Comitology between Political Decision-Making and Technocratic Governance: Regulating GMOs in the European Union

The EU’s comitology system is generally considered to be an effective mechanism for facilitating efficient policy implementation while at the same time ensuring a degree of Member State control over the process. However, if this assessment is applicable to most areas of routine decision-making, the regulation of GMO authorizations by the European Commission, which also falls under comitology, presents a markedly different picture. The article shows the particular problems that occur in this field, outlining the involvement of a number of different actors (comitology committees, Council, European Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and their interaction in what has become a complex and protracted policy process. The articles identifies a number of key issues – the reliance of the Commission on EFSA’s scientific expertise, the weakness of political accountability due to divisions among the Member States, the difficulties of the European Commission to achieve compliance with European and international rules – and discusses the impact that these have on the legitimacy, efficiency and effectiveness of policy-making in this area. The article concludes that, due to the problems arising from the particular arrangement of interests and procedures in this area, the operation of comitology in the regulation of GMOs is highly problematic

Modelling airport and airline choice behaviour with the use of stated preference survey data

The majority of studies of air travel choice behavior make use of revealed preference (RP) data, generally in the form of survey data collected from departing passengers. While the use of RP data has certain methodological advantages over the use of stated preference (SP) data, major issues arise because of the often low quality of the data relating to the un-chosen alternatives, in terms of explanatory variables as well as availability. As such, studies using RP survey data often fail to recover a meaningful fare coefficient, and are generally not able to offer a treatment of the effects of airline allegiance. In this paper, we make use of SP data for airport and airline choice collected in the US in 2001. The analysis retrieves significant effects relating to factors such as airfare, access time, flight time and airline and airport allegiance, illustrating the advantages of SP data in this context. Additionally, the analysis explores the use of non-linear transforms of the explanatory variables, as well as the treatment of continuous variations in choice behavior across respondents

An Accelerated Conjugate Gradient Algorithm to Compute Low-Lying Eigenvalues --- a Study for the Dirac Operator in SU(2) Lattice QCD

The low-lying eigenvalues of a (sparse) hermitian matrix can be computed with controlled numerical errors by a conjugate gradient (CG) method. This CG algorithm is accelerated by alternating it with exact diagonalisations in the subspace spanned by the numerically computed eigenvectors. We study this combined algorithm in case of the Dirac operator with (dynamical) Wilson fermions in four-dimensional \SUtwo gauge fields. The algorithm is numerically very stable and can be parallelized in an efficient way. On lattices of sizes $4^4-16^4$ an acceleration of the pure CG method by a factor of~$4-8$ is found.Comment: 25 pages, uuencoded tar-compressed .ps-fil

Use of long-term microdialysis subcutaneous glucose monitoring in the management of neonatal diabetes - A first case report

In neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM), a rare genetic disorder, insulin therapy is required but the management is difficult. Frequent blood glucose determinations are necessary in most cases. Microdialysis subcutaneous glucose monitoring (MSGM) is feasible in neonates and has been proposed to reduce painful blood sampling and blood loss. We have applied long-term MSGM to a small-fordate female newborn with transient NDM. We found a good correlation of subcutaneous and blood glucose concentration over a wide range of values. MSGM enabled a reduction in blood glucose determinations during optimization of intravenous insulin treatment and initiation of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion. We conclude that long-term MSGM is feasible and may reduce painful blood sampling and blood loss in NDM. Furthermore, long-term MSGM may hold a potential for avoiding hypoglycemic episodes and earlier discharge. Copyright (C) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Widely-tunable mid-infrared ring cavity pump-enhanced OPO and application in photo-thermal interferometric trace ethane detection

Funding: Innovate UK (133076); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP//L01596X/1, EP/M01326X/1, EP/M024385/1); European Research Council (ERC-2018-STG 803665).The development of a broadly and accurately tunable single-frequency mid-infrared laser source and its application to a sensitive laser absorption detection method are described. Photo-thermal interferometric spectroscopy is employed as a phase-sensitive method to detect the minute refractive index change caused by the heating of a gas under laser radiation. A separate probe beam allows for the spectrally-interesting mid-infrared region to be examined whilst utilizing low cost, high detectivity photodetectors in the visible/near-infrared region. We also describe the implementation of a Sagnac interferometer to minimize the effects of environmental perturbation and provide inherent passive stability. A continuous-wave ring-cavity pump-enhanced OPO has been developed to provide excitation light from 3–4 µm at 140 mW with the ability to mode-hop tune continuously over 90 cm−1 in 0.07 cm−1 steps. Complementary use of both detection apparatus and excitation source has allowed for presence of ethane to be detected down to 200 parts per billion.developed to provide excitation light from 3–4 µm at 140 mW with the ability to mode-hop tune continuously over 90 cm−1 in 0.07 cm−1 steps. Complementary use of both detection apparatus and excitation source has allowed for presence of ethane to be detected down to 200 parts per billion.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Entwicklungshelferinnen und Entwicklungshelfer: ein Personalinstrument der deutschen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit

Seit mehr als 50 Jahren werden Entwicklungshelferinnen und Entwicklungshelfer von staatlichen und nichtstaatlichen deutschen Trägern in alle Welt entsandt. Hat das Modell nach so vielen Jahren ausgedient, gerade angesichts grundlegender Veränderungen im globalen Süden? Diese Frage bildet den Ausgangspunkt der ersten institutionenübergreifenden Evaluierung der entwicklungspolitischen Wirksamkeit von EHs als Personalvermittlungsinstrument der deutschen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit

Long-Range Bidirectional Strand Asymmetries Originate at CpG Islands in the Human Genome

In the human genome, CpG islands (CGIs), which are GC- and CpG-rich sequences, are associated with transcription starting sites (TSSs); in addition, there is evidence that CGIs harbor origins of bidirectional replication (OBRs) and are preferred sites for heteroduplex formation during recombination. Transcription, replication, and recombination processes are known to induce specific mutational patterns in various genomes, and therefore, these patterns are expected to be found around CGIs. We use triple alignments of human, chimp, and macaque to compute the rates of nucleotide substitutions in up to 1 Mbps long intergenic regions on both sides of CGIs. Our analysis revealed that around a CGI there is an asymmetry between complementary substitution rates that is similar to the one that found around the OBR in bacteria. We hypothesize that these asymmetries are induced by differences in the replication of the leading and lagging strand and that a significant number of CGIs overlap OBRs. Within CGIs, we observed a mutational signature of GC-biased gene conversion that is associated with recombination. We suggest that recombination has played a major role in the creation of CGIs

Analysis of graft survival in a trial of stem cell transplant in ALS

Objective The first US Food and Drug Administration–approved clinical trial to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ( ALS ) with neural stem cell–based therapy is in progress. The goal of the current study was to identify and assess the survival of human spinal cord–derived neural stem cells ( HSSC s) transplanted into the spinal cord in patients with ALS . Methods Spinal cords transplanted with HSSCs were examined from six autopsy cases. Homogenized tissues were interrogated for the presence of donor versus recipient DNA using real‐time PCR methods ( qPCR ). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed using DNA probes for XY chromosomes to identify male donor HSSCs in one female case, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to characterize the identified donor cells. Results Genomic DNA from donor HSSC s was identified in all cases, comprising 0.67–5.4% of total tissue DNA in patients surviving 196 to 921 days after transplantation. In the one female patient a “nest” of cells identified on H&E staining were XY ‐positive by FISH , confirming donor origin. A subset of XY ‐positive cells labeled for the neuronal marker NeuN and stem cell marker SOX 2. Interpretation This is the first study to identify human neural stem cells transplanted into a human spinal cord. Transplanted HSSC s survived up to 2.5 years posttransplant. Some cells differentiated into neurons, while others maintained their stem cell phenotype. This work is a proof of concept of the survival and differentiation of human stems cell transplanted into the spinal cord of ALS patients.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109593/1/acn3134.pd

Is There a Negative Interpretation Bias in Depressed Patients? An Affective Startle Modulation Study

Background/Aims: Scientists proposed that patients with depression favour negative interpretations when appraising ambiguity. As self-report measures seem prone to response bias, implicit measures of emotional valence should be additionally used. Methods: A total of 16 patients with depression and 19 controls underwent an acoustic imagery task comprising neutral and negative words, as well as ambiguous words that could be understood either way. Affective startle modulation and direct interrogation were used to assess implicit and explicit emotional valence, respectively. We expected a negative bias for ambiguous words in the patient group, resulting in augmented startle magnitudes and preference for negative interpretations of the ambiguous words in the interrogation. Results: Surprisingly, both groups preferred neutral interpretations and showed augmented startle magnitudes to ambiguous words. Furthermore, both groups displayed an emotional startle potentiation for negative words. Conclusion: In summary, our results do not confirm a negative interpretation bias or a blunted emotional response in patients with major depression. The mismatch between self-report and affective startle reaction to ambiguous targets might reflect defensive mobilization or attention effects