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Wittgenstein on necessity: ‘Are you not really an idealist in disguise?'
No full textWittgenstein characterises ‘necessary truths’ as rules of representation that do not answer to reality. The invocation of rules of representation has led many to compare his work with Kant's. This comparison is illuminating, but it can also be misleading. Some go as far as casting Wittgenstein's later philosophy as a specie of transcendental idealism, an interpretation that continues to gather support despite scholars pointing to its limitations. To understand the temptation of this interpretation, attention must be paid to a distinction Bernard Williams (1981) makes, echoing Kant, between empirical and transcendental idealism. Williams claims that the move to transcendental idealism is an effort to block empirical idealism. The latter, in this context, amounts to a scepticism regarding necessity and a denial of its objectivity. To show what is wrong with the transcendental interpretation, it is important to challenge the mistaken presumption that Wittgenstein's philosophy would otherwise lead to empirical idealism. The fundamental mistake common to both attributions is that they misunderstand the relation that obtains between our rules of representation and the contingent facts that condition those rules of representation. Once this relation has been clarified, Wittgenstein's philosophy can be understood as providing a genuine alternative to realism and idealism
Overexpression of oilseed rape trehalose-6-phosphate synthesis gene BnaC02.TPS8 confers sensitivity to low nitrogen and high sucrose-induced anthocyanin accumulation in Arabidopsis
No full textAnthocyanin plays a crucial role in safeguarding photosynthetic tissues against high light, UV radiation, and oxidative stress. Their accumulation is triggered by low nitrogen (N) stress and elevated sucrose levels in Arabidopsis. Trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P) serves as a pivotal signaling molecule, sensing sucrose availability, and carbon (C) metabolism. However, the mechanisms governing the regulation of T6P synthase (TPS) genes responsible for anthocyanin accumulation under conditions of low N and high sucrose remain elusive. In a previous study, we demonstrated the positive impact of a cytoplasm-localized class II TPS protein ‘BnaC02.TPS8’ on photosynthesis and seed yield improvement in Brassica napus. The present research delves into the biological role of BnaC02.TPS8 in response to low N and high sucrose. Ectopic overexpression of BnaC02.TPS8 in Arabidopsis seedlings resulted in elevated shoot T6P levels under N-sufficient conditions, as well as an increased carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio, sucrose accumulation, and starch storage under low N conditions. Overexpression of BnaC02.TPS8 in Arabidopsis heightened sensitivity to low N stress and high sucrose levels, accompanied by increased anthocyanin accumulation and upregulation of genes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis and regulation. Metabolic profiling revealed increased levels of intermediate products of carbon metabolism, as well as anthocyanin and flavonoid derivatives in BnaC02.TPS8-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants under low N conditions. Furthermore, yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) analyses demonstrated that BnaC02.TPS8 interacts with both BnaC08.TPS9 and BnaA01.TPS10. These findings contribute to our understanding of how TPS8-mediated anthocyanin accumulation is modulated under low N and high sucrose conditions
Antioxidant dietary fiber from the bran of five Philippine pigmented rice varieties
Get PDFPigmented rice varieties are considered rich sources of antioxidant dietary fiber (ADF); consuming them may have health benefits. In this study, bran samples of five Philippine pigmented rice varieties namely, Red-64, Black Rice, Calatrava, Arabon, and Dinorado were analyzed for their ADF contents. The bulk of dietary fiber in the bran of the five varieties is insoluble dietary fiber (IDF), while a very minimal amount is soluble dietary fiber. Calatrava (CL) exhibited the highest total dietary fiber (52.5%), consisting primarily of 50 percent IDF. The CL IDF exhibited the highest total phenolic content (1.8 mg gallic acid equivalents [GAE]/gram dry weight [DW]) and total anthocyanin content (0.524 mg cyanidin-3-glucoside /100 g DW). The CL IDF also displayed the highest antioxidant activity in terms of ferric ion-reducing antioxidant power (17.72 μmol trolox equivalents/gram DW), ABTS*+ radical scavenging activity (33%), and DPPH radical quenching activity (76.7%, 3.9 mg ascorbic acid per gram DW). The majority of the phenolics associated with CL IDF is in the bound form amounting to 6.9 mg GAE/g DW. High-performance liquid chromatography revealed the presence of gallic acid, resorcinol, vanillin, ferulic acid, salicylic acid, and quercetin in the bound phenolic extract. As this study has established that the CL IDF is an ADF believed to possess many health-promoting properties, it can be valorized for potential applications in nutraceuticals and functional foods
Capitalising on the Big Data era: establishing a multi-source monitoring framework for England's natural capital assets and flows
Get PDFThe past decade has seen a growth of natural capital accounting both internationally and
nationally. The term natural capital refers to the elements of nature that directly and indirectly
produce value or benefits to people, including ecosystems, species, freshwater, land, minerals,
the air and oceans, as well as natural processes and functions (Natural Capital Committee
2014). As an approach it emphasises the process of valuation, namely estimating the relative
importance, worth, or usefulness of natural capital to people, typically to enable better
