It is all about the bottom line: Group bottom-line mentality,psychological safety,and group creativity

We examine bottom-line mentality (BLM) at the group level and examine the effect of group BLM on group psychological safety and subsequent group creativity. We draw on goal shielding theory to suggest that groups high in BLM narrowly focus on bottom-line outcomes, which encourages them to eliminate distracting considerations from their work processes. Because the group's high BLM encapsulates goal shielding, these groups are deficient in fostering psychological safety as an important interpersonal process that facilitates group creativity. We also couple goal shielding theory with arguments related to situational strength to examine group BLM agreement (i.e., the standard deviation of the mean of group BLM) as a first stage moderator. We contend that high-BLM agreement (vs. low agreement) strengthens the goal shielding effect of group BLM, which is reflected by a stronger detrimental effect on group psychological safety that then reduces group creativity. We found support for our theoretical model using multisource, multiwave field data from a diverse sample of workgroups and their supervisors. We discuss the theoretical implications of our research and provide practical suggestions for limiting the deleterious consequences of group BLMs in the workplace.     

Moving beyond the conceptual: specificity in regional climate change adaptation actions for biodiversity in South East Queensland,Australia

While many scientific assessments have been recommending general strategies for biodiversity conservation under climate change, translation of these recommendations into specific actions and practice has been limited. Focusing on two biomes, rainforest and wetlands in biodiverse South East Queensland, Australia, we demonstrate how general principles can be translated into specific actions for stakeholders and responsible agencies. We synthesize research that is contextualizing protection of refugia and habitat connectivity, establishing baseline data sets to detect change and developing strategic conservation planning scenarios to adjust reserve boundaries or situate new reserves. This has been achieved by coupling spatial information on biological assets (i.e. ecosystems and species) with future climate scenarios and process models to anticipate movement of critical habitats. Conservation planning software is also being used to prioritize investment to meet specific objectives. This approach is enabling us to identify at-risk biological assets, opportunities to ameliorate threats and obstacles to delivering regional adaptation actions. A larger total reserved area is needed, with proactive planning to capture areas further inland and along watercourses. Major obstacles include conflict between urbanization and priorities for habitat conservation and the need for greater levels of investment for monitoring programmes and to protect landward shifted wetlands on private land.     

The Adaptation for Conservation Targets (ACT) Framework: A Tool for Incorporating Climate Change into Natural Resource Management

As natural resource management agencies and conservation organizations seek guidance on responding to climate change, myriad potential actions and strategies have been proposed for increasing the long-term viability of some attributes of natural systems. Managers need practical tools for selecting among these actions and strategies to develop a tailored management approach for specific targets at a given location. We developed and present one such tool, the participatory Adaptation for Conservation Targets (ACT) framework, which considers the effects of climate change in the development of management actions for particular species, ecosystems and ecological functions. Our framework is based on the premise that effective adaptation of management to climate change can rely on local knowledge of an ecosystem and does not necessarily require detailed projections of climate change or its effects. We illustrate the ACT framework by applying it to an ecological function in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, USA)-water flows in the upper Yellowstone River. We suggest that the ACT framework is a practical tool for initiating adaptation planning, and for generating and communicating specific management interventions given an increasingly altered, yet uncertain, climate.     

Evaluation of alternative filter media for particulate matter emission testing of residential wood heating devices

The performance of Teflon-coated glass fiber filter media (Pallflex Emfab TX40) is evaluated for particulate matter (PM) sampling of residential wood heating devices in a dilution tunnel. Thirty samples of varying duration and PM loading and concentration were collected from an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Method 28 dilution tunnel using dual Method 5G sample trains with untreated glass fiber and Emfab filters. Filters were weighed soon after the end of sampling and again the next day after equilibration at 35% relative humidity (RH). PM concentrations from both types of filters agreed very well with 1-day equilibration, demonstrating that Emfab filters are appropriate for use in measuring PM from residential wood burning appliances in a dilution tunnel and have performance equal to or better than the glass fiber filter media. Agreement between filter media without equilibration was erratic, with PM from glass fiber filter samples varying from slightly less than the Emfab samples to as much as 2.8 times higher. Some of the glass fiber filters lost substantial mass with equilibration, with the highest percent loss at lower filter mass loadings. Mass loss for Emfab samples was a small percentage of the mass and very consistent across the range of mass loadings. Taken together, these results may indicate water uptake on the glass fiber media that is readily removed with 1-day equilibration at moderate RH conditions.

