Environmental consideration in procurement of construction contracts: current practice,problems and opportunities in green procurement in the Swedish construction industry

Research and initiatives concerning green procurement have to a great extent focused on products. This article, however, explores the current practice, problems and opportunities of green procurement of construction contracts. In particular, the application of environmental criteria for contract awarding is targeted. The findings of the study indicate that both public and private clients in the Swedish construction industry take environmental issues into consideration in their procurements. The environmental preferences are often formulated as environmental requirements. However, environmental criteria in tender evaluation are less common and seldom affect the award decisions. The environmental evaluation criteria that do occur often relate to the contractors' capabilities of managing the environmental work in the project.     

The liver but not the skin is the site for conversion of a red carotenoid in a passerine bird

Carotenoids may provide numerous health benefits and are also responsible for the integumentary coloration of many bird species. Despite their importance, many aspects of their metabolism are still poorly known, and even basic issues such as the anatomical sites of conversion remain controversial. Recent studies suggest that the transformation of carotenoid pigments takes place directly in the follicles during feather growth, even though the liver has been previously recognised as a storing organ for these pigments with a certain potential for conversion. In this context, we analysed the carotenoid profile of plasma, liver, skin and feathers of male Common Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra). Interestingly, the derivative feather pigment 3-hydroxy-echinenone was detected in the liver and in the bloodstream (i.e. the necessary vehicle to transport metabolites to colourful peripheral tissues). Our results demonstrate for the first time with empirical data that the liver may act as the main site for the synthesis of integumentary carotenoids. This finding contradicts previous assumptions and raises the question of possible inter-specific differences in the site of carotenoid conversion in birds.     

Relationship between zooplankton distribution,geographic characteristics and hydrographic patterns off the Catalan coast (Western Mediterranean)

Astract Northern anchovy larvae, Engraulis mordax, were collected on five cruises covering the Southern California Bight, one cruise in April 1984, four cruises in January, February and May 1986. The amounts of triacylglycerol, cholesterol and polar lipid were measured in individual anchovy larvae as indicators of their nutritional condition. There was a significant difference in each of the size-specific lipid components between the stations for four of the five cruises. This indicates that all the ocean habitats within a cruise were not equal in promoting growth (and presumably survival) in the anchovy larvae. There were also differences between cruises, where the percentage of the larvae judged to be in poor condition varied from 8 to 27%. Canonical correlation analyses revealed a significant relationship in most cases between the larval fish parameters and the physical and biological data collected from each occupied station. Cholesterol and triacylglycerol were the most important larval components, and the short-term energy storage component in the copepod Calanus pacificus was the most important station component. The data, however, are not sufficient to identify and characterize stations in the field which produce anchovy larvae in good condition.     

On-Scene Injury Severity Prediction (OSISP) Algorithm for Truck Occupants

Objective: The aim of this study is to develop an on-scene injury severity prediction (OSISP) algorithm for truck occupants using only accident characteristics that are feasible to assess at the scene of the accident. The purpose of developing this algorithm is to use it as a basis for a field triage tool used in traffic accidents involving trucks. In addition, the model can be valuable for recognizing important factors for improving triage protocols used in Sweden and possibly in other countries with similar traffic environments and prehospital procedures.

Methods: The scope is adult truck occupants involved in traffic accidents on Swedish public roads registered in the Swedish Traffic Accident Data Acquisition (STRADA) database for calendar years 2003 to 2013. STRADA contains information reported by the police and medical data on injured road users treated at emergency hospitals. Using data from STRADA, 2 OSISP multivariate logistic regression models for deriving the probability of severe injury (defined here as having an Injury Severity Score [ISS] > 15) were implemented for light and heavy trucks; that is, trucks with weight up to 3,500 kg and ??16,500 kg, respectively. A 10-fold cross-validation procedure was used to estimate the performance of the OSISP algorithm in terms of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC).

Results: The rate of belt use was low, especially for heavy truck occupants. The OSISP models developed for light and heavy trucks achieved cross-validation AUC of 0.81 and 0.74, respectively. The AUC values obtained when the models were evaluated on all data without cross-validation were 0.87 for both light and heavy trucks. The difference in the AUC values with and without use of cross-validation indicates overfitting of the model, which may be a consequence of relatively small data sets. Belt use stands out as the most valuable predictor in both types of trucks; accident type and age are important predictors for light trucks.

Conclusions: The OSISP models achieve good discriminating capability for light truck occupants and a reasonable performance for heavy truck occupants. The prediction accuracy may be increased by acquiring more data. Belt use was the strongest predictor of severe injury for both light and heavy truck occupants. There is a need for behavior-based safety programs and/or other means to encourage truck occupants to always wear a seat belt.