Customer‐related social stressors and service providers' affective reactions

Previous research has shown that customer‐related social stressors (CSS) have negative effects on service providers' long‐term well‐being. Little is known, however, about short‐term and mid‐term affective stress reactions and reciprocal effects between service providers' affect and CSS. The aim of this study was to expand extant research (i) by analyzing service providers' short‐term (across a day) and mid‐term (across 2 weeks) affective reactions to perceived CSS; (ii) by analyzing intraindividual as well as interindividual effects; and (iii) by investigating reciprocal effects of affective reactions and CSS that may eventually lead to psychosocial cycles. Our study employed a diary design with three measurement occasions per day over five consecutive days and a two‐week panel design using a sample of employees from public service organizations (N = 106). Results showed that CSS elicit changes in service providers' short‐term and mid‐term negative affects. We also found support for reversed effects of service providers' affective reactions on experienced CSS indicating psychosocial cycles between customers and service providers. To prevent escalation, we discuss potential resources. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Value reclamation from informal municipal solid waste management: green neoliberalism and inclusive development in Lagos,Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Lagos is undoubtedly the cultural capital and economic hub of the West African sub-region. The challenge of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in the megacity has remained intractable due partly to the increasing rate of population growth. While solid waste policy reforms, investments, and management practices in Lagos are in the upswing in the formal economy, the role of the informal economy in engendering sub-regional material linkages and livelihoods remain unexplored. Adopting a multi-stakeholder approach and data from interviews, this study critically examines how value reclamation from informal MSWM advances green neoliberalism and inclusive development. It shows that while informal transboundary trade of recyclable materials in the West African sub-region have previously been left out of analyses of MSWM in Lagos, the informal economy of waste and new investments in MSWM have neoliberal underpinnings beyond the megacity scale. The paper concludes that integrating the informal economy in framing MSWM policy in the megacity offers scope for evolving an inclusive development strategy while also enabling sustainable MSWM in the post-2015 era.     

Evident but context-dependent mortality of fish passing hydroelectric turbines

Globally, policies aiming for conservation of species, free-flowing rivers, and promotion of hydroelectricity as renewable energy and as a means to decarbonize energy systems generate trade-offs between protecting freshwater fauna and development of hydropower. Hydroelectric turbines put fish at risk of severe injury during passage. Therefore, comprehensive, reliable analyses of turbine-induced fish mortality are pivotal to support an informed debate on the sustainability of hydropower (i.e., how much a society is willing to pay in terms of costs incurred on rivers and their biota). We compiled and examined a comprehensive, global data set of turbine fish-mortality assessments involving >275,000 individual fish of 75 species to estimate mortality across turbine types and fish species. Average fish mortality from hydroelectric turbines was 22.3% (95% CI 17.5–26.7%) when accounting for common uncertainties related to empirical estimates (e.g., handling- or catch-related effects). Mortality estimates were highly variable among and within different turbine types, study methods, and taxa. Technical configurations of hydroelectric turbines that successfully reduce fish mortality and fish-protective hydropower operation as a global standard could balance the need for renewable energy with protection of fish biodiversity.     

The asteroid and comet impact hazard: risk assessment and mitigation options

The impact of extraterrestrial matter onto Earth is a continuous process. On average, some 50,000 tons of dust are delivered to our planet every year. While objects smaller than about 30 m mainly disintegrate in the Earth’s atmosphere, larger ones can penetrate through it and cause damage on the ground. When an object of hundreds of meters in diameter impacts an ocean, a tsunami is created that can devastate coastal cities. Further, if a km-sized object hit the Earth it would cause a global catastrophe due to the transport of enormous amounts of dust and vapour into the atmosphere resulting in a change in the Earth’s climate. This article gives an overview of the near-Earth asteroid and comet (near-Earth object-NEO) impact hazard and the NEO search programmes which are gathering important data on these objects. It also points out options for impact hazard mitigation by using deflection systems. It further discusses the critical constraints for NEO deflection strategies and systems as well as mitigation and evacuation costs and benefits. Recommendations are given for future activities to solve the NEO impact hazard problem.     

Driving forces from soil invertebrates to ecosystem functioning: the allometric perspective

The European soil policy is being focussed towards a more conscious and sustainable use of the soil, taking into account ecological, economical and societal dimensions. Living soil organisms are reliable bioindicators, as they provide the best reflection of the soil system, ecological services and ecosystem functioning therein. These most complex (bio)physical systems indicate, among others, the energy flow. Such processes can be described by rather simple power law relationships. In fact, the average body mass (dry weight) can be seen as an inherent species property, while population density is a much more flexible parameter reflecting ecosystem state. In this study, I review the interactions between these items in relation to feedbacks and conjectured relationships which can be seen as ecological networks. From this novel perspective, allometry can be used as an integrated measure for the anthropogenic influence on landscapes and related food webs. Allometry is, therefore, a perfect surrogate for land use intensity in modelling of field effects for restoration ecology and conservation biology. Robust correlations will be addressed between the density dependence of invertebrates and the ability of soil systems themselves to recover after disturbance. Quantitative indicators of soil community composition and related ecological services are proposed and their application for ecological risk assessment is illustrated.     

