The transfer of radiocaesium to ewes through a breeding cycle--an illustration of the pitfalls of the transfer coefficient

A study to measure the transfer of radiocaesium to adult female sheep through a breeding cycle is described. The transfer of radiocaesium from the diet to muscle (estimated as the equilibrium transfer coefficient) was significantly lower to pregnant, and especially lactating, animals compared to non-lactating and barren animals. High dry matter intake rates were also associated with significantly lower transfer coefficients. Known relationships between dry matter intake rates and protein turnover could credibly explain some of these differences. However, when described as the concentration ratio, radiocaesium transfer to meat was apparently highest during lactation. The apparent difference in results obtained by the two approaches of determining transfer is the consequence of daily dry matter intake being a denominator within the estimation of transfer coefficient. A wider discussion of transfer coefficients and concentration ratios leads us to suggest that the concentration ratio is the more robust and potentially generic parameter.     

Sanitation entrepreneurship in rural Indonesia: a closer look

Enterprises are playing increasing roles in facilitating access to sanitation products and services in Indonesia and other developing economies. This study investigated the factors affecting the sustainability of sanitation enterprises in rural Indonesia. Interviews with 33 organisations representing sanitation enterprises, associations of sanitation enterprises, national and international civil society organisations (CSOs), donor organisations and national and local government agencies were conducted to explore different stakeholder perceptions about enterprise roles. The research revealed factors specific to the sanitation entrepreneurs themselves, such as their skills, entrepreneurial traits, pro-social motivations and intrinsic motivations, as well as factors within their enabling environment. Insufficient customer demand, inadequate capacity building opportunities, lack of financing options for entrepreneurs and their customers, and limited government support were observed to undermine sanitation enterprise success. Industry associations were found to be a useful intermediary support mechanism, particularly in the absence of significant government support for enterprises. However, such associations could also stifle innovation, and their role needs to be carefully developed, including financially sustainable models for such associations. This study has implications for how governments and CSOs in Indonesia and elsewhere might best support the role of enterprises and entrepreneurship towards improved sanitation outcomes.     

A system view of solvent selection in the pharmaceutical industry: towards a sustainable choice

This paper presents a review of approaches that may be useful for the selection of solvents in the early stages of process development for the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Characteristics of the methodologies and their applicability in early stages are explored. Early stages of development are recognised as ideal for detecting benefits and issues regarding the use of solvents. The ??system?? concept is introduced for the evaluation and selection of solvents in pharmaceutical processes; this concept does not yet seem to be widely utilised within the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries. System analysis is considered an important tool for viewing solvent selection from a holistic perspective. Hence, approaches suitable for the early stages of development and considering a holistic perspective might deliver more sustainable processes. The evolution of the synthesis of Ibuprofen API is used to illustrate this concept.     

土地流转与农户收入增长——基于收入结构的视角

农户参与土地流转能否产生正的收入效应是一个广为社会各界关注的问题,然而已有的经验研究结论却大相径庭,文章以为对土地流转异质性影响的忽视是导致诸多土地流转收入效应研究结论不一致的关键。基于此,文章应用2010—2018五轮中国家庭追踪调查数据(CFPS),分析土地流转对不同农户类型、不同收入来源的影响差异。基本实证结果表明:第一,土地流转确实会增加农户收入,但是主要表现为对转出农户有正的收入效应,对转入农户的家庭纯收入影响并不明显。第二,土地流转对转入农户与转出农户的不同类型收入的影响并不一致。转出户工资性收入增长幅度远高于经营性收入下降幅度,工资性收入对转出户家庭纯收入的增长贡献接近80%;转入户的经营性收入增长无法弥补工资性收入下降,导致家庭总收入水平没有显著变化。以上实证结果经双重差分模型、处理效应模型等一系列模型敏感性分析后并未改变,表明文章的基本结论是稳健的。进一步地,文章对收入异质性的原因进行分析,发现土地流转对不同农户的劳动力资源配置决策影响存在差异,转出户外出务工与创业的概率增加,非农生产的劳动力投入增加;而转入户则在农业生产中投入更多资源,包括家庭农业劳动参与增加以及农业投入增加。文章进一步的政策讨论也发现,由于转出农户对技术改进的依赖性较弱,转出农户只需要保证能够找到一份替代工作就可以获得更高的收入;但对转入农户而言,由于缺乏足够的技术帮扶,所以他们的土地生产改进有限,反而难以产生土地流转理论提到的资源配置优化,这可能会限制土地流转市场的进一步扩大。综上,文章研究为优化土地流转政策、提高土地流转参与率,并最终实现农户的社会福利改善提供了一定的理论与经验证据支持。     

