The Economic Benefits of Cleaning Up the Chesapeake

Information on the economic benefits of environmental improvement is an important consideration for anyone (firms, organizations, government agencies, and individuals) concerned about the cost-effectiveness of changes in management designed to achieve that improvement. In the case of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment), these benefits would accrue due to improvements in the health, and therefore productivity, of land and water in the watershed. These productivity changes occur both due to the outcomes of the TMDL and state implementation plans, also known as a "Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint" itself (i.e., cleaner water in the Bay) as well as a result of the measures taken to achieve those outcomes that have their own beneficial side effects. All such changes are then translated into dollar values for various ecosystem services, including water supply, food production, recreation, aesthetics, and others. By these measures, the total economic benefit of the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint is estimated at $22.5 billion per year (in 2013 dollars), as measured as the improvement over current conditions, or at$28.2 billion per year (in 2013 dollars), as measured as the difference between the Clean Water Blueprint and a business-as-usual scenario. (Due to lag times—it takes some time for changes in land management to result in improvements in water quality, the full measure of these benefits would begin to accrue sometime after full implementation of the Blueprint.) These considerable benefits should be considered alongside the costs and other economic aspects of implementing the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe effect of physical activity (PA) and consequent influence on cognition within adult seniors has been widely published. However, there is a paucity of causal research relating PA and cognition to schoolchildren within an authentic setting. Also, little is known about the required intensity and dosage of PA to effect executive function (EF) change, or an optimal time for increased learning posttreatment. The primary aim of this study was to measure the effect of vigorous intensity acute exercise (VIAE) on mathematics test performance in a school setting, with the secondary aims of the study determining the effect of vigorous intensity acute exercise on trails test performance, and to consider whether there is an optimal time for learning post-PA. Participants included 72 (males n=44) 8th graders from an urban middle school. Participants were split into two order groups that received both a single 20-minute bout of PA and a single bout of sedentary activity (SA) over a 2-week period. Four different math tests consisting of 10 previously validated questions were completed 30-minutes and 45-minutes post-PA and SA. Two Trails Making Tests (A and B) were completed 20 and 25 minutes post-PA. During the PA bout, participants wore heart rate monitors to ensure work rate remained within the vigorous intensity zone as set using the CDC (2011) guidelines. Repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant interaction between treatment and mathematics tests scores F(1, 68) = 14.420, p < 0.001, d = .9, power of .963. Simple main effects for both genders were most significant at 30 minutes post-PA (male, p = 0.02, and females, p = 0.06) when compared to the other math tests mean scores at different time points. Due to order effects and normality violations, one can suggest, with caution, that an acute bout of vigorous intensity PA can help schoolchildren to become better prepared for math test performance. This may influence the amount and timing of PA opportunities throughout the school day. More research in an authentic setting is needed in order to compliment the literature

Judging quality and coordination in biomarker diagnostic development

What makes a high-quality biomarker experiment? The success of personalized medicine hinges on the answer to this question. Unfortunately, as many commentators have now emphasized, the quality of most biomarker experiments to date has been quite low. Although the technical side of this problem has received considerable attention, the philosophical issues remain largely unexplored. In this paper, I argue that understanding what constitutes a high-quality biomarker experiment requires some fundamental shifts in how we think about the epistemology, ontology, and methodology of clinical translation.; ¿Qué convierte a un experimento con biomarcadores en un experimento de gran calidad? El éxito de la medicina personalizada depende de la respuesta a esta pregunta. En este artículo sostengo que el juicio sobre la calidad de los experimentos con biomarcadores está mediado por el problema de la subdeterminación teórica, es decir, la red de teorías biológicas y patofisiológicas que motivan un experimento con biomarcadores es lo bastante complicada como para frustrar a menudo una interpretación válida de los resultados experimentales. A partir de un caso de desarrollo de diagnóstico con biomarcadores, defiendo que el problema de la subdeterminación puede ser superado con mayor coordinación en la trayectoria de investigación sobre el biomarcador. Después sugiero un enfoque para evaluar la coordinación a lo largo de una trayectoria de investigación. Por último concluyo que lo que hace que un experimento con biomarcadores tenga una alta calidad debe dirimirse en función de la contribución epistémica que aquél realiza sobre este esfuerzo investigador coordinado

Judging Quality and Coordination in Biomarker Diagnostic Development

What makes a high-quality biomarker experiment? The success of personalized medicine hinges on the answer to this question. In this paper, I argue that judgment about the quality of biomarker experiments is mediated by the problem of theoretical underdetermination. That is, the network of biological and pathophysiological theories motivating a biomarker experiment is sufficiently complicated that it often frustrates valid interpretation of the experimental results. Drawing on a case-study in biomarker diagnostic development from neurooncology, I argue that this problem of underdetermination can be overcome with greater coordination across the biomarker research trajectory. I then sketch an account for how coordination across a research trajectory can be evaluated. I ultimate conclude that what makes a high-quality biomarker experiment must be judged by the epistemic contribution it makes to this coordinated research effort

