Journal articles on the topic 'Marketing Bioinformatics'

Abstract The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (https://www.sib.swiss) creates, maintains and disseminates a portfolio of reliable and state-of-the-art bioinformatics services and resources for the storage, analysis and interpretation of biological data. Through Expasy (https://www.expasy.org), the Swiss Bioinformatics Resource Portal, the scientific community worldwide, freely accesses more than 160 SIB resources supporting a wide range of life science and biomedical research areas. In 2020, Expasy was redesigned through a user-centric approach, known as User-Centred Design (UCD), whose aim is to create user interfaces that are easy-to-use, efficient and targeting the intended community. This approach, widely used in other fields such as marketing, e-commerce, and design of mobile applications, is still scarcely explored in bioinformatics. In total, around 50 people were actively involved, including internal stakeholders and end-users. In addition to an optimised interface that meets users' needs and expectations, the new version of Expasy provides an up-to-date and accurate description of high-quality resources based on a standardised ontology, allowing to connect functionally-related resources.

Nowadays, Biclustering is one of the most widely used machine learning techniques to discover local patterns in datasets from different areas such as energy consumption, marketing, social networks or bioinformatics, among them. Particularly in bioinformatics, Biclustering techniques have become extremely time-consuming, also being huge the number of results generated, due to the continuous increase in the size of the databases over the last few years. For this reason, validation techniques must be adapted to this new environment in order to help researchers focus their efforts on a specific subset of results in an efficient, fast and reliable way. The aforementioned situation may well be considered as Big Data context. In this sense, multiple machine learning techniques have been implemented by the application of Graphic Processing Units (GPU) technology and CUDA architecture to accelerate the processing of large databases. However, as far as we know, this technology has not yet been applied to any bicluster validation technique. In this work, a multi-GPU version of one of the most used bicluster validation measure, Mean Squared Residue (MSR), is presented. It takes advantage of all the hardware and memory resources offered by GPU devices. Because of to this, gMSR is able to validate a massive number of biclusters in any Biclustering-based study within a Big Data context.

2013 marked the 250th anniversary of the presentation of Bayes’ theorem by the philosopher Richard Price. Thomas Bayes was a figure little known in his own time, but in the 20th century the theorem that bears his name became widely used in many fields of research. The Bayes theorem is the basis of the so-called Bayesian methods, an approach to statistical inference that allows studies to incorporate prior knowledge about relevant data characteristics into statistical analysis. Nowadays, Bayesian methods are widely used in many different areas such as astronomy, economics, marketing, genetics, bioinformatics and social sciences. This study observed that a number of authors discussed recent advances in techniques and the advantages of Bayesian methods for the analysis of epidemiological data. This article presents an overview of Bayesian methods, their application to epidemiological research and the main areas of epidemiology which should benefit from the use of Bayesian methods in coming years.

In this journal we discuss the relevant security threats, vulnerabilities and prominent techniques to securing data lake. Over the last few years, Big Data solutions to data processing have made remarkable strides in the how we interpret data. Because of its ubiquitous nature and ability to handle various data types, it has become a valuable tool and asset to many other fields including bioinformatics solutions, marketing solutions, and social media. Ethical infractions also play a role in data processing and because of this, it is critical that comprehensive security solutions are determined and enforced under the appropriate conditions. Although modern security techniques are well developed, they still leave room for scrutiny as vulnerabilities continue to unfold. In this paper, we will examine and compare modern ethical exploit techniques as well ass techniques to promote greater authentication and overall perimeter security. The scrutinization of the current methods met through exploitation, be it physical or conceptive, is imperative in defining the understanding and verification of definite secure solutions. Â

Text annotation is the process of identifying the sense of a textual segment within a given context to a corresponding entity on a concept ontology. As the bag of words paradigm’s limitations become increasingly discernible in modern applications, several information retrieval and artificial intelligence tasks are shifting to semantic representations for addressing the inherent natural language polysemy and homonymy challenges. With extensive application in a broad range of scientific fields, such as digital marketing, bioinformatics, chemical engineering, neuroscience, and social sciences, community detection has attracted great scientific interest. Focusing on linguistics, by aiming to identify groups of densely interconnected subgroups of semantic ontologies, community detection application has proven beneficial in terms of disambiguation improvement and ontology enhancement. In this paper we introduce a novel distributed supervised knowledge-based methodology employing community detection algorithms for text annotation with Wikipedia Entities, establishing the unprecedented concept of community Coherence as a metric for local contextual coherence compatibility. Our experimental evaluation revealed that deeper inference of relatedness and local entity community coherence in the Wikipedia graph bears substantial improvements overall via a focus on accuracy amelioration of less common annotations. The proposed methodology is propitious for wider adoption, attaining robust disambiguation performance.

Data clustering has found significant applications in various domains like bioinformatics, medical data, imaging, marketing study and crime analysis. There are several types of data clustering such as partitional, hierarchical, spectral, density-based, mixture-modeling to name a few. Among these, partitional clustering is well suited for most of the applications due to the less computational requirement. An analysis of various literatures available on partitional clustering will not only provide good knowledge, but will also lead to find the recent problems in partitional clustering domain. Accordingly, it is planned to do a comprehensive study with the literature of partitional data clustering techniques. In this paper, thirty three research articles have been taken for survey from the standard publishers from 2005 to 2013 under two different aspects namely the technical aspect and the application aspect. The technical aspect is further classified based on partitional clustering, constraint-based partitional clustering and evolutionary programming-based clustering techniques. Furthermore, an analysis is carried out, to find out the importance of the different approaches that can be adopted, so that any new development in partitional data clustering can be made easier to be carried out by researchers.

The past decade has seen many new developments impacting the intellectual property system. The introduction of big data analytics has transformed the fields of biotechnology and bioinformatics while ushering in major advances in drug development, clinical practices, and medical financing. The arrival of biologics and personalized medicines has also revolutionized the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, the emergence of bilateral, regional, and plurilateral trade agreements have raised serious, and at times difficult, questions concerning the evolution of domestic and international intellectual property standards. One topic linking all three developments together concerns the establishment of international standards to protect clinical trial data that have been submitted to regulatory authorities for the marketing approval of pharmaceutical products. During the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), for example, the protection of clinical trial data submitted for the marketing approval of biologics was highly contentious. Although the United States’ withdrawal in January 2017 has since placed the TPP Agreement and its data exclusivity provisions for pharmaceuticals and biologics on life support, the debate on the protection of clinical trial data will continue and will emerge in future bilateral, regional, and plurilateral trade negotiations, including the renegotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Part I of this Article reviews the protection of clinical trial data under Article 39.3 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Even though the provision covers both pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products, this Article focuses only on the former. Part II examines the additional protection clinical trial data have received through TRIPS-plus bilateral, regional, and plurilateral trade agreements. Part III outlines five specific recommendations to help advance the debate on such protection in the age of big data, biologics, and plurilateral trade agreements.

Molecular docking is a process through which small molecules are docked into the macromolecular structures for scoring its complementary values at the binding sites. It is a vibrant research area with dynamic utility in structure-based drug-designing, lead optimization, biochemical pathway and for drug designing being the most attractive tools. Two pillars for a successful docking experiment are correct pose and affinity prediction. Each program has its own advantages and drawbacks with respect to their docking accuracy, ranking accuracy and time consumption so a general conclusion cannot be drawn. Moreover, users don’t always consider sufficient diversity in their test sets which results in certain programs to outperform others. In this review, the prime focus has been laid on the challenges of docking and troubleshooters in existing programs, underlying algorithmic background of docking, preferences regarding the use of docking programs for best results illustrated with examples, comparison of performance for existing tools and algorithms, state of art in docking, recent trends of diseases and current drug industries, evidence from clinical trials and post-marketing surveillance are discussed. These aspects of the molecular drug designing paradigm are quite controversial and challenging and this review would be an asset to the bioinformatics and drug designing communities.

