Disaster mental health training programmes in New York City following September 11, 2001

The need for mental health resources to provide care to the community following large‐scale disasters is well documented. In the aftermath of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster on September 11, 2001, many local agencies and organizations responded by providing informal mental health services, including disaster mental health training for practitioners. The quality of these programmes has not been assessed, however. The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's School of Public Health reviewed disaster mental health training programmes administered by community‐based organizations, professional associations, hospitals, and government agencies after September 11. Results indicate that the quality and the effectiveness of programmes are difficult to assess. A wide range of curricula and a widespread lack of recordkeeping and credentialing of trainers were noted. Most of the training programmes provided are no longer available. Recommendations for improving the quality of disaster mental health training programmes are provided.     

Corporations,Consumerism and Culpability: Sustainability in the British Press

Sustainability and sustainable development are prominent themes in international policy-making, corporate PR, news-media and academic scholarship. Its definitions are contested, however sustainability is associated with a three-pillar focus on economic development, environmental conservation and social justice, most recently espoused in the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. In spite of its common usage, there is little research about how sustainability is represented and refracted in public discourse in different national contexts. We examine British national press coverage of sustainability and sustainable development in 2015 in a cross-market sample of national newspapers. Our findings show that key international policy events and environmental and social justice frames are peripheral, while neoliberalism and neoliberal environmentalism vis-à-vis the promotion of technocratic solutions, corporate social responsibility and “sustainable” consumerism are the predominant frames through which the British news-media reports sustainability. This holds regardless of newspaper quality and ideological orientation.     

The theory behind,and the challenges of,conserving nature's stage in a time of rapid change

Most conservation planning to date has focused on protecting today's biodiversity with the assumption that it will be tomorrow's biodiversity. However, modern climate change has already resulted in distributional shifts of some species and is projected to result in many more shifts in the coming decades. As species redistribute and biotic communities reorganize, conservation plans based on current patterns of biodiversity may fail to adequately protect species in the future. One approach for addressing this issue is to focus on conserving a range of abiotic conditions in the conservation‐planning process. By doing so, it may be possible to conserve an abiotically diverse “stage” upon which evolution will play out and support many actors (biodiversity). We reviewed the fundamental underpinnings of the concept of conserving the abiotic stage, starting with the early observations of von Humboldt, who mapped the concordance of abiotic conditions and vegetation, and progressing to the concept of the ecological niche. We discuss challenges posed by issues of spatial and temporal scale, the role of biotic drivers of species distributions, and latitudinal and topographic variation in relationships between climate and landform. For example, abiotic conditions are not static, but change through time—albeit at different and often relatively slow rates. In some places, biotic interactions play a substantial role in structuring patterns of biodiversity, meaning that patterns of biodiversity may be less tightly linked to the abiotic stage. Furthermore, abiotic drivers of biodiversity can change with latitude and topographic position, meaning that the abiotic stage may need to be defined differently in different places. We conclude that protecting a diversity of abiotic conditions will likely best conserve biodiversity into the future in places where abiotic drivers of species distributions are strong relative to biotic drivers, where the diversity of abiotic settings will be conserved through time, and where connectivity allows for movement among areas providing different abiotic conditions.     

Adapting cities to climate change – exploring the flood risk management role of green infrastructure landscapes

There is now an emerging sense of the scope and nature of response that can be implemented at building and neighbourhood scales to help adapt cities and urban areas to the changing climate. In comparison, the role of larger natural and semi-natural landscapes that surround and permeate cities is less well understood. Addressing this knowledge gap, this paper outlines two case studies that describe and map the flood risk management functions offered by green infrastructure landscapes situated within the Urban Mersey Basin in North West England. The case studies establish that areas potentially exposed to flooding can be located at some distance, and within different jurisdictions, from upstream areas where the flood hazard may be generated and could be moderated via functions provided by green infrastructure landscapes. This raises planning and governance challenges connected to supporting and enhancing flood risk management functions provided by green infrastructure landscapes.     

