Journal articles on the topic 'Progect management process'

Reflecting on how economic evaluation is taught in architecture courses opens up a discussion between those who structure problems with design and those who structure problems with different approaches (specifically estimation approaches) and where this design and these methods can intersect and hybridise. The paper presents some reflections, and a methodological proposal, related to the way of teaching economic evaluation in architecture courses. The aim of this paper is to propose an integrated assessment operative framework applied according to the active learning strategy, aimed at supporting students in dealing with design decision-making processes in a structured way and providing them with a problem representation scheme. Riflettere sulle modalità insegnamento della valutazione economica nei corsi di architettura consente di aprire una discussione tra chi struttura i problemi con il progetto e chi struttura i problemi con approcci diversi (nello specifico quelli estimativi) e dove questo progetto e questi metodi si possono incrociare e ibridare. L’articolo illustra alcune riflessioni, e una proposta metodologica, relative alla modalità di insegnamento della valutazione economica nei corsi di architettura. Lo scopo di questo documento è di proporre un quadro operativo di valutazione integrato applicato secondo la strategia dell’apprendimento attivo, volto a sostenere gli studenti nell’affrontare processi decisionali di progettazione in modo strutturato e a fornire loro uno schema di rappresentazione del problema.

Le riflessioni proposte in questo articolo costituiscono parte di un più ampio progetto di ricerca, all'interno del quale s'inserisce uno specifico interesse in merito al tema dell'innovazione. L'autore sottolinea come nell'ambito delle politiche socio- assistenziali il tema dell'innovazione sia stato trattato marginalmente, ricollegando ciň alla natura stessa del concetto e alla sua più stretta connessione ai processi economici e tecnologici. L'articolo si propone come una riflessione su come puň essere declinato il concetto di innovazione nell'ambito delle politiche socioassistenziali, perché l'innovazione è importante, quali forme puň assumere e in che termini una politica o un set di politiche possa considerarsi più o meno innovative riproponendo tali considerazioni attraverso l'analisi di tre progetti realizzati nel territorio campano tra il 2005 e il 2009.

The progeny of the paper includes firstly the thought of realizing the system based on the 3D game engine and illustrates the feasibility by realizing the system, secondly the paper mainly focus on little team application next-gen game platform UNREAL engine game project development process. We make detailed research on project planning, operation management, product testing, model technology, map technology, UNREAL engine program technology research and to do detailed study on small team processes parallel work management and arrangement of probing.

This case describes the talent management practice of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). It describes how the company selects and develops future leaders to ensure a smooth succession for important positions. This is done through the creation of a talent pool consisting of high performance-high potential managers. Members of the talent pool are groomed for succession to key leadership positions at the corporate level and critical positions at the divisional level. Selection for TNB's talent pool is open for managers and engineers who have served at least 8 years in the company. Members of the talent pool undergo a systematic and rigorous program of talent development. This includes the Accelerated Development Program for preparing managers for succession to the C suite positions (i.e., positions at the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer and Chief Procurement Officer). The PROSEM and PROGEM are talent development programs for those nominated for the Senior Manager and General Manager positions. The techniques and methodology used for this implementation of the talent management process in Tenaga Nasional are described.

AbstractThe deposition-based direct indoor 222Rn and 220Rn progeny measurement techniques are mostly affected by the indoor environmental conditions, such as the ventilation, concentration of condensation nuclei, and reactions with the structure and its furnishings. In this study, a theoretical model of a direct 222Rn and 220Rn progeny monitor based on allyl diglycol carbonate (ADC or CR-39) was established to analyse the factors that influence the detection process by using the parameter sensitivity analysis. The aerosol parameters contributed the highest to the variance, followed by the aerodynamic parameters. With respect to the result of the Spearman’s correlation analysis, the aerosol-related and the room-related parameters are positive, whereas the aerodynamic parameters – which affect the turbulence of indoor deposition – are negative. It means that both the attachment process and the deposition process of 222Rn and 220Rn progenies are important to the performance of the progeny monitor.

Women are always prone to several forms of infection in their genital tract.It ranges from simple form of infectious discharges to malignant conditions in the genital tract. The infectious types of discharge though appear to be a simple form it can be the start of bigger problems in future if left untreated.The tract infection is also important for the fact that it is a most useful part in process of progeny continuation. So, to find out an effective remedy in Ayurveda Palashadi Yoga was selected.15 patients were selected randomly for present clinical trial study. Highly significant results were observed in discharge per vagina and pain in lower abdomen.

The thesis is one step that required to be passed by geological students to get a bachelor's degree. The thesis input process was manual since early study program formed in 1958 although has been changed in administration things. There are a lot of problems in administration process due to universities regulation that impacted lecturers and students. The impacts for lecturer are student's supervisor not evenly well distributed, not well connected between the specialization of lecturers and the student's thesis’s topic and still difficult to monitoring student's thesis progress. at the same time, the impact for students is difficult to meet the coordinator. Actually the main problem derived from management administration that not well organized. Management system based on the website is a solution to solve that problem using several function such as limitation for thesis supervisor, monitoring student’s progess and choosing any topic with any lecturer’s competencies independently. The step of this research are observation, interview, collecting support data and developing main system using Waterfall method. The result is a website that containing a thesis management system that could be accessed students, lecturers, and admin in order to simplifying and organizing thesis administration processes.

Possono le cosiddette "politiche antimafia" d'attivazione democratica stimolare quel "ciclo dell'impegno pubblico legalitario" che si puň tradurre in processi dipartecipata a contrasto dei poteri criminali? Il lavoro parte dall'analisi di forme innovative di gestione di beni confiscati afferenti al progetto "Libera Terra" che costituiscono probabilmente una buona prassi di attivazione di processi di sviluppo locale e di autoimprenditoria secondo il modello cooperativistico.

The result of the ecological transition process today is nothing more than an intangible landscape. Still utopian, it is thought of as the custodian of our desires, the communitarian expression of a democratic technology, a flexible dimension that will finally welcome a reformed society. As still potential and strictly dependent on our present action, the intangible landscape of ecological transition also has its Yang: the landscape of global warming of 2° C, in the scenario hypothesized by the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In balance between catharsis and catastrophe there is now a need for effective strategies to make the objective of transition concrete and the landscape, more than a mere destination, can today be understood as the main actor on the urban scene. Having cleared the field of misunderstandings and mystifications, the essay explores the potential of the landscape project as a political project of a solidary as well as ecological transition.

L'articolo si propone di esporre la metodologia applicata in una U.O. ospedaliera di emodialisi, volta a superare un modello di assistenza tecnicistico ed attivare una assistenza infermieristica olistica, personalizzata, basata sulla presa in carico del paziente. Il processo di cambiamento ha utilizzato le basi teoriche del Nursing Primario e del Case Management, inducendo il singolo professionista ad un maggiore approfondimento clinico, con conseguente maggiore soddisfazione lavorativa; al gruppo ha permesso di definire dei percorsi di competenze cliniche avanzate e strutturate. Il tutto inserito in un progetto aziendale codificato, che ha consentito la sostenibilità economica della sperimentazione e la raccolta di dati di evidenza: questi finora hanno confermato l'efficacia ed efficienza gestionale delle scelte metodologiche operate. (nursing)

A project, launched in 2000, for a new Swiss National Park in the region of Locarno afforded local communities the opportunity to discuss certain aims and proposals and to consider the development of their surroundings and the best use of their territorial resources in terms of recreation. Based on a feasibility study carried out in the region of Locarno and Vallemaggia, the present study focuses on the data that concern the geographical character of the area in question. Forests – sizeable and variated pine forests, amongst others– account for half of the area. Natural spaces make up more than 90% of the entire region. The National Park project is not only a challenge as far as the environment is concerned but also at cultural and institutional levels. Above all, therefore, the evolution of a new National Park is a process; a process that calls for reflection on new environment management models and lends new cultural impulse to seek out the triumvirate of human-creativitynature.

Within the framework of the research and innovation strategy RIS3 “Sustainable Living” (POR-FSE, funded by the Veneto Region), for the improvement of the resilience and adaptation capacity of the Veneto territory to environmental crises and emergencies, the subject of the contribution returns the results of the participatory experimentation of the project H.E.L.P. Veneto ‘ High-efficiency Emergency Living Prototypes Veneto - Sustainable adaptive residences for temporary stay in environmental emergencies. The research concerns the design of a minimum flexible emergency living module, replicable on a large scale, multifunctional, sustainable, powered by off-grid systems and integrated into the built environment. The housing unit uses timber, a material linked to the local building tradition, whose prefabricated modular reversibility follows principles of circular reuse. Moreover, the constructive adaptability of the interior spaces is reflected in a “liquid space” capable of transforming itself according to the needs of the occupants. The paper introduces a form of participatory design of the emergency housing module, based on the engagement of small and large companies, related to different segments of the construction market, a leading sector in the economy of Veneto. The participatory approach borrows from Architectural Technology the tools needed to understand the characteristics of the settlement system, the potential of the project and the value of scientific stakeholder engagement in the process. Using the Soft System Methodology, direct investigation protocols have been constructed relating to the performance of the living unit. Using Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA), the results of the experimented survey (large-scale questionnaires) were decoded, interpreted and systematised. The processing of the answers allowed the stakeholders to validate the potential of the proposed module and, at the same time, to be informed about its characteristics. The innovation of the method lies precisely in the modelling phase, which makes it possible to integrate the results of the hard and soft data analyses and to make it clear how participation plays an essential role in the process of designing and validating the proposed module. Nell’ambito della strategia di ricerca e innovazione RIS3 “Sustainable Living” (POR-FSE, finanziato dalla regione Veneto), per il miglioramento della capacità di resistenza e di adattamento del territorio veneto a crisi ed emergenze ambientali, l’oggetto del contributo restituisce gli esiti della sperimentazione partecipata del progetto H.E.L.P. Veneto High efficiency Emergency Living Proto- types Veneto – Residenze adattive sostenibili per la permanenza temporanea in regime di emergenza ambientale. La sperimentazione riguarda la progettazione di un modulo minimo abitativo di emergenza flessibile, repli- cabile a larga scala, polifunzionale, sostenibile con impianti a funzionamento off-grid e integrato nell’ambiente costruito. L’unità abitativa utilizza il legno, materiale legato alla tradizione costruttiva locale, la cui reversibilità modulare prefabbricata segue principi di riuso circolare. Inoltre, l’adattabilità costruttiva degli ambienti interni si riflette in uno “spazio liquido” capace di trasformarsi in base alle esigenze dell’abitare. Il contributo propone una forma di progettazione partecipata del modulo abitativo emergenziale, basata sull’engagement delle realtà aziendali di piccole e grandi dimensioni, relative ai diversi segmenti di mercato dell’edilizia, settore trainante della regione Veneto. L’approccio partecipativo mutua dalla Tecnologia dell’Architettura gli strumenti di conoscenza atti alla comprensione delle caratteristiche del sistema insediativo, delle potenzialità del progetto e del valore dell’engagement scientifico degli stakeholder nel processo. Utilizzando la Soft System Methodology sono stati costruiti dei protocolli di indagine diretta che combinano la conoscenza prestazionale dei processi insediativi nell’unità ambientale. Mediante la Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) sono stati decodificati, interpretati e sistematizzati i risultati della survey sperimentata (questionari ad ampia scala). L’elaborazione delle risposte ha fatto sì che il sapere esperto degli stakeholder validasse le potenzialità del modulo proposto informandosi, al contempo, sulle caratteristiche dello stesso. L’innovazione del metodo risiede proprio nella fase di modellazione, la quale permette di integrare i risultati delle analisi dei dati hard e quelle dei dati soft, e di rendere chiaro come la partecipazione svolga un ruolo essenziale nel processo di animazione e validazione del modulo proposto.

This study was planned to clarify the variation of body weight and average daily gain traits in both indigenous and F1 crossbreed (Local×Mediterranean) buffalo at weaning (sixth month) and yearling stages (twelfth month). Data were collected from 33 indigenous and 35 F1 crossbred buffalo progeny during the period of 2011 to 2014 with intensive management system at Research and Development farm of Lal Teer Livestock Limited in Bangladesh. The gathered data were analyzed using general linear model (GLM) and independent sample t test. The effect of parity, sex, season and breeding year on body weight and average daily gain were observed where significant values found in breeding period (p <0.01) of crossbred buffalo for body weight. It might be the reason of crossbreeding to indigenous buffalo cows using imported semen with better genetic merit. The parity (p <0.05), season (p <0.05) and breeding period (p <0.01) were also significant for average daily gain measurement which suggesting environmental adaptability beside additive genetic effects. Body weights were measured at weaning and yearling stages for both local (113 to 195 kg) and F1 crossbred (144 to 220 kg) buffalo progeny to screen the elite offspring for the Genetic Farm and Bull station. Similarly, average daily gain observed 469 to 457 g and 600 to 506 g at the previously mentioned two stages for both local and F1 buffalos, respectively. It was observed that studied traits were comparatively better in F1 buffalo progeny than indigenous. The comparison of average daily weight gains between indigenous and F1 buffalos at weaning and yearling periods showed significant differences for body weight (p <0.001) and average daily gain (p <0.05), respectively. It is concluded that genetic gain might be possible in local buffalo population by grading up process which could switch the traditional buffalo rearing to commercial level as well as meeting the nutritional demand of country people.Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. December 2017, 3(4): 499-503

This paper presents the concepts applied in the gene pool conservation and tree improvement in Serbia. Gene pool conservation of tree species in Serbia includes a series of activities aiming at the sustainability and protection of genetic and species variability. This implies the investigation of genetic resources and their identification through the research of the genetic structure and the breeding system of individual species. Paper also includes the study of intra- and inter-population variability in experiments - provenance tests, progeny tests, half- and full-sib lines, etc. The increased use of the genetic potential in tree improvement in Serbia should be intensified by the following activities: improvement of production of normal forest seed, application of the concept of new selections directed primarily to the improvement of only one character, because in that case the result would be certain, establishment and management of seed orchards as specialized plantations for long-term production of genetically good-quality forest seeds, and the shortening of the improvement process by introducing new techniques and methods (molecular markers, somaclonal variation, genetic engineering, protoplast fusion, micropropagation, etc.).

Il contributo mette in discussione l'esistenza di una one best way verso la digitalizzazione, contrapponendo due casi di successo relativi ad aziende manifatturiere italiane di medie dimensioni. Entrambe le aziende, che vantano eccellenti prestazioni tecnologiche ed economiche, hanno lanciato importanti progetti basati sulle tec¬nologie digitali. Mentre però la prima azienda sembra percepire la digitalizzazione come un ulteriore passo nella sequenza "tradizionale" di innovazioni tecnologiche finalizzate a sostituire il lavoro umano, la seconda azienda pone un'enfasi esplicita sulle tecnologie di¬gitali quali veicoli per perseguire una maggiore integrazione dei processi, il cui successo è reso possibile dal ricorso a specifici strumenti organizzativi formali per la gestione del cambiamento.

Este artigo explora o planejamento e a avaliação no contexto da educação superior, com ênfase em conexões entre ambos para efeito de condução da gestão universitária. Abordamos a recente experiência da Universidade do Estado da Bahia (Uneb), na atualização do seu Plano de Desenvolvimento Institucional (PDI 2017 – 2022), a implantação e implementação do Programa de Gestão Universitária (ProGest 2018 – 2021) e suas conexões com os mecanismos de avaliação institucional utilizados nesta Universidade. A partir de alguns questionamentos, balizamos nossas reflexões com intuito de contribuir para estudos acerca dessa temática. Assim, partimos do pressuposto de que há estreitas conexões entre planejamento e avaliação no campo da gestão universitária. Isso nos levou à seguinte indagação: como os indicadores utilizados no processo de avaliação da educação superior podem subsidiar a elaboração do Plano de Desenvolvimento Institucional (PDI) da Universidade do Estado da Bahia? Utilizamos uma análise sucinta da legislação nacional e local acerca dessa temática, de modo a conduzir este estudo e apresentar, de maneira concisa, a experiência da Uneb na articulação entre o Plano de Desenvolvimento Institucional e o Programa de Gestão e seus mecanismos de avaliação.

Ayurveda the science of medicine deals with the aim of Swastha Sharir. The Rachna Sharir is the ayurveda term which mainly deals with the anatomical and physiological compositions of body. Sushrut samhita is one of those Ayurvedic classic which deals with human anatomy and physiology. It gives precise description of Garbha vruddhi and vikas kram in detail. The knowledge of Sharir starts from Garbha. The understanding of Garbha helps to manage healthy progeny. According to Ayurveda, the union of shukra (spermatozoa), shonita (ovum) and Atma (soul) inside the uterus is known as garbha (embryo). The fertilization between Shukra and Shonita produces zygote which further develops into fetus. The Ritu, Kshetra and Ambu etc. plays vital role in the proper development of fetus.. Different components originating fromFive Elements takes part in the formation, development of the garbha. The whole process of development of the foetus from two cells to mature foetus is called Garbhavakranti. Itincludes the basis of the earliest embryology which was known to the human being. In Ayurvedic texts the process of chronological development of the foetus is explained clearly. The understanding of Garbha developmenthelps to acquire necessary conditions which required for the better management of pregnancy. Extensive study and discussion is essential to understand ancient concept of Garbha vikas kram. Review of Ayurvedic text along with modern text will help to obtain knowledge regarding this. This study is an attempt to elaborate and compare both ancient and modern concept of foetal development. Keywords: Shukra, Shonit, Garbha, Garbhavakranti, Garbha vikas kram.

Wolbachia are very common, maternally transmitted endosymbionts of insects. They often spread by a mechanism termed cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) that involves reduced egg hatch when Wolbachia -free ova are fertilized by sperm from Wolbachia -infected males. Because the progeny of Wolbachia -infected females generally do not suffer CI-induced mortality, infected females are often at a reproductive advantage in polymorphic populations. Deterministic models show that Wolbachia that impose no costs on their hosts and have perfect maternal transmission will spread from arbitrarily low frequencies (though initially very slowly); otherwise, there will be a threshold frequency below which Wolbachia frequencies decline to extinction and above which they increase to fixation or a high stable equilibrium. Stochastic theory was used to calculate the probability of fixation in populations of different size for arbitrary current frequencies of Wolbachia , with special attention paid to the case of spread after the arrival of a single infected female. Exact results are given based on a Moran process that assumes a specific demographic model, and approximate results are obtained using the more general Wright–Fisher theory. A new analytical approximation for the probability of fixation is derived, which performs well for small population sizes. The significance of stochastic effects in the natural spread of Wolbachia and their relevance to the use of Wolbachia as a drive mechanism in vector and pest management are discussed.

The aim of this piece of work is to present the recent developments of the discipline of Real Estate Appraisal and Economic Evaluation of Projects in relation to Sustainable Architecture and its design. The focus is on the principles borrowed from economics and, in particular, on the transition from a linear to a circular thinking and the related impacts on estimative theories and practices. Starting from the urgency of the underlying problems, Life Cycle Thinking is recalled within which the theories of the Green Economy, the Circular Economy and, recently, the Helical Economy are developed. The reasoning then recalls some passages of disciplinary evolution to include the public, environmental and social dimension. A methodological survey follows with attention to the recent – and now almost consolidated – approaches for projects evaluation and market analysis, attributable to international energy-environmental policies. In terms of the evaluation of new construction projects or retrofitting existing assets, the transition from the financial perspective, in terms of Linear Economy, to the perspective of economic-energy-environmental sustainability, from a Circular Economy perspective, is a central point. From the point of view of market analysis, the importance of exploring the impact of sustainable architecture on the values and dynamics of supply and demand is underlined. The results of the work show that the use of life cycle valuation is essential for the reuse of resources, but also for the containment of their consumption in the production phase. The use of tools capable of jointly analyzing energy and costs could guide decision-making processes between different design options, encouraging conversion and efficiency strategies, even in contexts of weak sustainability. Obiettivo del lavoro è presentare i recenti sviluppi espressi dalla disciplina dell’Estimo e Valutazione Economica dei Progetti in relazione all’Architettura sostenibile e alla sua progettazione. L’attenzione è posta sui principi mutuati dall’Economia e, in particolare, sul passaggio dalla visione lineare alla visione circolare e i relativi impatti sulle teorie e pratiche estimative. A partire dall’urgenza dei problemi sottostanti, viene richiamato il Life Cycle Thinking in seno al quale si sviluppano le teorie dell’Economia Verde, dell’Economia Circolare e, recentemente, dell’Economia Elicoidale. Il ragionamento richiama poi alcuni passaggi dell’evoluzione disciplinare per includere la dimensione pubblica, ambientale e sociale. Segue una ricognizione metodologica con attenzione agli approcci recenti - ma ormai consolidati - per la valutazione dei progetti e per le analisi di mercato, riconducibili alle politiche internazionali in materia energetico-ambientale. Sul versante della valutazione dei progetti di nuova costruzione o di retrofit del patrimonio esistente, centralità è posta sul passaggio dalla prospettiva finanziaria, in ottica di Economia Lineare, alla prospettiva della sostenibilità economico-energetico-ambientale, in ottica di Economia Circolare. Sul versante delle analisi di mercato, è rimarcata l’importanza di esplorare l’impatto dell’architettura sostenibile sui valori e sulle dinamiche della domanda e dell’offerta. I risultati del lavoro evidenziano come l'impiego della valutazione nel ciclo di vita sia fondamentale per il riuso delle risorse, ma anche per il contenimento del loro consumo in fase produttiva. L’uso di strumenti capaci di analizzare congiuntamente l’energia e i costi potrebbe orientare i processi di decisione fra opzioni progettuali diverse, incentivando strategie di conversione e efficienza, sia pure in contesti di sostenibilità debole.

