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Framing of climate issues and “COP21”: U.S. newspaper coverage vs Indian newspaper coverage
Get PDFUsing content analysis method and the theory of framing, this study compares news coverage of climate issues around the Paris Climate Conference 2015, also known as “COP21”, between U.S. and Indian newspapers. The findings, based on an analysis of 278 stories published by four leading newspapers in these countries, suggest that international politics-oriented conflict and strategy frame and environmental consequences frame dominated both U.S. and Indian newspaper coverage. Another important finding of this study is the Indian newspaper coverage, compared to the U.S. newspaper coverage, included more information on social progress and innovations toward environment-friendly initiatives
Critical Path to Tuberculosis Drug Regimens: Global collaboration to accelerate development of novel drug regimens and rapid drug susceptibility tests for tuberculosis
Get PDFThe Critical Path to Tuberculosis Drug Regimens (CPTR) initiative aims to support the rational deployment of new tuberculosis (TB) therapies by speeding the development and impact of new and markedly improved drug regimens as well as rapid drug susceptibility tests. Co-founded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Critical Path Institute, and the TB Alliance in 2010, CPTR is a coalition comprising the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, product development sponsors, diagnostic companies, regulatory agencies, and civil society organizations which support and catalyze advances in regulatory science, the development of infrastructure, and other progress needed to accelerate the pace of development and introduction of novel regimens and rapid drug susceptibility tests. This manuscript summarizes the work of two subgroups within CPTR, the Regulatory Sciences and Rapid Drug Susceptibility Test consortia, and their efforts to drive innovation. These consortia are supported by a robust TB clinical data platform, which continues to evolve through contributions of contemporary TB clinical trial data sets as well as whole genome sequence level data from isolates across the globe. Examples of innovation are described and include a recently-qualified drug development tool and emerging programs to support the development of clinical trial simulation tools
Editorial
Get PDF“The past defines the present because mankind has not yet mastered its destiny.”Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization (1955: 58
Conscious vs mechanical evolution: transcending biocentrist social ontologies
Get PDFThis article expounds a new theory of humanity that problematizes the discrete, biomaterialist and materially rational individual of Modernity through sensitivity to the human potential for Conscious Evolution [evolution of the ‘invisible self’, which is to say the cultivation of reason, free will, intuition and the other ‘high epistemological faculties’ that allow humans to actualize the potential for self-mediation of the biological desires and animal (irrational) passions]. After defining Conscious Evolution, comparing it with Mechanical Evolution and providing a brief overview of the epistemological processes involved in Conscious Evolution, we examine the ways in which Modernism axiomatically, logically and practically negates the potential for Conscious Evolution and self-mediation as well as the manifestations of this negation in Modernist epistemology and Modernist social systems like Economic Theology or ‘the police’ that, due to their biomaterialist understanding of humans as discrete, biological, materially rational individuals, aim to mediate biological desires and animal passions through external, forceful, hierarchical domination rather than the cultivation of Conscious Evolution and subsequent actualization of the potential for self-mediation. This critique of epistemological and social systems that seek to create order through external, forceful, hierarchical domination sets the stage for a follow up paper titled “Conscious Evolution, Social Development and Environmental Justice” that critiques contemporary Planning Theory and Practice and calls for planning of social systems from a theoretical perspective where seeking to cultivate Conscious Evolution and the actualization of the social order implicit in the self-mediation made potential by Conscious Evolution is possible (which is to say that (r)evolution of theory must precede (r)evolution of practice)
Assessing the performance of a multi-nested ocean circulation model using satellite remote sensing and in situ observations
Get PDFThis study presents a multi-nested ocean circulation model developed recently for the central Scotian Shelf. The model consists of four submodels downscaling from the eastern Canadian Shelf to the central Scotian Shelf. The model is driven by tides, river discharges, and atmospheric forcing. The model results are validated against observations, including satellite remote sensing data from GHRSST and Aquarius and in situ measurements taken by tide gauges, a marine buoy, ADCPs and CTDs. The ocean circulation model is able to capture variations of sea level, hydrography and the Nova Scotia Current on timescales of days to seasons over the central Scotian Shelf. Model results are used in a process study to examine the effect of tidal mixing and wind-driven coastal upwelling in the formation of cold surface waters along the coast of Nova Scotia
EUPATI: Collaboration between patients, academia and industry to champion the informed patient in the research and development of medicines
