ENTRY INTO FARMING: THE EFFECTS OF LEASING AND LEVERAGE ON FIRM SURVIVAL

Agribusiness,

Towards Climate Change Adaptation in Canada's Protected Natural Areas: an Ontario Parks Case Study

Climate is a major catalyst of change in the composition, structure and function of the Ecosphere. Empirical studies of species response to climate consistently reveal that the anomalous warming occurring over roughly the past half-century is having a discernible impact on contemporary biodiversity. Climate change has also been implicated in several species extinctions, a phenomenon projected to be exacerbated in the future. These studies and events indicate that the implications of climate change for biodiversity conservation are considerable. Biodiversity conservation is one of the major modern rationales behind formal protected natural areas establishment, planning and management. However, most protected natural areas have been designed to protect in perpetuity specific natural features, species and communities in-situ, and don’t take into account shifts in ecosystem composition, structure and function that are being induced by climatic change. The ecological manifestations of climate change will be such that the established species management objectives of some protected natural areas will no longer be viable. Consequently, protected natural areas agencies will need to be adaptive in order to be able to respond to climate change-induced impacts and improve their ability to deliver their various protected natural area- and biodiversity-related mandates, such as the perpetual protection of representative elements of natural heritage. The principal goal of this dissertation was to begin the process of climate change adaptation (mainstreaming) within the Canadian protected natural areas community, thereby facilitating the ability of jurisdictions, agencies and organizations to adapt to climate change-related impacts and implement adaptation decisions. To realize this goal, four objectives were formulated: i) to synthesize the state of knowledge on climate change, biodiversity and protected natural areas policy, planning and management; ii) to establish the state of climate change adaptation with respect to Canadian protected natural areas agencies; iii) to assess the current position, priorities, and challenges of, and barriers to, Canadian protected natural areas agencies with respect to climate change adaptation; and iv) to develop a climate change adaptation portfolio and evaluate the suitability of the portfolio for implementation by a Canadian protected natural areas agency, Ontario Parks. The research revealed that while mainstreaming climate change into protected natural areas policy, planning and management will be essential for the persistence of biodiversity and the continued viability of current planning and management practices under a changing climate, there is a clear disconnect between the perceived salience of climate change and a lack of available resources (e.g., financial resources and staffing) and scientific capacity required to respond to the issue. Moreover, the limited protected natural areas climate change literature to-date provides little guidance to the planners and managers of already established protected natural areas. Accordingly, there is an indicated need to assist Canadian protected natural areas agencies in the identification and evaluation of adaptation options as a strategic starting point in working towards mainstreaming climate change into relevant program areas. In response to this indicated need, a policy Delphi survey method was used to facilitate the identification and evaluation of adaptation options tailored specifically to Ontario Parks. A panel of protected natural areas experts identified 165 adaptation options within Ontario Parks’ six major program areas [(i) Policy, System Planning & Legislation; (ii) Management Direction; (iii) Operations & Development; (iv) Research, Monitoring & Reporting; (v) Corporate Culture & Function; and (vi) Education, Interpretation & Outreach) in the first iteration of the policy Delphi. Adaptation options were subsequently evaluated individually for their perceived level of desirability, feasibility and implementation time-frame by the panel via a second iteration of the policy Delphi. In so doing, the research evaluated the relative merit (or practicality) of alternative adaptation options in these program areas in order to help identify priority (or ‘first-order’) adaptations for consideration in an official climate change adaptation strategy by Ontario Parks. The research provides a solid conceptual and methodological framework with important practical ‘lessons learned’ that will help Canadian protected natural areas jurisdictions understand, address and begin mainstreaming climate change into policy, planning and management decision-making. Collectively, the research includes the first practical discussion of adaptation to climate change within the institutional framework of any Canadian protected natural areas jurisdiction, representing a significant contribution to the protected natural areas planning literature at the science-policy interface

An "Inefficient Fin" Non-Dimensional Parameter to Measure Gas Temperatures Efficiently

