Svalbard and Conflict Management in a Changing Climate: A Risk Based Approach

Conflict in the Arctic is nothing new, and Svalbard is a geographical confluence of factors that create the potential for inter-group violence. The purpose of this paper is to explore those factors, identifying approaches to the evaluation of their associated risk. The emphasis is on biomarine resources, which at present constitute the most likely focus for escalating disputes. Contributory factors, including the catalytic effects of climate change, will also be considered. Given the political progress that has been achieved recently, the most likely situation for an intense interstate conflict in the short term is one that spreads tothe Arctic, rather than one igniting within it. However, as the century progresses, dormant problems relating to the Svalbard archipelago will combine with environmental, economic and political trends to exacerbate conflict risk. Traditionally, armed conflict has been viewed as a phenomenon that cannot be predicted. This view is identified as dangerously misleading. Using a risk based approach and noting advances in analytical techniques, representative scenarios in which conflict may occur are examined and prospective methods of risk management identified

Quality of Life for Persons with Chronic Disease Utilizing Mobile Integrated Healthcare

The use of mobile integrated healthcare-community paramedicine (MIH-CP) has the potential to be integrated into existing chronic disease management initiatives as a means of reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and costs as well as improving quality of life (QOL). The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships between demographics, noncommunicable disease type (NCD), and changes in self-perceived, self-reported QOL for those who have participated in an MIH-CP program. The research design for this study was a pretest/posttest design using secondary data that were obtained from a research partner using the MIH-CP intervention and collecting QOL data using the Euroqol QOL survey (EQ-5D-3L) (N = 645). The health belief model was the theoretical foundation of this study. Multiple linear regressions results did not show statistically significant relationships among all of the independent variables (i.e., gender, NCD type, days in MIH, age, and hospital admission status) and the dependent variable of self-reported, perceived QOL. Paired sample t tests showed a statistically significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of self-reported, perceived QOL (p = .000). The results of this study could be used to provide preliminary support for the use of the MIH-CP program. In addition, further investigation of the MIH-CP intervention as a tool for mitigating the human and financial costs associated with management of NCDs and QOL perceptions should be pursued. Positive social change implications include the possible reduction of expenditures for NCDs and human suffering as well as the possible improvement in QOL for those with NCDs

The Welfare Effects of Pfiesteria-Related Fish Kills: A Contingent Behavior Analysis of Seafood Consumers

We use contingent behavior analysis to study the effects of pfiesteria-related fish kills on the demand for seafood in the Mid-Atlantic region. We estimate a set of demand difference models based on individual responses to questions about seafood consumption in the presence of fish kills and with different amounts of information provided about health risks. We use a random-effects Tobit model to control for correlation across each observation and to account for censoring. We find that (i) pfiesteria-related fish kills have a significant negative effect on the demand for seafood even though the fish kills pose no known threat to consumers through sea-food consumption, (ii) seafood consumers are not responsive to expert risk information designed to reassure them that seafood is safe in the presence of a fish kill, and (iii) a mandatory seafood inspection program largely eliminates the welfare loss incurred due to misinformation.pfiesteria, seafood demand, non-market valuation, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Welfare Effects of Pfiesteria-Related Fish Kills in Seafood Markets: A Contingent Behavior Analysis

We use contingent behavior analysis to study the effects of Pfiesteria related fish kills on the demand for seafood in the Mid-Atlantic region. We use a phone-mail-phone survey to look at the effects of various information provision mechanisms used to ameliorate the effects of misinformation regarding fish kills. A set of demand difference models are estimated based on individual responses to multiple questions about seafood consumption with and without fish kills present and with various health risk information treatments. Random effects Tobit models are used to control for the panel nature of responses and natural censoring of the stated responses. We find that 1) Pfiesteria related fish kills have a significant negative effect on the demand for seafood, 2) seafood consumers are nonresponsive to expert risk information designed to reassure consumers that seafood is safe in the presence of a fish kill, and 3) a mandatory seafood inspection program completely eliminates avoidance costs incurred due to misinformation. We estimate that the aggregate avoidance costs incurred in the month immediately following a Pfiesteria related fish kill is $50-$130 million.

Dis-Orienting Rhythms: The Politics of the New Asian Dance Music

Blurring the boundaries between academic and cultural production, this book produces a new understanding of the world significance of South Asian culture in multi-racist societies. One of the first sustained attempts to situate such production within the study of race and identity, it uncovers the crucial role that contemporary South Asian dance music has played in the formation of a new urban cultural politics. The book opens by positing new theoretical understandings of South Asian cultural representation that move beyond essentialist ethnicity in the cultural studies literature. Contributors narrate the formation of South Asian expressive culture coming emerging from the highly charged context of UK Black politics. Part three assumes the task of historical recovery, looking at the antecedents of political South Asian musical performance, autonomous anti-racist organising and problems of alliance with the white Left. Part four engages with the movements and translations of cultural productions across the world - not just in Britain or South Asia, but also Canada, North America, Fiji, Malaysia, Australia, West Africa, Europe, but particularly in the fractured spaces of a postcolonial Britain in decline

