Integrating Porpoise and Cod Management: A Comparison of Days-at-sea, ITQs, and Closures

The purpose of this study is to determine if management measures based on effort reductions, in particular days-at-sea (DAS) controls, can approach a harbor porpoise individual transferable quotas (ITQ) program in terms of efficiency. The intent is to expand discussions of combining fishery-porpoise management actions. The New England sink gillnet fishery is examined by using a numerical bio-economic model. Year-round and seasonal surcharges in combinations with overall DAS reductions are investigated. Results indicate that several programs for marine mammal protection can achieve the same conservation outcome with modest differences in industry profits. At the industry level, the program selection decision may then rest on the goal of cod management, since reductions in cod landings are much greater under the DAS year-round (59–63%) versus seasonal (39–46%) programs. Significant differences in vessel profits, however, may make consensus on the appropriate program difficult.Fisheries management, individual transferable quotas, protected species, marine mammals, turtles, bycatch, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q220, Q280, Q570, Q580,

Normal and conormal maps in homotopy theory

Let M be a monoidal category endowed with a distinguished class of weak equivalences and with appropriately compatible classifying bundles for monoids and comonoids. We define and study homotopy-invariant notions of normality for maps of monoids and of conormality for maps of comonoids in M. These notions generalize both principal bundles and crossed modules and are preserved by nice enough monoidal functors, such as the normaliized chain complex functor. We provide several explicit classes of examples of homotopy-normal and of homotopy-conormal maps, when M is the category of simplicial sets or the category of chain complexes over a commutative ring.Comment: 32 pages. The definition of twisting structure in Appendix B has been reformulated, leading to further slight modifications of definitions in Section 1. To appear in HH

Common-Law Disclosure Duties and the Sin of Omission: Testing the Meta-Theories

This Article represents the first attempt to study empirically the factors that cause courts to impose disclosure duties on bargaining parties in some circumstances, but not in others. We analyze data coded from 466 decisions spanning a wide array of jurisdictions and covering over two hundred years. The results are mixed. In some instances our data support the conventional wisdom relating to common-law disclosure duties. For example, we find that courts are more likely to require the disclosure of latent, as opposed to patent, defects and are more likely to require disclosure when the parties are in a fiduciary or confidential relationship. In other instances, our results cast doubt on much of the conventional wisdom regarding the law of fraudulent silence. First, although it is generally understood that courts have become more likely to impose disclosure duties over time, we find that courts actually have become less likely over time to impose duties to disclose. Second, and perhaps most importantly, we find that courts are no more likely to impose disclosure duties when the information is casually acquired as opposed to deliberately acquired, and that unequal access to information by the contracting parties is not a significant factor that drives courts to find a duty to disclose. We do find, however, that when both factors are present courts are significantly more likely to force disclosure

Sustainable Fisheries & Coastal Zoning in Montserrat: Legal & Institutional Assessment of Authorities & Approaches

In February 2015, the Government of Montserrat and the Waitt Institute signed a memorandum of understanding to launch Blue Halo Montserrat, a comprehensive ocean and coastal management project with a goal of sustainable management of Montserrat's ocean and coastal waters. BHM seeks to develop a Montserrat Sustainable Ocean Policy that will ensure long-term health of Montserrat's waters through ocean zoning, protected areas, and fisheries reforms. This Report is an evaluation of Montserrat's laws and institutions to support the design and implementation of a comprehensive ocean zoning and management system in the country as part of the Blue Halo Initiative. The Report identifies existing authorities to achieve a comprehensive ocean zoning system in the waters surrounding Montserrat, evaluates potential options for ocean planning and management implementation, and provides recommendations for ways to develop a comprehensive ocean management system for Montserrat. The Report recognizes that comprehensive ocean management should build from the existing legal system, take pragmatic steps given anticipated capacity and funding, and provide effective incentives and requirements to ensure compliance and long-term sustainability of ocean resources

Kinetics of the Photoreduction of \u3cem\u3ep\u3c/em\u3e-nitrobenzoic Acid on Ag and AgxAu1-x Nanoparticle Films

