An investigation of the willingness of managerial employees to accept an expatriate assignment

Data obtained with the aid of structured questionnaires from a Singaporean managerial sample (N = 228) were used to examine receptivity to an expatriate assignment in terms of the cultural similarity or dissimilarity of the country of relocation. Results of a paired t-test indicated that respondents were significantly more receptive to an expatriate assignment in a culturally similar location than in a culturally dissimilar location. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed mixed support for the study's propositions and explained only modest amounts of the variance in the culturally similar (R² = 22 per cent) and dissimilar (R² = 20 per cent) models. Limitations of the study, directions for future research and implications of the findings are discussed.     

Turbulent kinetic energy budgets in a model canopy: comparisons between LES and wind-tunnel experiments

A comparative study of turbulence in a wind-tunnel model canopy is performed, using Large eddy simulation (LES) and experimental data from PIV and hot-wire anemometry measurements. The model canopy is composed of thin cylindrical stalks. In the LES, these are represented using a plant-scale approach, while the scale-dependent Lagrangian dynamic model is used as subgrid-scale model. LES predictions of turbulence statistics and energy spectra are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. Turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budgets from the LES simulation are analyzed to provide more information absent in the measurements. Results confirm that sloshing motions at the low levels of the canopy are mainly driven by pressure fluctuations. A difference between the energy flux obtained from the energy spectrum and the SGS dissipation rate is observed, consistent with a spectral bypass mechanism in which the real spectral flux due to cascade is smaller than that implied by the energy-spectrum level, due to direct drain by the canopy.     

Benefit‐Cost Analysis of Integrated Water Resource Management: Accounting for Interdependence in the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan

Integrated water resource management (IWRM) requires accounting for many interrelated facets of water systems, water uses and stakeholders, and water management activities. The consequence is that project analysis must account for the nonseparability among the component parts of IWRM plans. This article presents a benefit‐cost (B‐C) analysis of a set of projects included in the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan proposed for the Yakima Basin in south‐central Washington State. The analysis accounts for interdependence among proposed water storage projects and between water storage and water market development in the context of historical and more adverse projected future climate scenarios. Focusing on irrigation benefits from storage, we show that the value of a given proposed storage project is lower when other proposed storage projects in the basin are implemented, and when water markets are functioning effectively. We find that none of the water storage projects satisfy a B‐C criterion, and that assuring proposed instream flow augmentation is less expensive by purchasing senior diversion rights than relying on new storage to provide it.     

Laboratory and field evaluation of a pretreatment system for removing organics from produced water

Co-produced water from the oil and gas industry accounts for a significant waste stream in the United States. This "produced water" is characterized by saline water containing a variety of pollutants, including water soluble and immiscible organics and many inorganic species. To reuse produced water, removal of both the inorganic dissolved solids and organic compounds is necessary. In this research, the effectiveness of a pretreatment system consisting of surfactant modified zeolite (SMZ) adsorption followed by a membrane bioreactor (MBR) was evaluated for simultaneous removal of carboxylates and hazardous substances, such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) from saline-produced water. A laboratory-scale MBR, operated at a 9.6-hour hydraulic residence time, degraded 92% of the carboxylates present in synthetic produced water. When BTEX was introduced simultaneously to the MBR system with the carboxylates, the system achieved 80 to 95% removal of BTEX via biodegradation. These results suggest that simultaneous biodegradation of both BTEX and carboxylate constituents found in produced water is possible. A field test conducted at a produced water disposal facility in Farmington, New Mexico confirmed the laboratory-scale results for the MBR and demonstrated enhanced removal of BTEX using a treatment train consisting of SMZ columns followed by the MBR. While most of the BTEX constituents of the produced water adsorbed onto the SMZ adsorption system, approximately 95% of the BTEX that penetrated the SMZ and entered the MBR was biodegraded in the MBR. Removal rates of acetate (influent concentrations of 120 to 170 mg/L) ranged from 91 to 100%, and total organic carbon (influent concentrations as high as 580 mg/L) ranged from 74 to 92%, respectively. Organic removal in the MBR was accomplished at a low biomass concentration of 1 g/L throughout the field trial. While the transmembrane pressure during the laboratory-scale tests was well-controlled, it rose substantially during the field test, where no pH control was implemented. The results suggest that pretreatment with an SMZ/MBR system can provide substantial removal of organic compounds present in produced water, a necessary first step for many water-reuse applications.     

Peroxyacetyl Nitrate-Induced Inhibition of Cell Wall Metabolism

Levels of PAN which inhibit oat coleoptile section growth reversibly, severely inhibit metabolism of cellulose and of cell wall noncellulosic polysaccharides. An enzyme in the coleoptile cell walls which hydrolyzes some of the noncellulosic glucan was partially inactivated by direct PAN treatment of homogenized cell wall. Treatment of intact cells by PAN also resulted in a partially inactivated enzyme. Coleoptile phos-phoglucomutase was partially inactivated by treatment with PAN both in vitro and in vivo. After treatment of intact cells with PAN, phosphoglucomutase associated with subcellular particles was more severely inactivated than was soluble enzyme. Uridine diphosphate glucose pyrophosphorylase from coleoptiles was inactivated by PAN in vitro but not in vivo. A particulate cellulose synthetase from coleoptiles was inactivated by PAN both in vitro and in vivo. Since cell wall biosynthesis and or degradation are needed for expansion it is concluded that PAN inhibition of these enzymes may account for reduced cell growth. The work of Dr. Morris J. Garber who carried out the analysis of variance is gratefully acknowledged.     

