The effects of job demands and control on employee attendance and satisfaction

We examined the impact of stressful job demands on employee attitudes and attendance. Using Karasek's (1979) theory of job decision latitude as the conceptual foundation, we hypothesized that mental and physical work demands would interact with employee beliefs of personal control. Survey data from 90 male manufacturing employees regarding their control beliefs were combined with objective job analysis data concerning mental and physical demands and one year's worth of archival data regarding unexcused absences, sick days, and days tardy. There were significant interactions between control and objective psychological demands that indicated that these demands were associated with higher levels of tardiness and sick days only under conditions of low perceived control. In contrast, subjective workload ratings showed no relationship with tardiness and sick days, but, in interaction with control, predicted work satisfaction and voluntary absence. We discussed these results in terms of a stress process that affects health-related attendance independent of employee attitudes.     

New York City Environmental Justice Alliance Waterfront Justice Project

This paper reviews key challenges and opportunities addressed by the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance's (NYC-EJA) Waterfront Justice Project, a citywide campaign to promote climate resilience and sustainability in urban industrial waterfront communities of New York City. NYC-EJA is a non-profit membership-driven network linking grassroots organisations from low-income neighbourhoods and communities of colour in their struggle for environmental justice. The Waterfront Justice Project is documenting community vulnerability in the context of climate change impacts, sources of industrial pollution, and demographic and socio-economic trends. This campaign is enabling community-based organisations, environmental justice communities, city planners, local and state government agencies, local business-owners, and other stakeholders to work in partnership to achieve community resilience while advocating for local jobs and promoting best practices in pollution prevention. New York City's waterfront policies ease the siting and clustering of public infrastructure, water pollution control plants, waste transfer stations, energy facilities, and heavy manufacturing uses in six areas designated as Significant Maritime and Industrial Areas (SMIAs). The SMIAs are located in environmental justice communities, largely low-income communities and communities of colour, in the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. New York City's local waterfront land use and zoning policies create cumulative risk exposure not only to residents and workers in the host waterfront communities, but also, in the event of storm surge or sea-level rise, to neighbouring, upland communities.     

The degradation of dissolved organic nitrogen associated with melanoidin using a UV/H2O2 AOP

The aim of this study was to examine the simultaneous degradation of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) and associated colour from wastewater containing melanoidins by an advanced oxidation process (AOP). UV irradiation of H2O2 was used as the mechanism to create the hydroxyl radical for oxidation. Melanoidins are large nitrogenous organic compounds that are refractory during biological wastewater treatment processes. The simultaneous degradation of DON and colour, present as a result of these compounds, was investigated using an AOP. The oxidation process was much more capable of removing colour (99% degradation), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (50% degradation) and DON (25% degradation) at the optimal applied dose of hydrogen peroxide for the system (3300 mg l(-1)). This indicated that colour and DON removal were decoupled problems for the purpose of treating melanoidin by an AOP and thus colour removal can not be used as an indication of DON removal Colour was caused by organic molecules with molecular weight greater than 10 kDa. Oxidation caused a partial reduction of the DON (41-15% of the total dissolved nitrogen) and DOC (29-14% of the DOC) associated with the large molecular weight fraction (>10 kDa) and almost complete colour removal (87-3% of the total colour). The degraded DON was mostly accounted for by the formation of ammonia (31% of the nitrogen removed from the large fraction) and small molecular weight compounds (66% of the nitrogen removed from the large fraction). The degraded DOC appeared to be mostly mineralised (to CO2) with only 20% of the degraded compounds appearing as small molecular weight DOC.     

VALUE OF WOODY RWER CORRIDORS IN LEVEE PROTECTION ALONG THE MISSOURI RWER IN 19931

ABSTRACT: Following the Midwest flood of 1993, a study was initiated along a 39-mile segment of the Missouri River to determine if there was an association between woody corridors and levee stability. A systematic sample of levee failures revealed that primary levees which did not fail had a significantly wider woody corridor than failed levees. Analysis of the total inventory of failed levees revealed that as the width of the woody corridor decreased, the length of the levee failure increased. Number of levee failures and their severity of damage could be reduced if woody corridors were at least 300 feet wide.     

PERFORMANCE AND PERSISTENCE OF GREEN FLUORESCENT PROTEIN （gfp） MARKED AZOTOBACTER CHROOCOCCUM IN STERILIZED AND UNSTERILIZED WHEAT RHIZOSPHERIC SOIL

ThepracticaluseofAzotobacterchroococcumasbiofertilizer hasbeenincreasinglyidentifiedinrecentyears.Oftentheefficacy ofthesebacteriaisassessedonthebasisofcropresponseswithout knowingthesurvival,persistenceandcompetitiveabilityofthein troducedstrain.Inoculat…     

Removal of As,Mn, Mo,Se, U,V and Zn from groundwater by zero-valent iron in a passive treatment cell: reaction progress modeling

