The Black Market for Wildlife: Combating Transnational Organized Crime in the Illegal Wildlife Trade

Trade in endangered wildlife has been a concern in the global community since the dawn of international environmental law. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), one of the most successful international environmental treaties established, addresses the issue through regulation of international trade in certain wildlife species. However, the effectiveness of the treaty has been greatly undermined through illegal wildlife trading. Recently, the illegal wildlife trade has attracted the attention of organized criminal groups, whose participation in the trade have helped make the black market for wildlife the second largest in the world. Providing stricter enforcement mechanisms for CITES and for prevention of organized criminal group activities in the illegal wildlife trade has become a primary focus for the CITES Secretariat. This Note considers some of the international mechanisms needed to achieve these goals, including enactment of legislation specifically aimed at wildlife crime, clearer definitions of culpability requirements, enforcement of stricter penalties for violators of wildlife laws, and extradition agreements between states. This Note also argues that the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime is currently the best mechanism for international enforcement of CITES

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion

VIII Encuentro de Docentes e Investigadores en Historia del Diseño, la Arquitectura y la Ciudad

Acta de congresoLa conmemoración de los cien años de la Reforma Universitaria de 1918 se presentó como una ocasión propicia para debatir el rol de la historia, la teoría y la crítica en la formación y en la práctica profesional de diseñadores, arquitectos y urbanistas. En ese marco el VIII Encuentro de Docentes e Investigadores en Historia del Diseño, la Arquitectura y la Ciudad constituyó un espacio de intercambio y reflexión cuya realización ha sido posible gracias a la colaboración entre Facultades de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño de la Universidad Nacional y la Facultad de Arquitectura de la Universidad Católica de Córdoba, contando además con la activa participación de mayoría de las Facultades, Centros e Institutos de Historia de la Arquitectura del país y la región. Orientado en su convocatoria tanto a docentes como a estudiantes de Arquitectura y Diseño Industrial de todos los niveles de la FAUD-UNC promovió el debate de ideas a partir de experiencias concretas en instancias tales como mesas temáticas de carácter interdisciplinario, que adoptaron la modalidad de presentación de ponencias, entre otras actividades. En el ámbito de VIII Encuentro, desarrollado en la sede Ciudad Universitaria de Córdoba, se desplegaron numerosas posiciones sobre la enseñanza, la investigación y la formación en historia, teoría y crítica del diseño, la arquitectura y la ciudad; sumándose el aporte realizado a través de sus respectivas conferencias de Ana Clarisa Agüero, Bibiana Cicutti, Fernando Aliata y Alberto Petrina. El conjunto de ponencias que se publican en este Repositorio de la UNC son el resultado de dos intensas jornadas de exposiciones, cuyos contenidos han posibilitado actualizar viejos dilemas y promover nuevos debates. El evento recibió el apoyo de las autoridades de la FAUD-UNC, en especial de la Secretaría de Investigación y de la Biblioteca de nuestra casa, como así también de la Facultad de Arquitectura de la UCC; va para todos ellos un especial agradecimiento

Atypical swimbladders of lake charr, Salvelinus namaycush, from Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada

abstract: Swimbladder walls of lake charr, Salvelinus namaycush, from Great Slave Lake (GSL), Northwest Territories, Canada, were unusually thick for the species. The thinnest sections of the GSL bladders (mean = 2.44mm, range = 1.1-4.4mm) were significantly thicker (P = 0.001) than lake charr swimbladders collected from two small Province of Ontario lakes (means = 0.65 and 0.92mm), whose populations were assumed to be representative of the species. Variance in wall thickness was also greater in GSL lake charr than in charr from two small lakes (P < 0.02). Within individuals, some of the GSL bladder walls were markedly irregular in thickness, but whether these anomalies exist in situ or were artifacts of preservation remains uncertain. The bulk of the tissue in the thickest sections of the GSL swimbladders was in the tunica serosa (outer layer). The extent of the modification of the GSL swimbladders is extraordinary for northern fishes in postglacial lakes

Abundance, Survival, and Life History Strategies of Juvenile Chinook Salmon in the Skagit River, Washington

<div><p></p><p>To identify potential actions for conserving Chinook Salmon <i>Oncorhynchus tshawytscha</i> in the Skagit River, Washington, we used a 16-year time series of streamflow data, adult escapement, and out-migrant abundance to understand how out-migrant abundance and life history diversity were related to spawner abundance and incubation flows. Three freshwater rearing strategies were distinguished based on body size at out-migration: fry (≤45 mm FL), subyearling parr (46–100 mm FL), and yearling smolts (>100 mm FL). Density-independent and density-dependent processes were hypothesized to influence survival in sequence, with density-independent mechanisms operating during incubation and density-dependent mechanisms operating between emergence and out-migration. A model selection process compared spawner–recruit models with and without different incubation flow metrics. Density-independent models that included measures of flow duration and magnitude were strongly supported (Akaike's information criterion [AIC] difference ≤ 3). Sustained flow events of moderate magnitude (1-year recurrence interval) were an equivalent if not better predictor of freshwater survival than short-duration flow events of high magnitude (peak flows). A second model selection process evaluated density dependence of each life history type. The composition of out-migrants (fry, subyearling parr, and yearling smolts) was a density-dependent function of spawner abundance. Fry out-migrant abundance was density independent, and subyearling parr out-migrant abundance was density dependent. Neither model was supported for yearling smolts. At least one out-migrant life history, subyearling parr, should benefit from continued restoration of freshwater habitats in the Skagit River system. Factors contributing to the yearling smolt life history will benefit from additional study.</p><p>Received October 12, 2014; accepted February 3, 2015</p></div