A recent strategy to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic and photoemissive devices has been to include metal nanolayers in contact with an organic layer inside these devices. Metal nanoparticles (especially Ag and Au) are known to catalyze photoreactions of organic molecules on their surfaces. The reactivity of organics at nanometal surfaces has implications for device lifetimes; therefore, it is important to understand how nanoparticle size and composition influence reaction rates. The photoreduction of p-nitrobenzoate (PNBA) to p,p’-azodibenzoate (PPADBA) on Ag nanoparticles is an excellent model system for studying such reactions. We have measured the reaction rate of PNBA to PPADBA on Ag and Au based nanoparticle surfaces using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). SERS is a highly sensitive spectroscopic tool, which provides molecular fingerprints that can be used to identify molecular species present on metal nanoparticle surfaces. These surfaces are made from layers from Ag and AgxAu1-x alloy nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 50-80 nm

The Dawn of Fully Automated Contract Drafting: Machine Learning Breathes New Life Into a Decades-Old Promise

Technological advances within contract drafting software have seemingly plateaued. Despite the decades-long hopes and promises of many commentators, critics doubt this technology will ever fully automate the drafting process. But, while there has been a lack of innovation in contract drafting software, technological advances have continued to improve contract review and analysis programs. “Machine learning,” the leading innovative force in these areas, has proven incredibly efficient, performing in mere minutes tasks that would otherwise take a team of lawyers tens of hours. Some contract drafting programs have already experimented with machine learning capabilities, and this technology may pave the way for the full automation of contract drafting. Although intellectual property, data access, and ethical obstacles may delay complete integration of machine learning into contract drafting, full automation is likely still viable

Revenue Sharing, Demand Uncertainty, and Vertical Control of Competing Firms

This paper argues that revenue sharing is a valuable instrument in vertically separated industries when there is intrabrand competition among the downstream firms, demand is stochastic or variable, and downstream inventory is chosen before demand is realized. In these environments, the upstream firm would like to simultaneously soften downstream competition and encourage efficient inventory holding. Traditional two-part tariffs cannot achieve both objectives in the presence of downstream competition. Raising the price of the inputs softens price competition but distorts the downstream firms' inventory decisions. We argue that revenue sharing, combined with a low input price, aligns the incentives in the vertical chain. The use of revenue sharing in video rental retailing is discussed. Blockbuster in particular has used revenue sharing in conjunction with heavy marketing of availability to grow significantly in the video rental retail industry. Many other outlets use revenue sharing as well. Some antitrust concerns have been raised by smaller firms suggesting that revenue sharing might be an anticompetitive vertical restraint. Although our model does not address retailer market power, we show that revenue sharing contracts can be used by upstream firms increase inventory holding and consumer welfare.

Approximation of linear functionals using an hp-adaptive discontinuous Galerkin finite element method

We consider the problem of computing a linear functional of the solution of an elliptic partial differential equation to within a given tolerance. We drive an a posteriori error bound for the linear functional and use this as the basis of an hp-adaptive discontinuous Galerkin finite element algorithm to deliver the functional to within a prescribed error tolerance

Spiritual Care within Oncology Care: Development of a Spiritual Care Program at an Indian Health Service Hospital

Spiritual care is essential in providing quality health care for patients and their families and is supported in the mission of the Indian Health Service (IHS). Their mission is to raise the physical, mental, social and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level. This paper will describe the spiritual care programs at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, an IHS hospital located in Phoenix, Arizona. Two hospital committees, the Volunteer Chaplains’ Association and the Traditional Cultural Advocacy Committee, provide spiritual care for the medical center and work to sustain a presence of spiritual and cultural awareness and well being. In this paper, particular attention is focused on the ways in which these committees have worked collaboratively with community agencies, tribes in Arizona, and academic institutions, through National Cancer Institute funded grants to raise awareness of how spiritual and cultural understandings of American Indians play an essential role in cancer care

Application of hpDGFEM to mechanisms at channel microband electrodes

We extend our earlier work (Harriman et al., Oxford University Computing Laboratory Technical Report NA04/19) on hp-DGFEM for disc electrodes to the case of reaction mechanisms to the increasingly popular channel microband electrode configuration. We present results for the simple E reaction mechanism (convection-diffusion equation), for the ECE and EC2E reaction mechanisms (linear and nonlinear systems of reaction-convection- diffusion equations, respectively) and for the DISP1 and DISP2 reaction mechanisms (linear and nonlinear coupled systems of reaction-convection-diffusion equations, respectively). In all cases we demonstrate excellent agreement with previous results using relatively coarse meshes and without the need for streamline-diffusion stabilisation, even at high flow rates