Determination of pendimethalin (PROWL®480 EC) spray drift from ground applications

Abstract

Pendimethalin herbicide (PROWL^®480 EC) spray drift was determined from ground applications representing the highest rate applied to corn in eastern Canada. A novel drift collector pattern was laid out on the ground immediately before herbicide application. Most of the drift collectors were located downwind of the application target area. The maximum labelled rate of 1.68 kg ai/Ha was applied on 2 occasions on separate sites. In both applications, drift collector cards indicated that concentrations of pendimethalin were not detectable outside the target zone (<0.01 μg/cm²) at or beyond the 10 metre drift collector stations. Risk assessment calculations indicated that non‐target organisms would not be at significant risk from off‐site movement of pendimethalin.     

Valuation of small and multiple health risks: A critical analysis of SP data applied to food and water safety

This study elicits individual risk preferences in the context of an infectious disease using choice experiments. A main objective is to examine scope sensitivity using a novel approach. Our results suggest that the value of a mortality risk reduction (VSL) is highly sensitive to the survey design. Our results cast doubt on the standard scope sensitivity tests in choice experiments, but also on the validity and reliability of VSL estimates based on stated-preference studies in general. This is important due to the large empirical literature on non-market evaluation and the elicited values’ central role in policy making.     

Value Plurality among Conservation Professionals

Abstract: Debate on the values that underpin conservation science is rarely based on empirical analysis of the values conservation professionals actually hold. We used Q methodology to investigate the values held by international conservation professionals who attended the annual Student Conference in Conservation Science at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) in 2008 and 2009. The methodology offers a quantitative means of examining human subjectivity. It differs from standard opinion surveys in that individual respondents record the way they feel about statements relative to other statements, which forces them to focus their attention on the issues they believe are most important. The analysis extracts the diverse viewpoints of the respondents, and factor analysis is used to reduce the viewpoints to a smaller set of factors that reflect shared ways of thinking. The junior conservation professionals attending the conference did not share a unifying set of core values; rather, they held a complex series of ideas and a plurality of opinions about conservation and how it should be pursued. This diversity of values empirically challenges recent proposals for conservation professionals to unite behind a single philosophy. Attempts to forge an artificial consensus may be counterproductive to the overall goals conservation professionals are pursuing.     

Some Guiding Concepts for Conservation Biology

Abstract: The search for generalities in ecology has often been thwarted by contingency and ecological complexity that limit the development of predictive rules. We present a set of concepts that we believe succinctly expresses some of the fundamental ideas in conservation biology. (1) Successful conservation management requires explicit goals and objectives. (2) The overall goal of biodiversity management will usually be to maintain or restore biodiversity, not to maximize species richness. (3) A holistic approach is needed to solve conservation problems. (4) Diverse approaches to management can provide diverse environmental conditions and mitigate risk. (5) Using nature's template is important for guiding conservation management, but it is not a panacea. (6) Focusing on causes not symptoms enhances efficacy and efficiency of conservation actions. (7) Every species and ecosystem is unique, to some degree. (8) Threshold responses are important but not ubiquitous. (9) Multiple stressors often exert critical effects on species and ecosystems. (10) Human values are variable and dynamic and significantly shape conservation efforts. We believe most conservation biologists will broadly agree these concepts are important. That said, an important part of the maturation of conservation biology as a discipline is constructive debate about additional or alternative concepts to those we have proposed here. Therefore, we have established a web‐based, online process for further discussion of the concepts outlined in this paper and developing additional ones.     