The classification of multivariate time-varying data finds application in several fields, such as economics, finance, marketing research, psychometrics, bioinformatics, medicine, signal processing, pattern recognition, etc. In this paper, by considering an exploratory formalization, we propose different unsupervised clustering models for multivariate data time arrays (objects×quantitative variables×times). These models can be classified in two different approaches: the cross sectional and the longitudinal approach. In the first case, after the objects, observed at each time, have been classified, comparison among the classifications made in different time instants will be done. In the second approach, we cluster the time trajectories of the objects; then, we obtain only one classification by comparing the instantaneous and evolutive features of the trajectories of the objects. In particular, in this work, the second approach is analyzed in detail, with reference to the so-called single and double step procedures. Geometric, correlative, instantaneous, evolutive and trend characteristics of the multivariate time arrays are taken into account in the different proposed clustering models. Furthermore, the fuzzy approach, that is particularly suitable in the dynamic classification problem, has been considered. Extensions of a cluster-validity criterion for the proposed fuzzy dynamic clustering models are also suggested. A socio-economic example concludes the paper.

Wide use of internet generates huge data which needs proper organization leading to text categorization. Earlier it was found that a document describes one category. Soon it was realized that it can describe multiple categories simultaneously. This scenario reveals the use of multi-label classification, a supervised learning approach, which assigns a predefined set of labels to an object by looking at its characteristics. Earlier used in text categorization, but soon it became the choice of researchers for wide applications like marketing, multimedia annotation, bioinformatics. Two most common approaches for multi-label classification are transformation which takes the benefit of existing single label classifiers preceded by converting multi-label data to single label, or an adaptation which designs classifiers which handle multi-label data directly. Another popular approach is ensemble of multiple classifiers taking votes of all. Other approaches are also available namely algorithm independent and algorithm dependent approach. Based on results produced, suitable metric is used for example or label wise evaluation which depends on whether prediction is binary or ranking. Every approach offers benefits and issues like loss of label dependency in transformation, complexity in case of adaptation, improvement in results using ensemble which should be considered during design of underlying application.

Biotechnology is an essential tool for the sustainable exploitation of marine resources, although the full development of their potential is complicated by a series of cognitive and technological limitations. Thanks to an innovative systematic approach that combines the meta-analysis of 620 articles produced worldwide with 29 high TRL (Technology Readiness Level) European funded projects, the study provides an assessment of the growth prospects of blue biotechnologies, with a focus on pharmaceutical and food applications, and the most promising technologies to overcome the main challenges in the commercialization of marine products. The results show a positive development trend, with publications more than doubled from 2010 (36) to 2019 (70). Biochemical and molecular characterization, with 150 studies, is the most widely used technology. However, the emerging technologies in basic research are omics technologies, pharmacological analysis and bioinformatics, which have doubled the number of publications in the last five years. On the other hand, technologies for optimizing the conditions of cultivation, harvesting and extraction are central to most business models with immediate commercial exploitation (65% of high-TRL selected projects), especially in food and nutraceutical applications. This research offers a starting point for future research to overcome all those obstacles that restrict the marketing of products derived from organisms.

Each passing day data is getting multiplied. It is difficult to extract useful information from such big data. Data Mining is used to extract useful information. Data mining is used in majorly all fields like healthcare, marketing, social media platforms and so on. In this paper, data is loaded and preprocessed by dealing with some missing values. The dataset used is of Airbnb, the platform used for lodging and tourism industry. Analyzing the data by plotting correlation using spearman method. Further, applying PCA and Support Vector Machine classification technique on the dataset. There are various applications of SVM, it is used in face-detection, text and hypertext categorization, classification of images, bioinformatics and so on. SVM has high dimensional input space, sparse document vectors and regularization parameters therefore it is appropriate to use SVM. Cross-validation gives more accurate result. The dataset is divided into folds. The end product is the test set which is similar to full dataset. Confusion matrix is evaluated, grid approach is followed for building the matrix at various seeds and kernels (RBF, Polynomial). The aim of this research is to see which is the best kernel for the dataset.

In today’s competitive landscape innovation in biotechology is a necessity as there is a continuous increase in chronic diseases globally such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and hepatitis B that is driving this demand. Biotechnology is one of the fastest growing industries with a growing demand for precision medicine and biosimilars, with bioinformatics expected to experience exponential growth in the coming years as a result of substantial innovation in the field. Innovation gives biotechnology companies the opportunity to grow faster and more competitive and ultimately influence the direction of the industry by developing drugs, medicines and therapeutics as well as environmentally friendly chemicals, fuels and materials that address the growing needs of society. Despite the continuous need for innovation in biotechnology, companies are influenced by a number of issues, in the development and commercialization of their innovations. In this paper the focus is on regulation and market influences on innovation in biotechnology. First, the influence of regulation and governments on innovation in biotechnology is discussed. Second, examines the role of marketing on innovation in biotechnology. Third, the impact of market and patient analysis on innovation in biotechnology is examined and a framework is proposed. Following that final conclusions are drawn.

