Structural Power and Epistemologies in the Scientific Field: Why a Rapid Reconciliation Between Functional and Evolutionary Biology is Unlikely

The past decade has been marked by a series of global crises, presenting an opportunity to reevaluate the relationship between science and politics. The biological sciences are instrumental in understanding natural phenomena and informing policy decisions. However, scholars argue that current scientific expertise often fails to account for entire populations and long-term impacts, hindering efforts to address issues such as biodiversity loss, global warming, and pandemics. This article explores the structural challenges of integrating an evolutionary perspective, historically opposed to functional determinants of health and disease, into current biological science practices. Using data on Swiss biology professors from 1957, 1980, and 2000, we examine the structural power dynamics that have led to the division between these competing epistemologies, and how this division has influenced resource allocation and career trajectories. Our analysis suggests that this cleavage presents a significant obstacle to achieving fruitful reconciliations, and that increased academicization and internationalization may benefit functional biologists at the expense of evolutionary biologists. While evolutionary biologists have gained symbolic recognition in recent years, this has not translated into valuable expertise in the political domain

Anomalous spectral shift of near- and far-field plasmonic resonances in nanogaps

This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License.-- et al.The near-field and far-field spectral response of plasmonic systems are often assumed to be identical, due to the lack of methods that can directly compare and correlate both responses under similar environmental conditions. We develop a widely tunable optical technique to probe the near-field resonances within individual plasmonic nanostructures that can be directly compared to the corresponding far-field response. In tightly coupled nanoparticle-on-mirror constructs with nanometer-sized gaps we find >40 meV blue-shifts of the near-field compared to the dark-field scattering peak, which agrees with full electromagnetic simulations. Using a transformation optics approach, we show such shifts arise from the different spectral interference between different gap modes in the near- and far-field. The control and tuning of near-field and far-field responses demonstrated here is of paramount importance in the design of optical nanostructures for field-enhanced spectroscopy, as well as to control near-field activity monitored through the far-field of nano-optical devices.We acknowledge financial support from EPSRC grants EP/G060649/1, EP/L027151/1, EP/G037221/1, EPSRC NanoDTC, and ERC grant LINASS 320503. J.A. acknowledges support from project FIS2013-41184-P from Spanish MINECO and project NANOGUNE’14 from the Department of Industry of the Basque Country. F.B. acknowledges support from the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability. R.C. acknowledges financial support from St. John’s College, Cambridge, for a Dr. Manmohan Singh Scholarship. P.A. acknowledges funding from the Helmholtz Association for the Young Investigator group VH-NG-928 within the Initiative and Networking Fund.Peer Reviewe

Acute psychological and physiological effects of psilocybin in healthy humans: a double-blind, placebo-controlled dose-effect study

Rationale: Serotonin (5-Hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) receptors play an important role in perception, affect regulation and attention. Pharmacological challenge with the 5-HT2A agonist psilocybin (PY) is useful in studying the neurobiological basis of cognition and consciousness. Objective: Investigation of dose-dependent effects of PY on psycho(patho)logical and physiological parameters. Methods: Eight subjects received placebo (PL), and 45 ("very low dose, VLD”), 115 ("low dose, LD”), 215 ("medium dose, MD”), and 315 ("high dose, HD”) μg/kg body weight PY. The "Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale” (5D-ASC), the "Frankfurt Attention Inventory” (FAIR), and the "Adjective Mood Rating Scale” (AMRS) were used to assess the effects of PY on psycho(patho)logical core dimensions, attention, and mood. A 24-h electrocardiogram (EKG) was recorded and blood pressure was measured. Plasma concentrations of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), prolactin (PRL), cortisol (CORT), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and standard clinical chemical parameters were determined. Results: PY dose dependently increased scores of all 5D-ASC core dimensions. Only one subject reacted with transient anxiety to HD PY. Compared with PL, MD and HD PY led to a 50% reduction of performance in the FAIR test. "General inactivation”, "emotional excitability”, and "dreaminess” were the only domains of the AMRS showing increased scores following MD and HD PY. The mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) was moderately elevated only 60min following administration of HD PY. Neither EKG nor body temperature was affected by any dose of PY. TSH, ACTH, and CORT plasma levels were elevated during peak effects of HD PY, whereas PRL plasma levels were increased following MD and HD PY. Conclusion: PY affects core dimensions of altered states of consciousness and physiological parameters in a dose-dependent manner. Our study provided no cause for concern that PY is hazardous with respect to somatic healt

Multidimensional minimal clinically important differences in knee osteoarthritis after comprehensive rehabilitation: a prospective evaluation from the Bad Zurzach Osteoarthritis Study

OBJECTIVE To determine minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) for improvement and worsening in various health dimensions in knee osteoarthritis under conservative therapy. METHODS Health, symptoms and function were assessed by the generic Short Form 36 and the condition-specific Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index in n=190 patients with knee osteoarthritis before and after comprehensive rehabilitation intervention (3-month follow-up). By means of construct-specific transition questions, MCIDs were defined as the difference between the 'slightly better/worse' and the 'almost equal' transition response categories according to the 'mean change method'. The bivariate MCIDs were adjusted for sex, age and baseline score to obtain adjusted MCIDs by multivariate linear regression. They were further standardised as (baseline) effect sizes (ESs), standardised response means (SRMs) and standardised mean differences (SMDs) and compared with the minimal detectable change with 95% confidence (MDC95). RESULTS Multivariate, adjusted MCIDs for improvement ranged from 2.89 to 16.24 score points (scale 0-100), corresponding to ES=0.14 to 0.63, SRM=0.17 to 0.61 and SMD=0.18 to 0.72. The matching results for worsening were -5.80 to -12.68 score points, ES=-0.30 to -0.56, SRM=-0.35 to -0.52 and SMD=-0.35 to -0.58. Almost all MCIDs were larger than the corresponding MDC95s. CONCLUSIONS This study presents MCIDs quantified according to different methods over a comprehensive range of health dimensions. In most health dimensions, multivariate adjustment led to higher symmetry between the MCID levels of improvement and worsening. MCIDs expressed as standardised effect sizes (ES, SRM, SMD) and adjusted by potential confounders facilitate generalisation to the results of other studies

