Regional Nature Parks in Switzerland. Between top-Down and Bottom-Up Institution Building for Landscape Management

In 2007 Swiss Federal legislation introduced Regional Nature Parks (RNPs). In this paper I treat the landscape as an object of political-legal regulation and focus on the governance of its uses. I use the constitutionality framework to support our analysis. Constitutionality refers to a form of institution building that stresses bottom-up natural resource management initiatives. Through a detailed case study I show that the interests of landscape users are not equally well protected by law. The success of the new parks model depends on a subtle balance between local self-organization and top-down control. The interests of the weakest actors, i.e., landscape viewers, can be supported only through strong backing at higher levels of government.     

An Equiratio Mixture Model for Non-additive Components: A Case Study for Aspartame/Acesulfame-K Mixtures

The Equiratio Mixture Model predicts the psychophysical functionfor an equiratio mixture type on the basis of the psychophysicalfunctions for the unmixed components. The model reliably estimatesthe sweetness of mixtures of sugars and sugar-alchohols, butis unable to predict intensity for aspartame/sucrose mixtures.In this paper, the sweetness of aspartame/acesulfame-K mixturesin aqueous and acidic solutions is investigated. These two intensivesweeteners probably do not comply with the model's originalassumption of sensory dependency among components. However,they reveal how the Equiratio Mixture Model could be modifiedto describe and predict mixture functions for non-additive substances. To predict equiratio functions for all similar tasting substances,a new Equiratio Mixture Model should yield accurate predictionsfor components eliciting similar intensities at widely differingconcentration levels, and for substances exhibiting hypo- orhyperadditivity. In addition, it should be able to correct violationsof Stevens's power law. These three problems are resolved ina model that uses equi-intense units as the measure of physicalconcentration. An interaction index in the formula for the constantaccounts for the degree of interaction between mixture components.Deviations from the power law are corrected by a nonlinear responseoutput transformation, assuming a two-stage model of psychophysicaljudgment. Chem. Senses 21: 1–11, 1996.     

Management of the ocean's living resources: An essay review

Abstract

The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) focused primarily on the peaceful uses of ocean space. Although security issues were and are involved in many peaceful uses of ocean space, they were not explicitly addressed at UNCLOS III nor covered in the U.N. Convention on the Law of Sea. Since security issues are among the major neglected issues of ocean space, it is the purpose of this article to open the discussion of the legal and political aspects of these issues as relating to the law of the sea.     

HIV/AIDS: in search of an animal model

AIDS is among the most devastating diseases of our time, claiming the lives of approximately 3 million people per year. The primary cause of AIDS, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), is a pathogen that is highly specific for humans and generally does not infect or cause disease in other species. This property complicates the generation of animal models that are urgently needed to test new antiretroviral therapies and vaccines. The most practical animal models developed to date consist of infection of rhesus macaques with a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) or chimeric HIV/SIV viruses. Although these models are useful for particular applications, the fact that SIV is a distinct virus compared with HIV-1 represents a significant limitation to their use. Here, we discuss the uses and limitations of existing models and recent advances that might lead to better animal models for HIV/AIDS.     

Evaluating soil biochemical/microbial indices as ecological indicators of different land use/cover in northern Iran

The objective of the study was to examine changes in microbial parameters have been used to monitor changes in soil quality under different land uses in north of Iran. The microbial parameters included microbial respiration (MR), substrate induced respiration (SIR), carbon availability index (CAI), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), ratio of MBC/MBN, metabolic quotient (qCO₂) and microbial ratio were determined under different land use/cover, i.e. virgin natural forest (VNF), degraded natural forest (DNF), alder plantation (AP), sequoia plantation (SP), improved fallow (IF) and home garden (HG) areas in northern Iran. Five composed samples per land use/cover were taken from the top 10 cm of the soil. MR and SIR (0.45 and 1.66 mg CO₂-C g^?1 day^?1, respectively) were found to be significantly higher under AP land uses than in the other areas. CAI did not differ for the land uses; MBC (591 and 590 mg kg^?1, respectively) had higher significantly under SP and VNF land uses than in the other areas. MBN (64.25 and 62.33, respectively mg kg^?1) was significantly higher in AP and VNF land uses, ratio of MBC/MBN (17.02) was higher in SP land use than other areas, HG had significantly higher qCO₂ (0.0012 μg CO₂-C mg^?1 MBC day^?1) and finally microbial ratio was significantly higher under IF (599.16) in comparison with HG > AP ≈ DNF > VNF > SP areas. Overall, our results indicate that AP land use (Alnus subcordata C. A. Mey.) increase of soil quality and alder plantation is suitable for rehabilitation of degraded natural forests.     

