Privatised provision of essential plant breeding infrastructure

As private plant breeding replaces public programs, the efficient provision and utilisation of key enabling technologies for crop breeding, which are largely knowledge based and provide the foundation for variety improvement, might be at risk. Typically, such inputs are non‐rival in use and are therefore termed essential plant breeding infrastructure (EPBI). Specific threats include the possibility of wasteful duplication in production, under‐production, under‐utilisation of produced EPBI because of price rationing, and anticompetitive outcomes in plant breeding and downstream markets. The likely level of under‐investment in hypothetical molecular‐marker technology by a profit‐maximising monopoly producer, charging uniform prices for access, is analysed using results from the published literature on excludable public goods.Crop Production/Industries,

Access Issues for Plant Breeders in an Increasingly Privatized World

There is a growing trend to widespread privatisation of crop breeding, and there are grounds for expecting this trend to continue and even to accelerate. Possible consequences for Australian grain growers and the national interest of much greater private sector involvement in plant breeding are explored. Growing privatisation and commercialisation of plant breeding will lead to increased competition between plant breeders. While this increased competition has been at least partly driven by the potential for value creation, it also is likely to enhance value creation from plant breeding so long as there is adequate continuing investment in the capacity for plant breeding, and more particularly in productivity enhancing enabling technology. In the event of monopoly provision of such enabling technology, an important policy issue will be access to what might be termed essential plant breeding infrastructure. For any access regime to essential infrastructure, the core issue is to select terms and conditions for access that promote full and efficient competition in upstream and downstream markets (e.g. plant breeding) while preserving the incentive for adequate levels of investment in the ongoing development, maintenance, and provision of such essential infrastructure. A key, perhaps pivotal issue will be pricing policy and practice. Because EPBI has the public good characteristic of being non-rival in use, price discovery by market processes can not be expected to produce the desired outcome. Moreover, even if an access regime mandated that EPBI be made available to all plant breeders at a uniform price, the imbalance in market power between the monopoly provider of EPBI and plant breeders seeking access would almost inevitably result in both under-production of EPBI, and in under-utilisation of any produced EPBI due to price rationing. Such outcomes would severely undermine the competitive position of Australian grain growers in international markets. Results from the literature on what are called excludable public goods are used to analyse the impact on the incentive for adequate investment in EPBI under an access regime mandating uniform pricing.Privatisation, plant breeding, access, enabling technologies, competition policy, excludable public goods., Crop Production/Industries, Production Economics,

Optical distributed sensors for feedback control: Characterization of photorefractive resonator

The aim of the project was to explore, define, and assess the possibilities of optical distributed sensing for feedback control. This type of sensor, which may have some impacts in the dynamic control of deformable structures and the monitoring of small displacements, can be divided into data acquisition, data processing, and control design. Analogue optical techniques, because they are noninvasive and afford massive parallelism may play a significant role in the acquisition and the preprocessing of the data for such a sensor. Assessing these possibilities was the aim of the first stage of this project. The scope of the proposed research was limited to: (1) the characterization of photorefractive resonators and the assessment of their possible use as a distributed optical processing element; and (2) the design of a control system utilizing signals from distributed sensors. The results include a numerical and experimental study of the resonator below threshold, an experimental study of the effect of the resonator's transverse confinement on its dynamics above threshold, a numerical study of the resonator above threshold using a modal expansion approach, and the experimental test of this model. A detailed account of each investigation, including methodology and analysis of the results are also included along with reprints of published and submitted papers

Catch allocation in a shared fishery with a minimally managed recreational sector

A prevalent problem in shared fisheries is competition between commercial and recreational fishers for access to a resource that is subject to increasing utilisation pressure. For most shared fisheries in New Zealand, the commercial sector is efficiently managed with a regime of individual transferable quota (ITQ), but the recreational fishing is only minimally managed. A model is developed that can be used to explore the size of the total allowable catch (TAC) that is both sustainable AND maximises the value to the NZ economy of the combined commercial and recreational catch when the commercial catch is regulated via a total allowable commercial catch (TACC) while the recreational catch (RC) is self regulating. Determinants of the optimal catch allocation include: • the relative size of annual value to recreational fishers vis-à-vis the value of one unit of ACE to the commercial fishing sector from a unit decrease in the TACC • the relation between value to recreational fishers and size of stock biomass • the biology, and in particular the population dynamics of the fishery • the nature of the functional relationship between the self regulating recreational catch and stock biomass. The model can be applied to a fishery of interest by quantifying the above variables and relationships.economics management shared fishery catch allocation, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Mechanism of temperature dependence of the magnetic anisotropy energy in ultrathin Cobalt and Nickel films

Temperature dependent FMR-measurements of Ni and Co films are analysed using a microscopic theory for ultrathin metallic systems. The mechanism governing the temperature dependence of the magnetic anisotropy energy is identified and discussed. It is reduced with increasing temperature. This behavior is found to be solely caused by magnon excitations.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures III Joint European Magnetic Symposia, San Sebastian, Spai

The LDCM actuator for vibration suppression

A linear dc motor (LDCM) has been proposed as an actuator for the COFS I mast and the COFS program ground test Mini-Mast. The basic principles of operation of the LDCM as an actuator for vibration suppression in large flexible structures are reviewed. Because of force and stroke limitations, control loops are required to stabilize the actuator, which results in a non-standard actuator-plant configuration. A simulation model that includes LDCM actuator control loops and a finite element model of the Mast is described, with simulation results showing the excitation capability of the actuator

Review of the Returns to ACIAR's Bilateral R&D Investments

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

A Note on Optimal Effort in the Maldivian Tuna Fishery

This note argues that spatial considerations and travel costs should be taken into account in devising tax/subsidy regulations for island-based tuna fisheries. In particular, the effect of a landings tax on distant fishing grounds should be considered when setting the level of the tax. A fuel subsidy is suggested as a means of offsetting the impact of the landings tax on marginal grounds.Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,