Implications of Climate Science for Policy

Climate change presents the greatest challenge ever faced by our domestic and international institutions, and a great deal of the difficulty lies in the science of the issue. Because human influence on global climate differs in important ways from other environmental threats these peculiarities set the context for discussion of what can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to change that cannot be avoided. Following a brief summary of current understanding of how Earth’s climate works, five ways are presented by which the science of climate impinges on attempts to construct a policy response

Toward Ecological Sustainability in Europe (Climate, Water Resources, Soils, and Biota)

In this report an assessment of the nature of European environmental issues, their scientific basis, and the data needed to define and quantitatively model their implications is made. The areas of the study are natural and anthropogenic changes in climate and atmospheric chemistry, and the resulting responses of renewable resource characteristic of soils, vegetation, and water. The assessments concentrated on issues selected for their relevance to sustainability questions, and were derived from data and hypotheses concerning presently-perceptible trends in climatic, pedogenic, hydrologic, and biotic aspects of the present European landscape. The work led to recommendations for additional data collections and analyses designed to resolve or clarify the issues

Regulatory System for Genetically Modified [Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), rDNA or Transgenic

Summary This paper reviews the history of the federal regulatory oversight of plant agricultural biotechnology in the USA, focusing on the scientific and political forces moulding the continually evolving regulatory structure in place today. Unlike most other jurisdictions, the USA decided to adapt pre-existing legislation to encompass products of biotechnology. In so doing, it established an overarching committee (Office of Science and Technology Policy) to study and distribute various regulatory responsibilities amongst relevant agencies: the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Agriculture. This paper reviews the history and procedures of each agency in the execution of its regulatory duties and investigates the advantages and disadvantages of the US regulatory strategy

Investigating Issues and Problems of Using Sewage Effluent in Agriculture

The ever-increasing growth of the population and the rapid development of industries are important factors that have caused an increase in water consumption and wastewater production in communities. On the other hand, in countries located in arid and semiarid regions, available water resources are limited. Therefore, the use of non-conventional water resources (sewage) in these countries is becoming more important day by day. The use of wastewater as a permanent source of water in agriculture, in addition to providing a part of water needs, also saves and sustains water resources. In this research, the effluent of the wastewater treatment plant of Arak city in the central province of Iran was studied in order to check its quality and usability in agriculture. The quality of the effluent was compared with the standards. The results of the research showed that the above wastewater has no restrictions for use in agriculture according to the investigated parameters. This text is compiled based on the results of various research studies conducted in different parts of the world. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of using wastewater in agriculture and providing suitable solutions to reduce the problems have been discussed

Regulatory System for Genetically Modified [Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), rDNA or Transgenic

Summary This paper reviews the history of the federal regulatory oversight of plant agricultural biotechnology in the USA, focusing on the scientific and political forces moulding the continually evolving regulatory structure in place today. Unlike most other jurisdictions, the USA decided to adapt pre-existing legislation to encompass products of biotechnology. In so doing, it established an overarching committee (Office of Science and Technology Policy) to study and distribute various regulatory responsibilities amongst relevant agencies: the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Agriculture. This paper reviews the history and procedures of each agency in the execution of its regulatory duties and investigates the advantages and disadvantages of the US regulatory strategy

