Business and biotechnology : regulation and the politics of influence

The regulation of biotechnology products at the national and international level inevitably involves private sector companies. Biotechnology firms are, in many ways, the “street-level bureaucrats” of biotechnology, those expected to enforce and implement government regulations regarding biotechnology products. Not only are they the front-line producers and distributors of the technology, a fact which places them well to provide insights and channel their experience into the design of regulatory systems, but the in-house scientific expertise they have and the level of capital they own, make them key advisers and powerful political players in the politics of biotechnology regulation. This paper analyses the political role of the firms that are in many ways driving the “gene revolution” which systems of public regulation at the national and international level seek to manage in an orderly and environmentally-responsible fashion. The first section looks at ways of explaining why firms are such influential players in the debate about the appropriate scale and scope of biotechnology regulation, drawing on the literatures on business influence to account for their structural advantages and bargaining assets. The following sections look firstly, at the ways in which firms have sought to shape public regulations pertaining to biotechnology products in a way which addresses their concerns about “unnecessary” interference in international trade, harmonised approaches to risk assessment, intellectual property protection and the need for commercial confidentiality. Secondly, in sections on the regulation of business, we explore other strategies that have been adopted by NGOs and consumer groups to try and develop their own forms of “governance” of the trade in GMOs as a reaction to the perceived weakness and inadequacy of existing systems of public regulation. In each case, we attempt to tease out possible implications for the strengthening of a policy agenda more firmly grounded in concerns about the food security of the poor

Einsatz von Arbeitspferden in der deutschen Landwirtschaft

Informationen über den aktuellen Stand des Einsatzes von Arbeitspferden in der Landwirt-schaft in Deutschland lagen nicht vor. Daher wurden Fragebögen an 160 Betriebe versandt. 43 Antworten (27 %) konnten ausgewertet werden. 25 Betriebe wirtschafteten ökologisch (59 %). Die Betriebsgröße betrug 14,4 ha im Median. 11 Betriebe (25,9 %) arbeiteten nur mit Pferden. Die Schlepperstärke betrug insgesamt 110 PS im Median je Betrieb (3,0 PS je ha). Die Betriebe hielten im Median 3,0 Arbeitspferde. Die Pferde wurden für viele Kulturen und Arbeitsvorgänge eingesetzt. Im Ackerbau wurden vor allem historische Geräte verwendet, während es im Grünland in etwa der Hälfte der Fälle moderne Maschinen waren. Die Arbeits-pferde wurden im Median an 425 Stunden im Jahr eingesetzt, an 110 Tagen

A Tabu Search Based Approach for Graph Layout

This paper describes an automated tabu search based method for drawing general graph layouts with straight lines. To our knowledge, this is the first time tabu methods have been applied to graph drawing. We formulated the task as a multi-criteria optimization problem with a number of metrics which are used in a weighted fitness function to measure the aesthetic quality of the graph layout. The main goal of this work is to speed up the graph layout process without sacrificing layout quality. To achieve this, we use a tabu search based method that goes through a predefined number of iterations to minimize the value of the fitness function. Tabu search always chooses the best solution in the neighbourhood. This may lead to cycling, so a tabu list is used to store moves that are not permitted, meaning that the algorithm does not choose previous solutions for a set period of time. We evaluate the method according to the time spent to draw a graph and the quality of the drawn graphs. We give experimental results applied on random graphs and we provide statistical evidence that our method outperforms a fast search-based drawing method (hill climbing) in execution time while it produces comparably good graph layouts.We also demonstrate the method on real world graph datasets to show that we can reproduce similar results in a real world setting

Supporting allied health professionals in their role as practice educators

Aim: To find out what continuing professional development (CPD) and support Allied Health Professions’ practice educators felt would be beneficial to their role to support good learning experiences for students during practice placements. Background: For the first time, representatives from the four universities that run AHP pre-registration education programmes in Scotland, and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) collaborated to design and distribute a questionnaire to student practice educators across all sectors in Scotland. Method: An electronic questionnaire was designed and piloted. It consisted of closed questions using 5-point likert scales and open questions about different aspects of AHP Practice Educator preparation and ongoing CPD and support. The questionnaire was circulated by email three times through university, NES, and professional body networks. Respondents:1127 responses were received from 12 professions. 1082 responses were received from NHS Scotland educators (11% of the regulated AHP workforce), 45 were from AHPs providing practice placements in other sectors. The majority of responses were from experienced Practice Educators. Outcomes: The universities and NES now have a ranked list of CPD needs for practice educators. Key messages from the open questions have been identified about how educators prefer to access CPD and broader support issues both within the practice setting and from universities

On the photodissociation of H2 by the first stars

The first star formation in the universe is expected to take place within small protogalaxies, in which the gas is cooled by molecular hydrogen. However, if massive stars form within these protogalaxies, they may suppress further star formation by photodissociating the H2. We examine the importance of this effect by estimating the timescale on which significant H2 is destroyed. We show that photodissociation is significant in the least massive protogalaxies, but becomes less so as the protogalactic mass increases. We also examine the effects of photodissociation on dense clumps of gas within the protogalaxy. We find that while collapse will be inhibited in low density clumps, denser ones may survive to form stars.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Minor revisions to match version accepted by MNRA

Foreword

In their seminal 1890 article, The Right to Privacy, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis observed: Recent inventions and business methods call attention to the next step which must be taken for the protection of the person, and for securing to the individual what Judge Cooley calls the right “to be left alone.” Instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprise have invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life; and numerous mechanical devices threaten to make good the prediction that “what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the housetops.” What is remarkable about this comment is that it could be applied with equal force to today’s world. Although the technologies are different—instant photographs and sensational tabloids have been replaced by Google Glass and tracking technologies—the impulse to “to be let alone” and the fear that “what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the housetops” remains relevant to today’s privacy concerns. In fact, perhaps the only constant in the modern era has been almost breathless sense of change, a sense that new and unpredictable developments are just around the corner, and that today’s way of dealing with things may not be up to tomorrow’s task. Nowhere is this more evidence than in the area of information and privacy, where technological changes have facilitated an exponential increase in our ability to communicate and to know. According to Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, approximately five exabytes of information were created between the dawn of civilization and the year 2003. Today, the same amount of information is created in less that two days. Most of this data, according to Schmidt, is user generated—Facebook pages, text messages, blogs, etc. As our social relations are increasingly recorded and collected, the risk that information that we think we are “whispering in the closet” is in fact being “proclaimed from the rooftops” have only increased