In preparation for a legal implementation of EU-regulation 1829/2003, the Norwegian Environment Agency (former Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management) has requested the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) to give final opinions on all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union under Directive 2001/18/EC or Regulation 1829/2003/EC within the Authority’s sectoral responsibility. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has therefore, by letter dated 13 February 2013 (ref. 2012/150202), requested the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) to carry out scientific risk assessments of 39 GMOs and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union. The request covers scope(s) relevant to the Gene Technology Act. The request does not cover GMOs that VKM already has conducted its final risk assessments on. However, the Agency requests VKM to consider whether updates or other changes to earlier submitted assessments are necessary.
 MON810 notification C/F/95/12-02 is approved under Directive 90/220/EEC for cultivation, seed production, import and processing into feeding stuffs and industrial purposes since 22 April 1998 (Commission Decision 98/294/EC). In December 1997, food and food ingredients derived from the progeny of maize line MON810 were notified under Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 258/97 on novel foods and novel food ingredients. In addition, existing food and feed products containing, consisting of or produced from MON810 were notified according to Articles 8 and 20 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 and were placed in the Community Register in 2005. 
 Three applications for renewal of the authorisation for continued marketing of (1) existing food and food ingredients produced from MON810; (2) feed consisting of and/or containing maize MON810, and MON810 for feed use (including cultivation); and (3) food and feed additives, and feed materials produced from maize MON810 within the framework of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 were submitted in 2007. 
 Maize MON810 has previously been assessed by the VKM GMO Panel commissioned by the Norwegian Environment Agency in connection with the national finalisation of the procedure of the notification C/F/95/12/02 (VKM 2007a,b). In addition, MON810 has been evaluated by the VKM GMO Panel as a component of several stacked GM maize events (VKM 2005a,b,c, VKM 2007c, VKM 2008, VKM 2009, VKM 2012a). Due to the publication of new scientific literature and updated guidance for food/feed and environmental risk assessment of genetically modified plants, the VKM GMO Panel has decided to deliver an updated risk assessment of MON810.
 The updated risk assessment of the maize MON810 is based on information provided by the applicant in the notification C/F/95/12/02 and application EFSA/GMO/RX/MON810, and scientific comments from EFSA and other member states made available on the EFSA website GMO Extranet. The risk assessment also considered other peer-reviewed scientific literature as relevant. 
 The VKM GMO Panel has evaluated MON810 with reference to its intended uses in the European Economic Area (EEA), and according to the principles described in the Norwegian Food Act, the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms, and Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed. The VKM GMO panel has also decided to take account of the appropriate principles described in the EFSA guidelines for the risk assessment of GM plants and derived food and feed (EFSA 2006, 2011a), the environmental risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2010), and the selection of comparators for the risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2011b). 
 The scientific risk assessment of maize MON810 includes molecular characterisation of the transformation process, vector construction, expression, inheritance and stability of the transgene construct, comparative assessment of agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, nutritional assessments, toxicology and allergenicity, unintended effects on plant fitness, potential for gene transfer, interactions between the GM plant and target and non-target organisms and effects on biogeochemical processes.
 It is emphasized that the VKM mandate does not include assessments of contribution to sustainable development, societal utility and ethical considerations, according to the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and Regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act. These considerations are therefore not part of the risk assessment provided by the VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms. 
 The genetically modified maize MON810 was developed to provide protection against certain lepidopteran target pests, including European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) and species belonging to the genus Sesamia. Protection is achieved through expression in the plant of the insecticidal Cry protein, Cry1Ab, derived from Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. kurstaki, a common soil bacterium. 
 Molecular Characterisation:
 Appropriate analysis of the integration site including flanking sequences and bioinformatics analyses have been performed to analyse the construct integrated in the GM plant. Updated bioinformatics analyses revealed that one ORF shared sequence similarity to a putative HECT-ubiquitin ligase protein. 
 The VKM GMO Panel found no safety implications from the interruption of this gene sequence. Analyses of leaf, grains, whole plant tissue and pollen from the maize MON810 demonstrated that the Cry1Ab protein is expressed at very low levels in all tissues tested and constitute less than 0.001% of the fresh weight in each tissue. The cry1Ab gene is the only transgene expressed in line MON810 and is expressed the highest in leaves. The stability of the genetic modification has been demonstrated over several generations.
 Event MON810 and the physical, chemical and functional characteristics of the proteins have previously been evaluated by The VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms, and considered satisfactory (VKM 2007a,b).
 Comparative Assessment:
 Compositional assessments were performed using the principles and analytes outlined in the OECD consensus document for maize composition (OECD 2002). For maize MON810 grain and forage, VKM previously concluded, based on data from risk assessments and field trials as presented in notification MON810 (C/F/95/12/02) and application NK603 x MON810 (EFA/GMO/UK/2004/1), MON 863 x MON810 (EFSA/GMO/DE/2004/03), MON863xMON810x NK603 (EFSA/GMO/BE/2004/07) and MON 88017 x MON810 (EFSA/GMO/ CZ/2006/33), that maize MON810 is compositionally similar to the non-GM counterparts and conventional maize varieties, except for the new trait (VKM 2005a,b,c, 2007a,b,c).
 Comparative analyses of data from field trials located at representative sites and environments in the USA and Europe indicate that maize MON810 is agronomically and phenotypically equivalent to the conventional counterpart and commercially available reference varieties, with the exception of the lepidopteran-protection trait, conferred by the expression of the Cry1Ab protein. The field evaluations support a conclusion of no phenotypic changes indicative of increased plant weed/pest potential of MON810 compared to conventional maize. Evaluations of ecological interactions between maize MON810 and the biotic and abiotic environment indicate no unintended effects of the introduced trait on agronomic and phenotypic characteristics. 
 Food and Feed Safety Assessment:
 Based on current knowledge, there is no reason to assume that the characteristics of processed products derived from maize MON810 would be different from processed products derived from nonGM maize. The compositional and nutritional equivalence of MON810 to conventional non-GM maize varieties is supported by several animal studies.
 Acute oral toxicity tests have not indicated any toxicity related to the Cry1Ab protein from Bacillus thuringiensis. Cry1Ab is readily degraded in simulated gastric fluids and no adverse health effects have been reported related to maize MON810 from whole food feeding studies performed on rats, broilers, pigs or dairy cows. Some studies on Atlantic salmon have however indicated possible immunological reactions related to MON810 in fish feed. Bioinformatics analyses show no resemblance of the Cry1Ab protein to known toxins or allergens. Cry1Ab has not been shown to cause IgE mediated allergic reactions and is considered a non-allergenic by EFSA. Some studies have however indicated a potential role of Cryproteins as adjuvants in allergic reactions (VKM 2012b). 
 Environmental Risk:
 There are no reports of the target lepidopteran species attaining pest status on maize in Norway. Since there are no Bt-based insecticides approved for use in Norway, and lepidopteran pests have not been registered in maize, issues related to resistance evolution in target pests are not relevant at present for Norwegian agriculture.
 Published scientific studies show no or negligible adverse effects of Cry1Ab protein on non-target arthropods that live on or in the vicinity of maize plants. Cultivation of maize MON810 is not considered to represent a threat to the prevalence of red-listed species in Norway.
 Few studies have been published examining potential effects of Cry1Ab toxin on ecosystems in soil, mineralization, nutrient turnover and soil communities. Some field studies have indicated that root exudates and decaying plant material containing Cry proteins may affect population size and activity of rhizosphere organisms (soil protozoa and microorganisms). Most studies conclude that effects on soil microorganisms and microbial communities are transient and minor compared to effects caused by agronomic and environmental factors. However, data are only available from short term experiments and predictions of potential long term effects are difficult to deduce.
 Few studies have assessed the impact of Cry proteins on non-target aquatic arthropods and the fate of these proteins in senescent and decaying maize detritus in aquatic environments. However, exposure of non-target organisms to Cry proteins in aquatic ecosystems is likely to be very low, and potential exposure of Bt toxins to non-target organisms in aquatic ecosystems in Norway is considered to be negligible. 
 Maize is the only representative of the genus Zea in Europe, and there are no cross-compatible wild or weedy relatives outside cultivation with which maize can hybridise and form backcross progeny. Vertical gene transfer in maize therefore depends on cross-pollination with other conventional or organic maize varieties. In addition, unintended admixture of genetically modified material in seeds represents a possible way for gene flow between different crop cultivations. The risk of pollen flow from maize volunteers is negligible under Norwegian growing conditions. 
 In addition to the data presented by the applicant, the VKM GMO Panel is not aware of any scientific report of increased establishment and spread of maize MON810 and any change in survival (including over-wintering), persistence and invasiveness capacity. Because the general characteristics of maize MON810 are unchanged, insect resistance are not likely to provide a selective advantage outside cultivation in Norway. 
 Since MON810 has no altered agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, except for the specific target pest resistance, the VKM GMO Panel is of the opinion that the likelihood of unintended environmental effects due to the establishment and survival of maize MON810 will be no different to that of conventional maize varieties in Norway.
 Overall Conclusion:
 The VKM GMO Panel has not identified toxic or altered nutritional properties of maize MON810 or its processed products compared to conventional maize. Based on current knowledge, it is also unlikely that the Cry1Ab protein will increase the allergenic potential of food and feed derived from maize MON810 compared to conventional maize varieties. The VKM GMO Panel likewise concludes that cultivation of maize MON810 is unlikely to have any adverse effect on the environment and agriculture in Norway.

