Natural guardians of the race: heredity, hygiene, alcohol, and degeneration in Scottish Psychiatry, c. 1860 – 1920

This thesis investigates the ways in which hereditary degeneration was discussed by Scottish psychiatrists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with particular reference to the anti-alcohol debate. I examine the theoretical writings of both clinical and forensic psychiatry to show how the theory of degeneration functioned as part of a new understanding of legal medicine and that psychiatric knowledge was always implicitly related to a broader conception of criminal capacity and the role of the modern state. While the argument is situated in the wider literature covering psychiatry and degeneration in Europe and America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, I trace a rather singular story rooted in the institutional peculiarities of Scotland, showing how psychiatrists attempted to use the problem of alcoholic degeneration to mould their science into a branch of public health, propelling them into their preferred role as guardians of the race. This public health campaign facilitated the creation of new categories of psychiatric knowledge consisting of mental abnormalities that did not amount to absolute insanity, but that none the less had a bearing on how people thought about the mind, conduct, and criminal capacity. All the leading figures of Scottish psychiatry had a significant interest in alcohol as a cause of degeneration, and in their descriptions of the condition, the legal applications of the doctrine were never from view. One reason for this was undoubtedly the autonomous nature of the Scottish legal system which, when combined with the relatively small professional population of Scotland, greatly increased the rate of intellectual exchange between psychiatrists and lawyers while intensifying the political implications of associating with certain doctrines. Thus, a large part of my thesis will also be devoted to the legal interpretation of psychiatric claims, and in later part of the thesis I examine in depth the extent to which psychiatric knowledge claims were able to modify the laws of Scotland. Three substantive themes protrude from the documents consulted: Heredity, degeneration and alcohol, and medico-legal interaction. In analysing these themes, I engage with specific aspects of the social and institutional life of Scottish psychiatrists in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries

Nonequilibrium steady states from a random-walk perspective

It is well known that at thermal equilibrium (whereby a system has settled into a steady state with no energy or mass being exchanged with the environment), the microstates of a system are exponentially weighted by their energies, giving a Boltzmann distribution. All macroscopic quantities, such as the free energy and entropy, can be in principle computed given knowledge of the partition function. In a nonequilibrium steady state, on the other hand, the system has settled into a stationary state, but some currents of heat or mass persist. In the presence of these currents, there is no unified approach to solve for the microstate distribution. This motivates the central theme of this work, where I frame and solve problems in nonequilibrium statistical physics in terms of random walk and diffusion problems. The system that is the focus of Chapters 2, 3, and 4 is the (Totally) Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process, or (T)ASEP. This is a system of hard-core particles making jumps through an open, one-dimensional lattice. This is a paradigmatic example of a nonequilibrium steady state that exhibits phase transitions. Furthermore, the probability of an arbitrary configuration of particles is exactly calculable, by a matrix product formalism that lends a natural association between the ASEP and a family of random walk problems. In Chapter 2 I present a unified description of the various combinatorial interpretations and mappings of steady-state configurations of the ASEP. As well as deriving new results, I bring together and unify results and observations that have otherwise been scattered in the combinatorics and physics literature. I show that particular particle configurations of the ASEP have a one-to-many mapping to a set of more abstract paths, which themselves have a one-to-many mapping to permutations of numbers. One observation from this wider literature has been that this mapped space can be interpreted as a larger set of configurations in some equilibrium system. This naturally gives an interpretation of ASEP configuration probabilities as summations of Boltzmann weights. The nonequilibrium partition function of the ASEP is then a summation over this equilibrium ensemble, however one encounters difficulties when calculating more detailed measures of this state space, such as the entropy. This motivates the work in Chapter 3. I calculate a quantity known as the Rényi entropy, which is a measure of the partitioning of the state space, and a deformation of the familiar Shannon entropy. The Rényi entropy is simple for an equilibrium system, but has yet to be explored in a classical nonequilibrium steady state. I use insights from Chapter 2 to frame one of these Rényi entropies | requiring the enumeration of the squares of configuration weights | in terms of a two-dimensional random walk with absorbing boundaries. I find the appropriate generating function across the full phase diagram of the TASEP by generalising a mathematical technique known as the obstinate kernel method. Importantly, this nonequilibrium Rényi entropy has a different structural form to any equilibrium system, highlighting a clear distinction between equilibrium and nonequilibrium distributions. In Chapter 4 I continue to examine the Rényi entropy of the TASEP, but now performing a time and space continuum limit of the random walk problem in Chapter 3. The resultant problem is a two-dimensional dffusion problem with absorbing boundary conditions, which once solved should recover TASEP dynamics about the point in the phase diagram where the three dynamical phases meet. I derive a generating function, sufficiently simple that its singularities can be analysed by hand. This calculation entails a novel generalisation of the obstinate kernel method of Chapter 3: I find a solution by exploiting a symmetry in the Laplace transform of the diffusion equation. I finish in Chapter 5 by introducing and solving another nonequilibrium system, termed the many-filament Brownian ratchet. This comprises an arbitrary number of filaments that stochastically grow and contract, with the net effect of moving a drift-diffusing membrane by purely from thermal fluctuations and steric interactions. These dynamics draw parallels with those of actin filament networks at the leading edge of eukaryotic cells, and this improves on previous 'pure ratchet' models by introducing interactions and heterogeneity in the filaments. I find an N-dimensional diffusion equation for the evolution of the N filament-membrane displacements. Several parameters can be varied in this system: the drift and diffusion rates of each of the filaments and membrane, the strength of a quadratic interaction between each filament with the membrane, and the strength of a surface tension across the filaments. For several interesting physical cases I find the steady-state distribution exactly, and calculate how the mean velocity of the membrane varies as a function of these parameters

