The Commons Concept and Intellectual Property Rights Regime: Whither Plant Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge?

[Excerpt] The classification of plant genetic resources (PGRs) as the common heritage of humankind continues to generate controversies. The debate is between developing countries that are the primary sources of these resources and industrialized, biotechnologically advanced countries that appropriate and utilize PGRs as raw materials for various commercial products, such as medicine, seed variety, or pesticides. Scholars of diverse backgrounds express various opinions on whether PGRs obtained from plants found within a territory of a sovereign state should properly be designated “common heritage of humankind” or regarded as part of the “commons,” and therefore freely accessible. The debate also extends to and challenges the status of traditional knowledge on the uses of PGRs. The dominant but not necessarily the correct view is that such knowledge is information in the public domain, incapable of private ownership or control

International Comparison of Subjective Health Evaluation - USA, UK and Japan -,

This paper tries to calculate quality of life (QOL) from subjective health evaluations in Japan following Cutler and Richardson (1997) and Groot (2000). It then extends the model in several ways. Firstly, while previous studies define the domain of OL in an ad hoc manner, i.e. excluding "excellent" or "very poor" respondents, this paper suggests a more rigorous alternative measure. Secondly, heterogeneity among individuals that is inevitable in micro-data is accounted for in the estimation process. Thirdly, economic variables such as income or job status that are considered to affect subjective health status are also accounted for. The estimation results show the following: using the same model as previous work, similar tendencies are found, but coefficients are smaller for many symptoms and diseases. Economic variables help to clarify the effect of symptoms or diseases on subjective health evaluation. The QOL measures defined in this paper are smaller for most symptoms and diseases, and thus the measures in previous research are likely to overestimate of damage to QOL by symtoms and diseases and may be inappropriate.

Horizontal Inequity in Health Care Utilization in Japan,

International comparisons of horizontal inequity in health have recently become one of the most pertinent issues in health economics. Japan has not been included in these international comparisons. This omission is rectified in this paper, which focuses on Japan. Moreover, we consider its dynamics over six years from 1992 to 1998. The dynamics has never considered in this fields. In a rigorous international comparison, we cannot find any horizontal inequity in health in Japan and almost similar to Belgium.

Updated Horizontal Inequity in Health Care Utilization in Japan: Comparisons with OECD Countries Using an Original Survey

We compare health care inequity in Japan with that in other OECD countries in 2002 and 2003. To overcome Japanese data problems, we conducted an original survey. Although some problems remain, we obtained internationally comparable results on health care inequity for Japan. We test the utilization measure by the number of outpatients, the number of days of inpatient utilization in the previous year, out-of-pocket payments in the previous year and other measures, such as a yes/no indicator for outpatient or inpatient utilization in a lifetime. The results show that there is no inequity in outpatient or inpatient utilization, but out-ofpocket payments show significant pro-rich inequity.

Suzaku Observation of the Radio Halo Cluster Abell 2319: Gas Dynamics and Hard X-ray Properties

We present the results of Suzaku observation of the radio halo cluster Abell 2319. The metal abundance in the central cool region is found to be higher than the surrounding region, which was not resolved in the former studies. We confirm that the line-of-sight velocities of the intracluster medium in the observed region are consistent with those of the member galaxies of entire A2319 and A2319A subgroup for the first time, though any velocity difference within the region is not detected. On the other hand, we do not find any signs of gas motion relevant to A2319B subgroup. Hard X-ray emission from the cluster is clearly detected, but its spectrum is likely thermal. Assuming a simple single temperature model for the thermal component, we find that the upper limit of the non-thermal inverse Compton component becomes $2.6 \times 10^{-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ in the 10-40 keV band, which means that the lower limit of the magnetic field is 0.19 $\mu$G with the radio spectral index 0.92. Although the results slightly depend on the detailed spectral modeling, it is robust that the upper limit of the power-law component flux and lower limit of the magnetic field strength become $\sim 3 \times 10^{-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ and $\sim 0.2 \mu$G, respectively. Considering the lack of a significant amount of very hot ($\sim 20$ keV) gas and the strong bulk flow motion, it is more likely that the relativistic non-thermal electrons responsible for the radio halo are accelerated through the intracluster turbulence rather than the shocks.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in PAS

Measuring material wastage on construction sites: a case study of local authority highway projects

The construction industry in the UK is vast. It is one of the largest sectors of the economy with an output of over £100 billion, representing approximately 8% of the country’s GDP. The enormous amount of resources the industry consumes and produces coupled with the large number of construction companies in the market place has resulted in a growing awareness of the environmental impact of the construction industry. Construction produces more than 100 million tonnes of waste a year, representing more than 50% of the total waste production of the country. Of this waste, more than 60 million tonnes goes straight to landfill, three times more than all the domestic waste produced by the UK’s twenty one million homes. Increasing pressure on landfill sites coupled with the growing awareness of the environmental impact of the industry has made the minimisation of construction waste absolutely essential. The research project outlined in this paper attempts to measure material wastage occurring on selected Local Authority highway construction sites. To achieve this, a review will be undertaken to determine the main areas of interest in sustainable construction, construction waste production, and waste minimisation. Primary data will be collected in the form of measurements taken of theoretical and actual quantities of construction materials used during the course of selected highway projects. The results will be used to compare actual on-site material quantities against theoretical material quantities. The difference in these quantities will then be calculated, giving the amount of wastage occurring on site. The findings from this paper are drawn from both the secondary and the primary data analysis and statistical testing. The research concludes by suggesting a waste minimisation strategy for use on highway construction sites to try and reduce, re-use, and recycle the amount of construction waste local authority highway projects generate

Metal refining reactions in rising bubbles

Imperial Users onl