What is the relationship between self-reported aberrant driving behaviors,mindfulness, and self-reported crashes and infringements?

Objectives: This study investigated the relationship between self-reported aberrant driving behaviors, mindfulness, and self-reported crashes and infringements.

Methods: Three hundred and eighteen participants (M = 46.0 years, SD = 13.7 years; female: 81.8%) completed an online survey that assessed aberrant driving behaviors, mindfulness (including regular mindfulness meditation [MM]), and self-reported crashes and infringements during the past 2 years. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationship between self-reported aberrant driving behaviors and mindfulness simultaneously, as well as with participants' age and estimated kilometers driven over the past year.

Results: The results of the SEM showed that mindfulness was negatively related to each self-reported aberrant driving behavior, with the strongest relationships being between mindfulness and driving-related lapses (?0.58) and errors (?0.46). Participants who practice MM had significantly fewer crashes in the past 2 years and reported significantly fewer driving-related violations and lapses compared to participants who did not practice MM (crashes: 9.3% vs. 18.8%, P < .05; violations: M = 6.66 [SD = 3.44] vs. M = 7.68 [SD = 4.53], P < .05; errors: M = 5.17 [SD = 3.44] vs. M = 6.19 [SD = 4.12], P < .05).

Conclusions: More research is needed to understand whether MM results in more mindful and attentive drivers or whether individuals who practice MM may have other traits or behaviors that are linked to improved safety.     

Development of environmental thresholds for streams in agricultural watersheds

Global increases in consumption of chemical nutrients, application of pesticides, and water withdrawal to enhance agricultural yield have resulted in degraded water quality and reduced water availability. Efforts to safeguard or improve environmental conditions of agroecosystems have usually focused on managing on-farm activities to reduce materials loss and conserve habitat. Another management measure for improving environmental quality is adoption of environmental performance standards (also called outcome-based standards). This special collection of six papers presents the results of four years of research to devise scientifically credible approaches for setting environmental performance standards to protect water quantity and quality in Canadian agriculturally dominated watersheds. The research, conducted as part of Canada's National Agri-Environmental Standards Initiative, aimed to identify Ideal Performance Standards (the desired environmental state needed to maintain ecosystem health) and Achievable Performance Standards (the environmental conditions achievable using currently available and recommended best available processes and technologies). Overviews of the papers, gaps in knowledge, and future research directions are presented. As humans, livestock, and wildlife (both terrestrial and aquatic) experience greater pressures to share the same limited water resources, innovative research is needed that incorporates a landscape perspective, economics, farm practices, and ecology to advance the development and application of tools for protecting water resources in agricultural watersheds.     

A Tool for Modeling the Winter Oxygen Depletion Rate in Arctic Lakes1

Abstract: Many arctic lakes freeze completely in winter. The few that retain unfrozen water for the entire winter period serve as overwintering fish habitat. In addition to serving as fish habitat, water in arctic lakes is needed for industrial and domestic use. Permits for water extraction seek to maximize water use without impacting dissolved oxygen (DO) levels and endangering fish habitat. The relationship between lake volume, winter DO budget, and extraction of water through pumping has historically not been well understood. A management model that could estimate end‐of‐winter DO would improve our understanding of the potential impacts of different management strategies. Using under‐ice DO measurements (November to April) taken from two natural lakes and one flooded gravel mine on the North Slope of Alaska, a physically based model was developed to predict end‐of‐winter DO concentration, water‐column DO profiles, and winter oxygen depletion rate in arctic lakes during periods of ice cover. Comparisons between the measured and model‐predicted oxygen profiles in the three study lakes suggest that the depth‐based DO modeling tool presented herein can be used to adequately predict the amount of DO available in arctic lakes throughout winter.     

Direct measurement of fugitive emissions of hydrocarbons from a refinery

Refineries are a source of emissions of volatile hydrocarbons that contribute to the formation of smog and ozone. Fugitive emissions of hydrocarbons are difficult to measure and quantify. Currently these emissions are estimated based on standard emission factors for the type and use of equipment installed. Differential absorption light detection and ranging (DIAL) can remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from the instrument. When combined with wind speed and direction, downwind vertical DIAL scans can be used to calculate mass fluxes of the measured gas leaving the site. Using a mobile DIAL unit, a survey was completed at a Canadian refinery to quantify fugitive emissions of methane, C2+ hydrocarbons, and benzene and to apportion the hydrocarbon emissions to the various areas of the refinery. Refinery fugitive emissions as measured with DIAL during this demonstration study were 1240 kg/hr of C2+ hydrocarbons, 300 kg/hr of methane, and 5 kg/hr of benzene. Storage tanks accounted for over 50% of the total emissions of C2+ hydrocarbons and benzene. The coker area and cooling towers were also significant sources. The C2+ hydrocarbons emissions measured during the demonstration amounted to 0.17% of the mass of the refinery hydrocarbon throughput for that period. If the same loss were repeated throughout the year, the lost product would represent a value of US$3.1 million/yr (assuming US$40/bbl). The DIAL-measured hourly emissions of C2+ hydrocarbons were 15 times higher than the emission factor estimates and gave a different perspective on which areas of the refinery were the main source of emissions. Methods, such as DIAL, that can directly measure fugitive emissions would improve the effectiveness of efforts to reduce emissions, quantify the reduction in emissions, and improve the accuracy of emissions data that are reported to regulators and the public.     

