The Potential For UK Portfolio Investors To Finance Sustainable Tropical Forestry

Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Effect of chronotype on emotional processing and risk taking

This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Chronobiology International on 30 March 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.3109/07420528.2016.1146739© 2016 Taylor & Francis. There is increasing evidence to suggest that late chronotypes are at increased risk for depression. The putative psychological mechanisms underpinning this risk, however, have not been fully explored. The aim of the present study was to examine whether, similar to acutely depressed patients and other "at risk" groups, late chronotype individuals display biases in tasks assaying emotional face recognition, emotional categorisation, recognition and recall and attention. Late chronotype was associated with increased recognition of sad facial expressions, greater recall and reduced latency to correctly recognise previously presented negative personality trait words and reduced allocation of attentional resources to happy faces. The current results indicate that certain negative biases in emotional processing are present in late chronotypes and may, in part, mediate the vulnerability of these individuals to depression. Prospective studies are needed to establish whether the cognitive vulnerabilities reported here predict subsequent depression

Future local passenger transport system scenarios and implications for policy and practice

The world is rapidly changing and the future is uncertain, yet until recently the dominant assumption of the local passenger transport community has been that the existing modal landscape of cars, buses and taxis will remain much as it is now. Such a view is now shifting however, with decision makers now appreciating the need to understand the implications of potentially radical changes in the technological, political, economic, social and environmental spheres. Accordingly, in August 2015 the Public Transport 2045 study was commissioned to consider how different local public transport futures might affect society over the next 30-years, and at how governments might best respond. The multi-phase study was based on individual in-depth interviews with 50 senior local passenger transport operators, government officials, lobbyists and experts from New Zealand and around the world; and four validation workshops with 28 sector stakeholders. The data was analysed using mostly pre-determined themes from which four scenarios were constructed and then validated. The implications are that the transport system is about to transition to a system of ‘shared mobility’; public transport will need to evolve to stay relevant but will remain important in any scenario; and the role of Government will be vital in overseeing the transition to the shared mobility era. These lessons are now being used to inform transport and broader policy decisions across New Zealand. Overall, the study is the first to apply such a global and qualitatively rich dataset to view the long-term future passenger transport system as a whole

Mineralization, alteration assemblages, geochemistry and stable isotopes of the intermediate-sulfidation epithermal Kylo Deposit, Drake Goldfield, North-Eastern NSW, Australia: evidence for a significant magmatic fluid component

The intermediate-sulfidation epithermal Kylo deposit is part of the Drake Goldfield of north-eastern NSW. The mineralization is gold-dominant with minor silver and significant levels of zinc, copper and lead. Kylo has a resource of 2.298 Mt @ 1.23 g/T Au and 1.35 g/T Ag. Mineralization mainly occurs in the form of vein stockworks. Petrographic and SEM analysis shows that there are at least three mineralization events, with Au mineralization strongly associated with at least a deposit-scale alteration event. Quantitative XRD analysis shows a positive correlation between Au-mineralization and argillic-phyllic alteration. Electrum was found as an inclusion in massive sphalerite in the main mineralization stage. Correlation analysis for the assay data indicates that Au has a strong relation with Ag and Pb. Petrographic and geochemical analysis has identified three lithologies: rhyolite, rhyodacite/dacite and andesite, with Au mineralization more associated with the rhyodacites, while at deeper levels some of the andesites also show a relatively strong correlation with Au. Strontium shows a significant strong depletion, due to the intense and pervasive alteration at Kylo. The andesitic volcanics show moderate LREE enrichment with small negative Eu anomalies, and relative depletion in Nb, Ta and Ti, indicating an island arc tectonic setting. The carbon and oxygen isotopes of late-stage vein carbonates suggest that the late-stage fluid was mostly derived from a magmatic source, but with a minor contribution from low-temperature fluids intimately associated with alteration processes. The sulfur isotopes indicate that the sulfide mineralization had a magmatic sulfur source

Donor outcomes in anonymous live liver donation

BackgroundDeath rates on liver transplant waiting lists range from 5%-25%. Herein, we report a unique experience with 50 anonymous persons who volunteered to address this gap by offering to donate part of their liver to a recipient with whom they had no biological connection or prior relationship (A-LLD).MethodsCandidates were screened to confirm excellent physical, mental, social, and financial health. Demographics and surgical outcomes were analyzed. Qualitative interviews after donation examined motivation and experiences. Validated self-reported questionnaires assessed personality traits and psychological impact.Results50 A-LLD liver transplants (LT) were performed between 2005 and 2017. Most donors had a university education, a middle-class income, and a history of prior altruism. Half were women. Median age was 38.5 years (range 20-59 yrs.). Thirty-three (70%) learned about this opportunity through public or social media. Saving a life, helping others, generativity, and reciprocity for past generosity were motivators. Social, financial, healthcare, and legal supports in Canada were identified as facilitators. A-LLD identified most with the personality traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness. The median hospital stay was six days. There was one Dindo-Clavien Grade 3 complication that completely resolved. One-year recipient survival was 91% in 22 adults and 97% in 28 children. No A-LLD reported regretting their decision.ConclusionsThis is the first and only report of the motivations and facilitators of A-LLD in a large cohort. With rigorous protocols, outcomes are excellent. A-LLD has significant potential to reduce the gap between transplant organ demand and availability

The Economic Value of Environmental Services on Indigenous-Held Lands in Australia

Australians could be willing to pay from $878m to$2b per year for Indigenous people to provide environmental services. This is up to 50 times the amount currently invested by government. This result was derived from a nationwide survey that included a choice experiment in which 70% of the 927 respondents were willing to contribute to a conservation fund that directly pays Indigenous people to carry out conservation activities. Of these the highest values were found for benefits that are likely to improve biodiversity outcomes, carbon emission reductions and improved recreational values. Of the activities that could be undertaken to provide the services, feral animal control attracted the highest level of support followed by coastal surveillance, weed control and fire management. Respondents' decisions to pay were not greatly influenced by the additional social benefits that can arise for Indigenous people spending time on country and providing the services, although there was approval for reduced welfare payments that might arise

Draft genome sequence of marine alphaproteobacterial strain HIMB11, the first cultivated representative of a unique lineage within the Roseobacter clade possessing an unusually small genome

© The Author(s), 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Standards in Genomic Sciences 9 (2014): 632-645, doi:10.4056/sigs.4998989.Strain HIMB11 is a planktonic marine bacterium isolated from coastal seawater in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii belonging to the ubiquitous and versatile Roseobacter clade of the alphaproteobacterial family Rhodobacteraceae. Here we describe the preliminary characteristics of strain HIMB11, including annotation of the draft genome sequence and comparative genomic analysis with other members of the Roseobacter lineage. The 3,098,747 bp draft genome is arranged in 34 contigs and contains 3,183 protein-coding genes and 54 RNA genes. Phylogenomic and 16S rRNA gene analyses indicate that HIMB11 represents a unique sublineage within the Roseobacter clade. Comparison with other publicly available genome sequences from members of the Roseobacter lineage reveals that strain HIMB11 has the genomic potential to utilize a wide variety of energy sources (e.g. organic matter, reduced inorganic sulfur, light, carbon monoxide), while possessing a reduced number of substrate transporters.We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which funded the sequencing of this genome. Annotation was performed as part of the 2011 C-MORE Summer Course in Microbial Oceanography (http://cmore.soest.hawaii.edu/summercourse/2011/index.htm), with support by the Agouron Institute, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the University of Hawaii and Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), and the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE), a National Science Foundation-funded Science and Technology Center (award No. EF0424599)

The Durability of Public Goods Changes the Dynamics and Nature of Social Dilemmas

An implicit assumption underpins basic models of the evolution of cooperation, mutualism and altruism: The benefits (or pay-offs) of cooperation and defection are defined by the current frequency or distribution of cooperators. In social dilemmas involving durable public goods (group resources that can persist in the environment–ubiquitous from microbes to humans) this assumption is violated. Here, we examine the consequences of relaxing this assumption, allowing pay-offs to depend on both current and past numbers of cooperators. We explicitly trace the dynamic of a public good created by cooperators, and define pay-offs in terms of the current public good. By raising the importance of cooperative history in determining the current fate of cooperators, durable public goods cause novel dynamics (e.g., transient increases in cooperation in Prisoner's Dilemmas, oscillations in Snowdrift Games, or shifts in invasion thresholds in Stag-hunt Games), while changes in durability can transform one game into another, by moving invasion thresholds for cooperation or conditions for coexistence with defectors. This enlarged view challenges our understanding of social cheats. For instance, groups of cooperators can do worse than groups of defectors, if they inherit fewer public goods, while a rise in defectors no longer entails a loss of social benefits, at least not in the present moment (as highlighted by concerns over environmental lags). Wherever durable public goods have yet to reach a steady state (for instance due to external perturbations), the history of cooperation will define the ongoing dynamics of cooperators

Vintage venoms: proteomic and pharmacological stability of snake venoms stored for up to eight decades

For over a century, venom samples from wild snakes have been collected and stored around the world. However, the quality of storage conditions for "vintage" venoms has rarely been assessed. The goal of this study was to determine whether such historical venom samples are still biochemically and pharmacologically viable for research purposes, or if new sample efforts are needed. In total, 52 samples spanning 5 genera and 13 species with regional variants of some species (e.g., 14 different populations of Notechis scutatus) were analysed by a combined proteomic and pharmacological approach to determine protein structural stability and bioactivity. When venoms were not exposed to air during storage, the proteomic results were virtually indistinguishable from that of fresh venom and bioactivity was equivalent or only slightly reduced. By contrast, a sample of Acanthophis antarcticus venom that was exposed to air (due to a loss of integrity of the rubber stopper) suffered significant degradation as evidenced by the proteomics profile. Interestingly, the neurotoxicity of this sample was nearly the same as fresh venom, indicating that degradation may have occurred in the free N- or C-terminus chains of the proteins, rather than at the tips of loops where the functional residues are located. These results suggest that these and other vintage venom collections may be of continuing value in toxin research. This is particularly important as many snake species worldwide are declining due to habitat destruction or modification. For some venoms (such as N. scutatus from Babel Island, Flinders Island, King Island and St. Francis Island) these were the first analyses ever conducted and these vintage samples may represent the only venom ever collected from these unique island forms of tiger snakes. Such vintage venoms may therefore represent the last remaining stocks of some local populations and thus are precious resources. These venoms also have significant historical value as the Oxyuranus venoms analysed include samples from the first coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) collected for antivenom production (the snake that killed the collector Kevin Budden), as well as samples from the first Oxyuranus microlepidotus specimen collected after the species' rediscovery in 1976. These results demonstrate that with proper storage techniques, venom samples can retain structural and pharmacological stability. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Proteomics of non-model organisms. Biological significance: •These results show that with proper storage venoms are useful for decades.•These results have direct implications for the use of rare venoms