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CBD News: The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity welcomes Pope Francis' call to action in the face of global biodiversity loss, climate change and environmental degradation.




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CBD News: Enforcing the notion that a healthy natural environment is one of the world's most important tourism attractions, and that visiting nature serves to heighten awareness of its intrinsic value for us all, a new manual launched today by the Sec




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CBD News: Today, a new report released by The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health has underlined that human health rests on a healthy environment and rich biodiversity. The report "Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropoce




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CBD News: More than two decades have passed since the nations of the world assembled in Rio de Janeiro and agreed to adopt a sustainable development agenda, promising to chart a development path that is equitable, environmentally just and economically rew




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CBD News: The Law and Environment Ontology (LEO), a new knowledge tool for MEAs and the environmental community




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CBD News: Ambassador Mary Seet-Cheng, Chair of the East Asian Seas Partnership Council, Viet Nam Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Chu Pham Ngoc Hien, PEMSEA Executive Director, Stephen Adrian Ross, Dr. Chua Thia-Eng, Chair Emeritus of




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CBD News: In anticipation of the discussions to take place at the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 13) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) later this year, Latin American and Caribbean Ministers of Environment have adopted




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CBD News: to Parties yet to ratify or accede to the Nagoya Protocol from Rafael Pacchiano Alamán, Minister for Environment and Natural, Resources, Mexico and COP 13 President and Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biol




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CBD News: Rafael Pacchiano Alamán, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, as the incoming president of the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), in a joint lett




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CBD News: The Toyama communiqué issued by G7 environment ministers has been welcomed by Braulio Dias, Executive Secretary to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), for its strong support to both the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Target




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CBD News: Montreal, 27 May 2016 - Braulio Dias, the Executive Secretary to the Convention on Biological Diversity, welcomes a new UNEP report on environment and health which links a healthy environment and healthy ecosystems as the basis for the implement




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CBD News: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), today released a technical document that provides guidance




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CBD News: The focus of work this week "towards an enhanced regional cooperation to restore Mediterranean landscapes: improving ecosystem resilience for the benefit of people and the environment.", directly supports the Strategic Plan for Biodive




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CBD News: As we all know, the business and environment communities were historically not close allies. It was long believed that economic growth could not be compatible with a healthy environment. Thankfully, that has changed. We now know that the conserv




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CBD News: On Saturday 24 March 8:30 p.m. local time, skylines around the world will go dark as millions celebrate WWF's Earth Hour to spark global awareness and action on nature and the environment.




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CBD News: The winners of the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity 2018 were announced today. The MIDORI Prize is a prestigious biennial international prize organized by the AEON Environmental Foundation and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversi




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CBD News: African Ministers of Environment together with partner organizations committed to an ambitious action agenda taking a coherent approach to addressing the interlinked challenges of biodiversity loss, land degradation and climate change.




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CBD News: Statement by Ms. Cristiana Pasca Palmer, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, at the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, Nairobi, Kenya, 11-15 March 2019




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CBD News: Message from the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Dr. Cristiana Pasca-Palmer, on the occasion of the World Environment Day, 5 June 2019: "Beat Air Pollution".




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CBD News: Presentation by Dr. Cristiana Pasca Palmer, UN Assistant Secretary-General, Executive Secretary of UN Biodiversity Convention, for EU Environmental ministerial, Helsinki, Finland, July 11 2019




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CBD News: The Secretariats of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme and Ja




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CBD News: Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, CBD Acting Executive Secretary, welcomes announcement that biodiversity will be theme of the next year's World Environment Day: "We are delighted to see that biodiversity will be the focus of World Environment Da




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CBD News: Statement by Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Acting Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity, at the fifty-seventh meeting of the Council of the Global Environment Facility, Wednesday, 18 December 2019, Washington D.C., United States




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The transcriptional regulator IscR integrates host-derived nitrosative stress and iron starvation in activation of the vvhBA operon in Vibrio vulnificus [Gene Regulation]