In preparation for a legal implementation of EU-regulation 1829/2003, the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) has been requested by the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management to conduct final environmental risk assessments for all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union under Directive 2001/18/EC or Regulation 1829/2003/EC. The request covers scope(s) relevant to the Gene Technology Act. The request does not cover GMOs that VKM already has conducted its final risk assessments on. However, the Directorate requests VKM to consider whether updates or other changes to earlier submitted assessments are necessary.
 MON810 notification C/F/95/12-02 is approved under Directive 90/220/EEC for cultivation, seed production, import and processing into feeding stuffs and industrial purposes since 22 April 1998 (Commission Decision 98/294/EC). In December 1997, food and food ingredients derived from the progeny of maize line MON810 were notified under Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 258/97 on novel foods and novel food ingredients. In addition, existing food and feed products containing, consisting of or produced from MON810 were notified according to Articles 8 and 20 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 and were placed in the Community Register in 2005. 
 Three applications for renewal of the authorisation for continued marketing of (1) existing food and food ingredients produced from MON810; (2) feed consisting of and/or containing maize MON810, and MON810 for feed use (including cultivation); and (3) food and feed additives, and feed materials produced from maize MON810 within the framework of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 were submitted in 2007. 
 Maize MON810 has previously been assessed by the VKM GMO Panel commissioned by the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management in connection with the national finalisation of the procedure of the notification C/F/95/12/02 (VKM 2007a,b). In addition, MON810 has been evaluated by the VKM GMO Panel as a component of several stacked GM maize events (VKM 2005a,b,c, VKM 2007c, VKM 2008, VKM 2009, VKM 2012). Due to the publication of updated guidelines for environmental risk assessments of genetically modified plants and new scientific literature, the VKM GMO Panel has decided to deliver an updated environmental risk assessment of MON810.
 The environmental risk assessment of the maize MON810 is based on information provided by the applicant in the notification C/F/95/12/02 and application EFSA/GMO/RX/MON810, and scientific comments from EFSA and other member states made available on the EFSA website GMO Extranet. The risk assessment also considered other peer-reviewed scientific literature as relevant. 
 The VKM GMO Panel has evaluated MON810 with reference to its intended uses in the European Economic Area (EEA), and according to the principles described in the Norwegian Food Act, the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms, and Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed. The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety has also decided to take account of the appropriate principles described in the EFSA guidelines for the risk assessment of GM plants and derived food and feed (EFSA 2006, 2011a), the environmental risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2010), the selection of comparators for the risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2011b), and for the post-market environmental monitoring of GM plants (EFSA 2006, 2011c). 
 The scientific risk assessment of maize MON810 include molecular characterisation of the inserted DNA and expression of the target protein, comparative assessment of agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, unintended effects on plant fitness, potential for gene transfer, interactions between the GM plant and target and non-target organisms, effects on biogeochemical processes and evaluations of the post-market environmental plan.
 In line with its mandate, VKM emphasised that assessments of sustainable development, societal utility and ethical considerations, according to the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and Regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, shall not be carried out by the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms. 
 The genetically modified maize MON810 was developed to provide protection against certain lepidopteran target pests, including European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) and species belonging to the genus Sesamia. Protection is achieved through expression in the plant of the insecticidal Cry protein, Cry1Ab, derived from Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. kurstaki, a common soil bacterium. 
 Molecular characterisation Appropriate analysis of the integration site including flanking sequences and bioinformatics analyses have been performed to analyse the construct integrated in the GM plant. Updated bioinformatics analyses revealed that one ORF shared sequence similarity to a putative HECT-ubiquitin ligase protein. 
 The VKM GMO Panel found no safety implications from the interruption of this gene sequence. Analyses of leaf, grains, whole plant tissue and pollen from the maize MON 810 demonstrated that the Cry1Ab protein is expressed at very low levels in all tissues tested and constitutes less than 0.001% of the fresh weight in each tissue. The cry1Ab gene is the only transgene expressed in line MON 810 and was expressed highest in the leaves. The stability of the genetic modification has been demonstrated over several generations.
 Event MON810 and the physical, chemical and functional characteristics of the proteins have previously been evaluated by The VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms, and considered satisfactory (VKM 2007a,b).
 Comparative assessment:
 Comparative analyses of data from field trials located at representative sites and environments in the USA and Europe indicate that maize MON810 is agronomically and phenotypically equivalent to the conventional counterpart and commercially available reference varieties, with the exception of the lepidopteran-protection trait, conferred by the expression of the Cry1Ab protein. The field evaluations support a conclusion of no phenotypic changes indicative of increased plant weed/pest potential of MON810 compared to conventional maize. Evaluations of ecological interactions between maize MON810 and the biotic and abiotic environment indicate no unintended effects of the introduced trait on agronomic and phenotypic characteristics.
 Environmental risk:
 There are no reports of the target lepidopteran species attaining pest status on maize in Norway. Since there are no Bt-based insecticides approved for use in Norway, and lepidopteran pests have not been registered in maize, issues related to resistance evolution in target pests are not relevant at present for Norwegian agriculture.
 Published scientific studies show no or negligible adverse effects of Cry1Ab protein on non-target arthropods that live on or in the vicinity of maize plants. Cultivation of maize MON810 is not considered to represent a threat to the prevalence of red-listed species in Norway.
 Few studies have been published examining potential effects of Cry1Ab toxin on ecosystems in soil, mineralization, nutrient turnover and soil communities. Some field studies have indicated that root exudates and decaying plant material containing Cry proteins may affect population size and activity of rhizosphere organisms (soil protozoa and microorganisms). Most studies conclude that effects on soil microorganisms and microbial communities are transient and minor compared to effects caused by agronomic and environmental factors. However, data are only available from short term experiments and predictions of potential long term effects are difficult to deduce.
 Few studies have assessed the impact of Cry proteins on non-target aquatic arthropods and the fate of these proteins in senescent and decaying maize detritus in aquatic environments. However, exposure of non-target organisms to Cry proteins in aquatic ecosystems is likely to be very low, and potential exposure of Bt toxins to non-target organisms in aquatic ecosystems in Norway is considered to be negligible. 
 Maize is the only representative of the genus Zea in Europe, and there are no cross-compatible wild or weedy relatives outside cultivation with which maize can hybridise and form backcross progeny. Vertical gene transfer in maize therefore depends on cross-pollination with other conventional or organic maize varieties. In addition, unintended admixture of genetically modified material in seeds represents a possible way for gene flow between different crop cultivations. The risk of pollen flow from maize volunteers is negligible under Norwegian growing conditions. 
 In addition to the data presented by the applicant, the VKM GMO Panel is not aware of any scientific report of increased establishment and spread of maize MON810 and any change in survival (including over-wintering), persistence and invasiveness capacity. Because the general characteristics of maize MON810 are unchanged, insect resistance are not likely to provide a selective advantage outside cultivation in Norway. 
 Since MON810 has no altered agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, except for the specific target pest resistance, the VKM GMO Panel is of the opinion that the likelihood of unintended environmental effects due to the establishment and survival of maize MON810 will be no different to that of conventional maize varieties in Norway.
 Overall conclusion:
 The VKM GMO Panel concludes that cultivation of maize MON810 is unlikely to have any adverse effect on the environment in Norway.

