A Survey of Literature on Genetically Modified Crops: Economics, Ethics and Society

This paper reports on a review of literature in the form of academic papers and published research on ethical and consumer issues for GM crops in North America, with particular emphasis on GM wheat. The issues raised in these papers and the findings and arguments posed by the authors are outlined. A general conclusion that can be drawn from this overview is that public attitudes toward GM foods are diverse and sometimes quite strongly held. The strong negative views of GM food held by some appear to be mainly grounded in individuals’ ethical or moral values. Ethical and risk assessment issues have not been fully explored in the existing literature. There is a general consensus in the applied economics literature that GM crops result in economic benefits, although benefits to individual consumers may not be great enough to overcome perceived risk. Carefully planned provision of credible information informing members of the public of benefits and related issues of concern or costs associated with agricultural biotechnology may have benefits for farm and industry groups, but maintenance of trust in information sources and content is vital to credibility. The discovery and use of genomic techniques that express explicit consumer benefits may lead to more favourable attitudes by many consumers.Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, I00, Q16, Q18,

Separation of oxidatively damaged DNA Nucleobases and Nucleosides on Packed and Monolith C18 Columns by HPLC-UV-EC

This study involves the incorporation of a commercially available Phenomenex Onyx C18 monolith column into the separation and detection of oxidative DNA damage. It includes thorough investigation of monolith performance and a comparison of the performance of monolith columns with a commercially available packed Restek reverse phase Ultra C18 column for the separation of DNA bases and nucleosides. The performance of the monolith was examined using efficiency, resolution, plate height, asymmetry and retention times, and in each case showed improved or at least comparable results in the separation of a mix of DNA bases and nucleosides. A 90% reduction, from just under 40 min. to just under 4 min., was obtained in the elution time of this separation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a fast monolith column separation successfully coupled to both a UV-vis and EC detector, which is especially useful for analysis of oxidative DNA damage. The determination of 8-oxoG and 8-OH-dG, oxidation products of guanine and 2’-deoxyguanosine, respectively, may be compromised by their ease of oxidation and therefore the fast separation, selective and sensitive detection, with no artifactual oxidation, detailed in this report, is ideal

Touch Screen Theory

Technology companies claim to connect people through touchscreens, but by conflating physical contact with emotional sentiments, they displace the constructed aspects of devices and women and other oppressed individuals' critiques of how such technologies function. Technology companies and device designers correlate touchscreens and online sites with physical contact and emotional sentiments, promising unmediated experiences in which the screen falls away in favor of visceral materiality and connections. While touchscreens are key elements of most people's everyday lives, critical frameworks for understanding the embodied experiences of using them are wanting. In Touch Screen Theory, Michele White focuses on the relation between physically touching and emotionally feeling to recenter the bodies and identities that are empowered, produced, and displaced by these digital technologies and settings. Drawing on detailed cases and humanities methods, White shows how and why gender, race, and sexuality should be further analyzed in relation to touchscreen use and design. White delves into such details as how women are informed that their bodies and fingernails are not a fit for iPhones, how cellphone surfaces are correlated with skin and understood as erotic, the ways social networks use heart buttons and icons to seem to physically and emotionally connect with individuals, how online references to feminine and queer feelings are resisted by many men, and how women producers of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos use tactile strategies and touchscreens to emotionally bond with viewers. Proposing critical methods for studying touchscreens and digital engagement, Touch Screen Theory expands a variety of research areas, including digital and internet cultures, hardware, interfaces, media and screens, and popular culture

Nickel(II)-catalysed oxidative guanine and DNA damage beyond 8-oxoguanine

Oxidative DNA damage is one of the most important and most studied mechanisms of disease. It has been associated with a range of terminal diseases such as cancer, heart disease, hepatitis, and HIV, as well as with a variety of everyday ailments. There are various mechanisms by which this type of DNA damage can be initiated, through radiation and chemical oxidation, among others; however, these mechanisms have yet to be fully elucidated. A HPLC-UV-EC study of the oxidation of DNA mediated by nickel(II) obtained results that show an erratic, almost oscillatory formation of 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG) from free guanine and from guanine in DNA. Sporadic 8-oxoG concentrations were also observed when 8-oxoG alone was subjected to these conditions. A HPLC-MS/MS study showed the formation of oxidised-guanidinohydantoin (oxGH) from free guanine at pH 11, and the formation of guanidinohydantoin (GH) from DNA at pH 5.5

Bond graph modeling of critical infrastructures for cyber-physical security implementation

