Risk management and liability for environmental harm caused by gmos – the South African regulatory framework

Biotechnology is still relatively new and as with any new technology, it carries some level of risk. This necessitates appropriate risk assessments and  ppropriate risk management. One element of risk management however, is taking into account that during the production, development, transport or release of a GMO it may cause injury to person, property or the environment, regardless of risk management procedures. This calls for the existence of a liability regime that will place some legal responsibility on the party responsible for the harm. This paper assesses the South African regulatory framework of relevance to GMOs, which is composed of a fragmented set of laws that deals with risk assessment, risk management and liability for damage to the environment. It discusses the GMO Act as the principle legislation regulation GMOs and also the recent amendment thereof and also consider other legislation such as the ECA, NEMA and NEMA Biodiversity Act in an attempt to determine whether the regulatory framework addresses risk management and liability in an effective and adequate manner. It comes to the conclusion that South Africa does not as yet have a satisfactory legal regime that provides for risk management and liability in the context of GMOs

Taekwondo Fighting Automatic Scoringsystem*)

The aim of this research is to design an automatic scoring system in thetaekwondo champion.This research employed the model of waterfall cycle, that is (a) analysis; (b)designing module; (c) coding; (d) technique of experiment; (e) experiment of thedevice. This system is designed from the hardwares, namely, transmitter circuit,circuit, system of minimum microcontroller AT89S51, circuit of seven-segmendriver, circuit of micro switch and component of software; program writing usingnotepad, compilling program suing matrix exe, and downloading program usingaec.isp.The result of this research is the prototype of a scoring system of taekwondochampion. This system can show score in the display as the data are transmittedby transmitter and received by receiver. The output of the receiver is voltage3.8V- 4v used to trigger transistor which functions as the input microcontroller.The input data from the receiver will be procceeded by microcontroller and theoutput microcontroller will be displayed by microcontroller. The overall resultsare (a) radius of radio waves reaches 10 meters, (b) the device of automatic scoringsystem of taekwondo champion can show the result after being accumulated asreal time; (c) it is supplemented with penalty knop

Taekwondo Fighting Automatic Scoring System*)

The aim of this research is to design an automatic scoring system in thetaekwondo champion.This research employed the model of waterfall cycle, that is (a) analysis; (b)designing module; (c) coding; (d) technique of experiment; (e) experiment of thedevice. This system is designed from the hardwares, namely, transmitter circuit,circuit, system of minimum microcontroller AT89S51, circuit of seven-segmendriver, circuit of micro switch and component of software; program writing usingnotepad, compilling program suing matrix exe, and downloading program usingaec.isp.The result of this research is the prototype of a scoring system of taekwondochampion. This system can show score in the display as the data are transmittedby transmitter and received by receiver. The output of the receiver is voltage3.8V- 4v used to trigger transistor which functions as the input microcontroller.The input data from the receiver will be procceeded by microcontroller and theoutput microcontroller will be displayed by microcontroller. The overall resultsare (a) radius of radio waves reaches 10 meters, (b) the device of automatic scoringsystem of taekwondo champion can show the result after being accumulated asreal time; (c) it is supplemented with penalty knop

Risk Management And Liability For EnvironmentalL Harm Caused By GMOS – The South African Regulatory Framework

Biotechnology is still relatively new and as with any new technology, it carries some level of risk.  This necessitates appropriate risk assessments and appropriate risk management.  One element of risk management however, is taking into account that during the production, development, transport or release of a GMO it may cause injury to person, property or the environment, regardless of risk management procedures.  This calls for the existence of a liability regime that will place some legal responsibility on the party responsible for the harm.    This paper assesses the South African regulatory framework of relevance to GMOs, which is composed of a fragmented set of laws that deals with risk assessment, risk management and liability for damage to the environment.  It discusses the GMO Act as the principle legislation regulation GMOs and also the recent amendment thereof and also consider other legislation such as the ECA, NEMA and NEMA Biodiversity Act in an attempt to determine whether the regulatory framework addresses risk management and liability in an effective and adequate manner.  It comes to the conclusion that South Africa does not as yet have a satisfactory legal regime that provides for risk management and liability in the context of GMOs.      &nbsp

Assessing the Potential Effects of Fungicides on Nontarget Gut Fungi (Trichomycetes) and Their Associated Larval Black Fly Hosts