资本下乡过程中农地流转风险识别、形成机理与管控策略

资本下乡介入农地流转可以实现农村地区人、地、资本的协调发展,但同时也可能引发复杂多样的风险问题,已经成为农村经济社会转型的两难选择。为此,运用归纳演绎法和风险系统分析法,系统剖析了资本下乡过程中农地流转风险及其形成机理。研究结果表明：资本下乡过程中农户农地流转风险可以分为土地权益风险、社会保障风险和土地利用风险3个方面;风险受体为农户、社会经济子系统和土地生态子系统;风险源存在流转阶段差异,约定阶段风险源包括产权边界不清、制度规则模糊、信息不对称、激励政策不合理、政策执行主体能力偏低和准入机制缺失,执行阶段风险源为监管机制缺失和配套措施不完善;各类风险源通过“聚合反应”释放“产权公共领域”、“行为空间”、“合谋”、“选择行为”及“负外部性”等逆境胁迫因子作用于风险受体,引发各类流转风险。因此,通过一系列措施避免产权处于“公共领域”、缩小强势集团“行为空间”、防止权力与资本走向“合谋”、防范利益集团“选择行为”、降低流转“负外部性”可以有效管控资本下乡介入农地流转过程中的各类风险。研究成果可以为引导农地有序流转、保护农民合法权益、促进农村经济社会转型提供参考。 关键词： 资本下乡;农地流转风险;风险管理     

Adaptation to climate change as resilience for urban extreme poor: lessons learned from targeted asset transfers programmes in Dhaka city of Bangladesh

This paper aims to identify how targeted asset transfers help to build adaptive capacity and adaptive actions of the urban extreme poor to climate change phenomena. This paper explores the theoretical debates of community-based adaptation approach and failure of such approach to address urban extreme poor. The empirical evidence of these theoretical debates will be drawn from two informal settlements of Dhaka city, where a targeted asset transfer project has been implementing since 2009. This paper explains that urban extreme poor usually work as unskilled labour and lack different livelihood capitals; and climate change is an increasingly important influence exacerbating an already vulnerable livelihood context. There is growing recognition in the literature that poor urban people and communities are adapting to climate change in physical and behavioural terms. But, in the case of urban extreme poor these adaptation approaches are delivering short-term survival strategies disregarding the notion of wellbeing in the medium to long-term perspectives. It is also evident that community level initiatives structurally reproduce the exclusion of the urban extreme poor. However, poverty literatures acknowledge that poverty-centred approaches could help to reduce vulnerability. As urban extreme poor are significantly more resource constrained, it is reasonable to assert that targeted asset transfers could be a poverty-centred adaptation approach in a changing climate. Targeted asset transfers approaches are the outcomes of recent social protection revolution that especially consider accumulation of physical, financial, human, and social capital in order to build adaptive capacity of the urban extreme poor. This adaptive capacity of the extreme poor may facilitate adjustments in assets, livelihoods, behaviours, and technologies in order to reduce future climate vulnerability. In this context, this paper seeks to answer whether targeted asset transfer approaches can be considered as effective poverty-centred adaptation approaches for the urban extreme poor or not.     

