Will International Pursuit of the Millenium Development Goals Alleviate Poverty in Mountains?

Since September 2000, when world leaders agreed on time-bound, measurable goals to reduce extreme poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and disease while fostering gender equality and ensuring environmental sustainability, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have increasingly come to dominate the policy objectives of many states and development agencies. The concern has been raised that the tight timeframe and financial restrictions might force governments to invest in the more productive sectors, thus compromising the quality and sustainability of development efforts. In the long term, this may lead to even greater inequality, especially between geographical regions and social strata. Hence people living in marginal areas, for example in remote mountain regions, and minority peoples risk being disadvantaged by this internationally agreed agenda. Strategies to overcome hunger and poverty in their different dimensions in mountain areas need to focus on strengthening the economy of small-scale farmers, while also fostering the sustainable use of natural resources, taking into consideration their multifunctionality.

Opportunities and risks in reconciling conservation and development in a post-Soviet setting: The example of the Tajik National Park

In the Tajik National Park (TNP) - a high-altitude area of nearly 26,000 km2 in Central Asia - past and present human activities visibly contrast with standard conservation requirements for protected areas worldwide. This paper focuses on resource management, and highlights three major processes that threaten both the sustainable use of natural resources and the preservation of nature per se: (i) intensified use of biomass as a fuel resource, (ii) inappropriate pasture management, and (iii) increased pressure on endangered wildlife. From analysis of these processes - their historical background, root causes, trends and interrelationships - options and needs to improve park management are proposed and discussed.

The Beauty and the Beast. A Tale of Democratic Crises and Globalization

There are two competing hypotheses concerning the connection between democracy and globalization. The critics hold globalization responsible for an ongoing crisis of democracy. The enthusiasts highlight the positive contributions of financial openness and international political cooperation on the development of democracy. In this contribution the author investigates the interrelation between globalization and the quality of established democracies. He introduces the Democracy Barometer, a new instrument that measures the quality of democracy in 30 established democratic regimes between 1995 and 2005 and that explicitly does not measure sustainable government because it aims at serving as dependent as well as independent variable to explain different economic, societal and natural environment, i.e. sustainable development. Based on this instrument, the author first shows that one cannot speak of an ongoing crisis of (established) democracies. Second, he also conducts several multilevel analyses to model the different developments of the quality of democracy in the different countries. The author then shows that economy, i.e. economic globalization indeed has a positive impact on the quality of democracy. However, this impact is stronger in stable, i.e. older than in younger established democracies. Further investigations show that a high quality of democracy also goes hand in hand with societal and environmental performance.

Identification of candidate genes and physiological pathways involved in gonad deformation in whitefish (Coregonus spp.) from Lake Thun, Switzerland

In 2000, fishermen reported the appearance of deformed reproductive organs in whitefish (Coregonus spp.) from Lake Thun, Switzerland. Despite intensive investigations, the causes of these abnormalities remain unknown. Using gene expression profiling, we sought to identify candidate genes and physiological processes possibly associated with the observed gonadal deformations, in order to gain insights into potential causes. Using in situ-synthesized oligonucleotide arrays, we compared the expression levels at 21,492 unique transcript probes in liver and head kidney tissue of male whitefish with deformed and normally developed gonads, respectively. The fish had been collected on spawning sites of two genetically distinct whitefish forms of Lake Thun. We contrasted the gene expression profiles of 56 individuals, i.e., 14 individuals of each phenotype and of each population. Gene-by-gene analysis revealed weak expression differences between normal and deformed fish, and only one gene, ictacalcin, was found to be up-regulated in head kidney tissue of deformed fish from both whitefish forms, However, this difference could not be confirmed with quantitative real-time qPCR. Enrichment analysis on the level of physiological processes revealed (i) the involvement of immune response genes in both tissues, particularly those linked to complement activation in the liver, (ii) proteolysis in the liver and (iii) GTPase activity and Ras protein signal transduction in the head kidney. In comparison with current literature, this gene expression pattern signals a chronic autoimmune disease in the testes. Based on the recent observations that gonad deformations are induced through feeding of zooplankton from Lake Thun we hypothesize that a xenobiotic accumulated in whitefish via the plankton triggering autoimmunity as the likely cause of gonad deformations. We propose several experimental strategies to verify or reject this hypothesis.

Comparison of freehand-navigated and aiming device-navigated targeting of liver lesions

BACKGROUND Accurate needle placement is crucial for the success of percutaneous radiological needle interventions. We compared three guiding methods using an optical-based navigation system: freehand, using a stereotactic aiming device and active depth control, and using a stereotactic aiming device and passive depth control. METHODS For each method, 25 punctures were performed on a non-rigid phantom. Five 1 mm metal screws were used as targets. Time requirements were recorded, and target positioning errors (TPE) were measured on control scans as the distance between needle tip and target. RESULTS Time requirements were reduced using the aiming device and passive depth control. The Euclidian TPE was similar for each method (4.6 ± 1.2-4.9 ± 1.7 mm). However, the lateral component was significantly lower when an aiming device was used (2.3 ± 1.3-2.8 ± 1.6 mm with an aiming device vs 4.2 ± 2.0 mm without). DISCUSSION Using an aiming device may increase the lateral accuracy of navigated needle insertion.