Nato Strategy Toward the End of the Century

Any attempt to review the problems Nato strategy ,s likely to encounter until the year 2000 is a risky undertaking. History remains as unpredictable as man who makes it. Nevertheless, it is possible to extrapolate certain visible trends, to make assumptions based on relatively stable structures or behavior patterns in order to get a sense of where the Alliance seems to be heading and of the kind of problems it is most likely to encounter

Pan-Arctic distribution of bioavailable dissolved organic matter and linkages with productivity in ocean margins

Rapid environmental changes in the Arctic Ocean affect plankton productivity and the bioavailability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) that supports microbial food webs. We report concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and yields of amino acids (indicators of labile DOM) in surface waters across major Arctic margins. Concentrations of DOC and bioavailability of DOM showed large pan-Arctic variability that corresponded to varying hydrological conditions and ecosystem productivity, respectively. Widespread hot spots of labile DOM were observed over productive inflow shelves (Chukchi and Barents Seas), in contrast to oligotrophic interior margins (Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, and Beaufort Seas). Amino acid yields in outflow gateways (Canadian Archipelago and Baffin Bay) indicated the prevalence of semilabile DOM in sea ice covered regions and sporadic production of labile DOM in ice-free waters. Comparing these observations with surface circulation patterns indicated varying shelf subsidies of bioavailable DOM to Arctic deep basins.Published version2019-07-3

Environmental Innovations: Institutional Impacts on Co-operations for Sustainable Development

A suitable strategy for achieving sustainable development is to foster environmental innovations. Environmental innovations, however, suffer from so-called "double externalities", because apart from innovation spillovers they also improve the quality of public environmental goods, which can be used without cost by free riders. Those innovation spillovers can be avoided through co-operation. Furthermore co-operations can be considered as advantageous because environmental innovations often depend on interaction in research and development, production, selling and disposal. This paper analyzes as to what extent institutional factors impact co-operative arrangements of innovative organizations in the development of new environmental technologies. It applies a multi-dimensional institutional analysis focusing not only on institutional arrangements which exist among organizations but also on opportunities and constraints provided by the institutional environment in which these organizations are embedded. Expanding the existing research we will conclude what kind of policy measure may support the success within networks of environmental oriented innovators.Environmental innovation, Co-operation, Sustainability, Institutional analysis, Policy measures

Nonoptimal Component Placement, but Short Processing Paths, due to Long-Distance Projections in Neural Systems

It has been suggested that neural systems across several scales of organization show optimal component placement, in which any spatial rearrangement of the components would lead to an increase of total wiring. Using extensive connectivity datasets for diverse neural networks combined with spatial coordinates for network nodes, we applied an optimization algorithm to the network layouts, in order to search for wire-saving component rearrangements. We found that optimized component rearrangements could substantially reduce total wiring length in all tested neural networks. Specifically, total wiring among 95 primate (Macaque) cortical areas could be decreased by 32%, and wiring of neuronal networks in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans could be reduced by 48% on the global level, and by 49% for neurons within frontal ganglia. Wiring length reductions were possible due to the existence of long-distance projections in neural networks. We explored the role of these projections by comparing the original networks with minimally rewired networks of the same size, which possessed only the shortest possible connections. In the minimally rewired networks, the number of processing steps along the shortest paths between components was significantly increased compared to the original networks. Additional benchmark comparisons also indicated that neural networks are more similar to network layouts that minimize the length of processing paths, rather than wiring length. These findings suggest that neural systems are not exclusively optimized for minimal global wiring, but for a variety of factors including the minimization of processing steps.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

A method to experimentally clamp leaf water content to defined values to assess its effects on apoplastic pH

Results An experimental setup was developed where LWC is measured by a sensor based on IR-transmission and its signal processed to control a pump which circulates air from the cuvette through a cold trap. Hereby a feedback-loop is formed, which by adjusting vapour pressure deficit (VPD) and consequently leaf transpiration can precisely control LWC. This technique is demonstrated here in a combination with microscopic fluorescence imaging of apoplastic pH (pHapo) as indicated by the excitation ratio of the pH sensitive dye OregonGreen. Initial results indicate that pHapo of the adaxial epidermis of Vicia faba is linearly related to reductions in LWC. Conclusions Using this setup, constant LWC levels, step changes or ramps can be experimentally applied while simultaneously measuring physiological responses. The example experiments demonstrate that bringing LWC under experimental control in this way allows better controlled and more repeatable experiments to probe quantitative relationships between LWC and signaling and regulatory processes