IMPACT OF THE 1998 ICE STORM ON THE EASTERN ONTARIO MAPLE SYRUP INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY OF NATURAL DISASTER POLICY IN CANADA

Under Canada's Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA), the federal government can provide provinces with funds for emergency response and recovery in the event of a natural disaster. This assistance has historically been provided on an ad hoc basis. In recent years, the amount of DFAA assistance has significantly increased without any auditing to determine how effective and efficient these expenditures are in offsetting economic losses due to natural disasters. The goal of this paper is to examine the implications of natural disaster compensation and assistance programs for economic efficiency. A framework is developed to determine if government assistance expenditures have offset economic losses to a specific industry using a case study of the 1998 ice storm and the eastern Ontario maple syrup industry. Projections of damage recovery are used to measure the economic impact of the storm, and a comparison is then drawn between the change in producers' welfare and government assistance. The implications of the findings for the case study and for future natural disaster assistance programs in Canada are discussed.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Why Are Women Still Not Running for Public Office?

Analyzes the factors behind women's underrepresentation in public office; the degree to which gender affects political ambition, perceptions of politics, and willingness to campaign; and the reasons women are less likely to run for office than men

Appropriate Classification of Obesity in Mentally Retarded Adults

Triceps skinfold thickness and body weight measures were obtained for 44 female and 40 male mentally retarded adults participating in a sheltered workshop setting. Subiects\u27 relative weights and skinfold thicknesses were found to correlate reasonably well for females and males, rs = .88 and .59, respectively. Use of only height and weight tables for determining the presence of obesity, however, resulted in 22.5 percent of the males and 13 .7 percent of the females being misclassified as nonobese. The distinction between overweight and obesity was discussed. Clinical/research implications of the findings were delineated

Assessing the potential for U.S. utility green bonds

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Bonds are the largest single class of financial instrument across the world’s financial markets. Recently, a subclass of these bonds, called green bonds, has emerged in the market place. Green bonds are a type of bond whose proceeds may be used only for certain approved “green” investments. In exchange for agreeing to invest only in such projects, the bond issuer obtains some value greater than they would obtain from traditional financing, and are therefore encouraged to finance and undertake a greater number of green projects. This unique value may not be recognized in traditional financial accounting. Of course, like any other capital-raising investment, green bonds enable their issuer to finance a new project that should increase (or at least maintain) its revenues, profits, and cash flow. The utility sector was the second largest issuer of green bonds in 2017, accounting for $26.2 billion dollars’ worth of green bond issuance globally. These were primarily issued to finance renewable energy projects, a class of projects that makes the utility sector one of the most logical for deployment of green bonds. While choosing to issue green bonds does not seem to have any price advantage over regular bonds in the market, green bonds can provide other benefits. These benefits may include reputation effects, better treatment in secondary markets, and other intangibles (See Table ES1)

Long-term U.S transportation electricity use considering the effect of autonomous-vehicles: Estimates & policy observations

In this paper, we model three layers of transportation disruption – first electrification, then autonomy, and finally sharing and pooling – in order to project transportation electricity demand and greenhouse gas emissions in the United States to 2050. Using an expanded kaya identity framework, we model vehicle stock, energy intensity, and vehicle miles traveled, progressively considering the effects of each of these three disruptions. We find that electricity use from light duty vehicle transport will likely be in the 570–1140 TWh range, 13–26%, respectively, of total electricity demand in 2050. Depending on the pace at which the electric sector decarbonizes, this increase in electric demand could correspond to a decrease in LDV greenhouse gas emissions of up to 80%. In the near term, rapid and complete transport electrification with a carbon-free grid should remain the cornerstones of transport decarbonization policy. However, long-term policy should also aim to mitigate autonomous vehicles’ potential to increase driving mileage, urban and suburban sprawl, and traffic congestion while incentivizing potential energy efficiency improvements through both better system management and the lightweighting of an accident-free vehicle fleet

Community-based wound care intervention utilizing non-clinical personnel in the intravenous drug use population.

Background: Wounds resulting from injection drug use can increase morbidity and mortality in intravenous drug users (IVDU) (Kerr, et al., 2004; Phillips, et al., 2012; Pieper, 2019). Lack of access to healthcare contributes to self-treatment, worsening wounds, and severe co-morbidities (Robinowitz et al., 2014). Needle exchange programs (NEP) offer clean injecting equipment and infectious disease testing. NEP employees have close contact and high rapport with this population (Robinowitz et al., 2014). NEP can be utilized to assess skin for infection and high-risk injecting behaviors contributing to wound development. Early detection of wounds through assessment and prevention through cleaner injecting behaviors may lead to decreased wound occurrence (Phillips et al., 2012). Aims: Increase knowledge and self-efficacy of skin assessment, wound development and identification in non-clinical staff (NCS) who work closely with IVDU population. Increase utilization of the Bacterial Infections Risk Scale for Injectors (BIRSI-7) scale to detect high-risk, wound causing injection practices among IVDU. Methods: Voluntary convenience sample of NCS at a NEP were provided education pertaining to skin wound development and assessment. NCS implemented the BIRSI-7 scale to identify intravenous drug users at high-risk of wound development. Mean scores of pre/post survey knowledge and self-efficacy were measured and compared. Rates of use of the BIRSI-7 scale were also measured. Short-Term and Long-Term Goals: Increase knowledge and self-efficacy of NCS in wound identification and assessment and maximize use of BIRSI-7 scale among NCS. Results: NCS knowledge and self-efficacy were increased, the measures of self-efficacy was statistically significantly. BIRSI-7 application occurred approximately 50% of possible visits