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Dynamic spillovers across precious metals and oil realized volatilities: Evidence from quantile extended joint connectedness measures
No full textThis paper proposes a novel quantile vector autoregressive extended joint connectedness framework to examine realized volatilities spillovers between oil and precious metals commodities using daily data from May 1st, 2006 until June 18th, 2021. Our findings suggest that crude oil is the main net transmitter of shocks in the network across all quartiles. The dynamic total connectedness is heterogeneous over time and driven by economic events. Interestingly, we see that the higher the quartile the more pronounced are the net transmission mechanisms of realized volatilities. Notably, the net total directional and pairwise connectedness measures illustrate in most cases similar dynamics
Nudges in agriculture
No full textPresentation to the Moving the Middle - Intervention scoping workshop, 22 August, 2023
What impact would tobacco retailer proximity limit have on tobacco availability in New Zealand?
No full textIntroduction One policy option to reduce the density of tobacco retailers is to restrict the distance retailers can be located to each other. This study examined the impacts of proximity limits of 150 m, 300 m and 450 m between tobacco retailers in New Zealand and if critical threshold reduction in tobacco retailers of 90%–95% would be achieved. Methods Using a spatial modelling approach, tobacco retailers were randomly removed based on a minimum distance between retailers until there were zero retailers within each scenario’s minimum distance. This was repeated for all three proximity limit scenarios and descriptive statistics are provided for each. Results Implementation of 150 m, 300 m or 450 m distance restrictions between tobacco retailers would result in an average reduction in availability of 35%, 49% and 58%, respectively. On average, the current median distance to the closest retailer increases from 110 m to 377 m, to 568 m or to 718 m, respectively. The average median distance from a retailer to the closest school also increases across the three proximity limits, from 1017 m to 1087 m, to 1149 m or to 1231 m, respectively. Reduced clustering in deprived areas would be most apparent if a 450 m restriction policy was implemented. Conclusions A proximity limit of 450 m would reduce retailers by 58%, but would not reach proposed critical behaviour- change threshold of 90%–95% required to reduce smoking prevalence independently. There is a need for a combination of policies, which focus on promoting equity, to achieve this bold endgame goal
Urban GArdens for the Social INtegration of Migrants
No full textThis work has been co-funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union. The twelve-authored project report book is edited by Meike Rombach (TUM), Vivienne Whitaker (SF&G), and Iacopo Benedetti (OnP). In the study, immigrant communities, their social participation and education opportunities in intercultural urban gardens in five European countries (Germany, Spain, Austria, Sweden, England) and the effect of those gardens on immigrants were examined. A mixed research approach was applied, combining qualitative and quantitative methods where both survey and interview techniques were used. This book review, where the study is summarized, will continue with the assessment of the project and its applicability to Turkey
Insights for agricultural policy design: what we can learn from behavioural and experimental economics
No full textMeasuring and auditing on-farm energy use
No full textFood systems have been divided into several categories; cropping, livestock and fisheries, food processing, packaging, trade, and households. Agricultural operations include all farming operations that occur after the land is cleared and developed, such as tillage, planting, fertilizing, pest controlling, harvesting, post-harvesting, and transportation at the farm level and until the product leaves the farm gate. Energy is one of the important elements in modern agriculture. Without energy, farming is impossible; especially, as modern agriculture depends totally on energy use and fossil resources. Energy consumption in agriculture has been increasing in response to the limited supply of arable land, increasing population, technological changes, and a desire for higher standards of living. It seems that there is a correlation between energy consumption in agriculture and the global rise of urbanization. Furthermore, energy has an important and unique role in economic and social development, especially in developing countries
Global and regional ecological boundaries explain abrupt spatial discontinuities in avian frugivory interactions
