The role of positive affectivity in team effectiveness during crises

Organizational efforts to improve team effectiveness in crisis situations primarily have focused on team training initiatives and, to a lesser degree, on staffing teams with respect to members' ability, experience, and functional backgrounds. Largely neglected in these efforts is the emotional component of crises and, correspondingly, the notion of staffing teams with consideration for their affective makeup. To address this void, we examined the impact of team member dispositional positive affect (PA) on team crisis effectiveness and the role of felt negative emotion in transmitting that influence. A study of 21 nuclear power plant crews engaged in crisis training simulations revealed that homogeneity in PA, but not mean‐level PA, was associated with greater team effectiveness. Mediation analysis suggested that homogeneity in PA leads to greater team effectiveness by reducing the amount of negative emotions that team members experience during crises. Furthermore, homogeneity in PA compensated for lower mean‐level PA in predicting effectiveness. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for understanding and further exploring the importance of affective factors and especially team affective composition in team crisis performance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Featured Collection Introduction: Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters

Connectivity is a fundamental but highly dynamic property of watersheds. Variability in the types and degrees of aquatic ecosystem connectivity presents challenges for researchers and managers seeking to accurately quantify its effects on critical hydrologic, biogeochemical, and biological processes. However, protecting natural gradients of connectivity is key to protecting the range of ecosystem services that aquatic ecosystems provide. In this featured collection, we review the available evidence on connections and functions by which streams and wetlands affect the integrity of downstream waters such as large rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries. The reviews in this collection focus on the types of waters whose protections under the U.S. Clean Water Act have been called into question by U.S. Supreme Court cases. We synthesize 40+ years of research on longitudinal, lateral, and vertical fluxes of energy, material, and biota between aquatic ecosystems included within the Act's frame of reference. Many questions about the roles of streams and wetlands in sustaining downstream water integrity can be answered from currently available literature, and emerging research is rapidly closing data gaps with exciting new insights into aquatic connectivity and function at local, watershed, and regional scales. Synthesis of foundational and emerging research is needed to support science‐based efforts to provide safe, reliable sources of fresh water for present and future generations.     

Water and the politics of sustainability transitions: from regime actor conflicts to system governance organizations

This study contributes to the analysis of the politics of sustainability transitions by developing a focus on regime actor conflicts and a processual model for how these conflicts develop and are resolved. In a comparison of water-supply systems in four U.S. cities, we show how conflicts among regime actors and political jurisdictions lead to the formation of system governance organizations (SGOs) that bridge jurisdictional boundaries to manage conflicts over a technological system (TS). SGOs coordinate relations among water utilities and diverse stakeholders to reduce pervasive conflicts, but they can also serve as drivers of improved sustainability. We analyze resistance that can emerge, such as from urban growth coalitions, which limit the capacity of SGOs to drive changes. We develop a four-stage processual model (first-order regime conflicts, SGO formation, sustainability transition expansion, and second-order regime conflicts) that opens research in the politics of transitions to the dynamic of regime actor conflicts and provides the basis for generalizations about the causes of SGO formation and their effects on the governance of TSs such as water-supply infrastructure. Policy implications regarding how to improve political support for SGO sustainability efforts are also discussed.     

Prediction of Annual Streambank Erosion for Sequoia National Forest,California

Many bank erosion models have limitations that restrict their use in wildland settings. Scientists and land managers at the Sequoia National Forest would like to understand the mechanisms and rates of streambank erosion to evaluate management issues and post‐wildfire effects. This study uses bank erosion hazard index (BEHI) and near‐bank stress (NBS) methods developed in Rosgen (2006 Watershed Assessment of River Stability and Sediment Supply [WARSSS]) for predicting streambank erosion in a geographic area that is dominated by colluvium and in which streambank erosion modeling has not been previously evaluated. BEHI evaluates bank susceptibility to erosion based on bank angle, bank and bankfull height, rooting depth and density, surface protection, and stratification of material within the banks. NBS assesses energy distribution against the bank measured as a ratio of bankfull near‐bank maximum depth to mean bankfull depth. We compared BEHI classes and NBS to actual bank erosion measured from 2008 to 2012. This index predicted streambank erosion with clear separation among BEHI ratings with R² values of 0.76 for extreme, 0.37 for high/very high, 0.49 for moderate, and 0.70 for low BEHI. The relationships between measured erosion and BEHI extend the application of BEHI/NBS to a new region where they can inform management priorities, afforestation, stream/riparian restoration projects, and potentially burned area rehabilitation.     

