Economic Growth and Threatened and Endangered Species Listings: A VAR Analysis

We conduct several analyses to examine the link between threatened and endangered species listings and macroeconomic activity. Preliminary tests using ordinary least squares are run on both time series data on the national level and cross sectional data at the state level. The analysis is then extended using vector autoregressive (VAR) techniques. VAR results, impulse response functions and variance decompositions are reported to shed more light on the causal relationships between threatened and endangered species, GDP and population. Our results indicate that there is little or no empirical evidence that GDP growth rates lead to changes in the number of threatened and endangered species listings.

Economic Growth and Threatened and Endangered Species Listings: A VAR Analysis

We conduct several analyses to examine the link between threatened and endangered species listings and macroeconomic activity. Preliminary tests using ordinary least squares are run on both time series data on the national level and cross sectional data at the state level. The analysis is then extended using vector autoregressive (VAR) techniques. VAR results, impulse response functions and variance decompositions are reported to shed more light on the causal relationships between threatened and endangered species, GDP and population. Our results indicate that there is little or no empirical evidence that GDP growth rates lead to changes in the number of threatened and endangered species listings. Key Words: Economic growth, endangered and threatened species, vector autoregression

Recital Program Notes

Choral notes for: Little Innocent Lamb by Stacey Gibbs Jubilate Deo: Omnis Terra by Dan Forrest Requiem: Lux Aeterna by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Shenandoah by Mack Wilberg If Ye Love Me by Thomas Tallis Light of a Clear Blue Morning by Craig Hella Johnson Esto Les Digo by Kinley Lange Children Go Where I Send Thee arr. By Kevin Phillip Johnson Ain’t No Windin in the Road by Greg Gilpin Lift Thine Eyes from Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn Hold Me, Rock Me by Brian Tate Betelehemu by Wendell Whalum, arr. Barrington Brooks City Called Heaven arranged by Josephine Poelinitz, Edited by Henry Lec

Stochastic Dominance, Entropy and Biodiversity Management

In this paper we develop a model of population dynamics using the Shannon entropy index, a measure of diversity that allows for global and specific population shocks. We model the effects of increasing the number of parcels on biodiversity, varying the number of spatially diverse parcels to capture risk diversification. We discuss the concepts of stochastic dominance as a means of project selection, in order to model biodiversity returns and risks. Using a Monte Carlo simulation we find that stochastic dominance may be a useful theoretical construct for project selections but it is unable to rank every case.

Stochastic Dominance, Entropy and Biodiversity Management

In this paper we develop a model of population dynamics using the Shannon entropy index, a measure of diversity that allows for global and specific population shocks. We model the effects of increasing the number of parcels on biodiversity, varying the number of spatially diverse parcels to capture risk diversification. We discuss the concepts of stochastic dominance as a means of project selection, in order to model biodiversity returns and risks. Using a Monte Carlo simulation we find that stochastic dominance may be a useful theoretical construct for project selections but it is unable to rank every case. Key Words: Stochastic Dominance, Entropy, Biodiversity Management

Fisheries management and fisheries livelihoods in Iceland

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2016This dissertation explores the long-term implications of Iceland’s nationwide Individual Transferrable Quota (ITQ) system on rural communities and small-boat fishing livelihoods drawing on two years of ethnographic research in Northwest Iceland, a nationwide mailed survey of small-boat fishermen, and the compilation of fisheries human dimension indicator data for the lumpfish fishery. Results from ethnographic interviews and participant observation show that while there is a wide range of complex political, social, and environmental changes affecting coastal communities, the changes brought on by the ITQ system are perceived to have been particularly significant. Survey results suggest that the majority of small-boat fishermen perceive the ITQ system as serving the goal of wealth accumulation over the goal of resource conservation. Survey respondents and interview informants report high cultural connections to fishing through family history, but express concern that future generations may be precluded from fisheries livelihoods due to the prohibitory cost of entry into the ITQ system. Furthermore, survey responses, ethnographic interviews, and indicator data suggest that non-ITQ fisheries like the lumpfish fishery and the strandveiðar season do not serve as substantial platforms to support newcomers to fisheries. These non-ITQ fisheries can make individuals and communities more resilient by providing extra income and, at the same time, can offer social flexibility to access a fishery of cultural and historical value. However, survey and interview data also suggest that the strandveiðar fishery has resulted in new rifts in communities as Icelandic society struggles with differing perceptions of equitable access to marine resources. Survey and interview data show how decision-making power lies in the hands of a few dominant interest groups, leaving smallboat fishermen and rural communities at a disadvantage with little power to meaningfully influence national politics. Finally, the compilation of human indicator data in the lumpfish fishery highlights concepts of multiple (social, economic, and biological) goals in fisheries management and the benefits of participatory governance structures. Conclusions from this dissertation underscore the complexity of fisheries systems and the important role equity plays in sustainable fisheries management and governance

