Ethical issues associated with prenatal screening using non-invasive prenatal testing for sex chromosome aneuploidy

Prenatal screening for sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs) is increasingly available through expanded non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). NIPT for SCAs raises complex ethical issues for clinical providers, prospective parents and future children. This paper discusses the ethical issues that arise around NIPT for SCAs and current guidelines and protocols for management. The first section outlines current practice and the limitations of NIPT for SCAs. It then outlines key guidelines before discussing the ethical issues raised by this use of NIPT. We conclude that while screening for SCAs should be made available for people seeking to use NIPT, its implementation requires careful consideration of what, when and how information is provided to users.     

人道对待动物组织

人道对待动物组织（People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,简称PeTA）,又名善待动物组织,是全世界最大的动物权利组织。人道对待动物组织成立于1980年。是一个致力于建立和保护所有动物权益的非营利组 织,总部设在美国维吉尼亚州诺福克（Norfolk）,是美国最有影响力的动物保护组织。在现有的200多万名会员和支持者中,美国本土拥有75万名会员,     

铅在五指山猪组织器官中的分布与积累研究

研究了铅在五指山猪（WZSP）组织器官中的分布与累积,及饲料铅含量与组织器官中铅含量的关系.将20头五指山猪随机分为5组,分别饲喂含铅量为0.046 mg·kg-1（Ⅰ组）、6.790 mg·kg-1（Ⅱ组）、17.370 mg·kg-1（Ⅲ组）、53.600 mg·kg-1（Ⅳ组）、154.000 mg·kg-1（Ⅴ组）的饲料,持续喂养100d.屠宰后取心脏、肝脏、肾脏、肺、胃、小肠、大肠、猪耳、猪舌、猪尾、里脊肉、肋排肉、股骨骨质、股骨骨髓、肋骨和猪毛,测定其中的铅含量.结果表明, 肝脏、肾脏、股骨骨质、股骨骨髓、肋骨、猪毛等组织器官的铅含量随攻毒剂量的提高而明显上升,且与饲料中的铅含量呈正相关;当饲喂铅含量低于国家标准（5mg·kg-1）时,这些组织器官内的铅含量仍有可能超标.心脏、肺、胃、大肠、里脊肉、猪舌、猪尾中的铅含量与饲料中的铅含量没有相关性,即使饲喂铅含量超过国家标准30倍以上的饲料（铅含量154.000mg·kg-1）,这些组织器官的铅含量仍低于国家限量标准.骨组织、肝脏、肾脏对铅有着较强的富集能力,而猪肉、猪耳、猪舌、猪尾、猪心、猪肺等其它组织器官中的铅累积量低于限量标准.本研究旨在为制定猪肉制品,特别是可食用组织器官的铅限量标准提供理论依据,同时,为禽畜可食用组织器官的重金属风险评估提供参考.     

Inter-linking issues and dimensions in sustainability reporting

During the last decade, Sustainability Reporting (SR) has been increasingly adopted by corporations worldwide. This is evidenced by the adoption of several guidelines, such as the ISO 14000 series, the Social Accountability 8000 standard, and the GRI Sustainability Guidelines. SR shows promise to help corporate leaders and their employees to contribute towards achieving sustainable societies. However, most of the guidelines and standards address sustainability issues through comparmentalisation, thereby, leading to the separation of the economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Due to these divisive approaches, holistic assessments of the effects of their efforts are seldom properly integrated into coporate decisions and procedures to make improvements for example through Cleaner Production, Worker Health and Safety, Consumer Safety, and reductions in the negative short and long-term Social and Environmental Impacts.This paper analyses SR reports from three companies with the help of Grounded Theory's constant comparative analysis. This analytical framework helped the authors to systematically assess the degree to which the companies addressed economic, ecological and social issues separately or in an integrated and inter-linked manner. From the inter-linkages found, a new category is proposed to be added to future SR. This new category can help corporate SR planners and researchers on sustainability reports to better understand how the company leaders understand their responsibilities with regard to SD. These inter-connectednesses are highly relevant in many short and long-term dimensions of supply chain management, global warming, ecological disruption and societal equity issues, especially with regard to the local, national and global energy issues of fuels and oils, the central themes of the conference at which this paper was originally presented. It also plays a key role in real, long-term changes towards Sustainability, where the time dimension plays a key role in human survival on Planet Earth.     

Ethical aspects of scientific incertitude in environmental analysis and decision making

There have been too many environmental surprises during the last century—too many occasions where decisions relative to the environment were taken in the belief that there was a well-established, scientific basis for the decisions and faith in the expertise that provided the information. The surprises illustrate that the knowledge base and models in some cases do not even come close to reality. The reason may be incertitude, which covers the spectrum from determinism, uncertainty, ignorance and indeterminacy. In relation to risk assessment and sustainability, society, politicians and professionals have to come to terms with the fact that ignorance plays a far greater role than normally acknowledged by natural scientists and engineers.     

