Financing Sustainable Development : Country Undertakings and Rights for Environmental Sustainability (CURES)

We propose a global mechanism to finance sustainable development (SD) that offers a number of advantages over the current Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The mechanism would be multinational, provide incentives for rich and poor countries to promote SD, incorporate the principle of common, but differentiated, responsibilities and link incentives and funding for SD to structural benchmarks and performance targets. It would operate as a large fund into which rich countries would pay based on their level of population, per capita income and change in a measure of environmental sustainability. Receipts from the funds, called Country Undertakings and Rights for Environmental Sustainability (CURES), would be made to poor countries based on their population, per capita income and absolute level of environmental sustainability. This approach differentiates payments and receipts on the basis of income, while rewarding improvements in environmental performance in rich countries, and making greater payments to countries with greater environmental problems. To promote flexibility, recipient countries would be able to trade, bank or borrow their assigned CURES, provided that the trade resulted in a verifiable improvement in environmental sustainability in the purchasing country. A reformed GEF that adopted the desirable features of CURES, if widely adopted and funded at a sufficiently high level, would offer a significant boost to global SD and would greatly assist poor countries to address the twin challenges of poverty and environmental degradation.sustainable development, intergovernmental financial transfers, adjusted net savings, GEF

Financing SD: Country Undertakings and Rights for Environmental Sustainability

The paper proposes a global mechanism to finance and promote sustainable development (SD) that is multinational, provides incentives for rich and poor countries to promote SD, incorporates the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and links incentives and funding for SD to structural benchmarks and performance targets. The mechanism would operate as a large fund into which rich countries would pay based on their level of population, per capita income and change in an individual or composite measure of environmental sustainability. The approach offers a number of features that make it a superior mechanism to the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). Receipts from the funds, called Country Undertakings and Rights for Environmental Sustainability (CURES), would be made to poor countries based on their population, per capita income and absolute level of environmental sustainability. To illustrate the mechanism, Genuine Savings (GS) is used as a measure of environmental sustainability and country contributions and payments from a $10 billion annual fund are calculated and compared. The control of Indonesian forest fires is used as an example where CURES could be used to fund initiatives that could generate very large global benefits.sustainable development, environmental performance, genuine savings

Radiative corrections for (e,e′p) reactions at GeV energies

A general framework for applying radiative corrections to (e,e′p) coincidence reactions at GeV energies is presented, with special emphasis to higher-order bremsstrahlung effects, radiation from the scattered hadron, and the validity of peaking approximations. The sensitivity to the assumptions made in practically applying radiative corrections to (e,e′p) data is extensively discussed. The general framework is tested against experimental data of the 1H(e,e′p) reaction at momentum transfer values larger than 1.0 (GeV/c)^2, where radiative processes become a dominant source of uncertainty. The formulas presented here can easily be modified for any other electron-induced coincidence reaction

The SUMO Ligase Protein Inhibitor of Activated STAT 1 (PIAS1) is a constituent PML-NB protein that contributes to the intrinsic antiviral immune response to herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1)

Aspects of intrinsic antiviral immunity are mediated by promyelocytic leukaemia (PML)-nuclear body (PML-NB) constituent proteins. During herpesvirus infection, these antiviral proteins are independently recruited to nuclear domains that contain infecting viral genomes to cooperatively promote viral genome silencing. Central to the execution of this particular antiviral response is the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) signalling pathway. However, the participating SUMOylation enzymes are not fully characterized. We identify the SUMO ligase Protein Inhibitor of Activated STAT1 (PIAS1) as a constituent PML-NB protein. We show that PIAS1 localizes at PML-NBs in a SUMO interaction motif (SIM)-dependent manner that requires SUMOylated or SUMOylation competent PML. Following infection with herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), PIAS1 is recruited to nuclear sites associated with viral genome entry in a SIM-dependent manner, consistent with the SIM-dependent recruitment mechanisms of other well characterized PML-NB proteins. In contrast to Daxx and Sp100, however, the recruitment of PIAS1 is enhanced by PML. PIAS1 promotes the stable accumulation of SUMO1 at nuclear sites associated with HSV-1 genome entry, whereas the accumulation of other evaluated PML-NB proteins occurs independently of PIAS1. We show that PIAS1 cooperatively contributes to HSV-1 restriction through mechanisms that are additive to those of PML and cooperative with those of PIAS4. The antiviral mechanisms of PIAS1 are counteracted by ICP0, the HSV-1 SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligase, which disrupts the recruitment of PIAS1 to nuclear domains that contain infecting HSV-1 genomes through mechanisms that do not directly result in PIAS1 degradation

