Engineering Coexistence

A response to the issues raised by the English GM coexistence consultation

Elm Farm Research Centre Bulletin 82 February 2006

Regular newsletter with technical updates from the Organic Advisory Service Issue covers: organic sector payments, dietary health choices, avian influenza vaccination, tradable quotas, feeding cities, sewage sludge, organic aquaculture, organic poultry, biodiversity and productivity research, organic winter wheat varieties, linking farmers and scientists, Interreg Project, RAFAEL energy use greenhouse gas emissions food and farming

THE EFFECT OF PREVENTIVE AND DETERRENT SOFTWARE PIRACY STRATEGIES ON PRODUCER PROFITS

In an attempt to protect their intellectual property and compete effectively in an increasingly dynamic marketplace, software producers have employed a number of preventive and deterrent measures to counter software piracy. Conventional wisdom suggests that reducing piracy will force consumers to legitimately acquire software, thus increasing firm profits. In this paper, we develop an analytical model, using Buchanan\u27s economic theory of clubs, to test the implications of anti-piracy measures on producer profits. Our results suggest that deterrent measures can potentially increase profits. Empirical results are also presented which support the assumptions of the analytical model

Design and Implementation of Distributed Databases for Improving Law Enforcement in Developing Countries

Huge populations and low per capita incomes are the norm in developing countries. Apart from the other impacts, these two features make law enforcement in developing countries a colossal task. The absence of databases on citizens - their credit histories and felony records, is a serious impediment to normal Government activity and regulation. This lack of control can have serious consequences, domestic and international, if not checked immediately. In this paper, we propose that the rapid advance in telecommunications and computer technologies could be used very effectively in creating infrastructures in developing countries to improve the enforcement of law and order

Molecular gas in nearby low-luminosity QSO host galaxies

This paper addresses the global molecular gas properties of a representative sample of galaxies hosting low-luminosity quasistellar objects. An abundant supply of gas is necessary to fuel both the active galactic nucleus and any circum-nuclear starburst activity of QSOs. We selected a sample of nearby low-luminosity QSO host galaxies that is free of infrared excess biases. All objects are drawn from the Hamburg-ESO survey for bright UV-excess QSOs, have DEC>-30 degrees and redshifts that do not exceed z=0.06. The IRAM 30m telescope was used to measure the CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) transition in parallel. 27 out of 39 galaxies in the sample have been detected. The molecular gas masses of the detected sources range from 0.4E9 M_sun to 9.7E9 M_sun. We can confirm that the majority of galaxies hosting low-luminosity QSOs are rich in molecular gas. The properties of galaxies hosting brighter type I AGN and circumnuclear starformation regions differ from the properties of galaxies with fainter central regions. The overall supply of molecular gas and the spread of the line width distribution is larger. When comparing the far-infrared with the CO luminosities, the distribution can be separated into two different power-laws: one describing the lower activity Seyfert I population and the second describing the luminous QSO population. The separation in the L_FIR/L'_CO behavior may be explainable with differing degrees of compactness of the emission regions. We provide a simple model to describe the two power-laws. The sample studied in this paper is located in a transition region between the two populations

The Hobby Farm

On the family farm, the romance of farming and emotional ties to the land are in opposition to economic forces that arise from the inherent vulnerability and inefficiency of small scale operations in a market dominated by agribusiness. Some small farmers, however, have developed strategies to keep their farms in business. This paper focuses on how two of these strategies, capitalization on the popular vision of the small farmer and the dual career, combine to affect the fate of farms that can no longer entirely support themselves. These farms tend to evolve into “hobby farms” as they call themselves, marginally commercial farms that have a cheery recreational outward appearance. Most family farms provide a minority of the income of the families that operate them. They are stabilized and sometimes subsidized by their owners’ off-farm occupations. At the same time, the need for farmers to be creative in the production of their work has caused them to seek out niche markets where the small size of their farms is an advantage. In the presence of sufficient off-farm income, they frequently remain as farms retaining their title and acreage but with only minimal output. The small remaining animal herds are often characterized as pets for the family to play with