The book examines the current world trading regime and the prospects for freer trade in the future. It describes the trade negotiations known as the Uruguay Round which took place in the context of the GATT and which led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization at the end of 1994. The book contains a brief summary of the history of the negotiations and GATT rules in each case - drawing on the author's first-hand experience - but focuses more on the results of the negotiations themselves. It contains up to date information on advances in the trade field since the Round in such areas as telecoms and information technology. It discusses the main issues the WTO will have to confront in the future.
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The Bac Lieu Province in the Mekong Delta is part of the Cà Mau Peninsula and is an important foodgrowing area in Viet Nam. It has a population of 830,000 with approximately 116,000 farming families living on small parcels of land producing a range of commodities for food security and the export market. These farmers and aquaculturalists1 (together called producers in this report) are highly dependent on accessing the right quality water, fresh or saline or both, at the right time to grow their crops or raise their shrimp, crabs or fish. Water is delivered through an extensive network of canals and the intrusion of saline water into the area can be controlled on the southeastern side through the operation of sluice gates, a major investment in infrastructure undertaken by the Central Government of Viet Nam. In the early 2000s, there were conflicts over water use as shrimp aquaculturalists in particular began to see their supply of saline water being compromised. Also, many producers were living in poverty and in some areas inappropriate land use was leading to unsustainable futures. This project completed in 2007 and built on the work of two preceding projects2 is helping change that situation. What's more, this impact will continue to grow as the outputs are more widely applied. 1 The term 'aquaculturalist' is used to differentiate people who 'farm' fish from those who catch fish in the wild. 2 The two projects are Accelerating Poverty Elimination through Sustainable Resource Management funded by DFID and Increasing Water Productivity by Managing Land-water Interface: Effective Water Control for Solving Conflicts among Agriculture-Fisheries-Aquaculture in Coastal Zones funded by CGIAR. With inputs including (i) approximately US$679,000 over 3 years, 86% from the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), (ii) support from CPWF in training in impact pathway analysis and for faceto- face meetings between the Bangladesh and Viet Nam components of this project to share experiences and lessons, (iii) an existing water management model ready for further development, (iv) the scientific knowledge of many local and international experts, (v) the experience of a wide range of partners in water management and production systems, (vi) the active participation of the provincial and local governments, (vii) the agreement of producers to provide their businesses as laboratories, (viii) the agreements of other producers to provide their farms as control farms with a likely opportunity cost, and (ix) the participation of producer groups who shared their experiences and insights, this project: • produced an improved Vietnamese River Systems and Plains (VRSAP) model that now contributes to improved sluice gate operations to better meet producers' water needs; • used the model and other data to contribute to the development of the Bac Lieu People's Committee's Land Use Policy, which recognizes the benefits of diversification and the role of saline water in farming; and • developed and evaluated a successful participatory extension approach that assists producers select appropriate technologies (and reject others) based on on-farm demonstration and experimentation. On average, the demonstration site farms involved in the project made approximately US$250/ha/ year more than the controls (extrapolated from Ni et al. 2007). The producers interviewed believed the financial gain made a significant difference to their
This paper explores the role elite sport has played in the State Government of Victoria's (Australia) neoliberal agenda of creating an environment conducive to commercial activity. Adopting an urban entrepreneurial approach of selling the 'city' as an attractive place for cross-border investment, the state government has strategically invested public funds into major sporting events in Melbourne. Four specific sporting events were examined: i) construction and redevelopments of 'Melbourne Park' to host the Australian Open Tennis Championships; ii) hosting the 2006 Commonwealth Games; iii) acquisition of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix and continued political, corporate and media support for the event and; iv) construction of an urban football stadium. Newspaper reports and parliament transcripts between 1984 and 2014 were collected to highlight issues of contest in the 'sport city' in conjunction with a thematic analysis of interviews with influential cultural producers of the 'sport city' – most notably state premiers, members of parliament, CEOs of public sports trusts and newspaper journalists. Findings illustrate that the Victorian state has successively re-regulated a neoliberal urban entrepreneurial strategy, often preventing dissident groups from resisting neoliberal activities, and in Melbourne, sport operates as 'cultural glue' to establish the logic of neoliberalism in an embodied sense.
