The Production and Price Impact of Biotech Crops

Biotech crops have now been grown commercially on a substantial global scale since 1996. This paper examines the production effects of the technology and impacts on cereal and oilseed markets through the use of agricultural commodity models. It analyses the impacts on global production, consumption, trade and prices in the soybean, canola and corn sectors. The analysis suggests that world prices of corn, soybeans and canola would probably be, respectively, 5.8%, 9.6% and 3.8% higher, on average, than 2007 baseline levels if this technology was no longer available to farmers. Prices of key derivatives of soybeans (meal and oil) would also be between 5% and 9% higher, with rapeseed meal and oil prices being about 4% higher than baseline levels. World prices of related cereals and oilseeds would also be expected to be higher by 3% to 4%. The effect of no longer using the current widely used biotech traits in the corn, soybean and canola sectors would probably impact negatively on both the global supply and utilization of these crops, their derivatives and related markets for grain and oilseeds. The modelling suggests that average global yields would fall for corn, soybeans and canola and despite some likely compensating additional plantings of these three crops, there would be a net fall in global production of the three crops of 14 million tonnes. Global trade and consumption of these crops/derivatives would also be expected to fall. The production and consumption of other grains such as wheat, barley and sorghum and oilseeds, notably sunflower, would also be affected. Overall, net production of grains and oilseeds (and derivatives) would fall by 17.7 million tonnes and global consumption would fall by 15.4 million tonnes. The cost of consumption would also increase by $20 billion (3.6%) relative to the total cost of consumption of the (higher) biotech-inclusive level of world consumption. The impacts identified in this analysis are, however, probably conservative, reflecting the limitations of the methodology used. In particular, the limited research conducted to date into the impact of the cost-reducing effect of biotechnology (notably in herbicide-tolerant soybeans) on prices suggests that the price effects identified in this paper represent only part of the total price impact of the technology

Evaluating the Production and Price Impacts of Biotechnology Application in Crop Markets

Biotechnology crop traits have been applied on a widespread commercial global basis since 1996, making it the most rapidly adopted crop technology in agriculture. The primary biotechnologies used have included technology delivering herbicide tolerance and insect resistance for crops, such as corn, soybeans, cotton, and canola. This technology has provided farmers with productivity improvements through a combination of yield improvements and cost reductions. Thus, this technology has had an impact on prices of cereals and oilseeds (and their derivatives) both in countries where biotech traits were applied and in the global market. Realizing the surging significance of biotechnology application in global crop markets, this study first summarizes the productivity impacts of biotech crops on production; secondly, aims to quantify the impact of the use of biotech traits on production, utilization and prices of corn, soybeans, and canola as well as other crops where the biotechnology is not utilized.biotech crops, prices, yield, soybeans, corn, canola, partial-equilibrium model, price effects, Demand and Price Analysis, Productivity Analysis,

Diurnal variation in harbour porpoise detection – potential implications for management

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Pd/ZnO catalysts for direct CO2 hydrogenation to methanol

The direct hydrogenation of CO2 into methanol is crucial for providing a means of CO2 fixation and a way to store cleanly produced hydrogen in a more energy-dense and transportable form. Here we have prepared two series of Pd/ZnO catalysts, both by immobilisation of PVA-protected Pd colloids and by Pd impregnation of PdCl2 to investigate structure activity relationships for direct CO2 hydrogenation. Very different performances were found for the different preparation methods, and the Pd loading and pre-reduction of the catalysts were shown to be important factors for optimising methanol yield. The crucial factor for high methanol yield is the formation of a Pd–Zn alloy, either during the reaction itself, or better by high temperature pre-reduction. The formation of the alloy greatly reduces CO production by the reverse water gas shift reaction. The catalysts prepared by sol-immobilisation were relatively stable to thermal treatment. In contrast, the impregnated catalysts were much less thermally stable, due to the presence of remnant chloride on the surface of the catalyst, which was absent for the case of sol immobilisation preparation. The results illustrate the importance of controlling the PdZn particle size and its surface structure for the catalysts to achieve high methanol selectivity (60%, the rest being CO) and conversion (11%) at 250 °C and 20 bar. Selectivity for sol-immobilised catalysts decreases from 60% at 3 nm average diameter, to 20% at 7 nm

"I always know what's going on." Assessing the Relationship between Perceived and Actual Situation Awareness across Different Scenarios

