Modelling Water Use in Thailand

In this paper a model is proposed for analysing alternative policies that might be used in allocating water in Thailand. The model used is an integration of farm linear programming models with a spatial equilibrium model, using the so-called price-linked farm and spatial model (Batterham and MacAulay, 1994). A method of linking spatial equilibrium models and linear programming representations of farm models via the demand side as opposed to the supply side is outlined in this paper. A case study is made of the Chao Phraya Delta, an area that is progressively challenged by competing claims for water use and which needs to better allocate water resources.water use, spatial equilibrium model, Thailand, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Supplementary Data Figures for Manuscript: Selling Gender Through Kids’ Sport Team Merchandise: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Supplementary data figures for manuscript titled Selling Gender Through Kids’ Sport Team Merchandise: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis published in the Journal of Sport Management. Additional data figures created to provide more raw data and examples.https://scholarworks.umass.edu/data/1190/thumbnail.jp

Population trajectory and stressors of Acropora palmata sites in the Florida Keys

The decline of elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, has been ongoing for decades, but the causes of decline and the resulting population status continue to be topics of study. Past efforts to categorize stressors have ranged from spatially and/or temporally focused efforts that detect local stressors but may miss broader patterns to meta-analyses that identify large-scale trends but may not account for finer-scale variability. We here conduct an analysis of sites surveyed across five years (2010-2015) and much of the Florida Reef Tract in order to look at large-scale patterns while also accounting for site, habitat, seasonal, and annual variability. Through fate-tracking across nine sites, we assess trends in total tissue amount, fragmentation and fragment survival, and prevalence and severity of stressors. Acute stressors included severe bleaching events and spikes in disease prevalence, while chronic stressors were dominated by corallivorous snail predation. Four of nine survey sites experienced near total declines in population over the survey period, but the timing and cause of each differed, even among sites within a few kilometers of each other. There were notable differences in the prevalence and severity of stressors between forereef and backreef sites. We conclude that generalizing the population trajectories and stressors of A. palmata can misrepresent the conditions at individual sites. We also conclude that the forereef and backreef environments examined here differ in their stressors, and that habitat should be identified as a variable of interest in assessing A. palmata trajectories. We use this information to speculate that the remaining population of A. palmata within Dry Tortugas National Park may have survived as a result of its unique backreef geography

Population expansion in the North African Late Pleistocene signalled by mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U6

Background <br/> The archaeology of North Africa remains enigmatic, with questions of population continuity versus discontinuity taking centre-stage. Debates have focused on population transitions between the bearers of the Middle Palaeolithic Aterian industry and the later Upper Palaeolithic populations of the Maghreb, as well as between the late Pleistocene and Holocene. <br/> Results Improved resolution of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup U6 phylogeny, by the screening of 39 new complete sequences, has enabled us to infer a signal of moderate population expansion using Bayesian coalescent methods. To ascertain the time for this expansion, we applied both a mutation rate accounting for purifying selection and one with an internal calibration based on four approximate archaeological dates: the settlement of the Canary Islands, the settlement of Sardinia and its internal population re-expansion, and the split between haplogroups U5 and U6 around the time of the first modern human settlement of the Near East. <br/> Conclusions <br/> A Bayesian skyline plot placed the main expansion in the time frame of the Late Pleistocene, around 20 ka, and spatial smoothing techniques suggested that the most probable geographic region for this demographic event was to the west of North Africa. A comparison with U6's European sister clade, U5, revealed a stronger population expansion at around this time in Europe. Also in contrast with U5, a weak signal of a recent population expansion in the last 5,000 years was observed in North Africa, pointing to a moderate impact of the late Neolithic on the local population size of the southern Mediterranean coast

Study of manufacturing and measurement reproducibility on a laser textured structured surface

In recent years there has been increasing interest in the use of structured surfaces to provide specific functional performance. Such surfaces often consist of localised micro-scale surface features with predetermined geometries. The performance of the feature manufacturing process affects the functional performance of the surface, and can be assessed by measurement of the resulting surface features. Measurement of the resulting micromanufactured surface features necessitates use of areal optical surface topography instruments. However, conventional characterisation methods, based on areal surface texture parameters, often prove inadequate, and may fail to capture the relevant geometric properties needed for an effective dimensional verification. This paper investigates an alternative route to verification, based on the determination of geometric attributes of the microfabricated features. This approach allows for direct assessment of manufacturing process performance, by comparison of the geometric attributes with their nominal values. An example application is shown in which a micromachining process (laser texturing) is used to fabricate a periodic pattern of dimples, which provide a low friction bearing surface. In this paper, manufacturing process performance is assessed by characterisation of the diameter and out-of-roundness. Sources of uncertainty associated with these geometric parameters are also considered

Assessing the genetic diversity of rice originating from Bangladesh, Assam and West Bengal

Acknowledgements This work was funded by BBSRC research project BB/J00336/1. FS and a part of the proportion of the cost of the Illumina genotyping was funded by a Beachell-Borlag International Fellowship. The authors would like to acknowledge the help of Dr MK Sarmah in collecting seed samples of the landraces and improved cultivars from Assam used in this study and Dr. Ma. Elizabeth B. Naredo and Ms. Sheila Mae Q. Mercado for handling of IRGC accessions and preparation of DNAs for genotyping. All rice seeds used here were obtained with MTA agreements and seed and dry leaves imported into the UK under import licence IMP⁄SOIL⁄18⁄2009 issued by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Effectiveness of Topical Antibiotics in Treating Corals Affected by Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease

Since 2014, Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) has led to mass mortality of the majority of hard coral species on the Florida Reef Tract. Following the successful treatment of SCTLD lesions on laboratory corals using water dosed with antibiotics, two topical pastes were developed as vehicles to directly apply antibiotic treatments to wild corals. These pastes were tested as placebos and with additions of amoxicillin on active SCTLD lesions on multiple coral species. The effectiveness of the pastes without antibiotics (placebo treatments) was 4% and 9%, no different from untreated controls. Adding amoxicillin to both pastes significantly increased effectiveness to 70% and 84%. Effectiveness with this method was seen across five different coral species, with success rates of the more effective paste ranging from 67% (Colpophyllia natans) to 90% (Orbicella faveolata and Montastraea cavernosa). Topical antibiotic application is a viable and effective tool for halting disease lesions on corals affected by SCTLD