In: Armed forces & society: official journal of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society : an interdisciplinary journal, Band 42, Heft 4, S. 635-654
Objectives: In light of recent health policy, to examine factors which influence the public's willingness to consent to share their health information in a national electronic health record (EHR). Design: Data were collected in a national telephone survey in 2008. Respondents were presented with vignettes that described situations in which their health information was shared and asked if they would consent to such sharing. The subset, consisting of the 18 vignettes that covered proving care, was reanalysed in depth using new statistical methods in 2016. Setting: Adult population of New Zealand accessible by telephone landline. Participants: 4209 adults aged 18+ years in the full data set, 2438 of which are included in the selected subset. Main outcome measures: For each of 18 vignettes, we measured the percentage of respondents who would consent for their information to be shared for 2 groups; for those who did not consider that their records contained sensitive information, and for those who did or refused to say. Results: Rates of consent ranged from 89% (95% CI 87% to 92%) for sharing of information with hospital doctors and nurses to 51% (47% to 55%) for government agencies. Mixed-effects logistic regression was used to identify factors which had significant impact on consent. The role of the recipient and the level of detail influenced respondents' willingness to consent (p<0.0001 for both factors). Of the individual characteristics, the biggest impact was that respondents whose records contain sensitive information (or who refused to answer) were less willing to consent (p<0.0001). Conclusions: A proportion of the population are reluctant to share their health information beyond doctors, nurses and paramedics, particularly when records contain sensitive information. These findings may have adverse implications for healthcare strategies based on widespread sharing of information. Further research is needed to understand and overcome peoples' ambivalence towards sharing their information.
The Ministry of Mineral Resources (MMR) of the Greenland Government is acknowledged for supporting the field and analytical work in the Maniitsoq region, SW Greenland. ; Apatite is an accessory mineral that is frequently found in both igneous and clastic sedimentary rocks. It is conventionally considered to be characterized by a closure temperature range between 375 and 600 °C and hence has been employed to address mid-temperature thermochronology questions relevant to the reconstruction of thermal events in the middle to lower crust. However, questions remain as to whether apatite faithfully records thermally-activated volume diffusion profiles, or rather is influenced by recrystallization and new growth processes. We present a case study of two apatite samples from the Akia Terrane in Greenland that help chart some of the post magmatic history of this region. Apatite in a tonalitic gneiss has distinct U-enriched rims and its U-Pb apparent ages correlate with Mn chemistry, with a high Mn group yielding an age of c. 2813 Ma. The U-Pb and trace element chemistry and morphology support an interpretation in which these apatite crystals are originally igneous and record cooling after metamorphism, with subsequent generation of discrete new rims. Epidote observed in the sample implies a <600 °C fluid infiltration event associated with apatite rims. The second sample, from a granitic leucosome, contains apparently homogeneous apatite, however U-Pb analyses define two distinct discordia arrays with different common Pb components. An older, c. 2490 Ma, component is associated with elevated Sr, whereas a younger, c. 1800 Ma, component has lower Sr concentration. A depth profile reveals an older core with progressively younger ages towards a compositionally discrete late Paleoproterozoic rim. The chemical and age profiles do not directly correspond, implying different diffusion rates between trace elements and U and Pb. The variation in core ages is interpreted to reflect radiogenic-Pb loss from a metamorphic population during new rim growth. The younger, c. 1800 Ma U-Pb age is interpreted to date new apatite growth from a compositionally distinct reservoir driven by tectonothermal and fluid activity, consistent with regional mica Ar-Ar ages. Results from these two samples show that recrystallization, dissolution and regrowth processes likely formed the younger rim overgrowths, and at temperatures below those often considered to be closure temperatures for Pb diffusion in apatite. The results from these samples imply many apatite grains may not record simple thermally activated Pb diffusion profiles and cautions against inversion of apatite U-Pb data to thermal histories without detailed knowledge of the grain growth/alteration processes. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed
Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) are a key population affected by hepatitis C virus (HCV). Treatment options are improving and may enhance prevention; however access for PWID may be poor. The availability in the literature of information on seven main topic areas (incidence, chronicity, genotypes, HIV co-infection, diagnosis and treatment uptake, and burden of disease) to guide HCV treatment and prevention scale-up for PWID in the 27 countries of the European Union is systematically reviewed. Methods and Findings: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Library for publications between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2012, with a search strategy of general keywords regarding viral hepatitis, substance abuse and geographic scope, as well as topic-specific keywords. Additional articles were found through structured email consultations with a large European expert network. Data availability was highly variable and important limitations existed in comparability and representativeness. Nine of 27 countries had data on HCV incidence among PWID, which was often high (2.7-66/100 person-years, median 13, Interquartile range (IQR) 8.7–28). Most common HCV genotypes were G1 and G3; however, G4 may be increasing, while the proportion of traditionally 'difficult to treat' genotypes (G1+G4) showed large variation (median 53, IQR 43–62). Twelve countries reported on HCV chronicity (median 72, IQR 64–81) and 22 on HIV prevalence in HCV-infected PWID (median 3.9%, IQR 0.2–28). Undiagnosed infection, assessed in five countries, was high (median 49%, IQR 38–64), while of those diagnosed, the proportion entering treatment was low (median 9.5%, IQR 3.5–15). Burden of disease, where assessed, was high and will rise in the next decade. Conclusion: Key data on HCV epidemiology, care and disease burden among PWID in Europe are sparse but suggest many undiagnosed infections and poor treatment uptake. Stronger efforts are needed to improve data availability to guide an increase in HCV treatment among PWID.