Training to translate: Understanding and informing translational animal research in pre-clinical pharmacology

This is the final version. Available on open access from Tecnoscienza via the link in this recordWe investigate translation in biomedicine by exploring how researchers supported by the British Pharmacological Society’s Integrative Pharmacology Fund (IPF) have responded to increasing translational aspirations within pre-clinical animal research. The IPF sought to enhance institutional capacities, collaborative practices, and personal skills within in vivo research in the quintessentially translational fields of pharmacology, physiology and toxicology. We identify three manifestations of the influence of translational aspirations: 1) shifting from the standardisation of animal models to the alignment of research on animals with human therapeutic pathways; 2) expanding relationalities of care in animal research from a focus on the animal body to institutional arrangements around clinical care; and 3) changing training around research ethics, integrity and good statistical practice. Concluding, we discuss the value of working interactively with those involved in the changing practices of animal research and translation as a means to foster reflexivity about what matters when ‘training to translate’.British Pharmacological SocietyWellcome TrustEuropean Research CouncilAustralian Research Counci

Rastreabilidade em cadeias agroindustriais: conceitos e aplicações.

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The origin of the E+ transition in GaAsN alloys

Optical properties of GaAsN system with nitrogen concentrations in the range of 0.9-3.7% are studied by full-potential LAPW method in a supercell approach. The E+ transition is identified by calculating the imaginary part of the dielectric function. The evolution of the energy of this transition with nitrogen concentration is studied and the origin of this transition is identified by analyzing the contributions to the dielectric function from different band combinations. The L_1c-derived states are shown to play an important role in the formation of the E+ transition, which was also suggested by recent experiments. At the same time the nitrogen-induced modification of the first conduction band of the host compound are also found to contribute significantly to the E+ transition. Further, the study of several model supercells demonstrated the significant influence of the nitrogen potential on the optical properties of the GaAsN system.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Carrier thermal escape in families of InAs/InP self-assembled quantum dots

We investigate the thermal quenching of the multimodal photoluminescence from InAs/InP (001) self-assembled quantum dots. The temperature evolution of the photoluminescence spectra of two samples is followed from 10 K to 300 K. We develop a coupled rate-equation model that includes the effect of carrier thermal escape from a quantum dot to the wetting layer and to the InP matrix, followed by transport, recapture or non-radiative recombination. Our model reproduces the temperature dependence of the emission of each family of quantum dots with a single set of parameters. We find that the main escape mechanism of the carriers confined in the quantum dots is through thermal emission to the wetting layer. The activation energy for this process is found to be close to one-half the energy difference between that of a given family of quantum dots and that of the wetting layer as measured by photoluminescence excitation experiments. This indicates that electron and holes exit the InAs quantum dots as correlated pairs

Mobilizing the Transnational History of Knowledge Flows. COVID-19 and the Politics of Research at the Borders

This is the final version. Available on open access from Routledge via the DOI in this recordThis paper mobilizes a transnational approach to intervene in the unfolding history of the Covid-19 pandemic, advocating for nationally based, interdependent initiatives that push back against the fragmentation of national responses and, eventually, national protectionism. Focusing on the governance of digital technologies for data sharing, and using two case studies as illustrations, we describe the emergence of transnational realms of scientific and political cooperation, that were structured to foster interdependence, to bypass insular nationalism, and to subvert digital feudalism. By critically reading these case studies through the lens of the transnational flows of knowledge across borders, we exploit the intellectual and political agendas embedded in this historiographic approach.Alan Turing Institut

Process epistemology in the COVID-19 era: rethinking the research process to avoid dangerous forms of reification

This is the final version. Available on open access from Springer via the DOI in this recordWhether we live in a world of autonomous things, or a world of interconnected processes in constant flux, is an ancient philosophical debate. Modern biology provides decisive reasons for embracing the latter view. How does one understand the practices and outputs of science in such a dynamic, ever-changing world - and particularly in an emergency situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic, where scientific knowledge has been regarded as bedrock for decisive social interventions? We argue that key to answering this question is to consider the role of the activity of reification within the research process. Reification consists in the identification of more or less stable features of the flux, and treating these as constituting stable things. As we illustrate with reference to biological and biomedical research on COVID-19, reification is a necessary component of any process of inquiry and comes in at least two forms: (1) means reification (phenomena-to-object), when researchers create objects meant to capture features of the world, or phenomena, in order to be able to study them; and (2) target reification (object-to-phenomena), when researchers infer an understanding of phenomena from an investigation of the epistemic objects created to study them. We note that both objects and phenomena are dynamic processes and argue that have no reason to assume that changes in objects and phenomena track one another. We conclude that failure to acknowledge these forms of reification and their epistemic role in scientific inquiry can have dire consequences for how the resulting knowledge is interpreted and used.European Research Council (ERC)Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC