Therapeutic Promises of Bioactive Rosavin: A Comprehensive Review with Mechanistic Insight.

Rosavin is an alkylbenzene diglycoside primarily found in Rhodiola rosea (L.), demonstrating various pharmacological properties in a number of preclinical test systems. This study focuses on evaluating the pharmacological effects of rosavin and the underlying molecular mechanisms based on different preclinical and non-clinical investigations. The findings revealed that rosavin has anti-microbial, antioxidant, and different protective effects, including neuroprotective effects against various neurodegenerative ailments such as mild cognitive disorders, neuropathic pain, depression, and stress, as well as gastroprotective, osteoprotective, pulmoprotective, and hepatoprotective activities. This protective effect of rosavin is due to its capability to diminish inflammation and oxidative stress. The compound also manifested anticancer properties against various cancer via exerting cytotoxicity, apoptotic cell death, arresting the different phases (G0/G1) of the cancerous cell cycle, inhibiting migration, and invading other organs. Rosavin also regulated MAPK/ERK signaling pathways to exert suppressing effect of cancer cell. However, because of its high-water solubility, which lowers its permeability, the phytochemical has low oral bioavailability. The compound's relevant drug likeness was evaluated by the in silico ADME, revealing appropriate drug likeness. We suggest more extensive investigation and clinical studies to determine safety, efficacy, and human dose to establish the compound as a reliable therapeutic agent.

A comprehensive review of coconut-based porous materials for wastewater treatment and CO2 capture.

For several decades, water pollution has become a major threat to aquatic and non-aquatic species, including humans. Different treatment techniques have already been proposed and implemented depending on wastewater characteristics. But many of these treatment techniques are expensive and inefficient. Adsorption-based techniques have shown impressive performances as an inexpensive treatment method previously. Coconut-based resources have been considered as adsorbents for wastewater treatment because of their abundance, low cost, and favorable surface properties. However, over the last decade, no comprehensive study has been published regarding biochar from coconut-based materials for wastewater treatment and CO2 capture. This review discusses biochar production technology for coconut-based materials, its modification and characterization, its utilization as an adsorbent for removing metals and organics from wastewater, and the associated removal mechanisms and the economic aspects of coconut-based biochar. Coconut-based materials are cheap and effective for removing various organic compounds such as pesticides, hormones, phenol, and phenolic compounds from solutions and capturing CO2 from air mainly through the pore-filling mechanism. Utilizing coconut-based biochars in a hybrid system that combines adsorption and other techniques, such as biotechnology or chemical coagulation is a promising way to increase their performance as an adsorbent in wastewater treatment.

The impact of women's political representation on child health outcomes during 1990-2020: Evidence from a global dataset.

This study investigates the impact of women's political representation on children's health outcomes from 1990 to 2020 using a global dataset comprising 162 countries. The child health outcomes studied are infant and neonatal mortality rates and vaccination coverage for measles and diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT). We apply an event study and panel data instrumental-variable fixed-effects regression analysis for data analysis. The timing of the introduction of a gender quota in a country is used as an instrument to address endogeneity bias commonly associated with women's political participation. We find evidence of a positive impact of increasing women's representation in national legislatures on all child health outcomes studied. In particular, our study reports a significant negative effect of women's political participation on neonatal mortality which was not reported by any previous research. We also find evidence to support hypotheses related to several potential pathways that connect women's political representation with child health outcomes, including health expenditure, female labor force participation, skilled birth attendance, and adolescent fertility rate. Also novel in our findings is a heterogeneity analysis which reveals that reserved seat quota boosted child health outcomes more than candidate quota, with strong geographical variation in the relationship. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia benefited the most in terms of child health outcomes due to an increase in women's political representation among all regions. Our findings reinforce the significance of women's greater political empowerment for child health-a crucial development outcome-particularly in regions characterized by the poor quality of early childhood health conditions and survival rates.

Effect of additional Fe2+ salt on electrocoagulation process for the degradation of methyl orange dye: An optimization and kinetic study.

