Lower Mekong Portfolio: Interim Evaluation

This report summarizes a portfolio evaluation of the MacArthur Foundation's conservation investments in the Lower Mekong region since 2011. It is explicitly a portfolio-level evaluation, focusing on common themes rather than individual grants. The evaluation involved understanding the portfolio context through reviewing relevant documents and speaking with donor partners; gathering data from MacArthur grantees; calibrating initial evaluation findings through consultations with independent regional experts and donor partner grantees; improving future evaluation ability by cooperating with NatureServe to improve the Lower Mekong Dashboard; and presenting results in this evaluation report and to MacArthur directly

Hemispheric specialization in selective attention and short-term memory: a fine-coarse model of left- and right-ear disadvantages.

Serial short-term memory is impaired by irrelevant sound, particularly when the sound changes acoustically. This acoustic effect is larger when the sound is presented to the left compared to the right ear (a left-ear disadvantage). Serial memory appears relatively insensitive to distraction from the semantic properties of a background sound. In contrast, short-term free recall of semantic-category exemplars is impaired by the semantic properties of background speech and is relatively insensitive to the sound’s acoustic properties. This semantic effect is larger when the sound is presented to the right compared to the left ear (a right-ear disadvantage). In this paper, we outline a speculative neurocognitive fine-coarse model of these hemispheric differences in relation to short-term memory and selective attention, and explicate empirical directions in which this model can be critically evaluated

Biodiversity management: application of biodiversity data to inform conservation and industry practice

This submission presents a small selection of my publications on a theme – the application of biodiversity data to inform both conservation and industry practice. The published work presented here demonstrates my ability to generate new biodiversity data, to interpret how to apply those data to improve conservation outcomes, and to apply the same biodiversity data in different ways to reduce industry impacts. The core biodiversity data I use are related to species’ distributions and conservation status, as direct indicators of their irreplaceability and vulnerability. This thesis comprises five peer-reviewed journal papers and a double-blind peer-reviewed published report. Several of these are well-cited: the submitted publications have cumulatively received in excess of 500 citations. My submitted publications have extended understanding in my area of specialisation, and had clear impact on scientific and professional practice. This is demonstrated not only by incorporation of these publications’ findings into conservation action and policy, but also by the professional advice that I am regularly sought to give as a recognised authority in my field to leading global companies, financial institutions, conservation donors and non-governmental organisations. My submitted work is the result of collaborations with leaders in my field. It includes the generation of new knowledge that has directly informed applied conservation of highly iii threatened species in Asia. It contains substantial scientific advances, such as an innovative approach I developed to resolve the long-standing and intractable problem of ‘limits to biodiversity offsets’. In some cases, it has had a clear practical impact on conservation – by guiding substantial donor funding towards, and even greater development investment away from, species and sites of highest global significance to conservation. In other cases, it has demonstrated influence on policy at a global level – such as shaping the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s policy on biodiversity offsets

Connecting algebra to geometry: A transition summer camp for at-risk students

The authors share how they designed curriculum for a summer algebra camp, for eighth graders in a district serving high proportions of Latino students. They discuss the impact the algebra camp had on students’ confidence in mathematics and mathematical ability

Review of offshore cable reliability metrics

Reliable cable systems are essential for offshore wind operation. Industry trends have led to a large number of offshore cable connections being installed recently, with 11027 MW of offshore wind connected at the end of 2015 compared to just 2955 MW in 2010 [1]. Despite the increase in connections, the publically available reliability data in this area is almost non-existent. With several connections in planning of both similar and increasing lengths it is essential to better understand these metrics. A review of published reliability data was undertaken in order to populate a database which is presented in this paper. This data focusses on a number of connection types including both AC and DC connections across a number of cable ratings and configurations. From this database it is confirmed that reliability figures currently being used across the literature generally conform to those currently being experienced in the offshore wind industry. However it is established that failure rates taken from some reports are not accurate as the technology and environments these are calculated from are typically different from those used in offshore wind farm connections. This information is collated and converted into reliability metrics in order for comparisons to be made. Analysis of the cost of an outage experienced by a windfarm is also carried out in this paper. The results of which establish that the revenue lost from a cable failure could potentially be substantial. The findings in this paper would also suggest a greater risk of failure in the early life of a windfarm and as such a greater potential cost associated with this risk. It is important to have a better understanding of offshore renewable energy cable connections as the reliability of a cable has a significant impact on the Levelised Cost of Energy. With a greater understanding of the metrics investors can make more informed decisions with respect to the technology that is installed as well as the importance of the installation process itself, due diligence on subsequent OFTO asset purchases and the maintenance plans that have been outlined for the connection

Desarrollo y política social en áreas no metropolitanas. Estados Unidos de América