Questo lavoro presenta i processi di feedback dialogico e circolare avviati nell'A.A. 2020/21, in un contesto didattico e valutativo trasparente e condiviso, nell'ambito dei due laboratori online, a cui hanno partecipato in totale 41 studenti, che sono parte del corso magistrale Comunicazione di Rete, tenuto dall'autrice, nel Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione dell'Universit&agrave; Roma Tre. Il corso &egrave; stato erogato in ambienti digitali e, per facilitare la comunicazione tra studenti e docente, &egrave; emersa la necessit&agrave; di attivare feedback ulteriori rispetto a quelli sulla corretta esecuzione dei compiti.&nbsp; In particolare, anche attraverso l'uso di Open Badge, si &egrave; voluto rendere esplicite quelle forme di feedback che di norma restano tacite e che riguardano gli aspetti socio-affettivi e organizzativi (Yang &amp;amp; Carless, 2013). I dati, raccolti con strumenti quali-quantitativi, hanno mostrato che attraverso l'erogazione di varie forme di feedback, dialogico e circolare, si pu&ograve; costruire un contesto di insegnamento/apprendimento in cui la docente e gli studenti possano ricevere informazioni per la revisione della didattica e dello studio e partecipare attivamente al progetto educativo.

As a tourist destination, India gets a highest place in the world. Foreigners arrive to India not only to sight seen or pilgrims, but also for education, medical treatment, and employment. According to the FTA data Indian tourism is being increased annually. Medical tourism is also one of them and India is the 2nd most popular country in this. Especially Man, Materials and Money are the important factors there. India is rich in skilled human resources like medical specialists, paramedical and supportive staffs and laborers. Materi-als also can be found easily due to developed industries and lots of natural resources. High availability of all these factors lessens the cost. As far as medical tourism is concerned, most sub fertile European couples come to India for the help of Assisted Reproductive Technology, where Indian women are used for surrogacy. They select the Indian women for this purpose due the loose-fitting of rules and regulations in India. But after implantation, those mothers are brought to countries like Dubai as anti-natal sex detection is prohibited in India. So, the process becomes reversed. Ayurveda can help to prevent those incidents be-cause Ayurveda has an excellent methodology to make a better progeny with Rasayana, Vaajeekarana and especially in the field of Kaumarbhritya. Ayurveda Acharyas have mentioned the infertility management, Garbhadhana Samaskara, Garbhini Paricharya, Punsawana Karma etc. to have a healthy child with a desired. Hence necessary steps can be taken by the relevant authorities like AYUSH in order to change the Assisted Reproductive Technology in to Ayurvedic Reproductive Technology.

This study was carried out during the year 2014-15 to explore the perceived constraints encountered by the tribal dairy farmers in the successful adoption of Good Dairy Farming Practices (GDFPs). Out of 27 districts in Chhattisgarh, three tribal populated districts were selected for this study from northern hills zone of the state and totally 300 respondents were selected for constraints analysis. The study revealed that 55.33 % of the tribal farmers realised that insufficient knowledge and awareness towards good dairy farming practices is the major constraints in the adoption process, majority (70.00 %) of the tribal farmers perceived that lack of progeny tested superior bulls for AI and natural service are the main constraint in the adoption of good breeding practices, about (75.70 %) of the tribal farmers expressed the higher cost of concentrates, mineral mixtures and vitamin supplements are the main constraints in the adoption of good feeding practices, majority (70.70 %) of the tribal farmers responded that less number of veterinary hospitals in their locality is the main constraints and its ranks first in the healthcare constraints list, little less than three-fourths (67.67 %) of the tribal farmers articulated that lack of advanced farm machineries (portable milking unit) for small dairy holders is the main constraints in the adoption of good management practices and about three-fourths (75.30 %) of the tribal farmers conveyed that the lack of insurance for longer period is the main constraints and tops in the socio-economic constraints. This constraints study will be highly useful to policy makers and the scientific community to assess the dairy production technologies for refinement and appropriate strategies can be formulated to promote tribal dairying from subsistence level to intensive in order to increase the income from dairy sector.

The rams of the Askanian meat-wool breed, grown and kept in the conditions of the steppe zone of the south of Ukraine, were investigated for their adaptive capacity and adaptation to the conditions of the lowland regions of Zakarpattja. It was found that the physiological response of the rams to the maximum air temperature was characterized by a slight increase in body temperature and pulse, and a significant increase in respiratory rate per 1 minute. The good adaptive properties of the Askanian meat and wool breed rams are indicated by the high breeding capacity of ewes, at 97%, in both farms. The ewes of the breed prekos with a live weight of 55.9–58.9 kg were involved in the breeding process, and the Askanian rams with a live weight of 93.3–95.1 kg. It was studied the influence of crossbred crossing of crossbred Askanian sheep of meat and wool breed on the development of productive and reproductive features of Zakarpattja sheep ewes of the breed prekos with the purpose of obtaining mixed breeds with improved economic performance. It is proven by theory and practice that one of the main criteria for the rational management of sheep breeding in modern conditions is the study of individual features of growth and development of young sheep. In a market economy, increasing the meat productivity of sheep is an important factor that determines the level of economic efficiency of the industry. Obtained progeny at the age of 4–8 months had a higher intensity of growth. Thus, the average daily weight gain of lambs in the control group was 234 g, and experimental — 265 g, which is 11.3% more than in the control. The average daily weight gain of the bright control group was 205 g, and the experimental one — 244 g, which is 11.9% more than in the control group. At the age of 8 months, the fat mass of slaughtered animals ranged from 32–36 kg and the carcass weight was 15–18 kg with good fat irrigation. The classification of sheep carcasses by fat irrigation according to the EUROP system corresponded to the average level of coverage of carcasses with fat, that is, the whole carcass was covered with a thin layer of fat, at the base of the tail — small accumulations of fat, the kidneys partially or completely covered with a thin layer of fat, with a slight fatty water between visible intercostal muscles .The balanced feeding of experimental animals had a positive effect on the increase in live birth weight and their viability. The minimum selection parameters of breeding sheep ewes, which are involved in the breeding process, are also set for obtaining animals with high multi-farrowing and combined productivity.

Population Viability Analysis (PVA) is the estimation of extinction probabilities by analyses that incorporate identifiable threats to population survival into models of the extinction process. Extrinsic forces, such as habitat loss, over-harvesting, and competition or predation by introduced species, often lead to population decline. Although the traditional methods of wildlife ecology can reveal such deterministic trends, random fluctuations that increase as populations become smaller can lead to extinction even of populations that have, on average, positive population growth when below carrying capacity. Computer simulation modelling provides a tool for exploring the viability of populations subjected to many complex, interacting deterministic and random processes. One such simulation model, VORTEX, has been used extensively by the Captive Breeding Specialist Group (Species Survival Commission, IUCN), by wildlife agencies, and by university classes. The algorithms, structure, assumptions and applications of VORTEX are described in this paper. VORTEX models population processes as discrete, sequential events, with probabilistic outcomes. VORTEX simulates birth and death processes and the transmission of genes through the generations by generating random numbers to determine whether each animal lives or dies, to determine the number of progeny produced by each female each year, and to determine which of the two alleles at a genetic locus are transmitted from each parent to each offspring. Fecundity is assumed to be independent of age after an animal reaches reproductive age. Mortality rates are specified for each pre-reproductive age-sex class and for reproductive-age animals. Inbreeding depression is modelled as a decrease in viability in inbred animals. The user has the option of modelling density dependence in reproductive rates. As a simple model of density dependence in survival, a carrying capacity is imposed by a probabilistic truncation of each age class if the population size exceeds the specified carrying capacity. VORTEX can model linear trends in the carrying capacity. VORTEX models environmental variation by sampling birth rates, death rates, and the carrying capacity from binomial or normal distributions. Catastrophes are modelled as sporadic random events that reduce survival and reproduction for one year. VORTEX also allows the user to supplement or harvest the population, and multiple subpopulations can be tracked, with user-specified migration among the units. VORTEX outputs summary statistics on population growth rates, the probability of population extinction, the time to extinction, and the mean size and genetic variation in extant populations. VORTEX necessarily makes many assumptions. The model it incorporates is most applicable to species with low fecundity and long lifespans, such as mammals, birds and reptiles. It integrates the interacting effects of many of the deterministic and stochastic processes that have an impact on the viability of small populations, providing opportunity for more complete analysis than is possible by other techniques. PVA by simulation modelling is an important tool for identifying populations at risk of extinction, determining the urgency of action, and evaluating options for management.

Cryopreservation of non-human primate oocytes would allow a more efficient management of biological resources for medical research and endangered species preservation. Despite previous attempts, no cleavage-stage development has been reported following cryopreservation of rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) or other non-human primate oocytes. The extreme chilling sensitivity of rhesus monkey oocytes (Songsasen N et al., 2002 Fertil. Steril. 77, 818–825) might be overcomed by vitrification methods. Our aim was to test the Solid Surface Vitrification (SSV, Dinnyes A et al., 2000 Biol. Reprod. 63, 513–518) method on metaphase II (MII)-stage rhesus monkey oocytes and to achieve successful fertilization of warmed oocytes. Oocytes were obtained from hormonally stimulated adult and unstimulated prepubertal females and matured in vitro for 36 to 48h as described by Zhang P et al. (2001 Biol. Reprod. 64, 1417–1421). The vitrification solution contained 35% ethylene glycol (EG), 5% polyvinyl pyrrolidone, and 0.4M trehalose in Tyrode-lactate (TL)-HEPES medium with 3mgmL−1 BSA added. Oocytes at MII-stage were equilibrated in 4% EG in TL-HEPES at 37°C for 10 to 12min and then exposed to the vitrification solution at 37°C for about 20s. Oocytes in 2-μL droplets of vitrification solution were dropped onto a metal surface at about −180°C where they were vitrified instantaneously. Warming was performed by moving the vitrified droplets into 0.3M trehalose at 37°C. Recovered oocytes were exposed to 0.15M and then 0.075M trehalose for 2min each and then rinsed three times in TL-HEPES. Warmed oocytes were fertilized in vitro and then cultured for 96h in 50-μL drops of mCMRL-1066 containing 20% FCS at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2, 5% O2, and 90% N2, as described in details by Zhang (see above). A total of 21 MII oocytes were collected from 2 adult and 55 MII oocytes from 14 prepubertal animals. No difference has been found between the rate of adult-origin (15/19; 79%) v. prepubertal-origin (37/52; 71%) oocytes surviving the vitrification process without lysis (P&gt;0.05, chi-square analyses). Following subsequent IVF, 1/15 (7%) adult-origin and 4/23 (17%) prepubertal-origin oocytes cleaved further, which was lower than that of the corresponding controls (1/2 (50%) and 1/3 (33%), respectively). The furthest development observed following cryopreservation was 16-cell stage, verified by counting of stained nuclei. This is the first report on cleavage-stage development of cryopreserved rhesus monkey oocytes, demonstrating the feasibility of vitrification and the potential for gene banking of non-human primate oocytes, even from prepubertal animals. Further experiments are needed to achieve higher rates of cryosurvival and progeny development. This research was supported by a Chinese-Hungarian Bilateral Technological and Scientific Collaboration Project (No. CHN14/02).

Introduction. Aberdeen-Angus breed, selection achievement of United Kingdom, long time ago ceased to be merely a cultural heritage and became a global transcontinental obtainment in beef cattle breeding. Productive "attractiveness" of Aberdeen-Angus breed makes it a popular genetic resource in the cattle branch production. It causes the optimistic results of the statistical analysis of farm animal biodiversity for data of European EFABIS data base, according which the status of this breed can be defined as "not at risk". Ukrainian population of Aberdeen-Angus formed in 1961 by importing breeding stock from Canada and animals of compact small type of Scotland (1962) and the establishment of breeding plant at the research station "Vorzel" of Agrarian Academy of Ukraine. The modern breed area covers 11 regions of Ukraine. According to the State register of breeding subjects in animal breeding on 01.01.2016, the stock has 7637 controlled heads (including 3475 cows, 80 bulls) and concentrated in 23 breeding subjects. For a long time, the Principal breeding center of Ukraine engaged with breeding farms’ development and controlled the situation in the breed. At this institution base bulls were evaluated, semen was sampled and stored, information database of individual data was being formed and automated, breeding program were developed and plans for the bulls’ matching were formed. Currently low share of artificial insemination at 18%, lack of control of live bulls involvement in the matching campaign, limited activities of regional breeding associations on centralized bulls’ assessment resulted in irreversible changes in the genetic structure of Aberdeen-Angus population, phenotypic manifestation of which is the youngsters’ growth and development declining, low efficiency of feed conversion, cows’ milk production decreasing, impairment in reproductive quality, increased exterior faults’ and genetic anomalies level. One of the measures for improvement of breeding herds is individual evaluation of bulls, which can optimize the selection and matching of bulls for breeding stock for calves of high breeding value production. However, the re-orientation in consumer demand, incapability of internal market to ensure profitable beef production and breaks of export-import relations naturally led to a weakening of motivation for breeding bulls branch business and its state control. Thus, according to the technology of beef cattle breeding mainly with natural mating feasible is the realization of sires’ on their own performance evaluation initial phase directly at the base of breeding farms in accordance with "Instructions on beef bulls’ selection" and to perform the Ministry of Agriculture Order N154 on 13.04.2016 on the approving of the "Procedure of sires’ breeding value determination by pedigree, their own performance, and progeny quality testing." Analyzing the quantitative and qualitative indices of economic activity we’ve found that one of the prospective objects for future beef bull evaluation is breeding farm "Buffalo" of Manevychi district, Volyn region. There are 850 Aberdeen-Angus dams (cows, heifers), evaluation power of the farm gives the possibility to evaluate simultaneously more than 400 animals. So, the aim of this paper is the analysis of Aberdeen-Angus bulls’ evaluation on their own performance results. Materials and methods of research. The study engaged 30 Aberdeen Angus breeding bulls of "Buffalo" farm. The selection of animals for evaluation was performed at the 210 days’ age with previously conducted individual analysis of their growth during suckling period, using the materials of electronic information database "ORSEK-M". At the time of evaluation diet of growing calves presupposed gain getting not below 1200 g per day. Analysis of the growth and development of youngsters was done by the results of monthly weighing during the period from 8 to 12 months. Key bull’s measurements was taken at 12 months’ age. The evaluation was carried out according to Regulation "Instruction on beef bull selection". Statistical data processing was performed, using the Microsoft Excel software. Results. Algorithms of determination and calculation of selection indices for evaluation of beef animals are chosen by representative organizations and approved at the level of each state. For countries participating INTERBULL (INTERBEEF) bulls’ evaluation results are converted to a common information data base on which the matching and comparison of data for further use in the breeding work correction. The main features taken into account in the assessment of the breeding value are share of pure blood, live weight at different ages, the intensity of growth for average daily gains, exterior parameters (body measurements, linear features), milk production, calving ease, temperament (for some breeds, such as Charolais), term of economic use, sperm productivity indices and others. According to international recommendations EBV and EPD indices are calculated, which define contribution weight of each feature into integrated breeding value of an animal. Under the current law of Ukraine, the evaluation of beef animals is done with the definition of an integrated class at appraisal, bulls are evaluated by index A – own performance, B – quality of progeny. The main results of sires’ evaluation were obtained during the process of native beef breeds creation. In the course of our studies we’ve initially selected bulls of Aberdeen-Angus breed, taking into account the indices of their individual growth till 7-months’ age. Totally there were selected sons of 7 Aberdeen-Angus bulls, including 5 native and 2 of German selection. Native bulls were of Wright Iver 9251195, BV Vinton 1342, Sauthoma Extra 715968, V.B.M. Henri 158013 lines. At 210 days’ age the average live weight of calves was 228,03 ± 6,750 kg, the average daily gain – 964,1 ± 30,881 g. Coefficient of variation for average daily gain at 17.5% reflects both the individual differences in eating behaviour of the researched calves during suckling and the differences in their mothers’ milk production and nutritional value of milk. The average live weight of animals evaluated at 12 months was 389,3 ± 8,35 kg, average daily gain when growing – 1114,47 ± 34,208 g. The coefficients of variability of these traits are under 11.5% and 16.8% accordingly. Average live weight at weaning and at 12 months’ age exceeded its corresponding values, determined due to the minimum requirements for live weight of beef calves to reach the complex class "elite" and "elite-record." Phenotypic features of farm animals’ body built are the indicators of species’ and breeds’ specificity and individual characteristics of the organism, the totality of which forms the parametric basis for primary estimation of genetic potential of productivity. Expressiveness, harmony and age matching of body parts outline a general picture of individual growth and development and reflect the level of balanced nutrition and optimal technology accepted as a whole. At the group studied the bull's average height in rump at the age of 12 months was 115,70 ± 0,622 cm with a coefficient of variation 2.9%. Chest girth is 158,33 ± 1,18 cm with variability 1.2%. Average body length was 126,63 ± 1,162 cm with a coefficient of variation 5.0%. Testicular circumference, as one of the evaluation parameters of bull reproductive system, was 31,10 ± 0,564 cm with a coefficient of variability 9.9%. Thus, among the recorded traits, the largest variability was indicated on live weight, average daily gain and scrotal circumference. The least variability was indicated on rump height and chest girth. Average value of complex selection index on all the researched bulls is 100,5 ± 0,9. According to the positions of Instructions, 14 calves with complex selection index above 100.0 may be allowed for further use as at the herds with natural mating, so put for assessment on sperm productivity at the State Enterprise "Volynian regional agricultural production enterprise on breeding business in animal breeding." This will allow to re-new the genetic material store from native valued representatives of the Aberdeen-Angus breed and partially restore local control over the use of sires in breeding herds as well as in households. Therefore, it is feasible to continue similar research involving a larger number of animals, to consider the power of influence of mother genotype and conduct further evaluation of sires of Aberdeen-Angus breed on performance of their sons and daughters. Conclusions. In similar conditions of feeding and management the realization of the genetic potential of productivity of Aberdeen-Angus bulls is different. The given results are the first step in the organization of systematic evaluation of sires’ breeding value, analysing of inheritance of key traits of growth and development of animals and rationalization of the use of genetic resources of the breed in general and reduction in cost per unit of production in live and carcass weight.

A presente obra, organizada por Adriana Aparecida de Lima Terçariol, docente no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação (PPGE) e Mestrado em Gestão e Práticas Educacionais (Progepe) na Universidade Nove de Julho (Uninove/SP), Elisangela Aparecida Bulla Ikeshoji, professora da Educação Básica, Técnica e Tecnológica da área de Gestão, no Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo (IFSP) e Raquel Rosan Christino Gitahy, docente da Universidade do Oeste Paulista e da Universidade Estadual do Mato Grosso do Sul.Nota-se que as reflexões discorridas no decorrer do livro são desenvolvidas a partir de um convite aos leitores à inspiração do novo, recomendando a leitura a todos os educadores, pesquisadores e demais interessados nas mudanças e superações de paradigmas, em busca de uma ação/prática transformadora da educação na sociedade digital. A obra está dividida em 13 (treze) capítulos. O leitor encontra ainda, as seções: Apresentação, Prefácio, Reflexões Iniciais e Sobre os Autores. Cada um desses capítulos apresenta os fundamentos e as atividades que orientaram e auxiliaram os professores na elaboração e desenvolvimento de novas práticas pedagógicas, e também proporciona a autorreflexão, além do incentivo para a utilização de novas estratégias e recursos digitais na aprendizagem.No capítulo 1, “Os avanços, as dificuldades e os desafios emergentes no fazer pedagógico no âmbito da educação básica em tempos de cibercultura”; os autores lançam um olhar minucioso sobre a inserção das TDIC no fazer pedagógico, em tempos de cibercultura, evidenciando em suas considerações que a escola precisa promover condições para instigar os estudantes a construírem o conhecimento, de maneira autônoma, significativa e contextualizada.No capítulo 2, “Estilos de ensino versus estilos de aprendizagem no contexto do Ensino Médio: sob a luz da Base Nacional Comum Curricular”, analisa-se como a Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) articula, especificamente, no Ensino Médio, a maneira de ensinar do professor e a de aprender do aluno. As autoras abordam um delineamento metodológico, por meio de pesquisas documentais e de um levantamento de produções na Biblioteca Digital Brasileira de Teses e Dissertações (BDTD).O capítulo 3, “Aprendizagem Baseada em Projetos na Educação Básica: a articulação da educação ambiental e das tecnologias digitais”, reflete as questões ambientais como desafio na atualidade, discute as ações humanas de maneira consciente e a viabilidade de mudanças para promover ações ancoradas na sustentabilidade. As autoras contextualizam historicamente o programa de educação ambiental, desde a década 70 até os dias atuais, as possibilidades e facilidades de acesso às informações, com o uso das tecnologias digitais, bem como a oportunidade de trabalhar o currículo de forma lúdica e detalhada, em relação aos conteúdos voltados às Ciências da Natureza. Apresentam novas propostas educacionais com temáticas de cunho transversal, o que abrange abordagens referentes à sustentabilidade, com propostas metodológicas que viabilizam o trabalho pedagógico interdisciplinar.O capítulo 4, “O uso do WhatsApp no processo de ensino e aprendizagem de história na Educação Básica: em destaque suas potencialidades e o papel do professor”, envolve a discussão de como o recurso WhatsApp pode ser considerado um ambiente móvel para promoção do processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Os autores dividem o capítulo em dois eixos. No eixo 1 abordam as potencialidades do WhatsApp em contextos educacionais e no aprendizado de História. Já o eixo 2 relata o papel do professor em ambientes de aprendizagem móvel. No capítulo 5, “O pensamento lógico computacional plugado e não plugado na educação matemática”, apresenta-se uma análise das contribuições, do desenvolvimento e do pensamento lógico, explanando o ensinar e o aprender, bem como o pensamento computacional plugado e desplugado na aprendizagem ativa de Matemática. Expõe ao leitor as diretrizes relacionadas ao ensinar e aprender matemática até a era digital, considerando a tecnologia inserida no contexto escolar, proporcionando ao discente novas e diferentes perspectivas na aprendizagem da matemática em sala de aula.O capítulo 6, “Gamificação e o game aliados ao processo avaliativo: uma experiência nos anos finais do ensino fundamental com língua portuguesa”, apresenta a utilização e as potencialidades, em sala de aula, a partir de um game, com o objetivo de promover um ambiente gamificado para avaliações formativas.No capítulo 7, “Inclusão digital: protagonismo discente em ação”, em um relato de experiência, os autores discorrem sobre uma experiência que ocorreu em uma escola técnica da cidade de São Paulo, com alunos do 1º módulo do curso de Informática, e que teve como objetivo oportunizar para que atuassem como protagonista, na disseminação dos conteúdos de ferramentas digitais para alunos do 3º ano do ensino fundamental, de uma escola estadual na mesma cidade.No capítulo 8, “O moodlebox, a internet das coisas (IOT) e o moodle: um estudo exploratório no curso técnico de desenvolvimento de sistemas”, os autores abordam as tecnologias digitais de informação e comunicação (TDIC) e a internet das coisas (IOT) em ambientes escolares. Comentam ainda o sistema de gestão de aprendizagem ou learning management system (LMS) e o desenvolvimento da experiência no curso Técnico de Desenvolvimento de Sistemas, em uma escola técnica da cidade de São Paulo.O capítulo 9, “A narrativa digital e as competências da BNCC na formação inicial de professores do curso de pedagogia”, é decorrente de dois relatos de experiência realizados no ensino superior, no curso de Pedagogia, que utilizam a narrativa digital como meio para abordagem de conteúdos propostos no currículo. O autor discute o tema, a partir dos relatos dos próprios discentes em formação inicial, sobre a inserção das narrativas digitais relacionadas aos resultados alcançados.No capítulo 10, “As metodologias ativas no curso de direito: a necessidade e possibilidades de mudança no ensino e aprendizagem na área jurídica”, os autores refletem sobre as possibilidades proporcionadas pelas tecnologias de aprendizagem no ensino jurídico, com um breve panorama histórico do curso de Direito no Brasil. Destaca-se o perfil dos discentes e docentes desse curso e evidencia-se que as metodologias ativas favorecem diferentes habilidades e competências, sendo porém imprescindível, o suporte institucional, principalmente no que diz respeito à formação adequada dos docentes para sua efetiva implementação. Os autores resgatam a necessidade de mais trabalhos para aprimorar o uso das metodologias ativas no campo jurídico.O capítulo 11, “Estudos de casos: uma proposta metodológica para a abordagem do cyberbullying em tempos de educação digital”, traz o cyberbullying sob a perspectiva da educação e do direito digital, mostrando situações praticadas nas redes e em escolas, assim como os tipos de danos decorrentes dessa prática.O capítulo 12, “Os recursos educacionais abertos: em foco os cursos on-line abertos e massivos (MOOC)”, oferece a reflexão sobre o uso dos recursos educacionais abertos na construção de ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem, especialmente os Mooc (Curso Online Aberto e Massivo), oferecidos por meio de ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem, ferramentas da Web 2.0 ou redes sociais.Finalizando, no capítulo13, “Metodologias para aprendizagem ativa e uso das tecnologias digitais de informação e comunicação na educação a distância”, os autores analisam as formas de articulações das tecnologias digitais com as metodologias para aprendizagem ativa na educação a distância (EaD).A análise sobre as temáticas, práticas pedagógicas e aspectos abordados na obra instiga a se conhecer mais sobre o assunto e possibilita ao leitor compreender as metodologias ativas articuladas a tecnologias digitais com propostas para fazeres mais inovadores, que influenciam na transformação do paradigma de aprendizado. Diante disso, requer-se formação e pesquisa continuamente, para fomentar e subsidiar as intervenções em contexto de ensino e de aprendizagem.

