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What did not arise in any human heart : divine revelation as objective, external, and novel in Søren Kierkegaard’s The Book on Adler
No full textThis dissertation is a systematic and historical theological study of Søren Kierkegaard’s concept of divine revelation as it is specifically presented in his work The Book on Adler. This study argues that close attention to The Book on Adler clarifies Kierkegaard’s overall position on the doctrine of revelation and corrects misconceptions of Kierkegaard’s view of this topic. Besides contributing to Kierkegaard scholarship, this study also addresses theological questions by asking how Kierkegaard’s dispute with Hegelians on this point might contribute to a proper Christian understanding of the nature of divine revelation. As will be shown, in the context of his dispute with Hegel, Kierkegaard specifies that divine revelation is independent of subjective understanding (objective), ultimately arises from a source different than immanent human reflection (external), and discloses information that was not previously available to the human race (novel). Finally, The Book on Adler more than his other works makes clear that Kierkegaard believed in the existence and importance of specifically verbal revelation. It will then be argued that these conclusions correspond well with the Biblical idiom of “revelation” and therefore Kierkegaard’s arguments deserve to be heeded in modern considerations of this doctrine
The motivation to inform others : a field experiment with wild chimpanzees
Get PDFFunding: The following grant information was disclosed by the authors: European Union\u2019s Seventh Framework Programme: 283871. NCCR Evolving Language, Swiss National Science Foundation: #51NF40_180888.Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that some ape species produce more alarm behaviors to potential dangers when in the presence of uninformed conspecifics. However, since previous studies presented naturalistic stimuli, the influence of prior experience could not be controlled for. Method: To examine this, we investigated whether apes (wild chimpanzees of the Budongo Forest, Uganda) would communicate differently about a novel danger (an unusually large spider) depending on whether they were with an uniformed conspecific. We tested nine adult males, four of which were exposed to the danger twice alone (Non-Social group), while the remaining five were exposed to the danger first alone and then in the presence of conspecifics (Social group). Results: We found that both alarm calling and gaze marking (i.e., persistent gaze after stimulus detection) were more persistent in the Social than Non-Social group, although the effect of condition only reached statistical significance for gaze marking, nonetheless suggesting that chimpanzees tailored their warning behavior to the presence of others, even if they were already familiar with the potential threat.Peer reviewe
Culture and conservation in baleen whales
Get PDFFunding: E.C.G is supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF160081 & URF\R\221020). E.L.C. is supported by a Royal Society New Zealand Rutherford Discovery Fellowship. J.A.A. is supported by a National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Fellowship (2218949). R.S.S-L. is partially supported by a CNPq-Brazil fellowship (312763/2019-0 & 311533/2022-1).Culture, defined as information or behaviours shared within a population and acquired from conspecifics through social learning, acts as a second inheritance system which has important implications for species' ecology and evolution. Understanding the influence of social learning and culture in animals' lives is essential to planning and predicting outcomes of conservation actions. Culture plays a key role in cetaceans’ lives, and some of the best evidence for social learning has come from baleen whales (Mysticetes). The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an international treaty operating under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has recently integrated animal culture into their conservation initiatives. An essential first step in such a conservation framework is to identify key indicators of social learning in well-studied species, which could be applied to other more elusive species. Here, as part of the UNEP CMS Expert Group on Animal Culture and Social Complexity, we first evaluate key evidence for social learning and culture in baleen whales through several case studies. We then suggest key indicators by behavioural context to assist in identifying potential cases of social learning in more elusive species generating a practical guide for future conservation assessment and management. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Animal culture: conservation in a changing world’.Peer reviewe
Beyond diet and exercise : why sleep is the missing piece in childhood obesity intervention