Implications: EPA regulations now allow the use of either glass fiber or Teflon filter media for wood appliance PM emission testing. Teflon filter media minimizes the potential for acid-gas PM artifacts on glass fiber filters; this is important as EPA moves toward the use of locally sourced cordwood for testing that may have higher sulfur content. This work demonstrates that the use of Teflon-coated glass fiber filters can give similar PM measurement results to glass fiber filters after 1 day of equilibration. With no equilibration, measured PM from glass fiber filters was usually higher than from Teflon-coated glass fiber filters.     

Analyzing alternative bio-waste feedstocks for potential biodiesel production using time domain (TD)-NMR

Production of biodiesel is currently limited due to lack of economically beneficial feedstocks. Suitability of municipal wastewater sludge and olive mill waste as feedstocks for biodiesel production was evaluated. The various bio-waste sources were analyzed for their oil content and fatty acid composition using conventional analyses complemented with time domain (TD)-NMR analysis. TD-NMR, a rapid non-destructive method newly applied in this field, yielded good correlations with conventional methods. Overall biodiesel yields obtained by TD-NMR analysis were 7.05% and 9.18% (dry wt) for olive mill pomace and liquid wastes, and 11.92%, 7.07%, and 4.65% (dry wt) for primary, secondary, and anaerobically stabilized sludge, respectively. Fatty acid analysis indicated fundamental suitability of these agro-industrial waste resources for biodiesel production. Evaluation of bio-waste materials by TD-NMR revealed the potential of this tool to identify waste-oil sources cost effectively and quickly, supporting expansion of a sustainable biodiesel industry in Israel and other regions.     

Prioritizing Wildlife Taxa for Biological Diversity Conservation at the Local Scale

/ We identified and ranked 108 resident and migratory wildlife taxa on John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) that were vulnerable to local, regional, or global extinction. We ranked taxa based on their vulnerability to extinction, their potential role for maintaining faunal integrity, and the relevance of KSC for maintaining their populations in the United States and Florida. Several taxa, not listed by agencies, were vulnerable to regional or global extinction. Many taxa not vulnerable to global extinction were vulnerable to local and regional extinction. Top predators were vulnerable to extinction because of small population size, isolation from other populations, and road mortality. Many taxa were dependent on habitat conditions at different geographic locations so that conservation required greater collaboration among land owners, managers, and researchers at local, regional, and global scales.KEY WORDS: Biological diversity; Endangered species; Conservation     

Evaluating opportunities to improve material and energy impacts in commodity supply chains

When evaluated at the scale of individual processes, next-generation technologies may be more energy and emissions intensive than current technology. However, many advanced technologies have the potential to reduce material and energy consumption in upstream or downstream processing stages. In order to fully understand the benefits and consequences of technology deployment, next-generation technologies should be evaluated in context, as part of a supply chain. This work presents the Materials Flow through Industry (MFI) supply chain modeling tool. The MFI tool is a cradle-to-gate linear network model of the US industrial sector that can model a wide range of manufacturing scenarios, including changes in production technology and increases in industrial energy efficiency. The MFI tool was developed to perform supply chain scale analyses in order to quantify the impacts and benefits of next-generation technologies and materials at that scale. For the analysis presented in this paper, the MFI tool is utilized to explore a case study comparing three lightweight vehicle supply chains to the supply chain of a conventional, standard weight vehicle. Several of the lightweight vehicle supply chains are evaluated under manufacturing scenarios that include next-generation production technologies and next-generation materials. Results indicate that producing lightweight vehicles is more energy and emission intensive than producing the non-lightweight vehicle, but the fuel saved during vehicle use offsets this increase. In this case study, greater reductions in supply chain energy and emissions were achieved through the application of the next-generation technologies than from application of energy efficiency increases.     

