Persistent near-bottom aggregations of mesopelagic animals along the North Carolina and Virginia continental slopes

Submersible observations during four missions over the North Carolina and Virginia continental slopes (184–900 m) documented the occurrence of large aggregations of mesopelagic fishes and macronektonic invertebrates near or on the bottom. Aggregated mesopelagics formed a layer up to tens of meters deep positioned from a few centimeters to 20 m, usually <10 m, above the substrate. Aggregations were numerically dominated by microvores, notably the myctophid fish Ceratoscopelus maderensis and the penaeid shrimp Sergestes arcticus. Consistently present but in relatively lower numbers, were mesopelagic predators, including the paralepidids Notolepis rissoi and Lestidium atlanticum, the eel Nemichthys scolopaceus, the stomiid fishes Chauliodus sloani and Stomias boa ferox, and squids Illex spp. Near-bottom aggregations do not appear to be an artifact due to attraction to the submersible. Based on submersible observations in three areas in 4 years spanning a decade, near-bottom aggregations of midwater organisms appear to be a geographically widespread and persistent phenomenon along the continental slope of the southeastern US Aggregations may exploit areas of enhanced food resources at the bottom.     

Supply Chain Environmental Management

Working with suppliers to manage environmental issues can yield significant advantages. But obstacles to effective SCEM still remain. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

WHIPPET: A novel tool for prioritizing invasive plant populations for regional eradication

Large geographic areas can have numerous incipient invasive plant populations that necessitate eradication. However, resources are often deficient to address every infestation. Within the United States, weed lists (either state-level or smaller unit) generally guide the prioritization of eradication of each listed species uniformly across the focus region. This strategy has several limitations that can compromise overall effectiveness, which include spending limited resources on 1) low impact populations, 2) difficult to access populations, or 3) missing high impact populations of low priority species. Therefore, we developed a novel science-based, transparent, analytical ranking tool to prioritize weed populations, instead of species, for eradication and tested it on a group of noxious weeds in California. For outreach purposes, we named the tool WHIPPET (Weed Heuristics: Invasive Population Prioritization for Eradication Tool). Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process that included expert opinion, we developed three major criteria, four sub-criteria, and four sub-sub-criteria, taking into account both species and population characteristics. Subject matter experts weighted and scored these criteria to assess the relative impact, potential spread, and feasibility of eradication (major criteria) for 100 total populations of 19 species. Species-wide population scores indicated that conspecific populations do not necessarily group together in the final ranked output. Thus, priority lists based solely on species-level characteristics are less effective compared to a blended prioritization based on both species attributes and individual population and site parameters. WHIPPET should facilitate a more efficacious decision-making process allocating limited resources to target invasive plant infestations with the greatest predicted impacts to the region under consideration.     

Potential Impact on Standards for Toxic Air Contaminants

Since the Bhopal incident, the public has placed pressure on regulatory agencies to set community exposure limits for the dozens of chemicals that may be released by manufacturing facilities. More or less objective limits can be established for the vast majority of these chemicals through the use of risk assessment. However, each step of the risk assessment process (i.e., hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization) contains a number of pitfalls that scientists need to avoid to ensure that valid limits are established. For example, in the hazard identification step there has been little discrimination among animal carcinogens with respect to mechanism of action or the epidemiology experience. In the dose-response portion, rarely is the range of “plausible” estimated risks presented. Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PB-PK) models should be used to understand the difference between the tissue doses and the administered dose, as well as the difference in target tissue concentrations of the toxicant between rodents and humans. Biologically-based models like the Moolgavkar-Knudson-Venzon (MKV) should be developed and used, when appropriate. The exposure assessment step can be significantly improved by using more sensitive and specific sampling and analytical methods, more accurate exposure parameters, and computer models that can account for complex environmental factors. Whenever possible, model predictions of exposure and uptake should be validated by biological monitoring of exposed persons (urine, blood, adipose) or by field measurements of plants, soil, fish, air, or water. In each portion of an assessment, the weight of evidence approach should be used to identify the most defensible value. In the risk characterization, the best estimate of the potential risk as well as the highest plausible risk should be presented. Future assessments would be much improved if quantitative uncertainty analyses were conducted. Procedures are currently available for making future assessments. By correcting some of these shortcomings in how health risk assessments have been conducted, scientists and risk managers should be better able to identify scientifically appropriate ambient air standards and emission limits.     

