title: Canine scent detection: Lung cancer target acquisition

authors: Crawford, Margaret

abstract: A growing body of research has developed over the last 30 years exploring disease scent detection using animals. Research project methodologies and results in this field vary significantly, including some which are quite promising. Critiques of aspects of current and past practice in disease scent detection using animals inform recommendations for the development of scientifically robust standard operating procedures in this field. Greater standardisation and transparency of practice has the potential to strengthen and clarify disease scent detection results. My primary aim was to contribute to this standardisation by using a theoretical understanding of concept formation and learning acquisition to inform three experiments in which pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) were trained to detect the presence of lung cancer in human breath and saliva samples. Operant conditioning processes and an automated apparatus were used to train and test the dogs. Data for all three experiments were collected concurrently. The experiments involved: designing a process for evaluating sample comparisons; evaluating the efficacy of sample re-use for training purposes; and developing a mathematical model to support decision-making about the transition from training to testing of detector organisms. Firstly, we evaluated the comparative utility of human breath and saliva samples to train and test dogs for lung cancer detection. Signal detection measures were used to gauge the dogs’ target acquisition and concept formation during the training process. The dogs acquired the lung cancer target concept more quickly from breath samples, but also demonstrated higher-than-chance recognition using saliva samples. Secondly, we systematically evaluated the effect of breath sample re-use on dogs’ performance during lung cancer scent detection training. There were no significant changes associated with the detectability of the target across samples re-used up to four times, and observed changes in performance were small. Finally, we explored methods of evaluating when a detection animal is performing at or near the highest accuracy of which they are capable with a view to identifying the optimal point at which to transition from training to testing. A quantitative model was most informative during our work training dogs to detect lung cancer. Ongoing testing of the dogs’ abilities using novel samples occurred during training. However, the final testing (and intermittent training) needed to measure and maintain the dogs’ performance against asymptotic predictions was beyond of the scope of the current project. Notwithstanding this, each of the experiments described herein provides both specific data on the performance of our dogs, and procedural information about ways in which different components of scent detection methodology using detector organisms could be strengthened. Both of these resources could be used in concert with other methods of scent detection. Relevant theory on concept formation was reviewed and used to plan and interpret the acquisition of the target scent. Likewise, theoretical explanations of target acquisition and associative learning informed our analysis of data. In this way, each of these experiments contribute to improving practice in the field of disease detection by providing model procedures from which other methods for evaluating sample types and the reuse of samples could evolve. The development of a standardised measure for determining when to stop training and start testing a detecting organism might also be applied to a wide range of learners in myriad contexts to good effect.

text: Canine scent detection: Lung cancer target acquisition A growing body of research has developed over the last 30 years exploring disease scent detection using animals. Research project methodologies and results in this field vary significantly, including some which are quite promising. Critiques of aspects of current and past practice in disease scent detection using animals inform recommendations for the development of scientifically robust standard operating procedures in this field. Greater standardisation and transparency of practice has the potential to strengthen and clarify disease scent detection results. My primary aim was to contribute to this standardisation by using a theoretical understanding of concept formation and learning acquisition to inform three experiments in which pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) were trained to detect the presence of lung cancer in human breath and saliva samples. Operant conditioning processes and an automated apparatus were used to train and test the dogs. Data for all three experiments were collected concurrently. The experiments involved: designing a process for evaluating sample comparisons; evaluating the efficacy of sample re-use for training purposes; and developing a mathematical model to support decision-making about the transition from training to testing of detector organisms. Firstly, we evaluated the comparative utility of human breath and saliva samples to train and test dogs for lung cancer detection. Signal detection measures were used to gauge the dogs’ target acquisition and concept formation during the training process. The dogs acquired the lung cancer target concept more quickly from breath samples, but also demonstrated higher-than-chance recognition using saliva samples. Secondly, we systematically evaluated the effect of breath sample re-use on dogs’ performance during lung cancer scent detection training. There were no significant changes associated with the detectability of the target across samples re-used up to four times, and observed changes in performance were small. Finally, we explored methods of evaluating when a detection animal is performing at or near the highest accuracy of which they are capable with a view to identifying the optimal point at which to transition from training to testing. A quantitative model was most informative during our work training dogs to detect lung cancer. Ongoing testing of the dogs’ abilities using novel samples occurred during training. However, the final testing (and intermittent training) needed to measure and maintain the dogs’ performance against asymptotic predictions was beyond of the scope of the current project. Notwithstanding this, each of the experiments described herein provides both specific data on the performance of our dogs, and procedural information about ways in which different components of scent detection methodology using detector organisms could be strengthened. Both of these resources could be used in concert with other methods of scent detection. Relevant theory on concept formation was reviewed and used to plan and interpret the acquisition of the target scent. Likewise, theoretical explanations of target acquisition and associative learning informed our analysis of data. In this way, each of these experiments contribute to improving practice in the field of disease detection by providing model procedures from which other methods for evaluating sample types and the reuse of samples could evolve. The development of a standardised measure for determining when to stop training and start testing a detecting organism might also be applied to a wide range of learners in myriad contexts to good effect.

