The UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2001 and Retail Research Output

Knowledge creation processes in British Universities have been affected significantly by formal evaluations of research performance. The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2001 in the UK shows that retail research is based primarily in the business and management subject area and in selected institutions. There is a tension amongst institutional strategies to maximise assessment results and thus income, individual career paths, journal 'ratings' and the direction of research. The emerging focus on a North American model of research knowledge creation raises fundamental concerns covering the philosophy, methodology, techniques and topics of retail research in the UK.     

Does biotechnology have a role in the promotion of underutilised crops?

Rapidly developing biotechnology applications aimed at improving major crops receive large investments and could, in theory, play a role in the promotion of underutilised plant species in the tropics and subtropics, in order to address current and emerging challenges for agriculture. The application of such methods is, however, sometimes controversial, and the frequently considerable costs involved must be weighed against the limited resources available to develop underutilised species, as well as against the many alternative methods available for promotion. Through database searches, we take an evidence-based approach to assess whether there are clear examples where biotechnology has been used practically to enhance the cultivation of underutilised plants at a field level. We conclude that tissue culture and micropropagation techniques have proven useful, but for other applications benefits are generally unclear at present, although ongoing work suggests genomic and genetic modification approaches may in future be significant for a subset of underutilised species. Successful outcomes, however, appear to be limited by a lack of integrated thinking during the use of biotechnology methods. We review the particular limitations and risks associated with applying biotechnology to underutilised crops, including the negative consequences of technology centralisation. In addition, the specific actions needed to ensure that smallholder farmers in low-income countries better benefit during the use of biotechnology on underutilised species, by placing a stronger emphasis on partnerships and by proper monitoring of benefits along value chains, are described.     

Singapore share recommendations using technical analysis

Recent statistical studies of the Singapore Stock Exchange generally conclude that the market is weak-form efficient. This means that technical analysis or the study of past share prices cannot reliably forecast future prices and lead investors to returns which exceed the market. This article reports on a study of 292 technical analysis-based investment recommendations made over a five year period, November 1979 to April 1984, by a Singapore investment advisory firm. The objective was to test whether this firm was able to use technical analysis to select common share investments which would allow investors to earn an excess return. After adjusting for trading commissions, market trends, and risk, the recommended shares did not outperform the market. Thus, the results correspond with what would be expected in a weakly efficient market.     

THE ECONOMIC SCIENCE FICTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE: A FREE‐MARKET PERSPECTIVE ON THE STERN REVIEW AND THE IPCC

The Stern Review and the IPCC believe that anthropogenic climate change is a serious global threat and demands an urgent response. Examining the IPCC's projections of future climate change and Stern's estimates of its costs from a free‐market perspective shows that they are based on flawed methodological assumptions and reflect an excessively optimistic approach to knowledge of the future. The foundations of reliable knowledge for a sound policy framework have not been put in place.     

Conflicting stories of virtue in UK healthcare: bringing together organisational studies and ethics

In recent years, organisational theorists have been interested in the tensions faced by healthcare organisations. In this paper, these tensions are examined using the virtue approach to ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre. It is argued that although MacIntyre's framework shares many concerns with organisational studies, it supplements the analysis with a focus on moral content and evaluation. By providing moral evaluation of the stories told in organisations, an ethical analysis compels action on a basis that organisational studies does not. Nevertheless, it is the analysis of stories in organisation studies that provides the tools for taking action. The analysis presented here provides an example of how ethics and organisational studies can be brought together to provide a stronger analysis of organisational phenomena. Indeed, it provides support for Nielsen's position that organisational theory and ethics are co-dependent and suggests that greater attention should be paid to ethical concepts in the study of organisational phenomena.     

The circulation physiology of agroecosystems

This paper represents an effort to enlarge the understanding of the biophysical foundation of agroecosystemsby using an analogy with the circulation of the blood in the human body. The circulation function in the human body canbe represented as arterial pressure. The factors affecting arterial pressure in the human body have direct counterpartsin the cultivation-husbandry system. The relationship between circulation pressure and the factors affecting that pressurein the cultivation-husbandry system are similar to the relationship between the arterial pressure and factors affectingarterial pressure in the human body. Furthermore, circulation resistance in the cultivation-husbandry system can beshown to be analogous to the calculation of peripheral resistance in the human body by Poiseuille’s formula.     

American trade policy after the Kennedy Round

Not so long ago, Senator Dirksen, Republican, and his Democrat colleague, Senator Hartke, have placed before the US Senate a complete bunch of new restrictive bills on Imports, intending to cut all Imports by laying down reduced quotas. They were to shield all the branches of the US economy that have to compete keenly in the world's markets, against the impact of cheap foreign goods. These bills came not entirely surprising, as Immediately after the Kennedy Round a number of commentators were actuated by the fear lest the agreed tariff cuts should mobilise the protectionists in the US. INTERECONOMICS had occasion to talk about new problems of American trade policy with the Commercial Attaché Harris P. Dawson.