EXPLAINING RURAL HOUSEHOLD PARTICIPATION IN RECYCLING

Rising landfill costs have forced solid waste managers to consider waste stream reduction alternatives such as household recycling. Explaining the factors which motivate households to recycle is important to regions where households must bear a large portion of the recycling cost because unit-based garbage disposal fees and curbside recycling are not feasible options. Empirical results indicate that residents are responsive to constraints introduced by the household production technology, such as time costs and storage space, but are not responsive to variables measuring a recycling promotional program. Promotion efforts should switch focus from broader "public good" benefits of recycling to reducing household-level household production constraints.Dropoff recycling, Household recycling participation, Rural regions, Environmental Economics and Policy,

GENERATION OF RECYCLABLES BY RURAL HOUSEHOLDS

Rising landfill costs have forced solid waste managers to consider ways to reduce the waste stream. Using survey data, models explaining the weight of recyclables generated by households are estimated for paper and glass. Results indicate that households respond to the time cost of recycling paper but not glass. The waste generation models imply total monthly willingness to pay for recycling is $5.78 per household. Waste managers may increase the weight of recycled waste stream with programs which lower perceived time costs of nonrecyclers and improve the efficiency of recyclers.Consumer/Household Economics, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Technology Transfer in the Irish Food Industry: Researcher Perspectives

The public R&D system represents an important part of the framework conditions for carrying out innovation activities and creating commercially applicable knowledge (Drejer and Jørgensen, 2004). It is an important source of information for companies, particularly those that are developing new products (Tijssen, 2004). However, Rubenstein (2003) stated that there has been a perception that public research capacity and results were not being optimally used and thus that potential economic benefits were not entirely realised. It is also suggested that research conducted in the public sector is not efficiently or successfully transferred to industry (Markman et al, 1999) and that it is necessary to understand and improve the means of technology transfer for society to reap the benefits of public science (Geuna and Nesta, 2003). Thus, there is a growing interest, and indeed pressure, among policymakers and academics to ensure informed spending of taxpayers’ money, that useful and relevant research is conducted that represents good “value for money” and that wealth is generated from publicly-funded research (Carr, 1992; Lyall et al., 2004; Mustar et al., 2006). To achieve this requires, amongst other things, the establishment of scientific and technical human capital which is the sum of researchers’ professional network ties and their technical skills and resources (Bozeman and Coreley, 2004). This paper examines the interactions engaged in by researchers from Irish public science providers (public research centres and higher education institutions), with a particular focus on researchers- industry interactions, as well as their skills and resources. To provide context, it firstly briefly outlines the actors involved in conducting publicly funded R&D in Ireland. It then describes the methodology and presents the results of a national survey of publicly funded food researchers focusing on the extent and nature of researcher interactions with other researchers and with industry, the barriers to and motivations for researcher-industry interaction and researcher skills regarding technology transfer. It concludes with a discussion and some policy recommendations.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

Knowledge Transfer in the Irish Food Innovation System: Industry and Researcher Perspectives

The new EU Animal Health Strategy suggests a shift in emphasis away from control towards prevention and surveillance activities for the management of threats to animal health. The optimal combination of these actions will differ among diseases and depend on largely unknown and uncertain costs and benefits. This paper reports an empirical investigation of this issue for the case of Avian Influenza. The results suggest that the optimal combination of actions will be dependent on the objective of the decision maker and that conflict exists between an optimal strategy which minimises costs to the government and one which maximises producer profits or minimises negative effects on human health. From the perspective of minimising the effects on human health, prevention appears preferable to cure but the case is less clear for other objectives.Knowledge transfer, technology transfer, Irish food sector, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Decision makers\u27 experience of participatory dynamic simulation modelling: Methods for public health policy

