Biosemiotics —a paradigm of biology

Extended version of a paper presented by H. R. on the 22nd Internat. Ethological Conference, Kyoto, 22–29 August 1991     

The World Programme of Action: a new paradigm for population policy. The Cairo Conference

There has been considerable national and international debate over the past two years on population-related issues. Women have sought to affirm their right to control fertility and to have access to health services while criticizing current population policies and programs. A new paradigm for population policy has emerged from the debate, one which focuses upon providing broadly defined reproductive health services and acknowledges women's reproductive rights and their need for empowerment. This new population policy is embodied in the World Program of Action (WPOA) adopted September 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt. WPOA is the main document emerging from the ICPD. It was developed and negotiated by participating governments during three preparatory committee meetings leading up to the conference and at ICPD itself, where it was adopted. The WPOA is slated for approval by the UN General Assembly during its current session. The WPOA is evidence of how effective women were in making women's rights and health the focus of an international document. The author discusses politics at the ICPD, the WPOA, funding the WPOA's implementation, the road ahead, and the power of women's strategies.     

The concept of sustainable islands: cleaner production, industrial ecology and the network paradigm as preconditions for regional sustainable development

This paper introduces a bottom-up approach towards sustainability which is called the Island approach. The basic assumption of ‘Islands of Sustainability’ is that development towards sustainability can be introduced starting from small sustainable regions. An Island is an area where sustainability is reached locally. Key points to create a sustainable region are communication activities, such as exchange of matter, energy, information, culture, capital and persons within the regional network and with the environment. One of the main theses is that sustainability is linked to the complexity of the regional network. The intensity, the speed and the comprehensive of internal and external interactions, as well as the connectedness of the regional network, have to be changed in order to reach local sustainability.Relations between different approaches such as the Cleaner Production approach, the Industrial Ecology approach and the Island approach are investigated. It is assumed that a combination of these approaches will lead to sustainability, which might not be the case with one approach in isolation. All concepts are based on the new Network Paradigm, which is a reduction of the holistic world view. Cooperation on different hierarchical levels, from the interfirm level up to the interregional level, becomes an important part of behaviour. Networks, such as information networks or matter-flow networks, are introduced and become most important with regard to sustainability.     

REACh as a paradigm shift in chemical policy – responsive regulation and behavioural models

The European Union is changing its general approach to chemical regulation by introducing the new programme REACh, i.e. Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals. In this paper we argue that REACh is nothing less than a paradigm shift in the regulatory approach of the EU. Generally speaking, REACh places all major responsibilities with firms rather than on administrative bodies. At the same time, this policy is far from undemanding: companies marketing substances falling under REACh must ensure that along the production chain dangers to health and environment will be mastered throughout all intermediate and final users of the substance or the product containing the substance. In other words, producers of REACh chemicals must start downstream information and communication processes along the entire production chain to meet the requirements of the directive, which is stipulating both gathering the risk-related information and implementing appropriate risk-reduction measures. This paper aims to identify the major changes in the policy approach induced by REACh, and the type of behavioural model necessary to give a well-founded prognosis.In this paper we describe briefly responsive regulation as the new underlying paradigm of regulation as opposed to hierarchical regulation. From there we proceed to analyse the concept of self-responsibility in this context, and suggest adopting an agent-specific approach. In order to form expectations about the possible outcome of such regulation, behavioural models need to be well-defined for a systematic analysis of incentives imposed by REACh. We propose a behavioural model of homo oeconomicus institutionalis in order to allow cognitive limits and rule-following behaviour of individuals in complex situations. As can be seen, cognitive limits as well as rule-following behaviour are of paramount importance to highly complex regulations such as REACh. In conclusion, REACh demands not only a new paradigm of regulation, such as responsive regulation, but also a modified approach of behavioural analysis for prognosis, such as the concept of homo oeconomicus institutionalis.Further, the incentives facing agents regulated by REACh need to be analysed. Apparently, REACh does not sufficiently take into account that regulative approaches based on self-responsibility must be supported by adequate incentives, in order to reach the objectives.     

Prenatal molecular diagnosis of gaucher disease

Prenatal diagnosis of Gaucher disease, the most prevalent glycolipid storage disease, is based on a reliable enzyme assay of cells from amniocentesis or chorionic villous samples. However, this method cannot differentiate among the various forms of the disease. This report details four cases of prenatal diagnosis of Gaucher disease, three of which predate the use of molecular diagnosis. DNA mutation analysis to determine the genotype was predictive of the phenotypic status of the fetus and conformed to the genotype of an affected proband where available.     

