Family Support Inventory for Workers: A new measure of perceived social support from family members

A measure of family social support for workers was developed, and initial investigations of its psychometric characteristics were conducted. Data from several samples endorse the internal consistency of the support dimensions of emotional sustenance and instrumental assistance, and confirmatory factor analysis findings reinforce the bidimensional structure of the instrument. Lack of a relationship with social desirability, correlations with life and job satisfactions, and gender differences in perceived instrumental assistance afford preliminary validity evidence. Exploratory multiple regression analyses revealed significant three-way interactions suggesting that the level of emotional sustenance from family members may be important to job satisfaction for employed women. Furthermore, empirical evidence was generated to assess the viability of the instrument relative to other existing measures of social support. Results supported convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity.     

TRANSITIONS IN MIDWESTERN GROUND WATER LAW1

ABSTRACT: The evolution of ground-water law in eight states in the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin) is examined, and a review of transitions in ground-water doctrines is presented. Two underlying themes in changing ground-water management are communicated. First, ground-water law is evolving from private property rules of capture based on the absolute ownership doctrines to rules requiring conservation and sharing of ground water as a public resource. Second, in both courts and state legislatures, a proactive role of ground-water management is emerging, again, with an emphasis on sharing. Both of these trends are apparent in the Midwest. In the last decade midwestern states have (1) seen significant shifts in court decisions on ground-water use with greater recognition of the reciprocal or mutually dependent nature of ground-water rights, and (2) seen increased legislative development of comprehensive ground-water management statutes that emphasize the reciprocal liabilities of ground-water use. These trends are examined and ground-water management programs discussed for eight states in the Midwest.     

NATIONWIDE REGRESSION MODELS FOR PREDICTING URBAN RUNOFF WATER QUALITY AT UNMONITORED SITES1

ABSTRACT: Regression models are presented that can be used to estimate mean loads for chemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, dissolved solids, total nitrogen, total ammonia plus nitrogen, total phosphorous, dissolved phosphorous, total copper, total lead, and total zinc at unmonitored sites in urban areas. Explanatory variables include drainage area, imperviousness of drainage basin to infiltration, mean annual rainfall, a land-use indicator variable, and mean minimum January temperature. Model parameters are estimated by a generalized-least-squares regression method that accounts for cross correlation and differences in reliability of sample estimates between sites. The regression models account for 20 to 65 percent of the total variation in observed loads.     

Design elements of monitoring programs: The necessary ingredients for success

Natural resource managers must know the condition of resources entrusted to their steward-ship so that they can maintain unimpaired resources and know when to restore impaired ecosystems. Resource monitoring programs should be designed to provide indications of ecosystem health, define limits of normal variation, identify abnormal conditions, and suggest potential agents of abnormal changes. Development of a conceptual model that identifies all ecosystem components and their relationships is the first step in the design of such a diagnostic monitoring program. Design studies, with field testing on each selected system component, are required to determine the parameters to be measured and to establish monitoring protocols. The best approach to diagnostic monitoring appears to be based on the population dynamics of selected species relative to physical and chemical environmental factors. Both management and monitoring of natural ecosystems need to be recognized as experimental endeavors, and thus approached in an iterative fashion with the scientific method to reduce uncertainty and cost.     

Effects of climate and landcover change on stream discharge in the Ozark Highlands,USA

