Sectoral Trends and Driving Forces of Global Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Disaggregation of sectoral energy use and greenhouse gas emissions trends reveals striking differences between sectors and regions of the world. Understanding key driving forces in the energy end-use sectors provides insights for development of projections of future greenhouse gas emissions. This paper examines global and regional historical trends in energy use and carbon emissions in the industrial, buildings, transport, and agriculture sectors. Activity and economic drivers as well as trends in energy and carbon intensity are evaluated. We show that macro-economic indicators, such as GDP, are insufficient for comprehending trends and driving forces at the sectoral level. These indicators need to be supplemented with sector-specific information for a more complete understanding of future energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.     

Maternal age specific rates for chromosome aberrations and factors influencing them: Report of a collaborative european study on 52 965 amniocenteses

Maternal age specific rates for all major chromosome aberrations have been determined in 52 965 pregnancies in mothers 35 years of age and over at the time of amniocentesis. Rates increase exponentially with advancing maternal age for trisomies 21, 18 and 13, and for the XXX and XXY syndromes, but in the autosomal trisomies this rise appears to be followed by a levelling off at the upper end of the age range. A significant inverse relationship with maternal age is found for 45,X cases. It is postulated that these various patterns are the result of the interaction of three principal factors: a maternal age effect acting particularly on first meiotic nondisjunction: a higher spontaneous abortion rate with advancing maternal age for aneuploid as compared to euploid conceptions; and an increased probability of spontaneous abortion before the time of amniocentesis for conceptions with more extensive chromosome imbalance. A stepwise logistic regression analysis of 13 299 pregnancies in which both parental ages are known shows that the father's age does not influence these maternal age specific rates, with the possible exception of the 47,XXY syndrome.     

Easurements of placental,decidual, and fetal proteins before and after chorionic villus sampling

Circulating placental [human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), Schwangerschafts protein 1 (SP1), pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A), decidual (pregnancy protein) 12 (PP12), and fetal alphafetoprotein (AFP)] proteins were measured immediately before and within 1 h in 18 women undergoing diagnostic chorionic villus sampling (CVS) in the first trimester. An elevation of serum AFP levels was consistently seen, while fluctuations in excess of 10 per cent of the pre-CVS levels of SP1 and PP12 were seen in the majority of patients. Fluctuations in hCG and PAPP-A were consistently less than 10 per cent of pre-CVS values. Post-CVS changes in levels were not apparently associated with any feature of the technique, the pregnancy, or its outcome (one missed abortion). As feto-maternal haemorrhage is a common event, anti-D should be offered to rhesus-negative women undergoing CVS. In the prediction of subsequent miscarriage, only hCG and PAPP-A measurements should be considered.     

Climatic variations in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea area

A very dry climate which prevailed during the last glacial maximum of the Pleistocene from India to the Sahara, was replaced by variable weather conditions with alternating more or less humid phases, starting from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition period and lasting up to about 3000 years ago, when present arid conditions set in. A particularly wet phase is recognized throughout the region some 5000 years ago. Phase shifts within the region and in particular changes in rain distribution patterns, are interpreted as due to shifting spheres of influence of the monsoonal circulation, of Atlantic depressions and moisture originating from the Mediterranean Sea. The condition of the Mediterranean Sea itself, which is influenced by runoff and melt waters from the European Continent and by the Nile floods, as well as by the eustatic sea-level changes, is not a good indicator of local climate conditions.     

Die landwirtschaftliche Revolution und ihre Folgen

Neither the “Green Revolution” in the developing countries nor “yield explosion” in the agricultural production of the industrialized nations have reached the genetic and physiologic limits of crop growth. Breeding of better varieties is still the most promising defense against hunger. The ambiguity of modern agroindustry throughout the world resides in its high dependence on the existence of functional technological, economical, and political systems.