This paper studies the design of voluntary disclosure regulations for a firm that faces a stochastic environmental hazard. The occurrence of such a hazard is known only to the firm. The regulator, if ...finding a hazard, collects a fine and mandates the firm to perform costly remediation that reduces the environmental damage. The regulator may inspect the firm at any time to uncover the hazard. However, because inspections are costly, the regulator also offers a reward to the firm for voluntarily disclosing the hazard. The reward corresponds to either a subsidy or a reduced fine, depending on whether it is positive or negative. Thus, the regulator needs to dynamically determine the reward and inspection policy that minimizes expected societal cost in the long run. We model this problem as a dynamic adverse selection problem with costly state verification in continuous time. Despite the complexity and generality of this setup, we show that the optimal regulation policy follows a very simple cyclic structure, which we fully characterize in closed form. Specifically, the regulator runs scheduled inspections periodically. After each inspection, the reward level decreases over time until a subsequent inspection takes place. If a hazard is not revealed, the reward level is reset to a high level, restarting the cycle. In contrast to the reward level, the mandated remediation level is constant over time. Nonetheless, when subsidies are not allowed in the industry, we show that the regulator should dynamically adjust this remediation level, which then acts as a substitute for a subsidy. Our analysis further reveals that optimal inspection frequency increases not only when the inspection accuracy decreases, but also when the penalty for not disclosing the hazard increases.
Coupled with geological and geographical history, climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene period had remarkable effects on species biodiversity and distribution along the northwestern Pacific. ...To detect the population structure and demographic history of
Odontamblyopus lacepedii
, 547-bp fragments of the mitochondrial DNA control region were sequenced. A low level of nucleotide diversity (0.0065 ± 0.0037) and a high level of haplotype diversity (0.98 ± 0.01) was observed. The Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference phylogenetic trees showed no significant genealogical structure corresponding to sampling locations. The results of AMOVA and pairwise
F
ST
values revealed some significant genetic differentiation among populations, and the isolation by distance (IBD) analysis supported that the genetic differentiation was associated with the geographic distances. The demographic history of
O. lacepedii
examined by neutrality tests, mismatch distribution analysis, and Bayesian Skyline Plots (BSP) analysis suggested a sudden population expansion, and the expansion time was estimated to be around the Pleistocene. We hypothesize that the climate changes during the Pleistocene, ocean currents, and larval dispersal capabilities have played an important role in shaping contemporary phylogeographic pattern and population structure of
O. lacepedii
.
The evolutionary relationships of lungfish can provide crucial information on the transition from Sarcopterygii to tetrapods. Phylogenomics is necessary to explore accurate internal phylogenetic ...relationships among all lungfish species. In the context of the lack of genome-wide genetic information for
Protopterus amphibious
, we are the first to systematically report the transcriptome of
P. amphibius
and these sequences can be used to enrich the genome-wide genetic information of lungfish. Meanwhile, we also found significant differences in the expression levels of 3,189 genes between the lung and heart of
P. amphibious
. Based on phylogenomics, 1,094 shared orthologous genes were identified and then applied to reconstruct the internal phylogenetic structure of lungfish species. The reconstructed phylogenetic relationships provide evidence that lungfish is the sister group of terrestrial vertebrates and that
Neoceratodus forsteri
is the most primitive lungfish. Moreover, the divergence time between the most primitive lungfish and other lungfish species is between 186.11 and 195.36 MYA. Finally, 43 protein metabolism-related, stress response-related, and skeletogenesis-related genes were found to have undergone positive selection and fast evolution in
N. forsteri
. We suspected that these genes possibly helped ancient fish adapt to the new terrestrial environment and ultimately contributed to its spreading to land.
Cepola schlegelii (Bleeker 1854) belongs to the genus Cepola in the family Cepolidae and order Priacanthiformes. The complete mitochondrial genome of C. schlegelii was sequenced and analyzed by a ...high-throughput sequencing approach. The full length of the genome is 17,020 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs), and a non-coding control region (D-loop). Phylogenetic analysis based on complete mitochondrial genomes revealed that C. schlegelii was most closely related to Acanthocepola krusensternii. The complete mitochondrial sequence of C. schlegelii will enrich the mitochondrial genome database and provide useful resources for population genetics and evolution analyses.
