Making a Place for Alternative Technologies: The Case of Agricultural Bio‐Inputs in Argentina

This article characterizes the ways in which the actors in charge of designing and implementing public policies intervene to promote the emergence of alternatives to problematic technologies. It is based on a case study conducted in Argentina that focuses on initiatives to promote the development of biological agricultural inputs in the context of increasingly controversial chemical inputs. The study spotlights the political, institutional, and semantic efforts made by policy makers and public administrations to ensure these new inputs find their way into organizations and onto their agendas. Their work consists in attenuating the boundaries between chemical and biological inputs, and reducing opposition by creating categories and organizations that downplay potential dissension and highlight the possible coexistence of technological paradigms. Contrary to what the injunctions of technological substitution suggest, we show that putting alternative technologies on the public agenda depends largely on their inclusion in institutional and regulatory infrastructures originally designed for technologies that are likely to decline. More broadly, it relies on the construction of continuity between the two types of technologies.     

Determinants of Firm‐Level Lobbying and Government Responsiveness in Agricultural Biotechnology in China

Understanding what stimulates agribusiness firms to lobby the government and what makes the government responsive to lobbying are the two issues that have been discussed extensively in the debates concerning determinants of biotechnology policy. This paper examines the factors influencing agribusiness firms' lobbying and government response using econometric modeling on a new data set of 160 leading agribusiness firms in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries in China. The results show that approximately 10% of agribusiness firms lobbied the government about biotechnology policy and regulations and over half of those that lobbied received a verbal or written acknowledgment from government agencies. Seed and feed companies are more likely to engage in lobbying than chemical companies. Owning GM patents not only has a positive impact on firms' lobbying activities, but firms with these patents are more likely to receive a government response to their lobbying efforts. The experience of selling GM products does not significantly influence lobbying activities or response from the government.     

Applying Stone in a Western Landscape: Ranchers,Conservationists, and Causal Stories in the “American Serengeti”

As the emergence of nongovernmental conservation efforts generates conflict among various stakeholders, the causal story that each party articulates regarding conservation and the causes of land degradation reflects their unique interests. This study uses existing literature to evaluate causal stories surrounding a contemporary conservation effort: Montana's American Prairie Reserve. Through qualitative review of web‐based documents and newspaper articles, it generates a preliminary account of key stakeholders' causal stories. The case study suggests that parties who might be disadvantaged by ascribing responsibility for environmental harms in an adversarial fashion may instead elect to articulate causal stories that are more neutral than existing approaches might forecast. The study concludes by suggesting that further development of causal story literature may enable it to better address contemporary conservation efforts.     

Divergent fates: company unions and employee involvement committees under the railway labor and national labor relations acts

Well known is that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA, 1935) in the United States places a largely per se ban on nonunion employee representation (ER) groups which deal with employers over a term or condition of employment. Much less well known is that America’s other labor law, the Railway Labor Act (RLA, 1926), takes a different approach and permits employers to operate such councils and committees as long as they do not perform a collective bargaining function or interfere with workers’ free choice of a bargaining agent. Thus, under the RLA Delta Air Lines is able to operate what is today the closest living approximation to a 1920s-style ER plan while hundreds of other companies (e.g. Polaroid) under the jurisdiction of the NLRA have been forced over the years to disband similar groups on grounds they are a proscribed company union. No study to date has explored the history behind the RLA and NLRA’s divergent treatment of nonunion ER groups so this article takes a first look. The main part of the story covers the 1920–1935 period and examines the events, people, and experiences associated with company unions and ER in, respectively, the rail and manufacturing industries and why the legislative outcome in the former was a permissive stance on nonunion committees but prohibitive in the latter. The last part of the paper fast-forwards the RLA-NLRA story from the 1930s to contemporary law and practice in order to demonstrate how “history matters” when it comes to what employers can and cannot do with nonunion representation groups, such as works councils, participation and involvement committees, and dispute resolution forums.     

平台异化还是因债致罪？——P2P网贷涉非法吸收公众存款罪裁判文本实证研究

文章采用文献研究的方法对83份P2P网贷平台构成非法吸收公众存款罪的裁判文书进行实证分析。通过对平台异化模式的定性分析和平台负债情况的定量分析以及与刑事责任程度的交叉分析,文章认为,平台异化是P2P网贷平台构成非法吸收公众存款罪的基础性因素,负债规模、存款人人数和无法清偿的数额等三个因素都对刑事责任的程度产生影响。而且相比之下,无法清偿的数额对刑事责任影响的程度最为显著。实际上对P2P网贷平台追究非法吸收公众存款罪的刑事责任是因为网贷平台无法清偿举债数额巨大,即因债致罪。这种因债致罪的司法行为逻辑,可以从司法者作为“清场者”的功能定位和对社会秩序的价值追求来解释其合理性,但是从多元价值权衡和刑事民事分离的角度分析,其又是不合理的。     

Preparing NATO for the Future – Operating in an Increasingly Contested Environment

The global proliferation of precision-strike systems may be challenging the foundations of Western military-technological supremacy. Relatedly, the development of so-called Anti-Access and Area Denial (A2/AD) capabilities across the globe threatens to complicate Western freedom of military movement and access, and could give way to a more contested military-strategic environment. The twin challenges of precision-strike proliferation and A2/AD strongly impact NATO’s agenda, which revolves around strengthening deterrence and defence in Eastern Europe, and addressing the different threats emanating from the so-called Southern European neighbourhood. In order to address or mitigate such challenges, the Alliance needs to produce operational concepts and capabilities able to deliver deterrence and expeditionary warfare in a maturing precision-strike environment, one characterised by the emergence of A2/AD capabilities.     

