Role of buffer strips in management of waterway pollution: A review

A buffer strip can perform a multitude of functions, and these include channel stability, a filter for sediment and nutrients, water purification (e.g., bacteria and pathogens), a nondisturbance area, and the provision of terrestrial and stream habitat. These functions are reviewed with specific application to Australian conditions, and methods for modeling their performance are outlined. The primary focus is on the use of buffer strips to minimize waterway pollution from diffuse sources since their use is often justified on this basis. Particular attention is given to the conditions under which a buffer strip will act as an effective filter and the conditions under which it will fail. Buffer strips are most effective when the flow is shallow (nonsubmerged), slow, and enters the buffer strip uniformly along its length. Their sediment trapping performance decreases as the sediment particle size decreases. Nutrients are often preferentially attached to fine sediment. As a result, buffer strips are better filters of sediment than of nutrients. Buffer strips should only be considered as a secondary conservation practice after controlling the generation of pollutants at their source and, to be effective, buffer strips should always be carefully designed, installed, and maintained.     

Industrial relations stress and job satisfaction: Concurrent effects and mediation

We examine the effects of negative and positive industrial relations stress on both mood (negative and positive) and job satisfaction. Twenty industrial relations practitioners completed daily reports of industrial relations stress, mood, and job satisfaction over a 20-day period. After controlling for serial correlation, negative industrial relations stress affected negative mood and, in turn, job satisfaction. Positive industrial relations stress had direct effects on both positive mood and job satisfaction with positive mood also affecting job satisfaction. All effects were concurrent with no next-day effects of stress on mood or job satisfaction. Further research on industrial relations stress is both warranted and encouraged.     

Disentangling the relationship between the achievement striving and impatience—irritability dimensions of type A behavior,performance and health

This study was conducted to replicate and extend previous findings that two independent dimensions of type A behavior, namely Impatience—Irritability (II) and Achievement Striving (AS), differentially predict health and performance. One hundred and thirteen university students provided their grade point average and completed questionnaires to measure II, AS and several health measures. They also performed a five-minute proof-reading task which yielded a behavioral measure of attention and concentration. As predicted, after partialling out the effects of II, AS predicted GPA and proof-reading performance, but not health. After controlling for age and AS, II predicted headaches and sleep habits, but neither respiratory infections nor digestive problems. Implications for the differential prediction of health and performance by AS and II, and interventions designed to decrease risk from type A behavior by reducing II but not AS, are discussed.     

Evaluating complementary networks of restoration plantings for landscape‐scale occurrence of temporally dynamic species

Multibillion dollar investments in land restoration make it critical that conservation goals are achieved cost‐effectively. Approaches developed for systematic conservation planning offer opportunities to evaluate landscape‐scale, temporally dynamic biodiversity outcomes from restoration and improve on traditional approaches that focus on the most species‐rich plantings. We investigated whether it is possible to apply a complementarity‐based approach to evaluate the extent to which an existing network of restoration plantings meets representation targets. Using a case study of woodland birds of conservation concern in southeastern Australia, we compared complementarity‐based selections of plantings based on temporally dynamic species occurrences with selections based on static species occurrences and selections based on ranking plantings by species richness. The dynamic complementarity approach, which incorporated species occurrences over 5 years, resulted in higher species occurrences and proportion of targets met compared with the static complementarity approach, in which species occurrences were taken at a single point in time. For equivalent cost, the dynamic complementarity approach also always resulted in higher average minimum percent occurrence of species maintained through time and a higher proportion of the bird community meeting representation targets compared with the species‐richness approach. Plantings selected under the complementarity approaches represented the full range of planting attributes, whereas those selected under the species‐richness approach were larger in size. Our results suggest that future restoration policy should not attempt to achieve all conservation goals within individual plantings, but should instead capitalize on restoration opportunities as they arise to achieve collective value of multiple plantings across the landscape. Networks of restoration plantings with complementary attributes of age, size, vegetation structure, and landscape context lead to considerably better outcomes than conventional restoration objectives of site‐scale species richness and are crucial for allocating restoration investment wisely to reach desired conservation goals.     

Reef size and isolation determine the temporal stability of coral reef fish populations

Temporal variance in species abundance, a potential driver of extinction, is linked to mean abundance through Taylor's power law, the empirical observation of a linear log-log relationship with a slope between 1 and 2 for most species. Here we test the idea that the slope of Taylor's power law can vary both among species and spatially as a function of habitat area and isolation. We used the world's most extensive database of coral reef fish communities comprising a 15-year series of fish abundances on 43 reefs of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Greater temporal variances were observed at small and isolated reefs, and lower variances at large and connected ones. The combination of reef area and isolation was associated with an even greater effect on temporal variances, indicating strong empirical support for the idea that populations on small and isolated reefs will succumb more frequently to local extinction via higher temporal variability, resulting in lower resilience at the community level. Based on these relationships, we constructed a regional predictive map of the dynamic fragility of coral reef fish assemblages on the Great Barrier Reef.     

