Using a nationally representative survey of 263 farm operators in Ireland, this study develops a typology of private forest landowners' objectives for forest ownership. It is important to understand ...farmers' forest ownership objectives as this will enhance economic analysis in general, but also to formulate more effective policies that take into account the range of motivational profiles of landowners. Using principal component analysis, three core motivations for forest ownership are identified representing economic, lifestyle and multifunctional benefits. Using a binary logistic regression model these ownership objectives were found to have a significant impact on farmers' forest management. For instance, farmers with relatively stronger economic motivations for forest ownership were found to be much more likely to harvest thinnings whereas the opposite was true of those with more lifestyle orientated objectives. In order to tailor policy at groups with different forest ownership objectives it will be important to be able to identify them through more easily observable owner and property characteristics. This study through multivariate regression analysis found factors such as age of the farm operator, land quality, system of farming, off farm employment and environmental attitudes were related to farm forest owners' ownership objectives. The study concludes that a better understanding of the heterogeneity in farmers' forest ownership objectives will enable policymakers to tailor incentives that more closely align with the diverse motivational profiles of different groups of landholders.
•This study identifies three core objectives for farmers forest ownership in Ireland.•Economic objectives were positively related to active forest management.•Lifestyle objectives had a negative effect on active forest management.•Objectives could be identified by more easily observed owner and farm characteristics.•Study will aid in more efficient targeting of incentives for forest management.
Abstract A role for the beta genus HPVs in keratinocyte carcinoma (KC) remains to be established. In this article we examine the potential role of the beta HPVs in cancer revealed by the epidemiology ...associating these viruses with KC and supported by oncogenic properties of the beta HPV proteins. Unlike the cancer associated alpha genus HPVs, in which transcriptionally active viral genomes are invariably found associated with the cancers, that is not the case for the beta genus HPVs and keratinocyte carcinomas. Thus a role for the beta HPVs in KC would necessarily be in the carcinogenesis initiation and not in the maintenance of the tumor.
The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process that is aberrantly activated in cancer and facilitates metastasis to distant organs, requires coordinated transcriptional and ...post-transcriptional control of gene expression. The tumor-suppressive RNA binding protein, hnRNP-E1, regulates splicing and translation of EMT-associated transcripts and it is thought that it plays a major role in the control of epithelial cell plasticity during cancer progression. We have utilized yeast 2 hybrid screening to identify novel hnRNP-E1 interactors that play a role in regulating hnRNP-E1; this approach led to the identification of the E3 ubiquitin ligase ARIH1. Here, we demonstrate that hnRNP-E1 protein stability is increased upon ARIH1 silencing, whereas, overexpression of ARIH1 leads to a reduction in hnRNP-E1. Reduced ubiquitination of hnRNP-E1 detected in ARIH1 knockdown (KD) cells compared to control suggests a role for ARIH1 in hnRNP-E1 degradation. The identification of hnRNP-E1 as a candidate substrate of ARIH1 led to the characterization of a novel function for this ubiquitin ligase in EMT induction and cancer progression. We demonstrate a delayed induction of EMT and reduced invasion in mammary epithelial cells silenced for ARIH1. Conversely, ARIH1 overexpression promoted EMT induction and invasion. ARIH1 silencing in breast cancer cells significantly attenuated cancer cell stemness in vitro and tumor formation in vivo. Finally, we utilized miniTurboID proximity labeling to identify novel ARIH1 interactors that may contribute to ARIH1's function in EMT induction and cancer progression.
This article examines two poems which deal directly with the events of the Zong massacre of 1781, which saw 132 Africans aboard the British slave ship Zong thrown overboard when the ship ran out of ...potable water. David Dabydeen’s “Turner” and Marlene NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! attempt to render the African experience of Zong in their work. Despite the similarities in subject matter and approach, there has been little substantial comparative work on these poems. Responding respectively to J. M. W. Turner’s painting The Slave Ship, which was inspired by the events, and art critic John Ruskin’s commentary on the work, as well as the legal case surrounding the massacre, Dabydeen and Philip write with the colonial past at the forefront of their minds. Using Ian Baucom’s theory of the synaptic sea, this article explores Dabydeen’s and Philip’s use of the sea as a space to remember and retell the massacre. Through its fluid and mutable nature, the sea becomes a counterpoint to the colonial record for both poets. It is both a creative and destructive space. Writing about this event is fraught with complexities for Dabydeen and Philip, but the sea emerges for both writers as a space which may accommodate the various pulls in their desire to redress the lack of African voices and depict the Zong massacre poetically.
