Disruptive Strategies for Removing Drug Discovery Bottlenecks

Drug Discovery is shifting focus from the industry to outside partners and in the process creating new bottlenecks, suggesting the need for a more disruptive overhaul. Technologies like high throughput screening (HTS) have moved to a larger number of academic and institutional laboratories in the US, with little apparent coordination or consideration of the outputs and creating a translational gap. While there have been collaborative public private partnerships in Europe to share pharmaceutical data, the USA has lagged behind. Sharing precompetitive computational models may be the next frontier to provide more confidence in the quality of the leads produced and attract investment. We suggest there needs to be an awareness of what research is going on in the screening centers, more collaboration and coordination. These efforts will shift the focus to finding the best researchers to fund and require a rethink of how to reward their collaborative efforts

UK energy in a global context: synthesis report

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Reducing Carbon emissions through transport taxation, GFC Briefing Paper 6

Road transport and aviation are, or are becoming, major sources of carbon emissions which will need to be reduced if the UK’s carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction targets are to be met. However, since 1980 the real costs of motoring have fallen while those of other transport modes have risen, and rising incomes have also increased transport demand, offsetting efficiency increases. Increased road transport taxation, which could be introduced as part of a green fiscal reform, will be essential if demand is to be managed and carbon emissions from road transport reduced. Taxes on vehicle purchase, ownership and use have different effects, and can be used to pursue different policy goals. For example, taxes on purchase and ownership can incentivise manufacturers to develop low carbon vehicles and people to buy them. Tax measures on vehicle use are needed to reduce congestion and overall energy use. This briefing discusses experience with road transport and aviation taxes in the UK and other European countries, and considers how they might develop to take account of increasingly stringent CO2 reduction targets and other issues such as the increasing diversity of road fuels, and the need to maintain government income. In particular, any shift to electric vehicles may require a parallel shift to road user charging if revenues from transport taxes, and incentives to reduce the damaging effects of road transport apart from emissions, are to be maintained. Each tax introduced will affect some people more than others. Increasing fuel duty is progressive overall because most low-income households do not have a car, but there are concerns about the impact on low income motorists, particularly in rural areas, which can be at least partially addressed if the revenues are recycled in a progressive manner. Increasing taxation on air travel is even more progressive because most leisure flying is by the wealthiest 20 per cent of the population and those on low incomes fly very little

Climate change and fuel poverty

The research examined the possible effects of rapid climate change on fuel poverty (needing to spend more than 10% of income to maintain a satisfactory level of warmth and other energy services in the home). One particular concern was the prospect that there might be a shutting off of the Gulf Stream, which warms Britain and the rest of north-western Europe. Computer simulations of the climate indicate that shutting down the Gulf Stream would cool England by about 3°C. Climate is not the only variable that will affect future levels of fuel poverty. The other main ones are what will happen to the energy efficiency of the building stock, to incomes and to energy prices. The aim of the project was to examine what might happen to each of these four dimensions and construct three scenarios in each dimension (most likely, high and low) to capture the range of variation in possible outcomes. A total of 81 (3x3x3x3) scenarios were modelled and analysed. Since any changes in the climate system take decadesto play out, but it is extremely difficult to predict social, economic and technological changes even 25 years in the future, it was decided to set an objective for this research of looking forward to 2030.

SPICE modelling of photoluminescence and electroluminescence based current-voltage curves of solar cells for concentration applications

Quantitative photoluminescence (PL) or electroluminescence (EL) experiments can be used to probe fast and in a non-destructive way the current-voltage (IV) characteristics of individual subcells in a multi-junction device, information that is, otherwise, not available. PL-based IV has the advantage that it is contactless and can be performed even in partly finished devices, allowing for an early diagnosis of the expected performance of the solar cells in the production environment. In this work we simulate the PL- and EL-based IV curves of single junction solar cells to assess their validity compared with the true IV curve and identify injection regimes where artefacts might appear due to the limited in-plane carrier transport in the solar cell layers. We model the whole photovoltaic device as a network of sub-circuits, each of them describing the solar cell behaviour using the two diode model. The sub-circuits are connected to the neighbouring ones with a resistor, representing the in-plane transport in the cell. The resulting circuit, involving several thousand subcircuits, is solved using SPICE

An exploration of inclusive practices in schools: case studies of two primary schools

