Evaluating sustainable development policies in rural coastal economies

Sustainable development (SD) policies targeting marine economic sectors, designed to alleviate poverty and conserve marine ecosystems, have proliferated in recent years. Many developing countries are providing poor fishing households with new fishing boats (fishing capital) that can be used further offshore as a means to improve incomes and relieve fishing pressure on nearshore fish stocks. These kinds of policies are a marine variant of traditional SD policies focused on agriculture. Here, we evaluate ex ante economic and environmental impacts of provisions of fishing and agricultural capital, with and without enforcement of fishing regulations that prohibit the use of larger vessels in nearshore habitats. Combining methods from development economics, natural resource economics, and marine ecology, we use a unique dataset and modeling framework to account for linkages between households, business sectors, markets, and local fish stocks. We show that the policies investing capital in local marine fisheries or agricultural sectors achieve income gains for targeted households, but knock-on effects lead to increased harvest of nearshore fish, making them unlikely to achieve conservation objectives in rural coastal economies. However, pairing an agriculture stimulus with increasing enforcement of existing fisheries’ regulations may lead to a win–win situation. While marine-based policies could be an important tool to achieve two of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (alleviate poverty and protect vulnerable marine resources), their success is by no means assured and requires consideration of land and marine socioeconomic linkages inherent in rural economies.

Coastal and island nations are adopting “blue growth” sustainable development (SD) policies to alleviate poverty and conserve vulnerable ocean resources. Generally speaking, SD policies manage resources and direct investments in order to meet current and future human needs and aspirations, without endangering the natural systems (1). The feasibility and potential of SD has been the focus of decades of academic research; many regard the consideration of economic, social, environmental, and institutional needs and linkages as fundamental to successful policy design and implementation (2–6). Given their novelty, what constitutes a blue growth policy is not universal (7), but like traditional SD policies that focus on land-based sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and energy sectors (8, 9), blue growth policies seek to achieve social, economic, and environmental goals simultaneously (10). Blue growth policies attempt to achieve these goals by supporting marine-based industries such as offshore fishing, aquaculture, shipping, and tourism (11, 12). The marine focus has reinvigorated SD efforts of international organizations (including the Global Environmental Facility, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the European Union, and The World Bank) that have collectively invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the development and monitoring of blue growth programs (12–16).While small-scale artisanal fishers consider a variety of factors when making fishing decisions (17), evidence suggests allocation of time is, in part, based on relative returns to labor (18–21). Thus, some blue growth policies attempt to alter returns to fishing relative to alternative income-generating activities as a way to achieve both poverty alleviation and conservation objectives. For example, if poor fishing households are incentivized to participate in offshore fishing, it may lead to increased household incomes and reduced fishing pressure on overexploited nearshore fish stocks (22, 23). Policies enforcing and increasing the regulation of fishing activities are also considered important to achieving blue growth objectives (10, 24).Many SD policies are designed to reduce upfront costs of switching to more sustainable livelihoods. Historically, large-scale fisheries receive the majority of subsidy benefits (25), arguably to the detriment of small-scale fisheries who are often outcompeted by industrialized operations (26). Recently, however, developing countries including Kenya, the Philippines, India, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Indonesia have been investing in programs that bolster the fishing capacity of small-scale and artisanal fishermen (27–33). These programs are designed to help small-scale fishers access larger or better vessels and gear, allowing them to reach more plentiful fishing grounds, compete with commercial vessels, and relieve pressure on vulnerable nearshore fisheries.Despite the recent surge in popularity, we lack evidence that these marine-based SD policies will achieve both poverty reduction and conservation objectives when implemented in rural economies. The complexity of coupled natural–human systems makes it difficult to measure the ex post performance of SD policies, especially in marine environments (34, 35). Additionally, local market failures due to high transportation costs and poorly developed marketing infrastructure (36) can lead to locally defined