A test and refinement of the equity sensitivity construct

This paper reports results from two studies that test a refinement of the equity sensitivity construct first in an experimental setting and second in a field setting. Results from Study 1 show that benevolents express tolerance for both overreward and underreward relative to entitleds and equity sensitives and that benevolents report relatively high levels of satisfaction regardless of reward condition. Study 1 results also show that manipulation of outcomes produce a more dramatic effect on satisfaction than does manipulation of inputs. Results from Study 2 reveal significantly different exchange ideologies for benevolents and entitleds and show that entitleds place more importance on pay whereas benevolents place more importance on the work itself. For both benevolents and entitleds, there is a positive correlation between assessments of distributive justice and job satisfaction. Implication of the findings both for equity theory research and the practice of management are discussed.     

Resources development or instream protection? The case of Queensland,Australia

Summary In Queensland, Australia, instream resources planning ranges from "fragmentary" to overlooked. But the State of Queensland, with engineer dominant water management, is only a little behind some other Australian States and Western countries in evaluating the environmental uses and values of river systems. Management is pragmatic about its abundant water endowment! Highly contrasting biophysical environments, from arid to tropical rainforest, as well as a dominance of ephemeral river systems should not preclude instream assessment. The new coastal $A430 million, Burdekin Falls Dam, the "1800's dream" has radically altered that river and delta region for economically amorphous agricultural purposes and, seemingly, to encourage crocodiles to recreate. In comparison, the "urbanised" Brisbane River is the focus of southern state water use competition issues such as flooding, eutrophication, turbidity, public access, preservation of river islands, sand and gravel mining, and recreation. A veritable host of river related management authorities preside!Dr Diana Day is trained as a fluvial geomorphologist and a water policy analyst. Her research has focused on natural resources management especially related to water and soil/land assets. Dr Day is an editor of the newAustralian Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. Her many publications include a recent book entitledWater and Coal -Industry, Environment and Institutions in the Hunter Valley, N.S.W., published by The Australian National University, Canberra, where until recently she was a Research Fellow. Dr Day is currently a Water Planner in the public sector.     

Evolutionary or fragmented environmental policy making? coal,power, and agriculture in the Hunter Valley,Australia

Intensified surface mining, power generation, and smelting operations in the Hunter River lowlands, NSW, Australia have posed numerous new environmental management problems. Legislative controls over water, soils, and land use management have been clearly insufficient and remain so. The complex range of environmental changes is challenging government agencies as well as coal developers. While water demands are increasing in the region the proportionally greatest competitors are power generation and irrigation. Comprehensive regional water quality assessment is inadequate and divided between a number of agencies with fragmentary interests. Coal development inquiries signal further controversy over appropriate management solutions and are an ongoing phenomenon in the region. The early 1980s resource boom has been followed by lower rates of economic growth, which have resulted in disparate agency responses to major ongoing environmental questions. While issue attention cycles are often remarkably short in environmental management, matters of water, land, and air quality require intensive and ongoing monitoring and policy development.     

PFOS levels in the blood and liver of a small insectivorous songbird near a fluorochemical plant

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is the stable end product of the degradation of various perfluorinated compounds and is the predominant compound found in the environment and biota. PFOS is a widespread environmental contaminant that is found in a great diversity of wildlife species with more elevated tissue concentrations in animals from populated and industrialized areas. In this study we determined the PFOS accumulation in blood and livers of a small songbird, the great tit (Parus major), in the vicinity of a large fluorochemical plant in Antwerp, Belgium. PFOS concentrations ranged from 553 ng/g to 11359 ng/g in liver and ranged from 24 to 1625 ng/ml in blood, which are among the highest ever reported in free-living animals, and exceeded in almost all birds the hepatic benchmark concentrations for the protection of avian species [Beach SA, Newsted JL, Coady K, Giesy JP. Ecotoxicological evaluation of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS). Rev Environ Contam Toxicol 2006;186:133-174]. Although PFOS concentrations in liver and blood decreased significantly within approximately 5.5 km of the plant, differences were smaller than previously described for wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) and nestling great tits. PFOS concentrations in liver and blood were higher in young birds (one-year old). No significant sex differences were found. A highly significant correlation between liver and blood concentrations indicates the usefulness of blood as a non-destructive matrix for biomonitoring purposes.     

