Odyssey School

Accurately measuring compound binding affinities is key to driving the pharmaceutical development process. Rigorous physics-based in silico approaches, particularly alchemical free energy methods, have become a gold standard tool for estimating compound affinity changes. Here we present the results of a large-scale pre-competitive collaborative assessment of relative binding free energy (RBFE) calculations generated by 15 pharmaceutical companies. We evaluate an open-source and MIT licensed RBFE Protocol from the Open Free Energy (OpenFE) ecosystem across both public and blinded private datasets, encompassing over 1,700 ligands in total. For the public dataset, the weighted RMSE across the 58 systems was 1.73 [1.53, 1.96] kcal/mol, with 10 of the systems reaching sub-kcal/mol accuracy. For the private dataset, the weighted RMSE across the 37 systems was 2.44 [1.94, 3.06] kcal/mol, with only 2 of the systems reaching sub-kcal/mol accuracy, reflecting the increased complexity of real-world drug discovery. The protocols performance was system-dependent, with no single dominant error source, indicating that accuracy is primarily influenced by input quality and transformation type. Overall, these benchmark results are encouraging and indicate that OpenFE is ready for large-scale industrial applications, with an "out-of-the-box" accuracy that approaches that of commercial solutions. While comparison against published FEP+ results, which were obtained after manual parameter optimization, shows comparable ranking statistics, a gap remains in error statistics, for which we outline possible paths toward improvement. The protocol meets key criteria required for production use in an industrial setting: it shows robust performance, generates reproducible results, and achieves both sufficient throughput and rapid convergence.

This paper examines how the English education system has attempted to react to the financial pressures caused by a rise in diagnoses of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). In particular, it explores how a crisis in funding has led to government financial aid, known as safety valve agreements and this in turn has allowed new managerial processes to become embedded in the system. Through content analysis of 38 such agreements, the research investigates how these interventions are influencing SEND practice across England. The findings reveal that actions within these agreements predominantly focus on financial control mechanisms and service transformation, with an emphasis on reducing Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and specialist provision costs. The study argues that the SEND funding crisis exemplifies how neoliberal approaches perpetuate themselves through cycles where crises lead to further neoliberal solutions rather than fundamental reform. The emphasis on parental voice and choice – a core neoliberal principle – has significantly contributed to financial strain on local authorities (LAs) through increased tribunal cases and specialist provision costs. The research concludes that the failure of current interventions in England is because the crisis has led to solutions based on new managerialism approaches.

Environmental literacy denotes an individual’s set of abilities and commitments necessary to find, understand, assess, and act on information about the health of our environment. So, environmental literacy embodies values, beliefs and attitudes toward sustaining a healthy environment. Prerequisite to environmental literacy is a standard conception of literacy and a more specific idea, science literacy. An environmentally literate person understands the workings of modern science, and of policy-making. They also know how to apply their abilities to affect changes in society. Each of these elements builds on the others. Being aware of and having knowledge about environmental problems only supports the higher order skills necessary to be fully environmentally literate. To understand environmental literacy, we must first understand literacy and, then, science literacy. Literacy encompasses some form of competency, whether in literature, cooking, yachting, child rearing, playing the violin, or any other recognized vocation. At the core of literacy is the ability to read and write so as to learn from the knowledge of others and then contribute to any particular body of human endeavor. This chapter discusses literacy, science literacy, environmental literacy, and, finally, the arts of filtering knowledge and argumentation. Knowing how all these notions interact informs the communication process.

This chapter deals with visual aids used to enhance oral presentations. It is intended to guide planning and presentation of visual aids; actual construction of visual aids is covered in other texts, some of which are recommended at the end of the chapter. What sets off a visual aid from a visual message is how is it applied and used. Visual aids, as they are explained here, are meant to enhance a personal presentation, while a visual message is meant to present a stand-alone message in the absence of a presenter (e.g. a park interpretation sign or an advertisement). The old adage is that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it is important to understand that this valued picture be the right picture, presented well, at the right time, or else it will detract from the presentation rather than support it. Visual aids are important because of differences in the way people perceive messages. Some audience members will react best to verbal information, some to visual, and some to written material. Thus presenting messages in multiple formats broadens the audience impact. People tend to remember more of what they see and hear. So visual aids supporting verbal information act to dramatically increase the impact of a presentation. Furthermore, visual aids increase an audience’s attention span, and can, when used properly, add structure to information to facilitate understanding.