"Super Vision" Research underway at NUI Galway
Professor Chris Dainty, SFI Fellow
A set of spectacles that can give you "super vision" is just one of the possibilities coming from advanced optics research recently undertaken at NUI Galway. The approach uses novel electronics, computer power and light-sensing devices to improve our view of the world. Known as "adaptive optics", the approach is already being used to enhance the images captured by earth-based telescopes.
Science Foundation Ireland has awarded a five-year Fellowship to NUI Galway to support the research of Professor Chris Dainty in the field of imaging and applied optics. The value of the award is approximately €6.2 million.
Professor Dainty's research programme will be centred on the fundamentals and applications of adaptive optics, a technology developed by astronomers to compensate for the deleterious effects of atmospheric turbulence in astronomical imaging. He will be applying adaptive optics to the human eye, primarily to produce very high-resolution images of the retina in vivo. Reversing the optical system could provide "super-vision" that would enable people to see better than "20/20".
In the same way that applied optics can clean up a telescope image, Dainty is using the technique to get a clearer view of the back of the retina. A cleaner image of retinal cells can help diagnose disease, but also opens the possibility of sharper vision, he says. Other applications include "line-of-sight" cable-free optical communication links that operate in all weathers, more powerful microscopes and CDs with greatly increased storage capacity.
The research programme also includes basic and applied studies in the fields of smart optics, and light scattering and propagation through random media. Smart optical systems are ones where both the optical elements and the detector are programmable, allowing complex tasks to be performed with potentially very low cost devices: consumer digital cameras are one product area that could benefit from smart optics.
Professor Dainty will also coordinate an EU Research Training Network, "SHARP-EYE" from his new base in NUI Galway. He hopes that his new team will grow to 15-20 in next three years and he sees enormous scope for building collaborations within Galway and throughout the country with both industry and academia.
The SFI funding gives Professor Dainty the freedom essential to move rapidly
and innovate in terms of research. "On the other hand", he says " I am setting up a new group from scratch, and it a great challenge to build a motivated, capable team in a short space of time". He plans to develop strong links with the National Centre for Laser Applications, led by Professor Tom Glynn, and with the Astronomical Imaging Group of Professor Mike Redfern and Dr Andy Shearer.
Prior to coming to Galway, Professor Dainty held the Pilkington Chair of Applied Optics at Imperial College, London. He was awarded the International Commission for Optics (ICO) Prize in 1984 and the Thomas Young Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics in 1993. He is the current President of the European Optical Society.
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Focus on The Irish Centre for Human Rights
The Irish Centre for Human Rights (ICHR), located on campus in what was once a Fever Hospital and now a listed building, has achieved an international reputation for teaching, research and advocacy, since it was officially inaugurated in 2000. Under its director, Professor William Schabas, the centre has introduced new postgraduate programmes, organised international conferences and summer schools on human rights issues and key publications have been published by members of its staff.
Fifty students from throughout the world are currently studying for the Masters of Law in International Human Rights, with another twenty five in doctoral studies. Two further programmes, the Cross Border LLM in Human Rights and Cross Border MSSc/LLM in Human Rights and Criminal Justice, are delivered in association with Queen’s University, Belfast. A new Masters in International Peace Support Operations, aims to prepare graduates for work in the field of international peace support operations, with international organizations, non-governmental organizations and as individual advocates.
The Centre is currently leading a major €1.5 million EU-China Human Rights project, with the objective of promoting the ratification and implementation of the International Human Rights Covenants in China. The programme involves fifteen European human rights centres, one from each member state, and the same number of Chinese institutions. A wide range of human rights issues will be addressed, including capital punishment, torture, the right to education, labour standards and the right to a fair trial.
The Centre’s dynamic programme of activities ranges from supporting the formation of the Alliance of Refugee Support Groups (West of Ireland) in 2002, to hosting a summer course on Indigenous Peoples in International Law in June 2002. The latter provided participants with an overview of the legal, political and philosophical issues pertaining to international minority rights law and its relationship to indigenous rights.
