Invasive Species Management: Importers, Border Enforcement, and Risk

Invasive species are a negative externality associated with imported goods. Policies aimed at excluding pests associated with imports include pre-shipment treatment requirements, varied inspection schemes, treatment at the border, penalties, and import bans or restrictions. Existing policies are based on the reasoning that increased enforcement effort will result in higher detection levels, or more specifically, that increased inspection will result in a higher number of interceptions and in turn, higher compliance. In addition to a deterrence effect, however, under which importers respond to increased enforcement with increased due care with respect to pest control, importers may respond in ways that regulators do not intend. For example, importers may choose to not bring goods into the country, may ship a reduced amount, or may switch ports-of-entry. Moreover, different types of firms are likely to respond to enforcement in different ways. In this paper, we present a framework to analyze invasive species border enforcement given heterogeneous importers and ports. We develop a theoretical model of firm response to border enforcement, analyze both the intended and unintended effects of this enforcement for different types of firms, and evaluate the tradeoffs associated with location. Firms not only consider the changes in the levels of enforcement and other conditions at a single port, they consider the cost and benefit tradeoffs associated with location e.g., differences in inspection intensity or port-entry fees versus distance to port-of-entry and final market across ports and may switch ports. The result is that increased inspection intensity may not result the overall damages from invasive species introductions.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Factor demand linkages, technology shocks, and the business cycle

This paper argues that factor demand linkages can be important for the transmission of both sectoral and aggregate shocks. We show this using a panel of highly disaggregated manufacturing sectors together with sectoral structural VARs. When sectoral interactions are explicitly accounted for, a contemporaneous technology shock to all manufacturing sectors implies a positive response in both output and hours at the aggregate level. Otherwise there is a negative correlation, as in much of the existing literature. Furthermore, we find that technology shocks are important drivers of the business cycle

Pediatric basal cell carcinoma burden and management preferences in Gorlin syndrome: A survey study

Gorlin syndrome (GS) is a risk factor for early basal cell carcinomas (BCCs), although its prevalence of fewer than 1 in 30,000 individuals limits existing literature. There are sparse pediatric GS studies beyond case reports, creating a knowledge gap regarding childhood cutaneous findings and sequelae, including BCC age at onset, quantity, treatments, and impact. Herein, we describe a global survey to illustrate the clinical presentation, childhood perspectives, and BCC management trends for pediatric GS to improve the understanding and inform patient care

Malaria Control in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies

War, famine, civil conflict, and political persecution displacing large populations often leads to severe disruptions in health services, disease control programs, food distribution systems, and loss of shelter. When the dimensions of the crisis overwhelm the local and international communities' ability to respond quickly and effectively, significant morbidity and mortality result in what is termed a complex humanitarian emergency. The public health consequences have been most severe in underdeveloped nations where most deaths are caused by communicable diseases, which include malaria. This paper describes and analyses the factors that contribute to malaria morbidity and mortality and proposes effective measures to combat them.Les conflits armés, les famines, les guerres civiles, les persécutions politiques déplaçant de grandes portions de la population provoquent souvent de graves perturbations dans les services de santé, les programmes de contrôles sanitaires, les structures de distributions alimentaires, et entraînent fréquemment la perte du gîte ou de l'abris. Quand l'ampleur de la crise submerge les capacités locales et internationales à y répondre promptementet efficacement, le résultat de ce que l'on appelle une urgence humanitaire complexe est un accroissement significatif de la condition maladive et de la mortalité des populations en cause. Les conséquences en termes de santé publique sont particulièrement graves dans les nations sous-développées, où un plus grand nombre de pertes de vie sont dues à des maladies transmissibles, incluant notamment la malaria. Cet article décrit et analyse la série de facteurs contribuant à la condition maladive et à la mortalité liés à la malaria, et propose des mesures effectives pour combattre ces facteurs

Health Professions Faculty Beliefs, Confidence, Use, and Perceptions of Organizational Culture and Readiness for EBP: A Cross-sectional, Descriptive Survey

Background: Evidence-based practice (EBP) is an essential skill and ethical obligation for all practicing health professions clinicians because of its strong association with improved health outcomes. Emerging evidence suggests that faculty who prepare these clinicians lack proficiency to teach EBP

Effects of a Large Fishing Closure on Benthic Communitites in the Western Gulf of Maine: Recovery from the Effects of Gillnets and Otter Trawls

The recovery of benthic communities inside the western Gulf of Maine fishing closure area was evaluated by comparing invertebrate assemblages at sites inside and outside of the closure four to six years after the closure was established. The major restriction imposed by the closure was a year-round prohibition of bottom gillnets and otter trawls. A total of 163 seafloor sites (~half inside and half outside the closure) within a 515-km2 study area were sampled with some combination of Shipek grab, Wildco box corer, or underwater video. Bottom types ranged from mud (silt and clay) to boulders, and the effects of the closure on univariate measures (total density, biomass, taxonomic richness) of benthos varied widely among sediment types. For sites with predominantly mud sediments, there were mixed effects on inside and outside infauna and no effect on epifauna. For sites with mainly sand sediments, there were higher density, biomass, and taxonomic richness for infauna inside the closure, but no significant effects on epifauna. For sites dominated by gravel (which included boulders in some areas), there were no effects on infauna but strong effects on epifaunal density and taxonomic richness. For fishing gear, the data indicated that infauna recovered in sand from the impacts of otter trawls operated inside the closure but that they did not recover in mud, and that epifauna recovered on gravel bottoms from the impact of gillnets used inside the closure. The magnitudes of impact and recovery, however, cannot be inferred directly from our data because of a confounding factor of different fishing intensities outside the closure for a direct comparison of preclosure and postclosure data. The overall negative impact of trawls is likely underestimated by our data, whereas the negative impact of gillnets is likely overestimated

Do American Dippers Obtain a Survival Benefit from Altitudinal Migration?

Studies of partial migrants provide an opportunity to assess the cost and benefits of migration. Previous work has demonstrated that sedentary American dippers (residents) have higher annual productivity than altitudinal migrants that move to higher elevations to breed. Here we use a ten-year (30 period) mark-recapture dataset to evaluate whether migrants offset their lower productivity with higher survival during the migration-breeding period when they occupy different habitat, or early and late-winter periods when they coexist with residents. Mark-recapture models provide no evidence that apparent monthly survival of migrants is higher than that of residents at any time of the year. The best-supported model suggests that monthly survival is higher in the migration-breeding period than winter periods. Another well-supported model suggested that residency conferred a survival benefit, and annual apparent survival (calculated from model weighted monthly apparent survival estimates using the Delta method) of residents (0.511 ± 0.038SE) was slightly higher than that of migrants (0.487 ± 0.032). Winter survival of American dippers was influenced by environmental conditions; monthly apparent survival increased as maximum daily flow rates increased and declined as winter temperatures became colder. However, we found no evidence that environmental conditions altered differences in winter survival of residents and migrants. Since migratory American dippers have lower productivity and slightly lower survival than residents our data suggests that partial migration is likely an outcome of competition for limited nest sites at low elevations, with less competitive individuals being forced to migrate to higher elevations in order to breed