In preparation for a legal implementation of EU-regulation 1829/2003, the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) has been requested by the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management to conduct final environmental risk assessments for all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union under Directive 2001/18/EC or Regulation 1829/2003/EC. The assignment includes a scientific environmental risk assessment of oilseed rape T45 (Reference EFSA/GMO/UK/2005/25) from Bayer CropScience for food and feed uses, import and processing. Oilseed rape T45 has previously been risk assessed by the VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), commissioned by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority related to the EFSAs public hearing in 2007 (VKM 2007a).
 Food additives produced from T45 oilseed rape were notified in the EU as existing food additives within the meaning of Article 8 (1)(b) of Regulation 1829/2003, authorized under Directive 89/10/EEC (Community Register 2005). Feed materials produced from T45 were also notified as existing feed products containing, consisting of or produced from T45 according to Articles 8 and 20 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 in 2003. 
 A notification for placing on the market of T45 according to the Directive 2001/18/EC was submitted in March 2004 (C/GB/04/M5/4), covering import and processing of T45 into food and feed. The application was further transferred into Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 in November 2005 (EFSA/GMO/UK/2005/25). An application for renewal of authorisation for continued marketing of food additives and feed materials produced from T45 oilseed rape was submitted under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 in 2007 (EFSA/GMO/RX/T45). The EFSA GMO Panel performed one single comprehensive risk assessment for all intended uses of genetically modified oilseed rape T45, and issued a comprehensive scientific opinion for both applications submitted under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003. The scientific opinion was published in January 30 2008 (EFSA 2008), and food and feed products containing or produced from oilseed rape T45 was approved by Commission Decision 26 March 2009 (Commission Decision 2009/184/EC). 
 The oilseed rape T45 is however currently being phased out (EU-COM 2009). The commercialisation of T45 oilseed rape seeds in third countries was stopped after the 2005 planting season and stocks of all oilseed rape T45 lines have been recalled from distribution and destroyed. The applicant commits not to commercialize the event in the future and the import will therefore be restricted to adventitious levels in oilseed rape commodity. Thus the incidence of oilseed rape T45 in the EU is expected to be limited.
 The environmental risk assessment of the oilseed rape T45 is based on information provided by the notifier in the application EFSA/GMO/UK/2005/25 and EFSA/GMO/RX/T45, and scientific comments from EFSA and other member states made available on the EFSA website GMO Extranet. The risk assessment also considered other peer-reviewed scientific literature as relevant. 
 The VKM GMO Panel has evaluated T45 with reference to its intended uses in the European Economic Area (EEA), and according to the principles described in the Norwegian Food Act, the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms, and Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed. The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety has also decided to take account of the appropriate principles described in the EFSA guidelines for the risk assessment of GM plants and derived food and feed (EFSA 2006, 2011a), the environmental risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2010), the selection of comparators for the risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2011b), and for the post-market environmental monitoring of GM plants (EFSA 2006, 2011c). 
 The scientific risk assessment of oilseed rape T45 include molecular characterisation of the inserted DNA and expression of target proteins, comparative assessment of agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, unintended effects on plant fitness, potential for horizontal and vertical gene transfer, and evaluations of the post-market environmental plan.
 In line with its mandate, VKM emphasised that assessments of sustainable development, societal utility and ethical considerations, according to the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and Regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, shall not be carried out by the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms. 
 The glufosinate ammonium-tolerant oilseed rape transformation event T45 (Unique Identfier ACSBNØØ8-2) was developed by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of protoplast from the conventional oilseed rape cultivar “AC Excel”. T45 contains a synthetic version of the native pat gene isolated from the bacteria Streptomyces viridochromogenes, strain Tü 494. The inserted gene encodes the enzyme phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT), which confers tolerance to the herbical active substance glufosinate ammonium. The PAT enzyme detoxifies glufosinate-ammonium by acetylation of the L-isomer into N-acetyl-L-glufosinate ammonium (NAG) which does not inhibit glutamine synthetase and therefore confers tolerance to the herbicide.
 Glufosinate ammonium-tolerant oilseed rape transformation event T45 has been conventionally bred into an array of spring-type oilseed rape varieties.
 Molecular characterization:
 The molecular characterisation data established that only one copy of the gene cassette is integrated in the oilseed rape genomic DNA. Appropriate analysis of the integration site including sequence determination of the inserted DNA and flanking regions and bioinformatics analysis have been performed. Bioinformatics analyses of junction regions demonstrated the absence of any potential new ORFs coding for known toxins or allergens. The genetic stability of transformation event T45 was demonstrated at the genomic level over multiple generations by Southern analysis. Segregation analysis shows that event T45 is inherited as dominant, single locus trait. Phenotypic stability has been confirmed by stable tolerance to the herbicide for T45 lines and varieties derived from the event grown in Canada since 1993. 
 Oilseed rape transformation event T45 and the physical, chemical and functional characteristics of the proteins have previously been evaluated by The VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms, and considered satisfactory (VKM 2007a).
 Comparative assessment:
 Based on results from comparative analyses of data from field trials located at representative sites and environments in Canada in 1995-1997, it is concluded that oilseed rape T45 is agronomically and phenotypically equivalent to the conventional counterpart and commercial available reference varieties, with the exception of maturity and the herbicide tolerance conferred by the PAT protein. The field evaluations support a conclusion of no phenotypic changes indicative of increased plant weed/pest potential of event T45 compared to conventional oilseed rape. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that in-crop applications of glufosinate herbicide do not alter the phenotypic and agronomic characteristics of event T45 compared to conventional oilseed rape.
 Environmental risk:
 According to the applicant, the event T45 has been phased out, and stocks of all oilseed rape T45 lines have been recalled from distribution and destroyed since 2005. However, since future cultivation and import of oilseed rape T45 into the EU/EEA area cannot be entirely ruled out, the environmental risk assessment consider exposure of viable seeds of T45 through accidental spillage into the environment during transportation, storage, handling, processing and use of derived products.
 Oilseed rape is mainly a self-pollinating species, but has entomophilous flowers capable of both self- and cross-pollinating. Normally the level of outcrossing is about 30%, but outcrossing frequencies up to 55% are reported. 
 Several plant species related to oilseed rape that are either cultivated, occurs as weeds of cultivated and disturbed lands, or grow outside cultivation areas to which gene introgression from oilseed rape could be of concern. These are found both in the Brassica species complex and in related genera. A series of controlled crosses between oilseed rape and related taxa have been reported in the scientific literature. Because of a mismatch in the chromosome numbers most hybrids have a severely reduced fertility. Exceptions are hybrids obtained from crosses between oilseed rape and wild turnip (B. rapa ssp. campestris) and to a lesser extent, mustard greens (B. juncea), where spontaneously hybridising and transgene introgression under field conditions have been confirmed. Wild turnip is native to Norway and a common weed in arable lowlands.
 There is no evidence that the herbicide tolerant trait results in enhanced fitness, persistence or invasiveness of oilseed rape T45, or hybridizing wild relatives, compared to conventional oilseed rape varieties, unless the plants are exposed to herbicides with the active substance glufosinate ammonium. Glufosinate ammonium-containing herbicides have been withdrawn from the Norwegian market since 2008, and the substance will be phased out in the EU in 2017 for reasons of reproductive toxicity.
 Accidental spillage and loss of viable seeds of T45 during transport, storage, handling in the environment and processing into derived products is, however, likely to take place over time, and the establishment of small populations of oilseed rape T45 cannot be excluded. Feral oilseed rape T45 arising from spilled seed could theoretically pollinate conventional crop plants if the escaped populations are immediately adjacent to field crops, and shed seeds from cross-pollinated crop plants could emerge as GM volunteers in subsequent crops. 
 However, both the occurrence of feral oilseed rape resulting from seed import spills and the introgression of genetic material from feral oilseed rape populations to wild populations are likely to be low in an import scenario. Apart from the glufosinate tolerance trait, the resulting progeny will not possess a higher fitness and will not be different from progeny arising from cross-fertilisation with conventional oilseed rape varieties. The occurrence of feral oilseed rape resulting from seed import spills and the introgression of genetic material from feral oilseed rape populations to wild populations are likely to be low in an import scenario in Norway. 
 Overall conclusion:
 Taking into account the expected limited import of oilseed rape T45 (EU COM 2009), the VKM GMO Panel considers that the routes of gene flow from T45 would not introduce significant numbers of transgenic plants into agricultural areas or result in any environmental consequences in Norway. 
 The VKM GMO Panel concludes that oilseed rape T45 is unlikely to have any adverse effect on the environment in Norway in the context of its intended usage.

