Restraint use and seating position among children less than 13 years of age: Is it still a problem?

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to calculate national estimates and examine the extent to which children prematurely use adult seat belts and ride in the front seat of a vehicle during a 30 day period.

Methods

Data were obtained from a nationally representative cross-sectional random-digit-dial telephone survey that included child-specific questions on motor vehicle restraint use and seating position.

Results

Among children less than 13 years, parents reported an estimated 618,337 who rode unrestrained and more than one million who rode in the front seat of a vehicle at least some of the time in the past 30 days. During the same time period, close to 11 million children 8 years and younger reportedly used only adult seat belts.

Discussion

Our results highlight the need for continued outreach to parents regarding optimal restraint use and rear seating position for children every trip, every time.     

Employee responses to employment‐relationship practices: The role of psychological empowerment and traditionality

In studying the effect of employment‐relationship practices on employees, research has largely ignored individual differences, both cross‐culturally and within cultures. In this study, the authors examine the moderating effect of middle managers' traditionality, a within‐culture value orientation regarding submission to authority and endorsement of hierarchical role relationships, on their responses to an organization's employee–organization relationship practices. Based on social learning and social exchange theories, the authors expect the more traditional middle managers to respond less positively in terms of their performance and commitment to high levels of expected contributions and the associated psychological empowerment but respond more positively to high levels of offered inducements. Using a sample of 535 middle managers from 40 companies in China, the authors find support for all hypotheses except the moderating effect of traditionality on the relationship between offered inducements and performance. Additional analysis reveals that less‐traditional managers responded to economic rewards (but not developmental rewards) with higher job performance. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for research and the practice of employment relationships. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Biomass, diversity and production of rocky shore macroalgae at two nutrient enrichment and wave action levels

The littoral zone of temperate rocky shores is normally dominated by perennial macroalgae (e.g. Fucus, Ascophyllum, Laminaria), but nutrient enrichment and/or permanently decreased wave action may lead to structural community changes from dominance of perennials to increased amounts of annual opportunistic species (mainly green algae). Macroalgal biomass, diversity and production as well as relationships between the two latter were studied using Solbergstrand’s rocky shore mesocosms in SE Norway in connection with a long-term experimental manipulation of nutrient addition and wave action (high and low levels of both factors applied in a crossed way to eight outdoor basins). After more than 2 years of experimental treatment, the total standing stock of macroalgae was larger in low nutrient than in high nutrient treatments as well as in high wave compared to low wave treatments (in autumn only). For macroalgal functional groups, bushy and filamentous brown and filamentous red algae were generally favoured by low nutrient concentrations, while annual filamentous and sheet-like green algae were stimulated by the nutrient enrichment. There was only one significant interaction between nutrient enrichment and wave action (for brown filamentous algae in autumn) and also only one significant main effect of the wave treatment (for bushy brown algae in autumn). Surprisingly, the high nutrient treatments supported a higher diversity of macroalgae, whereas the low nutrient treatments generally showed higher production rates. Moreover, significantly negative correlations were found between macroalgal diversity and primary productivity in both summer and autumn. This study shows that it is the biological components of the communities subjected to external forcing (nutrient addition or decreased wave action) that regulate production and this contradicts the common misperception that resource production in natural systems simply can be fast-forwarded by fertilization. The negative relationships between diversity and productivity, although a consequence of unexpected results for diversity and production, are also novel and hint towards species identities having more important functional consequences than general species dominance patterns and the amount of species per se. These results also emphasise the context dependency of findings within the field of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.     

An assessment of the impacts of timber plantations on water quality and biodiversity values of Marbellup Brook, Western Australia

Despite the fact that the establishment and maintenance of blue gum plantations can potentially result in the removal of riparian vegetation, the presence of increased levels of sediments, pesticides, and nutrients, and consequently, the loss of in-stream biodiversity, few studies exist that have looked at the impacts of timber plantations on in-stream biota. The goals of this study were thus to determine water quality, riparian condition, and in-stream biodiversity values of local streams draining blue gum plantations in the Marbellup Brook catchment in Western Australia and to compare these values with those of streams associated with other land uses. Selected water quality and habitat variables and in-stream macroinvertebrate biodiversity were measured in 2006 and 2007 at 28 sites falling into five broad categories based on the predominant land use within 200 m of each study reach. Overall, the results indicated that ??blue gum plantation?? sites often had better water quality, riparian condition, and biodiversity values than ??pasture unfenced,?? and sometimes ??pasture fenced?? sites, but water quality and biodiversity values at these sites were not as good as those associated with ??remnant?? native vegetation sites. The location of the blue gum plantation sites along the disturbance gradient investigated was attributed to both present management and past land uses in the subcatchments investigated. As this study was conducted at a time when blue gum plantations were in an on-growing phase, it was recommended that future research on the impact of blue gum plantations on waterways in southwestern Australia should include an investigation of the impacts of timber clear-cutting and extraction. Longer-term cumulative and downstream effects of blue gum plantations on local waterways also need to be investigated.     

Occurrence of PCBs in raw and finished drinking water at seven public water systems along the Hudson River

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured in raw and finished drinking water at seven Public Water Systems (PWSs) along the Hudson River as part of a baseline monitoring program prior to the extensive sediment dredging of the Upper Hudson River. Water samples were either analyzed using an Aroclor method (based on USEPA Method 508) or a congener method (Modified Green Bay Mass Balance Method). Using the congener-based method, raw water concentrations ranged from <9.3 to 164.3 ng/L and finished water concentrations ranged from <9.3 to 186.6 ng/L. Using the Aroclor method, finished water concentrations ranged from <5.0 to 200.9 ng/L. Most finished water samples above 73.0 ng/L were from a PWS with wells drilled near the river. Excluding the well data, total PCB concentrations in raw water at systems in the Upper River were similar to concentrations at systems in the Lower River, though the congener patterns differed. Paired comparison of total PCB concentrations using the two analytical methods showed good agreement, although raw water showed a different relationship than finished water.     