Background: Systems science methods such as dynamic simulation modelling are well suited to address questions about public health policy as they consider the complexity, context and dynamic nature of system-wide behaviours. Advances in technology have led to increased accessibility and interest in systems methods to address complex health policy issues. However, the involvement of policy decision makers in health-related simulation model development has been lacking. Where end-users have been included, there has been limited examination of their experience of the participatory modelling process and their views about the utility of the findings. This paper reports the experience of end-user decision makers, including senior public health policy makers and health service providers, who participated in three participatory simulation modelling for health policy case studies (alcohol related harm, childhood obesity prevention, diabetes in pregnancy), and their perceptions of the value and efficacy of this method in an applied health sector context. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with end-user participants from three participatory simulation modelling case studies in Australian real-world policy settings. Interviewees were employees of government agencies with jurisdiction over policy and program decisions and were purposively selected to include perspectives at different stages of model development. Results: The ‘co-production’ aspect of the participatory approach was highly valued. It was reported as an essential component of building understanding of the modelling process, and thus trust in the model and its outputs as a decision-support tool. The unique benefits of simulation modelling included its capacity to explore interactions of risk factors and combined interventions, and the impact of scaling up interventions. Participants also valued simulating new interventions prior to implementation in the real world, and the comprehensive mapping of evidence and its gaps to prioritise future research. The participatory aspect of simulation modelling was time and resource intensive and therefore most suited to high priority complex topics with contested options for intervening. Conclusion: These findings highlight the value of a participatory approach to dynamic simulation modelling to support its utility in applied health policy settings

Ni(111)|Graphene|h-BN Junctions as Ideal Spin Injectors

Deposition of graphene on top of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) was very recently demonstrated while graphene is now routinely grown on Ni. Because the in-plane lattice constants of graphite, h-BN, graphite-like BC2N and of the close-packed surfaces of Co, Ni and Cu match almost perfectly, it should be possible to prepare ideal interfaces between these materials which are respectively, a semimetal, insulator, semiconductor, ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic metals. Using parameter-free energy minimization and electronic transport calculations, we show how h-BN can be combined with the perfect spin filtering property of Ni|graphite and Co|graphite interfaces to make perfect tunnel junctions or ideal spin injectors (SI) with any desired resistance-area product.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Defining the Costs of an Outbreak of Karnal Bunt of Wheat

In determining the economic impact of a possible outbreak of the quarantinable wheat disease Karnal Bunt, an examination was made of the detailed components of the costs involved. The costs were classified as: (a) Direct costs (yield and quality losses); (b) Reaction costs (export bans, quality down-grading, seed industry costs); and (c) Control costs (quarantine zones, fungicides, spore destruction). The relative importance of each of these cost components is measured for a hypothetical outbreak of Karnal Bunt in the European Union, as a means of ensuring that the policy responses to such an outbreak are appropriate considering the costs involved.disease, quarantine, cost, wheat, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,

Building the Machine: The Importance of Governance in Obesity Policy

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is a small Australian jurisdiction with a single tier of government and a population of approximately 400,000 people. Despite enjoying comparatively high levels of income, education, physical amenity, and access to nutritious food, overweight and obesity is the most prevalent risk factor for chronic disease in the ACT. From 2011, the ACT Government Health Directorate (ACT Health) led the development of a whole of Government plan (the Action Plan) to address obesity. A political imperative to take such action and recent administrative reform assisted the development of a plan with specific actions to be undertaken by different government agencies. Obesity is a “wicked problem” with a diversity of opinion about its causes and potential solutions. These opinions remained influential even when an official course of action had been decided upon. Strong decision making and accountability processes were therefore necessary to support the development of the Action Plan. A lack of understanding beyond the health sector in relation to the evidence for effective, population level interventions to address obesity and a tendency to try and address population health risks by scaling up client-centered models of Government services also proved problematic. This experience highlights the critical importance of designing obesity policy within a robust governance framework in order to ensure progress is made in a highly contested environment. Whilst the observations included here are strongly influenced by local contextual factors, there are important lessons which can be applied elsewhere

Adaptation to Climate Change: A Prospective Collaboration in Flood Control

Latin American Studie