Guidelines for stakeholder engagement in systematic reviews of environmental management

Abstract: People have a stake in conservation and environmental management both for their own interests and the sake of the environment itself. Environmental decision-making has changed somewhat in recent decades to account for unintentional impacts on human wellbeing. The involvement of stakeholders in environmental projects has been recognised as critical for ensuring their success and equally for the syntheses of evidence of what works, where, and for whom, providing key benefits and challenges. As a result of increased interest in systematic reviews of complex management issues, there is a need for guidance in best practices for stakeholder engagement. Here, we propose a framework for stakeholder engagement in systematic reviews/systematic maps, highlighting recommendations and advice that are critical for effective, efficient and meaningful engagement of stakeholders. The discussion herein aims to provide a toolbox of stakeholder engagement activities, whilst also recommending approaches from stakeholder engagement research that may prove to be particularly useful for systematic reviews and systematic maps

Ninety-day oral toxicity studies on two genetically modified maize MON810 varieties in Wistar Han RCC rats (EU 7th Framework Programme project GRACE)

The GMO Risk Assessment and Communication of Evidence (GRACE; www.grace-fp7.eu) project is funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme. A key objective of GRACE is to conduct 90-day animal feeding trials, animal studies with an extended time frame as well as analytical, in vitro and in silico studies on genetically modified (GM) maize in order to comparatively evaluate their use in GM plant risk assessment. In the present study, the results of two 90-day feeding trials with two different GM maize MON810 varieties, their near-isogenic non-GM varieties and four additional conventional maize varieties are presented. The feeding trials were performed by taking into account the guidance for such studies published by the EFSA Scientific Committee in 2011 and the OECD Test Guideline 408. The results obtained show that the MON810 maize at a level of up to 33 % in the diet did not induce adverse effects in male and female Wistar Han RCC rats after subchronic exposure, independently of the two different genetic backgrounds of the event

Techno-Economic Analysis of Horseradish Peroxidase Production Using a Transient Expression System in Nicotiana benthamiana

Despite the advantages of plant-based transient expression systems relative to microbial or mammalian cell systems, the commercial production of recombinant proteins using plants has not yet been achieved to any significant extent. One of the challenges has been the lack of published data on the costs of manufacture for products other than biopharmaceuticals. In this study, we report on the techno-economic analysis of the production of a standard commercial enzyme, namely, horseradish peroxidase (HRP), using a transient expression system in Nicotiana benthamiana. Based on the proven plant yield of 240 mg HRP/kg biomass, a biomass productivity of 15-kg biomass/m2/year and a process yield of 54 % (mg HRP product/mg HRP in biomass), it is apparent that HRP can be manufactured economically via transient expression in plants in a large-scale facility (>5 kg HRP/year). At this level, the process is competitive versus the existing technology (extraction of the enzyme from horseradish), and the product is of comparable or improved activity, containing only the preferred isoenzyme C. Production scale, protein yield and biomass productivity are found to be the most important determinants of overall viability.The National Intellectual Property Management Organisation, the Research Contracts and Intellectual Property Services of the University of Cape Town and the Technology Innovation Agency and the Department of Science and Technology.http://link.springer.com/journal/120102016-01-30hj201