Catch Shares in Action: Peruvian Anchoveta Northern-Central Stock Individual Vessel Quota Program

The Peruvian Anchoveta Northern-Central Stock Individual Vessel Quota Program is a catch share program that manages the largest volume fishery in the world. The goals of the program were focused on the economic improvement of the fishery through reduction of fleet capacity and lengthening of the fishing season. Additional biological and social goals were identified and seen as vital to ensure program success. Key design elements include restrictions on transferability to help limit consolidation and an industrysponsored social fund to assist with crew retirement and labor transition. To reflect the short-lived nature of anchoveta, management is structured into two fishing seasons per year. Each year, a five million metric ton reserve of anchoveta biomass is set aside to promote long term stock health

Supporting Evidence Based Interventions: Causes and extent of reproductive loss and mortality of domestic ruminants in Tanzania

Improving productivity of livestock systems by reducing mortality, including reproductive losses, is a priority investment area. Data on the incidence and aetiology of livestock mortality, reproductive losses, and their impact on productivity in sub-Saharan Africa are required in order to prioritize interventions but are still very limited. The overarching objective of SEBI-Tz is to develop intervention strategies to control diseases causing mortality and reproductive loss in livestock in Tanzania. The project will do this by: a) collating and analysing Tanzanian mortality and reproductive loss data found in the literature and other data sources; b) screening existing livestock serum samples to determine the range of abortigenic pathogens that livestock are exposed to; c) analysing linked household survey data to determine the frequency of livestock reproductive losses and associations with pathogen exposure; d) establishing a livestock abortion surveillance platform to investigate cases of reproductive loss and to determine the prevalence of abortigenic agents in such cases; e) carrying out an economic assessment to determine the costs associated with reproductive loss and costs of the strategies used by farmers to mitigate these losses; f) designing and evaluating cost-effective and locally  appropriate intervention strategies. SEBI-Tz was launched in March 2017 and the first phase will complete in August 2019. We will present preliminary mortality data, cross-sectional household survey data illustrating the impact of reproductive losses across a range of livestock keeping settings, and results emanating from the first year of the abortion surveillance platform. Key words: livestock, mortality, abortion, reproductive loss, Tanzani

The Impact of Climate Change on Historic Interiors

It is widely understood that the environment is critical for the preservation of historic collections and interiors, if the environment is unsuitable it can create an increased risk of damage. In historic houses collections are usually on open display, and the room environment often has little control thus it is vulnerable to changes in the outdoor environment. The future outdoor environment is projected to change so the aim of this work has been to develop a widely applicable model to investigate the potential impact of climate change on historic interiors. A simple transfer function has been used to predict indoor temperature and relative humidity. The method is widely applicable and easily transferable between unheated buildings. It has been shown that it is important to assess each location and room on an individual basis. The method has been coupled with future climate output, from both the UKCP09 weather generator and the Hadley model, where data has been downscaled. The high resolution climate output allows for projections of future indoor environment. Future temperature is projected to increase in unheated historic houses around the UK and across Europe, although less than outdoors. Annual average relative humidity is largely unchanged in the future. Damage functions are used to determine the impact of the future indoor environment on materials. Typically temperature driven damage such as chemical degradation of paper and silk and insect pest activity increase in the future, whereas damage driven by relative humidity, such as salt transitions, depends upon the location assessed. In general risk of mould growth increases, and dimensional changes to wood decrease. The significance of future changes is an important consideration, requiring some further work. Annual averages are shown to hide seasonal changes, thus it is important to assess these, which can impact upon management strategies. At Knole it is projected that the summer humidity will decrease and the winter humidity increase slightly, which raises the risk of mould growth. The application of conservation heating has been shown to be less effective in future, but is still an effective strategy, although dehumidification may become more appropriate in some locations. The future energy use of conservation heating has a negligible change. There are a number of inherent uncertainties associated with the models used here. Specifically with climate modelling, future emissions are unknown and the physical processes of the climate are not fully understood. There is a statistical error associated with the transfer function, and the damage functions also have a number of related uncertainties. It is important to consider these when assessing future indoor projections. The results allow for long term planning by collection managers, to prepare for the impact of climate change, thus preserving heritage for future generations

Magnetic resonance imaging and the development of vascular targeted treatments for cancer.