Social history, (Neo-)revisionism and mapping the 1930s Spanish left*

Revisionist historians and their Neo-Revisionist/conservative fellow travellers identify the Spanish left as the main cause of the civil war (1936–1939) that culminated in the establishment of the Franco dictatorship. Such claims are possible because these historians distort both the history of the left and the nature of social protest and mass mobilisation during these years. In part, the reliance of Neo-Revisionist/conservative historians on the methods of traditional political history – combined with their stubborn aversion to social history – makes it impossible for them to understand the left. This article argues that only through social history is it possible to comprehend the complex and shifting nature of protest dynamics in the 1930s. Indeed, many of the conflicts that played out in the political arena during these years were conditioned by structural economic problems and social tensions that resulted in diverse forms of radical contestation among the grassroots of leftist movements. Social, and indeed cultural history, are, therefore, central to any analysis of the myriad forms of these protest energies that flowed from the bottom up to shape the orientation of the leftist organisations.     

A群猪轮状病毒胶体金免疫层析试纸条的研制

为建立一种快速、简便的猪轮状病毒检测方法,采用柠檬酸三钠还原法制备胶体金颗粒,标记纯化的抗猪轮状病毒VP6蛋白单克隆抗体,在硝酸纤维素膜上喷加纯化的抗猪轮状病毒VP6蛋白多克隆抗体和羊抗鼠IgG,制成检测猪轮状病毒抗原的胶体金免疫层析试纸条。结果表明,所制备的试纸条用于检测猪轮状病毒感染的MA104细胞培养物,在检测线处出现红色反应带,未感染病毒的细胞培养物在检测线处未出现反应条带,上述培养物在质控线处均出现红色反应条带;进一步试验表明,试纸条检出病毒培养液(TCID50是10-6.25/0.1 mL)的最低限为1∶32稀释;用不同批次的试纸条重复检测,结果无差异;该试纸条不与相关的腹泻病毒猪传染性胃肠炎病毒、流行性腹泻病毒发生反应,所制备的试纸条具有一定的敏感性和特异性,重复性良好。     

鸡白细胞介素-2受体基因γ链的转录分析与表达

以脾单个核细胞总RNA为模板,对鸡白细胞介素-2受体基因γ链(chIL-2Rγ)进行了RT-PCR,获得了一1 047 bp的开放阅读框,编码由348个氨基酸残基组成的分子质量为37.8 ku的蛋白多肽。预测的鸡IL-2Rγ多肽链中包含4个保守半胱氨酸残基、1个WSXWS基序和7个N连接的糖基化位点。鸡IL-2Rγ与其他动物IL-2Rγ在氨基酸水平上的同源性仅为21.4%~38.2%。RT-PCR检测发现,鸡IL-2RγmRNA分布于大脑、小脑、脊髓、腔上囊、脾、胸腺、骨髓、盲肠扁桃体、腺胃、肌胃、空肠、卵黄囊憩室、回肠、盲肠、直肠、心脏、肾、肺、肝、骨骼肌和皮肤,而在十二指肠和睾丸中没有检测到其转录。构建了鸡IL-2Rγ胞外区的原核重组表达载体,进行了表达和鉴定。     

猪生殖与呼吸综合征病毒CH-1a株GP5蛋白基因的表达及其单克隆抗体的制备

将猪生殖与呼吸综合征病毒(PRRSV)CH-1a株GP5蛋白基因信号肽部分删除后克隆于pGEX-6p-1载体上,并在大肠埃希氏菌中进行表达。经SDS-PAGE电泳分析发现,融合表达的rtGP5蛋白约42 ku,将融合蛋白rtGP5用PRRSV阳性血清进行Western-blotting分析,证实所表达的融合蛋白能被其特异性识别。收获融合表达产物rtGP5,按50μg/只的剂量与等量弗氏佐剂乳化,经腹腔免疫BALB/c小鼠3次后,取脾细胞与SP2/0骨髓瘤细胞进行融合,分别以融合蛋白rtGP5和GST蛋白为抗原,通过间接ELISA方法对融合细胞的上清液进行检测,筛选阳性克隆,结果得到了15株能稳定分泌抗rtGP5蛋白抗体的阳性细胞克隆株。经间接免疫荧光检测发现,获得的15株单克隆抗体都能与PRRSV感染细胞产生特异性荧光。15株单克隆抗体亚型鉴定结果显示均为IgG1型,且轻链均为κ链。