Collaborative Models for Translational Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Research

Little formal research has been conducted on strategies to structure basic, preclinical, and clinical research to increase the likelihood of discovering efficacious interventions for patients with neurological diseases. How academic research is organized and funded by government agencies and foundations seems likely to affect the quality and rate of production of valued therapeutic agents. Few models for translational biomedical research, however, have been defined and no strategies have been compared. Given the narrow width of expertise and laboratory capacity of individual investigators, the complexity of identifying and manipulating mechanisms of disease components over time, and the demand for solutions from society, our continued reliance on funding therapeutic discovery through standalone investigators and projects seems counterproductive. Models are described for funding collaborations of basic and clinical scientists to work in iterative, adaptable, cross-disciplinary interactions around key progress-limiting questions. Problem-oriented collaborations require leadership, incentives, trust, ongoing assessment, and an efficient infrastructure that overcomes barriers. These models are as testable as the hypotheses that drive scientific research.

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The Cellophane Wall

10.1093/oso/9780190840822.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

J. E. Smyth

Keyword(s):

Cultural History ◽

American Business ◽

Women Filmmakers ◽

American Film ◽

Business Enterprise ◽

Collaborative Models ◽

Bette Davis ◽

Studio System ◽

Film Authorship ◽

Over Time

Between 1924 and 1954, Hollywood was, more than any other American business enterprise, enriched by women: women’s pictures, women audiences and fans, and women filmmakers. McLean, Head, McCall, Davis, Harrison, Hopper, and many other Hollywood women offered collaborative models of the studio system. These are difficult concepts for film historians to face. Recognizing that the Hollywood studio system enabled women’s careers between 1924 and 1954 forces a reconsideration of two ideologies that have held sway over American film and cultural history: the “great man” theory of film authorship, and the assumption that things for Hollywood’s women have improved over time, due to our faith in “progressive” history. Today, women trying to break into the industry are told that although things are difficult and women are not represented equally in the creative professions, the situation has improved since the bad old studio days. “Bunk!” as Bette Davis would have said.

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Monoclonal Antibodies as Neurological Therapeutics

Pharmaceuticals ◽

10.3390/ph14020092 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 92

Author(s):

Panagiotis Gklinos ◽

Miranta Papadopoulou ◽

Vid Stanulovic ◽

Dimos D. Mitsikostas ◽

Dimitrios Papadopoulos

Keyword(s):

Monoclonal Antibodies ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Neurological Diseases ◽

Therapeutic Agents ◽

Medical Specialties ◽

Specific Effects ◽

Different Types ◽

Neurological Conditions ◽

Disease Pathways

Over the last 30 years the role of monoclonal antibodies in therapeutics has increased enormously, revolutionizing treatment in most medical specialties, including neurology. Monoclonal antibodies are key therapeutic agents for several neurological conditions with diverse pathophysiological mechanisms, including multiple sclerosis, migraines and neuromuscular disease. In addition, a great number of monoclonal antibodies against several targets are being investigated for many more neurological diseases, which reflects our advances in understanding the pathogenesis of these diseases. Untangling the molecular mechanisms of disease allows monoclonal antibodies to block disease pathways accurately and efficiently with exceptional target specificity, minimizing non-specific effects. On the other hand, accumulating experience shows that monoclonal antibodies may carry class-specific and target-associated risks. This article provides an overview of different types of monoclonal antibodies and their characteristics and reviews monoclonal antibodies currently in use or under development for neurological disease.

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Twenty-five years of cyber threats in the news: a study of Swedish newspaper coverage (1995–2019)

Journal of Cybersecurity ◽

10.1093/cybsec/tyab016 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Max Boholm

Keyword(s):