No full textSpecies interactions can propagate disturbances across space via direct and indirect effects, potentially connecting species at a global scale. However, ecological and biogeographic boundaries may mitigate this spread by demarcating the limits of ecological networks. We tested whether large-scale ecological boundaries (ecoregions and biomes) and human disturbance gradients increase dissimilarity among plant-frugivore networks, while accounting for background spatial and elevational gradients and differences in network sampling. We assessed network dissimilarity patterns over a broad spatial scale, using 196 quantitative avian frugivory networks (encompassing 1496 plant and 1004 bird species) distributed across 67 ecoregions, 11 biomes, and 6 continents. We show that dissimilarities in species and interaction composition, but not network structure, are greater across ecoregion and biome boundaries and along different levels of human disturbance. Our findings indicate that biogeographic boundaries delineate the world’s biodiversity of interactions and likely contribute to mitigating the propagation of disturbances at large spatial scales
The impact of Agile development practices on project outcomes
Get PDFAgile software development methods were introduced to minimize problems faced using traditional software development approaches. There are several Agile approaches used in developing software projects, these include Scrum, Extreme programming and Kanban. An Agile approach focuses on collaboration between customers and developers and encourages development teams to be self-organizing. To achieve this there are different Agile practices teams choose to use in their projects. Some teams only use one practice whilst others use a combination of practices. The most common practices used are stand-ups, user stories, Burndown chart/Burnup chart, pair programming, Epic and User stories. This paper reports on the analysis of the data collected from people involved in Agile software development teams and identifies that the combination of practices in Agile software development have an impact on the communication in the team, project requirements and project priorities, with more practices being adopted correlating with better project outcomes
Phenotypic characterization of the Hordeum bulbosum derived leaf rust resistance genes Rph22 and Rph26 in barley
Get PDFAims: Two introgression lines (ILs), 182Q20 and 200A12, which had chromosomal segments introgressed from Hordeum bulbosum in H. vulgare backgrounds, were identified to show seedling resistance against Puccinia hordei, possibly attributed to two resistance genes, Rph22 and Rph26, respectively. This study characterized the phenotypic responses of the two genes against P. hordei over different plant development stages.
Methods and Results: Using visual and fungal biomass assessments, responses of ILs 182Q20, 200A12 and four other barley cultivars against P. hordei were determined at seedling, tillering, stem elongation and booting stages. Plants carrying either Rph22 or Rph26 were found to confer gradually increasing resistance over the course of different development stages, with partial resistant phenotypes (i.e. prolonged rust latency periods, reduced uredinia numbers but with susceptible infection types) observed at seedling stage and adult plant resistance (APR) at booting stage. A definitive switch between the two types of resistance occurred at tillering stage.
Conclusions: Rph22 and Rph26 derived from H. bulbosum were well characterized and had typical APR phenotypes against P. hordei.
Significance and Impact of the Study: This study provides important insights on the effectiveness and expression of Rph22 and Rph26 against P. hordei during plant development and underpins future barley breeding programmes using non-host as a genetic resource for leaf rust management
Land-use intensity increases benthic N₂O emissions across three sub-tropical estuaries
No full textEstuaries play an important role in regulating nitrous oxide (N₂O) fluxes to the atmosphere, but little is known about how catchment land-use changes influence benthic N₂O cycling. We measured seasonal benthic N₂O fluxes and constructed N₂O budgets in three sub-tropical estuaries draining catchments with contrasting levels of land-use intensity. Benthic habitats were a net N₂O sink in the minimally impacted Noosa River Estuary (−287 nmol m‾² h‾¹) and a net source of N₂O in the highly impacted Brisbane River Estuary (126 nmol m‾² h‾¹). Vegetated habitats can act as an important sink of N₂O with uptakes of −286 and −35 nmol m‾² h‾¹ in the Noosa and Maroochy River Estuaries, respectively. Benthic N₂O fluxes were significantly correlated with benthic NO₃− fluxes, suggesting NO₃− availability was an important control on benthic N₂O fluxes. Combining benthic flux data with surface water N₂O emissions measurements showed that increased benthic N₂O fluxes helped drive increasing water–air N₂O emissions over the land-use intensity gradient. Overall, our results show that land-use driven changes to both the diversity and sediment composition of benthic habitats play an important role in regulating N₂O dynamics in estuarine ecosystems. This highlights that both sediment quality and nitrogen loading need to be considered in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in the coastal ecosystems