An Economic Analysis of Erosion and Sedimentation in Lavon Reservoir Watershed

Public Law 92-500 - the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments - mandates the analysis of agricultural non-point source (NPS) pollution controls. This report presents the results of a study of the economic impact of implementing potential agricultural NPS pollution controls in the watershed above Lavon Reservoir. The study focuses on: (a) effects of erosion controls on farm income, (b) off-side sediment damages in the watersheds; (c) costs of administering and enforcing alternative erosion-sedimentation controls, and (d) effects of adopting cotton pest management methods. Erosion controls considered include possible regulatory programs as well as voluntary programs combined with economic incentives. While the stimulus for this study was concern over pollution (an off-site problem) it can not, because of long-run farm income consequences, be separated from conservation problems (an on-farm problem). Thus, the study is as much an analysis of conservation economics as it is an analysis of environmental economics. Accordingly, the report contains substantial information on the short and long-run on-farm benefits and costs of various soil conservation practices for all soil mapping units in Lavon watershed The results are applicable to much of the Blackland Prairies Land Resource area

An Economic Analysis of Agricultural Soil Loss in Crosby County, Texas

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, Public Law 92-500, established a national goal of eliminating the discharge of pollutants into the nation's waterways by 1985. As a step toward that goal an interim water quality standard of "fishable, swimmable waters nationwide" by July 1, 1983 was set. Under section 208 of this law, each state was required to establish a "continuing planning process" to define controls for agricultural non-point sources of water pollution. Section 208 calls for the development of state and area-wide water quality management plans. The plans are to include "a process to (i) identify if appropriate, agriculturally and silviculturally related non-point sources of pollution, including runoff from manure disposal areas, and from land used for livestock and crop production, and (ii) set forth procedures and methods (including land use requirements) to control to the extent feasible such sources." In an earlier group of technical reports (TR 87, 88, 90, 93, 94) in this series, a model was developed to measure the net social benefits from controlling agricultural sediment given various policy options. This was done by contrasting benefits to be gained from reducing the sediment load in a watershed against costs involved in achieving that reduction using various voluntary or mandatory policies to accomplish the reduction. It was a major conclusion of these studies that no policy which restricted soil loss to less than that which was economically desirable from the farmers own viewpoint would generate benefits greater than the costs involved. This finding, in the watersheds of major sediment control concern lead to a decision to change the base area for this report to a county instead of a watershed and to only deal with the on-farm consequences of various management practices. These on-farm consequences would include the changes in topsoil loss and the yield losses that result from losing topsoil. Also included are profit levels that could be expected from different management practices and how the present value of a stream of these profits would vary over various planning horizons

An Economic Analysis of Erosion and Sedimentation in Lavon Reservoir Watershed

Public Law 92-500 - the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments - mandates the analysis of agricultural non-point source (NPS) pollution controls. This report presents the results of a study of the economic impact of implementing potential agricultural NPS pollution controls in the watershed above Lavon Reservoir. The study focuses on: (a) effects of erosion controls on farm income, (b) off-side sediment damages in the watersheds; (c) costs of administering and enforcing alternative erosion-sedimentation controls, and (d) effects of adopting cotton pest management methods. Erosion controls considered include possible regulatory programs as well as voluntary programs combined with economic incentives. While the stimulus for this study was concern over pollution (an off-site problem) it can not, because of long-run farm income consequences, be separated from conservation problems (an on-farm problem). Thus, the study is as much an analysis of conservation economics as it is an analysis of environmental economics. Accordingly, the report contains substantial information on the short and long-run on-farm benefits and costs of various soil conservation practices for all soil mapping units in Lavon watershed The results are applicable to much of the Blackland Prairies Land Resource area

