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Rethinking education and training for the climate: individuals, systems, narrative skills and economic transformation
Get PDFEducation and training (E&T) for the climate is gaining prominence in educational discourse. However, there is a danger that approaches focus on individual responsibility and changing the behaviours of learners rather than critically understanding and changing the system-level drivers of the climate crisis. Picking up litter is much more likely to be discussed than extractive economics. Therefore, we argue that the purpose of E&T for the climate should be radically rethought, empowering learners to become agents of system-level economic change, placing the prosperity of people and planet at its core. Here, we present a theoretical, normatively driven vision for E&T’s role in economic transformation, drawing critically on our previous research to argue for narrative and ‘narrative skills’ as central to this change. Humans are inherently narrative beings, and narrative enables us to make sense of the world around us and craft new futures as a collective endeavour. Narratives are drivers of social change and have underpinned key economic transformations over the last three centuries. We build on these ideas and draw together philosophical, sociological, and economic accounts of narrative to argue that E&T for the climate is enhanced through deeper engagement with narrative
Real-World Effectiveness and Safety of Single Inhaler Triple Therapy with Beclometasone/ Formoterol/ Glycopyrronium in Moderate to Severe Asthma: TriMaximize Study
Get PDFExtrafine, single-inhaler BDP/FF/G therapy was effective and safe in a routine clinical practice setting in a multi-national cohort of patients with moderate to severe asthma
How to … Maximise Your Clinical Education Research Impact
Get PDFResearchers are increasingly expected to demonstrate that their work leads to impact beyond academia, particularly when seeking research funding. Yet practical guidance on how to plan for, achieve and evidence impact in Clinical Education Research (ClinEdR) remains limited. This guide offers pragmatic advice to support postdoctoral researchers in designing fundable projects and producing work that leads to meaningful change. We argue that impact should be considered from the start of a research project, not added at the end. Early and ongoing engagement with potential research beneficiaries, including educators, learners, institutions, professional bodies, policymakers and patients, helps ensure that research addresses real‐world priorities. Such engagement can shape research questions, study design and outputs, strengthening both grant applications and the likelihood of downstream uptake. This how to guide outlines the value of articulating a clear impact goal and mapping a credible pathway to impact that distinguishes between outputs, outcomes and longer term benefits. We discuss how methodological choices can enable impact, with attention to participatory, design‐based and implementation‐focused approaches that have change embedded within them. We also highlight the importance of embedding impact checkpoints throughout a project, recognising that impact is often non‐linear, delayed and context dependent. Finally, we describe deliberate, audience‐specific dissemination strategies and practical ways to evidence impact beyond traditional academic metrics. Embedding impact thinking across the research lifecycle can enhance the relevance, reach and value of ClinEdR, while supporting postdoctoral researchers to meet funder, institutional and societal expectations
Robust adaptive NMPC using ellipsoidal tubes
Get PDFWe propose a computationally efficient nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) algorithm for safe, learningbased control. The system model is represented as an affine combination of basis functions with unknown parameters, and is subject to additive set-bounded disturbances. Our algorithm employs successive linearization around nominal predicted trajectories and accounts for uncertainties in predicted states due to linearization, model errors, and disturbances using ellipsoidal sets. The ellipsoidal tube-based approach ensures that constraints on control inputs and system states are satisfied. Robustness to uncertainty is ensured using bounds on linearization errors and a backtracking line search. We show that the ellipsoidal embedding of model uncertainty scales favourably with system dimensions in numerical simulations. The algorithm incorporates set membership parameter estimation, and provides guarantees of recursive feasibility and input-to-state practical stabilit
Biochemical studies on Pseudomonas spp. ethylene-forming enzymes
Get PDF2-oxoglutarate (2OG)-dependent oxygenases are non-haem Fe(II) enzymes that catalyse a diverse repertoire of oxidative transformations. The ethylene-forming enzyme from Pseudomonas savastanoi (PsEFE) catalyses a bifurcating reaction: the C5 hydroxylation of Larginine coupled to the oxidative decarboxylation of 2OG to succinate and the conversion of 2OG to ethylene and CO2. This thesis presents biochemical studies on PsEFE and two other plant oxygenases, HIS1 and OsHSL1, involved in conferring herbicide resistance in plants; the research described in this thesis explores the potential applications of 2OG oxygenases in biocatalysis and agriculture.Chapter 1 introduces 2OG oxygenases and ethylene biosynthesis in a comprehensive literature review. Chapter 2 discuses substrate scope studies on PsEFE and explores how substitution patterns of 2OG derivatives affect reaction outcomes. Chapter 3 validates EFEs from two additional P. savastanoi strains, 1449B and glycinea PsEFE; this chapter also reveals a crystallographically-observed atypical binding mode of 2OG in 1449B PsEFE.Chapter 4 expands the work on PsEFE and 2OG derivatives, describing PsEFE active site variants