Thesis (Ph. D.)--Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Herrera, Hector, Committee Member ; Cozzens, Susan, Committee Chair ; Rogers, Juan, Committee Member ; Shapira, Philip, Committee Member ; Bowman, Kirk, Committee Member.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in Environmental Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 415-441). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ99137

Ho Wing Yee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-123). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction / Chapter 1.1 --- Bioconversion --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Functional foods & quality improvement in fermentation Edible mushroom --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Substrates --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Edible mushroom --- p.6 / Chapter 1.5 --- Nutritional value of food and feed --- p.9 / Chapter 1.6 --- Protein digestibility --- p.16 / Chapter 1.7 --- Problem caused by fungal contamination --- p.17 / Chapter 1.8 --- Antioxidant --- p.18 / Chapter 1.9 --- Research objectives --- p.20 / Tables and figures --- p.21 / Chapter 2 --- Materials and Methods / Chapter 2.1 --- Materials --- p.32 / Chapter 2.2 --- Sample preparation --- p.33 / Chapter 2.3 --- Fungal growth measurement --- p.34 / Chapter 2.4 --- Proximate compositions --- p.34 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Moisture determination --- p.34 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Ash determination --- p.35 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Crude lipid determination --- p.35 / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Dietary fiber determination --- p.36 / Chapter 2.4.5 --- Crude protein determination --- p.38 / Chapter 2.4.6 --- Carbohydrate determination --- p.38 / Chapter 2.4.7 --- Glucose determination --- p.39 / Chapter 2.4.8 --- Chitin determination --- p.40 / Chapter 2.4.9 --- Phytic acid determination --- p.41 / Chapter 2.5 --- In vitro protein digestibility --- p.42 / Chapter 2.6 --- Aflatoxin determination --- p.43 / Chapter 2.7 --- Antioxidant ability --- p.45 / Chapter 2.7.1 --- Ferric reducing antioxidant powder (FRAP) assay --- p.45 / Chapter 2.7.2 --- Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) assay --- p.46 / Chapter 2.8 --- Statistical analysis --- p.47 / Table --- p.48 / Chapter 3 --- Results / Chapter 3.1 --- Mycelia growth --- p.49 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Growth diameter --- p.49 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Chitin content --- p.50 / Chapter 3.2 --- Weigh loss in sample preparation --- p.51 / Chapter 3.3 --- Proximate composition --- p.52 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Moisture --- p.52 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Ash --- p.52 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Crude lipid --- p.53 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Dietary fiber --- p.54 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- Crude protein --- p.55 / Chapter 3.3.6 --- Carbohydrate content --- p.56 / Chapter 3.3.7 --- Glucose content --- p.56 / Chapter 3.3.8 --- Phytic acid --- p.56 / Chapter 3.4 --- In vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) --- p.57 / Chapter 3.5 --- Aflatoxin --- p.53 / Chapter 3.6 --- Antioxidant ability --- p.58 / Chapter 3.6.1 --- Ferric reducing antioxidant powder (FRAP) assay --- p.58 / Chapter 3.6.2 --- Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) assay --- p.60 / Tables and figures --- p.62 / Chapter 4 --- Dissusions / Chapter 4.1 --- Mycelia growth --- p.89 / Chapter 4.2 --- Weigh loss in sample preparation --- p.90 / Chapter 4.3 --- Proximate composition --- p.90 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Moisture --- p.90 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Ash --- p.91 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Crude lipid --- p.92 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- Dietary fiber --- p.93 / Chapter 4.3.5 --- Crude protein --- p.96 / Chapter 4.3.6 --- Glucose concentration --- p.98 / Chapter 4.3.7 --- Phytic acid --- p.99 / Chapter 4.4 --- In vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) --- p.101 / Chapter 4.5 --- Aflatoxin --- p.102 / Chapter 4.6 --- Antioxidant activity --- p.103 / Chapter 4.7 --- Bioconversion ability --- p.105 / Chapter 4.8 --- Best substrate --- p.105 / Chapter 4.9 --- Functional foods --- p.106 / Chapter 4.10 --- Limitation of the methodology and future development --- p.107 / Table --- p.108 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.109 / References

