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

Salivary Markers for Oral Cancer Detection

Oral cancer refers to all malignancies that arise in the oral cavity, lips and pharynx, with 90% of all oral cancers being oral squamous cell carcinoma. Despite the recent treatment advances, oral cancer is reported as having one of the highest mortality ratios amongst other malignancies and this can much be attributed to the late diagnosis of the disease. Saliva has long been tested as a valuable tool for drug monitoring and the diagnosis systemic diseases among which oral cancer. The new emerging technologies in molecular biology have enabled the discovery of new molecular markers (DNA, RNA and protein markers) for oral cancer diagnosis and surveillance which are discussed in the current review

Expression of a GH3 gene during adventitious rooting in chestnut.

Induction of adventitious roots (ARs) is an auxin-regulated developmental process which is negatively affected by the maturity of the plant. Analysis of the sequence encoded by the CsGH3-1 gene isolated from chestnut revealed that the putative protein belongs to group II of the GH3 family and contains the enzyme domains involved in conjugating indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) to amino acids. Here, we characterized the gene expression induced in chestnut microshoots treated with indole-3 butyric acid (IBA) to promote AR formation. Expression of CsGH3-1 was strongly induced in IBA-treated microshoots, whereas the transcripts were barely detected in control (untreated) microshoots. Comparison of the expression patterns in the rooting-competent and rooting-incompetent shoots confirmed that expression of the gene was correlated with the ontogenetic stage of the microshoots. The CsGH3-1 mRNA levels were higher in mature shoots than in rooting-competent shoots during the period of cell dedifferentiation prior to cell division, which suggests a putative role for the gene in this process. Furthermore, accumulation of the transcripts in the cambium cells, only detected in root-forming shoots, was highly correlated with the ability of these cells to generate ARs. Overall, our findings indicate that the CsGH3-1 gene is involved in auxin homeostasis and has a tissue-specific function in generating the auxin gradient required for transition of cambium cells into root initials during induction of ARs.Peer reviewe