Marginal abatement cost curves for UK agriculture, forestry, land-use and land-use change sector out to 2022

Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, land use, land use change and forestry (ALULUCF) are a significant percentage of UK industrial emissions. The UK Government is committed to ambitious targets for reducing emissions and all significant industrial sources are coming under increasing scrutiny. The task of allocating shares of future reductions falls to the newly appointed Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which needs to consider efficient mitigation potential across a range of sectors. Marginal abatement cost curves are derived for a range of mitigation measures in the agriculture and forestry sectors over a range of adoption scenarios and for the years 2012, 2017 and 2022. The results indicate that in 2022 around 6.36 MtCO2e could be abated at negative or zero cost. Further, in same year over 17% of agricultural GHG emissions (7.85MtCO2e) could be abated at a cost of less than the 2022 Shadow Price of Carbon (£34tCO2e).Environmental Economics and Policy,

MARGINAL ABATEMENT COST CURVES FOR UK AGRICULTURAL GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

This paper addresses the challenge of developing a ‘bottom-up’ marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) for greenhouse gas emissions from UK agriculture. A MACC illustrates the costs of specific crop, soil, and livestock abatement measures against a ‘‘business as usual’’ scenario. The results indicate that in 2022 under a specific policy scenario, around 5.38 MtCO2 equivalent (e) could be abated at negative or zero cost. A further 17% of agricultural GHG emissions (7.85 MtCO2e) could be abated at a lower unit cost than the UK Government’s 2022 shadow price of carbon (£34 (tCO2e)-1). The paper discusses a range of methodological hurdles that complicate cost-effectiveness appraisal of abatement in agriculture relative to other sectors.Climate change, Marginal abatement costs, Agriculture, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q52, Q 54, Q58,

Predicting death in young offenders: a retrospective cohort study

Objective: To examine predictors of death in young offenders who have received a custodial sentence using data routinely collected by juvenile justice services. Design: A retrospective cohort of 2849 (2625 male) 11–20-year-olds receiving their first custodial sentence between 1 January 1988 and 31 December 1999 was identified. Main outcome measures: Deaths, date and primary cause of death ascertained from study commencement to 1 March 2003 by data-matching with the National Death Index; measures comprising year of and age at admission, sex, offence profile, any drug offence, multiple admissions and ethnic and Indigenous status, obtained from departmental records. Results: Theoverallmortalityratewas7.2deathsper1000person-yearsofobservation. Younger admission age (hazard ratio [HR], 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0–1.9), repeat admissions (HR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.1–2.9) and drug offences (HR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.0–2.1) predicted early death. The role of ethnicity/Aboriginality could only be assessed in cohort entrants from 1996 to 1999. The Asian subcohort showed higher risk of death from drug-related causes (HR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.1–5.5), more drug offences (relative risk ratio [RRR], 13; 95% CI, 8.5–20.0) and older admission age (oldest group v youngest: RRR, 9.3; 95% CI, 1.3–68.0) than non- Indigenous Australians. Although higher mortality was not identified in Indigenous Australians, this group was more likely to be admitted younger (oldest v youngest: RRR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.15–0.63) and experience repeat admissions (RRR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.0–2.4). Conclusions: Young offenders have a much higher death rate than other young Victorians. Early detention, multiple detentions and drug-related offences are indicators of high mortality risk. For these offenders, targeted healthcare while in custody and further mental healthcare and social support after release appear essential if we are to reduce the mortality rate in this group

Barriers and facilitators to provide quality TIA care in the Veterans Healthcare Administration

Objective: To identify key barriers and facilitators to the delivery of guideline-based care of patients with TIA in the national Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, observational study of 70 audiotaped interviews of multidisciplinary clinical staff involved in TIA care at 14 VHA hospitals. We de-identified and analyzed all transcribed interviews. We identified emergent themes and patterns of barriers to providing TIA care and of facilitators applied to overcome these barriers. Results: Identified barriers to providing timely acute and follow-up TIA care included difficulties accessing brain imaging, a constantly rotating pool of housestaff, lack of care coordination, resource constraints, and inadequate staff education. Key informants revealed that both stroke nurse coordinators and system-level factors facilitated the provision of TIA care. Few facilities had specific TIA protocols. However, stroke nurse coordinators often expanded upon their role to include TIA. They facilitated TIA care by (1) coordinating patient care across services, communicating across service lines, and educating clinical staff about facility policies and evidence-based practices; (2) tracking individual patients from emergency departments to inpatient settings and to discharge for timely follow-up care; (3) providing and referring TIA patients to risk factor management programs; and (4) performing regular audit and feedback of quality performance data. System-level facilitators included clinical service leadership engagement and use of electronic tools for continuous care across services. Conclusions: The local organization within a health care facility may be targeted to cultivate internal facilitators and a systemic infrastructure to provide evidence-based TIA care