In preparation for a legal implementation of EU-regulation 1829/2003, the Norwegian Environment Agency (former Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management) has requested the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) to give final opinions on all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union under Directive 2001/18/EC or Regulation 1829/2003/EC within the Authority’s sectoral responsibility. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has therefore, by letter dated 13 February 2013 (ref. 2012/150202), requested the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) to carry out scientific risk assessments of 39 GMOs and products containing or consisting of GMOs that are authorized in the European Union. The request covers scope(s) relevant to the Gene Technology Act. The request does not cover GMOs that VKM already has conducted its final risk assessments on. However, the Agency requests VKM to consider whether updates or other changes to earlier submitted assessments are necessary.
 The assignment includes a scientific risk assessment of oilseed rape T45 from Bayer Crop Science (Unique Identfier ACS-BNØØ8-2) for food and feed uses, import and processing. 
 Food additives produced from T45 oilseed rape were notified in the EU as existing food additives within the meaning of Article 8 (1) (b) of Regulation 1829/2003, authorized under Directive 89/10/EEC (Community Register 2005). Feed materials produced from T45 were also notified as existing feed products containing, consisting of or produced from T45 according to Articles 8 and 20 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 in 2003. 
 A notification for placing on the market of T45 according to the Directive 2001/18/EC was submitted in March 2004 (C/GB/04/M5/4), covering import and processing of T45 into food and feed. The application was further transferred into Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 in November 2005 (EFSA/GMO/UK/2005/25). An application for renewal of authorisation for continued marketing of food additives and feed materials produced from T45 oilseed rape was submitted under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 in 2007 (EFSA/GMO/RX/T45). The EFSA GMO Panel performed one single comprehensive risk assessment for all intended uses of genetically modified oilseed rape T45 and issued a comprehensive scientific opinion for both applications submitted under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003. The scientific opinion was published in January 30 2008 (EFSA 2008), and food and feed products containing or produced from oilseed rape T45 was approved by Commission Decision 26 March 2009 (Commission Decision 2009/184/EC). 
 The oilseed rape T45 is however currently being phased out (EU-COM 2009). The commercialisation of T45 oilseed rape seeds in third countries was stopped after the 2005 planting season and stocks of all oilseed rape T45 lines have been recalled from distribution and destroyed. The applicant commits not to commercialize the event in the future and the import will therefore be restricted to adventitious levels in oilseed rape commodity. Thus the incidence of oilseed rape T45 in the EU is expected to be limited.
 Oilseed rape T45 has previously been risk assessed by the VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), commissioned by the NFSA related to the EFSAs public hearing in 2007 (VKM 2007a).
 The risk assessment of the oilseed rape T45 is based on information provided by the notifier in the application EFSA/GMO/UK/2005/25 and EFSA/GMO/RX/T45, and scientific comments from EFSA and other member states made available on the EFSA website GMO Extranet. The risk assessment also considered other peer-reviewed scientific literature as relevant. 
 The VKM GMO Panel has evaluated T45 with reference to its intended uses in the European Economic Area (EEA) and according to the principles described in the Norwegian Food Act, the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act, Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms, and Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed. The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety has also decided to take account of the appropriate principles described in the EFSA guidelines for the risk assessment of GM plants and derived food and feed (EFSA 2006, 2011a), the environmental risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2010) and the selection of comparators for the risk assessment of GM plants (EFSA 2011b). 
 The scientific risk assessment of oilseed rape T45 include molecular characterisation of the inserted DNA and expression of novel proteins, comparative assessment of agronomic and phenotypic characteristics, comparative compositional analysis, food/feed safety assessments and environmental assessment.
 It is emphasized that the VKM mandate does not include assessments of contribution to sustainable development, societal utility and ethical considerations, according to the Norwegian Gene Technology Act and Regulations relating to impact assessment pursuant to the Gene Technology Act. These considerations are therefore not part of the risk assessment provided by the VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms. 
 The glufosinate ammonium-tolerant oilseed rape transformation event T45 was developed by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of protoplast from the conventional oilseed rape cultivar “AC Excel”. T45 contains a synthetic version of the native pat gene isolated from the bacteria Streptomyces viridochromogenes, strain Tü 494. The inserted gene encodes the enzyme phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT), which confers tolerance to the herbical active substance glufosinate ammonium. The PAT enzyme detoxifies glufosinate-ammonium by acetylation of the L-isomer into N-acetyl-L-glufosinate ammonium (NAG) which does not inhibit glutamine synthetase and, therefore, confers tolerance to the herbicide.
 Glufosinate ammonium-tolerant oilseed rape transformation event T45 has been conventionally bred into an array of spring-type oilseed rape varieties.
 Molecular characterization:
 The molecular characterisation data established that only one copy of the gene cassette is integrated in the oilseed rape genomic DNA. Appropriate analysis of the integration site including sequence determination of the inserted DNA and flanking regions, and bioinformatics analysis have been performed. Bioinformatics analyses of junction regions demonstrated the absence of any potential new ORFs coding for known toxins or allergens. The genetic stability of transformation event T45 was demonstrated at the genomic level over multiple generations by Southern analysis. Segregation analysis shows that event T45 is inherited as dominant, single locus trait. Phenotypic stability has been confirmed by stable tolerance to the herbicide for T45 lines and varieties derived from the event grown in Canada since 1993. 
 Oilseed rape transformation event T45 and the physical, chemical and functional characteristics of the proteins have previously been evaluated by The VKM Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms, and considered satisfactory (VKM 2007a).
 Comparative assessment:
 For compositional analysis seeds were harvested from three field trials performed in Canada (1995, 2000 and 2004). These field trials were conducted using agronomic practices and field conditions typical of commercial oilseed rape cultivation and provided environmental situations representative of the geographical regions oilseed rape will be grown. The analytical data were statistically evaluated by analysis of difference between T45 oilseed rape and its non-transgenic parent variety AC Excel or to other comparators, derived from AC Excel. 
 Several of the components listed in OECDs consensus document (OECD 2011) concerning oilseed rape have not been analyzed in seed, oil or meal such as vitamin K and the antinutrient sinapine. Compositional analysis was carried out with respect to proximates, fibers, amino acids, vitamin E (alfa-, beta, gamma- and delta tocopherol, total tocopherol, minerals (phosphorus, iron, calcium, sodium, copper, magnesium, manganese, potassium and zinc), fatty acids, phytic acid and glucosinolates (alken glucosin, MSGL glucosin and indole glucosinolates). The PAT protein was detected by ELISA only in trace amounts in toasted meal from T45 oilseed rape and not detected in blended, degummed, refined, bleached and deodorized oil. The compositional analysis showed statistical differences for some of the analyzed components. However, this is not considered biological relevant because it is within the reference range from the literature.
 Based on results from comparative analyses of data from field trials located at representative sites and environments in Canada in 1995-1997, it is concluded that oilseed rape T45 is agronomically and phenotypically equivalent to the conventional counterpart and commercial available reference varieties, with the exception of maturity and the herbicide tolerance conferred by the PAT protein. The field evaluations support a conclusion of no phenotypic changes indicative of increased plant weed/pest potential of event T45 compared to conventional oilseed rape. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that in-crop applications of glufosinate herbicide do not alter the phenotypic and agronomic characteristics of event T45 compared to conventional oilseed rape.
 Food and feed safety assessment:
 The total amino acid sequence of the PAT protein was compared to that of known toxins and allergens listed in public databases. Based on these results, no evidence for any similarity to known toxic or allergenic proteins was found. An animal feeding study was performed in broiler chickens. This study showed no indications that neither the event T45 treated with glufosinate ammonium nor untreated, has adverse effects on feeding, growth or general health. To test the case of an acute exposure of the PAT protein to the circulatory system, an acute intravenous study was conducted in mice with highly purified (>95%) PAT protein, encoded by the pat gene (produced in E. coli). PAT protein, aprotinin (negative control) or melittin (positive control) were administered at dose levels of 1 and 10 mg/kg body weight. After 15 days the animals treated with the PAT protein and aprotinin at 10 mg/kg had no visible signs of systemic toxicity, in contrast to melittin which induced 100% mortality within 5 minutes at the same dose. Macroscopic examination of internal organs showed no signs of acute toxicity following treatment with PAT protein.
 Environmental risk:
 According to the applicant, the event T45 has been phased out, and stocks of all oilseed rape T45 lines have been recalled from distribution and destroyed since 2005. However, since future cultivation and import of oilseed rape T45 into the EU/EEA area cannot be entirely ruled out, the environmental risk assessment consider exposure of viable seeds of T45 through accidental spillage into the environment during transportation, storage, handling, processing and use of derived products.
 Oilseed rape is mainly a self-pollinating species, but has entomophilous flowers capable of both self- and cross-pollinating. Normally the level of outcrossing is about 30%, but outcrossing frequencies up to 55% are reported. 
 Several plant species related to oilseed rape that are either cultivated, occurs as weeds of cultivated and disturbed lands, or grow outside cultivation areas to which gene introgression from oilseed rape could be of concern. These are found both in the Brassica species complex and in related genera. A series of controlled crosses between oilseed rape and related taxa have been reported in the scientific literature. Because of a mismatch in the chromosome numbers most hybrids have a severely reduced fertility. Exceptions are hybrids obtained from crosses between oilseed rape and wild turnip (B. rapa ssp. campestris) and to a lesser extent, mustard greens (B. juncea), where spontaneously hybridising and transgene introgression under field conditions have been confirmed. Wild turnip is native to Norway and a common weed in arable lowlands.
 There is no evidence that the herbicide tolerant trait results in enhanced fitness, persistence or invasiveness of oilseed rape T45, or hybridizing wild relatives, compared to conventional oilseed rape varieties, unless the plants are exposed to herbicides with the active substance glufosinate ammonium. Glufosinate ammonium-containing herbicides have been withdrawn from the Norwegian market since 2008, and the substance will be phased out in the EU in 2017 for reasons of reproductive toxicity.
 Accidental spillage and loss of viable seeds of T45 during transport, storage, handling in the environment and processing into derived products is, however, likely to take place over time and the establishment of small populations of oilseed rape T45 cannot be excluded. Feral oilseed rape T45 arising from spilled seed could theoretically pollinate conventional crop plants if the escaped populations are immediately adjacent to field crops and shed seeds from cross-pollinated crop plants could emerge as GM volunteers in subsequent crops. 
 However, both the occurrence of feral oilseed rape resulting from seed import spills and the introgression of genetic material from feral oilseed rape populations to wild populations are likely to be low in an import scenario. Apart from the glufosinate tolerance trait, the resulting progeny will not possess a higher fitness and will not be different from progeny arising from cross-fertilisation with conventional oilseed rape varieties. The VKM GMO Panel The occurrence of feral oilseed rape resulting from seed import spills and the introgression of genetic material from feral oilseed rape populations to wild populations are likely to be low in an import scenario in Norway. 
 Overall conclusion: 
 The VKM GMO Panel concludes that T45 oilseed rape, based on current knowledge, is comparable to conventional oilseed rape varieties concerning health risks with the intended usage. The GMO Panel likewise concludes that T45 is unlikely to have any adverse effect on the environment and agriculture in Norway in the context of its intended usage.