Introduction. Conceptual framework system biodiversity in livestock include a combination of a set of measures aimed at the conservation and repopulation animals - the preservation of genetic diversity in situ in vitro and preservation of genetic diversity through the accumulation of genetic material and its cryopreservation as germ and somatic cells, zygotes, tissues (ex situ in vitro). Gene pool facilities require maintenance system to produce the required number gene pool products, the main criterion of evaluation which is playing the typical breed characteristics and features. The unifying element in the system of biodiversity - a Bank of Animals of genetic resources of the Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS, which is attributed to objects of national heritage. Relevance of the creation and operation of the bank animal genetic resources of IABG nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS teeth caused by rapidly narrowing biodiversity in general and the diversity of farm animals in particular. According to the ratified November 29, 1994 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine "Convention on Biodiversity" Pan-European strategy and objectives of conservation of biological and landscape diversity Bank animal genetic resources of IABG nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS performs the task of enhancing the role of agriculture in maintaining biodiversity and fostering international cooperation for the conservation of genetic material of small species and endangered species according to the objectives of science and technology program number 37 "The system works in populations and biodiversity conservation of genetic resources of agricultural animals" ("Saving gene pool breeds"). It operates as a scientific and technological structure that provides storage and preservation of national and global gene pool of small, local and endangered species, populations and genotypes of rare farm animals. According to current trends driving the selection and breeding of livestock Ukraine and focusing on the short term, bank of sperm Institute also provides storage and rational use of better breeding material in the framework of breeding programs and improving the genetic potential productivity of animals. The purpose of this study was to conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis of genetic material stored in the bank of Animal of Genetic Resources of Institute of Animals Breeding and Genetics nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS. Material and methods of research. A description of the genetic material that is deposited in the bank of animal genetic resources of IABG nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS the results of the inventory on January 1, 2017 and acts of reception and transmission. Analyzed information forms the primary account (1-mol and 1-beef) and certificates of origin bulls. To characterize the gene pool of animals breeding materials included books of evaluation on the quality sires and progeny data directory bulls allowed to use in the selection process. Results. Bank Animal of Genetic Resources was formed on the basis of the Republican gene pool bank of sperm, which was established in 1976 under former Ukrainian Research Institute Breeding and Artificial insemination of cattle (now the Institute of Animals Breeding and Genetics nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS. Forming of animal genetic resources IABG nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS was due to tribal enterprises, which sperm came from almost all regions of Ukraine. Since the gene pool of the National Bank of sperm of animal genetic resources deposited 26.043 thousand sperm doses of 44 bulls who participated in developing Ukrainian Beef breed, and founder of the Ukrainian Beef breed lines. The bank remains Institute of semen sires - the pioneers of related groups sperm are used to display the Ukarainian Beef breed: 81 Eoiziano, 2317 Eymo, 274 Desant and 382 Eufemio (Chianina), 5203 Juncker, 8574103527 Zheriko (Charolais) and founder of the factory line - 0988 Anchar (Ukrainian Beef). Also, the bank laid sperm factory line Ukrainian Black-and-White Dairy cattle - 897 Elbrus. Now bank of sperm of Institute holds more than 145.3 thousand sperm doses outstanding bulls 16 dairy and 14 beef breeds in the number of 87.4 thousand doses of 116 sires and 38.6 thousand. Doses from 77 bulls beef breeds which is intended for use directly in selection and breeding work with breeds. To implement the program "Preservation of the gene pool of breeds" in the Bank of animal genetic resources generative cells remain in an amount of 19.5 thousand sperm doses of 27 bulls and four local endangered breeds (Ukrainian Whiteheaded, Lebedyn, Ukrainian Gray and Carpathian Brown). If necessary, use genetic material of these species in gene pool herds in the future will make it possible to recover the lost line. During 2011- 2013 the specialists studied indicators mobility, dynamic characteristics of movement and survival defrosting bull sperm stored in a bank animals genetic resources of IABG nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS using computer analyzer Sperm Vision company «Minitub» (USA). Indices straight-forward motion and absolute bull sperm survival rate for different shelf life. The Institute staff conducted molecular genetic evaluation of genotypes bulls for loci QTL (k-Cn, βLG, GH (dairy and cattle breeds) TG, CAPN1 530, MSTN), ISSR-markers using a as being primers for fragments of dinucleotide and trinucleotide microsatellite locus (ACC) 6G, (GAG) 6C, (AG)9C, (GA)9C and microsatellite markers that are included in the list of recommended ISAG (BM1824, BM2113, INRA023, SPS115, TGLA122, TGLA126, TGLA227, ETH10, ETH225 and ETH3). The information for the studied markers allows you to make more detailed description of the genetic diversity of planted material stored in a bank of genetic resources of animals IABG. The staff of the Institute and other academic Institutions in the system of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, which performs research program NAAS "Saving gene pool breds" continues to work to build a bank of animal genetic resources. Also, the Institute formed DNA bank of somatic cells and tissues of various farm animals, with appropriate breeding and genetic characteristics of genetic material. To enhance the role of the bank of Institute of Animals Breeding and Genetics nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS in the management of genetic resources and conservation of biodiversity in the future of its formation should be based on the basis that from commercial breeds of farm animals lay biological material only from their greatest representatives, and for indigenous, local and endangered breeds - representatives from the widest possible range of different genealogical structure that will characterize the entire population. Conclusions. Formation of the bank and its functioning is not only the accumulation and cryopreservation of genetic material of all kinds of animals, and in ensuring the implementation of scientific programs to maintain the diversity and specificity of gene pool facilities and breeding, biotechnology and other scientific research.

Seven spot ladybird beetle, (Coccinella septempunctata) is a widely distributed natural enemy of soft-bodied insect pests especially aphids worldwide. Both the adult and larvae of this coccinellid beetle are voracious feeders and serve as a commercially available biological control agent around the globe. Different techniques are adopted to enhance the mass rearing and storage of this natural enemy by taking advantage of its natural ability to withstand under extremely low temperatures and entering diapause under unfavorable low temperature conditions. The key objective of this study was to develop a cost effective technique for enhancing the storage life and predatory potential of the larvae of C. septempunctata through cold storage in conjunction with the use of nuclear techniques, gamma radiations. Results showed that the host eating potential of larvae was enhanced as the cold storage duration was increased. Gamma irradiation further enhanced the feeding potential of larvae that were kept under cold storage. Different irradiation doses also affected the development time of C. septempuntata larvae significantly. Without cold storage, the lower radiation doses (10 and 25 GY) prolonged the developmental time as compared to un-irradiated larvae. Furthermore, the higher dose of radiation (50GY) increased the developmental time after removal from cold storage. This study first time paves the way to use radiation in conjunction with cold storage as an effective technique in implementation of different biological control approaches as a part of any IPM programs.Key wordGamma irradiations; cold storage, Coccinella septempunctata larvae; predatory potential; integrated pest management programme.INTRODUCTIONNuclear techniques such as gamma radiations have a vast application in different programmes of biological control including continuous supply of sterilized host and improved rearing techniques (Greany and Carpenter, 2000; Cai et al., 2017). Similarly irradiation can be used for sentinel-host eggs and larvae for monitoring survival and distribution of parasitoids (Jordão-paranhos et al., 2003; Hendrichs et al., 2009; Tunçbilek et al., 2009; Zapater et al., 2009; Van Lenteren, 2012). Also, at the production level, such technique may facilitate the management of host rearing, improve quality and expedite transport of product (Fatima et al., 2009; Hamed et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2009). Gamma irradiations can also be used to stop insect’s development to enhance host suitability for their use in different mass rearing programs (Celmer-Warda, 2004; Hendrichs et al., 2009; Seth et al., 2009). Development and survival of all insects have a direct connection with temperatures which in turn affect the physical, functional and behavioral adaptations (Ramløy, 2000). Many insects living in moderate regions can survive at low temperature by process of diapause. A temperature between 0 to 10oC may cause some insects to become sluggish and they only become active when the temperature is suitable. Such insects show greater adaptations to flexible temperature regimes for better survival. Many studies have reported this concept of cold-hardiness in insects in general (Bale, 2002; Danks, 2006) and specifically in coccinellid beetles over past years (Watanabe, 2002; Koch et al., 2004; Pervez and Omkar, 2006; Labrie et al., 2008; Berkvens et al., 2010). Using this cold hardiness phenomenon, many coccinellids have been studied for the effect of cold storage such as Coccinella undecimpunctata (Abdel‐Salam and Abdel‐Baky, 2000), Coleomegilla maculata (Gagné and Coderre, 2001) and Harmonia axyridis (Watanabe, 2002). This natural phenomenon, therefore, can be a helpful tool in developing low temperature stockpiling for improving mass-rearing procedures (Mousapour et al., 2014). It may provide a significant output in terms of providing natural enemies as and when required during pest infestation peaks (Venkatesan et al., 2000). Use of irradiation in conjunction with cold storage proves to be an effective technique in implementation of different biological control approaches as a part of any IPM programme. A study reported that the pupate of house fly, Musca domestica irradiated at dose of 500 Gy and can stored up to 2 months at 6°C for future use for a parasitoid wasp Spalangia endius rearing (Zapater et al., 2009). Similarly, when irradiated at 20 GY, parasitic wasps Cotesia flavipes were stored safely up to two months without deterioration of their parasitic potential (Fatima et al., 2009). Similarly, bio-control program of sugarcane shoot borer Chilo infescatellus proved successful through the use of irradiation combined with cold storage of its egg and larval parasitoids Trichogramma chilonis and C. flavipes (Fatima et al., 2009). Less mobile life stages such as larvae are of significance in any IPM strategy because they remain on target site for more time period as compared to adults. Therefore, use of predatory larvae is very promising in different biological control approaches because of their immediate attack on pests and more resistance to unfavorable environmental conditions than delicate egg stage. In addition, with their augmentation into fields, larval stage shows their presence for longer time than adult stage and their feeding potential is also satisfactory as that of adults. For the best utilization of these predators in the field and maximum impact of 3rd and 4th larval instars on prey, we should encourage late 2nd second instar larvae of predatory beetles in the fields as these instars have more feeding capacity due to increased size and ability to handle larger preys.In spite of higher significance, there is little information available about the effect of cold storage on the survival of larval instars of different ladybird beetles and its effect on their predatory potential. Very few studies report the use of cold storage for non-diapausing larval stage like for Semiadalia undecimnotata and only one study reported the short-term storage (up to two weeks) of 2nd and 3rd instar coccinellid, C. maculate, without any loss in feeding voracity of larvae after storage (Gagné and Coderre, 2001). The survival of 3rd and 4th larval instars of C. undecimpunctata for 7 days after storage at 5oC was reported in a study but the survival rate declined after 15-60 days of storage (Abdel‐Salam and Abdel‐Baky, 2000). As C. septempunctata is considered one of the voracious predators (Afroz, 2001; Jandial and Malik, 2006; Bilashini and Singh, 2009; Xia et al., 2018) and diapause is a prominent feature of this beetle and it may undergo facultative diapause under suitable laboratory conditions (Suleman, 2015). No information is available to date about the combined effect of cold storage and irradiation on the larval instars of this species.OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to devise a cost effective technique for the cold storage and its effect on the subsequent predatory potential of the seven spotted ladybird beetle larvae in conjunction with the use of gamma radiations. Hypothesis of the study was that an optimum length of low temperature treatment for storage purpose would not affect the predation capacity of C. septempunctata larvae and their developmental parameters including survival and pupation will remain unaffected. Furthermore, use of gamma irradiation will have some additional effects on survival and feeding capacity of irradiated C. septempunctata larvae. Such techniques can be utilized in different biocontrol programs where short term storage is required. So these larvae can be successfully imparted in different IPM programs against sucking complex of insect pests as a component of biological control strategyMATERIALS AND METHODSPlant materials: Collection and rearing of C. septempunctata: Adult C. septempunctata were collected from the wheat crop (in NIAB vicinity and farm area) in the month of March during late winter and early in spring season 2016-2017. They were kept in plastic jars and were fed with brassica aphids. Under controlled laboratory conditions (25+2oC, 16h: 8h L:D and 65+5% R.H.), eggs of C. septempuctata were obtained and after hatching, larvae were also given brassica aphids as dietary source. Larvae of second instar were selected for this experiment (as the first instar is generally very weak and vulnerable to mortality under low temperatures). As the larvae approached second instar, they were separated for the experimentation. Irradiation of larvae at different doses: Irradiation of larvae was carried out by the irradiation source 137CS at Radiation laboratory, and the larvae were then brought back to the IPM laboratory, Plant Protection Division, Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) Faisalabad. Radiation doses of 10 GY (Grey), 25 GY and 50 GY were used to treat the second instar larvae. There were three replicates for each treatment and five larvae per replicate were used. Control treatment was left un-irradiated.Cold storage of irradiated larvae: In present work, second instar C. septempunctata larvae were studied for storage at low temperature of 8oC. The larvae were kept at 8oC for 0, I and II weeks where week 0 depicts no cold treatment and this set of larvae was left under laboratory conditions for feeding and to complete their development. For larvae that were kept under cold storage for one week at 8°C, the term week I was devised. Similarly, week II denotes the larvae that remained under cold conditions (8°C) for two continuous weeks. Larvae were removed from cold storage in their respective week i.e., after week I and week II and were left under laboratory conditions to complete their development by feeding on aphids. Data collection: For recording the predatory potential of C. septempunctata larvae, 100 aphids were provided per larva per replicate on a daily basis until pupation as this number was more than their feeding capacity to make sure that they were not starved (personal observation). Observations were recorded for survival rate, developmental time and feeding potential. Data analysis: Data were statistically analysed by Statistical Software SPSS (Version 16.0). The data were subjected to normality check through the One-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Non normal data were transformed to normal data which were then used for all parametric variance tests. One-way and two-way analyses of variance were used. For comparison between variables, LSD test at α 0.05 was applied.RESULTSFeeding potential of irradiated larvae after removal from cold storage: Results showed an increase in the feeding potential of C. septempunctata larvae with increased cold storage duration. The feeding potential was significantly higher for the larvae that spent maximum length of time (week II) under cold storage conditions followed by week I and week 0. Gamma irradiations further enhanced the feeding potential of larvae that were kept under cold storage. When larvae were irradiated at 10 GY, the eating capacity of larvae increased significantly with the duration of cold storage. Similarly, larvae that were irradiated at 25 GY, showed increase in feeding potential on aphids as the time period of cold storage increased. The feeding potential of larvae that were irradiated at 50 GY, was again significantly increased with increase of cold storage duration. When different radiation doses were compared to week 0 of storage, there was a significant difference in feeding potential and larvae irradiated at 50 GY consumed the maximum numbers of aphids when no cold storage was done followed by larvae irradiated at 10 and 25 GY. With the other treatment, where larvae were kept under cold storage for one week (week I) the larvae irradiated at 50GY again showed the highest feeding potential. The feeding potential of irradiated larvae was again significantly higher than the un-irradiated larvae that were kept for two weeks (week II) under cold storage (table 1).Two-way ANOVA was performed to check the interaction between the different radiation doses and different lengths of storage durations for feeding potential of C. septempunctata larvae on aphids. The feeding potential of larvae irradiated at different doses and subjected to variable durations of cold storage were significantly different for both the radiation doses and cold storage intervals. Furthermore, the interaction between the radiation doses and storage duration was also significant meaning that the larvae irradiated at different doses with different length of cold storage were having significant variations in feeding levels (table 2).Developmental time of irradiated larvae after removal from cold storage: Significant difference was found in the development time of the larvae of C. septempunctata when irradiated at different doses at week 0 (without cold storage). The larvae irradiated at 10 GY took the maximum time for development and with the increase in irradiation dosage, from 25 to 50 GY, the time of development was shortened. The larvae irradiated at 50 GY had the same development time as the un-irradiated ones. When, the irradiated larvae were subjected to cold storage of one week duration (week I), their development time after removal from storage condition varied significantly. The larvae irradiated at 25 GY took the maximum time for development followed by larvae irradiated at 50 GY and 10 GY. There was an indication that the development time was extended for irradiated larvae as compared to un-irradiated larvae.Results also depicted a significant difference in the time taken by irradiated larvae to complete their development after taken out from cold storage of two weeks duration (week II). As the storage time of irradiated larvae increased, the development time was prolonged. Results showed that the larvae that were irradiated at 25 and 50 GY, took the maximum time to complete their development. With the prolonged duration of cold storage up to two weeks (week II), this difference of development time was less evident at lower doses (10 GY). The larvae irradiated at 10 GY showed a significant difference in their developmental duration after being taken out of cold storage conditions of the week 0, I and II. There was no difference in the developmental duration of larvae that were un-irradiated and subjected to different regimes of storage. Un-irradiated larvae were least affected by the duration of storage. With the increase in the storage time, a decrease in the developmental time was recorded. Larvae that were irradiated at 10 GY, took the maximum period to complete their development when no cold storage was done (week 0) followed by week I and II of cold storage. When the larvae irradiated at 25 GY were compared for their development time, there was again significant difference for week 0, I and II of storage duration. Maximum time was taken by the larvae for their complete development when removed from cold storage after one week (week I). With the increase in storage duration the time taken by larvae to complete their development after removal from cold storage reduced.When the larvae were removed after different lengths of cold storage duration i.e., week 0, week I and week II, there was a significant difference in the developmental time afterwards. Results have shown that the higher dose of radiation, increased the developmental time after removal from cold storage. The larvae irradiated at 50 GY took the longest time to complete their development after removal from cold storage (week I and week II) as compared the larvae that were not kept under cold storage conditions (week 0) (table 3).Interaction between the different radiation doses and different lengths of storage durations for development time of larvae were checked by two-way ANOVA. The development time of larvae irradiated at different doses and subjected to variable durations of cold storage were significantly different for both the doses and cold storage intervals. Furthermore, the interaction between the radiation doses and storage duration was also significant meaning that the larvae irradiated at different doses with different length of cold storage were having significant variations in development times (table 4). DISCUSSIONThe present research work indicates the possibility of keeping the larval instars of C. septempunctata under cold storage conditions of 8oC for a short duration of around 14 days without affecting its further development and feeding potential. Furthermore, irradiation can enhance the feeding potential and increase the development time of larval instars. This in turn could be a useful technique in mass rearing and field release programmes for biological control through larval instars. Usually temperature range of 8-10oC is an optimal selection of low temperature for storage as reported earlier for eggs two spotted ladybird beetle, Adalia bipunctata and the eggs of C. septempunctata (Hamalainen and Markkula, 1977), Trichogramma species (Jalali and Singh, 1992) and fairyfly, Gonatocerus ashmeadi (Hymenoptra; Mymaridae) (Leopold and Chen, 2007). However, a study reported more than 80% survival rate for the coccinellid beetle, Harmonia axyridis for up to 150 days at moderately low temperature of 3-6oC (Ruan et al., 2012). So there is great flexibility in coccinellid adults and larvae for tolerating low temperature conditions. After removal from cold storage, larvae showed better feeding potential with consumption of more aphids when compared to normal larvae that were not placed under low temperature conditions. This indicates that when the adult or immature insect stages are subjected to low temperature environment, they tend to reduce their metabolic activity for keeping them alive on the reserves of their body fats and sustain themselves for a substantial length of time under such cold environment. Hereafter, the larval instars that were in cold storage were behaving as if starved for a certain length of time and showed more hunger. This behavior of improved or higher feeding potential of stored larvae has been reported previously (Chapman, 1998). Hence, the feeding potential of C. septempunctata larvae significantly increased after cold storage. Gagné and Coderre (2001) reported higher predatory efficacy in larvae of C. maculata when stored at the same temperature as in the present study i.e., 8oC. Similarly, Ruan et al. (2012) showed that the multicolored Asian ladybug, H. axyridis, when stored under cold conditions, had more eating capacity towards aphids Aphis craccivora Koch than the individuals that were not stored. Such studies indicate that the higher feeding potential in insects after being subjected to low temperature environmental conditions could be due to the maintenance of their metabolism rate to a certain level while utilizing their energy reserves to the maximum extent (Watanabe, 2002).The individuals coming out from cold storage are therefore capable of consuming more pray as they were in a condition of starvation and they have to regain their energy loss through enhanced consumption. Furthermore, the starvation in C. septempunctata has previously been reported to affect their feeding potential (Suleman et al., 2017). In the present study, the larval development was delayed after returning to normal laboratory conditions. Cold storage affects the life cycle of many insects other than coccinellids. The cold storage of green bug aphid parasitoid, Lysiphlebus testaceipes Cresson (Hymenoptra; Braconidae) mummies increased the life cycle 3-4 times. Nevertheless, in current study the development process of stored larvae resumed quickly after taking them out and larvae completed their development up to adult stage. Similar kinds of results were reported for resumption of larval development after removal from cold storage conditions. Such studies only report satisfactory survival rates and development for a short duration of cold storage but as the length of storage is increased, it could become harmful to certain insects. Gagné and Coderre (2001) reported that cold storage for longer period (three weeks) proved fatal for almost 40% of larvae of C. maculata. Furthermore, in the same study, the feeding potential of C. maculata larvae was also affected beyond two weeks of cold storage due to the loss of mobility after a long storage period. Many studies have reported that longer durations of low temperature conditions can either damage the metabolic pathways of body cells or may increase the levels of toxins within the bodies of insects. Also, low temperature exposure for longer duration may cause specific interruptions in the insect body especially neuro-hormones responsible for insect development, which could be dangerous or even life threatening.Chen et al. (2004) also reported that the biological qualities of parasitized Bemisia tabaci pupae on population quality of Encarsia formosa were affected negatively with increase in cold storage duration. Similarly, the egg hatchability of green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea Stephen was lost completely beyond 18 days of cold storage (Sohail et al., 2019). However, in the present study the cold storage was done for maximum two weeks and it is to be regarded as a short term storage hence the survival rate was satisfactory. Longer periods of cold storage for larvae are not considered safe due to their vulnerable state as compared to adults which are hardier. Also 2nd instar larvae used in the present study for cold storage for being bigger in size and physical stronger than 1st instar. Abdel‐Salam and Abdel‐Baky (2000) reported that in C. undecimpunctata the cold storage of 3rd and 4th larval instars was higher and considered safer than early larval instars. The same study showed sharp decline in survival rate after two weeks and there was no survival beyond 30-60 days of cold storage. The present study showed that short term storage of the larvae of C. septempunctata could be done without any loss of their feeding potential or development so the quality of predator remained unaffected. Similar kind of work for many other insects had been reported previously where cold storage technique proved useful without deteriorating the fitness of stored insects. For example, the flight ability of reared codling moth Cydia pomonella Linnaeus remained unaffected after removal from cold storage (Matveev et al., 2017). Moreover, a sturdy reported that pupae of a parasitoid wasp Trichogramma nerudai (Hymenoptera; Trichogrammatidae) could be safely put in cold storage for above than 50 days (Tezze and Botto, 2004). Similarly, a technique of cold storage of non-diapausing eggs of black fly Simulium ornaturm Meigen was developed at 1oC. Another study reported safe storage of a predatory bug insidious flower bug Orius insidiosus for more than 10 days at 8°C (Bueno et al., 2014).In present study without cold storage, the lower doses of 10 and 25 GY prolonged the developmental time as compared to un-irradiated larvae and higher doses of irradiations in conjunction with cold storage again significantly prolonged the developmental time of larvae when returned to the laboratory conditions. Salem et al. (2014) also reported that Gamma irradiations significantly increased the duration of developmental stages (larvae and pupae) in cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel). In another study, where endoparasitic wasps Glyptapanteles liparidis were evaluated with irradiated and non-irradiated gypsy moth Lymantria dispar larvae for oviposition, it was found that non-irradiated larvae had a shorter time to reach the adult stage as compared to irradiated larvae (Novotny et al., 2003). Both for higher doses with cold storage and lower doses without cold storage extended the larval duration of C. septempunctata. In another study when the parasitoid wasp Habrobracon hebetor was irradiated at the dose of 10 GY, it resulted in prolonged longevity (Genchev et al., 2008). In the same study, when another parasitoid Ventruria canescens was irradiated at lower doses of 4GY and 3 GY, it resulted in increased emergence from the host larvae, while gamma irradiations at the dose of 1 GY and 2 GY significantly stimulated the rate of parasitism (Genchev et al., 2008). The current study also indicated higher rates of predation in the form of increased feeding potential of larvae as a result of irradiations at lower doses.CONCLUSIONThe outcome of the current study shows that storage of 2nd instar C. septempunctata at low temperature of 8oC for a short duration of about 14 days is completely safe and could have broader application in different biocontrol programs. Such flexibility in storage duration can also assist in different mass rearing techniques and commercial uses. The combination of gamma radiation with low temperature cold storage could be a useful tool in developing different biological pest management programs against sucking insect pests. Incidence of periodic occurrence of both the target insect pests with their predatory ladybird beetles in synchrony is an important aspect that could be further strengthened by cold storage techniques. Therefore, short or long term bulk cold storage of useful commercial biocontrol agents and then reactivating them at appropriate time of pest infestation is a simple but an advantageous method in mass rearing programs. Increased feeding capacity of stored larvae is another edge and hence such larvae may prove more beneficial as compared to unstored larvae. Both cold storage and improved feeding of the C. septempuctata larvae can be utilized for implementation of IPM for many sucking insect pests of various crops, fruits and vegetables. Due to some constraints this study could not be continued beyond two weeks but for future directions, higher doses and longer duration periods could further elaborate the understanding and better application of such useful techniques in future IPM programmes on a wider scale. Also, some other predatory coccinellid beetle species can be tested with similar doses and cold storage treatments to see how effective this technique is on other species as well.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We acknowledge the Sugarcane Research and Development Board for providing a research grant (No. SRDB/P/4/16) to carry out this research work. 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During the 1970s, the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) initiated a redefinition process of its political culture, deeply inspired by libertarian and anti-statist themes having its fulcrum in the idea of “self-management”. The paper aims not only to examine the ways in which the ideal of self-management is translated concretely into two fundamental areas of the political debate of the time, but also to understand the role played by the idea of self-management in the PSI’s evolution in a neoliberal sense.

