Practical Alternatives to Estimate Opportunity Costs of Forest Conservation

Numerous studies have shown the merits of targeting the costs of conservation besides environmental benefits and aligning payments for ecosystem services with incurred costs. However, cost-effective and precise estimation of site specific opportunity costs is a major challenge. In this paper we test two approaches to estimate opportunity costs of conservation: One approach derives opportunity costs from annual land rents, and the other models regresses opportunity costs on easily obtainable and difficult to manipulate spatial and socio-economic independent variables such as soil quality. None of these approaches appeared to estimate opportunity costs sufficiently well. But since this judgment is based on how well the estimates compare to the reference opportunity costs, which were computed from farm budgets, we also considered potential flaws in the reference data and tested their plausibility. The tests confirmed the plausibility of data. Based on the results presented in this paper none of the two cost estimation approaches can be recommended for practical application in conservation programs. Yet, further research is necessary to confirm these findings giving special attention to the techniques that are applied to deliver reference point data on opportunity costs.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Opportunity Costs as a Determinant of Participation in Payments for Ecosystem Service Schemes

Landholders are generally assumed to be willing to participate in payments for ecosystem service (PES) schemes if the offered payment exceeds the opportunity cost of participation. The calculation of opportunity costs is often based on historic financial data such as net returns of the formerly practiced land use. Reliable estimates of opportunity costs are required especially in flexible, cost-aligned payment schemes with differentiated payments at the farm scale. We question whether opportunity cost estimates that do not consider personal landholder characteristics such as risk considerations, information access and non-monetary personal preferences (e.g. for traditional land use practices) are sufficient to explain a landholder's decision to enrol land in PES. To test these assumptions, a PES adoption model was developed for hypothetical adoption decisions by 178 landholders in Costa Rica. The model explained up to 73.5% (Nagelkerkes pseudo R2) of adoption variance. The results confirm that adoption is not determined by financial costs alone. Trust in state institutions, for example, was highly significant. The results call for more integrated methods of opportunity cost estimation such as inverse auctions. Their strength lies, among others, in that all adoption determinants are potentially expressed in the landholder's bid.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The major thylakoid protein kinases STN7 and STN8 revisited: effects of altered STN8 levels and regulatory specificities of the STN kinases

Thylakoid phosphorylation is predominantly mediated by the protein kinases STN7 and STN8. While STN7 primarily catalyzes LHCII phosphorylation, which enables LHCII to migrate from photosystem (PS) II to PSI, STN8 mainly phosphorylates PSII core proteins. The reversible phosphorylation of PSII core proteins is thought to regulate the PSII repair cycle and PSII supercomplex stability, and play a role in modulating the folding of thylakoid membranes. Earlier studies clearly demonstrated a considerable substrate overlap between the two STN kinases, raising the possibility of a balanced interdependence between them at either the protein or activity level. Here, we show that such an interdependence of the STN kinases on protein level does not seem to exist as neither knock-out nor overexpression of STN7 or STN8 affects accumulation of the other. STN7 and STN8 are both shown to be integral thylakoid proteins that form part of molecular supercomplexes, but exhibit different spatial distributions and are subject to different modes of regulation. Evidence is presented for the existence of a second redox-sensitive motif in STN7, which seems to be targeted by thioredoxin f. Effects of altered STN8 levels on PSII core phosphorylation, supercomplex formation, photosynthetic performance and thylakoid ultrastructure were analyzed in Arabidopsis thaliana using STN8-overexpressing plants (oeSTN8). In general, oeSTN8 plants were less sensitive to intense light and exhibited changes in thylakoid ultrastructure, with grana stacks containing more layers and reduced amounts of PSII supercomplexes. Hence, we conclude that STN8 acts in an amount-dependent manner similar to what was shown for STN7 in previous studies. However, the modes of regulation of the STN kinases appear to differ significantly

