Global trade in GM food and the cartagena protocol on biosafety: Consequences for China

The UN Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety adopted in Montreal, 29 January, 2000 and opened for signature in Nairobi, 15-26 May, 2000 will exert a profound effect on international trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their products. In this paper, the potential effects of various articles of the Protocol on international trade in GMOs are analyzed. Based on the present status of imports of GMOs and domestic research and development of biotechnology in China, likely trends in imports of foreign GM food and related products after China accedes to WTO is explored. Also, China's potential countermeasures to control and regulate imports of GMOs in line with implementation of the Protocol are discussed. China, in recent times, has increased its food and agricultural imports substantially from USA and Canada. China imported soybean 10.42 mill. tons in 2000 and about 15 mill tons in 2001, of which majority are from USA where GM soybean accounts for 60%. The plantation of US Monsanto's transgenic Bt cotton was increased to more than 1 million ha in China in 2001. Though China has paid great attention to develop biotechnology, it appears to have little scope to export GMOs and GM products. So China may consider a range of administrative measures to implement the Cartagena Protocol and to regulate its import of GMOs and GM agricultural products. Consequently, the Regulation on Safety of Agri-GMOs was issued on June, 2001 and followed three detailed rules issued in Jan. of 2002, with a priority to limit foreign GMOs importing by safety certification and labeling system. These were outlined taking into account policies adopted in Western countries such as green barriers to international trade.

Impact of land-use on soil organic matter quality in south-western Australia - characterization with C-13 CP/MAS NMR spectroscopy

The influence of change in land-use from native vegetation to pasture (20-71 yr after conversion), and subsequent change from pasture to eucalypt plantation (7-10 yr after conversion) on soil organic matter quality was investigated using C-13 CP/MAS NMR spectroscopy. We studied surface soil (0-10 cm) from six sites representing a range of soil, and climate types from south-western Australia. Total C in the samples ranged from 1.6 to 5.5%, but the relative proportions of the four primary spectral regions (alkyl, O-alkyl, aromatic and carboxylic) were similar across the sites, and changes due to land-use at each site were relatively minor. Main impacts of changed land-use were higher O-alkyl (carbohydrate) material under pasture than under native vegetation and plantation (P = 0.048), and lower aromatic C under pasture than under native vegetation (P = 0.027). The decrease in aromatic C in pasture soils was related to time since clearing. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

DMSP in corals and benthic algae from the Great Barrier Reef

In this study the first measurements of DMSP in six species of corals and ten species of benthic algae collected from four coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef are reported, together with DMSP measurements made on cultured zooxanthellae. Concentrations ranged from 21 to 3831 (mean=743) fmol DMSP zooxanthellae(-1) in corals, 0.16 to 2.96 nmol DMSP cm(-2) (mean=90) for benthic macroalgae, and 48-285 fmol DMSP zooxanthellae(-1) (mean=153) for cultured zooxanthellae. The highest concentrations of DMSP in corals occurred in Acropora formosa (mean= 371 fmol DMSP zooxanthellae(-1)) and Acropora palifera (mean=3341 fmol DMSP zooxanthellae(-1)) with concentrations in A. palifera the highest DMSP concentrations reported in corals examined to date. As well as inter-specific differences in DMSP, intra-specific variation was also observed. Adjacent colonies of A. formosa that are known to have different thermal bleaching thresholds and morphologically distinct zooxanthellae, were also observed to have different DMSP concentrations, with the zooxanthellae in the colony that bleached containing DMSP at an average concentration of 436 finol zooxanthellae(-1), whilst the non-bleaching colony contained DMSP at an average concentration of 171 finol zooxanthellae(-1). The results of the present study have been used to calculate the area normalized DMSP concentrations in benthic algae (mean=0.015 mmol m(-2)) and corals (mean=2.22 mmol m(-2)) from the GBR. This data indicates that benthic algae and corals are a significant reservoir of DMSP in GBR waters. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Amphitheater staging: In-the-round or to the front (and what about asides)?

When the existence in Utrecht of the DeWitt/Van Buchel drawing of the Swan Theater became known in 1888, William Poel was already seven years into his inquiries into the best means of staging the public amphitheater and great hall plays of the English Renaissance.1 I mention this to emphasize that the discourse came before the fact: the belief that Shakespeare's plays are best staged as it was then imprecisely imagined they had once been staged-simply, without elaborate settings or time-consuming scene changes, with direct actor-audience address, "in-the-round"-had as much to do with reactions against the late nineteenth-century stage's pictorialism, with its set-changing interruptions and cut-and-paste revisions to Shakespeare's texts, as it had to do with presenting the Bard "authentically." Some of the confusion caused by the uneasy mixing of historical scholarship and the assumptions and practices of our own contemporary theater profession can be glimpsed in the phenomenon of modern in-the-round staging, often claimed as a more "authentic" approach to Shakespeare in performance, but one which is then modified to make possible post-Stanislavsky acting methods and to satisfy modern audience expectations.

