Developments In Biosciences Research Articles

Quantifying alpha, beta and gamma geodiversity

Geodiversity is an emerging, multi-faceted concept in Earth and environmental sciences. Knowledge on geo-diversity is crucial for understanding functions of natural systems and in guiding sustainable development. Despite the critical nature of geodiversity information, data acquisition and analytical methods have lagged behind the conceptual developments in biosciences. Thus, we propose that geodiversity research could adopt the framework of alpha, beta and gamma concepts widely used in biodiversity research. Especially, geodiversity research would benefit from widening its scope from the evaluation of individual sites towards more holistic geodiversity assessments, where between-site geodiversity is also considered. In this article, we explore the alpha, beta and gamma concepts and how they can be applied in a geodiversity framework. In addition, we scrutinize the statistical methodology related to alpha, beta and gamma geodiversity evaluations, with a special focus on distance metrics for measuring beta geodiversity. As an overview of the process, and to give practical guidelines for the application of the proposed methodology, we present a case study from a UNESCO Global Geopark area. Thus, this study not only develops the geodiversity concept, but also paves the way for simultaneous understanding of both geodiversity and biodiversity within a unified conceptual approach.

STRATEGY OF THE ARMY NUBIKA ZENI COMPANY TO FACE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract-The threat of pandemics and epidemics of dangerous and deadly diseases is very likely to occur in Indonesia. The spread of Covid-19 that is out of control and exceeds the capacity of the epidemic, and has made the status of the spread of Covid- 19 a pandemic outbreak. Pusziad CBRNE Company is a central-level implementing agency in the field of CBRNE. Biological threats increase and spread, such as in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, Pusziad CBRNE Company has limitations. Pusziad CBRNE Company's capability is not sufficient from the aspect of the organization, personnel resources, and equipment. This study analyzes how the strategy of Pusziad CBRNE Company in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic with qualitative research and data collection through observation, interviews, and documentation. The occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic that hit the world, including Indonesia with a fairly high death rate, is clear evidence of a biological threat. Biological threats in Indonesia are increasing evident with the development of bio-science and its supporting facilities in Indonesia as well as the opening up of bioterrorism actions. With increasing biological threats such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the role of Pusziad CBRNE Company becomes very important. Faced with the limitations of Pusziad CBRNE Company, the strategies that need to be suggested are reviewing the Pusziad CBRNE Company organization to be upgraded to a detachment or battalion, proposing optimal budget support, equipping special equipment for CBRNE, and increasing the human capacity resources of Pusziad CBRNE Company personnel. Therefore, against the backdrop of increasing perceptions of biological threats in Indonesia, Pusziad CBRNE Company needs to improve its organization, personnel capabilities, and equipment, so that Pusziad CBRNE Company has reliable capabilities supported by a proportional organization with professional personnel and sophisticated equipment.Keywords: Nuclear biology and chemistry (CBRNE), Biological Threats, Covid-19 Pandemic, Capabilities and Strategies

Development of Biosciences in the Integrated Qur'an Textbooks of Lampung Local Wisdom Values

The process of learning science in the qur'an should be integrated with its own national culture, known as local wisdom. The obvious issue is the absence of references that can be used in learning. And therefore, the current research was carried out to develop biosciences in the integrated qur'an textbooks with lampung's local sacred values. Conducted through 4D development model that includes defining, designing, developing, and disseminating, The validation results of the designing expert obtained a score of 89% considered excellent. The results of the material expert validation obtained a score of 92% considered excellent. Furthermore, the validation of the linguist obtained a score of 90% considered very good. the results on responses of Tadris Biology lecturers obtained a score of 85% considered very good. The results of the limited trial among Biology students was of 87.25% considered very good. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the teaching book products developed are definitely useful for the learning process.Keywords: textbooks, biosciences, Qur'an, local wisdom

Genome editing and farmed animal breeding: social and ethical issues

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has published in December 2021 their most recent report on the social and ethical issues associated with the use of genome editing in farm animal breeding. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is an independent body based in the United Kingdom that examines and advises on ethical issues arising from developments in bioscience and health. The Council is made up of around 15 members and 12 executive staff. It was established by the trustees of the Nuffield Foundation in 1991, is funded jointly by the Nuffield Foundation, the Medical Research Council and Wellcome. One of their terms of reference is to identify and define ethical questions raised by recent developments in biological and medical research that concern, or are likely to concern, the public interest; and the Council reviews the available evidence with a view to report on these matters and to make recommendations relating to policy and practice.

