Situational and dispositional predictors of displays of positive emotions

The study examined the effects of situational (store busyness and customer demand) and dispositional (extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism) factors on the display of positive emotions. We found that for situational factors, customer demand was positively related to displayed positive emotions. For personality factors, extraversion was positively related to displayed positive emotions and neuroticism was negatively related to displayed positive emotions. Usefulness analysis showed that both situational and personality factors contributed significantly to explain the level of positive displayed emotion. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Meeting Consumer Concerns for Food Safety in South Korea: The Importance of Food Safety and Ethics in a Globalizing Market

As the issue of food safety became one of the important public agenda, consumer concern for food safety became the general public concern. The Korea U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) completion allowing import of U.S. beef to Korea has turned into a massive public uproar and a series of demonstrations, revealing widespread concerns on the part of Korean producers and consumers about government food safety regulations and mishandling of the beef trade requirement. The mishandling of public concerns for BSE on U.S. beef import by the administrators led to a breakdown of the relationship between the public and the government and a loss of consumer confidence in Korea’s food safety system. The KORUS FTA beef crisis raised the issues of government accountability and the importance of understanding moral and ethical aspects of food safety management that pose perceived risk for BSE by the Korean citizen. The aim of this paper is to address the importance of understanding consumer concerns, food ethics and of appropriate risk communication in dealing with politically and publically sensitive food safety issues. This is achieved by assessing the factors that contributed to the conflict between the Korean government and the Korean public over the KORUS FTA beef agreement.     

The price of pollution: costs estimates of environmentally related disease in Oregon

The purpose of this study is to estimate the environmentally attributable costs associated with diseases and disabilities in Oregon. We utilised actual Oregon data on disease rates and costs whenever available. If state-specific data were not available, we extrapolated from national estimates. We then used environmentally attributable fractions to estimate the environmentally attributable costs. The estimated environmentally attributable costs are the following: adult and childhood asthma: $29.6M; adult cardiovascular disease: $342.4M; adult and childhood cancer: $130.5M; childhood lead poisoning: $866.2M; birth defects: $3.0M; and childhood neurobehavioural disorders: $185M. Policymakers and researchers in other states are encouraged to apply the methods we have presented here to calculate the environmentally attributable costs associated with diseases and disabilities in their state. Knowing that many of the environmental contributors to disease are often preventable, policymakers are encouraged to make environmental public health a top priority.     

Tit for tat among neighboring hooded warblers

Summary The dear-enemy relationship of territorial songbirds could be mutually beneficial to neighbors, as males who recognize neighbors and reduce their responses to these neighbors would require less time and energy for territorial defense. In order for this relationship to be evolutionarily stable, this reduction in response to a neighbor must be conditional on reciprocal restraint by that neighbor. This study examined the possibility of such conditional responses in hooded warblers (Wilsonia citrina). Responses of territorial hooded warblers to playbacks of neighbors' songs from shared boundaries were measured before and after playbacks that simulated intrusions of those same neighbors (NNNN treatment) or strange birds (NSSN treatment) into the subjects' territories. Each male received both treatments separated by at least 8 days. Males increased their responses to playbacks of a neighbor's songs at the boundary after simulated intrusions of that same neighbor (NNNN) but did not increase their responses to such playbacks after simulated intrusions of strangers (NSSN). This increased response to a defecting neighbor suggests that the relationship between neighboring territorial hooded warblers is based on a conditional strategy like tit-for-tat.     

Identifying impediments to long‐distance mammal migrations

In much of the world, the persistence of long‐distance migrations by mammals is threatened by development. Even where human population density is relatively low, there are roads, fencing, and energy development that present barriers to animal movement. If we are to conserve species that rely on long‐distance migration, then it is critical that we identify existing migration impediments. To delineate stopover sites associated with anthropogenic development, we applied Brownian bridge movement models to high‐frequency locations of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We then used resource utilization functions to assess the threats to long‐distance migration of pronghorn that were due to fences and highways. Migrating pronghorn avoided dense developments of natural gas fields. Highways with relatively high volumes of traffic and woven‐wire sheep fence acted as complete barriers. At crossings with known migration bottlenecks, use of high?quality forage and shrub habitat by pronghorn as they approached the highway was lower than expected based on availability of those resources. In contrast, pronghorn consistently utilized high?quality forage close to the highway at crossings with no known migration bottlenecks. Our findings demonstrate the importance of minimizing development in migration corridors in the future and of mitigating existing pressure on migratory animals by removing barriers, reducing the development footprint, or installing crossing structures. Identificación de los Impedimentos para las Migraciones de Larga Distancia de Mamíferos     

