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Scientific Activity (scientific + activity)
Selected AbstractsAlcohol research and the alcoholic beverage industry: issues, concerns and conflicts of interestADDICTION, Issue 2009Thomas F. Babor ABSTRACT Aims Using terms of justification such as ,corporate social responsibility' and ,partnerships with the public health community', the alcoholic beverage industry (mainly large producers, trade associations and ,social aspects' organizations) funds a variety of scientific activities that involve or overlap with the work of independent scientists. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the ethical, professional and scientific challenges that have emerged from industry involvement in alcohol science. Method Source material came from an extensive review of organizational websites, newspaper articles, journal papers, letters to the editor, editorials, books, book chapters and unpublished documents. Results Industry involvement in alcohol science was identified in seven areas: (i) sponsorship of research funding organizations; (ii) direct financing of university-based scientists and centers; (iii) studies conducted through contract research organizations; (iv) research conducted by trade organizations and social aspects/public relations organizations; (v) efforts to influence public perceptions of research, research findings and alcohol policies; (vi) publication of scientific documents and support of scientific journals; and (vii) sponsorship of scientific conferences and presentations at conferences. Conclusion While industry involvement in research activities is increasing, it constitutes currently a rather small direct investment in scientific research, one that is unlikely to contribute to alcohol science, lead to scientific breakthroughs or reduce the burden of alcohol-related illness. At best, the scientific activities funded by the alcoholic beverage industry provide financial support and small consulting fees for basic and behavioral scientists engaged in alcohol research; at worst, the industry's scientific activities confuse public discussion of health issues and policy options, raise questions about the objectivity of industry-supported alcohol scientists and provide industry with a convenient way to demonstrate ,corporate responsibility' in its attempts to avoid taxation and regulation. [source] Short essay on the life and scientific activities of Yakov Zalmanovich Tsypkin (1919,1997)INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADAPTIVE CONTROL AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, Issue 2 2001Boris Kogan First page of article [source] Effects of conventional and problem-based learning on clinical and general competencies and career developmentMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 3 2008Janke Cohen-Schotanus Objective, To test hypotheses regarding the longitudinal effects of problem-based learning (PBL) and conventional learning relating to students' appreciation of the curriculum, self-assessment of general competencies, summative assessment of clinical competence and indicators of career development. Methods, The study group included 2 complete cohorts of graduates who were admitted to the medical curriculum in 1992 (conventional curriculum, n = 175) and 1993 (PBL curriculum, n = 169) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Data were obtained from student records, graduates' self-ratings and a literature search. Gender and secondary school grade point average (GPA) scores were included as moderator variables. Data were analysed by a stepwise multiple and logistic regression analysis. Results, Graduates of the PBL curriculum scored higher on self-rated competencies. Contrary to expectations, graduates of the PBL curriculum did not show more appreciation of their curriculum than graduates of the conventional curriculum and no differences were found on clinical competence. Graduates of the conventional curriculum needed less time to find a postgraduate training place. No differences were found for scientific activities such as reading scientific articles and publishing in peer- reviewed journals. Women performed better on clinical competence than did men. Grade point average did not affect any of the variables. Conclusions, The results suggest that PBL affects self-rated competencies. These outcomes confirm earlier findings. However, clinical competence measures did not support this finding. [source] Scientific Highlights from the ,k Network: Towards Atomistic Materials DesignPHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (B) BASIC SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 11 2006P. H. Dederichs The ,k network aims at encompassing the whole community of European groups working in the area of ab - initio materials modelling, including very many small groups and isolated researchers. Historically, the activities started in the 1980s in Trieste with the workshop series entitled "Total Energies and Forces". Since then, it has operated on the European level in various forms, with funding from various EC/EU and ESF sources, beginning more than 10 years ago with the EC's Human Capital and Mobility Programme. In that time, ,k has done much to make Europe the leading area in the world for research in atomic-scale ab - initio computer simulation of all types of materials, their structures, properties, and processes. To a large extent, this has been done by nurturing scientific excellence and collaboration in what might be called "the ,k family". The ,k Network is presently organized around 15 topical working groups. Over the years, the ,k network organized three large scale conferences in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany (1996, 2000, 2005), attended by hundreds of scientists from all over the world. The next ,k Conference is to be organized in Berlin in 2010. These ,k Conferences are unique events fully dedicated to the ab - initio research. In addition, the network organizes a variety of meetings and topical workshops every year. The core activities of the ,k network involve editing every two months a ,k newsletter with typically more than 100 pages, which contains a "Scientific Highlight", announcements of conferences, workshops and vacant positions, news of various