Assessing pollinators’ use of floral resource subsidies in agri-environment schemes: An illustration using Phacelia tanacetifolia and honeybees

Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) are frequently used in agriculture for pollination services because of their abundance, generalist floral preferences, ease of management and hive transport. However, their populations are declining in many countries. Agri-Environment Schemes (AES) are being implemented in agricultural systems to combat the decline in populations of pollinators and other insects. Despite AES being increasingly embedded in policy and budgets, scientific assessments of many of these schemes still are lacking, and only a few studies have examined the extent to which insect pollinators use the floral enhancements that are part of AES and on which floral components they feed (i.e., pollen and/or nectar)

Blended Stakeholder Participation for Responsible Information Systems Research

Researchers often conduct information systems (IS) research under the assumption that technology use leads to positive outcomes for different stakeholders. However, many IS studies demonstrate limited evidence of having engaged with the stakeholders that they claim benefit and speak on behalf of. Therefore, we can unsurprisingly find many examples in which technology use failed to make the world a better place or, worse still, contributed towards unintended negative outcomes. Given these concerns, calls have recently emerged for responsible research and innovation (RRI) studies in IS to understand how different stakeholder groups can have a voice in complex socio-technical issues. In this paper, we take steps towards addressing this call by presenting case study findings from a responsible IS research project that combined “blended” face-to-face and online participatory techniques. The case study relates to a large-scale consultation in a 24-month European project that involved 30 countries. The project engaged over 1,500 stakeholders in co-creating future research agendas for the European Union. We discuss case study findings using Stilgoe, Owen, and Macnaghten’s (2013) framework and reflect on lessons learned for responsible IS research going forward

The Pragmatic School of Thought in Open Science Practice: A Case Study of Multi-stakeholder Participation in Shaping the Future of Internet Governance

The internet is a disruptive technology that continues to define our modern world. However, numerous ethical challenges remain for internet governance going forward, e.g. surveillance capitalism, terrorism and radicalisation. The ‘pragmatic’ school of thought in open science advocates for collaboration between diverse stakeholder groups (e.g. citizens, academics, practitioners, policymakers) to ensure an informed, and positive imprint for change. However, our understanding of how open science can be used for assimilating knowledge on complex socio-political issues remains nascent. To address this gap, we present findings from ‘We, the Internet’, a global consultation project which utilised open science practices such as stakeholder-led evaluations and open access publications to engage stakeholders in dialogue around the future of internet governance. Our findings discuss emergent themes on the future of internet governance, and highlight the potential of open science to mobilise groups and combat public scepticism in policy-making

Open E-Learning Platforms and the Design-Reality Gap : Exploring the Impact of User-Perceived Functional Affordances

Peer reviewe

Open e-learning platforms and the design–reality gap : an affordance theory perspective

Purpose The dropout rates of open e-learning platforms are often cited as high as 97%, with many users discontinuing their use after initial acceptance. This study aims to explore this anomaly through the lens of affordances theory, revealing design-reality gaps between users' diverse goals and the possibilities for action provided by an open IT artefact. Design/methodology/approach A six-month case study was undertaken to investigate the design implications of user-perceived affordances in an EU sustainability project which developed an open e-learning platform for citizens to improve their household energy efficiency. Thematic analysis was used to reveal the challenges of user continuance behaviour based on how an open IT artefact supports users in achieving individual goals (e.g. reducing energy consumption in the home) and collective goals (lessening the carbon footprint of society). Findings Based on the findings, the authors inductively reveal seven affordances related to open e-learning platforms: informing, assessment, synthesis, emphasis, clarity, learning pathway and goal-planning. The findings centre on users' perception of these affordances, and the extent to which the open IT artefact catered to the goals and constraints of diverse user groups. Open IT platform development is further discussed from an iterative and collaborative perspective in order to explore different possibilities for action. Originality/value The study contributes towards research on open IT artefact design by presenting key learnings on how the designers of e-learning platforms can bridge design-reality gaps through exploring affordance personalisation for diverse user groups. This can inform the design of open IT artefacts to help ensure that system features match the expectations and contextual constraints of users through clear action-oriented possibilities.Peer reviewe

Feeding tube securement in critical illness: Implications for safety

© 2018 MA Healthcare Ltd Over 50% of tape-secured feeding tubes are inadvertently lost. The impact of nasal bridle securement on nasogastric (NG) and nasointestinal (NI) tube loss, outcome and duration of use was determined from 1 October 2014 (NG) and 1 January 2010 respectively to 31 December 2017. From this and published data, the potential impact of nasal bridles on major complications was determined. Use of nasal bridles was independently associated with: an 80% reduction in inadvertent NI tube loss (odds ratio (OR): 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.2: 0.12-0.33,

Sex Differences in Adult Cognitive Deficits after Adolescent Nicotine Exposure in Rats

This study was designed to determine whether deficits in adult serial pattern learning caused by adolescent nicotine exposure persist as impairments in asymptotic performance, whether adolescent nicotine exposure differentially retards learning about pattern elements that are inconsistent with “perfect” pattern structure, and whether there are sex differences in rats’ response to adolescent nicotine exposure as assessed by a serial multiple choice task. The current study replicated the results of our initial report (Fountain, Rowan, Kelley, Willey, & Nolley, 2008) using this task by showing that adolescent nicotine exposure (1.0 mg/kg/day nicotine for 35 days) produced a specific cognitive impairment in male rats that persisted into adulthood at least a month after adolescent nicotine exposure ended. In addition, sex differences were observed even in controls, with additional evidence that adolescent nicotine exposure significantly impaired learning relative to same-sex controls for chunk boundary elements in males and for violation elements in females. All nicotine-induced impairments were overcome by additional training so that groups did not differ at asymptote. An examination of the types of errors rats made indicated that adolescent nicotine exposure slowed learning without affecting rats’ cognitive strategy in the task. This data pattern suggests that exposure to nicotine in adolescence may have impaired different aspects of adult stimulus-response discrimination learning processes in males and females, but left abstract rule learning processes relatively spared in both sexes. These effects converge with other findings in the field and reinforce the concern that adolescent nicotine exposure poses an important threat to cognitive capacity in adulthood

Catalysis at the Heart of Success!

Bornscheuer, UT.; Hashmi, ASK.; García Gómez, H.; Rowan, MA. (2017). Catalysis at the Heart of Success!. ChemCatChem. 9(1):6-9. doi:10.1002/cctc.201601553S6991Bornscheuer, U. T. (2015). Biocatalysis: Successfully Crossing Boundaries. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 55(14), 4372-4373. doi:10.1002/anie.201510042Bornscheuer, U. T. (2015). Biokatalyse: ein erfolgreicher Blick über den Tellerrand. Angewandte Chemie, 128(14), 4446-4447. doi:10.1002/ange.201510042Bornscheuer, U. T. (2009). Combined Success for Efficient Catalysis. ChemCatChem, 1(1), 5-5. doi:10.1002/cctc.200900144Weckhuysen, B. M. (2009). Crossing the Interfaces of Catalysis. ChemCatChem, 1(1), 7-7. doi:10.1002/cctc.200900146Kan, S. B. J., Lewis, R. D., Chen, K., & Arnold, F. H. (2016). Directed evolution of cytochrome c for carbon–silicon bond formation: Bringing silicon to life. Science, 354(6315), 1048-1051. doi:10.1126/science.aah621