Role In Scientific Progress Research Articles

The validation of regulatory test methods - Conceptual, ethical, and philosophical foundations.

Validation establishes the reproducibility and relevance of regulatory test methods, particularly for new approach methods (NAMs) as alternatives to animal testing. While validation concepts provide a framework to assess method suitability, they rarely undergo method-critical assessment. This paper explores the philosophical and ethical foundations of the validation process, drawing from various philosophical traditions and contemporary ethical frameworks. How validation intersects with utilitarian principles, ethics of responsibility, and post-modern critiques is examined, offering a multifaceted perspective on its role in scientific progress and societal values. The paper argues for a paradigm shift in validation, moving beyond traditional animal-based comparisons towards more flexible, fit-for-purpose approaches that embrace emerging technologies and ethical con-siderations. Key ethical principles guiding NAM validation are discussed, including beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and respect for animal welfare. Integrating these principles with scientific rigor can create a more holistic validation framework that balances human safety, animal welfare, and technological innovation. By critically examining the philosophical underpinnings of validation, this paper aims to stimulate dialogue on reforming the process to better align with contemporary scientific knowledge, ethical standards, and societal expectations. It calls for a more adaptive, transparent, and ethically grounded approach to validation that can accelerate the adoption of innovative and human-relevant toxicological methods while maintaining scientific integrity and public trust.

Marginalising dyslexic researchers is bad for science

Communication in the sciences is often based on text, which places researchers with dyslexia at a disadvantage. However, this means that science is missing out on the original insights and specific strengths in exploration that dyslexic researchers bring to their disciplines. Here we discuss how the scientific community can address the challenges that dyslexic researchers face, and how science stands to benefit as a result. We discuss this in the context of a new theoretical framework proposing the existence of complementary learning strategies that could play a key role in scientific progress, particularly with regard to accelerating innovation.

The global HIV response at 40

It is helpful to divide the global HIV response into three phases: The first, from about 1980 to 2000, represents “Calamity”. The second, from roughly 2000 to 2015 represents “Hope.” The third, from 2015, is unfolding and may be termed “Choices” – and these choices may be severely constrained by COVID, so “Constrained Choices in an era of COVID” may prove more apt. As we take stock of HIV at 40, there are positive lessons for the wider health response — and challenging reflections for the wider impact of the global HIV response. The positive lessons include: (1) the importance of activism; (2) the role of scientific progress and innovation; (3) the impact of evidence in concentrating resources on proven approaches; (4) the importance of surveillance to understanding transmission dynamics; (5) the use of epidemic intelligence to guide precision implementation; (6) the focus on implementation cascades (diagnosis, linkage, adherence, disease suppression); and finally (7) an overarching execution and results focus. Given this remarkable legacy, it seems churlish to ask whether the HIV response could have achieved more. Yet, consider these approximate figures. Development assistance for HIV totals about 100 billion dollars, 70 billion from the USA matched by roughly 100 billion in domestic resources. For 200 billion dollars, should we not have achieved more than 23 million people initiating treatment (very crudely, 10 000 dollars per person on treatment)? Much of the hundred billion dollars of development assistance (roughly half) focused on about a dozen priority countries in eastern and southern African. The larger PEPFAR recipients, with populations of roughly 50 million, each received 5 billion dollars or more cumulatively. And there are further Global Fund contributions of an additional billion dollars in many of these countries. For 6 billion dollars per country, should we have expected more? The World Bank Human Capital Project posits that to maximize human capital formation, countries must ensure that their children survive, are well nourished and stimulated, learn skills and live long, productive lives. Using the Human Capital Index (a composite index based on these factors), South Africa — the largest HIV financing recipient — ranks 126th of 157 countries, below Haiti, Ghana, the Congo Republic, Senegal and Benin. Consider how many recipients of major HIV development finance fall into the bottom fifth: Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Cote D’Ivoire and Nigeria. Of course, causality is unresolved and there are several possible explanations: (1) low human capital formation may increase HIV transmission; (2) the HIV epidemic may have intergenerational impacts; (3) the all-consuming focus on HIV may have displaced other health, education and development priorities. Yet, it remains hard to see these data and to argue that successful HIV responses among the largest HIV financing recipients strengthened their wider health sector and human development outcomes. A plausible principle emerges. Narrowly targeted disease-specific emergency responses may lead to disease-specific gains but do not improve governance or national systems capacity or wider disease or development outcomes. This is not to undermine the emergency origins of the HIV response; 2021 is not 2000 and it is unlikely that we would have 23 million people initiating treatment without an emergency response. Yet, there are reasons (intensified by COVID), to suggest that we must pivot towards long-term, integrated, developmental, nationally owned and financed, systems-orientated responses — particularly when both development assistance and national budgets are likely to be constrained in an era of COVID.