Effective performance in a situation relies on having a good awareness of that situation or at least, if SA is poor, being aware that this is the case. This study examined the bias (tendency to accept or reject available information) and actual and perceived SA of firefighters across two different situations The data suggested that, although actual SA and bia varied across the situations, perceived SA remained relatively constant. This raises the possibility that individuals may have a ‘resting level’ of perceived SA and that the tasks used in this study were effective in manipulating actual SA while perceived SA remained at the resting level

"I always know what's going on." Assessing the Relationship between Perceived and Actual Situation Awareness across Different Scenarios

Effective performance in a situation relies on having a good awareness of that situation or at least, if SA is poor, being aware that this is the case. This study examined the bias (tendency to accept or reject available information) and actual and perceived SA of firefighters across two different situations The data suggested that, although actual SA and bia varied across the situations, perceived SA remained relatively constant. This raises the possibility that individuals may have a ‘resting level’ of perceived SA and that the tasks used in this study were effective in manipulating actual SA while perceived SA remained at the resting level

The human brain in fireground decision-making: trustworthy firefighting equipment?

The research programme to date has involved studies of the response of Fire and Rescue (FRS) crew and commanders in fireground training situations and simulations (tabletop, BA and incident command exercises). The studies have revealed patterns and tendencies with potentially serious consequences for real FRS situations. The main conclusion from these studies is that the fire personnel involved were well-trained professionals with good “Situation Awareness” (SA) or knowledge of the incident under study, but there was also evidence of “bias” in decision-making leading to either a tunneling or broadening of focus that may respectively produce “miss” or “false alarm” errors. This tendency is linked to the limits of the human brain under pressure and could explain tragic errors of decision-making such as may have occurred in real-life fire incidents

Far-field effects of impulsive noise on coastal bottlenose dolphins

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank Bill Ruck, Moray First Marine and colleagues from the University of Aberdeen for assistance with the data collection. We are also grateful to Drs. Nathan Merchant and Adrian Farcas (CEFAS) for the provision of the data on the noise modeling and their valuable comments during the development of this work. The project benefited at all stages from input provided by the scientific steering groups and stakeholder groups established by UK and Scottish Governments to support the work conducted around these regional oil and gas and renewables projects. FUNDING Financial support for this study was provided through a series of consortia funded projects that involved the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), Scottish Government, Oil and Gas UK Ltd., COWRIE, NatureScot, The Crown Estate, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Beatrice Offshore Wind Ltd., and Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Ltd. OFB was funded by the Fundación “la Caixa” (Becas Posgrado, 2015) and their support was greatly appreciated. The authors declare that this study received funding from three commercial developers: Oil and Gas UK Ltd., Beatrice Offshore Wind Ltd., and Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Ltd. However, these funding bodies had no input into the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Echolocation detections and digital video surveys provide reliable estimates of the relative density of harbour porpoises

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Erik Rexstad and Rob Williams for useful reviews of this manuscript. The collection of visual and acoustic data was funded by the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change, the Scottish Government, Collaborative Offshore Wind Research into the Environment (COWRIE) and Oil & Gas UK. Digital aerial surveys were funded by Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd and additional funding for analysis of the combined datasets was provided by Marine Scotland. Collaboration between the University of Aberdeen and Marine Scotland was supported by MarCRF. We thank colleagues at the University of Aberdeen, Moray First Marine, NERI, Hi-Def Aerial Surveying Ltd and Ravenair for essential support in the field, particularly Tim Barton, Bill Ruck, Rasmus Nielson and Dave Rutter. Thanks also to Andy Webb, David Borchers, Len Thomas, Kelly McLeod, David L. Miller, Dinara Sadykova and Thomas Cornulier for advice on survey design and statistical approache. Data Accessibility Data are available from the Dryad Digital Repository: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cf04gPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Socialization of Pain Memories:Parent-Child Reminiscing About Past Painful and Sad Events

Parent-child reminiscing about past negative events has been linked to a host of developmental outcomes. Previous research has identified two distinct between-parent reminiscing styles, wherein parents who are more elaborative (vs. repetitive) have children with more optimal outcomes. To date, however, research has not examined how parents and children talk about past painful experiences nor compared parent-child reminiscing about past painful versus other distressing events despite key developmental differences in how young children respond to pain versus sadness in others. This study aimed to fill that gap