prices that fluctuate with changes in local supply and demand; local prices may distort household responses to policies, leading to unintended environmental consequences (37–40). Because local market failures are more common in rural economies in developing countries, methods and lessons learned from studies of industrialized fisheries in developed countries may not be relevant. Rather, management of fisheries in rural coastal economies may be more successful if market imperfections, alternative livelihood options, and ecological feedback are considered (20, 41–47).Recent studies explore the causal impacts of land-based SD policy instruments in developing countries (48–56). A key finding of these studies is that community heterogeneity is an important factor in policy performance. However, findings from forestry research do not necessarily carry over to marine settings because fish resources are mobile and regenerate relatively quickly, and, typically, access rights to fisheries are not well defined. This study begins to address the need for research examining responses to SD policy in rural coastal economies.We use a coupled natural–human modeling framework to estimate the ex ante impacts of common SD policies. Our ex ante mechanistic approach that includes a general equilibrium local economy model captures important dynamic feedback between the economy and health of the fish stocks. Indeed, other researchers have studied the correlations between markets and ecosystems in coastal communities in developing countries (44, 57–59). However, the theoretical structure of our analysis approach allows us to examine the causal mechanisms between policy and its outcomes. Our model captures the feedback between economic sectors and households within the economy (Fig. 1, details in SI Appendix). This broad scope is necessary to estimate the extent to which policies targeting poor households in a community also impact nontargeted households (knock-on effects). For example, a policy supporting a subset of fishing households could be detrimental to other households that harvest from the same fish stocks and compete in the same input and output markets.Open in a separate windowFig. 1.A conceptual framework for the bioeconomic local general equilibrium model. Households are represented by four representative groups and may produce goods and services (e.g., agricultural, offshore and nearshore fish, retail, and restaurants) available in local, and possibly global, markets. The simulated policies provide different types of capital to poor households and may also restrict use of fishing capital.Here, we estimate the impacts of two common marine fisheries policies (provision of offshore fishing vessels and increased enforcement of fishing regulations) and an alternative agricultural policy (provision of agricultural capital) in a rural coastal economy. To estimate the impacts of these SD policies in coastal economies, we use a modeling approach that has been developed using theory from development economics, natural resource economics, and marine ecology (37, 60). Introducing new features to the framework, we develop a model of a rural economy capable of disentangling fisher participation in two distinct fishing activities and household consumption of two fish goods. We use microeconomic data collected from household and business surveys to parameterize and calibrate our model, allowing us to realistically estimate policy impacts. An inherent strength to our methodology is the ability to adjust the structure of the model to represent alternative economies. We demonstrate how the model can be used to predict policy outcomes for a typology of rural coastal economies.Although combining policies that simultaneously target marine and agricultural sectors is currently not part of the dialogue on the adoption of blue SD policies around the world (e.g., see The World Bank’s strategy document for its Blue Economy Program and PROBLUE (13)), we find that pairing policy instruments that target both sectors—increased enforcement of vessel regulations and capital investments in the agricultural sector—is better able to achieve both conservation and poverty reduction goals.Why is an agricultural policy combined with enforcement capabilities of marine fishing regulations able to achieve a win–win while marine-focused SD policies are not? Our coupled natural–human modeling framework highlights the mechanisms leading to this counterintuitive outcome. That is, investing in the agricultural sector increases the returns to agricultural labor, which in turn creates upward pressure on wages and encourages a reduction in labor allocated to nearshore fishing. At the same time, the increased wealth in the local economy due to greater agricultural productivity drives up demand for nearshore fish. Although higher prices of fish draw some labor back into the fishery, increased enforcement of vessel regulations prevents fishers from illegally using larger boats in the nearshore habitat as a means to increase harvests. Without coupling increased enforcement and agricultural subsidy, the higher demand for fish would lead to increased harvests in the nearshore environment and lower fish stocks over time.     

