Resource abundance and financial development: Evidence from China

In this paper, we extend the debate on the resource curse by focusing on a new mechanism. Theoretically, resource abundance may have a negative influence on financial development by impacting trade openness, the demand for financial reforms, social capital accumulation and productive investments. Using provincial panel data of China, the empirical analysis confirms such a negative link between mineral resource abundance and financial development. The resource-rich regions tend to have a slower pace of financial development than resource-poor ones. Since the positive relationship between financial development and long-run growth is also confirmed by the analysis, our findings suggest that financial development constitutes an important mechanism through which resource abundance can impact economic performance.     

Prenatal testing for Imprinting Disorders: A clinical perspective

Imprinting Disorders (ImpDis) are a group of congenital conditions caused by aberrant imprinting resulting in disturbed expression of parentally imprinted genes. ImpDis are rarely associated with major malformations, but pre- and/or postnatal growth and nutrition are often affected. In some ImpDis, behavioral, developmental, metabolic and neurological symptoms might present in the perinatal context or later in life, and in single ImpDis, there is a higher risk of tumors in childhood. Prognosis depends in part on the molecular cause of each ImpDis, but due to high clinical variability and (epi)genetic mosaicism, predicting the clinical outcome of a pregnancy solely based on the underlying molecular disturbance is difficult. Therefore, interdisciplinary care and treatment approaches play an important role in the management and decision making of affected pregnancies, especially taking into account fetal imaging in addition to genetic findings. Prenatal findings influence perinatal management, and thereby improve the prognosis of ImpDis associated with severe but sometimes transient clinical complications in the neonatal period. Therefore, prenatal diagnosis can be crucial for appropriate management not only to the pregnancy itself but might also have a life-long effect.     

Effects of life history and reproduction on recruitment time lags in reintroductions of rare plants

Reintroductions are important components of conservation and recovery programs for rare plant species, but their long-term success rates are poorly understood. Previous reviews of plant reintroductions focused on short-term (e.g., ≤3 years) survival and flowering of founder individuals rather than on benchmarks of intergenerational persistence, such as seedling recruitment. However, short-term metrics may obscure outcomes because the unique demographic properties of reintroductions, including small size and unstable stage structure, could create lags in population growth. We used time-to-event analysis on a database of unusually well-monitored and long-term (4–28 years) reintroductions of 27 rare plant species to test whether life-history traits and population characteristics of reintroductions create time-lagged responses in seedling recruitment (i.e., recruitment time lags [RTLs]), an important benchmark of success and indicator of persistence in reintroduced populations. Recruitment time lags were highly variable among reintroductions, ranging from <1 to 17 years after installation. Recruitment patterns matched predictions from life-history theory with short-lived species (fast species) exhibiting consistently shorter and less variable RTLs than long-lived species (slow species). Long RTLs occurred in long-lived herbs, especially in grasslands, whereas short RTLs occurred in short-lived subtropical woody plants and annual herbs. Across plant life histories, as reproductive adult abundance increased, RTLs decreased. Highly variable RTLs were observed in species with multiple reintroduction events, suggesting local processes are just as important as life-history strategy in determining reintroduction outcomes. Time lags in restoration outcomes highlight the need to scale success benchmarks in reintroduction monitoring programs with plant life-history strategies and the unique demographic properties of restored populations. Drawing conclusions on the long-term success of plant reintroduction programs is premature given that demographic processes in species with slow life-histories take decades to unfold.     

An 'inherent' biodegradability test for oil products: description and results of an international ring test. CONCAWE Biodegradation Task Force.

Current test guidelines for assessing 'inherent' (potential) biodegradability were designed for water-soluble, organic compounds of low volatility and are unsuitable for most oil products. It was against this background, that CONCAWE (the oil companies' European organisation for environment, health and safety) formed a task force to develop a standard test protocol for assessing the 'inherent' biodegradability of oil products.     

The influence of benzo(a)pyrene on the growth of wheat and corn

Corn seeds responded to soaking in aqueous solutions of benzo(a)pyrene with increased root growth. Growth stimulation decreased from 14% to 0 with increasing concentrations (0.0005–0.02 ppm), and with increasing soaking times (6 and 12 hr). Shoot growth and dry weights of shoots were not affected. Wheat did not respond as distinctly as corn to similar treatments. A decrease in the growth of shoots and roots with increasing BaP concentrations was not statistically significant.     

Data ranges in aquatic toxicity of chemicals

A significant problem for effect assessment of aquatic ecosystems arises from the large ranges of toxicity data, which can be found in different databases and literature. Here, ranges are given for the aquatic toxicity of 27 high production volume chemicals. Based on these illustrative examples and on the current literature on uncertainty in aquatic effect assessment, toxicity ranges are discussed for their possible causes (variation in experimental condition, species, endpoint, time) and ways to handle them (safety factors). Implications and recommendations on the procedure of risk analysis of chemical substances are drawn. Two main requirements for a comprehensive risk assessment are identified, which often play a minor role in current practice (as they are often neglected) as well as in scientific discussion (as they are meant to be trivial). First, data quality must be checked critically before applying any result of a toxicity test. Secondly, experimental data should take into account different species and acute as well as chronic data. If these aspects are considered in risk analysis, which is common practice in ecotoxicology but not always in the context of practical applications in risk engineering, a more comprehensive picture of the environmental toxicity of a chemical substance can be obtained.     

The use of volcanic soil as mineral landfill liner--III. Heavy metals retention capacity.

The volcanic soil of Southern Chile was tested for its heavy metal retention capacity. The maximum uptakes for CrO4(2-) (CrVI), Cu(2+), Zn(2+) and Pb(2+) were determined to be 2.74, 5.32, 5.86 and 7.44 mg g(-1), respectively. At a slightly alkaline pH value (7.5), it seems that a precipitation-adsorption process was responsible for the Cu(2+) and Zn(2+) uptake onto volcanic soil. All the determined values are of the same order of magnitude as natural zeolites heavy metals adsorption capacities. In addition, the heavy metals diffusion model through a 1 m volcanic soil mineral liner shows breakthrough times of 21.6, 10.2 and 8.9 years, for Pb(2+), Zn(2+) and Cu(2+), respectively, confirming the trend obtained in the adsorption isotherms. The natural volcanic soil of Southern Chile is an interesting material for possible use as landfill mineral basal sealing. It has an appropriate sealing potential (average Kf value of 5.85 x 10(-9) m s(-1)) and a heavy metals retention capacity comparable with natural zeolites. About two-thirds of the agricultural land in Chile (approximately 0.4 million km2) is derived from volcanic ash, suggesting an important soil volume for future landfill projects, that could be obtained in sufficient quantities from urban building activities.