Risk Assessment of Pesticides and the role of EFSA

contribution to session IITest and risk assessment The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was created by the Regulation EC 178/2002 on 28 January 2002 with the mandate to provide scientific advice and support for the European Community policies in all fields with impact on food and feed safety. The PPR Unit (Plant Protection Products and their Residues Unit, Risk Assessment Directorate) as well as the Pesticides/PRAPeR Unit (Scientific Cooperation and Assistance Directorate) both works on Plant Protection Products in relation to Directive 91/414 EEC. PRAPeR coordinates the Pesticide Risk Assessment Peer Review for the approval of active substances by the European Commission and the Members States, whereas the PPR Panel provides independent scientific opinions and guidance for the Community’s legislation in the field of plant protection products.  Actual examples have been presented regarding the role, working procedures and results of the PPR Panel and PRAPeR in relation to the risk assessment of plant protection products to bees (e.g. EFSA-Opinions, EFSA-Conclusions). Information on on-going and scheduled work of the PPR Panel in this area have also been mentioned. In line with EFSAs commitment for transparency, details of the ongoing work are published on www.efsa.europa.eu.

Value Appropriation Strategies for Interorganizational Data Sharing – a Case Study

Interorganizational data sharing (IODS) grows increasingly complex in the context of business ecosystems. As the literature on IODS finds that organizations only share data if they perceive benefits from it, this study explores value appropriation strategies (VAS) through an ongoing inductive case study of the German orthopedic ecosystem, exploiting interview and secondary data from executives of various treatment facilities and a leading manufacturer of health products. Our preliminary grounded theorizing indicates that VAS for IODS involve four elements (partner selection, data tailoring, reciprocal design, and control enforcement) that each are realized by specific VAS activities. Further, we find that, different from other contexts, ensuring VAS for IODS is not about controlling the value creation process but is grounded in upstream strategic decisions. This understanding of VAS for IODS indicates that having strategies for value appropriation in place before diving into IODS is crucial for succeeding in data ecosystems

Interorganizational Data Sharing in Health Ecosystems - A Case Sudy

The integration of external data offers enormous potential for new and expanded value propositions for companies. However, organizations often refrain from sharing data as they expect detrimental consequences from it. This study provides insights into how organizations decide to share data within the ecosystem and what organizations can do to motivate other organizations within the ecosystem to share data with them. Using privacy calculus and ecosystems theory to sensitize a qualitative case study of the German orthopedic market, we derive three risks (weakening one’s position in the ecosystem, IT alignment investments, and penalties for data protection violations) as well as three benefits (increased value creation of the ecosystem, competitive advantage over other ecosystems, and gaining additional transactions) perceived by organizations considering to share data. Further, three strategies for obtaining data from other organizations are derived: mitigating the risks, emphasizing the benefits, and bypassing the calculus

Finding Direction When Developing New Media Products. An Empirical Study of Readers’ Preferences for Enhanced Fiction EBooks

In times of media convergence, media managers are under increased competitive pressure. New technologies result in a change of the customers’ preferences, which –if ignored by established market participants-attract players from other industries to satisfy their needs. Therefore, the investigation of the preferences of consumers in the context of new media channels is essential and can provide decisive competitive advantages. This study aims to elaborate on one of the methods to increase more appropriate knowledge about the customers’ needs, even in an early stage of the media product development process. Using the example of eBooks, a best-worst analysis concerning potential enhancement features was applied. Estimated utilities by the hierarchical Bayes model and customer segments by latent class analysis lead to clear profiles of two different benefit segments characterized by distinct patterns of utility profiles. The first segment consists of heavy readers of books, conservative and budget conscious in their attitudes. The second segment is characterized by a more sporadic reading style. These kinds of readers are highly multimedia affinitive and their willingness to pay for eBooks is higher than that the one of the first segment. Media managers should take advantage of the potential of such research to make better investment decisions and rely lesson the pure intuition and/or internal views of creative media people

Different Harvest Schedules to Prepare Deferred Forage from C4 Grasses in Córdoba, Argentina

From 1995 until 1999 a trial was done in the fields of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba with four C4 forage grasses. These fields lie in the subtropical and semiarid region of Argentina. This research aimed to identify forage species that could be used as deferred forage for the drier and cooler winter season. Four species of C4 grasses were used: Rhodesgrass (Chloris gayana Kunth), Gatton (Panicum maximum), coloratum (Panicum coloratum) and digitgrass (Digitaria eriantha), respectively. Two growing periods were used: full season growth (FS) and half season regrowth (HS), in both cases the deferred forage was harvested three times: at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the winter. This paper foccuses DM yields in kg/hectare (DM) and percentage of crude protein (CP). The HS yields less but shows better CP than the FS, therefore it may be a better forage in winter. Coloratum and digigrass seems to give better deferred forage than the other species