The wastewater generated from textile industries is highly colored and contains dyes including azo dyes, which are toxic to human and water-living organisms. The treatment of these azo dyes using conventional treatment techniques is challenging due to their recalcitrant properties. In the current study, the effect of additional Fe2+ on electrocoagulation (EC) using Fe electrodes has been studied for the removal of methyl orange (MO) azo dye. pH between 4-5 was found to be optimum for EC and treatment efficiency decreased with increasing dye concentrations. With the addition of Fe2+ salt, dye removal for a certain concentration was increased with the increase of current density and Fe2+ up to a certain limit and after that, the removal efficiency decreased. The COD, color and dye removals were 88.5%, 93.1% and 100%, respectively, for EC of 200 mg.L-1 dye solution using only 0.20 mmol.L-1 Fe2+ for 0.40 mA cm-2 current density, whereas for EC, the respective removal efficiencies were 76.7%, 63.4% and 82.4% for 32 min. The respective operating cost for EC was $768 kg-1 removed dye ($0.342 m-3), whereas, for EC with additional Fe2+ salt, it was $350 kg-1 removed dye ($0.189 m-3). The kinetic results revealed that the first-order kinetic model was fitted best for EC, whereas the second-order kinetic model was best fitted for Fe2+ added EC. For real textile wastewater, 57.6% COD removal was obtained for 0.15 mmol.L-1 Fe2+ added EC compared to 27.8% COD removal for EC for 32 min. Based on the study we can conclude that Fe2+ assisted EC can be used for effective treatment of textile wastewater containing toxic compounds like azo dyes.

Revisiting food security in 2021: an overview of the past year.

Articles published in Food Security in 2021 are reviewed, showing a wide range of topics covered. Many articles are directly linked with "food" and associated terms such as "nutritive", "nutrition", "dietary", and "health". Another important group is linked with (food) "production" and a range of connected terms including: "irrigation", "cultivated", "organic", "varieties", "crop", "vegetable", and "land". A third group of terms refers to the scales at which food security is considered: "household", "farmer", "farm", "smallholder", "community", "nation" and "region". A few themes of Food Security are considered: (1) food supply and demand, food prices, and global trade; (2) food security in households; (3) food production; (4) value chains and food systems; (5) the evolution of the concept of food security; and (6) global nutrition. In a last section, perspectives for Food Security are discussed along four lines of thoughts: the level of inter-disciplinary research published in Food Security; the importance of the Social Sciences for food security as a collective good underpinned by other collective goods within food systems; the balance between the Global South and the Global North in Food Security; and a warning that urgent global challenges that vitally interact with food security may be left unattended as a result of the current public health emergency.

The Link Between a Husband's Trust in Informal Institutions and Domestic Violence Against His Wife: Evidence From Pakistan.

The global and national push to strengthen informal institutions' role in increasing rural households' access to justice has often met with skepticism in South Asia. This is because the impact of such initiatives on women's welfare is debatable in many contexts due to reports of informal institutions' hostile and oppressive behavior toward women. This study contributes to this debate by presenting the first empirical evidence of gender difference in trust in informal village institutions. The study also tests the relationship between a husband's trust in informal institutions and his tendency to commit physical violence against his wife. It uses the Pakistan Rural Household Panel Survey datasets of more than 2,000 households from three provinces (Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) of Pakistan. Trust in local political institutions is measured by (a) respondent's reliance on village institutions for handling general community affairs and maintaining law and order and (b) respondent's perceptions of local government's effectiveness in dispute settlement and ensuring public security. Men's and women's trust in informal village institutions and their perceptions of these institutions' legitimacy do not significantly differ in most cases. Women exhibit a greater trust and confidence in informal institutions that hold regular resident meetings than in those that do not. The results also reveal a significant negative relationship between a husband's trust in informal institutions and the incidence of physical violence against his wife. Greater trust in informal institutions has a significant positive correlation with a husband's psychological well-being, his relationship with family, and his perceptions of institutional legitimacy. The findings imply that well-performing informal institutions work as an indirect deterrent for domestic violence in the study areas of Pakistan.

Modeling the optimal mitigation of potential impact of climate change on coastal ecosystems.

Global warming is adversely affecting the earth's climate system due to rapid emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Consequently, the world's coastal ecosystems are rapidly approaching a dangerous situation. In this study, we formulate a mathematical model to assess the impact of rapid emissions of GHGs on climate change and coastal ecosystems. Furthermore, we develop a mitigation method involving two control strategies: coastal greenbelt and desulfurization. Here, greenbelt is considered in coastal areas to reduce the concentrations of GHGs by absorbing the environmental carbon dioxide (CO2), whereas desulfurization is considered in factories and industries to reduce GHG emissions by controlling the release of harmful sulfur compounds. The model and how it can control the situation are analytically verified. Numerical results of this study are confirmed by comparison with other studies that examine different scenarios. Results show that both control strategies can mitigate GHG concentrations, curtail global warming and to some extent manage climate change. The results further reveal that both control strategies are more effective than one control method. Overall, the results suggest that the concentrations of GHGs and the effects of climate change can be controlled by adopting sufficient coastal greenbelt and desulfurization techniques in various industries.

