Considering connections between Hollywood and biodiversity conservation

Cinema offers a substantial opportunity to share messages with a wide audience. However, there is little research or evidence about the potential benefits and risks of cinema for conservation. Given their global reach, cinematic representations could be important in raising awareness of conservation issues and species of concern, as well as encouraging greater audience engagement due to their heightened emotional impact on viewers. Yet there are also risks associated with increased exposure, including heightened visitor pressure to environmentally sensitive areas or changes to consumer demand for endangered species. Conservationists can better understand and engage with the film industry by studying the impact of movies on audience awareness and behavior, identifying measurable impacts on conservation outcomes, and engaging directly with the movie industry, for example, in an advisory capacity. This improved understanding and engagement can harness the industry's potential to enhance the positive impacts of movies featuring species, sites, and issues of conservation concern and to mitigate any negative effects. A robust evidence base for evaluating and planning these engagements, and for informing related policy and management decisions, needs to be built.     

复合菌群产絮凝剂MAC37的特征及其在黏合剂废水中的应用

以利用复活促进因子(Rpf)从土壤和污水处理系统中分离得到的菌种作为筛选絮凝剂产生菌的菌源,采用高岭土悬浊液为活性评价体系,筛选出4株絮凝率高于50%的菌株.经两两菌株复配,构建出产高效絮凝剂的复合菌群M3+M7,该菌群经优化培养后,絮凝率达96.27%.将其产生的絮凝剂进行提纯固化得絮凝剂粗品MAC37,对其主要成分进行定性和定量分析,并将复合菌群的发酵液应用于黏合剂废水的处理.结果表明:MAC37的主要成分为多糖和蛋白质,含量分别为74.5%和20.4%;黏合剂废水经复合菌群发酵液絮凝处理后,浊度、色度及CODCr的去除率分别为92.57%、94.73%和92.12%.      

HHMHC对Cu2+、Ni2+的萃取性能

以对羟基苯甲酸为原料,通过化学修饰合成得到上沿羧基化的杯[6]芳烃羟肟衍生物,即5,11,17,23,29,35-六羧基-37,38,39,40,41,42-六羟肟酸甲氧基杯[6]芳烃(HHMHC),采用IR对其结构性能进行表征,并探讨了溶液初始pH值、初始重金属离子(Cu2+、Ni2+)浓度、萃取时间、温度等因素对HHMHC萃取重金属离子的影响.结果表明,在温度为30℃时HHMHC萃取Ni2+和Cu2+的最佳pH值分别为5.0、6.0,萃取平衡时间均为30min.用准二级动力学模型(R2>0.99)和Freundlich等温模型(R2>0.999)均可较好的拟合其萃取过程,通过计算萃取过程的热力学参数,得到Gibbs自由能(ΔG0)和焓变(ΔH0)均小于0,表明萃取反应是一个自发的放热反应.通过红外光谱图分析和考察溶液pH值对萃取分配比的影响,探讨HHMHC萃取Cu2+、Ni2+的机理,结果表明此萃取过程除了存在阳离子交换机理外,还存在与冠醚萃取相同的离子配位萃取,参与配位作用的主要是羟肟基团(–CONHOH).     

Chinese resource security policies and the restructuring of the Asia-Pacific iron ore market

This paper reviews the restructuring of the Asia-Pacific iron ore market in the wake of the rise of the Chinese steel industry. Prior to the 2000s, this market was characterised by two key features—high firm-level concentration on both the producer and consumer sides, and price determination through annually negotiated benchmark pricing between Australian mining and Japanese steel firms. However, owing to rapid growth in the Chinese steel industry and its emergence as the region's principal iron ore consumer, the Asia-Pacific iron ore market has been dramatically restructured during the last decade. This process has been accelerated since 2005 by Chinese governmental resource security policies, which have sought to address current record high iron ore prices through the use of foreign investment to sponsor new market entrants and the formation of an import cartel amongst the Chinese steel firms. This paper evaluates how these policies have driven restructuring in the Asia-Pacific iron ore market, through an analysis of the growth of China's steel industry, Chinese resource security policies aimed at lowering iron ore import costs, and their effects upon the regional market's ownership structure and price determination mechanisms. It argues that while Chinese investment and cartelisation policies have catalysed significant changes to the ownership and pricing structures of the Asia-Pacific iron ore market, they have carried only mixed benefits for the Chinese steel industry's resource security.     

中国二氧化碳的边际减排成本与区域差异研究

测算二氧化碳的边际减排成本有利于评估区域碳减排潜力与成本,也是落实区域碳交易政策的重要依据。在多投入-多产出的生产效率模型框架下,本文采用二次型方向距离函数,研究了全国30个省份2000—2012年期间的碳边际减排成本及其差异的时空演化特征。二次型方向距离函数通过引用时间变量,反应环境治理的中性技术进步,因此研究方法能充分利用参数估计的灵活性。研究结果显示:1二氧化碳的边际减排成本平均约为1 519元/吨,远高于我国碳市场的交易价格,表明当前试点的自愿性碳交易政策是无效的;2区域碳边际减排成本的泰尔指数分解表明,东中西部地区的减排成本存在明显的地区性差异性,且随着时间的推进,碳减排空间逐渐变小。减排成本的地区性差异表明环境规制政策并不能保证各地区碳治理成本的边际均等原则,而利用政策工具,促使碳排放权从治理成本较高的地区转移至成本较低的地区,可以减少总治理成本,实现总量控制目标。本文建议:一方面,为实现国家碳减排的总体宏观目标,各区域要加强合作,相互借鉴成功的碳减排技术与经验等,在执行政策上,应尝试执行区域协同治理机制,努力降低总减排成本;另一方面,各区域在推进产业结构调整、城镇化及能源消费结构替代过程中要遵从循序渐进原则,避免碳减排成本过度波动,增加减排难度。     