Get PDFThe value of collaborations and partnerships between different stakeholders to achieve optimum outcomes in the medicines research and development process is being recognised. Historically, there has been a lack of collaboration with patients and many research consortiums consisting mainly of academia and/or industry partners. Although patient experts are able to bring valuable first-hand experience and insights, they might not possess detailed knowledge about medicines research and development to actively participate in the collaboration process. The European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) was established to deliver training to patient experts, and education resourcesto patient advocates and members of the health-interested public across Europe. EUPATI was launched in February 2012 and is a patient-led Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) project, with a multi-stakeholder consortium of patient advocates, academia, industry and not-for-profit organisations. Training and educational materials will be used for capacity building among patients, for educating patient advocates and for informing the health-interested public. The successful uptake of EUPATI’s materials will hopefully translate into a new paradigm of increased patient involvement across the entire medicines research and development process, bringing mutual benefits, including better medicines, to all stakeholders
A classifier driven approach to find biomarkers for affective disorders from transcription profiles in blood
Get PDFGene expression profiles in blood are increasingly being used to identify biomarkers for different affective disorders. We have selected a set of 29 genes to generate expression profiles for healthy control subjects as well as for patients diagnosed with acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Measurements were performed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Using the actual data in an anonym-ous form we constructed a series of artificial data sets with known gene expression profiles. These sets were used to test 14 classification algorithms and feature selection methods for their ability to identify the correct expression patterns. Application of the three most effective algorithms to the actual expression data showed that control subjects can be dis-tinguished from BPD patients based on differential expression levels of the gene transcripts Gi2, GR and MAPK14, targets that may have links to stress related diseases. Controls can also be distinguished from acute PTSD patients by differential expression levels of the transcripts for ERK2 and RGS2 that are known to be associated with mood disord-ers and social anxiety. We conclude that it is possible to identify informative transcription profiles in blood samples from individuals with affective disorders
The research data reproducibility problem solicits a 21st century solution
Get PDFReproducibility is a hallmark of scientific efforts. Estimates indicate that lack of reproducibility of data ranges from 50% to 90% among published research reports. The inability to reproduce major findings of published data confounds new discoveries, and importantly, result in wastage of limited resources in the futile effort to build on these published reports. This poses a challenge to the research community to change the way we approach reproducibility by developing new tools to help progress the reliability of methods and materials we use in our trade
A comparative study of satellite-based operational analyses and ship-based in-situ observations of sea surface temperatures over the eastern Canadian shelf
Get PDFThe satellite-based operational sea surface temperature (SST) was compared to the ship-based in-situ SSTs established by the Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program (AZMP) over the eastern Canadian shelf (ECS) for a 3-year anal-ysis period (2005–2007). Two sets of operational SST analyses were considered in this study, with one set produced by the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC) and the other produced by the National Centers for Environmental Predic-tion (NCEP). The comparative study indicated that there was no appreciable systematic difference between the CMC and NCEP SST analyses over the ECS. The root mean squared difference (RMSD) between the AZMP ship-based in-situ SSTs and the satellite-based STT analyses over the ECS was about 1.0°C, without any obvious seasonal or geo-graphic trend. The RMSDs were relatively larger over the outer flank of the Grand Banks than the other regions of the ECS, mainly due to dynamically complicated circulation and hydrographic conditions over this shelf break area associated with the Labrador Current
Response of the tropical Pacific Ocean to wind changes related to global warming from simulations with an ocean general circulation model
Get PDFA suite of numerical experiments is implemented with an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) to ex-amine the roles of wind stress and wind speed for oceanic changes in the tropical Pacific under global warming. In particular, we turned off the changes of wind stress and/or wind speed in the model to identify the effects of wind-driven ocean circulation and air-sea latent heat flux (i.e., its portion through the wind speed influence on the efficiency of latent heat flux). Results show that 1) the wind stress change appears to be a key forcing mechanism for weakening the tropical surface currents as well as for the oceanic changes in the equatorial thermocline, while it only contributes secondarily to the sea surface temperature (SST) pattern formation in the tropics; 2) the wind speed change is the leading cause for the minimum warming over the southeast subtropics and for a stronger surface warming in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere; and 3) the enhanced surface warming along the equator is mainly due to the effect of warming in the absence of wind stress and wind speed changes, and this effect also plays a significant role for changing the equatorial thermocline