Exploitations and their complications: the necessity of identifying the multiple forms of exploitation in pharmaceutical trials

Human subject trials of pharmaceuticals in low and middle income countries (LMICs) have been associated with the moral wrong of exploitation on two grounds. First, these trials may include a placebo control arm even when proven treatments for a condition are in use in other (usually wealthier) parts of the world. Second, the trial researchers or sponsors may fail to make a successful treatment developed through the trial available to either the trial participants or the host community following the trial. Many commentators have argued that a single form of exploitation takes place during human subject research in LMICs. These commentators do not, however, agree as to what kind of moral wrong exploitation is or when exploitation is morally impermissible. In this paper, I have two primary goals. First, I will argue for a taxonomy of exploitation that identifies three distinct forms of exploitation. While each of these forms of exploitation has its critics, I will argue that they can each be developed into plausible accounts of exploitation tied to different vulnerabilities and different forms of wrongdoing. Second, I will argue that each of these forms of exploitation can coexist in single situations, including human subject trials of pharmaceuticals. This lesson is important, since different forms of exploitation in a single relationship can influence, among other things, whether the relationship is morally permissible.     

Evolution and persistence of obligate mutualists and exploiters: competition for partners and evolutionary immunization

Mutualisms are ubiquitous in nature, as is their exploitation by both conspecific and heterospecific cheaters. Yet, evolutionary theory predicts that cheating should be favoured by natural selection. Here, we show theoretically that asymmetrical competition for partners generally determines the evolutionary fate of obligate mutualisms facing exploitation by third-species invaders. When asymmetry in partner competition is relatively weak, mutualists may either exclude exploiters or coexist with them, in which case their co-evolutionary response to exploitation is usually benign. When asymmetry is strong, the mutualists evolve towards evolutionary attractors where they become extremely vulnerable to exploiter invasion. However, exploiter invasion at an early stage of the mutualism's history can deflect mutualists' co-evolutionary trajectories towards slightly different attractors that confer long-term stability against further exploitation. Thus, coexistence of mutualists and exploiters may often involve an historical effect whereby exploiters are co-opted early in mutualism history and provide lasting 'evolutionary immunization' against further invasion.     

Relation between exploitation and production in experimental populations ofPoecilia reticulata

In order to make researches on the effect of exploitation upon fish populations, six populations of guppy were maintained during a period of 331 weeks under conditions of space, light, temperature, pH, and food controlled as much as possible. The six populations were divided into three groups two by two: a control group without exploitation, a 10% rate of exploitation group and a 20 and 33% rate of exploitation group. All the populations repeated an increase and a decrease in number and in biomass about once a year. The exploitation affected the age composition in the populations: in the non-exploited population adults occupied the largest part, and the more intensive the exploitation the larger the part fry occupied. The exploitation decreased the biomass of exploited populations, but productivity increased with increasing of of rate of exploitation. The relationship between adult and fry could be represented byRicker's reproduction curve. The form of the curve was changed by an intensity of exploitation. It was thought that exploitation acts as a preventer of aging of populations by removing old fish and results increasing number of fry and productivity.     

有机蜂蜜的开发利用现状及其前景

开发有机蜂蜜适应环保和人类追求健康的发展趋势 ,有着特殊的社会效应。综述了各国有关有机蜂蜜及其相关生产技术的标准或法律法规 ,对开发有机蜂蜜的技术研究现状做了分析 ,并提出亟待解决的问题 ,展望了有机蜂蜜的市场前景。     

Resilience and stability of north Labrador Arctic charr, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Salvelinus alpinus</Emphasis>, subject to exploitation and environmental variability

There are relatively few studies that have examined in detail the effects of long term exploitation on population characteristics of Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus, coincident with natural changes in environmental conditions. This is particularly the case for anadromous charr despite their widespread use and importance in areas such as northern Canada. Here, the response of north Labrador charr to major reductions in commercial exploitation following long periods of intense fishing is described for three stock complexes with emphasis on changes in size, growth, and age configurations. Changes in age and size distribution, specifically long-term declines in weight, are linked with periods of intensive exploitation and possibly with variability in the climate of the northwest Atlantic that resulted in identifiable diet shifts during the early 1990s. Despite observed changes in some metrics, populations have maintained relatively stable length compositions with variations in weight showing resilience to return to earlier configurations as exploitation was reduced and environmental conditions ameliorated. Results of the long-term investigations challenge traditional beliefs associated with the inability of all anadromous charr to withstand periods of intense exploitation.     