Využití programovatelných nukleáz v lidské terapii

Most genome disorders cause severe symptoms and are usually incurable. Recent, rapid development of programmable nucleases (PNs) brought new possibilities for the treatment of many diseases, such as genetic disorders, infectious diseases or cancer. PNs are enzymes, which enable site specific DNA cleavage that can lead to targeted modification of desired genomic loci. They are composed of separable non-specific cleavage domain and DNA- binding domain. The DNA binding domain is in the form of modular DNA-binding proteins or complementarity-based pairing of the oligonucleotide. The non-specific cleavage domain mediates DSB stimulation, which is necessary for further genome editing. Development of zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) followed by transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) enabled the first therapeutic approaches based on targeted manipulation of human genome. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas technology brought further simplification to the method and broadened the availability of PN-based toolkits. This thesis will provide a summary of the recent developments, application of PNs in the therapy of human patients and potential obstacles preventing their implementation in clinics.Většina genomických mutací vede k závažným symptomům, které obvykle nejsou vyléčitelné. Intenzivní vývoj technik spojených s programovatelnými nukleázami (PN) v posledních letech otevřel nové možnosti při léčbě mnoha nemocí, jako jsou například geneticky podmíněné choroby, infekční nemoci, nebo rakovina. PN jsou enzymy, které umožňují místně specifické štěpení DNA, jež může vést k cílené modifikaci daného genomického lokusu. Skládají se z domény nespecificky štěpící DNA a z DNA-vazebné domény, která má buď formu modulárních proteinů vázajících se na DNA, nebo formu oligonukleotidů, které se na základě "Watson-Crickovského" párování váží na odpovídající sekvenci DNA. Doména nespecificky štěpící DNA zajišťuje vznik dvouvláknových zlomů, které jsou nezbytné pro následující úpravy genomu. Vývoj zinc finger nukleáz (ZFN) a poté i TALE nukleáz (transcription activator-like effector nucleases, TALEN) umožnil první terapeutické postupy založené na cílené úpravě lidského genomu. Technologie CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) přinesla další výrazné zjednodušení a rozšíření metod využívajících PN. Tato práce si klade za cíl poskytnout přehled o současném stavu, vývoji a překážkách v oblasti využití PN při léčbě lidských pacientů.Department of Cell BiologyKatedra buněčné biologiePřírodovědecká fakultaFaculty of Scienc

NOx emissions in China: Historical trends and future perspectives

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are key pollutants for the improvement of ambient air quality. Within this study we estimated the historical NOx emissions in China for the period 1995-2010, and calculated future NOx emissions every five years until 2030 under six emission scenarios. Driven by the fast growth of energy consumption, we estimate the NOx emissions in China increased rapidly from 11.0 Mt in 1995 to 26.1 Mt in 2010. Power plants, industry and transportation were major sources of NOx emissions, accounting for 28.4%, 34.0%, and 25.4% of the total NOx emissions in 2010, respectively. Two energy scenarios, a business as usual scenario (BAU) and an alternative policy scenario (PC), were developed to project future energy consumption. In 2030, total energy consumption is projected to increase by 64% and 27% from 2010 level respectively. Three sets of end-of-pipe pollution control measures, including baseline, progressive, and stringent control case, were developed for each energy scenario, thereby constituting six emission scenarios. By 2030, the total NOx emissions are projected to increase (compared to 2010) by 36% in the baseline while policy cases result in reduction up to 61% in the most ambitious case with stringent control measures. More than a third of the reduction achieved by 2030 between least and most ambitious scenario comes from power sector, and more than half is distributed equally between industry and transportation sectors. Selective catalytic reduction dominates the NOx emission reductions in power plants, while life style changes, control measures for industrial boilers and cement production are major contributors to reductions in industry. Timely enforcement of legislation on heavy-duty vehicles would contribute significantly to NOx emission reductions. About 30% of the NOx emission reduction in 2020 and 40% of the NOx emission reduction in 2030 could be treated as the ancillary benefit of energy conservation. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to explore the impact of key factors on future emissions

Climate Change: Integrating Science, Economics, and Policy

This volume reports on the proceedings of the third international workshop on "Climate Change: Integrating Science, Economics, and Policy" held at IIASA in March 1996. Currently, it is widely recognized in both the analytical and policy communities that the complex issues surrounding the prospect of climate change and response measures and policies cannot be adequately assessed from the perspective of any single discipline in either the natural or social sciences, and that these issues cannot be resolved in the policy domain alone. This volume addresses these issues. The workshop focused on three related research areas in the economics of climate change: market and nonmarket impacts of climate change; costs and timing of greenhouse gas emissions abatement measures and strategies; and emissions reduction policies. This volume includes the revised versions of papers presented at the workshop

Information for All? The emergence of UNESCO's policy discourse on the information society (1990-2003)

The dissertation analyses the emergence of UNESCO’s policy discourse on the information society between 1990 and 2003. Taking into account the historical, political and institutional background of UNESCO and its history in the field of information and communication, the empirical analysis focuses on three different policy processes that contributed to this policy discourse: the INFOethics conference series; the creation of UNESCO’s intergovernmental Information For All Programme (IFAP); and the preparation of the Recommendation concerning the promotion and use of multilingualism and universal access to cyberspace. The empirical research is based on an analytical framework that combines Argumentative Discourse Analysis (ADA) with selected concepts and tools from Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Building on extensive archive research and interviews, these approaches are combined in such a way as to make possible a detailed account of UNESCO’s policy-making and to analyse the emergence of its policy discourse on the information society as the outcome of discursive struggles among networks of actors