Fungicides are moderately hydrophobic and have been detected in water and sediment, particularly in agricultural watersheds, but typically are not included in routine water quality monitoring efforts. This is despite their widespread use and frequent application to combat fungal pathogens. Although the efficacy of these compounds on fungal pathogens is well documented, little is known about their effects on nontarget fungi. This pilot study, a field survey in southwestern Idaho from April to December 2010 on four streams with varying pesticide inputs (two agricultural and two reference sites), was conducted to assess nontarget impact of fungicides on gut fungi, or trichomycetes. Tissues of larval black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae), hosts of gut fungi, were analyzed for pesticide accumulation. Fungicides were detected in hosts from streams within agricultural watersheds but were not detected in hosts from reference streams. Gut fungi from agricultural sites exhibited decreased percent infestation, density and sporulation within the gut, and black fly tissues had elevated pesticide concentrations. Differences observed between the sites demonstrate a potential effect on this symbiotic system. Future research is needed to parse out the details of the complex biotic and abiotic relationships; however, these preliminary results indicate that impacts to nontarget organisms could have far-reaching consequences within aquatic ecosystems

Cytotoxicity of ZnO Nanoparticles Can Be Tailored by Modifying Their Surface Structure: A Green Chemistry Approach for Safer Nanomaterials

ZnO nanoparticles (NP) are extensively used in numerous nanotechnology applications; however, they also happen to be one of the most toxic nanomaterials. This raises significant environmental and health concerns and calls for the need to develop new synthetic approaches to produce safer ZnO NP, while preserving their attractive optical, electronic, and structural properties. In this work, we demonstrate that the cytotoxicity of ZnO NP can be tailored by modifying their surface-bound chemical groups, while maintaining the core ZnO structure and related properties. Two equally sized (9.26 ± 0.11 nm) ZnO NP samples were synthesized from the same zinc acetate precursor using a forced hydrolysis process, and their surface chemical structures were modified by using different reaction solvents. X-ray diffraction and optical studies showed that the lattice parameters, optical properties, and band gap (3.44 eV) of the two ZnO NP samples were similar. However, FTIR spectroscopy showed significant differences in the surface structures and surface-bound chemical groups. This led to major differences in the zeta potential, hydrodynamic size, photocatalytic rate constant, and more importantly, their cytotoxic effects on Hut-78 cancer cells. The ZnO NP sample with the higher zeta potential and catalytic activity displayed a 1.5-fold stronger cytotoxic effect on cancer cells. These results suggest that by modifying the synthesis parameters/conditions and the surface chemical structures of the nanocrystals, their surface charge density, catalytic activity, and cytotoxicity can be tailored. This provides a green chemistry approach to produce safer ZnO NP

Confronting historical legacies of biological anthropology in South Africa-Restitution, redress and community-centered science: The Sutherland Nine

We describe a process of restitution of nine unethically acquired human skeletons to their families, together with attempts at redress. Between 1925-1927 C.E., the skeletonised remains of nine San or Khoekhoe people, eight of them known-in-life, were removed from their graves on the farm Kruisrivier, near Sutherland in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. They were donated to the Anatomy Department at the University of Cape Town. This was done without the knowledge or permission of their families. The donor was a medical student who removed the remains from the labourers' cemetery on his family farm. Nearly 100 years later, the remains are being returned to their community, accompanied by a range of community-driven interdisciplinary historical, archaeological and analytical (osteobiographic, craniofacial, ancient DNA, stable isotope) studies to document, as far as possible, their lives and deaths. The restitution process began by contacting families living in the same area with the same surnames as the deceased. The restitution and redress process prioritises the descendant families' memories, wishes and desire to understand the situation, and learn more about their ancestors. The descendant families have described the process as helping them to reconnect with their ancestors. A richer appreciation of their ancestors' lives, gained in part from scientific analyses, culminating with reburial, is hoped to aid the descendant families and wider community in [re-]connecting with their heritage and culture, and contribute to restorative justice, reconciliation and healing while confronting a traumatic historical moment. While these nine individuals were exhumed as specimens, they will be reburied as people

Sign Language Recognition

This chapter covers the key aspects of sign-language recognition (SLR), starting with a brief introduction to the motivations and requirements, followed by a précis of sign linguistics and their impact on the field. The types of data available and the relative merits are explored allowing examination of the features which can be extracted. Classifying the manual aspects of sign (similar to gestures) is then discussed from a tracking and non-tracking viewpoint before summarising some of the approaches to the non-manual aspects of sign languages. Methods for combining the sign classification results into full SLR are given showing the progression towards speech recognition techniques and the further adaptations required for the sign specific case. Finally the current frontiers are discussed and the recent research presented. This covers the task of continuous sign recognition, the work towards true signer independence, how to effectively combine the different modalities of sign, making use of the current linguistic research and adapting to larger more noisy data set