For successful infection of their hosts, pathogenic bacteria recognize host-derived signals that induce the expression of virulence factors in a spatiotemporal manner. The fulminating food-borne pathogen Vibrio vulnificus produces a cytolysin/hemolysin protein encoded by the vvhBA operon, which is a virulence factor preferentially expressed upon exposure to murine blood and macrophages. The Fe-S cluster containing transcriptional regulator IscR activates the vvhBA operon in response to nitrosative stress and iron starvation, during which the cellular IscR protein level increases. Here, electrophoretic mobility shift and DNase I protection assays revealed that IscR directly binds downstream of the vvhBA promoter PvvhBA, which is unusual for a positive regulator. We found that in addition to IscR, the transcriptional regulator HlyU activates vvhBA transcription by directly binding upstream of PvvhBA, whereas the histone-like nucleoid-structuring protein (H-NS) represses vvhBA by extensively binding to both downstream and upstream regions of its promoter. Of note, the binding sites of IscR and HlyU overlapped with those of H-NS. We further substantiated that IscR and HlyU outcompete H-NS for binding to the PvvhBA regulatory region, resulting in the release of H-NS repression and vvhBA induction. We conclude that concurrent antirepression by IscR and HlyU at regions both downstream and upstream of PvvhBA provides V. vulnificus with the means of integrating host-derived signal(s) such as nitrosative stress and iron starvation for precise regulation of vvhBA transcription, thereby enabling successful host infection.




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New book shows how ancient Greek writing helps us understand today's environmental crises

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau) University of Illinois classics professor Clara Bosak-Schroeder writes about how the ancient Greeks thought about natural resources and how it is relevant to responding to climate change today.




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Using AI to map marine environments

(University of Bath) Researchers at the University of Bath have developed an AI model that can automatically classify underwater environments directly from sonar measurements.




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Nuclear Weapons: Innovative Approaches for the Complex International Security Environment

This programme of work addresses the conundrum of nuclear weapons as a wicked problem in a complex adaptive system.

Understanding the complexity and the wickedness of the situation allows analysts and strategic planners to approach these complex and intractable issues in new and transformative ways – with a better chance of coping or succeeding and reducing the divisions between experts.

Using complexity theory, a complex adaptive system representing the international system and its interaction with the environment can be represented through an interactive visualization tool that will aid thought processes and policy decision-making. 

Until recently, analysts did not have the tools to be able to create models that could represent the complexity of the international system and the role that nuclear weapons play. Now that these tools are available, analysts should use them to enable decision-makers to gain insights into the range of possible outcomes from a set of possible actions.

This programme builds on work by Chatham House on cyber security and artificial intelligence (AI) in the nuclear/strategic realms.

In order to approach nuclear weapons as wicked problems in a complex adaptive system from different and sometimes competing perspectives, the programme of work involves the wider community of specialists who do not agree on what constitutes the problems of nuclear weapons nor on what are the desired solutions.

Different theories of deterrence, restraint and disarmament are tested. The initiative is international and inclusive, paying attention to gender, age and other aspects of diversity, and the network of MacArthur Grantees are given the opportunity to participate in the research, including in the writing of research papers, so that the complexity modelling can be tested against a wide range of approaches and hypotheses.

In addition, a Senior Reference Group will work alongside the programme, challenging its outcome and findings, and evaluating and guiding the direction of the research.

This project is supported by the MacArthur Foundation.




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Webinar: The Environmental Crisis in the MENA Region – Impacts and Mitigation

Research Event

16 April 2020 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

Chatham House | 10 St James's Square | London | SW1Y 4LE

Event participants

Glada Lahn, Senior Research Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme, Chatham House
Greg Shapland, Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House 
Moderator: Sanam Vakil, Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House

The event will be livestreamed on the MENA Programme Facebook page.

Climate and environmental issues have largely been marginalized in discussions about the Middle East and North Africa region and yet are critical to peace and security. In this webinar, experts will explore mounting pressures including those related to water (reduced, less reliable and more polluted sources), extreme temperatures, air pollution, land degradation and sea-level rise. Panelists will discuss the potential impact of worsening environmental conditions and what the region's governments can do to protect the health and livelihoods of their peoples.

This webinar is part of the Chatham House MENA Programme's Online Event Series and will be held on the record.

Reni Zhelyazkova

Programme Coordinator, Middle East and North Africa Programme
+44 (0)20 7314 3624




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Translating Divergent Environmental Stresses into a Common Proteome Response through Hik33 in a Model Cyanobacterium [Research]

The histidine kinase Hik33 plays important roles in mediating cyanobacterial response to divergent types of abiotic stresses including cold, salt, high light (HL), and osmotic stresses. However, how these functions are regulated by Hik33 remains to be addressed. Using a hik33-deficient strain (hik33) of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (Synechocystis) and quantitative proteomics, we found that Hik33 depletion induces differential protein expression highly similar to that induced by divergent types of stresses. This typically includes downregulation of proteins in photosynthesis and carbon assimilation that are necessary for cell propagation, and upregulation of heat shock proteins, chaperons, and proteases that are important for cell survival. This observation indicates that depletion of Hik33 alone mimics divergent types of abiotic stresses, and that Hik33 could be important for preventing abnormal stress response in the normal condition. Moreover, we found the majority of proteins of plasmid origin were significantly upregulated in hik33, though their biological significance remains to be addressed. Together, the systematically characterized Hik33-regulated cyanobacterial proteome, which is largely involved in stress responses, builds the molecular basis for Hik33 as a general regulator of stress responses.