ESF and EU funded networks, including reports on workshops, and abstracts of submitted papers. The ,k has its own web pages (http://psi-k.dl.ac.uk) which inform about the Network, its structure, and how to get involved in ,k activities. These web pages are also the repository of the ,k newsletters and Scientific Highlights and details about the ,k Workshops of the most recent years. The ,k mailing list contains about 1700 e-mail addresses from across the world, and all the important information about a variety of activities of the network is distributed across this list on a daily basis. The "Scientific Highlights" of the ,k newsletters reflect the scientific activities of the network and aim at presenting reviews and current developments in the field. This special issue of physica status solidi (b) gives a collection of some of the most recent Highlight contributions to the ,k newsletter. All manuscripts originally posted on the ,k server were peer-reviewed by two referees and accepted according to the standards of pss. They are published here partly in revised or updated version. We hope that the readership of the journal will benefit from the quality of the research they report on and the high level of the presentations. [source] Alexander von Humboldt,The Explorer and the Scientist,CENTAURUS, Issue 1 2007Eberhard Knobloch On 3 August 1804, he arrived again in Bordeaux, France. This article deals with five aspects of this famous journey: the itinerary of the American journey; scientific aims: Humboldt's journeys and scientific activities were two sides of the same coin; methodology: Humboldt explained in detail his positivistic scientific methodology in his treatise On the isothermal lines and the distribution of heat on the earth (1817); achievements and results: the old Humboldt claimed only three merits: the geography of plants, the theory of isothermal lines, and geomagnetism; the isotherms as a case study: Humboldt spoke at great length about errors, limits, and advantages of the method of mean values. [source] Gender, Citizenship and Subjectivity: Some Historical and Theoretical ConsiderationsGENDER & HISTORY, Issue 3 2001Kathleen Canning Because the French Revolution failed to produce a widely acceptable definition of citizenship, the limits of manhood suffrage in the early nineteenth century were uncertain. Social practices, in particular scientific activity, served as claims to the status of citizen. By engaging in scientific pastimes, bourgeois Frenchmen asserted that they possessed the rationality and autonomy that liberal theorists associated both with manliness and with civic capacity. However, bourgeois science was never a stable signifier of masculinity or of competence. As professional science emerged, the bourgeois amateur increasingly became the feminised object of satire rather than the sober andmeritorious citizen-scientist. [source] Citizens and Scientists: Toward a Gendered History of Scientific Practice in Post-revolutionary FranceGENDER & HISTORY, Issue 3 2001Carol E. Harrison Because the French Revolution failed to produce a widely acceptable definition of citizenship, the limits of manhood suffrage in the early nineteenth century were uncertain. Social practices, in particular scientific activity, served as claims to the status of citizen. By engaging in scientific pastimes, bourgeois Frenchmen asserted that they possessed the rationality and autonomy that liberal theorists associated both with manliness and with civic capacity. However, bourgeois science was never a stable signifier of masculinity or of competence. As professional science emerged, the bourgeois amateur increasingly became the feminised object of satire rather than the sober and meritorious citizen-scientist. [source] Whither Latin America? trends and challenges of science in Latin AmericaIUBMB LIFE, Issue 4-5 2007Marcelo Hermes-Lima Abstract Science in Latin America has experienced vigorous growth in the past decade, as demonstrated by the fact that the Latin American share of the world's scientific publications increased from 1.8% in 1991 - 1995 to 3.4% in 1999 - 2003. Significant growth has also taken place in the numbers of PhDs in science and engineering (S&E) awarded in Latin American countries in recent years, including those in the natural sciences. Importantly, albeit at different rates, growth has been verified in almost all countries in the region, indicating a general effort to promote the development of S&E. In most research fields, however, the recognition or relative impact of Latin American science, as measured by the average number of citations received by published articles (CpP), is still below world averages and much lower than in developed nations. We show that average CpP values for a set of 34 representative developing and developed countries correlate significantly with gross expenditure in research and development (GERD), with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and with the number of researchers per million inhabitants (RpM). Among those countries, Latin American nations present some of the lowest average values of CpP (<6), GERD (,1% of GDP) and RpM (<2,000). We also examined recent trends in scientific activity in Latin America, with focus on the natural sciences and on biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB). In terms of citation scores, publications in BMB compare favorably to those in other research fields within Latin America. At the same time, however, Latin American BMB is one of the areas for which relative impact - compared to developed nations or normalized to world averages - is lowest. These observations clearly indicate the need to establish effective policies to increase competitiveness in terms of the quality and international recognition of Latin American natural sciences in general, and BMB in particular, as opposed to merely increasing the absolute numbers of publications or the numbers of PhDs awarded in the region. IUBMB Life, 59: 199-210, 2007 [source] The Legacy of Methodological DualismMIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 4 2007KENT JOHNSON Despite much opposition, methodological dualism abounds in contemporary thinking. In this paper, I treat linguistics as a scientific activity and explore some instances of dualism. By