Pro Rata Research Articles

Ripening of Cheddar cheese made from blends of raw and pasteurised milk

Cheddar cheeses were made from pasteurised milk (P), raw milk (R) or pasteurised milk to which 10 (PR10), 5 (PR5) or 1 (PR1) % of raw milk had been added. Non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) were not detectable in P cheese in the first month of ripening, at which stage PR1, PR5, PR10 and R cheeses had 104, 105, 106 and 107 cfu NSLAB g−1, respectively. After ripening for 4 months, the number of NSLAB was 1–2 log cycles lower in P cheese than in all other cheeses. Urea–polyacrylamide gel electrophoretograms of water-soluble and insoluble fractions of cheeses and reverse-phase HPLC chromatograms of 70% (v/v) ethanol-soluble as well as -insoluble fractions of WSF were essentially similar in all cheeses. The concentration of amino acids were pro rata the number of NSLAB and were the highest in R cheese and the lowest in P cheese throughout ripening. Free fatty acids and most of the fatty acid esters in 4-month old cheeses were higher in PR1, PR5, PR10 and R cheeses than in P cheese. Commercial graders awarded the highest flavour scores to 4-month-old PR1 cheeses and the lowest to P or R cheese. An expert panel of sensory assessors awarded increasingly higher scores for fruity/sweet and pungent aroma as the level of raw milk increased. The trend for aroma intensity and perceived maturity was R>PR10>PP5>PR1>P. The NSLAB from raw milk appeared to influence the ripening and quality of Cheddar cheese.

Spartan v. federated: Indemnity obligations clarified, which “property damage” triggers coverage, and how is the progressive injury allocated over time?

In Spartan Petroleum Co., Inc. v. Federated Mut. Ins. Co., 162 F.3d 805 (4th Cir. 1998), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit addressed two important issues in the law of insurance coverage for progressive environmental‐damage claims. First, the fourth circuit reinforced a straightforward principle of law that it is theproperty damage of the third‐party claimant that triggers coverage under a general‐liability insurance policy, not the insured's own property damage. Second, the fourth circuit held that the liability is allocated pro rata over the period of the progressive damage, and for those periods where the insured has no insurance, the insured must bear the loss.

A cytogenetic study of nuclear power plant workers using the micronucleus-centromere assay

A cytogenetic study was performed in 215 nuclear power plant workers occupationally exposed to radiation using the micronucleus-centromere assay for peripheral blood lymphocytes. As control population served administrative staff with yearly doses below 1 mSv. The increase of the micronucleus frequency with age, observed in the non-smoking control population, is mainly due to an enhanced number of centromere-positive micronuclei, pointing to an increased chromosome loss. No differences in the number of micronuclei, centromere-positive and centromere-negative micronuclei between smokers and non-smokers are observed. An analysis of the micronucleus data vs. the dose accumulated over the 10 years preceding the venepuncture shows no significant clastogenic or aneuploidogenic effects of the exposure in the studied population which is representative for workers in the nuclear industry at present. According to the linear fits to our data an increase of the micronucleus frequency pro rata 0.5 per 1000 binucleated cells per year, related to the centromere-negative micronuclei, may be expected for workers with the maximal tolerable dose of 20 mSv/year.

Dam Must Be Repaired

Vouga Reservoir Association (VRA) was organized under Colorado state law to build and maintain a water reservoir. Woodrow W. Watson was a minority shareholder in VRA with 35 percent of the shares. In 1994, the Colorado state engineers office discovered a defect in the reservoir's outlet pipe. Because the defect could not be corrected, the Colorado Division of Water Resources ordered that no water be stored in the reservoir until appropriate remedial measures were taken. The majority shareholders authorized VRA to levy a pro rata assessment on its shares, pursuant to state law, to pay for the repairs, which would cost more than $1 million. Watson refused to pay, and VRA forfeited his shares. Watson brought this suit to enjoin the repairs and to dissolve and liquidate VRA. The trial court awarded Watson damages equal to 35 percent of the value of VRA. On appeal, Watson argued that the remedial measures for which VRA proportionately assessed the shareholders were not authorized by state law because they constituted reconstruction of the dam, rather than repair. But the appellate court said that VRA's sole purpose was to supply water for irrigation to its shareholders' land. The court concluded that state law authorized the assessment for the repair cost, and the trial court decision was reversed.

