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Preparing students to be critical thinkers and effective communicators is essential in today's multinational and technologically sophisticated environment. New electronic technologies provide opportunities for creating learning environments that extend the possibilities of "old" but still essential technologies: books, blackboards, and linear, one-way communication media. Such technologies contribute to engagement and meaningful learning in the higher education sector. Greater understanding in educational psychology and the effectiveness of educational interventions has motivated the development of various student-centred pedagogies (e.g. Problem-Based Learning [PBL]) addressing perceived shortcomings of traditional didactic instruction. PBL as a pedagogy promotes meaningful learning due largely to its power to stimulate critical, reflective and creative thinking. Can teaching staff, then, adopt technology-based approaches to create multi-disciplinary interactive PBL environments that enhance learning and excite students, inspiring them to take ownership of their own education? This paper presents a cross-case analysis of four cases that explore how classroom-based learning activities have been transferred to online formats in universities to improve critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and other learning attributes across a range of disciplines.

The potential of the World Wide Web for rapid global communication is driving the creation of specifically tailored courses for employees, yet few practitioners have the necessary experience in on-line teaching methods, or in preparing documents for the web. Experience gained in developing six online training modules for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry sectors is informing the development by a partnership of academics and practitioners of seven online modules that will meet requirements for continuing professional development in the health sector. This paper highlights lessons for success.

Societal Impact Statement: The contentious debate over genetically modified (GM) crops in Britain has entered a new era following Brexit and the development of gene editing. At the same time, the events of the 1980s and 1990s are now entering historical archives, including the GM Archive at the Science Museum in London. This article explores how fears of unnaturalness and arguments from historical continuity informed the British GM controversy. It also analyses the limitations of these modern archives. The concerns surrounding the naturalness and continuity of biotechnology have recently been resurrected following suggestions that gene editing will be employed in plant breeding. Summary: This research examines the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops to Britain, including the backlash from environmentalist groups and the public that led to a de facto government moratorium on their commercialisation in 1998.Harnessing archival materials from the Science Museum's GM Archive, this paper shows that GM was viewed as an alien or unnatural technology in Britain, while campaigns from Monsanto and scientific supporters of GM attempted to show how recombinant DNA technology was simply the latest step in a long history of plant breeding.By moving outside the archive, it becomes clear that the creation of this narrative from continuity was a standard industry strategy. Appeals to the history of plant breeding was a strategy adopted by Monsanto well before the British GM controversy, while twentieth‐century food scares had already undermined public trust in government and industry.Public concern over the naturalness of biotechnology remains. Meanwhile, contemporary advocates of gene editing have begun to make similar arguments to those deployed in the 1990s, highlighting the similarity of gene editing to natural variation and selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a longitudinal case study in UK biotechnology covering some 30 years during which genomic technologies were introduced into pig breeding. This case study demonstrates how co-innovation involving existing small and medium sized enterprises, together with contributions from academics, has enabled companies to obtain the resources needed for value creation. Important contributions at critical junctures from public funding, pivotal contributions of individuals, and entry of new enterprises supplying essential resources, have enabled the fruitful realisation of new value creation. This paper contributes to the literature by taking a historical perspective, demonstrating how enabling long-term networking relationships including relevant academics, research institutions, funders and knowledge brokers has the potential to generate an innovation ecosystem that can respond effectively to a range of external challenges and take advantage of new techno-scientific opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: When new technologies are developed, it is common for their crime and security implications to be overlooked or given inadequate attention, which can lead to a 'crime harvest'. Potential methods for the criminal exploitation of biotechnology need to be understood to assess their impact, evaluate current policies and interventions and inform the allocation of limited resources efficiently. Recent studies have illustrated some of the security implications of biotechnology, with outcomes of misuse ranging from compromised computers using malware stored in synthesised DNA, infringement of intellectual property on biological matter, synthesis of new threatening viruses, 