Questo articolo passa attraverso diverse fasi al fine di fornire un risultato affidabile, secondo il metodo ASME, di un dimensionamento di un pozzo, con l’obiettivo di automatizzare il processo di calcolo memoriale per i progetti di pozzo. Le fasi di progettazione sono: diagrammi delle sollecitazioni, analisi della fatica e della geometria (se necessario); correzione per discontinuità (se presente); correzione del diametro dell’albero per chiavette (se presente); e correzione dovuta al supporto cuscinetti scelto dal produttore (adozione dei modelli SKF). In questo modo, l’articolo si propone, per rispettare la letteratura e le norme, di dimensionare gli alberi di trasmissione. I risultati degli esercizi risolti nel libro Projeto de Máquinas: Uma abordagem integrada saranno utilizzati come riferimento. Il programma sviluppato mira a soddisfare le esigenze sia professionali che accademiche ottimizzando i calcoli per ottenere il diametro di un albero. Inoltre, il progetto è giustificato dal fatto che consente diverse modifiche per una migliore comprensione, sia per un designer che per uno studente. Il software utilizzato per automatizzare i processi e ottenere i risultati sarà Mathcad Prime 5.0 di PTC Enterprise. Alla fine dell’articolo, insieme ai risultati e alla conclusione, ci sono esempi di problemi di progettazione risolti dal programma, insieme alle loro spiegazioni e confronti con i risultati ottenuti nel libro di Norton.

In Italy, following the introduction of European regulations and the updating of the national legislation on public works, the project verification and validation play a strategic rule in reducing problems and variation issues at each design phase and during the completion stage. We have the opportunity of a behind-the-scenes journey considering two early validation experiences in Italy and the phase following their tender of bidding. The first case study is the “Progetto Raddoppio” for the Politecnico di Torino, that is to say the project of extension works of the buildings for Departments and lecture halls in Turin Polytechnic: these works went to an end, and now we can evaluate pros and cons of that early validation experience on the works management and on the built product. The second case is the “Urban Center” commissioned by Comune di Torino, a large exhibition area coming from a deep renovation of the buildings formerly “Officine grandi riparazioni ferroviarie” (Railways Heavy Reparation Works). In this case, the works never begun, but the validation process was completed and some issues arisen.

L'analisi dell'efficacia dei sistemi CRM &egrave; un tema ancora fortemente dibattuto ed oggetto di numerosi studi nelle discipline di management (Elmuti et al., 2009; Perna-Baraldi, 2014). In tal senso, risulta interessante verificare le ragioni per cui numerosi progetti CRM intrapresi da imprese - soprattutto quelle operanti in mercati business-to-business e focalizzate sulla fornitura di servizi tecnologici pi&ugrave; o meno complessi - non generino benefici attesi e, quindi, falliscano successivamente o addirittura durante la fase implementativa.Il principale obiettivo del presente lavoro &egrave; quello di comprendere i fattori e le dimensioni che impattano sul livello di efficacia del CRM. Gli autori sono interessati, in modo particolare, ad investigare il complesso rapporto tra efficacia del CRM ed aspettative che le imprese manifestano circa il raggiungimento di benefici tangibili durante le fasi di gestione del cliente. Metodologicamente gli autori fanno riferimento all'uso del caso di studio qualitativo come strategia di ricerca.Nello specifico viene proposto il caso del gruppo Loccioni, impresa operante nel settore della produzione e fornitura di macchine di collaudo e servizi integrati ad alto contenuto tecnologico. L'azienda si caratterizza per aver avviato un processo di implementazione di un software CRM che ha comportato sensibili effetti a livello organizzativo e strategico. Inoltre, interessante notare come l'uso del sistema abbia a sua volta generato effetti inaspettati, non sempre prevedibili e variabili rispetto le diverse tipologie di relazioni aziendali.Lo studio propone diversi tipi di contributi. Dal lato empirico, il caso evidenzia ed illustra le problematiche relative al miglioramento di processi gestionali legati alla implementazione ed uso del CRM in un settore abbastanza particolare come quello della fornitura di servizi altamente tecnologici. Dal punto di vista teorico, si vuole contribuire nel marketing b2b e dei servizi riguardo al tema della efficacia di azioni di marketing in contesti di mercato altamente complessi.

Prontosan® Debridement Pad (PDP; B. Braun) è un nuovo presidio disegnato per migliorare il processo di debridement meccanico. In questo lavoro riportiamo i risultati di un complesso progetto condotto al fine di sviluppare consenso tra gli esperti sul migliore modo di impiegare questa nuova tecnologia nella pratica clinica. Il progetto si è articolato in tre fasi. Nella prima è stata condotta una estesa revisione della letteratura che ha condotto ad identificare, analizzare criticamente e a riassumere in formato strutturato 27 studi clinici pertinenti. Nella seconda fase le evidenze disponibili sono state discusse in modo sistematico con un pannello di 10 esperti, i quali hanno formulato 12 raccomandazioni per l'impiego clinico del PDP. Queste raccomandazioni sono state quindi sottoposte a votazione formale attraverso il metodo GRADE. Infine, nei mesi successivi, 13 casi clinici provenienti dalla pratica clinica routinaria e trattati in accordo con le raccomandazioni stabilite sono stati raccolti e vengono qui presentati. Nel complesso, i dati disponibili in letteratura e quelli raccolti dalla pratica clinica confermano l'efficacia del PDP come strumento per il debridement meccanico, offrendo vantaggi significativi per una ottimale Wound Bed Preparation e per il controllo del dolore. Il nostro progetto può inoltre essere utile per ottimizzare l'impiego pratico di questo nuovo promettente dispositivo. Prontosan® Debridement Pad (PDP; B. Braun) is a new device designed for mechanical debridement. This paper summarizes the results of a complex initiative aimed to develop consensus among a panel of wound care experts about the optimal use of this new technology. An extensive review of the literature found 27 pertinent papers, which underwent a formal process of critical appraisal and evidence extraction by two independent methodologists. Results are displayed in an evidence report. 12 practical recommendations, concerning management of acute and chronic wounds, have been developed and approved. Main point of strength of this project is the use of a systematic approach to literature review, evidence synthesis and presentation, development and measurement of expert consensus. Moreover, expert panel provided further clinical data, through the reporting of 13 clinical cases managed according to abovementioned recommendations, with a particular focus on burns and chronic ulcers treatment, both in adult and pediatric patients. Overall, results from literature review and from clinical experience confirm that the combined system Prontosan® Solution and PDP is a promising tool useful in the critical phase of debridement in acute and chronic wounds treatment. Efficacy in debris removal and pain reduction are the main points of strength. Our project may contribute to optimize clinical use of this innovative device.

Attualmente il mercato delle bevande è un ramo in cui si affermano grandi nomi, e in questa rigidità imposta dai grandi marchi, i piccoli marchi vedono grandi difficoltà nel loro inserimento nel mercato, e anche nel classificarsi come un particolare competitor di tali colossi. Tuttavia, il ramo della cachaça, bevanda genuinamente brasiliana, è contrario a questa logica, con i piccoli produttori a dominare il mercato, come sottolinea la rivista Pegn Affari Globo* (2019). Águante 4 Pontes è un’azienda emergente per la produzione di cocktail alcolici, nel corso della sua storia si è sviluppata in relazione ai mezzi di produzione, e data l’elevata richiesta, è stato sviluppato un progetto per l’automazione della sua linea di produzione, che fino a allora era manuale. A tal fine, l’obiettivo era quello di realizzare un prototipo di questa macchina per aumentare la produttività dell’azienda. Innanzitutto il prototipo è stato creato e sviluppato attraverso il componente Arduino UNO e il suo microcontrollore ATMEGA328, sperando come risultato nella dinamizzazione di una linea di produzione che riempimento il liquido proprio nella bottiglia. Con l’automazione della linea di produzione, l’obiettivo è rendere il processo più veloce ed efficiente, potendo abbassare il costo di produzione di un prodotto sostituendo il lavoro umano nel processo di fabbricazione, potendo così indirizzare i dipendenti ad altre funzioni, aumentando notevolmente la produttività. Si spera, quindi, di realizzare un modello che soddisfi le esigenze produttive della fabbrica, in modo che l’azienda possa aumentare i requisiti di agilità, efficienza e capacità produttiva. La ricerca si basa su letture di altri documenti e ricerche qualitative. Come metodologia, la costruzione di un prototipo e base teorica alla base della rilevanza e del valore di una riempitrice a basso costo sul mercato, con la quale dovrebbe confermare l’efficacia del progetto.

Ayurveda considers women most precious because of their key role in continuing progeny. The diseases affecting the Yoni (female genital tract) and their therapeutics have been illustrated under the heading of Yonivyapad (diseases of female genital system). Artava (menstruation) when associated with unbearable pain is termed as Kashtartava. Vitiated Vata Dosha is the main causative factor of any kind of gynecological disorders. The process of menstruation is mainly under the control of Apana Vata. The treatment of this vitiated Vata remains main objective for treatment of Kashtartava (dysmenorrhoea). Along with internal medication, local soothing of pain is also important in general treatment of Vata Dosha. Thus, a treatment protocol was developed considering these aspects for management of patients suffering with Kashtartava (dysmenorrhoea). The protocol consisted of internal administration of Hinguvachadi Churna and local treatment of Tila Taila Yoni Parisheka (Vaginal douche). In the present case series, three eligible patients were explained the purpose and possible effect of multimodal treatment of Hinguvachadi Churna & Tila Taila Yoni Parisheka. Treatment was prescribed to the patients those who were willing for it. Patient outcomes were also noted and analysed. It was observed that multimodal treatment of Hinguvachadi Churna and Tila Taila Yoni Parisheka was effective in the cases where it was used.

Questo progetto nasce con l’idea di elaborare una strategia organizzativa/professionale che possa favorire un’omogeneizzazione dei comportamenti dei professionisti sanitari, determinando una riduzione dei costi in termini di risparmio di risorse umane ed economiche, ma soprattutto favorire un miglioramento della qualità di vita dei soggetti portatori di lesioni cutanee. Le lesioni cutanee, ma soprattutto le ferite di difficile guarigione, si caratterizzano per una lunga durata e un’elevata incidenza di complicanze, che spesso si traducono in un considerevole onere economico. L’infermiere Specialista Wound Care, collaborando attivamente con i professionisti sanitari attraverso attività di consulenza, formazione on work, supervisione dei processi operativi, si pone come un’importante figura di riferimento in termini di miglioramento degli obiettivi di cura, nonché degli esiti di cura. Il progetto, di dimensioni Aziendali, si sviluppa in setting assistenziali specifici Ospedale-Territorio e lo Specialista Wound Care opera in collaborazione con gli infermieri di quei setting attraverso una metodologia di Coaching. The aim of this is project is the development of an organizational/professional strategy that can help the homogenization of the behavior of healthcare professionals, determining a reduction of human resources and costs, but above all promoting an improvement of the quality of life of people with skin lesions. Some skin wounds are characterized by a long duration and a high incidence of complications, which often result in considerable economic expenses. The Wound Care Specialist Nurse, in collaboration with healthcare professionals by consultancy, training and supervision of operational processes, is an important reference for the improvement of the care and the treatment goals and outcomes. The project involves Hospital/Health Care Home and the Wound Care Specialist that works in collaboration with the nurses of the area.

Mutamenti investono l’habitat contemporaneo, determinando una rivoluzione di comportamenti con impatti mai visti per rapidità ed intensità sulla ridefinizione di forme e funzioni dello spazio. Espressioni come ‘luogo d’incontro’ e ‘scambio sociale’ seppur generiche e prive di carattere esprimono l’esigenza di ritrovare legami tra le persone messi a dura prova da una serie di processi, alcuni di lunga durata, che sembrano minare alla radice lo spirito comunitario insito nel concetto di urbanità. In un mondo sempre più denso di esseri, cose, informazioni e immagini i territori sono modellati dalle increspature e da collisioni inedite che provocano la scomparsa degli spazi comuni della città. Nella pratica dei paesaggisti è ormai consolidata la consapevolezza che gli spazi aperti esprimono un potenziale strutturante e relazionale per l’habitat urbano; possono diventare il luogo di accadimenti possibili e la loro natura accogliente rappresenta una formidabile energia propulsiva con la quale rivelare l’intensità. È su questo terreno che il progetto può giocare un ruolo, non certo pacificatore né ordinatore, ma riconoscendo e attivando il potenziale della situazione, lavorando con ciò che c’è anche se si tratta di caratteri contraddittori, incerti, instabili.

The concept of natural selection, or "survival of the fittest", refers to an evolutionary process in nature whereby traits emerge in individuals of a population through random gene alterations that enable those individuals to better adapt to changing environmental conditions. This genetic variance allows certain members of the population to gain an advantage over others in the same population to survive and reproduce in greater numbers under new environmental pressures, with the perpetuation of those advantageous traits in future progeny. Here we present that the behavior of adult stem cells in a tissue over time can, in many respects, be viewed in the same manner as evolution, with each stem cell clone being representative of an individual within a population. As stem cells divide or are subjected to cumulative oxidative damage over the lifespan of the organism, random genetic alterations are introduced into each clone that create variance in the population. These changes may occur in parallel to, or in response to, aging-associated changes in microenvironmental cues perceived by the stem cell population. While many of these alterations will be neutral or silent in terms of affecting cell function, a small fraction of these changes will enable certain clones to respond differently to shifts in microenvironmental conditions that arise with advancing age. In some cases, the same advantageous genetic changes that support survival and expansion of certain clones over others in the population (viz. non-neutral competition) could be detrimental to the downstream function of the differentiated stem cell descendants. In the context of the germline, such a situation would be devastating to successful propagation of the species across generations. However, even within a single generation, the “evolution” of stem cell lineages in the body over time can manifest into aging-related organ dysfunction and failure, as well as lead to chronic inflammation, hyperplasia, and cancer. Increased research efforts to evaluate stem cells within a population as individual entities will improve our understanding of how organisms age and how certain diseases develop, which in turn may open new opportunities for clinical detection and management of diverse pathologies.

