GRADUATE EDUCATION IN WATER RESOURCES: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH Part II: Post-Production Techniques1

ABSTRACT: The production of a documentary video in a graduate seminar offers advantages over the traditional term paper. These advantages derive from the nature of the videotape medium. The most distinct difference between a written document and a video production is the use of the video camera to record events. In using the camera, the student is required to become involved both in front of the video camera, for example, as an interviewer, and behind the camera as a camera operator. Next, as an editor, the student is required to review the events that she/he has taped for inclusion in the final product. By participating in these three roles, the student has the opportunity to learn interviewing skills while interacting with professionals in the field, to learn videotaping skills, and to see him/herself as he/she appears to others. The student can use the video feedback to improve his/her professional presentation; posture, dress, gestures, speech, and facial expressions all have an impact on how we are perceived by others. Additionally, the painstaking process of reviewing the taped material leads to an intimate knowledge of the topic, and the process of choosing portions out of entire interviews hones the ability to select the crucial or central themes and ideas from any discussion. Finally, the power of video lies in its ability to communicate information to a wide audience. Although the nature of video for the general public does not permit highly detailed or rigorous coverage of any topic, it is a major source of information. Accordingly, video is an important tool that can be used to inform the public about the importance of wise water resource management.     

Climate change and coastal vulnerability assessment: scenarios for integrated assessment

Coastal vulnerability assessments still focus mainly on sea-level rise, with less attention paid to other dimensions of climate change. The influence of non-climatic environmental change or socio-economic change is even less considered, and is often completely ignored. Given that the profound coastal changes of the twentieth century are likely to continue through the twenty-first century, this is a major omission, which may overstate the importance of climate change, and may also miss significant interactions of climate change with other non-climate drivers. To better support climate and coastal management policy development, more integrated assessments of climatic change in coastal areas are required, including the significant non-climatic changes. This paper explores the development of relevant climate and non-climate drivers, with an emphasis on the non-climate drivers. While these issues are applicable within any scenario framework, our ideas are illustrated using the widely used SRES scenarios, with both impacts and adaptation being considered. Importantly, scenario development is a process, and the assumptions that are made about future conditions concerning the coast need to be explicit, transparent and open to scientific debate concerning their realism and likelihood. These issues are generic across other sectors.

Optimal management of a confined groundwater system

Dynamic programming is applied to a relatively simple economic and hydrologic model of a confined aquifer system in Southwest Montana to determine an optimal interseasonal allocation schedule. The derived decision rule demonstrates the economic advantage of maintaining a confined groundwater system. While localized intraseasonal loss of the artesian pressure may occur, it is important to maintain this pressure from year to year because of its role in reducing extraction costs. The welfare gap, as measured by differences in the net present value of economic returns to the basin under an optimal use policy versus an uncontrolled, “common pool” situation, is not trivial. Sensitivity analysis indicates that assumptions about uniformity of land productivity, vis-à-vis their impact on the shape of the returns function, the discount rate, and the level of electric power rates are particularly critical with respect to the magnitude of the commonality problem.     

Power and Sample Size Calculations for Linear Hypotheses Associated with Mixtures of Many Components using Fixed-Ratio Ray Designs

Response surface methodology, often supported by factorial designs, is the classical experimental approach that is widely accepted for detecting and characterizing interactions among chemicals in a mixture. In an effort to reduce the experimental effort as the number of compounds under study is increased, ray designs have been proposed to study combinations of chemicals. When interest is restricted to relevant mixing ratios, we are only interested in making inference along the specific rays of interest, as opposed to methods which use designs that require more experimental effort to support the estimation of a response surface over a broader experimental region. Methods have been developed for the test of additivity along multiple fixed-ratio rays. Of primary importance is the detection of interactions with reasonable power. The objective of this paper is to address power and sample size issues related to the hypothesis of no interaction.     

Mid-trimester fetal ultrasound: Diagnostic dilemmas

Two cases are reported in which an unusual ultrasound finding preceded diagnostic amniocentesis and led to further work-up. In both cases a decision was made to terminate the pregnancy. One fetus in which a neck mass was detected by ultrasound was shown to be normal on post-mortem examination. The second fetus was aborted because of Rh sensitization and had the abnormality seen by ultrasound. However, this lesion, calcified intrahepatic plaques, had no presumed pathological significance. These cases suggest caution in the interpretation of results obtained with the new technologies used for prenatal diagnosis.     