A new device, sure to inspire technological bedazzlement, has been installed in Hong Kong shopping malls. Called simply The Love Machine, it functions like a photo booth, dispensing on-the-spot portraits1. But rather than one subject, it requires a couple, in fact the couple, in order to do its work of digital reproduction. For the output of this imaging machine is none other than a picture of the combined features of the two sitters, 'morphed' together by computer software to produce a technological child. Its Japanese manufacturers, while obviously cashing in on the novelty value, nevertheless list the advantage it allows for future matrimonial selection based around the production of a suitable aesthetic. Needless to say, the good citizens of Hong Kong have not allowed any rigid criteria for genetic engineering to get in the way of the progeny such a machine allows, creating such monstrous couplings as the baby 'cat-human', achieved by a sitter coupling with their pet. Rather than being the object of love here, technology acts as the conduit of emotion, or stronger still, it is the love relation itself, bringing the two together as one. What I want to touch upon is the sense in which a desire for oneness inhabits our relations to and through the technological. There is already an abundance of literature around the erotics of cyberspace, documenting and detailing encounters of virtual sex fantasies and romance. As well, there are more theoretical attempts to come to terms with what Michael Heim describes as the "erotic ontology of cyberspace" (59). Heim depicts these encounters not as a ravaging desire gone wild, sprouting up in odd places or producing monstrous offspring, but in homely and familial terms. Finally with the computer as incarnation of the machine, our love for technology can cease its restless and previously unfulfilled wanderings and find a comfortable place. What is worth pausing over here is the sense in which the sexual is subjugated to a conjugal and familial metaphor, at the same time as desire is modelled according to a metaphysics of fullness and lack. I would argue that in advancing this kind of love relation with the computer and the digital, the possibility of a relation is actually short-circuited. For a relation assumes the existence of at least two terms, and in these representations, technology does not figure as a second term. It is either marked as the other, where desire finds a soul mate to fill its lack. Or the technological becomes invisible, subsumed in a spiritual instrumentalism that sees it merely forging the union of cybernetic souls. I would suggest that an erotic relation with the technological is occluded in most accounts of the sexual in cyberspace and in many engagements with digital technologies. Instead we are left with a non-relational meeting of the same with itself. We might describe the dominant utilisation of the technological as onanistic. Relations of difference could be a productive effect of the technological, but are instead culturally caught up within an operational logic which sees the relational erotic possibilities of the machinic eliminated as sameness touches itself. I want to point towards some different models for theorising technology by briefly drawing upon the texts of Félix Guattari and Avital Ronell. These may lead to the production of a desiring relation with technology by coupling the machine with alterity. One of several climatic scenes from the 'virtual sex' movie Strange Days, directed by Katherine Bigelow, graphically illustrates the onanistic encounter. Set on the eve of the new millennium, the temporality of the film sets up a feeling of dis-ease: it is both futuristic and yet only too close. The narrative centres on the blackmarket in ultimate VR: purchasing software which allows the user, donning special headgear, to re-experience recorded memories in other peoples' lives. An evil abuser of this technology, known until the end of the film as an anonymous male junkie, is addicted to increasingly frequent hits of another's apperception. In his quest to score above his tolerance level, the cyber-junkie rapes a prostitute, but instead of wearing the headgear used to record his own perception of the rape, he forces the woman to put it on making her annex her subjectivity to his experience of desire. He records her reaction to becoming an appendage to him. The effect of watching this scene is deeply unsettling: the camera-work sets up a point-of-view shot from the position of the male subject but plays it to the audience as one might see through a video view-finder, thus sedimenting an assumed cultural association between masculinity and the male gaze. What we see is the violence produced by the annihilation of another's desire; what we hear is the soundtrack of the woman mimicking the male's enjoyment of his own desire. Put simply, what we watch is a feedback loop of a particular formation of technological desire, one in which the desire of or for the other is audio-visually impeded. Ultimately the experience can be stored and replayed as a porn movie solely for future masturbation. The scene in Strange Days quite adequately summarises the obstructed and obstructive desire to go no further than masturbation caught in the defiles of feedback. Feedback is also the term used in both video and sound production when a recording device is aimed at or switched onto a device playing back the same recording. The result, in the case of video, is to create an infinite abyss of the same image playing back into itself on the monitor; in the case of sound a high-pitched signal is created which impedes further transmission. By naming the desire to fuse with the technological a feedback loop, I am suggesting that manifestations of this desire are neither productive nor connective, in that any relation to exterior or heterogeneous elements are shut out. They stamp out the flow of other desires and replay the same looping desire based around notions of fullness and lack, completion and incompletion, and of course masculinity and femininity. Mark Dery makes this association between the desire for the technological, the elision of matter and phallic modes of masculinity: This, to the masculinist technophile, is the weirdly alchemical end point of cyberculture: the distillation of pure mind from base matter. Sex, in such a context, would be purged of feminine contact -- removed, in fact, from all notions of physicality -- and reduced to mental masturbation. (121) Dery's point is a corollary to mine; in discarding the need for an embodied sexual experience, the literature and representations of cyberspace, both theoretical and fictional, endorse only a touching of the sublimated self, no other bodies or even the bodily is brought into contact. There is no shortage of evidence for the disregard embodiment holds among the doyens of cyber-architecture. Hans Moravec and Marvin Minsky, writing about Artificial Intelligence, promote a future in which pure consciousness, freed from its entanglement with the flesh, merges with the machine (Mind Children; The Society of Mind). Here the reverence shown towards digital technology enters the sublime point of a coalition where the mind is supported by some sophisticated hardware, ultimately capable of adapting and reproducing itself. There are now enough feminist critics of this kind of cyberspeak to have noticed in this fantasy of machinic fusion a replay of the old Cartesian mind/body dualism. My point, however, is that this desire is not simply put in place by a failure to rethink the body in the realm of the digital. It is augmented by the fact that this disregard for theorising an embodied experience feeds into an inability to encounter any other within the realm of the technological. We should note that this is perpetuated not just by those seeking future solace in the digital, but also by its most ardent cultural critics. Baudrillard, as one who seemingly fits this latter category, eager to disperse the notion that writers such as Moravec and Minsky propound regarding AI, is driven to making rather overarching ontological remarks about machines in general. In attempting to forestall the notion that the machine could ever become the complement to the human, Baudrillard cancels the relation of the machine to desire by cutting off its ability to produce anything in excess of itself. The machine, on his account, can be reduced to the production of itself alone; there is nothing supplementary, exterior to or differential in the machinic circuit (53). For Baudrillard, the pleasures of the interface do not even extend to the solitary vice of masturbation. Celibate machines are paralleled by celibate digital subjects each alone with themselves, forming a non-relational system. While Baudrillard offers a fair account of the solitary lack of relation produced in and by digital technologies, he nevertheless participates in reinforcing the transformation of what he calls "the process of relating into a process of communication between One and the Same" (58). He catches himself within the circulation of the very desire he finds problematic. But whether onanistic or celibate, the erotics of our present or possible relations to technology do not become any more enticing in many actual engagements with emerging technologies. Popular modes of interfacing our desires with the digital favor a particular assemblage of body and machine where a kind of furtive one-handed masturbation may be the only option left to us. I will call this the operational assemblage, borrowing from Baudrillard and his description of Virtual Man, operating and communicating across computer cables and networks while being simultaneously immobilised in front of the glare of the computer screen. An operational assemblage, whilst being efficacious, inhibits movement and ties the body to the machine. Far from the body being discarded by information technologies, the operational assemblage sees certain parts of the body privileged and territorialised. The most obvious instance of this is VR, which, in its most technologically advanced state, still only selects the eyes and the hand as its points of bodily interface. In so-called fully immersive VR experience, it is the hand, wearing a data glove, which propels the subject into movement in the virtual world, but it is a hand propelled by the subject's field of vision, computer monitors mounted in the enveloping headset. Thus the hand operates by being subjected to the gaze2. In VR, then, the