Kinetic Investigations of Cu‐Mediated ATRP in Aqueous Solution

Cu‐mediated atom‐transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is studied via on‐line vis/NIR spectroscopy in an aqueous solution of a monomer‐free model system, with CuBr/2,2′‐bipyridine acting as the catalyst, and 2‐hydroxyethyl 2‐bromoisobutyrate as the initiator, at a pressure of up to 2000 bar. Excess NaBr is added to avoid the water‐assisted dissociation of the Br–Cu(II)/L bond. The activation–deactivation equilibrium constant, K_model, is measured at different compositions of the water–poly(ethylene glycol) dimethylether (PEO) solvent mixture, in which PEO mimics a water‐soluble monomer. K_model increases by about three orders of magnitude in passing from a PEO to a water environment. The change in K_model is essentially due to the effect on the activation rate coefficient. Kinetic analysis of the model system upon variation of NaBr concentration in conjunction with predici simulations shows that the NaBr content has no significant impact on the activation and deactivation rate coefficients and thus on K_model, but on dispersity and on the degree of chain‐end functionality.

     

Evidence for electrogenic Na+ pumping in human atrial myocardium

The resting potential of "sodium-loaded' cardiac cells can transiently hyperpolarize to levels negative to the steady state resting potential [3,5,6]. Hyperpolarization is associated with the coupled efflux of Na+ and influx of K+ driven by an active transport process and may result from an increased K+ equilibrium potential (EK), an outward pump current or both. Using conventional microelectrode techniques, we found that Na+-loaded human atrial myocardium can also transiently hyperpolarize. Na+ loading was induced by cooling to 2 degrees to 3 degrees C. Upon rewarming to 37 degrees C in a 20 mM K+ solution, the resting potential transiently hyperpolarized to levels at least 11 mV negative to the calculated EK and 29 +/- 2 mV (mean +/- S.E.) negative to the steady state level (- 33 +/- 2 mV) recorded some 15-20 minutes later. An increase in K+ conductance induced by acetylcholine exposure [2,7,10] during the transient hyperpolarization caused a depolarization, indicating that the resting potential was indeed negative to EK. These findings cannot be explained by either conductance changes or electroneutral Na+ pumping and concomitant extracellular K+ depletion. We conclude that the Na+-loaded human atrium can generate net pump current.     

Association analysis of the DISC1 gene with schizophrenia in the Japanese population and DISC1 immunoreactivity in the postmortem brain

The Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) gene plays a role in the regulation of neural development. Previous evidence from genetic association and biological studies implicates the DISC1 gene as having a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In the present study, we explored the association between DISC1 missense mutation rs821616 (Ser704Cys) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and four other SNPs (rs1772702, rs1754603, rs821621, rs821624) in the related haplotype block and schizophrenia in the Japanese population. We could not find a significant association of selected SNPs with schizophrenia after correction for multiple testing. We performed a meta-analysis of the Ser704Cys variant in schizophrenia using data from the present study and five previous Japanese population studies, and found no association with schizophrenia. We also examined DISC1 immunoreactivity in postmortem prefrontal cortex specimens of schizophrenia patients compared to control samples. The immunoreactivity revealed a significant decrease of DISC1 protein expression in the schizophrenia samples after ruling out potential confounding factors. However, the Ser704Cys variant did not show effects on DISC1 immunoreactivity. These results provide evidence that this functional genetic variation of DISC1 do not underlie the pathophysiology of schizophrenia in the Japanese population.     

Effects of proprioceptive training on ankle muscle strength in fencers: A clinical trial

BackgroundFencing is a combat sport, which depends of lower limbs muscular strength and neuromuscular function. Because of that, approximately half of all injuries occur in lower limbs, especially in ankle. Thus, the objective of this study was to verify the influence of a twelve-week proprioceptive training program on ankle muscular strength and muscular balance in fencers.MethodsThe study was a clinical trial, with 19 fencing athletes from 14 to 35-year-old. The main outcome was ankle invertors, evertors, plantiflexors and dorsiflexors muscular strength and ankle muscle balance. The study was performed in six stages: familiarization of muscular strength test in isokinetic dynamometer; pre-intervention; intervention; post-intervention; three- and six-months follow-up. At pre-intervention stage, the muscular strength was evaluated. At intervention stage, the athletes performed 12-week proprioceptive training program, three times a week. At post-intervention, three- and the six-months follow-ups, same pre-intervention test was performed.ResultsThe proprioceptive training improved front leg ankle dorsiflexor strength at three- and six-months follow-ups compared to pre-intervention. Furthermore, training increased the front leg dorsiflexors/plantiflexors conventional ratio at three- and six-months follow-ups compared to pre-intervention; and evertors/invertors conventional ratio at three-months follow-up compared to pre-intervention; and evertors/invertors functional ratio at post-intervention and three- and six-months follow-ups compared to pre-intervention.ConclusionsThe improvement and/or maintenance of ankle muscle strength occurred in intervention group seems to be due to stimulus provided by proprioceptive training, with ankle dorsiflexors being the most stimulated group.     

氟非尼酮凝胶的研制及其体外透皮转运

采用HPLC法测定了25℃、100 r/min条件下平衡48 h时氟非尼酮在水性溶剂和非水溶剂中的溶解度。结果表明,氟非尼酮在水及其他水性溶剂中微溶,溶解度约为2.5 mg/ml,溶剂的pH值对溶解度影响小;氟非尼酮易溶于乙醇,可溶于聚乙二醇400、1,2-丙二醇和异丙醇,微溶于甘油。摇瓶法测得氟非尼酮的油水分配系数(logP)值为1.182,略有亲脂性。以乳猪皮肤为模型,采用改良的Franz扩散池法评价不同载药量(0.5%和1%)凝胶及溶液的经皮渗透特性。结果表明,2种载药量的氟非尼酮凝胶的经皮渗透行为均符合零级模型,1%凝胶的24 h单位面积累积渗透量(Q24h)和单位面积皮肤滞留量(Qskin)均比0.5%凝胶增加约1倍;同时,0.5%溶液的Q24h和Qskin结果介于2种载药量凝胶之间。     

Non-clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of rVIII-SingleChain,a novel recombinant single-chain factor VIII

Introduction

rVIII-SingleChain (CSL627), a novel recombinant coagulation factor VIII (FVIII), is under investigation in a phase I/III clinical programme (AFFINITY) for the treatment of haemophilia A. Non-clinical studies were conducted to investigate the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic profile of rVIII-SingleChain in comparison with full-length recombinant FVIII.

