Public Preferences for Broiler Chicken Welfare: Evidence from Stated Preference Studies

Animal welfare presents particular policy challenges. Good welfare provides private productivity benefits to producers and some level of positive external benefits to people who care about animal welfare status. In enacting welfare legislation and setting regulatory standards, government needs to measure costs and benefits of welfare changes. While costs are generally observable, the nature of market failure means that welfare benefits are not truly observed in welfare related transactions. Accordingly non-market benefits assessment methods are required to measure the total economic value of welfare improvement. This paper compares the results of two stated preference methods to measure the policy benefits of the proposed EU broiler Welfare Directive. Contingent valuation presents the welfare improvement as a policy bundle and elicits willingness to pay in a referendum or one-off purchase decision. Choice experiments break down the welfare good into its constituent attributes, which may be of interest in designing policy. The methods provide divergence aggregate benefit estimates, which are an artefact of the methodology and the payment methods.Broiler welfare, choice experiments, contingent valuation, Livestock Production/Industries, Consumer/Household Economics,

Analysis of CDO tranche valuation and the 2008 credit crisis

Includes bibliographical references.The causes of the 2008 financial crisis were wide ranging. Some financial commentators have suggested there were significant inadequacies in the models used to price complex derivatives such as synthetic Collaterilised Debt Obligations (CDOs). We discuss the technical properties of CDOs and the modeling approaches used by CDO traders and the watchdog credit rating agencies. We look at how the pricing models fared before and during the financial crisis. Comparing our model prices to market synthetic CDO prices, we investigate how well these pricing models captured the underlying financial risks of trading in CDOs

Swift Foxes in Southwestern South Dakota: Assessing the Current Status of a Reintroduced Population

Swift foxes (Vulpes velox) were reintroduced into Badlands National Park between 2003 and 2006 after being nearly extirpated from South Dakota in the early 1900’s. Genetic analysis provided strong evidence that the reintroduction was successful, but viability analysis indicated the population may be in jeopardy with a high probability of extinction. Recently, the population has declined due to various biotic and abiotic factors (e.g., recent weather patterns, effects of plague [Yersinia pestis], and increased coyote [Canis latrans] numbers). No information on the status of swift foxes has been collected since 2009. Between 2014 and 2016, the objectives of this study were to 1) document the current distribution of swift foxes in southwestern South Dakota; 2) estimate survival and cause-specific mortality; 3) document active dens to estimate reproductive success; and 4) assess the presence of swift foxes in areas affected by plague. Over 1,000 scent stations were deployed across a seven county area in southwest South Dakota; only 1.7% of the stations detected swift foxes, and in only two counties. Foxes were not detected in two of the counties that had presence within the last ten years. Forty-six swift foxes were trapped, radio-collared, and tracked around Badlands National Park, and 12 natal dens were monitored. Yearly reproductive success was estimated using motion activated trail cameras, and averaged 4.3 ± 0.3 pups per mated pair. Natal dens had more holes (4.4 ± 0.7) than non-natal dens (2.2 ± 0.4) and were closer to roads (160.9 ± 57.0 m) and closer to anthropogenic features (105.8 ± 36.5 m) than random locations (roads: 557.4 ± 155.1 m; anthropogenic 341.2 ± 67.2 m). An additional objective 5) was added when pups from two orphaned dens were hand reared in an accredited zoo and subsequently returned to their natal dens; none of the foxes survived to become adults after release. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier procedure for staggered entry; apparent annual survival for collared adults was 0.51 (95% CI = 0.24–0.69; n = 14), and for collared pups was 0.19 (n = 8). Cause-specific mortality of collared foxes was attributed to vehicle collision (n = 7; 33.3%), coyote (n = 7; 33.3%), raptor (n = 3; 14.3%), and unknown origin (n = 4; 19.1%). Antibodies to Y. pestis were found in 69.9% of sampled foxes using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analysis. Data from this study raises concern for the status of the population. An apparent decline in distribution, a decline in numbers around Badlands National Park, a decreased survival rate in pups, and the presence of plague may lead this population to extinction in the near future. Another reintroduction is not recommended until biotic and abiotic factors correlated to the decline are mitigated and swift fox presence is determined in other regions of South Dakota

The experience of the psychiatric interview following self-harm: factors which influence this experience and the potential impact of it

