An Economic Evaluation of Woodland Caribou Conservation Programs in Northwestern Saskatchewan

The purpose of this study was to identify the values Saskatchewan residents place on their Woodland Caribou conservation programs. Using contingent valuation methods, individual values for maintaining caribou numbers within Millar Western-NorSask Forest Management Licence agreement area were estimated. Using these value estimates, societal benefits were estimated for the implementation of a woodland caribou maintenance program within the forest licence agreement area. The data used in this study were collected using a mailout survey to Saskatchewan residents. Two contingent valuation formats were used, the opened ended willingness to pay and the dichotomous choice. A number of question structures were employed in order to judge the sensitivity of the valuation to the design. In all, 9 different versions of the contingent valuation question were used in a randomized design strategy. The resulting welfare measures for the implementation of the caribou maintenance program were somewhat variable. The open ended format produced the lowest estimates, while the dichotomous choice estimates were higher and showed a higher degree of variability. This variability may be due to the presence of the ordering or whole-part effects. The values elicited for the conservation program using the open ended approach average approximately $15.00 per person per year. These values, when aggregated over the provincial population, result in an annual benefit of the woodland caribou conservation program of about$10M. These are the most conservative of the estimates, suggesting that woodland caribou conservation is very important to Saskatchewan residents.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

MEASURING FOREST RESOURCE VALUES: AN ASSESSMENT OF CHOICE EXPERIMENTS AND PREFERENCE CONSTRUCTION METHODS AS PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT TOOLS

Human values arising from forests include market and non-market values. Timber values and values of non-timber forest products traded in markets (berries, wild rice, etc.) are considered market values. Among non-market values are recreation values and values associated with wildlife harvesting by Aboriginal People. These are considered non-market because participation in these activities does not require the purchase of market based permits; prices do not function as rationing devices in these activities. In addition to non-market values arising from activities, individuals may also have values associated with forest conditions (biodiversity, etc.). These are referred to as passive use values since the value is not associated with any specific use of the resource or activity related to the forest. Since forests in Canada are largely on public land, these passive use values are particularly relevant to Canadian forest management. These values reveal the preferences of the public for components of forest management. Eliciting these values is a form of public involvement in that the public is engaged in assessing forest management options and providing opinions and sentiments regarding these options. Ideally, values arising from forests would be collected from a broad range of the public and examined to provide guidance to forest managers. However, values over forest outputs and conditions may be very poorly formed when people have little experience with the range and complexity of forest ecology and management. In addition, eliciting values without framing them in a trade-off setting can result in misleading estimates. In this project we attempt to elicit passive use values in a manner that allows for poorly defined initial notions of value through an approach known as preference construction. Preference construction essentially provides for education and information processing in the development of passive use values. These estimates are also developed using a trade-off approach (choice experiments). The project focuses on the values of the local public within the NorSask forest. More formally, the objectives of this research are to: 1) ascertain the passive use values held by local people associated with forests in the NorSask Forest Management License Area; 2) explore differences in preferences based on the degree and frequency of formal preference construction exercises; and 3) evaluate this approach as a method of public involvement. A total of 43 individuals from the local community were involved in the valuation exercise. They participated in 3 groups or treatments, each with a different level of involvement in the valuation assessment. The first group was involved in three separate sessions, allowing for significant preference construction and information acquisition. The second group was involved in only one session and the third group was involved only minimally through a telephone contact and the completion of a survey delivered through the mail. The hypothesis being examined was that the degree of involvement in the exercise would affect the responses either in terms of the variances of the responses or the actual preferences. Not all forest values can be examined in a single valuation task. In this case values associated with key game species (moose), wildlife species reflecting biodiversity or threatened species (caribou), old age classes of forest, protected areas and local employment were assessed. These were selected based on the preference construction sessions with the first group. A general trend was found in the ranking of forest values. The values were highest for increases in older forest age classes and protected areas and lower for caribou and moose levels (expressed in percentage changes relative to current levels). The lowest value arose from the local jobs generated by forestry activity. Monetary measures of these values were also developed. The scenario choices made by the individuals revealed that a 5% increase in moose and caribou populations would be worth approximately $10 and$12 per year. A 5% increases in old age classes or protected areas was worth approximately 4 to 5 times as much. They were willing to pay approximately $7 per year in increased taxes for increases in local employment. The hypothesis that the group preferences would differ was not accepted. The preferences of the first and third groups, while expected to be very different, were in fact quite similar. The second group did appear to be different from these other two but it is possible that significant variation in demographic characteristics was driving that difference, rather than the level of preference construction effort. The sample in the third group did however exhibit more resistance to completing the exercise and registered more protests to the value assessment. In conclusion, the approach employed was successful in eliciting passive use values for components of forest management. These values alone provide interesting information for managers to consider in the development of management plans. Evidence supporting the hypothesis that preference construction approaches improve these valuation exercises was not found in this study although this result must be tempered by the limitations arising from sample size and demographic composition of the study groups.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF DONATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION IN CANADA

