Designing behaviourally informed policies for land stewardship: A new paradigm

This paper argues the case for a new approach to the stewardship of land resources that uses behavioural science theory to support the design and application of policies that facilitate changes in behaviour by those who develop policy and the farmers who implement it. Current approaches have: focused on legally-based expert system; and have been devised by national and international bureaucracies with little or no knowledge of how land owners and managers are motivated, and how they think, behave and operate as stewards of their natural resources. A review of current approaches from the social scientific literature is provided, with a particular focus on principles from social psychology. This is followed by an examination of how these principles can be applied to influence behaviour related to land restoration and soil conservation. Examples of the problems with traditional approaches and the evolution of new approaches with full engagement of farmers as the delivery agents are provided from within the European Union, Iceland and Scotland. In the light of these examples and emerging thinking in other parts of the world, the paper sets out the basis for a new approach based on behavioural science theory and application, reinforcing the arguments already made in the literature for a social license for farming

The Deep-Pelagic Sergestid Shrimp Assemblage in the Gulf of Mexico in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

This thesis focuses on the geographical (near-slope vs. offshore) and temporal analyses (2011 – 2018) of the Sergestidae assemblage, the crustacean family with the fourth highest total biomass, in the Gulf of Mexico near the location of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The abundance and biomass of the assemblage were analyzed to determine if statistical differences were present between the near-slope and offshore environments. In addition, this study analyzed the vertical distributions of sergestid species in the epipelagic, mesopelagic, and bathypelagic zones to determine the extent of the migratory behavior of these species. Lastly, the abundance and biomass in the offshore environment between 2011 and 2018 were analyzed. There are no data on the sergestid assemblage in this area before the oil spill, so 2011 served as a contaminated baseline against which data from 2015-2018 samples were compared. The results of this study demonstrate that the sergestid biomass at near-slope stations was significantly higher than at offshore stations. In addition, the temporal analysis shows that the sergestid assemblage decreased significantly in abundance and biomass between 2011 and 2015-2018. Both the geographical and the temporal results provide data that are crucial for future study efforts and trends pertaining to these species

Factors influencing the distribution of charge in polar nanocrystals

We perform first-principles calculations of wurtzite GaAs nanorods to explore the factors determining charge distributions in polar nanostructures. We show that both the direction and magnitude of the dipole moment $\mathbf{d}$ of a nanorod, and its electic field, depend sensitively on how its surfaces are terminated and do not depend strongly on the spontaneous polarization of the underlying lattice. We identify two physical mechanisms by which $\mathbf{d}$ is controlled by the surface termination, and we show that the excess charge on the nanorod ends is not strongly localized. We discuss the implications of these results for tuning nanocrystal properties, and for their growth and assembly.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B Rapid Communication

Opaque Service Virtualisation: A Practical Tool for Emulating Endpoint Systems

Large enterprise software systems make many complex interactions with other services in their environment. Developing and testing for production-like conditions is therefore a very challenging task. Current approaches include emulation of dependent services using either explicit modelling or record-and-replay approaches. Models require deep knowledge of the target services while record-and-replay is limited in accuracy. Both face developmental and scaling issues. We present a new technique that improves the accuracy of record-and-replay approaches, without requiring prior knowledge of the service protocols. The approach uses Multiple Sequence Alignment to derive message prototypes from recorded system interactions and a scheme to match incoming request messages against prototypes to generate response messages. We use a modified Needleman-Wunsch algorithm for distance calculation during message matching. Our approach has shown greater than 99% accuracy for four evaluated enterprise system messaging protocols. The approach has been successfully integrated into the CA Service Virtualization commercial product to complement its existing techniques.Comment: In Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering Companion (pp. 202-211). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1510.0142

A Test of Fischer's Theory of Monetary Misperceptions and the Business Cycle in the Presence of Long-Term Contracts