A proportion of individuals who are seen at accident and emergency following deliberate self-harm (DSH) are admitted to the medical wards where they are psychiatrically assessed. This exploratory study investigated the interaction between the psychiatrist who conducts this interview and the patient. A sample of 60 DSH patients were seen immediately following their interview with the psychiatrist. They completed questionnaires which assessed personality disturbance and were asked questions regarding their experience of the interview. At the same time the psychiatrist completed parallel measures which assessed their experience of the interview. The comparison group consisted of 30 new Psychology out-patients. They were recruited and assessed in the same way as the experimental group. It was predicted that personality disorder / disintegration would be associated with poorer therapeutic alliance and a repetition of particular patterns of interactions (including avoidance, hostility or rescue). If demonstrated this would support the hypothesis that the experience of the psychiatric interview may inadvertently perpetuate the individual's view of the interpersonal world, which could then increase their likelihood of further dysfunctional coping and decrease the likelihood of them gaining constructive mental health.The study also investigated the attitudes of staff working with this client group. Based on previous research it was predicted that staff would hold quite negative attitudes about deliberate self-harm. Within its theoretical framework, the study considered how such attitudes may be present and how they may contribute to the interaction patterns described above

Nitrous oxide emissions from 2008 to 2012 for agricultural lands in the conterminous United States

The soil N2O emissions data for the conterminous United States were generated by the DayCent ecosystem model using the crop and land-use histories for survey locations in the USDA-NRCS National Resources Inventory (NRI). The model also requires weather and soils data. Daily maximum/minimum temperature and precipitation data are based on gridded weather data from the PRISM Climate Data product. Soils data are obtained from Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO). See Del Grosso et al. (2022) and US-EPA (2020) for more details about the simulations. Atmospheric inversions were conducted using the CarbonTracker Langrage framework (Nevison et al. 2018). These results provide total N2O fluxes for the domain using atmospheric observations and an inverse modeling, and are compared to the DayCent emissions to confirm seasonal patterns, particularly the role of freeze-thaw events in driving pulses of N2O emissions from agricultural lands.Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas (GHG) that also contributes to depletion of ozone in the stratosphere. Agricultural soils account for about 60% of anthropogenic N2O emissions. Most national GHG reporting to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change assumes nitrogen (N) additions drive emissions during the growing season, but soil freezing and thawing during spring is also an important driver in cold climates. We show that both atmospheric inversions and newly implemented bottom-up modeling approaches exhibit large N2O pulses in the northcentral region of the United States during early spring and this increases annual N2O emissions from croplands and grasslands reported in the national GHG inventory by 11%. Considering this, emission accounting in cold climate regions is very likely under-estimated in most national reporting frameworks. Current commitments related to the Paris Agreement and COP 26 emphasize reductions of carbon compounds. Assuming these targets are met, the importance of accurately accounting and mitigating N2O increases once CO2 and CH4 are phased out. Hence, the N2O emission under-estimate introduces additional risks into meeting long term climate goals.US Forest Service 18-CR-11242305-109, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) UV-B Monitoring and Research Program, Colorado State University, under USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Grant 2016-34263-25763, and the USDA GHG and DayCent modeling NACA agreements (58-3012-9-012 and 58-3012-1-015

Inverse modeling estimates of the global nitrous oxide surface flux from 1998–2001

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94872/1/gbc1247.pd

Impact of variable air-sea O2 and CO2 fluxes on atmospheric potential oxygen (APO) and land-ocean carbon sink partitioning

© 2008 Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 5 (2008): 875-899, doi:10.5194/bg-5-875-2008A three dimensional, time-evolving field of atmospheric potential oxygen (APO ~O2/N2+CO2) was estimated using surface O2, N2 and CO2 fluxes from the WHOI ocean ecosystem model to force the MATCH atmospheric transport model. Land and fossil carbon fluxes were also run in MATCH and translated into O2 tracers using assumed O2:CO2 stoichiometries. The modeled seasonal cycles in APO agree well with the observed cycles at 13 global monitoring stations, with agreement helped by including oceanic CO2 in the APO calculation. The modeled latitudinal gradient in APO is strongly influenced by seasonal rectifier effects in atmospheric transport. An analysis of the APO-vs.-CO2 mass-balance method for partitioning land and ocean carbon sinks was performed in the controlled context of the MATCH simulation, in which the true surface carbon and oxygen fluxes were known exactly. This analysis suggests uncertainty of up to ±0.2 PgC in the inferred sinks due to variability associated with sparse atmospheric sampling. It also shows that interannual variability in oceanic O2 fluxes can cause large errors in the sink partitioning when the method is applied over short timescales. However, when decadal or longer averages are used, the variability in the oceanic O2 flux is relatively small, allowing carbon sinks to be partitioned to within a standard deviation of 0.1 Pg C/yr of the true values, provided one has an accurate estimate of long-term mean O2 outgassing.We acknowledge the support of NASA grant NNG05GG30G and NSF grant ATM0628472