Nanoscale diamond has recently received considerable attention due to the various possible applications such as luminescence imaging, drug delivery, quantum engineering, surface coatings, seeding ...etc. For most of these fields a suitable surface termination and functionalization of the diamond materials are required. In this feature article we discuss recent achievements in the field of surface modification of nanoscale diamond including the establishment of a homogeneous initial surface termination, the covalent and non‐covalent immobilization of different functional moieties as well as the subsequent grafting of larger (bio)molecules onto previously functionalized nanodiamond.
Surface chemistry on nanodiamond has developed into a field in its own right in recent years. The large variety of possible functionalization reactions on the surface of this purportedly inert material is presented. These modifications enable the application of nanodiamond in areas such as bioimaging, composites, or quantum engineering.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Achieving the goal of sustainability requires understanding and management of unprecedented and interconnected challenges. A transdisciplinary approach is a key component of sustainability science. ...However, there are considerable barriers to implementing transdisciplinary projects. We undertake a mixed quantitative and qualitative analysis of peer-reviewed sustainability science studies where the transdisciplinary approach has been applied. We assess the growth and scientific impact of transdisciplinary sustainability research, the methods used and how three key characteristics of transdisciplinarity research—process phases, knowledge types and the intensity of involvement of practitioners—are implemented. While transdisciplinary research is growing there is no common glossary, no focused communication platform and no commonly shared research framework. Transdisciplinary research utilizes a broad, but not clearly defined, set of methods for knowledge production. While the intensity of practitioner involvement varied within the case studies analyzed, very few realized empowerment. Based on our review of transdisciplinary case study papers we conclude that transdisciplinary research must be clearly framed, including the use of a common terminology and the development of a broad suite of appropriate methods. Despite the challenges highlighted here, science needs to move beyond classical disciplinary approaches and should consider interdisciplinary work that engages with practitioners to achieve sustainable transitions.
•We reviewed peer-reviewed publications of transdisciplinary sustainability science.•Advocated ‘best practice’ is not followed in applied transdisciplinary literature.•Methods are independent of the transdisciplinary process phases and knowledge types.•Scientists and practitioners exchange knowledge but stakeholder empowerment is rare.•Scientists and practitioners must take responsibility to tackle real world problems.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Transitions towards sustainability are urgently needed to address the interconnected challenges of economic development, ecological integrity, and social justice, from local to global scales. Around ...the world, collaborative science-society initiatives are forming to conduct experiments in support of sustainability transitions. Such experiments, if carefully designed, provide significant learning opportunities for making progress on transition efforts. Yet, there is no broadly applicable evaluative scheme available to capture this critical information across a large number of cases, and to guide the design of transition experiments. To address this gap, the article develops such a scheme, in a tentative form, drawing on evaluative research and sustainability transitions scholarship, alongside insights from empirical cases. We critically discuss the scheme's key features of being generic, comprehensive, operational, and formative. Furthermore, we invite scholars and practitioners to apply, reflect and further develop the proposed tentative scheme – making evaluation and experiments objects of learning.
•A tentative scheme is presented to evaluate sustainability transition experiments.•The scheme is applicable to different types of sustainability transition experiments.•The scheme comprehensively captures the outcomes, inputs and mediating attributes.•It is ready to be applied including guidance for specifying it to particular cases.•It supports experiments in becoming more effective and efficient via reflection and learning.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Drawing boundaries in federal systems is often a practical and constitutional challenge for public finance and the delivery of higher education. This paper studies arrangements between national and ...provincial governments as they affect post-secondary performance in Canada. The study investigates several categories of interaction between levels of government: transfer payments, student financial aid, research infrastructure, tax credits and policy, and philanthropy, accountability, and student accessibility. The study concludes that the interface between federal and provincial policy, although messy and improvable, divides mainly along lines between fiscal practice and programme delivery. The scale of public investment in higher education usually divides equally between federal contributions, which, except for research, are in most respects indirect, and provincial contributions, which are direct. Because provinces control tuition fees, the balance of total spending falls to them. Policies about quality, accessibility, affordability, and programme delivery reside with the provinces and their political priorities. Both levels of government are concerned about human capital formation and the role of higher education in economic growth but take different approaches. It is in this area that the federal-provincial interface is most problematic, and points to a problem endemic to the Canadian model of fiscal federalism.
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CEKLJ, DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The sustainability challenges the world faces today call for concerted and immediate action. Complementing problem-oriented, descriptive-analytical research with solution-oriented research could ...strengthen sustainability science's contribution to address these challenges. We introduce different types of solution-oriented sustainability research to structure the discourse, outline opportunities to advance this research trajectory, and close with recommendations on how to support particularly students and early career researchers in getting involved with solution-oriented sustainability research.