As provincial governments in Canada trim budgets, fewer funds are available for environmental conservation programs. Many jurisdictions are letting private interests and/or users of the resource base help fund conservation projects. Thus funding for conservation is becoming more dependent on donations to environmental causes either through direct giving of funds or through memberships in organizations. This study explores some determinants of private contributions to environmental conservation activities through an econometric analysis of donations and memberships relating to wildlife habitat protection and enhancement. We use data from a 1991 survey conducted in the three prairie provinces that provides information on donation behavior, income, wildlife-related activity, household compositions, and a variety of other factors. A double-hurdle econometric model is used to allow independent variables to have different effects on the probability of donations and the level of donations. Our empirical results suggest that changes in the economy will be important to donation behavior. Declines in participation and recruitment in hunting will also have impacts on donations to conservation causes, but these impacts, although significant, may not be as large. However, consumptive and nonconsumptive activities may be influenced by management agencies and used to bolster environmental donations.Environmental Economics and Policy,

ASSESSING IMPACTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE ON ABORIGINAL PEOPLE: AN ECONOMIC EXAMINATION OF SUBSISTENCE RESOURCE USE AND VALUE

The report describes the research design, data collection and preliminary analysis of an economic assessment of non-timber resource use by Aboriginal People in Northwest Saskatchewan. The project is designed to develop methods of valuing resource use by Aboriginal People so that these values can be incorporated into forest resource management decisions and to evaluate the impact of forest management actions on the economic well-being of Aboriginal People living in the region. Data on non-timber resource use are collected and spatially explicit economic models are developed in order to construct estimates of behavioral change and value associated with changes in the environment and landscape (through forestry, access, or other landscape changes).Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A Random Utility Analysis of Southern Alberta Sportfishing

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Non-market Valuation Biases Due to Aboriginal Cultural Characteristics in Northern Saskatchewan: The Values Structures Component

Current non-market valuation techniques have been developed based on assumptions about values held within the Eurocentred culture. Contentions between cultures over natural resources are hypothesized to occur because of differences in held values resulting in different values being assigned to the resources in question. This study measured the held values of an Aboriginal band in Northern Saskatchewan as the first dimension of a non-market valuation study of natural resources. These held value structures are presented noting differences by age and gender and in comparison with the local Non-Aboriginal community and another Aboriginal group in northern Alberta.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Accelerated laboratory test to study fungal biodeterioration of cementitious matrix

International audienc

Irradiated Esophageal Cells are Protected from Radiation-Induced Recombination by MnSOD Gene Therapy