Ancient manuring practices pollute arable soils at the St Kilda World Heritage Site, Scottish North Atlantic

The impact of ancient fertilization practices on the biogeochemistry of arable soils on the remote Scottish island of Hirta, St Kilda was investigated. The island was relatively unusual in that the inhabitants exploited seabird colonies for food, enabling high population densities to be sustained on a limited, and naturally poor, soil resource. A few other Scottish islands, the Faeroes and some Icelandic Islands, had similar cultural dependence on seabirds. Fertilization with human and animal waste streams (mainly peat ash and bird carcases) on Hirta over millennia has led to over-deepened, nutrient-rich soils (plaggen). This project set out to examine if this high rate of fertilization had adversely impacted the soil, and if so, to determine which waste streams were responsible. Arable soils were considerably elevated in Pb and Zn compared to non-arable soils. Using Pb isotope signatures and analysis of the waste streams, it was determined that this pollution came from peat and turf ash (Pb and Zn) and from bird carcases (Zn). This was also confirmed by ¹³C and ¹⁵N analysis of the profiles which showed that soil organic matter was highly enriched in marine-derived C and N compared to non-arable soils. The pollution of such a remote island may be typical of other ‘bird culture’ islands, and peat ash contamination of marginal arable soils at high latitudes may be widespread in terms of geographical area, but less intense at specific locations due to lower population densities than on Hirta.     

Exposure of caged mussels to metals in a primary-treated municipal wastewater plume

The biological availability of metals in municipal wastewater effluents is strongly influenced by the physical and chemical conditions of both the effluent and the receiving water. Aquatic organisms are exposed to both dissolved and particulate (food ingestion) forms of these metals. In the present study, the distribution of metals in specific tissues was used to distinguish between exposure routes (i.e. dissolved vs. particulate phase) and to examine metal bioavailability in mussels exposed to municipal effluents. Caged Elliptio complanata mussels were deployed at sites located between 1.5 km upstream and 12 km downstream of a major effluent outfall in the St. Lawrence River. Metals in surface water samples were fractionated by filtration techniques to determine their dissolved, truly-dissolved (<10 kDa), total-particulate and acid-reactive-particulate forms. At the end of the exposure period (90 days), pooled mussel soft tissues (digestive gland, gills, gonad, foot and mantle) were analyzed for several metals. The results showed that gills and digestive gland were generally the most important target tissues for metal bioaccumulation, while gill/digestive gland metal ratios suggest that both exposure routes should be considered for mussels exposed to municipal effluents. We also found that Ag and Cd in the dispersion plume nearest the outfall, in contrast to other metals such as Cu and Zn, are more closely associated with colloids and were generally less bioavailable than at the reference site in the St. Lawrence River.     

Imposex occurrence in marine whelks at a military facility in the high Arctic

Imposex was found in the Arctic whelk Buccinum finmarkianum at several marine stations off Thule Air Base, an US military facility in Northwest Greenland. This indicates a widespread contamination with the antifouling agents, tributyltin (TBT) or triphenyltin (TPhT) in the area, but such contamination was not supported by the organotin analyses in sediments, whelks and clams, which in general was below the analytical detection limit. Organotin concentrations above the detection limit were found only at one station close to a quay, where the highest frequency of imposex also occurred. This suggests that imposex in B. finmarkianum is a biomarker of TBT more sensitive than the detection limits, which the analytical chemistry could achieve in this study.     

Neuropsychiatric aspects of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome: considerations in the prenatal setting

Most major neuropsychiatric outcomes of concern to families are not detectable by prenatal ultrasound. The introduction of genome-wide chromosomal microarray analysis to prenatal clinical diagnostic testing has increased the detection of pathogenic 22q11.2 deletions, which cause the most common genomic disorder. The recent addition of this and other microdeletions to non-invasive prenatal screening methods using cell-free fetal DNA has further propelled interest in outcomes. Conditions associated with 22q11.2 deletions include intellect ranging from intellectual disability to average, schizophrenia and other treatable psychiatric conditions, epilepsy, and early-onset Parkinson's disease. However, there is currently no way to predict how severe the lifetime expression will be. Available evidence suggests no major role in these neuropsychiatric outcomes for the congenital cardiac or most other structural anomalies that may be detectable on ultrasound. This article provides an outline of the lifetime neuropsychiatric phenotype of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome that will be useful to clinicians involved in prenatal diagnosis and related genetic counselling. The focus is on information that will be most relevant to two common situations: detection of a 22q11.2 deletion in a fetus or newborn, and new diagnosis of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome in a parent without a previous molecular diagnosis. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heavy metal content of combustible municipal solid waste in Denmark.

Data on the heavy metal composition of outlets from Danish incinerators was used to estimate the concentration of Zn, Cu, Pb, Cr, Ni, Cd, As and Hg in combustible waste (wet as received) at 14 Danish incinerators, representing about 80% of the waste incinerated in Denmark. Zn (1020 mg kg(-1)), Cu (620 mg kg(-1)) and Pb (370 mg kg(-1)) showed the highest concentration, whereas Hg (0.6 mg kg(-1)) showed the lowest concentration. The variation among the incinerators was in most cases within a factor of two to three, except for Cr that in two cases showed unexplained high concentrations. The fact that the data represent many incinerators and, in several cases, observations from a period of 4 to 5 years provides a good statistical basis for evaluating the content of heavy metals in combustible Danish waste. Such data may be used for identifying incinerators receiving waste with high concentrations of heavy metals suggesting the introduction of source control, or, if repeated in time, the data must also be used for monitoring the impacts of national regulation controlling heavy metals. It is recommended that future investigations consider the use of sample digestion methods that ensure complete digestion in order to use the data for determining the total heavy metal content of waste.