Opportunities and Challenges to the Development of Healthy Children and Youth Living in Diverse Communities

The field of developmental psychopathology has seen growth in research focusing on interdisciplinarity and normative developmental processes, including context-linked coping and adaptations. However, there continues to be an uncomfortable and unarticulated perspective to view others as having culture and “the self” as representing the standard. A call for explicit cultural considerations in research is needed to augment the impact of these new and other significant conceptual contributions noted. Sociopolitical influences on social contexts relevant to the different trajectories associated with youths\u27 opportunities and challenges are presented. We focus on macrolevel factors that frame contexts in which individual development occurs. A federal and educational policy is used to illustrate how unexamined cultural traditions and patterns embedded in research and policy impact development. These examples provide insight in presenting issues of vulnerability, particularly for youth, and afford opportunities to present advances and challenges paralleled in the developmental psychopathology field

Seamounts as refugia from ocean acidification for cold-water stony corals

Cold-water stony corals create habitat for a diverse range of deep-water species but are thought to be threatened by ocean acidification due to oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2. Knowledge of the severity of this threat is hampered by our limited understanding of the distribution and habitat requirements of these corals. Here we estimate the global acidification threat to these organisms using a global database of cold-water stony coral records and a species distribution modelling approach. We parameterised the models using present-day environmental data, and then replaced these data with future projections of ocean chemistry from the year 2099. We found suitable coral habitat to be very heterogeneously distributed, being concentrated in the northern North Atlantic and around New Zealand. Projected changes in ocean chemistry induced a pronounced reduction in habitat suitability in the North Atlantic, and a low-to-moderate impact elsewhere under both the IPCC IS92a and S650 scenarios. Seamount summits are impacted by these changes, but consistently provide more suitable habitat than the surrounding seafloor, with around 98% of seamount summits having higher suitability in both future scenarios; this is because they lie in shallower waters with a higher aragonite saturation state. These results suggest that anthropogenic-induced changes in ocean chemistry are likely to severely impact cold-water stony coral habitat in the deep-sea of the North Atlantic, and that impacts will be less severe elsewhere. We predict that coral communities on the summits and upper slopes of seamounts will be less susceptible to ocean acidification during this century than those on the surrounding seafloor, and thus that seamounts may serve as temporary refugia. © 2010 Blackwell Verlag GmbH

Establishing TDR Credit Representation in the Karst Regions of Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rico Planning Board wants to create a Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program that would send land development away from ecologically sensitive areas such as karst zones. In this project we determined the amount of land that one TDR credit would represent, using criteria from successful TDR programs elsewhere and from existing zoning laws in Puerto Rico that identify the amount of land needed to construct one house unit

Study of several factors affecting crew escape trajectories from the Space Shuttle Orbiter at low-subsonic speeds

Factors affecting the bailout characteristics from the space shuttle orbiter at low-subsonic speeds were investigated. In the 12-foot low-speed tunnel and the 4 by 7-meter tunnel with 0.03-scale models. The effect of crew-model exit velocity, body position, and body weight were studied with egress from the main side hatch with the orbiter upright and from the upper cabin hatch with the orbiter inverted. Crew model drag and flow field measurements around the orbiter were estimated. The high-angle-of-attack trim characteristics of the orbiter was determined by force tests in an attempt to improve bailout conditions. A computer simulation was made to evaluate the maneuver necessary to attain the high-angle-of-attack trim

A multiphase seismic investigation of the shallow subduction zone, southern North Island, New Zealand

The shallow structure of the Hikurangi margin, in particular the interface between the Australian Plate and the subducting Pacific Plate, is investigated using the traveltimes of direct and converted seismic phases from local earthquakes. Mode conversions take place as upgoing energy from earthquakes in the subducted slab crosses the plate interface. These PS and SP converted arrivals are observed as intermediate phases between the direct P and S waves. They place an additional constraint on the depth of the interface and enable the topography of the subducted plate to be mapped across the region. 301 suitable earthquakes were recorded by the Leeds (Tararua) broad-band seismic array, a temporary line of three-component short-period stations, and the permanent stations of the New Zealand national network. This provided coverage across the land area of southern North Island, New Zealand, at a total of 17 stations. Rays are traced through a structure parametrized using layered B-splines and the traveltime residuals inverted, simultaneously, for hypocentre relocation, interface depth and seismic velocity. The results are consistent with sediment in the northeast of the study region and gentle topography on the subducting plate. This study and recent tectonic reconstructions of the southwest Pacific suggest that the subducting plate consists of captured, oceanic crust. The anomalous nature of this crust partly accounts for the unusual features of the Hikurangi margin, e.g. the shallow trench, in comparison with the subducting margin further north