'genetic genocide,' and the exploitation of food markets with genetically modified crops. However, there exists no synthesis of this information, and no formal quality assessment of the current evidence. This review therefore aims to establish what current and/or predicted crimes have been reported as a result of biotechnology. Methods: A systematic review will be conducted to identify relevant literature. ProQuest, Web of Science, MEDLINE and USENIX will be searched utilizing a predefined search string, and Backward and Forward searches. Grey literature will be identified by searching the official UK Government website (www.gov.uk) and the Global database of Dissertations and Theses. The review will be conducted by screening title/abstracts followed by full texts, utilising pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Papers will be managed using Eppi-center Reviewer 4 software, and data will be organised using a data extraction table using a descriptive coding tool. A predefined rating system (speculative, experimental or currently occurring) will be used to sort studies, and a thematic synthesis of the results will be presented. Discussion: Despite the concerns raised about the misuse of biotechnology, no previous work has been conducted from a Crime Science perspective to collate and assess the literature. This systematic review aims to identify the types of offending activity facilitated by biotechnology, including synthetic biology and genetic engineering. The objective of the review is to examine whether this offending activity can be prevented by assessing the conditions necessary for the crime events to occur. It is anticipated that evidence generated from this review will guide future research in this area and aid relevant stakeholders to prioritise and allocate limited resources to biotechnology crime prevention. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42019131685 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Debate is intensifying about how to assess the full range of impacts from medical research. Complexity increases when assessing the diverse funding streams of funders such as Asthma UK, a charitable patient organisation supporting medical research to benefit people with asthma. This paper aims to describe the various impacts identified from a range of Asthma UK research, and explore how Asthma UK utilised the characteristics of successful funding approaches to inform future research strategies. Methods: We adapted the Payback Framework, using it both in a survey and to help structure interviews, documentary analysis, and case studies. We sent surveys to 153 lead researchers of projects, plus 10 past research fellows, and also conducted 14 detailed case studies. These covered nine projects and two fellowships, in addition to the innovative case studies on the professorial chairs (funded since 1988) and the MRC-Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma (the 'Centre') which together facilitated a comprehensive analysis of the whole funding portfolio. We organised each case study to capture whatever academic and wider societal impacts (or payback) might have arisen given the diverse timescales, size of funding involved, and extent to which Asthma UK funding contributed to the impacts. Results: Projects recorded an average of four peer-reviewed journal articles. Together the chairs reported over 500 papers. All streams of funding attracted follow-on funding. Each of the various categories of societal impacts arose from only a minority of individual projects and fellowships. Some of the research portfolio is influencing asthmarelated clinical guidelines, and some contributing to product development. The latter includes potentially major breakthroughs in asthma therapies (in immunotherapy, and new inhaled drugs) trialled by university spin-out companies. Such research-informed guidelines and medicines can, in turn, contribute to health improvements. The role of the chairs and the pioneering collaborative Centre is shown as being particularly important. Conclusions: We systematically demonstrate that all types of Asthma UK's research funding assessed are making impacts at different levels, but the main societal impacts from projects and fellowships come from a minority of those funded. Asthma UK used the study's findings, especially in relation to the Centre, to inform research funding strategies to promote the achievement of impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the philosophical substructure to the theoretical conflicts that permeate contemporary mental health care in the UK. Theoretical conflicts are treated here as those that arise among practitioners holding divergent theoretical orientations towards the phenomena being treated. Such conflicts, although steeped in history, have become revitalized by recent attempts at integrating mental health services that have forced diversely trained practitioners to work collaboratively together, often under one roof. Part I of this paper examines how the history of these conflicts can be understood as a tension between, on the one hand, the medical model and its use by the dominant profession of psychiatry, and on the other, those alternative models and practitioners in some way differentiated from the medical model camp. Examples will be given from recent policy and research to highlight the prevalence of this tension in contemporary practice. Part II of this paper explores the deeper commonalities that lay beneath the theoretical conflict outlined in Part I. These commonalities will be shown to be apart of a captivating framework that has continued to grip