Get PDFChildhood obesity is a pressing global health concern, yet existing interventions often neglect a crucial factor: sleep. Insufficient and poor-quality sleep contribute to obesity by disrupting hormonal regulation, increasing appetite, and promoting unhealthy behaviours such as excessive screen time, irregular eating patterns, and physical inactivity. Research highlights that these behaviours act as shared determinants of both poor sleep and obesity. Despite this, sleep remains an underutilised component in obesity prevention strategies. This paper argues for integrating sleep into multi-component obesity interventions, focusing on modifying evening routines, regulating screen time, promoting chrononutrition, and addressing socioeconomic and psychological barriers. Future research should explore the long-term impact of sleep-focused interventions, while public health policies must prioritise sleep education in schools and community settings. A holistic approach, targeting sleep, diet, physical activity, and mental wellbeing, is essential to reducing obesity rates and improving the overall health outcomes of children and adolescents.Peer reviewe
A new approach for assessing the radioecological risk associated with the legacy discharge of oil derived natural radioactivity in the UK North Sea
Get PDFFunding: The authors would like to thank all the NERC-INSITE programme (Project FuECoMMS, NERC gran NE/T010800/1) for providing marine sediment and benthic biota samples and Cefas for funding the described analytical and modelling work under the Seedcorn project DP2000F .Although oil and gas (O&G) derived produced waters and drill cuttings are known to contain enhanced levels of naturally occurring radium-228 (228Ra) and radium-226 (226Ra), most relevant ecological impact assessments have excluded radiological hazards and focus on other important contaminants, such as hydrocarbons and metals. Also, due to restricted access to the delimiting safety zone around operational O&G platforms, the few previous radioecological risk assessment studies have been conducted using seawater samples collected far from the main discharge point and applying default dilution and transfer factors to estimate concentrations of contaminants in biota. In this case study, sediment cores were collected close to a former O&G platform, Northwest Hutton (NWH), that used to be in the UK North Sea (61.11N, 1.31E). The sediment materials were analysed by gamma spectrometry and ICP-MS to confirm the presence of particles enriched in natural radioactivity. Benthic macrofaunal assemblages in the surrounding seabed were also characterised and one of the dominant species was selected for additional nano-hard X-Ray Fluorescence (nano-XRF) imaging to confirm the exposure pathways and refine the radioecological risk assessment using the ERICA tool. This novel approach for estimating dose rates was found to be less conservative than more traditional approaches using the ERICA default concentration ratio for 228Ra and 226Ra. The dose rate estimations were confirmed to be significantly lower than the ERICA screening level of 10μGy/h, in agreement with findings from previous studies.Peer reviewe
Evolutionary dynamics of behavioral motivations for cooperation
Get PDFFunding: Q.S. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 62473252) and Shanghai Pujiang Program (No. 23PJ1405500). A.J.S. acknowledges support from the John Templeton Foundation (No. 62281).Human decision-making is shaped by underlying motivations, which reflect both subjective well-being and fundamental biological needs. Different needs are often prioritized and traded off against one another. Here we develop a theoretical framework to study the evolution of behavioral motivations, encompassing both philanthropic (cooperating after personal needs are met) and aspirational (cooperating to fulfill personal needs) motivations. Our findings show that when the ratio of benefits to costs for cooperation exceeds a critical threshold, individuals initially driven by aspirational motivations can transition to philanthropic motivations with a low reference point for cooperation, resulting in increased cooperation. Furthermore, the critical threshold depends on the structure of the underlying social network, with network modifications capable of reversing the evolutionary trajectory of motivations. Our results reveal the complex interplay between needs, motivations, social networks, and decision-making, offering insights into how evolution shapes not only cooperative behaviors but also the motivations behind them.Peer reviewe
Prison space : post-independence Tunisians in a perpetual state of stuckness
No full textThis research expands on the well-established literature on institutional prison to ask one major question: where is prison? Instead of questioning its essence, it ventures to deconstruct its slippery yet very tangible existence. Is prison localized? Is prison monolithic or is it plural by definition? Does prison move, and if so what type of movement does it make? All are theoretical questions that this thesis disentangles through its chapters – and with whose ready-made (sometimes described as “common sense”) answers it engages. Where and how is prison encountered and experienced? And what does it entail to move from ‘prison’ to ‘prison experience’, methodologically and epistemologically? These questions led this research to investigate the everyday and the mundane aspect of prison space through life stories and trajectories. These questions engage critically with the predicaments of a large portion of the Tunisian population who live under conditions of heightened precarity and economic, social and political stuckness. They also guide an investigation of other “prison maps” or geographies of confinement and stuckness.
