Effects of two sterol-inhibiting fungicides on populations of pest and beneficial arthropods on apple

This research demonstrated that sterol-inhibiting fungicides alter the population structure of some pest and beneficial arthropods in apple orchards. Orchard populations of European red mite, Panonychus ulmi (Koch) (Acarina: Tetranychidae); the predacious mite, Typhlodromus caudiglans Schuster (Acarina: Phytoseiidae); the spotted tentiform leafminer, Phyllonorycter blancardella Fabr. (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae); the leafminer parasite Pholetesor ornigis Weed (Hymenoptera: Braconidae); the green apple aphid, Aphis pomi DeGeer (Homoptera: Aphididae); white apple leafhopper, Typhlocyba pomaria McAtee (Homoptera: Cicadellidae); Campylomma verbasci Meyer (Hemiptera: Miridae); chalcids, primarily Sympiesis sericeicornis Nees (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae), were monitored for two growing seasons in a McIntosh apple orchard that had received applications, at 2-week intervals, of two sterol-inhibiting fungicides, bitertanol and flusilazole. High rates of flusilazole were associated with increased numbers of European red mite and decreased numbers of predacious mite species, particularly T. caudiglans. Trees receiving a high rate of bitertanol had fewer European red mites and predacious mite species. Fungicides did not influence spotted tentiform leafminer oviposition or the number of leafminer larvae in May and June 1985. However, in September 1985 there were fewer leafminer pupae in plots treated with the two lower rates of flusilazole and more larvae in plots treated with the high rate of bitertanol, relative to trees sprayed with captan. In 1986, there were more leafminer eggs in plots treated with the low rate of bitertanol compared with captan and non-sprayed trees. However, by 24 June, all treatments showed similar levels of leafminer larvae and pupae. Populations of P. ornigis were generally higher in trees treated with flusilazole in both years. Numbers of aphids and mullein bug were higher in trees treated with flusilazole relative to non-sprayed and captan-treated trees. Chalcid populations were higher in bitertanol-treated trees. Fungicides had no apparent effect on populations of white apple leafhopper.     

Small-scale medical waste incinerators--experiences and trials in South Africa

Formal waste management services are not accessible for the majority of primary healthcare clinics on the African continent, and affordable and practicable technology solutions are required in the developing country context. In response, a protocol was established for the first quantitative and qualitative evaluation of relatively low cost small-scale incinerators for use at rural primary healthcare clinics. The protocol comprised the first phase of four, which defined the comprehensive trials of three incineration units. The trials showed that all of the units could be used to render medical waste non-infectious, and to destroy syringes or render needles unsuitable for reuse. Emission loads from the incinerators are higher than large-scale commercial incinerators, but a panel of experts considered the incinerators to be more acceptable compared to the other waste treatment and disposal options available in under-serviced rural areas. However, the incinerators must be used within a safe waste management programme that provides the necessary resources in the form of collection containers, maintenance support, acceptable energy sources, and understandable operational instructions for the incinerators, whilst minimising the exposure risks to emissions through the correct placement of the units in relation to the clinic and the surrounding communities. On-going training and awareness building are essential in order to ensure that the incinerators are correctly used as a sustainable waste treatment option.     

Simulating Spatial Pattern and Dynamics of Military Training Impacts for Allocation of Land Repair Using Images