Rozum, wartości, polis w świecie nowożytnej nicości

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: To present a fundamental problem in European culture and civilization. It is a matter of answering the question regarding the relationship between the polis and the world of values. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The modern world, or postmodernity, gives the impression of total chaos. It is chaos within the sphere of principles governing human cooperation, within the sphere of values. It is there that two nonidentical and centuriesold traditions of thought collide. The article presents dilemmas stemming from this situation. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: It is necessary to frame the problem within the context of the history of ideas. Socrates laid the foundation for the “spirit” of Europe. His position was expressed in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. The world of values exists objectively. At the dawn of modernity, with Descartes’ thought, the starting point for thinking about the principles of collective life is the Self. This position is developed in the thought of Hobbes and Locke – liberal thought. This position is criticized by Rousseau and Kant. Their opposition will also create the premises for thinking in totalitarian categories (Marx). RESEARCH RESULTS: Modern reflection on the world of values within the sphere of the polis is a return to Locke’s thought; a commonsense apology of liberalism. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The position presented in this article indicates that in discussions on modern culture’s axiological chaos, it is necessary to frame the problem against the back‑ drop of a broadly-understood spectrum of ideas. The goal is to create awareness that though this “breakthrough” of modernity and “spirit” of Enlightenment played an essential role in scientific progress, their initialization of thought in the categories of the autonomous and sovereign individual simultaneously created premises leading to the individual being left alone; becoming stuck in a world of nothingness.

What is replication?

Credibility of scientific claims is established with evidence for their replicability using new data. According to common understanding, replication is repeating a study’s procedure and observing whether the prior finding recurs. This definition is intuitive, easy to apply, and incorrect. We propose that replication is a study for which any outcome would be considered diagnostic evidence about a claim from prior research. This definition reduces emphasis on operational characteristics of the study and increases emphasis on the interpretation of possible outcomes. The purpose of replication is to advance theory by confronting existing understanding with new evidence. Ironically, the value of replication may be strongest when existing understanding is weakest. Successful replication provides evidence of generalizability across the conditions that inevitably differ from the original study; Unsuccessful replication indicates that the reliability of the finding may be more constrained than recognized previously. Defining replication as a confrontation of current theoretical expectations clarifies its important, exciting, and generative role in scientific progress.

Co-Authorship and Co-Citation Networks in the Agricultural Economics Literature: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe

This article analyzes co-authorship and co-citation networks in the agricultural economics literature on Central and Eastern Europe written during the last twenty-five years. It highlights the principal researchers in the field, together with their authorship and citation networks, on the basis of 238 articles written between 1990 and 2013. Most of the articles were written by a small number of researchers, indicating that clusters and central authors play an important role in scientific progress. Contrary to expectations, it turns out that number of articles and central role in network are not related. Finally, clusters are found to cite themselves more than the average, thereby boosting scientific progress for their members.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man Is King

In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man Is King

The Terms of Scientific Debate and the Issue of its Reception

The theme of global warming has a special status in the environmental debates that animates political and social life, particularly in France. Our aim during this symposium is to understand the difficulties and deadlocks faced by our country, and others, with respect to the relations between science, technology and society, the role of scientific progress in economic and social development, the way the media and the political sphere tackle this issue, and finally, the democratic dialogue bet...

