Exploring Scale Effects of Best/Worst Rank Ordered Choice Data to Estimate Benefits of Tourism in Alpine Grazing Commons

In many environmental valuation applications standard sample sizes for choice modelling surveys are impractical to achieve. One can improve data quality using more in-depth surveys administered to fewer respondents. We report on a study using high quality rank-ordered data elicited with the best-worst approach. The resulting "exploded logit" choice model, estimated on 64 responses per person, was used to study the willingness to pay for external benefits by visitors for policies which maintain the cultural heritage of alpine grazing commons. We find evidence supporting this approach and reasonable estimates of mean WTP, which appear theoretically valid and policy informative. © The Author (2011).

Cellular senescence induced by aberrant MAD2 levels impacts on paclitaxel responsiveness in vitro

BACKGROUND: The mitotic arrest deficiency protein 2 (MAD2) is a key component of the mitotic spindle assembly checkpoint, monitoring accurate chromosomal alignment at the metaphase plate before mitosis. MAD2 also has a function in cellular senescence and in a cell’s response to microtubule inhibitory (MI) chemotherapy exemplified by paclitaxel.
METHODS: Using an siRNA approach, the impact of MAD2 down-regulation on cellular senescence and paclitaxel responsiveness was investigated. The endpoints of senescence, cell viability, migration, cytokine expression, cell cycle analysis and anaphase bridge scoring were carried out using standard approaches.
RESULTS: We show that MAD2 down-regulation induces premature senescence in the MCF7 breast epithelial cancer cell line. These MAD2-depleted (MAD2k) cells are also significantly replicative incompetent but retain viability. Moreover, they show significantly higher levels of anaphase bridges and polyploidy compared to controls. In addition, these cells secrete higher levels of IL-6 and IL-8
representing key components of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) with the ability to impact on neighbouring cells. In support of this, MAD2kcells show enhanced migratory ability. At 72 h after paclitaxel, MAD2kcells show a significant further induction of senescence compared with paclitaxel naive controls. In addition, there are significantly more viable cells in the MAD2k MCF7 cell line after paclitaxel reflecting the observed increase in senescence.
CONCLUSION: Considering that paclitaxel targets actively dividing cells, these senescent cells will evade cytotoxic kill. In conclusion, compromised MAD2 levels induce a population of senescent cells resistant to paclitaxel.

Arsenic behaviour from groundwater and soil to crops:impacts on agriculture and food safety

High levels of As in groundwater commonly found in Bangladesh and other parts of Asia not only pose a risk via drinking water consumption but also a risk in agricultural sustainability and food safety. This review attempts to provide an overview of current knowledge and gaps related to the assessment and management of these risks, including the behaviour of As in the soil-plant system, uptake, phytotoxicity, As speciation in foods, dietary habits, and human health risks. Special emphasis has been given to the situation in Bangladesh, where groundwater via shallow tube wells is the most important source of irrigation water in the dry season. Within the soil-plant system, there is a distinct difference in behaviour of As under flooded conditions, where arsenite (AsIII) predominates, and under nonflooded conditions, where arsenate (AsV) predominates. The former is regarded as most toxic to humans and plants. Limited data indicate that As-contaminated irrigation water can result in a slow buildup of As in the topsoil. In some cases the buildup is reflected by the As levels in crops, in others not. It is not yet possible to predict As uptake and toxicity in plants based on soil parameters. It is unknown under what conditions and in what time frame As is building up in the soil. Representative phytotoxicity data necessary to evaluate current and future soil concentrations are not yet available. Although there are no indications that crop production is currently inhibited by As, long-term risks are clearly present. Therefore, with concurrent assessments of the risks, management options to further prevent As accumulation in the topsoil should already have been explored. With regard to human health, data on As speciation in foods in combination with food consumption data are needed to assess dietary exposure, and these data should include spatial and seasonal variability. It is important to control confounding factors in assessing the risks. In a country where malnutrition is prevalent, levels of inorganic As in foods should be balanced against the nutritional value of the foods. Regarding agriculture, As is only one of the many factors that may pose a risk to the sustainability of crop production. Other risk factors such as nutrient depletion and loss of organic matter also must be taken into account to set priorities in terms of research, management, and overall strategy.

