A Random Utility Analysis of Southern Alberta Sportfishing

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF DONATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION IN CANADA

As provincial governments in Canada trim budgets, fewer funds are available for environmental conservation programs. Many jurisdictions are letting private interests and/or users of the resource base help fund conservation projects. Thus funding for conservation is becoming more dependent on donations to environmental causes either through direct giving of funds or through memberships in organizations. This study explores some determinants of private contributions to environmental conservation activities through an econometric analysis of donations and memberships relating to wildlife habitat protection and enhancement. We use data from a 1991 survey conducted in the three prairie provinces that provides information on donation behavior, income, wildlife-related activity, household compositions, and a variety of other factors. A double-hurdle econometric model is used to allow independent variables to have different effects on the probability of donations and the level of donations. Our empirical results suggest that changes in the economy will be important to donation behavior. Declines in participation and recruitment in hunting will also have impacts on donations to conservation causes, but these impacts, although significant, may not be as large. However, consumptive and nonconsumptive activities may be influenced by management agencies and used to bolster environmental donations.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Primary producers and production in Hornsund and Kongsfjorden - Comparison of two fjord systems

Hornsund and Kongsfjorden are two similar-sized Arctic fjords on the West coast of Spitsbergen. They are influenced by cold coastal Arctic water (Hornsund) and warmer Atlantic water (Kongsfjorden). Environmental conditions affect the timing, quantity, spatial distribution (horizontal and vertical) of spring and summer blooms of protists as well as the taxonomic composition of those assemblages. Here, we compile published data and unpublished own measurement from the past two decades to compare the environmental factors and primary production in two fjord systems. Kongsfjorden is characterized by a deeper euphotic zone, higher biomass and greater proportion of autotrophic species. Hornsund seems to obtain more nutrients due to the extensive seabird colonies and exhibits higher turbidity compared to Kongsfjorden. The annual primary production in the analysed fjords ranges from 48 g C m-2 y-1 in Kongsfjorden to 216 g C m-2 y-1 in Hornsund, with a dominant component of microplankton (90%) followed by macrophytes and microphytobenthos

Irradiated Esophageal Cells are Protected from Radiation-Induced Recombination by MnSOD Gene Therapy

Radiation-induced DNA damage is a precursor to mutagenesis and cytotoxicity. During radiotherapy, exposure of healthy tissues can lead to severe side effects. We explored the potential of mitochondrial SOD (MnSOD) gene therapy to protect esophageal, pancreatic and bone marrow cells from radiation-induced genomic instability. Specifically, we measured the frequency of homologous recombination (HR) at an integrated transgene in the Fluorescent Yellow Direct Repeat (FYDR) mice, in which an HR event can give rise to a fluorescent signal. Mitochondrial SOD plasmid/liposome complex (MnSOD-PL) was administered to esophageal cells 24 h prior to 29 Gy upper-body irradiation. Single cell suspensions from FYDR, positive control FYDR-REC, and negative control C57BL/6NHsd (wild-type) mouse esophagus, pancreas and bone marrow were evaluated by flow cytometry. Radiation induced a statistically significant increase in HR 7 days after irradiation compared to unirradiated FYDR mice. MnSOD-PL significantly reduced the induction of HR by radiation at day 7 and also reduced the level of HR in the pancreas. Irradiation of the femur and tibial marrow with 8 Gy also induced a significant increase in HR at 7 days. Radioprotection by intraesophageal administration of MnSOD-PL was correlated with a reduced level of radiation-induced HR in esophageal cells. These results demonstrate the efficacy of MnSOD-PL for suppressing radiation-induced HR in vivo.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Grant R01-CA83876-8)National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.) (NIH grant U19A1068021)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant T32-ES07020)United States. Dept. of Energy (DOE DE-FG01-04ER04)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH P01-CA26735

Flexoelectric Polarization in a Nematic Liquid Crystal Enhanced by Dopants with Different Molecular Shape Polarities