A Highly Efficient and Stable Photocatalyst; N-Doped ZnO/CNT Composite Thin Film Synthesized via Simple Sol-Gel Drop Coating Method.

The thin film of N-doped ZnO/CNT nanocomposite was successfully fabricated on soda lime glass substrate by a simple sol-gel drop-coating method. The structural, morphological, chemical, and optical properties of as prepared samples were characterized by a variety of tools such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and UV-visible spectroscopy. The hexagonal crystalline structure was confirmed from XRD measurement without any other impurity phase detection in samples. The N-doped ZnO/CNT composite showed excellent photo-catalytic activity towards cationic methylene blue (MB) dye degradation with 100% removal rate under UV light irradiation as compared to N-doped ZnO (65%) and pure ZnO (47.36%). The convincing performance has also been observed for the case of visible light irradiation. The enhancement of that photocatalytic activity might be due to narrowing the band gap as well as the reduction of electron-hole pair recombination in ZnO matrix with the incorporation of dopant nitrogen and CNT. It is assumed from the obtained results that N-doped ZnO/CNT nanocomposite thin film can be employed as an economically achievable and ecofriendly method to degrade dye with UV and visible light irradiation. Additionally, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were applied to explore the effect of N-doping on electronic structure of ZnO. The computational study has supported the experimental results of significant band gap contraction, which leads to the maximum absorption towards higher wavelength and no appreciable change of lattice parameters after doping. A conceivable photocatalytic mechanism of N-doped ZnO/CNT nanocomposite has been proposed as well.

The impact of COVID-19 related 'stay-at-home' restrictions on food prices in Europe: findings from a preliminary analysis.

This study examines the impact of COVID-19 related 'stay-at-home' restrictions on food prices in 31 European countries. I combine the European Union's Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) with the Stay-at-Home Restriction Index (SHRI) from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) dataset for January-May 2020. The results of a series of difference-in-difference regression models reveal that the severity of stay-at-home restrictions increased overall food prices by 1% in March 2020, compared to January and February 2020. The price level for food continued to rise in the high stay-at-home restriction countries relative to thier counterpart in April but stabilised in May. The food categories that witnessed the most significant surges in prices were meat, fish & seafood, and vegetables. The prices of bread & cereals, fruits, milk, cheese & eggs and oils & fats were not significantly affected. The correlations between food prices and stay-at-home restrictions were significant after controlling for cross-country variations in COVID-19 affectedness and other mitigation and adaptation measures, such as international travel controls, road closures and the size of the economic stimulus packages. This study presents the first empirical evidence of food price inflation as an unintended consequence of COVID-19 pandemic containment measures in one of the most severely hit continents of the world.

Mapping disruption and resilience mechanisms in food systems.

This opinion article results from a collective analysis by the Editorial Board of Food Security. It is motivated by the ongoing covid-19 global epidemic, but expands to a broader view on the crises that disrupt food systems and threaten food security, locally to globally. Beyond the public health crisis it is causing, the current global pandemic is impacting food systems, locally and globally. Crises such as the present one can, and do, affect the stability of food production. One of the worst fears is the impacts that crises could have on the potential to produce food, that is, on the primary production of food itself, for example, if material and non-material infrastructure on which agriculture depends were to be damaged, weakened, or fall in disarray. Looking beyond the present, and not minimising its importance, the covid-19 crisis may turn out to be the trigger for overdue fundamental transformations of agriculture and the global food system. This is because the global food system does not work well today: the number of hungry people in the world has increased substantially, with the World Food Programme warning of the possibility of a "hunger pandemic". Food also must be nutritious, yet unhealthy diets are a leading cause of death. Deepening crises impoverish the poorest, disrupt food systems, and expand "food deserts". A focus on healthy diets for all is all the more relevant when everyone's immune system must react to infection during a global pandemic. There is also accumulating and compelling evidence that the global food system is pushing the Earth system beyond the boundaries of sustainability. In the past twenty years, the growing demand for food has increasingly been met through the destruction of Earth's natural environment, and much less through progress in agricultural productivity generated by scientific research, as was the case during the two previous decades. There is an urgent need to reduce the environmental footprint of the global food system: if its performances are not improved rapidly, the food system could itself be one main cause for food crises in the near future. The article concludes with a series of recommendations intended for policy makers and science leaders to improve the resilience of the food system, global to local, and in the short, medium and long term.