A quantitative state and transition model for the Mitchell grasslands of central western Queensland

Concerns of reduced productivity and land degradation in the Mitchell grasslands of central western Queensland were addressed through a range monitoring program to interpret condition and trend. Botanical and eclaphic parameters were recorded along piosphere and grazing gradients, and across fenceline impact areas, to maximise changes resulting from grazing. The Degradation Gradient Method was used in conjunction with State and Transition Models to develop models of rangeland dynamics and condition. States were found to be ordered along a degradation gradient, indicator species developed according to rainfall trends and transitions determined from field data and available literature. Astrebla spp. abundance declined with declining range condition and increasing grazing pressure, while annual grasses and forbs increased in dominance under poor range condition. Soil erosion increased and litter decreased with decreasing range condition. An approach to quantitatively define states within a variable rainfall environment based upon a time-series ordination analysis is described. The derived model could provide the interpretive framework necessary to integrate on-ground monitoring, remote sensing and geographic information systems to trace states and transitions at the paddock scale. However, further work is needed to determine the full catalogue of states and transitions and to refine the model for application at the paddock scale.

An investigation into commitment in non-Western industrial marketing relationships

This paper reports an investigation into the antecedents of commitment in non-Western industrial marketing relationships. The authors draw the antecedents from extant literature and posit that commitment is related to trust (integrity and reliability), communication quality, conflict, and similarity (social, ethnic, and economic). It is further argued that trust mediates the effects of communication, conflict, and similarity on commitment. As an extension, the authors examine the moderating effects of normative contracts (an implicit understanding of roles and responsibilities) on the construct interrelationships. The hypotheses are tested using data collected from approximately 150 industrial marketing relationships sampled from overseas Chinese firms. The results generally support the authors' framework; however, the mediating hypotheses are not supported. There is evidence of systematic differences in the effects of the studied antecedents on commitment and trust. Furthermore, a multigroup analysis provides evidence of significant moderating effects due to contracting mode. The study provides new insights into the theory and practice of industrial marketing. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

A new species of Dactylostomum Woolcock, 1935 (Digenea: Opecoelidae) from the goatfish Upeneichthys lineatus (Bloch & Schneider) (Mullidae) in Western Australian waters

Dactylostomum nicolli n. sp. is described from the intestine of the goatfish Upeneichthys lineatus (Bloch & Schneider) (Mullidae) caught off Point Peron, Western Australia. The problem of assigning the new species to the appropriate genus, especially with regard to its close resemblance to Paropecoelus Pritchard, 1966, which also infects goatfishes, is discussed. This is the second report of Dactylostomum Woolcock, 1935 from an Australian marine fish. The new species is distinguished by its elongate form, simple ventral sucker papillae and irregularly shaped ovary.

Lepocreadiidae (Digenea) from the batfish of the genus Platax Cuvier (Teleostei : Ephippidae) from the southern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia

The following species are described from Platax spp.: Neomultitestis aspidogastriformis n. sp., from P. teira, off Heron Island, Queensland, which can be distinguished from its congeners by the transversely elongate ventral sucker divided into three loculi and probably by testis number; Multitestis magnacetabulum Mamaev, 1970, from P. teira, off Heron Island, Queensland; Diploproctodaeum rutellum ( Mamaev, 1970), from P. teira, off Heron Island, Queensland; Diploproctodaeum tsubameuo n. sp., from P. batavianus, from the Swain Reefs, off Queensland, which differs from its congeners in its overlapping, posteriorly attenuated testes and 38-55 ovarian lobes; and Diplocreadium sp., from P. batavianus, from the Swain Reefs, off Queensland.

Dactylomyza gibsoni n.g., n. sp (Digenea: Opecoelidae) from Schuettea woodwardi (Waite) (Monodactylidae) from off Western Australia

An opecoelid digenean, Dactylomyza gibsoni n. g., n. sp. is described and figured from Schuettea woodwardi (Waite), a monodactylid from off the coast of Western Australia. The new genus conforms to the concept of the opecoelid subfamily Opecoelinae. The resemblance of the new genus to three other opecoelid genera, Pseudopecoeloides Yamaguti, 1940, Opecoeloides Odhner, 1928 and Poracanthium Dollfus, 1948, is discussed. Dactylomyza n. g. is distinguished from these morphologically similar worms on the basis of its median genital pore, ventral sucker appendages, uroproct and the absence of an accessory sucker. Pseudopecoeloides equesi Manter, 1947 is transferred to the new genus as Dactylomyza equesi (Manter, 1947) n. comb.

Bartoliella pritchardae n.g., n.sp. (Digenea: Opecoelidae) in Epinephelides armatus (Serranidae) from temperate marine waters of Western Australia

An opecoelid, Bartoliella pritchardae n. g., n. sp., is described from the intestine of Epinephelides armatus from Western Australia. The new genus has been assigned to the subfamily Opecoelininae Gibson & Bray, 1984, bringing the number of genera in the subfamily to two. Although the new genus is similar to Opecoelina Manter, 1934 morphologically, the pedunculate ventral sucker and complete absence of a cirrus-sac necessitate the erection of a new genus. A formal re-definition of the subfamily is given, based on the diagnoses of the genera Opecoelina and Bartoliella n. g.

A new species of Podocotyloides Yamaguti, 1934 (Digenea: Opecoelidae) from a Western Australian temperate marine fish

A new species of Podocotyloides is described from Sillago bassensis caught off the coast of Western Australia. This is the second report of a species of this genus from Australian waters but the first of a new species. P. victori n. sp. is one of four species whose vitelline follicles extend into the forebody. It is distinguished from the other three species with vitelline follicles in the forebody by its relatively shorter forebody, smaller eggs and bipartite seminal vesicle. Pedunculotrema Fischthal & Thomas, 1970 is reduced to synonymy with Podocotyloides Yamaguti, 1934.