Science/policy boundaries: a changing division of labour in Dutch expert policy advice

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Smart Contract Languages: A Multivocal Mapping Study

Blockchain is a disruptive technology that has attracted the attention of the scientific community and compa nies, as proven by the exponential growth of publications on this topic in recent years. This growing interest is mainly due to the promise that the use of blockchain enables it to be verified, without including any trusted intermediaries, that the information received from the network is authentic and up-to-date. In this respect, blockchain is a distributed database that can be seen as a ledger that records all transactions that have ever been executed. In this context, smart contracts are pieces of software used to facilitate, verify, and enforce the negotiation of a transaction on a blockchain platform. These pieces of software are implemented by using programming languages, which are sometimes provided by the blockchain platforms themselves. This study aims to (1) identify and categorise the state-of-the-art related to smart contract languages, in terms of the existing languages and their main features, and (2) identify new research opportunities. The review has been conducted as a multivocal mapping study that followsthe guidelines proposed by Garousi et al. for conducting multivocal literature reviews, as well as the guidelines proposed by Kitchenham and Charters for conducting mapping studies. As a result of the implementation of the review protocol, 4,119 papers were gathered, and 109 of them were selected for extraction. The contributions of this article are twofold: (1) 101 different smart contract languages have been identified and classified according to a variety of criteria; (2) a discussion on the findings and their implications for future research have been outlined. As a conclusion, it could be stated that a rigorous and replicable overview of the state-of-the-art of smart contract languages has been provided that can benefit not only researchers but also practitioners in the field, thanks to its multivocal nature.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología RTI2018-094283-B-C33 (ECLIPSE)Junta de Andalucía COPERNICA (P20-01224)Junta de Andalucía METAMORFOSIS (US-1381375

On the Finite Element Modeling of the Lumbar Spine: A Schematic Review

Finite element modelling of the lumbar spine is a challenging problem. Lower back pain is among the most common pathologies in the global populations, owing to which the patient may need to undergo surgery. The latter may differ in nature and complexity because of spinal disease and patient contraindications (i.e., aging). Today, the understanding of spinal column biomechanics may lead to better comprehension of the disease progression as well as to the development of innovative therapeutic strategies. Better insight into the spine’s biomechanics would certainly guarantee an evolution of current device-based treatments. In this setting, the computational approach appears to be a remarkable tool for simulating physiological and pathological spinal conditions, as well as for various aspects of surgery. Patient-specific computational simulations are constantly evolving, and require a number of validation and verification challenges to be overcome before they can achieve true and accurate results. The aim of the present schematic review is to provide an overview of the evolution and recent advances involved in computational finite element modelling (FEM) of spinal biomechanics and of the fundamental knowledge necessary to develop the best modeling approach in terms of trustworthiness and reliability

Protocol for the Smoking, Nicotine and Pregnancy (SNAP) trial: double-blind, placebo-randomised, controlled trial of nicotine replacement therapy in pregnancy

Background: Smoking in pregnancy remains a public health challenge. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is effective for smoking cessation in non-pregnant people, but because women metabolise nicotine and cotinine much faster in pregnancy, it is unclear whether this will be effective for smoking cessation in pregnancy. The NHS Health Technology Assessment Programme (HTA)-funded smoking, nicotine and pregnancy ( SNAP) trial will investigate whether or not nicotine replacement therapy ( NRT) is effective, cost-effective and safe when used for smoking cessation by pregnant women. Methods/Design: Over two years, in 5 trial centres, 1050 pregnant women who are between 12 and 24 weeks pregnant will be randomised as they attend hospital for ante-natal ultrasound scans. Women will receive either nicotine or placebo transdermal patches with behavioural support. The primary outcome measure is biochemically-validated, self-reported, prolonged and total abstinence from smoking between a quit date ( defined before randomisation and set within two weeks of this) and delivery. At six months after childbirth self-reported maternal smoking status will be ascertained and two years after childbirth, self-reported maternal smoking status and the behaviour, cognitive development and respiratory symptoms of children born in the trial will be compared in both groups. Discussion: This trial is designed to ascertain whether or not standard doses of NRT ( as transdermal patches) are effective and safe when used for smoking cessation during pregnancy

The economics of Kyoto flexible mechanisms: a survey

Scientific study has revealed that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming. A milestone of international effort for combating global warming was the establishment of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1997. The Protocol sets out a 5% emission reduction target from 1990 level for Annex I region in 2010. Economic research has foreseen that it will be very costly for some industrial countries to comply the target individually and therefore suggested international co-operation through flexible mechanisms - Emissions Trading, Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism. Because main greenhouse gases have the uniform-mixing feature, the use of the flexible mechanisms could be both environmentally and economically effective. Recently emerged a number of theoretical and empirical studies to explore the economics of the mechanisms. This paper is intended to survey the existing research results with the mechanisms, including conceptual clarifications, cost and benefit analysis, potential problems, empirical findings, and perspectives for future research.global warming; Kyoto Protocol; flexible mechanisms

Towards Safer Smart Contracts: A Survey of Languages and Verification Methods

With a market capitalisation of over USD 205 billion in just under ten years, public distributed ledgers have experienced significant adoption. Apart from novel consensus mechanisms, their success is also accountable to smart contracts. These programs allow distrusting parties to enter agreements that are executed autonomously. However, implementation issues in smart contracts caused severe losses to the users of such contracts. Significant efforts are taken to improve their security by introducing new programming languages and advance verification methods. We provide a survey of those efforts in two parts. First, we introduce several smart contract languages focussing on security features. To that end, we present an overview concerning paradigm, type, instruction set, semantics, and metering. Second, we examine verification tools and methods for smart contract and distributed ledgers. Accordingly, we introduce their verification approach, level of automation, coverage, and supported languages. Last, we present future research directions including formal semantics, verified compilers, and automated verification

Lirolem: A virtual studio/Institutional Repository for the University of Lincoln

Gives an account of the Lirolem project at the University of Lincoln which was to build a repository capable of handling multimedia material as well as providing a repository for the University's research output

The market, the regulator, and the government: Making a blockchain ecosystem in the Netherlands

This article presents a socio-anthropological analysis of the formation of a business ecosystem around blockchain technology in the Netherlands, within the broader context of the European Union and the digital single market. I argue that while reproducing widespread global models of business group and network formation, the relations created by these networks also reveal particularities of local business and governance cultures. Such particularities emerge from the pragmatics of collaboration and competitive market relationships, as well as legal heterogeneity and plans for legal harmonisation in digital innovation and governance in Europe. They also emerge from the challenges and transformations that current experimentation cultures for digital innovation bring to the interactions between market players, regulators, and government. These challenges and transformations materialise in increasingly informal connections and strategies for experimental legitimisation, which occur in parallel to more formal and traditional forms of regulatory and governmental interaction. The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands and in online terrains, including observation periods and 32 interviews with entrepreneurial project teams, as well as with individuals involved in financial incumbents’ innovation labs