Watershed wash-off of atmospherically deposited radionuclides: a review of normalized entrainment coefficients

Radionuclide wash-off is the transport of activity by flowing water over the soil surface (runoff). To complete existing reviews on long-term removal rates, this paper focuses on short-term wash-off fluxes, quantified in the literature by soil-runoff transfer factors called normalized liquid and solid entrainment coefficients (noted K(l)(*), K(s)(*)). Compiled data concerned essentially (137)Cs and (90)Sr wash-off measured under simulated rainfalls on small experimental plots after Chernobyl fallout in the exclusion zone. K(l)(*) and K(s)(*) values span approximately one order of magnitude. Their validity is limited to a season, and their representativeness is limited by restricted studied situations, notably dominant unsoluble forms in fallout, light soils and intense rainfalls. Formulas based on a simplified representation of the soil-runoff system were proposed to generalize the existing values for other conditions. However, their implementation requires a more systematic compilation of the available information, including decisive influence factors such as the fraction of exchangeable form, distribution coefficient, suspended matter enrichment ratio. Entrainment coefficients K(l)(*) and K(s)(*) were mathematically related to the transfer function approach. The proposed relationships proved their complementarity in terms of time support and captured fluctuations. Both approaches should be used in assessments to estimate average fluxes and their variability.     

Soil- and plant-based countermeasures to reduce 137Cs and 90Sr uptake by grasses in natural meadows: the REDUP project.

The effectiveness of a set of soil- and plant-based countermeasures to reduce 137Cs and 90Sr transfer to plants was tested in natural meadows in the area affected by Chernobyl fallout. Countermeasures comprised the use of agricultural practices (disking + ploughing, liming and NPK fertilisation), addition of soil amendments and reseeding with a selection of grass species. Disking + ploughing was the most effective treatment, whereas the K fertiliser doses applied were insufficient to produce a significant increase in K concentration in soil solution. The application of some agricultural practices was economically justifiable for scenarios with a high initial transfer, such as 137Cs-contaminated organic soils. The use of soil amendments did not lead to a further decrease in transfer. Laboratory experiments demonstrated that this was because of their low radionuclide sorption properties. Finally, experiments examining the effect of plant species on radionuclide transfer showed that both transfer and biomass can depend on the plant species, indicating that those with high radionuclide root uptake should be avoided when reseeding after ploughing.     

Assessment of the consequences of the radioactive contamination of aquatic media and biota for the Chernobyl NPP cooling pond: model testing using Chernobyl data

The ‘Cooling Pond’ scenario was designed to test models for radioactive contamination of aquatic ecosystems, based on data from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant cooling pond, which was heavily contaminated in 1986 as a result of the reactor accident. The calculation tasks include (a) reconstruction of the dynamics of radionuclide transfer and bioaccumulation in aquatic media and biota following the accident; (b) assessment of doses to aquatic biota; and (c) assessment of potential doses and radiation risks to humans from consumption of contaminated fish. Calculations for the Scenario were performed by 19 participants using 6 different models: LAKECO-B (Netherlands); LAKEPOND (Romania); POSOD (USA); WATER, GIDRO and ECOMOD-W (Russia). For all endpoints, model predictions were compared with the test data, which were derived from the results of direct measurements and independent dose estimates based on measurements. Most of the models gave satisfactory agreement for some portions of the test data, although very few participants obtained good agreement with all criteria for model testing. The greatest level of difficulty was with the prediction of non-equilibrium radioecological processes in the first year after the accident (1986). The calculations 5 for this scenario gave modellers a unique opportunity to test their models using an independent data base and to analyse the advantages and weaknesses of different model approaches. The use of post-Chernobyl data in such a scenario is also recommended for use in training students in the field of radioecology and environmental protection.     

Practising the past in the present: using Ghanaian indigenous methods for water quality determination in the contemporary era

Surface water sources remain the dominant sources of water supply for a significant proportion of poor communities. These water supply sources tend to have low water quality levels. Application of water quality determination and purification measures could minimize water-related diseases associated with direct consumption of water with poor quality levels. A number of simple measures have been devised and utilized by indigenous communities based on their resource conservation knowledge to improve water quality levels. However, scientific approaches that are more in tune with modern demands for reliability and exactness are the preferred, mainstream approaches for determining water quality. Growing recognition of the relevance of indigenous knowledge has led to renewed interest in the possibility of utilizing it for such tasks. Research conducted in 2007 and 2008 in two indigenous communities in Ghana revealed a diversity of indigenous methods for water quality determination and purification including straining, settling and use of special seeds which could still be useful in this contemporary era. This paper recommends that knowledge co-production and transdisciplinary approaches be employed to enable indigenous communities and experts to collaborate and develop measures that tap both knowledge systems for improving water quality levels for human use.     