论马克思自由观的生态意蕴与伦理关怀

自由是马克思理论贯穿始终的最高价值设定和最终价值旨归。马克思的自由观经历了几个不同的发展阶段,但同时又是一个前后关联、相互统一的有机整体。只有将其作为一个有机统一的整体并揭示出其不同发展阶段之间内在的逻辑关联,才能全面而深刻地把握马克思的自由观乃至马克思的理论整体与思想全貌,从而才能发掘其内在蕴含着的丰富生态思想和深厚伦理关怀。阐明马克思自由观的生态意蕴与伦理关怀,对于当前的生态文明建设具有重要的理论指导意义。     

“十七年”合作化小说的政治伦理叙事

十七年合作化小说的作家按照意识形态的要求,把政治伦理放到了小说叙述话语和叙事策略的最突出位置。设置话语主体的尊贵身份,加强政治伦理的可靠性和权威性,直接或间接引述政策条文凸显政治伦理的思想意蕴,最终达到教育民众入社以实现政治伦理的目的诉求。     

环境伦理规则在环境管理中的应用

本文以可持续发展的环境伦理观，分析了废弃物的无害化与最小量化原则、物质的生命周期管理原则、节约资源的原则以及自然保护与生态恢复原则的先进性和科学性。从环境伦理学的角度提出：人类同在地球上生存，人人都应该享有平等的权利，同时人人也应负有相同的责任。对环境资源享用的平等原则、污染物排放经济效益进步原则、风险共担和成本分摊原则、保护地球资源措施的鼓励原则等伦理规则进行了讨论。分析了国际环境管理标准（ISO14000）中所蕴含的环境伦理思想。     

人工增雨与环境可持续发展的思考

人工增雨是指出了由于自然气象条件出现增雨之外,利用目前的气象情况和条件,通过人工干预的方式使得出现更多增雨的方法.本文首先分析了人工增雨的必要性,讨论了目前人工增雨工作存在的问题和作业过程中需要重视的问题,最后为我国人工增雨的未来发展提出了若干建议.     

Topical scientific and practical issues of wildland fire problem

Problem of wildfires has not been resolved anywhere in the world. Mere increase of technical power does not lead to desirable results. Forests of developed countries burn as actively as those in Africa or in Russia. The main reasons of wildfire problem are as follows: (1) Constant wandering of dry seasons over the planet causing outbreaks of wildfires. (2) Unpredicted self-development of ordinary wildfires into awful fire disasters. (3) Difficulties in delivery and use of heavy machines on hardly accessible territories. (4) Absence of a perfect technique for economic evaluation of how effectively the wildfire control system works. (5) Absence of the system of payments encouraging wildfire fighters. To solve the problem of wildfires in Russia it is necessary to: (1) Create the Russian wildfire behaviour and fire effects prediction system on the basis of the developed classification of vegetation fuels and methods of their mapping as well as maximum utilization of forest inventory information and Geographic Information System (GIS). (2) Elaborate a technique of proper wildfire monitoring including estimation of vegetation damage. (3) Improve daily rating of regional fire danger. (4) Improve fire-preventive arrangement of the territory covered by vegetation, the main goal being creation of favourable conditions for active fire management. (5) Choose the main direction in elaboration of fire-fighting means and methods taking into account their universality, simplicity, reliability, etc. (6) Elaborate an improved technique for estimation of economic effectiveness of the wildfire control system. (7) Develop international cooperation of scientists and professionals in fire management.     

我国环境保护规划实施中的问题分析

环境规划是国民经济和社会发展的有机组成部分,本文剖析了当前我国环境保护规划在实施中存在的主要问题,认为现阶段我国环境保护规划存在缺乏法律效力、实施过程中缺乏统一协调、资金难以落实、缺乏有效地实施监管机制和公众参与机制缺乏实质性等问题;总结了国外在环境保护规划实施过程中可以借鉴的经验;结合我国环境保护工作的形势和环境保护规划的发展,提出了完善环境保护规划的法律机制、加强环境规划衔接、建立完善的实施监督机制、加大规划实施的资金投入、加强环境保护规划的公众参与等建议,以保证环境保护规划的可达性和可操作性。     

水—能源—粮食纽带关系若干问题解析

水、能源、粮食均为战略性、基础性资源,三者之间相互关联,彼此制约,深刻影响着人类的生产、生活和生态环境。通过梳理水—能源—粮食纽带关系领域的研究内容、研究方法、研究尺度等,进一步明确了变化环境影响下水—能源—粮食纽带关系概念框架及其风险关系的传递与表达,指出当前对水—能源—粮食纽带关系理解尚未统一,广泛采用的有“联系论”和“方法论”。现有研究对水—能源—粮食纽带关系进行了现状评估,资源间相互消耗关系的量化与不同情景下的仿真模拟。研究中存在数据缺失、不一致,评估因素单一,缺少动态反馈机制,难以真正应用到政策调控中等问题。因此,数据整合、模型集成、风险评估与动态调节、提高韧性、城市尺度研究和智慧管理,均是水—能源—粮食纽带关系发展关注的重点领域。