Wildlife Crime and Other Challenges to Resource System Resilience

Although wildlife crime has exploded in Africa over the past decade —“commercial poaching” now kills an estimated eight percent of the continent’s elephant population each year—some governments have proven more successful than others at protecting wildlife and preserving habitats. To explain this variation, this study examines how the policies of three states (Kenya, Tanzania, and Botswana) have enhanced or undermined the resilience of the continent’s elephant ecosystem. Using the social-ecological system framework, the study illustrates how each state’s changing practices have either exacerbated the stresses wrought by wildlife crime or successfully protected local populations from poaching. The study finds that monocausal explanations cannot explain social-ecological systems outcomes. Cross-level and cross-scale dynamics, including temporal, geospatial, epistemological, and institutional linkages, explain variation in system functionality. These dynamics include colonial policies, governance practices, the international conservation community, and resource use decisions

Marginal Revenue Product Of Division I Swimmers

To date, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has undergone an excessive amount of reforms including topics such as student-athlete well-being, academics, enforcement, resource allocation, and so forth. However, despite the constant stream of policy reforms there has been a significant lack of effective reform initiatives with reference to the economic state of the NCAA. This void is partially due to the lack of sufficient empirical evidence surrounding the economic discussion of college athletics, specifically in regards to the discussion of the potential for performance based compensation for student-athletes. Past research for such compensation has focused primarily on large revenue producing sports such as football and men’s basketball (Brown, 1993; 2011; Brown & Jewell, 2006). However, by only examining two of the almost ninety NCAA recognized sports it has created a large gap in the literature necessary to examine things further. Considering this, the current research intends to expand the scope of the literature by using an econometrics approach to investigate the current state of the NCAA non-revenue producing sport of swimming. The research uses public NCAA economic revenue and expenditure reports from the years 2010-2016 to create a revenue function and conduct a multiple regression analysis. The attempt of such research is to determine the marginal revenue product (MRP) and economic value of a Division I swimmer. The final results find that there is a significant relationship between certain MRP determining variables on swim program revenue and expenses. However, not all variables in the revenue function are found to be significant thus it helps to open the door for future research to investigate the MRP of non-revenue generating sports to create a more elaborate picture of the true impact different variables can have on revenue and expenditures of NCAA athletic programs

The Environmental Crime Crisis: Threats to Sustainable Development From Illegal Exploitation and Trade in Wildlife and Forest Resources

Given the alarming pace, level of sophistication, and globalized nature that illegal trade in wildlife has now notoriously achieved, UNEP initiated a Rapid Response Assessment to provide some of the latest data, analysis, and broadest insights into the phenomenon. Tackling illegal wildlife trade demands this examination of the relationship between the environmental resources at stake, their legal and illegal exploitation, the loopholes that exacerbate the situation, the scale and types of crimes committed, and the dynamics of the demand driving the trade

Stature estimation equations for South Asian skeletons based on DXA scans of contemporary adults.

OBJECTIVES: Stature estimation from the skeleton is a classic anthropological problem, and recent years have seen the proliferation of population-specific regression equations. Many rely on the anatomical reconstruction of stature from archaeological skeletons to derive regression equations based on long bone lengths, but this requires a collection with very good preservation. In some regions, for example, South Asia, typical environmental conditions preclude the sufficient preservation of skeletal remains. Large-scale epidemiological studies that include medical imaging of the skeleton by techniques such as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) offer new potential datasets for developing such equations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We derived estimation equations based on known height and bone lengths measured from DXA scans from the Andhra Pradesh Children and Parents Study (Hyderabad, India). Given debates on the most appropriate regression model to use, multiple methods were compared, and the performance of the equations was tested on a published skeletal dataset of individuals with known stature. RESULTS: The equations have standard errors of estimates and prediction errors similar to those derived using anatomical reconstruction or from cadaveric datasets. As measured by the number of significant differences between true and estimated stature, and the prediction errors, the new equations perform as well as, and generally better than, published equations commonly used on South Asian skeletons or based on Indian cadaveric datasets. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the utility of DXA scans as a data source for developing stature estimation equations and offer a new set of equations for use with South Asian datasets

How the International Investment Law Regime Undermines Access to Justice for Investment-Affected Stakeholders

For over a decade now, the international investment law regime, which includes investment treaties and their central pillar, the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, has been facing sustained calls for reform. These have largely centered on the concerns regarding the high costs of ISDS, the restrictions placed by the investment treaty regime on the right—or duty—of states to regulate in the public interest, and the questionable benefits arising from these treaties in the first place. Several states have taken proactive measures: some have revised investment treaty standards to better protect their regulatory powers; others have introduced new approaches to investment promotion, protection, and dispute settlement that more closely align with their sustainable development objectives; and some states have withdrawn from the investment treaty regime altogether. In addition, reforms to the regime are taking place at the multilateral level within the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and through other regional fora. Despite being the subject of extensive and prolonged public debate for several years, these reforms have continued to reinforce the binary structure of the regime. This structure restricts the focus of investment relations solely to investors and host states, disregarding the actual or potential impacts of investment projects, relations, disputes and awards on the rights and interests of other impacted stakeholders. In particular, large-scale, land-based investment projects involve a broad network of people and relations, and often intersect with local communities whose social identity, way of life, and livelihoods are intimately connected to the land and natural resources at stake. It is this category of investments, which result in the creation of a new “project” with a large land footprint, that is the topic of this paper. The consequences of these types of investments can be significant, as they often lead to land expropriations, negative human health consequences, water pollution, air contamination, deforestation, or shifts in migration patterns within the area, thereby impacting the rights and interests of people in these communities and the environment more broadly