year: 2024

title: Holocene volcanic soils in the Mt. Gambier region, South Australia

authors: Takesako, Hiroshi

subjects: Andic properties

abstract: Volcanic soils derived from mid-Holocene basaltic tephra in the Mt. Gambier region of South Australia have developed in a xeric moisture regime. We studied two soils, one at Mt Gambier (MTG) and the other at nearby Mt Schank (MTS). Both volcanoes were active ca. 6000 cal. years ago. The MTG soil has a high content of CaCO₃ (incorporated during eruption through limestone) and other exotic materials intermixed with basaltic tephra containing low amounts of glass. The MTS soil is derived mainly from basaltic tephra with high glass content and much less CaCO₃ than at MTG. These parent mineralogies have led to markedly different clay compositions and chemical properties: the MTS soil contains abundant allophane (mainly) and ferrihydrite with few layer silicate clays, whereas the MTG soil is dominated by layer silicate clays and low allophane or ferrihydrite. Both soils are near neutral or alkaline. The MTS soil has a melanic horizon and andic properties and is classed as a Melanoxerand. The MTG soil has weak andic properties with insufficient glass to enable it to be classed in the Andisols, and is instead a Calcixeroll.

text: Holocene volcanic soils in the Mt. Gambier region, South Australia Volcanic soils derived from mid-Holocene basaltic tephra in the Mt. Gambier region of South Australia have developed in a xeric moisture regime. We studied two soils, one at Mt Gambier (MTG) and the other at nearby Mt Schank (MTS). Both volcanoes were active ca. 6000 cal. years ago. The MTG soil has a high content of CaCO₃ (incorporated during eruption through limestone) and other exotic materials intermixed with basaltic tephra containing low amounts of glass. The MTS soil is derived mainly from basaltic tephra with high glass content and much less CaCO₃ than at MTG. These parent mineralogies have led to markedly different clay compositions and chemical properties: the MTS soil contains abundant allophane (mainly) and ferrihydrite with few layer silicate clays, whereas the MTG soil is dominated by layer silicate clays and low allophane or ferrihydrite. Both soils are near neutral or alkaline. The MTS soil has a melanic horizon and andic properties and is classed as a Melanoxerand. The MTG soil has weak andic properties with insufficient glass to enable it to be classed in the Andisols, and is instead a Calcixeroll.

year: 2010

title: The contribution of family literacy programmes to the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities

authors: Furness, Jane Amanda

subjects: Adult Literacy Strategy

abstract: Approaches to literacy education named as ‘family literacy programmes’ first emerged in Aotearoa New Zealand in the early 2000s amidst considerable enthusiasm. Such approaches involve adults, children, or both in literacy learning in the contexts of home and family life. They are part of a wider field, established internationally, of academic and practical endeavour encompassing studies of the literacy practices of family members, studies of parents’ support of children’s literacy development, and studies of programmes aimed at enhancing family members’ literacy abilities, and the evaluations of such programmes. It is a contentious field, with divergent views of what constitutes both literacy and family, leading to differing expectations of what programmes are for and what they might achieve. From a moral perspective, hopes for such approaches, which hold much intuitive and culturally-located appeal, must be set against the concerning disparities in wellbeing between different groups, evident and growing in New Zealand as elsewhere. 

The study set out to explore the effects of a range of family-focused approaches in New Zealand, and their characteristics that seemed important in achieving relevant and meaningful outcomes for participants and their families. An important aim of the study was to encourage the essential conversation concerning the ideological and research-informed basis on which policies and practices should be developed to best suit our contexts, and that have people’s overall wellbeing, as well as their literacy development, in mind. The study traced the experiences of nineteen mainly Māori, Pacific and Pākehā adult participants in four varying family-focused literacy programmes located in different kinds of communities, drawing on Kaupapa Māori methodologies in its approach. Conversational interviews with the adult participants, programme staff and others who knew the participants well, repeated over 18 months, as well as participant observations of programme sessions and programme documentation, formed an extensive data set for latent theoretical thematic analysis. I identified literacy and other changes in the participants’ lives; synergistic links between factors influencing the programme effects, ‘flow on’ of effects to wider aspects of the participants’ lives and to their families and communities, and links to the personal, relational and collective wellbeing of individuals, families and communities.

