic means. Cultural learning has been simulated by combining genetic algorithms and neural networks using a teacher/pupil scenario where highly fit individuals are selected as teachers and instruct the next generation. This paper examines the effects of cultural learning on the evolutionary process of a population of neural networks. In particular, the paper examines the genotypic and phenotypic diversity of a population as well as its fitness. Using these measurements, it is possible to examine the effects of cultural learning on the population's genetic makeup. Furthermore, the paper examines whether cultural learning provides a more robust learning mechanism in the face of environmental changes. Three benchmark tasks have been chosen as the evolutionary task for the population: the bit-parity problem, the game of tic-tac-toe and the game of connect-four. Experiments are conducted with populations employing evolutionary learning alone and populations combining evolutionary and cultural learning in an environment that changes dramatically.Cultural Learning, Dynamic Environments, Diversity, Multi-Agent Systems, Artificial Life

The interaction between the seated shot-putter and their throwing frame

Seated shot-put is an integral part of the Para Athletics programme. Some ambulant and wheelchair athletes can participate in the seated shot-put event, according to their classification. Seated shot-putters throw from a specialist piece of equipment known as a throwing frame. Athletes are required to remain seated at all times throughout the throwing movement. Currently, the performance of seated shot-putters depends on the throwing technique whilst using a throwing frame. The comprehensive literature review presented in Chapter 3 investigating 26 articles (1999 – 2020) indicated that the development of the throwing technique could only be partially guided by a limited number of articles focusing on kinematic parameters of upper body segments and the shot-put at release. Unfortunately, most of these studies were conducted before fundamental changes of the seated shot-put rules in 2014 decreasing noticeably their relevance in the current context. Consequently, a better understanding of the interaction between the seated athlete and their throwing frame for performance improvement under the current rules is needed. The overall aim of this research, through three inter-linked studies (Chapters 4, 5 and 6), was to further explore how some technical-related elements of seated shot-put could influence performance. Release variables along with upper body linear kinematics of elite level athletes were explored to determine which variables were most impactful to performance. The purpose was to provide novel and unique biomechanical evidence showing the impact of various seating configurations (e.g. sitting direction and use of holding pole) on performance. Critical new insights making contextual links between movement theory and practice for seated shot-putters and their coaches were provided. This work created a milestone advancing evidence-based throwing technique regarding seated configuration valuable to athletes and coaches

A parameter robust numerical method for a two dimensional reaction-diffusion problem.

In this paper a singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion partial differential equation in two space dimensions is examined. By means of an appropriate decomposition, we describe the asymptotic behaviour of the solution of problems of this kind. A central finite difference scheme is constructed for this problem which involves an appropriate Shishkin mesh. We prove that the numerical approximations are almost second order uniformly convergent (in the maximum norm) with respect to the singular perturbation parameter. Some numerical experiments are given that illustrate in practice the theoretical order of convergence established for the numerical method

The end of the Marian Restoration and the early ElizabethanReformation in Canterbury. C.1557-1565

The Reformation was perhaps one of the most important socio-religious changes to occur in history. The effect it had on European culture, society and faith cannot be understated and yet, owing to the scope of Reformation sources and the relatively young trend of revisionism concerning the received truths about the period, comparatively little work has been conducted which centres around Canterbury alone, though many works incorporate references to the city into larger volumes. This thesis will explore the issues around the Reformation in Canterbury, the structure of the church and the conformability of its clergy. Furthermore, the works of key Protestant authors that comprise a group known as the ‘Marian exiles’ will be examined to give an impression of the attitude towards Catholicism, and therefore the Reformation at large, on the part of the more puritanical Protestants. Along with an analysis of Queen Elizabeth’s historic compromise, the Elizabethan Settlement that attempted to wed a Catholic hierarchical structure with a Protestant liturgical service, this thesis will also touch on the life of the first post-restoration holder of the archbishopric of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. Finally, this thesis will attempt to assess the impact of the Reformation upon Canterbury’s laity, both in terms of how the poorer strata of society accepted it, and the upper echelons of Canterbury society were divided. It is hoped that the analysis of this ‘local Reformation’ will contribute to the existing wealth of material about the movement as a whole

The Impact of Coevolution and Abstention on the Emergence of Cooperation

This paper explores the Coevolutionary Optional Prisoner's Dilemma (COPD) game, which is a simple model to coevolve game strategy and link weights of agents playing the Optional Prisoner's Dilemma game. We consider a population of agents placed in a lattice grid with boundary conditions. A number of Monte Carlo simulations are performed to investigate the impacts of the COPD game on the emergence of cooperation. Results show that the coevolutionary rules enable cooperators to survive and even dominate, with the presence of abstainers in the population playing a key role in the protection of cooperators against exploitation from defectors. We observe that in adverse conditions such as when the initial population of abstainers is too scarce/abundant, or when the temptation to defect is very high, cooperation has no chance of emerging. However, when the simple coevolutionary rules are applied, cooperators flourish.Comment: To appear at Studies in Computational Intelligence (SCI), Springer, 201

Effects of pre-transport fasting on the physiological responses of young cattle to 8-hour road transport

peer-reviewedThe effects of fasting animals for 8 h prior to an 8-h road journey and their ability to cope with the stress of transport were investigated. The treatments were: 1) fasted and then transported (n=20); 2) non-fasted and transported (n=18); 3) non-fasted at grass (n=18); 4) fasted then fasted (n=18), and 5) non-fasted then fasted (n=18). There was no significant difference in rectal body temperature, pre- or post-transport, or live weight among treatments on days 0 (pre-transport), 1, 4 or 10 (post-transport). The ambient relative humidity and temperature of the outside environment ranged from 82.8 to 99.8% and 9.9 to 14.5 oC, respectively. Holstein × Friesian bulls (230 kg) undergoing an 8-h transportation at stocking densities of 0.82 m2/animal showed physiological and haematological responses that were within normal referenced ranges. Animals that were fasted for 8 h and transported lost 9.4% of live weight while non-fasted transported animals lost 7.2%. The control non-fasted animals remaining at grass gained 2% of live weight. Animals that were fasted continuously but not transported and the initially non-fasted control animals that were subsequently fasted for 9 h lost 6.1% and 6.2% of live weight, respectively. There was no significant change in concentrations of globulin, glucose, urea, haemoglobin or fibrinogen, or in haematocrit percentage before or after transport. Transport reduced lymphocyte percentage (P < 0.001) and increased neutrophil percentage (P < 0.001) in the fasted and non-fasted animals. Following transport, protein concentration was greater (P ≤0.001) in the fasted and transported animals than in the non-fasted animals at grass and haptoglobin concentrations were higher (P ≤0.001) in the fasted plus transported animals than the controls at grass. In conclusion, from the physiological and haematological measurements, an 8-h journey time, even without access to feed for 8 h prior to transport did not appear to impact negatively on animal welfare