Water quality and recreational angling demand in Ireland. ESRI Research Bulletin 2016/2/3

About 8% of the adult population in Ireland consider themselves to be recreational anglers. Including tourist anglers from Northern Ireland, Great Britain and elsewhere, approximately 400,000 people per annum fish in Ireland’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters. The economic contribution of recreational anglers to the local economy, in terms of expenditure on equipment and services plus food and accommodation exceeds €800 million per annum and supports 11,000 jobs, primarily in rural and peripheral communities

Water quality and recreational angling demand in Ireland

Using on-site survey data from sea, coarse and game angling sites in Ireland, this paper estimates count data models of recreational angling demand. The models are used to investigate the extent to which anglers are responsive to differences in water quality, with the water quality metric defined by the EU's Water Framework Directive. The analysis shows that angling demand is greater where water quality has a higher ecological status, particularly for anglers targeting game species. However, for coarse anglers we find the reverse, angling demand is greater in waters with lower ecological status. On average, across the different target species surveyed, anglers have a willingness to pay of €371 for a day's fishing. The additional benefit of angling in waters with high versus low ecological status was the highest for game anglers at a mean of €122 per day

Analysing Residential Energy Demand: An Error Correction Demand System Approach for Ireland. ESRI WP505. July 2015

This paper analyses the Irish residential energy demand system by using variants of Deaton and Muellbauer’s Almost Ideal Demand System model. Annual data from 1970 to 2013 is employed to estimate a demand system for solid fuels, oil, gas and electricity with the models incorporating quadratic and demographic terms to estimate long-run price and expenditure elasticities. This is the first attempt in an Irish context to estimate an energy demand system for the residential sector. Error correction models were also estimated to recover short-run elasticities. Against the backdrop of onerous climate and energy efficiency policy targets, and given the residential sector’s substantial energy use it is important to update energy demand elasticity estimates to better inform policy instrument design

Water Quality and Recreational Angling Demand in Ireland. ESRI WP521. December 2015

Using on-site survey data from sea, coarse and game angling sites in Ireland, this paper estimates count data models of recreational angling demand. The models are used to investigate the extent to which anglers are responsive to differences in water quality, with the water quality metric defined by the EU's Water Framework Directive. The analysis shows that angling demand is greater where water quality has a higher ecological status, particularly for anglers targeting game species. However, for coarse anglers we find the reverse, angling demand is greater in waters with lower ecological status. On average, across the different target species surveyed, anglers have a willingness to pay of €371 for a day's fishing. The additional benefit of angling in waters with high versus low ecological status was the highest for game anglers at a mean of €122 per day

The Residential Sector's Demand for Energy. ESRI Research Bulletin 2016/3/2

Ireland and other EU member states face onerous climate and energy efficiency policy targets. As the residential sector represents 25% of final energy consumption in Ireland, what happens within the residential sector will play an important part in determining whether Ireland’s policy targets are achieved. Improvements in energy efficiency performance, reduced fossil energy use, and switching to less carbon intensive fuels will contribute to achieving policy targets. Price mechanisms, such as carbon taxes, are one policy option available to policymakers to encourage households to change their energy consumption patterns. This research paper examines historical data on the residential sector’s energy consumption to gauge how responsive households are to changes in energy prices, which should inform the development of future policy initiatives. The paper estimated an energy demand system for the residential sector for four fuel categories: electricity, gas, oil (incl. kerosene, diesel, LPG and petroleum coke) and solid fuels (incl. sod peat, peat briquettes and coal) and uses data from the period 1970 to 2013

Analysing residential energy demand: An error correction demand system approach for Ireland

This paper analyses the Irish residential energy demand system by using variants of Deaton and Muellbauer's Almost Ideal Demand System model. Annual data from 1970 to 2013 is employed to estimate a demand system for solid fuels, oil, gas and electricity with the models incorporating quadratic and demographic terms to estimate long-run price and expenditure elasticities. This is the first attempt in an Irish context to estimate an energy demand system for the residential sector. Error correction models were also estimated to recover short-run elasticities. Against the backdrop of onerous climate and energy efficiency policy targets, and given the residential sector's substantial energy use it is important to update energy demand elasticity estimates to better inform policy instrument design

State Oversight and Local Government Savings: An Analysis of Illinois County Fund Balance Politics