It is interesting to envisage the situation of social and economic development in non-metropolitan areas of the United States, understating that 80% of the population of American citizens currently live in cities.This work is based on research on rural economy done by the members of the Economic Research Service (ERS). The data used in this analysis came from a variety of federal sources. The most recent data available was used for this study, from different series emitted at different times, so that the newest data comes from 2003 and 2005.Resulta interesante visualizar la situación de desarrollo social y económico en áreas de los Estados Unidos de América no metropolitanas, entendiendo que un 80 % de la población de ciudadanos estadounidenses viven actualmente en ciudades.El presente trabajo, se basa en las investigaciones de la economía rural de los miembros del Servicio de Investigaciones Económicas (ERS), siendo el origen de los datos utilizados en este análisis, una variedad de fuentes federales, en la que se utilizan los datos más recientes disponibles, de series diversas emitidas en diferentes épocas, por lo cual los datos más nuevos fluctúan entre los años 2003 y 2005

Failure rates of offshore wind transmission systems

In the offshore wind industry, failures are often costlier than those experienced onshore. Through examination of the literature, it is clear that failures occurring in offshore transmission systems are not well documented. As a result of this, many developers and other parties involved in the planning processes associated with offshore wind farms will defer back to existing reliability metrics in the public domain. This article presents a review of European offshore wind farm transmission failures based on fusing information from multiple public domain sources. The results highlight both the spread of the reliability performance of these assets and the reliability performance over time. The results also reinforce the industry view that installation practices could lead to low reliability in the initial years of operation, resulting in increased repair costs and decreased revenue for wind farm owners and operators. The information collated in the review is also compared to metrics from across the literature to evaluate the difference in forecasted failure rates to those experienced within the industry. In general, it is found that the experienced failure rates are subject to a much higher spread in practice than those published until now

Low-Cost PM2.5 Sensors Can Help Identify Driving Factors of Poor Air Quality and Benefit Communities

Air quality is critical for public health. Residents rely chiefly on government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States to establish standards for the measurement of harmful contaminants including ozone, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), and fine particulate matter at or below 2.5 μm. According to the California Air Resources Board [1], “short-term PM2.5 exposure (up to 24-h duration) has been associated with premature mortality, increased hospital admissions for heart or lung causes, acute and chronic bronchitis, asthma attacks, emergency room visits, respiratory symptoms, and restricted activity days”. While public agency resources may provide guidance, it is often inadequate relative to the widespread need for effective local measurement and management of air quality risks. To that end, this paper explores the use of low-cost PM2.5 sensors for measuring air quality through micro-scale (local) analytical comparisons with reference grade monitors and identification of potential causal factors of elevated sensor readings. We find that a) there is high correlation between the PM2.5 measurements of low-cost sensors and reference grade monitors, assessed through calibration models, b) low-cost sensors are more prevalent and provide more frequent measurements, and c) low-cost sensor data enables exploratory and explanatory analytics to identify potential causes of elevated PM2.5 readings. This understanding should encourage community scientists to place more low-cost sensors in their neighborhoods, which can empower communities to demand policy changes that are necessary to reduce particle pollution, and provide a basis for subsequent research

Effects of temperature on the oncospheres of the cestode Microsomacanthus hopkinsi and its implication for their over-winter survival

In an attempt to determine whether hymenolepidid oncospheres may overwinter and contribute to the pool of cysticercoids in the intermediate host population the following spring, we studied the survival of the oncospheres of the cestode Microsomacanthus hopkinsi following storage at 7 and 20 °C, following short-term freezing under laboratory conditions, and after overwintering (October–May) under natural conditions at depths of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 m in a local lake. Viability was tested by feeding the oncospheres to laboratory-reared amphipods (Hyalella azteca). The percentage of surviving amphipods that became infected following exposure to oncospheres stored at 7 °C declined steadily from 96% following 4 weeks storage to 43% after 24 weeks. Only 3% (2 of 60) were infected following exposure to oncospheres stored for 28 weeks. Oncospheres held overwinter under natural conditions failed to produce infections. These were slightly older (29 weeks) than the oldest oncospheres maintained at 7 °C in the laboratory, at the time of feeding to the amphipods. It appears that 28 weeks approaches the maximum survival time for the oncospheres of this species. Oncospheres subjected to short-term freezing also failed to produce infections when fed to amphipods. Oncospheres survived in sufficient numbers for up to 24 weeks to be of potential significance in the formation of infective pools in amphipods in the spring. However, there is a northern limit beyond which the inactive period of the amphipod host is too long for the oncospheres to bridge. Under these circumstances, they are of no consequence in the formation of the infective pool. Only 5% (3 of 60) of the amphipods exposed to oncospheres stored at 20 °C for 4 weeks became infected. Foci established in warmer conditions, as expected, are infective for much shorter periods