This thesis examines relationships between science and technology and development, as de ned and manifested by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Kenya whose work involves agricultural biotechnologies. Non-governmental engagements with agricultural biotechnology in Kenya span technology production, promotion and resistance. The argument of this thesis is that through these engagements, and the ways that relationships between technology and development are manifested in these engagements, technological and political orders are merging in civil society. When technologies enter the spaces of civil society, spaces carved out by development practices, the agency of NGOs is contingent and contested. But at some scales, in some places, NGOs are performing functions usually reserved for states, markets and communities. Through push and pull between NGOs, biotechnologies are becoming ordered in Kenya: technologies are approved for research, capacity for research and biosafety is built, scienti c knowledge is generated and transferred, plant material is distributed to farmers. At the same time, social and political orders are formed in civil society that are intertwined with this technological ordering: organisations set up competing structures of representation for farmers; they build social networks for technology delivery and technology resistance; they set and protest the terms of collective decision-making by acting as de facto regulators. Patterns of legitimacy and authority are set and the ability to steer biotechnologies is at issue. Attempts to more democratically guide technologies, when seen as a case of public action more generally, have implications for the ability of Kenyans, as farmers and citizens, to shape the decisions that a ect their lives. By examining biotechnology through civil society, the thesis makes three contributions to knowledge. It proposes that the current development practices supporting NGOs engagements with technologies are creating an increased prominence, or rise, of technological NGOs in development. It provides empirical evidence of this rise in the form of an ethnographic exploration of NGOs in Kenya. Finally, it provides a way to examine the agency of NGOs by building on the new ethnography of NGOs and the co-production of knowledge and social order.

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for impacting decisions on agricultural biotechnology practices in food production among African policymakers. The research focused on three African countries, namely, South Africa, Malawi and Ghana. Taking into consideration the different stages and levels of engagement in biotechnology, these countries were assumed to be representative of the current heterogeneous environment of Africa regarding biotechnology adoption. Policymakers, primarily government officials, civil servants and activists, journalists, business leaders, religious leaders, farmers' leaders, and extension workers were involved as respondents and discussants in the study. Of the total number of 174 respondents, 69 were from Ghana, 76 from Malawi, and 29 from South Africa. The research instrument entitled "Communication Factors Affecting Africa Policymakers' Decisions about Agricultural Biotechnology" was designed to provide scales by which to measure understanding, knowledge, and perceptions of agricultural biotechnology, three important constructs of the overall study. These three constructs were used to design questions for 12 specific scales to measure African policymakers' socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, education level, occupation, geographic location); worldviews and values (moral values, labeling, regulation, consumers' rights, willingness to pay); information sources (interpersonal, print, and electronic forms); understanding of agricultural biotechnology practices; perceptions of agricultural biotechnology use in food production; and attitudes toward agricultural biotechnology policies. Significant differences occurred in policymakers' understanding of biotechnology, perceptions about biotechnology, and attitudes when compared by country of origin. Respondents from Malawi had significantly less knowledge about agricultural biotechnology, held significantly lower perceptions about agricultural biotechnology, and held significantly lesser attitudes about agricultural biotechnology than did respondents from Ghana or South Africa. No significant differences existed in policymakers' understanding, perceptions, or attitudes toward biotechnology when compared by gender. The study revealed that significant moderate positive relationships occurred between the dependent variables worldviews and values, and understanding, and attitudes. These associations suggested the existence of some level of complementarities between worldviews and values, and understanding, and attitudes of African policymakers toward biotechnology for agricultural development. Other findings showed significant moderate associations between the independent variable education level and worldviews and values, and low positive associations between occupation and worldviews and values, understanding, and attitudes toward biotechnology. On the other hand, no significant associations occurred between the dependent variables and gender or country of origin in this study. In conclusion, the study showed that a critical gap exists in the understanding of biotechnology between policymakers in Africa. Educating the African public in general and those of low educational backgrounds in particular, is strongly recommended. Taking into consideration the differences in understanding agricultural biotechnology, it is further suggested that a need exists to adopt a target group approach in educating Africa policymakers about biotechnology. Another recommendation resulting from this study is the need for close collaboration between university scientists and mass media professionals as a means for raising the public's levels of trust for media, as well as accessing university scientists to the societies which they serve.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in Political Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR46023

