An Annotated Bibliography of Scientific Publications on the Risks Associated with Genetic Modification

In order to help facilitate scientific debate on GMO risks a literature search of peer-reviewed science was conducted on GMO risks resulting in the following bibliography. While there is a great deal of published science on genetic modification in general, there is far less that specifically targets the bio-safety issues associated with genetic modification. In order to make scientifically informed decisions relating to the adoption or regulation of this emerging technology, it is important that all of the relevant information is available to decision makers. One of the themes that has coloured the portrayal of the “GE” debate in the popular media is that of science on one side (supporting these innovations) and uninformed emotional arguments on the other. This bibliography is designed to help bring this debate into a scientific arena by providing references to bio-safety concerns that can be obtained by any decision making body. The decision to restrict this bibliography to scientific publications is designed to ensure that the arguments and the information presented has been scrutinised by scientists in the peer review or editorial process and as such should guard against non-scientific contributions to this important scientific debate. This has meant, however, that books written by scientists have been excluded from this bibliography, even though they may provide important contributions to the scientific debate. Of course, the issues surrounding the adoption and regulation of genetic modification are more than scientific, and include ethical, economic, cultural, legal, intellectual property, and liability dimensions. These themes are beyond the scope of this bibliography, which is explicitly focused on biological science

Submission to NAWAC on the Public Draft Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code Of Welfare 2001

The SPCA is a not-for-profit organization established for the purpose of preventing cruelty to animals, whether these animals are farmed for the table, wild, or are kept as pets. The Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code of Welfare 2001 concerns farmed animals that are destined for the table. There are a number of farming practices currently permitted in the pork industry and also permitted in the Draft Code that constitute cruelty. This cruelty is not consistent with the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and for this reason the SPCA submits that a number of changes to the Draft Code are required in order to meet the spirit and letter of the Act. The SPCA welcomes the opportunity to make this submission. There are a number of pork industry management changes that are coming into force in the European Union that improve the welfare of farmed pigs in member states. The EU commissioned an independent Scientific Veterinary Committee (SVC 1997) to gather scientific information on pig welfare and write a report. Article 6 of the Council Directive 91/630/EEC lays down the minimum standards for the protection of pigs for the EU and was recently amended following recommendations by the SVC. At the very least, the New Zealand minimum standard for pork farming practice should be consistent with the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act 1999. There is also opportunity for New Zealand to have a higher standard than what is required by the Act, particularly if we wish to be a world leader in agricultural practice. We note that the NZ dairy industry makes much of our free range cattle when marketing their product in countries where feedlots are the norm. The changes to the Draft Code submitted by the SPCA form an integrated whole and combine animal welfare requirements with improvements in environmental standards. In some cases the recommendations have a dual (or multiple) effect and purpose. For example, the requirement to provide bulk fibrous food in the diet (e.g. straw) serves the purpose of satisfying dietary requirements (satiation), which assists in improving behavioural conditions (providing for the foraging instinct), whilst providing for improved welfare (cushioning on joints and limbs for housed pigs), as well as lowering the emissions to air and water (producing an economic by-product in the form of nitrogen rich compost). The changes that are proposed by the SPCA will require modifications in the quality of husbandry for some pig farmers, as a minimum standard. While some of these changes may require more financial input for those farmers in comparison with the status quo, we submit that the status quo (for some farmers) is in breach of the Animal Welfare Act and therefore is not a sustainable or legitimate situation. The Animal Welfare Act (1999) is clear on a number of points that relate to the New Zealand pork industry. Section 4 of the Act requires animals to be able to display normal patterns of behaviour. This point is not under debate: it has been decided, the New Zealand public requires it, and now it needs to be enforced. Section 10 of the Act requires animals to be cared for in accordance with good practice and scientific knowledge. The following submission presents ample scientific evidence to support significant improvements in the husbandry of pigs

Submission to NAWAC on the Public Draft Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code Of Welfare 2001