The structural basis of rubisco phase separation in the pyrenoid

Approximately one-third of global CO2 fixation occurs in a phase-separated algal organelle called the pyrenoid. The existing data suggest that the pyrenoid forms by the phase separation of the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco with a linker protein; however, the molecular interactions underlying this phase separation remain unknown. Here we present the structural basis of the interactions between Rubisco and its intrinsically disordered linker protein Essential Pyrenoid Component 1 (EPYC1) in the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We find that EPYC1 consists of five evenly spaced Rubisco-binding regions that share sequence similarity. Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy of these regions in complex with Rubisco indicates that each Rubisco holoenzyme has eight binding sites for EPYC1, one on each Rubisco small subunit. Interface mutations disrupt binding, phase separation and pyrenoid formation. Cryo-electron tomography supports a model in which EPYC1 and Rubisco form a codependent multivalent network of specific low-affinity bonds, giving the matrix liquid-like properties. Our results advance the structural and functional understanding of the phase separation underlying the pyrenoid, an organelle that plays a fundamental role in the global carbon cycle

Analyse verbreiteter Anwendungen zum Lesen von elektronischen Büchern

Der Marktanteil elektronischer Bucher (E-Books) am Buchmarkt wächst beständig. Um E-Books zu rezipieren, benötigt man spezielle Leseumgebungen, die als Software (im Browser oder als eigene Anwendung) oder als Spezialgerät (E-Reader) realisiert sein können. Diese Leseumgebungen sind geeignet, Daten über das Leseverhalten zu sammeln. Im Rahmen einer universitären Lehrveranstaltung wurden die Software-Leseumgebungen der beiden deutschen Marktführer Kindle und Tolino untersucht. Der vorliegende Bericht fasst die Ergebnisse dieser Analysen zusammen. Das Ergebnis ist eine umfassende Bestandsaufnahme der digitalen Spuren, die durch die Benutzung der Programme entstehen. Betrachtet wurden die zum Untersuchungszeitpunkt aktuellen Versionen der jeweiligen Webanwendungen und Android-Apps sowie des Kindle-Windows-Clients. Die Ergebnisse entstanden im Rahmen einer Übung zur Vorlesung Fortgeschrittene forensische Informatik II im Wintersemester 2018/19 an der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), die gemeinsam durchgeführt wurde vom Lehrstuhl fur Informatik 1 und dem Institut für Buchwissenschaft an der FAU

Female chromosome X mosaicism is age-related and preferentially affects the inactivated X chromosome

To investigate large structural clonal mosaicism of chromosome X, we analysed the SNP microarray intensity data of 38,303 women from cancer genome-wide association studies (20,878 cases and 17,425 controls) and detected 124 mosaic X events >2 Mb in 97 (0.25%) women. Here we show rates for X-chromosome mosaicism are four times higher than mean autosomal rates; X mosaic events more often include the entire chromosome and participants with X events more likely harbour autosomal mosaic events. X mosaicism frequency increases with age (0.11% in 50-year olds; 0.45% in 75-year olds), as reported for Y and autosomes. Methylation array analyses of 33 women with X mosaicism indicate events preferentially involve the inactive X chromosome. Our results provide further evidence that the sex chromosomes undergo mosaic events more frequently than autosomes, which could have implications for understanding the underlying mechanisms of mosaic events and their possible contribution to risk for chronic diseases

Female chromosome X mosaicism is age-related and preferentially affects the inactivated X chromosome

To investigate large structural clonal mosaicism of chromosome X, we analysed the SNP microarray intensity data of 38,303 women from cancer genome-wide association studies (20,878 cases and 17,425 controls) and detected 124 mosaic X events42Mb in 97 (0.25%) women. Here we show rates for X-chromosome mosaicism are four times higher than mean autosomal rates; X mosaic events more often include the entire chromosome and participants with X events more likely harbour autosomal mosaic events. X mosaicism frequency increases with age (0.11% in 50-year olds; 0.45% in 75-year olds), as reported for Y and autosomes. Methylation array analyses of 33 women with X mosaicism indicate events preferentially involve the inactive X chromosome. Our results provide further evidence that the sex chromosomes undergo mosaic events more frequently than autosomes, which could have implications for understanding the underlying mechanisms of mosaic events and their possible contribution to risk for chronic diseases