The role of regulatory mechanisms for control of plant diseases and food security — case studies from potato production in Britain

Being aware of the potentially devastating impacts of plant diseases on food security, governments have designed and employ plant health legislation to prevent or inhibit the worst impacts. The development of such policies in Britain, and latterly in Europe, can be closely linked to disease events that have occurred in the potato sector. We analyse early and current examples of policies governing potato diseases in Britain to identify the decision processes leading to the implementation of such phytosanitary policies and how they have evolved over time and in response to different disease threats. Reasons for developing and implementing phytosanitary policies include the desire to prevent pathogens being introduced (entering and establishing in a new area), the protection of export markets, and the lack of effective control measures. Circumstances in which regulatory policies would not be appropriate could include situations where a disease is already widely distributed, unacceptable costs, lack of exclusion measures, or difficulties of disease diagnosis. We conclude that in general, government policies have worked well in protecting British potato growing over the last one hundred years, despite of the failures of some of the policies discussed here. They have also contributed much to the development of plant health policies for other crops. Voluntary grower initiatives are a new mechanism complementing existing formal policies with an additional level of security that allows individual growers to take on additional responsibility rather than relying entirely on government legislation

Forecasting Inflation - A Case Study on the Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Slovakian and Slovenian Central Banks

The paper examines the inflation forecasting practice and the related institutional framework at the central banks of five Central European countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia). The first part of the paper presents the general aspects of the comparative analysis, which primarily follow the requirements of inflation targeting monetary regimes. The second part consists of individual country case studies, which give detailed description of the institutional framework and forecasting practice at the five central banks considered.

Water level monitoring and controlling of water treatment plants using wireless sensors in LabVIEW

Monitoring and controlling systems are taken as the main entity of any field which can ensure for the effective performance, hence its importance is rising exponentially in industry field. There can be many factors which can bring variations in those systems. This may cease the efficiency of the industry and destruction of industrial equipment. Therefore, monitoring, evaluation and controlling of the variables of any system is significantly important. The main objective of this research is to investigate the process of combining monitoring and controlling of the water level in the distribution tanks of water treatment plants by using wireless sensors network. The design and developed prototype of remote monitoring and controlling system of water levels in various tanks can be used in different parts of the water treatment plants. We have proposed, developed and tested hardware module based on two Arduino Mega2560 boards linked wirelessly by using two NRF transceivers. Remote Arduino is designed to monitor the water flow and the level of the distribution tank besides controlling the water level whenever is necessary. The real time sensors readings obtained are observed by specially designed LabVIEW application using graphical user interface running on a PC connected directly to the local Arduino. The application displays and analyses sensors reading on the front panel. Water level is controlled based on preset values entered by the user. The experimental result and percentage error curve endorse the reliability and feasibility of the proposed system to provide a solution for similar problems in industrial liquids treatment process applications

Facial feminization surgery and perceived workplace bias in transgender individuals

Facial feminization surgery (FFS) is a set of procedures performed with the goal of creating a facial appearance that is considered phenotypically female. These procedures are usually sought by cisgender women but have become increasingly popular among male to female (MTF) transgender individuals. FFS has been shown to decrease appearance anxiety and increase quality of life. Sexual minorities, including transgender individuals, are subject to a unique set of stressors termed minority stress, which involves the interplay of perceived and outright discrimination. This type of stress has been shown to lead to adverse physical and mental health outcomes. The workplace is no exception to this type of discrimination, and workplace discrimination has specifically been associated with adverse physical health outcomes. However, there have been few studies to date evaluating workplace discrimination and transgender identity. This study aims to expand on that knowledge, and determine the potential role for FFS as an intervention to reduce perceived bias

Strategic Exchange-Rate Policy of Accession Countries in ERM II

Exchange-rate policies of Central Eastern European Countries (CEEC) have often been a subject matter. Yet, some new insights in terms of political economy considerations upon exchange-rate policy are provided. It is pointed out that it is more appropriate to analyse exchange-rate policy in course of Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II) with regard to a changing incentive structure. In doing so, considerable moral hazard problems become apparent. ERM II shall provide for an adequate level of convergence between prospective and current members of European Monetary Union (EMU). However, this institutional arrangement and, particularly, its impact on the incentives for exchange-rate policy making might enable CEEC to load considerable costs of convergence onto current members. Accordingly, the phase of ERM II is considered to be a bargaining on the distribution of costs of convergence between prospective and current members of EMU. In return, accession countries would offer to maintain public support for European integration. The CEEC’ leverage in this bargaining rests on brinkmanship, i.e. putting exchange-rate regimes at risk, thus possibly undermining the according public support. This paper delineates the basic assumptions and conditions for successful brinkmanship, points out the specific transmission mechanisms, and characterises this kind of exchange-rate policy as ‘threaten-thy-neighbour’. Overall analysis results in a cautious outlook on probable effects of such strategic exchange-rate policies on European institutional and economic matters.brinkmanship, exchange-rate policy

Lex Informatica: The Formulation of Information Policy Rules through Technology

Historically, law and government regulation have established default rules for information policy, including constitutional rules on freedom of expression and statutory rights of ownership of information. This Article will show that for network environments and the Information Society, however, law and government regulation are not the only source of rule-making. Technological capabilities and system design choices impose rules on participants. The creation and implementation of information policy are embedded in network designs and standards as well as in system configurations. Even user preferences and technical choices create overarching, local default rules. This Article argues, in essence, that the set of rules for information flows imposed by technology and communication networks form a “Lex Informatica” that policymakers must understand, consciously recognize, and encourage

Bulletin /

v. 37:1-2 (1966

Sir epidemic and predator - prey models of fractional-order

Recently, many deterministic mathematical models such as ordinary differential equations have been extended to fractional models, which are transformed using fractional differential equations. It was believed that these fractional models are more realistic to represent the daily life phenomena. The main focus of this report is to extend the model of a predator-prey and the SIR epidemic models to fractional model. More specifically, the fractional predator-prey model which depend on the availability of a biotic resources was discussed. On the other hand, fractional SIR epidemic model with sub-optimal immunity, nonlinear incidence and saturated recovery rate was also discussed. The fractional ordinary differential equations were defined in the sense of the Caputo derivative. Stability analysis of the equilibrium points of the models for the fractional models were analyzed. Furthermore, the Hopf bifurcation analysis of each model was investigated . The result obtained showed that the model undergo Hopf bifurcation for some values. Throughout the project, the Adams-type predictor-corrector method to obtain the numerical solutions of the fractional models was applied. All computations were done by using mathematical software, Maple 18