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The current COVID-19 pandemic (https://www.who. int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19%2D%2 D-11-march-2020) has highlighted the importance of science and medicine, specifically public health, in our modern societies. Countries have taken different approaches to the pandemic. Science and medicine will play an important role in our way forward. Specifically, genetics and genomics will be central in discovering variations in virus strains and their impact on patients' susceptibility, progression, and outcome. Additionally, the human and zoonotic hosts' ability to fend off the virus and the severity of disease in patients will have genomic elements. Furthermore, the question of long-term immunity to COVID-19 will likely have a genomic basis which should be investigated. Some of these genetic and genomic investigations will undoubtedly be suitable for publication in Human Genomics. We, therefore, expressly welcome submissions of manuscripts on such subjects to the thematic series on the "Genomics of COVID-19: molecular mechanisms going from susceptibility to severity of the disease." As citizen-scientists, we also have a responsibility toward society as citizens first and foremost but also specifically as scientists working on improving the lives of all humans. Political aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its origins can and should not be ignored as the needs of all humans: rich and poor, various ethnicities, rural vs. urban, different health and political systems, etc. These aspects, if fitting within the scope of the journal, will also be considered for publication in this thematic series in Human Genomic

Important changes are taking place currently regarding the role of ethics in technology, particularly in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. The adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the resolution A/RES/70/1 on September 27th, 2015, entitled "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", better known as "sustainable development goals", is making that different international organizations and countries adopt it as the minimum reference ethical framework for assuring that this revolution in course supports and contributes to achieving these goals. To better understand these changes, it is important to make a historical reference to how technology and the role of ethics have been understood during the past 50 years. In this paper, I take as reference the influential book "The Challenge Presented to Cultures by Science and Technology" (1977) by the Genevan philosopher Jean Ladriére, some ethical proposals made during the '90s, to end with some recent European Union (2019) and World Economic Forum (2018) ethical proposals. I conclude that there are continuities and discontinuities, first in Jean Ladriére's and others' conceptions of science and technology, and how recent proposals approach the issue, and second in the role of ethics in this fascinating and revolutionary process. However, we may envisage a radical transformation of the conception of technology in the context of the worldwide request to shape the fourth industrial revolution. Doi:10.28991/HIJ-2020-01-02-05 Full Text: PDF

Energy transitions are reshaping global and national energy systems and appropriate decision-making strategies are needed to drive an effective change in response to pressing global issues. Governmental institutions, industry, academia, and civil society are all participating to this global change, playing different roles. Open energy models and associated data are essential to promote open science practices, and create an effective science-policy interaction. For example, they can foster multi-disciplinary research addressing the co-evolution of energy technologies and human behaviour more transparently and, more in general, they can improve the interaction of multiple linked models and data, by improving them with respect to the current state of the art. In this paper, we present an analysis of features of open energy models and data, highlighting essential information that can be shared among communities of researchers in the energy field to foster multidisciplinary research. This information inherently embodies different key concepts and perspectives in modelling that affect both simulation and optimization processes employed for energy systems planning, design and operation. Indeed, this shared knowledge is crucial to overcome critical technical issues (e.g. end-use energy efficiency improvements, energy conversion processes, energy infrastructures operation, etc.) that may inhibit successful energy transitions. Finally, ecosystems of interacting open data and models are key assets for the development of next generation energy services and technologies, based on innovative business models in which the problem of monitoring, verifying and tracking performance transparently (at multiple levels) will be fundamental.

This is the final version. Available on open access from the American Physical Society via the DOI in this record ; We study the statistics of work, dissipation, and entropy production of a quantum quasi-isothermal process, where the system remains close to thermal equilibrium along the transformation. We derive a general analytic expression for the work distribution and the cumulant generating function. All work cumulants split into classical (noncoherent) and quantum (coherent) terms, implying that close to equilibrium there are two independent channels of dissipation at all levels of the statistics. For noncoherent or commuting protocols, only the first two cumulants survive, leading to a Gaussian distribution with its first two moments related through the classical fluctuation-dissipation relation. On the other hand, quantum coherence leads to positive skewness and excess kurtosis in the distribution, and we demonstrate that these non-Gaussian effects are a manifestation of asymmetry in relation to the resource theory of thermodynamics. Furthermore, we also show that the noncoherent and coherent contributions to dissipation satisfy independently the Evans-Searles fluctuation theorem, which sets strong bounds on the fluctuations in dissipation, with negative values exponentially suppressed. Our findings are illustrated in a driven two-level system and an Ising chain, where quantum signatures of the work distribution in the macroscopic limit are discussed. ; European Union Horizon 2020 ; Spanish MINECO ; Fundacio Cellex, Generalitat de Catalunya ; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ; Royal Society ; Swiss National Science Foundation

