Portrayal of sustainability principles in the mission statements and on home pages of the world's largest organizations

Conservation can be achieved only if sustainability is embraced as core to organizational cultures. To test the extent to which the related concepts of sustainability, conservation, response to climate change, poverty alleviation, and gender equity have been incorporated into organizational culture, we compared mission statements published from 1990 to 2000 with those published in 2014 for 150 organzations, including conservation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), aid NGOs, government development agencies, resource extraction companies, and retailers (30 in each category). We also analyzed the 2014 home web pages of each organization. Relative to the earlier period, the frequency with which mission statements mentioned poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and a range of sustainable practices increased only slightly by 2014, particularly among resource extractors and retail companies. Few organizations in any sector had embedded either climate change or gender equity into their mission statements. In addition, the proportional intensity with which any of the aspirations were expressed did not change between periods. For current home pages, conservation NGOs, resource extractors, and government agencies were significantly more likely to acknowledge the importance of matters that were not part of their core business, but few aid agencies or retail companies promoted goals beyond alleviation of crises and profit maximization, respectively. Overall, there has been some progress in recognizing poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable practices, but gender equity and a determination to reduce impacts on climate change are still rarely promoted as central institutional concerns. Sustainability in general, and biodiversity conservation in particular, will not be achieved unless their importance is more widely apparent in core communication products of organizations.     

Evaluating the use phase energy requirements of a machine tool system

This paper has an energy consumption reduction perspective by considering alternative machining strategies and system components interactions translated into variable and constant power flows with respect to various use phase regimes of a machine tool system. The methodology is able to estimate the mechanical energy requirements of the spindle and feed axes with respect to 2.5D machining strategies by taking into account steady-state and transient regimes. In addition, the specific amount of fixed energy drawn by a machine was determined based on a careful monitoring of the energy share amongst the auxiliary equipment that supports the accomplishment of the machining tasks. The numerical results were experimentally validated and the good agreement between them led to the conclusion that the proposed methodology can be used effectively for the calculation of the total energy required by a machine tool system for the milling of a part. This enables a straightforward comparison of different milling part programs with respect to their energy consumption levels.     

Trade-offs between development,culture and conservation – Willingness to pay for tropical river management among urban Australians

Australia’s system of tropical rivers constitutes one of the largest and least changed drainage networks in the world. However increasing demand for water in parts of Australia, along with ongoing drought, is driving pressure to develop these rivers. This paper reports the results of a choice experiment (CE) to assess the benefits of different management strategies for three tropical rivers in northern Australia: the Daly, Mitchell and Fitzroy Rivers. The CE was carried out using a survey mailed to Australian urban populations. The results showed that 90% of Australians were willing to pay a once-off payment for the management of tropical rivers. Respondents who had visited or lived near the rivers were willing to pay more for cultural, recreational and environmental services than those who had not. Respondents classed as ‘developers’, who made up only 4% of the 684 respondents, considered a substantial income from irrigated agriculture as important. Unlike ‘environmentalists’ and ‘neutrals’, ‘developers’ were unwilling to pay for high quality recreational fishing or for having floodplains in good environmental condition. All groups, however, were willing to pay for high cultural values.     

Ambient Air Analyses Using Nonspecific Flame lonization and Electron Capture Detection Compared to Specific Detection by Mass Spectroscopy

Ambient air samples from various studies were analyzed for a specific set of trace-level volatile organic compounds by using a gas chromatograph (GC) equipped with a flame ionization detector (FID) in parallel with an electron capture detector (ECD). The samples were then reanalyzed on a second GC system equipped with a mass selective detector (MSD). GC-FID/ECD data were compared to the nominally correct GC-MSD data to determine the accuracy of the nonspecific detectors, which often do not differentiate the targeted compound from Interfering compounds. Qualitative accuracy (capability for correctly identifying compounds on the basis of retention time only) and quantitative accuracy (capability for correctly measuring the concentration of an identified compound on the basis of peak area) were evaluated. Data are presented on a per-compound basis to provide the combined typical results from air samples collected in three geographic regions: Kanawha Valley, WV; Los Angeles, CA, area; and Houston, TX.     

Babbling behavior in the sac-winged bat (Saccopteryx bilineata)

Infant babbling in humans and a few other primates plays an important role in allowing the young to practice the adult vocal repertoire during early behavioral development. Vocalizations uttered during babbling resemble, to some degree, the acoustic structure of adult vocalizations and are often produced in long bouts independent of any social context. Similar behavior, termed subsong or plastic song, is known from a variety of songbirds. Here, we show that pups of the sac-winged bat (Saccopteryx bilineata), a species with an unusually large vocal repertoire, produce renditions of all known adult vocalization types during bouts of vocalizations, which appear to be independent of a distinct social context. Babbling occurs in pups of both sexes, even though only adult males, not females, utter all different vocalization types produced in infancy. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of babbling in a nonprimate mammal and suggests that infant babbling may be necessary for the ontogeny of complex vocal repertoires.     

Occurrence and distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the dissolved and suspended phases of the sea-surface microlayer and seawater in Hong Kong, China

This study reports the first data on the concentration and distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the sea-surface microlayer (SML), and their enrichment relative to bulk seawater, for coastal waters in the marine environment of Hong Kong, China. Samples were collected in March 2005 at five sample locations and analysed for eight congeners of primary interest, i.e. BDE 28, 47, 99, 100, 153, 156, 183 and 209. Concentration ranges of summation operatorPBDE in the dissolved phase (DP, defined as sum of truly dissolved and colloidal phase) and suspended particulate matter (SPM) of seawater were 31.1-118.7 pg/l (mean 70.7 pg/l), and 25.7-32.5 pg/l (mean 28.1 pg/l), respectively. Concentrations in the SML were generally higher by factor of 1.3-3.6 in the DP (concentration range from 40.2 to 228.2 pg/l, mean 149.2 pg/l) and by 0.3-2.1 in the SPM (concentration range 8.1-69.1 pg/l, mean 38.2 pg/l). Concentrations of PBDEs were general low and below detection limits in samples of an oceanic character and highest in the sheltered waters of Victoria Harbour. The congeners BDE 28, 47, 100 and 183 were most abundant, where BDE 209 was detected only in trace amounts. It is suggested that Hong Kong's marine waters show relatively low levels of PBDE contamination, and these compounds may originate from the disposal of electronic waste in southern China, as well as untreated discharge of wastewater locally.     

Evaluation of a biomarker of Cd(II) exposure on Limnoperna fortunei

The use of organisms to monitor contamination allows the access to information that cannot be acquired by chemical methods. Limnoperna fortunei, mussel frequently found in Río de la Plata estuary, fulfils the requirements to be used as a biomonitoring organism. In this work we report that a polypeptide of 22 kDa of molecular weight (LF22) is induced when L. fortunei is exposed to Cd (II), Cu(II) and Hg(II) sublethal levels. To characterize LF22, mussels were sampled from a non-polluted region and whole soft tissue was homogenized, with and without previous exposure to 100 microg/L of Cd(II). The cytosolic proteins were evaluated by mono and bidimensional SDS-PAGE, and size exclusion chromatography. All the methods showed that LF22 triples its concentration in presence of Cd(II). Purification of LF22 was achieved by fractioned precipitation, salting-out, ionic exchange and size exclusion chromatography. We conclude that LF22 is a useful biomarker of heavy metal exposure.