Fish consumption in pregnancy, cord blood mercury level and cognitive and psychomotor development of infants followed over the first three years of life: Krakow epidemiologic study

BACKGROUND: Although the maternal fish consumption is supposed to have beneficial effects on development of infants, it may be harmful for child cognitive development since fish is a common source of methylmercury. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: Purpose of the study was to describe the usual pattern of fish consumption during pregnancy in Poland and explain the variability of prenatal mercury exposure due to fish intake by mothers. The other endpoint of the study was the assessment of the cognitive and psychomotor development of infants related to prenatal mercury exposure over the 3-year follow-up. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study sample consisted of 374 infants born at 33-42 weeks of gestation between January 2001 and March 2003 to mothers attending ambulatory prenatal clinics in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. Total mercury level in whole cord blood was measured and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-II) was used to assess the mental (MDI) and psychomotor developmental index (PDI) in children at 12, 24 and 36 months of age. RESULTS: Self-reported weekly amount of fish consumption during the first two trimesters of pregnancy correlated positively with umbilical cord mercury concentrations (r(s)=0.22, p<0.0001). The corresponding correlation coefficient for the fish consumption in the third trimester of pregnancy was 0.21, p<0.0001. There was an inverse association between mercury exposure and both MDI (beta regression coeff.=-2.8, p=0.01) and PDI scores (beta coeff.=-2.3, p=0.04) at 12 months of age. Subsequent BSID-II testing at 24 and 36 months did not confirm significant association between exposure and cognitive or psychomotor function. The estimates of association between mercury prenatal exposure and the development of infants, which were based on the longitudinal analysis of all BSID-II measurements done in the follow-up (generalized estimating equations statistical model) showed that the performance deficit observed at 12 months of age was of border significance.     

Lead in New York City community garden chicken eggs: influential factors and health implications

Raising chickens for eggs in urban areas is becoming increasingly common. Urban chickens may be exposed to lead, a common urban soil contaminant. We measured lead concentrations in chicken eggs from New York City (NYC) community gardens and collected information on factors that might affect those concentrations. Lead was detected between 10 and 167 μg/kg in 48 % of NYC eggs. Measures of lead in eggs from a henhouse were significantly associated (p < 0.005) with lead concentrations in soil. The association between soil and egg lead has been evaluated only once before, by a study of a rural region in Belgium. In our study, the apparent lead soil-to-egg transfer efficiency was considerably lower than that found in Belgium, suggesting that there may be important geographic differences in this transfer. We developed models that suggested that, for sites like ours, lead concentrations in >50 % of eggs from a henhouse would exceed store-bought egg concentrations (<7–13 μg/kg; 3 % above detection limit) at soil lead concentrations >120 mg/kg and that the concentration in one of six eggs from a henhouse would exceed a 100 μg/kg guidance value at soil lead concentrations >410 mg/kg. Our models also suggested that the availability of dietary calcium supplements was another influential factor that reduced egg lead concentrations. Estimates of health risk from consuming eggs with the lead concentrations we measured generally were not significant. However, soil lead concentrations in this study were <600 mg/kg, and considerably higher concentrations are not uncommon. Efforts to reduce lead transfer to chicken eggs and associated exposure are recommended for urban chicken keepers.     

Marine protected areas for deepwater fish populations: an evaluation of their effects in Hawai’i

The success of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a tool for conservation and fisheries management has been well documented. However, these results have typically been seen in shallow water systems and questions remain whether this management strategy could be successfully applied to deepwater ecosystems. Our objectives were to determine the efficacy of four deepwater MPAs called bottomfish restricted fishing areas (BRFAs), with various time spans of protection, monitored at depths between 90 and 310 m from 2007 to 2011 for six species of deepwater snapper and one grouper harvested in the Main Hawaiian Islands. Our results suggested that the duration of protection influenced reserve effects, particularly for target species. Mean fish length, and in some cases abundance, increased for one or more of the most economically important target species inside nearly all tested BRFAs. In addition, more mature fish were seen inside the BRFA with the longest duration of protection (~14 years); species richness increased outside this area while inside it remained the same. Here, we provide the first evidence that deepwater MPAs can have positive effects on deepwater species and that many protection effects were consistent with results found in shallow water ecosystems. While these findings are novel, additional data over greater temporal scales will be necessary to determine whether these trends will continue and if others will become important over time.     

Taxi driver seat belt wearing in Nanjing, China

Objective

To determine and validate patterns of seat belt use and attitudes of taxi drivers on wearing a seat belt following national and provincial seat belt legislation in 2004-2005. Design: Roadside daylight seat belt observation and interview survey methods were used, as well as observations from inside taxis during routine trips and a taxi driver focus group. The setting was Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, PR China in April of 2006 and 2007.

Main outcome measures

Prevalence of seat belt use and attitudes to wearing a seat belt were determined, as were vehicle and driver characteristics, and comparisons with other motor-vehicle driver's seat belt use and attitudes.

Results

Taxi drivers interviewed were predominantly male and aged 30-39 years. They spent more hours per week in their vehicles and had more driving experience than other drivers. Over half (56.2%) of taxi drivers interviewed reported that they always wore seat belts, while observation of taxi drivers showed lower wearing rates (i.e., roadside observation was 43.8%, and observation from inside taxis was 36.2%). Belt tampering was a practice of 12-15% of taxi drivers. “Fine avoidance, safety, high speed and long trips” were given as important reasons for wearing and “feeling trapped and uncomfortable” for not wearing. Seat belt reminder signs in taxis were common (82.6% of taxis), but did not appear to impact on driver seat belt use.

Conclusion

The four research methods found taxi drivers to have consistently low “correct wearing” rates.

Impact on industry

As in several other countries, taxi drivers are particularly resistant to seat belt use. Innovative strategies, including occupational health and safety approaches, may be required to achieve increased levels of seat belt use.