The entry into force of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 1 July 2002 is arguably the most important development in international law since the creation of the United Nations in 1945. The Irish Centre for Human Rights provides a summer course on the ICC. The course now in its third year, is the most comprehensive and thorough introduction to the new institution currently offered anywhere in the world.
The proactive approach to safeguarding human rights has led the Centre’s staff to some of the world’s most troublesome hotspots. In April of this year, Dr. Kathleen Cavanaugh, a lecturer at the ICHR, directed an Amnesty International research mission to Israel and the Occupied Territories. The purpose of the mission was to investigate allegations of human rights and humanitarian law abuse during ‘Operation Defensive Shield’. The mission concentrated on the towns of Jenin and Nablus but research was also undertaken in other centres of conflict.
Earlier this year, Professor Schabas was appointed as a member of Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which will create an impartial historical record of that country’s brutal civil war during the 1990s. Professor Schabas has a particular expertise in the area of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. His work as a human rights monitor and investigator has taken him to such countries as Rwanda, Cambodia, Kosovo, Chechnya, the Sudan and El Salvador.
When Sr Helen Prejean, author of ‘Dead Man Walking’ came to NUI Galway in June to be conferred with an Honorary Degree, she delivered a memorable outdoor lecture at the ICHR, to the sounds of birdsong and passing traffic. Referring to the centre she said, "This place is special and the work it does is special". The Irish Centre for Human Rights is dedicated to quality teaching and research but it does more, much more than that, it makes a difference to peoples’ lives.
Pictured at the Truth Commissions Conference held at NUI Galway in September are, from left, Andras Vamos-Goldman, Canada's Permanent Mission to the UN; David Crane, Prosecutor of the Special Court of Sierra Leone; and Professor William Schabas, Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway.
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Underwater archaeology at Clonmacnoise revealed with geophysical remote sensing
Geophysical image reveals Early Medieval archaeology beneath the River Shannon at Clonmacnoise
One of the major projects funded by the Millennium Research Fund was carried out by the Applied Geophysics Unit at Clonmacnoise. The focus of the project was an evaluation of new technologies to assess Ireland’s underwater archaeological heritage.
Clonmacnoise is one of the country’s finest ecclesiastical sites because of its influence in the political economy and culture of Early Medieval Ireland. Its strategic location at the junction of two major route ways, the Eiscir Riada and River Shannon, has often led to speculation that the river bed may well be the site of archaeological remains that could help to construct a history of Clonmacnoise. The discovery in 1994 by a local underwater diving team of the foundations for a medieval bridge crossing the Shannon provided the impetus for the first underwater archaeological survey in Ireland using geophysical remote sensing. NUI Galway’s Millennium Research Fund provided Dr. Colin Brown and Kevin Barton of the Applied Geophysics Unit with the opportunity to develop the techniques required to image archaeological artifacts on or beneath the river bed of the Shannon.
Remote sensing acoustic techniques deployed on small boats are required for underwater archaeology. Sound waves are transmitted into the water and reflect off river bed sediments so allowing a precise estimate of the bathymetry. The principle is similar to that of a simple echo sounder, except the equipment ‘illuminates’ a large area of the river bed and measures the strength of the echo. Another acoustic technique focuses the sound energy so that it can produce an ‘x-ray’ of objects that may lie up to 50m beneath the river bed. None of this would be much use if it were not possible to point a diver to the appropriate spot for a follow-up survey so real-time Global Positioning System navigation was crucial to pin-point locations to within 20cm.
The surveys at Clonmacnoise are proving to be very interesting. Several log boats and many potential artifacts have been located. The diagram (courtesy of PhD student, Gavin Duffy) shows images of one log boat and a curious circular object (wooden post or metal object?), superimposed on the detailed bathymetry of the river bed. The most exciting discovery using these techniques, is the existence of a major feature some 3m below the river bed sediments. This appears to be the foundation of a major construction across the Shannon – possibly another medieval bridge – some 70m downstream of the wooden posts discovered in 1994. This could not have been discovered by a diver survey. The final interpretations will be presented at the Environ 2003 conference in NUI Galway.
