Minimising waste in the food and drink sector: using the business club approach to facilitate training and organisational development

The aim of the East Anglian Waste Minimisation in the Food And Drink Industry Project was to develop waste minimisation capability in food and drink sector companies by providing a structured training programme and consultancy support to participating members of a business club. The business club forum provided the structure within which interactive training and development sessions were delivered. Expertise and assistance in implementing waste minimisation and waste management programmes was given to member companies at their sites.The project resulted in pound 1,800,000 per annum of identified savings with pound 1,100,000 of verified savings already achieved. Training and development contributed fundamentally to these project outcomes and achievements.The structured training package used three different approaches or methods. Teaching and workshop sessions were used to present interactive training on waste minimisation practice. These were supplemented by interactive 'report-back' sessions where the 'project champions' presented progress reports to the club on waste minimisation at their sites.An overview of the business club approach is described, together with an account of the successes and challenges of applying a structured training and development programme and the barriers to waste minimisation that were overcome. Training effectiveness was measured according to reaction, learning, application and impact.     

Estimation Using Contingent Valuation Data from a "Dichotomous Choice with Follow-Up" Questionnaire

Dichotomous-choice (referendum) contingent-valuation questions are inefficient in that a very large number of observations is required to identify a distribution of resource values with any degree of accuracy. An alternative questioning strategy introduces a follow-up dichotomous-choice question. We generalize upon previous analyses of this type of data by relaxing the assumption that the identical unobserved resource value motivates both responses. While values implied by the first and second responses are highly correlated and may be drawn from the same distribution, they are definitely not identical. Furthermore, assuming that they are can severely distort the estimated valuation distribution.     

Female preferences for male calling bout duration in a field cricket

Summary The calls of male field crickets attract sexually receptive females. In Gryllus integer, males differ from one another in their durations of uninterrupted calling (calling bout lengths). Tape recordings of the calls of 50 wild-caught males revealed that 14 males spent most of their calling time in short bouts (Fig. 1A), 18 in both short and long bouts (Fig. 1B), and 18 in long bouts (Fig. 1C). Re-recordings of 32 males after 3 weeks showed that calling bout lengths of individual males are stable with time (age) (Fig. 2). Three phonotaxis experiments investigated whether calling bout lengths of males affect female preferences. They demonstrated that (1) females can discriminate among conspecific males on the basis of calls alone; (2) females are preferentially attracted to males with long calling bout lengths; and (3) calling bout length is the specific factor responsible for preferential attraction. These results precisely identify a criterion that females use to discriminate among potential mates of their own species.     

Mobilisation capacity for agri-environmental management

The integration of environmental concerns into agricultural policies - through agri-environment measures (AEM) - has seen a fast development across Europe. This paper conceives AEM as an evolving instrument, a product that takes shape, gets diffused and taken up in, by and through networks of relations. Success then depends on the mobilisation or active participation of all those who may support and develop it. Using the examples of the Flanders' and Walloon regions of Belgium, the paper sets out to examine the mechanisms by which mobilisation for agri-environmental management develops, and by doing so, to gain a better understanding of mobilisation capacity as a concept to be used for evaluating policy implementation in this area. The study follows AEM along the various trajectories of implementation (design, distribution, application). The findings reveal how mobilisation capacity is gradually built-up by the interplay between AEM and the networks it connects to. The case illustrates well how such interactions occur all the way from administration offices to farmers' fields, and that their nature can be very different (e.g., formal and informal, durable and short-lived, expected and unexpected). It is concluded that in evaluating actor-networks, one should look at them in an open and fluid manner, that is, not to privilege any particular configuration or form of attachment over the other, not take intentions and objectives as a starting point but instead address the opportunities for synergies, and be aware that any network built around the instrument may change its content and the way it functions.     

What is the potential of trauma registry data to be used for road traffic injury surveillance and informing road safety policy?

Introduction

Information from hospital trauma registries is increasingly being used to support injury surveillance efforts. This research examines the potential of using trauma registry data for road traffic injury surveillance for different types of road users in terms of both the information collected and how representative trauma data are compared to two population-based road traffic injury data collections.

Methods

The three data collections were assessed against recommended variables to be collected for injury surveillance purposes and the representativeness of the distribution of road traffic-related injury data from the trauma registry was compared to hospital admission and road traffic authority data collections.

Results

Data from the trauma registry was largely not representative of the distribution of age groups or activities compared to the two population-based collections, but was representative for gender for some road user groups to at least one population-based data collection.

Conclusions

Trauma data could be used to supplement information from population-based data collections to inform road safety efforts.

Impact on Industry

Road safety policy makers should be aware of the potential and the limitations of using trauma registry data for road traffic injury surveillance.     

