Why are larvae of the social parasite wasp <Emphasis Type="Italic">Polistes sulcifer</Emphasis> not removed from the host nest?

A challenge for parasites is how to evade the sophisticated detection and rejection abilities of potential hosts. Many studies have shown how insect social parasites overcome host recognition systems and successfully enter host colonies. However, once a social parasite has successfully usurped an alien nest, its brood still face the challenge of avoiding host recognition. How immature stages of parasites fool the hosts has been little studied in social insects, though this has been deeply investigated in birds. We look at how larvae of the paper wasp obligate social parasite Polistes sulcifer fool their hosts. We focus on cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), which are keys for adult recognition, and use behavioral recognition assays. Parasite larvae might camouflage themselves either by underproducing CHCs (odorless hypothesis) or by acquiring a chemical profile that matches that of their hosts. GC/MS analyses show that parasite larvae do not have lower levels of CHCs and that their CHCs profile is similar to the host larval profile but shows a reduced colony specificity. Behavioral tests show that the hosts discriminate against alien conspecific larvae from different colonies but are more tolerant towards parasite larvae. Our results demonstrate that parasite larvae have evolved a host larval profile, which overcomes the host colony recognition system probably because of the lower proportion of branched compounds compared to host larvae. In some ways, this is a similar hypothesis to the odorless hypothesis, but it assumes that the parasite larvae are covered by a chemical blend that is not meaningful to the host.     

我国生态环境损害赔偿资金制度的困境与出路

关于环境公益诉讼赔偿资金的归属，我国实践中有环保部门主管、纳入国库、纳入法院指定账户、纳入专项账户等不同归属模式，但在其管理与使用方面，我国尚且存在诸如地方生态环境损害赔偿资金管理办法名称不统一、资金使用系统不透明、社会公众査询难、地方行政机关干预过多、资金监管机制不健全等问题。本文拟建议设立"全国生态环境损害赔偿基金"，对环境公益诉讼产生的损害赔偿金以及各地方未统一管理的环境保护资金等相关资金进行统筹与规范，以期推进我国生态环境损害赔偿资金制度的完善。为此，需要明确生态环境损害赔偿基金的资金来源，规范生态环境损害赔偿基金的使用、监督机制，明确环保部门的监督职责，构建资金使用的信息公开制度，强化环保组织的监督权，在此基础上进一步对生态环境损害赔偿基金制定严格的管理办法，以规范并指导基金的有效运作。     

基于组合赋权和灰色Euclid理论的深基坑支护方案优选

提高深基坑开挖施工安全水平,综合考虑基坑支护方案影响因素的特点,建立基于博弈论组合赋权和灰色Euclid理论的基坑支护方案优选决策模型。首先,运用层次分析法（AHP）与信息熵法分别确定主客观权重。然后利用博弈集结模型对指标体系进行组合赋权,得到综合权重。最后,运用灰色Euclid理论评价优选模型进行深基坑支护方案的优选,同时结合工程实例进行验证。结果表明:运用博弈集结组合赋权和灰色Euclid理论模型选出方案A4为最优支护方案,结果与工程实际一致。     

我国《国民经济和社会发展第十三个五年规划纲要》 对安全生产战略影响量化分析

安全生产与经济社会发展密切相关,历年国家五年规划纲要所明确的一系列经济社会发展体制机制改革和政策措施实施,都直接或间接影响着安全发展进程与成效。在对我国《“十三五”规划纲要》中283项相关事项梳理的基础上,坚持政策评估和风险评价相结合的原则,采用定性和定量相结合的方法,邀请专家学者从机遇、挑战、积极影响、消极影响4个维度,分重大、较大、一般3个层级对相关事项进行逐项量化评估。根据评估结果和量化计算模型,就《“十三五”规划纲要》对安全生产可能产生的整体战略影响进行了深入分析,并与《“十二五”规划纲要》影响进行比对,给出了有关宏观决策建议。     

Social enquiry and the measurement of natural phenomena: the degradation of irrigation water in the Argolid Plain,Greece

Attempts to formulate appropriate policies for the management of agricultural systems are constrained by the limitations of acquiring information about changes in the natural system across space and through time. The adoption of natural science techniques to measure the transformation of natural phenomena requires considerable investment in time and expertise and may not always be capable of providing information about change in a way that meets the adaptive requirements of planning and policy. A more flexible approach to data collection will require the acceptance of less precise and more general physical data as the basis for understanding changes in complex agricultural systems. This raises interesting questions about the adoption of social enquiry techniques to provide information about changing natural phenomena. The progressive deterioration of water resources, as a result of intensive agricultural activity in the Argolid Plain of Greece, will be considered and the problems of measuring the extent of that degradation, and the processes leading to it, will be discussed.     