The main subject of the work presented in this thesis is the further development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a non-invasive method of investigating tumour microcirculation. Two different MR techniques were used: dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE)-MRI and Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD)-MRI. Intravital microscopy was used to help interpret BOLD-MRI results. The ultimate aims were to determine whether MRI methods could be relied upon to define a drug as having vascular disrupting activity and to develop techniques to predict the effectiveness of vascular disruptive agents (VDA). In DCE-MRI, tissue enhancement is continuously monitored over several minutes after intravenous injection of contrast medium. Modelling of contrast agent kinetics generates quantitative parameters related to tissue blood flow rate and permeability, e.g. Ktrans (transfer constant). In a clinical study, patients had DCE-MRI examinations before and 24 hours after cytotoxic chemotherapy to establish whether any acute ami-vascular effects could be detected. No acute reductions in Ktrans were seen. In this project, the acute effects of the VDA, combretastatin A-4-phosphate, were investigated using DCE-MRI in SW1222 tumours in mice. Responses were seen both at a clinically relevant dose and at higher doses, and a dose-response relationship established. BOLD-MRI can detect changes in oxygenation and blood flow within tumours using deoxygenated haemoglobin as an intrinsic contrast agent. Tumours contain a variable proportion of immature vessels, which may explain differential sensitivity to VDAs. In this project, BOLD-MRI was used to assess tumour vessel maturity using consequent vasoreactivity to angiotensin II and carbon dioxide (as air-5%C02 or as carbogen) in an animal model. Intravital microscopy was used to directly observe response to these agents in mouse window chambers. Results suggest that response to vasoactive agents is useful for assessing vascular maturity in tumours but that more sensitive non-invasive imaging methods than BOLD-MRI are required for clinical use

Predynastic & Pharaonic era Rock-Art in Egypt’s Central Eastern Desert: Distribution, Dating & Interpretation

The aim of this thesis is to examine the rock-art of Egypt’s Central Eastern Desert in order to outline the petroglyphs’ distribution and influences on their location, to date them, and to explore the reasons why they were created. The area is notable for the presence of boat petroglyphs, along with images of people and a wide range of fauna, in the middle of the desert many miles from the Nile and Red Sea. Since Hans Winkler’s pioneering work in the 1930’s, the corpus covering the whole of the area has been considerably increased due to work from the 1980’s to the present, thanks mainly to the Eastern Desert Survey (EDS) and the Rock Art Topographical Survey (RATS). The construction of a comprehensive corpus enables an analysis of the distribution of the approximately 4000 images, the dating of a significant majority of the rock-art sites and interpretation of the reasons for their creation. Many of the petroglyphs were probably made in the early predynastic period: Naqada I c to II a/b (which scholars generally date from 3750 to 3650 BCE), and often show hunting scenes associated with boats, or even have vessels integrated within them. As the spatial analysis carried out in this work demonstrates, these motifs are often located in shaded locations and, especially in the south of the survey area, near to the entrances to side wadis. In contrast, the smaller numbers of dynastic and Greco-Roman images are usually situated on routes to the mines and quarries of the Eastern Desert, as well as to the Red Sea. This thesis also proposes a new approach to the interpretation of boats and the figures with arms raised and incurved above the head. As opposed to common scholarly practice where they have previously been interpreted by retrospective comparison with pharaonic themes, I pursue a synchronic approach to interpretation, placing the predynastic motifs in Naqada culture funerary context linked to hunting as an elite activity. The later rock-art is divided between pharaonic images related to mining and quarrying expeditions, and horse and camel riders pictured in unique conflict scenes

Implementing Pasteur's vision for rabies elimination: the evidence base and the needed policy actions

