体长频率分析法在塞内加尔沙丁鱼资源开发中的应用

本研究利用Incofish项目开发的可持续发展指标开展渔业资源评估应用研究.研究对象为金色小沙丁鱼(Sardinella aurita)和短体小沙丁鱼(Sardinella maderensis).数据来源于1990年-2005年间塞内加尔个体渔业渔获量及由DR FRIDTJOF NANSEN调查船在塞内加尔海域获得的渔获量.采用Froese(2004年)提出的三个可持续捕捞指标,为渔业资源量的开发状况作出诊断和评估.这些指标包括:渔获物中成鱼的百分比（以100%为最佳）、达到最适开捕体长鱼的百分比（以100%为最佳）和大型产卵鱼的百分比（以0%为最佳,体长大于最适开捕体长1.1倍的雌鱼即为大型产卵鱼）.分析结果表明:金色小沙丁鱼处于过度捕捞状态,幼鱼在其渔获物中占有优势地位,捕捞到的金色小沙丁鱼多数小于最适开捕体长,即生长型过度捕捞;短体小沙丁鱼处于充分开发利用状态.总体结果揭示,可持续捕捞指标能够成为替代或完善传统资源评估方法的有用工具.渔业相关的利益主体（包括公众）通过这些指标能够避免过度捕捞,从而更好地理解渔业管理.     

Explaining technical change and its impacts over the very long term: The case of the Atlantic sardine fishery in France from 1900 to 2017

As an industry based upon the harvesting of wild resources, the fishery is often used in economics to showcase the effects of its specific nature on human behavior and the impacts of that behavior on the fish stock itself. The common-pool status usually encountered in the use of these resources makes them especially vulnerable to major shifts in the supporting ecosystems, but also to rapid technical change. In most other parts of the economy, technical change and the creative destruction that it brings along are viewed positively, and even given central role in recent theories of growth. Happily for the creatures of the ocean that are hunted, fishers do not fit the mould of Schumpetarian entrepreneurs bent on creative destruction. However, the technology that does drift onto boats has had concerning effects on the status of fish stocks with important economic and cultural consequences. We present a narrative of the French sardine fishery using the evolutionary theory of technical change. The wild binary segmentation approach was applied on a time-series of French sardine landings from 1900 to 2017. This analysis revealed three significant production change points associated with important technical changes in the fishery. The first change point, in 1927, is related to the introduction of the purse-seine in France. The introduction of the mid-water trawl is the second change point in the early 1970s. A third change point occurred in 1998, where we see a reswitch from mid-water trawl to purse-seine. Collectively, these results highlight the technological changes in sardine production that occurred, but more importantly, the impacts of these changes both on the structure of the population of sardines, and on the industry. The lesson we derive from this case study is that technical change should be considered as a succession of shifts rather than a unidirectional history.     

The impact of R&D spillovers on UK manufacturing TFP: A dynamic panel approach

One of the benefits claimed for investment in Research and Development (R&D) is that there is a spillover effect. Industries benefit from both their own R&D efforts as well as the efforts of other national and overseas industries. The present research presents new evidence on the long-term impact of R&D investment upon UK industry's productivity performance and on the nature of these “R&D spillovers”. The results suggest that R&D efforts from the industry itself and from other national industries have a positive impact on the industry's productivity but, interestingly, there is no gain from foreign R&D investment.     

Determining the SARS-CoV-2 serological immunoassay test performance indices based on the test results frequency distribution

IntroductionCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is known to induce robust antibody response in most of the affected individuals. The objective of the study was to determine if we can harvest the test sensitivity and specificity of a commercial serologic immunoassay merely based on the frequency distribution of the SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin (Ig) G concentrations measured in a population-based seroprevalence study.Materials and methodsThe current study was conducted on a subset of a previously published dataset from the canton of Geneva. Data were taken from two non-consecutive weeks (774 samples from May 4-9, and 658 from June 1-6, 2020). Assuming that the frequency distribution of the measured SARS-CoV-2 IgG is binormal (an educated guess), using a non-linear regression, we decomposed the distribution into its two Gaussian components. Based on the obtained regression coefficients, we calculated the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the sensitivity and specificity, and the most appropriate cut-off value for the test. The obtained results were compared with those obtained from a validity study and a seroprevalence population-based study.ResultsThe model could predict more than 90% of the variance observed in the SARS-CoV-2 IgG distribution. The results derived from our model were in good agreement with the results obtained from the seroprevalence and validity studies. Altogether 138 of 1432 people had SARS-CoV-2 IgG ≥ 0.90, the cut-off value which maximized the Youden’s index. This translates into a true prevalence of 7.0% (95% confidence interval 5.4% to 8.6%), which is in keeping with the estimated prevalence of 7.7% derived from our model. Our model can provide the true prevalence.ConclusionsHaving an educated guess about the distribution of test results, the test performance indices can be derived with acceptable accuracy merely based on the test results frequency distribution without the need for conducting a validity study and comparing the test results against a gold-standard test.     

