A WATER QUALITY STRATEGY FOR THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BASIN AND THE GULF OF MEXICO

Nutrient pollution, now the leading cause of water quality impairment in the United States, has had significant impact on the nation's waterways. Excessive nutrient pollution has been linked to habitat loss, fish kills, blooms of toxic algae, and hypoxia (oxygen depleted water). The hypoxic 'dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most striking illustrations of what can happen when too many nutrients from inland watersheds reach coastal areas. Despite the efforts of municipal building programs, industrial wastewater requirements and agricultural programs designed to reduce sediment loads in waterways, water quality and nutrient pollution continues to be a problem. We undertook a policy analysis to assess how the agricultural community could better reduce its contribution to the 'dead zone' and also evaluate the synergistic impacts of these policies on other environmental concerns like climate change. Using a sectoral model of U.S. agriculture, we compared policies including untargeted conservation subsidies, nutrient trading, Conservation Reserve Program extension, agricultural sales of carbon and greenhouse gas credits and fertilizer reduction. This economic and environmental analysis is watershed based, primarily focusing on nitrogen in the Mississippi River basin, allowing us to assess the distribution of nitrogen reduction in streams, environmental co-benefits and impact on agricultural cash flows within the Mississippi River basin from various options. The model incorporates natural resource accounts and alternative production practices, making it possible to get a more a complete picture of the costs and co-benefits of nutrient reduction. These elements also help to identify those policy options that minimize the costs to the farmers and maximize benefits to society.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Durham difference: considering our context

This article reflects on the experience of Durham University Library staff in promoting services as part of undergraduate induction. It challenges the perception that all methods of marketing are equally valuable to all institutions and explores some alternatives

Wrinkles, folds and plasticity in granular rafts

We investigate the mechanical response of a compressed monolayer of large and dense particles at a liquid-fluid interface: a granular raft. Upon compression, rafts first wrinkle; then, as the confinement increases, the deformation localizes in a unique fold. This characteristic buckling pattern is usually associated to floating elastic sheets and as a result, particle laden interfaces are often modeled as such. Here, we push this analogy to its limits by comparing the first quantitative measurements of the raft morphology to a theoretical continuous elastic model of the interface. We show that although powerful to describe the wrinkle wavelength, the wrinkle-to-fold transition and the fold shape, this elastic description does not capture the finer details of the experiment. We describe an unpredicted secondary wavelength, a compression discrepancy with the model and a hysteretic behavior during compression cycles, all of which are a signature of the intrinsic discrete and frictional nature of granular rafts. It suggests also that these composite materials exhibit both plastic transition and jamming dynamics.Comment: 10 pages, including Supplementary Information. Submitted to Physical Review Material

The Progressivity of Income Taxation: A Comparison between Quebec and Ontario

This study compares the progressivity of the income tax of Quebec and Ontario. After observing the predominance of income taxation in Quebec and Ontario, by way of international and interprovincial comparisons and illustrating the presence of progressivity in both provinces, progressivity indicators are described. Using these indicators, we measured the progressivity of the Quebec and Ontario tax systems for four different family situations and six levels of income. The results show that in certain situations, Quebec’s tax system is more progressive while in others, the reverse is true. More specifically, Quebec’s tax system is more progressive for changes in income at the lower end of the income scale while in general Ontario’s system is more progressive for higher incomes. These results confirm the greater concentration of Ontario’s income tax on high-income taxpayers that we have previously illustrated in the study. L’étude compare la progressivité des impôts sur le revenu du Québec et de l’Ontario. Après avoir constaté l’importance de l’imposition du revenu au Québec et en Ontario, par des comparaisons internationales et interprovinciales, et avoir illustré la présence de progressivité dans les deux cas, nous présentons des indicateurs de progressivité. À l’aide de ces indicateurs, nous avons mesuré la progressivité des régimes d’imposition québécois et ontarien pour quatre situations familiales différentes et pour six niveaux de revenus. Les résultats montrent que, dans certaines situations, la progressivité est plus grande au Québec alors que, dans d’autres cas, la progressivité est supérieure en Ontario. Plus précisément, la progressivité est plus grande au Québec pour les variations de revenus au bas de l’échelle des revenus tandis qu’elle est en général plus élevée en Ontario pour les revenus supérieurs. Ces résultats confirment la plus grande concentration de l’impôt ontarien sur le revenu auprès des contribuables à revenu élevé que nous avions précédemment illustrée dans l’étudeQuebec, Ontario, progressivity, income tax, tax policy, indicator, Québec, Ontario, progressivité, impôt sur le revenu, politique fiscale, indicateur

