Ethical and legal issues in mitochondrial transfer

The US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine recently provided conditional endorsement for mitochondrial transfer. While its approach is more conservative in some respects than that of the United Kingdom (which passed its own regulations in 2015 ), it marks a significant policy development for a potentially large implementer of this emerging intervention. In this perspective, we consider some of the ethical and legal aspects of these policy responses

Reflections on disruptive energy innovation in urban retrofitting: methodology, practice and policy

Retrofitting cities provides major challenges for decision-makers and planners seeking to provide strategic management of urban transitions. Recognising the implications of disruptive innovations for the urban energy sector is key to understanding how transition management can be operationalised. This also requires an integrated urban foresight approach to engage with city stakeholders in exploring the construction of socio-technical urban retrofit processes across a variety of scales and domain

In a broken world:towards an ethics of repair in the Anthropocene

With the power to break earth systems comes responsibility to care for them, and arguably to repair them. Climate geoengineering is one possible approach. But repair is under-researched and underspecified in this context. In a first attempt to establish basic principles for the obligations of repair in the Anthropocene, five disciplines of repair are briefly reviewed: reconstruction of historic buildings, remediation of human bodies, restoration of ecosystems; reconfiguration of cultural materials and artifacts; and reconciliation of broken relationships. In each case ethical practices and debates are described to help identify key themes and challenges in understanding repair. Three interlinked pragmatic ethics or virtues of repair in the Anthropocene are suggested: care, integrity, and legibility. Implications of for climate geoengineering, climate politics, and the possibilities of climate justice are explored. Climate repair is defended against objections that it would exacerbate a moral hazard effect, or frame climate responses as politically conservative

How should we set consumption thresholds for low risk drinking guidelines? Achieving objectivity and transparency using evidence, expert judgement and pragmatism

Most high-income nations issue guidelines on low-risk drinking to inform individuals' decisions about alcohol consumption. However, leading scientists have criticized the processes for setting the consumption thresholds within these guidelines for a lack of objectivity and transparency. This paper examines how guideline developers should respond to such criticisms and focuses particularly on the balance between epidemiological evidence, expert judgement and pragmatic considerations. Although concerned primarily with alcohol, our discussion is also relevant to those developing guidelines for other health-related behaviours. We make eight recommendations across three areas. First, recommendations on the use of epidemiological evidence: (1) guideline developers should assess whether the available epidemiological evidence is communicated most appropriately as population-level messages (e.g. suggesting reduced drinking benefits populations rather than individuals); (2) research funders should prioritize commissioning studies on the acceptability of different alcohol-related risks (e.g. mortality, morbidity, harms to others) to the public and other stakeholders; and (3) guideline developers should request and consider statistical analyses of epidemiological uncertainty. Secondly, recommendations to improve objectivity and transparency when translating epidemiological evidence into guidelines: (4) guideline developers should specify and publish their analytical framework to promote clear, consistent and coherent judgements; and (5) guideline developers' decision-making should be supported by numerical and visual techniques which also increase the transparency of judgements to stakeholders. Thirdly, recommendations relating to the diverse use of guidelines: (6) guideline developers and their commissioners should give meaningful attention to how guidelines are used in settings such as advocacy, health promotion, clinical practice and wider health debates, as well as in risk communication; (7) guideline developers should make evidence-based judgements that balance epidemiological and pragmatic concerns to maximize the communicability, credibility and general effectiveness of guidelines; and (8) as with scientific judgements, pragmatic judgements should be reported transparently

Studying advanced mathematics in England: findings from a survey of student choices and attitudes

The UK Government has set a goal that the ‘vast majority’ of students in England will be studying mathematics to 18 by the end of the decade. The policy levers for achieving this goal include new Core Maths qualifications, designed for over 200,000 students who have achieved good grades at the age of 16 but then opt out of advanced or A-level mathematics. This paper reports findings from a cluster-sampled survey of over ten thousand 17-year-olds in England in 2015. Participants’ views on post-16 mathematics are presented and discussed. The main finding is that they are strongly opposed to the idea of compulsory mathematical study, but are less antithetical to being encouraged to study mathematics beyond 16. We consider how attitudes vary by gender, prior attainment, study patterns and future aspirations. The paper considers the implications of these findings in the current policy landscape

Jack-of-all-trades, master of none: Postgraduate perspectives on interdisciplinary health research in Australia

BACKGROUND: Interdisciplinary health research is increasingly perceived as an expectation of research institutions and funding bodies within Australia. However, little consideration has been given to the extent to which this re-orientation has produced a new type of researcher – an interdisciplinary health researcher. DISCUSSION: As cross-enrolled postgraduate research students, we assert that we do not have an intellectual home. Rather, we must forge a virtual intellectual home through the process of bridging disciplines. In this paper we explain that this virtual home affords us the role of 'interlockers' in future health research. The interlocker role privileges a breadth of understandings across disciplines, rather than a depth in one. SUMMARY: We conclude by reiterating that there is an undeniable need for interdisciplinary health research, and that the roles and actions of interdisciplinary health researchers need to be better understood and catered for. We therefore call for increased consideration and discussion concerning the future roles and capacities of interdisciplinary health researchers such as ourselves

Investigation of chemistry graduate teaching assistants’ teacher knowledge and teacher identity

Graduate students play an integral role in undergraduate chemistry education at doctoral granting institutions where they routinely serve as instructors of laboratories and supplementary discussion sessions. Simultaneously, graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) balance major research and academic responsibilities. Although GTAs have substantial instructional facetime with large numbers of undergraduate students, little is known about their conceptions of teaching or their identities as teachers. To investigate the knowledge that GTAs have regarding teaching in this unique context, their teaching identities, and how these developed, we conducted 22 interviews with graduate students from several universities at various levels in their graduate school career using a modified Teacher Beliefs Interview. Interviews were analyzed for two overarching teacher learning constructs: teacher knowledge and teacher identity. We characterized chemistry GTAs’ teacher knowledge and identity and determined major influencing factors. We found that chemistry GTAs often identified as a tutor or lab manager, which hindered their self‐investment in developing as teachers. The results presented herein contribute to an understanding of GTAs’ teacher knowledge, teacher identity, and their teaching context, from which training can be designed to best support GTA development.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155950/1/tea21618_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155950/2/tea21618.pd