The land management of US Army installations requires information on land conditions and their history for planning future military training activities and allocation of land repair. There is thus a strong need for methodology development to estimate the land conditions and cumulative military training impacts for the purpose of repair and restoration. In this study, we simulated at Fort Riley, USA, spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of military training impacts on land conditions quantified as percent ground cover using an image-aided spatial conditional co-simulation algorithm. Moreover, we estimated the historical percent ground cover as a measure of the cumulative impacts, and then calculated the allocation of land repair and restoration based on both current and historical land conditions. In addition, we developed a loss function method for allocation of land repair and restoration. The results showed: (1) this co-simulation algorithm reproduced spatial and temporal variability of percent ground cover and provided estimates of uncertainties with the correlation coefficients and root mean square errors between the simulated and observed values varying from 0.63 to 0.88 and from 23% to 78%, respectively; (2) with and without the cumulative impacts, the obtained spatial patterns of the land repair categories were similar, but their land areas differed by 5% to 40% in some years; (3) the combination of the loss function with the co-simulation made it possible to estimate and computationally propagate the uncertainties of land conditions into the uncertainties of expected cost loss for misallocation of land repair and restoration; and (4) the loss function, physical threshold, and probability threshold methods led to similar spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of the land repair categories, however, the loss function increased the land area by 5% to 30% for intense and moderate repairs and decreased the area by 5% to 30% for no repairs and light repairs for most of the years. This approach provided the potential to improve and automate the existing land rehabilitation and maintenance (LRAM) system used for the land management of the U.S. Army installations, and it can be applied to the management of other civil lands and environments. In conclusion, this study overcame the important gaps that exist in the methodological development and application for simulating land conditions and cumulative impacts due to human activities, and also in the methods for the allocation of land for repair and restoration.     

Climate Change, Coral Reef Ecosystems, and Management Options for Marine Protected Areas

Marine protected areas (MPAs) provide place-based management of marine ecosystems through various degrees and types of protective actions. Habitats such as coral reefs are especially susceptible to degradation resulting from climate change, as evidenced by mass bleaching events over the past two decades. Marine ecosystems are being altered by direct effects of climate change including ocean warming, ocean acidification, rising sea level, changing circulation patterns, increasing severity of storms, and changing freshwater influxes. As impacts of climate change strengthen they may exacerbate effects of existing stressors and require new or modified management approaches; MPA networks are generally accepted as an improvement over individual MPAs to address multiple threats to the marine environment. While MPA networks are considered a potentially effective management approach for conserving marine biodiversity, they should be established in conjunction with other management strategies, such as fisheries regulations and reductions of nutrients and other forms of land-based pollution. Information about interactions between climate change and more “traditional” stressors is limited. MPA managers are faced with high levels of uncertainty about likely outcomes of management actions because climate change impacts have strong interactions with existing stressors, such as land-based sources of pollution, overfishing and destructive fishing practices, invasive species, and diseases. Management options include ameliorating existing stressors, protecting potentially resilient areas, developing networks of MPAs, and integrating climate change into MPA planning, management, and evaluation.     

Perceptions of implied hazard for visual and auditory alerting signals

Visual and auditory alerts are increasingly important and have many applications, particularly in the presentation of hazard information in transportation and many industrial systems. This paper is concerned with the factors that govern the relative effectiveness of alerting signals involving various combinations of visual and auditory signals. The visual variables were colour, flash rate, and flash mode, combined with or without an auditory alarm. It was found that the subjects associated different levels of hazard with different alerting light colours, flash rates, flashing modes, and with combinations of auditory and visual alerts. A red flashing light was perceived as the most effective hazard warning colour, with yellow and blue warning lights indicative of less hazardous situations. The faster the flash rate, the greater is the hazard perceived. A flash rate of 60 fpm (flashes per minute) was not as effective as the rates of 180 and 240 fpm, and 240 fpm was the most effective. This implies that hazard warning signal should flash at well above 60 fpm. Having a breakup in the flashing pattern so as to provide a double or triple flash mode also increases the effectiveness of the signal. There were significant interactions between the alert variables used. The difference in perceived hazard levels for the colours blue and yellow were statistically non significant, but blue was more effective in conveying hazard message than yellow at the high flash rates. When accompanied with auditory alarms, blue and yellow were perceived to convey the same perception level of hazard as red without auditory alarms. The effect of colour on perceived hazard was also found to vary with flash mode. As compared to either visual signal alone or a visual signal with other types of acoustic alarms, a siren type of auditory alarm was found more effective for eliciting perception of hazards. There was evidence that presenting alerting signal in triple-flash mode and at high flash rate could be annoying and might not help improving hazard awareness.     