Three treatment cells were operated at a site near Durango, CO. One treatment cell operated for more than 3 years. The treatment cells were used for passive removal of contamination from groundwater at a uranium mill tailings repository site. Zero-valent iron [Fe(0)] that had been powdered, bound with aluminosilicate and molded into plates was used as a reactive material in one treatment cell. The others used granular Fe(0) and steel wool. The treatment cells significantly reduced concentrations of As, Mn, Mo, Se, U, V and Zn in groundwater that flowed through it. Zero-valent iron [Fe(0)], magnetite (Fe3O4), calcite (CaCO3), goethite (FeOOH) and mixtures of contaminant-bearing phases were identified in the solid fraction of one treatment cell. A reaction progress approach was used to model chemical evolution of water chemistry as it reacted with the Fe(0). Precipitation of calcite, ferrous hydroxide [Fe(OH)2] and ferrous sulfide (FeS) were used to simulate observed changes in major-ion aqueous chemistry. The amount of reaction progress differed for each treatment cell. Changes in contaminant concentrations were consistent with precipitation of reduced oxides (UO2, V2O3), sulfides (As2S3, ZnS), iron minerals (FeSe2, FeMoO4) and carbonate (MnCO3). Formation of a free gas phase and precipitation of minerals contributed to loss of hydraulic conductivity in one treatment cell.     

Using medico-legal data to investigate fatal older road user crash circumstances and risk factors

Objective: This study used medico-legal data to investigate fatal older road user (ORU, aged 65 years and older) crash circumstances and risk factors relating to 4 key components of the Safe System approach (e.g., roads and roadsides, vehicles, road users, and speeds) to identify areas of priority for targeted prevention activity.

Method: The Coroners' Court of Victoria's (CCOV) Surveillance Database was searched to identify and describe the frequency and rate per 100,000 population of fatal ORU crashes in the Australian state of Victoria for 2013–2014. Information relating to the deceased ORU, crash characteristics and circumstances, and risk factors was extracted and analyzed.

Results: One hundred and thirty-eight unintentional fatal ORU crashes were identified in the CCOV Surveillance Database. Of these fatal ORU crashes, most involved older drivers (44%), followed by older pedestrians (32%), older passengers (17%), older pedal cyclists (4%), older motorcyclists (1%), and older mobility scooter users (1%). The average annual rate of fatal ORU crashes per 100,000 population was 8.1 (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.0–10.2). In terms of the crash characteristics and circumstances, most fatal ORU crashes involved a counterpart (98%), of which the majority were passenger cars (50%) or fixed/stationary objects (25%), including trees (46%) or embankments (23%). In addition, most fatal ORU crashes occurred close to home (73%), on-road (87%), on roads that were paved (94%), on roads with light traffic volume (37%), and during low-risk conditions: between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. (44%), on weekdays (80%), during daylight (75%), and under dry/clear conditions (81%). Road user (RU) error was identified by the police and/or the coroner for the majority of fatal crashes (55%), with a significant proportion of deceased ORUs deemed to have failed to yield (54%) or misjudged (41%).

Conclusions: RU error was the most significant factor identified in fatal ORU crashes, which suggests that there is a limited capacity of the road system to fully accommodate RU errors. Initiatives related to safer roads and roadsides, vehicles, speed zones, as well as behavioral approaches are key areas of priority for targeted activity to prevent fatal ORU crashes in the future.     

Acceptable Cancer Risks: Probabilities and Beyond

The acceptability of cancer risk requires consideration of factors that extend beyond mere numerical representations, such as either individual lifetime risk in excess of background and excess incidence. Recently, use of these numbers has been tempered by the addition of qualitative weights-of-evidence that describe the degree of support provided by animal and epidemiologic results. Nevertheless, many other factors, most of which are not quantitative, require incorporation but remain neglected by the analyst eager to use quantitative results.

In this paper we show that simple risk measures are often fraught with problems. Moreover, these measures do not incorporate the very essence of acceptability, which includes notions of responsibility, accountability, equity, and procedural legitimacy, among others. We link the process of risk assessment to those legal and regulatory standards that shape it. These standards are among the principal means to resolve risk-related disputes and to enhance the balancing of competing interests when science and law meet on uncertain and often conjectural ground.

We conclude the paper with a proposal for the portfolio approach to manage cancer risks and to deal with uncertain scientific information. This approach leads to the concept of "provisional acceptability," which reflects the choices available to the decisionmaker, and the trade-offs inherent to such choices.     

Limited change in the diversity and structure of subtidal communities over four decades

A unique archive of photographs from 1969 to 1974 permitted a test of the hypothesis that the diversity and composition of contemporary epilithic communities on subtidal rock walls in the San Juan Islands, WA, USA, has changed over 40 years. Notably, the richness and diversity of sessile taxa was significantly higher in 2008–2011. Furthermore, the multivariate community structure of sessile and mobile taxa differed between the historic and modern eras. Historic communities were characterized by a high percent cover of bare rock and non-calcified algal crusts, consistent with the effects of grazing by chitons and urchins. The rate of sessile community turnover, an index less susceptible to spatial sampling artifacts than richness or diversity, was not significantly different between the two eras. Together with the naturally high spatial variability in these epilithic communities, and the limited replication of historic quadrats, we interpret cautiously the data as evidence of limited change despite a clear shift in temperature and predator (fish) guild composition. The lack of substantial change in rock wall communities may be due in part to their vertical topography, which limits physical disturbance and the preemption of space by weedy algae, two processes that are often associated with “phase-shifts” in other marine ecosystems.