Rare earth luminescence: a way to overcome concentration quenching

A model is developed to simulate the rare earth luminescence intensity in dependence of both the excitation rate and the dopant concentration. For low excitation rates, as in the case of photoluminescence investigations, concentration quenching is expected. In contrast for high excitation rates (as generally realized in cathodoluminescence experiments) concentration quenching can be suppressed and thus luminescence intensity increases with increasing dopant concentration. These results reconcile the recent photo- and cathodoluminescence results on GaN:Er presented by Chen et al. (APL 96, 181901, 2010). Further experimental results indicate that the physical basis of the model is adequate

Comprehensiveness and validity of a multidimensional assessment in patients with chronic low back pain: a prospective cohort study

Background: Chronic low back pain is a multidimensional syndrome affecting physical activity and function, health-related quality of life and employment status. The aim of the study was to quantify the cross-sectional and longitudinal validity of single measurement scales in specific construct domains and to examine how they combine to build a comprehensive outcome, covering the complex construct of chronic low back pain before and after a standardized interdisciplinary pain program. Methods: This prospective cohort study assessed 177 patients using the Short Form 36 (SF-36), the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI), the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and 2 functional performance tests, the Back Performance Scale (BPS) and the 6-Minute Walking Distance (6MWD). The comprehensiveness and overlap of the constructs used were quantified cross-sectionally and longitudinally by bivariate correlations, exploratory factor analysis, and effect sizes. Results: The mean age of the participants was 48.0 years (+/− 12.7); 59.3% were female. Correlations of baseline scores ranged from r = − 0.01 (BPS with MPI Life control) to r = 0.76 (SF-36 Mental health with MPI Negative mood). SF-36 Physical functioning correlated highest with the functional performance tests (r = 0.58 BPS, 0.67 6MWD) and ODI (0.56). Correlations of change scores (difference of follow-up – baseline score) were consistent but weaker. Factor analysis revealed 2 factors: “psychosocial” and “pain & function” (totally explained variance 44.0–60.9%). Psychosocial factors loaded strongest (up to 0.89 SCL-90-R) on the first factor, covering 2/3 of the explained variance. Pain and function (ing) loaded more strongly on the second factor (up to 0.81 SF-36 Physical functioning at follow-up). All scales showed improvements, with effect sizes ranging from 0.16–0.67. Conclusions: Our results confirm previous findings that the chronic low back pain syndrome is highly multifactorial and comprises many more dimensions of health and quality of life than merely back-related functioning. A comprehensive outcome measurement should include the predominant psychosocial domain and a broad spectrum of measurement constructs in order to assess the full complexity of the chronic low back syndrome. Convergence and divergence of the scales capture the overlapping contents and nuances within the constructs

Self-aligned colloidal lithography for controllable and tuneable plasmonic nanogaps.

Au nanoparticles (NPs) deposited on a substrate function as ring shaped colloidal shadow masks. Using e-beam evaporation of gold, nanometer sized gaps are formed as a result. The size of these gaps can be accurately tuned by controlling the thickness of the gold deposition, thereby tuning the plasmonic coupling of the NPs with the substrate. The clean cavity produced between the Au NPs and the Au film provides an excellent SERS platform for trace molecule detection.The authors acknowledge the fi nancial support of this research from EPSRC grant EP/G060649/1, EP/I012060/1, and ERC grant LINASS 320503. FB acknowledges support from the Winton Pro-gramme for the Physics of Sustainability.This article was originally published in Small, 2015, DOI: 10.1002/smll.201402639

Integrating biodiversity: a longitudinal and cross-sectoral analysis of Swiss politics

The effective conservation and promotion of biodiversity requires its integration into a wide range of sectoral policies. For this to happen, the issue must receive attention across policy sectors. Yet, we know little about how attention to the issue evolves over time and across sectors. Drawing from the literature on environmental policy integration/mainstreaming and policy process theories, we develop competing hypotheses, expecting either increasing or fluctuating attention to the biodiversity issue. We tested the hypotheses using the case of Swiss politics between 1999 and 2018. Applying a combination of computational methods, we analyze the content of a comprehensive collection of policy documents (n ≈ 440,000) attributed to 20 policy sectors. Comparing the sectors, we find that (1) a persistent increase in attention is the exception, (2) if there is an increase in attention, it is likely to be temporary, and (3) the most common pattern is that of invariant attention over time. Biodiversity integration—if it does happen at all—tends to occur in cycles rather than in steady long-term shifts. This implies that the conservation of biodiversity does not follow the cross-sectoral nature of the problem, but is subject to the dynamics of "politics," where actors, because of limited resources, engage with (aspects of) an issue only for a certain amount of time