Think Global,Buy National: CSR,Cooperatives and Consumer Concerns in the Norwegian Food Value Chain

In a world where issues of food safety and food security are increasingly important, the social responsibility of central actors in the food chain—producers and the main grocery chains—becomes more pressing. As a response, these actors move from implicitly assuming social responsibilities implied in laws, regulations and ethical customs, towards explicitly expressing social responsibilities. In this paper, we discuss the ethical values relevant for the social responsibility of central food producers and retailers in Norway, one of the most subsidized and protected areas of food production in the world. How do the actors perceive and express their social responsibility, and—given their position in the local, national and global market—how should they handle these responsibilities? We analyze Tine and Nortura, two producers owned by farmer cooperatives with market regulator function, as well as Coop—a dominant grocery chain in Norway, with basis in the same public ownership model as the farmer-owned cooperative producers. While the complex roles of these key actors in the Norwegian food market have been criticized from several angles, we argue that these multifaceted roles put them in a good position to promote informed consumer choices in a globalized market.     

Local Arctic air pollution: Sources and impacts

Local emissions of Arctic air pollutants and their impacts on climate, ecosystems and health are poorly understood. Future increases due to Arctic warming or economic drivers may put additional pressures on the fragile Arctic environment already affected by mid-latitude air pollution. Aircraft data were collected, for the first time, downwind of shipping and petroleum extraction facilities in the European Arctic. Data analysis reveals discrepancies compared to commonly used emission inventories, highlighting missing emissions (e.g. drilling rigs) and the intermittent nature of certain emissions (e.g. flaring, shipping). Present-day shipping/petroleum extraction emissions already appear to be impacting pollutant (ozone, aerosols) levels along the Norwegian coast and are estimated to cool and warm the Arctic climate, respectively. Future increases in shipping may lead to short-term (long-term) warming (cooling) due to reduced sulphur (CO₂) emissions, and be detrimental to regional air quality (ozone). Further quantification of local Arctic emission impacts is needed.     

Associations between driver training, determinants of risky driving behaviour and crash involvement

The core aim of the study is to examine associations between formal and informal practical driver training as well as driving experience on the one hand and young drivers’ safety attitudes, self-assessment of driving ability and self-reported driver behaviour on the other hand. An additional aim is to examine the associations between attitudes, self-assessment and behaviour on the one hand and crash involvement on the other hand. The results are based on a self-completion questionnaire survey conducted among a representative sample of Norwegian drivers aged 18–20 years (n = 1419). The results showed that there were small yet significant associations between driver training, on the one hand and traffic safety attitudes and risky driving behaviour on the other hand. The amount of formal driver training was negatively associated with the respondents’ evaluation of their driving skills; although the amount of lay instruction was positively associated with such self-evaluation. The results also showed that attitudes as well as self-assessment of driving ability were significantly associated with self-reported risk behaviour. This was especially true for attitudes related to rule violations. There was a strong association between crash involvement and exposure (measured as months holding a licence). Young novice drivers’ crash involvement seems stronger associated with driving skills (manifested as self-assessment of driving ability) than safety attitudes and self-reported driver behaviour. The consequences of the results for driver training and accident prevention are discussed.     

New investigation findings on the 2006 Danvers,MA explosion

On November 22, 2006 the largest explosion in the history of Massachusetts occurred in Danvers, MA at approximately 2:46 am. This paper presents a detailed analysis into the potential causes and lessons learned from the Danvers explosion. Other investigative groups concluded that the cause of the explosion was an overheated production tank. However, the analyses presented here demonstrate that their proposed scenario could not have occurred and that other potential causes are more likely.Using the computational fluid dynamics tool FLACS, it was possible to investigate the chain of events leading to the explosion, including: (1) evaluating various leak scenarios by modeling the dispersion and mixing of gases and vapors within the facility, (2) evaluating potential ignition sources within the facility of the flammable fuel–air mixture, and (3) evaluating the explosion itself by comparing the resulting overpressures of the exploding fuel–air cloud with the structural response of the facility and the observed near-field and far-field blast damage. These results, along with key witness statements and other analyses, provide valuable insight into the likely cause of this incident. Based on the results of our detailed analysis, lessons learned regarding the investigative procedure and methods for mitigating this and future explosions are discussed.     

Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for blast wave predictions

Explosions will, in most cases, generate blast waves. While simple models (e.g., Multi Energy Method) are useful for simple explosion geometries, most practical explosions are far from trivial and require detailed analyses. For a reliable estimate of the blast from a gas explosion it is necessary to know the explosion strength. The source explosion may not be symmetric; the pressure waves will be reflected or deflected when hitting objects, or even worse, the blast waves may propagate inside buildings or tunnels with a very low rate of decay. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) explosion models for near and far field blast wave predictions has many advantages. These include more precise estimates of the energy and resulting pressure of the blast wave, as well as the ability to evaluate non-symmetrical effects caused by realistic geometries, gas cloud variations and ignition locations. This is essential when evaluating the likelihood of a given leak source as cause of an explosion or equally when evaluating the potential risk associated with a given leak source for a consequence analysis.In addition, unlike simple methods, CFD explosion models can also evaluate detailed dynamic effects in the near and far field, which include time dependent pressure loads as well as reflection and focusing of the blast waves. This is particularly valuable when assessing actual near-field blast damage during an explosion investigation or potential near-field damage during a risk analysis for a facility. One main challenge in applying CFD, however, is that these models require more information about the actual facility, including geometry details and process information. Collecting the necessary geometry and process data may be quite time consuming. This paper will show some blast prediction validation examples for the CFD model FLACS. It will also provide examples of how directional effects or interaction with objects can significantly influence the dynamics of the blast wave. Finally, the challenge of obtaining useful predictions with insufficient details regarding the geometry will also be addressed.     