The Mosquito Census: Tracking New Zealand’s Mosquitoes Using Citizen Science

To improve the availability of ecological data, we designed and recommended a submission process and accompanying website for the Mosquito Census, a project for the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa that promotes citizen science and biosecurity. Our website will facilitate the submission of physical specimens and provide scientists with a database to archive and access mosquito distribution and ecology data. We conducted surveys and interviews to inform our suggestions for efficient specimen submission and future outreach programs to improve mosquito and biosecurity literacy

Continuous low-dose antibiotic prophylaxis for adults with repeated urinary tract infections (AnTIC): a randomised, open-label trial

Funder: UK National Institute for Health Research. Open Access funded by Department of Health UK Acknowledgments We thank all the participants for their commitment to the study, Sheila Wallace for updating the systematic review, members of the Trial Steering Committee and members of the Data Monitoring Committee for their valuable guidance. We thank the National Health Service organisations, principal investigators and local research staff who hosted and ran the study at site. We thank the Health Technology Assessment Programme of the UK NIHR for funding the study (no. 11/72/01). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the UK Government Department of Health. A full report of the study30 has been published by the NIHR Library.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Antibodies against Lagos Bat Virus in Megachiroptera from West Africa

To investigate the presence of Lagos bat virus (LBV)–specific antibodies in megachiroptera from West Africa, we conducted fluorescent antibody virus neutralization tests. Neutralizing antibodies were detected in Eidolon helvum (37%), Epomophorus gambianus (3%), and Epomops buettikoferi (33%, 2/6) from Ghana. These findings confirm the presence of LBV in West Africa

Continuous low-dose antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent urinary tract infection in adults who perform clean intermittent self-catheterisation: the AnTIC RCT

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Support for viral persistence in bats from age-specific serology and models of maternal immunity.

Spatiotemporally-localised prediction of virus emergence from wildlife requires focused studies on the ecology and immunology of reservoir hosts in their native habitat. Reliable predictions from mathematical models remain difficult in most systems due to a dearth of appropriate empirical data. Our goal was to study the circulation and immune dynamics of zoonotic viruses in bat populations and investigate the effects of maternally-derived and acquired immunity on viral persistence. Using rare age-specific serological data from wild-caught Eidolon helvum fruit bats as a case study, we estimated viral transmission parameters for a stochastic infection model. We estimated mean durations of around 6 months for maternally-derived immunity to Lagos bat virus and African henipavirus, whereas acquired immunity was long-lasting (Lagos bat virus: mean 12 years, henipavirus: mean 4 years). In the presence of a seasonal birth pulse, the effect of maternally-derived immunity on virus persistence within modelled bat populations was highly dependent on transmission characteristics. To explain previous reports of viral persistence within small natural and captive E. helvum populations, we hypothesise that some bats must experience prolonged infectious periods or within-host latency. By further elucidating plausible mechanisms of virus persistence in bat populations, we contribute to guidance of future field studies

Long-Term Survival of an Urban Fruit Bat Seropositive for Ebola and Lagos Bat Viruses

Ebolaviruses (EBOV) (family Filoviridae) cause viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans and non-human primates when they spill over from their wildlife reservoir hosts with case fatality rates of up to 90%. Fruit bats may act as reservoirs of the Filoviridae. The migratory fruit bat, Eidolon helvum, is common across sub-Saharan Africa and lives in large colonies, often situated in cities. We screened sera from 262 E. helvum using indirect fluorescent tests for antibodies against EBOV subtype Zaire. We detected a seropositive bat from Accra, Ghana, and confirmed this using western blot analysis. The bat was also seropositive for Lagos bat virus, a Lyssavirus, by virus neutralization test. The bat was fitted with a radio transmitter and was last detected in Accra 13 months after release post-sampling, demonstrating long-term survival. Antibodies to filoviruses have not been previously demonstrated in E. helvum. Radio-telemetry data demonstrates long-term survival of an individual bat following exposure to viruses of families that can be highly pathogenic to other mammal species. Because E. helvum typically lives in large urban colonies and is a source of bushmeat in some regions, further studies should determine if this species forms a reservoir for EBOV from which spillover infections into the human population may occur

The effective and ethical development of artificial intelligence: An opportunity to improve our wellbeing

This project has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (project number CS170100008); the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science; and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. ACOLA collaborates with the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and the New Zealand Royal Society Te Apārangi to deliver the interdisciplinary Horizon Scanning reports to government. The aims of the project which produced this report are: 1. Examine the transformative role that artificial intelligence may play in different sectors of the economy, including the opportunities, risks and challenges that advancement presents. 2. Examine the ethical, legal and social considerations and frameworks required to enable and support broad development and uptake of artificial intelligence. 3. Assess the future education, skills and infrastructure requirements to manage workforce transition and support thriving and internationally competitive artificial intelligence industries