The legitimacy of biofuel certification

The biofuel boom is placing enormous demands on existing cropping systems, with the most crucial consequences in the agri-food sector. The biofuel industry is responding by initiating private governance and certification. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the Cramer Commission, among others, have formulated criteria on “sustainable” biofuel production and processing. This article explores the legitimacy of private governance and certification by the biofuel industry, highlighting opportunities and challenges. It argues that the concept of output based legitimacy is problematic in the case of biofuel as long as no consensus or commonly agreed “best” solution has been established on what sustainable biofuel production is. Furthermore, it shows that the private governance initiatives analyzed fail to adequately include actors from developing countries. Finally, the article argues that we need mechanisms for control and accountability in order to guarantee that the political output of biofuel certification serves the common welfare.     

The premetazoan ancestry of cadherins

Cadherin-mediated cell adhesion and signaling is essential for metazoan development and yet is absent from all other multicellular organisms. We found cadherin genes at numbers similar to those observed in complex metazoans in one of the closest single-celled relatives of metazoans, the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis. Because the evolution of metazoans from a single-celled ancestor required novel cell adhesion and signaling mechanisms, the discovery of diverse cadherins in choanoflagellates suggests that cadherins may have contributed to metazoan origins.     

The legitimacy of the agricultural extension service

Traditionally, the Swedish Agricultural Extension Service has delivered technical information to farmers with the aim of increasing productivity and efficiency in farming. Present problems with overproduction of food and the negative social and environmental consequences of present farm practices has brought this traditional mission in question. In a situation of budgetary constraints it has been suggested that the funding of the governmental Agricultural Extension Service should be cut down or even discontinued altogether The article argues that this would be a mistake. The various negative consequences of modern agriculture indicate that we are far from an ideal mode of agricultural production. Instead, public opinion and new guidelines for agricultural and environmental policies call for substantial changes in Swedish agriculture with respect to pollution, preservation of non-renewable resources, maintaining an open rural landscape, ethical aspects of animal production, rural development etc. This reorientation of Swedish agriculture presumes that decision-makers, farmers, and the public at large get an opportunity to learn more about the complexities of agricultural production. In contributing to this learning process the Agricultural Extension Service would have an important mission. To be able to fulfill this mission, extension professionals must be provided an opportunity to learn a broader concept of productivity and efficiency in agriculture, for instance, how to extend cost-benefit analyses and technical criteria of efficiency to include social, environmental, and ethical aspects. Our present extension staff has not received adequate training for this task. It is suggested that all agricultural colleges need to create departments of Rural Sociology and Agricultural Humanities to provide agricultural students and professionals an opportunity to develop a better understanding of agriculture and make them prepared to take on the challenges and responsibilities they confront in developing our future agriculture.     

关帝山神尾沟森林群落木本植物种间联结性与相关性研究

目的揭示云南西双版纳傣族自治州泥蜂物种多样性及其群落特征与不同生境之间的关系。方法采用马氏网诱集法系统调查研究自然恢复林区、人工辅助恢复林区、林间平台区、农林观赏区和热带雨林区等不同演替阶段生境中的泥蜂物种多样性及群落特征。结果在5个样地共诱集到泥蜂类昆虫2科19属72种,共计395头;含有种类数量最多的属为短翅泥蜂属(Trypoxylon),占全部种类的22.22%;含有个体数量最多的属为脊短柄泥蜂属(Psenulus),占全部泥蜂个体数量的29.87%。泥蜂群落Shannon-Wiener多样性指数和Margalef丰富度指数由大到小依次为：农林观赏区>自然恢复林区>热带雨林区>人工辅助恢复林区>林间平台区,但Pielou均匀度指数热带雨林区最高,Berger-Parker优势度指数农林观赏区最高;不同生境之间泥蜂群落相似性指数在0.0833~0.3617,表现为不相似或极不相似,表明不同生境类型决定了泥蜂类群和种类的分布。结论泥蜂物种多样性及其群落特征的变化与生态环境的演化密切相关,随着生态环境的复杂化,泥蜂群落优势类群更替趋势明显,优势类群增多。本研究结果对泥蜂与生态环境协同演化、泥蜂作为生态环境恢复程度指示物以及泥蜂保护和利用的进一步研究奠定了基础。     

The theropod ancestry of birds: new evidence from the late cretaceous of madagascar

A partial skeleton of a primitive bird, Rahona ostromi, gen. et sp. nov., has been discovered from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. This specimen, although exhibiting avian features such as a reversed hallux and ulnar papillae, retains characteristics that indicate a theropod ancestry, including a pubic foot and hyposphene-hypantra vertebral articulations. Rahona has a robust, hyperextendible second digit on the hind foot that terminates in a sicklelike claw, a unique characteristic of the theropod groups Troodontidae and Dromaeosauridae. A phylogenetic analysis places Rahona with Archaeopteryx, making Rahona one of the most primitive birds yet discovered.     