Radiation-induced DNA damage is a precursor to mutagenesis and cytotoxicity. During radiotherapy, exposure of healthy tissues can lead to severe side effects. We explored the potential of mitochondrial SOD (MnSOD) gene therapy to protect esophageal, pancreatic and bone marrow cells from radiation-induced genomic instability. Specifically, we measured the frequency of homologous recombination (HR) at an integrated transgene in the Fluorescent Yellow Direct Repeat (FYDR) mice, in which an HR event can give rise to a fluorescent signal. Mitochondrial SOD plasmid/liposome complex (MnSOD-PL) was administered to esophageal cells 24 h prior to 29 Gy upper-body irradiation. Single cell suspensions from FYDR, positive control FYDR-REC, and negative control C57BL/6NHsd (wild-type) mouse esophagus, pancreas and bone marrow were evaluated by flow cytometry. Radiation induced a statistically significant increase in HR 7 days after irradiation compared to unirradiated FYDR mice. MnSOD-PL significantly reduced the induction of HR by radiation at day 7 and also reduced the level of HR in the pancreas. Irradiation of the femur and tibial marrow with 8 Gy also induced a significant increase in HR at 7 days. Radioprotection by intraesophageal administration of MnSOD-PL was correlated with a reduced level of radiation-induced HR in esophageal cells. These results demonstrate the efficacy of MnSOD-PL for suppressing radiation-induced HR in vivo.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Grant R01-CA83876-8)National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.) (NIH grant U19A1068021)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant T32-ES07020)United States. Dept. of Energy (DOE DE-FG01-04ER04)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH P01-CA26735

Combined In Silico, In Vivo, and In Vitro Studies Shed Insights into the Acute Inflammatory Response in Middle-Aged Mice

We combined in silico, in vivo, and in vitro studies to gain insights into age-dependent changes in acute inflammation in response to bacterial endotoxin (LPS). Time-course cytokine, chemokine, and NO2-/NO3- data from "middle-aged" (6-8 months old) C57BL/6 mice were used to re-parameterize a mechanistic mathematical model of acute inflammation originally calibrated for "young" (2-3 months old) mice. These studies suggested that macrophages from middle-aged mice are more susceptible to cell death, as well as producing higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, vs. macrophages from young mice. In support of the in silico-derived hypotheses, resident peritoneal cells from endotoxemic middle-aged mice exhibited reduced viability and produced elevated levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, and KC/CXCL1 as compared to cells from young mice. Our studies demonstrate the utility of a combined in silico, in vivo, and in vitro approach to the study of acute inflammation in shock states, and suggest hypotheses with regard to the changes in the cytokine milieu that accompany aging. © 2013 Namas et al

Melphalan 140mg/m2 or 200mg/m2 for autologous transplantation in myeloma: results from the Collaboration to Collect Autologous Transplant Outcomes in Lymphoma and Myeloma (CALM) study. A report by the EBMT Chronic Malignancies Working Party

Melphalan at a dose of 200mg/m2 is standard conditioning prior to autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for multiple myeloma, but a dose of 140mg/m2 is often used in clinical practice in patients perceived to be at risk of excess toxicity. To determine if melphalan 200 and melphalan 140 are equally effective and tolerable in clinically relevant patient subgroups we analysed 1964 first single autologous transplantation episodes using a series of Cox proportional-hazards models. Overall survival, progression-free survival, cumulative incidence of relapse, non-relapse mortality, haematopoietic recovery and second primary malignancy rates were not significantly different between the melphalan 140 (n=245) and melphalan 200 (n=1719) groups. Multivariable subgroup analysis showed that disease status at transplantation interacted with overall survival, progression-free survival, and cumulative incidence of relapse, with a significant advantage associated with melphalan 200 in patients transplanted in less than partial response (adjusted hazard ratios for melphalan 200 versus melphalan 140: 0.5, 0.54, and 0.56). In contrast, transplantation in very good partial or complete response significantly favoured melphalan 140 for overall survival (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.02). Age, renal function, prior proteasome inhibitor treatment, gender, or Karnofsky score did not interact with overall/progression-free survival or relapse rate in the melphalan dose groups. There were no significant survival or relapse rate differences between melphalan 200 and melphalan 140 patients with high-risk or standard-risk chromosomal abnormalities. In conclusion, remission status at the time of transplantation may favour melphalan 200 or melphalan 140 for key transplant outcomes (NCT01362972)