Exposure to metal mixtures and human health impacts in a contaminated area in Nanning, China

Cadmium and lead have been identified as very toxic metals, which are widely present in the environment due to natural and anthropogenic emissions. Many studies have shown that the food chain is the main pathway of cadmium and lead transfer from the environment to humans. It is well documented that many factors will affect their transfer through food chains. Previous investigations on heavy metals were mostly concentrated on one contaminant in isolation. However, in real environments, exposure to mixtures of metals is ubiquitous such that cadmium pollution is invariably being associated with lead and zinc, etc. This study focuses on the contamination and health effects of the metal mixtures. For this purpose, a dietary survey was taken for 3 groups in Nanning in October 2002. Samples of soils, plants (vegetables), urine and blood of humans were measured for Cd, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ca and Pb, in addition, the urinary indicators of renal dysfunction Albumin (ALB), N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), Beta-2-microglobulin (beta2-MG) and Retinol-binding protein (RBP) in urine were also measured. Results showed that soil contamination with metal mixtures had caused significant renal dysfunction of the local residents living in the contaminated area, and the dose-response curve was somewhat altered by the mixed contamination of Cd and Pb as well as the intake of other minerals. The importance of mixtures of metal contamination and human health are also discussed in this paper.     

Managing Watershed Externalities in India: Theory and Practice

Watershed development is the focus of poverty alleviation programs in rural India. Watershed projects aim to solve problems of externalities, but they also create their own externalities, which cause uneven distribution of costs and benefits that undermine project objectives and harm the poor. Numerous approaches exist to internalize externalities, including awareness creation, moral suasion, investment subsidies, regulatory limits and fines, indirect benefits, mergers, and recent innovations like payment for environmental services and cap and trade. These can be judged on several criteria; the best approach would solve the problem cost effectively and help or at least not hurt poor people. Watershed projects in India were examined to identify the approaches taken to internalize watershed externalities. Investment subsidies and indirect employment benefits are the least effective approaches theoretically, but they are the most commonly applied, most likely because they are easy to administer and bring popular short term gains. Some theoretically favorable approaches that have been used elsewhere, such as payment for environmental services, may not work as well in India due to high transaction costs. However, one key innovation that easily could be applied in India is to make investment subsidies contingent on performance. Legal support and property rights reform would be needed for other favorable approaches.     

Community-led reforestation: cultivating the potential of virtuous cycles to confer resilience in disaster disrupted social–ecological systems

Human relationships with trees can result in widespread citizen-led reforestation projects that catalyze social–biological-reinforcing feedback loops and set in motion virtuous cycles that restore perturbed social–ecological systems. These virtuous cycles confer resilience in such systems that counterbalance the tendency for vicious cycles to be triggered by destructive behavior and neglect. Given this argument, we ask: how do we cultivate the potential for virtuous cycles to confer resilience in social–ecological systems? To answer this question, we review feedback mechanisms and identify virtuous cycles catalyzed via ecological restoration to highlight their importance to the resilience of social–ecological systems. We then conceptualize these cycles with a causal map (also known as a causal loop diagram) illustrating an example where restoration activities and civic ecology practices contributed to feedbacks and virtuous cycles. Following from this example, we discuss approaches for recognizing and investing in virtuous cycles that accompany social–ecological systems and outline approaches for managing such cycles.     

Climate, entropy and environment

The IPCC Working Groups I–III 2007 publications does not consider the question of the influence of the entropy increase in the atmosphere on current climate development. An investigation into this question, both in general terms as well as by two quantitative approaches, reveals we must consider the entropy produced by man in connection with climate development, especially with regard to the temperature increase of the atmosphere. The IPCC report also fails to mention the production of CO₂ by humans and livestock, but calculations show we must also consider such greenhouse gas CO₂ production. For solving the mitigating processes, we therefore have to take into account both the human induced entropy production and the direct human and livestock CO₂ output. In consideration of these findings, it seems necessary to introduce an “entropy identity” to people who wish to be able to continue to live on the planet. The introduction of an entropy tax might also help in solving the most urgent fundamental problem humanity has ever had to face. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Availability of 99Tc in undisturbed soil cores

