The Ocean 100: Transnational corporations in the ocean economy.

The ocean economy is growing as commercial use of the ocean accelerates, while progress toward achieving international goals for ocean conservation and sustainability is lagging. In this context, the private sector is increasingly recognized as having the capacity to hamper efforts to achieve aspirations of sustainable ocean-based development or alternatively to bend current trajectories of ocean use by taking on the mantle of corporate biosphere stewardship. Here, we identify levels of industry concentration to assess where this capacity rests. We show that the 10 largest companies in eight core ocean economy industries generate, on average, 45% of each industry's total revenues. Aggregating across all eight industries, the 100 largest corporations (the "Ocean 100") account for 60% of total revenues. This level of concentration in the ocean economy presents both risks and opportunities for ensuring sustainability and equity of global ocean use.

Effect of anaerobic digestion at 35, 55 and 60 °C on pharmaceuticals and organic contaminants.

The application of treated sewage sludge on farmland is a suggested method for recycling nutrients and reducing demand for commercial fertilizer. However, sludge needs to be safe from possible contaminants which can cause acute and long-term health and environmental problems. Residual pharmaceuticals and organic contaminants are mentioned as emerging threats since wastewater treatment plants are not designed to degrade these substances. The aim of this study was to screen and evaluate the presence, and reduction, of pharmaceuticals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) during anaerobic digestion of mixed primary and waste-activated sludge at 35, 55 and 60 °C and during pasteurization at 70 °C. The study showed the difficulty of analysing pharmaceutical compounds in low concentrations in the sludge matrix. No general reduction of these compounds was seen during treatment, but for individual substances some reduction occurred. The PAHs were generally not reduced during digestion or pasteurization, but for three substances (indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene (analysed together) and benzo[g,h,i]perylene) reduction (up to 60%) during digestion was seen. Digestion at 35 and 55 °C resulted in about the same order of reduction of the three individual PAHs, which was higher than for digestion at 60 °C.

Alaproclate a novel antidepressant? A biochemical and clinical comparison with zimeldine.

Clinical and biochemical effects of two selective 5-HT uptake inhibitors, zimeldine and alaproclate, were studied in 24 hospitalized patients with endogenous depression. According to a randomized parallel group design 14 patients were treated with zimeldine and 10 with alaproclate. The dosage of both zimeldine and alaproclate was 200 mg daily. For the evaluation of the clinical effect, Montgomery & Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) was used. Seven of 14 patients treated with zimeldine and seven of 10 treated with alaproclate improved. 5-HT uptake inhibition in patients' platelets and concentration of amine metabolites (5-HIAA, HVA, HMPG) in CSF were studied before and during treatment. After 3 weeks of treatment with zimeldine 5-HIAA and HMPG in CSF decreased significantly while HVA in CSF increased significantly. Zimeldine produced a significant 5-HT uptake inhibition in platelets. During treatment with alaproclate no significant change in amine metabolites concentration in CSF was found and there were no mean changes on 5-HT uptake inhibition in platelets.