Determinants of coverage in Community‐based Therapeutic Care programmes: towards a joint quantitative and qualitative analysis

One of the most important elements behind the success of Community‐based Therapeutic Care (CTC) programmes for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition has been their ability to achieve high levels of coverage. In CTC, coverage is measured using the Centric System Area Sampling (CSAS) method, which provides accurate and reliable estimates of programme coverage as well as information on the primary reasons for non‐attendance. Another important feature of CTC programmes is their use of socio‐cultural assessments to determine potential barriers to access and to develop context‐specific responses. By analysing data on non‐attendance provided by CSAS surveys, in conjunction with data from socio‐cultural assessments, it is possible to identify common factors responsible for failures in programme coverage. This paper focuses on an analysis of data from 12 CTC programmes across five African countries. It pinpoints three common factors (distance to sites, community awareness of the programme, and the way in which rejections are handled at the sites) that, together, account for approximately 75 per cent of non‐attendance.     

A Methodology for Assessing Blast Protection in Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bomb Suits

To reduce human casualties associated with explosive ordnance disposal, a wide range of protective wear has been designed to shield against the blast effects of improvised explosive devices and munitions. In this study, 4 commercially available bomb suits, representing a range of materials and armor masses, were evaluated against 0.227 and 0.567 kg of spherical C-4 explosives to determine the level of protection offered to the head, neck, and thorax.

A Hybrid III dummy, an instrumented human surrogate [1], was tested with and without protection from the 4 commercially available bomb suits. 20 tests with the dummy torso mounted to simulate a kneeling position were performed to confirm repeatability and robustness of the dummies, as well as to evaluate the 4 suits. Correlations between injury risk assessments based on past human or animal injury model data and various parameters such as bomb suit mass, projected area, and dummy coverage area were drawn.     

Assessing Linkages in Stream Habitat,Geomorphic Condition,and Biological Integrity Using a Generalized Regression Neural Network

Watershed managers often use physical geomorphic and habitat assessments in making decisions about the biological integrity of a stream, and to reduce the cost and time for identifying stream stressors and developing mitigation strategies. Such analysis is difficult since the complex linkages between reach‐scale geomorphic and habitat conditions, and biological integrity are not fully understood. We evaluate the effectiveness of a generalized regression neural network (GRNN) to predict biological integrity using physical (i.e., geomorphic and habitat) stream‐reach assessment data. The method is first tested using geomorphic assessments to predict habitat condition for 1,292 stream reaches from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. The GRNN methodology outperforms linear regression (69% vs. 40% classified correctly) and improves slightly (70% correct) with additional data on channel evolution. Analysis of a subset of the reaches where physical assessments are used to predict biological integrity shows no significant linear correlation, however the GRNN predicted 48% of the fish health data and 23% of macroinvertebrate health. Although the GRNN is superior to linear regression, these results show linking physical and biological health remains challenging. Reasons for lack of agreement, including spatial and temporal scale differences, are discussed. We show the GRNN to be a data‐driven tool that can assist watershed managers with large quantities of complex, nonlinear data.     

The use of personalised social marketing to foster voluntary behavioural change for sustainable travel and lifestyles

Changing public attitudes and behaviour is key to achieving the UK target of a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Top-down campaigns that have provided information to a passive public have not necessarily resulted in pro-environmental behavioural change. This paper examines the use of a personalised social marketing approach to engage the public in changing their personal travel. It provides the results of a project in the City of York to foster voluntary travel behavioural change. Using face-to-face discussions, personalised information and incentives, a statistically significant reduction in car use and an increase in cycling and the use of public transport were achieved over a six-month period. However, this change was not sustained 12 months later. The paper explores the contrasting perspectives on behavioural change and examines the possible lessons that can be learnt to foster voluntary behavioural change in other aspects of household consumption.     