Taphonomic and Diagenetic Pathways to Protein Preservation, Part II: The Case of Brachylophosaurus canadensis Specimen MOR 2598

Recent recoveries of peptide sequences from two Cretaceous dinosaur bones require paleontologists to rethink traditional notions about how fossilization occurs. As part of this shifting paradigm, several research groups have recently begun attempting to characterize biomolecular decay and stabilization pathways in diverse paleoenvironmental and diagenetic settings. To advance these efforts, we assessed the taphonomic and geochemical history of Brachylophosaurus canadensis specimen MOR 2598, the left femur of which was previously found to retain endogenous cells, tissues, and structural proteins. Combined stratigraphic and trace element data show that after brief fluvial transport, this articulated hind limb was buried in a sandy, likely-brackish, estuarine channel. During early diagenesis, percolating groundwaters stagnated within the bones, forming reducing internal microenvironments. Recent exposure and weathering also caused the surficial leaching of trace elements from the specimen. Despite these shifting redox regimes, proteins within the bones were able to survive through diagenesis, attesting to their remarkable resiliency over geologic time. Synthesizing our findings with other recent studies reveals that oxidizing conditions in the initial ~48 h postmortem likely promote molecular stabilization reactions and that the retention of early-diagenetic trace element signatures may be a useful proxy for molecular recovery potential

Stocking Rate Theory and Profit Drivers in North Australian Rangeland Grazing Enterprises

Setting correct stock numbers is a key decision for successful pastoralism. In marginal environments, typified by northern Australia, this involves careful cattle herd management across landscapes and seasons characterised by heterogeneous land condition and extreme climatic uncertainty. Stocking rate theory which links animal production to stocking rates concentrates only on liveweight gain of sale animals and ignores complex herd (e.g. reproduction, mortality) and pasture dynamics (e.g. land condition) and costs of maintaining stock numbers (e.g. supplementary feeding). Related economic models are generally naïve and incomplete, being based on liveweight gain, meat prices and variable husbandry costs (e.g. Workman, 1986). Modelling approaches, which simulate whole herds (including breeding animals) with dynamic links between animal numbers, pasture availability, management effort and profits are more realistic. This paper explores the economic implications of changing stocking rates, animal production and management effort in the form of supplementary feeding

A review of the sediment-hosted, disseminated precious metal deposits of Nevada : geological setting, classification, genesis and exploration

Carlin-type, fine-grained, "invisible" or Disseminated Replacement Type gold-silver deposits are all different names for a major new type of ore deposit that is currently being extensively developed in the Western United States. This type of deposit is now being found elsewhere. Thus a descriptive empirical model that emphasizes the geological and geochemical environment of formation is needed to assist the mining industry in the search for similar deposits. These deposits are typically formed in carbonaceous, silty dolomites and Iimestones or mineralization calcareous siltstones rocks and is exceedingly fine-grained is disseminated in the and claystones. host sedimentary Gold-silver , ore. Primary alteration usually less than one micron in size in unoxidized types include decalcification, argillitization, silicification resulting in the and pyritization. Silicification is commonly intense formation of jasperoid bodies which may be the host to higher grade ore. Supergene alteration is dominated by oxidation resulting in the formation of numerous oxides and sulphates and the release of gold from its association with sulphides and organic carbon. elements are As, Ba, Hg, Sb, and TI. Commonly associated trace Available geological, geochemical, fluid inclusion and stable-isotope studies lead to the conclusion that a circulating hydrothermal system is the important factor necessary for gold-silver concentration and deposition. A direct genetic or only casual relation between are deposition and discrete igneous formations remains unclear. However, it is considered that volcanism provided the source of heat necessary for the generation of a circulating hydrothermal system. High angle faults and fold structures facilitate transport and are of prime importance in directing are fluids to favourable host lithologies. The host rocks, overwhelmingly carbonate - rich, include those whose original and/or altered compositions and resulting permeability provide favourable sites for the precipitation of disseminated gold. The processes specialized. resulting Any th ick in the formation of these deposits are section of carbonate rocks has the potential not to produce Disseminated Replacement Type deposits wherever underlying igneous activity has developed a hydrothermal syste

Taphonomic and Diagenetic Pathways to Protein Preservation, Part I: the Case of Tyrannosaurus rex Specimen MOR 1125

Contrary to traditional views, fossil bones have been shown to occasionally retain original cells, blood vessels, and structural tissues that are still comprised, in part, by their original proteins. To help clarify how such remarkable preservation occurs, we explored the fossilization history of a famous Tyrannosaurus rex specimen previously shown to yield original cells, vessels, and collagen protein sequences. By analyzing the trace element composition of the femur of this tyrannosaur, we show that after death its carcass decayed underwater in a brackish, oxic, estuarine channel and then became buried by sands that quickly cemented around the bones, largely protecting them from further chemical alteration. Other bones yielding original proteins have also been found to have fossilized within rapidly-cementing sediments in oxidizing environments, which strongly suggests that such settings are conducive to molecular preservation