Poster Session
The Environmental Efficiency of Agricultural Firms in Mediterranean Countries: A Comparative Analysis View Digital Media
Poster Session Maria José Palma Lampreia Dos Santos
Climate change and global warming become great policy issues in the world in general and in agricultural production due to the full dependence of these activities on climate conditions. Economic agricultural activities produce not only desirable outputs (e.g., food) but also undesirable outputs (e.g., CO2 and methane emission, etc.). The important policy issue is how each Mediterranean Member State of the European Union can balance agricultural economic development and environmental protection to attain sustainable development and food security. This study evaluates the environmental efficiency of Mediterranean agricultural firms in European Member States. The methodology includes a stochastic frontier model where Gross Value Added of Agriculture (GVAA) is considered as the desirable output and Greenhouse Gases emissions as the undesirable output emissions from agriculture (gigagram CO2 eq.). The inputs include agricultural land, employment in agriculture, and agricultural investment. The paper analyses three periods, namely, 2006; 2014, and 2020. The results prove that on average the Mediterranean agricultural firms have in general a high to medium level of environmental efficiency besides occurs some differences among countries. The comparative analysis among CAP periods also shows a slow improvement of environmental efficiency of Mediterranean agricultural firms among countries. However, the countries with more contribution to Gross Development Agricultural Product presents in general low levels of environmental efficiency. That represents a conflict between environmental and economic sustainability and represents a great challenge in the future in terms of CAP policies and institutional measures to promote agricultural sustainability.
Music, Personality, and Preferences: A Mathematical Valuation of Art
Poster Session Samuel Seaman
The love of music is ubiquitous; yet, musical preferences are seemingly immeasurable. Little is known about the nature of those preferences. Many wish to understand them to increase profits (labels, producers, and the artists themselves), whilst others wish only to deconstruct an elegant component of the flourishing life. In the present work, we have searched for associations between personality indicators, and the affects those traits may have on musical preferences...we have done so, to help artists better understand their fans, to help fans better understand the artists they follow, and most urgently, to recommend a mechanism for increasing the appreciation amongst fans for new forms of music (art).
The Moralizing Machine: A Case Study in the Theory and Praxis of Computational Ethics
Poster Session Jacob S. Shaw
Computational philosophy—the use of computational techniques such as simulations in philosophical research—is an emerging methodology now being used across various subfields of philosophy. However, there are still no widely accepted theoretical underpinnings or methodologies for the use of computational techniques in ethical research. In this study, I present my recent work in computational philosophy to demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of computational modeling methods to ethical research, as well as the potential for such methods to contribute to the field. I utilized a type of computational simulation known as agent-based modeling to investigate questions of generosity, the results of which I interpreted using a novel working metaphilosophical theory of computational ethics. My agent-based model consists of various simulated societies, each following a different moral precept related to generosity, competing for limited resources over time. I assessed measures of growth, mortality, and equality across the societies to infer the societal consequences of following each of the given moral precepts and understood these empirical observations in light of different teleological moral theories—including classical utilitarianism, Rawlsian distributive justice, and Mohist consequentialism—to draw normative conclusions. My study ultimately demonstrated the theoretical and practical value of computer simulations in rigorous teleological ethical research. More work is necessary to determine the feasibility of the application of computational techniques to deontological and virtue ethical research.