extracting some ubiquitous aspects of scientific methodology from its typically quantitative expression, I show that two recent instances of methodologically dualistic critiques of linguistics are ill-founded. I then show that there are nonetheless some divergences between linguistic and other ordinary scientific methods, reflecting yet a third instance of methodological dualism. [source] The pathogenesis of cell death in Parkinson's disease , 2007MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue S17 2007C. Warren Olanow MD Abstract A number of factors have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cell death in Parkinson's disease (PD). These include oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, excitotoxicity, and apoptosis. While the precise pathogenic mechanism leading to neurodegeneration in PD is not known, there is considerable evidence suggesting that cell death occurs by way of a signal-mediated apoptotic process. PD is also characterized by intracellular proteinaceous inclusions or Lewy bodies. Proteolytic stress arises as a consequence of the excessive production of misfolded proteins, which exceed the capacity of the ubiquitin-proteasome system to degrade them. Recent genetic and laboratory studies support the possible relevance of proteolytic stress to both familial and sporadic forms of PD. Postmortem studies have shown that in the SNc of sporadic PD patients there are reduced levels of the alpha subunit of the 20S proteasome and reduced proteolytic enzyme activities. A determination as to the precise cause of cell death in PD, and the identification of specific targets for the development of drugs that might modify disease progression is one of the most critical goals in PD research. It is anticipated that over the next few years there will be a flurry of scientific activity examining the mechanism of cell death and putative neuroprotective interventions. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society [source] Historic review: Frederick Challenger, 1887,1983: chemist and biochemistAPPLIED ORGANOMETALLIC CHEMISTRY, Issue 4 2003Thomas G. Chasteen Abstract Frederick Challenger (1887,1983) lived a long life as a chemist and biochemist. He received a PhD for work with O. Wallach at the University of Göttingen in 1912 and a DSc from the University of Birmingham in 1920. After positions at Birmingham, UK, and Manchester, UK, he became Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Leeds, UK, in 1930, remaining as Head of the Department until 1953, when he retired as Emeritus Professor. He continued with scientific activity, publishing his final paper in 1978. Much of his work concerned the biological methylation of metalloids such as arsenic, selenium, and tellurium. He determined precise chemical structures for the methylated products and he established a role for adenosylmethionine in the process. An important finding was that the sulfonium compound, (CH3)2S+CH2CH2COO,, was present in several algae and on decomposition led to production of dimethylsulfide. This sulfonium compound was the first of this class to be found in a plant. He had many other wide-ranging interests, including the organic chemistry of compounds of bismuth and thallium. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Making the biodiversity monitoring system sustainable: Design issues for large-scale monitoring systemsAUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2004IAN WATSON Abstract There is strong demand for information about the status of, and trends in, Australia's biodiversity. Almost inevitably, this demand for information has led to demand for a broad-scale monitoring system. However, the decision to embark on a monitoring system should only be made once it has been established that a monitoring system is the optimal way to inform management. We stress the need to invest resources in assessing whether a monitoring system is necessary before committing resources to the design and implementation of the system. Current debate associated with the design of a biodiversity monitoring system has similarities to the debate within the range management profession in the early 1970s. The experience with range monitoring shows that large-scale monitoring systems such as those being proposed will require considerable resources, recurrently expended into the distant future, but with only a limited ability to adapt to new demands. Those involved in any biodiversity monitoring system will need to understand the implications of investing in a long-term monitoring programme. Monitoring sustainability will only be possible if the monitoring system is itself sustainable. We discuss a number of issues that need to be addressed before the system is at all sustainable. These attributes are a mix of biophysical, social and institutional attributes and highlight the view that monitoring systems of the type being suggested comprise an unusual mixture of attributes not found in typical scientific activity. The present paper is not a technical manual, but rather considers some of the design issues associated with designing and implementing large-scale monitoring systems. [source] A communication model of conceptual innovation in scienceCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 3 2001Wiliam J. White This essay exploring the nature of scientific communication begins with the premise that conceptual innovation is both a fundamental scientific activity and essentially a communication phenomenon. Conceptual innovation is fundamental as a scientific practice in that science as an institution is predicated on the development of new knowledge. It is essentially communicative in that it is the public character of science that relies on the consensual and communal evaluation of knowledge claims that determines the fate of new ideas. Science comprises a number of overlapping discursive formations whose nature is determined by the positions of (and relationships among) actors and ideas within communication and ideational networks, and which are characterized by a particular situational logic. The nature of these situational logics is such as to give rise to some of the characteristic communication dynamics of science, including consensus, problemshift, branching, and demarcation. [source] | ||||||||||||||||