Study for the implementation in Belgium of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit‐sharing to the Convention on Biological Diversity Final report

Study commissioned by Federal Public Service for Health, Food Chain Safety and the Environment, Directorate‐General for the Environment, Service for multilateral and strategic matters (SPSCAE) Bruxelles Environnement/Leefmilieu Brussel (IBGE‐BIM) Vlaamse overheid, Departement Leefmilieu, Natuur en Energie (LNE) Service public de Wallonie, Direction générale opérationnelle Agriculture, Ressources naturelles et Environnement (DGARNE

Juvenile Delinquent and Unruly Proceedings in Ohio: Unconstitutional Adjudications

This article will focus on the constitutional defects of juvenile court adjudications under Ohio juvenile law. The arguments presented, however, are equally applicable in other jurisdictions since every state has some type of legislation granting juvenile court jurisdiction over both criminals and noncriminal misconduct of children

Serum procalcitonin and CRP levels in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a case control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Both C reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) are well known acute phase reactant proteins. CRP was reported to increase in metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes. Similarly altered level of serum PCT was found in chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis. The liver is considered the main source of CRP and a source of PCT, however, the serum PCT and CRP levels in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) were not compared previously. Therefore we aimed to study the diagnostic and discriminative role of serum PCT and CRP in NAFLD.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifty NAFLD cases and 50 healthy controls were included to the study. Liver function tests were measured, body mass index was calculated, and insulin resistance was determined by using a homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR). Ultrasound evaluation was performed for each subject. Serum CRP was measured with nephalometric method. Serum PCT was measured with Kryptor based system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Serum PCT levels were similar in steatohepatitis (n 20) and simple steatosis (n 27) patients, and were not different than the control group (0.06 ± 0.01, 0.04 ± 0.01 versus 0.06 ± 0.01 ng/ml respectively). Serum CRP levels were significantly higher in simple steatosis, and steatohepatitis groups compared to healthy controls (7.5 ± 1.6 and 5.2 ± 2.5 versus 2.9 ± 0.5 mg/dl respectively p < 0.01). CRP could not differentiate steatohepatitis from simple steatosis. Beside, three patients with focal fatty liver disease had normal serum CRP levels.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Serum PCT was within normal ranges in patients with simple steatosis or steatohepatitis and has no diagnostic value. Serum CRP level was increased in NAFLD compared to controls. CRP can be used as an additional marker for diagnosis of NAFLD but it has no value in discrimination of steatohepatitis from simple steatosis.</p

Agrobiodiversity conservation and plant improvement : adjustments in intellectual property rights reclaiming the public domain towards sustainability and equity

Intellectual property rights, mostly in the form of patents and plant variety protection, have increasingly become an integral part of plant improvement efforts. With the advent of the TRIPS Agreement and the dominant interpretative implementation of its minimum standards, actors who use, conserve and improve agricultural biodiversity are faced with a strong property rights paradigm, which has been thoroughly criticised in the doctrine. However, these critics have not created the advocated regulatory shift. The dissertation defends that this is due to the lack of socio-technological contextualisation of applicable laws and judicial interpretation. Indeed, the intellectual property paradigm applies to very different innovation contexts and confronts plant improvement actors stretching from mass selectors, small-scaled private conventional plant breeders, public molecular researchers, specialised start-ups and integrated biotechnology giants. By applying the paradigm to such contexts, the thesis wishes to identify the specific shortcomings of intellectual property rights vis-a-vis each actor of agrobiodiversity improvement. Building on these findings, it also attempts to look for existing examples of social innovation that attempt to redress identified challenges within each context. This leads to an assessment of potential regulatory and institutional solutions that majoritarily reclaim the public domain and that could either conflict with each other, or on the contrary reinforce one another. It provides an array of tools available to national legislators to ensure that the property regime of plant agrovbiodiversity is more sustainable and equitable in the long run.(DROI - Sciences juridiques) -- UCL, 201

The use of agrobiodiversity for plant improvement and the intellectual property paradigm: institutional fit and legal tools for mass selection, conventional and molecular plant breeding

Focused on the impact of stringent intellectual property mechanisms over the uses of plant agricultural biodiversity in crop improvement, the article delves into a systematic analysis of the relationship between institutional paradigms and their technological contexts of application, identified as mass selection, controlled hybridisation, molecular breeding tools and transgenics. While the strong property paradigm has proven effective in the context of major leaps forward in genetic engineering, it faces a systematic breakdown when extended to mass selection, where innovation often displays a collective nature. However, it also creates partial blockages in those innovation schemes rested between on-farm observation and genetic modification, i.e. conventional plant breeding and upstream molecular biology research tools. Neither overly strong intellectual property rights, nor the absence of well delineated protection have proven an optimal fit for these two intermediary socio-technological systems of cumulative incremental innovation. To address these challenges, the authors look at appropriate institutional alternatives which can create effective incentives for in situ agrobiodiversity conservation and the equitable distribution of technologies in plant improvement, using the flexibilities of the TRIPS Agreement, the liability rules set forth in patents or plant variety rights themselves (in the form of farmers’, breeders’ and research exceptions), and other ad hoc reward regimes

Marketing Farmers’ Varieties in Europe: Encouraging Pathways with Missing Links for the Recognition and Support of Farmer Seed Systems

Farmer seed systems come in many shades: Conserving, producing, and using diverse plant material for different motives and purposes, whether the conservation or selection of locally adapted plant varieties and populations, or the safeguard of social bonds to secure economic stability and integration into rural communities. In Europe, strict seed marketing rules, by viewing any exchange of seeds as commercial exploitation, have first outlawed these farmer seed systems and the varieties conserved and developed in these systems, before carving out limited space for them as derogations to the main regime that remains based on mandatory variety registration and certified seed production. Examining these spaces in the legislation of the European Union (‘EU’) and Switzerland, along with their practical implications on the ground, the article shows the conceptual shortcomings of the EU legislation to fully address all the characteristics of farmer seed systems, especially to recognize farmers’ innovation. It exposes the need to carefully define, assess and adjust the underlying objectives of the future EU legislative effort to register farmers’ varieties or allow for their exchange, to fully represent and address the complex socio-economic values and diversity of farmer seed systems. The success of these endeavors will lie in the truthful representation, but also the engagement of farmers and social actors that not only conserve, but also dynamically manage agrobiodiversity

Study for the implementation in Belgium of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit‐sharing to the Convention on Biological Diversity Final report

Study commissioned by Federal Public Service for Health, Food Chain Safety and the Environment, Directorate‐General for the Environment, Service for multilateral and strategic matters (SPSCAE) Bruxelles Environnement/Leefmilieu Brussel (IBGE‐BIM) Vlaamse overheid, Departement Leefmilieu, Natuur en Energie (LNE) Service public de Wallonie, Direction générale opérationnelle Agriculture, Ressources naturelles et Environnement (DGARNE