Prison space in this research is, therefore, an analytical framework to communicate and reflect on precarious spaces of Tunisia, and to describe the affective, and physical experiences of people who are dwelling in these spaces."This work was supported by the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews; and the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies."--Fundin
Behavioural response thresholds for the assessment of noise impact on Antarctic marine mammal species
Get PDFFunding: This project was funded by the German Environment Agency (UBA) with means from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV, FKZ 3718 18 101 0).Increasing levels of anthropogenic noise in our oceans is concerning, especially in Antarctic waters where marine mammals are more naïve to sound sources, compared to those residing in industrialised ocean basins. Marine mammals are vulnerable to anthropogenic noise, due to their dependence on underwater sounds for their survival. The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty stipulates that anthropogenic activities in Antarctic waters must be assessed in advance, for the comprehensive protection of the natural environment and its dependent ecosystems. There are few quantitative studies on the behavioural responses of Antarctic marine mammals. Furthermore, the absence of agreed upon thresholds for marine mammal behavioural responses has created difficulties in conducting impact assessments in a standardised manner. In instances where knowledge gaps persist amidst high priority management issues, the expert elicitation approach can be implemented to utilise an expert's qualitative knowledge. This study elicited probability distributions of noise levels which would lead to a significant behavioural response, when received under specific acoustic exposure scenarios. The sound sources examined include vessels, research seismic survey activities and hydroacoustic research equipment. The expert judgements exhibited substantial variability amongst thresholds due to limited data on marine mammals in Antarctic waters, with low frequency cetaceans eliciting a threshold of Lp = 137 dB re 1 µPa for vessel noise, compared to Lp = 145 dB re 1 µPa for hydroacoustic research equipment. These thresholds are an initial tool in the assessment process, whilst guiding priorities for future research to quantitatively address this pressing management issue.Peer reviewe
Modern mobilities : mobility technologies in twentieth century British and Irish narratives
No full textDrawing on the modernist phenomenological tradition of embodied cognition and recent studies of prosthetic modernity, this thesis explores the ways in which technological prostheses which enhance mobility produce what Michael Warner calls ‘counterpublics’: discourse communities which resist the homogenising forces of social, governmental, and capitalistic power structures. Through four case studies — walking in the prose of Virginia Woolf and Jean Rhys; sailing in the works of James Hanley; cycling throughout Samuel Beckett’s oeuvre; driving in Norman Collins, Elizabeth Bowen, and Nevil Shute — this thesis elucidates the ways in which self-conception and self-identity is shaped through one’s interaction with the mobility technologies which enhance their physical capabilities. While existing studies of mobility often emphasise movement en masse, from military formations to refugee migrations, this thesis, following Tim Creswell’s geographical focus on smaller scale mobilities, attempts to recentre mobility on the individual mover. As such, this thesis expands our current understanding of how mobility itself can be radical or radicalising as the technology we use to move allows us to reimagine the limits of our minds and bodies, mediating our relationships to both, to generate an intentionally radical and liberatory notion of prosthetic modernity
Bioavailable phosphite in the surface ocean during the Great Oxidation Event
Get PDFFunding: This work was financially supported by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC UKRI) Frontiers grant to EES (NE/V010824/1), Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant to ASB (EP/Y026497/1), and Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellowship (Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation) to KK. For the XRD analyses, we acknowledge an Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) Core Equipment Grant (EP/V034138/1) to the School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews.Phosphorus availability has influenced the co-evolution of life and Earth’s environments. While phosphate was likely the main phosphorus source for life during the Archean, phosphite (HPO32−) gained importance leading up to the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). However, the concentration of phosphite in seawater at that time, and the processes driving this shift in P utilization, remain poorly constrained. Using lab experiments and phosphite data from banded iron formations (BIFs), we show that hydrous ferric oxides (HFO) preferentially remove phosphate over phosphite. This suggests that shallow seawater at the onset of the GOE could have contained up to 0.17 µM phosphite, comprising 5–88% of total dissolved inorganic phosphorus. We propose that phosphate depletion driven by HFO adsorption and microbial competition may have promoted the use of phosphite as an alternative P source.Peer reviewe
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