This article uses multi-period ex ante anticipations of money supply growth to estimate the parameters of a model, suggested by Stanley Fischer, in which money affects real variables only through multi-period errors in anticipations. This model is tested against an alternative, first evaluated empirically by Robert Barro, in which money affects real variables only through single period errors in anticipations. The two models are compared using the "P" test procedure for non-nested models suggested by Davidson and MacKinnon. The small sample properties of the test are unknown. Random experiments are performed to approximate these properties. On the basis of estimated small scale distributions, the Fischer model rejects the Barro model at conventional levels, but is not rejected by it.Business Cycles; Cycle; Monetary; Money; Supply

Orientation of the genetic variance-covariance matrix and the fitness surface for multiple male sexually selected traits

Stabilizing selection has been predicted to change genetic variances and covariances so that the orientation of the genetic variance-covariance matrix (G) becomes aligned with the orientation of the fitness surface, but it is less clear how directional selection may change G. Here we develop statistical approaches to the comparison of G with vectors of linear and nonlinear selection. We apply these approaches to a set of male sexually selected cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) of Drosophila serrata. Even though male CHCs displayed substantial additive genetic variance, more than 99% of the genetic variance was orientated 74.9degrees away from the vector of linear sexual selection, suggesting that open-ended female preferences may greatly reduce genetic variation in male display traits. Although the orientation of G and the fitness surface were found to differ significantly, the similarity present in eigenstructure was a consequence of traits under weak linear selection and strong nonlinear ( convex) selection. Associating the eigenstructure of G with vectors of linear and nonlinear selection may provide a way of determining what long-term changes in G may be generated by the processes of natural and sexual selection

Clinical Toxicologic Studies on Freon R FE 1301

After conducting appropriate animal tests to ascertain safe levels, human subjects were exposed to concentrations of from 1.25% to 16.9% V/V of FE 1301. Assessment of judgement, alertness and neuromuscular skill indicated minimal but discernible effects at the lowest concentration in some individuals. At 10% V/V all subjects were effected. Stage I anesthesia occurred at 15% and Stage II would probably have occurred at 20%. A marked cardiac arrhythmia resulted in one subject exposed to 14%. There was complete recovery in all subjects within 20 minutes after exposure. No liver dysfunction occurred. The critical level for effective fire control is near 6%. This level would be acceptable on clinical toxicologic criteria

Kualitas Semen Cair Babi Duroc dalam Pengencer Durasperm yang Disuplementasi Air Buah Lontar dan Sari Tebu

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh suplementasi air buah lontar (AbL) dan sari tebu (ST) dalam pengencer  durasperm terhadap kualitas semen cair babi duroc. Semen berasal dari tiga ekor babi jantan Duroc berumur dewasa yaitu  2-3 tahun dan dikoleksi dengan menggunakan glove hand method dua kali seminggu. Semen dievaluasi secara makroskopis dan mikroskopis, semen yang berkualitas baik dibagi menjadi tiga bagian dan dikenakan perlakuan: durasperm (PO), durasperm + AbL (P1), durasperm + ST (P2), selanjutnya disimpan dalam kotak Styrofoam bersuhu 18o - 20 oC. Pengamatan dilakukan setiap delapan jam sekali. Data yang diperoleh dianalisis menggunakan Analisis of Variance (ANOVA) dengan menggunakan program SPSS 20. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa persentase motilitas pada jam ke 64 menunjukan P1 40% lebih tinggi (P<0,05) daripada P2 (35.00±1.82) dan P0 (27.50±2.88). P1 memiliki persentase viabilitas spermatozoa 50.94±0.79 lebih tinggi (P<0,05) daripada P2 (45.50±1.94) dan P0 (37.75±3.48). P1 memiliki MPU 52.92±0.61 lebih tinggi dengan P2 (47.38±1.47) dan P0 (40.49±3.47). Abnormalitas dan pH tidak ada perbedaan nyata (P?0,05). Disimpulkan bahwa pengencer suplementasi air buah lontar (P1) efektif untuk mempertahankan motilitas, viabilitas, Abnormalitas, MPU dan menjaga pH tetap stabil