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NON-REGULAR MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION
Citation:
Holland, D M. NON-REGULAR MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION. Encyclopedia of Environmetrics. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester, Uk, 3:1235-1239, (2001).
Impact/Purpose:
Our main objective is to assess the exposure of selected ecosystems to specific atmospheric stressors. More precisely, we will analyze and interpret environmental quality (primarily atmospheric) data to document observable changes in environmental stressors that may be associated with legislatively-mandated emissions reductions.
Description:
Even though a body of data on the environmental occurrence of medicinal, government-approved ("ethical") pharmaceuticals has been growing over the last two decades (the subject of this book), nearly nothing is known about the disposition of illicit (illegal) drugs in the environment. Whether illicit drugs are similarly discharged to and survive in the environment (as discussed for medicinal drugs in the previous chapters of this book), and if so, whether they have adverse effects on native biota, is completely unknown. Regardless, with the newly acquired interest of environmental chemists in monitoring for medicinal drugs in environmental samples, science is now afforded the rare opportunity to simultaneously advance the understanding of a process (i.e., the inadvertent discharge of illicit drugs to the environment via their purposeful use) and to also have the ability to impact public discourse and social policy on a highly controversial subject - namely, the pervasive manufacture, trade, and use of illegal drugs.