Postnatal nutrition influences male attractiveness and promotes plasticity in male mating preferences

Poor early-life nutrition could reduce adult reproductive success by negatively affecting traits linked to sexual attractiveness such as song complexity. If so, this might favor strategic mate choice, allowing males with less complex songs to tailor their mating tactics to maximize the reproductive benefits. However, this possibility has been ignored in theoretical and empirical studies. By manipulating the micronutrient content of the diet (e.g., low or high) during the postnatal period of male zebra finches, we show for the first time (1) that males reared on a poor (low) micronutrient diet had less complex songs as adults; (2) that these males, in contrast to the high micronutrient diet group, were more selective in their mating strategies, discriminating against those females most likely to reduce their clutch size when paired with males having less complex songs; and (3) that by following different mating strategies, males reared on the contrasting diets obtained similar reproductive benefits. These results suggest that early-life dietary conditions can induce multiple and long-lasting effects on male and female reproductive traits. Moreover, the results seem to reflect a previously unreported case of adaptive plasticity in mate choice in response to a nutritionally mediated reduction in sexual attractiveness.     

Organizational resilience and social-economic sustainability: COVID-19 perspective

Environment, Development and Sustainability - COVID-19 has affected the global economy like no other crisis in the history of mankind. It forced worldwide lockdown and economic shutdown to the...     

Modeling the predictors of consumers’ online purchase intention of green products: the role of personal innovativeness and environmental drive

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Our society faces mounting pressure regarding the necessity of green consumption as issues related to the environment will likely become a severe...     

A quantitative water resource planning and management model for an industrial park level

This paper introduces an integrated water management model at the industrial park level. It suggests four approaches to water management: first, direct water reuse among users; second, water reuse among users by blending with freshwater; third, water reuse between users and a wastewater treatment plant; and fourth, groundwater recharge by reclaimed wastewater or other feasible applications in order to optimize the overall water efficiency. The model results in a comprehensive management methodology for optimizing water resources within an industrial park, seeking potential water reuse among industries, and incorporating the size and cost of reclaimed wastewater delivery systems. A case study is employed to test the model’s feasibility. An economic analysis of the optimized water use network is also carried out, showing the potential water and cost savings.     

Environmental fate of alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates--a review

Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) are widely used surfactants in domestic and industrial products, which are commonly found in wastewater discharges and in sewage treatment plant (STP) effluents. Degradation of APEs in wastewater treatment plants or in the environment generates more persistent shorter-chain APEs and alkylphenols (APs) such as nonylphenol (NP), octylphenol (OP) and AP mono- to triethoxylates (NPE1, NPE2 and NPE3). There is concern that APE metabolites (NP, OP, NPE1-3) can mimic natural hormones and that the levels present in the environment may be sufficient to disrupt endocrine function in wildlife and humans. The physicochemical properties of the APE metabolites (NP, NPE1-4, OP, OPE1-4), in particular the high K(ow) values, indicate that they will partition effectively into sediments following discharge from STPs. The aqueous solubility data for the APE metabolites indicate that the concentration in water combined with the high partition coefficients will provide a significant reservoir (load) in various environmental compartments. Data from studies conducted in many regions across the world have shown significant levels in samples of every environmental compartment examined. In the US, levels of NP in air ranged from 0.01 to 81 ng/m3, with seasonal trends observed. Concentrations of APE metabolites in treated wastewater effluents in the US ranged from < 0.1 to 369 microg/l, in Spain they were between 6 and 343 microg/l and concentrations up to 330 microg/l were found in the UK. Levels in sediments reflected the high partition coefficients with concentrations reported ranging from < 0.1 to 13,700 microg/kg for sediments in the US. Fish in the UK were found to contain up to 0.8 microg/kg NP in muscle tissue. APEs degraded faster in the water column than in sediment. Aerobic conditions facilitate easier further biotransformation of APE metabolites than anaerobic conditions.     

Occurrence and fate of hormone steroids in the environment

Hormone steroids are a group of endocrine disruptors, which are excreted by humans and animals. In this paper, we briefly review the current knowledge on the fate of these steroids in the environment. Natural estrogenic steroids estrone (E1), 17beta-estradiol (E2) and estriol (E3) all have a solubility of approximately 13 mg/l, whereas synthetic steroids 17alpha-ethynylestradiol (EE2) and mestranol (MeEE2) have a solubility of 4.8 and 0.3 mg/l, respectively. These steroids have a moderate binding on sediments and are reported to degrade rapidly in soil and water. Estrogenic steroids have been detected in effluents of sewage treatment plants (STPs) in different countries at concentrations ranging up to 70 ng/l for E1, 64 ng/l for E2, 18 ng/l for E3 and 42 ng/l for EE2. E2 concentrations in river waters from Japan, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands ranged up to 27 ng/l. In addition, E2 concentrations ranging from 6 to 66 ng/l have also been measured in mantled karst aquifers in northwest Arkansas. This contamination of ground water has been associated with poultry litter and cattle manure waste applied on the land. Although hormone steroids have been detected at a number of sources worldwide, currently, there is limited data on the environmental behaviour and fate of these hormone steroids in different environmental media. Consequently, the exposure and risk associated with these chemicals are not adequately understood.     