Valuing eco-assets: A note on valuation methods

SUMMARY

The valuation of eco-assets should take into account the perceptions and judgments of the public. However, the value of eco-assets based on conventional calculations has often been unreliable as a result of differing situations and individuals involved. Therefore, a reasonable and efficient method for valuing eco-assets is needed. In this paper, a brief summary of the history of valuing eco-assets is provided, followed by a summary of conventional methods of valuation. This summary of the currently used methods revealed that they do not take into account the effect of the stage and development of the population determining the value of the eco-assets. Therefore, we have developed a social development stage coefficient (l), based on Engel's coefficient. A new valuation method was then created by integrating the development stage coefficient (l) with a conventional model. Finally, possible future strategies for valuing eco-assets are discussed.     

European Union agricultural policy scenarios' impacts on social sustainability of agricultural holdings

This paper aims to assess the impacts of household behaviour on social sustainability by simulating agricultural policy scenarios of the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). For this purpose a multicriteria model was formulated, at farm household level, in order to study the social impacts of the CAPs using different scenarios. The scenarios were chosen on the basis of the main EU policies affecting farm households, such as the alternative crops scenario, the Water Framework Directive scenario and the agrienvironmental schemes scenario. The data for this analysis resulted from the CAP-IRE project, a European FP7-funded project. The model includes a utility function with several conflicting criteria such as maximization of gross margin and risk and labour minimization. The model is further used to simulate the impacts on social sustainability by estimating main social indicators. The model is applied in two different farm types in Greece. The results show that the CAP scenarios have multiple social impacts on agricultural holdings, and particularly on the farm labour structure. These impacts have negative effect on social sustainability.     

基于EDM的农业节水技术补偿

实现农业节水,必须建立有效的农业节水补偿机制对农民进行补偿。文章采用经典EDM模型,分析了农业节水技术投入对生产者、消费者及社会福利的影响。研究认为,农业节水技术投入使得生产者剩余、消费者剩余以及社会总剩余全面增加;政策实施带来社会福利变化在产品市场上的消费者与生产者之间分配,缺乏弹性的一方受到的影响往往大于富有弹性的一方;根据投入产出及"谁受益、谁补偿"的补偿原则,由消费者剩余变化及生产者剩余变化分别占社会总福利变化的比重,即可制定消费者及生产者对农业节水项目的投资付费标准以及补偿标准;建立水权交易市场,使农民通过出售节约的水资源而获益,可有效地激发其投入节水事业的积极性。     

What does team–member exchange bring to the party? A meta‐analytic review of team and leader social exchange

Both leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX) measure the quality of reciprocal exchange among employees in the workplace. Although LMX focuses on supervisor–subordinate relationships while TMX examines the relationships among team members, both have theory‐based and empirically proven relations with workplace outcomes such as job performance, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. However, it is not yet known which has more of an impact on such workplace outcomes—specifically, it is not clear if an employee's time is best spent developing vertical relationships among supervisors and subordinates (LMX) or on the horizontal relationships among team members (TMX). Accordingly, this meta‐analysis explores the incremental validity and relative importance of these two social exchange‐based constructs. The theoretical logic underlying LMX and TMX is clarified, and the parameter estimates between LMX, TMX, and work outcomes are reported. Results demonstrate that TMX shows incremental validity above and beyond LMX for some outcomes (organizational commitment and job satisfaction), but not others (job performance and turnover intentions). Also, LMX shows greater relative importance across all four outcomes. In sum, the clarification of the theoretical and empirical landscape lays a foundation for recommendations for future research. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrating Biological and Social Values When Prioritizing Places for Biodiversity Conservation

The consideration of information on social values in conjunction with biological data is critical for achieving both socially acceptable and scientifically defensible conservation planning outcomes. However, the influence of social values on spatial conservation priorities has received limited attention and is poorly understood. We present an approach that incorporates quantitative data on social values for conservation and social preferences for development into spatial conservation planning. We undertook a public participation GIS survey to spatially represent social values and development preferences and used species distribution models for 7 threatened fauna species to represent biological values. These spatially explicit data were simultaneously included in the conservation planning software Zonation to examine how conservation priorities changed with the inclusion of social data. Integrating spatially explicit information about social values and development preferences with biological data produced prioritizations that differed spatially from the solution based on only biological data. However, the integrated solutions protected a similar proportion of the species’ distributions, indicating that Zonation effectively combined the biological and social data to produce socially feasible conservation solutions of approximately equivalent biological value. We were able to identify areas of the landscape where synergies and conflicts between different value sets are likely to occur. Identification of these synergies and conflicts will allow decision makers to target communication strategies to specific areas and ensure effective community engagement and positive conservation outcomes. Integración de Valores Biológicos y Sociales al Priorizar Sitios para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad