Development of the German version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: Dimensionality and psychometric properties

Despite the importance of safety climate assessment in healthcare, the psychometric properties of existing safety climate surveys have seldom been tested. We developed a German version of the HSOPSC and investigated its dimensionality and predictive validity. In adapting the survey we differentiated between the two management levels (hospital, unit) by duplicating dimensions of the HSOPSC. Based on a sample of n = 568, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses (CFA, EFA) were applied. Relationships between safety climate and outcome variables were investigated by regression analyses. CFA did not replicate the proposed factor structure, supporting evidence from other European countries. EFAs revealed eight factors (instead of twelve proposed for the original instrument) and allowed for differentiating between management levels (hospital, unit). For physicians and nurses, different predictors were identified for overall safety climate perception. Further cross-cultural investigations of dimensionality are necessary for international comparisons of safety climate in healthcare. Our results highlight the importance of capturing the impact of different management levels, especially in large hospitals, and differences between professional groups in order to design interventions accordingly.     

Cladistic analysis of Bantu languages: a new tree based on combined lexical and grammatical data

The phylogeny of the Bantu languages is reconstructed by application of the cladistic methodology to the combined lexical and grammatical data (87 languages, 144 characters). A maximum parsimony tree and Bayesian analysis supported some previously recognized clades, e.g., that of eastern and southern Bantu languages. Moreover, the results revealed that Bantu languages south and east of the equatorial forest are probably monophyletic. It suggests an unorthodox scenario of Bantu expansion including (after initial radiation in their homelands and neighboring territories) just a single passage through rainforest areas followed by a subsequent divergence into major clades. The likely localization of this divergence is in the area west of the Great Lakes. It conforms to the view that demographic expansion and dispersal throughout the dry-forests and savanna regions of subequatorial Africa was associated with the acquisition of new technologies (iron metallurgy and grain cultivation).Electronic supplementary material  Supplementary material is available for this article at     

Land Use Planning and Environmental Capacity: Reassessing the Use of Regulatory Policy Tools to Achieve Sustainable Development

Just as it is now widely accepted that the planning system has a role to play in achieving sustainable development, so the concept of environmental capacity has achieved increasing prominence as a means of realizing that role. This paper considers the debate on the concept of environmental capacity, reviewing both the mainstream model and Jacobs' more nuanced social constructionist model. In doing so, it raises concerns about the appropriateness of regulatory policy tools and the implications for the distribution of environmental and other impacts. The discussion highlights the potential for using the planning system to promote change rather than resist it. In doing so, it suggests the need to consider a wider range of policy tools to achieve change at the local level and to clarify the dimensions of sustainable development that local planning can contribute to.     

Intra- and interspecific differences of 10 barley and 10 tomato cultivars in response to short-time UV-B radiation: A study analysing thermoluminescence, fluorescence, gas-exchange and biochemical parameters

The impact of UV-B radiation on 10 genotypically different barley and tomato cultivars was tested in a predictive study to screen for potentially UV-tolerant accessions and to analyze underlying mechanisms for UV-B sensitivity. Plant response was analyzed by measuring thermoluminescence, fluorescence, gas exchange and antioxidant status. Generally, barley cultivars proved to be much more sensitive against UV-B radiation than tomato cultivars. Statistical cluster analysis could resolve two barley groups with distinct differences in reaction patterns. The UV-B sensitive group showed a stronger loss in PSII photochemistry and a lower gas-exchange performance and regulation after UV-B radiation compared to the more tolerant group. The results indicate that photosynthetic light and dark reactions have to play optimally in concert to render plants more tolerant against UV-B radiation. Hence, measuring thermoluminescence/fluorescence and gas exchange in parallel will have much higher potential in identifying tolerant cultivars and will help to understand the underlying mechanisms.     

Potential impact model to assess agricultural pressure to landscape ecological functions

Conservation and protection of soil and water resources and visual aspects of landscape, as well as the promotion of biodiversity, are some of the central tasks of environmental policy development and social politics in the future. One of the main questions is: ‘which agricultural systems are able to guarantee sustained resource-conserving land use?’ Based on the ecological risk concepts of the 1970s and 1980s, a potential impact model was developed using a universal assessment algorithm derived from fuzzy logic. The model estimated the potential impact of agricultural land use on ecosystem function using a few resource indicators. Intervention intensities of agricultural land-use are set in relation to site conditions and aggregated for each of several defined potential impact categories. The interpretation with respect to risk and the calculation of potential impact values are explained.     

An integrated approach to assess broad-scale condition of coastal wetlands—the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Wetlands pilot survey

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initiated a two-year regional pilot survey in 2007 to develop, test, and validate tools and approaches to assess the condition of northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) coastal wetlands. Sampling sites were selected from estuarine and palustrine wetland areas with herbaceous, forested, and shrub/scrub habitats delineated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory Status and Trends (NWI S&T) program and contained within northern GOM coastal watersheds. A multi-level, stepwise, iterative survey approach is being applied to multiple wetland classes at 100 probabilistically-selected coastal wetlands sites. Tier 1 provides information at the landscape scale about habitat inventory, land use, and environmental stressors associated with the watershed in which each wetland site is located. Tier 2, a rapid assessment conducted through a combination of office and field work, is based on best professional judgment and on-site evidence. Tier 3, an intensive site assessment, involves on-site collection of vegetation, water, and sediment samples to establish an integrated understanding of current wetland condition and validate methods and findings from Tiers 1 and 2. The results from this survey, along with other similar regional pilots from the Mid-Atlantic, West Coast, and Great Lakes Regions will contribute to a design and implementation approach for the National Wetlands Condition Assessment to be conducted by EPA’s Office of Water in 2011.     

Development of a rapid method for direct detection of tet(M) genes in soil from Danish farmland

A method for direct detection of antibiotic resistance genes in soil samples has been developed. The tetracycline resistance gene, tet(M), was used as a model. The method was validated on Danish farmland soil that had repeatedly been treated with pig manure slurry containing resistant bacteria. The tet(M) gene was directly detected in 10-80% of the samples from the various farmland soils and could be detected in all samples tested after selective enrichment. To validate the obtained results, the method was applied to garden soil samples where lower prevalence of resistance was found. RESULT: A detection limit of 10(2)-10(3) copies of the tet(M) gene per gram of soil (in a Bacillus cereus group bacterium) was achieved. tet(M) gene was detected in soil samples with the highest prevalence on farmland treated with pig manure slurry.