Comparing the impacts of hiking, skiing and horse riding on trail and vegetation in different types of forest

Nature-based tourism in protected areas has increased and diversified dramatically during the last decades. Different recreational activities have a range of impacts on natural environments. This paper reports results from a comparison of the impacts of hiking, cross-country skiing and horse riding on trail characteristics and vegetation in northern Finland. Widths and depths of existing trails, and vegetation on trails and in the neighbouring forests were monitored in two research sites during 2001 and 2002. Trail characteristics and vegetation were clearly related to the recreational activity, research site and forest type. Horse trails were as deep as hiking trails, even though the annual number of users was 150-fold higher on the hiking trails. Simultaneously, cross-country skiing had the least effect on trails due to the protective snow cover during winter. Hiking trail plots had little or no vegetation cover, horse riding trail plots had lower vegetation cover than forest plots, while skiing had no impact on total vegetation cover. On the other hand, on horse riding trails there were more forbs and grasses, many of which did not grow naturally in the forest. These species that were limited to riding trails may change the structure of adjacent plant communities in the long run. Therefore, the type of activities undertaken and the sensitivity of habitats to these activities should be a major consideration in the planning and management of nature-based tourism. Establishment of artificial structures, such as stairs, duckboards and trail cover, or complete closure of the site, may be the only way to protect the most sensitive or deteriorated sites.     

Metabolomic analysis of the selection response of Drosophila melanogaster to environmental stress: are there links to gene expression and phenotypic traits?

We investigated the global metabolite response to artificial selection for tolerance to stressful conditions such as cold, heat, starvation, and desiccation, and for longevity in Drosophila melanogaster. Our findings were compared to data from other levels of biological organization, including gene expression, physiological traits, and organismal stress tolerance phenotype. Overall, we found that selection for environmental stress tolerance changes the metabolomic ¹H NMR fingerprint largely in a similar manner independent of the trait selected for, indicating that experimental evolution led to a general stress selection response at the metabolomic level. Integrative analyses across data sets showed little similarity when general correlations between selection effects at the level of the metabolome and gene expression were compared. This is likely due to the fact that the changes caused by these selection regimes were rather mild and/or that the dominating determinants for gene expression and metabolite levels were different. However, expression of a number of genes was correlated with the metabolite data. Many of the identified genes were general stress response genes that are down-regulated in response to selection for some of the stresses in this study. Overall, the results illustrate that selection markedly alters the metabolite profile and that the coupling between different levels of biological organization indeed is present though not very strong for stress selection at this level. The results highlight the extreme complexity of environmental stress adaptation and the difficulty of extrapolating and interpreting responses across levels of biological organization.     

137Cs in the Danish Wadden Sea: contrast between tidal flats and salt marshes

The 137Cs activity of salt marsh and tidal flat sediments of the northern part of the European Wadden Sea was studied based on a comprehensive dataset of 210Pb dated cores. The 137Cs inventory of salt marsh sediments shows a major peak corresponding to the Chernobyl accident in 1986, and a minor peak located in the late 1960s interpreted as the combined effect of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Emissions from the nuclear reprocessing plant Sellafield are not reflected as peaks in 137Cs activity, but may contribute to the rising 137Cs activity in the years prior to 1986. The 137Cs activity of tidal flat sediments differs from salt marsh sediment in two respects. First, the activity is much lower and, second, the major peak in the 1980s is located in the beginning instead of in the middle of the decade. The differences in 137Cs inventory between the two environments are interpreted to result from repeated cycles of deposition/resuspension and mixing on tidal flats. A simple model illustrating the consequence of mixings returns an apparent shift of major peaks in 137Cs activities backwards in time corresponding to the mixing depth divided by the deposition rate.     

Probabilistic risk assessment for long-range atmospheric transport of radionuclides

A simplified means of probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) for long-range atmospheric transport based on a K-diffusion model is presented. In a case study, model parameters are estimated by comparing with the results of long-range atmospheric dispersion model calculations using one-year numerical weather prediction model data. It is found that the estimated ensemble mean provides a reasonable first approximation to the total dry and wet deposition from the one-year continuous release.     

The transfer of 239/240Pu to cow milk

In summer 1993 we measured the transfer of (239/240)Pu to milk from herbage from a pasture located 5 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In one treatment cows were allowed to graze freely on the pasture. In a second treatment, cows were fed herbage collected from the pasture in stalls. The milk transfer coefficient; F(m) did not vary significantly between treatments and the mean value of 7.5x10(-6)d l(-1) was higher than previously reported values. Despite many values of F(m) for Pu in the literature we identified few relevant original data sets. Transfer coefficient values for Pu are only appropriate when used in conjunction with a specified time period or an appropriate model which allows for the biological half-life. We recommend for screening purposes an F(m) value of 1x10(-5)d l(-1) for Pu, with an order of magnitude lower value being appropriate for cows which are only exposed for one grazing season.