The mitochondrial genome of Upeneus japonicus was successfully assembled by high-throughput sequencing data in this study. This is the first report on the complete mitochondrial genome of U. ...japonicus, with a total length of 16,535 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), and a control region (D-loop). The overall base composition is 26.05% A, 26.10% T, 29.14% C, and 18.71% G. Phylogenetic analysis showed that U. japonicus was grouped with its sister species U. tragula. The mitochondrial complete genome study of U. japonicus would lay the foundation for further studies in population genetics and evolutionary analysis.
The assessment of genetic diversity and genetic structure is critical for fisheries management and conservation. Traditional markers may fail to reveal precise population genetic pattern in marine ...species. Nevertheless, the solution of this shortcoming could be solved by advanced high-throughput sequencing which allows genotyping thousands of markers on genome-wide scale. In this study, we generated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dataset using restriction site-associated DNA sequencing for
Collichthys lucidus
of 55 individuals from three locations in the Chinese coastal waters. After applying careful filtering criteria, we obtained 169 624 genome-wide SNPs that performed well for population genetics and population assignment. Based on the SNPs, evident genetic differentiation was observed among
C. lucidus
populations. The SNPs identified in our study could be used as powerful tools in further genetic and evolutionary studies of
C. lucidus
.
In this study, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of Pampus cinereus (Bloch, 1795). This mitochondrial genome, consisting of 16,540 base pairs (bp), contains 13 protein-coding genes, two ...ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs, and two mainly noncoding regions (control region and origin of light-strand replication) as those found in other vertebrates. Control region with 846 bp in length, is located between tRNA
Pro
and tRNA
Phe
. The overall base composition of the heavy strand shows 27.4% of T, 27.5% of C, 30.0% of A, and 15.2% of G, with a slight A + T rich bias (57.4%). The complete mitochondrial genome data will provide useful genetic markers for the studies on the molecular identification, population genetics, phylogenetic analysis and conservation genetics.
In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Pampus minor has been determined by long polymerase chain reaction and primer walking methods. The mitochondrial genome is a circular ...molecule of 16,690 bp in length, including the typical structure of 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and two non-coding regions (L-strand replication origin and control region), the gene contents of which are identical to those observed in most bony fishes. The overall base composition of the heavy strand shows 29.9% of T, 24.7% of C, 30.6% of A and 14.7% of G, with a slight A + T rich feature (60.5%). Within the control region, we identified the termination-associated sequence domain (TAS), and the conserved sequence block domains.
Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) are relatively large areas of ocean space, adjacent to the continents in coastal waters where primary productivity is generally high. Their natural characteristics ...allow for the application of governance practices based on the ecosystem approach. The Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem is a shallow semi-enclosed sea, located between the Chinese continent and Korean Peninsula. Three nations, the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), are located along the coast of Yellow Sea. Anthropogenic activity and global environmental changes are causing stress on the resources of the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME). To address the transboundary challenges these impose, the Ecosystem-based Governance approach is being applied as the best method to sustain the goods and services of YSLME, which needs strong collaboration by all the YSLME nations. This paper summarizes the current status and threats of YSLME, as well as the present cooperative management systems being developed in the PRC and the ROK. Progress in implementing a collaboration mechanism, activities, and projects are also reviewed in the paper. The Yellow Sea Commission, a new intergovernmental collaborative organization, is expected to be established by YSLME nations (including the DPRK) to support Ecosystem-based Governance. The paper emphasizes the objectives and activities of a collaborative YSLME project for provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services, and supporting services of the YSLME under a new intergovernmental collaboration mechanism (YSLME Commission), which will push forward Ecosystem-based Governance and sustainable development of the YSLME as described in SDG 14, the United Nations 2015 Sustainable Development Goal and targets for the oceans.
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