RESEARCH COSTS: Canada to Begin Funding Overhead on Projects

Last week federal Finance Minister Paul Martin announced a $268 million outlay for future equipment awards provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), a $1.3 billion entity created in 1997 to rejuvenate labs in universities and research hospitals. The money is the first direct federal outlay for overhead costs, which up to now have been met by a combination of provincial operating grants to universities and federal transfer payments for postsecondary education. School administrators say it meets a desperate need.     

Federal regulation of local and sustainable food claims in Canada: a case study of Local Food Plus

Interest in purchasing local food from suppliers who follow sustainable practices is growing in Canada. Such suppliers wish to have their products recognized in the market so that price premiums might be received, and new markets developed. In response, the organization Local Food Plus (LFP) developed standards and a certification process to authenticate local and sustainable claims. LFP provides certification seals, and labeling provisions for qualifying producers and processors. However, given pre-existing national food labeling rules, it is not evident that existing regulations permit such claims. Using LFP as a case, this study examined whether current federal labeling rules might impede the marketing of local and sustainable claims. Key findings include that the use of the terms natural, sustainable, and local in panel language and on shelf-talkers could be contested; and that the absence of specific regulation of numerous pertinent terms means they can only be assessed against general fraud prevention regulations, resulting in case-by-case determinations of compliance. Sustainability food label approvals in Canada, based on these general provisions, have not always been favorable to sustainable producers and firms. Existing regulation of these potentially contested terms appears to be out of step with other policy-related developments at the federal level and / or conceptual developments in the field. Proposals are made for amending existing rules to better support local and sustainable claims.     

ECOLOGY: Forest Fire Plan Kindles Debate

Forest fires burning in the western United States have already scorched over 2.5 million hectares this summer. Now a federal proposal to prevent them by paying loggers to cut smaller trees is generating heat among ecologists, who say the approach may not be right for all forests--or all fires.     

Bioethics. Financial conflicts get more scrutiny in clinical trials

At a national conference on clinical research last week, the incoming head of the federal government's new Office for Human Research Protections, Greg Koski, surprised his audience by suggesting that some conflicts should be avoided. His support for the idea that scientists should have no financial ties to companies whose products they are testing hints at an upcoming shift in government rules that govern the relationship between scientists and the pharmaceutical industry. But most of the discussion at the conference revolved around questions of how to "manage" conflicts rather than do away with them.     

NATIONAL SECURITY: Relief, Rebukes Follow Agreement on Lee

What began as an explosive case of alleged nuclear espionage is expected to end quietly soon when physicist Wen Ho Lee walks free from an Albuquerque, New Mexico, courtroom after 9 months in jail. The ignominious collapse of the government's case and Lee's release have embarrassed federal prosecutors. However, the news was a relief to Asian-American researchers and others who say Lee's status as a suspect had heightened racial tensions at the national labs.     

SAVING KYOTO: Can the Kyoto Climate Treaty Be Saved From Itself?

The climate treaty being hammered out this month at The Hague may be doomed to failure, as numerous observers say the United States simply won't ratify any treaty that requires such wrenching reductions in carbon emissions, and if the United States bails out, the protocol is in very deep trouble. Some policy analysts think that by tweaking the rules, the United States could eventually sign on, but if they are tweaked too much, other countries may balk. The key, some say, will be keeping the treaty going now and rethinking its controversial goals later.     

地域文脉与环境设计立意——以芙蓉花园环境设计为例

以芙蓉花园环境设计为例,阐述了环境设计中设计的真正含义,即如何将具体环境地域文化的独特性融入到环境设计作品中去,从内容到形式都有所交代,做到虽然"法无定式",但"师出有源",设计真正是先"计"而后"设",使环境设计作品具有"特殊性".     

New values for federal science?

In one of the more interestinlg apologias to surface in the wake of President Nixon's reorganization of federal science policy apparatus, Williain 0. Baker, president of Bell Telephone Laboratories, in effect, argued for a "new federalism" in science and engineering. Testifying before the House Committee on Science and Astrontautics on 19 July Baker recalled that federal scienice struture and policy was shaped after World War II by the wartime experienice and helped produce extraordinary accoinplishments in military, space, and medical fields. In the following excerpts he arguies that the demands on federal science have changed and so must the system:     

论罗斯福新政时期的农业立法

1929~1933年爆发的经济危机使美国的农业遭受了沉重的打击,为了使国民经济渡过危机,新上任的美国总统罗斯福抛弃了过去联邦政府不干预经济的思想,主张联邦政府应当积极地干预和调控经济发展。在这种指导思想下制定了一系列新政立法,农业立法是其中的重要组成部分,其内容包括1933和1938年《农业调整法》等。新政时期的农业立法挽救了濒临破产的美国农业,确立了美国当代农业立法的一些基本制度,具有里程碑式的意义。     

国际新闻报道的国家民族观

世界上没有绝对的新闻自由和客观报道,新闻报道服从、服务于国家民族利益,有鲜明的国家民族性。在国际传媒市场新闻霸权依然存在的今天,坚持正确的国家民族观显得尤为重 要。在国际新闻报道中,必须主动出击,积极应对西方传媒对全球新闻的话语权垄断;要有 大局观念,把握好度,把可读性与国家民族观有机结合起来。     

HHS preparing to issue new Baby Doe rules

Since a U.S. district court struck down its initial "Baby Doe" regulations, the Department of Health and Human Services is preparing a second version of federal rules designed to ensure appropriate treatment of handicapped newborns with life-threatening but correctible conditions. While child advocacy groups support the regulations with some reservations about the intrusive style of enforcement, most medical organizations, led by the American Academy of Pediatrics, are strongly opposed. Both houses of Congress have become involved with the issue by proposing to include handicapped infants under the Child Abuse and Treatment Act.     

Exploring the conventionalization of organic dairy: trends and counter-trends in upstate New York

Stakeholders in traditional dairy-producing states in the upper Midwest and Northeast hope that the boom in the organic milk market will offer family-scale dairy farms a means to escape the cost-price squeeze of the conventional food system. However, recent trends in organic dairy raise questions about whether organic dairy is conventionalizing, which is to say it is coming to resemble the conventional sector as shown in disparities of power in the value chain that pressure all participants to adopt more industrial practices. This paper reports the results of an exploratory qualitative study of whether and how the organic milk value chain in upstate New York is conventionalizing. Findings lend some support to the conventionalization hypothesis in that organic milk from the beginning has been produced, processed, and marketed as a commodity, and the federal regulations governing organic dairy have facilitated the replication of this commodity-based system. However, there is also evidence that some producers are responding to these pressures not by intensifying, but by going deeper into the alternative organic model, forging more direct and local relationships along the value chain and embracing principles of the organic movement.     

Emerging diseases. New arenavirus blamed for recent deaths in California

Researchers say a new virus that appears to cause hemorrhagic fever is endemic--but at very low levels--in the western United States. Last week, the California Department of Health Services announced that a recently discovered virus carried by wood rats and pack rats killed a 14-year-old girl in April; moreover, the department says, there's strong evidence that the virus has caused at least two other deaths within the last 14 months. Experts say there is no cause for alarm, however, as they believe it to be a rare event.     

AEC to Referee, Not Promote, Industry

A major turnabout in the attitude of the Atomic Energy Commission toward the nuclear power industry was signaled last week by the ntew AEC chairman James R. Schlesinger. With patrician froideur, Schlesinger informed a mass gathering of the nuclear power industry at Bal Harbour, Florida, that from henceforth the AEC woLuld act as the referee of nuclear power, not its promoter. Saying he would dispense with the "anecdotes and clumsy jests" customary on such occasions, Schlesinger served notice on the nuclear banqueters that their cozy relationship with the AEC was at an end. The industry should not expect the AEC to fight its battles: it should take its own case to the public-as the Sierra Club does. Nor did the AEC intend to bend the rules in industry's favor. "We have had a fair amount of advice on how to evade the clear mandate of the federal courts. It is advice we did not think proper to accept," Schlesinger said. Even on matters of engineering quality, the diners were told they knew full well they had "reason to blush." Roused out of any postprandial euphoria by this glacial disdain, the industry representatives heard the new chairman announce the following radical upheavals in official AEC philosophy.     