Recent advances in combining deep neural network architectures with reinforcement learning (RL) techniques have shown promising potential results in solving complex control problems with ...high-dimensional state and action spaces. Inspired by these successes, in this study, the authors built two kinds of RL algorithms: deep policy-gradient (PG) and value-function-based agents which can predict the best possible traffic signal for a traffic intersection. At each time step, these adaptive traffic light control agents receive a snapshot of the current state of a graphical traffic simulator and produce control signals. The PG-based agent maps its observation directly to the control signal; however, the value-function-based agent first estimates values for all legal control signals. The agent then selects the optimal control action with the highest value. Their methods show promising results in a traffic network simulated in the simulation of urban mobility traffic simulator, without suffering from instability issues during the training process.
•Using the UKHLS, we analyse the impact of Covid-19 vaccination for mental well-being.•Vaccination significantly alleviated the psychological distress associated with Covid-19.•Benefits were much ...larger for older and/or clinically vulnerable sub-groups.
We examine the impact of vaccination against Covid-19 for mental health. Our estimates suggest that vaccination led to a significant and substantive improvement in mental health. These positive impacts were however concentrated on those most at risk of hospitalisation and death from Covid-19, namely older and clinically vulnerable groups. Our proposed explanation is that in the absence of vaccination, anxiety about contracting COVID-19 has a deleterious impact on the mental health of this cohort. On the other hand, vaccination was much less impactful for the mental health of those least at risk from Covid-19. This may help to explain vaccine hesitancy amongst young people. For this group, a lack of uptake may be principally due to a lack of perceived benefits (and indeed perceived costs) for their own well-being as opposed to vaccine hesitancy.
We examine the impact of vaccination against Covid-19 for mental health. Our estimates suggest that vaccination led to a significant and substantive improvement in mental health. These positive ...impacts were however concentrated on those most at risk of hospitalisation and death from Covid-19. Our proposed explanation is that in the absence of vaccination, anxiety about contracting COVID-19 has a deleterious impact on the mental health of this cohort. On the other hand, vaccination was much less impactful for the mental health of those least at risk from Covid-19. This may help to explain vaccine hesitancy amongst young people. For this group, a lack of uptake may be principally due to a lack of perceived benefits (and indeed perceived costs) for their own well-being as opposed to vaccine hesitancy.
While transnational conglomerates consolidate their control of the global mediascape, local communities struggle to create democratic media systems. This groundbreaking study of community media, ...first published in 2005, combines original research with comparative and theoretical analysis in an engaging and accessible style. Kevin Howley explores the different ways in which local communities come to make use of various technologies such as radio, television, print and computer networks for purposes of community communication and considers the ways these technologies shape, and are shaped by, the everyday lived experience of local populations. He also addresses broader theoretical and philosophical issues surrounding the relationship between communication and community, media systems and the public sphere. Case studies illustrate the pivotal role community media play in promoting cultural production and communicative democracy within and between local communities. This book will make a significant contribution to existing scholarship in media and cultural studies on alternative, participatory and community-based media.
This article demonstrates how the unemployment of neighbours can ameliorate the psychological costs of unemployment. In support of this premise, we find that while unemployment is always harmful, the ...gap in psychological well-being between employed and unemployed individuals is much less in relatively high unemployment neighbourhoods (particularly so for males and relatively older cohorts). Our proposed explanation is that people employ close points of social comparison with the result that any feelings of shame or embarrassment associated with unemployment are mitigated when surrounded by unemployed neighbours. One potentially important labour market implication of these findings is that it may be more difficult than anticipated to transition some people out of unemployment in high unemployment neighbourhoods. Apart from highlighting the place-specific nature of the relationship between unemployment and psychological well-being, our findings also highlight the importance of non-pecuniary factors, such as the social norm to work, in explaining the substantive negative psychological impact of unemployment.
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