The development of shorter planting materials based on MPOB Nigerian population 12 and E.oleifera x E.guineensis inter-specific hybrids is highlighted in this paper. The progeny test results of Nigerian Population 12 with selected Deli duras showed that the DxP oil yield ranges from 8.1-8.5 tonnes per hectare per year. The height increment of DxP is 33-39 cm per year. In comparison, the height increment of Deli x AVROS is about 60 cm per annum. In Colombia where DxP commercial plantations are devastated by bud rot disease, Cinepalma demonstrated that application of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) increased the oil yield of inter-specific hybrids which are tolerant to the disease. It was demonstrated in commercial plantations that applying NAA can produce more than 40 tonnes fresh fruit bunch (FFB) per hectare per year, with an extraction rate of about 27 per cent giving >10 tonnes oleic oil per hectare. The tissue culture labs in Kuala Lumpur-Kepong (KLK) and Asian Agri are also cloning their elite Deli duras and pisiferas to create semi- and bi- seeds. Applied Agricultural Resources (AAR) is the largest semi-clonal seed producer in Malaysia, and produces about 8 million per year and sells the seeds at a premium. A number of plantation companies in Malaysia and Indonesia have initiated programmes to produce Ganoderma tolerant planting material. Companies have adopted an integrated disease management (IDM) approach, covering land preparation, planting tolerant varieties, use bioagents, early detection, and removal of infected materials. Asian Agri AA TOPAZ GT variety, partially tolerant to Ganoderma, has an average oil yield potential of 9.2 tonnes crude palm oil (CPO) per hectare per year. Digitalisation refers to the process of integrating advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, robotics, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), sensors, and communication networks, all connected through Internet of Things (IoT) into farm production system. A major breakthrough was achieved by the oil palm Genome Programme at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), where the identification of the gene controlling Shell has made it possible to identify and differentiate dura, tenera and pisifera at the nursery stage. This led to the first molecular diagnostic assay known as SureSawitTMSHELL, which the breeders can use to identify and isolate dura, tenera and pisifera seedlings from TxT and TxP breeding crosses. The kit can be used for identification of dura and pisifera contaminants in the nursery and more recently at the seed production facility. The planter has an important role to help realise the full potential of planting materials. The planter’s role starts from receipt of germinated seeds to field planting. The planter is assigned to monitor ripeness standard, harvesting, loose fruit collection and managing of workers, all of which are major tasks to ensure productivity. Climate change is real and we have to confront drought and floods more frequently. In order to minimise the impact of drought, it is advisable to plant planting materials with high bunch number. MPOB has collected oil palm germplasm in the dry areas of Nigeria. This germplasm has attributes such as high bunch number, low bunch weight and high chlorophyll content in the leaves. These traits are useful to develop drought tolerant planting materials.

In preparation for a legal implementation of EU-regulation 1829/2003, the Norwegian Environment Agency (former Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management) has requested the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) to give final opinions on all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union under Directive 2001/18/EC or Regulation 1829/2003/EC within the Authority’s sectoral responsibility. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has therefore, by letter dated 13 February 2013 (ref. 2012/150202), requested the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) to carry out scientific risk assessments of 39 GMOs and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union. The request covers scope(s) relevant to the Gene Technology Act. The request does not cover GMOs that VKM already has conducted its final risk assessments on. However, the Agency requests VKM to consider whether updates or other changes to earlier submitted assessments are necessary. MON810 notification C/F/95/12-02 is approved under Directive 90/220/EEC for cultivation, seed production, import and processing into feeding stuffs and industrial purposes since 22 April 1998 (Commission Decision 98/294/EC). In December 1997, food and food ingredients derived from the progeny of maize line MON810 were notified under Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 258/97 on novel foods and novel food ingredients. In addition, existing food and feed products containing, consisting of or produced from MON810 were notified according to Articles 8 and 20 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 and were placed in the Community Register in 2005. Three applications for renewal of the authorisation for continued marketing of (1) existing food and food ingredients produced from MON810; (2) feed consisting of and/or containing maize MON810, and MON810 for feed use (including cultivation); and (3) food and feed additives, and feed materials produced from maize MON810 within the framework of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 were submitted in 2007. Maize MON810 has previously been assessed by the VKM GMO Panel commissioned by the Norwegian Environment Agency in connection with the national finalisation of the procedure of the notification C/F/95/12/02 (VKM 2007a,b). In addition, MON810 has been evaluated by the VKM GMO Panel as a component of several stacked GM maize events (VKM 2005a,b,c, VKM 2007c, VKM 2008, VKM 2009, VKM 2012a). Due to the publication of new scientific literature and updated guidance for food/feed and environmental risk assessment of genetically modified plants, the VKM GMO Panel has decided to deliver an updated risk assessment of MON810. The updated risk assessment of the maize MON810 is based on information provided by the applicant in the notification C/F/95/12/02 and application EFSA/GMO/RX/MON810, and scientific comments from EFSA and other member states made available on the EFSA website GMO Extranet. The risk assessment also considered other peer-reviewed scientific literature as relevant. The VKM GMO Panel has evaluated MON810 with reference to its intended uses in the European Economic Area (EEA), and according to the principles described in the Norwegian Food Act, the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms, and Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed. The VKM GMO panel has also decided to take account of the appropriate principles described in the EFSA guidelines for the risk assessment of GM plants and derived food and feed (EFSA 2006, 2011a), the environmental risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2010), and the selection of comparators for the risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2011b). The scientific risk assessment of maize MON810 includes molecular characterisation of the transformation process, vector construction, expression, inheritance and stability of the transgene construct, comparative assessment of agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, nutritional assessments, toxicology and allergenicity, unintended effects on plant fitness, potential for gene transfer, interactions between the GM plant and target and non-target organisms and effects on biogeochemical processes. It is emphasized that the VKM mandate does not include assessments of contribution to sustainable development, societal utility and ethical considerations, according to the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and Regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act. These considerations are therefore not part of the risk assessment provided by the VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms. The genetically modified maize MON810 was developed to provide protection against certain lepidopteran target pests, including European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) and species belonging to the genus Sesamia. Protection is achieved through expression in the plant of the insecticidal Cry protein, Cry1Ab, derived from Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. kurstaki, a common soil bacterium. Molecular Characterisation: Appropriate analysis of the integration site including flanking sequences and bioinformatics analyses have been performed to analyse the construct integrated in the GM plant. Updated bioinformatics analyses revealed that one ORF shared sequence similarity to a putative HECT-ubiquitin ligase protein. The VKM GMO Panel found no safety implications from the interruption of this gene sequence. Analyses of leaf, grains, whole plant tissue and pollen from the maize MON810 demonstrated that the Cry1Ab protein is expressed at very low levels in all tissues tested and constitute less than 0.001% of the fresh weight in each tissue. The cry1Ab gene is the only transgene expressed in line MON810 and is expressed the highest in leaves. The stability of the genetic modification has been demonstrated over several generations. Event MON810 and the physical, chemical and functional characteristics of the proteins have previously been evaluated by The VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms, and considered satisfactory (VKM 2007a,b). Comparative Assessment: Compositional assessments were performed using the principles and analytes outlined in the OECD consensus document for maize composition (OECD 2002). For maize MON810 grain and forage, VKM previously concluded, based on data from risk assessments and field trials as presented in notification MON810 (C/F/95/12/02) and application NK603 x MON810 (EFA/GMO/UK/2004/1), MON 863 x MON810 (EFSA/GMO/DE/2004/03), MON863xMON810x NK603 (EFSA/GMO/BE/2004/07) and MON 88017 x MON810 (EFSA/GMO/ CZ/2006/33), that maize MON810 is compositionally similar to the non-GM counterparts and conventional maize varieties, except for the new trait (VKM 2005a,b,c, 2007a,b,c). Comparative analyses of data from field trials located at representative sites and environments in the USA and Europe indicate that maize MON810 is agronomically and phenotypically equivalent to the conventional counterpart and commercially available reference varieties, with the exception of the lepidopteran-protection trait, conferred by the expression of the Cry1Ab protein. The field evaluations support a conclusion of no phenotypic changes indicative of increased plant weed/pest potential of MON810 compared to conventional maize. Evaluations of ecological interactions between maize MON810 and the biotic and abiotic environment indicate no unintended effects of the introduced trait on agronomic and phenotypic characteristics. Food and Feed Safety Assessment: Based on current knowledge, there is no reason to assume that the characteristics of processed products derived from maize MON810 would be different from processed products derived from nonGM maize. The compositional and nutritional equivalence of MON810 to conventional non-GM maize varieties is supported by several animal studies. Acute oral toxicity tests have not indicated any toxicity related to the Cry1Ab protein from Bacillus thuringiensis. Cry1Ab is readily degraded in simulated gastric fluids and no adverse health effects have been reported related to maize MON810 from whole food feeding studies performed on rats, broilers, pigs or dairy cows. Some studies on Atlantic salmon have however indicated possible immunological reactions related to MON810 in fish feed. Bioinformatics analyses show no resemblance of the Cry1Ab protein to known toxins or allergens. Cry1Ab has not been shown to cause IgE mediated allergic reactions and is considered a non-allergenic by EFSA. Some studies have however indicated a potential role of Cryproteins as adjuvants in allergic reactions (VKM 2012b). Environmental Risk: There are no reports of the target lepidopteran species attaining pest status on maize in Norway. Since there are no Bt-based insecticides approved for use in Norway, and lepidopteran pests have not been registered in maize, issues related to resistance evolution in target pests are not relevant at present for Norwegian agriculture. Published scientific studies show no or negligible adverse effects of Cry1Ab protein on non-target arthropods that live on or in the vicinity of maize plants. Cultivation of maize MON810 is not considered to represent a threat to the prevalence of red-listed species in Norway. Few studies have been published examining potential effects of Cry1Ab toxin on ecosystems in soil, mineralization, nutrient turnover and soil communities. Some field studies have indicated that root exudates and decaying plant material containing Cry proteins may affect population size and activity of rhizosphere organisms (soil protozoa and microorganisms). Most studies conclude that effects on soil microorganisms and microbial communities are transient and minor compared to effects caused by agronomic and environmental factors. However, data are only available from short term experiments and predictions of potential long term effects are difficult to deduce. Few studies have assessed the impact of Cry proteins on non-target aquatic arthropods and the fate of these proteins in senescent and decaying maize detritus in aquatic environments. However, exposure of non-target organisms to Cry proteins in aquatic ecosystems is likely to be very low, and potential exposure of Bt toxins to non-target organisms in aquatic ecosystems in Norway is considered to be negligible. Maize is the only representative of the genus Zea in Europe, and there are no cross-compatible wild or weedy relatives outside cultivation with which maize can hybridise and form backcross progeny. Vertical gene transfer in maize therefore depends on cross-pollination with other conventional or organic maize varieties. In addition, unintended admixture of genetically modified material in seeds represents a possible way for gene flow between different crop cultivations. The risk of pollen flow from maize volunteers is negligible under Norwegian growing conditions. In addition to the data presented by the applicant, the VKM GMO Panel is not aware of any scientific report of increased establishment and spread of maize MON810 and any change in survival (including over-wintering), persistence and invasiveness capacity. Because the general characteristics of maize MON810 are unchanged, insect resistance are not likely to provide a selective advantage outside cultivation in Norway. Since MON810 has no altered agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, except for the specific target pest resistance, the VKM GMO Panel is of the opinion that the likelihood of unintended environmental effects due to the establishment and survival of maize MON810 will be no different to that of conventional maize varieties in Norway. Overall Conclusion: The VKM GMO Panel has not identified toxic or altered nutritional properties of maize MON810 or its processed products compared to conventional maize. Based on current knowledge, it is also unlikely that the Cry1Ab protein will increase the allergenic potential of food and feed derived from maize MON810 compared to conventional maize varieties. The VKM GMO Panel likewise concludes that cultivation of maize MON810 is unlikely to have any adverse effect on the environment and agriculture in Norway.

In preparation for a legal implementation of EU-regulation 1829/2003, the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) has been requested by the Norwegian Environment Agency (former Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management) and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) to conduct final food/feed and environmental risk assessments for all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union under Directive 2001/18/EC or Regulation 1829/2003/EC. The request covers scope(s) relevant to the Gene Technology Act. The request does not cover GMOs that VKM already has conducted its final risk assessments on. However, the Agency and NFSA requests VKM to consider whether updates or other changes to earlier submitted assessments are necessary. Four notifications/applications for placing on the market of insect resistant genetically modified maize 1507 from Pioneer HiBreed & Dow AgroSciences (Unique Identifier DAS-Ø15Ø7-1) have been taken into account: Application EFSA/GMO/NL/2004/02 for placing on the market of insect-tolerant genetically modified maize 1507 for food use under Regulation (EC) 1829/2003 Food and food ingredients containing, consisting of or produced from maize 1507 approved since 3 March 2006 (Commission Decision 2006/197/EC) Notification C/NL/00/10 for import and processing use under Part C of Diretive 2001/18/EC. Approved for importation, processing and feed use since 3 November 2005 (Commission Decision 2005/772/EC) Application EFSA/GMO/RX/1507 for renewal of authorisation of existing products of maize 1507 under Regulation (EC) no 1829/2003 Renewing of the authorisation of existing feed products from maize 1507 granted since 17 June 2011 (Commission Decision 2011/365/EC). Notification C/ES/01/01 for cultivation, import, processing and use as any other maize (excluding food uses) under Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release of GMOs into the environment. The application is still pending for authorisation. Genetically modified maize 1507 has previously been assessed as food and feed by the VKM GMO Panel commissioned by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority in connection with the EFSA official hearing of the application EFSA/GMO/NL/2004/02 in 2004 (VKM 2004). Maize 1507 has also been evaluated by the VKM GMO Panel as a component of several stacked GM maize events under Regulation (EC) 1829/2003 (VKM 2005b, 2007a,b, 2008a,b, 2009a,b, 2012a,b,c, 2013 a,b,c,d,e). The food/feed and environmental risk assessment of the GM maize 1507 is based on information provided by the applicant in the notifications C/ES/01/01 and C/NL/00/10 and the applications EFSA/GMO/NL/2004/02 and EFSA/GMO/RX/1507, previous risk assessments performed by the VKM GMO Panel and scientific opinions and comments from EFSA and other member states made available on the EFSA website GMO Extranet. The risk assessment is also based on a risk analysis report of 1507 from the Australia New Zealand Food Authority (FSANZ 2002) and a review and assessment of relevant peer-reviewed scientific literature. The VKM GMO Panel has evaluated maize 1507 with reference to its intended uses in the European Economic Area (EEA), and according to the principles described in the Norwegian Food Act, the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms, and Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed. The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety has also decided to take account of the appropriate principles described in the EFSA guidelines for the risk assessment of GM plants and derived food and feed (EFSA 2011a), the environmental risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2010a), selection of comparators for the risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2011b) and for the post-market environmental monitoring of GM plants (EFSA 2011c). The scientific risk assessment of maize 1507 include molecular characterisation of the inserted DNA and expression of novel proteins, comparative assessment of agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, nutritional assessments, toxicology and allergenicity, unintended effects on plant fitness, potential for gene transfer, interactions between the GM plant and target and non-target organisms and effects on biogeochemical processes. It is emphasised that the VKM mandate does not include assessments of contribution to sustainable development, societal utility and ethical considerations, according to the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and Regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act. These considerations are therefore not part of the risk assessment provided by the VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms. The genetically modified maize 1507 has been developed to provide protection against certain lepidopteran target pests, such as the European corn borer (ECB, Ostrinia nubilalis), and some species belonging to the genus Sesamia. The insect resistence is achieved through expression of a synthetic version of the truncated cry1F gene derived from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. aizawai, a common soil bacterium. Maize 1507 also expresses the phosphinothricin-N-acetyltransferase (pat) gene, from the soil bacterium Streptomyces viridochromogenes. The encoded PAT protein confers tolerance to the herbicidal active substance glufosinate-ammonium. The PAT protein produced by maize 1507 has been used as a selectable marker to facilitate the selection process of transformed plant cells and is not intended for weed management purposes. Since the scope of the notification C/ES/01/01 does not cover the use of glufosinate-ammonium-containing herbicides on maize 1507, potential effects due to the use of such herbicides on maize 1507 are not considered by VKM. Molecular Characterisation: Appropriate analyses of the transgenic DNA insert, its integration site, number of inserts and flanking sequences in the maize genome, have been performed. The results show that only one copy of the insert is present in maize 1507. Homology searches with databases of known toxins and allergens have not indicated any potential production of harmful proteins or polypeptides caused by the genetic modification in maize 1507. Southern blot analyses and segregation studies show that the introduced genes cry1F and pat are stably inherited and expressed over several generations along with the phenotypic characteristics of maize 1507. The VKM GMO Panel considers the molecular characterisation of maize 1507 satisfactory. Comparative Assessment: Comparative analyses of maize 1507 to its non-GM conventional counterpart have been performed during multiple field trials located at representative sites and environments in Chile (1998/99), USA (1999) and in Europe (1999, 2000 and 2002). With the exception of small intermittent variations, no biologically significant differences were found between maize 1507 and the conventional maize. Based on the assessment of available data, the VKM GMO Panel concludes that maize 1507 is compositionally, agronomically and phenotypically equivalent to its conventional counterpart, except for the introduced characteristics, and that its composition fell within the normal ranges of variation observed among non-GM varieties. Food and Feed Safety Assessment: Whole food feeding studies on rats, broilers, pullets, pigs and cattle have not indicated any adverse health effects of maize 1507. These studies also indicate that maize 1507 is nutritionally equivalent to conventional maize. The PAT and Cry1F proteins do not show sequence resemblance to other known toxins or IgE allergens, nor have they been reported to cause IgE mediated allergic reactions. Some studies have however indicated a potential role of Cry-proteins as adjuvants in allergic reactions. Based on current knowledge, the VKM GMO Panel concludes that maize 1507 is nutritionally equivalent to conventional maize varieties. It is unlikely that the PAT and Cry1F proteins will introduce a toxic or allergenic potential in food or feed based on maize 1507 compared to conventional maize. Environmental Risk: There are no reports of the target lepidopteran species attaining pest status on maize in Norway. Since there are no Bt-based insecticides approved for use in Norway, and lepidopteran pests have not been registered in maize, issues related to resistance evolution in target pests are not relevant at present for Norwegian agriculture. There are only a limited number of published scientific studies on the environmental effects of Cry1F protein. Published scientific studies showed that the likelihood of negative effects of Cry1F protein on non-target arthropods that live on or in the vicinity of maize plants is low. Cultivation of maize 1507 is not considered to represent a threat to the prevalence of red-listed species in Norway. Few studies have been published examining potential effects of Cry1F toxin on ecosystems in soil, mineralization, nutrient turnover and soil communities. Some field studies have indicated that root exudates and decaying plant material containing Cry proteins may affect population size and activity of rhizosphere organisms (soil protozoa and microorganisms). Most studies conclude that effects on soil microorganisms and microbial communities are transient and minor compared to effects caused by agronomic and environmental factors. However, data are only available from short term experiments and predictions of potential long term effects are difficult to deduce. The VKM GMO Panel concludes that, although the data on the fate of the Cry1F protein and its potential interactions in soil are limited, the relevant scientific publications analysing the Cry1F protein, together with the relatively broad knowledge about the environmental fate of other Cry1 proteins, do not indicate significant direct effects on the soil environment. Few studies have assessed the impact of Cry proteins on non-target aquatic arthropods and the fate of these proteins in senescent and decaying maize detritus in aquatic environments, and no specific lower-tier studies, assessing the impact of the Cry1F protein on non-target aquatic arthropods have been reported in the scientific literature so far. However, exposure of non-target organisms to Cry proteins in aquatic ecosystems is likely to be very low, and potential exposure of Bt toxins to nontarget organisms in aquatic ecosystems in Norway is considered to be negligible. Maize is the only representative of the genus Zea in Europe, and there are no cross-compatible wild or weedy relatives outside cultivation with which maize can hybridise and form backcross progeny. Vertical gene transfer in maize therefore depends on cross-pollination with other conventional or organic maize varieties. In addition, unintended admixture of genetically modified material in seeds represents a possible way for gene flow between different crop cultivations. The risk of pollen flow from maize volunteers is negligible under Norwegian growing conditions. Overall Conclusion: Based on current knowledge, the VKM GMO Panel concludes that maize 1507 is nutritionally equivalent to conventional maize varieties. It is unlikely that the Cry1 and PAT proteins will introduce a toxic or allergenic potential in food or feed derived from maize 1507 compared to conventional maize. The VKM GMO Panel likewise concludes that cultivation of maize 1507 is unlikely to have any adverse effect on the environment and agriculture in Norway.