Background There are several standards that offer explicit guidance on good practice in systematic reviews (SRs) for the medical sciences; however, no similarly comprehensive set of recommendations has been published for SRs that focus on human health risks posed by exposure to environmental challenges, chemical or otherwise. Objectives To develop an expert, cross-sector consensus view on a key set of recommended practices for the planning and conduct of SRs in the environmental health sciences. Methods A draft set of recommendations was derived from two existing standards for SRs in biomedicine and developed in a consensus process, which engaged international participation from government, industry, non-government organisations, and academia. The consensus process consisted of a workshop, follow-up webinars, email discussion and bilateral phone calls. Results The Conduct of Systematic Reviews in Toxicology and Environmental Health Research (COSTER) recommendations cover 70 SR practices across eight performance domains. Detailed explanations for specific recommendations are made for those identified by the authors as either being novel to SR in general, specific to the environmental health SR context, or potentially controversial to environmental health SR stakeholders. Discussion COSTER provides a set of recommendations that should facilitate the production of credible, high-value SRs of environmental health evidence, and advance discussion of a number of controversial aspects of conduct of EH SRs. Key recommendations include the management of conflicts of interest, handling of grey literature, and protocol registration and publication. A process for advancing from COSTER's recommendations to developing a formal standard for EH SRs is also indicated.

Background: There are several standards that offer explicit guidance on good practice in systematic reviews (SRs) for the medical sciences; however, no similarly comprehensive set of recommendations has been published for SRs that focus on human health risks posed by exposure to environmental challenges, chemical or otherwise. Objectives: To develop an expert, cross-sector consensus view on a key set of recommended practices for the planning and conduct of SRs in the environmental health sciences. Methods: A draft set of recommendations was derived from two existing standards for SRs in biomedicine and developed in a consensus process, which engaged international participation from government, industry, non-government organisations, and academia. The consensus process consisted of a workshop, follow-up webinars, email discussion and bilateral phone calls. Results: The Conduct of Systematic Reviews in Toxicology and Environmental Health Research (COSTER) recommendations cover 70 SR practices across eight performance domains. Detailed explanations for specific recommendations are made for those identified by the authors as either being novel to SR in general, specific to the environmental health SR context, or potentially controversial to environmental health SR stakeholders. Discussion: COSTER provides a set of recommendations that should facilitate the production of credible, high-value SRs of environmental health evidence, and advance discussion of a number of controversial aspects of conduct of EH SRs. Key recommendations include the management of conflicts of interest, handling of grey literature, and protocol registration and publication. A process for advancing from COSTER's recommendations to developing a formal standard for EH SRs is also indicated.

The modern concept of ideology was established by the liberal politician and philosopher Destutt de Tracy, with the objective of creating an all-embracing and general science of ideas, which followed the sensualist and empiricist trend initiated by Locke that culminated in the positivism of Comte. Natural selection and immunity are two key concepts in the history of biology that were strongly based on the Malthusian concept of struggle for existence. This concept wrongly assumed that population grew faster than the means of existence. This "natural" law contained implicitly the idea that the poor and least gifted would not survive. This idea led to the progressive development of the concept of natural selection, whose definitive version was given by Darwin. Mechnikov took the concepts of struggle for existence and natural selection and conceived infectious diseases as a struggle between a host and its invader, the so-called phagocytosis theory. This theory created the necessity to possess mechanisms to discriminate between the own and the foreign, and led to the conception of the immune self. These concepts were not developed from ideas coming from perceptions or sensations, but from ideas coming from their values: individual interest, inevitable inequality, property, utility and profit. Values are ideals that constitute an ideological matrix which exerts a numinous activity and influence the development of our future actions. In consequence, science and its practice cannot avoid and ignore the values that drive them and impulse them towards certain directions. ; Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo

Introduction.In a research library, researchers are the main players, while . librarians should be the partners in conducting research even though this combination rarely happens. In general, librarians are only involved in a part of research activities as their research assistants to carry out some administrative stuffs, such as distributing questionnaires and sending invitation letters, instead of designing a research plan and/or somequestionnaires or doing data analyses.Data Collection Method. We interviewed librarians in the Center for Political Studies, Research Center for Economic, Center for Science and Technology Development, and Center for Scientific Documentation and Information of Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jakarta.Data Analyses. Data were analyzed using qualitative analysis methods, through the direct interview, where data categorized by using open coding.Results and Discussions.The results stated that 86.7% of respondents had ever been involved in research activities carried out by the research center in the same or different units. From that result, 53.3% respondents ever engaged research activities up to 5 times in a year. In the other hands, librarians who answer conduct independent research and are often involved in the research are 13% respondents. Some recommendations figured out from this research are (1) a librarian could be a plagiarism examiner for a research proposal, (2) a librarian must be literated in information technologies, (3) a librarian should be involved in examining a literature review of the proposal and writing the manuscripts.Conclusions.The role of a librarian is not just as a research assistant or a data collector but as a research buddy who could help addressing some documentative problems.

The Regional Election Commission has the responsibility to increase the participation of disabled voters in local legislative elections. Democratic elections at the local level are characterized by the enthusiasm of disability voters in the election. The purpose of this paper is to map out legislation on the protection and respect of disability voters, to explore some of the constraints facing electoral voters in the election, and to examine the policies and obstacles faced by the The Regional Election Commission in an effort to increase voter participation in disability. This study uses socio-legal research methods, ie research that is interdisciplinary to provide a meeting room between the science of law and the sciences outside the law. The results show that, there are international law and national laws. Barriers facing disability voters include: theoretically there is no uniformity about the disability study; the culture of the people who tend to stigmatize the bad, not counting the right to vote; lack of accurate data of disability voters. The policies made by the The Regional Election Commission in increasing the participation of disability voters are: to implement Article 1 number 25 and Article 149 of Law No. 8 of 2012 on General Election of Members of DPR, DPD and DPRD. While the obstacles, namely: the weakness of family and community awareness; lack of human resources capacity of voter registration officers and data on the List of Potential Voters of Electoral Residents (DP4) does not mention information about disability.

The paper is written as a part of project 'The Trojan Catalogue (Hom. Il. 2.816-877) and the Peoples of western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. A Study of the Homeric Text in the Light of Hittite Sources and Classical Geographical Tradition' (2015/19/P/HS3/04161), which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665778 with the National Science Centre, Poland. ; The topic of the present contribution is two ethnic terms of likely Aegean origin specified in the title, which appear, in different guises, in written sources of the late 2nd and early 1st millennium BC across the entire Eastern Mediterranean, from Egypt in the South to the Levant to Cilicia in the North (besides the Aegean itself). 1 My discussion of them will be, however, not quite the same. As for the first one, Ahhiyawa or Hiyawa, I will summarize the recent discussion revolving around recognition of this name in the Hieroglyphic-Luwian inscription KARATEPE, adding some details and placing it in a more general historical context. The second and central part of the paper will concern Danu(na), in which a full linguistic reassessment of this term and a revision of different sources which mention it will be offered. The third part will discuss the distinction between the two terms, also touching upon the problem of ethnolinguistic boundaries in Late Bronze Age Greece. ; Narodowe Centrum Nauki / National Science Centre

This paper provides a summary of key reports and papers published by UK HE sector organisations between February and August 2017. The organisations featured are: Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC); Department for Education (DfE); Equality Challenge Unit (ECU); Government Office for Science (GO-Science); Higher Education Academy (HEA); Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE); Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI); Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA); Institute for Employment Studies (IES); Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); Jisc; Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (LFHE); National Union of Students (NUS); Office for Fair Access (OFFA); Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA); Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA); Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS); UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO); Unite Students; Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA); Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA); Universities UK (UUK); and Universities UK International (UUKi). The election manifestoes of the major political parties in England are also featured in this paper. The themes covered in this paper include: the UK general election; the Higher Education and Research Act 2017; student expectations and experiences; student complaints; the Teaching Excellence Framework; learning gain; quality assurance; accelerated degrees; degree apprenticeships; credit transfer; supporting transition; equality and diversity; student wellbeing; students and public engagement; technology-enhanced learning and digital capability; The Smith Review (of post-16 mathematics education); employability and graduate outcomes; internationalisation (including outward mobility and transnational education); and the HE workforce.