Bioscience and the sociology of education: the case for biosocial education

This article makes a case for biosocial education as a field of research and as a potential framework for education practice. The article engages with sociology of education’s contemporary interests in embodiment and affect, the possibilities offered by concept studies, and uses of assemblage and complexity theory for thinking about educational phenomena. It also considers broader social science and political theory engagements with epigenetics and neuroscience. The article examines the legacy of the biology/sociology split and the risks, limits, and potentialities of degrounded collaborative trans-disciplinary biosocial research. It considers developments in biosciences that may have particular resonance and promise for education, in particular the epigenetics of care and stress and the metabolomics of diet. The article argues that sociology of education should engage with bioscience to interrogate the folding together of the social, cultural, biographical, pedagogic, political, affective, neurological, and biological in the interactive production of students and learning.

The Notion of Scientific Knowledge in Biology

The purpose of this work is to reconsider and critically discuss the conceptual foundations of modern biology and bio-sciences in general, and provide an epistemological guideline to help framing the teaching of these disciplines and enhancing the quality of their presentation in High School, Master and Ph.D. courses. After discussing the methodological problems that arise in trying to construct a sensible and useful scientific approach applicable to the study of living systems, we illustrate what are the general requirements that a workable scheme of investigation should meet to comply with the principles of the Galilean method. The amazing success of basic physics, the Galilean science of election, can be traced back to the development of a radically “reductionistic” approach in the interpretation of experiments and a systematic procedure tailored on the paradigm of “falsifiability” aimed at consistently incorporating new information into extended models/theories. The development of bio-sciences seems to fit with neither reductionism (the deeper is the level of description of a biological phenomenon the more difficult looks finding general and simple laws), nor falsifiability (not always experiments provide a yes-or-no answer). Should we conclude that biology is not a science in the Galilean sense? We want to show that this is not so. Rather in the study of living systems, the novel interpretative paradigm of “complexity” has been developed that, without ever conflicting with the basic principles of physics, allows organizing ideas, conceiving new models and understanding the puzzling lack of reproducibility that seems to affect experiments in biology and in other modern areas of investigation. In the delicate task of conveying scientific concepts and principles to students as well as in popularising bio-sciences to a wider audience, it is of the utmost importance for the success of the process of learning to highlight the internal logical consistency of biology and its compliance with the fundamental laws of physics.

Putting the moving image to work in biochemistry education

There is tangible evidence of the growing importance of visual media in science education. While large amounts of material on the video-sharing service YouTube would not be considered educational in a positive sense, there are many hours of quality scientific information available for viewing. These can be called upon for both formal and informal learning. We have also witnessed the rise of ‘TED talk’, short presentations by engaging speakers which often tackle cutting-edge developments in bioscience. This year also saw the awarding of an Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) impact factor to JoVE, the Journal of Visualised Experiments. I want to suggest in this article that there is an additional resource that we are not yet exploiting to its proper potential, namely, broadcast media.