This paper assesses Illinois county government policies pertaining to the size, use, and replenishment of unreserved funds. As political forces push for reductions in taxes and in government itself, incentives for local governments to use less transparent means for managing finances increase. A better understanding of the impact which fund balance policies have on the amount of financial slack local governments keep on the one hand, and how counties use the funds on the other, is of increasing importance. This work expands on previous analyses of budgetary uncertainty and the possibility of using slack to stabilize service provision through times of revenue abundance and scarcity (Marlowe, 2004, 2005; Stewart, 2009, 2011a; Stewart, Hamman, and Pink-Harper, 2018; Tyer, 1993; Wang and Hou, 2012; Wolkoff, 1987)

Extreme morning chronotypes are often familial and not exceedingly rare: the estimated prevalence of advanced sleep phase, familial advanced sleep phase, and advanced sleep-wake phase disorder in a sleep clinic population.

Study objectivesReport the first prevalence estimates of advanced sleep phase (ASP), familial advanced sleep phase (FASP), and advanced sleep-wake phase disorder (ASWPD). This can guide clinicians on the utility of screening for extreme chronotypes both for clinical decision-making and to flag prospective participants in the study of the genetics and biology of FASP.MethodsData on morning or evening sleep schedule preference (chronotype) were collected from 2422 new patients presenting to a North American sleep center over 9.8 years. FASP was determined using a severity criterion that has previously identified dominant circadian mutations in humans. All patients were personally seen and evaluated by one of the authors (C.R.J.).ResultsOur results demonstrate an ASP prevalence of 0.33%, an FASP prevalence of 0.21%, and an ASWPD prevalence of at least 0.04%. Most cases of young-onset ASP were familial.ConclusionsAmong patients presenting to a sleep clinic, conservatively 1 out of every 300 patients will have ASP, 1 out of every 475 will have FASP, and 1 out of every 2500 will have ASWPD. This supports obtaining a routine circadian history and, for those with extreme chronotypes, obtaining a family history of circadian preference. This can optimize treatment for evening sleepiness and early morning awakening and lead to additional circadian gene discovery. We hope these findings will lead to improved treatment options for a wide range of sleep and medical disorders in the future

Trophic guilds of marine predators in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem

Quantifying trophic relationships of marine species is fundamental to the construction and performance of ecosystem models, development of effective ecosystem-based fisheries management strategies, and support of trait-based approaches to ecological risk assessment. Accounting for food web dynamics in taxonomically diverse ecosystems, such as the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME), is especially challenging because of the sheer number of trophic linkages and their inherent variability. Consequently, analyses that can inform the most appropriate means of aggregating species or other taxonomic groups into assemblages or guilds are critical to reducing system complexity for modeling and management, particularly when data are limited. To provide a methodological approach that is globally applicable in such cases, we define trophic guilds within biogeographic regions of the CCLME, compare results among these regions, and discuss ecological and management implications. Within each biogeographic region, predator guilds were clearly demarcated by foraging habitat (benthic, nearshore pelagic, offshore pelagic), scale of foraging movements, and trophic position. Furthermore, trophic guilds were distinctive for each region, with species composition and the noted ecological characteristics largely driving guild structure. Predator species that are reliant on continental slope and offshore foraging habitat, such as adult Pacific Hake, have diets that are representative of these areas and are similar throughout the CCLME. Generally, larger, more mobile predators that typically feed in deeper offshore waters, including swordfish, sea lions, and sharks clustered together in multiple bioregions along the coast; all reliant primarily on fishes and squids. Throughout bioregions, groundfishes preyed on benthic invertebrates (e.g., decapods, amphipods, polychaetes), while shelf-oriented pelagic predators, including smaller salmon, preyed on pelagic invertebrates (e.g., euphausiids, copepods, gelatinous zooplankton). A large number of forage taxa that are well represented in this study have dynamics largely dependent on oceanographic conditions at a regional scale (e.g., decapods), basin scale (e.g., copepods), or a combination of both (e.g., euphausiids, Northern Anchovy). Such distinctions indicate that spatial and temporal scales of coherence of predators and prey also must be considered in development of ecosystem models and evaluation of management strategies. Our study quantifies the spatial coherence of predator guilds integrated over decades within and across bioregions of the CCLME, providing an improved understanding of regional ecosystem functioning. The analytical approach we developed may be easily extended to address similar ecological and ecosystem based fisheries management priorities in other marine regions

Key Articles and Guidelines Relative to Intensive Care Unit Pharmacotherapy: 2009 Update

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90162/1/phco.29.10.1228.pd