The Evolution of Knowledge and the Dynamics of an Industry Network

The paper moves a step forward in the direction of establishing a connection between the structure and evolution of knowledge bases and the structure and evolution of organizational forms in innovative activities in a science-intensive industry. The paper has an explicit focus on the dynamics of the network of collaborative agreements in R&D in the pharma/biotech industry after the “molecular biology revolution”. Using a comprehensive dataset, built by the authors integrating several sources in the industry, the dynamics of the network over time is extensively analyzed. With regards to network structure, it is found that, while the size of the network increases over time due to net flows of entry, its topological properties remain relatively unchanged. The evolution of the network has occurred without relevant deformations in the core-periphery profile. With regards to age-dependent propensity to collaborate, the paper finds that the extent of inter-generational collaboration is much more significant than intra-generational collaboration. In addition, the propensity of firms of a given generation to enter into collaboration with firms of a different generation increases with the distance between the two, while the total number of intra-generational collaborations decreases over time and, moreover, tends to decrease for most recent generations. In the paper a unitary and coherent explanation of the evidence is developed, coming to reveal the existence of a striking isomorphism between structural properties of the dynamics of knowledge and of the evolution of network structure. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

CONTROL: the extractive ecology of corn monoculture

This article tells the history of the industrial and biotechnological development of large-scale corn agriculture, from a new materialist perspective. Addressing the large-scale economy of industrial food production as a form of more-than-human configuration, it demonstrates how corn has been made into a quintessential commodity and factor of production for a consumption-based economy. Set within discourses around the climate crisis, this account critically assesses the Anthropocene and its advocacy for human accountability in regards to the exploitation of nonhuman matters. I ask: who is the Anthropos? How does it/he/she meet with its domesticated subjects, or rather makes them into domesticable materials? Telling the history of corn monoculture from a new materialist standpoint exposes this industry’s distribution of agency, power and control across a diversity of human and nonhuman actors. This is at the centre of this article’s three sections: (1) an argument for inscribing extractivism within new materialist literature, (2) an account of the industrialization of corn monoculture, exposing the industry’s main mechanisms and economic endeavours, as well as its ramifications with a biopolitics of invasion and (3) the biotechnological development of the industry and its shifts from a biopolitics of vegetal matter to an informational extractivism and a necropolitics of killable life. Thus I argue that if the industry of corn monoculture belongs to a broader network of detrimental industries characteristic of the Anthropocene, the geological Anthropos is not to be understood as synonymous with the human species, but as a very restrictive ecology of humans and nonhumans, including corporate, industrial, technoscientific and extractive actors. As such, the article emphasizes the moral necessity of rupturing with the narrative of the Anthropocene, a discourse better suited for supporting existing mechanisms of domination and exploitation constitutive of the economy of climate change.     

Reduction in Dietary Acrylamide Exposure—Impact of Potatoes with Low Acrylamide Potential

Acrylamide forms primarily from a reaction between reducing sugars (e.g., glucose and fructose) and an amino acid (asparagine, Asn) formed naturally in foods, including potatoes. This reaction occurs when carbohydrate‐rich foods are heated at temperatures above 120 °C. Multiple potato varieties were transformed with potato genomic DNA that results in down‐regulation of the expression of the asparagine synthetase‐1 gene (Asn1), significantly reducing synthesis of free Asn, and consequently lowering the potential to form acrylamide during cooking. These potatoes with low acrylamide potential (LAP) were tested in agronomic trials, and processed into French fries and potato chips. Decreased levels of acrylamide were measured in these cooked food products when derived from LAP potatoes compared with those derived from conventional potatoes. These reductions can be directly attributed to reduction in Asn levels in the LAP potatoes. The corresponding average reduction in exposure to acrylamide from French fry and potato chip consumption is estimated to be 65%, which would amount to approximately a 25% reduction in overall dietary exposure. Considering that children consume nearly three times more acrylamide than adults on a per kg body weight basis, they would experience the most impact from the reduced acrylamide associated with LAP potatoes. The potential public health impacts, in context of dietary acrylamide exposure reduction, are discussed in this study.     

东北农业大学生物技术专业建设历史与发展成效

生物技术是21世纪一门高新技术改造、整合提升的交叉性、综合性很强的新兴学科。我校是开设生物技术专业较早的农业院校之一。20年来,该专业在"理农结合、学科交叉、加强基础、重视创新"的办学理念的指导下不断壮大,为国家培养了大批优秀人才。文章总结了我校生物技术专业的建设历史与发展成果,为发展品牌专业建设提供了思路和范例。     

我国低碳生物技术发展的法律激励机制探索

低碳生物技术应用于能源与环境等领域将能缓解能源需求,改善生态环境,实现经济与社会的可持续发展。我国低碳生物技术的法律激励机制应体现在统筹规划与约束性目标、研发投入支持、财政与税收优惠、收购激励与政府采购以及培育和完善市场等方面。低碳生物技术发展不仅需要一整套规范的、系统的激励机制,而且还应落实到现实运作中,实现其高效性和有效性的统一。由此,需要政府在战略规划与计划、法律法规及其配套、产业管理与市场监管、经济与财税优惠等方面完善体制,也需要企业和市场理性发展,形成从制度设计到技术产业化的良性运行。     

论现代生物技术悲观主义

阐述了现代生物技术悲观主义的几种忧虑和恐惧 ,并对此作了评述。认为现代生物技术的高速发展必将在医药、农业、环保、食品、化工、电子等各种领域中发挥着重要作用。尽管现在还存在这样或那样的问题 ,但随着技术研究的深入发展 ,一定会解决问题 ,发挥优点 ,造福人类     

生物技术专业科教结合实践教学模式研究

实践教学是生物技术专业教学活动的重要组成部分,让学生亲身参与科学研究活动,是培养学生创新能力的有效方法.根据生物技术专业的特点并结合科研项目,对实践教学进行了教改研究,提出了将生物技术专业实践教学与科研相结合的创新教学模式.     

Biomedical Research and the Commercialization Agenda: A Review of main Considerations for Neuroscience

This article reviews a range of issues associated with the commercialization of biomedical research and speculates on how these issues might apply to the neuroscience context. Drawing on existing studies of the impact of research commercialization activities on various areas of biotechnology research, the authors explore normative benchmarks for assessing and resolving issues likely to arise from the commercialization of neuroscientific research, including such topics as patenting, marketing pressures, and representations of research prospects.     

Influence of Industrial communications on public perceptions of biotechnology

The biotech industry spends significant time and funds in confronting negative public perceptions concerning acceptance of various biotechnology‐derived products prior to their commercialization. It is generally assumed that greater public awareness of a technology increases the public's comfort level, so industrial communications would be expected to lead to public acceptance of the technology. However, this study finds that throughout the world, increased public awareness and understanding of biotechnology are correlated not only with a greater appreciation of its benefits but also with increased worries about the technology. In the United States, even though the public perceives there are significant risks associated with biotechnology, public acceptance of the technology is relatively high. This may be due to the early rapid growth of the biotech industry in the United States. The U.S. biotech industry initially played a major role in addressing societal issues associated with commercialization of biotechnology. A continuing, proactive stance on the part of the U.S. biotech industry to discuss the issues may be related to public acceptance of the technology and the disproportionate growth of the industry in the United States.     

生物技术专业创新实践教学模式

就新形势下如何培养应用创新型人才,在实验教学体系构建、教学方法改进、实验教学模式创新、产学研结合和实习基地建设等方面提出了新的探索思路。力求达到培养具有扎实的实验理论基础和较强实践操作技能的应用创新型人才的目标。