The SPCA is a not-for-profit organization established for the purpose of preventing cruelty to animals, whether these animals are farmed for the table, wild, or are kept as pets. The Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code of Welfare 2001 concerns farmed animals that are destined for the table. There are a number of farming practices currently permitted in the pork industry and also permitted in the Draft Code that constitute cruelty. This cruelty is not consistent with the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and for this reason the SPCA submits that a number of changes to the Draft Code are required in order to meet the spirit and letter of the Act. The SPCA welcomes the opportunity to make this submission. There are a number of pork industry management changes that are coming into force in the European Union that improve the welfare of farmed pigs in member states. The EU commissioned an independent Scientific Veterinary Committee (SVC 1997) to gather scientific information on pig welfare and write a report. Article 6 of the Council Directive 91/630/EEC lays down the minimum standards for the protection of pigs for the EU and was recently amended following recommendations by the SVC. At the very least, the New Zealand minimum standard for pork farming practice should be consistent with the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act 1999. There is also opportunity for New Zealand to have a higher standard than what is required by the Act, particularly if we wish to be a world leader in agricultural practice. We note that the NZ dairy industry makes much of our free range cattle when marketing their product in countries where feedlots are the norm. The changes to the Draft Code submitted by the SPCA form an integrated whole and combine animal welfare requirements with improvements in environmental standards. In some cases the recommendations have a dual (or multiple) effect and purpose. For example, the requirement to provide bulk fibrous food in the diet (e.g. straw) serves the purpose of satisfying dietary requirements (satiation), which assists in improving behavioural conditions (providing for the foraging instinct), whilst providing for improved welfare (cushioning on joints and limbs for housed pigs), as well as lowering the emissions to air and water (producing an economic by-product in the form of nitrogen rich compost). The changes that are proposed by the SPCA will require modifications in the quality of husbandry for some pig farmers, as a minimum standard. While some of these changes may require more financial input for those farmers in comparison with the status quo, we submit that the status quo (for some farmers) is in breach of the Animal Welfare Act and therefore is not a sustainable or legitimate situation. The Animal Welfare Act (1999) is clear on a number of points that relate to the New Zealand pork industry. Section 4 of the Act requires animals to be able to display normal patterns of behaviour. This point is not under debate: it has been decided, the New Zealand public requires it, and now it needs to be enforced. Section 10 of the Act requires animals to be cared for in accordance with good practice and scientific knowledge. The following submission presents ample scientific evidence to support significant improvements in the husbandry of pigs

Evaluating the visitor experience at Hall Place in Bexley, London

Hall Place and Gardens is an historic Tudor property in the London borough of Bexley, operated by the Bexley Heritage Trust. Aiming to provide a more enjoyable visitor experience, the trust was interested in current visitor satisfaction and visitation trends. Implementing a satisfaction survey with a random sample of visitors, an observation study of the house and gardens, and a self-administered visitation survey, the team evaluated the visitor experience at Hall Place. Based on the data, the team made recommendations to the Bexley Heritage Trust on ways to provide a more targeted visitor experience

Phlebot: The Robotic Phlebotomist

Phlebotomy is a routine task, performed over a billion times annually in the United States alone, that is essential for proper diagnosis and treatment. We designed and constructed Phlebot, a robotic assistive device that uses near- infrared imaging and force-feedback to guide a needle into a forearm vein for blood sample collection or intravenous catheterization. Through initial validation on phantoms, we show that it is feasible to automate phlebotomy reliably. We envision the device to be a first major step towards more affordable point-of-care testing and diagnostic healthcare systems. In the long term, we expect that Phlebot will expedite healthcare delivery and drastically reduce needle stick injuries, instances of hemolysis, and infections caused by blood-borne pathogens

Beyond SELinux: the Case for Behavior-Based Policy and Trust Languages

Despite the availability of powerful mechanisms for security policy and access control, real-world information security practitioners---both developers and security officers---still find themselves in need of something more. We believe that this is the case because available policy languages do not provide clear and intelligible ways to allow developers to communicate their knowledge and expectations of trustworthy behaviors and actual application requirements to IT administrators. We work to address this policy engineering gap by shifting the focus of policy language design to this communication via behavior-based policies and their motivating scenarios

Real-Time Dynamic Imaging of Virus Distribution In Vivo

The distribution of viruses and gene therapy vectors is difficult to assess in a living organism. For instance, trafficking in murine models can usually only be assessed after sacrificing the animal for tissue sectioning or extraction. These assays are laborious requiring whole animal sectioning to ascertain tissue localization. They also obviate the ability to perform longitudinal or kinetic studies in one animal. To track viruses after systemic infection, we have labeled adenoviruses with a near-infrared (NIR) fluorophore and imaged these after intravenous injection in mice. Imaging was able to track and quantitate virus particles entering the jugular vein simultaneous with injection, appearing in the heart within 500 milliseconds, distributing in the bloodstream and throughout the animal within 7 seconds, and that the bulk of virus distribution was essentially complete within 3 minutes. These data provide the first in vivo real-time tracking of the rapid initial events of systemic virus infection