The Importance of Call Delays and Cash Flow Positions in Evaluating the Information Content of Convertible Preferred Stock Calls

We examine a sample of in-the-money convertible preferred stock calls and find that they are delayed. We find that the length of the call delay does not depend on the relation between the preferred stock dividends and the pro rata common dividends to be paid on conversion. Thus, our evidence suggests that preferred stock calls may be used for signaling purposes. In support of this, we find that only delayed calls (i.e., those with potential signaling elements) are viewed negatively by equity investors. We also show that, in responding to delayed call announcements, investors appear to react to two distinct information elements. First, price responses to delayed calls are increasingly negative the larger the cash flow disadvantage to calling. In other words, common investors respond more negatively to calls when the forced conversion results in convertible holders receiving larger dividends than were previously required. Second, both cash flow advantage and cash flow disadvantage firms experience significant downward shifts in earnings growth during post-call periods, suggesting that delayed calls are timely signals of decreasing profitability.

Waiting for the Omelet to Set: Match Specific Assets and Minority Oppression in the Close Corporation

We argue that the close corporation form is uniquely suited to enterprises with a high density of match specific assets, particularly where the assets are not yet fully developed, as in an omelet factory. The corporate law limitations on exit, combined with the corporate law rules against non pro rata distributions, largely prevent opportunistic behavior by the majority shareholder towards the minority. By locking both into the enterprise, the majority shareholder, in maximizing its own wealth, also maximizes the wealth of the minority. The projects are given the opportunity to develop without concern that parties could threaten to remove their capital in order to secure a greater share of the profits. Indeed, as we show, many of the persistent features of the stylized close corporation can best be understood as self-enforcing mechanisms to protect the participants from opportunistic behavior by fellow participants. Starting from this view of close corporations, we analyze the classic problem(s) of minority oppression in the close corporation. We argue that minority oppression can best be understood as a combination of two separate and separable dimensions, with two distinct legal responses. The first dimension is a version of precisely the same problem that, in law, arises under the heading of employment at and is best handled with the same judicial passivity, absent explicit agreements to the contrary. To do otherwise is unnecessary and threatens to undermine the self-enforcing structure in place. The second dimension of the problem is fundamentally different from at will, and involves attempts by the controlling shareholder to make non pro rata distributions of firm assets. Here, we show that vigorous judicial enforcement of a prohibition on such distributions, including the vigorous protection of ancillary rights to information, is necessary to enforce norms of non-opportunism. We further show that courts are much better at sorting out issues of this sort than at will type issues because doing so does not require either relying on unverifiable factors, nor valuing assets that the courts cannot value. Out of our appreciation of the beauty of the close corporation form comes the implication that courts further the purposes of the close corporation when they hold narrowly within the corporate form and avoid ad hoc adjudication of substance. In this model of the close corporation, courts remain passive in the face of the issues that animate many bitter close corporation cases. By contrast, courts take an active role in blocking the attempts by majority shareholders to enter into self-dealing transactions with the corporation as a way around the sacred prohibitions on non pro-rata distributions.

