Alien Registration- Myhr, Peter E. (New Sweden, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/34403/thumbnail.jp

A sustainability assessment framework for genome-edited salmon

In this paper we present a suggestion for a sustainability assessment framework using genome editing of salmon as a case study. The salmon farming industry is facing several challenges hindering sustainable production. Genome editing has entered as a tool that can improve selective breeding and feed ingredients in aquaculture, hence providing solutions such as resistance to salmon lice and other pathogens, and sterility reducing interbreeding with wild, threatened stocks. As a goal for aquaculture is that its practices and products contribute to sustainability, the use of genome editing needs to be assessed with regards to sustainability, too. In our work, we draw on three sources of information; strategy and policy documents published by governmental offices and industry organizations; relevant GMO regulations and operationalization reports; and qualitative empirical data from 19 semi-structured interviews with Norwegian key stakeholders, and four semi-structured citizen groups. The findings from our analyses are discussed in relation to a Wedding cake-model for sustainability developed at the Stockholm Resilience Centre based on the UN SDGs and the three pillars of sustainability: biosphere, society, and economy. Analysis of document and interview data shows three main findings, one within each of the sustainability pillars. First, we identified that the biosphere pillar, including protection of the environment and the wild salmon, is the major sustainability issue and therefore important for the assessment of sustainability in the aquaculture industry and for the potential introduction of genome-edited salmon. Second, in the pillar for society the preservation of cultural and natural resources should be included, and in the Norwegian context this includes preserving the Sámi culture reliance on the wild salmon stocks. Third, in the economy pillar animal welfare needs to be included both for efficiency and ethical responsibility in farming. With some adoption to local and national conditions and the fish species in question, the same framework can be used for sustainability assessment of genome edited finfish in general.publishedVersio

Residential mobility, family structure, and completion of upper secondary education – A registry-based cohort study of the Norwegian adolescent population

publishedVersio

Symmetric extension in two-way quantum key distribution

We introduce symmetric extensions of bipartite quantum states as a tool for analyzing protocols that distill secret key from quantum correlations. Whether the correlations are coming from a prepare-and-measure quantum key distribution scheme or from an entanglement-based scheme, the protocol has to produce effective states without a symmetric extension in order to succeed. By formulating the symmetric extension problem as a semidefinite program, we solve the problem for Bell-diagonal states. Applying this result to the six-state and BB84 schemes, we show that for the entangled states that cannot be distilled by current key distillation procedures, the failure can be understood in terms of a failure to break a symmetric extension.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures; v2: published version, hyperlinked reference

Scraping the bottom of the barrel? Evidence on social mobility and internal migration from rural areas in nineteenth-century Norway

We aim to answer whether expected occupational gains motivated rural-urban and rural-rural migration in nineteenth-century Norway. Human capital theory indicates that the higher expected gains, the more prone an individual will be to migrate. We use a micro-level data set of over 42,000 rural sons linked to their fathers based on 1865 and 1900 Norwegian censuses and employ a switching endogenous regression model controlling for the endogeneity of migration decisions. Our main finding is that the effect of expected occupational gain on the probability of rural-urban migration differs according to the rural sons’ destination and parental occupational status: the sons from low status families were migrating motivated by expected occupational advancement. Sons from families with higher occupational status were motivated by expected occupational gains only in the case of rural-urban migration

Inclusion and Implementation of Socio-Economic Considerations in GMO Regulations: Needs and Recommendations

Socio-economic considerations are included in the regulatory frameworks on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) of many countries. This is a reflection of an increasing interest in and recognition of the necessity to consider a broader range of issues when conducting a GMO risk assessment. At the same time, there are discussions about how socio-economic considerations can be identified and how their assessment can be carried out. To provide an understanding of the advances achieved so far, we describe the state of the art of existing biosafety institutional frameworks, legislation and policies with provisions on socio-economic considerations. We analyse the scope of the socio-economic considerations that have been included, the methodological options taken and the role of participatory processes and stakeholders involvement in the GMO-related decision-making. Since many of the countries that have legislation for assessing socio-economic considerations lack implementation experience, we provide an analysis of how implementation has evolved in Norway with the intention to illustrate that the inclusion of socio-economic considerations might be based on a learning process. Norway was the first country to include broader issues in its GMO assessment process, and is at present one of the countries with the most experience on implementation of these issues. Finally, we emphasise that there is a great need for training on how to perform assessments of socio-economic considerations, as well as reflection on possible ways for inclusion of participatory processes