Invasive species impacts on ecosystem structure and function: A comparison of Oneida Lake, New York, USA, before and after zebra mussel invasion

Exotic species invasion is widely considered to affect ecosystem structure and function. Yet, few contemporary approaches can assess the effects of exotic species invasion at such an inclusive level. Our research presents one of the first attempts to examine the effects of an exotic species at the ecosystem level in a quantifiable manner. We used ecological network analysis (ENA) and a social network analysis (SNA) method called cohesion analysis to examine the effect of zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) invasion on the Oneida Lake, New York, USA, food web. We used ENA to quantify ecosystem function through an analysis of food web carbon transfer that explicitly incorporated flow over all food web paths (direct and indirect). The cohesion analysis assessed ecosystem structure through an organization of food web members into subgroups of strongly interacting predators and prey. Our analysis detected effects of zebra mussel invasion throughout the entire Oneida Lake food web, including changes in trophic flow efficiency (i.e., carbon flow among trophic levels) and alterations of food web organization (i.e., paths of carbon flow) and ecosystem activity (i.e., total carbon flow). ENA indicated that zebra mussels altered food web function by shunting carbon from pelagic to benthic pathways, increasing dissipative flow loss, and decreasing ecosystem activity. SNA revealed the strength of zebra mussel perturbation as evidenced by a reorganization of food web subgroup structure, with a decrease in importance of pelagic pathways, a concomitant rise of benthic pathways, and a reorganization of interactions between top predator fish. Together, these analyses allowed for a holistic understanding of the effects of zebra mussel invasion on the Oneida Lake food web.     

Predictability of marine nematode biodiversity

In this paper, we investigated: (1) the predictability of different aspects of biodiversity, (2) the effect of spatial autocorrelation on the predictability and (3) the environmental variables affecting the biodiversity of free-living marine nematodes on the Belgian Continental Shelf. An extensive historical database of free-living marine nematodes was employed to model different aspects of biodiversity: species richness, evenness, and taxonomic diversity. Artificial neural networks (ANNs), often considered as “black boxes”, were applied as a modeling tool. Three methods were used to reveal these “black boxes” and to identify the contributions of each environmental variable to the diversity indices. Since spatial autocorrelation is known to introduce bias in spatial analyses, Moran's I was used to test the spatial dependency of the diversity indices and the residuals of the model. The best predictions were made for evenness. Although species richness was quite accurately predicted as well, the residuals indicated a lack of performance of the model. Pure taxonomic diversity shows high spatial variability and is difficult to model. The biodiversity indices show a strong spatial dependency, opposed to the residuals of the models, indicating that the environmental variables explain the spatial variability of the diversity indices adequately. The most important environmental variables structuring evenness are clay and sand fraction, and the minimum annual total suspended matter. Species richness is also affected by the intensity of sand extraction and the amount of gravel of the sea bed.     

TOWARDS CHARACTERIZING AND PLANNTNG FOR DROUGHT IN VERMONT‐PART II: POLICY IMPLICATIONS1

ABSTRACT: Vermont is one of approximately half a dozen states for which no official drought mitigation plan exists. Given the recurring nature of this natural hazard, current contingency measures should be expanded upon into a coherent mitigation framework. The types of drought and impacts resulting from the 1998 to 1999 event were the focus of a previous article in this volume. The present article builds on the understanding of drought characteristics specific to the Vermont context and introduces the rationale behind a proposed drought planning framework. Pivotal organizations and institutions that should be involved in this process are also presented.     

Assessment of GM Crops in Commercial Agriculture

The caliber of recent discourse regarding geneticallymodified organisms (GMOs) has suffered from a lack of consensuson terminology, from the scarcity of evidence upon which toassess risk to health and to the environment, and from valuedifferences between proponents and opponents of GMOs. Towardsaddressing these issues, we present the thesis that GM should bedefined as the forcible insertion of DNA into a host genome,irrespective of the source of the DNA, and exclusive ofconventional or mutation breeding.Some defenders of the commercial use of GMOs have referred to thescientific work of GMO critics as ``junk science.' Such a claim isfalse and misleading, given that many papers critical of both theutility and safety of GMOs have been published in peer reviewedjournals by respected scientists. In contrast, there is a dearthof peer reviewed work to substantiate the frequently heardassertions of either safety or utility in GMOs. The polarity,which now characterizes much of the public discourse on GMOs,reflects not simply scientific disagreement, but alsodisagreement in underlying value assumptions. Value differencesstrongly affect the assessment of both benefit and harm fromGMOs.The concept of substantial equivalence occupies a pivotalposition in the GMO risk assessment process that is used in bothCanada and the US. A GMO judged to be substantially equivalent toa conventional product – as have all submissions to date – ispresumed to be safe enough for commercialization. The conclusionof safety – from both human health and environmental perspectives– should be based on scientific evidence, corroborated by actualexperimentation. However, regulators infer safety largely fromassumptions-based reasoning, with little or no experimentalvalidation. The judgement of safety because of substantialequivalence is a dubious argument by analogy.