Informal Learning ◽

Media Representations ◽

Newspaper Coverage ◽

Threat Perception ◽

Government Agencies ◽

Unauthorized Access ◽

News Reports ◽

Cyber Threats ◽

The Media ◽

Over Time

Abstract This paper explores how cyber threats are represented in Swedish newspapers. The sample comprises 1269 articles from three newspapers (Aftonbladet, Göteborgs-Posten, and Svenska Dagbladet) covering 25 years (1995–2019). The study provides a text-near and detailed analysis of the threats covered. The study analyzes these threats along several dimensions: their modality (e.g. unauthorized access or manipulation); to what extent ambiguous themes (e.g. attack, crime, and warfare) are specified in context; how cyber-threat coverage has changed over time; and the event orientation of the coverage, i.e. whether articles address topical events and, if so, which ones. There are five main findings. First, the Swedish newspaper cybersecurity discourse covers multiple threats; in total, 34 themes (present in at least 4% of articles) have been identified. Second, the representation of cyber threats varies in specificity. While generic themes such as attack and warfare are mostly specified in terms of their modality, they sometimes are not, leaving the representation vague. Third, this study, given its general approach, provides insights into media representations of particular cyber threats. For example, this study finds the meaning of “hacking” in the media to be more diversified and nuanced than previously assumed (e.g. as simply meaning “computer break-in”). Fourth, newspaper coverage of cyber threats has changed over time, in both quantity (i.e. the amount of coverage has increased) and quality, as three general trends have been observed: the state-ification and militarization of threats (i.e. increased attention to, e.g. nations and warfare as threats), the organization-ification of threats (i.e. increased attention to, e.g. government agencies and companies as threats), and the diversification and hyping of threats (i.e. cumulatively more threats are added to the cybersecurity discourse, although attention to particular threats is sometimes restricted in time). Finally, parallel to coverage of particular topical events (e.g. the “I love you” virus), newspaper representations of cyber threats largely exemplify “amplification without the event,” i.e. threats are covered without linking them to topical events, as is otherwise typical of news reports. The findings in relation to previous studies of cybersecurity discourse and the implications for informal learning and threat perception are discussed.

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The Only (Other) Poll That Matters? Exit Polls and Election Night Forecasts in BBC General Election Results Broadcasts, 1955–2017

Political Studies ◽

10.1177/0032321720906324 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 003232172090632

Author(s):

Stuart Wilks-Heeg ◽

Peter Andersen

Keyword(s):

Academic Research ◽

General Election ◽

The Political ◽

Data Set ◽

Political Consequences ◽

Academic Literature ◽

Political Narratives ◽

Election Results ◽

Over Time

This article examines the role of results forecasts and exit polls in BBC general election night broadcasts from 1955 to 2017. Despite the substantial role played by academics in results programmes, in devising forecasts and analysing results as they emerge, academic literature on election night broadcasts is scant. This article charts the development of election night forecasting over time and its implications for the structure and content of election night broadcasts. It draws on a unique new data set of verbatim transcripts of the first hour of every BBC election night broadcast from 1955–2017 to quantify the attention paid to forecasts and exit polls and assess how they frame discussion of the likely outcome and its potential political consequences. The article concludes that the function of election night broadcasts as ‘the first draft of psephology’ merits closer attention for both the political narratives and the academic research agendas they generate.

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Injectable Thermosensitive Formulation Based on Polyurethane Hydrogel/Mesoporous Glasses for Sustained Co-Delivery of Functional Ions and Drugs

Pharmaceutics ◽

10.3390/pharmaceutics11100501 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 501 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Monica Boffito ◽

Carlotta Pontremoli ◽

Sonia Fiorilli ◽

Rossella Laurano ◽

Gianluca Ciardelli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Therapeutic Agents ◽

Chemical Degradation ◽

Burst Release ◽

Injectable Hydrogels ◽

Micro Particles ◽

Custom Made ◽

Thermosensitive Hydrogels ◽

Polyurethane Hydrogel ◽

Over Time ◽

Incipient Wetness Method

Mini-invasively injectable hydrogels are widely attracting interest as smart tools for the co-delivery of therapeutic agents targeting different aspects of tissue/organ healing (e.g., neo-angiogenesis, inflammation). In this work, copper-substituted bioactive mesoporous glasses (Cu-MBGs) were prepared as nano- and micro-particles and successfully loaded with ibuprofen through an incipient wetness method (loaded ibuprofen approx. 10% w/w). Injectable hybrid formulations were then developed by dispersing ibuprofen-loaded Cu-MBGs within thermosensitive hydrogels based on a custom-made amphiphilic polyurethane. This procedure showed almost no effects on the gelation potential (gelation at 37 °C within 3–5 min). Cu2+ and ibuprofen were co-released over time in a sustained manner with a significantly lower burst release compared to MBG particles alone (burst release reduction approx. 85% and 65% for ibuprofen and Cu2+, respectively). Additionally, released Cu2+ species triggered polyurethane chemical degradation, thus enabling a possible tuning of gel residence time at the pathological site. The overall results suggest that hybrid injectable thermosensitive gels could be successfully designed for the simultaneous localized co-delivery of multiple therapeutics.

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Social support in the process of household reorganization after divorce

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships ◽

10.1177/0265407520910268 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 37 (6) ◽

pp. 1927-1944 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dries Van Gasse ◽

Dimitri Mortelmans

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Academic Research ◽

Single Parents ◽

Dynamic State ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Theory Analysis ◽

The World ◽

Dynamic Perspective ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

Over Time

Social support has been shown to be important in the world of single parents. As for divorce, social support is mostly studied in a static way in academic research. Divorcing and/or separating people are in a dynamic state of a changing need for social support. This need changes over time within their process of becoming a single parent. In this article, we propose a more dynamic perspective on social support in the process of household reorganization after divorce. We argue that single parents move on after divorce and work toward a new conciliation of their responsibilities at home and at the labor market, using their social network. This resulted from a grounded theory analysis, conducted using 30 unstructured interviews that were then compared within an elaborative population of an additional 244 semi-structured interviews in order to develop a six-phase model of family reorganization after divorce.