Meteorites on Mars observed with the Mars Exploration Rovers

Reduced weathering rates due to the lack of liquid water and significantly greater typical surface ages should result in a higher density of meteorites on the surface of Mars compared to Earth. Several meteorites were identified among the rocks investigated during Opportunity’s traverse across the sandy Meridiani plains. Heat Shield Rock is a IAB iron meteorite and has been officially recognized as ‘‘Meridiani Planum.’’ Barberton is olivine-rich and contains metallic Fe in the form of kamacite, suggesting a meteoritic origin. It is chemically most consistent with a mesosiderite silicate clast. Santa Catarina is a brecciated rock with a chemical and mineralogical composition similar to Barberton. Barberton, Santa Catarina, and cobbles adjacent to Santa Catarina may be part of a strewn field. Spirit observed two probable iron meteorites from its Winter Haven location in the Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater. Chondrites have not been identified to date, which may be a result of their lower strengths and probability to survive impact at current atmospheric pressures. Impact craters directly associated with Heat Shield Rock, Barberton, or Santa Catarina have not been observed, but such craters could have been erased by eolian-driven erosion.Additional co-authors: DW Ming, RV Morris, PA de Souza Jr, SW Squyres, C Weitz, AS Yen, J Zipfel, T Economo

Rock Bass Learn to Associate Food with a Visual Cue and Remember the Association when Food is Absent

We explored the foraging ability of rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris) by testing three hypotheses consistent with the predictions of optimal foraging theory: 1) fish can learn to associate food with a visual cue; 2) trained fish will go to a visual cue faster than untrained fish; and 3) over time, without the reinforcement of food, trained fish will exhibit a diminished response to a visual cue. Our results supported each hypothesis. During the first 96 h of testing, 88 to 100% of trained fish went to the visual cue first; 50% of the trained fish went to the visual cue first after 312 h. None of the untrained fish went to the visual cue first. Trained fish went to the visual cue significantly faster (11.0 cm sec-1 ) than untrained (1.6 cm sec-1 ) fish. There were no significant differences in velocity to the visual cue among the times tested for control fish (0.8 to 2.6 cm sec-1 ). However, velocities of experimental fish were significantly higher from 0 to 24 h (16.7 cm sec-1 ) than from 48 to 312 h (6.7 cm sec-1 ), suggesting that they began extinguishing their responses as the time since the last food reward associated with the cue increased. If rock bass use these abilities in their natural habitats, they likely improve their foraging efficiency and, thus, their overall fitness. (No actual Publication Date listed on Report

Furfuryl Alcohol Emulsion Resins as Co-Binders for Urea-Formaldehyde Resin-Bonded Particleboards

An approach to using water-insoluble furfuryl alcohol (FA) resins as a co-binder for particleboard (PB) urea-formaldehyde (UF) resins was evaluated. Sprayable FA/UF mixed resins were made by emulsifying FA resins of varying advancements and mixing with various formaldehyde to urea (F/U) ratio UF resins in various proportions. The binder performance of the mixed FA/UF resins was then evaluated by bonding laboratory PBs using a weakly acidic ordinary UF resin curing catalyst at various hot pressing temperatures. The PBs were also heat-treated and were aged for two years at room temperature. The test results of bond strengths and formaldehyde emission levels of PBs showed promising improvements at about 30% FA resin additions, although the results were preliminary due to the variable performance nature of such binder systems