Wild animal suffering and human responsibility: Essays on the ethics of beneficent intervention in nature

Over the past five decades, animal ethicists have made tremendous progress in articulating the moral importance of the wellbeing of non-human animals. Their work has naturally focused on those domesticated animals we use for food, research, etc. Comparatively little has been written about the moral importance of the wellbeing of wild animals. This is unfortunate, as wild animals far outnumber human beings and their domestic animals, and they suffer from a great number of harms such as predation, parasitism, starvation, and disease. In fact, because most animals reproduce in vast numbers while their populations remain relatively stable, we can infer that the vast majority of them die before reaching reproductive age (Ng, 1995; Horta, 2010; Faria 2023a). The typical life of a wild animal is to be born alongside dozens, hundreds, or thousands of siblings, to receive no parental care, and to struggle for survival in a hostile world, before succumbing to predation or starvation only a few hours or days after birth. This is the problem of wild animal suffering (WAS). The central question is whether humans should try to intervene in nature to reduce the suffering of wild animals, and, if so, what interventions should be performed. Positions on the intervention question range from complete prohibition (Regan, 2004; Palmer, 2010; Korsgaard, 2018) right up to massive genetic modifications of wild animals (Pearce, 1995; Johannsen, 2021), deliberately making certain animals go extinct (McMahan, 2010, 2015; Bramble, 2021), and the deliberate destruction of wild animal habitats (Tomasik, 2016). In this integrated thesis, I assume an interventionist position. I explore the implications of recognizing the scale and severity of WAS, and the moral complexities that arise once we begin to systematically intervene in nature on a large scale. In paper one I critique Milburn’s (2022) version of the relational objection to intervention in nature, and I argue that human beings have been morally entangled with wild animals since prehistory. In paper two I argue that the non-identity problem affects the strength and kind of our moral reasons to intervene in nature. In paper three, I argue that WAS is a predictable outcome of the evolutionary process, and this gives us a strong reason not to spread animal life to other planets. In paper four I argue that the basic argument for longtermism applies to animals just as much as it does to human beings, that longtermists ought to take animals much more seriously than they do, and that animal advocates ought to be concerned about the long-term future. In the fifth paper I argue that Totalism has deeply counterintuitive implications when we include animals in the populations to be evaluated

An Integrated Assessment of Water Markets: Australia, Chile, China, South Africa and the USA

The paper provides an integrated framework to assess water markets in terms of their institutional underpinnings and the three 'pillars' of integrated water resource management: economic efficiency, equity and environmental sustainability. This framework can be used: (1) to benchmark different water markets; (2) to track performance over time; and (3) to identify ways in which water markets might be adjusted by informed policy makers to achieve desired goals. The framework is used to identify strengths and limitations of water markets in: (1) Australia's Murray-Darling Basin; (2) Chile (in particular the Limarí Valley); (3) China (in particular, the North); (4) South Africa; and (5) the western United States. It identifies what water markets are currently able to contribute to integrated water resource management, what criteria underpin these markets, and which components of their performance may require further development

Locally Optimally Emitting Clouds and the Origin of Quasar Emission Lines

The similarity of quasar line spectra has been taken as an indication that the emission line clouds have preferred parameters, suggesting that the environment is subject to a fine tuning process. We show here that the observed spectrum is a natural consequence of powerful selection effects. We computed a large grid of photoionization models covering the widest possible range of cloud gas density and distance from the central continuum source. For each line only a narrow range of density and distance from the continuum source results in maximum reprocessing efficiency, corresponding to ``locally optimally-emitting clouds'' (LOC). These parameters depend on the ionization and excitation potentials of the line, and its thermalization density. The mean QSO line spectrum can be reproduced by simply adding together the full family of clouds, with an appropriate covering fraction distribution. The observed quasar spectrum is a natural consequence of the ability of various clouds to reprocess the underlying continuum, and can arise in a chaotic environment with no preferred pressure, gas density, or ionization parameter.Comment: 9 pages including 1 ps figure. LaTeX format using aaspp4.st

Rapid assembly of quinolizidines via consecutive nucleophilic cyclizations onto activated amides

Abstract: A new approach to the synthesis of quinolizidines involving a cascade of nucleophilic cyclizations triggered by chemoselective amide activation is reported. Particular attention was given to the effect of the nature of the tethered nucleophiles on the cascade of cyclizations. As a result, simple acyclic amides gave rapid access to functionalized quinolizidines bearing either a tertiary or quaternary center at the ring junction. Such a fused bicyclic motif is found in several alkaloids

A Comparative Assessment of Water Markets: Insights from the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia and the Western US

Water markets in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) and the US west are compared in terms of their ability to allocate scarce water resources. The study finds that the gains from trade in the MDB are worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Total market turnover in water rights exceeds $2 billion per year while the volume of trade exceeds over 20$4.3 billion (2008 $) spent or committed by urban buyers between 1987 and 2008. The two-market comparison suggests that policy attention should be directed towards ways to promote water trade while simultaneously mitigating the legitimate thirdparty concerns about how and where water is used, especially conflicts between consumptive and in situ uses of water. The study finds that institutional innovation is feasible in both countries and that further understanding about the size, duration, and distribution of third-party effects from water trade, and how these effects might be regulated, can improve water markets to better manage water scarcity.water markets, US west, Murray-Darling Basin, gains from trade