The foot in forensic human identification - a review

The identification of human remains is a process which can be attempted irrespective of the stage of decomposition in which the remains are found or the anatomical regions recovered. In recent years, the discovery of fragmented human remains has garnered significant attention from the national and international media, particularly the recovery of multiple lower limbs and feet from coastlines in North America. While cases such as these stimulate public curiosity, they present unique challenges to forensic practitioners in relation to the identification of the individual from whom the body part originated. There is a paucity of literature pertaining to the foot in forensic human identification and in particular, in relation to the assessment of the parameters represented by the biological profile. This article presents a review of the literature relating to the role of the foot in forensic human identification and highlights the areas in which greater research is required. © 2013

Temporal Trends in Vertebral Size and Shape from Medieval to Modern-Day

Human lumbar vertebrae support the weight of the upper body. Loads lifted and carried by the upper extremities cause significant loading stress to the vertebral bodies. It is well established that trauma-induced vertebral fractures are common especially among elderly people. The aim of this study was to investigate the morphological factors that could have affected the prevalence of trauma-related vertebral fractures from medieval times to the present day. To determine if morphological differences existed in the size and shape of the vertebral body between medieval times and the present day, the vertebral body size and shape was measured from the 4th lumbar vertebra using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and standard osteometric calipers. The modern samples consisted of modern Finns and the medieval samples were from archaeological collections in Sweden and Britain. The results show that the shape and size of the 4th lumbar vertebra has changed significantly from medieval times in a way that markedly affects the biomechanical characteristics of the lumbar vertebral column. These changes may have influenced the incidence of trauma- induced spinal fractures in modern populations

Landscape and Slowing

ABSTRACT The landscape becomes an avenue to explore and express the process of looking, observing,finding, and gathering. I turn to the landscape to find inspiration and motivation that provokes contemplation and questions of the world around us. My work functions as an extension of my experiences, observations, and as a record of thoughts gathered from fleeting elements. The significance of the images I draw is directly tied to my quest of contemplating, understanding and questioning processes in life and how time and change leaves its mark on objects. I focus on my everyday familiar surroundings, because our daily encounters and repetitious routines provide a constant source of changes that take place. The objects and forms reveal the world around me, my experience with perception, and the process of creating the work. These ideas focus directly on perceiving visual stimulation in our environment, what become a record of that experience, and the impact of time. The paintings become a landscape and environment in which to place and create forms to be discovered. I use the process of archaeology as a metaphor to describe my creative process and investigation of the work. The role of time is defined in the work by depicting ephemeral experiences, transformative surface and forms, and a sense of the artist\u27s hand. The body of work is about building images that can challenge viewers\u27 relationship with patience, perception, and time. Our experience with flashing visual images, video, television, and computers, is over-stimulating our senses, thus fatiguing our receptivity. My engagement with sensory perception, evidence of change,slowing experience, and careful observation is used to question how today\u27s society is focused on speed and urgency in which information is received and experienced

Egyptian Body Size: A Regional and Worldwide Comparison

Human body size and limb proportions can provide important information about adaptation, population movements, and health disparities. This study investigated changes in body size and limb proportions of adult Egyptians temporally and geographically in relation to climatological, sociopolitical and economic developments. It was predicted that Egyptian groups that experienced more environmental stress would be shorter and exhibit less sexual dimorphism. It was also predicted that Egyptians would be intermediate between higher and lower latitude populations in body form and limb length ratios. The main skeletal sample consisted of 492 males and 528 females, all adults from the Predynastic and Dynastic Periods, a time spanning c. 5500 BCE-600 CE. Egyptian body dimensions were compared to Nubian groups, as well as to modern Egyptians and other higher and lower latitude populations. The present study found a downward trend in ancient Egyptian stature for both sexes through time, as well as decreased sexual dimorphism in stature. The decreases may be associated with dietary and social stress with the intensification of agriculture and increased societal complexity. Modern Egyptians in the study’s sample are generally taller and heavier than their predecessors; however, modern Egyptians exhibit relatively lower sexual dimorphism in stature. Ancient Egyptians have more tropically adapted limbs in comparison to body breadths, which tend to be intermediate when plotted against higher and lower latitude populations. These results may reflect the greater plasticity of limb lengths compared to body breadth. The results might also suggest early Mediterranean and/or Near Eastern influence in Northeast Africa