The species flocks of East African cichlid fishes: recent advances in molecular phylogenetics and population genetics

With more than 3,000 species, the fish family Cichlidae is one of the most species-rich families of vertebrates. Cichlids occur in southern and central America, Africa, Madagascar, and India. The hotspot of their biodiversity is East Africa, where they form adaptive radiations composed of hundreds of endemic species in several lakes of various sizes and ages. The unparalleled species richness of East African cichlids has been something of a conundrum for evolutionary biologists and ecologists, since it has been in doubt whether these hundreds of species arose by allopatric speciation or whether it is necessary to invoke somewhat less traditional models of speciation, such as micro-allopatric, peripatric, or even sympatric speciation or evolution through sexual selection mediated by female choice. Ernst Mayrs analyses of these evolutionary uniquely diverse species assemblages have contributed to a more direct approach to this problem and have led to a deeper understanding of the patterns and processes that caused the formation of these huge groups of species. We review here recent molecular data on population differentiation and phylogenetics, which have helped to unravel, to some extent, the patterns and processes that led to the formation and ecological maintenance of cichlid species flocks. It is becoming apparent that sexually selected traits do play an important role in speciation in micro-allopatric or even sympatric settings. Species richness seems to be roughly correlated with the surface area, but not the age, of the lakes. We observe that the oldest lineages of a species flock of cichlids are often less species-rich and live in the open water or deepwater habitats. While the species flocks of the Lake Malawai and the Lake Victoria areas were shown to be monophyletic, the cichlid assemblage of Lake Tanganyika seems to consist of several independent species flocks. Cichlids emerge as an evolutionary model system in which many fundamental questions in evolution and ecology can be tested successfully, yet for other fish species flocks the relative importance of alternative mechanisms of speciation is likely to differ from that in cichlid fish.Dedicated to Prof. Ernst Mayr     

气相分子吸收光谱法测定水中硫化物浓度不确定度评定

采用气相分子吸收光谱仪法测定水样中硫化物的浓度,对其不确定度来源进行分析、评估。结果表明,当水样浓度为3．42mg/L时,考虑测定过程的标准溶液的配制、曲线拟合、仪器测量重复性等因素对测定结果造成影响,测得硫化物的相对合成标准不确定0．13mg/L,其中最主要的分量是由硫化物标准溶液引起的测量不确定度。     

Femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy of elementary molecular dynamics

Femtosecond time-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) is applied in order to prepare and monitor laser-induced vibrational coherences (wave packets) of different samples mainly in its electronic ground state but also in excited states. The time evolution of these wave packets gives information on the dynamics of molecular vibrations. In a first example the femtosecond (fs) CARS transients of iodine are investigated. By changing the relative delay between the applied laser pulses of this non-degenerated four-wave mixing technique, both the wavepacket motion on the electronically excited and the ground states can be detected as oscillations in the coherent anti-Stokes signal. Second we report on selective excitation of the vibrational modes in the electronic ground state of polymers of diacetylene by means of a femtosecond time-resolved CARS scheme. This selectivity is achieved by varying the phase shape (chirp) and the relative delay between the exciting laser pulses.     

类脂分子标志物在海洋有机地球化学中的研究应用

分子标志物是海洋有机地球化学过程研究的一个重要手段,它的开发和应用使得海洋有机地球化学的过程研究成为可能。类脂化合物作为一类最常用的分子标志物,在物质来源、有机质降解、早期 成岩演变、环境污染、古海洋学等诸多方面有着广泛的应用。类脂分子标志物成功地应用在河口、滨海地区和深海海洋中有着物质循环、迁移和埋藏等过程的研究,为海洋有机地球化学过程提供定性或定量的描述。本文简要介绍了类脂分子标志物的特征、开发和利用,并讨论了其优、缺点。     

Alzheimer's disease: molecular concepts and therapeutic targets

The beta amyloid peptide is the major component of the neuritic plaques, the characteristic lesions in Alzheimer's disease. Mutations in three genes (APP, PS-1, and PS-2) cause familial Alzheimer's disease by alteration of the rate of generation of amyloid peptide or the length of this peptide. However, in the 90% non-familial cases, other factors play a major pathogenetic role. These include the apolipoprotein E genotype, the "plaque-associated" proteins promoting the formation of toxic fibrillar aggregates or the chronic inflammatory responses. The aim of this review is to explain the steps in the complex cascade leading to Alzheimer's disease and, based on this, to report the current efforts to intervene in these different pathophysiological events in order to prevent progression of Alzheimer's disease. Whereas acetylcholine substitution is currently used in clinical practice, future therapeutical strategies to combat Alzheimer's disease may include anti-inflammatory treatments, vaccination against beta amyloid peptide, or treatment with cholesterol-lowering drugs.     

Airborne myxomycete spores: detection using molecular techniques

Myxomycetes are organisms characterized by a life cycle that includes a fruiting body stage. Myxomycete fruiting bodies contain spores, and wind dispersal of the spores is considered important for this organism to colonize new areas. In this study, the presence of airborne myxomycetes and the temporal changes in the myxomycete composition of atmospheric particles (aerosols) were investigated with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method for Didymiaceae and Physaraceae. Twenty-one aerosol samples were collected on the roof of a three-story building located in Sapporo, Hokkaido Island, northern Japan. PCR analysis of DNA extracts from the aerosol samples indicated the presence of airborne myxomycetes in all the samples, except for the one collected during the snowfall season. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of the PCR products showed seasonally varying banding patterns. The detected DGGE bands were subjected to sequence analyses, and four out of nine obtained sequences were identical to those of fruiting body samples collected in Hokkaido Island. It appears that the difference in the fruiting period of each species was correlated with the seasonal changes in the myxomycete composition of the aerosols. Molecular evidence shows that newly formed spores are released and dispersed in the air, suggesting that wind-driven dispersal of spores is an important process in the life history of myxomycetes. This study is the first to detect airborne myxomycetes with the use of molecular ecological analyses and to characterize their seasonal distribution.