From Water to the Stars: A Reinterpretation of Galileo’s Style

Galileo Galilei’s contribution during the early stages of the scientific revolution and his clash with the Catholic Church have been discussed, studied, and written about for many decades. There are indications however that recent work in this area has tended to underestimate the fact that Galileo had a particular style. By style here I mean a particular combination of behavioural features that are specific to a person or a historical period. Style of course can be related to behaviour in general, but what is relevant in this paper is the combination of dispositions that determine a particular way of engaging in science, as discussed by scholars like A.C. Crombie. Galileo, I will argue, had a scientific style marked by overconfidence. He tended to downplay the importance of obvious contradictory evidence that undermined his claims, and he did this by producing auxiliary hypotheses that sometimes verged on the extravagant. If we focus on this somewhat neglected aspect of his style, some interesting new questions emerge: To what extent did Galileo depend on such auxiliary hypotheses? How insecure did they render his position? And how ad hoc were they? In this paper, I explore these questions by comparing two important debates: one about the nature of water and buoyancy, the other about cosmology. Since the main features of the cosmology debate, the one involving Galileo’s defence of heliocentrism, are well known, I will dedicate more time to the water debate, before proceeding to highlight the elements of style that are common to both debates, and to evaluate the relevance of these elements for current understanding of scientific practice

Convergent evolution and topologically disruptive polymorphisms among multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Peru

Background Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis poses a major threat to the success of tuberculosis control programs worldwide. Understanding how drug-resistant tuberculosis evolves can inform the development of new therapeutic and preventive strategies. Methods Here, we use novel genome-wide analysis techniques to identify polymorphisms that are associated with drug resistance, adaptive evolution and the structure of the phylogenetic tree. A total of 471 samples from different patients collected between 2009 and 2013 in the Lima suburbs of Callao and Lima South were sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq platform with 150bp paired-end reads. After alignment to the reference H37Rv genome, variants were called using standardized methodology. Genome-wide analysis was undertaken using custom written scripts implemented in R software. Results High quality homoplastic single nucleotide polymorphisms were observed in genes known to confer drug resistance as well as genes in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis ESX secreted protein pathway, pks12, and close to toxin/anti-toxin pairs. Correlation of homoplastic variant sites identified that many were significantly correlated, suggestive of epistasis. Variation in genes coding for ESX secreted proteins also significantly disrupted phylogenetic structure. Mutations in ESX genes in key antigenic epitope positions were also found to disrupt tree topology. Conclusion Variation in these genes have a biologically plausible effect on immunogenicity and virulence. This makes functional characterization warranted to determine the effects of these polymorphisms on bacterial fitness and transmission

Explicit memory schemes for evolutionary algorithms in dynamic environments

Copyright @ 2007 Springer-VerlagProblem optimization in dynamic environments has atrracted a growing interest from the evolutionary computation community in reccent years due to its importance in real world optimization problems. Several approaches have been developed to enhance the performance of evolutionary algorithms for dynamic optimization problems, of which the memory scheme is a major one. This chapter investigates the application of explicit memory schemes for evolutionary algorithms in dynamic environments. Two kinds of explicit memory schemes: direct memory and associative memory, are studied within two classes of evolutionary algorithms: genetic algorithms and univariate marginal distribution algorithms for dynamic optimization problems. Based on a series of systematically constructed dynamic test environments, experiments are carried out to investigate these explicit memory schemes and the performance of direct and associative memory schemes are campared and analysed. The experimental results show the efficiency of the memory schemes for evolutionary algorithms in dynamic environments, especially when the environment changes cyclically. The experimental results also indicate that the effect of the memory schemes depends not only on the dynamic problems and dynamic environments but also on the evolutionary algorithm used

