Relevant videnskabsteori - Fagets videnskabsteori i kuhniansk perspektiv

Mens der er krav om, at fagets eller fagområdets videnskabsteori skal indgå i bacheloruddannelserne på de danske universiteter, er det lagt ud til de ansvarlige for de enkelte uddannelser at fastlægge fagets konkrete indhold. På grundlag af Thomas Kuhns beskrivelse af naturvidenskaben kan man dog fremføre gode grunde til, at undervisning i almene videnskabsteoretiske begreber og spørgsmål bør være en del af faget på de naturvidenskabelige uddannelser, da de studerende ellers vil mangle det teoretiske grundlag for at reflektere kritisk over deres egne fags metoder og forstå andre fags videnskabelige tilgange. Samtidig er undervisning i almen videnskabsteori på disse uddannelser imidlertid forbundet med den udfordring, at de studerende vil have en tendens til ikke at betragte den som relevant for deres videnskabelige profession. Hvis de studerende skal opnå det videnskabsteoretiske grundlag for tværfaglig forståelse og kritisk faglig refleksion, er det derfor afgørende, at undervisningen i almen videnskabsteori sigter efter at forbinde de abstrakte, overordnede diskussioner fra videnskabsteorien med spørgsmål fra konkret videnskabelig praksis. While every bachelor education in the natural sciences at a Danish university must include a course in the philosophy of science of the subject area, it is left to those responsible for each individual bachelor education to determine the specific contents of these courses. Based on Thomas Kuhn’s description of the natural sciences, however, there are good reasons to include general philosophy of science in the curricula for all bachelor courses in the sciences. In particular, to ensure that students have the theoretical resources they need to reflect on their own scientific methods and to understand how scientific investigation is approached in other subject areas. But teaching such general philosophy of science courses to science students comes with a challenge: Many students feel that the content is not relevant to their scientific profession. Our conclusion is that for all science students to benefit from the teaching of philosophy as part of their bachelor courses, it is crucial that general philosophy of science is taught in a way which aims to connect the abstract, general discussions in the philosophy of science with questions from concrete scientific practice

Relevant videnskabsteori - Fagets videnskabsteori i kuhniansk perspektiv

Mens der er krav om, at fagets eller fagområdets videnskabsteori skal indgå i bacheloruddannelserne på de danske universiteter, er det lagt ud til de ansvarlige for de enkelte uddannelser at fastlægge fagets konkrete indhold. På grundlag af Thomas Kuhns beskrivelse af naturvidenskaben kan man dog fremføre gode grunde til, at undervisning i almene videnskabsteoretiske begreber og spørgsmål bør være en del af faget på de naturvidenskabelige uddannelser, da de studerende ellers vil mangle det teoretiske grundlag for at reflektere kritisk over deres egne fags metoder og forstå andre fags videnskabelige tilgange. Samtidig er undervisning i almen videnskabsteori på disse uddannelser imidlertid forbundet med den udfordring, at de studerende vil have en tendens til ikke at betragte den som relevant for deres videnskabelige profession. Hvis de studerende skal opnå det videnskabsteoretiske grundlag for tværfaglig forståelse og kritisk faglig refleksion, er det derfor afgørende, at undervisningen i almen videnskabsteori sigter efter at forbinde de abstrakte, overordnede diskussioner fra videnskabsteorien med spørgsmål fra konkret videnskabelig praksis. While every bachelor education in the natural sciences at a Danish university must include a course in the philosophy of science of the subject area, it is left to those responsible for each individual bachelor education to determine the specific contents of these courses. Based on Thomas Kuhn’s description of the natural sciences, however, there are good reasons to include general philosophy of science in the curricula for all bachelor courses in the sciences. In particular, to ensure that students have the theoretical resources they need to reflect on their own scientific methods and to understand how scientific investigation is approached in other subject areas. But teaching such general philosophy of science courses to science students comes with a challenge: Many students feel that the content is not relevant to their scientific profession. Our conclusion is that for all science students to benefit from the teaching of philosophy as part of their bachelor courses, it is crucial that general philosophy of science is taught in a way which aims to connect the abstract, general discussions in the philosophy of science with questions from concrete scientific practice

