Environmental Audits, Privileges from Disclosure, and Small Business Penalty Policies

Federal environmental enforcement is currently on the rise. United States Environmental Protection Agency ( USEPA ) statistics indicate an increase in criminal prosecutions and the targeting of individual employees. It is the government\u27s hope to encourage individuals to pay greater attention to environmental laws and regulations. The author contends that knowledge of USEPA\u27s new environmental audit policy is the best protection against criminal prosecution for environmental violations. Under the new audit policy, a company can qualify for 100% punitive penalty reduction by discovering violations through a self-imposed environmental audit and expeditiously remedying those violations. Moreover, the USEPA interim policy implemented on June 23, 1995, promises full or partial penalty waivers to small businesses in exchange for correcting all violations. The author concludes by suggesting the need for environmental audit privileges, such as the work product privilege or the attorney-client privilege, to protect companies from having their own environmental audits used against them to initiate criminal charges

A new approach to assessing the risk to woodland from pest and diseases

Pests and diseases pose a growing threat to woodlands from both endemic sources, and increasingly, from inter-regional transmission. Strong comparative analyses of this threat are needed in order to develop preventative measures. Such analyses should include estimates of the potential worst-case loss from all relevant pest and disease threats to key tree species. Existing approaches tend to focus on individual assessments of the risk from a single pest or disease, or assessments of overall trends. Effective risk management requires more comprehensive quantified assessments of the overall threat to woodland, that includes comparisons of the threat to individual tree species and identification of the potentially most damaging pest and diseases. Such assessments support important policy and management decisions including: species selection; preventative action; and the size of buffers against losses from forest carbon projects. Here we present a new approach that supports a systematic, risk-based assessment of the future threat to a given woodland from all known individual pest and diseases, and to constituent individual tree species, based on a risk management approach taken from the finance sector, but hitherto not applied in an ecological context. Unknown or unidentified pests and diseases can systematically be added in future as identified. We demonstrate the method through a case study evaluating the threat to projects certified under the UK’s Woodland Carbon Code. The approach can be adapted to any woodland resource worldwide. Its novelty lies in the simplification of complex threats, from numerous pests and diseases, to measures that can be used by a range of forest stakeholders

Modelling the uncertainty of climate change impacts on Eucalyptus fastigata productivity in New Zealand

Poste

Non-Lawyers in International Commercial Arbitration: Gathering Splinters on the Bench

In light of the frequent appearance of arbitration clauses in international contracts, and the volume of litigation handled in this manner, international commercial arbitration\u27 has become a favorite subject of commentators who have primarily focused on the relative benefits of arbitration versus litigation and cross-institutional rules comparisons. One area that has received scant attention is the factors concerning the actual selection of particular individuals to serve as arbitrators. This article looks at how arbitrators are chosen today within the institutional context. Following this are general discussions of selected professions for indications of their members\u27 inherent suitability for and adaptability to arbitration

(Hg or Pb)-Pr-Tl-Sr-Cu-O based superconductors

A high temperature superconducting system comprising M-R-Tl-Sr-Cu-O wherein: M is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of Hg, Pb, K, and Al; and R represents rare earth metals. In one embodiment, a composition forms a 93 K superconducting phase having the composition: M-R-Tl-Sr-Cu-O wherein: M is selected from the group consisting of Hg and Al; and R is a rare earth metal. In another embodiment, the composition comprises M-R-Tl-Sr-Cu-O wherein: M is selected from the group of Pb and/or K; and R is a rare earth metal

Chile, Mar Presendal, and the Law of the Sea

During a speech opening Chile\u27s 1994 Month of the Sea celebration, President Edurado Frei announced initiatives to enhance Chile\u27s presence on the high seas and to protect marine resources within its national jurisdiction. In so doing, he echoed geopolitical thought of Chilean maritime theorist dating from the 1600s. The initatives stemmed in part from disputed over free fishing and navigation on the high seas, wherein, Frei argued, certain maritime powers were disregarding weaker coastal states\u27 interests

On the Path from Description to Pathogenesis: Investigation of the Cutaneous Fungal Microbiota in Healthy and Allergic Companion Animals

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) of host-associated microbes has revolutionized our understanding of commensal microbiota diversity and their interaction with the host to influence health and disease. The purpose of this work was at first descriptive, to undertake the founding studies using NGS to describe the cutaneous fungal microbiota (mycobiota) of dogs and cats, and to investigate alterations in allergic animals. The final study investigated the species level distribution and temporality of one fungal commensal, Malassezia, owing to its role in secondary yeast dermatitis of allergic dogs. A greater diversity of fungi was sequenced from skin swabs than was previously described using culture-dependent methods. The cutaneous mycobiota was predominated by environmental fungi and was more diverse on haired body sites than mucosal sites. The skin of allergic dogs harbored fewer types of fungi compared to healthy controls and a fungal dysbiosis was identified in allergic dogs and cats. Further analysis revealed a species level dysbiosis of Malassezia with significantly more M. restricta and M. globosa on the healthy canine skin, and M. pachydermatis on allergic skin. M. pachydermatis was 8-fold more abundant on the skin of laboratory atopic dogs prior to allergen exposure. These findings raised new questions regarding the cause of fungal dysbiosis. Some proposed explanations include immunologic dysfunction in the allergic individual or alterations to the skin barrier functions including hydration and nutrient availability, especially triglycerides and ceramides for Malassezia. Future studies with greater numbers of animals, as well as simultaneous investigations of immune function, skin morphology, and skin lipidomics might provide insights into the pathogenesis of fungal dysbiosis and secondary yeast in in allergic animals