the conflict since its inception. By exposing this underlying framework-and the motivations inherent therein-the topic of integration appears in wholly different light, allowing a renewed philosophical basis for integration to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Stem cells are at the forefront of hopes for developing treatments for a range of serious diseases. The sources of those stem cells can be controversial, particularly for embryonic stem cell lines. Increasingly parents are opting to collect umbilical cord blood shortly after delivery of the baby, some to satisfy a current treatment need for stem cells and others to ‘future-proof’ their families and themselves against possible disease and preserving for themselves a potentially potent resource for future regenerative treatments. The author reviews recent and forthcoming changes in regulation of this area, potential legal problems and the implications of compliance for biotech companies within the field or who have current treatments which may benefit from collaboration with those who are in the field. The paper looks at, in particular, the legal position in the UK, and issues relating to, for example, ownership of cord blood deposits and anonymity of deposits.Journal of Commercial Biotechnology (2009) 15, 236–244. doi:10.1057/jcb.2008.46; published online 11 November 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternatives to donor blood have been developed in part to meet increasing demand. However, new biotechnologies are often associated with increased perceptions of risk and low acceptance. This paper reviews developments of alternatives and presents data, from a field-based experiment in the UK and Holland, on the risks and acceptance of donor blood and alternatives (chemical, genetically modified and bovine). UK groups perceived all substitutes as riskier than the Dutch. There is a negative association between perceived risk and acceptability. Solutions to increasing acceptance are discussed in terms of implicit attitudes, product naming and emotional responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transferring knowledge on new biotechnology applications in the European Union is restricted by limited public support. Explanations for this limited support lead us to examine the influence of knowledge and beliefs in shifting attitudes towards the uncertain consequences of unknown technologies. In addition, this paper looks at the role of perceptions of uncertainty as well as information channels. We denote as “knowledgeable” those attitudes that are held by informed individuals and as “rational irrational” those attitudes purely reflecting political and moral beliefs. The empirical analysis employs data from a UK sample of the 1999 Eurobarometer Survey 52.1. Results suggest that improving knowledge systematically raises individual support for clinical biotech applications such as animal cloning, while attitudes towards market-oriented biotech such as GM food remain systematically unaltered. When controlling for knowledge, significant factors within information channels were gender, perceptions of risk and, in certain applications, religiosity. Findings also support the hypothesis that knowledge driven attitudes arise from those applications where knowledge is shifted by perceived experience and thus perceived information costs are small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in growth patterns between regional clusters are often attributed to the extent to which they benefit from agglomeration, defined as the advantages that derive from being proximately located with other companies and institutions in the same industry. Foremost among these supply-side externalities are the knowledge ‘spillover’ effects that can result from firms interacting extensively in both horizontal (complementary equivalent firms) and vertical (value chain) directions. The paper presents evidence from two surveys, one national and one regionally based, of networking patterns in UK biotechnology, focusing on how firms engage with other small firms, with large pharmaceuticals, and with research centres, and how far these interactions are regional, national or international in character. It suggests that where companies do collaborate, there is a tendency for the intensity of activity to increase as the location of the partner moves from the local to the international space. We evaluate the obvious interpretation that local linkages may be satisfactory for idea generation and early product development, but that national and international connections are more important for manufacturing, marketing and distribution activities. However, we conclude that a broader set of largely industry factors account for the networking patterns – namely, the science-technology base, research funding, firms' business models, and competitor strategies in evolving markets – and that these matter more to clustered UK biotechnology firms than the cluster itself. These findings suggest a rethinking of cluster policy and the theoretical basis for clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monoclonal antibodies played a key role in the development of the biotechnology industry of the 1980s and 1990s. Investments in the sector and commercial returns have rivaled those of recombinant DNA technologies. Although the monoclonal antibody technology was first developed in Britain, the first patents were taken out by American scientists. During the first Thatcher government in Britain, blame for the missed opportunity fell on the scientists involved as well as on the National Research and Development Corporation, which