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Functional intersection of the kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) and thrombostasis axis

Biological Chemistry ◽

10.1515/bc.2010.024 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 391 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Michael Blaber ◽

Hyesook Yoon ◽

Maria A. Juliano ◽

Isobel A. Scarisbrick ◽

Sachiko I. Blaber

Keyword(s):

Initial Conditions ◽

Tissue Injury ◽

Large Body ◽

Therapeutic Agents ◽

Specific Interactions ◽

Complete Understanding ◽

Functional Interaction ◽

Regulatory Interactions ◽

Normal Health ◽

Over Time

Abstract A large body of emerging evidence indicates a functional interaction between the kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) and proteases of the thrombostasis axis. These interactions appear relevant for both normal health as well as pathologies associated with inflammation, tissue injury, and remodeling. Regulatory interactions between the KLKs and thrombostasis proteases could impact several serious human diseases, including neurodegeneration and cancer. The emerging network of specific interactions between these two protease families appears to be complex, and much work remains to elucidate it. Complete understanding how this functional network resolves over time, given specific initial conditions, and how it might be controllably manipulated, will probably contribute to the emergence of novel diagnostics and therapeutic agents for major diseases.

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The evolution of collaborative networks: A social network analysis of Chinese environmental protection policy

Public Policy and Administration ◽

10.1177/09520767211034664 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 095207672110346

Author(s):

Yanwei Li ◽

Jing Huang

Keyword(s):

Environmental Protection ◽

Preferential Attachment ◽

Building Blocks ◽

National Government ◽

Collaborative Networks ◽

Government Agencies ◽

Collaborative Network ◽

Network Partner ◽

Societal Problems ◽

Over Time

Interagency collaboration helps governments to better resolve various complex societal problems. This contribution examines the mechanisms underlying the collaboration of disparate national government agencies engaged in Chinese environmental protection. We test three dominant mechanisms, namely, the institutionalization of collaborative networks, resource interdependence and exchange, and preferential attachment. It is concluded that a collaborative network over time becomes cohesive, that national government agencies prefer to collaborate with popular agencies and tend to collaborate with those whose resources are different from their own, and that popular agencies tend to maintain their core positions over time. Our study enriches the current governance and policy literature through adding building blocks for the evolution of collaborative network and network partner selection.

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Forward or Backward Looking? The Economic Discourse and the Observed Reality

Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik ◽

10.1515/jbnst-2015-1026 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 236 (4) ◽

pp. 483-515 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jochen Lüdering ◽

Peter Winker

Keyword(s):

Computational Linguistics ◽

Academic Research ◽

Relative Importance ◽

Real Economy ◽

Var Models ◽

Indicator Values ◽

Economic Discourse ◽

The Past ◽

Preparatory Work ◽

Over Time

Abstract Is academic research anticipating economic shake-ups or merely reflecting the past? Exploiting the corpus of articles published in the Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik) for the years 1949 to 2010, this pilot study proposes a quantitative framework for addressing these questions. The framework comprises two steps. First, methods from computational linguistics are used to identify relevant topics and their relative importance over time. In particular, Latent Dirichlet Analysis is applied to the corpus after some preparatory work. Second, for some of the topics which are closely related to specific economic indicators, the developments of topic weights and indicator values are confronted in dynamic regression and VAR models. The results indicate that for some topics of interest, the discourse in the journal leads developments in the real economy, while for other topics it is the other way round.

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Synthesis of the Nakanishi Ring-Locked Retinoid

International Journal of Medicinal Chemistry ◽

10.1155/2011/826792 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 2011 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Jamie B. Côté ◽

Tan D. Quach ◽

Andrey P. Demenev ◽

David S. Garvey ◽

Judd M. Berman

Keyword(s):

Therapeutic Agents ◽

Proof Of Concept ◽

Synthetic Route ◽

Biological Tool ◽

Purification Protocol ◽

Over Time

An optimized synthetic route to prepare ring-locked retinoid 1a has been developed. We fully describe a purification protocol that provides isomerically pure 1a in support of on-going proof of concept studies for the development of therapeutic agents to treat human ADRP. Additionally, we have found that isomerically pure 1a can be stored in amber vials under argon at −20°C for use over time (up to six months) without degradation. Thus, enabling 1a to be an accessible and valuable biological tool.

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