Patent portfolio-based indicators to evaluate the commercial benefits of national plant genetic resources

According to property rights theory, national plant genetic resources (PGRs) are sovereign properties rather than resources belonging to the common heritage of humankind. Consequently, provider states can claim compensation from users of their national PGRs, leading to the need for bilateral or multilateral agreements to share national PGRs' commercial benefits. However, as benefit-sharing agreements are made exante, estimating the potential profit is difficult. Thus, issues around asymmetric information about the commercial value of such resources have emerged. In this paper, we use a patent portfolio as a proxy to estimate the potential commercial benefits of national PGRs and propose new evaluation indicators. We propose a comprehensive evaluation process that covers constructing a patent portfolio for each PGR, establishing indicators in terms of marketability, technology, and exclusiveness, and assigning weights to the indicators using fuzzy analytic hierarchy. In addition, we illustrate this process using a case of Korean national PGRs based on the opinions of stakeholders and experts. This research is expected to help promote national PGR transactions with equitable access and benefit sharing agreements.     

Perspectives on the link between ecosystem services and biodiversity: The assessment of the nursery function

The relationship between biodiversity and each ecosystem service or bundle of ecosystem services (e.g. win−win, win−lose or win−neutral) is an active field of research that requires structured and consistent information. The application of that research for conservation and decision-making can be hampered by the ambiguity found in the definition of the nursery function under the ecosystem service perspective. In this paper, we review how the role of nursery habitats is included in the ecosystem services literature, covering conceptual, biophysical and economic reflections. The role of ecosystems as nurseries is mostly analyzed in coastal environments. The main observation is that there is no consensus on the consideration of the nursery function as a service (e.g. which species or habitats) or on how to assess it (e.g. which indicators or valuation methods). After that review, we analyze three different interpretations given to the nursery function, namely the ecological, conservationist and economic point of view; and we distinguish between different types of assessment that may consider the nursery function.We conclude that the nursery function can be considered an ecosystem service on its own right when it is linked to a concrete human benefit and not when it is represented with indicators of general biodiversity or ecosystem condition. Thus, the analysis of the delivery of ecosystem services should be differentiated from the analysis of ecological integrity. Only with this distinction science may be able to quantify the link between biodiversity and ecosystem services and policy may be effective in halting biodiversity loss. Similar considerations could apply for other biodiversity constituents that may be treated as ecosystem services.     

酶工程精品资源共享课程的建设及后期拓展性应用的探索

酶工程精品资源共享课程建设是提高酶学与酶技术研究效率的重要手段,通过各种网络技术将信息及时、准确地进行传递,并能将复杂的文字表达演化为动画、图像等更易于接受的媒介,使学生的学习效率和学习热情达到最优组合,并为学生多媒体教学后的复习与巩固,答疑解难及知识拓展创造了更为便利的平台。因此,作为资源共享课程,在网络模式的建设和后期拓展性应用等方面,从学生学习的目的和实际效果出发,还必须在教学中做更深入的探讨,通过优化教学模块、丰富考核方式、增强移动平台运用及借鉴慕课管理等措施,以促进课程的高效实施和建设质量,最终达到资源共享课程的精品建设。     

Cooperation,collective action,and the archeology of large‐scale societies

Archeologists investigating the emergence of large‐scale societies in the past have renewed interest in examining the dynamics of cooperation as a means of understanding societal change and organizational variability within human groups over time. Unlike earlier approaches to these issues, which used models designated voluntaristic or managerial, contemporary research articulates more explicitly with frameworks for cooperation and collective action used in other fields, thereby facilitating empirical testing through better definition of the costs, benefits, and social mechanisms associated with success or failure in coordinated group action. Current scholarship is nevertheless bifurcated along lines of epistemology and scale, which is understandable but problematic for forging a broader, more transdisciplinary field of cooperation studies. Here, we point to some areas of potential overlap by reviewing archeological research that places the dynamics of social cooperation and competition in the foreground of the emergence of large‐scale societies, which we define as those having larger populations, greater concentrations of political power, and higher degrees of social inequality. We focus on key issues involving the communal‐resource management of subsistence and other economic goods, as well as the revenue flows that undergird political institutions. Drawing on archeological cases from across the globe, with greater detail from our area of expertise in Mesoamerica, we offer suggestions for strengthening analytical methods and generating more transdisciplinary research programs that address human societies across scalar and temporal spectra.     

Provincial water use efficiency measurement and factor analysis in China: Based on SBM-DEA model

This paper estimates water use efficiency of 31 provinces in China during 2004–2013 using slack based measure-data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model which takes consideration of sewage. By using panel data model, factors that influence water use efficiency are explored. The results show that: (1) water use efficiency is higher in economically developed provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. (2) In general, inefficiencies of labor input and water input are larger than that of capital input. (3) After taking into account sewage as unexpected output, inefficiency of gross domestic product (GDP) for each province is quite low, but most provinces have inefficient sewage emission. (4) It is found in the analysis of influencing factors that the ratio of added value of agricultural sector, water usage per capita and sewage per unit of output have negative impact on water resources use efficiency, while the import dependence and export dependence have positive impact. The results are robust.     

