This thesis considers the automatic acquisition of knowledge about discourse connectives. It focuses in particular on their semantic properties, and on the relationships that hold between them. There is a considerable body of theoretical and empirical work on discourse connectives. For example, Knott (1996) motivates a taxonomy of discourse connectives based on relationships between them, such ...

At least 40 QTL studies have been reported in pigs (Andersson et al., 1994 a,b; Andersson-Eklund et al., 1998; Beeckmann, 2000; Bidanel et al., 2001; Cassady et al., 2001; Casas-Carrillo et al, 1997; Ciobanu et al, 2001; De Koning et al., 1999; De Koning et al., 2000; De Koning et al., 2001a,b; Desautes et al., 2002; Edfors-Lilja et al., 1998; Geldermann et al., 1999; Grindflek et al., 2001; Ha...

Genetic modification of plants may result in unintended effects causing potentially adverse effects on the environment. A comparative safety assessment is therefore required by authorities, such as the European Food Safety Authority, in which the genetically modified plant is compared with its conventional counterpart. Part of the environmental risk assessment is a comparative field experiment ...

BACKGROUND Under permit from the National Biosafety Commission for the use of genetically modified organisms, releases of a genetically engineered self-limiting strain of Aedes aegypti (OX513A) were used to suppress urban pest Ae. aegypti in West Panama. Experimental goals were to assess the effects on a coexisting population of Ae. albopictus and examine operational parameters with relevance t...

Plant-based environmental remediation, or phytoremediation, has been widely pursued in recent years as a favorable clean-up technology and is an area of intensive scientific investigation. For the vast majority of field applications, vegetative 'phyto-crops' are selected specifically for their capacity for site decontamination and not for additional concurrent or post-remediation utility. By co...

Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony on the constitutional and legal issues surrounding H.112, a bill that would require the labeling of food and food products derived from genetically engineered (GE) organisms. My name is Michael Hansen and I am a senior scientist at Consumers Union (CU), the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, whose headquarters is located in Yonkers, N...

From the beginning of the human race people have been applying different methods to change the genetic material of either plants or animals in order to increase their yield as well as to improve the quality and quantity of food. Genetically modified organism (GMO) means an organism in which the genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural rec...

Laboratory-contained microcosms are important for studying the fate and survival of genetically engineered microorganisms. In this study, we describe a simple aquatic microcosm that utilizes survival chambers in a flowthrough or static renewal system. The model was used to study the survival of genetically engineered and wild-type strains of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas putida in the lake w...

INTRODUCTION Agriculture based on genetically modified organisms plays an increasingly important role in feeding the world population, which is evidenced by a considerable growth in the size of land under genetically modified crops (GM). Uncertainty and controversy around GM products are mainly due to the lack of accurate and reliable information, and lack of knowledge concerning the essence of...