Testing the feasibility of a hypothetical whaling‐conservation permit market in Norway

A cap‐and‐trade system for managing whale harvests represents a potentially useful approach to resolve the current gridlock in international whale management. The establishment of whale permit markets, open to both whalers and conservationists, could reveal the strength of conservation demand, about which little is known. This lack of knowledge makes it difficult to predict the outcome of a hypothetical whale permit market. We developed a bioeconomic model to evaluate the influence of economic uncertainty about demand for whale conservation or harvest. We used simulations over a wide range of parameterizations of whaling and conservation demands to examine the potential ecological consequences of the establishment of a whale permit market in Norwegian waters under bounded (but substantial) economic uncertainty. Uncertainty variables were slope of whaling and conservation demand, participation level of conservationists and their willingness to pay for whale conservation, and functional forms of demand, including linear, quadratic, and log‐linear forms. A whale‐conservation market had the potential to yield a wide range of conservation and harvest outcomes, the most likely outcomes were those in which conservationists bought all whale permits.     

The case for free market environmentalism

Environmental Ethics is the ethics of how we humans are to relate to each other about the environment we live in. The best way to adjust inevitable differences among us in this respect is by private property. Each person takes the best care of what he owns, and ownership entails the free market, which enables people to make mutually advantageous trades with those who might use it even better. Public regulation, by contrast, becomes management in the interests of the regulators, or of special interests, such as lovers of rare species-not the people they're supposed to be serving.     

Molecular prenatal diagnosis: the impact of modern technologies

Originally prenatal diagnosis was confined to the diagnosis of metabolic disorders and depended on assaying enzyme levels in amniotic fluid. With the development of recombinant DNA technology, molecular diagnosis became possible for some genetic conditions late in the 1970s. Here we briefly review the history of molecular prenatal diagnostic testing, using Duchenne muscular dystrophy as an example, and describe how over the last 30 years we have moved from offering testing to a few affected individuals using techniques, such as Southern blotting to identify deletions, to more rapid and accurate PCR-based testing which identifies the precise change in dystrophin for a greater number of families. We discuss the potential for safer, earlier prenatal genetic diagnosis using cell free fetal DNA in maternal blood before concluding by speculating on how more recent techniques, such as next generation sequencing, might further impact on the potential for molecular prenatal testing. Progress is not without its challenges, and as cytogenetics and molecular genetics begin to unite into one, we foresee the main challenge will not be in identifying the genetic change, but rather in interpreting its significance, particularly in the prenatal setting where we frequently have no phenotype on which to base interpretation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

典型氢氧化细菌固碳特性种间差异及胞外有机物对固碳过程影响

化能自养细菌对全球CO₂固定具有重要的意义.研究了4种典型氢氧化细菌（HOB,分别是Alcaligenes hydrogenophilus DSM 2625、Pelomonas saccharophila DSM 654、Variovorax paradoxus DSM 30034和Acidovorax facilis DSM 649）的固碳特性及其种间差异性,并探究了胞外游离有机碳（EFOC）对不同种类HOB固碳效率差异性的影响.结果表明：①不同HOB自养培养过程中表观固碳量随时间呈显著差异性,其中,DSM 2625生长速度较快,其平均固碳量分别是DSM 654、DSM 649和DSM 30034的6.30、8.76和7.02倍.②不同HOB之间cbbL基因转录量与 表观固碳量的相关系数为0.980 （p<0.05）,cbbL基因转录量是造成不同菌种之间表观固碳效率差异的关键因素.③HOB细胞蛋白质含量与cbbL基因丰度和转录量之间也存在显著正相关,相关系数分别为0.999（p<0.01）和0.976（p<0.05）,即化能自养细菌CO₂同化途径所固定的有机碳进一步参与细胞蛋白质的合成,进而影响其生长速度和表观固碳效率.④HOB在自养培养过程中产生的EFOC对cbbL基因转录效率产生反馈抑制作用,且不同HOB之间,EFOC/TOC比例越低,表观固碳效率越高.     

新型自贸协定的环保议题谈判及我国的对策简

自由贸易协定中纳入环境保护规定是提高自由贸易中的正环境效应,同时避免或减轻负面环境影响的保障,已经逐渐成为新型国际自由贸易谈判中的重要内容。以跨太平洋战略经济伙伴关系协定为代表的新型自由贸易谈判,试图在协定中丰富环境条款,例如环保原则、国际环境公约、环境标准、争端解决机制、环境产业和服务、环境合作和能力建设等。我国也开始在自贸谈判中纳入环保要求,基于最新的政策要求,我国应积极赶上国际自由贸易谈判中环境保护的新要求,推动贸易与环保政策的深度融合。