Airborne 131I at a background monitoring site

As part of an environmental surveillance program, measurements of 131I in samples of atmospheric aerosols were determined in week-long collection periods at 0.3 km and 1.5 km from a municipal-sewage sludge incinerator located in Albany, New York. During an 11-month period when the sampler was temporarily located near the incinerator, sampling canisters of activated charcoal nearly always contained detectable airborne 131I activity (range of 0.1-6.0 mBq m(-3)). In contrast, remote concentrations where the sample was normally located were near or below analytical detection limits, both before and after the 11-month relocation. Activities of wet and dry fallout at both locations were below detection limits. The source of 131I in the aerosols associated with the sewage sludge was likely excreta from patients following medical treatments at local hospitals.     

Measuring the environmental performance of IPPC industry: II. Applying the Environmental Emissions Index to quantify environmental performance trends from routinely reported data

Reported emissions data were collated for 35 pharmaceutical-manufacturing installations and 18 power stations holding IPPC licences in Ireland. Consistent and essentially complete sectoral emissions time-series were generated, covering 2002–2006 for the pharmaceutical sector, and 2001–2006 for the electricity-generating sector. Applying the Environmental Emissions Index (EEI) to reported emissions indicated environmental performance improvements of 35 and 30%, respectively, for these two sectors. However, considerable uncertainty was attributed to reporting of heavy metals, NO_x and NMVOC emissions at the installation level, and overall NMVOC emissions from the pharmaceutical sector appeared to be considerably under-reported. The fixed average toxicity factor applied to NMVOC emissions in the EEI may deviate from potential temporal changes in the NMVOC compound mix. Overall, reporting uncertainties were found to have a greater impact on EEI outputs than assumptions made in the EEI model, and including an estimate of total sectoral NMVOC emissions reduced the pharmaceutical sector's environmental performance improvement to 24%. The EEI facilitates the comparison and visualisation of reported emissions, integrating them into environmental performance trends. It should optimise interpretation of abundant, detailed, and underutilised ‘bottom-up’ emissions data generated by IPPC installations. For Ireland's pharmaceutical sector, these data are considerably more comprehensive than EPER data.     

Performance of a commercial radon-in-water measurement kit

Methods currently approved for the measurement of radon ((222)Rn) in water in New York State are liquid scintillation counting and emanation into alpha-scintillation cells. A passive system using an electret ion chamber (EIC) was evaluated as an alternative for the measurement of radon in water. Over 130 water samples from a community water supply containing 32BqL(-1) and 30 standards containing 686BqL(-1) were measured using the EIC method over 1- to 4-day exposure times. For comparison, identical samples were measured using liquid scintillation counting. Results of duplicate samples were typically within 5% for liquid scintillation counting and within 10% for the EIC. With respect to accuracy, the EIC produced results that were consistently low by 11-15%.     

The reintroduction and reinterpretation of the wild

This paper is concerned with changing social representations of the “wild,” in particular wild animals. We argue that within a contemporary Western context the old agricultural perception of wild animals as adversarial and as a threat to domestication, is being replaced by an essentially urban fascination with certain emblematic wild animals, who are seen to embody symbols of naturalness and freedom. On closer examination that carefully mediatized “naturalness” may be but another form of domestication. After an historical overview of the human-animal, domestic-wild construction, an anthropological approach is used to interpret the social representation of wild animals held by different social actors — farmers, hunters, and tourists — within the context of an inhabited National Park, that of the Cévennes in south east France. Within the Park, the domestic and the wild, along with agriculture, hunting, conservation, re-introduced wild animals, and tourists cohabit. It is argued that changes in the representation of “wildness” may well be an important indicator of changes in the social representation of nature.     

The Reintroduction and Reinterpretation of the Wild

This paper is concerned with changing social representations of the ``wild,' in particular wild animals. We argue that within a contemporary Western context the old agricultural perception of wild animals as adversarial and as a threat to domestication, is being replaced by an essentially urban fascination with certain emblematic wild animals, who are seen to embody symbols of naturalness and freedom. On closer examination that carefully mediatized ``naturalness' may be but another form of domestication. After an historical overview of the human-animal, domestic-wild construction, an anthropological approach is used to interpret the social representation of wild animals held by different social actors – farmers, hunters, and tourists – within the context of an inhabited National Park, that of the Cévennes in south east France. Within the Park, the domestic and the wild, along with agriculture, hunting, conservation, re-introduced wild animals, and tourists co-habit. It is argued that changes in the representation of ``wildness' may well be an important indicator ofchanges in the social representation of nature.     

