The Moral Foundation of the Precautionary Principle

The Commission's recentinterpretation of the Precautionary Principleis used as starting point for an analysis ofthe moral foundation of this principle. ThePrecautionary Principle is shown to have theethical status of an amendment to a liberalprinciple to the effect that a state only mayrestrict a person's actions in order to preventunacceptable harm to others. The amendmentallows for restrictions being justified even incases where there is no conclusive scientificevidence for the risk of harmful effects.However, the liberal tradition has seriousproblems in determining when a risk of harm isunacceptable. Nevertheless, reasonable liberalarguments in favor of precaution can be basedon considerations of irreversible harm andgeneral fear of harm. But it is unclear whenthere considerations can be overridden.Within the liberal framework, the Commissionadvocates a so-called proportional version ofthe Precautionary Principle. This should beclearly distinguished from a welfare-basedapproach to precaution based on risk-aversiveweighing up of expected costs and benefits.However, in the last resort, the Commissiondoes seem to make a covert appeal to suchconsiderations.     

Predicting retail shrink from performance pressure,ethical leader behavior,and store‐level incivility

Retail shrink, a form of inventory loss due primarily to employee theft and shoplifting, is a growing concern for retailers. Prior work on shrink has taken primarily an individual‐level focus to understanding this problem but has yet to really explore how the business context impacts shrink. The current study addresses this need by delineating and testing a unit‐level (i.e., between‐stores) conceptual model, wherein we examine the influence of performance pressure, ethical leader behavior, and store‐level incivility on shrink in a field study of 111 U.S. retail stores. Results demonstrate that performance pressure and ethical leadership interact to influence store‐level incivility. Further, stores with higher incivility also had higher levels of shrink. A focus on the contextual predictors of shrink provides timely insights into the role of performance pressure and leadership on store‐level incivility and consequently on retail shrink. In light of increasingly thin margins in the retail industry, the evidence on how pressure to perform and ethical leadership influences retail shrink may offer a solution to retailers looking to stem financial losses by promoting civility in the workplace.     

Does the nutrition profile of vitamins, fatty acids and microelements counteract the negative impact from organohalogen pollutants on bone mineral density in Greenland sledge dogs (Canis familiaris)?

There is a great need for understanding the impact from dietary OHCs (organohalogen compounds) on bone mineral composition - and thereby osteoporosis - in especially arctic wildlife such as polar bears (Ursus maritimus) as well as humans. For that purpose, we measured BMD (bone mineral density) by DXA scanning (g/cm(-2)) in 15 age and weight normalized sledge dog (Canis familiaris) bitches and their 26 pups divided into a control group (n=26) given 50-200 g/day clean pork (Suis scrofa) fat and a treated group (n=15) given 50-200 g/day OHC polluted minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) blubber as main lipid sources. The results showed that BMD increased significantly with age (linear regression: p<0.0001, r(2)=0.83, n=41) while no sex difference was found in the F-generation (two-way ANOVA: all p>0.3). No differences in BMD(femur) or BMD(vertebrae) between exposed and control individuals in the bitch generation were found (linear mixed effect model: both p>0.38). Likewise, no difference between exposed and control subadults and juveniles in the F-generation was found (two-way ANOVA: all p>0.33). Correlation analyses between BMD(femur), BMD(vertebrae) and groups of OHCs, respectively, did not show any statistically significant relationships nor a clear or decreasing trend (Pearson's: p: 0.07-0.78; r: -0.2-0.59; n: 10-18). As the groups were similar regarding genetics, age and sex are the only factors that can explain this observation. Either the pollutants did not have an impact on BMD using the present time frame and OHC concentrations (threshold levels not reached), or the difference in food composition (mainly vitamins and n3 fatty acids) conceal the potential OHC impact on BMD. Such information is important when evaluating the positive and negative health consequences from eating polluted marine species.     