从供给侧结构性改革视角看三级医院医疗资源下沉

面对区域医疗资源布局失衡、城乡医疗卫生资源配置不均衡的现状,我国部分地区开始落实推行三级医院医疗资源下沉,通过举例分析浙江、河南、福建医疗资源下沉的不同实践模式,从供给侧视角分析优质医疗资源下沉中存在的困境。建议大力推进供给侧结构改革,增加医疗资源的供给,加大政府财政对医疗资源的投入,并坚持市场机制在资源配置中的决定性作用;鼓励社会资本办医,增加供给的主体;鼓励执业医师多点执业缓解医疗人才供给的不足,促进医疗供给结构调整,促使医疗资源下沉。     

我国医疗卫生资源配置现状与政策建议

作为有限的公共资源之一的卫生资源,其配置状况直接影响卫生服务需求及利用,本文重点分析了影响医疗服务公平性和可及性相关的宏观背景、发展趋势和主要问题,提出战略建议如下：落实公立医疗机构改革,发挥示范作用;规范“互联网+医疗流程”模式,促进传统医疗资源共享,提高健康大数据利用效率;推进紧密型医疗集团发展,建立柔性的分级诊疗制度;构建全科医生生态区域和健康管理网络,实现资源下沉;试行第三方影像检验平台等新型服务模式,推进均质服务。     

籽用西瓜种质资源SSR分析及初级核心种质库构建

采用SSR分子标记技术对50份不同来源的籽用西瓜材料进行遗传多样性研究,并基于SSR分子标记聚类分析采用最小距离逐步抽样法构建籽瓜初级核心种质库。研究表明：（1）从106对SSR随机引物中筛选出扩增条带清晰、多态性高的31对引物,共得到138条清晰可辨条带,其中多态性条带115条,占83.33%,平均Shannon’s信息指数(I）为0.419 3,平均Nei’s多样指数(h）为0.272 4,平均有效等位基因数(N_e）为1.458 0,平均等位基因数(N_a）为1.981 4,说明50份籽瓜种质具有丰富的遗传多样性。（2）用NTsys2.10e软件对种质资源聚类分析表明,种质间的遗传相似系数介于0.57~0.91之间,其中来源地相同的个别种质间遗传相似系数却很小,而来源地不同的个别种质间的遗传相似系数却很高。（3）采用最小距离逐步抽样法,按70%、60%、50%、40%、30%、20%、10%的比例抽样后,各个核心子集遗传多样性指数总体上变化不明显,但各抽样比例相比,以抽样比例20%获得10份初选种质的 N_e、 h和 I达到最高值,说明抽样20%构建的初级核心种质对原始种质具有很好的代表性。     

Import‐based Indicator for the Geopolitical Supply Risk of Raw Materials in Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments

There is a growing concern over the security and sustainable supply of raw material among businesses and governments of developed, material‐intensive countries. This has led to the development of a systematic analysis of risk incorporated with raw materials usage, often referred as criticality assessment. In principle, this concept is based on the material flow approach. The potential role of life cycle assessment (LCA) to integrate resource criticality through broadening its scope into the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) framework has been discussed within the LCA communities for some time. In this article, we aim at answering the question of how to proceed toward integration of the geopolitical aspect of resource criticality into the LCSA framework. The article focuses on the assessment of the geopolitical supply risk of 14 resources imported to the seven major advanced economies and the five most relevant emerging countries. Unlike a few previous studies, we propose a new method of calculation for the geopolitical supply risk, which is differentiated by countries based on the import patterns instead of a global production distribution. Our results suggest that rare earth elements, tungsten, antimony, and beryllium generally pose high geopolitical supply risk. Results from the Monte Carlo simulation allow consideration of data uncertainties for result interpretation. Issues concerning the consideration of the full supply chain are exemplarily discussed for cobalt. Our research broadens the scope of LCA from only environmental performance to a resource supply‐risk assessment tool that includes accessibility owing to political instability and market concentration under the LCSA framework.     

A global biodiversity fund to implement distributive justice for genetic resources

This article examines the question of who has a right to control and benefit from genetic resources globally. To this end it draws on different accounts in the resource rights literature with a focus on the specific features that distinguish genetic resources from other types of natural resources. It will be argued that due to the intangible and non‐territorial nature of genetic resources, territorial rights over these resources are difficult to maintain. Moreover, the vulnerability of genetic resources implies that much cost and effort is required to protect them. I will argue that not only benefits resulting from the use of genetic resources but also these costs associated with their protection should be an object of distributive justice. To accommodate these two points I will introduce the model of a global biodiversity fund that could replace the bilateral access and benefit sharing negotiations suggested by the Convention on Biological Diversity.