Mercury trends in fish from rivers and lakes in the United States, 1969�C2005

A national dataset on concentrations of mercury in fish, compiled mainly from state and federal monitoring programs, was used to evaluate trends in mercury (Hg) in fish from US rivers and lakes. Trends were analyzed on data aggregated by site and by state, using samples of the same fish species and tissue type, and using fish of similar lengths. Site-based trends were evaluated from 1969 to 2005, but focused on a subset of the data from 1969 to 1987. Data aggregated by state were used to evaluate trends in fish Hg concentrations from 1988 to 2005. In addition, the most recent Hg fish data (1996?C2005) were compared to wet Hg deposition data from the Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) over the same period. Downward trends in Hg concentrations in fish from data collected during 1969?C1987 exceeded upward trends by a ratio of 6 to 1. Declining Hg accumulation rates in sediment and peat cores reported by many studies during the 1970s and 1980s correspond with the period when the most downward trends in fish Hg concentrations occurred. Downward Hg trends in both sediment cores and fish were also consistent with the implementation of stricter regulatory controls of direct releases of Hg to the atmosphere and surface waters during the same period. The southeastern USA had more upward Hg trends in fish than other regions for both site and state aggregated data. Upward Hg trends in fish from the southeastern USA were associated with increases in wet deposition in the region and may be attributed to a greater influence of global atmospheric Hg emissions in the southeastern USA. No significant trends were found in 62% of the fish species from six states from 1996 to 2005. A lack of Hg trends in fish in the more recent data was consistent with the lack of trends in wet Hg deposition at MDN sites and with relatively constant global emissions during the same time period. Although few significant trends were observed in the more recent Hg concentrations in fish, it is anticipated that Hg concentrations in fish will respond to changes in atmospheric Hg deposition, however, the magnitude and timing of the response is uncertain.     

Modelling of occupational respirable crystalline silica exposure for quantitative exposure assessment in community-based case-control studies

We describe an empirical model for exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) to create a quantitative job-exposure matrix (JEM) for community-based studies. Personal measurements of exposure to RCS from Europe and Canada were obtained for exposure modelling. A mixed-effects model was elaborated, with region/country and job titles as random effect terms. The fixed effect terms included year of measurement, measurement strategy (representative or worst-case), sampling duration (minutes) and a priori exposure intensity rating for each job from an independently developed JEM (none, low, high). 23,640 personal RCS exposure measurements, covering a time period from 1976 to 2009, were available for modelling. The model indicated an overall downward time trend in RCS exposure levels of -6% per year. Exposure levels were higher in the UK and Canada, and lower in Northern Europe and Germany. Worst-case sampling was associated with higher reported exposure levels and an increase in sampling duration was associated with lower reported exposure levels. Highest predicted RCS exposure levels in the reference year (1998) were for chimney bricklayers (geometric mean 0.11 mg m(-3)), monument carvers and other stone cutters and carvers (0.10 mg m(-3)). The resulting model enables us to predict time-, job-, and region/country-specific exposure levels of RCS. These predictions will be used in the SYNERGY study, an ongoing pooled multinational community-based case-control study on lung cancer.     

Semi-Direct Lysis of Swabs and Evaluation of Their Efficiencies to Recover Human Noroviruses GI and GII from Surfaces

Enteric viruses such as noroviruses (NoVs) continue to be the cause of widespread viral outbreaks due to person-to-person transmission, contaminated food, and contaminated surfaces. In order to optimize swabbing methodology for the detection of viruses on (food) contact surfaces, three swab elution/extraction strategies were compared in part one of this study, out of which, one strategy was based on the recently launched ISO protocol (ISO/TS 15216-1) for the determination of hepatitis A virus and NoV in food using real-time RT-PCR (RT-qPCR). These three swab elution/extraction strategies were tested for the detection of GI.4 and GII.4 NoV on high-density polyethylene (HD-PE) surfaces with the use of cotton swabs. For detection of GI.4 and GII.4, the sample recovery efficiency (SRE) obtained with the direct lysis strategy (based on ISO/TS 15216-1) was significantly lower than the SRE obtained with both other strategies. The semi-direct lysis strategy was chosen to assess the SRE of two common swabs (cotton swab and polyester swab) versus the biowipe (Biomérieux, Lyon, France) on three surfaces (HD-PE, neoprene rubber (NR), and nitrile gloves (GL)). For both surfaces, HD-PE and GL, no significant differences in SREs of GI.4 and GII.4 NoVs were detected between the three different swabs. For the coarser NR, biowipes turned out to be the best option for detecting both GI.4 and GII.4 NoV.     

The role of agency in sustainable local community development

Abstract

In this paper we question the importance of social capital as a primary indicator of a community's ability to engage in sustainable development as social capital can have both hindering and facilitating effects. We suggest that actor agency allows an individual or group to increase access to other critical forms of capital to overcome barriers and solve problems. We present ‘bonding’ social capital consisting of strong network ties as a negative in excess quantity as it can lead to the enforcement of social norms that hinder innovative change, and ‘bridging’ social capital consisting of weak network ties as a benefit that allows actors to bring about critical social changes. Communities achieve agency through a dynamic mix of bonding and bridging ties. We close with suggestions for fostering community agency and flag the need for further research in this area.