The remote sensing methods that were pioneered in the River Shannon have been most successful. Some of the equipment that was hired for this Millennium Research project has been purchased with HEA PRTLI Cycle II funding and is currently being deployed in geo-biological habitat mapping projects on Lough Corrib and Clew Bay, in collaboration with the Martin Ryan Institute and the Salmon Research Centre. The funding has also given NUI Galway the potential to export this expertise beyond Ireland.
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Corporate threats to Research Integrity
Professor Jack James, Department of Psychology
It is widely believed that public-private partnerships can create productive synergies in research. However, without denying possible public benefits, the "private" partner of such arrangements is often a company for whom the partnership offers commercial advantage. It is self-evident that private commercial interest may at times conflict with public interest. Professor Jack James, Department of Psychology, who is currently leading a €1.5 million research project into the effects of caffeine in EU states is concerned at corporate threats to research integrity.
He believes that a minimum safeguard is full disclosure. "However, even this minimum safeguard is being circumvented by multinational corporations, through what has come to be referred to as "third party" representation", he says.
One such representative is the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), founded in 1978 with funding from soft drink manufacturers to counter scientific evidence regarding the long-term harmful effects of dietary caffeine. Although the name gives the impression of a learned society, ILSI was founded "to permit companies to pool resources to support research programmes of common interest [to the companies]".
In less than a decade of its foundation, ILSI had become a global organisation, with regional offices in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. However, ILSI no longer advertises its commercial affiliations. With an Assembly of Members consisting of hundreds of companies and corporate conglomerates involved in the manufacture of foods, beverages, chemicals and pharmaceuticals (e.g., Bayer, Coca Cola, Glaxo, Heinz, Hershey, Kellogg, Kraft, Lipton, Mars, Nabisco, Nestlé, Pepsi Cola, Roche, Unilever), ILSI now declares that its mission is "to work toward a safer, healthier world".
While ILSI invests heavily in projecting a public profile of independence and integrity in all its activities and operations, the facts tell a different story. Following revelations emanating from previously confidential tobacco industry documents, released into the public by court order, the World Health Organisation (WHO) became aware that its efforts to address tobacco issues had been subverted by seemingly unbiased scientific groups (i.e., third parties) operating in a manner that was "elaborate, well financed, sophisticated and usually invisible". WHO identified ILSI as one such subversive group. Questions have also been raised in the scientific literature regarding threats from ILSI to the scientific integrity of research into alcohol and its effects.
Consequently, it must be of concern that ILSI currently receives substantial taxpayer support for research. At present, ILSI is a partner in a large research programme funded by the European Commission, titled "Food Safety in Europe: Risk Assessment of Chemicals in Food" (FOSIE). Indeed, ILSI is not only a partner in FOSIE, a publicly-funded project important to the health of European citizens, but the Director of ILSI Europe is the Co-ordinator of FOSIE and the main management committees of the project are staffed by ILSI Europe employees.
Urgent action is needed by the scientific community to find ways to safeguard against commercially related threats to scientific integrity. Ways must be found of ensuring exposure of possible conflicts of interest where they are not freely declared. Furthermore, when possible conflicts do exist, as seems inevitable in the context of some, if not all, public-private partnerships, ways must be found to safeguard against undue influence.
Specifically, stronger codes of practice are needed that contain sanctions to discourage breaches. Assuming that concealment (e.g., failure to declare relevant conflicts of interests) is prima facie evidence of unethical action or intent, such breaches should incur sanctions, including public disclosure of the actions of the wrong doer, withdrawal of public funds in the event of funds having been awarded, and possible ineligibility for involvement in subsequent public-private partnerships).
Citations:
James, J. E. (2002). "Third party" threats to research integrity in public-private partnerships. Addiction, 97, 1251-1255.
James, J. E. (2002). Corporate threats to research integrity demand collective (not individual) action from scientists. Addiction, 97,1257-1258.
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