Developing an Indicator for Environment Improvement Potential in the Agricultural Sector

Agriculture and forestry produce various environmental benefits such as CO2 absorption and water storage as well as food and energy crops. Environmental benefits contribute to improving the environment. This means agriculture has the potential to improve the environment. By measuring such potential, we can understand agriculture's affect on the environment. However, both environmental loads and benefits should be taken into account because agriculture produces not only environmental benefits but also environmental loads, and both affect the agricultural potential for improving the environment. Furthermore, as potential cannot be calculated by a single environmental factor, it is necessary to consider various environmental factors in the measurements. Therefore, a new comprehensive indicator is required for understanding the potential to improve the environment. To develop the indicator, the National Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts (NAMEA) is applied to manage information concerning economies and environments, and the Ecological Footprint (EF) can also be adapted to integrate individual environmental factors. In this paper, a new indicator is introduced that measures the agricultural sector's potential for improving the environment. A trial estimation of the indicator is done by using a case study from Hokkaido, Japan.Environmental Economics and Policy, Q56, Q57,

Isolation of oligomycin-sensitive adenosine triphosphatase from beef heart mitochondria and analysis of its fine structure

1. An oligomycin -sensitive ATPase was isolated and partially purified from beef heart mitochondria. The specific activity of ATPase sensitive to oligomycin of the fraction was five to eight times that of aged mitochondrial or of DNP-induced mitochondrial ATPase assayed under the same condition. 2. Electron micrographs of the partially purified oligomycin- sensitive ATPase reveal a structure in which headpieces are regularly attached by way of stalks to a thread-like structure derived from a superficial portion of base pieces. 3. A high concentration of the structured material coincided with a high activity of oligomycin-sensitive ATPase. When the headpieces were detached from the structure, the ATPase became insensitive to oligomycin. 4. The fraction of oligomycin -sensitive ATPase was essentially free of membrane structure and was contaminated with a small amount of cytochromes b and Cl but no cyt. a. Cytochrome concentrations of the preparations were indifferent to the activity of oligomycin sensitive ATPase. It follows that ATPase does not require cytochromes or membrane structure for its oligomycin sensitivity. 5. From these results it seems that the factor rendering ATPase sensitive to oligomycin should be contained in the stalks and/or the thread-like portion of basepieces of the structure. The structure is the simplest unit of oligomycinsensitive ATPase as yet obtained. 6. The structure was called &#34;oligomycin-sensitive ATPase particles&#34; (abbreviated as OSA particles). A unit of OSA particles consists of a headpiece attached by a stalk to a portion of base piece.</p