Models for safety assessment of radioactive waste repositories need accurate values of the soil-to-plant transfer of radionuclides. In oxidizing environments, (99)Tc is expected to occur as pertechnetate ((99)TcO(4)(-)). Due to its high mobility, leaching of this element in the field might be important, potentially affecting the reliability of estimated transfer parameters of (99)Tc as measured in closed experimental systems such as hydroponics or pot experiments. The aim of this experiment was to measure the leaching of (99)Tc in undisturbed irrigated soil cores under cultivation as well as plant uptake and to study the possible competition between the two transfer pathways. Undisturbed soil cores (50 x 50 cm) were sampled from a Rendzic Leptosol (R), a colluvial Fluvic Cambisol (F) and a Dystric Cambisol (D) using PVC tubes (three cores sampled per soil type). Each core was equipped with a leachate collector at the bottom, allowing the monitoring of (99)Tc leaching through the cores. Cores were placed in a greenhouse and maize (Zea mays L., cv. DEA, Pioneer) was sown. After 135 d, maize was harvested and radioactivity determined in both plant and water samples. Results showed that during the growing period, leaching of (99)Tc was limited, due to the high evapotranspiration rate of maize. After harvest, leaching of (99)Tc went on because of the absence of evapotranspiration. Effective uptake (EU) of (99)Tc in leaves and grains was calculated. EU reached 70% of the input in the leaves and was not significantly different among soils. These results confirmed those obtained from pot experiments, even though leaching was allowed to occur in close-to-reality hydraulical conditions. As a consequence, it was concluded that pot experiments are an adequate surrogate for more complex "close-to-reality" experimental systems for measuring transfer factors.     

农户宅基地流转意愿的影响因素分析——基于湖北二县市的农户调查研究

通过对湖北省二县市农户宅基地流转意愿的抽样调查,采用Logistic回归模型,分析农户宅基地流转意愿与区位条件、农户家庭属性特征及经济发展水平等的关系,找出影响农户宅基地流转意愿的主要因素。研究结果表明：目前愿意将自家宅基地进行流转的农户所占比例略高于50%。按作用程度排序,影响农户宅基地流转意愿的因素依次为非农收入占总收入的比重、距县城距离、对政策了解程度、户主年龄、户主学龄;其中,距县城距离和户主年龄的影响方向为负,其它因素的作用方向为正。从区域角度来看,经济较发达地区农户非农收入已占据主导地位,农户的流动性较强,愿意流转的农户所占比例高于社会经济欠发达地区的比例;影响农户宅基地流转意愿的因素及其作用程度也存在一定的区域差异。     

规模经营主体综合技术效率差异及影响因素——以江苏省水稻生产为例

推动以新型经营主体为依托的粮食规模经营是实现中国乡村振兴的重要路径。基于江苏省水稻规模经营主体调查数据,运用计量分析及DEA-Tobit模型,从主体差异、要素配置、管理营销等方面,实证检验规模经营综合技术效率的差异特征及影响因素。研究表明:现阶段水稻规模经营的综合技术效率处于中等水平,分解后的纯技术效率及规模效率有待提升。规模经营带来了水稻投入成本、总收益及劳动生产率的同步上升,区域差异明显。规模差异比属性差异对综合技术效率及其分解效率的影响更为显著。家庭农场、合作社与企业对综合生产效率的影响依次上升。开展与自身能力相匹配的适度规模经营较为适宜。提高产品价格更能促进各类主体综合技术效率的提升。要素配置及管理经营能力对综合技术效率及其分解效率产生了较为显著的正效应。提高劳动力生产经验及稳定土地流转更有利于综合技术效率的改善。完善价格市场、政府引导技术推广和加大土地连片整治对各种效率的提高也起到积极作用。大力培育各类规模经营主体有助于现代农业经营体系的建立。     

Interpretation of the source-specific substantive control measures of the Minamata Convention on Mercury