A Case History of the Science and Management Collaboration in Understanding Hypoxia Events in Long Bay, South Carolina, USA

Communication of knowledge between the scientific and management communities is a difficult process complicated by the distinctive nature of professional career goals of scientists and decision-makers. This article provides a case history highlighting a collaboration between the science and management communities that resulted from a response to a 2004 hypoxia, or low dissolved oxygen, event in Long Bay, off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A working group of scientists and decision-makers was established at the time of the event and has continued to interact to develop a firm understanding of the drivers responsible for hypoxia formation in Long Bay. Several factors were found to be important to ensure that these collaborative efforts were productive: (1) genuine interest in collaboratively working across disciplines to examine a problem; (2) commitment by agency leadership, decision-makers, and researchers to create successful communication mechanisms; (3) respect for each others’ perspectives and an understanding how science and management are performed and that they are not mutually exclusive; (4) networking among researchers and decision-makers to ensure appropriate team members are involved in the process; (5) use of decision-maker input in the formulation of research and monitoring projects; and (6) commitment of resources for facilitation to ensure that researchers and decision-makers are communicating effectively.     

Site Redundancy in Urban Ozone Monitoring

This article describes two statistical methods that enable air pollution control agencies to assess the effectiveness of the spatial distribution of current stationary ozone monitoring networks by providing measures of site redundancy. These methods analyze site redundancy by determining the degree to which ozone measurements at one site can be successfully predicted from data collected at other monitoring sites. The first method, the similarity (SIM) measure, calculates redundancy based on the percentage of common operational days during which two monitoring stations report similar daily maximum ozone concentrations. The second method, a modeling technique, relates site redundancy in ozone measurement to an R-squared statistic from an autoregressive model. The model uses meteorological components recorded at a central location and ozone concentrations reported by the network’s other monitoring stations. Both techniques can assist in effective allocation of limited monitoring resources and offer a statistical approach to ambient air monitoring network design. The techniques are applied to data collected at six ozone monitoring stations in Harris County, Texas, during an eight-year period in the 1980s. The methods identified two sites in the six-site network that exhibit a high degree of redundancy.     

Interactions of copper and pyrene on phytoremediation potential of Brassica juncea in copper–pyrene co-contaminated soil

Phytoremediation which is a plant based remediation process is an emerging technology for treating inorganic (heavy metals) as well as organic pollutants. It may also be suitable for remediation of sites co-contaminated with heavy metals and organics which have become more prevalent. A glasshouse experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of 50 and 100 mg kg^?1 of copper or 250 and 500 mg kg^?1 of pyrene and the combined effect of copper and pyrene on the growth of Brassica juncea together with the uptake and accumulation of copper as well as dissipation of pyrene. Results showed a negative effect of copper–pyrene co-contamination on shoot and root dry matter and an inhibition of copper phytoextraction. Pyrene was significantly decreased in planted and non-planted soils accounting for 90–94% of initial extractable concentration in soil planted with B. juncea and 79–84% in non-planted soil which shows that the dissipation of pyrene was enhanced with planting. The occurrence of copper tended to increase the residual pyrene in planted soil, however in the presence of high concentration of Cu (100 mg kg^?1), the residual pyrene concentration in soil were similar to those in unplanted soil. This may suggest that changes in the root physiology or rhizospheric microbial activity resulting from Cu stress could be an impediment to pyrene dissipation. The inhibition of Cu phytoextraction and degradation of pyrene by B. juncea under co-contamination may reduce the viability of phytoremediation in sites containing multiple pollutants.