The environmental risk assessment of the insect resistant genetically modified maize MON 89034 (Reference EFSA/GMO/BE/2011/90) has been performed by the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM). VKM has been requested by the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority to issue a preliminary scientific opinion on the safety of the genetically modified maize MON 89034 (Unique identifier MON-89Ø34-3) for cultivation, and submit relevant scientific comments or questions to EFSA on the application EFSA/GMOBE/2011/90. The current submission is intended to complement application EFSA-GMO-NL-2007-37, which was approved by Commission Decision 2009/813/EC of 30 October 2009, authorising the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified maize MON 89034 (scope import, processing, food and feed). Maize MON89034 has previously been assessed by the VKM GMO Panel in connection with EFSA´s public hearing of the application EFSA/GMO/NL/2007/37 (VKM 2008a). Preliminary health- and environmental risk assessments of several stacked events, with MON 89034 as one of the parental lines, have also been performed by the VKM GMO Panel (VKM 2009a, b, c; VKM 2010a,b). The environmental risk assessment of the maize MON 89034 is based on information provided by the applicant in the application EFSA/GMO/BE/2011/90, and scientific comments from EFSA and other member states made available on the EFSA website GMO Extranet. The risk assessment also considered peer-reviewed scientific literature as relevant. The VKM GMO Panel has evaluated MON 89034 with reference to its intended uses in the European Economic Area (EEA), and according to the principles described in the Norwegian Food Act, the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms, and Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed. The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety has also decided to take account of the appropriate principles described in the EFSA guidelines for the risk assessment of GM plants and derived food and feed (EFSA 2006, 2011a), the environmental risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2010), the selection of comparators for the risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2011b), and for the post-market environmental monitoring of GM plants (EFSA 2006, 2011c). The scientific risk assessment of maize MON 89034 include molecular characterisation of the inserted DNA and expression of target proteins, comparative assessment of agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, unintended effects on plant fitness, potential for gene transfer, interactions between the GM plant and target and non-target organisms, effects on biogeochemical processes and evaluations of the post-market environmental plan. In line with its mandate, VKM emphasised that assessments of sustainable development, societal utility and ethical considerations, according to the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and Regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, shall not be carried out by the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms. The genetically modified maize MON 89034 was developed to provide protection against certain lepidopteran target pest, including European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) and Mediterranean corn borer (Sesamia nonagrioides). Protection is achieved through expression in the plant of two insecticidal Cry proteins, Cry1A.105 and Cry2Ab2, derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, a common soil bacterium. Cry1A.105, encoded by the cry1A.105 gene, is a chimeric protein made up of different functional domains derived from three wild-type Cry proteins from B. thuringiensis subspecies kurstaki and aizawai. The Cry2Ab2 protein is encoded by the cry2Ab2 gene derived from B. thuringiensis subspecies kurstaki. Molecular characterization: Appropriate analysis of the integration site, including flanking sequence and bioinformatics analysis, has been performed to characterise the transformation event MON 89034. The results of the segregation analysis are consistent with a single site of insertion for the cry1A.105 and cry2Ab2 gene expression cassettes and confirm the results of the molecular characterisation. Molecular analysis of both self-pollinated and cross-fertilised lines, representing a total of seven different generations, indicates that the inserted DNA is stably transformed and inherited from one generation to the next. No genes that encode resistance to antibiotics are present in the genome of MON 89034 maize. The molecular characterisation confirmed the absence of both the aad and nptII genes, which were used in the cloning and transformation process. Event MON 89034 and the physical, chemical and functional characteristics of the proteins have previously been evaluated by The VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms, and considered satisfactory (VKM 2008a). Comparative assessment: The field trials for comparative assessment of agronomic and phenotypic characteristics of maize MON 89034 in the USA (2004-2005) and Europe (2007), have been performed in accordance with the EFSAs guidelines for risk assessment of genetically modified plants and derived food and feed (EFSA 2010, 2011a). Based on results from the comparative analyses, it is concluded that maize MON 89034 is agronomically and phenotypically equivalent to the conventional counterpart and commercial available reference varieties, with the exception of the lepidopteran-protection trait. The field evaluations support a conclusion of no phenotypic changes indicative of increased plant weed/pest potential of MON 89034 compared to conventional maize. Evaluations of ecological interactions between maize MON 89034 and the biotic and abiotic environment indicate no unintended effects of the introduced trait on agronomic and phenotypic characteristics. Environmental risk: There are no reports of the target Lepidopteran species attaining pest status on maize in Norway. Since there are no Bt-based insecticides approved for use in Norway, and lepidopteran pests have not been registered in maize, issues related to resistance evolution in target pests are not relevant at present for Norwegian agriculture. Published scientific studies show no or negligible adverse effects of Cry1A.105 and Cry2Ab2 proteins on non-target arthropods that live on or in the vicinity of maize plants. Cultivation of maize MON 89034 is not considered to represent a threat to the prevalence of red-listed species in Norway. Few studies have been published examining potential effects of Cry1A.105 and Cry2Ab toxin on ecosystems in soil, mineralization, nutrient turnover and soil communities. Some field studies have indicated that root exudates and decaying plant material containing Cry proteins may affect population size and activity of rhizosphere organisms (soil protozoa and microorganisms). However, data are only available from short term experiments and predictions of potential long term effects are difficult to deduce. Most studies conclude that effects on soil microorganisms and microbial communities are transient and minor compared to effects caused by agronomic and environmental factors. Few studies have assessed the impact of Cry proteins on non-target aquatic arthropods and the fate of these proteins in senescent and decaying maize detritus in aquatic environments. Further studies with better experimental design are needed for the assessment of the potential effects of Bt crops on aquatic organisms. However, exposure of non-target organisms to Cry proteins in aquatic ecosystems is likely to be very low, and potential exposure of Bt toxins to non-target organisms in stream ecosystems in Norway is considered to be negligible. Maize is the only representative of the genus Zea in Europe, and there are no cross-compatible wild or weedy relatives outside cultivation with which maize can hybridise and form backcross progeny. Vertical gene transfer in maize therefore depends on cross-pollination with other conventional or organic maize varieties. In addition, unintended admixture of genetically modified material in seeds represents a possible way for gene flow between different crop cultivations. The risk of pollen flow from maize volunteers is negligible under Norwegian growing conditions. In addition to the data presented by the applicant, the VKM GMO Panel is not aware of any scientific report of increased establishment and spread of maize MON 89034 and any change in survival (including over-wintering), persistence and invasiveness capacity. Because the general characteristics of maize MON 89034 are unchanged, insect resistance are not likely to provide a selective advantage outside cultivation in Norway. Since MON 89034 has no altered agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, except for the specific target pest resistance, the VKM GMO Panel is of the opinion that the likelihood of unintended environmental effects due to the establishment and survival of maize MON 89034 will be no different to that of conventional maize varieties in Norway The environmental risk assessment will be completed and finalized by the VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms when requested additional information from the applicant is available.

A same-but-different dichotomy has recently been encapsulated within the US Food and Drug Administration’s ill-defined concept of “substantial equivalence” (USFDA, FDA). By invoking this concept the genetically modified organism (GMO) industry has escaped the rigors of safety testing that might otherwise apply. The curious concept of “substantial equivalence” grants a presumption of safety to GMO food. This presumption has yet to be earned, and has been used to constrain labelling of both GMO and non-GMO food. It is an idea that well serves corporatism. It enables the claim of difference to secure patent protection, while upholding the contrary claim of sameness to avoid labelling and safety scrutiny. It offers the best of both worlds for corporate food entrepreneurs, and delivers the worst of both worlds to consumers. The term “substantial equivalence” has established its currency within the GMO discourse. As the opportunities for patenting food technologies expand, the GMO recruitment of this concept will likely be a dress rehearsal for the developing debates on the labelling and testing of other techno-foods – including nano-foods and clone-foods. “Substantial Equivalence” “Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?” asks Clover in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. By way of response, Benjamin “read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS”. After this reductionist revelation, further novel and curious events at Manor Farm, “did not seem strange” (Orwell, ch. X). Equality is a concept at the very core of mathematics, but beyond the domain of logic, equality becomes a hotly contested notion – and the domain of food is no exception. A novel food has a regulatory advantage if it can claim to be the same as an established food – a food that has proven its worth over centuries, perhaps even millennia – and thus does not trigger new, perhaps costly and onerous, testing, compliance, and even new and burdensome regulations. On the other hand, such a novel food has an intellectual property (IP) advantage only in terms of its difference. And thus there is an entrenched dissonance for newly technologised foods, between claiming sameness, and claiming difference. The same/different dilemma is erased, so some would have it, by appeal to the curious new dualist doctrine of “substantial equivalence” whereby sameness and difference are claimed simultaneously, thereby creating a win/win for corporatism, and a loss/loss for consumerism. This ground has been pioneered, and to some extent conquered, by the GMO industry. The conquest has ramifications for other cryptic food technologies, that is technologies that are invisible to the consumer and that are not evident to the consumer other than via labelling. Cryptic technologies pertaining to food include GMOs, pesticides, hormone treatments, irradiation and, most recently, manufactured nano-particles introduced into the food production and delivery stream. Genetic modification of plants was reported as early as 1984 by Horsch et al. The case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty resulted in a US Supreme Court decision that upheld the prior decision of the US Court of Customs and Patent Appeal that “the fact that micro-organisms are alive is without legal significance for purposes of the patent law”, and ruled that the “respondent’s micro-organism plainly qualifies as patentable subject matter”. This was a majority decision of nine judges, with four judges dissenting (Burger). It was this Chakrabarty judgement that has seriously opened the Pandora’s box of GMOs because patenting rights makes GMOs an attractive corporate proposition by offering potentially unique monopoly rights over food. The rear guard action against GMOs has most often focussed on health repercussions (Smith, Genetic), food security issues, and also the potential for corporate malfeasance to hide behind a cloak of secrecy citing commercial confidentiality (Smith, Seeds). Others have tilted at the foundational plank on which the economics of the GMO industry sits: “I suggest that the main concern is that we do not want a single molecule of anything we eat to contribute to, or be patented and owned by, a reckless, ruthless chemical organisation” (Grist 22). The GMO industry exhibits bipolar behaviour, invoking the concept of “substantial difference” to claim patent rights by way of “novelty”, and then claiming “substantial equivalence” when dealing with other regulatory authorities including food, drug and pesticide agencies; a case of “having their cake and eating it too” (Engdahl 8). This is a clever slight-of-rhetoric, laying claim to the best of both worlds for corporations, and the worst of both worlds for consumers. Corporations achieve patent protection and no concomitant specific regulatory oversight; while consumers pay the cost of patent monopolization, and are not necessarily apprised, by way of labelling or otherwise, that they are purchasing and eating GMOs, and thereby financing the GMO industry. The lemma of “substantial equivalence” does not bear close scrutiny. It is a fuzzy concept that lacks a tight testable definition. It is exactly this fuzziness that allows lots of wriggle room to keep GMOs out of rigorous testing regimes. Millstone et al. argue that “substantial equivalence is a pseudo-scientific concept because it is a commercial and political judgement masquerading as if it is scientific. It is moreover, inherently anti-scientific because it was created primarily to provide an excuse for not requiring biochemical or toxicological tests. It therefore serves to discourage and inhibit informative scientific research” (526). “Substantial equivalence” grants GMOs the benefit of the doubt regarding safety, and thereby leaves unexamined the ramifications for human consumer health, for farm labourer and food-processor health, for the welfare of farm animals fed a diet of GMO grain, and for the well-being of the ecosystem, both in general and in its particularities. “Substantial equivalence” was introduced into the food discourse by an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report: “safety evaluation of foods derived by modern biotechnology: concepts and principles”. It is from this document that the ongoing mantra of assumed safety of GMOs derives: “modern biotechnology … does not inherently lead to foods that are less safe … . Therefore evaluation of foods and food components obtained from organisms developed by the application of the newer techniques does not necessitate a fundamental change in established principles, nor does it require a different standard of safety” (OECD, “Safety” 10). This was at the time, and remains, an act of faith, a pro-corporatist and a post-cautionary approach. The OECD motto reveals where their priorities lean: “for a better world economy” (OECD, “Better”). The term “substantial equivalence” was preceded by the 1992 USFDA concept of “substantial similarity” (Levidow, Murphy and Carr) and was adopted from a prior usage by the US Food and Drug Agency (USFDA) where it was used pertaining to medical devices (Miller). Even GMO proponents accept that “Substantial equivalence is not intended to be a scientific formulation; it is a conceptual tool for food producers and government regulators” (Miller 1043). And there’s the rub – there is no scientific definition of “substantial equivalence”, no scientific test of proof of concept, and nor is there likely to be, since this is a ‘spinmeister’ term. And yet this is the cornerstone on which rests the presumption of safety of GMOs. Absence of evidence is taken to be evidence of absence. History suggests that this is a fraught presumption. By way of contrast, the patenting of GMOs depends on the antithesis of assumed ‘sameness’. Patenting rests on proven, scrutinised, challengeable and robust tests of difference and novelty. Lightfoot et al. report that transgenic plants exhibit “unexpected changes [that] challenge the usual assumptions of GMO equivalence and suggest genomic, proteomic and metanomic characterization of transgenics is advisable” (1). GMO Milk and Contested Labelling Pesticide company Monsanto markets the genetically engineered hormone rBST (recombinant Bovine Somatotropin; also known as: rbST; rBGH, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone; and the brand name Prosilac) to dairy farmers who inject it into their cows to increase milk production. This product is not approved for use in many jurisdictions, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan. Even Monsanto accepts that rBST leads to mastitis (inflammation and pus in the udder) and other “cow health problems”, however, it maintains that “these problems did not occur at rates that would prohibit the use of Prosilac” (Monsanto). A European Union study identified an extensive list of health concerns of rBST use (European Commission). The US Dairy Export Council however entertain no doubt. In their background document they ask “is milk from cows treated with rBST safe?” and answer “Absolutely” (USDEC). Meanwhile, Monsanto’s website raises and answers the question: “Is the milk from cows treated with rbST any different from milk from untreated cows? No” (Monsanto). Injecting cows with genetically modified hormones to boost their milk production remains a contested practice, banned in many countries. It is the claimed equivalence that has kept consumers of US dairy products in the dark, shielded rBST dairy farmers from having to declare that their milk production is GMO-enhanced, and has inhibited non-GMO producers from declaring their milk as non-GMO, non rBST, or not hormone enhanced. This is a battle that has simmered, and sometimes raged, for a decade in the US. Finally there is a modest victory for consumers: the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) requires all labels used on milk products to be approved in advance by the department. The standard issued in October 2007 (PDA, “Standards”) signalled to producers that any milk labels claiming rBST-free status would be rejected. This advice was rescinded in January 2008 with new, specific, department-approved textual constructions allowed, and ensuring that any “no rBST” style claim was paired with a PDA-prescribed disclaimer (PDA, “Revised Standards”). However, parsimonious labelling is prohibited: No labeling may contain references such as ‘No Hormones’, ‘Hormone Free’, ‘Free of Hormones’, ‘No BST’, ‘Free of BST’, ‘BST Free’,’No added BST’, or any statement which indicates, implies or could be construed to mean that no natural bovine somatotropin (BST) or synthetic bovine somatotropin (rBST) are contained in or added to the product. (PDA, “Revised Standards” 3) Difference claims are prohibited: In no instance shall any label state or imply that milk from cows not treated with recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST, rbST, RBST or rbst) differs in composition from milk or products made with milk from treated cows, or that rBST is not contained in or added to the product. If a product is represented as, or intended to be represented to consumers as, containing or produced from milk from cows not treated with rBST any labeling information must convey only a difference in farming practices or dairy herd management methods. (PDA, “Revised Standards” 3) The PDA-approved labelling text for non-GMO dairy farmers is specified as follows: ‘From cows not treated with rBST. No significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows’ or a substantial equivalent. Hereinafter, the first sentence shall be referred to as the ‘Claim’, and the second sentence shall be referred to as the ‘Disclaimer’. (PDA, “Revised Standards” 4) It is onto the non-GMO dairy farmer alone, that the costs of compliance fall. These costs include label preparation and approval, proving non-usage of GMOs, and of creating and maintaining an audit trail. In nearby Ohio a similar consumer versus corporatist pantomime is playing out. This time with the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) calling the shots, and again serving the GMO industry. The ODA prescribed text allowed to non-GMO dairy farmers is “from cows not supplemented with rbST” and this is to be conjoined with the mandatory disclaimer “no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbST-supplemented and non-rbST supplemented cows” (Curet). These are “emergency rules”: they apply for 90 days, and are proposed as permanent. Once again, the onus is on the non-GMO dairy farmers to document and prove their claims. GMO dairy farmers face no such governmental requirements, including no disclosure requirement, and thus an asymmetric regulatory impost is placed on the non-GMO farmer which opens up new opportunities for administrative demands and technocratic harassment. Levidow et al. argue, somewhat Eurocentrically, that from its 1990s adoption “as the basis for a harmonized science-based approach to risk assessment” (26) the concept of “substantial equivalence” has “been recast in at least three ways” (58). It is true that the GMO debate has evolved differently in the US and Europe, and with other jurisdictions usually adopting intermediate positions, yet the concept persists. Levidow et al. nominate their three recastings as: firstly an “implicit redefinition” by the appending of “extra phrases in official documents”; secondly, “it has been reinterpreted, as risk assessment processes have … required more evidence of safety than before, especially in Europe”; and thirdly, “it has been demoted in the European Union regulatory procedures so that it can no longer be used to justify the claim that a risk assessment is unnecessary” (58). Romeis et al. have proposed a decision tree approach to GMO risks based on cascading tiers of risk assessment. However what remains is that the defects of the concept of “substantial equivalence” persist. Schauzu identified that: such decisions are a matter of “opinion”; that there is “no clear definition of the term ‘substantial’”; that because genetic modification “is aimed at introducing new traits into organisms, the result will always be a different combination of genes and proteins”; and that “there is no general checklist that could be followed by those who are responsible for allowing a product to be placed on the market” (2). Benchmark for Further Food Novelties? The discourse, contestation, and debate about “substantial equivalence” have largely focussed on the introduction of GMOs into food production processes. GM can best be regarded as the test case, and proof of concept, for establishing “substantial equivalence” as a benchmark for evaluating new and forthcoming food technologies. This is of concern, because the concept of “substantial equivalence” is scientific hokum, and yet its persistence, even entrenchment, within regulatory agencies may be a harbinger of forthcoming same-but-different debates for nanotechnology and other future bioengineering. The appeal of “substantial equivalence” has been a brake on the creation of GMO-specific regulations and on rigorous GMO testing. The food nanotechnology industry can be expected to look to the precedent of the GMO debate to head off specific nano-regulations and nano-testing. As cloning becomes economically viable, then this may be another wave of food innovation that muddies the regulatory waters with the confused – and ultimately self-contradictory – concept of “substantial equivalence”. Nanotechnology engineers particles in the size range 1 to 100 nanometres – a nanometre is one billionth of a metre. This is interesting for manufacturers because at this size chemicals behave differently, or as the Australian Office of Nanotechnology expresses it, “new functionalities are obtained” (AON). Globally, government expenditure on nanotechnology research reached US$4.6 billion in 2006 (Roco 3.12). While there are now many patents (ETC Group; Roco), regulation specific to nanoparticles is lacking (Bowman and Hodge; Miller and Senjen). The USFDA advises that nano-manufacturers “must show a reasonable assurance of safety … or substantial equivalence” (FDA). A recent inventory of nano-products already on the market identified 580 products. Of these 11.4% were categorised as “Food and Beverage” (WWICS). This is at a time when public confidence in regulatory bodies is declining (HRA). In an Australian consumer survey on nanotechnology, 65% of respondents indicated they were concerned about “unknown and long term side effects”, and 71% agreed that it is important “to know if products are made with nanotechnology” (MARS 22). Cloned animals are currently more expensive to produce than traditional animal progeny. In the course of 678 pages, the USFDA Animal Cloning: A Draft Risk Assessment has not a single mention of “substantial equivalence”. However the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS) in its single page “Statement in Support of USFDA’s Risk Assessment Conclusion That Food from Cloned Animals Is Safe for Human Consumption” states that “FASS endorses the use of this comparative evaluation process as the foundation of establishing substantial equivalence of any food being evaluated. It must be emphasized that it is the food product itself that should be the focus of the evaluation rather than the technology used to generate cloned animals” (FASS 1). Contrary to the FASS derogation of the importance of process in food production, for consumers both the process and provenance of production is an important and integral aspect of a food product’s value and identity. Some consumers will legitimately insist that their Kalamata olives are from Greece, or their balsamic vinegar is from Modena. It was the British public’s growing awareness that their sugar was being produced by slave labour that enabled the boycotting of the product, and ultimately the outlawing of slavery (Hochschild). When consumers boycott Nestle, because of past or present marketing practices, or boycott produce of USA because of, for example, US foreign policy or animal welfare concerns, they are distinguishing the food based on the narrative of the food, the production process and/or production context which are a part of the identity of the food. Consumers attribute value to food based on production process and provenance information (Paull). Products produced by slave labour, by child labour, by political prisoners, by means of torture, theft, immoral, unethical or unsustainable practices are different from their alternatives. The process of production is a part of the identity of a product and consumers are increasingly interested in food narrative. It requires vigilance to ensure that these narratives are delivered with the product to the consumer, and are neither lost nor suppressed. Throughout the GM debate, the organic sector has successfully skirted the “substantial equivalence” debate by excluding GMOs from the certified organic food production process. This GMO-exclusion from the organic food stream is the one reprieve available to consumers worldwide who are keen to avoid GMOs in their diet. The organic industry carries the expectation of providing food produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers, and by extension, without GMOs. Most recently, the Soil Association, the leading organic certifier in the UK, claims to be the first organisation in the world to exclude manufactured nonoparticles from their products (Soil Association). There has been the call that engineered nanoparticles be excluded from organic standards worldwide, given that there is no mandatory safety testing and no compulsory labelling in place (Paull and Lyons). The twisted rhetoric of oxymorons does not make the ideal foundation for policy. Setting food policy on the shifting sands of “substantial equivalence” seems foolhardy when we consider the potentially profound ramifications of globally mass marketing a dysfunctional food. If there is a 2×2 matrix of terms – “substantial equivalence”, substantial difference, insubstantial equivalence, insubstantial difference – while only one corner of this matrix is engaged for food policy, and while the elements remain matters of opinion rather than being testable by science, or by some other regime, then the public is the dupe, and potentially the victim. “Substantial equivalence” has served the GMO corporates well and the public poorly, and this asymmetry is slated to escalate if nano-food and clone-food are also folded into the “substantial equivalence” paradigm. Only in Orwellian Newspeak is war peace, or is same different. It is time to jettison the pseudo-scientific doctrine of “substantial equivalence”, as a convenient oxymoron, and embrace full disclosure of provenance, process and difference, so that consumers are not collateral in a continuing asymmetric knowledge war. References Australian Office of Nanotechnology (AON). Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources (DITR) 6 Aug. 2007. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.innovation.gov.au/Section/Innovation/Pages/ AustralianOfficeofNanotechnology.aspx >.Bowman, Diana, and Graeme Hodge. “A Small Matter of Regulation: An International Review of Nanotechnology Regulation.” Columbia Science and Technology Law Review 8 (2007): 1-32.Burger, Warren. “Sidney A. Diamond, Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks v. Ananda M. Chakrabarty, et al.” Supreme Court of the United States, decided 16 June 1980. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=447&invol=303 >.Curet, Monique. “New Rules Allow Dairy-Product Labels to Include Hormone Info.” The Columbus Dispatch 7 Feb. 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/02/07/dairy.html >.Engdahl, F. William. Seeds of Destruction. Montréal: Global Research, 2007.ETC Group. Down on the Farm: The Impact of Nano-Scale Technologies on Food and Agriculture. Ottawa: Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Conservation, November, 2004. European Commission. Report on Public Health Aspects of the Use of Bovine Somatotropin. Brussels: European Commission, 15-16 March 1999.Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS). Statement in Support of FDA’s Risk Assessment Conclusion That Cloned Animals Are Safe for Human Consumption. 2007. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.fass.org/page.asp?pageID=191 >.Grist, Stuart. “True Threats to Reason.” New Scientist 197.2643 (16 Feb. 2008): 22-23.Hochschild, Adam. Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery. London: Pan Books, 2006.Horsch, Robert, Robert Fraley, Stephen Rogers, Patricia Sanders, Alan Lloyd, and Nancy Hoffman. “Inheritance of Functional Foreign Genes in Plants.” Science 223 (1984): 496-498.HRA. Awareness of and Attitudes toward Nanotechnology and Federal Regulatory Agencies: A Report of Findings. Washington: Peter D. Hart Research Associates, 25 Sep. 2007.Levidow, Les, Joseph Murphy, and Susan Carr. “Recasting ‘Substantial Equivalence’: Transatlantic Governance of GM Food.” Science, Technology, and Human Values 32.1 (Jan. 2007): 26-64.Lightfoot, David, Rajsree Mungur, Rafiqa Ameziane, Anthony Glass, and Karen Berhard. “Transgenic Manipulation of C and N Metabolism: Stretching the GMO Equivalence.” American Society of Plant Biologists Conference: Plant Biology, 2000.MARS. “Final Report: Australian Community Attitudes Held about Nanotechnology – Trends 2005-2007.” Report prepared for Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources (DITR). Miranda, NSW: Market Attitude Research Services, 12 June 2007.Miller, Georgia, and Rye Senjen. “Out of the Laboratory and on to Our Plates: Nanotechnology in Food and Agriculture.” Friends of the Earth, 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://nano.foe.org.au/node/220 >.Miller, Henry. “Substantial Equivalence: Its Uses and Abuses.” Nature Biotechnology 17 (7 Nov. 1999): 1042-1043.Millstone, Erik, Eric Brunner, and Sue Mayer. “Beyond ‘Substantial Equivalence’.” Nature 401 (7 Oct. 1999): 525-526.Monsanto. “Posilac, Bovine Somatotropin by Monsanto: Questions and Answers about bST from the United States Food and Drug Administration.” 2007. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.monsantodairy.com/faqs/fda_safety.html >.Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “For a Better World Economy.” Paris: OECD, 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.oecd.org/ >.———. “Safety Evaluation of Foods Derived by Modern Biotechnology: Concepts and Principles.” Paris: OECD, 1993.Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Adelaide: ebooks@Adelaide, 2004 (1945). 30 Apr. 2008 < http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george >.Paull, John. “Provenance, Purity and Price Premiums: Consumer Valuations of Organic and Place-of-Origin Food Labelling.” Research Masters thesis, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 2006. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://eprints.utas.edu.au/690/ >.Paull, John, and Kristen Lyons. “Nanotechnology: The Next Challenge for Organics.” Journal of Organic Systems (in press).Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA). “Revised Standards and Procedure for Approval of Proposed Labeling of Fluid Milk.” Milk Labeling Standards (2.0.1.17.08). Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, 17 Jan. 2008. ———. “Standards and Procedure for Approval of Proposed Labeling of Fluid Milk, Milk Products and Manufactured Dairy Products.” Milk Labeling Standards (2.0.1.17.08). Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, 22 Oct. 2007.Roco, Mihail. “National Nanotechnology Initiative – Past, Present, Future.” In William Goddard, Donald Brenner, Sergy Lyshevski and Gerald Iafrate, eds. Handbook of Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2007.Romeis, Jorg, Detlef Bartsch, Franz Bigler, Marco Candolfi, Marco Gielkins, et al. “Assessment of Risk of Insect-Resistant Transgenic Crops to Nontarget Arthropods.” Nature Biotechnology 26.2 (Feb. 2008): 203-208.Schauzu, Marianna. “The Concept of Substantial Equivalence in Safety Assessment of Food Derived from Genetically Modified Organisms.” AgBiotechNet 2 (Apr. 2000): 1-4.Soil Association. “Soil Association First Organisation in the World to Ban Nanoparticles – Potentially Toxic Beauty Products That Get Right under Your Skin.” London: Soil Association, 17 Jan. 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/848d689047 cb466780256a6b00298980/42308d944a3088a6802573d100351790!OpenDocument >.Smith, Jeffrey. Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods. Fairfield, Iowa: Yes! Books, 2007.———. Seeds of Deception. Melbourne: Scribe, 2004.U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC). Bovine Somatotropin (BST) Backgrounder. Arlington, VA: U.S. Dairy Export Council, 2006.U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). Animal Cloning: A Draft Risk Assessment. Rockville, MD: Center for Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 28 Dec. 2006.———. FDA and Nanotechnology Products. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.fda.gov/nanotechnology/faqs.html >.Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS). “A Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory.” Data set as at Sep. 2007. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Project on Emerging Technologies, Sep. 2007. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.nanotechproject.org/inventories/consumer >.

