Pharmacogenetics and uncertainty: implications for policy makers

Uncertainty for policy makers is not new but the pressure to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty is perhaps greater than ever. The arrival of new scientific developments such as pharmacogenetics offers potentially great benefits (as well as significant risks). They have passionate supporters as well as doubters. The evidence is often extensive but unclear and policy makers may find themselves under pressure to make decisions before they feel that the evidence is compelling. The UK is particularly well placed to play a leading role in the development of pharmacogenetics and is equally well placed to derive the benefits to both health and wealth that could flow from this. However, the uncertainties threaten to overwhelm the capacity of policy makers to act effectively. The uncertainties are both about the context within which the science and delivery of pharmacogenetics is being developed and about the interests that could be served. This paper maps these uncertainties and concludes with some suggestions, drawing on deliberative democracy and futures thinking, as to how policy makers might manage the tensions and dilemmas they face by moving from an unstable, emergent policy arena to a more stable one.     

Making predictive ecology more relevant to policy makers and practitioners

One of the aims of ecology is to aid policy makers and practitioners through the development of testable predictions of relevance to society. Here, we argue that this capacity can be improved in three ways. Firstly, by thinking more clearly about the priority issues using a range of methods including horizon scanning, identifying policy gaps, identifying priority questions and using evidence-based conservation to identify knowledge gaps. Secondly, by linking ecological models with models of other systems, such as economic and social models. Thirdly, by considering alternative approaches to generate and model data that use, for example, discrete or categorical states to model ecological systems. We particularly highlight that models are essential for making predictions. However, a key to the limitation in their use is the degree to which ecologists are able to communicate results to policy makers in a clear, useful and timely fashion.     

What many transgender activists don't want you to know: and why you should know it anyway

Currently the predominant cultural understanding of male-to-female transsexualism is that all male-to-female (MtF) transsexuals are, essentially, women trapped in men's bodies. This understanding has little scientific basis, however, and is inconsistent with clinical observations. Ray Blanchard has shown that there are two distinct subtypes of MtF transsexuals. Members of one subtype, homosexual transsexuals, are best understood as a type of homosexual male. The other subtype, autogynephilic transsexuals, are motivated by the erotic desire to become women. The persistence of the predominant cultural understanding, while explicable, is damaging to science and to many transsexuals.     

What philosophy of biology should be

This paper reviews Rosenberg’s and McShea’s textbook in philosophy of biology, entitled Philosophy of Biology. A Contemporary Introduction. I insist on the excellent quality of this textbook, then I turn to more critical comments, which deal mainly with what philosophy of biology is, and what it should be.     

Correlates of immune protection in HIV-1 infection: what we know, what we don't know, what we should know

The field of vaccinology began in ignorance of how protection was instilled in vaccine recipients. Today, a greater knowledge of immunology allows us to better understand what is being stimulated by various vaccines that leads to their protective effects: that is, their correlates of protection. Here we describe what is known about the correlates of protection for existing vaccines against a range of different viral diseases and discuss the correlates of protection against disease during natural infection with HIV-1. We will also discuss why it is important to design phase 3 clinical trials of HIV vaccines to determine the correlates of protection for each individual vaccine.     

Network policy aware placement of tasks for elastic applications in IaaS-cloud environment

Cluster Computing - Using cloud computing as a base, new technologies like data analytics, Internet of Things, machine learning etc., have emerged. Applications that use these technologies, depend...