Being persistent, toxic, and bio-accumulative, Mercury (Hg) seriously affects the environment and human health. Due to Hg's attribute of long-range environmental transport across national borders, especially through atmospheric transport, no country can fully protect its environment and human health with its own efforts, without global cooperation. The Minamata Convention on Mercury, which was formally adopted and opened for signature in October 2013, is the only global environmental regime on the control of Hg pollution. Its main substantive control measures are source-specific: its phasing-out, phasing-down, and other main substantive requirements all direct to specific categories of pollution sources through the regulation of specific sectors of the economy and social life. This Convention does not take a national quota approach to quantify the Parties' nationwide total allowable consumption or discharge of Hg or Hg compounds, nor does it quantify their nationwide total reduction requirements. This paper attempts to find the underlying reasons for this source-specific approach and offers two interpretations. One possible interpretation is that Hg might be a non-threshold pollutant, i.e., a pollutant without a risk-free value of concentration. The existence of a reference dose (RfD), reference concentration (RfC), provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), minimal risk level (MRL) or other similar reference values of Hg does not necessarily mean that Hg cannot be regarded as non-threshold because such reference values have scientific uncertainties and may also involve policy considerations. Another interpretation is that Hg lacks a feasibly determinable total allowable quantity. There is evidence that negotiators might have treated Hg as non-threshold, or at least accepted that Hg lacks a feasibly determinable total allowable quantity: (1) The negotiators were informed about the serious situations of the current emissions, releases, and legacy deposition; (2) the UNEP Secretariat took the position that Hg is non-threshold and should be eliminated to the maximum; (3) European countries, the USA and other western countries were in a better position to regard Hg as non-threshold and push forward a global reduction of Hg emissions and releases to the minimum; (4) the negotiators took the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) as a model; and (5) a fairly large number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were organized under umbrella NGO networks such as the Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG) and the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) and made a significant contribution to the negotiation process. The interpretations for the Minamata Convention might similarly be used to interpret the source-specific approach of the Stockholm Convention on POPs and the national quota approach of global environmental regimes on stratospheric ozone and climate mitigation. These two interpretations focus on the features of the pollutants and for this reason may be useful for future negotiators of other international environmental treaties to select appropriate models. They also suggest that the source-specific approach may be adopted in the future for pollutants with similar features of being possibly non-threshold and without a feasibly determinable total allowable quantity.     

Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity in Brazilian Hot Spots

Hot spots in Brazil include a variety of ecosystems, such as mangroves, forests, and the Brazilian savannah, locally called cerrado. Some of the rural populations in these hot spots are the caiçaras in SE Atlantic Forest coast, and the caboclos in the Amazon. In this study, we are concerned especially with the knowledge of caiçaras and caboclos, associated with practices that might have implications for management. Data were gathered through interviews with adults at the various communities studied, and through systematic observations, including samples of fishing trips and the mapping of fishing spots used in the Atlantic Forest coast. The use of resources from the surrounding vegetation includes collection of plants, cultivated fruit gardens, the swidden system, and a careful and managed extraction of fibres. Among animal resources, food taboos seem to be useful practices that might contribute to the maintenance of local natural resources. Potential management practices should be locally developed, such as the informal division of fishing spots in Atlantic Forest sites, and the maintenance of the diversity of cassava varieties in both the Atlantic Forest and Amazonian areas.     

Verification of radionuclide transfer factors to domestic-animal food products, using indigenous elements and with emphasis on iodine

Recent reviews have established benchmark values for transfer factors that describe radionuclide transfer from plants to animal food product such as milk, eggs and meat. They also illustrate the paucity of data for some elements and some food products. The present study quantified transfer data using indigenous elements measured in dairy, poultry and other livestock farms in Canada. Up to 62 elements are reported, with particular emphasis on iodine (I) because of the need to accurately assess the behaviour of ¹²⁹I from disposal of nuclear fuel waste. There was remarkable agreement with the literature values, and for many elements the present study involved many more observations than were previously available. Perhaps the most important observation was that product/substrate concentration ratios (CR) were quite consistent across species, whereas the traditional fractional transfer factors (TF, units of d kg⁻¹ or d L⁻¹) necessarily vary with body mass (feed intake). This suggests that for long-term assessments, it may be advisable to change the models to use CR rather than TF.