Legislative science advice in Europe: the case for international comparative research

In this paper we examine the roles and impact of science advice in an arena of public decision-making which, although critical to the healthy functioning of democratic societies has largely been neglected in recent discussions: that of elected legislatures. We begin by contrasting the functions and operating environments of legislatures with those of executive branches of governments, and consider how their differences affect the requirements of their respective science advisory systems. Several examples of science advice organisations for national legislatures in Europe are then examined, revealing a range of advisory structures and practices. These variations in approach suggest different underpinning models about both why science advice is being provided, and how science advice influences a legislatures’ activities. Given these differences, and our currently limited understanding of the influence of research knowledge in any sphere of public decision-making, we argue that more attention needs to be focused on the difficult challenge of mapping and evaluating the impact of science advice on legislatures’ democratic functions. This argument is illustrated using a recent case of science advice directly influencing democratic decision-making within the UK legislature on the treatment of mitochondrial disease. Finally, we conclude the paper by describing a study on the impact of science advice currently underway in the UK legislature, and propose a multi-legislature comparative expansion of this study to improve significantly our understanding of the influence science advice has on the functions of democratic societies’ deliberative bodies

Cognitive reserve, presynaptic proteins and dementia in the elderly

Differences in cognitive reserve may contribute to the wide range of likelihood of dementia in people with similar amounts of age-related neuropathology. The amounts and interactions of presynaptic proteins could be molecular components of cognitive reserve, contributing resistance to the expression of pathology as cognitive impairment. We carried out a prospective study with yearly assessments of N=253 participants without dementia at study entry. Six distinct presynaptic proteins, and the protein–protein interaction between synaptosomal-associated protein 25 (SNAP-25) and syntaxin, were measured in post-mortem brains. We assessed the contributions of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, cerebral infarcts and presynaptic proteins to odds of dementia, level of cognitive function and cortical atrophy. Clinical dementia was present in N=97 (38.3%), a pathologic diagnosis of AD in N=142 (56.1%) and cerebral infarcts in N=77 (30.4%). After accounting for AD pathology and infarcts, greater amounts of vesicle-associated membrane protein, complexins I and II and the SNAP-25/syntaxin interaction were associated with lower odds of dementia (odds ratio=0.36–0.68, P<0.001 to P=0.03) and better cognitive function (P<0.001 to P=0.03). Greater cortical atrophy, a putative dementia biomarker, was not associated with AD pathology, but was associated with lower complexin-II (P=0.01) and lower SNAP-25/syntaxin interaction (P<0.001). In conclusion, greater amounts of specific presynaptic proteins and distinct protein–protein interactions may be structural or functional components of cognitive reserve that reduce the risk of dementia with aging

A collaboratively derived international research agenda on legislative science advice

© 2019, The Author(s). The quantity and complexity of scientific and technological information provided to policymakers have been on the rise for decades. Yet little is known about how to provide science advice to legislatures, even though scientific information is widely acknowledged as valuable for decision-making in many policy domains. We asked academics, science advisers, and policymakers from both developed and developing nations to identify, review and refine, and then rank the most pressing research questions on legislative science advice (LSA). Experts generally agree that the state of evidence is poor, especially regarding developing and lower-middle income countries. Many fundamental questions about science advice processes remain unanswered and are of great interest: whether legislative use of scientific evidence improves the implementation and outcome of social programs and policies; under what conditions legislators and staff seek out scientific information or use what is presented to them; and how different communication channels affect informational trust and use. Environment and health are the highest priority policy domains for the field. The context-specific nature of many of the submitted questions—whether to policy issues, institutions, or locations—suggests one of the significant challenges is aggregating generalizable evidence on LSA practices. Understanding these research needs represents a first step in advancing a global agenda for LSA research

Neurexin in Embryonic Drosophila Neuromuscular Junctions

Background: Neurexin is a synaptic cell adhesion protein critical for synapse formation and function. Mutations in neurexin and neurexin-interacting proteins have been implicated in several neurological diseases. Previous studies have described Drosophila neurexin mutant phenotypes in third instar larvae and adults. However, the expression and function of Drosophila neurexin early in synapse development, when neurexin function is thought to be most important, has not been described. Methodology/Principal Findings: We use a variety of techniques, including immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, in situ hybridization, and electrophysiology, to characterize neurexin expression and phenotypes in embryonic Drosophila neuromuscular junctions (NMJs). Our results surprisingly suggest that neurexin in embryos is present both pre and postsynaptically. Presynaptic neurexin promotes presynaptic active zone formation and neurotransmitter release, but along with postsynaptic neurexin, also suppresses formation of ectopic glutamate receptor clusters. Interestingly, we find that loss of neurexin only affects receptors containing the subunit GluRIIA. Conclusions/Significance: Our study extends previous results and provides important detail regarding the role of neurexin in Drosophila glutamate receptor abundance. The possibility that neurexin is present postsynaptically raises new hypotheses regarding neurexin function in synapses, and our results provide new insights into the role of neurexin i

Silicate production and availability for mineral carbonation.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide sequestered as carbonates through the accelerated weathering of silicate minerals is proposed as a climate change mitigation technology with the potential to capture billions of tonnes of carbon per year. Although these materials can be mined expressly for carbonation, they are also produced by human activities (cement, iron and steel making, coal combustion, etc.). Despite their potential, there is poor global accounting of silicates produced in this way. This paper presents production estimates (by proxy) of various silicate materials including aggregate and mine waste, cement kiln dust, construction and demolition waste, iron and steel slag, and fuel ash. Approximately 7-17 billion tonnes are produced globally each year with an approximate annual sequestration potential of 190-332 million tonnes C. These estimates provide justification for additional research to accurately quantify the contemporary production of silicate minerals and to determine the location and carbon capture potential of historic material accumulations

Accurate Quantification of Functional Analogy among Close Homologs

Correctly evaluating functional similarities among homologous proteins is necessary for accurate transfer of experimental knowledge from one organism to another, and is of particular importance for the development of animal models of human disease. While the fact that sequence similarity implies functional similarity is a fundamental paradigm of molecular biology, sequence comparison does not directly assess the extent to which two proteins participate in the same biological processes, and has limited utility for analyzing families with several parologous members. Nevertheless, we show that it is possible to provide a cross-organism functional similarity measure in an unbiased way through the exclusive use of high-throughput gene-expression data. Our methodology is based on probabilistic cross-species mapping of functionally analogous proteins based on Bayesian integrative analysis of gene expression compendia. We demonstrate that even among closely related genes, our method is able to predict functionally analogous homolog pairs better than relying on sequence comparison alone. We also demonstrate that the landscape of functional similarity is often complex and that definitive “functional orthologs” do not always exist. Even in these cases, our method and the online interface we provide are designed to allow detailed exploration of sources of inferred functional similarity that can be evaluated by the user