Carter‐Wallace explains application to excess liability policies of Owens‐Illinois methodology for allocating indivisible losses that trigger multiple coverage periods

Four years after its landmark Owens‐Illinois decision on allocation of insurance coverage for indivisible losses that trigger multiple‐coverage periods, the New Jersey Supreme Court has reaffirmed and extended the principles of the 1994 Owens‐Illinois decision. The Court's new decision, in Carter‐Wallace v. Commercial Union Insurance Co., explains how Owens‐Illinois allocation principle applies when coverage purchased in a given period includes umbrella or other excess policies, as well as primary policies and self‐insured retentions. Under Owens‐Illinois, the total loss is divided into separate dollar shares for each triggered period, using two factors—relative time on the risk and relative total coverage purchased (or foregone)— to prorate these shares. Under Carter‐Wallace, the dollar share of the loss prorated to a given coverage period is charged against the policies covering that period, following the usual rules of coverage attachment and exhaustion based on liability limits and other applicable policy terms, just as if the prorated share of the total multiperiod coverage loss were a separate loss that took place solely within that coverage period. More particularly, a given period's share of the total loss is charged first against the remaining limits of that period's primary policy or self‐insured retention (SIR) until its applicable limits of liability are exhausted. Any portion of the period's pro rata share left unpaid is then charged against that period's next lowest (e.g., umbrella excess) policy, until that period's full share is satisfied or the next policy's applicable liability limits are exhausted. This process continues for each successive layer of coverage for the period in question until its full share is paid or all available coverage is exhausted. The Carter‐Wallace court rejected two other theories of allocation touted by Carter‐Wallace (pro rata by time on the risk and limits exposed to the total loss as viewed on a joint‐and‐several basis) and Commercial Union (pro rata by individual policy limits, applied layer by entire layer throughout the triggered coverage period.

A model for merging vascular surgery and interventional radiology: Clinical and economical implications

Background: The traditional separation of vascular surgery and interventional radiology into distinct units is associated with inefficiencies in patient care, practice management, and training. Traditional departmental politics, discrepant clinical backgrounds and philosophies, fear of decreasing remuneration, and basic differences in education, training, and practice have all rendered mergers difficult. Methods: We have implemented a model that incorporates all the clinical, fiscal, and educational activities of the 2 former entities into a single unit. A 5-physician vascular surgery group, its noninvasive laboratory, and a 3-physician interventional radiology group were unified. The revenue was deposited into a single account from which all the expenses were paid. The net income of the joint unit was apportioned on a predetermined pro rata basis, with scaled percentages for each practitioner. In an effort to separate clinical decision making from economic pressures, the individual physician remuneration was not on the basis of productivity. Clinical volume, gross revenue, and remuneration were compared with the 12-month period that immediately preceded the merger and contrasted to the previous 3-year historical trend (HT). Results: The number of vascular surgical procedures fell after the merger (–9.3%; HT, +4.7%). By contrast, the number of interventional radiology procedures rose (+56.1%; HT, +15.2%), as did the number of noninvasive testing (+9.2%; HT, +3.5%). In concordance with the number of procedures, the gross revenue of vascular surgery fell (–23.7%; HT, +1.1%) and that of interventional radiology rose (+53.5%; HT, +46.0%). The increased efficiencies allowed the total expenses of the 2 units to fall (–13.2%; HT, +7.5%), and, despite the reduced revenue, the vascular surgeon remuneration was preserved (+0.7%; HT, –3.9%) and the radiology remuneration rose (+22.3%; HT, +8.3%). The merger allowed the vascular surgery fellows to actively participate in 26 interventional cases per month and the interventional radiology fellows to actively participate in 8 open surgical cases per month. Conclusion: The merger of vascular surgery and interventional radiology resulted in a decrease in the surgical procedures and revenue, with a corresponding increase in the interventional radiology procedures and revenue. Despite these effects, the physician remuneration increased as a result of the improved efficiencies in practice management and the reduction in expenses. The merger of the 2 units excludes the economic pressures from clinical decision making and appears to be warranted on the basis of the fiscal and educational benefits that are achieved. (J Vasc Surg 1998;28:1006-13.)