三白草科花部发育及其系统学意义

本研究从比较三白草科属间小花个体发育及分析花器官数量变异入手，探寻花器官在发生顺序、数目变化及排列方式等方面的演化趋势，揭示系统发育在个体发育中一定程度重现的事实及属间的进化关系。结果简述如下：首先，雄蕊和心皮发生顺序由中部优先演化到两侧优先。其次，由于远中雄蕊和心皮经历了从发育延迟、生长减缓到最终消失的历程，中部雄蕊和心皮由成对演化为单生。此外，两侧生雄蕊对由各自独立的原基发生演化到共同原基发生或减化为1枚，假银莲花属近中1枚雄蕊原基二裂成1对，蕺菜属3枚心皮发生于一环状共同原基等，都是该科花器官演化的重要事实并可归结为融合、减化和复化的结果。文章根据花器官的演化趋势及过渡类型的剖析，论述了三白草科属间的系统进化关系。     

Neutrino oscillations: The 2007 Benjamin Franklin medal in physics presented to Arthur McDonald and Yoji Totsuka

This award recognizes two specific discoveries that constitute the experimental discovery of neutrino oscillations. In 1998 the Super-Kamiokande group under the leadership of Yoji Totsuka published their paper, “Evidence for Oscillation of Atmospheric Neutrinos” in Physical Review Letters [1]. The paper describes a deficit of muon-type neutrinos from below the detector relative to those from above. It explains this “atmospheric neutrino anomaly” as a result of transformation of some of the muon neutrinos into another type of neutrino. Four years later, the group led by Arthur McDonald described “Direct Evidence for Neutrino Flavor Transformation from Neutral-Current Interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory” [2] in the same journal. This experiment detected lower energy neutrinos from deep inside the Sun. By measuring all flavors of neutrinos with large rates, the SNO collaboration showed definitively that the long-standing “solar neutrino puzzle” was another manifestation of neutrino oscillations. As a result of these two experiments, we now understand that neutrinos can change identities during propagation and that both the solar and atmospheric neutrino “problems” result from the same underlying phenomenon of oscillations. A consequence of neutrino oscillations is that neutrinos, previously thought to be massless, must have a non-zero rest mass.     

Validation of a laboratory and hospital information system in a medical laboratory accredited according to ISO 15189

Introduction

The aim of the study was to present a protocol for laboratory information system (LIS) and hospital information system (HIS) validation at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine of the Merkur University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia.

Materials and methods:

Validity of data traceability was checked by entering all test requests for virtual patient into HIS/LIS and printing corresponding barcoded labels that provided laboratory analyzers with the information on requested tests. The original printouts of the test results from laboratory analyzer(s) were compared with the data obtained from LIS and entered into the provided template. Transfer of data from LIS to HIS was examined by requesting all tests in HIS and creating real data in a finding generated in LIS. Data obtained from LIS and HIS were entered into a corresponding template. The main outcome measure was the accuracy of transfer obtained from laboratory analyzers and results transferred from LIS and HIS expressed as percentage (%).

Results:

The accuracy of data transfer from laboratory analyzers to LIS was 99.5% and of that from LIS to HIS 100%.

Conclusion:

We presented our established validation protocol for laboratory information system and demonstrated that a system meets its intended purpose.     

An easy and robust method for the isolation of high quality RNA from coconut tissues

BackgroundCoconut tissues consist of a complex network of polysaccharides, proteins, polyphenols, and lipids that can bind to nucleic acids and pose difficulty in isolation. Certainly, a vigorous method is required to isolate high quality and quantity of RNA from such tissues for the purpose of downstream experiments. In this paper, we discuss a newly developed method for the Isolation of RNA from Complex Matrices (IRCM) method from coconut tissues.ResultsThe method is robust, cheap, and efficient for the extraction of quality RNA in high quantities from the solid endosperm of stored and fresh coconut (150 μg/g FW with A260/280 = 1.89 and 247.5 μg/g FW with A260/280 = 1.91), coconut apple (263.8 μg/g FW with A260/280 = 1.97), and coconut bud (1052.5 μg/g FW with A260/280 = 2.00). The other well established methods, such as Method of RNA Isolation from Palm (MRIP), Cetyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide (CTAB), TRIZOL, and RNA plant kit failed to isolate quality RNA in appreciable quantities from the coconut tissues. Furthermore, the resultant RNA performed well in the downstream experiment, that is, RT-PCR for the production and amplification of cDNA.ConclusionsFrom the study, we concluded that the present method will play a vital role in the extraction of high quality RNA from complex matrices in a short time.How to cite: Iqbal A, Yang Y, Wu Y, et al. An easy and robust method for the isolation of high quality RNA from coconut tissues. Electron J Biotechnol 2020;48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2020.09.008     