Despite substantial focus on sustainability issues in both science and politics, humanity remains on largely unsustainable development trajectories. Partly, this is due to the failure of ...sustainability science to engage with the root causes of unsustainability. Drawing on ideas by Donella Meadows, we argue that many sustainability interventions target highly tangible, but essentially weak, leverage points (i.e. using interventions that are easy, but have limited potential for transformational change). Thus, there is an urgent need to focus on less obvious but potentially far more powerful areas of intervention. We propose a research agenda inspired by systems thinking that focuses on transformational 'sustainability interventions', centred on three realms of leverage: reconnecting people to nature, restructuring institutions and rethinking how knowledge is created and used in pursuit of sustainability. The notion of leverage points has the potential to act as a boundary object for genuinely transformational sustainability science.
Scholars, politicians, practitioners, and civil society increasingly call for sustainability transformations to cope with urgent social and environmental challenges. In sustainability transformations ...research, understandings of transformations are often dominated by Western scientific knowledge. Through a systematic literature review, we investigated how indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) is represented in peer-reviewed empirical scientific papers that apply ILK in contexts of transformation, transition, and change. Our results show, first, that all papers applied ILK to confirm and complement scientific knowledge in contexts of environmental, climate, social-ecological, and species change. Only four papers (5%) applied ILK to conduct research on transformations. Second, we identified four research clusters that apply ILK in contexts of transformation, transition, or change in (1) Arctic, (2) terrestrial, (3) coastal, and (4) grass and rangelands environments. These clusters are located along two axes: tropic to Arctic and marine to terrestrial. Finally, our results indicate that indigenous and local understandings of transformations are currently neglected in the scholarly transformations discourse. The reviewed papers do not focus on how indigenous peoples and local communities understand transformations, instead they focus on what changes indigenous peoples and local communities observe and describe, resulting from their daily experiences and activities. We argue that because of its in-depth local, place-based character, ILK can substantially contribute to a more plural understanding of transformations and the assessment of transformative change. We conclude that future research needs to investigate how to gain a more plural understanding of transformations that leads potentially to more inclusive actions toward more just, equitable, and sustainable futures on a local and global level.
A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed to compare nanosilver T-shirts with conventional T-shirts with and without biocidal treatment. For nanosilver production and textile ...incorporation, we investigate two processes: flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) and plasma polymerization with silver co-sputtering (PlaSpu). Prospective environmental impacts due to increased nanosilver T-shirt commercialization are estimated with six scenarios. Results show significant differences in environmental burdens between nanoparticle production technologies: The “cradle-to-gate” climate footprint of the production of a nanosilver T-shirt is 2.70 kg of CO2-equiv (FSP) and 7.67–166 kg of CO2-equiv (PlaSpu, varying maturity stages). Production of conventional T-shirts with and without the biocide triclosan has emissions of 2.55 kg of CO2-equiv (contribution from triclosan insignificant). Consumer behavior considerably affects the environmental impacts during the use phase. Lower washing frequencies can compensate for the increased climate footprint of FSP nanosilver T-shirt production. The toxic releases from washing and disposal in the life cycle of T-shirts appear to be of minor relevance. By contrast, the production phase may be rather significant due to toxic silver emissions at the mining site if high silver quantities are required.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
The concept of leverage points offers great potential to consider how we can intervene in systems to create transformations for sustainability. In this special issue, we draw together a diverse ...collection of research that engages with this central idea. The papers cover three broad topics: (1) the use of a ‘leverage points lens’ for systems framings and understandings; (2) how individual interventions can be understood and critiqued from a leverage points perspective; and (3) the implications of a leverage points approach for research practice and action. Across these topics, we present the papers, and embed them within current critical debate in sustainability science. In doing so, we produce nine guiding questions to shape the research and practice of leverage points for sustainability transformation. These nine questions introduce conceptual clarity to untangle some of the deeper questions around which system we are engaging with, whose system counts, and whose sustainability we are seeking to create. They further shape how we deliver a leverage points research practice. We intend, therefore, that our guiding questions open up exploration across systems and worldviews, and help us to dance with systems.
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CEKLJ, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Plants are essential for life and are extremely diverse organisms with unique molecular capabilities
. Here we present a quantitative atlas of the transcriptomes, proteomes and phosphoproteomes of 30 ...tissues of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Our analysis provides initial answers to how many genes exist as proteins (more than 18,000), where they are expressed, in which approximate quantities (a dynamic range of more than six orders of magnitude) and to what extent they are phosphorylated (over 43,000 sites). We present examples of how the data may be used, such as to discover proteins that are translated from short open-reading frames, to uncover sequence motifs that are involved in the regulation of protein production, and to identify tissue-specific protein complexes or phosphorylation-mediated signalling events. Interactive access to this resource for the plant community is provided by the ProteomicsDB and ATHENA databases, which include powerful bioinformatics tools to explore and characterize Arabidopsis proteins, their modifications and interactions.
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FZAB, GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
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