Does cannabis use predict psychometric schizotypy via aberrant salience?

Cannabis can induce acute psychotic symptoms in healthy individuals and exacerbate pre-existing psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Inappropriate salience allocation is hypothesised to be central to the association between dopamine dysregulation and psychotic symptoms. This study examined whether cannabis use is associated with self-reported salience dysfunction and schizotypal symptoms in a non-clinical population. 910 University students completed the following questionnaire battery: the cannabis experience questionnaire modified version (CEQmv); schizotypal personality questionnaire (SPQ); community assessment of psychic experience (CAPE); aberrant salience inventory (ASI). Mediation analysis was used to test whether aberrant salience mediated the relationship between cannabis use and schizotypal traits. Both frequent cannabis consumption during the previous year and ASI score predicted variation across selected positive and disorganised SPQ subscales. However, for the SPQ subscales ‘ideas of reference’ and ‘odd beliefs’, mediation analysis revealed that with the addition of ASI score as a mediating variable, current cannabis use no longer predicted scores on these subscales. Similarly, cannabis use frequency predicted higher total SPQ as well as specific Positive and Disorganised subscale scores, but ASI score as a mediating variable removed the significant predictive relationship between frequent cannabis use and ‘odd beliefs’, ‘ideas of reference’, ‘unusual perceptual experiences’, ‘odd speech’, and total SPQ scores. In summary, cannabis use was associated with increased psychometric schizotypy and aberrant salience. Using self-report measures in a non-clinical population, the cannabis-related increase in selected positive and disorganised SPQ subscale scores was shown to be, at least in part, mediated by disturbance in salience processing mechanisms

Needs assessment to strengthen capacity in water and sanitation research in Africa:experiences of the African SNOWS consortium

Despite its contribution to global disease burden, diarrhoeal disease is still a relatively neglected area for research funding, especially in low-income country settings. The SNOWS consortium (Scientists Networked for Outcomes from Water and Sanitation) is funded by the Wellcome Trust under an initiative to build the necessary research skills in Africa. This paper focuses on the research training needs of the consortium as identified during the first three years of the project

A multidisciplinary stroke clinic for outpatient care of veterans with cerebrovascular disease

Background: Managing cerebrovascular risk factors is complex and difficult. The objective of this program evaluation was to assess the effectiveness of an outpatient Multidisciplinary Stroke Clinic model for the clinical management of veterans with cerebrovascular disease or cerebrovascular risk factors. Methods: The Multidisciplinary Stroke Clinic provided care to veterans with cerebrovascular disease during a one-half day clinic visit with interdisciplinary evaluations and feedback from nursing, health psychology, rehabilitation medicine, internal medicine, and neurology. We conducted a program evaluation of the clinic by assessing clinical care outcomes, patient satisfaction, provider satisfaction, and costs. Results: We evaluated the care and outcomes of the first consecutive 162 patients who were cared for in the clinic. Patients had as many as six clinic visits. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased: 137.2 ± 22.0 mm Hg versus 128.6 ± 19.8 mm Hg, P = 0.007 and 77.9 ± 14.8 mm Hg versus 72.0 ± 10.2 mm Hg, P = 0.004, respectively as did low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol (101.9 ± 23.1 mg/dL versus 80.6 ± 25.0 mg/dL, P = 0.001). All patients had at least one major change recommended in their care management. Both patients and providers reported high satisfaction levels with the clinic. Veterans with stroke who were cared for in the clinic had similar or lower costs than veterans with stroke who were cared for elsewhere. Conclusion: A Multidisciplinary Stroke Clinic model provides incremental improvement in quality of care for complex patients with cerebrovascular disease at costs that are comparable to usual post-stroke care