Wildlife Disease in U.S. National Parks: Historical and Coevolutionary Perspectives

Diseases of wildlife have significant management implications in a number of lands of the U.S. National Park Service due to increasing interactions between wildlife and domestic animals. We review the paleontology, history, and coevolution of infectious diseases in North American ungulates. We provide two examples related to bovine brucellosis in bison in Yellowstone National Park and lungworm-pneumonia complex in bighorn sheep in several western national parks. These examples illustrate the difficulty of managing wild populations and their diseases in national parks and other protected areas. In some instances, human intervention may be justifiable in order to protect native populations, domestic animals, and humans from acquiring a disease.     

A critique of the official report on the evacuation of the World Trade Center: continued doubts

This paper criticises the conclusions and the unanswered questions in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)'s official report on the evacuation of the World Trade Center in New York City, United States, on 11 September 2001. It reviews the extent to which the report disregards several conventional statistical methods and comments on the NIST's refusal to share the machine‐readable data file with the scientific community for replication and further analysis. Problems lie in the sampling methods employed, the treatment of missing data, the use of ordinary least squares (OLS) with binary dependent variables, the failure to document the scalability of the scales used, the lack of tests to check for constant error variance, and the absence of overall fit tests of the model. There are also conceptual and theoretical issues, such as the absence in the report of considerations of the influence of group‐level processes and their impact on the collective behaviour of evacuating collectivities.     

Predominance of BDE-209 and other higher brominated diphenyl ethers in eggs of white stork (Ciconia ciconia) colonies from Spain

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are ubiquitous pollutants for which there is still a lack of knowledge about the environmental behavior and fate of the higher brominated congeners (octa- to deca-BDEs). In this study, the PBDE content and congener profiles in failed eggs from two colonies of white stork (Ciconia ciconia) in Spain were studied. The average total PBDE concentration was 1.64ng/g (wet weight, w.w.) for the rural colony and 9.08ng/g (w.w.) for the urban colony. Higher brominated BDEs dominated the congener profiles of both colonies. Of particular interest was the determination of BDE-209 as the dominant congener accounting for 44.1% and 38.6% of the total PBDE content in the rural and urban colonies, respectively. BDE-202, considered an indicator of BDE 209 debromination, was detected in 83% and all of the samples from rural and urban colonies, respectively. The observed congener profile in which BDE-207>BDE-208>BDE-206 does not correspond to any known technical PBDE mixture and is evidence for possible BDE-209 degradation.     

Genetic diversity increases population productivity in a sessile marine invertebrate

Reductions in genetic diversity can have widespread ecological consequences: populations with higher genetic diversity are more stable, productive and resistant to disturbance or disease than populations with lower genetic diversity. These ecological effects of genetic diversity differ from the more familiar evolutionary consequences of depleting genetic diversity, because ecological effects manifest within a single generation. If common, genetic diversity effects have the potential to change the way we view and manage populations, but our understanding of these effects is far from complete, and the role of genetic diversity in sexually reproducing animals remains unclear. Here, we examined the effects of genetic diversity in a sexually reproducing marine invertebrate in the field. We manipulated the genetic diversity of experimental populations and then measured individual survival, growth, and fecundity, as well as the size of offspring produced by individuals in high and low genetic diversity populations. Overall, we found greater genetic diversity increased performance across all metrics, and that complementarity effects drove the increased productivity of our high-diversity populations. Our results show that differences in genetic diversity among populations can have pervasive effects on population productivity within remarkably short periods of time.     

Managing volunteers: FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue programme and interactions with unaffiliated responders in disaster response

In the aftermath of disasters it is not uncommon for a large number of individuals, ranging from professional technical responders to untrained, albeit well meaning, volunteers, to converge on site of a disaster in order to offer to help victims or other responders. Because volunteers can be both a help and a hindrance in disaster response, they pose a paradox to professional responders at the scene. Through focus group interviews and in-depth structured interviews, this paper presents an extended example of how Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) task forces, a type of professional technical-responder organisation, interact with and utilise volunteers. Findings show that US&R task forces evaluate the volunteers in terms of their presumed legitimacy, utility, and potential liability or danger posed during the disaster response. Other responses to volunteers such as a feeling of powerlessness or the use of volunteers in non-technical ways are also explored. This paper demonstrates some key aspects of the relationship between volunteers and formal response organisations in disasters.     