Expanding community children's nursing services

Although children make up around a quarter of the UK population the provision of community children’s nursing services is inconsistent. In England, which has more provision, pro rata, than Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, almost 50% of children who may potentially benefit from such a service have no means of accessing one. Ever since the Platt Report (1959) on the ‘Welfare of Children in Hospital’, support for the development and expansion of such services has been widely advocated in order to meet the wide spectrum need for nursing children in the community. The House of Commons Health Committee (1997) has recently endorsed the expansion of such services. This article examines the background to the Committee’s deliberations and provides insight into how service development may be achieved in the future.

Effects and interactions of P fertiliser forms and rates of lime on a clover/ryegrass sward

Triple superphosphate (TSP), Arad phosphate rock (APR), and “Longlife” superphosphate (LL) were compared for their effectiveness as P fertilisers on a ryegrass/clover sward in New Zealand to which lime had been applied at 0, 1.25, 2.5, and 51 ha−1. The P fertilisers were applied annually for five (LL) or six (TSP and APR) years at 24 kg P ha−1 yr−1; there was also a nil P control. The trial design was a factorial of four P treatments × four lime treatments. DM yield responses were initially negligible but increased to a maximum of 27% by Year 5. Mean response to P fertiliser was 5% in spring and 16% in summer and autumn. There were significant DM responses to TSP and LL from Year 3 onwards and to APR from Year 4 onwards. Over the final three years, TSP and LL yielded significantly more DM than APR, but there was no significant difference in DM yield between TSP and LL. Herbage %P, herbage P uptake, and soil Olsen P were much more sensitive discriminators between P fertilisers than was DM production and showed significant differences between all fertilisers throughout most of the experiment, with the ranking of effectiveness being TSP>LL>APR>nil P. All measurements showed APR to be a relatively ineffective P fertiliser, giving only 41% of the response to TSP in Year 6 when averaged over all lime treatments. Herbage chemical analysis showed effectiveness of APR to be markedly reduced by 2.5 and 51 ha−1 lime. Calculations based on residual PR in soil at the end of the experiment indicated that dissolution rates of APR with nil, 1.25, 2.5, and 5 t ha−1 lime were 23%, 20%, 7%, and 9% per year, respectively. The slow dissolution of APR was attributed to its relatively low reactivity as measured by solubility in formic acid. The PR content of LL (North Carolina PR) also proved very ineffective, with an average dissolution rate of 13% per year which was unaffected by lime application rate. It is suggested that granulation of LL depressed dissolution of its PR component. Lime at 5 t ha−1 raised soil pH from 5.6 to 6.5 one year after application, with intermediate rates having a pro rata effect. Soil pH subsequently declined, but with considerable year‐to‐year fluctuations, at rates proportional to the lime application rate. There were no positive DM responses to lime but there were significant depressions in Years 5 and 6. Lime reduced herbage %P in APR treatments only. Lime significantly reduced Olsen P in control and all fertiliser treatments throughout the experiment, but only with APR was there an associated reduction in herbage %P.