A systems engineering perspective on process integration in industrial biotechnology

AbstractBiotechnology has many applications in health care, agriculture, industry and the environment. By using renewable raw materials, biotechnology contributes to lowering greenhouse gas emissions and moving away from a petro‐based towards a circular sustainable economy. However, major developments are still needed to make industrial biotechnology an economic alternative to conventional processes for fuels, specialty and/or bulk chemicals production.Process integration is a holistic approach to process design, which emphasizes the unity of the process and considers the interactions between different unit operations from the outset, rather than optimizing them separately. Furthermore, it also involves the substitution of two or more unit operations by one single novel unit capable of achieving the same process goal.Conversely, process systems engineering (PSE) deals with the analysis, design, optimization, operation and control of complex process systems, as well as the development of model‐based methods and tools that allow the systematic development of processes and products across a wide range of systems involving physical and chemical change. Mature tools and applications are available for chemical technology and steps have been taken to apply PSE principles also to bioprocess technology. This perspective paper argues that an interdisciplinary approach is needed towards integrated bio‐processing in order to link basic developments in biosciences with possible industrial applications. PSE can foster the application of existing and the development of new methods and tools for bioprocess integration that could promote the sustainable production of bio‐/chemical products. The inclusion of PSE principles and methods in biochemical engineering curricula and research is essential to achieve such goals. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry

Commentary: Sir James Mackenzie (1853-1925): An ambiguous pioneer for research in primary care

Sir James Mackenzie is generally accepted as the founder of research by general practitioners in Great Britain, studying their own patients where and how they actually live. His pioneering work on arrhythmias was a foundation for modern cardiology, consolidated by his pupil Thomas Lewis, Britain's first full-time clinical researcher for the Medical Research Council. Mackenzie became a dominant figure in public imagination, more widely celebrated than any later generalist. At the clinical research institute he founded at St Andrews in 1919, he hoped to set in train a permanent and growing body of longitudinal clinical research outside hospitals, by community generalists studying their own patients. This article tries to explain the failure of this project: how it influenced later research by general practitioners and others in primary care after creation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 and its relevance today to primary care research policy. Such research is now becoming an urgent necessity, for the British National Health Service to survive as a public service and as a foundation for democratic development of biosciences.

Posthuman Encounters: Technology, Embodiment and Gender in Recent Feminist Thought and in the Work of Marie Darrieussecq

The dissolution of the boundaries of the human subject is a critical concern running through late twentieth-century French and European thought. From Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, to Giorgio Agamben or Jean-Luc Nancy, thinkers have been concerned with destabilizing a deeply entrenched individualism and anthropocentrism in the history of Western civilization and philosophy. In the ten years preceding and succeeding the turn of the millennium, strands of thought that include philosophy, critical theory and cultural studies (and more often than not, crisscross between these disciplines) in both European and AngloAmerican contexts have drawn considerably on this focus in continental thought on the interrogation of the human subject. In so doing, they have begun to turn their attention towards a consideration of relations between humans and other forms of life, from plants and animals, to life forms that have been generated from new developments in bio-science and technology, such as the cybernetic organism. Such a ‘posthuman’ approach to understanding the universe and the place of humans within it is of increasing relevance to contemporary life, in all its aspects, and has resounding implications for notions of community, sustainability and ethics. The particular forms of posthuman existence that this article is interested in exploring involve these new developments in bio-science and technology, the extent to which they intervene in the formulation of human subjectivity, and dialogue with questions of gender. The article

‘Reflex regulation’: An anatomy of promissory science governance

With reference to two comparative UK biotechnology case studies, spanning recent decades, this article outlines the main features of what might usefully be expressed as ‘reflex regulation’. This includes a set of reactive institutional habits, routines and reflexes that continue to characterise the regulation of the biosciences in the UK. Methodologically, the article draws on long-term social scientific engagement with policy-making in the field of xenotransplantation in the 1990s and, a decade later, the politics of trans-species embryo stem cell research. Our focus in this article is on questions of time and timing in the temporal relationships between developments in bioscience, policy-making and wider political deliberation. Both case studies exhibit a range of persistent policy-making features, specifically a range of temporal reflexes including: the largely uncritical susceptibility of policy communities to promissory scientific claims by key entrepreneurial scientific stakeholders; a perceived policy need to react rapidly to often unchallenged claims about imminent benefit; a tendency towards the construction of regulatory measures that are often poorly adapted to long-term socio-technical processes; and an institutionalised historical amnesia whereby policy communities fail to critically reflect on the periodicities of hype and disappointment. These features of science governance, we argue, continue to inhibit and narrow the opportunity for a potentially more ‘reflexive’ as opposed to ‘reflex’ science policy.