Local Perspectives on Environmental Insecurity and Its Influence on Illegal Biodiversity Exploitation

Environmental insecurity is a source and outcome of biodiversity declines and social conflict. One challenge to scaling insecurity reduction policies is that empirical evidence about local attitudes is overwhelmingly missing. We set three objectives: determine how local people rank risk associated with different sources of environmental insecurity; assess perceptions of environmental insecurity, biodiversity exploitation, myths of nature and risk management preferences; and explore relationships between perceptions and biodiversity exploitation. We conducted interviews (N = 88) with residents of Madagascar’s Torotorofotsy Protected Area, 2014. Risk perceptions had a moderate effect on perceptions of environmental insecurity. We found no effects of environmental insecurity on biodiversity exploitation. Results offer one if not the first exploration of local perceptions of illegal biodiversity exploitation and environmental security. Local people’s perception of risk seriousness associated with illegal biodiversity exploitation such as lemur hunting (low overall) may not reflect perceptions of policy-makers (considered to be high). Discord is a key entry point for attention.     

An experimental design and a statistical analysis separating interference from exploitation competition

Previous experimental studies of competition among foragers rarely distinguished between exploitation and interference competition. In many systems this separation is experimentally impossible without interfering with the natural behavior of the animals. Consequently, these studies can only demonstrate the combined effect of interference and exploitation on the forager’s feeding rate, namely, it usually decreases in a decelerating rate as a function of density. We suggest here a simple experimental and statistical procedure that facilitates the separation of the effects of interference from those of exploitation. This procedure includes manipulation of both predator density and the foraging experiment duration. The statistical analysis is based on multiple linear regression. The working assumption is that exploitation can be neglected at the beginning of the foraging experiment because, initially, predators do not experience diminishing returns in prey capture rates. Using both the results of an individual-based simulation and a field experiment dataset of gerbils foraging for seeds in an artificial food patch located in the field, we demonstrate that our procedure can successfully detect and separate the effect of interference from the combined overall effect of competition (i.e., interference plus exploitation). Inon Scharf and Ido Filin contributed equally to this paper.     

长白山野生有毒植物种质资源调查研究及开发利用

本文重点介绍了长白山有毒植物种质资源的种类、特点,开发利用的现状,存在的问题,开发前景,采取措施等方面的内容,为国内外开发利用这一宝贵资源提供一些原始资料.     

蛋白质组学应用研究进展

蛋白质组学是现代生命科学领域一个新的发展迅速的带头学科,其研究成果为药物筛选、新药开发、临床诊断及新陈代谢途径研究等提供了理论依据和技术基础。该文就蛋白质组学在基础生物学、药物开发、医学、农业等方面的应用进行了综述。     

How Exactly Are Peasants "Exploited"?

We are very frequently told that peasants are exploited without being told what exactly this means, whether peasant exploitation is confined to peasants, or whether the word exploitation is meant to convey different meanings for different societies. This paper discusses two meanings of exploitation, neither of which relates uniquely to peasantry, and poses specific questions about "exploitation" and "surplus," the answers to which would tell us a good deal about what is meant by the exploitation of peasantry.     

辽河油田土壤石油污染及其微生物群落特征

本研究采取辽河油田曙光采油厂、欢喜岭采油厂和锦州采油厂井场周边土壤,并以未污染稻田土壤作为对照,分析了各采样点的土壤理化性质、石油烃浓度组成及土壤微生物群落结构。结果表明: 1) 3个采油厂井场周边土壤均受到严重的石油烃污染,但其石油烃浓度及组成存在一定的差异,曙光和欢喜岭采油厂土壤石油烃平均浓度是锦州采油厂的2倍以上;曙光采油厂土壤中胶质沥青质含量最高,而欢喜岭和锦州采油厂土壤中烷烃含量最高,比例均在40%以上。2)与稻田土壤相比,锦州采油厂土壤微生物操作分类单元(OTU)、Chao1指数和Shannon指数升高,而其在曙光和欢喜岭采油厂土壤中降低;各采油厂土壤样品中存在相同的优势菌门及菌属,但丰度存在较大差异。锦州采油厂土壤中分枝杆菌属、假单胞菌属的丰度高,曙光采油厂土壤中鞘氨醇单胞菌属、类诺卡氏菌属、马赛菌属的丰度高,而欢喜岭采油厂土壤中溶杆菌属、硫杆菌属、假节杆菌属的丰度高。3)相关分析表明,鞘氨醇单胞菌属、类诺卡氏菌属、硫杆菌属、马赛菌属、假节杆菌属与总石油烃、总有机碳和胶质沥青质含量呈显著正相关,分枝杆菌属、溶杆菌属、假单胞菌属与总氮和总磷呈显著正相关。本研究系统分析了不同采油厂土壤中石油烃、土壤理化性质和微生物群落特征,揭示了辽河油田污染土壤中特定的优势菌属和群落结构,为辽河油田石油烃污染土壤修复功能微生物筛选及修复过程菌群构建提供理论依据,也为其他油田高效降解菌筛选提供了方法借鉴。     

Exploitation interactions and the structure of ecosystems

The techniques of input-output economics have recently been applied to describing energy flow through ecosystems. This paper considers interactions arising from resource exploitation, and in particular competition, in light of these concepts. An extended definition of niche overlap, including indirect exploitation, is developed and applied to developing an extended view of competition. It is shown that competing species may in fact interact in numerous and often counteracting ways.     

