Swimming Against the Tide

An Analysis of Private Sector Development Issues in Small Economies This book examines the underlying factors that determine the environment for investment and growth in small economies, focussing on those in the Pacific.The private sector can flourish and create employment opportunities only if the environment in which it operates is conducive to business. Governments can often create an environment that increases the costs of doing business, reduces profits, and discourages dynamism and entrepreneurship. These issues include • fostering financial sector development for credit to be more readily available for business; • clarifying land rights and modifying them with respect to cultural preservation and the development of land markets; • reducing the role of the state in the economies of the region; • revamping the regulatory regimes for the business environment to be less constrained and monopolies more prudently regulated; • focusing on the assistance of small-scale rural enterprises. With concerted efforts, governments can ensure the resolution of these critical issues. However, doing so requires considerable time and great effort. Nevertheless, now is a perfect time to start the process. Strategies for change should focus on what causes the low rates of return on capital as well as the constraints to business startup and development.private sector development; institutional economics

Tradable water rights : a property rights approach to resolving water shortages and promoting investment

In most countries, the state owns the water and hydraulic infrastructure, and public officials decide who gets water rights, how the water is to be used, and how much will be charged for its use. The authors of this paper compare administered systems of water allocation with a system of tradable water rights, and argue that water allocation by administrative edict has resulted in costly, large-scale inefficiencies in the supply and use of water, even withan adequate institutional framework. Secure property rights, on the other hand, have been shown to have a powerful positive effect on investment and efficiency, although only a few countries have tried to take advantage of the allocative efficiencies of a market to assign water resources among users. The authors argue that in order to ensure implementation of an effective water market system, attention should be paid to: (i) ensuring stakeholder participation in designing and implementing the new legislation; (ii) deciding on new rules for the initial allocation of rights and for how new rights should be allocated; (iii) establishing a public registry and block titling; (iv) setting up or strengthening water user associations; (v) protecting against the development of potential monopolies; (vi) ensuring that trades do not infringe on the water rights of existing users; and (vii) establishing appropriate environmental laws.Water Resources Law,Water and Industry,Water Supply and Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water Conservation,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Water Conservation,Water and Industry,Water Use

Flying Robots and Privacy in Canada

Drones have been a hot topic in recent years particularly when used in war and in domestic police operations. Drones have also attracted attention because of highprofile plans to use them for package delivery, among other things. While the glamourous and future uses of drones catch media attention, drones are already being used in the private sector for more mundane purposes including surveying, infrastructure inspection and real estate sales promotion. While the privacy threats of military and police drones are widely discussed, privacy concerns of private drones have attracted much less consideration. This paper looks at the privacy risks of private drones in Canada. It begins with an overview of the uses of private drones and their regulation in Canada. Regulation of drones in Canada is quite permissive and does not address the privacy risks. The paper then presents several privacy theories and a deeper discussion of two problems caused by technology such as drones: data aggregation and erosion of privacy in public. The paper then considers some theoretical and practical legal protections that might be used to protect against drone privacy invasion. The more theoretical include the torts of trespass and nuisance. The more practical include the tort of intrusion upon seclusion and the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act. The paper concludes that the dominant theories of privacy embedded in Canadian law are not fully prepared for the challenge of drones, though the tort of intrusion upon seclusion holds some promise for the future

Systemic Studies of the Genus Gila (Cyprinidae) of the Colorado River Basin

Three Hundred and nine specimens of Gila from the Colorado River basin were studied. A form of numerical taxonomy, taximetrics, was used to help classify the specimens. The data from these fish indicate that many of the present hypotheses concerning their taxonomy are not valid. The concept of ecosubspecies or ecological subspecies does not fit the Colorado basin Gila. The roundtail and bonytail chubs, G. robusta Baird and Girard and G. elegans Baird and Girard respectively, currently treated as subspecies, are well separated morphologically, ecologically and reproductively and therefore are better considered two valid species. The relationship between G. cypha Miller and G. elegans is clouded by the presence of what appear to be intergrade forms. Future investigations are needed to piece together the puzzle surrounding these two fish. The subspecies name seminuda (Cope and Yarrow), presently attributed to fish from throughout the Colorado basin, more correctly is allied to the robusta of the Virgin River. Preliminary study indicates this population may be sufficiently different to warrent subspecies recognition. No specimens of G. robusta intermedia (Girard) were examined but the literature suggests this form may also be a valid species

Tradable Water Rights: A Property Rights Approach to Improving Water Use and Promoting Investment

In most countries, the state owns the water and hydraulic infrastructure, and public officials decide who gets water rights, how the water is to be used, and how much will be charged for its use. The authors of this paper compare administered systems of water allocation with a system of tradable water rights, and argue that water allocation by administrative edict has resulted in costly, large-scale inefficiencies in the supply and use of water, even withan adequate institutional framework. Secure property rights, on the other hand, have been shown to have a powerful positive effect on investment and efficiency, although only a few countries have tried to take advantage of the allocative efficiencies of a market to assign water resources among users. The authors argue that in order to ensure implementation of an effective water market system, attention should be paid to: (i) ensuring stakeholder participation in designing and implementing the new legislation; (ii) deciding on new rules for the initial allocation of rights and for how new rights should be allocated; (iii) establishing a public registry and block titling; (iv) setting up or strengthening water user associations; (v) protecting against the development of potential monopolies; (vi) ensuring that trades do not infringe on the water rights of existing users; and (vii) establishing appropriate environmental laws

Crude subcellular fractionation of cultured mammalian cell lines

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The expression and study of recombinant proteins in mammalian culture systems can be complicated during the cell lysis procedure by contaminating proteins from cellular compartments distinct from those within which the protein of interest resides and also by solubility issues that may arise from the use of a single lysis buffer. Partial subcellular fractionation using buffers of increasing stringency, rather than whole cell lysis is one way in which to avoid or reduce this contamination and ensure complete recovery of the target protein. Currently published protocols involve time consuming centrifugation steps which may require expensive equipment and commercially available kits can be prohibitively expensive when handling large or multiple samples.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>We have established a protocol to sequentially extract proteins from cultured mammalian cells in fractions enriched for cytosolic, membrane bound organellar, nuclear and insoluble proteins. All of the buffers used can be made inexpensively and easily and the protocol requires no costly equipment. While the method was optimized for a specific cell type, we demonstrate that the protocol can be applied to a variety of commonly used cell lines and anticipate that it can be applied to any cell line via simple optimization of the primary extraction step.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We describe a protocol for the crude subcellular fractionation of cultured mammalian cells that is both straightforward and cost effective and may facilitate the more accurate study of recombinant proteins and the generation of purer preparations of said proteins from cell extracts.</p

Less efficient pattern separation may contribute to age-related spatial memory deficits

Spatial memory deficits have been well-documented in older adults and may serve as an early indicator of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease (AD) in some individuals. Pattern separation is a critical mechanism for reducing potential interference among similar memory representations to enhance memory accuracy. A small but growing literature indicates that spatial pattern separation may become less efficient as a result of normal aging, possibly due to age-related changes in subregions of the hippocampus. This decreased efficiency in spatial pattern separation may be a critical processing deficit that could be a contributing factor to spatial memory deficits and episodic memory impairment associated with aging. The present paper will review recently published studies in humans, non-human primates, and rodents that have examined age-related changes in spatial pattern separation. The potential basic science, translational, and clinical implications from these studies are discussed to illustrate the need for future research to further examine the relationship between spatial pattern separation and brain changes associated with aging and neurodegenerative disease