Surface plasmon resonance imaging as a screening platform in biopharmaceutical development

Development of biopharmaceutical products requires extensive research on a multitude of steps that are involved in the delivery of a final product. In this chapter, a general introduction on biopharmaceuticals is provided, including two examples of biopharmaceutical products (erythropoietin and monoclonal antibodies) that have been studied throughout this research. The following paragraphs will highlight a typical production process for biopharmaceuticals consisting of both upstream and downstream processing. In addition, product characterization using a variety of analytical tools is required to determine the product quality, based on several critical quality attributes of biopharmaceuticals that need to be assessed. An overview of the most widely applied analytical tools, including the product characteristics that can be determined, is provided. This is followed by a more detailed description of the principles of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and SPR imaging (SPRi), which was the main analytical technology that has been applied in this research. The use and potential applications of SPRi during various steps in biopharmaceutical development have been explored and will be further discussed throughout this work.</p

Challenging the ‘Youth Gaze’: Building Diversity into Refugee and Asylum Reception and Integration Programmes

Reception and integration programmes have often a dominant socio-economic focus that supports refugees’ swift movement into the labour market. This article examines the assumptions that such programmes make about their core target group and how this corresponds with participants’ diverse needs, drawing on conceptual work around the intersectionalities of age, relationalities, and migrant capital to do so. It employs data from interviews with, and observations of residents of an asylum seeker centre in Utrecht, the Netherlands, participating in an innovative programme that aimed to help them ‘integrate from day one’ through co-education and co-housing. We examine the assumptions of the programme, including its inclusive orientation, but show how it appealed implicitly to younger participants. By exploring experiences of participation for a more marginal group of participants in the mid and later phases of professional lives, we show how the programme worked better for a core, younger group, but in doing so, inevitably supported those already advantaged. We argue that programmes need to be adaptive and responsive to the heterogeneity of participants, who vary by age, relationalities and possession of resources among other intersectionalities, to support all the populations they serve

The New Eurocrats

Policies in the EU are largely made by national civil servants who prepare and implement decisions in Brussels as well as at home. Despite their important role, these national civil servants form a relatively hidden world that has received little attention from both the media and academics. This volume considers a wide variety of sources and research methods to answer such questions as: how many civil servants are actually involved in EU-related activities? What do these civil servants do when they engage with the EU? And how do they negotiate their dual roles? The New Eurocrats offers unique and invaluable insights into these civil servants and their working practices-and uncovers some secrets in the world of EU governance along the way

Creating public value in public networks: why and how?

Veel publieke organisaties verliezen zich de afgelopen decennia in instrumenten toepassen, verantwoordingssystemen volgen, en kostenbesparingsoperaties ten behoeve van efficiency en effectiviteit. Transparantie is een belangrijke eis geworden voor publieke organisaties. Het moet helder zijn wat er geproduceerd wordt, wat dat kost en wat dat oplevert. Dat is een prima idee. Maar het heeft ook een aantal problemen gebracht. Eén daarvan is het gebrek aan aandacht voor de waar‐ toe-vraag in de publieke sector. Dit artikel beschrijft hoe kan worden georganiseerd dat juist die vraag centraal komt te staan in netwerksamenwerking. Daarbij staat vooral de rol van professionals en publieke managers centraal. Wat kunnen zij doen om de focus te verschuiven naar de waartoe-vraag

Tensions of evaluating innovation in a living lab: Moving beyond actionable knowledge production

Generative experimentation is increasingly used in public policymaking, especially in response to wicked policy problems. A policy solution is refined within its context and informed by feedback from its users. Studies reporting on these approaches, however, rarely consider the role of evaluation and the nature and goals of knowledge produced. This article addresses evaluation in such contexts. We present a case study of a living lab that combined theory-driven and developmental evaluation, and, responding to contradictory pressures, aimed to generate both actionable and academic knowledge to improve asylum seeker reception. We describe how we addressed these diverging demands and the resulting tensions in a politically charged and substantively insecure policy context. We conclude that evaluation should be an explicit part of the broader design concept, and while generative experimenting can produce actionable learning, evaluation should also aim for academic learning, in a manner that is both democratic and robust

Can community involvement policies mitigate NIMBYism and local opposition to asylum seeker centres?

Local governments have to take authoritative decisions about the placement of controversial but necessary facilities such as Asylum Seeker Centres (ASCs). Opposition from local residents against such facilities is often considered to be an expression of NIMBYism. This article explores whether a policy of community involvement addressing the underlying reasons for local opposition can mitigate such opposition towards an ASC. It uses a mixed methods approach combining survey data and semi-structured interviews among neighbourhood residents about an ASC in Utrecht. Local opposition is associated with experiences of economic competition and cultural threat. The policy strategy did not moderate these effects. Those who became involved were a selective group of locals who were largely already accepting of the centre and its inhabitants and involvement was often incidental. However, contact between asylum seekers and neighbours developing within and beyond the ASC mediated the effect of cultural threat - confirming Allport’s contact hypothesis