An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Plant Variety Protection Legislation on Innovation and Transferability

Under the TRIPs Agreement, all member-countries of the World Trade Organization are required to provide an "effective" system of plant variety protection within a specific time frame. In many developing countries this has led to a divisive debate about the fundamental desirability of extending intellectual property rights to agriculture. But empirical studies on the economic impacts of PVP, especially its ability to generate large private sector investments in plant breeding and facilitate the transfer of technology, have been very limited. This paper examines two aspects of the international experience of PVP legislation thus far (i) The relationship between legislation, R&D expenditures and PVP grants, i.e., the innovation effect, and (ii) The role of PVP in facilitating the flow of varieties across countries, i.e., the transferability effect.Plant variety protection, biotechnology, technology transfer, Crop Production/Industries,

Occupy: 'struggles for the common or an 'anti-politics of dignity? Reflections on Hardt and Negri and John Holloway

This article provides a critical examination of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s and John Holloway’s theory of revolutionary subjectivity, and does so by applying their theories to the Occupy movement of 2011. Its central argument is that one should avoid collapsing ‘autonomist’ and ‘open’ Marxism, for whilst both approaches share Tronti’s (1979) insistence on the constituent role of class struggle, and also share an emphasis on a prefigurative politics which engages a non-hierarchical and highly participatory politics, there nevertheless remain some significant differences between their approaches. Ultimately, when applied to Occupy Movement whilst their theory isn’t entirely unproblematic, I will argue that Hardt and Negri’s ‘autonomist’ approach offers the stronger interpretation, due mainly to their revised historical materialism

'Open Marxism' against and beyond the 'Great Enclosure'? Reflections on How (Not) to Crack Capitalism

The main purpose of this article is to provide an in-depth discussion of John Holloway’s recent book, Crack Capitalism. To this end, the paper offers a detailed account of the key strengths and weaknesses of Holloway’s version of ‘open Marxism’. The analysis is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on six significant strengths of Crack Capitalism: (1) its insistence upon the importance of autonomous forms of agenda-setting for both individual and collective emancipation; (2) its emphasis on the ordinary constitution of social struggles; (3) its fine-grained interpretation of the socio-ontological conditions underlying human agency; (4) its processual conception of radical social transformation; (5) its recognition of the elastic, adaptable, and integrative power of capitalism; and (6) its proposal for an alternative critical theory, commonly known as ‘open Marxism’ or ‘autonomous Marxism’. The second part of the study examines the principal weaknesses of Crack Capitalism: (1) the counterproductive implications of the preponderance of negativity, owing to a one-sided concern with critique, cracks, and crises; (2) conceptual vagueness; (3) an overuse of poetic and metaphorical language; (4) the absence of a serious engagement with the question of normativity; (5) a lack of substantive evidence; (6) a residual economic reductionism; (7) a simplistic notion of gender; (8) the continuing presence of various problematic ‘isms’; (9) the misleading distinction between ‘doing’ and ‘labour’; (10) a reductive understanding of capitalism; (11) an unrealistic view of society; and (12) socio-ontological idealis

Circular 114

Trials were begun in 1989 at the Georgeson Botanical Garden (64°51’N, 147° 52’W, elevation 475 feet; 136 meters) to evaluate the hardiness and ornamental potential of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennial ornamentals. Woody ornamentals are tested for 10 years, and herbaceous perennials for five years. This report is the first summary of perennials that have survived the trial period with a winter hardiness rating between zero and 2.5. Each plant in the trial is evaluated annually for winter injury and rated on a scale of zero through four. A zero rating denotes no visible injury, and four is death. A score of 2.5 and lower indicates the plant grew well in the Garden. It may have shown symptoms of winter injury but recovered in subsequent seasons. The species and cultivars listed in Table 1 are recommended for further trial throughout Interior Alaska. Plants are grown on a south-facing slope in Fairbanks silt loam soil. The plots have been cultivated since about 1910. All plants receive full sun except those located in the shade house. Plants receive supplemental irrigation, mostly hand weeding, and an annual application of 500 lb per acre (560.5 kg/ha) 10-20-20S fertilizer. Lilies receive 1500 lb (1,681.5 kg/ha) per acre of the same fertilizer. No plant receives winter protection such as mulches, wind barriers or snow fences. Weather data are compiled annually from U.S. Weather Service station (elevation 475 feet; 136 meters) located approximately 350 feet (105 meters) west of the Garden. A summary of pertinent weather statistics is shown in Table 2

Charge separation instability in an unmagnetized disk plasma around a Kerr black hole

In almost all of plasma theories for astrophysical objects, we have assumed the charge quasi-neutrality of unmagnetized plasmas in global scales. This assumption has been justified because if there is a charged plasma, it induces electric field which attracts the opposite charge, and this opposite charge reduces the charge separation. Here, we report a newly discovered instability which causes a charge separation in a rotating plasma inside of an innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) around a black hole. The growth rate of the instability is smaller than that of the disk instability even in the unstable disk region and is forbidden in the stable disk region outside of the ISCO. However, this growth rate becomes comparable to that of the disk instability when the plasma density is much lower than a critical density inside of the ISCO. In such case, the charge separation instability would become apparent and cause the charged accretion into the black hole, thus charge the hole up.Comment: 15pages, 1 figur

The Lore of Low Methane Livestock:Co-Producing Technology and Animals for Reduced Climate Change Impact

Methane emissions from sheep and cattle production have gained increasing profile in the context of climate change. Policy and scientific research communities have suggested a number of technological approaches to mitigate these emissions. This paper uses the concept of co-production as an analytical framework to understand farmers’ evaluation of a 'good animal’. It examines how technology and sheep and beef cattle are co-produced in the context of concerns about the climate change impact of methane. Drawing on 42 semi-structured interviews, this paper demonstrates that methane emissions are viewed as a natural and integral part of sheep and beef cattle by farmers, rather than as a pollutant. Sheep and beef cattle farmers in the UK are found to be an extremely heterogeneous group that need to be understood in their specific social, environmental and consumer contexts. Some are more amenable to appropriating methane reducing measures than others, but largely because animals are already co-constructed from the natural and the technical for reasons of increased production efficiency

Circular 102

In 1989, a systematic evaluation of woody and herbaceous perennial landscape plants was begun at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Georgeson Botanical Garden (64°51’N, 147°52’W). These evaluations were expanded to include annual flowers in 1992 and ferns in 1993. The purpose of this research is to identify hardy perennials capable of surviving in subarctic environments; to evaluate the ornamental potential of perennials and annuals; and to fulfill a growing demand for information on landscape plant materials by homeowners, commercial growers, and landscapers.Introduction -- Explanation of Plant Evaluation Tables -- Table 1. Weather records for the test years -- Table 2. All plant materials evaluated in 1994: Herbaceous perennials; Ferns; Ornamental grasses; Woody perennials -- Table 4. Plantings from 1994 that have not yet been evaluated for winter survival: Herbaceous perennials; Ferns; Woody perennials -- Table 5. Annual flowers evaluated in 1994 -- Appendix 1. Commercial Sources and Organizations -- Map of GB