Integrating econimic costs into the analysis of flexible conservation management strategies

Flexible conservation management, where measures are selected in each decision period and depending on the current state of the ecological system, are generally perceived as superior to fixed management, where the same measure is applied in each decision period independent of the current state of the system. In past comparisons of fixed and flexible conservation strategies the additional costs that arise only in flexible strategies have usually been ignored. In this paper we present a framework to integrate these 'costs of flexible management' into the evaluation of flexible conservation strategies. Using the example of an endangered butterfly species we demonstrate that the costs of flexible management may reverse the rank order of flexible and fixed conservation strategies, such that fixed strategies may lead to better ecological results than flexible ones for the same financial budget. --conservation,ecological-economic model,extinction,flexible management

The Interaction Between Mood, Music, And False Short Term Memories

The implications of memory and its capacities are far reaching. Our memory is a recollection of facts, events, experiences, and an awareness of our surroundings in an attempt to make sense of our world. Memory and its validity in particular is especially useful in court-room and clinical settings. However, our memory is prone to human error and often times we experience the phenomenon of false memories as a result of the information overload we subject ourselves to on a daily basis. The purpose of the present study was to to investigate the relationship between induced moods, list types, and the overall effect these variables have on false memory in the short term. Participants were instructed to listen to pieces of classical music and were then designated to complete a memory task through the DRM paradigm that experimentally creates simple false memories for words Past studies (e.g., McBride et al., 2019) have shown that at short-term delays, false memories are more frequent for phonological than semantic lists. In addition, it has been found that participants in a positive mood had higher rates of false memories than participants with a negative mood, and the present study aimed to replicate these results. Through our procedure, we hypothesized that participants in a more positive mood would have higher levels of false recognition rates while studying phonological word lists than participants in a negative mood, but expected no difference in false memories in for semantic lists due to the inferiority of semantic information stored for short delays.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/urs2021psych/1024/thumbnail.jp

Challenges for Large-Field Inflation and Moduli Stabilization

We analyze the interplay between K\"ahler moduli stabilization and chaotic inflation in supergravity. While heavy moduli decouple from inflation in the supersymmetric limit, supersymmetry breaking generically introduces non-decoupling effects. These lead to inflation driven by a soft mass term, $m_\varphi^2 \sim m m_{3/2}$, where $m$ is a supersymmetric mass parameter. This scenario needs no stabilizer field, but the stability of moduli during inflation imposes a large supersymmetry breaking scale, $m_{3/2} \gg H$, and a careful choice of initial conditions. This is illustrated in three prominent examples of moduli stabilization: KKLT stabilization, K\"ahler Uplifting, and the Large Volume Scenario. Remarkably, all models have a universal effective inflaton potential which is flattened compared to quadratic inflation. Hence, they share universal predictions for the CMB observables, in particular a lower bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r \gtrsim 0.05$.Comment: 44+1 pages, 6 figures, minor modifications, references adde

The geopolitics of energy transformation : governing the shift: transformation dividends, systemic risks and new uncertainties

The transformation of the energy system is a global phenomenon, but the process itself is still progressing far too slowly to halt climate change. However, for "human security", it has immediate positive effects. An energy system that is increasingly electri­fying offers reduced dependence on fossil fuel supply chains and strengthens access to energy, thus serving as an economic factor that indirectly promotes national and international security. However, the perceivable geographical concentration of technology leadership and an imbalance in global finance raise new threats. These may translate into veritable geopolitical risks that require global cooperation in order to be overcome. (author's abstract

The link between healthcare and energy supply: how joined-up thinking can lead to more synergies between the two policy fields

The connection between the policy fields of energy and health may be hard to grasp at first glance. Nevertheless, the negative externalities resulting from the consumption of fossil fuels are clearly identified. In January 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) named climate change and air pollution as two of the greatest challenges to human health. A differentiated look at infrastructure, availability and quality of energy supply and healthcare as well as at access to both shows how closely intertwined these policy fields are. No modern hospital can operate without secure elec­tricity supply and efficient cold chains are essential for storing vaccines. In line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the two policy fields must be designed and interlinked in such a way that they contribute to human security beyond national borders and take planetary boundaries into account. It is necessary to bring health and energy together and to create synergies between them. This would be an important step towards a swifter implementation of the SDGs. (author's abstract

Comparison of an automatic analysis and a manual analysis of conjunctival microcirculation in a sheep model of haemorrhagic shock

Life-threatening diseases of critically ill patients are known to derange microcirculation. Automatic analysis of microcirculation would provide a bedside diagnostic tool for microcirculatory disorders and allow immediate therapeutic decisions based upon microcirculation analysis