An Overview of Welfare Reform in Italy

Samuelson stated in 1967 that “the beauty about social insurance is that ... everyone who reaches retirement age is given benefit privileges that far exceed anything he has paid in”. Such an optimistic belief seems to have been widely shared in Italy, where until the beginning of the reform process in 1992 social security could be described as a continuous succession of highly generous and diversified promises of payment made by the state to the different categories of workers on the basis of salary earned in the final stage of working life. The pension reform introduced by the Dini government in 1995 led to the adoption of a contribution‐based method of calculation, which meant a return to the forgotten “golden rule” that the financial equilibrium of pay‐as‐you‐go systems is ensured only if the implicit yield is equal to the rate of growth of the taxable basis of social security contributions. Equilibrium would thus be safeguarded, restoring itself automatically after any accidental disruption caused by demographic or economic upheaval, and operating regardless of the capacity and will of governments and of the majorities supporting them. The great efforts made to build up sufficient consensus with respect to such radical modifications of principle were, however, accompanied by a marked caution in bringing the system into full effect. This has left the country with the problem of accelerating transition to the new mechanism of calculating contributions, applied initially only to the newly employed and pro rata to workers with less than 18 years of contributions paid in, thereby making for a very long period of transition. In such a connection, a recent proposal has suggested that the state should try to induce workers to agree freely to a reduction in their accrued pension entitlements through the public system in return for a share in the process of privatization. If government were to repay the pension debt “below par”, this would allow for greater savings on future expenditure by using part of the revenues of privatization to pay off the pension debt in advance rather than by using these sums to pay off the national debt. More radical approaches aiming at cutting back social spending, would fail to take into account the risks involved in the collapse of public trust and of the structures that have hitherto guaranteed the cohesion of Italian society and the conditions for entrepreneurial commitment. On the other hand, an unbridled bottom‐up proliferation of networks of social cohesion, supplementary voluntary bodies and non‐profit initiatives may involve the risk of further arbitrary action being taken in the name of income redistribution. The social market requires bottom‐up action on the part of associations, but also the guarantee of state‐imposed rules that are equal for all parties and of a market that is free from the distortions of competition regulated from the top. A welfare state that has too often disguised the redistribution of resources in non‐transparent forms must be replaced by a transparent welfare system effecting an explicit redistribution of resources and allowing a suitably regulated market to operate without indulging continually in further forms of “correction”. This calls for the introduction of a microchip “citizen card”, able to offer characteristics both of uniformity and of fine‐tuning in terms of specific conditions of age, income, assets, education, etc., so as to permit forms of selection and/or cost sharing where desirable. Some of the rights to welfare services incorporated in the “citizen card” could in fact be assigned in monetary form but restricted to specific uses. Such “social money”, conveniently based on modern technological transaction structures, could become the money of the state sector, the private sector, and the third sector of non‐profit organizations and associations, enabling all parties to respond to the objective demand expressed by citizens in conditions of competition that are free of supply‐side distortion.

“Kenning be Kenning and Course be Course”: Maritime Jurimetrics in Scotland and Northern Europe 1400—1600

This article explores thejurimetric significance ofa phrase orformula, “kenning be kenning and course be course”, used in maritime law texts and disputes in late medieval and early modern Scotland and England. On open sea voyages, knowing one's position and using that knowledge to plot the next stage of the trip depended, not only on topographical knowledge ofcoasts and theirfeatures, but also on knowledge ofthe “kennings” (sightings, or the distances between two visible points of coastal topography) encountered on coastal voyages or at the end ofa sea-going passage, as well as knowledge ofthe “courses” to be sailed in the latter case. Knowing howfar a vessel had travelled was also crucial in actionsfor payment offreight pro rata itineris orfor payment of wages. The several versions of the Judgments of the Sea used in northern Europe stated what the law was in such disputes, but the remedies given were dependent on a calculation ofdistance in either kennings or courses. The Scottish contextfor this practice is explored in detail.

Effects of Habitat Manipulations on Texas Horned Lizards and Their Prey

The effects of habitat manipulations on Texas horned lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum) and their main prey, harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex spp.) were studied in South Texas. The relative abundance of lizards, their scat, and active harvester ant mounds was assessed on 1-ha plots that were manipulated with either prescribed burning, disking, burning and disking combination, grazing, or land in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). We determined differential habitat use or avoidance using Chi-square analysis and Bonferroni Z-statistics to control the experiment-wise error probability at 10%. Lizards used burned plots disproportionately more, were neutral in their use of the disked and grazed plots, and under-utilized the burned and disked combination and CRP plots. Analysis of scat led to similar conclusions in relation to burned, grazed, and CRP plots, but scats were distributed on combination plots pro rata to availability and were underrepresented on the disked plots. No difference was detected in the relative abundance of active ant mounds among the 5 land management practices. Even though Texas horned lizards preferentially used areas that were recently burned, the process of burning may harm them due to the shallow depths in which they hibernate.