An agenda for research and action toward diverse and just futures for life on Earth

Decades of research and policy interventions on biodiversity have insufficiently addressed the dual issues of biodiversity degradation and social justice. New approaches are therefore needed. We devised a research and action agenda that calls for a collective task of revisiting biodiversity toward the goal of sustaining diverse and just futures for life on Earth. Revisiting biodiversity involves critically reflecting on past and present research, policy, and practice concerning biodiversity to inspire creative thinking about the future. The agenda was developed through a 2-year dialogue process that involved close to 300 experts from diverse disciplines and locations. This process was informed by social science insights that show biodiversity research and action is underpinned by choices about how problems are conceptualized. Recognizing knowledge, action, and ethics as inseparable, we synthesized a set of principles that help navigate the task of revisiting biodiversity. The agenda articulates 4 thematic areas for future research. First, researchers need to revisit biodiversity narratives by challenging conceptualizations that exclude diversity and entrench the separation of humans, cultures, economies, and societies from nature. Second, researchers should focus on the relationships between the Anthropocene, biodiversity, and culture by considering humanity and biodiversity as tied together in specific contexts. Third, researchers should focus on nature and economies by better accounting for the interacting structures of economic and financial systems as core drivers of biodiversity loss. Finally, researchers should enable transformative biodiversity research and action by reconfiguring relationships between human and nonhuman communities in and through science, policy, and practice. Revisiting biodiversity necessitates a renewed focus on dialogue among biodiversity communities and beyond that critically reflects on the past to channel research and action toward fostering just and diverse futures for human and nonhuman life on Earth.     

Ground based radon-222 observations and their application to atmospheric studies

The aim of this paper is to review recent trends in the application of ground based radon observations to atmospheric research. In spite of over four decades of atmospheric radon monitoring, only in the past decade has the potential of this passive tracer been realised through a series of atmospheric model evaluation studies. Firstly, the key operational requirements for baseline radon detectors are briefly discussed, including lower limit of detection and response time. Then, current radon-related benchmarks for the evaluation of regional and global models are reviewed, with particular consideration given to the implications of data availability, resolution, site location and model spatial/temporal resolution. An 8-year subset of radon observations from the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station is used to suggest new benchmarks that exploit long-term data sets. Lastly an overview is presented of a technique that uses radon to estimate regional fluxes of climatically sensitive gases, with specific examples for CO2, CH4 and N2O.     

Rural refugees in Africa: Past experience, future pointers

Rapid change In rural Africa raises new policy problems In dealing with mass influxes of rural refugees. Self-settlement in agriculture has become less feasible and is less acceptable now that Its disadvantages are better understood. Organized smallholder settlement can be a better solution where it is economically viable, refugees have freedom of movement, and staff are suitable. But growing land shortage means that Increasing proportions of refugees are being placed in camps. To offset this trend, more attention is suggested to programmes for groups of refugees, categorized by time of arrival, by ability to self-settle or to farm, and by skills and experience. Practically-oriented social science research can contribute to these and other approaches which will require imagination and ingenuity. Solutions to future rural refugee problems should be linked with programmes of social and economic development which will make easier the achievement of humanitarian objectives.     

Determination of veterinary pharmaceuticals in poultry litter and soil by methanol extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Pharmaceuticals are emerging contaminants with potential risks to the environment and human health. A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) method was developed for determination of the antimicrobials virginiamycin, monensin, salinomycin, narasin and nicarbazin in poultry litter and soil. This method involves methanol extraction and clean-up of extracts through glass microfibre filters, introduction of the extracts and separation of compounds on a Zorbax Eclipse XDB C8 column, and compound detection in a Quattro Micro Micromass spectrometer. For litter samples, Method Detection Limits ranged from 0.1–0.6 μg Kg^{? 1}, while Limits of Quantitation (LOQs) were 2, 1, 0.4, 1 and 2 μg Kg^{? 1} for virginiamycin, monensin, salinomycin, narasin and nicarbazin, respectively. For soil samples calculated LOQs were 2, 3, 1, 1, and 1 μg Kg^{? 1} for virginiamycin, monensin, salinomycin, narasin and nicarbazin, respectively. Application of the LC-MS-MS method for detection of veterinary pharmaceuticals in litter collected from commercial poultry farms showed that compounds were present at concentrations ranging from 10–11,000 μg Kg^{? 1}.