The findings demonstrate that there are complex influences on programmes such that effects are highly individualised, but that there is nevertheless a tangible, discernable process in play as people journey from participation to wellbeing, in which literacy enhancement, familiarity with new literacies, and new uses of literacies, are involved. The study suggests a disjuncture between current literacy education policy and the hopes, aspirations and real lives of many people for whom the programmes are intended and who wish to contribute to their families and communities despite their complex and often fraught lives. It also demonstrates that a deep level of care and holistic concern is possible in a programme which also achieves literacy skill development. Recognition of people’s whole selves including their problems and their existing abilities in programme content and approach demonstrated the ‘respectful relevance’ that appears crucial to the involvement and the positive (useful and meaningful) outcomes that were observed. It demonstrated that a broad and inclusive evaluative lens offers the best hope for full appreciation of the contribution of programmes such as these, when the overall wellbeing of families, communities and society as a whole is placed at the centre of literacy work. 

The study offers new and urgently-needed ecological systems-based models within a wellbeing orientation to family literacy theory. These have implications for the future development of programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand and provide frameworks against which programmes internationally may consider their work afresh. The study calls for greater community relevance in family literacy based on local values and aspirations.

text: The contribution of family literacy programmes to the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities Approaches to literacy education named as ‘family literacy programmes’ first emerged in Aotearoa New Zealand in the early 2000s amidst considerable enthusiasm. Such approaches involve adults, children, or both in literacy learning in the contexts of home and family life. They are part of a wider field, established internationally, of academic and practical endeavour encompassing studies of the literacy practices of family members, studies of parents’ support of children’s literacy development, and studies of programmes aimed at enhancing family members’ literacy abilities, and the evaluations of such programmes. It is a contentious field, with divergent views of what constitutes both literacy and family, leading to differing expectations of what programmes are for and what they might achieve. From a moral perspective, hopes for such approaches, which hold much intuitive and culturally-located appeal, must be set against the concerning disparities in wellbeing between different groups, evident and growing in New Zealand as elsewhere. 

The study set out to explore the effects of a range of family-focused approaches in New Zealand, and their characteristics that seemed important in achieving relevant and meaningful outcomes for participants and their families. An important aim of the study was to encourage the essential conversation concerning the ideological and research-informed basis on which policies and practices should be developed to best suit our contexts, and that have people’s overall wellbeing, as well as their literacy development, in mind. The study traced the experiences of nineteen mainly Māori, Pacific and Pākehā adult participants in four varying family-focused literacy programmes located in different kinds of communities, drawing on Kaupapa Māori methodologies in its approach. Conversational interviews with the adult participants, programme staff and others who knew the participants well, repeated over 18 months, as well as participant observations of programme sessions and programme documentation, formed an extensive data set for latent theoretical thematic analysis. I identified literacy and other changes in the participants’ lives; synergistic links between factors influencing the programme effects, ‘flow on’ of effects to wider aspects of the participants’ lives and to their families and communities, and links to the personal, relational and collective wellbeing of individuals, families and communities.

The findings demonstrate that there are complex influences on programmes such that effects are highly individualised, but that there is nevertheless a tangible, discernable process in play as people journey from participation to wellbeing, in which literacy enhancement, familiarity with new literacies, and new uses of literacies, are involved. The study suggests a disjuncture between current literacy education policy and the hopes, aspirations and real lives of many people for whom the programmes are intended and who wish to contribute to their families and communities despite their complex and often fraught lives. It also demonstrates that a deep level of care and holistic concern is possible in a programme which also achieves literacy skill development. Recognition of people’s whole selves including their problems and their existing abilities in programme content and approach demonstrated the ‘respectful relevance’ that appears crucial to the involvement and the positive (useful and meaningful) outcomes that were observed. It demonstrated that a broad and inclusive evaluative lens offers the best hope for full appreciation of the contribution of programmes such as these, when the overall wellbeing of families, communities and society as a whole is placed at the centre of literacy work. 

The study offers new and urgently-needed ecological systems-based models within a wellbeing orientation to family literacy theory. These have implications for the future development of programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand and provide frameworks against which programmes internationally may consider their work afresh. The study calls for greater community relevance in family literacy based on local values and aspirations.

year: 2012