Applying trigger of coverage and allocation approaches to environmental contamination claims

Attempts by some courts to maximize insurance coverage in cases before them have resulted in some unfortunate and diverse rulings as to which policy periods should be implicated and how to assess the amount of costs attributable to policy periods when an insured is responsible for remediation costs to clean up contamination. This article argues for a manifestation trigger of coverage because it follows the fundamental principles of insurance law, provides simplicity and certainty as to date of loss, and avoids allocation battles. An injury‐in‐fact trigger is an alternative approach which is consistent with most insurance contracts as long as the insured demonstrates that some actual damage occurred during the policy period. This article advocates the pro rata time‐on‐the‐risk allocation approach adopted in Northern States Power when multiple periods of time are triggered, and disagrees with the joint and several liability allocation approach adopted in Keene and recently in CSXT. Some courts’ allocation analyses have drifted further and further away from the insurance contracts, as in the CSXT action, and have merely focused on the maximization of insurance coverage.

Components of relative growth rate and their interrelations in 59 temperate plant species

summaryThree groups of species (21 herbaceous monocotyledons, 22 herbaceous dicotyledons and 16 woody dicotyledons), including representatives of a wide range of natural habitats and life forms in inland Britain, were grown in the seedling phase in a resource‐rich controlled environment and assessed over a 14‐day period (21 d in the case of woody species). Mean values of relative growth rate (RGR), unit leaf rate (ULR), leaf area ratio (LAR), leaf weight fraction (LWF), specific leaf area (SLA), and the root‐shoot allometric coefficient were derived.In herbaceous species, the grand mean RGR was 0.20 d−1 comparable to values previously recorded. For woody species, the mean was 0.09 d−1. An existing assumption linking high RGR to high allocation to photosynthetic biomass was upheld by comparisons made between groups. Within groups, however, no pattern of this kind could be demonstrated.When photosynthetically active radiation was increased from 125 to 250 μmol m−2 s−1, ULR was increased almost pro rata. The parallel response in RGR was only slight, being offset by considerable reductions in LAR. The apparent mean quantum yield for photosynthesis in herbaceous species (whole‐plant d. wt basis) was 0–60 g mol−1.There was no significant dependence of RGR on ULR in any of the three groups of species, although the absolute magnitude of ULR declined in the order: herbaceous monocotyledons > herbaceous dicotyledons > woody dicotyledons. In all three groups, RGR was strongly dependent upon LAR but no differences emerged in absolute scale of LAR. The absolute scale of mean LWF decreased from herbaceous to woody species, but the dependence of LAR on LWF strengthened. Groups showed no systematic differences in magnitude of SLA, but the correlation of LAR with SLA was strong throughout.Multiple regression showed that the leading determinants of RGR were ULR and SLA in herbaceous species and LWF in woody species. Principal components analyses (PCA) on each of the three groups explained at least 77% of variation and agreed closely with an optimal (non‐hierarchical) classification. Only six cluster ‘types’ were recognized out of the 16 theoretically possible combinations of ‘high’ or ‘low’ values of the four growth parameters. Strong evidence of evolutionary trade‐offs emerged, most strikingly in that high RGR was never seen in combination with low SLA. The morphological/physiological types identified by an all‐groups PCA separated woody from the herbaceous species, but dicotyledons were almost congruent with the monocotyledons.The non‐growth‐analytical attributes most strongly correlated with mean RGR were percentage yield at a low level of mineral nutrients, leaf nitrogen concentration, and seed weight. It was concluded that mean RGR plays a central role in the identification of pathways of evolutionary specialization in herbaceous species.

Procedures for the estimation of regional scale atmospheric emissions—An example from the North West Region of England

This paper considers the value of applying an alternative pro rata methodology to the estimation of atmospheric emissions from a given regional or local area. Such investigations into less time and resource intensive means of providing estimates in comparison to traditional methods are important due to the potential role of new methods in the development of air quality management plans. A pro rata approach is used here to estimate emissions of SO 2, NO x , CO, CO 2, VOCs and black smoke from all sources and Pb from transportation for the North West region of England. This method has the advantage of using readily available data as well as being an easily repeatable procedure which provides a good indication of emissions to be expected from a particular geographical region. This can then provide the impetus for further emission studies and ultimately a regional/local air quality management plan. Results suggest that between 1987 and 1991 trends in the emissions of the pollutants considered have been less favourable in the North West region than in the nation as a whole.