From biopolitics to the Polis genetica?

The recent accomplishments in the field of biological research are not only exercising an important impact on medicine, but also have the potential to transform the political and legal forms of society, modifying the very destiny of human nature. The scientific revolution in the sphere of the life sciences is resulting in a shift from biopolitics (in the meaning reconstructed by Foucault) to a new, original dimension, where the human species start to dominate living matter, as anticipated by Jürgen Habermas. The developments in biosciences and biotechnologies raise new problems regarding the manipulation of living matter, genetic selection, genetic information and the social legitimisation (in a democratic way) of such possibilities. We are facing a new dimension, both real and conceptual, which can be defined as polis genetica. It is a perspective that includes the influences of gene research on human behaviour and physical performance, new gene and cell therapies, embryo manipulation and the effects of these procedures in the social sphere and on the individual.

Dalla biopolitica alla polis genetica?

The most recent accomplishments in the field of biological research are not only exercising an ever more important impact on medicine, but also have the potential to transform the political and legal forms of society, directing and modifying the very destiny of human nature. The scientific revolution in course in the sphere of the life sciences is resulting in a shift from biopolitics (in the meaning reconstructed by Foucault) to a new, original dimension, where the human species starts to dominate living matter, as anticipated by Jurgen Habermas in his book The Future of Human Nature. The risks of genetic liberalism. The developments in biosciences and biotechnologies raise new problems and new societal conditions regarding the manipulation of living matter, genetic selection, genetic information and the social legitimisation (in a democratic way) of such interventions. We are facing a new dimension, both real and conceptual, which can be defined as polis genetica. It is a perspective that includes the influences of gene research on human behaviour and physical performance, new gene and cell therapies, embryo manipulation and the repercussions of these procedures in the social sphere and on the individual.

Ethics in research

This review will examine research ethics in the context of globalization of clinical trials and recent rapid developments in bioscience. It will focus on international ethical guidelines and the functions of research ethics review boards in research governance. Consent issues in genetic research, which must comply with privacy laws by protecting confidentiality and privacy of personal health data, will be discussed. There has been a rapid expansion of genomic and proteonomic research and biotechnology in the last decade. International ethical guidelines have been updated and the bioscience industry has developed ethics policies. At the same time, problems in academic anesthesia in the US and UK have been identified, leading to recommendations to train physician-scientists in anesthesia to stimulate research activity in the future. Anesthesiologists are joining interdisciplinary research teams and the concept of evidence-based translational research is emerging. Anesthesiologists are moving towards participation in interdisciplinary research teams. They are well placed to speed the translation of research discovery into clinical practice and provide evidence-based perioperative care. This review provides the ethical framework that anesthesiologists will need to meet the challenges of this changing pattern of practice.

Progress in the study of ophthalmic molecular biology

Abundant progress has been made in the study of molecular biology in the last decade, which included the practical application of RNA interference, proteomic, molecular image and nano technology. The communication between bioscience with other branches (including ophthalmology) enhanced the further development of bioscience. This review briefly summarizes these new cutting age information in the field of molecular biology related with eye research to help us to acquire a deeper understanding of the pathogenesis and mechanism of treatment for systemic and eye diseases.

Key Problems in Science and Technology in Thailand

Science and technology can make substantial contributions to socio-economic development in Thailand. In order to promote such contributions, problem areas and specific problems of high priority need to be defined, and possible solutions outlined. Important criteria for selecting priority areas and key problems include relevance to development, the availability of human resources and the possibility of their development, the cutting-edge advantage to be gained by development, the possibility of international collaboration, and the possibility of integration with culture and environment. These criteria suggest in Thailand a focus on the development of bioscience and biotechnology, materials science, electronics, and information science.