Speech acts and performances of scientific citizenship: examining how scientists talk about therapeutic cloning

Scientists play an important role in framing public engagement with science. Their language can facilitate or impede particular interactions taking place with particular citizens: scientists’ “speech acts” can “perform” different types of “scientific citizenship”. This paper examines how scientists in Australia talked about therapeutic cloning during interviews and during the 2006 parliamentary debates on stem cell research. Some avoided complex labels, thereby facilitating public examination of this field. Others drew on language that only opens a space for publics to become educated, not to participate in a more meaningful way. Importantly, public utterances made by scientists here contrast with common international utterances: they did not focus on the therapeutic but the research promises of therapeutic cloning. Social scientists need to pay attention to the performative aspects of language in order to promote genuine citizen involvement in techno-science. Speech Act Theory is a useful analytical tool for this

Opening Up Spaces for Reflexivity? Scientists’ Discourses about Stem Cell Research and Public Engagement

This thesis starts with what the House of Lords Third Report (2000) has identified as a “crisis of trust” between science and society. It explores ways of addressing this crisis by examining stem cell researchers’ discourses about their work and public engagement, and suggests ways of improving scientists’ engagement with publics. My journey from natural to social sciences started with an in-depth critical analysis of constructive (or critical) perspectives on public understanding of science (e.g. Irwin and Wynne). This highlighted the importance of investigating scientific institutions and scientists, and their embedded assumptions about publics, engagement and science. My research expands upon the limited empirical research on this topic and draws upon data from interviews and discussions with 54 stem cell researchers (of different levels of seniority and field of research, in Australia and the UK). Using informants’ discourse as a “topic” and a “resource” (Gilbert and Mulkay), the thesis explores in detail the strategic and socially contingent definitions and boundaries (Gieryn) in stem cell research (SCR). Analysis of the empirical material develops four main themes. Firstly, the language and conceptual fluidity of SCR is emphasised and shown to enable scientists to conduct “boundary-work” in a variety of ways. Secondly, discourses and performances of (un)certainty are examined to highlight a diversity of socially contingent identities SCR professionals can draw upon. This examination draws on MacKenzie’s “certainty trough” but also improves it by problematising the concept of “distance from knowledge production”. Thirdly, scientists’ expressions of trust and ambivalence are analysed as interactions with particular “expert systems” such as processes of informed consent, commercialisation or legislation in conditions of increased globalisation. By highlighting hermeneutic aspects of trust, this analysis is sharpened and shows that there are elements of “counter-modernity” as well as “reflexive modernisation” in SCR. It is argued that, to further explore the reflexive potential of stem cell professionals’ critiques of their work, these need to be further discussed in public. The forth and final theme focuses more specifically on engagement. Stem cell researchers’ accounts are shown to construct and perform publics, scientists and engagement – and thus “scientific citizenship” – in a variety of ways. This variety can be made sense of by reflecting on conceptions of expertise, democracy, and power. This enables the development of six “ideal-types” of engagement that can be used heuristically to study performances of citizenship. The thesis concludes by discussing its main contributions to knowledge. It highlights how social scientists can encourage greater “interpretative reflexivity” (Lynch) on the part of scientists; this can, in turn, lead to improved science-public relations

Heterogeneous agendas around public engagement in stem cell research:The case for maintaining plasticity

Although public engagement is now part of the business of doing science, there is considerable divergence about what the term means and what public engagement ought to be doing. This paper refl ects on these heterogeneous meanings and agendas through an analysis of focus group data from research on public engagement in stem cell research. Three broad visions of public engagement are identifi ed: as education and information provision; as dialogue; and as participation in policy making. In analysing the implications of these visions three dimensions are highlighted: weakly and strongly structured visions of public engagement; the co production of roles and relationships; and the framing of what is at stake. Each of these has the potential to include or exclude some groups in public engagement. We conclude that social scientists should seek to maintain the plasticity of public engagement as a necessary condition for greater participation and reflexivity in science policy, practice and governance

Evolutionary clade affects resistance of Clostridium difficile spores to Cold Atmospheric Plasma

Clostridium difficile is a spore forming bacterium and the leading cause of colitis and antibiotic associated diarrhoea in the developed world. Spores produced by C. difficile are robust and can remain viable for months, leading to prolonged healthcare-associated outbreaks with high mortality. Exposure of C. difficile spores to a novel, non-thermal atmospheric pressure gas plasma was assessed. Factors affecting sporicidal efficacy, including percentage of oxygen in the helium carrier gas admixture, and the effect on spores from different strains representing the five evolutionary C. difficile clades was investigated. Strains from different clades displayed varying resistance to cold plasma. Strain R20291, representing the globally epidemic ribotype 027 type, was the most resistant. However all tested strains displayed a ~3 log reduction in viable spore counts after plasma treatment for 5 minutes. Inactivation of a ribotype 078 strain, the most prevalent clinical type seen in Northern Ireland, was further assessed with respect to surface decontamination, pH, and hydrogen peroxide concentration. Environmental factors affected plasma activity, with dry spores without the presence of organic matter being most susceptible. This study demonstrates that cold atmospheric plasma can effectively inactivate C. difficile spores, and highlights factors that can affect sporicidal activity