The relationship between persistent organic pollutants in maternal and neonatal tissues and immune responses to allergens: A novel exploratory study

BACKGROUND: Modern persistent organic pollutants (POPs) contamination are logical candidates in the investigation of the, as yet, unexplained association between allergic disease and progressive industrialisation. POPs have been detected in human cord blood, placental tissues and breast milk, and the reported association between cord blood IgE levels and cord/placental POP levels has raised concerns about potential immunological effects in early life. METHODS: The initial aim of this study was to determine if POPs were detectable in maternal blood, cord blood, placental tissues, adipose tissue and breast milk samples from randomly selected Western Australian women (n = 31), where allergic disease is epidemic. Gas chromatography was used to detect polychlorinated biphenyl compounds [PCBs] (as Aroclor 1232, 1254, 1260) and organochlorine (OC) pesticides, including p,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDE, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), lindane, heptachlor epoxide, dieldrin and chlordane. Secondly, we assessed the relationship between POP levels detected in vivo and maternal and neonatal responses (cytokine and lymphoproliferation) to allergens and mitogens. RESULTS: Low level POP contamination was detected in adipose tissue and breast milk (but not in cord blood, maternal blood or placental tissues). The most ubiquitous compound found in over 90% of adipose tissues samples was a OC metabolite of DDT, p,p'-DDE (median 0.07 mg/kg; interquartile range [IQR] 0.05-0.12). However, the majority of other OC compounds were not detectable and PCB were not detectable in any samples. The three main residues detected in breast milk were p,p'-DDE (0.003 mg/l; 0.001-0.009), dieldrin (0.001 mg/l; 0.001-0.046) and HCB (0.001 mg/l; 0.001-0.001). These levels are significantly lower than reported over 20 years ago. There were no consistent relationships between POP levels in vivo and maternal or infant responses, with the exception of a significant inverse association (Spearman rank correlation: r = -0.406, p = 0.049) between maternal adipose tissue levels of OC p,p'-DDE and maternal T helper cell Type 1 interferon [IFN] gamma to mitogens. CONCLUSION: This study provides the first evidence (in Australia) since the early 1990's that adipose OC levels have continued to fall. The negligible levels in this randomly selected group are significantly lower than those previously recorded, suggesting that POP contamination (at biologically relevant levels) is not likely to be a major contributing factor in the increasing rates of allergy in Western Australia. However, the relationship between Th1 immune function and OC contamination is consistent with other reports and is worth investigating as a relevant factor in populations where OC contamination is greater.     

Mitigating GHG Emissions in the Humid Tropics: Case Studies from the Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn Program (ASB)

Tropical forest conversion contributes as much as 25% of the net annual CO₂ emissions and up to 10% of the N_2O emissions to the atmosphere. The net effect on global warming potential (GWP) also depends on the net fluxes of greenhouse gases from land-use systems following deforestation. Efforts to mitigate these effects must take into account not only the greenhouse gas fluxes of alternative land-use systems but also the social and economic consequences that influence their widespread adoption. The global alternatives to slash-and-burn program (ASB) investigated the net greenhouse gas emissions and profitability of a range of land-use alternatives in the humid tropics. The analysis showed that many tree-based systems reduced net GWP compared to annual cropping and pasture systems. Some of these systems are also profitable in terms of returns to land and labor. The widespread adoption of these systems, however, can be limited by start-up costs, credit limitations, and number of years to positive cash flow, in addition to the higher labor requirements. Projects that offset carbon emissions through carbon sinks in land use in the tropics might be a means of overcoming these limitations. A synthesis of the findings from this program can provide guidelines for the selection and promotion of land-use practices that minimize net global warming effects of slash-and-burn.