Predicting the impacts of climate change on the distribution of threatened forest-restricted birds in Madagascar

The greatest common threat to birds in Madagascar has historically been from anthropogenic deforestation. During recent decades, global climate change is now also regarded as a significant threat to biodiversity. This study uses Maximum Entropy species distribution modeling to explore how potential climate change could affect the distribution of 17 threatened forest endemic bird species, using a range of climate variables from the Hadley Center's HadCM3 climate change model, for IPCC scenario B2a, for 2050. We explore the importance of forest cover as a modeling variable and we test the use of pseudo-presences drawn from extent of occurrence distributions. Inclusion of the forest cover variable improves the models and models derived from real-presence data with forest layer are better predictors than those from pseudo-presence data. Using real-presence data, we analyzed the impacts of climate change on the distribution of nine species. We could not predict the impact of climate change on eight species because of low numbers of occurrences. All nine species were predicted to experience reductions in their total range areas, and their maximum modeled probabilities of occurrence. In general, species range and altitudinal contractions follow the reductive trend of the Maximum presence probability. Only two species (Tyto soumagnei and Newtonia fanovanae) are expected to expand their altitude range. These results indicate that future availability of suitable habitat at different elevations is likely to be critical for species persistence through climate change. Five species (Eutriorchis astur, Neodrepanis hypoxantha, Mesitornis unicolor, Euryceros prevostii, and Oriola bernieri) are probably the most vulnerable to climate change. Four of them (E. astur, M. unicolor, E. prevostii, and O. bernieri) were found vulnerable to the forest fragmentation during previous research. Combination of these two threats in the future could negatively affect these species in a drastic way. Climate change is expected to act differently on each species and it is important to incorporate complex ecological variables into species distribution models.

Impacts of Electric Vehicle charging under electricity market operations

The Irish government set a target in 2008 that 10% of all vehicles in the transport fleet be powered by electricity by 2020. Similar electric vehicle targets have been introduced in other countries. In this study the effects of 213,561 electric vehicles on the operation of the single wholesale electricity market for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is investigated. A model of Ireland’s electricity market in 2020 is developed using the power systems market model called PLEXOS for power systems. The amount of CO2 emissions associated with charging the EVs and the impacts with respect to Ireland’s target for renewable energy in transport is also quantified. A single generation portfolio and two different charging scenarios, arising from a peak and off-peak charging profile are considered. Results from the study confirm that offpeak charging is more beneficial than peak charging and that charging EVs will contribute 1.45% energy supply to the 10% renewable energy in transport target. The net CO2 reductions are 147 and 210 kt CO2 respectively.

Frontline Leisure::Securitizing tourism in the War on Terror

This article argues that the terrorist bombings of hotels, pubs and nightclubs in Bali in October 2002, and in Mombasa one month later, were inaugural moments in the post-9/11 securitization of the tourism industry. Although practices of tourism and terrorism seem antithetical – one devoted to travel and leisure, the other to political violence – this article argues that their entanglement is revealed most clearly in the counter-terrorism responses that brought the everyday lives of tourists and tourism workers, as well as the material infrastructure of the tourism industry, within the orbit of a global security apparatus waging a ‘war on terror’. Drawing on critical work in international relations and geography, this article understands the securitization of tourism as part of a much wider logic in which the liberal order enacts pernicious modes of governance by producing a terrorist threat that is exceptional. It explores how this logic is reproduced through a cosmopolitan community symbolized by global travellers, and examines the measures taken by the tourism industry to secure this community (e.g. the physical transformations of hotel infrastructure and the provision of counter-terrorism training).

Collective Participation Impacts Social Identity::A Longitudinal Study with Control Data

How does participation in collective activity affect our social identifications and behavior? We investigate this question in a longitudinal questionnaire study conducted at one of the world’s largest collective events – the Magh Mela (a month-long Hindu religious festival in north India). Data gathered from pilgrims and comparable others who did not attend the event show that one month after this mass gathering was over, those who had participated (but not controls) exhibited a heightened social identification as Hindu and increased levels of religious activity (e.g., performing prayer rituals). Additional data gathered from the pilgrim respondents during the festival show that the pilgrims’ perceptions of sharing a common identity with other pilgrims, and of being able to enact their social identity in this event, predicted these outcomes.