1. Guy Debord in the Land of the Long WeekendIt’s the weekend – leisure time. It’s the interlude when, Guy Debord contends, the proletarian is briefly free of the “total contempt so clearly built into every aspect of the organization and management of production” in commodity capitalism; when workers are temporarily “treated like grown-ups, with a great show of solicitude and politeness, in their new role as consumers.” But this patronising show turns out to be another form of subjection to the diktats of “political economy”: “the totality of human existence falls under the regime of the ‘perfected denial of man’.” (30). As Debord suggests, even the creation of leisure time and space is predicated upon a form of contempt: the “perfected denial” of who we, as living people, really are in the eyes of those who presume the power to legislate our working practices and private identities.This Saturday The Weekend Australian runs an opinion piece by Christopher Pearson, defending ABC Radio National’s Stephen Crittenden, whose program The Religion Report has been axed. “Some of Crittenden’s finest half-hours have been devoted to Islam in Australia in the wake of September 11,” Pearson writes. “Again and again he’s confronted a left-of-centre audience that expected multi-cultural pieties with disturbing assertions.” Along the way in this admirable Crusade, Pearson notes that Crittenden has exposed “the Left’s recent tendency to ally itself with Islam.” According to Pearson, Crittenden has also thankfully given oxygen to claims by James Cook University’s Mervyn Bendle, the “fairly conservative academic whose work sometimes appears in [these] pages,” that “the discipline of critical terrorism studies has been captured by neo-Marxists of a postmodern bent” (30). Both of these points are well beyond misunderstanding or untested proposition. If Pearson means them sincerely he should be embarrassed and sacked. But of course he does not and will not be. These are deliberate lies, the confabulations of an eminent right-wing culture warrior whose job is to vilify minorities and intellectuals (Bendle escapes censure as an academic because he occasionally scribbles for the Murdoch press). It should be observed, too, how the patent absurdity of Pearson’s remarks reveals the extent to which he holds the intelligence of his readers in contempt. And he is not original in peddling these toxic wares.In their insightful—often hilarious—study of Australian opinion writers, The War on Democracy, Niall Lucy and Steve Mickler identify the left-academic-Islam nexus as the brain-child of former Treasurer-cum-memoirist Peter Costello. The germinal moment was “a speech to the Australian American Leadership Dialogue forum at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2005” concerning anti-Americanism in Australian schools. Lucy and Mickler argue that “it was only a matter of time” before a conservative politician or journalist took the plunge to link the left and terrorism, and Costello plunged brilliantly. He drew a mental map of the Great Chain of Being: left-wing academics taught teacher trainees to be anti-American; teacher trainees became teachers and taught kids to be anti-American; anti-Americanism morphs into anti-Westernism; anti-Westernism veers into terrorism (38). This is contempt for the reasoning capacity of the Australian people and, further still, contempt for any observable reality. Not for nothing was Costello generally perceived by the public as a politician whose very physiognomy radiated smugness and contempt.Recycling Costello, Christopher Pearson’s article subtly interpellates the reader as an ordinary, common-sense individual who instinctively feels what’s right and has no need to think too much—thinking too much is the prerogative of “neo-Marxists” and postmodernists. Ultimately, Pearson’s article is about channelling outrage: directing the down-to-earth passions of the Australian people against stock-in-trade culture-war hate figures. And in Pearson’s paranoid world, words like “neo-Marxist” and “postmodern” are devoid of historical or intellectual meaning. They are, as Lucy and Mickler’s War on Democracy repeatedly demonstrate, mere ciphers packed with the baggage of contempt for independent critical thought itself.Contempt is everywhere this weekend. The Weekend Australian’s colour magazine runs a feature story on Malcolm Turnbull: one of those familiar profiles designed to reveal the everyday human touch of the political classes. In this puff-piece, Jennifer Hewett finds Turnbull has “a restless passion for participating in public life” (20); that beneath “the aggressive political rhetoric […] behind the journalist turned lawyer turned banker turned politician turned would-be prime minister is a man who really enjoys that human interaction, however brief, with the many, many ordinary people he encounters” (16). Given all this energetic turning, it’s a wonder that Turnbull has time for human interactions at all. The distinction here of Turnbull and “many, many ordinary people” – the anonymous masses – surely runs counter to Hewett’s brief to personalise and quotidianise him. Likewise, those two key words, “however brief”, have an unfortunate, unintended effect. Presumably meant to conjure a picture of Turnbull’s hectic schedules and serial turnings, the words also convey the image of a patrician who begrudgingly knows one of the costs of a political career is that common flesh must be pressed—but as gingerly as possible.Hewett proceeds to disclose that Turnbull is “no conservative cultural warrior”, “onfounds stereotypes” and “hates labels” (like any baby-boomer rebel) and “has always read widely on political philosophy—his favourite is Edmund Burke”. He sees the “role of the state above all as enabling people to do their best” but knows that “the main game is the economy” and is “content to play mainstream gesture politics” (19). I am genuinely puzzled by this and imagine that my intelligence is being held in contempt once again. That the man of substance is given to populist gesturing is problematic enough; but that the Burke fan believes the state is about personal empowerment is just too much. Maybe Turnbull is a fan of Burke’s complex writings on the sublime and the beautiful—but no, Hewett avers, Turnbull is engaged by Burke’s “political philosophy”. So what is it in Burke that Turnbull finds to favour?Turnbull’s invocation of Edmund Burke is empty, gestural and contradictory. The comfortable notion that the state helps people to realise their potential is contravened by Burke’s view that the state functions so “the inclinations of men should frequently be thwarted, their will controlled, and their passions brought into subjection… by a power out of themselves” (151). Nor does Burke believe that anyone of humble origins could or should rise to the top of the social heap: “The occupation of an hair-dresser, or of a working tallow-chandler, cannot be a matter of honour to any person… the state suffers oppression, if such as they, either individually or collectively, are permitted to rule” (138).If Turnbull’s main game as a would-be statesman is the economy, Burke profoundly disagrees: “the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, callico or tobacco, or some other such low concern… It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection”—a sublime entity, not an economic manager (194). Burke understands, long before Antonio Gramsci or Louis Althusser, that individuals or social fractions must be made admirably “obedient” to the state “by consent or force” (195). Burke has a verdict on mainstream gesture politics too: “When men of rank sacrifice all ideas of dignity to an ambition without a distinct object, and work with low instruments and for low ends, the whole composition [of the state] becomes low and base” (136).Is Malcolm Turnbull so contemptuous of the public that he assumes nobody will notice the gross discrepancies between his own ideals and what Burke stands for? His invocation of Burke is, indeed, “mainstream gesture politics”: on one level, “Burke” signifies nothing more than Turnbull’s performance of himself as a deep thinker. In this process, the real Edmund Burke is historically erased; reduced to the status of stage-prop in the theatrical production of Turnbull’s mass-mediated identity. “Edmund Burke” is re-invented as a term in an aesthetic repertoire.This transmutation of knowledge and history into mere cipher is the staple trick of culture-war discourse. Jennifer Hewett casts Turnbull as “no conservative culture warrior”, but he certainly shows a facility with culture-war rhetoric. And as much as Turnbull “confounds stereotypes” his verbal gesture to Edmund Burke entrenches a stereotype: at another level, the incantation “Edmund Burke” is implicitly meant to connect Turnbull with conservative tradition—in the exact way that John Howard regularly self-nominated as a “Burkean conservative”.This appeal to tradition effectively places “the people” in a power relation. Tradition has a sublimity that is bigger than us; it precedes us and will outlast us. Consequently, for a politician to claim that tradition has fashioned him, that he is welded to it or perhaps even owns it as part of his heritage, is to glibly imply an authority greater than that of “the many, many ordinary people”—Burke’s hair-dressers and tallow-chandlers—whose company he so briefly enjoys.In The Ideology of the Aesthetic, Terry Eagleton assesses one of Burke’s important legacies, placing him beside another eighteenth-century thinker so loved by the right—Adam Smith. Ideology of the Aesthetic is premised on the view that “Aesthetics is born as a discourse of the body”; that the aesthetic gives form to the “primitive materialism” of human passions and organises “the whole of our sensate life together… a society’s somatic, sensational life” (13). Reading Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, Eagleton discerns that society appears as “an immense machine, whose regular and harmonious movements produce a thousand agreeable effects”, like “any production of human art”. In Smith’s work, the “whole of social life is aestheticized” and people inhabit “a social order so spontaneously cohesive that its members no longer need to think about it.” In Burke, Eagleton discovers that the aesthetics of “manners” can be understood in terms of Gramscian hegemony: “in the aesthetics of social conduct, or ‘culture’ as it would later be called, the law is always with us, as the very unconscious structure of our life”, and as a result conformity to a dominant ideological order is deeply felt as pleasurable and beautiful (37, 42). When this conservative aesthetic enters the realm of politics, Eagleton contends, the “right turn, from Burke” onwards follows a dark trajectory: “forget about theoretical analysis… view society as a self-grounding organism, all of whose parts miraculously interpenetrate without conflict and require no rational justification. Think with the blood and the body. Remember that tradition is always wiser and richer than one’s own poor, pitiable ego. It is this line of descent, in one of its tributaries, which will lead to the Third Reich” (368–9).2. Jean Baudrillard, the Nazis and Public MemoryIn 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the Third Reich’s Condor Legion of the Luftwaffe was on loan to Franco’s forces. On 26 April that year, the Condor Legion bombed the market-town of Guernica: the first deliberate attempt to obliterate an entire town from the air and the first experiment in what became known as “terror bombing”—the targeting of civilians. A legacy of this violence was Pablo Picasso’s monumental canvas Guernica – the best-known anti-war painting in art history.When US Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the United Nations on 5 February 2003 to make the case for war on Iraq, he stopped to face the press in the UN building’s lobby. The doorstop was globally televised, packaged as a moment of incredible significance: history in the making. It was also theatre: a moment in which history was staged as “event” and the real traces of history were carefully erased. Millions of viewers world-wide were undoubtedly unaware that the blue backdrop before which Powell stood was specifically designed to cover the full-scale tapestry copy of Picasso’s Guernica. This one-act, agitprop drama was a splendid example of politics as aesthetic action: a “performance” of history in the making which required the loss of actual historical memory enshrined in Guernica. Powell’s performance took its cues from the culture wars, which require the ceaseless erasure of history and public memory—on this occasion enacted on a breathtaking global, rather than national, scale.Inside the UN chamber, Powell’s performance was equally staged-crafted. As he brandished vials of ersatz anthrax, the power-point behind him (the theatrical set) showed artists’ impressions of imaginary mobile chemical weapons laboratories. Powell was playing lead role in a kind of populist, hyperreal production. It was Jean Baudrillard’s postmodernism, no less, as the media space in which Powell acted out the drama was not a secondary representation of reality but a reality of its own; the overheads of mobile weapons labs were simulacra, “models of a real without origins or reality”, pictures referring to nothing but themselves (2). In short, Powell’s performance was anchored in a “semiurgic” aesthetic; and it was a dreadful real-life enactment of Walter Benjamin’s maxim that “All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war” (241).For Benjamin, “Fascism attempts to organize the newly created proletarian masses without affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate.” Fascism gave “these masses not their right, but instead a chance to express themselves.” In turn, this required “the introduction of aesthetics into politics”, the objective of which was “the production of ritual values” (241). Under Adolf Hitler’s Reich, people were able to express themselves but only via the rehearsal of officially produced ritual values: by their participation in the disquisition on what Germany meant and what it meant to be German, by the aesthetic regulation of their passions. As Frederic Spotts’ fine study Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics reveals, this passionate disquisition permeated public and private life, through the artfully constructed total field of national narratives, myths, symbols and iconographies. And the ritualistic reiteration of national values in Nazi Germany hinged on two things: contempt and memory loss.By April 1945, as Berlin fell, Hitler’s contempt for the German people was at its apogee. Hitler ordered a scorched earth operation: the destruction of everything from factories to farms to food stores. The Russians would get nothing, the German people would perish. Albert Speer refused to implement the plan and remembered that “Until then… Germany and Hitler had been synonymous in my mind. But now I saw two entities opposed… A passionate love of one’s country… a leader who seemed to hate his people” (Sereny 472). But Hitler’s contempt for the German people was betrayed in the blusterous pages of Mein Kampf years earlier: “The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous” (165). On the back of this belief, Hitler launched what today would be called a culture war, with its Jewish folk devils, loathsome Marxist intellectuals, incitement of popular passions, invented traditions, historical erasures and constant iteration of values.When Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer fled Fascism, landing in the United States, their view of capitalist democracy borrowed from Benjamin and anticipated both Baudrillard and Guy Debord. In their well-know essay on “The Culture Industry”, in Dialectic of Enlightenment, they applied Benjamin’s insight on mass self-expression and the maintenance of property relations and ritual values to American popular culture: “All are free to dance and enjoy themselves”, but the freedom to choose how to do so “proves to be the freedom to choose what is always the same”, manufactured by monopoly capital (161–162). Anticipating Baudrillard, they found a society in which “only the copy appears: in the movie theatre, the photograph; on the radio, the recording” (143). And anticipating Debord’s “perfected denial of man” they found a society where work and leisure were structured by the repetition-compulsion principles of capitalism: where people became consumers who appeared “s statistics on research organization charts” (123). “Culture” came to do people’s thinking for them: “Pleasure always means not to think about anything, to forget suffering even where it is shown” (144).In this mass-mediated environment, a culture of repetitions, simulacra, billboards and flickering screens, Adorno and Horkheimer concluded that language lost its historical anchorages: “Innumerable people use words and expressions which they have either ceased to understand or employ only because they trigger off conditioned reflexes” in precisely the same way that the illusory “free” expression of passions in Germany operated, where words were “debased by the Fascist pseudo-folk community” (166).I know that the turf of the culture wars, the US and Australia, are not Fascist states; and I know that “the first one to mention the Nazis loses the argument”. I know, too, that there are obvious shortcomings in Adorno and Horkheimer’s reactions to popular culture and these have been widely criticised. However, I would suggest that there is a great deal of value still in Frankfurt School analyses of what we might call the “authoritarian popular” which can be applied to the conservative prosecution of populist culture wars today. Think, for example, how the concept of a “pseudo folk community” might well describe the earthy, common-sense public constructed and interpellated by right-wing culture warriors: America’s Joe Six-Pack, John Howard’s battlers or Kevin Rudd’s working families.In fact, Adorno and Horkheimer’s observations on language go to the heart of a contemporary culture war strategy. Words lose their history, becoming ciphers and “triggers” in a politicised lexicon. Later, Roland Barthes would write that this is a form of myth-making: “myth is constituted by the loss of the historical quality of things.” Barthes reasoned further that “Bourgeois ideology continuously transforms the products of history into essential types”, generating a “cultural logic” and an ideological re-ordering of the world (142). Types such as “neo-Marxist”, “postmodernist” and “Burkean conservative”.Surely, Benjamin’s assessment that Fascism gives “the people” the occasion to express itself, but only through “values”, describes the right’s pernicious incitement of the mythic “dispossessed mainstream” to reclaim its voice: to shout down the noisy minorities—the gays, greenies, blacks, feminists, multiculturalists and neo-Marxist postmodernists—who’ve apparently been running the show. Even more telling, Benjamin’s insight that the incitement to self-expression is connected to the maintenance of property relations, to economic power, is crucial to understanding the contemptuous conduct of culture wars.3. Jesus Dunked in Urine from Kansas to CronullaAmerican commentator Thomas Frank bases his study What’s the Matter with Kansas? on this very point. Subtitled How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, Frank’s book is a striking analysis of the indexation of Chicago School free-market reform and the mobilisation of “explosive social issues—summoning public outrage over everything from busing to un-Christian art—which it then marries to pro-business policies”; but it is the “economic achievements” of free-market capitalism, “not the forgettable skirmishes of the never-ending culture wars” that are conservatism’s “greatest monuments.” Nevertheless, the culture wars are necessary as Chicago School economic thinking consigns American communities to the rust belt. The promise of “free-market miracles” fails ordinary Americans, Frank reasons, leaving them in “backlash” mode: angry, bewildered and broke. And in this context, culture wars are a convenient form of anger management: “Because some artist decides to shock the hicks by dunking Jesus in urine, the entire planet must remake itself along the lines preferred” by nationalist, populist moralism and free-market fundamentalism (5).When John Howard received the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute’s Irving Kristol Award, on 6 March 2008, he gave a speech in Washington titled “Sharing Our Common Values”. The nub of the speech was Howard’s revelation that he understood the index of neo-liberal economics and culture wars precisely as Thomas Frank does. Howard told the AEI audience that under his prime ministership Australia had “pursued reform and further modernisation of our economy” and that this inevitably meant “dislocation for communities”. This “reform-dislocation” package needed the palliative of a culture war, with his government preaching the “consistency and reassurance” of “our nation’s traditional values… pride in her history”; his government “became assertive about the intrinsic worth of our national identity. In the process we ended the seemingly endless seminar about that identity which had been in progress for some years.” Howard’s boast that his government ended the “seminar” on national identity insinuates an important point. “Seminar” is a culture-war cipher for intellection, just as “pride” is code for passion; so Howard’s self-proclaimed achievement, in Terry Eagleton’s terms, was to valorise “the blood and the body” over “theoretical analysis”. This speaks stratospheric contempt: ordinary people have their identity fashioned for them; they need not think about it, only feel it deeply and passionately according to “ritual values”. Undoubtedly this paved the way to Cronulla.The rubric of Howard’s speech—“Sharing Our Common Values”—was both a homage to international neo-conservatism and a reminder that culture wars are a trans-national phenomenon. In his address, Howard said that in all his “years in politics” he had not heard a “more evocative political slogan” than Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America”—the rhetorical catch-cry for moral re-awakening that launched the culture wars. According to Lawrence Grossberg, America’s culture wars were predicated on the perception that the nation was afflicted by “a crisis of our lack of passion, of not caring enough about the values we hold… a crisis of nihilism which, while not restructuring our ideological beliefs, has undermined our ability to organise effective action on their behalf”; and this “New Right” alarmism “operates in the conjuncture of economics and popular culture” and “a popular struggle by which culture can lead politics” in the passionate pursuit of ritual values (31–2). When popular culture leads politics in this way we are in the zone of the image, myth and Adorno and Horkheimer’s “trigger words” that have lost their history. In this context, McKenzie Wark observes that “radical writers influenced by Marx will see the idea of culture as compensation for a fragmented and alienated life as a con. Guy Debord, perhaps the last of the great revolutionary thinkers of Europe, will call it “the spectacle”’ (20). Adorno and Horkheimer might well have called it “the authoritarian popular”. As Jonathan Charteris-Black’s work capably demonstrates, all politicians have their own idiolect: their personally coded language, preferred narratives and myths; their own vision of who “the people” might or should be that is conjured in their words. But the language of the culture wars is different. It is not a personal idiolect. It is a shared vocabulary, a networked vernacular, a pervasive trans-national aesthetic that pivots on the fact that words like “neo-Marxist”, “postmodern” and “Edmund Burke” have no historical or intellectual context or content: they exist as the ciphers of “values”. And the fact that culture warriors continually mouth them is a supreme act of contempt: it robs the public of its memory. And that’s why, as Lucy and Mickler’s War on Democracy so wittily argues, if there are any postmodernists left they’ll be on the right.Benjamin, Adorno, Horkheimer and, later, Debord and Grossberg understood how the political activation of the popular constitutes a hegemonic project. The result is nothing short of persuading “the people” to collaborate in its own oppression. The activation of the popular is perfectly geared to an age where the main stage of political life is the mainstream media; an age in which, Charteris-Black notes, political classes assume the general antipathy of publics to social change and act on the principle that the most effective political messages are sold to “the people” by an appeal “to familiar experiences”—market populism (10). In her substantial study The Persuaders, Sally Young cites an Australian Labor Party survey, conducted by pollster Rod Cameron in the late 1970s, in which the party’s message machine was finely tuned to this populist position. The survey also dripped with contempt for ordinary people: their “Interest in political philosophy… is very low… They are essentially the products (and supporters) of mass market commercialism”. Young observes that this view of “the people” was the foundation of a new order of political advertising and the conduct of politics on the mass-media stage. Cameron’s profile of “ordinary people” went on to assert that they are fatally attracted to “a moderate leader who is strong… but can understand and represent their value system” (47): a prescription for populist discourse which begs the question of whether the values a politician or party represent via the media are ever really those of “the people”. More likely, people are hegemonised into a value system which they take to be theirs. Writing of the media side of the equation, David Salter raises the point that when media “moguls thunder about ‘the public interest’ what they really mean is ‘what we think the public is interested in”, which is quite another matter… Why this self-serving deception is still so sheepishly accepted by the same public it is so often used to violate remains a mystery” (40).Sally Young’s Persuaders retails a story that she sees as “symbolic” of the new world of mass-mediated political life. The story concerns Mark Latham and his “revolutionary” journeys to regional Australia to meet the people. “When a political leader who holds a public meeting is dubbed a ‘revolutionary’”, Young rightly observes, “something has gone seriously wrong”. She notes how Latham’s “use of old-fashioned ‘meet-and-greet’campaigning methods was seen as a breath of fresh air because it was unlike the type of packaged, stage-managed and media-dependent politics that have become the norm in Australia.” Except that it wasn’t. “A media pack of thirty journalists trailed Latham in a bus”, meaning, that he was not meeting the people at all (6–7). He was traducing the people as participants in a media spectacle, as his “meet and greet” was designed to fill the image-banks of print and electronic media. Even meeting the people becomes a media pseudo-event in which the people impersonate the people for the camera’s benefit; a spectacle as artfully deceitful as Colin Powell’s UN performance on Iraq.If the success of this kind of “self-serving deception” is a mystery to David Salter, it would not be so to the Frankfurt School. For them, an understanding of the processes of mass-mediated politics sits somewhere near the core of their analysis of the culture industries in the “democratic” world. I think the Frankfurt school should be restored to a more important role in the project of cultural studies. Apart from an aversion to jazz and other supposedly “elitist” heresies, thinkers like Adorno, Benjamin, Horkheimer and their progeny Debord have a functional claim to provide the theory for us to expose the machinations of the politics of contempt and its aesthetic ruses.ReferencesAdorno, Theodor and Max Horkheimer. "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception." Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Verso, 1979. 120–167.Barthes Roland. “Myth Today.” Mythologies. Trans. Annette Lavers. St Albans: Paladin, 1972. 109–58.Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e), 1983.Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zorn. New York: Schocken Books, 1969. 217–251.Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. Ed. Conor Cruise O’Brien. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.Charteris-Black, Jonathan. Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. New York: Zone Books, 1994.Eagleton, Terry. The Ideology of the Aesthetic. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990.Frank, Thomas. What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004.Grossberg, Lawrence. “It’s a Sin: Politics, Post-Modernity and the Popular.” It’s a Sin: Essays on Postmodern Politics & Culture. Eds. Tony Fry, Ann Curthoys and Paul Patton. Sydney: Power Publications, 1988. 6–71.Hewett, Jennifer. “The Opportunist.” The Weekend Australian Magazine. 25–26 October 2008. 16–22.Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Manheim. London: Pimlico, 1993.Howard, John. “Sharing Our Common Values.” Washington: Irving Kristol Lecture, American Enterprise Institute. 5 March 2008. ‹http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,233328945-5014047,00html›.Lucy, Niall and Steve Mickler. The War on Democracy: Conservative Opinion in the Australian Press. Crawley: University of Western Australia Press, 2006.Pearson, Christopher. “Pray for Sense to Prevail.” The Weekend Australian. 25–26 October 2008. 30.Salter, David. The Media We Deserve: Underachievement in the Fourth Estate. Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 2007. Sereny, Gitta. Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth. London: Picador, 1996.Spotts, Frederic. Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics. London: Pimlico, 2003.Wark, McKenzie. The Virtual Republic: Australia’s Culture Wars of the 1990s. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1997.Young, Sally. The Persuaders: Inside the Hidden Machine of Political Advertising. Melbourne: Pluto Press, 2004.