Energy use,blue water footprint,and greenhouse gas emissions for current food consumption patterns and dietary recommendations in the US

This article measures the changes in energy use, blue water footprint, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with shifting from current US food consumption patterns to three dietary scenarios, which are based, in part, on the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines (US Department of Agriculture and US Department of Health and Human Services in Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, 7th edn, US Government Printing Office, Washington, 2010). Amidst the current overweight and obesity epidemic in the USA, the Dietary Guidelines provide food and beverage recommendations that are intended to help individuals achieve and maintain healthy weight. The three dietary scenarios we examine include (1) reducing Caloric intake levels to achieve “normal” weight without shifting food mix, (2) switching current food mix to USDA recommended food patterns, without reducing Caloric intake, and (3) reducing Caloric intake levels and shifting current food mix to USDA recommended food patterns, which support healthy weight. This study finds that shifting from the current US diet to dietary Scenario 1 decreases energy use, blue water footprint, and GHG emissions by around 9 %, while shifting to dietary Scenario 2 increases energy use by 43 %, blue water footprint by 16 %, and GHG emissions by 11 %. Shifting to dietary Scenario 3, which accounts for both reduced Caloric intake and a shift to the USDA recommended food mix, increases energy use by 38 %, blue water footprint by 10 %, and GHG emissions by 6 %. These perhaps counterintuitive results are primarily due to USDA recommendations for greater Caloric intake of fruits, vegetables, dairy, and fish/seafood, which have relatively high resource use and emissions per Calorie.     

Policy evaluation of vehicle exhaust standards in Japan from 1995 to 2005 based on two human health risk indices for air pollution and global warming

Measures for vehicle exhaust emissions aimed at reducing either air pollution or global warming could have counterproductive effects on one another. Increasing diesel passenger vehicles, which generally have lower CO₂ emissions than gasoline counterparts, leads to increasing particulate matter (PM) emissions, while gasoline has lower PM emissions than diesel. It is said that stringent limits on PM emission factors discourages improved CO₂ emission factors. Without including both effects in a risk evaluation, one cannot evaluate whether the total risk is reduced or not. Hence, we evaluated representative exhaust emission measures based on risk evaluation for both air pollution and global warming. Considering consumer choice between diesel and gasoline passenger vehicles and emissions standards adopted in Japan from 1995 to 2005, we built five cases for vehicle policy evaluation. For each case, we estimated disability-adjusted life years (DALY) as an index of human health risk caused by lung cancer linked to inhalation exposure of elemental carbon in PM as well as due to global warming linked to CO₂. The results of our risk evaluation reveal that the case adopting the 2005 new long-term Japanese emission standard reduces the human health risk caused by lung cancer due to air pollution by 0.6 × 10³ DALY, but would increase the risk due to global warming by 31.9 × 10³ DALY compared with the case of adopting EURO 4, for the same conditions of passenger vehicle choice from 1995. These results suggest that the characteristics of Japanese emissions standards are mainly designed to reduce air pollution.     

Drinking water risk assessment in practice: the case of Swedish drinking water producers at risk from floods

To achieve a safe and reliable drinking water supply, water producers need to manage a large range of risks regarding both water quality and quantity. A risk management approach where risks are systematically identified and handled in a preventive manner is promoted by the World Health Organization and supported by researchers and drinking water experts worldwide. Risk assessment is an important part of such a management approach, and a variety of tools for risk assessment are described in the literature. There is, however, little knowledge of how drinking water risk assessment is performed in practice, including which tools that are actually used. This study investigates the use of risk assessment tools, and the approach to risk management, on a local level in the Swedish water sector. It is based on interviews with key persons from a targeted selection of water producers. We find that the application of tools as well as the approach to risk assessment and management differs considerably between the water producers. The tools most frequently used are mainly the ones promoted or required by Swedish national organizations. Although many of the water producers have done some kind of risk assessment, most have not implemented a risk management approach. Furthermore, their knowledge of the concepts of risk and risk management is often limited. The largest challenge identified is to prioritize risk assessment, so that it is actually performed and then used as a basis for managing risk in a systematic way.     

An improvement selection methodology for key performance indicators

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are critical measures for determining the health of a manufacturing plant in relationship to the plant’s goals. In today’s competitive environment, manufacturers cannot be careless about their business; in fact, they must ensure that their KPIs are effective and use them to make improvements when necessary. This paper describes a method for suggesting improvements to a manufacturer’s KPIs, based on the results achieved from a workshop to score the KPI on a number of predefined criteria. The approach uses a prospect theory approach to weight the scoring. Different problem formulations were derived that allow for both recommendations for improvements and the recommendations for disinvestments to over-performing KPIs. The authors applied the developed approach to two workshop outputs, each from independent manufacturers, and the results highlighted the significant difference between the two manufacturers in terms of improvement priorities and KPI assessment. The optimal improvement suggestions were compared to those found through a fast heuristic. It was determined that given the underlying assumptions of the approach that the heuristic solutions were just as adequate as the optimal ones.