Enhanced visible light-mediated photocatalysis, antibacterial functions and fabrication of a 3-chlorophenol sensor based on ternary Ag2O·SrO·CaO.

A novel multi-metal oxide nanocomposite, Ag2O·SrO·CaO, was synthesized by a facile co-precipitation method followed by calcinations. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by XRD, FESEM, EDS, TEM, FTIR spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The composite showed enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation and excellent anti-bacterial performance against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Here, the synthesized Ag2O·SrO·CaO nanomaterials were deposited on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) in the form of a thin film to fabricate the desired electrochemical sensor and subjected to I-V analysis of 3-chlorophenol (3-CP) in a phosphate buffer solution (PBS). A calibration curve was plotted from the linear relation of current versus concentration and used to calculate the sensitivity (8.9684 µA µM-1 cm-2), linear dynamic range (LDR, 0.1 nM to 0.01 mM) and lower limit of detection (DL, 97.12 ± 4.86 pM). The analytical parameters of the sensor such as response time, reproducibility and long-term stability in the detection of 3-CP were reliable. Finally, it was used to analyze real samples collected from various environmental sources and found to be acceptable.

Inhibitors of Brassinosteroid Biosynthesis and Signal Transduction.

Chemical inhibitors are invaluable tools for investigating protein function in reverse genetic approaches. Their application bears many advantages over mutant generation and characterization. Inhibitors can overcome functional redundancy, their application is not limited to species for which tools of molecular genetics are available and they can be applied to specific tissues or developmental stages, making them highly convenient for addressing biological questions. The use of inhibitors has helped to elucidate hormone biosynthesis and signaling pathways and here we review compounds that were developed for the plant hormones brassinosteroids (BRs). BRs are steroids that have strong growth-promoting capacities, are crucial for all stages of plant development and participate in adaptive growth processes and stress response reactions. In the last two decades, impressive progress has been made in BR inhibitor development and application, which has been instrumental for studying BR modes of activity and identifying and characterizing key players. Both, inhibitors that target biosynthesis, such as brassinazole, and inhibitors that target signaling, such as bikinin, exist and in a comprehensive overview we summarize knowledge and methodology that enabled their design and key findings of their use. In addition, the potential of BR inhibitors for commercial application in plant production is discussed.

Impact of drinking water salinity on children's education: Empirical evidence from coastal Bangladesh.

This study examines the impact of drinking water salinity on children's education using a unique and rich dataset collected from eight southwest coastal districts of Bangladesh. Salinity concentration in drinking water is measured at the household level using water samples from households' primary source of drinking water during the summer, wet and dry season of 20014-15. A third of the deep tube-well water samples was found to be slightly (1000 < TDS < 2000 mg/l) to moderately (TDS ≥ 2000 mg/l) saline. Linking the child-level data on educational outcome to water salinity (i.e. TDS level), the study reveals a statistically significant negative effect of excessive salinity on grade advancement for 7-12 year old children. More specifically, exposure to excessive drinking water salinity (TDS > 1000 mg/l) decreases the grade advancement likelihood of 7-12 year old children by 6.7 percentage points. The results remain robust to alternative model and econometric specifications. The adverse effect of salinity on grade advancement does not vary significantly across the gender of the child while poverty, as expected, exacerbates the effect. Impaired cognitive development due to early childhood exposure appears to be the most plausible channel through which the negative effects of excessive sodium consumption permeate to young children's educational deficit. Additionally, poor health of the adults and elevated medical expenditure play a small yet significant mediating role.

The link between mothers' vulnerability to intimate partner violence and Children's human capital.