had been put in place after World War II to avoid a repeat of the penicillin story, when patent rights were not sought. Instead of apportioning the blame, this essay suggests that despite past experiences and despite the new channels that were in place, Britain was not in a "patent culture" in the 1970s. It traces the long and painful process that made a commercial attitude among publicly funded British research scientists and in a civil service institution like the Medical Research Council both possible and desirable. In this process the meaning of the term "public science" also changed dramatically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intention of this paper is to investigate whether market-related factors have a stronger influence on the strategic decision making of ventures in "liberal market economies" than on that of their counterparts in "coordinated economies." Thereby, I focus on a particularly important strategic decision that firms face-the commercialization choice. Using a unique survey data set on the commercialization of British and German biotechnology firms, I analyze the determinants of commercialization strategy, paying particular attention to national idiosyncrasies. Together, the findings indicate that the commercialization strategy follows distinct patterns in the British "liberal market economy" and the German "coordinated economy." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public interest in assisted reproduction (AR) has remained high since the birth of the first 'test tube baby' in the United Kingdom in 1978. Australian scientists have been frontrunners in the development and implementation of reproductive technology and recently, there has been renewed debate about government funding and access to AR. This paper provides a timely overview of reproductive technology services in Australia and examines the body of social research on the impacts of this technology, particularly previous research on how women and their partners experience assisted reproduction procedures. The popular expectations of success are compared to the latest success rates. It is argued that there is a need for more social research to counterbalance the dominance of the biomedical aspects of AR, in particular, for more research into people's actual experiences of AR, expectations of the likelihood of success, access issues and on the general impact of involuntary childlessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the executive board of the Research Councils U.K. (RCUK), an umbrella organization for government funding bodies in Great Britain, has approved that all peer-reviewed journal papers produced by publicly funded research must be made available for free soon after they're completed. But the RCUK left each research council to set its own rules. The most stringent policy came from the Medical Research Council. The council declared that any papers accepted by a peer-reviewed journal must be deposited at the earliest in the PubMed Central , the free public archive run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. However the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council adopted a softer line. It maintained that papers should be submitted only at the earliest opportunity and placed in a proper e-print repository.

In October 2015 the UK enacted legislation to permit the clinical use of two cutting edge germline-altering, IVF-based embryonic techniques: pronuclear transfer and maternal spindle transfer (PNT and MST). The aim is to use these techniques to prevent the maternal transmission of serious mitochondrial diseases. Major claims have been made about the quality of the debates that preceded this legislation and the significance of those debates for UK decision-making on other biotechnologies, as well as for other countries considering similar legislation. In this article we conduct a systematic analysis of those UK debates and suggest that claims about their quality are over-stated. We identify, and analyse in detail, ten areas where greater clarity, depth and nuance would have produced sharper understandings of the contributions, limitations and wider social impacts of these mitochondrial interventions. We explore the implications of these additional considerations for (i) the protection of all parties involved, should the techniques transfer to clinical applications; (ii) the legitimacy of focussing on short-term gains for individuals over public health considerations, and (iii) the maintenance and improvement of public trust in medical biotechnologies. We conclude that a more measured evaluation of the content and quality of the UK debates is important and timely: such a critique provides a clearer understanding of the possible, but specific, contributions of these interventions, both in the UK and elsewhere; also, these additional insights can now inform the emerging processes of implementation, regulation and practice of mitochondrial interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the book "The Dynamics of Industrial Clustering: International Comparisons in Computing and Biotechnology," edited by G.M. Swann, Martha Prevezer and David Stout. The book contains nine papers that analyze the dynamics of industrial clustering in high-technology industries. One of the article surveys the literature on clusters, innovation and growth. Swann describes the model of clustering in high-technology industries to he used in the following studies and examines clusters in the U.S. computing industry. In another article clustering in Great Britain computing with the pattern observed in the United States is compared.