A gas containment vessel that is not in thermal equilibrium with the bulk gas can affect its temperature measurement. The physical nature of many gas dynamics experiments often makes the accurate measurement of temperature a challenge. The environment itself typically requires that the thermocouple be sheathed, both to protect the wires and hot junction of the instrument from their environment, and to provide a smooth, rigid surface for pressure sealing of the enclosure. However, that enclosure may also be much colder than the gas to be sensed, or vice-versa. Either way, the effect of such gradients is to potentially skew the temperature measurements themselves, since heat may then be conducted by the instrument. Thermocouple designers traditionally address this problem by insulating the sheath from the thermocouple leads and hot junction as much as possible. The thermocouple leads are typically packed in a ceramic powder inside the sheath, protecting them somewhat from temperature gradients along the sheath, but there is no effective mechanism to shield the sheath from the enclosure body itself. Standard practice dictates that thermocouples be used in installations that do not present large thermal gradients along the probe. If this conduction dominates heat transfer near the tip of the probe, then temperature measurements may be expected to be skewed. While the same problem may be experienced in the measurement of temperature at various points within a solid in a gradient, it tends to be aggravated in the measurements of gas temperature, since heat transfer dependent on convection is often less efficient than conduction along the thermocouple. The proposed solution is an inefficient fin thermocouple probe. Conventional wisdom suggests that in many experiments where gas flows through an enclosure (e.g., flow in pipe, manifold, nozzle, etc.), the thermocouple be introduced flush to the surface, so as not to interfere with the flow. In practice, however, many such experiments take place where the flow is already turbulent, so that a protruding thermocouple probe has a negligible effect on the flow characteristics. The key question then becomes just how far into the flow should a thermocouple protrude in order to properly sense the gas temperature at that point. Modeling the thermocouple as an "inefficient fin" directly addresses this question. The appropriate assumptions in this case are: one-dimensional conduction along the fin; steady-state, constant, and homogeneous thermal conductivity; negligible radiation; and a uniform, constant heat transfer coefficient over the probe surface. It is noted that the nature of the ceramic-filled probe makes the key assumption of homogeneous thermal conductivity that much more conservative

Support for political mobilization and protest in Egypt and Morocco: an online experimental study

Why do individuals engage in or support acts of contentious politics? Building from previous work, this article uses a 2 (high/low grievance) × 2 (high/low risk) × 2 (high/low opportunity) online experimental design to examine the impact of these factors on political action with participants from Egypt (n = 517) and Morocco (n = 462). Participants assumed a first-person perspective as a member of a fictional oppressed ethnic minority group in one of eight vignettes. Participants then indicated the extent to which they would engage in various forms of protest and violence, and how justified such actions were. Participants answered several social-personality measures: Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and Activism and Radicalism Intentions Scale (AIS and RIS). Analyses show that higher SDO and RIS scores largely drive violent engagement and justification for these actions. Higher AIS scores predicted protest engagement and justification, while SDO negatively influenced non-violence. RWA scores decreased engagement in and support for any form of political action. In contrast with previous experimental findings, grievance did not impact decisions about political mobilization

Political Action as a Function of Grievances, Risk, and Social Identity: An Experimental Approach

Why would individuals engage in or support contentious politics? This question is challenging to answer with observational data where causal factors are correlated and difficult to measure. Using a survey-embedded experiment, we focus on three situational factors: grievances, risk, and identity. We also explore how individual differences in sociopolitical orientations—social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA)—impact action. Grievances influence engagement in and support for protests. Risk influences engagement in protest, but not support for it. Regardless of condition, SDO and RWA help explain why some people engage in protest while others do not, particularly within the same context

Intergroup images mediate the relationships between government abuse, sociopolitical orientations, and political action

What factors impact how people mobilize against state human rights abuses? Drawing on Image Theory, we examine how perceptions of an out-group, government abuse, and sociopolitical orientations impact political action. Using an online survey-embedded experiment with a sample of 2,932 U.S. adults, we manipulated two factors: (1) the level of government abuse and (2) the risk of punishment for taking action against the state, while also including social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) as covariates. Participants indicated their propensity to engage in and justify both protest and violence. Participants rated the out-group as oppressive and evil. State abuse of human rights was associated with more oppressive and evil out-group images. Oppressive out-group images increased protest engagement and justification, whereas evil out-group images increased violence engagement and justification. Abuse increased all forms of action and justifications for them. Oppressive and evil images mediated many of the relationships between abuse, SDO, and RWA on one hand and political action on the other

SUGGESTING TITLES FOR AUDIO RECORDINGS

Techniques of this disclosure may enable a computing device to suggest one or more titles based on the content of audio being recorded or audio that was previously recorded, and other data such as time and location. Rather than applying a general default title or audio file name, the computing device may request authorization from a user to analyze the contents of a recorded audio file and, after receiving explicit authorization from the user, analyze the audio, including speech, and automatically suggest titles that are indicative of the content of the audio and/or other data. The computing device may convert speech included in the audio into text and extract a plurality of terms from the text based on various factors, such as word classes (e.g., convert audio that includes “this meatball recipe adds parmesan cheese” into text and extract a plurality of nouns such as “meatball,” “recipe,” “parmesan,” and “cheese” from the text). Based on various factors, such as term frequency in the text and the relative uniqueness of the terms in the spoken language, the computing device may identify a plurality of words from the plurality of terms to represent the overall content of the audio (e.g., identify “meatball” and “recipe” from “meatball,” “recipe,” “parmesan,” and “cheese” based on term frequency in the text). The computing device may also classify non-speech audio (e.g. applause, dog barking, music) and use the classification, including metadata associated with the classified audio object, such as song titles, to identify a plurality of words to represent the overall content of the audio. The speech terms, non-speech audio classification, classified audio object metadata, and other data may be combined to identify a plurality of words to represent the overall content of the audio. The computing device may display the identified words as suggested words to be included in the title of the audio file. The user may select one or more of the identified words as the title or combine one or more of the identified words with one or more other words entered by the user. The computing device may use the selected and/or entered words as the title for the audio and/or for the name of the audio file