Effects of Warranty Execution on Warranty Reserve Costs

Previous research has usually assumed full execution of warranty if a product fails within the warranty time. This paper investigates the effect of warranty execution on the expected warranty reserves of a linear pro rata rebate plan. The failure distribution investigated includes the Weibull distribution with different parameter values. A weight function is used that depicts the effect of warranty execution. Several forms of this warranty execution modeling consumer behavior, which is influenced by factors such as the rebate plan, warranty time, product class, and warranty attrition, are studied. Expected present value of warranty reserves, by using a factor that includes the firm’s discount rate and the general inflation rate, are found for the different warranty execution functions. The impact of the warranty execution function on the warranty reserves per unit is explored. The paper also investigates the effects of the model parameters, such as the failure distribution parameters and differences in consumer behavior in claiming warranties on warranty costs per unit.

The Market for Shares of Companies with Unlimited Liability: The Case of American Express

If share ownership entailed unlimited liability, would there be an active stock market? Some legal scholars have maintained that no liquid stock market could exist. Others have claimed the result would depend on the specific liability rule. But little empirical evidence has been cited to support any single theory. This article tests four theories of the effect of liability rules on stock market behavior through a study of trading in shares of the American Express Company during the 1950s, when these shares carried pro rata unlimited liability. This study shows that American Express stock traded regularly among a diverse group of shareholders and was not deemed especially risky by the market. The evidence suggests that limited liability is not a necessary condition for the functioning of markets for company shares.

Anthropogenic emissions of nitrous oxide (N 2O) from Europe

Anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N 2O) emissions from Europe, and Asiatic Turkey, are estimated for the period 1960–2040. Between 1960 and 1985 these emissions are found to have doubled to 1059 kton N 2ON/year. For future emissions three scenarios are defined: a no reduction scenario, where current trends continue; an acid reduction scenario, reflecting the implementation of maximum feasible technology to reduce acidification; and an optimistic scenario, in which both N 2O and acidifying emissions are strongly reduced. In the no reduction and acid reduction scenario anthropogenic N 2O emissions increase to 1199 and 1274 kton N 2ON/year by 2040, respectively. Thus technologies to reduce acidification are calculated to cause a net increase in N 2O emissions. In the optimistic scenario 534 kton N 2ON is emitted annually from 2020. A climate goal, aiming to limit future global warming to 0.1°C/decade, is calculated to require a stabilization of anthropogenic European emissions at 221 kton N 2ON/year (based on a pro rata contribution of greenhouse gases to emission reductions, and worldwide equal per capita N 2O emissions). In all three scenarios N 2O emissions exceed 221 kton N 2ON/year. In order to meet their goal, countries need to cut anthropogenic emissions by 59–90% relative to 1985, and by 40–63% relative to 2040 in the optimistic scenario.

New perspectives on agroforestry in lowland Britain

Agroforestry has not been adopted in the UK despite the potential it has to diversify output while reducing the opportunity cost of lost agricultural production. In part this reflects the limited nature of the grant aid available. This article demonstrates that the current pro rata restriction that grant aid is paid in proportion to the number of stems planted means that annual incomes derived from silvoarable or silvopastoral systems compare poorly with those from agricultural enterprises alone. By facilitating a greater variety In the spatial arrangement of trees, agroforestry systems offer a potential diversity of landscape forms and wildlife habitats that are not available from conventional plantation forestry. The article argues that this contribution to environmental diversity should be reflected In the level of grant aid provided for agroforestry. Silvopastoral systems based on sheep are shown to offer the greatest potential, and proposals are made for encouraging the development of such systems.