governance. In this thesis, I explore the potential of big data and associated techniques to
operationalise the natural capital framework at a national scale in England, through a better
understanding of the relationship between natural capital assets and the benefits that flow
from them. I take an interdisciplinary approach, using the literature review in Chapter 1 to
identify key gaps in the state of the art, and addressing these gaps in the following chapters,
finishing with a discussion of the implications of these findings in the final chapter (Chapter
5). The results from this thesis demonstrate how diverse and emerging environmental datasets
can capture important aspects of sociocultural value that are otherwise hard to include in a
formal valuation process (Chapter 2), enable spatially targeted management (Chapter 3), and
facilitate natural capital monitoring (Chapter 4). In Chapter 2, I demonstrate the potential of
crowdsourced data to capture the sociocultural value of designated areas and show that
species richness has a significant positive effect on public interest in designated areas. In
Chapter 3, I show that population density is a driver of the relative importance of agricultural
land use as a source of N and P in river catchments in England. In Chapter 3, I demonstrate
that significant dependency exists between the quantity, quality and spatial configuration of
green spaces in London, and that there is potential to maintain highly biodiverse areas in
cities, without assigning large areas to this. Taken together, these results realise some of the
potential of the big data era to support the natural capital framework and its implementation,
as well as pointing to some of the limitations of this approach
Materializing mortality: re‐enchanting grave goods in the British Museum using mixed‐method approaches to audience research
Get PDFGrave goods are among the most common, but at the
same time most powerful, objects on display in many
museums. They possess the rare—often latent—ability
to convey both particular and universal themes and
to collapse chronological and cultural differences by
connecting the shared embodiment of museum visitors
and past people. To explore these values, this study
draws on the results of two phases of in-depth,
mixed-methods audience research before and after a rapid
and low-cost interpretative intervention: the “Death,
Memory and Meaning” trail in the later prehistoric
galleries of the British Museum. The analysis highlights
the importance of fore-fronting intimacy and
the complex relationship between bodies and objects.
It also demonstrates the importance of contextual,
emotionally and spiritually connected approaches to
the presentation of grave goods. Our findings are especially
timely given the intensification of ethical concerns
surrounding displays of prehistoric European
human remains in museums
Impact of COVID-19 on migrant families in the UK
Get PDFThis Policy Brief analyses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant families in the UK. It highlights how migrants’ differential legal and immigration status during the crisis exacerbated existing economic and social inequalities facing migrant families, with significant consequences for the wellbeing, care and protection of the most vulnerable groups. Policy recommendations focus on the need to address intersecting inequalities in the labour market, health and social care, welfare and immigration systems; facilitate transnational family reunion and mobility across borders, especially where there are care
needs; and increase funding and collaboration in service delivery to address the needs of the most vulnerable migrant families
Investigating phenotypic plasticity during the early colonisation of brain metastases using an ex vivo organotypic slice model system
No full textBrain metastases (BrMs) are the most common type of brain malignancy and are associated
with poor patient outcomes. The emerging field of cancer neuroscience has begun to explore
the unexpected ways BrMs colonise the neural microenvironment. However, early
colonisation of BrMs has not been effectively characterised; early interactions with the brain
microenvironment could shape the trajectory of BrM progression based on the initial plastic
responses they exhibit, which could inform BrM prevention. We have developed an ex vivo
organotypic brain slice (OBS) model of BrMs to examine early BrM microenvironment
interactions and plastic responses, with a particular focus on intracellular Ca2+ oscillations.
This involved the co-culture of five mCherry+ cancer cell lines in neocortical organotypic
brain slices (NC-OBSs) from 12-day old C57BL/6J mice. Four cell lines representing common
primary sites of brain metastases (MDA-MB-231, SK-MEL-28, A549, and DU-145), as well as
glioblastoma (U-87 MG). In-model measurements included viability, proliferation, chemokine
expression, and cell invasion. Additionally, intracellular Ca2+ imaging was performed on
GCaMP6s+ cells before and during co-culture and the variability in oscillation frequencies
was assessed via Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis and Principle Component Analysis
(PCA). Further phenotypic assessments were conducted on the cancer cells post-model.
Results indicated that interactions within the BrM model included cancer cell manipulation
based upon altered chemokine secretions and reduced cell death compared to the negative
control. FFT analysis and PCA revealed inter- and intracellular variation of spontaneous
intracellular Ca2+ oscillation frequencies which changed over the course of the model culture.
Further phenotypic changes in the cancer cells indicate a role for polyploidy and anoikis
resistance in the early colonisation stage. Future work will utilise the full measurability and
manipulability of the model via a variety of specific measurements including functional
assessments of the Ca2+ toolkit and cell-cell interactions