Waiting to Execute: An Optimal Stopping Model of Capital Punishment Stays

The focus of this paper is on a specific component of the capital punishment debate: delays in capital punishment. Although the legal justifications for delays in capital punishment cases, such as the right of the writ of habeas corpus, are well known, the analysis of the economic costs and benefits of delaying executions is limited. Fluctuations in the political consensus regarding capital punishment and resulting changes in the imposition of the death penalty in practice suggest that such costs and benefits are important to policymakers. The employment of option value theory is useful when considering the implementation of the death penalty because it involves an action that has uncertain net benefits and that is irreversible.Punishment

Goodwill Non-Impairments

The article discusses the use of goodwill non-impairment by companies to manage their earnings. The effect of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) 142 on goodwill-related earnings management is described. A table shows the results of related the working papers Earnings Management By Avoiding or Reducing Goodwill Impairments, by Dennis Chambers, Evidence on the Use of Unverifiable Estimates in Required Goodwill Impairment, by Karthik Ramanna and Ross L. Watts, and Has Goodwill Accounting Gone Bad?, by Kevin K. Li and Richard G. Sloan

DHBeNeLux : incubator for digital humanities in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg

Digital Humanities BeNeLux is a grass roots initiative to foster knowledge networking and dissemination in digital humanities in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This special issue highlights a selection of the work that was presented at the DHBenelux 2015 Conference by way of anthology for the digital humanities currently being done in the Benelux area and beyond. The introduction describes why this grass roots initiative came about and how DHBenelux is currently supporting community building and knowledge exchange for digital humanities in the Benelux area and how this is integrating regional digital humanities in the larger international digital humanities environment

Investigating age- and virulence factor- dependent innate immune activation during neonatal meningitis associated E. coli infection

Neonatal meningitis-associated Escherichia coli (NMEC) is a leading cause of early-onset sepsis and meningitis. While current antibiotic protocols have significantly reduced mortality associated with neonatal sepsis and meningitis, surviving infants are at a significantly increased risk of developing life-long neurologic impairment compared to healthy infants. This continued risk of lasting neurologic damage along with a recent rise in antibiotic resistant NMEC strains has precipitated a need for new therapeutic strategies. Targeted immune-based therapeutics may serve as desirable adjunct therapies; however, there are many challenges to their development. The neonatal immune system is immature compared to the immune system of adults, leading to an increased risk of infection. Here we assess the role of IL-1 secretion, which is known to be diminished in neonates, in the pathogenesis of a murine model of NMEC infection. We further highlight one potential mechanism for decreased IL-1 secretion during the neonatal period. To further complicate the development of immune-based therapeutics aimed at treating NMEC infection, NMEC strains can possess many different virulence factors with the potential to alter immune cell activation. While some of these factors, such as OmpA, have been well-characterized in the context of NMEC infection, many potential virulence factors have not. Here we show that the pore-forming toxin [alpha]-hemolysin activates purinergic receptors, leading to improved bacterial clearance and decreased mortality in a neonatal mouse model of NMEC infection. Together, the data presented here provides new insight into both neonatal immunity and the role of virulence factor-specific immune activation on the pathogenesis of NMEC infection, and may serve as a stepping stone for the development of not only new immune-based therapeutics, but also new diagnostic and prognostic tools for use during neonatal infection.Includes bibliographical references