Assessment of wasteland derived biomass for bioethanol production

BackgroundThe bioethanol produced from biomass is a promising alternative fuel. The lignocellulose from marginal areas or wasteland could be a promising raw material for bioethanol production because it is present in large quantities, is cheap, renewable and has favorable environmental properties. Despite these advantages, lignocellulosic biomass is much more difficult to process than cereal grains, due to the need for intensive pretreatment and relatively large amounts of cellulases for efficient hydrolysis. Therefore, there is a need to develop an efficient and cost-effective method for the degradation and fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol.ResultsThe usefulness of lignocellulosic biomass from wasteland for the production of bioethanol using pretreatment with the aid of ionic liquids of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride was evaluated in this study. The pretreatment process, enzymatic hydrolysis and alcoholic fermentation lasted a total of 10 d. The largest amounts of bioethanol were obtained from biomass originating from agricultural wasteland, in which the dominant plant was fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) and from the field where the common broom (Cytisus scoparius) was the dominant.ConclusionsThe plants such as fireweed, common broom, hay and goldenrod may be useful for the production of liquid biofuels and it would be necessary in the further stage of research to establish and optimize the conditions for the technology of ethyl alcohol producing from these plant species. Enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass from agricultural wastelands results in a large increase in fermentable sugars, comparable to the enzymatic hydrolysis of rye, wheat, rice or maize straw.How to cite: Smuga-Kogut M, Piskier T, Walendzik B, et al. Assessment of wasteland derived biomass for bioethanol production. Electron J Biotechnol 2019;41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2019.05.001.     

论循环经济的本质与政策启示

循环经济是全面模仿自然生态系统的物质循环机制和能量梯级利用规律而重构经济系统,使经济活动的环境影响和寿命周期成本最小化、价值最大化,从而以最低的资源和环境代价实现经济与环境协调发展的技术经济模式。分别从资源经济学、环境经济学、生态学、系统论、经济学、价值工程、哲学和技术进步等角度来看,循环经济都表现出一定的特质,从而使其在本质上成为:(1)以资源循环利用为核心的自循环经济;(2)环境友好型经济;(3)全生态仿生经济;(4)良性超非线性经济;(5)实现技术资源、自然资源与环境资源综合优化配置的可持续性经济;(6)全功能、低周期寿命成本(高价值)经济;(7)方法论经济;(8)消除技术进步非对称性的理想路径,人类技术经济思维方式革命、技术经济范式革命和环境保护范式革命。对于循环经济本质的认识能够使我们获得许多有益的政策启示。     

兰科槽舌兰属的研究

   The present paper is an attempt to make a taxonomic study of the little known orchid genus Holcoglossum, as well as a comparison of the genus with its allies, such as Vanda, Papilionanthe, Ascolabium, Ascocentrum, Aěrides, Neofinetia and Saccola- bium.      Holcoglossum was established by Schlechter in 1919 (Orchideologiae Sino-Japoni- cae Prodromus) as a monotypic genus, based upon Saccolabium quasipinifolium Hayata. Five years later he published another true Holcoglossum as Aěrides flavescens, which was referred by Tang et Wang to Saccolabium in 1951.  Further investigation of this genus was by Garay in 1972 who added two species, H. kimballiana and V. rupestris (synonymy of Aěrides flavescens), but considered Neofinetia, a quite different taxon, to be congeneric.  It is shown that the demarcation of Holcoglossum remains cofused. During the course of our study, the species of Holcoglossum and its allied genera are carefully examined, we come to the conclusion that Ho lcoglossum is a distinct genus. It is characterized by the short stem; fleshy terete or subterete, sulcate above leaves, with their apex acute and non-lobed; thickening or keeled costa on the back of sepals, 3-lobed lip, with erect sidelobes, paralled to the column; slender and recurved spur; footless column usually with prominent wings; 2 notched pollinia attached to linear stipe which is tapered toward the base.  In addition to Ascolabium, it differs from Vanda, Papilionanthe, Ascocentrum, Aěrides, Neofinetia and Saccolabium by its terete or subterete leaves on their ventral side with a furrow, from Papilionanthe by lacking footless column, from Ascolabium by sepals and spur characters, from Ascocentrum by slender and recurred spur, from Aěrides by the absence of a column-foot and the appearance of spur, from Neofinetia by stipe tapered toward the base, from Saccolabi-um by both aspects of the vegetative organs and the flowers.     