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Problem Notes for SAS®9 - 65856: The process of updating a lookup table in SAS Business Rules Manager (running in UNIX operating environments) does not work properly

Under UNIX, the process of updating a lookup table in SAS Business Rules Manager does not work properly. The problem occurs when you perform these steps:  Open a lookup table. Cl




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A flexible network of vimentin intermediate filaments promotes migration of amoeboid cancer cells through confined environments [Cell Biology]

Tumor cells can spread to distant sites through their ability to switch between mesenchymal and amoeboid (bleb-based) migration. Because of this difference, inhibitors of metastasis must account for each migration mode. However, the role of vimentin in amoeboid migration has not been determined. Because amoeboid leader bleb–based migration (LBBM) occurs in confined spaces and vimentin is known to strongly influence cell-mechanical properties, we hypothesized that a flexible vimentin network is required for fast amoeboid migration. To this end, here we determined the precise role of the vimentin intermediate filament system in regulating the migration of amoeboid human cancer cells. Vimentin is a classic marker of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and is therefore an ideal target for a metastasis inhibitor. Using a previously developed polydimethylsiloxane slab–based approach to confine cells, RNAi-based vimentin silencing, vimentin overexpression, pharmacological treatments, and measurements of cell stiffness, we found that RNAi-mediated depletion of vimentin increases LBBM by ∼50% compared with control cells and that vimentin overexpression and simvastatin-induced vimentin bundling inhibit fast amoeboid migration and proliferation. Importantly, these effects were independent of changes in actomyosin contractility. Our results indicate that a flexible vimentin intermediate filament network promotes LBBM of amoeboid cancer cells in confined environments and that vimentin bundling perturbs cell-mechanical properties and inhibits the invasive properties of cancer cells.




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Environmental Triggers and Determinants of Type 1 Diabetes

Mikael Knip
Dec 1, 2005; 54:S125-S136
Section IV: Polygenic Disease and Environment




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Trade and Environmental Sustainability: Towards Greater Coherence

Invitation Only Research Event

27 February 2020 - 8:30am to 10:00am

Graduate Institute Geneva | Chemin Eugène-Rigot | Geneva | 1672 1211

The WTO Ministerial Conference in June 2020 presents a critical opportunity to move ahead on better alignment of trade and environmental sustainability objectives, policymaking and governance. In light of the challenges facing the WTO, meaningful efforts to address environmental sustainability would also help to reinvigorate the organization and strengthen its relevance. 

In this context, the meeting aims to advance discussion on two questions: How can the multilateral trade system better contribute to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate goals? What priorities and tangible outcomes on trade and environmental sustainability should be advanced at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Nur Sultan in June and beyond?

The event will be hosted by the US and the Americas Programme and the Hoffmann Centre for Sustainable Resource Economy at Chatham House in partnership with both the Global Governance Centre and the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration at the Graduate Institute, Geneva.

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this event from the Chatham House Global Trade Policy Forum’s founding partner AIG and supporting partners Clifford Chance LLP, Diageo plc and EY, and on the Graduate Institute side, from the government of Switzerland.

Event attributes

Chatham House Rule

US and Americas Programme




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Graphic showing the role of satellite images in tracking environmental damage

1 June 2012 , Volume 68, Number 4

Eyes in the skies keeping watch on a planet under stress. Click on the PDF link to view the graphic


Graphic




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Mainstreaming the environment into post-war recovery: the case for 'ecological development'

7 September 2012 , Volume 88, Number 5

Richard Milburn




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Future Earth - linking health and environmental research

The rapid changes in the global environment have led many scientists to conclude that we are living in a new geological epoch—the Anthropocene—in which human activities have become the dominant driving force transforming the Earth’s natural systems. A recent joint publication by the World Health Organization and Convention on Biological Diversity...




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Human conflict and ecosystem services: finding the environmental price of warfare

2 July 2014 , Volume 90, Number 4

Robert A. Francis and Krishna Krishnamurthy




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Migration and Environmental Change: Assessing the Developing European Approach

This policy brief explores the relationship between environmental change and migration to Europe in light of recent scholarship challenging the notion that environmental change triggers mass migration. It presents an overview of European policy response in this area and summarizes the spectrum of proposed solutions.