University of Kentucky Measurements of Wind, Temperature, Pressure and Humidity in Support of LAPSE-RATE Using Multisite Fixed-Wing and Rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial Systems

In July 2018, unmanned aerial systems (UASs) were deployed to measure the properties of the lower atmosphere within the San Luis Valley, an elevated valley in Colorado, USA, as part of the Lower Atmospheric Profiling Studies at Elevation – a Remotely-piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE). Measurement objectives included detailing boundary layer transition, canyon cold-air drainage and convection initiation within the valley. Details of the contribution to LAPSE-RATE made by the University of Kentucky are provided here, which include measurements by seven different fixed-wing and rotorcraft UASs totaling over 178 flights with validated data. The data from these coordinated UAS flights consist of thermodynamic and kinematic variables (air temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and direction) and include vertical profiles up to 900 m above the ground level and horizontal transects up to 1500 m in length. These measurements have been quality controlled and are openly available in the Zenodo LAPSE-RATE community data repository (https://zenodo.org/communities/lapse-rate/, last access: 23 July 2020), with the University of Kentucky data available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3701845 (Bailey et al., 2020)

Ringed, Bearded, and Ribbon Seal Vocalizations North of Barrow, Alaska: Seasonal Presence and Relationship with Sea Ice

The acoustic repertoires of ringed, bearded, and ribbon seals are described, along with their seasonal occurrence and relationship to sea ice concentration. Acoustic recordings were made between September and June over three years (2006 – 09) along the continental slope break in the Chukchi Sea, 120 km north-northwest of Barrow, Alaska. Vocalizations of ringed and bearded seals occurred in winter and during periods of 80% – 100% ice cover but were mostly absent during open water periods. The presence of ringed and bearded seal calls throughout winter and spring suggests that some portion of their population is overwintering. Analysis of the repertoire of ringed and bearded seal calls shows seasonal variation. Ringed seal calls are primarily barks in winter and yelps in spring, while bearded seal moans increase during spring. Ribbon seal calls were detected only in the fall of 2008 during the open water period. The repertoire of known ribbon seal vocalizations was expanded to include three additional calls, and two stereotyped call sequences were common. Retrospective analyses of ringed seal recordings from 1982 and ribbon seal recordings from 1967 showed a high degree of stability in call repertoire across large spatial and temporal scales.Le répertoire acoustique des phoques annelés, des phoques barbus et des phoques à bandes sont décrits, de même que leur présence saisonnière et leur rapport avec la concentration de glace de mer. Des enregistrements acoustiques ont été effectués entre septembre et juin sur une période de trois ans (2006 – 2009), le long de la rupture de la pente continentale, dans la mer des Tchouktches, à 120 km au nord-nord-ouest de Barrow, en Alaska. Les vocalisations de phoques annelés et de phoques barbus étaient présentes pendant l’hiver et pendant les périodes où la concentration de glace était de 80 % à 100 %, mais elles se faisaient rares pendant les périodes d’eau libre. La présence des cris de phoques annelés et de phoques barbus tout au long de l’hiver et du printemps suggère qu’une partie de leur population hiverne. L’analyse du répertoire de cris de phoques annelés et de phoques barbus indique une variation saisonnière. L’hiver, le cri du phoque annelé prend principalement la forme d’aboiements, tandis que le printemps, il prend la forme de glapissements. Les gémissements du phoque barbu s’intensifient au printemps. Le cri des phoques à bandes n’a été capté qu’à l’automne 2008, pendant la période des eaux libres. Le répertoire des vocalisations connues du phoque à bandes a été élargi pour inclure trois autres cris, bien que deux séquences de cris stéréotypées étaient courantes. L’analyse rétrospective des enregistrements de cris de phoques annelés de 1982 et de phoques à bandes de 1967 a laissé entrevoir une grande stabilité du point de vue du répertoire des cris, et ce, sur de vastes échelles spatiales et temporelles