Using prognostic model-generated meteorological output in the AERMOD dispersion model: an illustrative application in Philadelphia, PA

In this study, we introduce the prospect of using prognostic model-generated meteorological output as input to steady-state dispersion models by identifying possible advantages and disadvantages and by presenting a comparative analysis. Because output from prognostic meteorological models is now routinely available and is used for Eulerian and Lagrangian air quality modeling applications, we explore the possibility of using such data in lieu of traditional National Weather Service (NWS) data for dispersion models. We apply these data in an urban application where comparisons can be made between the two meteorological input data types. Using the U.S. Environment Protection Agency's American Meteorological Society/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model (AERMOD) air quality dispersion model, hourly and annual average concentrations of benzene are estimated for the Philadelphia, PA, area using both hourly MM5 model-generated meteorological output and meteorological data taken from the NWS site at the Philadelphia International Airport. Our intent is to stimulate a discussion of the relevant issues and inspire future work that examines many of the questions raised in this paper.     

Political transition and emergent forest‐conservation issues in Myanmar

Political and economic transitions have had substantial impacts on forest conservation. Where transitions are underway or anticipated, historical precedent and methods for systematically assessing future trends should be used to anticipate likely threats to forest conservation and design appropriate and prescient policy measures to counteract them. Myanmar is transitioning from an authoritarian, centralized state with a highly regulated economy to a more decentralized and economically liberal democracy and is working to end a long‐running civil war. With these transitions in mind, we used a horizon‐scanning approach to assess the 40 emerging issues most affecting Myanmar's forests, including internal conflict, land‐tenure insecurity, large‐scale agricultural development, demise of state timber enterprises, shortfalls in government revenue and capacity, and opening of new deforestation frontiers with new roads, mines, and hydroelectric dams. Averting these threats will require, for example, overhauling governance models, building capacity, improving infrastructure‐ and energy‐project planning, and reforming land‐tenure and environmental‐protection laws. Although challenges to conservation in Myanmar are daunting, the political transition offers an opportunity for conservationists and researchers to help shape a future that enhances Myanmar's social, economic, and environmental potential while learning and applying lessons from other countries. Our approach and results are relevant to other countries undergoing similar transitions.     

Predicting support for non‐pharmaceutical interventions during infectious outbreaks: a four region analysis

Non‐pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are an important public health tool for responding to infectious disease outbreaks, including pandemics. However, little is known about the individual characteristics associated with support for NPIs, or whether they are consistent across regions. This study draws on survey data from four regions—Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States—collected following the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002–03, and employs regression techniques to estimate predictors of NPI support. It finds that characteristics associated with NPI support vary widely by region, possibly because of cultural variation and prior experience, and that minority groups tend to be less supportive of NPIs when arrest is the consequence of noncompliance. Prior experience of face‐mask usage also results in increased support for future usage, as well as other NPIs. Policymakers should be attentive to local preferences and to the application of compulsory interventions. It is speculated here that some public health interventions may serve as ‘gateway’ exposures to future public health interventions.     

Optimizing voluntary compliance in marine protected areas: a comparison of recreational fisher and enforcement officer perspectives using multi-criteria analysis

A comprehensive list of planning criteria for optimizing compliance in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) was compiled and used to compare the views of recreational fishers and compliance officers for facilitating voluntary compliance in the Port Stephens - Great Lakes Marine Park (PSGLMP). Expert working groups were tasked separately with: 1) criteria identification and weighting; 2) scoring of no-take zones; 3) prioritizing and determining uncertainty; and 4) analysis of results and sensitivity testing. Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) revealed that both groups had similar perspectives and recommendations, despite weighting the individual planning criteria differently. Significantly, "manageability" scores for no-take zones from MCA appeared to correlate well with past numbers of enforcement actions recorded for each zone. This provides empirical evidence that adopting manageability criteria during the planning of MPAs could lead to a marked increase in voluntary compliance. As a result, greater consideration to compliance planning during MPA design and zoning is recommended in order to optimize voluntary compliance. Whilst the majority of no-take zones in the PSGLMP case study were evaluated as being relatively effective in terms of optimizing voluntary compliance, there remains considerable potential to improve design, management and use of the poorer performing zones. Finally, the study highlighted the value of recreational fisher engagement in MPA planning processes to maximize voluntary compliance and manageability.