real body is not somehow left behind as the subject enters a new state of electronic consciousness; rather there is a re-organisation and reterritorialisation of the hand under the operative guidance of the eye and scopic desire. This is attested to by the experience one has of the postural body schema during immersion in VR. The 'non-operational' body remaining in physical space often feels awkward and clumsy as if it is too large or cumbersome to drag around and interact in the virtual world, as if it were made virtually non-functional. The operational assemblage of a distanced eye territorialising the hand to create a loop of identity through the machine produces a desiring body which is blocked in its relational capacities. It can only touch itself as self; it cannot find itself an other or as other. Rather than encouraging the hand to break connections with the circuit of the gaze, to develop speeds, capabilities and potentials of its own, these encounters are perpetually returned to the screen and the domain of the eye. They feed back into a loop where relations to other desires, other kinds of bodies, other machines are circumvented. Looping back and returning to the aesthetic reduction performed by the Love Machine, a more lo-tech version of the two technologically contracted to one might point to the possibility of alterity that current digital machines seem keen to circumvent. At San Fransisco's Exploratorium museum one of the public points of interface with the Human Genome Project can be found3. The Exploratorium has a display set up which introduces the public to the bioinformation technology involved as well as soliciting responses to bio-ethical issues surrounding the question of genetic engineering. In the midst of this display a simple piece of glass hangs as a divider between two sides of a table. By sitting on one side of the table with a light shining from behind, one could see both a self-reflection and through the glass to whomever was sitting on the other side. The text accompanying the display encourages couples to occupy either side of the glass. What is produced for the sitter on the light side is a combination of their own reflection 'mapped' onto the features of the sitter on the other side. The text for the display encourages a judgement of the probable aesthetic outcome of combining one's genes with those of the other. I tested this display with my partner, crossing both sides of the mirror/glass. Our reactions were similar; a sensation approaching horror arose as we each faced our distorted, mirrored features as possible future progeny, a sensation akin to encountering the uncanny4. While suggesting the familiar, it also indicates what is concealed, becoming a thing not known and thus terrifying. For what was decidedly spooky in viewing a morphing of my image onto that of the other's, in the context of the surrounding bioinformatic technologies, was the sense in which a familiarity with the homely features of the self was dislocated by a haunting, marking the claim of a double utterly different. Recalling the assertion made by Heim that in the computer we find an intellectual and emotional resting point, we could question whether the familiarity of a resting place provides a satisfactory erotic encounter with the technological. We could ask whether the dream of the homely, of finding in the computer a kinship which sanctions the love machine relation, operates at the expense of dispelling that other, unfamiliar double through a controlling device which adjusts differences until they reach a point of homeostasis. What of a reading of the technological which might instaurate rather than diffuse the question of the unfamiliar double? I will gesture towards both Guattari's text Chaosmosis and Ronell's The Telephone Book, for the importance both give to the double in producing a different relation with the technological. For Guattari, the machine's ghost is exorcised by the predominant view that sees particular machines, such as the computer, as a subset of technology, a view given credence at the level of hype in the marketing of AI, virtual reality and so forth as part of the great technological future. It also gains credibility theoretically through the Heideggerian perspective. Instead Guattari insists that technology is dependent upon the machinic (33). The machinic is prior to and a condition of any actual technology, it is a movement rather than a ground; the movement through which heterogeneous elements such as bodies, sciences, information come to form the interrelated yet specific fields of a particular assemblage we might term technological. It is also the movement through which these components retain their singularity. Borrowing from modern biology, Guattari labels this movement "autopoietic" (39). Rather than the cybernetic model which sees the outside integrated into the structure of the machinic by an adjustment towards homogeneity cutting off flow, Guattari underlines a continual machinic movement towards the outside, towards alterity, which transforms the interrelations of the technological ensemble. The machinic is doubled not by the reproduction of itself, but by the possibility of its own replacement, its own annihilation and transformation into something different: Its emergence is doubled with breakdown, catastrophe -- the menace of death. It possesses a supplement: a dimension of alterity which it develops in different forms. (37) Here, we can adjoin Guattari with Ronell's historical reading of the metaphorics of the telephone in attempts to think through technology. Always shadowed by the possibility Heidegger wishes to stake out for a beyond to or an overcoming of the technological, Ronell is both critical of the technologising of desire in the cybernetic loop and insistent upon the difference produced by technology's doubling desire. Using the telephone as a synecdoche for technology -- and this strategy is itself ambiguous: does the telephone represent part of the technological or is it a more comprehensive summary of a less comprehensive system? -- Ronell argues that it can only be thought of as irreducibly two, a pair (5). This differentiates itself from the couple which notoriously contracts into one. She argues that the two are not reducible to each other, that sender and receiver do not always connect, are not reducible to equal end points in the flow of information. For Ronell, what we find when we are not at home, on unfamiliar ground, is -- the machine. The telephone in fact maintains its relation to the machinic and to the doubling this implies, via the uncanny in Ronell's text. It relates to a not-being-at-home for the self, precisely when it becomes machine -- the answering machine. The answering machine disconnects the speaker from the listener and inserts itself not as controlling device in the loop, but as delay, the deferral of union. Loosely soldering this with Guattari's notion that the machine introduces a "dimension of alterity", Ronell reads the technological via the telephone line as that relation to the outside, to the machinic difference that makes the self always unfamiliar (84). I would suggest then that pursuing a love relation with technology or through the technological leads us to deploy an entire metaphorics of the familial, where the self is ultimately home alone and only has itself to play with. In this metaphorics, technology as double and technology's doubling desire become a conduit that returns only to itself through the circuitous mechanism of the feedback loop. Rather than opening onto heterogeneous relations to bodies or allowing bodies to develop different relational capacities, the body here is immobilised by an operational and scopic territorialisation. To be excited by an encounter with the technological something unfamiliar is preferable, some sense of an alternating current in the midst of all this homeliness, an external perturbation rubbing up against the tired hand of a short-circuiting onanism. Footnotes 1. The Love Machine is also the title of a digital still image and sound installation commenting upon the Hong Kong booth produced by myself and Michele Barker and last exhibited at the Viruses and Mutations exhibition for the Melbourne Festival, The Aikenhead Conference Centre, St. Vincent's Hospital, October, 1998. 2. For an articulation of the way in which this maps onto perspectival vision, see Simon Penny, "Virtual Reality as the Completion of the Enlightenment Project." Culture on the Brink. Eds. G. Bender and T. Druckery. Seattle: Bay Press, 1994. 3. Funded by the US Government, the project's goal is to develop maps for the 23 paired human chromosomes and to unravel the sequence of bases that make up the DNA of these chromosomes. 4. This is what Freud described in his paper "The Uncanny". Tracing the etymology of the German word for the uncanny, unheimlich, which in English translates literally as 'unhomely', Freud notes that heimlich, or 'homely', in fact contains the ambiguity of its opposite, in one instance. References Baudrillard, Jean. "Xerox and Infinity." The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena. Trans J. Benedict. London: Verso, 1993. 51-9. Dery, Mark. Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century. New York: Grove Press, 1996. Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Vol. 17. Trans. and ed. J. Strachey. London: Hogarth Press, 1955. Guattari, Félix. Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm. Sydney: Power Publications, 1995. Heim, Michael. "The Erotic Ontology of Cyberspace." Cyberspace: First Steps. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P, 1994.59-80. Minsky, Marvin. The Society of Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985. Moravec, Hans. Mind Children. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1988. Ronell, Avital. The Telephone Book. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1989. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Anna Munster. "Love Machines." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.6 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/love.php>. Chicago style: Anna Munster, "Love Machines," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 6 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/love.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Anna Munster. (1999) Love machines. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(6). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9909/love.php> ([your date of access]).