Louis J. Gallagher, SJ Papers

All physical materials associated with the New England Province Archive are currently held by the Jesuit Archives in St. Louis, MO. Any inquiries about these materials should be directed to Jesuit Archives. Electronic versions of some items and the descriptions and finding aids to the Archives, which are hosted in CrossWorks, are provided only as a courtesy. Louis J. Gallagher was born on July 22, 1885 in the Savin Hill area of Dorchester (Boston), MA, the son of James P. and Sarah (Dempsey) Gallagher. He first attended the Harbor View Street School, later named the Cora L. Ethridge School, after one of his teachers. He completed the grammar school grades at the Immaculate Conception Parochial School in Malden. He graduated from Boston College High School. After attending Boston College for two years, he entered the Society of Jesus on August 14, 1906 at St. Andrew-on Hudson in Poughkeepsie, NY, where he completed his novitiate and juniorate. Two years of philosophy at Woodstock College, in Woodstock, MD, and one year in Montreal prepared him for his regency which consisted of five years of teaching, 1912-1917, at Fordham Preparatory School in NY, teaching second and third year French and first year Elocution. During that time, he was in charge of athletics for two years and formed the Fordham Ambulance Corps that served with the French Army before the United States entered World War I and afterwards transferred to the American overseas forces. In 1917 he returned to Woodstock College for theology studies. He was ordained by Cardinal Gibbons on June 29, 1920, at Dahlgren Chapel at Georgetown University. After completing his theology studies in 1921, he was appointed headmaster of Xavier High School in New York City. In June of 1922, he was asked by Fr. Edmund A. Walsh, S.J. who was then the Director of the Papal Mission for Famine Relief to Russia, to become his assistant. He served in Russia, acting as a layman for 15 months. Much of the work involved logistics, arranging for the transportation and distribution of food, locating appropriate facilities for kitchens and dining rooms, and hiring staff. The majority of the work was done in cities where the population was swollen with refugees from all areas of the country. While he was in Russia, Fr. Gallagher was named as a Diplomatic Courier by the State Department of the Soviet Government and also by the Vatican to bring the body of Saint Andrew Bobola (1592-1657), a Jesuit Martyr, from Moscow to Rome. He used these experiences to write two books: A Test of Heritage, A Russian Class-War Novel, 1938, and The Life of Saint Andrew Bobola (with Paul V. Donovan), 1939. After escorting the body of Bobola to the Vatican, he went to Tullabeg, Ireland, for his tertianship in 1923-24. &nbps; He returned to the United States in 1924 to begin a number of administrative assignments. From 1924-1926, he served as Prefect of Studies (Dean) at Georgetown College in Washington, D.C. From 1926-1932, he served as Socius (Executive Secretary) to the Provincial of the newly formed New England Province and the Prefect of Studies for the Province. After that assignment, he became the Rector (President) of Boston College from 1932-1937. After 1937, he combined writing with administrative positions. From 1937-1940 he was the Editor and Writer of the “New England Province News,” the newsletter of the New England Province. From 1940-1943, he served as the Associate Director of the Institute of Social Order in New York City at its opening. He returned to Boston in 1943 to become the Director of the Jesuit Seminary Guild and the Superior of St. Andrew Bobola House on 300 Newbury Street in the Back Bay of Boston until 1949. From 1944 until 1946, he also was the Editor of the Jesuit Seminary News and the “New England Province News.” &nbps; For a short time in 1949, he assisted at St. Mary’s Church, the Jesuit Parish in the North End of Boston. From 1949-1951, he returned to 300 Newbury Street, serving as the Province Archivist and writing. From 1951-1955, he resided at St. Robert’s Hall, the Province Tertianship in Pomfret, CT, writing. From 1955-1970, he lived at Georgetown University, continuing his writing and again working with Fr. Edmund A. Walsh, S.J. He returned to the New England Province in 1970, living at Weston College, in Weston, MA, and serving as House Confessor. Fr. Gallagher died at Glover Memorial Hospital in Needham on August 14, 1972, at the age of 87, on the 67th anniversary of his entrance to the Society of Jesus and after 52 years as a priest. He is buried in the Jesuit Cemetery at Campion Center, formerly Weston College, in Weston, MA. &nbps; Fr. Gallagher was the author of six published books and many articles. He also wrote a memoir of his life that gives a vivid account of his time in Russia serving the Papal Relief Mission to famine victims, and a detailed story of the recovery and escort of the body of St. Andrew Bobola, S.J. from Moscow to the Vatican. &nbps; The collection consists of 1-5” box of papers and 1-2.5” box of photographs. The papers consist of several versions of Fr. Gallagher’s memoir, some correspondence related to the publication of the memoir, some materials developed by the archives and other researchers, two short stories and a Proclamation of thanks from the Kirghiz Soviet Republic. (This Proclamation is labeled as a certificate of honorary citizenship.) Fr. Gallagher’s memoir, titled either “A Twentieth Century Jesuit” or “Recollections of a Jesuit Cossack” largely focuses on the 15 months Gallagher spent in Russia. It describes the challenges of famine relief work, some of the individuals he worked with in Russia and the incognito transfer of the body of St. Andrew Bobola from Moscow to Rome. There are three versions of the memoir in the collection. Permissions were received in the mid-1960s and the early 1970s to publish the memoir, but that has not happened as of 2014. The photographs are mainly of Russia during the famine of the early 1920s. There are also some portrait photos of Fr. Gallagher

N=2 supergravity and supercurrents

We address the problem of classifying all N=2 supercurrent multiplets in four space-time dimensions. For this purpose we consider the minimal formulation of N=2 Poincare supergravity with a tensor compensator, and derive its linearized action in terms of three N=2 off-shell multiplets: an unconstrained scalar superfield, a vector multiplet, and a tensor multiplet. Such an action was ruled out to exist in the past. Using the action constructed, one can derive other models for linearized N=2 supergravity by applying N=2 superfield duality transformations. The action depends parametrically on a constant non-vanishing real isotriplet g^{ij}=g^{ji} which originates as an expectation value of the tensor compensator. Upon reduction to N=1 superfields, we show that the model describes two dually equivalent formulations for the massless multiplet (1,3/2)+(3/2,2) depending on a choice of g^{ij}. In the case g^{11}=g^{22}=0, the action describes (i) new minimal N=1 supergravity; and (ii) the Fradkin-Vasiliev-de Wit-van Holten gravitino multiplet. In the case g^{12}=0, on the other hand, the action describes (i) old minimal N=1 supergravity; and (ii) the Ogievetsky-Sokatchev gravitino multiplet.Comment: 40 pages; v2: added references, some comments, new appendi

Evidence for distinct coastal and offshore communities of bottlenose dolphins in the north east Atlantic.