Background: Food and drink are important determinants of physical and social health in care home residents. This study explored whether a pragmatic methodology including routinely collected data was feasible in UK care homes, to describe the health, wellbeing and nutritional status of care home residents and assess effects of changed provision of food and drink at three care homes on residents' falls (primary outcome), anaemia, weight, dehydration, cognitive status, depression, lipids and satisfaction with food and drink provision. Methods: We measured health, wellbeing and nutritional status of 120 of 213 residents of six care homes in Norfolk, UK. An intervention comprising improved dining atmosphere, greater food choice, extended restaurant hours, and readily available snacks and drinks machines was implemented in three care homes. Three control homes maintained their previous system. Outcomes were assessed in the year before and the year after the changes. Results: Use of routinely collected data was partially successful, but loss to follow up and levels of missing data were high, limiting power to identify trends in the data. This was a frail older population (mean age 87, 71% female) with multiple varied health problems. During the first year 60% of residents had one or more falls, 40% a wound care visit, and 40% a urinary tract infection. 45% were on diuretics, 24% antidepressants, and 43% on psychotropic medication. There was a slight increase in falls from year 1 to year 2 in the intervention homes, and a much bigger increase in control homes, leading to a statistically non-significant 24% relative reduction in residents' rate of falls in intervention homes compared with control homes (adjusted rate ratio 0.76, 95% CI 0.57 to 1.02, p = 0.06). Conclusions: Care home residents are frail and experience multiple health risks. This intervention to improve food and drink provision was well received by residents, but effects on health indicators (despite the relative reduction in falls rate) were inconclusive, partly due to problems with routine data collection and loss to follow up. Further research with more homes is needed to understand which, if any, components of the intervention may be successful. Trial registration: Trial registration: ISRCTN86057119. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leading universities around the world are addressing the demand for science-business-skilled professionals with a variety of novel programmes. The University of Cambridge (the United Kingdom) and University of Auckland (New Zealand) have each developed a Master's in Bioscience Enterprise programme providing specialist business and legal skills relevant to employment in the bio-economy. The biotechnology contexts in which these programmes were developed are significantly different and are reflected in the internship choices, thesis topics and postgraduate employment opportunities. In each case, industry feedback has been excellent to date as evidenced by the increasing engagements of companies in these programmes.Journal of Commercial Biotechnology (2009) 15, 257–271; doi:10.1057/jcb.2008.54; published online 17 December 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the economy has globalized, it has also regionalized, which has led to the integration of different spaces across different scales. A number of theories contend that the endogenous assets of these locations provide them with the means to compete in this globalizing economy, especially in relation to knowledge- based sectors like biotechnology. Among these theories, the cluster concept stands out. However, there is little support for the arguments that local linkages are the central contributors to innovation. Extralocal linkages have also been highlighted, suggesting that other theories that account for these linkages may prove useful in the discussion of knowledge-based sectors, in general, and biotechnology, in particular. One such theory is the concept of global commodity chains, which explicitly concerns the interconnections within and across different geographic scales. As yet it has seldom been applied to the biotechnology industry. This article uses the approach to explore the U.K. biotechnology industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xenotransplantation - the transfer of living tissue between species - has long been heralded as a potential solution to the severe organ shortage crisis experienced by the United Kingdom and other ‘developed’ nations. However, the significant risks which accompany this biotechnology led the United Kingdom to adopt a cautious approach to its regulation, with the establishment of a non-departmental public body - UKXIRA - to oversee the development of this technology on a national basis. In December 2006 UKXIRA was quietly disbanded and replaced with revised guidance, which entrusts the regulation of xenotransplantation largely to research ethics committees. In this article we seek to problematize this new regulatory framework, arguing that specialist expertise and national oversight are necessary components of an adequate regulatory framework for a biotechnology which poses new orders of risk, challenges the adequacy of traditional understandings of autonomy and consent, and raises significant animal welfare concerns. We argue for a more considered and holistic approach, based on adequate consultation, to regulating biotechnological developments in the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study that analyzed the principles built up by courts in Great Britain concerning liability issues in biotechnology contracts. Discussion on the principles behind exemption clauses; Factors that affect the limitation of liability; Strategies to avoid some pitfalls that many contracting parties encounter when dealing with liability issues.

The article focuses on the warm reception given by the life sciences industry people to United Kingdom finance minister George Osborne for facilitating access to UK National Health Services (NHS) resources. It cites UK BioIndustry Association chief executive Nigel Gaymond welcoming the "Plan for Growth" of the government outlining current economic policy objectives and availability of funding. It also mentions measures for improving access to NHS, decreasing bureaucracy and promoting an efficient clinical trial regulatory environment.