9,815 research outputs found
The Precautionary Principle (with Application to the Genetic Modification of Organisms)
We present a non-naive version of the Precautionary (PP) that allows us to
avoid paranoia and paralysis by confining precaution to specific domains and
problems. PP is intended to deal with uncertainty and risk in cases where the
absence of evidence and the incompleteness of scientific knowledge carries
profound implications and in the presence of risks of "black swans", unforeseen
and unforeseable events of extreme consequence. We formalize PP, placing it
within the statistical and probabilistic structure of ruin problems, in which a
system is at risk of total failure, and in place of risk we use a formal
fragility based approach. We make a central distinction between 1) thin and fat
tails, 2) Local and systemic risks and place PP in the joint Fat Tails and
systemic cases. We discuss the implications for GMOs (compared to Nuclear
energy) and show that GMOs represent a public risk of global harm (while harm
from nuclear energy is comparatively limited and better characterized). PP
should be used to prescribe severe limits on GMOs
Food Court
This article, focusing on produce and grain, discusses the environmental and climate change impacts of food production, processing, packaging, and distribution, which ultimately contribute to both economic and social costs. The article addresses environmental energy costs in the food supply. Figure 1 shows, for example, the significant amount of energy used in various aspects of food production, transportation, and processing.
Much of this article\u27s focus will be on commodity crops. Along with wheat and rice, corn and soybeans constitute the world\u27s most popular planted and consumed crops. The United States is the leading producer of corn, growing nearly 40 percent of the world\u27s total, with more than half of that production coming from only 20 percent of U.S. corn growers. In 2008 over 85 million acres of corn and more than 75 million acres of soybeans were planted in the United States, and the crops have faced increasing demand in the world market over the past ten years as they are sources of both human and animal food.
Engineered bidirectional communication mediates a consensus in a microbial biofilm consortium
Microbial consortia form when multiple species colocalize and communally generate a function that none is capable of alone. Consortia abound in nature, and their cooperative metabolic activities influence everything from biodiversity in the global food chain to human weight gain. Here, we present an engineered consortium in which the microbial members communicate with each other and exhibit a “consensus” gene expression response. Two colocalized populations of Escherichia coli converse bidirectionally by exchanging acyl-homoserine lactone signals. The consortium generates the gene-expression response if and only if both populations are present at sufficient cell densities. Because neither population can respond without the other's signal, this consensus function can be considered a logical AND gate in which the inputs are cell populations. The microbial consensus consortium operates in diverse growth modes, including in a biofilm, where it sustains its response for several days
Measuring Software Diversity, with Applications to Security
In this work, we briefly introduce and discuss some of the diversity measures
used in Ecology. After a succinct description and analysis of the most relevant
ones, we single out the Shannon-Weiner index. We justify why it is the most
informative and relevant one for measuring software diversity. Then, we show
how it can be used for effectively assessing the diversity of various real
software ecosystems. We discover in the process a frequently overlooked
software monopoly, and its key security implications. We finally extract some
conclusions from the results obtained, focusing mostly on their security
implications.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Biofuels: Potentials, Problems & Solutions
Biofuels have the exciting potential of mitigating the grave threats of global warming, reducing the world\u27s dependence on imported oil from insecure sources and of reducing the skyrocketing costs of oil that are threatening to undermine the world\u27s economies and devastating the people in non-oil producing, developing countries. For the people in these countries, biofuel offer a promising road to enhance development since they use local materials, can provide local jobs, and do not require the import of expensive equipment and expertise. Brazil has been the pioneer in the use of biofuel, allowing it to eliminate its oil imports, becoming completely energy independent, and demonstrating to the world the potential benefits of substitution of biofuels for fossil fuels. Indeed, inspired by Brazil\u27s example, the United States in recent years has developed a strong biofuel industry, albeit from the disadvantageous feedstock of corn. The United States has just created an alliance with Brazil to make major purchases of its biofuels. The European Union and countries around the world are rapidly developing their own biofuel potentials. But Brazil and its replicators have to exercise great care in designing and implementing biofuel programs. The environmental and social risks of biofuel development, also demonstrated in Brazil, are great and could well undermine all of the potential advantages if not done right
Intervención internacional a través de los medios de comunicación en sociedades posguerra: Perspectivas a partir de las epistemologías del sur
Over the past two decades, international intervention
in post-war settings has strictly followed liberal
assumptions and practices. Efforts to build and
shape the media in the aftermath of armed conflict
are no exception. In setting the foundations for
the rule of law, liberal democracy and free market,
external actors have (re)defined what constitutes
the mediascape – that is, the various spheres of
communication within public discourse – and how to
(re)construct it. Imprinted with modernity’s tenets
and western assumptions about the public space, this
approach has understood the mediascape narrowly
as limited to traditional, established, liberal media,
serving to validate particular actors and processes
whilst obscuring, neglecting and shutting off global
diversity. Law and technology, this paper argues, are
the two main axes through which legitimation and
exclusion are effected. A myopic focus on legal and
technological aspects of the media reduces a rich
space of local discourses, norms and practices to
western-like media legislation, training and outlets,
narrowing in turn the sites for addressing violence
and building peace.Durante las últimas dos décadas, la intervención
internacional en contextos posguerra ha seguido
estrictamente los supuestos y prácticas liberales. Los
esfuerzos para construir y dar forma a los medios
de comunicación después de los conflictos armados
no son una excepción. Al sentar las bases del estado
de derecho, de la democracia liberal y del libre
mercado, los actores externos han definido lo que
constituye el paisaje mediático, es decir, las diversas
esferas de la comunicación en el discurso público y
cómo reconstruirlo. Imbuido con los principios de
la modernidad y los supuestos occidentales sobre
el espacio público, este enfoque ha entendido el
panorama mediático estrechamente como limitado
a los medios tradicionales, establecidos y liberales,
sirviendo para validar actores y procesos particulares
mientras oscurece, descuida y cierra la diversidad
global. El derecho y la tecnología, sostiene este
documento, son los dos ejes principales a través de los
cuales se efectúan la legitimación y la exclusión. Un
enfoque miope en los aspectos legales y tecnológicos
de los medios de comunicación que reduce un rico
espacio de discursos, normas y prácticas locales a la
legislación, la formación y los medios de comunicación
de los medios occidentales, reduciendo a su vez los
sitios para abordar la violencia y construir la paz
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