It has been 129 years since Louis Pasteur's experimental protocol saved the life of a child mauled by a rabid dog, despite incomplete understanding of the etiology or mechanisms by which the miracle cure worked (1). The disease has since been well understood, and highly effective vaccines are available, yet Pasteur's vision for ridding the world of rabies has not been realized. Rabies remains a threat to half the world's population and kills more than 69,000 people each year, most of them children (2). We discuss the basis for this neglect and present evidence supporting the feasibility of eliminating canine-mediated rabies and the required policy actions

Developing appropriate incentives for improving water quality in the Burdekin River catchment

Achieving a reduction in the discharge of diffuse agricultural water pollutants from the Burdekin River catchment to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon has become a high priority for government. Such an achievement requires an increase in the voluntary adoption of best management practices by landholders. Past policies and programs to encourage adoption do not appear to have achieved significant improvements in water quality. It is thought that a more tailored suite of incentive measures would be more effective in encouraging landholders to adopt management practices. This paper presents preliminary results from a catchment wide landholder survey on how landholders perceived the effectiveness of different incentive instruments. Results indicated that there was a suite of preferred incentives from different categories including financial incentives (specifically income tax incentives); education and extension programs (specifically on-farm demonstration sites) and increased security of property rights. Government regulation was the least preferred option. These results suggest a ‘tool-box’ of incentives will be required to encourage the range of landholders and their different situations to adopt management practices. Regional NRM bodies such as the Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM will have many roles to play in the design, support and delivery of such incentive mechanisms

Political budget cycles in Latin America: fiscal policy effectiveness or regulated markets?

Within the Political Budget Cycle theory (PBC), it is well known that reelection-seeking incumbents have incentives to manipulate economic outcomes through fiscal policy. However, there is no research to asses the conditions under which manipulating taxes and spending effectively serve those interests of political survival. In our first chapter, we argue that the incentives to do so will depend on the extent to which output can be effectively affected in the short-run. Our theory suggests that politicians follow such strategy with different degrees of information, and shows why some incumbent presidents have been more successful in manipulating the fiscal policy than others using a sample of 13 Latin American countries between 1980 and 2005. Our second chapter estimates the macroeconomic effects of exogenous fiscal policy shocks with a three variable Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model. Our sample country is Costa Rica, for which there is no literature on the topic. Using quarterly data from 1991 until 2009, we found a negative and small impact of fiscal policy on output, while a small positive of revenue. Based on these results, we decided to test the existence of an indirect tool the incumbent may still have through the regulated price industries. Our theory suggests that a regulator-agency will choose the price which maximizes the political support for the incumbent government-regulator. We provide evidence with monthly data from 1986 until 2014, from a wider regulated market: Costa Rica. We also provide insights on the effect of elections on gasoline prices (as a proxy for regulated markets) for a a panel of ten Latin American countries of annual data from 2001-2012. And we contribute to the literature by proposing a non parametric approach describing the relationship between prices in regulated markets and election timin

Protostrongylid nematodes in caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) and moose (Alces alces) of Newfoundland

Two species of protostrongylid nematodes with dorsal-spined, first-stage larvae, are present in caribou and moose of Newfoundland. Elaphostrongyius rangiferi Mitskevich, 1958, a parasite introduced from Scandinavia, causes periodic epizootics of a severe neurological disease in caribou. Sick animals exhibiting signs of cerebrospinal elaphostrongylosis (CSE) were particularly noticeable in central Newfoundland each winter between 1981 and 1985. Those collected for examinarion were mostly male calves. The disease again became prominent in caribou on the Avalon Peninsula in the winters of 1996 and 1997; it may have spread to that isolated part of the province as recently as 1990. E. rangiferi was also found in moose but no cases of neurologic disease have been reported in this host. Parelapbostrongylus andersoni Prestwood, 1972, was found in caribou, both in central Newfoundland and on the Avalon Peninsula. Moose may also be infected. Of 1407 terrestrial gastropod intermediate hosts examined, 9 (0.6%) contained infective, third-stage, protostrongylid larvae resembling those of E. rangiferi and P. andersoni which are indistinguishable. The small dark slug, Deroceras laeve, dominated gastropod collections and was the only species infected