Development of fisheries co-management in Cambodia : a case study and its implications

The livelihoods and food security of many Cambodians depend heavily on inland capture fisheries, so the sustainable management of these fisheries is very important. Notwithstanding, the sustainability of Mekong fisheries is threatened by increasing fishing pressure and habitat modifications. Current management is considered insufficiently capable of controlling levels of exploitation and achieving equitable distribution of the resource, and the Cambodian government is promoting co-management initiatives as a way of addressing these issues. Using an institutional analysis approach, the current performance of co-management in a Mekong mainstream fishery was assessed, and factors limiting success identified. Results suggest that performance and sustainability of co-management are currently constrained by a lack of clearly defined property rights and resource boundaries, a mismatch between resource scale and management initiatives, and an absence of enabling legislation. Furthermore, objectives for management differ between stakeholders and are not well defined overall. While enabling legislation due to come into effect shortly is expected to improve performance and sustainability of co-management, boundary and scale issues will continue to pose challenges to co-management in open systems such as the Mekong mainstream. As a result, calls for innovative solutions, such as a federation of co-management schemes, will continue. In addition, increasing dependence on fishing, and external threats to resources need to be addressed if sustainability is to be improvedFishery management, Inland fisheries, Cambodia,

Circulating and Urinary microRNAs in Kidney Disease

Summary microRNAs are small, noncoding RNAs that control gene/protein expression through target messengerRNA degradation and/or inhibition of protein synthesis. An array of experimental studies has shown the importance of microRNAs for disease initiation/progression. microRNAs are generally considered to act as intracellular modulators of gene expression. However, first studies in the cancer and cardiovascular field have elucidated that microRNAs are remarkably stable in the extracellular compartment (e.g., in blood or urine). The detection and quantification of circulating microRNAs may, thus, represent a novel noninvasive tool to detect and monitor disease activity. In addition, there might be a potential biologic relevance of circulating microRNAs for cell/cell communication. The aim of the present article is to give an outline of recent work on circulating and urinary microRNAs as well as their potential paracrine activity in kidney disease

Computationally efficient stochastic MPC: A probabilistic scaling approach

In recent years, the increasing interest in stochastic model predictive control (SMPC) schemes has highlighted the limitation arising from their inherent computational demand, which has restricted their applicability to slow-dynamics and high-performing systems. To reduce the computational burden, in this paper we extend the probabilistic scaling approach to obtain a low-complexity inner approximation of chance-constrained sets. This approach provides probabilistic guarantees at a lower computational cost than other schemes for which the sample complexity depends on the design space dimension. To design candidate simple approximating sets, which approximate the shape of the probabilistic set, we introduce two possibilities: i) fixed-complexity polytopes, and ii) ell_{p-norm based sets. Once the candidate approximating set is obtained, it is scaled around its center so to enforce the expected probabilistic guarantees. The resulting scaled set is then exploited to enforce constraints in the classical SMPC framework. The computational gain obtained with respect to the scenario approach is demonstrated via simulations, where the objective is the control of a fixed-wing UAV performing a crop-monitoring mission over a sloped vineyard

Non-dynamic origin of the acoustic attenuation at high frequency in glasses

The sound attenuation in the THz region is studied down to T=16 K in glassy glycerol by inelastic x-ray scattering. At striking variance with the decrease found below 100 K in the GHz data, the attenuation in the THz range does not show any T dependence. This result i) indicates the presence of two different attenuation mechanisms, active respectively in the high and low frequency limits; ii) demonstrates the non-dynamic origin of the attenuation of THz sound waves, and confirms a similar conclusion obtained in SiO2 glass by molecular dynamics; and iii) supports the low frequency attenuation mechanism proposed by Fabian and Allen (Phys.Rev.Lett. 82, 1478 (1999)).Comment: 3 pages, 5 Figures, To be published in PR

Methodological tests of the use of trace elements as tracers to assess root activity

peer-reviewedN.J.H. was funded by the Irish Research Council, co-funded by Marie Curie Actions under FP7. The field experiments A, B and G were supported by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreements FP7-266018 (AnimalChange) and FP7- 244983 (MultiSward). Experiment F was supported by the German Science Foundation (FOR 456).Background and aims There is increasing interest in how resource utilisation in grassland ecosystems is affected by changes in plant diversity and abiotic conditions. Research to date has mainly focussed on aboveground responses and there is limited insight into belowground processes. The aim of this study was to test a number of assumptions for the valid use of the trace elements caesium, lithium, rubidium and strontium as tracers to assess the root activity of several grassland species. Methods We carried out a series of experiments addressing the reliability of soil labelling, injection density, incubation time, application rate and the comparability of different tracers in a multiple tracer method. Results The results indicate that it is possible to achieve a reliable labelling of soil depths. Tracer injection density affected the variability but not the mean level of plant tracer concentrations. Tracer application rates should be based on pilot studies, because of site- and species-specific responses. The trace elements did not meet prerequisites to be used in a multiple tracer method. Conclusions The use of trace elements as tracers is potentially a very useful tool to give insight into plant root activity at different soil depths. This work highlights some of the main benefits and pitfalls of the method and provides specific recommendations to assist the design of tracer experiments and interpretation of the results.N.J.H. was funded by the Irish Research Council, co-funded by Marie Curie Actions under FP7. The field experiments A, B and G were supported by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreements FP7-266018 (AnimalChange) and FP7- 244983 (MultiSward). Experiment F was supported by the German Science Foundation (FOR 456).European Unio