Comparison of dielectric response models for simulating electrostatic effects in proteins

Two recent approaches for calculating pK shifts in proteins are compared. The first of these uses Coulomb's law with a distance-dependent dielectric permittivity, epsilon (r), to model the screening effects of the environment, and the second uses a finite difference approach to solve Poisson's equation. It is shown that an explicit form of epsilon (r) which has been fitted to experimentally determined values of the dielectric permittivity in a range from 1 to 21 A can be approximated by a linear form in the functionally significant range of charge separations of approximately 3-10 A, but for distances greater than 10 A the effective permittivity is strongly nonlinear. A statistical analysis of the errors in calculated pK shifts due to electrostatic interactions between charges with separations greater than 10 A shows that there are only marginal differences in reliability between using Coulomb's law with an appropriate form of epsilon (r) or the finite difference approach for solving Poisson's equation. Thus it is concluded that pK shifts can be calculated just as well, and with considerably less effort, using Coulomb's law.     

Nonparametric simulation-based statistics for detecting linkage in general pedigrees.

We present here four nonparametric statistics for linkage analysis that test whether pairs of affected relatives share marker alleles more often than expected. These statistics are based on simulating the null distribution of a given statistic conditional on the unaffecteds' marker genotypes. Each statistic uses a different measure of marker sharing: the SimAPM statistic uses the simulation-based affected-pedigree-member measure based on identity-by-state (IBS) sharing. The SimKIN (kinship) measure is 1.0 for identity-by-descent (IBD) sharing, 0.0 for no IBD status sharing, and the kinship coefficient when the IBD status is ambiguous. The simulation-based IBD (SimIBD) statistic uses a recursive algorithm to determine the probability of two affecteds sharing a specific allele IBD. The SimISO statistic is identical to SimIBD, except that it also measures marker similarity between unaffected pairs. We evaluated our statistics on data simulated under different two-locus disease models, comparing our results to those obtained with several other nonparametric statistics. Use of IBD information produces dramatic increases in power over the SimAPM method, which uses only IBS information. The power of our best statistic in most cases meets or exceeds the power of the other nonparametric statistics. Furthermore, our statistics perform comparisons between all affected relative pairs within general pedigrees and are not restricted to sib pairs or nuclear families.     

Submarine Communications Cables and Law of the Sea: Problems in Law and Practice

Submarine communications cables laid on the seabed of the ocean are the foundation of the world's international telecommunications network. International law, in particular, the law of the sea, has recognized the freedom to lay submarine cables and perform associated operations and has placed certain obligations on states related to the protection of submarine cables. This article examines the international law with respect to submarine cables and discusses the various problems with both the law and state practice on submarine cables. It argues that these problems are illustrations of the traditional challenges that face the law of the sea; that is, the balancing and accommodation of competing uses of ocean space. It concludes that an important step toward resolving these problems is enhanced consultation and cooperation between cable companies and governments and that efforts should focus on creating such mechanisms.     

Can you shrinkwrap a cow? Protections available for the intellectual property of the animal breeding industry

There are currently four main intellectual property protection statutory schemes available: copyright, trade secret, trademark and patent. Each of these protects a different aspect of intellectual property, which leaves gaps of protection when an innovation does not fit squarely within the boundaries of the statutes. Contracts allow the industry to tailor the protection desired. One very common approach is to license the product via contract. Licences allow intellectual property owners to retain ownership and give permission to others to use the product. Although there are several types of licences, the most common is the field of use licence, which limits the licensee's use of the product. This often leads to price discrimination where various levels of restriction are offered at corresponding prices. The more rights retained by the owner, the more restricted the buyer is and the lower the purchase price allowing customers to choose the level of restriction they are willing to accept. Therefore, the different uses and needs of various customers can be accounted for and reflected in the price. The animal breeding industry is currently struggling to protect their innovations falling into these statutory gaps. The protection for animal breeding industry innovations is most likely through contract law rather than traditional intellectual property law. By taking advantage of the unique nature of contracts, industry will be able to tailor protection and pricing to best suit the variety of customers and uses for the products sold.     

Power law rank-abundance models for marine phage communities

Metagenomic analyses suggest that the rank-abundance curve for marine phage communities follows a power law distribution. A new type of power law dependence based on a simple model in which a modified version of Lotka-Volterra predator-prey dynamics is sampled uniformly in time is presented. Biologically, the model embodies a kill the winner hypothesis and a neutral evolution hypothesis. The model can match observed power law distributions and uses very few parameters that are readily identifiable and characterize phage ecosystems. The model makes new untested predictions: (1) it is unlikely that the most abundant phage genotype will be the same at different time points and (2) the long-term decay of isolated phage populations follows a power law.     