Studying Your Own Country. Social Scientific Knowledge For Our Times and Places; Presidential Address to the Canadian Political Science Association, St Catharines, May 28, 2014

Political science is both a generalizing and an anchored, nationally defined, discipline. Too often, the first perspective tends to crowd out the latter, because it appears more prestigious, objective, or scientific. Behind the international/national dichotomy, there are indeed rival conceptions of social science, and important ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions. This article discusses these assumptions and stresses the critical contribution of idiographic, single-outcome studies, the importance of producing relevant, usable knowledge, and the distinctive implications of studying one’s own country, where a scholar is also a citizen, involved in more encompassing national conversations. The aim is not to reject the generalizing, international perspective, or even the comparative approach, but rather to reaffirm the importance of maintaining as well, and in fact celebrating, the production of social scientific knowledge directly relevant for our own times and places.La science politique est une discipline qui aspire à la fois à la généralisation et à la production de connaissances ancrées localement, sur le plan national. Trop souvent, la première perspective domine la seconde, parce qu’elle apparait plus prestigieuse, objective ou scientifique. La dichotomie international/national recouvre en effet des postulats fort différents en ce qui concerne les fondements ontologiques, épistémologiques et méthodologiques de la discipline. Cet article discute ces postulats et souligne la contribution déterminante des études idiographiques, centrées sur des évènements uniques, l’importance de produire des connaissances pertinentes et utilisables, et le caractère distinctif de l’étude de son propre pays, qui fait aussi du chercheur un citoyen impliqué dans de plus larges conversations. Le but n’est pas de rejeter la généralisation ou même l’approche comparative, mais plutôt de réaffirmer l’importance de maintenir également, et même de célébrer, la production de connaissances directement pertinentes pour nos propres temps et milieux de vie

Effect of apoC-III gene polymorphisms on the lipoprotein-lipid profile of viscerally obese men

Abdominal visceral adipose tissue (AT) accumulation is associated with an atherogenic metabolic profile that includes increased plasma triglyceride (TG), low HDL cholesterol levels, and an insulin-resistant hyperinsulinemic state. Whereas the apolipoprotein (apo) C-III C3238G gene variant, often referred to as the SstI polymorphism, has been related to variations in plasma TG concentrations, another variation within the insulin responsive element (C-482T) of the apoC-III gene has been associated with greater glucose and insulin responses to an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT); however, these results were obtained in nonobese individuals. We therefore investigated the effects of three apoC-III gene polymorphisms, namely SstI, C-482T, and T-455C, on fasting plasma lipoprotein-lipid levels and response to a 75 g OGTT in a sample of 122 viscerally obese men (abdominal visceral AT area ⩾130 cm2). Among the three gene variants that were examined, the SstI variation was the only one found to be associated with hypertriglyceridemia. Indeed, S1/S2 heterozygotes (n = 24) were characterized by increased fasting plasma TG concentrations compared with S1/S1 homozygotes (n = 98) (mean ± SD: 3.03 ± 1.58 vs. 2.34 ± 0.95 mmol/l respectively, P < 0.05). The higher TG concentrations in S1/S2 were associated with the presence of smaller, denser LDL particles compared with S1/S1 subjects (LDL peak particle diameter: 24.8 ± 0.5 nm vs. 25.1 ± 0.5 nm respectively, P < 0.05). Furthermore, there was no association between the response to the OGTT and any of the apoC-III gene variants (SstI, T-455C, or C-482T) examined

The highly conserved methionine of subunit I of the heme-copper oxidases is not at the heme-copper dinuclear center: Mutagenesis of M110 in subunit I of cytochrome bo3-type ubiquinol oxidase from Escherichia coli

AbstractA common feature within the heme-copper oxidase superfamily is the dinuclear heme-copper center. Analysis via extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) has led to the proposal that sulfur may be bound to CUB, a component of the dinuclear center, and a highly conserved methionine (M110 in the E. coli oxidase) in subunit I has been proposed as the ligand. Recent models of subunit I, however, suggest that this residue is unlikely to be near CUB, but is predicted to be near the low spin heme component of the heme-copper oxidases. In this paper, the role of M110 is examined by spectroscopic analyses of site-directed mutants of the bo3-type oxidase from Escherichia coli. The results show that M110 is a non-essential residue and suggest that it is probably not near the heme-copper dinuclear center