Extending and testing a five factor model of ethical and unethical bargaining tactics: introducing the SINS scale

Using a questionnaire derived from previous research, MBA students in a semester‐long negotiation course rated 30 deceptive negotiation tactics on a 7‐point appropriate–inappropriate scale. Factor analysis of these ratings yielded five primary factors (replicating previous findings) representing a lay model of unethical tactics in negotiation contexts. The emergent factors are: I, traditional competitive bargaining; II, attacking an opponent's network; III, misrepresentation/lying; IV, misuse of information; and V, false promises. The five factors may be reliably measured using a 16‐item questionnaire, introduced here, called the ‘Self‐reported Inappropriate Negotiation Strategies Scale’, (or SINS scale). Analyses of scale ratings by participant demographics yielded some interesting results including: a tendency for women to be more averse to questionable tactics than men; a greater willingness for self‐rated ‘competitive’ individuals to endorse such tactics; and differences in willingness to endorse tactics according to variables such as undergraduate major, years of work experience, and nationality. Willingness to endorse less ethical tactics did not directly relate to actual negotiation performance. Directions for future research, and further uses of the SINS scale, are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of retail beverage service training and social host laws on adolescents' DUI rates in San Diego County,California

Introduction: Driving under the influence (DUI) citations are still a serious concern among drivers aged 16–20 years and have been shown to be related to increased risk of fatal and nonfatal crashes. A battery of laws and policies has been enacted to address this concern. Though numerous studies have evaluated these policies, there is still a need for comprehensive policy evaluations that take into account a variety of contextual factors. Previous effort by this research team examined the impact of 20 minimum legal drinking age–21 laws in the state of California, as they impacted alcohol-related crash rates among drivers under 21 years of age while at the same time accounting for alcohol and gas taxes, unemployment rates, sex distribution among drivers, and sobriety checkpoints. The current research seeks to expand this evaluation to the county level (San Diego County). More specifically, we evaluate the impact of measures subject to county control such as retail beverage service (RBS) laws and social host (SH) laws, as well as media coverage, city employment, alcohol outlet density, number of sworn officers, alcohol consumption, and taxation policies, to determine the most effective point of intervention for communities seeking to reduce underage DUI citations.

Methods: Annual DUI citation data (2000 to 2013), RBS and SH policies, and city-wide demographic, economic, and environmental information were collected and applied to each of the 20 cities in San Diego County, California. A structural equation model was fit to estimate the relative contribution of the variables of interest to DUI citation rates.

Results: Alcohol consumption and alcohol outlet density both demonstrated a significant increase in DUI rates, whereas RBS laws, SH laws, alcohol tax rates, media clusters, gas tax rates, and unemployment rates demonstrated significant decreases in DUI rates.

Conclusions: At the county level, although RBS laws, SH laws, and media efforts were found to contribute to a significant reduction in DUI rates, the largest significant contributors to reducing DUI rates were alcohol and gas taxation rates. Policy makers interested in reducing DUI rates among teenagers should examine these variables within their specific communities and consider conducting community-specific research to determine the best way to do so. Future efforts should be made to develop models that represent specific communities who are interested in reducing DUI rates among drivers aged 16–20 years.     

Plastic ingestion by harbour porpoises <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phocoena phocoena</Emphasis> in the Netherlands: Establishing a standardised method

Stomach contents of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) collected in the Netherlands between 2003 and 2013 were inspected for the presence of plastic and other man-made litter. In 654 stomach samples the frequency of occurrence of plastic litter was 7% with less than 0.5% additional presence of non-synthetic man-made litter. However, we show that when a dedicated standard protocol for the detection of litter is followed, a considerably higher percentage (15% of 81 harbour porpoise stomachs from the period 2010–2013) contained plastic litter. Results thus strongly depended on methods used and time period considered. Occurrence of litter in the stomach was correlated to the presence of other non-food remains like stones, shells, bog-wood, etc., suggesting that litter was often ingested accidentally when the animals foraged close to the bottom. Most items were small and were not considered to have had a major health impact. No evident differences in ingestion were found between sexes or age groups, with the exception that neonates contained no litter. Polyethylene and polypropylene were the most common plastic types encountered. Compared to earlier literature on the harbour porpoise and related species, our results suggest higher levels of ingestion of litter. This is largely due to the lack of dedicated protocols to investigate marine litter ingestion in previous studies. Still, the low frequency of ingestion, and minor number and mass of litter items found in harbour porpoises in the relatively polluted southern North Sea indicates that the species is not a strong candidate for annual monitoring of marine litter trends under the EU marine strategy framework directive. However, for longer-term comparisons and regional differences, with proper dedicated protocols applied, the harbour porpoise has specific use in quantifying litter presence in the, for that specific objective, poorly studied benthic marine habitat.     

Researching Visual Representations of Climate Change

This paper responds to calls for greater clarity about the application of theory and method in research on mediated communication about climate-change. Specifically, it identifies conceptual and methodological challenges for researching visual representations of climate change. We suggest current research is impeded by a lack of methodological explication and an unclear relationship between theories of visual meaning and the application of social science methods such as content analysis and frame analysis. As a first step towards addressing these issues, we review existing research to identify the methodological procedures that require explication in order to support the replication of studies and the comparison of findings. We then draw on the seminal work of Roland Barthes to examine how theories of visual meaning may be integrated into social-scientific research methods. Specifically, we demonstrate how Barthes’ concepts of denotation, connotation and mythology may be related to research concerns about the selection of visual content, the classification of image frames, audience responses, and analyses of ideological meaning. The conclusion highlights further possibilities for developing a robust form of visual analysis that meets the standards of social scientific research while addressing the fundamental insights about visual meaning derived from cultural theories of meaning.