Hunters like skewness, not risk: evidence of gambling behaviors in the Alaska hunting permit lottery

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018In Alaska, hunting permits are distributed by traditional lottery. The absence of a preference point system means that applicants have little invested in their applications, and there are a variety of fallback hunting opportunities. Not unlike a jackpot-style state lottery, the cost to play is low relative to the potential prize winnings. These factors may cause risk-averse or risk-neutral individuals to exhibit a preference for positive skewness in their bets. Analysis in this paper is focused on four prevalent game species: moose, dall sheep, mountain goat, and bison. Pooled Ordinary Least Squares regression models were constructed to predict permit application levels as a function of various hunt characteristics, qualities, and restrictions. Permit descriptions are provided to applicants in a published document called the drawing supplement, which is the primary source of data for this study. Additional hunter-reported data is obtained from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website. A comparison of calculated permit values and private ranch hunting opportunities validates many of the observations drawn from the models. Permit values are also used to fit a cubic model of bettor utility. Even when awarded prizes are not monetary, applicants exhibit a preference for positive skewness and aversion from risk that is typically associated with gambling

Giving While Living: The Beldon Fund Spend-Out Story

Provides insight into the challenges, advantages, and practical implications of a limited-life foundation. Offers strategies, advice, and lessons learned on how spending out affects program strategy, staffing, asset management, and grantee relations

Turning Passion Into Action: Giving While Living

This publication explores the practice of Giving While Living as exemplified by our Founder Chuck Feeney. Our intention is to inspire individuals at varying levels of wealth to actively give their funds, skills and time during their lives, and receive enormous satisfaction in the process. This report includes profiles of Mr. Feeney and 10 other philanthropists who are giving generously during their lifetimes, explains the most-cited motivating factors for Giving While Living, and lays out a range of ways to set up and execute a Giving While Living programme

America's North Coast: A Benefit-Cost Analysis of a Program to Protect and Restore the Great Lakes

Examines the baseline ecological conditions of the Great Lakes and offers a plan for the area's environmental protection and restoration. Demonstrates how a restoration program can provide economic benefits that substantially exceed its costs

Energy cost and return for hunting in African wild dogs and Cheetahs

African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are reported to hunt with energetically costly long chase distances. We used high-resolution GPS and inertial technology to record 1,119 high-speed chases of all members of a pack of six adult African wild dogs in northern Botswana. Dogs performed multiple short, high-speed, mostly unsuccessful chases to capture prey, while cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) undertook even shorter, higher-speed hunts. We used an energy balance model to show that the energy return from group hunting and feeding substantially outweighs the cost of multiple short chases, which indicates that African wild dogs are more energetically robust than previously believed. Comparison with cheetah illustrates the trade-off between sheer athleticism and high individual kill rate characteristic of cheetahs, and the energetic robustness of frequent opportunistic group hunting and feeding by African wild dogs

Cooperative Pursuit with Multi-Pursuer and One Faster Free-moving Evader

This paper addresses a multi-pursuer single-evader pursuit-evasion game where the free-moving evader moves faster than the pursuers. Most of the existing works impose constraints on the faster evader such as limited moving area and moving direction. When the faster evader is allowed to move freely without any constraint, the main issues are how to form an encirclement to trap the evader into the capture domain, how to balance between forming an encirclement and approaching the faster evader, and what conditions make the capture possible. In this paper, a distributed pursuit algorithm is proposed to enable pursuers to form an encirclement and approach the faster evader. An algorithm that balances between forming an encirclement and approaching the faster evader is proposed. Moreover, sufficient capture conditions are derived based on the initial spatial distribution and the speed ratios of the pursuers and the evader. Simulation and experimental results on ground robots validate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed method

Synchronization and coordination of sequences in two neural ensembles

There are many types of neural networks involved in the sequential motor behavior of animals. For high species, the control and coordination of the network dynamics is a function of the higher levels of the central nervous system, in particular the cerebellum. However, in many cases, especially for invertebrates, such coordination is the result of direct synaptic connections between small circuits. We show here that even the chaotic sequential activity of small model networks can be coordinated by electrotonic synapses connecting one or several pairs of neurons that belong to two different networks. As an example, we analyzed the coordination and synchronization of the sequential activity of two statocyst model networks of the marine mollusk Clione. The statocysts are gravity sensory organs that play a key role in postural control of the animal and the generation of a complex hunting motor program. Each statocyst network was modeled by a small ensemble of neurons with Lotka-Volterra type dynamics and nonsymmetric inhibitory interactions. We studied how two such networks were synchronized by electrical coupling in the presence of an external signal which lead to winnerless competition among the neurons. We found that as a function of the number and the strength of connections between the two networks, it is possible to coordinate and synchronize the sequences that each network generates with its own chaotic dynamics. In spite of the chaoticity, the coordination of the signals is established through an activation sequence lock for those neurons that are active at a particular instant of time.This work was supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Grant No. 7R01-NS-38022, National Science Foundation Grant No. EIA-0130708, Fundación BBVA and Spanish MCyT Grant No. BFI2003-07276

A DYNAMIC EXERCISE IN REDUCING DEER-VEHICLE COLLISIONS: MANAGEMENT THROUGH VEHICLE MITIGATION TECHNIQUES AND HUNTING

The costs of deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) nationwide are estimated to be in excess of $1 billion annually. In this study, factors contributing to the abundance of DVCs are identified and the potential effectiveness of various deer management strategies in reducing DVCs is investigated. The added benefits of such strategies are also evaluated in a bioeconomic context by comparing alternative outcomes achievable from implementing DVC mitigation techniques. Focusing on Ohio, results suggest potentially large economic gains exist from reducing DVCs, especially with strategies that combine both deer management schemes and DVC mitigation techniques.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,