Count me in! Gender and ethnic minority attainment in school science

There is no single 'solution' to the 'problem' of under-achievement in school science by certain groups. Such under-achievement is strongly connected to the ways that society views the members of these groups. It is not enough for schools to be isolated islands of good practice; they need to help students critically reflect on the world inside and outside of school, and then equip students with the necessary tools to deal with this world. A number of strategies are suggested for use in schools to help pupils and students from groups which often underachieve to get more from their science lessons

Pulmonary embolism and mortality following total ankle replacement: a data linkage study using the NJR data set

OBJECTIVE: To determine the mortality rate following total ankle replacement (TAR) and incidence of 90 day pulmonary embolism (PE) along with the associated risk factors.  DESIGN: Data-linkage study of the UK National Joint Registry (NJR) data and Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) database. Linkage was performed in a deterministic fashion. HES episodes 90 days after the index procedure were analysed for PE. Mortality data were obtained pertaining to all the index procedures from the NJR for analysis.  PARTICIPANTS: All primary and revision ankle replacement patients captured on the NJR between February 2008 and February 2013.  RESULTS: The 90-day mortality following TAR was 0.13% (95% CI 0.03 to 0.52) and 1-year mortality was 0.72% (95% CI 0.40 to 1.30); no deaths were as a result of PE. The incidence of PE within 90 days following primary TAR was 0.51% (95% CI 0.23 to 1.13). There was only one PE following revision surgery. Patients with an Royal College of Surgeons Charlson score greater than zero were at 13 times greater risk of PE (p=0.003).  CONCLUSIONS: There is low incidence of PE following TAR, but multiple comorbidities are a leading risk factor for its occurrence

Will They Own Up to the Habit of Phone Hacking?

Justin Schlosberg of Birkbeck, University of London draws a thick line between freedom of the press and freedom of media owners, and warns that protecting the latter can have dire consequences for free speech rights in the UK

Coastal Capital -- Economic Valuation of Coral Reefs in Tobago and St. Lucia

Presents findings on the economic benefits of coral reefs to the local economies of Tobago and St. Lucia, using a new, broadly applicable methodology that focuses on benefits to tourism, fisheries, and shoreline protection. Includes policy applications

Le bénévolat : un langage du cœur et de raison

Le réaménagement de l'État dans l'espace social permet de constater qu'il modifie le paysage des groupes bénévoles et les entraîne dans une logique d'institutionnalisation. Ces groupes adoptent alors une forme de système plus hiérarchique appelé un quasi-appareil (embauche de permanents, spécialisation des acteurs, tendance à l'officialisation, etc.). Mais les changements structurels qui surviennent au sein des groupes modifient moins l'existence du bénévolat que les cadres de son accomplissement. Malgré la diminution de l'effectif bénévole et le déclin de la séduction pour une spontanéité qui se modifie en s'institutionnalisant, la lecture des chiffres invite ici à soutenir le contraire, puisque les personnes interrogées sont plutôt enclines à affirmer qu'elles veulent persister dans la pratique bénévole en dépit de la transformation des groupes.The reorganization of social space by the state enables us to note that the state bas modified the environment of voluntary help groups, and has led them into a logic of institutionalization. They then adopt a more hierarchical type of System called a quasi-network (the hiring of permanent employees, specialization of the players, a tendency towards the official, etc.). In spite of the decrease in the number of volunteers and the decline of the attractiveness of a spontaneous involvement which is modified by being institutionalized, the examination of the data causes us to defend the contrary. This is such since the people interviewed are more than less inclined to state that they wish to continue in the pratice of voluntary help even with the transformation of the actors