Measuring the Effectiveness of Isolation of Brassica napus L. Accessions During Caged Germplasm Regeneration

Gene flow, which is the successful movement of genes among populations by mating or migration of seeds or other propagules, has gained much interest in agriculture in recent years because of the widescale adoption of transgenic crops and concerns over transgene escape into the wild (James 2004; Messeguer 2003; Stewart et al. 2003). Brassica napus (rapeseed), together with maize and sugar beet, have been identified among the species for which cross-pollination and transgene escape are concerns (Treu and Emberlin 2000)

Under the influence:System-level effects of alcohol industry-funded health information organizations

There is now an established body of evidence that the alcohol industry seeks to obstruct public health policies that could affect the availability, affordability or marketing of alcohol. In parallel, the alcohol industry is active in funding corporate social responsibility initiatives, with a particular focus on 'responsible drinking' campaigns, often facilitated by national-level charities established and/or funded by the alcohol industry and associated organizations. While evidence continues to grow regarding biases in the content produced by such health information organizations, they remain active in partnerships with government health departments on national health promotion campaigns and provide a range of health-related information to the public, community organizations and schools. To understand the implications of such access for policymakers, researchers and the public, there is a need to consider the wider, system-level influences of such organizations and their place in wider alcohol industry strategies. In this article, we describe evolving evidence of the direct and indirect strategic effects of such organizations and demonstrate how they serve key roles in the alcohol industry through their existence, content, partnerships and public profiles. We end by considering the implications for how we conceptualize charities established or funded (entirely or partly) by harmful commodity industries, and to what extent current conflicts of interest guidelines are sufficiently effective.</p

The perils of partnership:Interactions between public health England, Drinkaware, and the Portman Group Surrounding the drink free days campaign

Background: There is growing evidence that the alcohol industry seeks to obstruct public health policies that might affect future alcohol sales. In parallel, the alcohol industry funds organisations that engage in “responsible drinking” campaigns. Evidence is growing that the content and delivery of such campaigns serves industry, rather than public health interests, yet these organizations continue to be the subject of partnerships with government health departments. This study aimed to examine the nature and potential impacts of such partnerships by analysing the practices of the alcohol industry-funded charity Drinkaware during the establishment of the Drink Free Days campaign. Methods: A case study based on an inductive analysis of documents revealed by freedom of information (FoI) request regarding communications between Drinkaware, Public Health England (PHE), and the Portman Group, in the years running up to, and during, the Drink Free Days campaign, a partnership between alcohol industry-funded charity Drinkware, and PHE. Results: This study reveals a range of less visible, system-level effects of such partnerships for government departments and civil society. The tensions observed, as exhibited by discrepancies between internal and external communications, the emphasis on managing and mitigating the perception of negative consequences, and the links to wider alcohol industry initiatives and bodies, suggest the need for wider considerations of organizational conflicts of interest, and of possible indirect, harmful consequences to policy-making. These include the marginalization of other civil society voices, the displacing of more effective policy options, and strategic alignment with other industry lobbying activities. Conclusion: The findings have implications for how public health practitioners and health organisations might better weigh the potential trade-offs of partnership in the context of health promotion campaigns

The strategies of alcohol industry SAPROs : Inaccurate information, misleading language and the use of confounders to downplay and misrepresent the risk of cancer

Peer reviewe

Analysis of Bulked and Redundant Accessions of Brassica Germplasm Using Assignment Tests of Microsatellite Markers

This study was conducted to determine if Brassica germplasm bulks created and maintained by the USDA-ARS North Central Plant Introduction Station (NCRPIS) were made with genetically indistinguishable component accessions and to examine newly identified putative duplicate accessions to determine if they can be bulked. Using ten microsatellite primer pairs, we genotyped two bulks of B. rapa L. ssp. dichotoma (Roxb.) Hanelt comprising four accessions and three bulks of B. rapa L. ssp. trilocularis (Roxb.) Hanelt comprising fourteen accessions, as well as four pairs of putatively duplicate accessions of B.␣napus L. Assignment tests on ten individual plants per accession were conducted using a model-based clustering method to arrive at probabilities of likelihood of accession assignment. The assignment tests indicated that one of the two bulks of B. rapa ssp. dichotoma involves genetically heterogeneous accessions. It was observed in the B. rapassp. trilocularis bulks that the component accessions could be differentiated into groups, with misassignments observed most frequent within groups. In B. napus, only one of the four pairs of putative duplicates showed significant genetic differentiation. The other three pairs of putative duplicates lack differences and support the creation of bulks. The results of the assignment tests were in agreement with cluster analyses and tests of population differentiation. Implications of these results in terms of germplasm management include the maintenance and/or re-creation of someBrassica germplasm bulks by excluding those accessions identified as being unique in this study

Institutional management of credit derivatives

The credit derivatives market has grown dramatically in the last three years and with that growth has come new opportunities for financial institutions to take advantage of this market. In this paper, we explore these market developments and lay a conceptual framework for the strategic management of credit derivatives by banking institutions. We argue that the development of the market now means that banks need to choose a strategic path for their credit derivative operations, and more specifically whether they will use the instruments simply as a tool for portfolio management, or participate in the market as a market-maker. The study of credit risk has gained rapidly in importance in recent years, mainly due to the emergence of the credit derivative market. Most of the research and analysis has been focused on the pricing of credit risk and or credit derivatives, while little attention has been given in the academic literature to the structural implications of the developing credit derivative market. Furthermore, even less attention has been paid to the managerial issues that arise with the development of this still relatively new market that has the potential to radically change the allocation, pricing, regulation and management of credit risk. In this paper we attempt to start a dialogue on the management issues of credit derivatives and to lay a conceptual framework for studying the issues. The central conclusion is that a banking institution needs to determine the depth and extent of its operations and more fundamentally determine whether as an institution it will be utilizing the credit derivatives market as an end-user for credit management or as a market maker intending to make a profit from trading and servicing clients. Section one gives a brief overview of credit derivatives. The second section describes the features of this market as it concerns banking as an industry, while section three discusses some of the managerial implications. The fourth and final section concludes and provides some directions for further research and analysis