Selenium content of rice,mixed plant foods and fish from Bangladesh

Static and dynamic adsorption studies of Co (II) ions have been undertaken at fixed pH and ionic strength taking binary biopolymeric beads of cross-linked calcium alginate and carboxy methylcellulose as biosorbents. The adsorption data were applied to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm equations and various static parameters were calculated. The dynamic nature of adsorption process was quantified in terms of several kinetic constants such as rate constants for adsorption (K) and Lagergreen rate constant (K _ad). The influence of various experimental parameters such as solid-to-liquid ratio, pH, and temperature, the presence of salts and chemical composition of biopolymeric beads were investigated on the adsorption of cobalt ions.     

Maternal employment experiences,attention problems and behavioral performance: A mediational model

The present study posits and empirically tests a process model examining the effects of interrole conflict, satisfaction with, and commitment to the role of employed mother on a self-report measure of cognitive difficulties and a behavioral measure relevant to work performance (proof reading). Fifty-three full-time employed mothers with at least one child living at home participated. The proposed model, tested using Lisrel VI, provided an excellent fit to the data. Specifically, interrole conflict exerted an indirect effect on proof reading performance, mediated by self-reported attention and concentration difficulties. Satisfaction with and commitment to the role of employed mother were not related to either proof reading performance or self-reported cognitive difficulties.     

Interrole conflict,family support and marital adjustment of employed mothers: A short term,longitudinal study

Previous research has found that employed mothers experience conflict between the roles of mother and employee, and that interrole conflict is negatively correlated with marital adjustment. Furthermore, research has shown that social support and personality hardiness moderate the interrole conflict/marital adjustment relationship. However, a longitudinal assessment of the effect of interrole conflict on marital adjustment has not been conducted, nor has the moderating role of social support and hardiness been considered within the same analysis. To address these two issues, the interrole conflict, family support, personality hardiness and marital adjustment of 51 employed mothers were assessed twice, three months apart. Using hierarchical regression analyses, interrole conflict and family support exerted main effects on marital adjustment at time 1, More importantly, a significant interrole conflict/family support interaction predicted change in marital adjustment over three months. High family support exerted a negative impact on marital adjustment when interrole conflict was high. The alternative hypothesis that initial levels of marital adjustment predict change in interrole conflict was tested but not supported.     

Some psychological consequences of striking: A six month,longitudinal study

The literature available on organizational psychology has largely neglected the issue of industrial conflict, and little is known about individual psychological effects of industrial conflict such as labour disputes and strikes. Psychological consequences of involvement in a strike were assessed in this research. Data were collected from 117 full-time, white collar union members immediately following a 22 day strike, and again two and six months later. Negatively perceived industrial relations events (e.g. 'strike or lockout', 'being involved in negotiations') were associated with marital adjustment, psychosomatic symptoms and a lack of psychological well-being on completion of the strike, and predicted unfavourable changes in psychological well-being over the next two and six months. A framework for understanding the negative effects of labour disputes and strikes is proposed, and the role of the organizational psychologist when such conflicts occur is considered.     

Are “job hoppers” trapped in hedonic treadmills? Effects of career orientations on newcomers' attitude trajectories

Joining a new organization to change jobs is an influential event in an employee's career. Thus, inter-organizational job changes have sparked growing scholarly interest, especially in the temporal dynamics involved in detaching from organizations and adapting to new ones. While it is widely accepted that employees adapt differently to job changes, the influence of employees' career orientations on changes in job attitudes has not yet been considered. This is surprising given that a key difference between self-centered and organization-centered career orientations is a positive attitude toward job changes. Building on hedonic adaptation, we examined how career orientations influence changes in job satisfaction and turnover intention throughout a job change. We compared self-centered and organization-centered employees using random coefficient modeling on two longitudinal data sets with voluntary job changers. Our results illustrate that self-centered career orientations foster a stronger decline in job satisfaction with the new employer, as well as a larger increase in turnover intention, than organization-centered career orientations. In contrast, employees with organization-centered career orientations experienced an upward trend in job satisfaction toward the end of the first year. Our findings offer important implications for research on the determinants of job attitude trajectories when individuals join a new organization.