Neighbourhood perceptions among inner-city adolescents: Relationships with their individual characteristics and with independently assessed neighbourhood conditions

We investigated relationships between adolescents’ perceptions of their neighbourhood, their mental health and independently assessed indicators of conditions in their residential neighbourhood. The Research with East London Adolescents Community Health Survey (RELACHS) provided information for 2370 adolescents on area perceptions (specifically alienation from/attachment to the area and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with local amenities and services), and on individual and family attributes including mental distress (measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire). These were combined for this study with independently assessed small area geographical indicators proposed by government to measure local deprivation in England. A Bayesian regression analysis using Gibbs sampling investigated associations between the predictor variables and neighbourhood perception. Alienation from neighbourhood and dissatisfaction with local amenities was greater for girls than for boys and for the older adolescents sampled. Those of ‘Asian’ or ‘Black’ ethnicity, from relatively harmonious families, or with higher levels of social support were less likely to express negative area perceptions. While previously published research found no significant direct association between mental health and small area indicators, this analysis suggests that those with relatively high levels of distress did have worse area perceptions. Also, certain independently assessed area indicators were associated with adolescents’ views of their neighbourhood.     

Too much of a good thing: Curvilinear effect of positive affect on proactive behaviors

Current organizational theory and research affirm the beneficial effects of experiencing positive affect at work. In recent years, researchers have begun to question the popular notion that the more positive affect at work, the better—that more positive affect is desirable for work‐related outcomes. In this article, we propose a rationale for why more positive affect may not be better for proactive behaviors at work. Findings from two field studies using two unique data sources demonstrate support for our hypothesis, suggesting that intermediate levels of positive affect are most beneficial for proactive behaviors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Technological change and fisheries sustainability: The point of view of Adaptive Dynamics

The analysis of a simple model shows that exploitation of fish stocks can entrain in the long run the substantial decline or even the collapse of the stock, as well as difficulties in stock recovery, loss of fishery resilience, and reduction of the mean fish size. The results are in agreement with numerous observations, even though they are obtained with a simple model in which the harvesting fleet and the fish stock are considered as unstructured predator and prey. The study is carried out for the typical case of fleet dimension not too sensitive to the year-to-year fluctuations of the stock and assuming that the sole cause of evolution is technological innovation. The analysis is performed by means of Adaptive Dynamics, an approach born in theoretical biology which is used here in the context of technological change. Although the results are qualitatively consistent with those obtained long ago through the principles of bioeconomics, it is fair to stress that the underlying assumptions are different. In fact, in the bioeconomic approach fleet technology does not evolve and fishing effort varies to produce economic optimization, while in the Adaptive Dynamics approach technological innovation is the key driver. The paper is purely theoretical and the proposed model can hardly be tuned on any real fishery. No practical guidelines for managers can therefore be drawn, if not the general conclusion that long-term sustainability of exploited fish stocks can only be achieved if strategic parameters influencing technological change are kept under strict control.     

De-Europeanising or disengaging? EU environmental policy and Brexit

ABSTRACT

The European Union (EU) has had a profound effect upon its members’ environmental policy. Even in the United Kingdom (UK), the EU’s most recalcitrant member state (historically labeled the ‘Dirty man of Europe’), environmental policy has been Europeanised. As the UK moves to the EU’s exit door it is timely to assess the utility of Europeanisation for understanding policy dynamics in the UK. Drawing upon interviews and extensive engagement with stakeholders, this article analyses the potential impact of Brexit upon environmental policy and politics. The analytical toolkit offered by de-Europeanisation is developed to identify the factors that drive and inhibit de-Europeanisation processes, thereby providing insights that may be applicable in other settings. Disengagement and policy stagnation are presented as more likely environmental outcomes of Brexit, with capacity emerging as a central explanatory variable.     

Mapping wetlands in the Lower Mekong Basin for wetland resource and conservation management using Landsat ETM images and field survey data

The Mekong River Basin is considered to be the second most species rich river basin in the world. The 795,000 km(2) catchment encompasses several ecoregions, incorporating biodiverse and productive wetland systems. Eighty percent of the rapidly expanding population of the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB), made up in part by Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam, live in rural areas and are heavily reliant on wetland resources. As the populations of Cambodia and Lao PDR will double in the next 20 years, pressure on natural resources and particularly wetlands can only increase. For development planning, resource and conservation management to incorporate wetland issues, information on the distribution and character of Mekong wetlands is essential. The existing but outdated wetland maps were compiled from secondary landuse-landcover data, have limited coverage, poor thematic accuracy and no meta-data. Therefore the Mekong River Commission (MRC) undertook to produce new wetland coverage for the LMB. As resources, funding and regional capacity are limited, it was determined that the method applied should use existing facilities, be easily adaptable, and replicable locally. For the product to be useful it must be accepted by local governments and decision makers. The results must be of acceptable accuracy (>75%) and the methodology should be relatively understandable to non-experts. In the first stage of this exercise, field survey was conducted at five pilot sites covering a range of typical wetland habitats (MRC wetland classification) to supply data for a supervised classification of Landsat ETM images from the existing MRC archive. Images were analysed using ERDAS IMAGINE and applying Maximum Likelihood Classification. Field data were reserved to apply formal accuracy assessment to the final wetland habitat maps, with resulting accuracy ranging from 77 to 94%. The maps produced are now in use at a Provincial and National level in three countries for resource and conservation planning and management applications, including designation of a Ramsar wetland site of international importance.     

Characterizing natural degradation of tetrachloroethene (PCE) using a multidisciplinary approach

A site in mid-western Sweden contaminated with chlorinated solvents originating from a previous dry cleaning facility, was investigated using conventional groundwater analysis combined with compound-specific isotope data of carbon, microbial DNA analysis, and geoelectrical tomography techniques. We show the value of this multidisciplinary approach, as the different results supported each interpretation, and show where natural degradation occurs at the site. The zone where natural degradation occurred was identified in the transition between two geological units, where the change in hydraulic conductivity may have facilitated biofilm formation and microbial activity. This observation was confirmed by all methods and the examination of the impact of geological conditions on the biotransformation process was facilitated by the unique combination of the applied methods. There is thus significant benefit from deploying an extended array of methods for these investigations, with the potential to reduce costs involved in remediation of contaminated sediment and groundwater.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01418-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A dual channel gas chromatograph for atmospheric analysis of volatile organic compounds including oxygenated and monoterpene compounds

A dual channel gas chromatograph with flame ionisation detectors has been used extensively for analysis of volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere and forms the basis of two monitoring instruments contributing VOC data to the World Meteorological Organisation - Global Atmosphere Watch network. Recent modifications to the methodology have broadened the scope of the instrument; to incorporate measurements of selected monoterpenes, and achieve improved accuracy in the measurement of oxygenated volatile organic compounds. Analysis of selected monoterpenes has been achieved without any significant loss of resolution of the non-methane hydrocarbons or oxygenated compounds. Quantification of 64 different VOCs of varying functionalities are reported with detection limits in the range 1-5 parts per trillion. Here we present a summary of the instrumental and calibration details for the methodology, which continues to be used on many field projects, along with a discussion of the associated measurement uncertainties.