The paradox of openness: Appropriability,external search and collaboration

To innovate, firms often need to draw from, and collaborate with, a large number of actors from outside their organization. At the same time, firms need also to be focused on capturing the returns from their innovative ideas. This gives rise to a paradox of openness—the creation of innovations often requires openness, but the commercialization of innovations requires protection. Based on econometric analysis of data from a UK innovation survey, we find a concave relationship between firms’ breadth of external search and formal collaboration for innovation, and the strength of the firms’ appropriability strategies. We show that this concave relationship is stronger for breadth of formal collaboration than for external search. There is also partial evidence suggesting that the relationship is less pronounced for both external search and formal collaboration if firms do not draw ideas from or collaborate with competitors. We explore the implications of these findings for the literature on open innovation and innovation strategy.     

Distributed R&D, cross-regional knowledge integration and quality of innovative output

We explore the impact of geographic dispersion of a firm's R&D activities on the quality of its innovative output. Using data on over half a million patents from 1127 firms, we find that having geographically distributed R&D per se does not improve the quality of a firm's innovations. In fact, distributed R&D appears to be negatively associated with average value of innovations. This suggests that potential gains from access to diverse ideas and expertise from different locations are, on average, offset by difficulty in achieving integration of knowledge across multiple locations. To investigate whether the innovating teams that do manage cross-fertilization of ideas from different locations achieve more valuable innovations, we analyze innovations for which there is evidence of such knowledge cross-fertilization along any of the followings dimensions: knowledge sourcing from other locations within the firm, having at least one inventor with cross-regional ties, and having at least one inventor that has recently moved from another region. Analysis along all three dimensions consistently reveals a direct positive effect cross-regional knowledge integration has on innovation quality, as well as a positive interaction effect of cross-regional knowledge integration and distributed R&D for innovation quality. More generally, our findings provide new evidence regarding the importance of cross-unit integrative mechanisms for achieving superior performance in multi-unit firms.     

First- and second-order additionality and learning outcomes in collaborative R&D programs

In this paper, we distinguish between firm-level learning effects that result from ‘first-order’ and ‘second-order’ additionalities in innovation policy interventions. ‘First-order’ additionalities represent direct firm-level R&D subsidies, whereas ‘second-order’ additionalities result from knowledge spill-overs, horizontal knowledge exchanges between firms, and from other meso- or community-level effects. Analyzing data from collaborative R&D programs in Finland, we show that enhancing identification with a community of practice among R&D program participants (proxy for second-order additionality) enhances firm-level learning outcomes beyond those resulting from direct R&D subsidy (proxy for first-order additionality). Learning effects facilitated by second-order additionality are not confined to technological learning alone, encompassing also business and market learning. We also show that aspects of program implementation enhance identification with a community of practice, which then mediate the relationship between program implementation and firm-level learning outcomes.     

Collagen as a source of bioactive peptides: A bioinformatics approach

BackgroundCollagen is the most abundant protein in animals and can be obtained from residues of the food industry. Its hydrolysate has many desirable properties that make it suitable as an additive in foods and cosmetics, or as a component of scaffold materials to be used in biomedicine.ResultsWe report here the characterization of type I collagen from five different sources, namely bovine, porcine, chicken, trout and salmon, as well as their hydrolysates by means of bioinformatics tools. As expected, the results showed that bovine and porcine collagen, as well as trout and salmon collagen, can be used interchangeably due to their high identity. This result is consistent with the evolution of proteins with highly identical sequences between related species. Also, 156 sequences were found as potential bioactive peptides, 126 from propeptide region and 30 from the central domain, according to the comparison with reported active sequences.ConclusionsCollagen analysis from a bioinformatic approach allowed us to classify collagen from 5 different animal sources, to establish its interchangeability as potential additive in diverse fields and also to determine the content of bioactive peptides from its in silico hydrolysis.How to citeNuñez SM, Guzmán F, Valencia P, et al. Collagen as a source of bioactive peptides: a bioinformatics approach. Electron J Biotechnol 2020; 48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2020.09.009.     