An Economic Analysis of Agricultural Soil Loss in Mitchell County, Texas

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, Public Law 92-500, established a national goal of eliminating the discharge of pollutants into the nation's waterways by 1985. As a step toward that goal an interim water quality standard of "fishable, swimmable waters nationwide" by July 1, 1983 was set. Under section 208 of this law, each state was required to establish a "continuing planning process" to define controls for agricultural nonpoint sources of water pollution. Section 208 calls for the development of state and area-wide water quality management plans. The plans are to include "a process to (i) identify if appropriate, agriculturally and silviculturally related non-point sources of pollution, including runoff from manure disposal areas, and from land used for livestock and crop production, and (ii) set forth procedures and methods (including land use requirements) to control to the extent feasible such sources." In an earlier group of technical reports (TR 87, 88, 90, 93) in this series a model was developed to measure the net social benefits from controlling agricultural sediment given various policy options. This was done by contrasting benefits to be gained from reducing the sediment load in a watershed against costs involved in achieving that reduction using various voluntary or mandatory policies to accomplish the reduction. It was a major conclusion of these studies that no policy that restricted soil loss to less than that which was economically desirable from the farmers own viewpoint would generate benefits greater than the costs involved. This finding, in the watersheds of major sediment control concern lead to a decision to change the base area for this report to a county instead of a watershed and to only deal with the on-farm consequences of various management practices. These on-farm consequences would include the changes in topsoil loss and the yield losses that result from losing topsoil. Also included are profit levels that could be expected from different management practices and how the present value of a stream of these profits would vary over different planning horizons

Ethanol reversal of tolerance to the respiratory depressant effects of morphine

Opioids are the most common drugs associated with unintentional drug overdose. Death results from respiratory depression. Prolonged use of opioids results in the development of tolerance but the degree of tolerance is thought to vary between different effects of the drugs. Many opioid addicts regularly consume alcohol (ethanol), and post-mortem analyses of opioid overdose deaths have revealed an inverse correlation between blood morphine and ethanol levels. In the present study, we determined whether ethanol reduced tolerance to the respiratory depressant effects of opioids. Mice were treated with opioids (morphine, methadone, or buprenorphine) for up to 6 days. Respiration was measured in freely moving animals breathing 5% CO(2) in air in plethysmograph chambers. Antinociception (analgesia) was measured as the latency to remove the tail from a thermal stimulus. Opioid tolerance was assessed by measuring the response to a challenge dose of morphine (10 mg/kg i.p.). Tolerance developed to the respiratory depressant effect of morphine but at a slower rate than tolerance to its antinociceptive effect. A low dose of ethanol (0.3 mg/kg) alone did not depress respiration but in prolonged morphine-treated animals respiratory depression was observed when ethanol was co-administered with the morphine challenge. Ethanol did not alter the brain levels of morphine. In contrast, in methadone- or buprenorphine-treated animals no respiratory depression was observed when ethanol was co-administered along with the morphine challenge. As heroin is converted to morphine in man, selective reversal of morphine tolerance by ethanol may be a contributory factor in heroin overdose deaths

Are men universally more dismissing than women? Gender differences in romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions

The authors thank Susan Sprecher (USA), Del Paulhus (Canada), Glenn D. Wilson (England), Qazi Rahman (England), Alois Angleitner (Germany), Angelika Hofhansl (Austria), Tamio Imagawa (Japan), Minoru Wada (Japan), Junichi Taniguchi (Japan), and Yuji Kanemasa (Japan) for helping with data collection and contributing significantly to the samples used in this study.Gender differences in the dismissing form of adult romantic attachment were investigated as part of the International Sexuality Description Project—a survey study of 17,804 people from 62 cultural regions. Contrary to research findings previously reported in Western cultures, we found that men were not significantly more dismissing than women across all cultural regions. Gender differences in dismissing romantic attachment were evident in most cultures, but were typically only small to moderate in magnitude. Looking across cultures, the degree of gender differentiation in dismissing romantic attachment was predictably associated with sociocultural indicators. Generally, these associations supported evolutionary theories of romantic attachment, with smaller gender differences evident in cultures with high–stress and high–fertility reproductive environments. Social role theories of human sexuality received less support in that more progressive sex–role ideologies and national gender equity indexes were not cross–culturally linked as expected to smaller gender differences in dismissing romantic attachment.peer-reviewe