We propose a conceptual framework to examine the association between mothers' vulnerability to intimate partner violence (IPV) and children's human capital. An important contribution of our framework is that it uses multiple dimensions of human capital and identifies several pathways through which the negative associations of IPV translate to human capital deficits. The conceptual framework is empirically tested using a large-scale representative child-level dataset from India that includes two dimensions of children's human capital - traditional school-based measures of educational attainment, and standardized reading and arithmetic test scores reflecting cognitive ability. Additionally, our study is the first to use an indirect measure of IPV which aims to overcome underreporting bias associated with direct questioning based IPV measures. The results show significant negative correlation between mothers' vulnerability to IPV and children's human capital. The negative association is more pronounced and robust for cognitive outcomes as opposed to the commonly used school-based measures of human capital. As predicted by our conceptual framework, the negative associations are mediated by mothers' poor health and disruption of home environment. We find strong evidence of IPV-exposed children being more likely to experience corporal punishment at school reflecting signs of externalizing behavior. The indirect measure of IPV stands the test of multiple validity and robustness checks.

Climate change skepticism and index versus standard crop insurance demand in coastal Bangladesh.

This paper investigates if climate change skepticism, farmers' fatalistic beliefs, and insurance plan design influence interest in crop weather insurance. While studies of the influence of fatalism on disaster preparedness are common, the ways in which fatalism influences climate change skepticism, and in turn affects farmers' interest in crop insurance, have not been previously investigated. An additional objective was to understand farmers' preferences for index versus standard insurance options, the former entailing damage compensation based on post-hazard assessment, the latter tying damage compensation to a set of weather parameter thresholds. A discrete choice experiment was conducted with maize farmers on a climate-risk prone island in coastal Bangladesh. Most farmers were insurance averse. Those who chose insurance were however significantly more likely to select standard as opposed to index-based insurance. Insurance demand was significantly and positively correlated with farmers' concern about the adverse livelihood impacts of climate change. Farmers who exhibited fatalistic views regarding the consequences of climate change were significantly less likely to opt for insurance of either kind. These findings imply that the prospect for farmers' investment in insurance is conditioned by their understanding of climate change risks and the utility of adaptation, in addition to insurance scheme design.

The influence of gender and product design on farmers' preferences for weather-indexed crop insurance.

Theoretically, weather-index insurance is an effective risk reduction option for small-scale farmers in low income countries. Renewed policy and donor emphasis on bridging gender gaps in development also emphasizes the potential social safety net benefits that weather-index insurance could bring to women farmers who are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change risk and have low adaptive capacity. To date, no quantitative studies have experimentally explored weather-index insurance preferences through a gender lens, and little information exists regarding gender-specific preferences for (and constraints to) smallholder investment in agricultural weather-index insurance. This study responds to this gap, and advances the understanding of preference heterogeneity for weather-index insurance by analysing data collected from 433 male and female farmers living on a climate change vulnerable coastal island in Bangladesh, where an increasing number of farmers are adopting maize as a potentially remunerative, but high-risk cash crop. We implemented a choice experiment designed to investigate farmers' valuations for, and trade-offs among, the key attributes of a hypothetical maize crop weather-index insurance program that offered different options for bundling insurance with financial saving mechanisms. Our results reveal significant insurance aversion among female farmers, irrespective of the attributes of the insurance scheme. Heterogeneity in insurance choices could however not be explained by differences in men's and women's risk and time preferences, or agency in making agriculturally related decisions. Rather, gendered differences in farmers' level of trust in insurance institutions and financial literacy were the key factors driving the heterogeneous preferences observed between men and women. Efforts to fulfill gender equity mandates in climate-smart agricultural development programs that rely on weather-index insurance as a risk-abatement tool are therefore likely to require a strengthening of institutional credibility, while coupling such interventions with financial literacy programs for female farmers.

Community acquired bacterial pneumonia: aetiology, laboratory detection and antibiotic susceptibility pattern.