“In developed societies, there exists infrastructure vital to everyday life. This includes water and power systems. Technology is quickly evolving and being implemented on these utilities. This technology can range from smart metering in neighborhoods to volume sensors in local waste water treatment facilities. When networking, sensing, monitoring, or control devices are integrated with infrastructure it is considered a cyber physical system, or CPS. When information about an important physical system is connected to the virtual world, it is opened up to security risks. Cyber security can be provided to the CPS by monitoring the physical state of the system and detecting virtual attacks when unexpected changes occur. However, these systems mentioned cross multiple domains: electrical, mechanical, and hydraulic amongst others. This creates a challenge, as each domain has its own unique language, terminology, and topology. To combat this challenge, a universal representation of these systems is implemented through the use of bond graphs. Bond graphs take advantage of the commonalities found in all physical scientific domains. These similarities are found in the energy interactions throughout a given system, and bond graphs allow these relationships to be mapped graphically and mathematically. This unifying notation creates a clear picture of the energy movement throughout a physical system. Information about the unifying bond graph method is discussed, and previous work and examples are relayed. To demonstrate the use of bond graphs on a power system, a realistic microgrid model was converted into a bond graph, simulated, and validated”--Abstract, page iv

A feasibility study on using inkjet technology, micropumps, and MEMs as fuel injectors for bipropellant rocket engines

Control over drop size distributions, injection rates, and geometrical distribution of fuel and oxidizer sprays in bi-propellant rocket engines has the potential to produce more efficient, more stable, less polluting rocket engines. This control also offers the potential of an engine that can be throttled, working efficiently over a wide range of output thrusts. Inkjet printing technologies, MEMS fuel atomizers, and piezoelectric injectors similar in concept to those used in diesel engines are considered for their potential to yield a new, more active injection scheme for a rocket engine. Inkjets are found to be unable to pump at sufficient pressures, and have possibly dangerous failure modes. Active injection is found to be feasible if high pressure drop along the injector plate are used. A conceptual design is presented and its basic behavior assessed

Surface Brightness Fluctuations from archival ACS images: a stellar population and distance study

We derive Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) and integrated magnitudes in the V- and I-bands using Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) archival data. The sample includes 14 galaxies covering a wide range of physical properties: morphology, total absolute magnitude, integrated color. We take advantage of the latter characteristic of the sample to check existing empirical calibrations of absolute SBF magnitudes both in the I- and V-passbands. Additionally, by comparing our SBF and color data with the Teramo-SPoT simple stellar population models, and other recent sets of population synthesis models, we discuss the feasibility of stellar population studies based on fluctuation magnitudes analysis. The main result of this study is that multiband optical SBF data and integrated colors can be used to significantly constrain the chemical composition of the dominant stellar system in the galaxy, but not the age in the case of systems older than 3 Gyr. SBF color gradients are also detected and analyzed. These SBF gradient data, together with other available data, point to the existence of mass dependent metallicity gradients in galaxies, with the more massive objects showing a non--negligible SBF versus color gradient. The comparison with models suggests that such gradients imply more metal rich stellar populations in the galaxies' inner regions with respect to the outer ones.Comment: ApJ Accepte

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Suicidal Behaviour in Children and Adolescents Accessing Residential or Intensive Home-Based Mental Health Services

Objective: There is a dearth of Canadian research with clinical samples of youth who self-harm, and no studies could be located on self-harm in children and youth accessing residential or intensive home-based treatment. The purposes of this report were to explore the proportion and characteristics of children and youth identified as self-harming at admission by clinicians compared to youth not identified as self-harming, compare self-harming children to adolescents, and to compare caregiver ratings of self-harm at intake to clinician ratings at admission. Method: This report was developed from a larger longitudinal, observational study involving 210 children and youth accessing residential and home-based treatment and their caregivers in partnership with five mental health treatment centres in southwestern Ontario. Agency data were gleaned from files, and caregivers reported on symptom severity at 12 to 18 months and 36 to 40 months post-discharge. Results: Fifty-seven (34%) children and youth were identified as self-harming at admission. The mean age was 11.57 (SD 2.75). There were statistically significant differences on symptom severity at intake between those identified as self-harming and those not so identified; most of these differences were no longer present at follow up. Children were reported to have higher severity of conduct disorder symptoms than adolescents at intake, and there was some consistency between caregiver-rated and clinician-rated self-harm. Children were reported to engage in a wide range of self-harming behaviours. Conclusion: These findings suggest that youth who were identified as self-harming at admission have elevated scores of symptom severity, self-harm can occur in young children and while many improve, there remains a concern for several children and youth who did not improve by the end of service. Children engage in some of the same types of self-harm behaviours as adolescents, and they also engage in behaviours unique to children