Comparative analysis of impact of human occupancy on indoor microbiomes

• Exposure to indoor microbiomes is a public health concern in educational facilities. • Indoor microbiomes were characterized in two multifunctional university buildings. • Human occupancy had significant impact on the composition of indoor microbiomes. • The skin microbiota of occupants represented important sources of indoor microbiomes. Educational facilities serve as community hubs and consequently hotspots for exposure to pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, it is of critical importance to understand processes shaping the indoor microbiomes in educational facilities to protect public health by reducing potential exposure risks of students and the broader community. In this study, the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes were characterized in two multifunctional university buildings with contrasting levels of human occupancy, of which one was recently constructed with minimal human occupancy while the other had been in full operation for six years. Higher levels of human occupancy in the older building were shown to result in greater microbial abundance in the indoor environment and greater proportion of the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes contributed from human-associated microbiota, particularly the skin microbiota. It was further revealed that human-associated microbiota had greater influence on the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes in areas of high occupancy than areas of low occupancy. Consistent with minimal impact from human occupancy in a new construction, the indoor microbiomes in the new building exhibited significantly lower influence from human-associated microbiota than in the older building, with microbial taxa originating from soil and plants representing the dominant constituents of the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes. In contrast, microbial taxa in the older building with extensive human occupancy were represented by constituents of the human microbiota, likely from occupants. These findings provide insights into processes shaping the indoor microbiomes which will aid the development of effective strategies to control microbial exposure risks of occupants in educational facilities.     

Modelling the effects of UV radiation on the survival of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba Dana) in the face of limited data

Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, is a keystone species of the Antarctic ecosystem. A fishery for krill may compete with land-based predators (penguins and seals), particularly during the breeding season. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is moving towards management in small scale units. The management models specify predation and fishing mortality as space and time dependent but do not yet include non-predation natural mortality. Krill are known to be highly susceptible to ultraviolet radiation (UV) but there are limited empirical data. We develop a model for krill mortality caused by UV and parameterize and assess it by comparison with experimental data. The analysis allows us to identify key parameters that should be measured in future experiments and also leads to suggestions about modification of experimental procedure. We illustrate the method for krill found in the Livingston Island area and show that (a) it is possible to estimate the component of natural mortality due to UV-induced damage and (b) that cohorts born in 1979, 1984, or 1997 have different survival in the first 5 years of life, associated with differential UV exposure. In particular, those born in 1997 may have experienced as much as 10% lower survival than those born in 1979. The method developed here allows a potentially important source of krill mortality to be incorporated into the management models and suggests key experiments and field work in the future.     

The social context of childcare practices and child malnutrition in Niger's recent food crisis

In 2004–05, Niger suffered a food crisis during which global attention focused on high levels of acute malnutrition among children. In response, decentralised emergency nutrition programmes were introduced into much of southern Niger. Child malnutrition, however, is a chronic problem and its links with food production and household food security are complex. This qualitative, anthropological study investigates pathways by which children are rendered vulnerable in the context of a nutritional 'emergency'. It focuses on household-level decisions that determine resource allocation and childcare practices in order to explain why practices apparently detrimental to children's health persist. Risk aversion, the need to maintain self-identity and status, and constrained decision making result in a failure to invest extra necessary resources ingrowth-faltering children. Understanding and responding to the social context of child malnutrition will help humanitarian workers to integrate their efforts more effectively with longer-term development programmes aimed at improving livelihood security.     

Microbial transformation of synthetic estrogen 17α-ethinylestradiol

Natural estrogens such as estrone, 17β-estradiol, estriol, and the particularly recalcitrant synthetic estrogen 17α-ethinylestradiol used as oral contraceptive, accumulate in the environment and may give rise to health problems. The processes participating in their removal from soil, wastewater, water-sediments, groundwater-aquifer material, and wastewater or sewage treatment plant effluents may involve the action of bacterial and microbial consortia, and in some cases fungi and algae. This review discusses the different efficiencies of bacterial degradation of 17α-ethinylestradiol under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, the role of sulfate-, nitrate-, and iron-reducing conditions in anaerobic degradation, and the role of sorption. The participation of autotrophic ammonia oxidizing bacteria and heterotrophic bacteria in cometabolic degradation of estrogens, the estrogen-degrading action of ligninolytic fungi and their extracellular enzymes (lignin peroxidase, manganese-dependent peroxidase, versatile peroxidase, laccase), and of algae are discussed in detail.     

Valuing water quality in China: purpose, approach and policy

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