Wider institutional research cultures and their influence on patient and public involvement and engagement in health research - An institutional ethnography

Focus on patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) is increasing in health policy and research governance. PPIE is considered by some to be a democratic right, and by others to be a way to improve health care and research outcomes and implementation. Most recently, policy makers, funders and (clinical) research institutions are making PPIE a strategic requirement for health research urging researchers to invite patients and relatives into their research activities. Our study is based in a Danish university hospital where PPIE has been introduced as one of five strategic research goals. We investigated how researchers experienced this new practice and how their research practices connect to the wider context of the Danish health care system. Ten cases were studied during a year using observations, interviews, and document analysis. As our method of inquiry, we used institutional ethnography to look at researchers' work from their perspective and to understand how PPIE practices are part of a larger institutional research culture reaching far beyond the individual. We found that current research culture has implications for the selection of patients and relatives and for what they are asked to do. Researchers who experienced that PPIE outcomes aided their existing research practices felt motivated. Researchers who engaged patients and relatives before it was a strategy, were ideologically driven and their approaches resulted in an increased diversity of inclusion and researcher assimilation. These findings add to the current knowledge on PPIE practices and help us understand that further development towards collaborative research practices require a change in key performance indicators and training and perhaps call for attention to our shared acceptance of knowledge generation in research

Efficiency of Purine Utilization by Helicobacter pylori: Roles for Adenosine Deaminase and a NupC Homolog

The ability to synthesize and salvage purines is crucial for colonization by a variety of human bacterial pathogens. Helicobacter pylori colonizes the gastric epithelium of humans, yet its specific purine requirements are poorly understood, and the transport mechanisms underlying purine uptake remain unknown. Using a fully defined synthetic growth medium, we determined that H. pylori 26695 possesses a complete salvage pathway that allows for growth on any biological purine nucleobase or nucleoside with the exception of xanthosine. Doubling times in this medium varied between 7 and 14 hours depending on the purine source, with hypoxanthine, inosine and adenosine representing the purines utilized most efficiently for growth. The ability to grow on adenine or adenosine was studied using enzyme assays, revealing deamination of adenosine but not adenine by H. pylori 26695 cell lysates. Using mutant analysis we show that a strain lacking the gene encoding a NupC homolog (HP1180) was growth-retarded in a defined medium supplemented with certain purines. This strain was attenuated for uptake of radiolabeled adenosine, guanosine, and inosine, showing a role for this transporter in uptake of purine nucleosides. Deletion of the GMP biosynthesis gene guaA had no discernible effect on mouse stomach colonization, in contrast to findings in numerous bacterial pathogens. In this study we define a more comprehensive model for purine acquisition and salvage in H. pylori that includes purine uptake by a NupC homolog and catabolism of adenosine via adenosine deaminase

Epistemic norms of assertion and action

The purpose of the present chapter is to survey the work on epistemic norms of action, practical deliberation and assertion and to consider how these norms are interrelated. On a more constructive note, we will argue that if there are important similarities between the epistemic norms of action and assertion, it has important ramifications for the debates over speech acts and harm. Thus, we hope that the chapter will indicate how thinking about assertions as a speech act can benefit from a broader action theoretic setting. We will proceed as follows. In Section 2, we provide a survey of epistemic norms of action and practical deliberation. In Section 3, we turn to the epistemic norms of assertion. In Section 4, we consider arguments for and against commonality of the epistemic norms of actions, practical deliberation and assertion. In Section 5, we discuss some of the ramifications of the debates over epistemic norms of assertion such as whether they may be extended to other linguistic phenomena such as Gricean implicature. In Section 6, we consider the consequences of the debate about the epistemic norms of action and practical deliberation for debates about speech and harm