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Environmental Change and Migration: What We Know

Environmental change is likely to affect global migration flows in a number of ways. Both long-term trends such as increased flooding and the increasing scarcity of resources as well as shorter term trends like severe weather are likely to contribute to displacement and increased migration for individuals already in vulnerable situations. While often viewed as a negative outcome of climate change, planned migration can also serve as a strategy for mitigating its impact.  




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Human Rights, Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration: A New Paradigm

Discussion at launch of this MPI-IOM Issue in Brief, Human Rights, Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration: A New Paradigm, which focuses on the vulnerability of environmental migrants and how the international legal framework can better ensure their protection, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.




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Human Rights, Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration: A New Paradigm

This issue brief addresses the rights of migrants whose movement is induced by environmental degradation or climate change, particularly in the highly vulnerable Asia-Pacific region. The brief evaluates the current international legal framework, identifies gaps in the framework and its implementation, and reviews options available to the international community.




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Human Rights, Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration: A New Paradigm

This MPI event, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), discusses the critical issue of climate-related displacement in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on the vulnerability of environmental migrants and how the international legal framework can better ensure their protection.




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Dietary Nonheme, Heme, and Total Iron Intake and the Risk of Diabetes in Adults: Results From the China Health and Nutrition Survey

OBJECTIVE

Excessive iron intake has been linked to diabetes risk. However, the evidence is inconsistent. This study examined the association between dietary heme and nonheme iron intake and diabetes risk in the Chinese population.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

We included 17,026 adults (8,346 men and 8,680 women) who were part of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (1991–2015) prospective cohort. Dietary intake was measured by three consecutive 24-h dietary recalls combined with a household food inventory. Diabetes cases were identified through a questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs.

RESULTS

A total of 547 men and 577 women developed diabetes during 202,138 person-years of follow-up. For men, the adjusted HRs (95% CIs) for quintiles of nonheme iron intake were 1.00, 0.77 (0.58–1.02), 0.72 (0.54–0.97), 0.63 (0.46–0.85), and 0.87 (0.64–1.19) (P-nonlinearity = 0.0015). The corresponding HRs (95% CIs) for women were 1.00, 0.63 (0.48–0.84), 0.57 (0.43–0.76), 0.58 (0.43–0.77), and 0.67 (0.49–0.91) (P-nonlinearity < 0.0001). The dose-response curves for the association between nonheme iron and total iron intake and diabetes followed a reverse J shape in men and an L shape in women. No significant associations were observed between heme iron intake and diabetes risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Total iron and nonheme iron intake was associated with diabetes risk, following a reverse J-shaped curve in men and an L-shaped curve in women. Sufficient intake of nonheme or total iron might be protective against diabetes, while excessive iron intake might increase the risk of diabetes among men.




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Cannibalism helps comb jellies survive harsh conditions, invade new environs

The warty comb jelly is native to the western Atlantic, but in recent decades, it has invaded the waters of Eurasia. New research suggests cannibalism is key to the species' ability to move into new environs.




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Confessions Not Always Clad in Iron

In the courts and in Congress, Sen. Larry Craig is fighting to withdraw his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge that may suggest he tried to solicit sex from a man in June at a Minneapolis airport bathroom. Rather than resign yesterday, as the senator had promised and Republicans had hoped, Craig...




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The Myth of the Iron Lady

If you consult the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which is democratically created by Internet users, you will see a pattern emerge in the phrases used to describe the first female leaders of many countries.




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Engaging Patients in Education for Self-Management in an Accountable Care Environment

Christine A. Beebe
Jul 1, 2011; 29:123-126
Practical Pointers




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Forthcoming in HHS: Homosexual Aversion Therapy, Comte on Organism-Environment Relationships

Two forthcoming pieces in History of the Human Sciences may be of interest to AHP readers. Full details below. “Cold War Pavlov: Homosexual aversion therapy in the 1960s,” by Kate Davison. Abstract: Homosexual aversion therapy enjoyed two brief but intense periods of clinical experimentation: between 1950 and 1962 in Czechoslovakia, and between 1962 and 1975 … Continue reading Forthcoming in HHS: Homosexual Aversion Therapy, Comte on Organism-Environment Relationships




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Basin-wide environmental watering strategy / Murray‒Darling Basin Authority.




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Review of the Basin-wide environmental watering strategy : Office of Science and Knowledge / Murray‒Darling Basin Authority.