Bottlenose dolphin stock structure in the northeast Atlantic remains poorly understood. However, fine scale photo-id data have shown that populations can comprise multiple overlapping social communities. These social communities form structural elements of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) [corrected] populations, reflecting specific ecological and behavioural adaptations to local habitats. We investigated the social structure of bottlenose dolphins in the waters of northwest Ireland and present evidence for distinct inshore and offshore social communities. Individuals of the inshore community had a coastal distribution restricted to waters within 3 km from shore. These animals exhibited a cohesive, fission-fusion social organisation, with repeated resightings within the research area, within a larger coastal home range. The offshore community comprised one or more distinct groups, found significantly further offshore (>4 km) than the inshore animals. In addition, dorsal fin scarring patterns differed significantly between inshore and offshore communities with individuals of the offshore community having more distinctly marked dorsal fins. Specifically, almost half of the individuals in the offshore community (48%) had characteristic stereotyped damage to the tip of the dorsal fin, rarely recorded in the inshore community (7%). We propose that this characteristic is likely due to interactions with pelagic fisheries. Social segregation and scarring differences found here indicate that the distinct communities are likely to be spatially and behaviourally segregated. Together with recent genetic evidence of distinct offshore and coastal population structures, this provides evidence for bottlenose dolphin inshore/offshore community differentiation in the northeast Atlantic. We recommend that social communities should be considered as fundamental units for the management and conservation of bottlenose dolphins and their habitat specialisations

Three weeks of a home-based "sleep low-train low" intervention improves functional threshold power in trained cyclists: A feasibility study.

BACKGROUND: "Sleep Low-Train Low" is a training-nutrition strategy intended to purposefully reduce muscle glycogen availability around specific exercise sessions, potentially amplifying the training stimulus via augmented cell signalling. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of a 3-week home-based "sleep low-train low" programme and its effects on cycling performance in trained athletes. METHODS: Fifty-five trained athletes (Functional Threshold Power [FTP]: 258 ± 52W) completed a home-based cycling training program consisting of evening high-intensity training (6 × 5 min at 105% FTP), followed by low-intensity training (1 hr at 75% FTP) the next morning, three times weekly for three consecutive weeks. Participant's daily carbohydrate (CHO) intake (6 g·kg-1·d-1) was matched but timed differently to manipulate CHO availability around exercise: no CHO consumption post- HIT until post-LIT sessions [Sleep Low (SL), n = 28] or CHO consumption evenly distributed throughout the day [Control (CON), n = 27]. Sessions were monitored remotely via power data uploaded to an online training platform, with performance tests conducted pre-, post-intervention. RESULTS: LIT exercise intensity reduced by 3% across week 1, 3 and 2% in week 2 (P < 0.01) with elevated RPE in SL vs. CON (P < 0.01). SL enhanced FTP by +5.5% vs. +1.2% in CON (P < 0.01). Comparable increases in 5-min peak power output (PPO) were observed between groups (P < 0.01) with +2.3% and +2.7% in SL and CON, respectively (P = 0.77). SL 1-min PPO was unchanged (+0.8%) whilst CON improved by +3.9% (P = 0.0144). CONCLUSION: Despite reduced relative training intensity, our data demonstrate short-term "sleep low-train low" intervention improves FTP compared with typically "normal" CHO availability during exercise. Importantly, training was completed unsupervised at home (during the COVID-19 pandemic), thus demonstrating the feasibility of completing a "sleep low-train low" protocol under non-laboratory conditions

Extending colonic mucosal microbiome analysis - Assessment of colonic lavage as a proxy for endoscopic colonic biopsies

This study was supported through GI Research funds and MRC Grant Ref: MR/M00533X/1 to GH.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Workforce analysis using data mining and linear regression to understand HIV/AIDS prevalence patterns

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) depends on sufficient supply of health workforce in each country. Although country-level data support this contention, it has been difficult to evaluate health workforce supply and MDG outcomes at the country level. The purpose of the study was to examine the association between the health workforce, particularly the nursing workforce, and the achievement of the MDGs, taking into account other factors known to influence health status, such as socioeconomic indicators.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A merged data set that includes country-level MDG outcomes, workforce statistics, and general socioeconomic indicators was utilized for the present study. Data were obtained from the Global Human Resources for Health Atlas 2004, the WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) 2000, UN Fund for Development and Population Assistance (UNFDPA) 2000, the International Council of Nurses "Nursing in the World", and the WHO/UNAIDS database.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The main factors in understanding HIV/AIDS prevalence rates are physician density followed by female literacy rates and nursing density in the country. Using general linear model approaches, increased physician and nurse density (number of physicians or nurses per population) was associated with lower adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, even when controlling for socioeconomic indicators.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Increased nurse and physician density are associated with improved health outcomes, suggesting that countries aiming to attain the MDGs related to HIV/AIDS would do well to invest in their health workforce. Implications for international and country level policy are discussed.</p