Stream discharge of a watershed is affected and altered by climate and landcover changes. These effects vary depending on the magnitude and interaction of the changes, and need to be understood so that local water resource availability can be evaluated and socioeconomic development within a watershed be pursued and managed in a way sustainable with the local water resources. In this study, the landcover and climate change effects on stream discharge from the Jacks Fork River basin in the Ozark Highlands of the south-central United States were examined in three phases: site observation and data collection, model calibration and simulation, and model experiment and analysis. Major results of the study show that climate fluctuations between wet and dry extremes resulted in the same change of the basin discharge regardless of the landcover condition in the basin. On the other hand, under a specified climate condition landcover change from a grassland basin to a fully forested basin only resulted in about one half of the discharge change caused by the climate variation. Furthermore, when landcover change occurred simultaneously with climate variation, the basin discharge change amplified significantly and became larger than the combined discharge changes caused by the climate and landcover change alone, a result indicating a synergistic effect of landcover and climate change on basin discharge variability. Agricultural Research Division, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Contribution Number 13437.Qi Hu: Corresponding author: Dr. Qi Hu, Climate and Bio-Atmospheric Sciences Group, School of Natural Resource Sciences, 237 L.W. Chase Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583-0728, USA. E-mail: qhu2@unl.edu.     

In defense of the vegan ideal: Rhetoric and bias in the nutrition literature

Much of the scientific literature on vegetarian nutrition leaves one with the impression that vegan diets are significantly more risky than omnivorous ones, especially for individuals with high metabolic demands (such as pregnant or lactating women and children). But nutrition researchers have tended to skew their study populations toward new vegetarians, members of religious sects with especially restrictive diets and tendencies to eschew fortified foods and medical care, and these are arguably the last people we would expect to thrive on vegan diets. Researchers also have some tendency to play up weakly confirmed risks of vegan dietsvis-à-vis equally weakly confirmed benefits. And, in spite of these methodological and rhetorical biases, for every nutrient which vegans are warned to be cognizant of, there is reason to believe that they are not at significantly greater risk of nutritional deficiency than omnivores.     

Secondary materials and international trade: A comment on the domestic market

Concentrating on wastepaper, Grace et al. [J. Environ. Econ. Manag. 5, 172–186 (1978)] have argued that international trade in secondary materials can effectively help to stabilize their prices. In their modeling, however, they erroneously assume that pulp sets the upper bound for the price of wastepaper. This paper presents evidence to the contrary. Pulp contracts are typically long term, so wastepaper is frequently an input of last resort. The wastepaper price can therefore easily exceed the price pulp when output demand is high. A geometric model is presented to formalize this explanation, and it is argued from there that the increased stability offered by trade is more significant than suggested by Grace et al.     

An Updated Cost Study for Enhanced Sludge Washing of Radioactive Waste

This article updates previous cost savings studies conducted to evaluate the use of enhanced sludge washing (ESW) of high‐level radioactive waste at the United States Department of Energy Hanford Site. The cost savings estimate was updated using stochastic analysis based on new information from the Independent Review of Hanford High Level Waste Volume and the more recent Tank Waste Remediation System Operation and Utilization Plan. It is estimated that implementation of ESW in the tank waste remediation system (TWRS) at the Hanford Site can save approximately $4.8 billion compared to the use of an alternative, simpler water wash. The simpler water wash dissolution was found to be 85 percent as effective as the ESW dissolution. Further, the updated remediation cost estimate of $4.8 billion savings is uncertain only within ±$1.6 billion at the 95 percent confidence interval. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

NEW FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR PRIORITY WATERSHED MANAGEMENT NEEDS1

ABSTRACT: In the past five years, USDA and EPA programs became major players in implementing watershed programs. The 1996 Farm Bill for the first time required that USDA assistance for farmers address priority environmental needs on a site‐specific, or watershed, basis. USDA involves farmers and other players in locally run watershed programs and focuses cost share and incentive payments on nutrient planning, riparian protection, and other practices prioritized to most efficiently achieve watershed goals. As a result, USDA has become a funding source for environmental initiatives targeted to watersheds, as well as a technical resource that attempts to support more efficient use of federal and state environmental expenditures. Analysis identifies institutional and technical barriers to targeting the very limited, new assistance and suggests how those barriers are being addressed by some innovative programs. Since Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and other state run programs face many of the same challenges of ranking watersheds, setting goals, and finding cost effective remedies, this paper identifies a very close fit between the new federal programs and other watershed programs.