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This thesis examines the development and changing practices of governance in China by example of the evolution of policy development in agricultural biotechnology (especially in the case of genetically modified rice). In particular, the process of negotiation between the central government, scientific community, NGOs and the media are brought up to investigate the paradigmatic change in China's development that has been taking place over the last three decades of reform. By drawing on an STS perspective in tandem with social theories, it is argued that the governance of agri-biotech in China could be seen as a process of defining and redefining collective action problems by a widening range of policy actors. This approach is of special pertinence in studying China since its 'techno-nationalist' milieu and complicated and often inconsistent policy process seem to defy the concept of governance. The thesis traces the historical policy development over the governance of agri-biotech in China, and provides a panoramic view on how an increasing number of agents have participated in the process and thereby shaped the collective policy problem. National agri-biotech policy has developed in four distinct phases: an initial phase, marked by technological optimism and lack of regulation; a second, 'the millennium policy‘, distinguished by international pressure from WTO and the Cartagena Protocol; the third phase when scandals of GM rice leakage mobilised widespread public opposition to challenge the current expert policy system; the last stage of intensive policy development occurred since 2008 when global food crises led to the re-evaluation of the collective problem in terms of food security. The China story is not a mere repetition of the European experience in regards to GMO regulation, in that China is still a developing country caught between international forces of trade liberalisation and global biosafety governance, a conflict that is currently complicated in the transatlantic disputes over GMOs. The current policy ambivalence of China is under great pressure to solidify into solutions that can both protect local biodiversity and stand the challenge from international GMO trade. Finally, the opaque nature of China's political culture compromises the efficacy of policy intervention from below, making the policy negotiations an interesting test ground for the possibility of governance from below in the budding prospect of democratisation in China.

Abstract The biotechnology development in Taiwan has been doubted by a lot of people. Most people think it needs big amount investment, long-term research process and more manpower to enter this market. However, is this the only answer whether we can develop biotechnology in Taiwan or not. Developed biotechnology in Taiwan, the technology must be the soul, capital must be the blood and the law must be the structure to make the frame body work. Taiwan environment has his own suitable industry development, except the environment change otherwise it is impossible to develop the European and American style technology. The most pessimistic development of biotechnology in Taiwan in the past was too optimistic to expect the market. The more expectation, the more disappointment. Our government should take action and financial to improve the environment. Our agriculture researchers are blossom, from middle-reaches ¡V The world Vegetable Center, Agricultural Research & extension Station,until the lower reaches - farmers who equip with the first class agriculture technology. Because Taiwan is populous, it guides the livestock industry to be delicate and it accumulates a bunch of breed knowledge. Besides Taiwan has the third aqua farm in the world and it based on the subtropical zone that has the advantage of warn fish producing. All above are the advantage of developing biotechnology of Taiwan. Livestock technology uses reproduce technology, gene technology, ferment technology and biotechnology to proceed the reserve of type, modification of livestock, biotechnology pharmacy development, the To review the result of Taiwan Agriculture technology, Taiwan absolutely has it competition advantage at the international Agriculture technology field. Moreover, the appliance of biotechnology not only helps our economic development, but also upgrades our life quality. And it can solve the problem of pesticides remaining on the food and pollution in order to increase our healthy. Agriculture technology will be a star industry in Taiwan in the near future and it will make the agriculture to be perpetual development in Taiwan.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-99). Also available on the Internet.