Modelling science as a contribution good

The non-rivalness of scientific knowledge has traditionally underpinned its status as a public good. In contrast we model science as a contribution game in which spillovers differentially benefit contributors over non-contributors. This turns the game of science from a prisoner's dilemma into a game of ‘pure coordination’, and from a ‘public good’ into a ‘contribution good’. It redirects attention from the ‘free riding’ problem to the ‘critical mass’ problem. The ‘contribution good’ specification suggests several areas for further research in the new economics of science and provides a modified analytical framework for approaching public policy.     

Estimation of inter-laboratory reference change values from external quality assessment data

IntroductionIt is common for patients to switch between several healthcare providers. In this context, the long-term follow-up of medical conditions based on laboratory test results obtained from different laboratories is a challenge. The measurement uncertainty in an inter-laboratory context should also be considered in data mining research based on routine results from randomly selected laboratories. As a proof-of-concept study, we aimed at estimating the inter-laboratory reference change value (IL-RCV) for exemplary analytes from publicly available data on external quality assessment (EQA) and biological variation.Materials and methodsExternal quality assessment data of the Reference Institute for Bioanalytics (RfB, Bonn, Germany) for serum creatinine, calcium, aldosterone, PSA, and of whole blood HbA1c from campaigns sent out in 2019 were analysed. The median CVs of all EQA participants were calculated based on 8 samples from 4 EQA campaigns per analyte. Using intra-individual biological variation data from the EFLM database, positive and negative IL-RCV were estimated with a formula based on log transformation under the assumption that the analytes under examination have a skewed distribution.ResultsWe estimated IL-RCVs for all exemplary analytes, ranging from 13.3% to 203% for the positive IL-RCV and - 11.8% to - 67.0% for the negative IL-RCV (serum calcium - serum aldosterone), respectively.ConclusionExternal quality assessment data together with data on the biological variation – both freely available – allow the estimation of inter-laboratory RCVs. These differ substantially between different analytes and can help to assess the boundaries of interoperability in laboratory medicine.     

Enrichment of live unlabelled cardiomyocytes from heterogeneous cell populations using manipulation of cell settling velocity by magnetic field

The majority of available cardiomyocyte markers are intercellular proteins, limiting our ability to enrich live cardiomyocytes from heterogeneous cell preparations in the absence of genetic labeling. Here, we describe enrichment of live cardiomyocytes from the hearts of adult mice in a label-free microfluidic approach. The separation device consisted of a vertical column (15 mm long, 700 μm diameter), placed between permanent magnets resulting in a field strength of 1.23 T. To concentrate the field at the column wall, the column was wrapped with 69 μm diameter nickel wire. Before passing the cells through the column, the cardiomyocytes in the cell suspension had been rendered paramagnetic by treatment of the adult mouse heart cell preparation with sodium nitrite (2.5 mM) for 20 min on ice. The cell suspension was loaded into the vertical column from the top and upon settling, the non-myocytes were removed by the upward flow from the column. The cardiomyocytes were then collected from the column by applying a higher flow rate (144 μl/min). We found that by applying a separation flow rate of 4.2 μl/min in the first step, we can enrich live adult cardiomyocytes to 93% ± 2% in a label-free manner. The cardiomyocytes maintained viability immediately after separation and upon 24 h in culture.     

水泥生产的碳排放因子研究进展简

水泥生产是除化石能源以外碳排放的重要来源。中国是世界上水泥产量最大的国家,水泥生产的碳排放问题不容忽视。2011年,中国水泥产量为20亿t占世界总产量的58.8%。中国水泥生产碳排放占世界水泥排放的比重增至60.6%,与此同时,水泥排放占中国碳排放总量的比重也增至11.3%。当前,国际默认的水泥生产碳排放因子已不能满足中国碳排放核算的需求。加强中国水泥生产碳排放因子计算方法研究,对科学、准确核算中国水泥生产的碳排放具有重要现实意义。本文在系统梳理政府间气候变化专门委员会（Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change,IPCC）、世界可持续发展工商理事会（World Business Council for Sustainable Development,WBCSD）水泥可持续发展自愿性协议（Cement Sustainability Initiative,CSI）即WBCSD/CSI 和中国建筑材料研究总院（ChinaBuilding Materials Academy,CDMA）水泥生产碳排放因子核算边界、计算方法基础上,对上述计算方法进行了比较,在辨析参数选择、不确定性差异的基础上揭示了水泥生产的碳排放因子的影响因素,讨论了各种计算方法在中国的适应性,为未来中国水泥生产的碳排放因子计算方法的选择及构建奠定了基础。