Biotech policy draws flood of comments

The federal government's draft plan to regulate the biotechnology industry has elicited dozens of letters from researchers, industry, environmental groups, and others in response to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed role. Many commentators took issue with the EPA's intention to subject the products of genetic engineering to more rigorous scrutiny than conventionally manufactured products, a policy that the agency defends on the premise that genetically manipulated substances may pose more risks. Several respondents also claimed that products produced by genetic techniques not involving recombinant DNA are not "new," and therefore not subject to EPA's authority. Questions were asked as well about the need for the Biotechnology Science Board that the government plans to establish to oversee review committees in federal agencies involved with biotechnology research.     

Research policy. Report tracks federal funding in each state

Maryland is the most research-intensive state in the country, according to a new report that describes in unprecedented detail where the federal government's annual $80 billion research budget is spent. Its authors hope the report will raise public awareness about research as well as inform politicians.     

ARCHAEOLOGY: Arizona to Take High Road to Preservation?

State transportation officials have agreed to weigh a proposal to set aside a scientifically valuable parcel of a federal highway project for future research rather than excavating it and selling it to the highest bidder. Should it proceed, Arizona could set a new standard of stewardship for government agencies that determine the fate of ancient relics.     

Farmers helping farmers: Constituent services and the development of a grassroots farm lobby

Two major episodes of farm protest have occurred in the past decade. In each case, protesting farmers have chosen to create new farm organizations rather than express their grievances through one of many existing farm interest groups. The result has been the development of a durable grassroots farm lobby, a hybrid mode of exercising political influence that combines features of interest group lobbying and social movement protest. The first episode saw the mobilization of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), a nation-wide protest organization devoted to achieving a federal guarantee of parity prices. When AAM's attempt to change federal farm policy failed, it was unable to sustain a high level of member mobilization or organizational activity. This failure is attributed to the lack of a stable organizational structure, the lack of durable membership incentives, and the counterproductive effects of disruptive protest tactics. The second episode of protest occurred in reaction to the farm-debt crisis of the 1980s. Protesting farmers organized numerous crisis groups to provide emergency services to financially distressed farmers. The crisis groups coalesced into the National Save the Family Farm Coalition (NSFFC) in order to exert influence over federal farm policy. It is argued that this coalition structure, along with membership incentives provided by crisis groups through their constituent service programs, may allow this latest farm movement to exert more considerable and durable influence over federal farm policy than AAM was able to do in the late 1970s. The problems of maintaining a national coalition of grassroots groups are discussed and evaluated.     

Research misconduct. Texas scientist admits falsifying results

A University of Texas (UT) immunologist has admitted to federal officials that he falsified research results over at least a 5-year period, leaving a trail of retracted papers and disgruntled collaborators. The scientist, who resigned and has been barred from receiving federal research grants, was found to have repeatedly duped colleagues by spiking test tubes with doses of a radioactive marker that produced positive results, according to detailed reports by UT and federal investigators.     

Clinical trial stirs legal battles

A lawsuit filed in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1982 by two private ophthalmologists and seven prospective patients charges a group of academic physicians with attempting to monopolize radial keratotomy, a surgical procedure for correcting myopia, by labeling it experimental and urging restraint in its use. The parties have agreed to a settlement involving a payment of $250,000 by the defendants and a statement that the procedure is effective in qualified patients and should no longer be considered experimental. A second suit, brought by nine physicians in federal court in Chicago in June 1984, accuses the American Academy of Ophthamology of attempting to control the procedure. The broader issue at stake is how new surgical prdocedures should be evaluated before they are brought into widespread use. In the case of radial kerototomy, a large-scale clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute is proceeding as planned despite the legal controversy.