Digital logic elements provide additional functions from analog input

A dc analog input can be used to produce an integrator with high dynamic range or a position servo with inherent stability. This is done by a switching system using digital-to-analog converters and an electronic switch to obtain the desired outputs

Nutrient digestibility and growth response of rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri ) fed different carbohydrate types

Seven groups of fingerling rainbow trout (S. gairdneri ) were fed for 10 weeks on 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% of cassava or rice in isonitrogenous diets. Optimum growth and food utilization was at 20% dietary cassava. High fiber content of the control diet did not suppress protein digestibility in this group. Rather, at all levels, protein digestibility was good and remained between 84.4% and 90.1%. However, in the control group, carbohydrate digestibility was very poor. The cassava diets which had the highest digestible energy as carbohydrate produced the best growth performance, food utilization and protein sparing. At the levels studied, the dietary carbohydrates produced no hyperglycamic effect on the fis

BIOTECH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: FROM A GENE REVOLUTION TO A DOUBLY GREEN REVOLUTION?

International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

IMPACT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN EUROPE: THE FIRST FOUR YEARS OF BT MAIZE ADOPTION IN SPAIN

In the present paper we estimate the impact of a biotechnology innovation in Spanish agriculture. Transgenic Bt maize offers the potential to control corn borers, that cause economically important losses in Spanish maize cultivation, more efficiently. Since 1998, Syngenta commercializes the variety Compa CB, equivalent to an annual area of 25.000ha, or an average adoption rate of 5,2% of Spains total land allocation to maize. The profit increase engendered by this technological change during the four-year period 1998-2001 is estimated to be E8,4 million for Spanish agriculture and E2,8 million for Syngenta and the seed suppliers. The industry appears to be able to extract only one fourth of the total benefits. The lion share, i.e., three fourth, accrues to farmers.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION'S SUGAR INDUSTRY

We develop a welfare framework, which explicitly recognizes that research protected by intellectual property rights generates monopoly profits. The result is a simulation model, shaped to the European sugar sector, and enabling to assess the size and distribution of the benefits of transgenic sugar beet adoption in the European Union (EU) and the Rest of the World (ROW). Our model results suggest that the ROW captures the largest share of the benefits (53 % of total welfare increase). The EU sugar industry absorbs the next largest share of the benefits (30 %), with the smallest share (17 %) accruing to seed suppliers and gene developers. Since EU intervention prices are exogenously fixed each year, EU consumers do not take part in the distribution of the gains from the innovation. However, consumers outside the EU necessarily gain due to the depressing effect of the technology on world sugar prices. The latter is costly for the cane growers in the ROW, while beet producers gain. Our results reveal an apparent contradiction. When modern (bio)technologies are introduced in commodity markets subject to obsolete trade policies, the natural flow of domestic benefits from the input industry, via farmers, to consumers is hampered and biased towards the producing sector (input industry, farmers, and processors), leaving domestic consumers unaffected. Remarkably, given the current Common Market Organization for sugar, consumers outside the EU gain while EU citizens continue to subsidize EU sugar production trough high sugar prices, despite the innovation.Industrial Organization, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

WELFARE EFFECTS OF TRANSGENIC SUGARBEETS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A THEORETICAL EX-ANTE FRAMEWORK

We develop a theoretical welfare framework, which explicitly recognizes that research protected by intellectual property rights generates monopoly profits. The result is a simulation model, shaped to the European sugar sector, and enabling to assess the size and distribution of the benefits of transgenic sugarbeet adoption in the European Union and the Rest of the World.Production Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

THE ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY: HISTORICAL AND ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK

In this working paper we attempt to establish a general analytical framework for the calculation of the micro- and macroeconomic benefits and costs of biotechnology applications in EU agriculture. Since these innovative applications are typically protected by intellectual property rights, standard welfare analyses will overestimate total benefits generated by these innovations. On the other hand, this doesn't mean that innovators are extracting all of the benefits. A recent ex-post welfare analysis on US Bt-cotton shows that farmers have captured the largest share of benefits (Falck-Zepeda, Traxler and Nelson, 1999). Due to the importance of intellectual property rights and the consolidation of the agricultural input industry, the framework presented by Moschini and Lapan (1997) seems to be the most adequate model as it takes into account these elements.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

EX-ANTE EVALUATION OF THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: THE CASE OF TRANSGENIC SUGARBEETS

We develop a theoretical welfare framework, which explicitly recognizes that research protected by intellectual property rights generates monopoly profits. The result is a simulation model, shaped to the European sugar sector, and enabling to assess the size and distribution of the benefits of transgenic sugarbeet adoption in the European Union and the Rest of the World.Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,