This thesis uses the accounts of teachers and senior leaders from two case study schools to explore issues impacting upon the development of inclusive practices within schools. The notion of inclusion is a complex and problematic one, and this study illuminates that complexity through the accounts and experiences of two ‘ordinary’ schools mediating the challenges of developing inclusive practices within the current educational system. The study purposefully focuses upon the perspectives of the teachers and senior leaders. Other voices, including those of the pupils, parents and support staff within the school, have not been included, in order to retain the focus upon gaining greater depth of understanding of the complex issue of inclusion through the eyes and voices of the professionals (teachers and senior leaders) engaging in the decision making and day to day planning for meeting the needs of all pupils. The study uses an ethnographic case study approach to gather data through semi-structured interviews, observation (including classroom visits), learning conversations and strategic focus group discussions. A three phase research approach has been developed to reflect ongoing engagement with the complex issue of researching perspectives towards developing inclusive practices within schools. A non-judgemental and non-evaluative research approach has been utilized, which moves away from the researchers’ usual role working with schools in a collaborative or advisory capacity, and models the need to create interruptions in thinking and practice to be able to fully understand the complex factors impacting upon the development of inclusive practices within schools. The perspectives and accounts of the teachers and senior leaders enable tensions existing within policy, literature, research and practice to be identified. The study argues that attention needs to be paid more to the emotional aspects of the experience of developing inclusive practices, and the impact that that has upon staff groups, rather than a narrow focus upon specific actions and outcomes. The centrality of values and principles which are shared and continually discussed and re-negotiated to produce an embedded inclusive school culture is acknowledged, as well as the impact of positive, supportive and inclusive staff relationships within this process

The Natural Capital Indicator Framework (NCIF): A framework of indicators for national natural capital reporting

It is now widely recognised that components of the environment play the role of economic assets, termed natural capital, that are a foundation of social and economic development. National governments monitor the state and trends of natural capital through a range of activities including natural capital accounting, national ecosystem assessments, ecosystem service valuation, and economic and environmental analyses. Indicators play an integral role in these activities as they facilitate the reporting of complex natural capital information. One factor that hinders the success of these activities and their comparability across countries is the absence of a coherent framework of indicators concerning natural capital (and its benefits) that can aid decision-making. Here we present an integrated Natural Capital Indicator Framework (NCIF) alongside example indicators, which provides an illustrative structure for countries to select and organise indicators to assess their use of and dependence on natural capital. The NCIF sits within a wider context of indicators related to natural, human, social and manufactured capital, and associated flows of benefits. The framework provides decision-makers with a structured approach to selecting natural capital indicators with which to make decisions about economic development that take into account national natural capital and associated flows of benefits.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, 1 graphical abstrac

Estimating sustainability gaps: methods and preliminary applications for the UK and the Netherlands

This paper sets out and applies a new methodology for determining whether or not economic activity is environmentally sustainable. By comparing current environmental impacts with standards of environmental sustainability, it calculates the 'sustainability gaps' (SGAPs) with respect to different environmental impacts. For the UK, SGAPs are computed for CO2, SO2, and other air pollutants. Across none of these environmental themes can current UK use of the environment be said to be sustainable. The SGAP indicators can be combined with current trends to show how long it would take, on continuation of the trends, for the sustainability standard to be attained. The paper calls this indicator the 'Years to Sustainability' (YS) measure. For the policy objective of sustainable development to be made fully operational, it is necessary for the concept of environmental sustainability to be clearly defined by quantitative indicators. On the basis of the indicators set out in this paper it can be judged whether economic activity is moving towards or away from environmental sustainability, and at what speed

Environmental tax reform

While the exact meaning of environmental tax reform (ETRs) has still not been universally agreed, it is generally taken to involve environmental taxation coupled with consideration, and perhaps reduction, of other taxes and/or consideration of how the revenues should be spent. Seven European countries implemented ETRs between 1990 and 2005, and evaluation of these has shown them to be positive both environmentally and economically. Two objectives of most ETRs have been to reduce labour taxes, to compensate low-income households for extra costs, or both. In scenario analyses, ETRs that reduce labour taxes have been shown to reduce environmental impacts, increase employment, and to have relatively small positive or negative effects on GDP

Green taxes and charges: reducing their impact on low-income households

Environmental or 'green' taxes and charges send signals to consumers by making consumption of environmental resources more expensive. However, there are concerns that their effect could be 'regressive', by hitting lower income households disproportionately. This research, by Paul Ekins and Simon Dresner of the Policy Studies Institute, investigated the possible impact on low-income households in four areas of environmental and social importance: domestic use of energy, water and transport, and domestic generation of waste. It also considered whether any negative impacts could be reduced if the tax or charge were designed appropriately, or if a compensation scheme were introduced