TRIPS and plant varietal protection : economic analysis and policy choices

This paper reviews the economic aspects of the options facing developing countries in implementing intellectual property right protection for agricultural plant varieties under the WTO TRIPS agreement (Article 27(3)b). The various provisions possible in a sui generis system of plant varietal protection (PVP) are summarised, including those specified in the existing Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) treaties of 1978 and 1991. The paper then examines the limited economic research that has been conducted on the impacts of PVP and that may be of use to policy makers faced with current decisions. This review finds that the research to-date has not yet demonstrated overwhelming net benefits from PVP. The evidence so far is weakly supportive of positive contributions by PVP to agricultural productivity. The paper concludes further research on this issue is necessary given the ongoing review of the TRIPS agreement and the efforts underway in many developing countries to implement such systems. The paper also identifies some of the key topics forming a research agenda of interest for developing countries. Further research should focus on the impacts of specific provisions, in particular, that of farm-saved seed, as opposed to the effects of PVP as a whol

“Johnson Forever!” Revisiting a Hero of the Seven Years War

William Johnson moved to New York from his ancestral homeland Ireland in 1738 and soon became one of the most influential and prosperous colonists of his time. As a trader, land developer, speculator and government official, he co-operated extensively with the tribes of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Considered a fair and honest man by these people, Johnson developed close personal and economic relationships with many of them, especially within the Mohawk tribes. So when the British and French clashed between 1744 and 1748 (King George’s War), the New York colonial government turned to Johnson

Heat transfer device

An improved heat transfer device particularly suited for use as an evaporator plate in a diffusion cloud chamber. The device is characterized by a pair of mutually spaced heat transfer plates, each being of a planar configuration, having a pair of opposed surfaces defining therebetween a heat pipe chamber. Within the heat pipe chamber, in contiguous relation with the pair of opposed surfaces, there is disposed a pair of heat pipe wicks supported in a mutually spaced relationship by a foraminous spacer of a planar configuration. A wick including a foraminous layer is contiguously related to the external surfaces of the heat transfer plates for uniformly wetting these surfaces

Legislative Oversight of Administrative Rulemaking in New Hampshire

This paper explains how administrative rules are made in a small state. It also analyzes the role of a joint legislative committee which oversees the process and concludes that such oversight generally increases opportunities for public scrutiny of rules and public participation in rule making

Morita equivalence classes of 2-blocks of defect three

We give a complete description of the Morita equivalence classes of blocks with elementary abelian defect groups of order 8 and of the derived equivalences between them. A consequence is the verification of Brou\'e's abelian defect group conjecture for these blocks. It also completes the classification of Morita and derived equivalence classes of 2-blocks of defect at most three defined over a suitable field

The economic impact of ocean acidification on Pacific oysters

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, our atmosphere has continued to experience increased levels of CO₂ concentrations and with it, changes in seawater carbonate chemistry. These changes in the carbonate chemistry of seawater, a process known as ocean acidification (OA), threaten some species upon which some economies are largely dependent for economic activity. This thesis uses the best available data to summarize the Washington State shellfish economy and estimate potential impacts of OA on Pacific oyster demand. The analysis evaluates the economic impact of OA on demand using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model approach to estimate short-run and long-run impacts. Although initial research attempted to assess the impacts of OA on Pacific oyster supply, findings from this study suggest that long-run decreases in carbonate chemistry may negatively impact the demand for Pacific oysters. As the waters used to grow Pacific oysters in Washington State continue to degrade as a result of OA, substantial losses in economic activity from Pacific oysters may be lost. On the west coast, oysters appear to be a luxury good with demand highly responsive to changes in income. Pacific oysters are moderately sensitive to price, indicating demand for oysters is elastic

Roger Williams, The Founder of Providence – The Pioneer of Religious Liberty

By Amasa M. Eaton, A.M., LL.B. With Suggestions for Study in Schools by Clara E. Craig. Department of Education, State of Rhode Island. Rhode Island Education Circulars, Historical Series II – 1908. A biography of Roger Williams first delivered as an address before the Rhode Island Historical Society on October 2, 1906, on the unveiling of the tablets placed by the state to mark the site of the spring where the settlers first landed and on the site the Roger Williams Home Lot.https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/ri_history/1013/thumbnail.jp

William H. Kruskal and the Development of Coordinate-Free Methods

Discussion of ``The William Kruskal Legacy: 1919--2005'' by Stephen E. Fienberg, Stephen M. Stigler and Judith M. Tanur [arXiv:0710.5063]Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000367 the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org