The Happy Planet Index 2.0: Why good lives don’t have to cost the Earth

The report presents the results of the second global compilation of the Happy Planet Index, based on improved data for 143 countries around the world – representing 99 per cent of the world’s population. The results shows that globally we are still far from achieving good lives within the Earth’s finite resource limits. But although the evidence shows that we are heading in the wrong direction, the achievements of some countries around the world provide reasons to believe that we can achieve true sustainable well-being

Nursing students’ experiences of learning numeracy for professional practice

This paper examines nursing students’ experiences of the teaching and assessment of numeracy for nursing. Data from interviews with eight student nurses at a large school of nursing in the United Kingdom are analysed using a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore their perceptions of any disjunctures between the ways in which numeracy is taught and assessed in universities and the broader context in which calculations are carried out by nurses in practice. The paper considers how these disjunctures may arise and proposes a change to the focus of numeracy courses which may begin to resolve some of these tensions

Profiling G protein-coupled receptors of Fasciola hepatica identifies orphan rhodopsins unique to phylum Platyhelminthes

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are established drug targets. Despite their considerable appeal as targets for next-generation anthelmintics, poor understanding of their diversity and function in parasitic helminths has thwarted progress towards GPCR-targeted anti-parasite drugs. This study facilitates GPCR research in the liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, by generating the first profile of GPCRs from the F. hepatica genome. Our dataset describes 147 high confidence GPCRs, representing the largest cohort of GPCRs, and the largest set of in silico ligand-receptor predictions, yet reported in any parasitic helminth. All GPCRs fall within the established GRAFS nomenclature; comprising three glutamate, 135 rhodopsin, two adhesion, five frizzled, one smoothened, and one secretin GPCR. Stringent annotation pipelines identified 18 highly diverged rhodopsins in F. hepatica that maintained core rhodopsin signatures, but lacked significant similarity with non-flatworm sequences, providing a new sub-group of potential flukicide targets. These facilitated identification of a larger cohort of 76 related sequences from available flatworm genomes, representing new members of existing groups (PROF1/Srfb, Rho-L, Rho-R, Srfa, Srfc) of flatworm-specific rhodopsins. These receptors imply flatworm specific GPCR functions, and/or co-evolution with unique flatworm ligands, and could facilitate the development of exquisitely selective anthelmintics. Ligand binding domain sequence conservation relative to deorphanised rhodopsins enabled high confidence ligand-receptor matching of seventeen receptors activated by acetylcholine, neuropeptide F/Y, octopamine or serotonin. RNA-Seq analyses showed expression of 101 GPCRs across various developmental stages, with the majority expressed most highly in the pathogenic intra-mammalian juvenile parasites. These data identify a broad complement of GPCRs in F. hepatica, including rhodopsins likely to have key functions in neuromuscular control and sensory perception, as well as frizzled and adhesion/secretin families implicated, in other species, in growth, development and reproduction. This catalogue of liver fluke GPCRs provides a platform for new avenues into our understanding of flatworm biology and anthelmintic discovery. Keywords: Anthelmintic, Deorphanization, Flukicide, Genome, Invertebrate, Nervous system, Neuropeptide, RNA-Se

National Accounts of Well-being: bringing real wealth onto the balance sheet

The report sets out the details of nef's case for governments to systematically measure and report on the well-being of their populations. Using the latest findings from the field of well-being research, it demonstrates how the case for national well-being measures is closely linked to the history of economic national accounting. It describes how a framework for National Accounts of Well-being was developed from European Social Survey data and presents the resulting findings, to show how National Accounts of Well-being can provide a new, more meaningful measure of national success and help governments take decisions to improve the lives of their citizens

Effect of angiotensin receptor blockade on insulin sensitivity and endothelial function in abdominally obese hypertensive patients with impaired fasting glucose

AngII (angiotensin II) may contribute to cardiovascular risk in obesity via adverse effects on insulin sensitivity and endothelial function. In the present study, we examined the effects of ARB (angiotensin receptor blocker) therapy (losartan, 100 mg/day) on insulin sensitivity and endothelial function in 53 subjects with stage I hypertension, abdominal obesity and impaired fasting glucose. The study design was a randomized double-blinded parallel design placebo-controlled multi-centre trial of 8 weeks duration. We used the hyperinsulinaemic-euglycaemic clamp technique to measure insulin sensitivity (expressed as the 'M/I' value) and RH-PAT (reactive hyperaemia-peripheral arterial tonometry) to measure endothelial function. Additional measures included HOMA (homoeostasis model assessment)-B, an index of pancreatic β-cell function, and markers of inflammation [e.g. CRP (C-reactive protein)] and oxidative stress (e.g. F2-isoprostanes). ARB therapy did not alter insulin sensitivity [5.2 (2.7) pre-treatment and 4.6 (1.6) post-treatment] compared with placebo therapy [6.1 (2.9) pre-treatment and 5.3 (2.7) post-treatment; P value not significant], but did improve the HOMA-B compared with placebo therapy (P=0.05). ARB therapy also did not change endothelial function [RH-PAT, 2.15 (0.7) pre-treatment and 2.11 (0.7) post-treatment] compared with placebo therapy [RH-PAT, 1.81 (0.5) pre-treatment and 1.76 (0.7) post-treatment; P value not significant]. Markers of inflammation and oxidative stress were not significantly changed by ARB therapy. In conclusion, ARB therapy did not alter peripheral insulin sensitivity or endothelial function in this cohort of patients with essential hypertension, abdominal obesity and impaired fasting glucose, but did improve pancreatic β-cell function