Stealing into the wild: conservation science,plant breeding and the makings of new seed enclosures

Faced with pressing climatic changes, scientific and industrial interests are vying to develop crops that can survive drought, floods and shifting pest regimes. Increasingly, they look for solutions in an unlikely place: the gene pools of wild plants. Crop wild relatives (CWR) – species closely related to crops, including their ancestors – offer breeders the allure of retracing the domestication bottleneck, infusing genomes of modern crops with ‘lost’ genetic variety. Yet wild relatives also confront threats from climate change, urbanization and expansion of industrial agri-food. Thus, CWR, seen as both salvational and threatened, have become an international conservation and food-security priority. It is my contention that, in their common project to harness wild-relative potential, conservation and breeding science are co-evolving to extend seed commodity relations into new spheres. I examine enclosures along two fronts: first within ‘systematic CWR conservation’, where ‘in situ’ approaches, typically regarded as empowering and sustainable alternatives to ‘ex situ’, instead may support a complementary system of value extraction; second, in breeding and biotechnology research, which produces new value for CWR while profoundly shaping upstream conservation priorities. An important finding is that although today’s ‘ex situ-centric’ complementarity favors dispossession, an ‘in situ-centric’ approach could foster democratic renewal of biocultural diversity.     

Opening up to OERs: Electronic Original Sourcebook Versus Traditional Textbook in the Introduction to American Government Course

Traditional American Government textbooks are expensive and often unpopular with students. New technologies and Open Educational Resources (OERs) open up the potential for change, but questions of quality are ever present: can OERs really help students learn better, or are they just cheaper? I developed an OER based on original sources and compared student learning outcomes with the OER section to those in a free digital textbook section. While the OER I created did not work as well as I had hoped, I nonetheless developed a redesign of my course and my approach to teaching, which is the true benefit of adopting OERs.     

Built-in Safeguards and the Implementation of Civil War Peace Accords

This article contributes to analyses of peace agreement implementation by focusing on the role of built-in safeguards as procedural mechanisms within peace agreements. Recent empirical studies suggest that negotiated peace agreements are a frequent mode of armed conflict termination and implementation of those agreements to be the primary predictor of enduring peace and the quality of that peace. However, in many instances implementation takes years or even decades and is subject to breakdown before achieving the key implementation objectives. In this article, we identify and theorize three key safeguards in peace accords: transitional power-sharing, dispute resolution, and verification mechanisms. We argue that these safeguards lead to higher implementation of provisions negotiated in peace agreements by addressing mutual suspicion and by facilitating more constructive working relationships among former rivals. To test our arguments, we analyze implementation of comprehensive peace agreements negotiated between 1989 and 2012 from the Peace Accords Matrix Implementation Data (PAM_ID). We find that the built-in safeguards that we have identified significantly explain variations in levels of peace agreement implementation.     

基于信息不对称的政策执行分析

政策执行问题一直困扰着政策制定者,在影响政策执行的众多因素中,信息不对称无疑是不可忽视的因素之一,它通常干扰着政策的顺利执行,对这种干扰的认识将有助于我们提前采取若干措施来抑制信息不对称产生的种种不利影响。     

Universities and State Policy Formation: Rationalizing a Nanotechnology Strategy in Pennsylvania

Technology‐based economic development programs have become a salient feature of the state policy landscape since the 1980s. While much research exists on the topic, little attention has been given to the processes of policy formation. State programs have moved towards high technology areas emphasized at the federal level over the past decades, and nanotechnology became one of the latest targets. This paper examines the eight‐year process through which Pennsylvania adopted a “state‐wide strategy,” culminating in the Pennsylvania Initiative for Nanotechnology. In this process, programs that responded to the interests of multiple agents came first, and a state policy was formulated after the fact. This pattern of “rationalized policy formation,” as opposed to rational policy formation, may be more common than suspected. Its strengths and weaknesses in this Pennsylvania case are discussed.     

民族区域自治法规在云南的贯彻执行

云南民族区域自治地方对民族区域自治法规的贯彻执行体现在以下几个方面其一,在选举自治机关过程中贯彻执行民族区域自治法规;其二,自治机关的立法过程;其三,自治机关与上级国家机关协商、监督、贯彻执行民族区域自治法规;其四,民族自治地方的行政、司法机关的执法过程.云南贯彻执行民族区域自治法规已取得可喜的成就,但也存在一些有待改进的问题.     

论法之难行之源

法之难行已是中国法律实际生活的显豁病症。二十年来产生数以百千万计的法律、法规和规章 ,但绝大多数难以实行。法之难行的病症不愈 ,法治国家建设和寄托于斯的其他事业 ,都将难能制胜或无以为继。为此需要探清法之难行的根源 ,以明救治之策。难行之根源出在立法、行政、司法、法学研究、历史传统等多方面。救治中国法之难行之症 ,需要察源下药。     

Hair as a specimen to document tetramethylene disulfotetramine exposure

Tetramethylene disulfotetramine (tetramine) is a rodenticide that has been banned for many years in China. Since 2005, inhabitants of a village in the Henan Province have been suffering from grand mal seizures. To investigate the possibility of tetramine as the cause, we developed a method to determine tetramine in human hair. Sample preparation involved external decontamination, frozen pulverization, and ultrasonication in 2 mL ethyl acetate in the presence of cocaine-d3 as an internal standard. The method exhibited good linearity; calibration curve was linear over a range of 0.1-20 ng/mg hair. The limit of detection for the assay was 0.05 ng/mg hair. Except for one subject (No. 4), all head and pubic hair samples were positive for tetramine. The concentrations of tetramine in pubic hair were significantly higher than those in the same subjects' head hair samples. Because of a long retention in body, segmental head hair analysis cannot provide an accurate exposure history of tetramine in the body.     

Important Development, Progress and Implementation of China＇s Criminal Defense System -Investigation and Analysis with Background of the New Criminal Procedural Law

新《刑事诉讼法》关于刑事辩护制度的修改、完善不限于“第四章辩护与代理”的范围，而是整体性、全方位的，贯穿、体现于《刑事诉讼法》的诸多方面。从某种程度上讲，这次《刑事诉讼法》再修改主要是围绕保障人权、完善刑事辩护制度、强化刑事辩护职能而展开的。本文拟从刑事辩护制度的基础性问题、条件性的辩护权利、手段性的辩护权利、保障性的辩护权利四个方面对刑事辩护制度的发展、进步做一次全面的梳理，并对下一步实施中的突出问题作出预测，提出期望。