Detection of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) from O'ahu, Hawai;i

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been detected for the first time at a range from 231.58 to 685.61 ng g(-1) lipid weight in the muscles of tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) collected from O'ahu, an island of the geographically isolated Hawaiian archipelago.     

Detection and quantitative analysis of polychlorinated biphenyls in tilapia from Hawaiian waters

The purpose of this study was to investigate polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contamination in tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) collected from the Manoa stream and Ala Wai Canal of O'ahu, an island of the geographically isolated Hawaiian archipelago. Our results show that the average concentrations of PCBs varied from 51.90 to 89.42 ng g(-1) lipid weight for the sampling sites. Relative toxic potencies (RTPs) and toxic equivalencies (TEQs) were determined to be 20.38-40.60 ng TCDDg(-1) lipid weight and 2.89-4.17 ng TEQ g(-1) lipid weight by 7-ethoxy-resorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity analysis and calculation of PCB concentrations based on toxic equivalency factors (TEFs), respectively. Penta-chlorinated congeners were found to be predominant, which revealed that Aroclor 1254 was a possible major source of PCBs in our fish samples. PCB 118, an indicator PCBs, constituted more than 55% and 30% of the total PCBs and TEQs, respectively. In addition, PCB 118 was found to have a linear correlation to the total PCBs (R=0.975) and TEQs (R=0.782). Detection of concentrated PCBs in Hawaiian waters suggests a potentially adverse impact of this pollutant on human health, as well as ecological systems, and suggests the necessity of environmental monitoring and hazard assessment of PCBs within the Hawaiian Islands.     

On process optimization considering LCA methodology

The goal of this work is to research the state-of-the-art in process optimization techniques and tools based on LCA, focused in the process engineering field. A collection of methods, approaches, applications, specific software packages, and insights regarding experiences and progress made in applying the LCA methodology coupled to optimization frameworks is provided, and general trends are identified. The "cradle-to-gate" concept to define the system boundaries is the most used approach in practice, instead of the "cradle-to-grave" approach. Normally, the relationship between inventory data and impact category indicators is linearly expressed by the characterization factors; then, synergic effects of the contaminants are neglected. Among the LCIA methods, the eco-indicator 99, which is based on the endpoint category and the panel method, is the most used in practice. A single environmental impact function, resulting from the aggregation of environmental impacts, is formulated as the environmental objective in most analyzed cases. SimaPro is the most used software for LCA applications in literature analyzed. The multi-objective optimization is the most used approach for dealing with this kind of problems, where the ε-constraint method for generating the Pareto set is the most applied technique. However, a renewed interest in formulating a single economic objective function in optimization frameworks can be observed, favored by the development of life cycle cost software and progress made in assessing costs of environmental externalities. Finally, a trend to deal with multi-period scenarios into integrated LCA-optimization frameworks can be distinguished providing more accurate results upon data availability.     

Water Use Efficiency and Storage Capacity in South Asia by 2050

More than one billion South Asians are affected by water scarcity. Pressure on water resources is likely to grow as a result of population growth, urban expansion, and climate change. This paper assesses the impacts of these effects on the historical hydrological baseline, with particular focus on irrigation. A geospatial water balance model was developed for this purpose based on geo‐referenced information available in scientific public domain databases. Annual water supply and demand for a baseline period 1950–2000 were calculated and projected to 2050 using (1) outputs from 19 Global Circulation Models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 for a Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5; (2) population projections to 2050; and (3) historical land‐use patterns at the country level. Improvements in water use efficiency and storage capacity were analyzed using the Modified Water Scarcity Index of the baseline and the projected water balance in 2050 at the watershed scale.