Diurnal variation of nitrogen cycling in coastal,marine sediments

A closed chamber technique was developed to determine the emission of microbially produced N₂O from an estuarine sediment. A diurnal variation was observed; maximum emissions of 0.4 to 4.0 mol N₂O–N m^-2 h^-1 were recorded at night whereas the rates were low or even negative, -0.4 to 0.4 mol N₂O–N m^-2 h^-1, during the day. The bacterial denitrification located in the uppermost centimeter was apparently the major source of the emitted N₂O. The diurnal emission pattern was thus inversely related to the O₂ availability at the sediment surface; in the dark, the lack of O₂ production by benthic photosynthesis allowed the denitrification to occur closer to the sediment-water interface and was likely to enhance the release of N₂O to the water. The daily averages for the emission were about 40 mol N₂O–N m^-2 d^-1 for three investigation periods in autumn (November), winter (February) and spring (April), whereas no significant emission was recorded in the NO ₃ ^- -depleted sediment in early summer (June). In this estuary, the N₂O emissions from the sediment were significant contributions to the overall release of N₂O to the atmosphere.     

Antimicrobial activity of extracts of Caribbean gorgonian corals

Extracts of 39 species of Caribbean gorgonians were tested for antimicrobial activity against 15 strains of marine bacteria. The bacteria consisted of three opportunistic pathogens, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Leucothrix mucor, and Aerococcus viridans, and 12 strains isolated from either healthy or decayed gorgonians. Overall, only 15% (79 out of 544) of the tests resulted in antibacterial activity with 33% (13 out of 39) of the gorgonians inhibiting only one bacterial strain and 23% (9 out of 39) showing no activity. The extracts of four Pseudopterogorgia species showed relatively high levels of activity, inhibiting 43 to 86% of the bacterial strains. The potency of the active Pseudopterogorgia species was variable, however, and three additional Pseudopterogorgia species were inactive against all bacterial strains. With the exception of one sensitive strain, Vibrio species were resistant to gorgonian metabolites. Our results indicate that organic extracts of most Caribbean gorgonians do not possess potent, broad-spectrum antibacterial activity inhibitory to the growth of opportunistic marine pathogens and bacteria associated with healthy and decayed gorgonian surfaces. These findings suggest that the inhibition of bacterial growth is not the primary ecological function of gorgonian secondary metabolites and that bacteria may not be important selective agents in the evolution of gorgonian secondary chemistry.     

Nematode fauna in the sulphide-rich brine seep and adjacent bottoms of the East Flower Garden,NW Gulf of Mexico

Nematodes sampled quantitatively in 1980 along a 96-m-long sulphide-rich brine seep gradient system in the NW Gulf of Mexico are characterized and compared with species from bottoms adjacent and beyond the influence of the brine. The age structure indicates permanent living populations within and outside the gradient system. Species composition shows a thiobiotic association and an oxybiotic association of nematodes, and each association is composed of two subgroups with a fifth group of species living in the ecotone. Such a distinction can also be shown in terms of dominance-diversity. The thiobiotic species are regarded as derived from their oxybiotic relatives and not the reverse. Nematodes describe environmental complexity since slenderness of the body correlates with the amount of dissolved sulphide in the environment. Body elongation, i.e. higher proportion of body surface area per unit body volume and shorter body radius, is suggested to be an adaptation to low oxygen tension in the environment as well as an adaptation to epidermal uptake of dissolved organic matter as additional nourishment of thiobiotic species. Analyses of buccal cavity structures and species distribution patterns show resource partitioning among most abundant species and congeneric species. Deposit feeders have a size diversity of buccal cavities similar to that of epistrate feeders and ominivore-predators. Deposit feeding prevails in the thiobios, but not in the oxybios.     

Ultraviolet disinfection of fecal coliform in municipal wastewater: effects of particle size.

