Increasing development in the surroundings of U.S. National Park Service holdings jeopardizes park effectiveness

Protected areas are cornerstones of biodiversity conservation, but they are in danger of becoming islands in a sea of human dominated landscapes. Our question was if protected areas may even foster development in their surroundings because they provide amenities that attract development, thus causing the isolation of the ecosystems they were designed to protect. Our study analyzed historic aerial photographs and topographical maps to reconstruct road development and building growth within and around Indiana Dunes and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshores in the U.S. Great Lakes region from 1938 to 2005, and to estimate the effects of park creation in 1966 on changes in landscape patterns. Historic U.S. census housing density data were used as a baseline to compare observed changes to. Our results showed that park establishment was effective in reducing and stopping the fragmenting impact of development within park boundaries. However, increased amenity levels following park establishment led to enhanced development in the surroundings of both parks. In the extreme case of Indiana Dunes, building density outside the park increased from 45 to 200 buildings/km² and road density almost doubled from 3.6 to 6.6 km/km² from 1938 to 2005. Development rates of change were much higher than in the broader landscape, particularly after park establishment. The potential amenity effect was up to 9500 new buildings in the 3.2-km zone around Indiana Dunes between 1966 and 2005. For Pictured Rocks the absolute effect was smaller but up to 70% of the observed building growth was potentially due to amenity effects. Our findings highlight the need for conservation planning at broader scales, incorporating areas beyond the boundaries of protected areas.     

The role of positive affectivity in team effectiveness during crises

Organizational efforts to improve team effectiveness in crisis situations primarily have focused on team training initiatives and, to a lesser degree, on staffing teams with respect to members' ability, experience, and functional backgrounds. Largely neglected in these efforts is the emotional component of crises and, correspondingly, the notion of staffing teams with consideration for their affective makeup. To address this void, we examined the impact of team member dispositional positive affect (PA) on team crisis effectiveness and the role of felt negative emotion in transmitting that influence. A study of 21 nuclear power plant crews engaged in crisis training simulations revealed that homogeneity in PA, but not mean‐level PA, was associated with greater team effectiveness. Mediation analysis suggested that homogeneity in PA leads to greater team effectiveness by reducing the amount of negative emotions that team members experience during crises. Furthermore, homogeneity in PA compensated for lower mean‐level PA in predicting effectiveness. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for understanding and further exploring the importance of affective factors and especially team affective composition in team crisis performance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of PAOT Tool Kit for Work Improvements in Clinical Nursing

The aim of this study was to develop an action checklist for educational training of clinical nurses. The study used qualitative and quantitative methods. Questionnaire items were extracted through in-depth interviews and a questionnaire survey. PASW version 19 and AMOS version 19 were used for data analyses. Reliability and validity were tested with both exploratory and confirmative factor analysis. The levels of the indicators related to goodness-of-fit were acceptable. Thus, a model kit of work improvements in clinical nursing was developed. It comprises 5 domains (16 action points): health promotion (5 action points), work management (3 action points), ergonomic work methods (3 action points), managerial policies and mutual support among staff members (3 action points), and welfare in the work area (2 action points).     

浅议污水处理厂的节能

系统地介绍并分析了污水处理厂流程中各个处理构筑的能耗情况,并针对各个构筑物提出有效的节能途径。指出了常用的污水好氧处理能耗过高的突出问题,建议改用能耗低造价低的好氧过滤等处理方法。污水再生利用也是解决污水处理能耗高的途径之一。     

开缝屏蔽体的屏蔽效能仿真研究

运用电磁仿真软件FEKO进行仿真建模,对混响室条件下小尺寸开缝屏蔽腔体内部的场分布进行了仿真计算,给出了屏蔽体的屏蔽能力与混响室内电磁场的频率、入射方向和极化方向的依赖关系,并利用屏蔽效能的统计定义,讨论了屏蔽效能的特点和规律.     

规划环境影响评价有效性探讨

以规划环境影响评价有效性为研究对象,从规划体系复杂性、评价重点识别、理论与技术支持不够等方面分析了影响规划环境影响评价的内在制约因素;从经济、法律、行政管理、文化等方面分析了影响规划环境影响评价的外在制约因素;并从对象、过程、内容、监督和资源支持5个方面探讨了在规划环境影响评价实施全过程中提高有效性的方式和方法。     

大气污染控制有效性的评估模型及应用

基于小波分析理论及BP神经网络,建立了大气污染控制有效性的评估模型.利用该模型解析天津市污染源排放及气象因素对大气污染物环境浓度的影响.结果表明,SO2浓度波动主要由污染源的季节变化引起,与天气过程有关的短期波动也不容忽视;而PM10浓度波动主要由污染源排放及气象条件的短期变化引起.2002~2003年的气象条件总体上不利于大气扩散,使SO2日均浓度长期分量增加约为3μg/m3;而2004年的气象条件有利于大气扩散,使SO2日均浓度长期分量减小约为5μg/m3.PM10日均浓度长期分量也有类似的规律,2002~2003年的不利气象条件使PM10日均浓度长期分量增高更显著,约为10μg/m3.     

Investigating the impacts of crash prediction models on quantifying safety effectiveness of Adaptive Signal Control Systems

Introduction: Adaptive Signal Control System (ASCS) can improve both operational and safety benefits at signalized corridors. Methods: This paper develops a series of models accounting for model forms and possible predictors and implements these models in Empirical Bayes (EB) and Fully Bayesian (FB) frameworks for ASCS safety evaluation studies. Different models are validated in terms of the ability to reduce the potential bias and variance of prediction and improve the safety effectiveness estimation accuracy using real-world crash data from non-ASCS sites. This paper then develops the safety effectiveness of ASCS at six different corridors with a total of 65 signalized intersections with the same type of ASCS, in South Carolina. Results: Validation results show that the FB model that accounts for traffic volume, roadway geometric features, year factor, and spatial effects shows the best performance among all models. The study findings reveal that ASCS reduces crash frequencies in the total crash, fatal and injury crash, and angle crash for most of the intersections. The safety effectiveness of ASCS varies with different intersection features (i.e., AADT at major streets, number of legs at an intersection, the number of through lanes on major streets, the number of access points on minor streets, and the speed limit at major streets). Conclusions: ASCS is associated with crash reductions, and its safety effects vary with different intersection features. Practical Applications: The findings of this research encourage more ASCS deployments and provide insights into selecting ASCS deployment sites for reducing crashes considering the variation of the safety effectiveness of ASCS.     

Assessing regulatory effectiveness with exogenously declining risk: a case study of the CPSC's 1973 mattress standard

INTRODUCTION: This paper examines the contribution of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) 1973 cigarette ignition mattress flammability standard to reduce mattress fires since 1980, when the U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire Incident Reporting System became fully operational. METHOD: The paper attempts to separate the effect of the cigarette ignition standard from the declining trend in mattress fires that would have resulted without the standard. We analyze the impact of the 1973 cigarette standard on smoking material ignition fires, deaths, and injuries as well as its effect on fires, deaths, and injuries from all ignition sources (smoking material ignitions, open-flame ignitions, and other ignition sources). Impacts on Industry: The results suggest that the 1973 mattress standard has effectively reduced the mattress fire risk and that further reductions in risk via actions tied specifically to cigarette ignition are likely to be difficult to achieve.