Materials and Methods

Binding affinity of rVIII-SingleChain for von Willebrand factor was investigated by surface plasmon resonance analysis. The pharmacokinetic profile of rVIII-SingleChain was compared with a marketed full-length recombinant FVIII concentrate (Advate^®) in haemophilia A mice, von Willebrand factor knock-out mice, Crl:CD (SD) rats, rabbits and cynomolgus monkeys. Systemic FVIII activity or antigen levels were recorded. Procoagulant activity was measured in an FeCl₃-induced arterial occlusion model and by recording thrombin generation activity (ex vivo) after administration of 200–250 IU/kg rVIII-SingleChain or full-length FVIII to haemophilia A mice.

Results

rVIII-SingleChain displayed a high affinity for von Willebrand factor (K_D = 44 pM vs. 139 pM for full-length recombinant FVIII). In all animal species tested, rVIII-SingleChain had more favourable pharmacokinetic properties than full-length recombinant FVIII: clearance was decreased and area under the curve and terminal half-life were enhanced vs. full-length recombinant FVIII, while in vivo recovery and volume of distribution were equivalent. rVIII-SingleChain showed a prolonged thrombin generation potential and prolonged procoagulant activity vs. full-length recombinant FVIII in an FeCl₃-induced arterial occlusion model.

Conclusions

rVIII-SingleChain had a higher affinity for von Willebrand factor than full-length recombinant FVIII and displayed favourable pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic properties in non-clinical models.     

Nash equilibrium solutions of tracking game for bilinear systems with exponential reference signals

In this paper, we consider the problem of Nash equilibrium solutions of two players tracking game for bilinear systems. A successive approximation approach is modified to design optimal controllers for bilinear systems. More specifically, a sequence of extended Sylvester differential equations are solved by this modified approach. A simulation example is given to demonstrate the validity of this approach. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Study of Labyrinthine Function in Patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis I. An Electro-Nystagmographic Study

An electro-nystagmographic study of labyrinthine function was performed in 56 patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) aged from 10 to 16 years. Forty-seven patients had major structural single curvatures, and nine patients had double-primary scoliosis and were analysed separately. Treatment was required in 36 cases while 20 were being observed only. Thirty healthy children of the same ages constituted a control group.

Spontaneous nystagmus (SN) and positional nystagmus (PN) were found in 24 out of the 47 patients with single curvatures and in only one subject in the control group (P < 0.001). No significant correlation was noted between direction of convexity and nystagmus. Neither did the frequency of SN or PN differ significantly between patients requiring treatment and patients submitted to observation only. Significant differences were observed in the caloric response between right and left scoliotic patients (P < 0.05). The right convex patients had a sensitivity dominance in the right labyrinth and the left convex patients in the left labyrinth. There were no significant differences between right- and left-beating nystagmus. A dysrhythmic nystagmus occurred in the scoliotic patients with significantly increased frequency (P < 0.05). The results are discussed with special reference to aetiology in AIS. It was difficult, however, to draw any definite conclusion as to whether the findings may indicate a causative factor in relation to the idiopathic curvature or whether they might be a feed-back effect from the deformed spine.     

The Selection of a Pharmaceutical Salt—The Effect of the Acidity of the Counterion on Its Solubility and Potential Biopharmaceutical Performance

A roadmap for the selection of a pharmaceutical salt form for a development candidate is presented. The free base of the candidate did not have sufficient chemical stability for development. The initially selected salt form turned out to be undevelopable because it was unstable during scale-up synthesis and storage. The rationale for the new solid form screening and the criteria for selection are discussed. Before the final selection, the pH solubility profiles of the 2 new salts, a benzoate and a besylate, were compared. Atypical solubility behavior was observed for the benzoate salt in hydrochloric acid with and without normal saline. A scheme is proposed illustrating how the pKas of the counterion and active pharmaceutical ingredient, the medium composition, and final pH affect the solubility and solution equilibria of the 2 selected salt forms. This scheme also includes the equilibria between solution and solid phases in different pH ranges. The pharmaceutical importance of this research is that it sheds light on how the acidity of the counterion can affect the solubility of the selected salt form in the gastric environment. With a well-designed formulation strategy, this property potentially can be translated to optimal biopharmaceutical performance of the drug product.