ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT UNDER ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARD AND SAFETY-FIRST CONSTRAINTS

The uncertainty weather condition could pose some challenge in achieving environmental target. In this study, we use a bioeconomic model to calculate the impacts of alternative management systems. Under different safety-first constraints on the levels of environmental runoff, obtaining from APEX, optimal net return of alternative cropping practices is estimated.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Publishing Policy and Instructions for Contributors

Editorial back matter for vol. 77, no.2 (1993) of Journal of Applied Communication

Table of contents, editorial board, introduction from the editor, and other front matter

Editorial front matter and table of contents for vol. 77, no.2 (1993) of Journal of Applied Communication

Ethnicity and nationality: Towards a class-based theoretical framework (Volumes I and II)

This work is an attempt to develop a theoretical model useful for explaining the historical evolution of ethnic and national identities. Central to this framework are the following assertions: (1) that ethnic and national identities are dynamic affiliations which undergo change through intergroup resource competition; (2) that given their material base, a complete theory of ethnicity and nationality must consider these ties in relation to class; (3) that the evolution of group identities can ultimately only be understood in the context of global capitalist development; and (4) that the uneven nature of capitalist development (i.e., the core-periphery division) can be employed to explain intersocietal variations in the evolution of ethnic and national identities. Drawing upon these assumptions, we propose a global, historical and material approach to the study of intergroup relations and ethnic change. In the analysis of intergroup relations in historically specific circumstances, our model employs the notion of eth-class (defined as social location in terms of both ethnicity and class) in order to explore the material interests which underlie group action. We maintain that eth-class captures both the interrelationship between ethnicity and class and the reality that ethnic groups contain internal class divisions. Thus, ethnic and national mobilization are analyzed as alliances of eth-class fractions; assimilation and ethnic merger reflect strategic decisions to alter group identity. In addition to a conceptual discussion of ethnicity and nationality and a critical review of both classical and contemporary theories of ethnic change, this work contains two case studies in which our model is employed to explain the evolution of ethnic identities after 1800 in both the United States and South Africa. We find that the global, historical, and material approach presented in our framework facilitates analysis of the development of intergroup relations and group identities in these two societies

Refractive error has minimal influence on the risk of age-related macular degeneration: a Mendelian randomization study

Purpose To test the hypothesis that refractive errors such as myopia and hyperopia cause an increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and to quantify the degree of risk. Design Two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis of data from a genome-wide association study Participants As instrumental variables for refractive error, 126 genome-wide significant genetic; variants identified by the CREAM consortium and 23andMe Inc. were chosen. The association with refractive error for the 126 variants was obtained from a published study for a sample of n=95,505 European ancestry participants from UK Biobank. Association with AMD for the 126; genetic variants was determined from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) published by; the International Age-related Macular Degeneration Genomics consortium of n=33,526 (16,144; cases and 17,832 controls) European ancestry participants. Methods Two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis was used to assess the causal role of refractive error on AMD risk, using the 126 genetic variants associated with refractive error as; instrumental variables, under the assumption that the relationship between refractive error and; AMD risk is linear. Main Outcome Measures The risk AMD caused by a 1 diopter (D) change in refractive error. Results Mendelian randomization analysis suggested that refractive error had very limited influence on the risk of AMD. Specifically, a 1 D more hyperopic refractive error was associated with an OR=1.080 (95% CI: 1.021 to 1.142, P=0.007) increased risk of AMD. MR-Egger, MR-PRESSO, weighted median, and Phenoscanner-based sensitivity analyses detected minimal evidence to suggest that this result was biased by horizontal pleiotropy. Conclusions Under the assumption of a linear relationship between refractive error and the risk of AMD, myopia and hyperopia only minimally influence the causal risk for AMD. Thus, inconsistently-reported strong associations between refractive error and AMD are likely to be; the result of non-causal factors, such as stochastic variation, confounding or selection bias

Mental Health Malingering and the Fraudulent Motor Insurance Claimant

Malingering is the intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated symptoms in order to obtain an advantage. Although it has been estimated that over 800,000 claims for personal injury in Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) were filed in the UK in 2012, no approximation exists forhow many involved malingering. This study attempts to understand what influences a psychiatrist to conclude that a claimant’s symptoms are not caused by an RTA and thus suggests the claimant is malingering. This article describes a study of Personality Assessment Inventory scores alongside collateral forms of evidence for 100 RTA claimants; all individuals seeking compensation for damages to their mental health. The results suggest that up to 40% of these claims could be cate-gorised as not being the result of the RTA. Significant differences emerged between those claimants diagnosed as having a mental disorder as a result of the RTA and those claimants who were classified as not having a mental disorder as a result of the RTA in regards to: employment status, level of injuries and scores on the paranoia scales of the PAI.The study emphasises how the assessment process is idiosyncratic and in need of further researc

Talos: a prototype Intrusion Detection and Prevention system for profiling ransomware behaviour

Abstract: In this paper, we profile the behaviour and functionality of multiple recent variants of WannaCry and CrySiS/Dharma, through static and dynamic malware analysis. We then analyse and detail the commonly occurring behavioural features of ransomware. These features are utilised to develop a prototype Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPS) named Talos, which comprises of several detection mechanisms/components. Benchmarking is later performed to test and validate the performance of the proposed Talos IDPS system and the results discussed in detail. It is established that the Talos system can successfully detect all ransomware variants tested, in an average of 1.7 seconds and instigate remedial action in a timely manner following first detection. The paper concludes with a summarisation of our main findings and discussion of potential future works which may be carried out to allow the effective detection and prevention of ransomware on systems and networks

RadioSource.NET: Case-study of a Collaborative Land-Grant Internet Audio Project

RadioSource.NET (http://radiosource.net) is a Web-portal news site for land-grant university radio programming. The project is a collaborative venture among university communication departments with the following goals: to share resources; increase online distribution; and promote access to agricultural and natural and life science research. This article is a case study of RadioSource.NET. The evolution of the RadioSource.NET project is examined with emphasis on the process of establishing and maintaining online collaborative partnerships within academia. The project’s development is described and discussed, and Wheeler, Valacich, Alavi, and Vogel’s (1995) framework for technology-mediated interinstitutional relationships for collaborative learning is used to help organize information and evaluate the project’s effectiveness. RadioSource.NET project is an example of successful university collaboration in new media. By utilizing a flexible system design, RadioSource.NET capitalizes on collaborative strengths such as increased innovation and efficiency, and it is anticipated that the project model can serve as a useful resource for other online collaborative endeavors utilizing emerging technologies