What approaches do research funders have towards alternative publishing platforms, and how important are they in the context of funders’ wider scholarly communication strategies?

Research Problem: This is research question 1 developed for the “Innovating Scholarly Communication: Navigating the future of alternative publishing platform” project. The following sub-questions will be explored: What types of support or approaches do research funders put in place to support or encourage alternative publishing platforms? (e.g. financial support, inclusion in strategy, inclusion in recognition and reward, funder mandates) What partnerships exist between funders and alternative publishing platforms? What types of publications and formats are eligible for financial support? To what extent, and how do funders support the publication of living documents, open peer review and non-traditional formats like datasets and code? How is funding allocated for publishing on alternative platforms, if at all? How do funders' strategic objectives align with their publication funding and policy decisions? To what extent, and how are funders seeking to shape and/or change the scholarly publishing landscape through their strategies and funding decisions? How connected are these efforts within and between different funders? How are funders involving researchers in shaping their strategies regarding the future of scholarly publishing

Understanding the current landscape of alternative publishing platforms

Rationale / Hypothesis: Knowledge Exchange commissioned Research Consulting to work on a project to understand the current landscape of alternative publishing platforms, exploring how publishing platforms, research organisations and funders enable innovation in scholarly communication. Significant scoping was undertaken by Knowledge Exchange, published in the paper Scoping the second phase of the Alternative publishing platforms work. Research Consulting developed a proposed thematic approach aiming to explore the core issues identified by Knowledge Exchange, looking across multiple stakeholder perspectives. The questions were thematically organised in a systematic way, to ensure comprehensive coverage across desk research and stakeholder engagement activities. These research questions and sub-questions are linked on Octopus as individual Research Problems, but the key themes and research questions are: Funder strategy and policy: What approaches do research funders have towards alternative publishing platforms, and how important are they in the context of funders’ wider scholarly communication strategies? Value proposition of alternative publishing platforms: What are the immediate and pressing challenges that alternative publishing platforms are trying to address? Legitimacy of non-traditional research outputs: What types and formats of publication do funders and researchers consider to be “legitimate” research outputs? Lessons learnt from alternative publishing: What lessons can be learnt from experience with alternative publishing platforms? Uptake and continued engagement: What factors affect a researcher's decision to use (or not) an alternative publishing platform? The research questions relating to funding strategy and policy and legitimacy in particular help bridge across stakeholder groups. The five themes also provide a framework for analysing and presenting findings, making it easier to develop recommendations that address systemic issues rather than focusing on stakeholder-specific concerns. The five themes, questions and sub-questions were iteratively refined and developed through dialogue between Research Consulting, a core group of Knowledge Exchange experts: Anna Mette Morthorst (DeiC), Sebastian Brandt (DFG) Xenia van Edig (TIB) and Jean-François Lutz (University of Lorraine) and the full authors of this output i.e. the wider Knowledge Exchange Task & Finish Groups and Prof Stephen Pinfield. This work took place throughout January and February 2025. The questions seek to cover all questions in the original scoping document produced by KE (Knowledge Exchange, 2024), and no questions or areas have been excluded as part of the revised hierarchy and structure

Expression profiles for six zebrafish genes during gonadal sex differentiation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The mechanism of sex determination in zebrafish is largely unknown and neither sex chromosomes nor a sex-determining gene have been identified. This indicates that sex determination in zebrafish is mediated by genetic signals from autosomal genes. The aim of this study was to determine the precise timing of expression of six genes previously suggested to be associated with sex differentiation in zebrafish. The current study investigates the expression of all six genes in the same individual fish with extensive sampling dates during sex determination and -differentiation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the present study, we have used quantitative real-time PCR to investigate the expression of ar, sox9a, dmrt1, fig alpha, cyp19a1a and cyp19a1b during the expected sex determination and gonadal sex differentiation period. The expression of the genes expected to be high in males (ar, sox9a and dmrt1a) and high in females (fig alpha and cyp19a1a) was segregated in two groups with more than 10 times difference in expression levels. All of the investigated genes showed peaks in expression levels during the time of sex determination and gonadal sex differentiation. Expression of all genes was investigated on cDNA from the same fish allowing comparison of the high and low expressers of genes that are expected to be highest expressed in either males or females. There were 78% high or low expressers of all three "male" genes (ar, sox9a and dmrt1) in the investigated period and 81% were high or low expressers of both "female" genes (fig alpha and cyp19a1a). When comparing all five genes with expected sex related expression 56% show expression expected for either male or female. Furthermore, the expression of all genes was investigated in different tissue of adult male and female zebrafish.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In zebrafish, the first significant peak in gene expression during the investigated period (2–40 dph) was dmrt1 at 10 dph which indicates involvement of this gene in the early gonadal sex differentiation of males.</p

Economic Impacts from the Promotion of Renewable Energy Technologies - The German Experience

The allure of an environmentally benign, abundant, and cost-effective energy source has led an increasing number of industrialized countries to back public financing of renewable energies. Germany's experience with renewable energy promotion is often cited as a model to be replicated elsewhere, being based on a combination of far-reaching energy and environmental laws that stretch back nearly two decades. This paper critically reviews the current centerpiece of this effort, the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), focusing on its costs and the associated implications for job creation and climate protection. We argue that German renewable energy policy, and in particular the adopted feed-in tariff scheme, has failed to harness the market incentives needed to ensure a viable and cost-effective introduction of renewable energies into the country's energy portfolio. To the contrary, the government's support mechanisms have in many respects subverted these incentives, resulting in massive expenditures that show little long-term promise for stimulating the economy, protecting the environment, or increasing energy security

ATMIN is a transcriptional regulator of both lung morphogenesis and ciliogenesis

© 2014 The Authors. Published by The Company of Biologists. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.107755Initially identified in DNA damage repair, ATM-interactor (ATMIN) further functions as a transcriptional regulator of lung morphogenesis. Here we analyse three mouse mutants, Atmin(gpg6/gpg6), Atmin(H210Q/H210Q) and Dynll1(GT/GT), revealing how ATMIN and its transcriptional target dynein light chain LC8-type 1 (DYNLL1) are required for normal lung morphogenesis and ciliogenesis. Expression screening of ciliogenic genes confirmed Dynll1 to be controlled by ATMIN and further revealed moderately altered expression of known intraflagellar transport (IFT) protein-encoding loci in Atmin mutant embryos. Significantly, Dynll1(GT/GT) embryonic cilia exhibited shortening and bulging, highly similar to the characterised retrograde IFT phenotype of Dync2h1. Depletion of ATMIN or DYNLL1 in cultured cells recapitulated the in vivo ciliogenesis phenotypes and expression of DYNLL1 or the related DYNLL2 rescued the effects of loss of ATMIN, demonstrating that ATMIN primarily promotes ciliogenesis by regulating Dynll1 expression. Furthermore, DYNLL1 as well as DYNLL2 localised to cilia in puncta, consistent with IFT particles, and physically interacted with WDR34, a mammalian homologue of the Chlamydomonas cytoplasmic dynein 2 intermediate chain that also localised to the cilium. This study extends the established Atmin-Dynll1 relationship into a developmental and a ciliary context, uncovering a novel series of interactions between DYNLL1, WDR34 and ATMIN. This identifies potential novel components of cytoplasmic dynein 2 and furthermore provides fresh insights into the molecular pathogenesis of human skeletal ciliopathies.Medical Research Counci