The brain and the law

Much has been written about how law as an institution has developed to solve many problems that human societies face. Inherent in all of these explanations are models of how humans make decisions. This article discusses what current neuroscience research tells us about the mechanisms of human decision making of particular relevance to law. This research indicates that humans are both more capable of solving many problems than standard economic models predict, but also limited in ways those models ignore. This article discusses how law is both shaped by our cognitive processes and also shapes them. The article considers some of the implications of this research for improving our understanding of how our current legal regimes operate and how the law can be structured to take advantage of our neural mechanisms to improve social welfare.     

The stay/switch model describes choice among magnitudes of reinforcers

The stay/switch model is an alternative to the generalized matching law for describing choice in concurrent procedures. The purpose of the present experiment was to extend this model to choice among magnitudes of reinforcers. Rats were exposed to conditions in which the magnitude of reinforcers (number of food pellets) varied for staying at alternative 1, switching from alternative 1, staying at alternative 2 and switching from alternative 2. A changeover delay was not used. The results showed that the stay/switch model provided a good account of the data overall, and deviations from fits of the generalized matching law to response allocation data were in the direction predicted by the stay/switch model. In addition, comparisons among specific conditions suggested that varying the ratio of obtained reinforcers, as in the generalized matching law, was not necessary to change the response and time allocations. Other comparisons suggested that varying the ratio of obtained reinforcers was not sufficient to change response allocation. Taken together these results provide additional support for the stay/switch model of concurrent choice.     

Change and permanence: reflections on the ethical-social contract of science in the public interest

Modern science, dedicated since its 17th century origins to the mastery and possession of nature for the relief of man's estate, is a source of great social change, affecting our opinions, practices, and ways of life. It thus exists necessarily in tension with law and morality, our institutions of stability and order. This tension between change and permanence, between science and law or morals, was institutionalized by the American Founders who sought to encourage, under law, the progress in science and the useful arts, by means of the copyright and patent laws. American science and technology have flourished under the patent law, an ingenious ethical and social contract between scientists and the polity, through which private right and interest and public good generally coincide. Nevertheless, this contract has its limitations. Some of these limitations are vividly seen through the recent Supreme Court decision (in the Chakrabarty case) to permit the patenting of living microorganisms. Analysis of this case shows why the contract between science and the polity embodied in the Patent Laws may not always serve the public good and may also be harmful to science itself. Also, permitting ownership of living species shows how close we have come in our thinking to overstepping the sensible limits of the project for the mastery and possession of nature.     

Law, evolution and the brain: applications and open questions

This paper discusses several issues at the intersection of law and brain science. It focuses principally on ways in which an improved understanding of how evolutionary processes affect brain function and human behaviour may improve law's ability to regulate behaviour. It explores sample uses of such 'evolutionary analysis in law' and also raises questions about how that analysis might be improved in the future. Among the discussed uses are: (i) clarifying cost-benefit analyses; (ii) providing theoretical foundation and potential predictive power; (iii) assessing comparative effectiveness of legal strategies; and (iv) revealing deep patterns in legal architecture. Throughout, the paper emphasizes the extent to which effective law requires: (i) building effective behavioural models; (ii) integrating life-science perspectives with social-science perspectives; (iii) considering the effects of brain biology on behaviours that law seeks to regulate; and (iv) examining the effects of evolutionary processes on brain design.     

Change and permanence: Reflections on the ethical-social contract of science in the public interest

Summary Modern science, dedicated since its 17th Century origins to the mastery and possession of nature for the relief of man's estate, is a source of great social change, affecting our opinions, practices, and ways of life. It thus exists necessarily in tension with law and morality, our institutions of stability and order. This tension between change and permanence, between science and law or morals, was institutionalized by the American Founders who sought to encourage, under law, the progress in science and the useful arts, by means of the copyright and patent laws. American science and technology have flourished under the patent law, an ingenious ethical and social contract between scientists and the polity, through which private right and interest and public good generally coincide. Nevertheless, this contract has its limitations. Some of these limitations are vividly seen through the recent Supreme Court decision (in the Chakrabarty case) to permit the patenting of living microorganisms. Analysis of this case shows why the contract between science and the polity embodied in the Patent Laws may not always serve the public good and may also be harmful to science itself. Also, permitting ownership of living species shows how close we have come in our thinking to overstepping the sensible limits of the project for the mastery and possession of nature.     

Color analysis method for estimating the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin using an image-input and processing system

A color analysis method which enables both qualitative and quantitative analyses of an object's color was developed. The method uses a color image-input and processing system composed of a 3-tube video camera and a digital image analyzer, which quantizes a color image into values of red, green, and blue brightness, then processes these values. We introduced a spectrophotometric principle by the Beer-Lambert law, and were able to establish a color model to analyze an object's color. In the coordinate space based on our color model, the hue of the object's color is represented by the direction from the origin, and the density by the distance from the origin. This new method was used to analyze the colors of hemoglobin solutions at various oxygen saturations and concentrations. The results agreed with the known conditions, indicating the validity of the model and its usefulness for quantitative as well as qualitative analyses of color.