Assessment of the use of selected rodents in ecological monitoring

Rodents can be useful in detecting environmental impacts because they are easy to study (easy to capture and handle), they can occur in densities adequate for statistical analysis, and they are ecologically important. In this study the usefulness of rodent populations for ecological monitoring was investigated by examining the effect of variation on the possibility of detecting differences among populations of rodents on 10 trapping grids. The effects of sampling frequencies and dispersal on detecting differences in population parameters among grids was also investigated, as was the possibility of inferring population parameters from correlations with habitat data. Statistically significant differences as small as 4.3Peromyscus maniculatus/ha were detected between grids. Of 10 populations, this comprised 12% of the highest-density population and 44% of the lowest-density population. Smaller and more differences among grids were found by examining only animals surviving from previous months. Dispersal confounds detection of direct impacts to populations, especially during the breeding season. Infrequent sampling fails to detect impacts that occur between sampling periods and will indicate impacts when observed changes result from natural variation. Correlations between population parameters and habitat variables exist but should only be used in predicting, not measuring, impacts. It is concluded that some rodent populations can be used in ecological monitoring. However, intensive sampling is required to account for variation and dispersal.     

Railroad injury: Causes, costs, and comparisons with other transport modes

Safety regulators in the railroad industry need comprehensive injury costs by cause, and cost comparisons to other modes of transport to gain policy insights. This study links case-level data from the Federal Railroad Administration to monetary costs and consequences of specific injuries. Lost quality of life was estimated from physicians' ratings of injury impairment and the value of fatal risk reduction. Railroad injuries and illnesses cause an average of $3 billion in fatality costs and $650 million in nonfatal incident costs annually. Impacts at rail-highway crossings impose three times as much cost as the next highest cause. Commercial air travel is the safest per passenger mile. Trains, second lowest, have injury costs six times higher, but only one-fifth as high as cars. The relative safety of trains and airplanes in transport means highway modes enjoy implicit price subsidies. Better injury cost recovery through taxation or insurance would make the subsidies explicit. More informed modal choices and thus enhanced economic efficiency would result.     

经合组织的可持续农业思路

经合组织为其29个成员国提供了一个论坛,来讨论以经济分析和共享各国经验为基础的经济政策与社会政策,以期向各国政府提供政策忠告和建议.近年来,已经更多地注意到经合组织国家与非经合组织国家之间的彼此相互作用,在市场、贸易和投资的全球化与自由化范畴内尤其如此. 　　目前,正在进行一个关于可持续发展的重大经合组织项目,利用经合组织中范围广泛的社会经济人才,准备2001年向经合组织部长会议的报告,并作为对2002年“里约+10”联合国会议的投入.在考察到底发生了什么的基础上,旨在概述提请政策制定者努力保持和加强可持续发展的方式——覆盖经济方面、环境方面和社会方面.1999年向经合组织部长会议的中期报告可上网浏览：www.oecd.org/subject/sustdev.......     

Are Life Patents Ethical? Conflict between Catholic Social Teaching and Agricultural Biotechnology's Patent Regime

Patents for genetic material in theindustrialized North have expandedsignificantly over the past twenty years,playing a crucial role in the currentconfiguration of the agricultural biotechnologyindustries, and raising significant ethicalissues. Patents have been claimed for genes,gene sequences, engineered crop species, andthe technical processes to engineer them. Mostcritics have addressed the human and ecosystemhealth implications of genetically engineeredcrops, but these broad patents raise economicissues as well. The Catholic social teachingtradition offers guidelines for critiquing theeconomic implications of this new patentregime. The Catholic principle of the universaldestination of goods implies that genes, genesequences, and engineered crop varieties areineligible for patent protection, although theprocesses to engineer these should be eligible.Religious leaders are likely to make a moresubstantive contribution to debates aboutagricultural biotechnology by addressing theselife patents than by speculating that geneticengineering is ``playing God.'     

经合组织的可持续农业思路

经合组织为其29个成员国提供了一个论坛,来讨论以经济分析和共享各国经验为基础的经济政策与社会政策,以期向各国政府提供政策忠告和建议.近年来,已经更多地注意到经合组织国家与非经合组织国家之间的彼此相互作用,在市场、贸易和投资的全球化与自由化范畴内尤其如此.     

The socioeconomic significance of nature-based recreation in Canada

In recognition of the many values that people ascribe to nature, federal, provincial, and territorial agencies worked inpartnership to complete the 'Survey on the Importance of Natureto Canadians' (SINC) in 1981, 1987, 1991, and 1996. Between 1981 and 1996, more than 80% of Canadians 15 years of age and older engaged in one or more nature-related activities. This paper describes the evolution of this cooperative monitoring program, defines a classification system as a context for the values examined by the SINC, highlights trends of some nature-related recreational activities measured by the survey, and comments onthe importance of this information to Canadians.