This cross sectional study was conducted to identify the common bacterial causes of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) from sputum and blood by culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and to evaluate the effectiveness of these tests. A total of 105 sputum and blood samples were collected from patients with pneumonia on clinical suspicion. Common causative bacterial agents of pneumonia were detected by Gram staining, cultures, biochemical tests and PCR. Among 55 sputum culture positive cases, a majority (61.82%) of the patients were in the age group between 21-50 years and the ratio between male and female was 2.5:1. Most (61.90%) of the cases were from the lower socio-economic group. Out of 105 samples, 23 (37.12%) were positive by Gram stain, 29 (27.62%) yielded growth in culture media and 37 (35.24%) were positive by PCR for Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most common aetiological agent (19.05%) followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.33%), Haemophilus influenzae (8.57%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (5.71%). Multiplex PCR is a useful technique for rapid diagnosis of bacterial causes of pneumonia directly from sputum and blood. Considering culture as a gold standard, the sensitivity of PCR was 96.55% and specificity was 88.15%. More than 80% of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates were found to be sensitive to ampicillin, amoxycillinclavulanate, and ceftriaxone. Susceptibilities to other antimicrobials ranged from 65% for azithromycin to 70% for levofloxacin. On the other hand, the Gram negative organisms were more sensitive to meropenem, ceftriaxone, amoxycillin-clavulanate and amikacin.

Community acquired bacterial pneumonia: aetiology, laboratory detection and antibiotic susceptibility pattern

This cross sectional study was conducted to identify the common bacterial causes of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) from sputum and blood by culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and to evaluate the effectiveness of these tests. A total of 105 sputum and blood samples were collected from patients with pneumonia on clinical suspicion. Common causative bacterial agents of pneumonia were detected by Gram staining, cultures, biochemical tests and PCR. Among 55 sputum culture positive cases, a majority (61.82%) of the patients were in the age group between 21-50 years and the ratio between male and female was 2.5:1. Most (61.90%) of the cases were from the lower socio-economic group. Out of 105 samples, 23 (37.12%) were positive by Gram stain, 29 (27.62%) yielded growth in culture media and 37 (35.24%) were positive by PCR for Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most common aetiological agent (19.05%) followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.33%), Haemophilus influenzae (8.57%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (5.71%). Multiplex PCR is a useful technique for rapid diagnosis of bacterial causes of pneumonia directly from sputum and blood. Considering culture as a gold standard, the sensitivity of PCR was 96.55% and specificity was 88.15%. More than 80% of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates were found to be sensitive to ampicillin, amoxycillinclavulanate, and ceftriaxone. Susceptibilities to other antimicrobials ranged from 65% for azithromycin to 70% for levofloxacin. On the other hand, the Gram negative organisms were more sensitive to meropenem, ceftriaxone, amoxycillin-clavulanate and amikacin.

Exploring the feasibility of private micro flood insurance provision in Bangladesh.

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the feasibility of the provision of micro flood insurance as an effective tool for spreading disaster risks in developing countries and examines the role of the institutional-organisational framework in assisting the design and implementation of such a micro flood insurance market. In Bangladesh, a private insurance market for property damage and livelihood risk due to natural disasters does not exist. Private insurance companies are reluctant to embark on an evidently unprofitable venture. Testing two different institutional-organisational models, this research reveals that the administration costs of micro-insurance play an important part in determining the long-term viability of micro flood insurance schemes. A government-facilitated process to overcome the differences observed in this study between the nonprofit micro-credit providers and profit-oriented private insurance companies is needed, building on the particular competence each party brings to the development of a viable micro flood insurance market through a public-private partnership.

Confronting uncertainty and missing values in environmental value transfer as applied to species conservation.

The nonuse (or passive) value of nature is important but time-consuming and costly to quantify with direct surveys. In the absence of estimates of these values, there will likely be less investment in conservation actions that generate substantial nonuse benefits, such as conservation of native species. To help overcome decisions about the allocation of conservation dollars that reflect the lack of estimates of nonuse values, these values can be estimated indirectly by environmental value transfer (EVT). EVT uses existing data or information from a study site such that the estimated monetary value of an environmental good is transferred to another location or policy site. A major challenge in the use of EVT is the uncertainty about the sign and size of the error (i.e., the percentage by which transferred value exceeds the actual value) that results from transferring direct estimates of nonuse values from a study to a policy site, the site where the value is transferred. An EVT is most useful if the decision-making framework does not require highly accurate information and when the conservation decision is constrained by time and financial resources. To account for uncertainty in the decision-making process, a decision heuristic that guides the decision process and illustrates the possible decision branches, can be followed. To account for the uncertainty associated with the transfer of values from one site to another, we developed a risk and simulation approach that uses Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the net benefits of conservation investments and takes into account different possible distributions of transfer error. This method does not reduce transfer error, but it provides a way to account for the effect of transfer error in conservation decision making. Our risk and simulation approach and decision-based framework on when to use EVT offer better-informed decision making in conservation.