Between the European legacy and critical daring: epistemological reflections for critical discourse analysis

The colonialism of knowledge in Latin America has led as a consequence to the forming of a body of researchers competent in understanding and applying theories and methods but who are petrified at their own ideas as they always need to be legitimated by foreign thinkers. The problem is that creativity plays a fundamental role in scientific progress and in creating theory. Our low scientific self-esteem has made us hostage to imported progress given that we do not see ourselves in many instances as being able to contribute effectively in developing the theories we use. In this essay, I seek to deconstruct this logic by establishing a dialogue between the European legacy in critical discourse analysis in its interdisciplinary relation with critical realism and epistemological reflection that identifies contradictions in the manner in which this relation has been concretised in research studies. What I propose is not a discussion in the sense of a debate that seeks to establish truth but rather a dialogue that aims at mutual comprehension, construction through the word.

Bibliometric analysis of U.S. pharmaceutical industry research performance

The size, nature, and quality of the publications authored by scientists employed at firms in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry are measured from 1973 through 1982 using the SCI and BID-MEDLINE databases. During this period, these industry scientists published over 15,000 papers and 6,000 meeting abstracts (fractional counts). These papers constitute approximately 1.5 percent of all U.S. authored papers in the SCI database each year. The nature of the industry's contribution in the biomedical area is measured on a basic-clinical scale. Industry biomedical papers are, on average, more basic than those published by scientists in major medical schools, hospitals, and clinics; but more clinical than papers published by scientists at major universities. Finally, the quality of the industry biomedical papers is measured in terms of their citations in other scientific papers. The industry papers are more frequently cited than non-NIH U.S. papers, but less frequently cited than NIH-supported papers. This analysis confirms that the U.S. pharmaceutical industry produces quality research and plays an important role in scientific progress.

The relationship between concept and instrument design in eighteenth-century experimental science

Summary The empiricism of eighteenth-century experimental science meant that the development of scientific instruments influenced the formulation of new concepts; a two-way process for new theory also affected instrument design. This relationship between concept and instrumentation will be examined by tracing the development of electrical instruments and theory during this period. The different functions fulfilled by these devices will also be discussed. Empiricism was especially important in such a new field of research as electricity, for it gave rise to phenomena that could not have been predicted by theory alone. However, the interpretation of these phenomena, and what the natural philosopher thought he observed, were often unconsciously determined by current ideas and attitudes; the interaction between instrumentally induced phenomena and observation was more complex than was realized at the time. The shortcomings of this empirical approach will be discussed. In the case of electricity this became increasingly apparent during the latter part of the century. The many discoveries had to be placed in a unifying framework before new advances could be made. Instruments, however, continued to play an important role in scientific progress, for they made visible what was hidden in nature.

General Methods of Teaching

THE SMALL AMOUNT of research here reported appears to indicate a change in the kind of research being conducted. There is an apparent trend away from studies of methods. the most part research in the field of is closely identified with specific subjectmatter and is reported in the numbers of the Review devoted to and Methods in the High School and College and Special Methods and Psychology of the Elementary-School Subjects. There is also a tendency among contributors to write an informal narrative or journalistic exposition of a personal in teaching rather than present a straightforward account of scientific technic. Perhaps the highly formal measurement movement and statistical analysis have moved from the center of the stage, allowing the teacher and the pupils to appear again in the spotlight. It may be that when research on so often proved only what had already taught, teachers took heart and began to report in periodicals narrative or expository accounts of their experiences. In any case, the professional literature of the past three years indicates that elementaryand secondary-school teachers and professors of education are still discussing of teaching. Such topics as remedial, diagnostic, or test-determined teaching, lecture, recitation, learning by wholes versus learning by parts, memorizing by reading versus recitation, inductive versus deductive learning, drill, appreciation, laboratory, project, problem, socialized recitation, unit plan, contract plan, case method, committee, conference plan, discussion, panel discussion, review, supervised, directed, or guided study, group plan, visual aids, auditory aids, scientific aids to teaching, photoplay, radio, constructive activities, activity program, and integration have appeared and reappeared in the periodicals, but usually only as wholehearted accounts of enthusiastic teachers who have had an experience worth talking about. While such writing cannot be regarded as research, it may play a helpful role in scientific progress. Thus Gates (419: 90) stated: For specialists in scientific study to set themselves apart from the course of critical and creative theoretical inquiry would be as fatal a mistake as for the theorists to disregard the results of experimentation. Broader views, and more searching criticisms of both investigation and generalization, as well as more and better research, are required to enable the scientific method to realize its high promise. There follows a review of those investigations which were concerned with what may be classified as general methods either because the procedure