Inadvertent environmentalism and the action–value opportunity: reflections from studies at both ends of the generational spectrum

A recent turn towards a more contextually sensitive apprehension of the challenge of making everyday life less resource hungry has been partly underwritten by widespread evidence that the environmental values people commonly profess to hold do not often translate into correspondingly low impact actions. Yet sometimes the contexts of everyday life can also conspire to make people limit their consumption without ever explicitly connecting this to the environmental agenda. This paper considers this phenomenon with reference to UK studies from both ends of the generational spectrum. The first questioned how older people keep warm at home during winter and the second examined how young people get rid of no longer wanted possessions. Both found that, though the respondents involved were acting in certain ways that may be deemed comparatively low impact, they were hitherto relatively indifferent to the idea of characterising these actions as such. We outline three ways in which sustainability advocates might respond to the existence of such “inadvertent environmentalists” and consider how they might inspire studies that generate fresh intervention ideas instead of lingering on the dispiriting recognition that people do not often feel able to act for the environment.     

Molecular Systematics, Ethics, and Biological Decision Making under Uncertainty

Abstract: The controversy among Karl and Bowen (1999) , Pritchard (1999) , and Grady and Quattro (1999) over scientific uncertainties and the ethical and political consequences of the black turtle's taxonomic status is caused by incomplete and uncertain scientific knowledge. When faced with cases of uncertainty, conservation biologists need to use ethical rationality, not merely scientific rationality. They should follow three general ethical principles: (1) perform and present unbiased research, (2) promote use of unbiased research by others, and (3) protect human and environmental welfare. Adhering to these principles is difficult because they can conflict, are too general to provide specific guidance in a particular situation, and are not ranked according to which ought to take priority in different situations. One way to deal with these difficulties is to employ a two-stage ethical analysis. This analysis develops general principles (first stage) and then investigates the consequences of adopting each of the principles (second stage). A two-stage ethical analysis applied to the controversy over the black turtle's taxonomic status suggests that even if there are some grounds for expanding conservation biologists' responsibilities to human and environmental welfare, they are not ethically justified in using any means whatsoever to achieve desirable consequences when the public has rights to full information. Conservation biologists do not appear to have grounds for paternalism in this case because it involves value judgments, not merely professional expertise.     

Restoration Scaling Approaches to Addressing Ecological Injury: The Habitat-Based Resource Equivalency Method

Environmental Management - Natural resource trustee agencies must determine how much, and what type of environmental restoration will compensate for injuries to natural resources that result from...     

Fatal crash between a car operating with automated control systems and a tractor-semitrailer truck

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the interaction between an SAE level 2 automated vehicle and the driver, including the limitations imposed by the vehicle on the driver.

Methods: A case study of the first fatal crash involving a vehicle operating with an automated control system was performed using scene evidence, vehicle damage, and recorded data available from the vehicle, and information from both drivers, including experience, phone records, computer systems, and medical information, was reviewed.

Results: System performance data downloaded from the car indicated that the driver was operating it using the Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane-keeping systems, which are automated vehicle control systems within Tesla’s Autopilot suite. As the car crested the hill, a tractor trailer began its left turn onto a crossing roadway. Although reconstruction of the crash determined that there was sufficient sight distance for both drivers to see each other and take action, neither responded to the circumstances leading to the collision. Further, based on the speeds of the vehicles and simulations of the truck’s path, the car driver had at least 10.4?s to detect the truck and take evasive action. Neither the car driver nor the Autopilot system changed the vehicle’s velocity.

?At the time of the crash, the system performance data indicated that the last driver interaction with the system was 1?min 51?s prior when the cruise control speed was set to 74?mph. The driver was operating the vehicle using the Autopilot system for 37 of the 41?min in the last trip. During this period, the vehicle detected the driver’s hands on the steering wheel for a total of 25?s; each time his hands were detected on the wheel was preceded by a visual alert or auditory warning.

Conclusions: The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the probable cause of the Williston, Florida, crash was the truck driver’s failure to yield the right of way to the car, combined with the car driver’s inattention due to overreliance on vehicle automation, which resulted in the car driver’s lack of reaction to the presence of the truck. Contributing to the car driver’s overreliance on the vehicle automation was the car’s operational design, which permitted the driver’s prolonged disengagement from the driving task and his use of the automation in ways inconsistent with guidance and warnings from the manufacturer.