Protein evolution. On the ancestry of barrels

Most proteins consist of several domains linked together in a single polypeptide chain, and many of these proteins have evolved by gene duplication and fusion. Miles and Davies discuss the study by Lang et al., who show that this type of protein evolution may also occur in b/a barrel proteins, a common single-domain protein fold. Other single domain proteins may have arisen from similar evolutionary mechanisms.     

Analysis of genetic diversity of maize hybrids in the regional tests in Sichuan and Southwest China

In this study, analyses of phenotypic characters, SSR molecular markers and pedigrees were done to study the genetic diversity in 186 maize hybrids that were tested in regional trials in Sichuan and Southwest China. The results showed that there were differences in the variation coefficients of different characteristics, but all of the variation coefficients changed within a narrow range. Sixty pairs of simple sequence repeat (SSR) primer distributed on the ten chromosomes of maize produced stable amplified bands and 608 alleles were detected among the hybrids. The average number of alleles per locus was 10.1 ranging from 3 to 23. The values of polymorphism information content (PIC) for each SSR locus varied from 0.5179 to 0.9256 with an average of 0.7826. The genetic similarities of SSR marker pattern among the 186 hybrids ranged from 0.6067 to 0.9162, with an average of 0.7722. There were 16499 pairs of genetic similarity, in which 96.9% were 0.70000 to 0.9256. The cluster analysis showed that the hybrids could be classified into ten clusters, with 88.2% of the hybrids included in Cluster 4, Cluster 8 and Cluster 10. The analysis of pedigree sources of 51 hybrids showed that 36 hybrids had close genetic relationships with the hybrids developed by the Pioneer Company in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the United States, such as Y78599, Y7865 and Y78698, accounting for 70.58%. Meanwhile, 13 hybrids had close genetic relationships with Y78599, accounting for 8.66%. The genetic similarities of SSR marker pattern among the 51 hybrids ranged from 0.66192 to 0.8799, with an average of 0.7686. There were 1196 pairs of genetic similarity ranged between 0.7000 to 0.8796, accounting for 93.80% of all the genetic similarity pairs. The cluster analysis showed that 88.2% of the 51 hybrids were in Cluster 4, Cluster 8 and Cluster 10, which indicated that similarity was high and genetic diversity narrow among the 186 hybrids. This showed that it is necessary to broaden the genetic basis of breeding germplasm in maize. __________ Translated from Acta Agronomica Sinica, 2007, 33(6): 991–998 [译自: 作物学报]     

古巴社会主义政权生命力探析

在美国的长期孤立和封锁下,古巴共产党领导古巴人民坚持走社会主义道路,压而不垮,欲摧弥坚,并逐步走上了民族振兴之路。其奥秘在于:古巴共产党采取了一系列惠民措施,取信于民,得到了人民群众的认同与拥护,从而巩固了其执政的合法性基础。     

Evolutionary genetics. Europeans trace ancestry to Paleolithic people

Y chromosome data show that living Europeans have deep roots in the region--and researchers say genetic markers may be linked to cultures known from archaeological remains. In a report on page 1155, an international team reports that a wealth of data from the Y chromosome show that more than 80% of European men have inherited their Y chromosomes--which are transmitted only from father to son--from Paleolithic ancestors who lived 25,000 to 40,000 years ago. Thus, the genetic template for European men was set as early as 40,000 years ago, then modified--but not recast--by the Neolithic farmers who arrived in the region about 10,000 years ago.     

Identifying autism loci and genes by tracing recent shared ancestry

To find inherited causes of autism-spectrum disorders, we studied families in which parents share ancestors, enhancing the role of inherited factors. We mapped several loci, some containing large, inherited, homozygous deletions that are likely mutations. The largest deletions implicated genes, including PCDH10 (protocadherin 10) and DIA1 (deleted in autism1, or c3orf58), whose level of expression changes in response to neuronal activity, a marker of genes involved in synaptic changes that underlie learning. A subset of genes, including NHE9 (Na+/H+ exchanger 9), showed additional potential mutations in patients with unrelated parents. Our findings highlight the utility of "homozygosity mapping" in heterogeneous disorders like autism but also suggest that defective regulation of gene expression after neural activity may be a mechanism common to seemingly diverse autism mutations.