From concept to practice: the long road to operationalising protection

For the past two decades, humanitarian actors have been grappling increasingly with the complex issue of protecting civilians. The definition of protection adopted by humanitarians is considered to be too broad to provide effective operational direction. This paper aims to contribute to recent initiatives to operationalise protection. Teasing out a broad typology of humanitarian protection through an examination of the scope, objectives, and strategies of a range of humanitarian actors, it suggests, would result in better identification of gaps and the channelling of efforts to support a system‐wide protection response. Emphasising recent calls for collective analysis as a means of eventuating protection, the paper also draws attention to the contested understanding that may arise concerning solutions to protection crises. Closely entwined with politics, protection defies neat technical solutions. The paper concludes that deepening knowledge of how communities conceive their own interests may provide the basis for a collective protection response.     

Systematic review of conservation interventions to promote voluntary behavior change

Understanding human behavior is vital to developing interventions that effectively lead to proenvironmental behavior change, whether the focus is at the individual or societal level. However, interventions in many fields have historically lacked robust forms of evaluation, which makes it hard to be confident that these conservation interventions have successfully helped protect the environment. We conducted a systematic review to assess how effective nonpecuniary and nonregulatory interventions have been in changing environmental behavior. We applied the Office of Health Assessment and Translation systematic review methodology. We started with more than 300,000 papers and reports returned by our search terms and after critical appraisal of quality identified 128 individual studies that merited inclusion in the review. We classified interventions by thematic area, type of intervention, the number of times audiences were exposed to interventions, and the length of time interventions ran. Most studies reported a positive effect (n = 96). The next most common outcome was no effect (n = 28). Few studies reported negative (n = 1) or mixed (n = 3) effects. Education, prompts, and feedback interventions resulted in positive behavior change. Combining multiple interventions was the most effective. Neither exposure duration nor frequency affected the likelihood of desired behavioral change. Comparatively few studies tested the effects of voluntary interventions on non-Western populations (n = 17) or measured actual ecological outcome behavior (n = 1). Similarly, few studies examined conservation devices (e.g., energy-efficient stoves) (n = 9) and demonstrations (e.g., modeling the desired behavior) (n = 5). There is a clear need to both improve the quality of the impact evaluation conducted and the reporting standards for intervention results.     

Photo-Stabilisation and UV Blocking Efficacy of Coated Macro and Nano-Rutile Titanium Dioxide Particles in Paints and Coatings

Surface treated macro and nanoparticle TiO₂ samples have been prepared, characterised and their efficiency as UV blockers evaluated in clear coatings and paints. The particle size of the ‘base’ TiO₂ has been optimised to block UV radiation and the surface treatment developed to deactivate the photocatalytic activity of the surface of the TiO₂ particles. The resultant UV blockers have been evaluated in both solvent and water-based clear coatings. Nanoparticle TiO₂ has been prepared from ‘seed’ and the particle size was controlled by calcination. It was found that the choice of particle size is a compromise between UVA absorption, UVB absorption, visible transmission and photoactivity. It has been demonstrated that TiO₂ with a crystallite size of 25 nm yields a product with the optimum properties. A range of dispersants was successfully used to disperse and mill the TiO₂. Both organic and inorganic dispersants were used; 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol and 1-amino-2-propanol (MIPA) and P₂O₅ and Na₂SiO₃ respectively. The surface of the nano-TiO₂ was coated with mixed oxides of silicon, aluminium, zirconium and phosphorous. Addition of the resultant coated nano-rutiles to an Isocyanate Acrylic clear coating prolonged the lifetime of that coating compared to the blank. Generally, a surface treatment based on SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and P₂O₅ was more successful than one based on ZrO₂, Al₂O₃ and P₂O₅. Higher addition levels of the surface treatment were beneficial for protecting the polymeric coating. The UV blocker products were also evaluated in a water-based acrylic, first a water-based dispersion of the UV blocker was prepared before addition to the acrylic. The dispersions and resultant acrylic thin films were evaluated using UV/Vis spectroscopy and durability assessed. The ratio of absorbance at 300:500 nm for the water-based dispersion was shown to be a good predictor of both the transparency of the resultant acrylic thin film and the durability of that film, in terms of weight loss. Macro grade titanium dioxide pigments were also prepared and coated with treatments of silica, alumina and siloxane and their photo-stabilising activity in alkyd paint film assessed and found to be directly related to the electron–hole pair mobility and trapping as determined by micro-wave spectroscopy.     

Mapping the public first-aid training landscape: a scoping review

While the public can play a vital role in saving lives during emergencies, intervention is only effective if people have the skills, confidence, and willingness to help. This review employs a five-stage framework to systematically analyse first aid and emergency helping literature from 22 countries (predominately in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States). The review covers 54 articles that investigate public first-aid knowledge and uptake of first-aid training (40); public confidence in first-aid skills and willingness to help during an emergency (21); and barriers to or enablers of learning first aid and delivering first aid in an emergency (25). The findings identify high levels of perceived knowledge, confidence, and willingness to help, supporting the contention that the public can play a vital role during an emergency. However, the findings also point to low uptake levels, low tested skill-specific knowledge, and barriers to learning first aid and helping, indicating that the first-aid training landscape is in need of improvement.     