Nonsurgical Management of Severe Osteonecrosis of the Knee in an HIV-Positive Patient: A Case Report

Due to the life-prolonging effects of combination antiretroviral therapy, many people with HIV are living longer. However, this enhanced longevity is often mirrored by increased disability resulting from HIV and/or the adverse effects of medication. Management of HIV-positive patients is further complicated by comorbidities related to aging, including bone and joint disorders. In this paper, we describe the nonsurgical management of an HIV-positive patient with premature onset of severe osteonecrosis of the knee. A 50-year-old man who had been HIV-positive for 16 years and on combination antiretroviral therapy for 11 years presented to his family physician with extreme discomfort in his right knee. He was diagnosed with osteonecrosis of the right knee, but resisted total knee arthroplasty because of potential complications under anesthesia related to comorbid advanced liver disease. Instead, a successful combination of non-surgical management strategies was employed by the patient and his health care team

Irrigation system economics as affected by field size

Presented at the Central Plains irrigation short course and exposition on February 4, 1997 at the Colby Community Building in Colby, Kansas

MF2242

Daniel O'Brien et al., Economic comparison of SDI and center pivots for various field sizes, Kansas State University, October 1997

Using the health policy triangle framework to describe local, regional and national healthcare policy changes within Ireland's diverse healthcare settings

Introduction: Developed in the late 20th century, the conceptual descriptive framework for this thesis was inspired by Walt and Gilson’s health policy triangle (HPT). The HPT model is a policy analysis framework universally used and applied in the literature to analyse various health-related issues, mainly at national or international level. Robust research is required to seek a greater understanding of the application and utilisation of the HPT framework to describe smaller-scale health policy decisions under investigation at local and regional level. Such local and regional decisions may then inform both national and international decisions. The author’s directive was to retrospectively analyse local, regional and national health policy change within different Irish healthcare settings over the last decade with regard to (i) development processes, (ii) evidence generation, (iii) implementation, and (iv) outcomes using the HPT framework within the context of the current Irish Sláintecare reforms. Methods: Using diverse local, regional and national Irish healthcare settings, this thesis examined the generalisable nature of the HPT framework when applied to variety of health-related policy decisions at different stages in their life cycle. Methodologies such as literature reviews, economic evaluations (cost-effectiveness analysis and cost minimisation analysis), and qualitative analysis (using the Framework Approach) helped provide evidence on the health-related policy decisions. Results: The narrative literature review in Chapter 2 identified that the types of health policies analysed by the HPT framework were mainly positioned at national or international level in lower to upper-middle-income countries and were primarily focused upon public health topics. This research concluded that given its generalisable nature, future research that utilises the HPT framework in smaller scale health policy decisions investigated at local and regional levels, could also be beneficial. A subsequent literature review in Chapter 3 applied Walt and Gilson’s health policy triangle model, as a scaffolding framework, to help describe how emerging evidence was used by a large acute Irish teaching hospital to permit the introduction of biosimilar infliximab CT-P13, for the treatment of IBD, into routine care in a safe and timely manner. The review of this local policy decision found that there was a significant time lag of over three years between regulatory approval and clinical acceptance for biosimilar infliximab CT-P13 in this large local hospital’s switching process. The actors concluded that with the existential concern and uncertainty still surrounding biosimilar medicines, a distinct and individualised approach for biosimilar medicine implementation is required. The cost-effectiveness analysis in Chapter 4 demonstrated that on average, the intervention arm of a physician-led medication review programme was more costly but was also more effective. Compared with usual care, the intervention was associated with a non-statistically significant increase of €877 (95% CI −€1,807, €3,561) in mean healthcare cost, and a statistically significant decrease of −0.164 (95% CI −0.257, −0.070) in the mean number of adverse drug reaction events per inpatient. The HPT framework was used to describe how this local level policy decision concerning the physician-led STOPP/START intervention was not implemented but that the generated economic evidence contributed to the evolving STOPP/START criteria policy formation, growth and future evaluation. The cost minimisation analysis in Chapter 5 assessed which formulation of trastuzumab (injected via different administration routes) was more cost-effective and time saving in relation to active healthcare professional (HCP) time. Over a full treatment course of 17 cycles, average HCP time saved accumulated to 16.78 hours with an estimated direct cost saving of €1,609.99 in favour of the trastuzumab subcutaneous formulation. The HPT framework elaborated on various contributing components concerning this contemporary regional policy which ultimately led to the replacement of the trastuzumab intravenous formulation by the trastuzumab subcutaneous formulation in clinical practice. The qualitative interview study in Chapter 6 revealed that both community pharmacists and general practitioners (GPs) accepted the theoretical concept of a co-payment attached to the Irish public health insurance scheme as it prevents moral hazard. GPs independently suggested that a co-payment system introduced in their field of practice may inhibit moral hazard by publicly insured patients in the utilisation of GP services. The HPT framework was used to depict the interrelated factors which underpin this national pharmaceutical policy where going forward, both GP and pharmacy unions have expressed interest to be more involved in the policy formation stages, not the post-implementation stages. Conclusion: This research has illustrated how generalisable and adaptable the HPT framework is when applied to health-related policy decisions in various Irish healthcare settings. Given this advantage, it is proposed that the HPT framework should be used in Sláintecare reform policy. Using a common descriptive framework and standardising the approach to health policy analysis during this ten-year reform has the potential to increase the successful fruition of Sláintecare policy goals