Personal norms of sustainability and their impact on management – The case of rangeland management in semi-arid regions

We empirically study personal norms of sustainability, conceptualized according to the normactivation theory and operationalized under the notion of strong ecological-economic sustainability, for commercial cattle farmers in semi-arid rangelands of Namibia, a system that is subject to extensive degradation. We characterize farmers’ personal norms, study their determinants, and analyze their impact on actual management based on the dual-preferences model. We find personal norms of sustainability that are heterogeneous across farmers, but vary little with socio-demographic or environmental characteristics. We find no evidence for a significant impact of personal norms on actual management behavior, which may be due to farmers not feeling capable for averting adverse long-term consequences of their management. This may contribute to the observed degradation of rangelands in Namibia.commercial cattle farming, Namibia, norm-activation theory, personal norms, dual-preferences model, semi-arid rangelands, sustainability

Complementarity, impatience, and the resilience of natural-resource-dependent economies

We study how human preferences aect the resilience of economies that depend on more than one type of natural resources. In particular, we analyze whether the degree of substitutability of natural resources in consumer needs may give rise to multiple steady states and path dependence even when resources are managed optimally. This is a major shift in the interpretation and analysis of resilience, from viewing (limited) resilience as an objective property of the economy-environment system to acknowledging its partially subjective, preference-based character. We nd that society tends to be less willing to buer exogenous shocks if resource goods are complements in consumption than if they are substitutes. Hence, the stronger the complementarity between the various types of resource goods, the less resilient the economy is.Resilience; substitutes and complements; discounting; multiple steady states; natural resources; path dependence; regime shifts; tipping points

Risk preferences under heterogeneous environmental risk

We study risk preferences and their determinants for commercial cattle farmers in Namibia who are subject to high and heterogeneous precipitation risk, using data from questionnaire and field experiments, simulated data for on-farm precipitation risk and data on famers’ previous place of residence. We find that the relationship between risk preferences and precipitation risk is contingent on early-life experience with this risk. We also find that adult farmers self-select themselves onto farms according to their risk preferences. Results are not confounded by background risks or liquidity constraint.risk preferences, environmental risk, experimental elicitation, endogenous preferences, self-selection, field experiment

Renal Perfusion in Scleroderma Patients Assessed by Microbubble-Based Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound

OBJECTIVES: Renal damage is common in scleroderma. It can occur acutely or chronically. Renal reserve might already be impaired before it can be detected by laboratory findings. Microbubble-based contrast-enhanced ultrasound has been demonstrated to improve blood perfusion imaging in organs. Therefore, we conducted a study to assess renal perfusion in scleroderma patients utilizing this novel technique. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY: Microbubble-based contrast agent was infused and destroyed by using high mechanical index by Siemens Sequoia (curved array, 4.5 MHz). Replenishment was recorded for 8 seconds. Regions of interests (ROI) were analyzed in renal parenchyma, interlobular artery and renal pyramid with quantitative contrast software (CUSQ 1.4, Siemens Acuson, Mountain View, California). Time to maximal Enhancement (TmE), maximal enhancement (mE) and maximal enhancement relative to maximal enhancement of the interlobular artery (mE%A) were calculated for different ROIs. RESULTS: There was a linear correlation between the time to maximal enhancement in the parenchyma and the glomerular filtration rate. However, the other parameters did not reveal significant differences between scleroderma patients and healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Renal perfusion of scleroderma patients including the glomerular filtration rate can be assessed using microbubble-based contrast media

Male offspring born to mildly ZIKV-infected mice are at risk of developing neurocognitive disorders in adulthood

Congenital Zika virus (ZIKV) syndrome may cause fetal microcephaly in -1% of affected newborns. Here, we investigate whether the majority of clinically inapparent newborns might suffer from long-term health impairments not readily visible at birth. Infection of immunocompetent pregnant mice with high-dose ZIKV caused severe offspring phenotypes, such as fetal death, as expected. By contrast, low-dose (LD) maternal ZIKV infection resulted in reduced fetal birth weight but no other obvious phenotypes. Male offspring born to LD ZIKV-infected mothers had increased testosterone (TST) levels and were less likely to survive in utero infection compared to their female littermates. Males also presented an increased number of immature neurons in apical and basal hippocampal dendrites, while female offspring had immature neurons in basal dendrites only. Moreover, male offspring with high but not very high (storm) TST levels were more likely to suffer from learning and memory impairments compared to females. Future studies are required to understand the impact of TST on neuropathological and neurocognitive impairments in later life. In summary, increased sex-specific vigilance is required in countries with high ZIKV prevalence, where impaired neurodevelopment may be camouflaged by a healthy appearance at birth.Peer reviewe

Operationalization of the concept of sustainable development on different time scales

SIGLEAvailable from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, Duesternbrook Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel W 235 (240) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Joint externalities

SIGLEAvailable from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, D-21400 Kiel W 235 (254) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Entropy: a unifying concept for ecological economics

Available from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, Duesternbrook Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel W 235 (226) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Every production is joint production: a thermodynamic analysis

SIGLEAvailable from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, Duesternbrook Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel W 235 (234) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

The use of the entropy concept in ecological economics

SIGLEAvailable from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, Duesternbrook Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel W 235 (227) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman