Environmental response to intentional dissemination of Bacillus anthracis spores in the United States–2001

The intentional dissemination of Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) spores at multiple locations in the United States in the fall of 2001 resulted not only in several deaths and illnesses (including psychological effects), but likely changed lifestyles and attitudes, and increased the public's awareness of individual vulnerability. While federal resources had previously been committed to preparing local public health agencies for counter‐terrorism activities and to enhance environmental and medical response, these release episodes have increased the consistency of environmental and medical response activities, and increased government resources for homeland security. This article abstracts current information from many sources that summarize the environmental responses to the anthrax releases. The article discusses the international agreements and the U.S. regulations concerning biological weapons, the characteristics of the anthrax organism, potential exposure pathways, adverse health conditions resulting from inhalation exposure, the environmental response to two specific release episodes, environmental sampling and analytical procedures, recommended personal protective equipment, and the subsequent federal efforts to improve response capabilities. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Bioacoustic distances between the begging calls of brood parasites and their host species: a comparison of metrics and techniques

A variety of bioacoustics distance metrics have been used to assess similarities in the vocalizations of different individuals. Here, we provide a detailed analysis of several acoustic similarity indices, some of which have been developed with the specific aim of characterizing the sensory coding of auditory stimuli. We compare different approaches through the analysis of begging calls of several passerine species and specialist brood parasitic cuckoos that putatively evolved to mimic their hosts. The different bioacoustics distances did not provide consistently correlated similarity patterns, implying that they are sensitive to different sound features. However, the encoded spectrogram alignment method was correlated with all other acoustic distance metrics, suggesting that this method provides a consistent approach to use when the perceptually salient sound parameters are unknown for a particular species. Our analyses confirm that statistical similarity of begging calls can be detected in a New Zealand pair of host and specialist parasite species. We also show detectable similarity in two other Australasian host–parasite pairs and another New Zealand system, but to a more limited extent. By examining phylogenetic patterns in the begging call diversity, we also confirm that specialist cuckoos have evolved to mimic the begging calls of their hosts but host species have not co-evolved to modify their calls in response to begging call similarity by the parasite. Our results illustrate that understanding the function and mechanism of behavioral copying and mimicry requires statistically consistent measures of similarity that are related to both the physical aspects of the particular display and the sensory basis of its perception.     

Toward efficient riparian restoration: integrating economic, physical, and biological models

This paper integrates economic, biological, and physical models to explore the efficient combination and spatial allocation of conservation efforts to protect water quality and increase salmonid populations in the Grande Ronde basin, Oregon. We focus on the effects of shade on water temperatures and the subsequent impacts on endangered juvenile salmonid populations. The integrated modeling system consists of a physical model that links riparian conditions and hydrological characteristics to water temperature; a biological model that links water temperature and riparian conditions to salmonid abundance, and an economic model that incorporates both physical and biological models to estimate minimum cost allocations of conservation efforts. Our findings indicate that conservation alternatives such as passive and active riparian restoration, the width of riparian restoration zones, and the types of vegetation used in restoration activities should be selected based on the spatial distribution of riparian characteristics in the basin. The relative effectiveness of passive and active restoration plays an important role in determining the efficient allocations of conservation efforts. The time frame considered in the restoration efforts and the magnitude of desired temperature reductions also affect the efficient combinations of restoration activities. If the objective of conservation efforts is to maximize fish populations, then fishery benefits should be directly targeted. Targeting other criterion such as water temperatures would result in different allocations of conservation efforts, and therefore are not generally efficient.     

Mass spectrometry up to 1 million mass units for the simultaneous detection of primary soot and of soot precursors (nanoparticles) in flames

A hybrid setup consisting of low pressure burner, flow reactor and photo-ionization mass spectrometer was used for the simultaneous detection of primary soot and of flame generated nanoparticles precursing soot. The studied flames were low pressure (120-180 mbar) C2H4/O2 flames surrounded by an N2 shield. The flow reactor was not used in this study. Through variation of the burner conditions (stoichiometry, sampling height) it could be shown that nanoparticles and soot are entirely independent species. The former, in particular, are found very early in the flame and their concentration profiles do not vary very much throughout the flame. This renders the possibility that nanoparticles are emitted together with soot and consequently may constitute an additional environmental hazard. Photo-ionization mass spectrometry is well suited for the detection of these particles.     

Interaction of temperature, humidity, driver preferences, and refrigerant type on air conditioning compressor usage

Recent studies have shown large increases in vehicle emissions when the air conditioner (AC) compressor is engaged. Factors that affect the compressor-on percentage can have a significant impact on vehicle emissions and can also lead to prediction errors in current emissions models if not accounted for properly. During 1996 and 1997, the University of California, Riverside, College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) conducted a vehicle activity study for the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in the Sacramento, CA, region. The vehicles were randomly selected from all registered vehicles in the region. As part of this study, ten vehicles were instrumented to collect AC compressor on/off data on a second-by-second basis in the summer of 1997. Temperature and humidity data were obtained and averaged on an hourly basis. The ten drivers were asked to complete a short survey about AC operational preferences. This paper examines the effects of temperature, humidity, refrigerant type, and driver preferences on air conditioning compressor activity. Overall, AC was in use in 69.1% of the trips monitored. The compressor was on an average of 64% of the time during the trips. The personal preference settings had a significant effect on the AC compressor-on percentage but did not interact with temperature. The refrigerant types, however, exhibited a differential response across temperature, which may necessitate separate modeling of the R12 refrigerant-equipped vehicles from the R134A-equipped vehicles. It should be noted that some older vehicles do get retrofitted with new compressors that use R134A; however, none of the vehicles in this study had been retrofitted.     

The NIOSH Construction Program: Research to practice, impact, and developing a National Construction Agenda

The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducts research to improve and protect the health and safety of workers. This paper describes the experience of the NIOSH Construction Program with two recent program planning initiatives intended to improve the program: (a) an independent external review of work over the past decade and (b) the development of strategic goals organized into a “National Construction Agenda” to guide a decade of future work. These goals, developed with input from construction industry stakeholders and researchers, are a part of the NIOSH National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) initiative. The NORA goals are intended to provide an ambitious set of goals for all construction stakeholders to work together on. Both efforts relate to insuring the relevance and impact of research, reflecting an emerging policy perspective that research programs should be judged not just by the quality and quantity of science produced, but by the industry impact and tangible benefit resulting from the research. This paper describes how views on research planning have evolved to incorporate lessons learned about how research leads to improved safety and health for workers. It also describes the process used to develop the goals and the resulting strategic and intermediate goals that comprise the National Construction Agenda.     

Flood vulnerability,risk, and social disadvantage: current and future patterns in the UK

Regional Environmental Change - Present day and future social vulnerability, flood risk, and disadvantage across the UK are explored using the UK Future Flood Explorer. In doing so, new indices of...     

Validating a nondestructive optical method for apportioning colored particulate matter into black carbon and additional components

Exposure of black carbon (BC) is associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes. A number of optical methods for estimating BC on Teflon filters have been adopted but most assume all light absorption is due to BC while other sources of colored particulate matter exist. Recently, a four-wavelength-optical reflectance measurement for distinguishing second hand cigarette smoke (SHS) from soot-BC was developed (Brook et al., 2010; Lawless et al., 2004). However, the method has not been validated for soot-BC nor SHS and little work has been done to look at the methodological issues of the optical reflectance measurements for samples that could have SHS, BC, and other colored particles. We refined this method using a lab-modified integrating sphere with absorption measured continuously from 350 nm to 1000 nm. Furthermore, we characterized the absorption spectrum of additional components of particulate matter (PM) on PM(2.5) filters including ammonium sulfate, hematite, goethite, and magnetite. Finally, we validate this method for BC by comparison to other standard methods. Use of synthesized data indicates that it is important to optimize the choice of wavelengths to minimize computational errors as additional components (more than 2) are added to the apportionment model of colored components. We found that substantial errors are introduced when using 4 wavelengths suggested by Lawless et al. to quantify four substances, while an optimized choice of wavelengths can reduce model-derived error from over 10% to less than 2%. For environmental samples, the method was sensitive for estimating airborne levels of BC and SHS, but not mass loadings of iron oxides and sulfate. Duplicate samples collected in NYC show high reproducibility (points consistent with a 1:1 line, R(2) = 0.95). BC data measured by this method were consistent with those measured by other optical methods, including Aethalometer and Smoke-stain Reflectometer (SSR); although the SSR looses sensitivity at filter loadings above 90 ng/mm(2). Furthermore, positive correlations (R(2) = 0.7) were observed between EC measured by NIOSH Method 5040 on quartz filters and BC measured in co-located Teflon filter samples collected from both heating and non-heating seasons. Overall, the validation data demonstrates the usefulness of this method to evaluate BC from archived Teflon filters while potentially providing additional component information.