Water toxicants: a comprehension on their health concerns,detection, and remediation

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Water is an essential moiety for the human use since a long time. Availability of good-quality water is very essential, as it is used in almost all...     

Population status of Indian Chinkara in Cholistan Game Reserve,Punjab, Pakistan

A population study of Indian Chinkara Gazella bennettii was conducted during September 2006 to July 2007 in Cholistan Game Reserve. The estimated population density was 0.16 Chinkara/km². The observed group size varied from 1 to 16 heads. The observed male to female sex ratio during September/October, February/March and July was 1: 1.15, 1: 2.31, 1: 2.33 respectively.     

PEPC-Aktivität

The criteria currently used to determine the extent of novel forest decline areleaf loss andyellowing of leaves. However, these criteria have only a limited value for indicating damage of woody trees, especially the early stages. Therefore, physiological-biochemical parameters will be useful to measure the extent of forest decline. Results from several natural spruce stands indicate that in needles with early signs of damage and needles with severe damage PEPC activity is significantly higher than in needles of healthy plants. Therefore, PEPC activity can reveal beginning damage and may be used as abiochemical indicator for damage assessments of spruce. The influence of air pollutants on PEPC activity in spruce needles was measured in fumigation chambers and open-top chambers; PEPC activity was shown to be affected by long-term exposition only.     

Genotype-specific growth of hard clams (genus Mercenaria) in a hybrid zone: variation among habitats

Shell growth rate is an important component of fitness in bivalve molluscs. Using the parameter computed from the von Bertalanffy growth equation, we quantitatively compared rates of annual shell grwoth among the hard clams Mercenaria mercenaria, M. campechiensis, and their hybrids sampled from a variety of habitats in the Indian River lagoon, Florida, USA, a zone of species overlap and natural hybridization. Our results indicate that the classical paradigm describing hard clam growth, in which growth rate is fastest in M. campechiensis, intermediate in hybrids, and slowest in M. mercenaria is not supported in the Indian River lagoon. Instead, M. campechiensis has a growth advantage in deep-water habitats in the northern section of our study area. In the central and southern sections of our study area, hybrids have a growth advantage over M. mercenaria in shallow-water habitats, but M. mercenaria has a growth advantage over hybrids in deep-water habitats. In all other sampled habitats, either growth rate among genotype classes is equal, or M. mercenaria has a growth advantage. This complex relationship between genotype and habitat-specific growth provides a mechanism for selection to act on hard clams in the Indian River.     

Heavy metals in soils and crops in Southeast Asia 2. Thailand

A reconnaissance soil geochemical and concomitant plant survey based on 318 soil (0-15 cm) and 122 plant samples was used for the assessment of heavy metal pollution of agricultural soils and crops of Thailand. Arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) were determined in soils using aqua regia digestion, and in plants using nitric acid digestion. Organic carbon (C), pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and available phosphorus (P) were determined on the soil samples using appropriate procedures. Results indicated that concentrations of heavy metals varied widely among the different regions of Thailand. Regression analysis between the concentrations of metals in soil (aqua regia extractable) and edible plant parts indicated a small but positive relationship for Cd in all the plants sampled in the survey (R2 = 0.081, p < 0.001). There was also a positive relationship between soil and plant Cd concentrations in rice (R2 = 0.242, p < 0.010), and negative relationships for Zn in rice (R2 = 0.385, p < 0.001), and Cu (R2 = 0.355, p < 0.001) and Zn (R2 = 0.122, p < 0.026) in glutinous rice. Principal component analysis of the soil data suggested that concentrations of As, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni and Pb were strongly correlated with concentrations of Al and Fe, which is suggestive of evidence of background variations due to changes in soil mineralogy. Thus, the evidence for widespread contamination of soils by these elements through agricultural activities is not strong. On the other hand, Cd and Zn were strongly correlated with organic matter and concentrations of available and aqua regia extractable P. This is attributed to input of contaminants in agricultural fertilisers and soil amendments (e.g. manures, composts).