The Potential Economic Benefits of Integrated and Sustainable Ocean Observation Systems: The Southeast Atlantic Region

The South East Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS) collects, manages and disseminates coastal oceanic and atmospheric observation information along the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United States. This paper estimates the benefits of SEACOOS information in eleven benefit categories. Following a methodology used in similar studies of other U.S. coastal regions, we evaluate the impacts of conservative changes in economic activity in each sector. The annual economic benefit of SEACOOS information is $170 million (2003$'s), an estimate that falls between annual benefits of $33 million for the Gulf of Maine region and$381 million for the Gulf of Mexico.

Privacy and Insurance in Canada, England, and France - How Does the Responsible Insurer Put Guidelines and Procedures in Place for Retaining and Destroying Personal Information

In this article, I will be discussing records containing personal data or information, and how ‘‘guidelines and procedures” are ‘‘put . . . in place for retaining and destroying [such] information” by private-sector insurers carrying on business in Canada, England, and France. Where I discuss Canada, I use the examples of the law of Ontario — which belongs to the English legal tradition —and of Quebec — whose private law belongs to the French legal tradition. As it happens, these are the two traditions with which I have the most experience relating to personal information

Privacy and Insurance in Canada, England, and France - How Does the Responsible Insurer Put Guidelines and Procedures in Place for Retaining and Destroying Personal Information

In this article, I will be discussing records containing personal data or information, and how ‘‘guidelines and procedures” are ‘‘put . . . in place for retaining and destroying [such] information” by private-sector insurers carrying on business in Canada, England, and France. Where I discuss Canada, I use the examples of the law of Ontario — which belongs to the English legal tradition —and of Quebec — whose private law belongs to the French legal tradition. As it happens, these are the two traditions with which I have the most experience relating to personal information

The Production of Pairs of Isolated Photons at Higher Orders in QCD

In this thesis, we consider the corrections to the production of a pair of isolated photons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which arise at Next-to-Next-to-Leading-Order (NNLO) in QCD, and Next-to-Leading-Order (NLO) in the electroweak theory. These corrections are calculated through the antenna subtraction formalism, and implemented in the parton-level Monte Carlo program NNLOJET. This calculation is then applied to a study of the theoretical and phenomenological issues which drive the apparent tension between prior theoretical predictions at this order, and LHC data taken with the ATLAS detector at 8 TeV. In particular, we focus upon the issue of photon isolation, presenting the first calculation of the diphoton process with ‘hybrid isolation’, a compromise between the theoretical and experimental constraints upon predictions and measurements of photonic final-states. We further consider the consequences of another theoretical choice, the renormalisation and factorisation scales at which the calculation is made. We find that these two theoretical choices act in concert to generate the tension between prediction and data, and show that reasonable alternatives can lead to excellent agreement. We conclude with an application of the same approach to preliminary 13 TeV ATLAS data, again finding excellent agreement

Stability of Vortex Solutions to an Extended Navier-Stokes System

We study the long-time behavior an extended Navier-Stokes system in $\R^2$ where the incompressibility constraint is relaxed. This is one of several "reduced models" of Grubb and Solonnikov '89 and was revisited recently (Liu, Liu, Pego '07) in bounded domains in order to explain the fast convergence of certain numerical schemes (Johnston, Liu '04). Our first result shows that if the initial divergence of the fluid velocity is mean zero, then the Oseen vortex is globally asymptotically stable. This is the same as the Gallay Wayne '05 result for the standard Navier-Stokes equations. When the initial divergence is not mean zero, we show that the analogue of the Oseen vortex exists and is stable under small perturbations. For completeness, we also prove global well-posedness of the system we study.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure, updated to add authors' contact information and to address referee's comment

Spatial Hedonic Models for Measuring the Impact of Sea-Level Rise on Coastal Real Estate

This study uses a unique integration of geospatial and hedonic property data to estimate the impact of sea-level rise on coastal real estate in North Carolina. North Carolina’s coastal plain is one of several large terrestrial systems around the world threatened by rising sea-levels. High-resolution topographic LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data are used to provide accurate inundation maps for all properties that will be at risk under six different sea-level rise scenarios. A simulation approach based on spatial hedonic models is used to provide consistent estimates of the property value losses. Results indicate that the northern part of the North Carolina coastline is comparatively more vulnerable to the effect of sea-level rise than the southern part. Low-lying and heavily developed areas in the northern coastline are especially at high risk from sea-level rise. Key Words: Climate change, coastal real estate, sea-level rise, spatial hedonic models

Measuring the Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Marine Recreational Shore Fishing in North Carolina

We develop estimates of the economic effects of sea level rise on marine recreational shore fishing in North Carolina. We estimate the relationship between angler behavior and spatial differences in beach width using the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey and geospatial data. We exploit the empirical relationship between beach width and site choice by simulating the effects of (1) sea level rise on beach width and (2) beach width on angler site choice. We find that the welfare losses are potentially substantial, ranging up to a present value of $1.26 billion over 75 years. Key Words: marine recreational fishing, travel cost method, climate change, sea level rise

Agricultural Knowledge and Perceptions Among Students Enrolled in Agriscience Programs in Texas Counties Bordering Mexico

Hispanics are rapidly becoming the predominant ethnic group in Texas. While many secondary agriculture programs have seen increased participation by Hispanic students, in comparison to the demographics of Texas secondary school enrollment, Hispanics are underrepresented in agricultural education. As a result, agricultural education programs should continue to become more diverse and provide curriculum engaging to a wide variety of students. The purpose of this descriptive, correlational study was to determine the agricultural literacy rates and perceptions of agriculture among Hispanic and non-Hispanic high school agriculture students enrolled in agriculture programs in Texas counties bordering Mexico. Results showed both groups have agricultural literacy rates congruent with previous studies; however, Hispanic students tended to have lower knowledge scores in all areas except agricultural career knowledge, as well as lower perceptions of agriculture. Agricultural career knowledge scores were the lowest area for all respondents. Recommendations include: 1) more research should be conducted to better determine levels of agricultural literacy in minority agricultural education students in Texas and other areas, and 2) more emphasis on agricultural career knowledge should be incorporated into agriscience courses to better inform students about postsecondary education and career options within the agricultural industry

Chapter 4 Reversion and reprisal

As noted by Pierre Nora (1989, p. 17), ‘no-one knows what the past will be made of next’. While this is indeed so, it is also the case that the past will surely be ‘made’ somehow. In this chapter, we take a look at those makings and the ubiquitous desire to recreate what once was that arguably undergirds almost any heritage practice