Funding Information: We would like to acknowledge the great support which we received from Prof. I. Muševič, JSI, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Dr M. Klasen-Memmer, Merck, Germany, Dr Santanu Kumar Pal and Dr Golam Mohiuddin, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, India, and Prof. P. Kula and K. Garbat, MUT, Warsaw, Poland. This work has been partially supported by SeeReal Technologies and MUT Research Grants 13-843/WAT/2022.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Biosimilar G-CSF versus filgrastim and lenograstim in healthy unrelated volunteer hematopoietic stem cell donors

The World Marrow Donor Organization recommends original granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) for the mobilization of stem cells in healthy unrelated hematopoietic stem cell donors. We report the comparison of a biosimilar G-CSF (Zarzio) with two original G-CSFs (filgrastim and lenograstim) in mobilization in unrelated donors. We included data of 313 consecutive donors who were mobilized during the period from October 2014 to March 2016 at the Medical University of Warsaw. The primary endpoints of this study were the efficiency of CD34+ cell mobilization to the circulation and results of the first apheresis. The mean daily dose of G-CSF was 9.1 μg/kg for lenograstim, 9.8 μg/kg for biosimilar filgrastim, and 9.3 μg/kg for filgrastim (p < 0.001). The mean CD34+ cell number per microliter in the blood before the first apheresis was 111 for lenograstim, 119 for biosimilar filgrastim, and 124 for filgrastim (p = 0.354); the mean difference was even less significant when comparing CD34+ number per dose of G-CSF per kilogram (p = 0.787). Target doses of CD34+ cells were reached with one apheresis in 87% donors mobilized with lenograstim and in 93% donors mobilized with original and biosimilar filgrastim (p = 0.005). The mobilized apheresis outcomes (mean number of CD34+ cells/kg of donor collected during the first apheresis) was similar with lenograstim, biosimilar filgrastim, and filgrastim: 6.2 × 10⁶, 7.6 × 10⁶, and 7.3 × 10⁶, respectively, p = 0.06. There was no mobilization failure in any of the donors. Biosimilar G-CSF is as effective in the mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells in unrelated donors as original G-CSFs. Small and clinically irrelevant differences seen in the study can be attributed to differences in G-CSF dose and collection-related factors. Active safety surveillance concurrent to clinical use and reporting to donor outcome registry (e.g., EBMT donor outcome registry or WMDA SEAR/SPEAR) might help to evaluate the possible short- and long-term complications of biosimilar G-CSF

Hepatitis C virus treatment in the real world: optimising treatment and access to therapies

Chronic HCV infections represent a major worldwide public health problem and are responsible for a large proportion of liver related deaths, mostly because of HCV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis. The treatment of HCV has undergone a rapid and spectacular revolution. In the past 5 years, the launch of direct acting antiviral drugs has seen sustained virological response rates reach 90% and above for many patient groups. The new treatments are effective, well tolerated, allow for shorter treatment regimens and offer new opportunities for previously excluded groups. This therapeutic revolution has changed the rules for treatment of HCV, moving the field towards an interferon-free era and raising the prospect of HCV eradication. This manuscript addresses the new challenges regarding treatment optimisation in the real world, improvement of antiviral efficacy in `hard-to-treat' groups, the management of patients whose direct acting antiviral drug treatment was unsuccessful, and access to diagnosis and treatment in different parts of the world

Linear-time computation of cyclic roots and cyclic covers of a string

Cyclic versions of covers and roots of a string are considered in this paper. A prefix V of a string S is a cyclic root of S if S is a concatenation of cyclic rotations of V . A prefix V of S is a cyclic cover of S if the occurrences of the cyclic rotations of V cover all positions of S. We present O(n)-time algorithms computing all cyclic roots (using number-theoretic tools) and all cyclic covers (using tools related to seeds) of a length-n string over an integer alphabet. Our results improve upon O(n log log n) and O(n log n) time complexities of recent algorithms of Grossi et al. (WALCOM 2023) for the respective problems and provide novel approaches to the problems. As a by-product, we obtain an optimal data structure for Internal Circular Pattern Matching queries that generalize Internal Pattern Matching and Cyclic Equivalence queries of Kociumaka et al. (SODA 2015)