Historical changes in the food and water supply systems of the New York City Metropolitan Area

The history of New York City (NYC) is much shorter than those of most European cities, but New York shares in common the problem of providing sufficient water and food to its inhabitants from its watershed and foodshed. These resource provision areas have grown over time and changed in character as they expanded in tandem with the growth of the city. In contrast to some cities, such as Paris, which historically has been supported by local food production, NYC??s status as a trade center has enabled the supply of food from distant sources from early in its history. NYC??s transportation system has rapidly evolved from early roads to canals, railroads, and modern surface and air transport networks. The development of the hydraulic engineering of the City??s reservoir, aqueduct, and tunnel system determined the extent of its water supply watersheds. Deviations from general growth trends in food and water consumption have occurred due to environmental and economic disruptions. As the growth of the city slowed in the last few decades, environmental technology has reduced the impact of the City on its environment, due to water metering, reduction of leakage, and improvements in waste treatment. However, per capita food consumption in the US continues to increase, with implications for the environmental health of New York and its region, as well as other centers of net anthropogenic nutrient inputs.     

The perspective of children and youth: How different stakeholders identify architectural barriers for inclusion in schools

Recent inclusive policies are promoting the involvement of individuals with disabilities in identifying barriers that limit their full participation and inclusion in public spaces. The present two studies explored the contributions provided by different stakeholder groups in the identification of architectural barriers in elementary and secondary schools. In each school, the principal, special education resource teacher and a student independently identified architectural barriers using an observational walkthrough method. The first study consisted of 29 schools where the student evaluator had a physical disability and the second study consisted of 22 schools where the student evaluator did not have a disability. The results of both studies showed that students identified the greatest number of barriers and principals the least. The type and location of identified barriers are explored and the conclusions are examined in relation to person-environment congruence. The results highlight the efficacy of youth involvement and provide support for collaborative assessments that equitably involve all stakeholders in inclusive environmental assessments.     

Determination of the dietary biomagnification of octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane with the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Separate 77-d fish feeding studies were conducted on the cyclic volatile methylsiloxane (cVMS) chemicals octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane with the rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, with the determination of biomagnification factor (BMF) and lipid-adjusted BMF (BMF(L)) values as the final experimental metrics. The studies used fish food concentrations of ∼500 μg g⁻¹ for exposure periods of 35 d, followed by a depuration period of 42 d with clean food. The fish tissue concentrations of D4 and D5 achieved empirical steady-state by day 21 in each study. By day 7 of exposure, total ¹⁴C activity of both compounds had moved from the fish gastrointestinal (GI) tract into surrounding tissue. An absence of significant fish growth during the initial depuration phase allowed for measurement of empirical depuration rate constants (k₂) independent of growth dilution for D4 and D5 of 0.035 and 0.040 d⁻¹, respectively, corresponding to elimination half-lives of approximately 20 d. These rate constants indicated that ∼70–75% of steady-state was achieved during exposure in both studies, resulting in empirical steady-state BMF and BMF(L) values of 0.28 and 0.66 for D4, respectively, and 0.32 and 0.85 for D5, respectively. Kinetic modeling using simple first-order uptake and depuration dynamics produced good agreement with experimental data, with D4 and D5 assimilation efficiencies of 40% and 44%, respectively. Growth-corrected depuration rate constants modeled over the entire study data set indicated slower elimination kinetics for D4 (k₂ of 0.007 d⁻¹ or half-life of 100 d) compared to D5 (k₂ of 0.010 d⁻¹ or elimination half-life of 69 d). Kinetic BMF_k values (i.e., k₁/k₂) for D4 and D5 were 1.7 and 1.3, respectively, with lipid-adjusted BMF_k(L) values of 4.0 and 3.4, respectively.