The security implications of geoengineering:blame,imposed agreement and the security of critical infrastructure

The prospect of solar geoengineering in response to climate change (on the basis of its supposedly significantly lower cost and/or more rapid impact on global temperature than carbon reduction strategies) raises a number of security concerns that have traditionally been understood within a standard Geo-political framing of security. This relates to unrealistic direct application in inter-State warfare or to a securitization of climate change. However, indirect security implications are potentially significant. Current capability, security threats and international law loopholes suggest the military, rather than scientists would undertake geoengineering, and solar radiation management (SRM) in particular. SRM activity would be covered by Critical National Infrastructure policies, and as such would require a significant level of secondary security infrastructure. Concerns about termination effects, the need to impose international policy agreement 4 (given the ability of 'rogue States' to disrupt SRM and existing difficulties in producing global agreement on climate policy), and a world of extreme weather events, where weather is engineered and hence blameworthy rather than natural, suggest these costs would be large. Evidence on how blame is attributed suggest blame for extreme weather events may be directed towards more technologically advanced nations, (such as the USA) even if they are not engaged in geoengineering. From a security perspective SRM is costly, ungovernable, and raises security concerns of a sufficient magnitude to make it a non-viable policy option

Rapid Communication: Plasma Interleukin-35 in Children with Autism.

In autism spectrum disorders (ASD) many individuals have co-morbid immune dysregulation that can lead to inflammation in the brain and periphery. The novel cytokine interleukin (IL)-35 has described anti-inflammatory properties; however, the plasma levels of IL-35 in children with ASD have never been investigated. The plasma levels of IL-35 were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 30 children with ASD and 39 typically developing (TD) controls. In the current study, we found that plasma IL-35 levels were significantly decreased in children with ASD compared with TD children. Furthermore, lower IL-35 levels were associated with worse behaviors as assessed using the aberrant behavior checklist. These findings are in line with other observations of decreased regulatory cytokines such as transforming growth factor beta and IL-10 in ASD, and associations with severity of behaviors. In conclusion, regulating the expression of IL-35 may provide a new possible target for the treatment of immune issues in ASD to address an imbalance between pro- and anti-inflammatory signals that alter the behavioral phenotype

The Determinants of Students' Tertiary Academic Success

Many factors influence students’ academic performance at university, including their prior academic ability, level of wealth and demographic traits. The characteristics of the secondary school attended by students also play an important role in influencing their university outcomes. This paper considers the determinants of grades for students at a large Australian university. Using both first- and second-generation approaches to modelling the determinants of academic success, it finds that university grades are largely influenced by students’ university entrance scores. Schools also appear to affect academic performance at university.

CEO Pay and Firm Performance: Dynamics, Asymmetries, and Alternative Performance Measures

This study explores the dynamic structure of the pay-for- performance relationship in CEO compensation and quantifies the effect of introducing a more complex model of firm financial performance on the estimated performance sensitivity of executive pay. The results suggest that current compensation responds to past performance outcomes, but that the effect decays considerably within two years. This contrasts sharply with models of infinitely persistent performance effects implicitly assumed in much of the empirical compensation literature. We find that both accounting and market performance measures influence compensation and that the salary and bonus component of pay as well as total compensation have become more sensitive to firm financial performance over the past two decades. There is no evidence that boards fail to penalize CEOs for poor financial performance or reward them disproportionately well for good performance. Finally, the data suggest that boards may discount extreme performance outcomes -both high and low - relative to performance that lies within some `normal' band in setting compensation.

The Diffusion of New Technologies: Evidence From the Electric Utility Industry

This paper investigates the effect of firm size and ownership structure on technology adoption decisions, using data on the electric utility industry. We argue that traditional models of technology diffusion are subject to sample selectivity biases that may overstate the effect of firm size on adoption probabilities. By extending conventional hazard rate models to use information on both adoption and non-adoption decisions, we differentiate between firms' opportunities for adoption and their underlying adoption propensities. The results suggest that large firms and investor-owned electric utilities are likely to adopt new technologies earlier than their smaller and publicly-owned counterparts. Moreover, the selection biases from conventional statistical models can lead one to overstate size effects by a factor of two and to understate ownership structure and factor cost effects by two to four times.

Sovereigns as Shareholders

Reprinted with permission from the North Carolina Law Review, Vol. 87, pp. 83-150 (2008)