Background “The sense of taste,” write Nelson and colleagues in a 2002 issue of Nature, “provides animals with valuable information about the nature and quality of food. Mammals can recognize and respond to a diverse repertoire of chemical entities, including sugars, salts, acids and a wide range of toxic substances” (199). The authors go on to argue that several amino acids—the building blocks of proteins—taste delicious to humans and that “having a taste pathway dedicated to their detection probably had significant evolutionary implications”. They imply, but do not specify, that the evolutionary implications are positive. This may be the case with some amino acids, but contemporary tastes, and changes in them, are far from universally beneficial. Indeed, this article argues that modern food production shapes and distorts human taste with significant implications for health and wellbeing. Take the western taste for fried chipped potatoes, for example. According to Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, “In 1960, the typical American ate eighty-one pounds of fresh potatoes and about four pounds of frozen french fries. Today [2002] the typical American eats about forty-nine pounds of fresh potatoes every year—and more than thirty pounds of frozen french fries” (115). Nine-tenths of these chips are consumed in fast food restaurants which use mass-manufactured potato-based frozen products to provide this major “foodservice item” more quickly and cheaply than the equivalent dish prepared from raw ingredients. These choices, informed by human taste buds, have negative evolutionary implications, as does the apparently long-lasting consumer preference for fried goods cooked in trans-fats. “Numerous foods acquire their elastic properties (i.e., snap, mouth-feel, and hardness) from the colloidal fat crystal network comprised primarily of trans- and saturated fats. These hardstock fats contribute, along with numerous other factors, to the global epidemics related to metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease,” argues Michael A. Rogers (747). Policy makers and public health organisations continue to compare notes internationally about the best ways in which to persuade manufacturers and fast food purveyors to reduce the use of these trans-fats in their products (L’Abbé et al.), however, most manufacturers resist. Hank Cardello, a former fast food executive, argues that “many products are designed for ‘high hedonic value’, with carefully balanced combinations of salt, sugar and fat that, experience has shown, induce people to eat more” (quoted, Trivedi 41). Fortunately for the manufactured food industry, salt and sugar also help to preserve food, effectively prolonging the shelf life of pre-prepared and packaged goods. Physiological Factors As Glanz et al. discovered when surveying 2,967 adult Americans, “taste is the most important influence on their food choices, followed by cost” (1118). A person’s taste is to some extent an individual response to food stimuli, but the tongue’s taste buds respond to five basic categories of food: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. ‘Umami’ is a Japanese word indicating “delicious savoury taste” (Coughlan 11) and it is triggered by the amino acid glutamate. Japanese professor Kikunae Ikeda identified glutamate while investigating the taste of a particular seaweed which he believed was neither sweet, sour, bitter, or salty. When Ikeda combined the glutamate taste essence with sodium he formed the food additive sodium glutamate, which was patented in 1908 and subsequently went into commercial production (Japan Patent Office). Although individual, a person’s taste preferences are by no means fixed. There is ample evidence that people’s tastes are being distorted by modern food marketing practices that process foods to make them increasingly appealing to the average palate. In particular, this industrialisation of food promotes the growth of a snack market driven by salty and sugary foods, popularly constructed as posing a threat to health and wellbeing. “[E]xpanding waistlines [are] fuelled by a boom in fast food and a decline in physical activity” writes Stark, who reports upon the 2008 launch of a study into Australia’s future ‘fat bomb’. As Deborah Lupton notes, such reports were a particular feature of the mid 2000s when: intense concern about the ‘obesity epidemic’ intensified and peaked. Time magazine named 2004 ‘The Year of Obesity’. That year the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health was released and the [US] Centers for Disease Control predicted that a poor diet and lack of exercise would soon claim more lives than tobacco-related disease in the United States. (4) The American Heart Association recommends eating no more than 1500mg of salt per day (Hamzelou 11) but salt consumption in the USA averages more than twice this quantity, at 3500mg per day (Bernstein and Willett 1178). In the UK, a sustained campaign and public health-driven engagement with food manufacturers by CASH—Consensus Action on Salt and Health—resulted in a reduction of between 30 and 40 percent of added salt in processed foods between 2001 and 2011, with a knock-on 15 percent decline in the UK population’s salt intake overall. This is the largest reduction achieved by any developed nation (Brinsden et al.). “According to the [UK’s] National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), this will have reduced [UK] stroke and heart attack deaths by a minimum of 9,000 per year, with a saving in health care costs of at least £1.5bn a year” (MacGregor and Pombo). Whereas there has been some success over the past decade in reducing the amount of salt consumed, in the Western world the consumption of sugar continues to rise, as a graph cited in the New Scientist indicates (O’Callaghan). Regular warnings that sugar is associated with a range of health threats and delivers empty calories devoid of nutrition have failed to halt the increase in sugar consumption. Further, although some sugar is a natural product, processed foods tend to use a form invented in 1957: high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). “HFCS is a gloopy solution of glucose and fructose” writes O’Callaghan, adding that it is “as sweet as table sugar but has typically been about 30% cheaper”. She cites Serge Ahmed, a French neuroscientist, as arguing that in a world of food sufficiency people do not need to consume more, so they need to be enticed to overeat by making food more pleasurable. Ahmed was part of a team that ran an experiment with cocaine-addicted rats, offering them a mutually exclusive choice between highly-sweetened water and cocaine: Our findings clearly indicate that intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward, even in drug-sensitized and -addicted individuals. We speculate that the addictive potential of intense sweetness results from an inborn hypersensitivity to sweet tastants. In most mammals, including rats and humans, sweet receptors evolved in ancestral environments poor in sugars and are thus not adapted to high concentrations of sweet tastants. The supranormal stimulation of these receptors by sugar-rich diets, such as those now widely available in modern societies, would generate a supranormal reward signal in the brain, with the potential to override self-control mechanisms and thus lead to addiction. (Lenoir et al.) The Tongue and the Brain One of the implications of this research about the mammalian desire for sugar is that our taste for food is about more than how these foods actually taste in the mouth on our tongues. It is also about the neural response to the food we eat. The taste of French fries thus also includes that “snap, mouth-feel, and hardness” and the “colloidal fat crystal network” (Rogers, “Novel Structuring” 747). While there is no taste receptor for fats, these nutrients have important effects upon the brain. Wang et al. offered rats a highly fatty, but palatable, diet and allowed them to eat freely. 33 percent of the calories in the food were delivered via fat, compared with 21 percent in a normal diet. The animals almost doubled their usual calorific intake, both because the food had a 37 percent increased calorific content and also because the rats ate 47 percent more than was standard (2786). The research team discovered that in as little as three days the rats “had already lost almost all of their ability to respond to leptin” (Martindale 27). Leptin is a hormone that acts on the brain to communicate feelings of fullness, and is thus important in assisting animals to maintain a healthy body weight. The rats had also become insulin resistant. “Severe resistance to the metabolic effects of both leptin and insulin ensued after just 3 days of overfeeding” (Wang et al. 2786). Fast food restaurants typically offer highly palatable, high fat, high sugar, high salt, calorific foods which can deliver 130 percent of a day’s recommended fat intake, and almost a day’s worth of an adult man’s calories, in one meal. The impacts of maintaining such a diet over a comparatively short time-frame have been recorded in documentaries such as Super Size Me (Spurlock). The after effects of what we widely call “junk food” are also evident in rat studies. Neuroscientist Paul Kenny, who like Ahmed was investigating possible similarities between food- and cocaine-addicted rats, allowed his animals unlimited access to both rat ‘junk food’ and healthy food for rats. He then changed their diets. “The rats with unlimited access to junk food essentially went on a hunger strike. ‘It was as if they had become averse to healthy food’, says Kenny. It took two weeks before the animals began eating as much [healthy food] as those in the control group” (quoted, Trivedi 40). Developing a taste for certain food is consequently about much more than how they taste in the mouth; it constitutes an individual’s response to a mixture of taste, hormonal reactions and physiological changes. Choosing Health Glanz et al. conclude their study by commenting that “campaigns attempting to change people’s perception of the importance of nutrition will be interpreted in terms of existing values and beliefs. A more promising strategy might be to stress the good taste of healthful foods” (1126). Interestingly, this is the strategy already adopted by some health-focused cookbooks. I have 66 cookery books in my kitchen. None of ten books sampled from the five spaces in which these books are kept had ‘taste’ as an index entry, but three books had ‘taste’ in their titles: The Higher Taste, Taste of Life, and The Taste of Health. All three books seek to promote healthy eating, and they all date from the mid-1980s. It might be that taste is not mentioned in cookbook indexes because it is a sine qua non: a focus upon taste is so necessary and fundamental to a cookbook that it goes without saying. Yet, as the physiological evidence makes clear, what we find palatable is highly mutable, varying between people, and capable of changing significantly in comparatively short periods of time. The good news from the research studies is that the changes wrought by high salt, high sugar, high fat diets need not be permanent. Luciano Rossetti, one of the authors on Wang et al’s paper, told Martindale that the physiological changes are reversible, but added a note of caution: “the fatter a person becomes the more resistant they will be to the effects of leptin and the harder it is to reverse those effects” (27). Morgan Spurlock’s experience also indicates this. In his case it took the actor/director 14 months to lose the 11.1 kg (13 percent of his body mass) that he gained in the 30 days of his fast-food-only experiment. Trivedi was more fortunate, stating that, “After two weeks of going cold turkey, I can report I have successfully kicked my ice cream habit” (41). A reader’s letter in response to Trivedi’s article echoes this observation. She writes that “the best way to stop the craving was to switch to a diet of vegetables, seeds, nuts and fruits with a small amount of fish”, adding that “cravings stopped in just a week or two, and the diet was so effective that I no longer crave junk food even when it is in front of me” (Mackeown). Popular culture indicates a range of alternative ways to resist food manufacturers. In the West, there is a growing emphasis on organic farming methods and produce (Guthman), on sl called Urban Agriculture in the inner cities (Mason and Knowd), on farmers’ markets, where consumers can meet the producers of the food they eat (Guthrie et al.), and on the work of advocates of ‘real’ food, such as Jamie Oliver (Warrin). Food and wine festivals promote gourmet tourism along with an emphasis upon the quality of the food consumed, and consumption as a peak experience (Hall and Sharples), while environmental perspectives prompt awareness of ‘food miles’ (Weber and Matthews), fair trade (Getz and Shreck) and of land degradation, animal suffering, and the inequitable use of resources in the creation of the everyday Western diet (Dare, Costello and Green). The burgeoning of these different approaches has helped to stimulate a commensurate growth in relevant disciplinary fields such as Food Studies (Wessell and Brien). One thing that all these new ways of looking at food and taste have in common is that they are options for people who feel they have the right to choose what and when to eat; and to consume the tastes they prefer. This is not true of all groups of people in all countries. Hiding behind the public health campaigns that encourage people to exercise and eat fresh fruit and vegetables are the hidden “social determinants of health: The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including the health system” (WHO 45). As the definitions explain, it is the “social determinants of health [that] are mostly responsible for health iniquities” with evidence from all countries around the world demonstrating that “in general, the lower an individual’s socioeconomic position, the worse his or her health” (WHO 45). For the comparatively disadvantaged, it may not be the taste of fast food that attracts them but the combination of price and convenience. If there is no ready access to cooking facilities, or safe food storage, or if a caregiver is simply too time-poor to plan and prepare meals for a family, junk food becomes a sensible choice and its palatability an added bonus. For those with the education, desire, and opportunity to break free of the taste for salty and sugary fats, however, there are a range of strategies to achieve this. There is a persuasive array of evidence that embracing a plant-based diet confers a multitude of health benefits for the individual, for the planet and for the animals whose lives and welfare would otherwise be sacrificed to feed us (Green, Costello and Dare). Such a choice does involve losing the taste for foods which make up the lion’s share of the Western diet, but any sense of deprivation only lasts for a short time. The fact is that our sense of taste responds to the stimuli offered. It may be that, notwithstanding the desires of Jamie Oliver and the like, a particular child never will never get to like broccoli, but it is also the case that broccoli tastes differently to me, seven years after becoming a vegan, than it ever did in the years in which I was omnivorous. When people tell me that they would love to adopt a plant-based diet but could not possibly give up cheese, it is difficult to reassure them that the pleasure they get now from that specific cocktail of salty fats will be more than compensated for by the sheer exhilaration of eating crisp, fresh fruits and vegetables in the future. Conclusion For decades, the mass market food industry has tweaked their products to make them hyper-palatable and difficult to resist. They do this through marketing experiments and consumer behaviour research, schooling taste buds and brains to anticipate and relish specific cocktails of sweet fats (cakes, biscuits, chocolate, ice cream) and salty fats (chips, hamburgers, cheese, salted nuts). They add ingredients to make these products stimulate taste buds more effectively, while also producing cheaper items with longer life on the shelves, reducing spoilage and the complexity of storage for retailers. Consumers are trained to like the tastes of these foods. Bitter, sour, and umami receptors are comparatively under-stimulated, with sweet, salty, and fat-based tastes favoured in their place. Western societies pay the price for this learned preference in high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity. Public health advocate Bruce Neal and colleagues, working to reduce added salt in processed foods, note that the food and manufacturing industries can now provide most of the calories that the world needs to survive. “The challenge now”, they argue, “is to have these same industries provide foods that support long and healthy adult lives. And in this regard there remains a very considerable way to go”. If the public were to believe that their sense of taste is mutable and has been distorted for corporate and industrial gain, and if they were to demand greater access to natural foods in their unprocessed state, then that journey towards a healthier future might be far less protracted than these and many other researchers seem to believe. References Bernstein, Adam, and Walter Willett. “Trends in 24-Hr Sodium Excretion in the United States, 1957–2003: A Systematic Review.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 92 (2010): 1172–1180. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 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