Pollutant emission reduction effect through effluent tax,concentration-based effluent standard,or both

There are numerous studies comparing different kinds of environmental taxes and standards. However, forms of environmental standards focused by former researchers are usually quantity-based limits/standards (e.g. pounds per day or pounds per unit of output). Concentration-based emission standard (e.g. milligrams per liter of wastewater) as one important form of environmental standard has not been given much attention. In this article, comparable estimates of their probable effect on enterprise pollution reduction will be developed for concentration-based effluent standards, effluent taxes, and a combination of both. A linear simulation model is used to clearly and obviously compare the effects of effluent taxes and concentration-based standards within the same figure. With one detailed application to the paper industry, some enlightenment and conclusions – as well as the general applicability of these principles – are then provided: Under the same effluent tax rate, enterprises, groups, and industries that are cleaner will reduce more pollutants than those that have higher pollutant abatement costs. It is recommended that effluent taxes are set by avoiding cutting it even at one stroke and considering the feasibility of pollution-reducing technology in various industries. It is necessary to reduce MAC of enterprises to better stimulate enterprises’ or industries’ emission reduction by preferential measures, such as high tax rate coordinated by speeding up the depreciation of environmental protection equipment.     

Steel consumption and economic activity in the UK: The integration and cointegration debate

This research examines whether a long-run stationary equilibrium relationship holds between economic activity and the consumption of crude steel within the UK. Using the theory of fractionally integrated and cointegrated processes, and allowing for the possibility that the equilibrium path changes abruptly at occasional points in time, it is possible to determine if steel consumption and economic activity follow a common stochastic trend or whether the two series randomly drift apart over time. Evidence is found to support such a long term relationship. This result is at odds with the conclusions drawn by previous researchers in the area. The reason for this difference may be due to these researchers concentrating only on I(0) and I(1) specifications, without consideration of fractional possibilities and also to a failure to account for structural breaks in the equilibrium relationship. Such conclusions are made within the framework of the ARFIMA methodology that yields reliable inferences on the degree of fractional integration and cointegration. Critical values for fractional contegration with an ARFIMA model in the presence of structural breaks are also derived in this paper.     

Long-term iron ore price modeling: Marginal costs vs. incentive price

The paper studies and applies the approaches to forecast long-term (LT) real prices of iron ore. This price is crucial for valuation of investments in Greenfield iron ore projects on the horizon of more than 5 years. The forecast is obtained by three different approaches which are usually used by investment bank analysts: marginal costs approach and 2 approaches based on calculation of incentive price. The paper concludes that there has been a structural shift on the iron ore market and LT iron ore prices will be higher by 20–30% than the average of industry forecasters suggest. This is related to the 2 key factors which were taken into account in this study—depletion of existing iron ore deposits and targeted return on investments for new projects. In addition, escalated industry costs inflation is claimed to be the factor which will bolster nominal iron ore prices at high levels in the long-term. Using a Monte-Carlo simulation approach, confidence interval for future iron ore price was estimated.     

Rare earth elements as critical raw materials: Focus on international markets and future strategies

Supply of some critical raw materials by European industry is becoming more and more difficult. After the case of natural textile fibres, in particular cotton, and timber, over the last few years the problem of rare earths (REs) availability has also risen. The 97% of the global supply of rare earth metals (REMs) is produced by China, that has recently done copious cuts of its exports, apparently in order to protect its environment. This fact has greatly increased the REs prices, causing tension and uncertainty among the world hi-tech markets. Many of these materials, in fact, have very few effective substitutes and low recycling rates too. In addition, their natural reserves of rare earths are concentrated in a small number of countries (China, Brazil, US, Russia, Democratic Republic of Congo). REMs are a group of 17 elements particularly used in many new electronic and advanced components: such as fuel cells, mobile phones, displays, hi-capacity batteries, permanent magnets for wind power generation, green energy devices, etc. Many analysts foresee much more requests in the next decades.     

A simple mineral market model: Can it produce super cycles in prices?

This paper develops a stylized supply–demand model for a mineral/nonrenewable commodity. It embodies important distinctions between short-run and long-run mineral supply and the derived demand for minerals as intermediate goods in production sectors with differing intensities of use. This framework is used to address the question: under what conditions might one expect to observe super cycles (i.e. cycles with a period of 20–70 years) in minerals prices? A plausible time path for GDP$GDP$ growth and the structural transformation that accompanies economic development in an emerging region is specified. Using these drivers and reasonable supply and demand parameters, price dynamics are simulated. The result is an asymmetric price cycle with a peak price that is about 250% above trend and an expansion phase that lasts for about 20 years. Thus, this simple model is capable of producing a single cycle with a frequency and amplitude in the range estimated in the empirical literature on super cycles. As other regions reach the development ‘take-off' phase, additional super cycles should emerge.