Biotechnology for developing-country agriculture: problems and opportunities

Contents: Brief 1. Overview / Gabrielle J. Persley and John J. Doyle Brief 2. Biotechnology and food and nutrition needs / Richard Flavell Brief 3. Biotechnology and animal vaccines / W. Ivan Morrison Brief 4. The role of the private sector / Clive James and Anatole Krattiger Brief 5. Disentangling risk issues / Klaus M. Leisinger Brief 6. Safe use of biotechnology / Calestous Juma and Aarti Gupta Brief 7. Intellectual property protection / John H. Barton Brief 8. Research policy and management issues / Joel I. Cohen, Cesar Falconi, and John Komen Brief 9. Developing appropriate policies / Per Pinstrup-Andersen [IFPRI staff] Brief 10. Letter to a minister / Gabrielle J. Persley.Biotechnology Developing countries., Agricultural biotechnology Developing countries.,

Peroxisome Proliferator-activated receptor alpha gene variation influences age of onset and progression of type 2 diabetes

Dysregulation of fatty acid metabolism is important in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) is a master regulator of fatty acid catabolism, and PPAR activators delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. We examined association between three PPAR gene polymorphisms (an AC variant in intron 1, the L162V variant, and the intron 7 GC variant) and age at diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in 912 Caucasian type 2 diabetic subjects. Individually, PPAR gene variants did not influence age at diagnosis, but in combination, the rare alleles of both the intron 1 AC (P < 0.001) and intron 7 GC (P = 0.025) variants synergistically lowered age at diagnosis (interaction P < 0.001). Overall, the PPAR haplotype signficantly influenced age at diagnosis (P = 0.027), with the C-L-C and C-V-C haplotypes (intron 1-L162V-intron 7) accelerating onset of diabetes by 5.9 (P = 0.02) and 10 (P = 0.03) years, respectively, as compared with the common A-L-G haplotype, and was associated with an odds ratio for early-onset diabetes (age at diagnosis 45 years) of 3.75 (95% CI 1.65–8.56, P = 0.002). Intron 1 C-allele carriers also progressed more rapidly to insulin monotherapy (AA 9.4 ± 1.5 and AC + CC 5.3 ± 1.1 years, P = 0.002). These data indicate that PPAR gene variation influences the onset and progression of type 2 diabetes

How Do Teachers Teach Memory Skills?

Research on teachers\u27 efforts to influence the ways in which children approach memory tasks and understand and regulate their own memory processes has been limited, possibly because of the restrictive views of memory held by cognitive theories that have previously guided research efforts. A more complex perspective on the memory skills that develop over the elementary school years has been elaborated by developmental psychologists and information-processing theorists, but their work has had limited influence on either teacher-training practices or research in teaching. In order to begin to apply this newer perspective to an understanding of classroom teaching processes, research needs to consider teacher practices and expectations for children\u27s learning and memory. A program of research that has been concerned with how teachers teach memory and metacognitive skills and with teachers\u27 views of memory processes is summarized in this article, and implications for teacher training are discussed

Selective scepticism over thought: am I ever justified in doubting that I think that thought but not this one?

In this paper, I subject a number of statements avowing selective doubt about an act of thinking to philosophical analysis (e.g., "A thought occurred just now but I do not believe that I was thinking it") to ascertain those circumstances under which they constitute a legitimate expression of scepticism. C an a case be made for epistemic discrepancy sufficient to justify the following claim : "I doubt that I think that thought but not this one"? In support of selective scepticism, I discuss the ontological and epistemic properties evident in an indirect form of Moore’s paradox which features beliefs about a thought and a thinker: notably, "I experienced a thought just now but I do not believe that I was thinking it". I argue that the conjunction above contains conjuncts which are ontologically equivalent but epistemically distinct. This difference explains not only why the statement is indirectly Moore paradoxical but how selective scepticism over thought might be justified. To further support my claim for the legitimacy of selective scepticism, I consider research on how a child acquire s beliefs about thinking , and speculate over the cause of a rare pathological condition known as thought insertion

Metacognition and transfer within a course or instructional design rules and metacognition

A metacognitive strategy for doing research, included transfer, was taught in a course of nine afternoons. The success of this course raised some questions. How do the students learn? How does metacognition play a role? The course was designed in accordance with several instructional principles. The course was divided into three domains in which the strategy was introduced, practised, and applied respectively. Literature research revealed four possible metacognitive variants that correlate so it was supposed that implementing them all helped to reach the objectives of the course. The relation of the metacognitive variants with the instructional principles is described. To study learning the students were divided into three groups (weak, moderate, good) by their marks for other courses. The performance of the groups in each domain was monitored by their marks, scoring of metacognitive skills, questionnaires, observations, and time keeping. The moderate students scored as high as the good ones for the strategy in the last domain, a unique result. The metacognitive development of the other metacognitive skills was not linear. The conclusions are that the success of this course can be explained by a system of double sequencing and an interaction of all metacognitive variants, and that instructional design rules for metacognitive and cognitive objectives are differen

Do Metacognitive Strategies Improve Student Achievement in Secondary Science Classrooms?

Increasing prevalence of high-stakes testing calls for focus on value-added teaching and learning practices. Following is an inquiry regarding metacognitive teaching and learning practices as it pertains to secondary science classrooms. Research shows that the orchestration and inclusion of metacognitive strategies in the science classroom improve achievement under the following preconditions: (1) are pervasively embedded in the educational structure; (2) are part of appropriately rigorous and relevant curriculum; (3) are supported by ‘metacognitive friendly’ teaching strategies; (4) are explicitly practiced by students and teachers; and (5) enable students to take responsibility for their own learning

On two theorems of Flavell

We extend two theorems due to P. Flavell [6] to arbitrary fusion systems