Estimation of exploitation rate by combining mark-recapture procedures with a creel survey

Government agencies are usually interested in estimating the annual exploitation rate of a fish population for recreational and commercial fisheries. In this paper, we propose a model-based approach for the estimation of the exploitation rate. Our approach combines mark-recapture procedures with a creel survey (which is a type of angler survey). We consider moment estimation of the exploitation rate. We also consider estimation of the exploitation rate by stratifying the space-time units of the fisheries.     

新疆小浆果植物资源及其开发利用

新疆北疆山区具有非常丰富的小浆果资源,但开发利用尚处初级阶段。对新疆北疆小浆果的分布现状及保护、合理开发利用和人工栽培状况进行了初步探讨,提出了在山区发展小浆果类经济树种的初步建议。     

Protecting communities in health research from exploitation

Guidelines for health research focus on protecting individual research subjects. Yet several commentators have argued that protecting individual subjects, while undoubtedly important, is not sufficient to ensure ethical research. It is also vital to protect the communities involved in health research. In particular, a number of studies have been criticized on the grounds that they exploited host communities. Although these criticisms have received a good deal of attention, there has been no systematic analysis of what constitutes community exploitation in health research, nor an assessment of what safeguards are needed to protect against it. This is a serious deficiency. The absence of an analysis of community exploitation makes it impossible to ensure that host communities are protected against exploitation. The absence of an analysis also raises the possibility that charges of exploitation may block important research, without any way of assessing whether the charges are warranted. The present paper attempts to address these concerns by providing an analysis of community exploitation and, based on this analysis, determining what safeguards are needed to protect communities in health research against exploitation.     

Bioethics, vulnerability, and protection

What makes individuals, groups, or even entire countries vulnerable? And why is vulnerability a concern in bioethics? A simple answer to both questions is that vulnerable individuals and groups are subject to exploitation, and exploitation is morally wrong. This analysis is limited to two areas. First is the context of multinational research, in which vulnerable people can be exploited even if they are not harmed, and harmed even if they are not exploited. The type of multinational research likely to raise the most ethical concerns is that in which the investigators or sponsors are from a powerful industrialised country or a giant pharmaceutical company and the research is conducted in a developing country. Second is the situation of women, who are made vulnerable in cultural settings or in entire countries in which they are oppressed and powerless. In the face of cultural values and practices, or governmental policies, these women suffer serious consequences for their health and even lives. Examples are provided, and it is suggested that in some cases vulnerable individuals can be harmed but not exploited. On the positive side, recent developments reveal a new awareness of exploitation and efforts to enhance the ability of developing countries to protect themselves and their citizens from exploitation at the hands of powerful sponsors of research. In addition, human rights principles are increasingly being used to monitor the actions (or inaction) of governments regarding women's reproductive rights and vulnerability with respect to HIV/AIDS, and to take remedial actions.     

长白山区鸢尾属植物资源及其开发利用

对长白山鸢尾属植物的种类、分布、储量、生境、鉴别及开发利用等方面做了评细地调查研究,为开发长白山区鸢尾属植物资源提供了科学依据。     

Off‐Shoring Clinical Research: Exploitation and the Reciprocity Constraint

The last 20 years have seen a staggering growth in the practice of off‐shoring clinical research to low‐and middle‐income countries (LICs and MICs), a growth that has been matched by the neoliberal policies adopted by host countries towards attracting trials to their shores. A recurring concern in this context is the charge of exploitation, linked to various aspects of off‐shoring. In this paper, I examine Alan Wertheimer's approach and offer an alternative view of understanding exploitation in this context. I will suggest that the justification for the enterprise of research is largely dependent on its integration within a health system from which participants regularly benefit and I argue that an attention to a principle of reciprocity will enable us to better recognize and address exploitation in international research.     

长白山区黄精属植物的种质资源及其开发利用

本文对长白山黄精属植物的种类、分布、储量、生境、鉴别及开发利用等方面做了详细地调查研究,为开发本区这一宝贵资源提供了科学依据。