Suspended solids interfere with the efficiency of disinfection using UV radiation by decreasing the rate of disinfection and inducing tailing. However, conventional measures of solids (total suspended solids, turbidity, and UV transmittance) do not adequately predict the presence or degree of these effects. Bacteria and viruses can become associated with particles in wastewater. A fractionation technique was developed to separate particle-associated bacteria into three fractions, based on particle size. The results show that the degree to which particles interfere with UV disinfection efficiency is dependent on particle size. The small size fraction (< 5 microm) consistently produced a statistically significant faster disinfection rate than the large fraction (> 20 microm), with the unfiltered sample and the medium fraction (particles > 5 microm, but < 20 microm) between the two extremes. Tailing also was observed only in the large fraction. Correlations between the disinfection rate constant and the percentage of large fraction bacteria of a sample were good.     

Methanogenesis in monogastric animals

Studies of methanogenic bacteria present in monogastric animals are still scarce. Methanogens have been isolated from faeces of rat, horse, pig, monkey, baboon, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, giant panda, goose, turkey and chicken. The predominant methanogen in all except the chicken and turkey is species of Methanobrevibacterium. The chicken and turkey harbour species of Methanogenium. In pig the population of methanogenic bacteria is more than 30 times as dense in the distal colon as in the caecum. This finding is in agreement with the finding that the rate of methane production is much higher in the colon than in the ceacum. The amount of methane excreted clearly seems to depend on the amount of non-starch polysaccharide intake.The directly measured methane production rate in pigs is from 3.3 to 3.8 times lower than the amount expected from stoichiometric estimates. These data, together with data showing that only small net amounts of hydrogen and small amounts of methane are produced in the ceacum and proximal colon where the microbial activity is high, clearly indicate that hydrogen sinks other than methane production are involved in hydrogen removal in the hindgut of pigs and probably also in other monogastric animals.Methane production by monogastric animals is lower than methane production by ruminants. However, methane production by large herbivorous monogastric animals such as horses, mules and asses is substantial (up to 80 l per animal per day). Methane production by rodents and avians is low. In general, methane production by wild animals is lower than methane production by domestic animals. It is concluded that the contribution of monogastric animals to the global methane emission is negligible, as it only represent about 5% of the total methane emission by domestic and wild animals of 80 Tg per year.     

A Knowledge-Based Approach to the Assessment of Watershed Condition

The Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system is an application framework for knowledge-based decision support of ecological assessments. EMDS integrates geographic information system and knowledge base system technologies to provide an analytical tool for environmental assessment and monitoring. The basic objective of EMDS is to improve the quality and completeness of environmental assessments and the efficiency with which they are performed. The USDA Forest Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have cooperatively developed an EMDS knowledge base for watershed condition assessment. Specifically, this knowledge base evaluates watershed processes, patterns, general effects of human activity, and fisheries habitat suitability. Such assessments are based on spatially explicit input data concerning current conditions and reference conditions which are subsequently interpreted by user-defined "fuzzy" membership functions. In this paper we describe basic components of our knowledge base for assessing watershed condition and illustrate its application within northern Idaho and northwestern Montana.     

Heavy metal surveys in Nordic lakes; concentrations, geographic patterns and relation to critical limits

In the autumn of 1995, coordinated national lake surveys were conducted in the Nordic countries, including Russian Kola. The 11 metals (Pb, Cd, As, Zn, Cu, Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Cr, V) investigated in nearly 3000 lakes have generally low concentrations and distinct geographical patterns. Direct and indirect influence of long-range transported air pollution is the major important factor for distribution of Pb, Cd, Zn and to a certain degree Co. Total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations in lakes are important for Fe and Mn but also to a certain degree for As, Cr and V. Bedrock geology is the major controlling factor for Cu and Ni, with the exception of areas around the smelters in the Kola peninsula, where the Cu and Ni concentrations in lakes are very high due to local airborne pollution. Bedrock and surficial geology is also an important factor for controlling the concentrations of As, Co, Cr and V. The results indicate that heavy metal pollution in lakes is a minor ecological problem on a regional scale in the Nordic countries.