Differential livelihood adaptation to social-ecological change in coastal Bangladesh

Regional Environmental Change - Social-ecological changes, brought about by the rapid growth of the aquaculture industry and the increased occurrence of climatic stressors, have significantly...     

A scoping review into the impact of animal imagery on pro-environmental outcomes

With the recognition that most global environmental problems are a result of human actions, there is an increasing interest in approaches which have the potential to influence human behaviour. Images have a powerful role in shaping persuasive messages, yet research on the impacts of visual representations of nature is a neglected area in biodiversity conservation. We systematically screened existing studies on the use of animal imagery in conservation, identifying 37 articles. Although there is clear evidence that images of animals can have positive effects on people’s attitudes to animals, overall there is currently a dearth of accessible and comparable published data demonstrating the efficacy of animal imagery. Most existing studies are place and context-specific, limiting the generalisable conclusions that can be drawn. Transdisciplinary research is needed to develop a robust understanding of the contextual and cultural factors that affect how animal images can be used effectively for conservation purposes.

     

A survey of identified kairomones and synomones used by insect parasitoids to locate and accept their hosts

Summary The host utilization process of insect parasitoids can be described by three stages of (1)habitatlocation, (2)host-location, and (3)host-acceptance andoviposition. There are 19 systems in which chemicals used inhabitat-location have been identified, 12 systems in which chemical cues leading tohost-location have been identified, and 16 systems in which chemicals elicitinghost-acceptance andoviposition have been identified. Both the chemical class and the source of the infochemical change with the stage of the host utilization process. Semiochemicals identified in thehabitatlocation stage were predominantly aldehydes, alcohols, sulfur-containing compounds, esters and terpenes, and were equally likely to be from the host-plant of the host, or from the host itself. Semiochemicals identified in thehost-location stage were sugars, alkanes, terpenes and heterocyclic aromatic compounds and 3/4 of them were host-produced cues. In thehost-acceptance andoviposition stage the identified semiochemicals were all produced by the host and were proteins, amino acids, triglycerides and salts. The importance of recognizing specific cues involved in host utilization by parasitoids is discussed, and suggestions for future research are made.     

Tissue distribution and bioconcentration factors of PCDD/Fs in the liver and adipose tissue following chronic ingestion of contaminated milk in rats

The aim of this study was to determine the tissue distribution of 17 PCDD/Fs following the chronic ingestion of contaminated milk in rats and to assess the "target tissue/milk" BioConcentration Factors (BCFs) of these molecules. Contaminated milk, collected in a polluted area, has been incorporated into the diet of male rats at a low dose (31 pg I-TEQ/day/rat). For this exposure, the accumulation of PCDD/Fs in target tissues (liver and adipose tissue) was limited, the tissue concentrations stabilising between 90 and 120 days of daily intake to levels close to 3 pg/g of tissue (all tissues and molecules combined). The tissue distribution seemed to be governed by the congeners properties and by the tissue characteristics. An increase in the chlorination degree of dioxins caused a decrease in their incorporation in the adipose tissue, and consequently of the BCF values. Moreover, the distribution of dioxins between hepatocytes and adipocytes differed: unlike the liver, the quantities of dioxins in the adipose tissue were significantly (P<0.05) correlated to the quantity of tissue fat. Only in the liver, the incorporation of PCDDs seemed to be facilitated when the chlorination degree of these congeners increased, the reverse phenomenon having been observed for PCDFs. However, for the same level of chlorination, the BCFs of PCDFs were 2.4 times higher than those of PCDDs in this tissue. The absence of correlation between the quantity of dioxins and that of fat and the BCFs differences of theses congeners suggested that dioxins fixation process in the liver was selective.     

Recycling in a megacity

In the aftermath of the 9/11 disaster, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City unveiled an aggressive budget plan that included the temporary suspension of glass and plastics recycling. This was considered by many to be anti-environmental, but the results of this study show that for lack of markets, even at zero or negative prices, nearly 90% of the plastic and glass set aside by thoughtful New Yorkers was transported to materials recovery facilities (MRFs) and from there to landfills. Sending bales of plastics to landfills is not limited to New York City. It is an environmental paradox that the United States is digging up new oil fields in pristine areas and, at the same time, continues to convert greenfields to brownfields by burying nearly 20 million tons of plastic fuel annually. The study also determined that at the present rate of source separation, estimated to be less than 30% of the available recyclables in 1999, building large, modern MRFs may increase substantially the rate of New York City recycling and also allow single-stream collection of commingled recyclables, as is done in Phoenix, AZ. Single-stream collection simplifies separation at the source by citizens and increases the amount of collected recyclables. Also, because collection represents a large fraction of the costs of waste management, it may have a significant economic advantage.