that enable the production of alkenes other than ethylene from substituted 2OG derivatives. Chapter 5 investigates the interaction of PsEFE with hydrophobic 2-oxoacids, derived from proteinogenic and non-proteinogenic amino acids. This chapter also reports on PsEFE active site variants that enable ethylene production from 2-keto-4-methylthiobutyrate (KMBA) and 2-keto-4-ethylthiobutyrate (KEBA).Chapter 6 describes biochemical and structural studies of HIS1 and OsHSL1, herbicide resistance enzymes from Oryza sativa, which confer resistance to widely-used β-triketone herbicides via hydroxylation. This work highlights how catalytic promiscuity in the form of resistance poses challenges to global food security. Chapter 7 summarises the results and discusses the biocatalytic potential and promiscuity of 2OG oxygenases.Collectively, the work described in this thesis advances the biochemical understanding of PsEFE and discusses how the (co)substrate structure and active-site architecture govern reaction partitioning. Guided by substrate scope analyses, targeted mutagenesis, and structural characterisation, this work demonstrates how PsEFE reactivity has the potential to be tuned, improved, and harnessed for biocatalytic and biotechnological applications
Does unmatching meat and plant-based meals change plant-based meal selection? An evaluation in an online hypothetical randomised trial
No full textChanges to food environments can influence individuals’ food choices. One possible strategy, as yet untested, to increase plant-based (vegan) food selection is to serve “unmatched” plant-based and meat meals (e.g. “Falafel Burger” and “Chicken Pie”) rather than “matched” (e.g. “Falafel Burger” and “Beef Burger”). We ran an online hypothetical choice study in the UK and analysed likelihood of selecting matched vs. unmatched plant-based meals. In study 1 meat-eaters (n=704) were randomised to either see two or three main meals throughout, completing a randomised selection of 10 choice tasks, of which five had matched plant-based and meat meals, and five unmatched. In study 2 vegetarian&vegan participants (n=220) all saw 10 choice sets with three main meals: a meat option alongside matched and unmatched plant-based options. Participants’ preferences for types of meal (e.g. curry) and protein were also assessed. Meat-eating participants were significantly more likely to choose a plant-based option when meat and plant-based options were unmatched and when more plant-based options were available. The mean selection of plant-based meals for matched and unmatched scenarios was 21.2% and 30.4% respectively when two main meals (one plant-based, one meat) were present and 37.4% and 44.6% respectively when three main meals (two plant-based, one meat) were present. Vegetarians&vegans were equally likely to select matched or unmatched plant-based options when accounting for their meal type and protein preferences. Further research is needed to establish if serving unmatched meals leads to higher plant-based selections for real as well as hypothetical meal choices
Quantitative Mapping of NHS Ester–Protein Reactivity Using Native Top-Down Mass Spectrometry
Get PDFCovalent ligands are widely used to label, probe, and modulate proteins, but peptide-centric readouts obscure how modifications colocalize on intact proteoforms. This can limit insight into ligand mechanism, modification stoichiometry, and the architecture of multisite protein conjugates. We present a general native top-down mass spectrometry workflow that quantifies electrophile reactivity directly on intact proteins. Using NHS esters as a model electrophile class, we apply a deconvolution framework to infer differential reactivity at primary amines across promiscuous, multisite modification patterns. The approach preserves full modification connectivity, avoids sample-preparation artifacts associated with denaturation and digestion, and should extend to electrophiles with unknown reactivity. Overall, this framework provides a general platform for designing covalent therapeutics, bioconjugates, and activity-based probes with proteoform-level resolution
Digital objects as translation: their digitization depth as a taxonomy for digital analogues
Get PDFDigital collections of historical objects are increasingly the first interface when setting up new academic enquiries in the Humanities. This influences how research questions are formed. The size of these collections is posited to grow even more as the costs of digitization decrease and access widens. Framing digital collections and their contents correctly is therefore of great importance. However, in many cases the conceptualization of digitized collections remains in practice tied to the mistaken notion that digital copies are surrogates for the analogue originals they represent, with serious implications for how these items are organized. This article builds from earlier seminal contributions to argue that digitized objects are a different entity altogether, neither copy nor surrogate. This difference can be captured more faithfully by the notion of ‘digital translation’: digital objects are a selective description of the physical original; this description is translated into digital language and written in symbols bound by rules. This structured information can be read algorithmically. From this definition, we can derive a taxonomy based on the depth of digitization, that is, how many layers of description exist about the object. These layers often include shape, colour, and recorded metadata. Adopting a by-depth taxonomy has ramifications for existing digital collections: if digital objects are individualized translations of an original, their digital collections are collections of commentaries in digital language reflecting specific ways of seeing the original. If digitization depth differentiates these sources, our archival and dissemination strategies must respond to this reality