Corrosion Problems and Solutions For Electrostatic Precipitators

Travel on unpaved public roads is the single largest anthropogenic source of emissions of airborne particles in the U.S. The average impact of this source on average annual mean total suspended particulate (TSP) concentrations varies from 0.05 μg/m³ (Alaska) to 11 μg/m³ (Pennsylvania). When compared by contributions to the variance in state to state TSP levels, their impact is as great as the impact of emissions from all conventional sources. Common emission control methods include paving, oiling, speed reduction, watering, and application of calcium chloride. Total annual emissions are, in most cases, most economically reduced by either speed control or paving, with expected average control costs of less than $0.50/lb of emissions reductions. For most roads with average daily traffic flows above 100 vehicles per day, paving is shown to control emissions at average costs of less than $0.05/lb. In some situations, the costs of paving are more than offset by reductions in maintenance costs. Thus it would appear that, even accounting for the order of magnitude lower impact on statewide average concentration per ton of particles emitted from open sources, control of dust emissions from unpaved roads offers an economical means for reducing ambient TSP levels.     

Modeling binding equilibrium in a competitive estrogen receptor binding assay

Although the free concentration is more significant in the environmental chemistry and toxicology of receptor-mediated toxicants, few studies have been conducted to use it as a dose-metric. The relative binding affinity of three model endocrine disrupting compounds, diethylstilbestrol (DES), ethynylestradiol (EE2), and bisphenol A (BPA), were evaluated using a competitive ELISA with human estrogen receptor alpha. After measuring the available receptors and the dissociation constant for 17beta-estradiol, binding inhibition curves using the free concentration as the dose-metric were obtained by assuming species equilibrium in the ELISA system and compared with apparent inhibition curves generated using the nominal concentration as the dose-metric. Because ligand binding to estrogen receptors may reduce its free concentration in the assay system, the differences between the two curves for free and nominal concentrations are more significant for more strongly binding ligands. The ratio of a compound's nominal concentration causing 50% inhibition (IC50) to the IC50 of DES, the positive control, was strongly affected by specific assay conditions, while that estimated by modeling free concentration is independent of receptor concentration, indicating that the free concentration is a better dose-metric for a competitive binding assay.     

The Optical Evaluation of Smoke or Participate Matter Collected on Filter Paper

Many food, fiber, forage, and forest crops and a number of animals are adversely affected by a variety of air pollutants. The more important and generally occurring of these pollutants are ethylene, fluorides, ozone, peroxyacyl nitrates (PAN), and sulfur oxides. Their effects upon animals and plants can best be judged by criteria which describe the reaction of biologic materials to pollutant concentration and exposure time. Four criteria are recognized: (1) interference with enzyme systems; (2) change in cellular chemical constituents and physical structure; (3) retardation of growth and reduction in production from altered metabolism; and (4) acute immediate tissue degeneration. Information on tissue degenerative effects due to these pollutants is the most common; there are some reports on growth and productivity reduction; but little data are available on cellular alterations and interference with enzymes. Determination and measurement of the latter two criteria are essential to the ultimate definition and prediction of the significance of the effects of pollutants on growth and productivity of agriculture. Dosage data are available which indicate the degenerative effects of some specific pollutants on certain tissues of hosts. Political-social judgments can be made because of the knowledge of the effects of these specific pollutants; this knowledge thus permits the establishment of standards which define air quality necessary for the protection of agriculture. The importance of combined pollutant effects mitigates against the ready setting of standards on an airshed or significant regional basis. The setting of standards for a single polluiant effects upon crops and animals effectively serves as a precedent and indicates the necessity of establishing air quality values for pollutant mixtures emitted into and produced within the air resource at different geographic locations as the polluted air moves throughout the typically multigovernment jurisdictions of the airsheds.     

Foraging differences between cross-fostered honeybee workers (Apis mellifera) of European and Africanized races

Summary Foraging differences between cross-fostered honeybee workers of European and Africanized races in South America are described. Africanized workers began foraging at earlier ages than European workers in colonies of their own races, but cross-fostered workers began foraging at the same age as workers in the colonies in which they were placed. Some differences in the mean time spent foraging per hour and the mean number of flights per hour were also found. The results suggest two major factors determining differences in division of labor between Africanized and European bees: 1) the colony characteristics by which foraging age is determined, and 2) the responses of individual workers to hive environment. A hypothesis to explain these results is presented based on higher levels of foraging stimuli in Africanized colonies as well as a higher stimulus threshold for Africanized workers.