Tuning and stabilizing topological states, such as Weyl semimetals, Dirac semimetals or topological insulators, is emerging as one of the major topics in materials science. Periodic driving of many-body systems offers a platform to design Floquet states of matter with tunable electronic properties on ultrafast timescales. Here we show by first principles calculations how femtosecond laser pulses with circularly polarized light can be used to switch between Weyl semimetal, Dirac semimetal and topological insulator states in a prototypical three-dimensional (3D) Dirac material, Na3Bi. Our findings are general and apply to any 3D Dirac semimetal. We discuss the concept of time-dependent bands and steering of Floquet-Weyl points and demonstrate how light can enhance topological protection against lattice perturbations. This work has potential practical implications for the ultrafast switching of materials properties, such as optical band gaps or anomalous magnetoresistance. ; We acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC-2015-AdG-694097), Grupos Consolidados (IT578-13), Spanish grant (FIS2013-46159-C3-1-P), AFOSR Grant No FA2386-15-1-0006 AOARD 144088, COST Action MP1306 (EUSpec). H.H. acknowledges support from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF project No. 622934. A.F.K. thanks the Aspen Center for Physics (supported by National Science Foundation grant PHY-1066293) for their hospitality during part of this work. M.A.S. acknowledges support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the Emmy Noether programme. ; Peer Reviewed

11 págs.; 9 figs.; 1 app. ; Typical device architectures in polymer-based optoelectronic devices, such as field effect transistors organic light emitting diodes and photovoltaic cells include sub-100 nm semiconducting polymer thin-film active layers, whose microstructure is likely to be subject to finite-size effects. The aim of this study was to investigate effect of the two-dimensional spatial confinement on the internal structure of the semiconducting polymer poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO). PFO melts were confined inside the cylindrical nanopores of anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) templates and crystallized via two crystallization strategies, namely, in the presence or in the absence of a surface bulk reservoir located at the template surface. We show that highly textured semiconducting nanowires with tuneable crystal orientation can be thus produced. The results presented here demonstrate the simple fabrication and crystal engineering of ordered arrays of PFO nanowires; a system with potential applications in devices where anisotropic optical properties are required, such as polarized electroluminescence, waveguiding, optical switching and lasing. ; Jaime Martín acknowledges support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant, agreement No 654682.The work has been partially supported under a KAUST Global Collaborative Research Academic Excellence Alliance (AEA) grant. This work is based upon research conducted at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) which is supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences under NSF award DMR-1332208. ; Peer Reviewed

In the educational system, programme evaluation is an important component for quality assurance. Evaluation in open and distance learning is undertaken to guide decision-makers, programme leaders and programme coordinators, with an overall aim of improving processes and service delivery in order to achieve stakeholder satisfaction. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to evaluate the BSc Nursing Science Programme from the employer's perspective. Purpose of the study was to gain some insight into performance of the Zimbabwe Open University BSc graduates as they operated in the various fields of health care. A purposive sample of 48 respondents was drawn from a population of all employers in health institutions in the ten regions of Zimbabwe, who occupied senior positions in their institutions. Questionnaires were distributed to stakeholders who had interacted with ZOU graduates and the BSc. Nursing Science learning materials. Comparisons were made on the graduates' performance before, during training and after graduating. Data were analysed using SPSS and results presented in cross tabulations and bar graphs. Demographic data of respondents is presented in Section 'A'. General performance and performance levels in the various areas of care are summarized in Section 'B'. Information on the quality of modules is presented in Section 'C' of the results. More females participated in the research. Seventy five percent worked in government institutions. Major highligts of the findings indicated that ZOU graduates performed favourably compared to their counter-parts who trained at conventional institutions. However, some gaps in terms of the need to strengthen hands on experience were highlighted.

China's Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2011–2015) aims to achieve a national carbon intensity reduction of 17 % through differentiated targets at the provincial level. Allocating the national target among China's provinces is complicated by the fact that more than half of China's national carbon emissions are embodied in interprovincial trade, with the relatively developed eastern provinces relying on the center and west for energy-intensive imports. This study develops a consistent methodology to adjust regional emissions-intensity targets for trade-related emissions transfers and assesses its economic effects on China's provinces using a regional computable-general-equilibrium (CGE) model of the Chinese economy. This study finds that in 2007 China's eastern provinces outsource 14 % of their territorial emissions to the central and western provinces. Adjusting the provincial targets for those emissions transfers increases the reduction burden for the eastern provinces by 60 %, while alleviating the burden for the central and western provinces by 50 % each. The CGE analysis indicates that this adjustment could double China's national welfare loss compared to the homogenous and politics-based distribution of reduction targets. A shared-responsibility approach that balances production-based and consumption-based emissions responsibilities is found to alleviate those unbalancing effects and lead to a more equal distribution of economic burden among China's provinces. ; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change MIT Energy Initiative ; China. Ministry of Science and Technology ; China. National Development and Reform Commission ; Rio Tinto (Group)