Vulnerability and adaptation to heat in cities: perspectives and perceptions of local adaptation decision-makers in Sweden

Climate change vulnerability is disproportionately distributed between different population segments in society. This study qualitatively explores how key stakeholders in municipalities (i.e. planning and operational staff in municipalities and the vulnerable themselves) construct social vulnerability in relation to climate change with a specific focus on thermal stress (i.e. heat waves) and which adaptive responses they identify at different levels. The empirical material consists of five focus groups with actors in a large Swedish municipality where the “Vulnerability Factor Card Game” was used as stimulus material to create 10 fictional individuals. The results show that there is a substantial amount of local knowledge about vulnerability drivers and inter-relations between social factors and vulnerability. Local decision-makers also defined a wide range of possible adaptation measures at different municipal levels. Our study clearly indicates that contextualised knowledge, which could complement the quantitative approaches in research, is abundant among municipal planners, staff employed at municipal operations such as health care, and among the vulnerable themselves. This knowledge remains untapped by research to a great extent and only seems to have an insignificant influence on policy-making. In particular, how impacts vary between different social and demographic groups and how adaptation strategies that target the most vulnerable could be defined are of great interest. The present study clearly indicates that social hierarchy may produce increased inequality in the specific context of climate change, vulnerability and adaptive responses at different levels.     

Cultivating food as a right to the city

This paper argues that there is much to be gained when we view struggles to cultivate food in the city through the lens of Henri Lefebvre's concept of the right to the city. Lefebvre's idea helps us better perceive the radical political and ecological potential of those struggles. And in the empirical details of the struggles we can see concretely the key action in Lefebvre's concept, an action that is only abstract in his work: urban inhabitants becoming active and producing and managing space for themselves.     

露天转地下开采对上覆构筑物安全影响分析

为在最大限度科学回收地下资源的前提下,保证地表构筑物安全,以国内某大型矿山为工程背景,采用空区监测系统(CMS)结合DIMINE/FLAC3D建模技术,构建露天转地下开采对地表构筑物影响分析三维可视化计算模型。通过数值计算与现场调查相结合的方法,对比分析露天转地下开采影响范围内的地表构筑物水平位移、倾斜、曲率、沉降。结果表明:数值计算获得的应力场和位移场结果,与矿山实测结果基本吻合。该矿山开采1 650 m阶段后监测点最大倾斜指标为9 mm/m,接近允许值上限,因此,其最大合理开采深度为1 650 m阶段。     

Numerical study on dust movement and dust distribution for hybrid ventilation system in a laneway of coal mine

Coal dust disaster is the most serious problem in a laneway of coal mine. Dust movement regularity for comprehensive mechanized heading face is the key scientific issues for the principle and technology of dust prevention. The special topic on systematic study of the variation regularity of dust movement and dust distribution is presented with hybrid ventilation for the comprehensive mechanized heading face: Euler–Euler method was firstly established on the numerical platform for gas–solid two phase flow in a laneway. And the forces and the dynamic model of dust particles were performed in three-dimensional flow field. Then based on the visible simulations, the movement characteristics of diffusion, sedimentation and accumulation of dust particles were investigated under the action of the complex air flow, and the spatiotemporal variation of dust distribution was studied with hybrid ventilation system. Meanwhile, the obtained dust distribution regularities were compared with the obtainable experimental results. Finally, selected method on different ventilation patterns for dust control was brought out for the heading face according to the gained regularity. The research results is helpful for further understanding of the essence of dust movement with air flow, which could provide more suitable guidance for the principle of dust control and technology of ventilation.     

Active learning climate and employee errors: The moderating effects of personality traits

This study developed and tested a cross‐level model of the relationship between two components of active learning climate—enactive exploration and guided learning—and employee errors, and the moderating roles of the individual's traits of openness to experience and conscientiousness. The study examined the medical errors made by 142 resident physicians in 22 hospital departments. Results demonstrated significant interactions between climate and traits: when an individual had a low level of the trait of openness to experience, there was a curvilinear relationship between enactive exploration climate and number of errors. With a high level of openness to experience, the enactive exploration climate was positively associated with the number of errors up to a certain point. In addition, when an individual had a low level of conscientiousness, there was a negative association between guided learning climate and number of errors; with a high level of conscientiousness, there was a positive association between guided learning climate and number of errors. Thus, individual performance was better when the climate complemented the individual's lack of a trait. When the level of the individual's trait was high, the climate intensified the already pronounced trait up to an extent that impaired the individual's performance. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

综合危险性指数法在泰山区地质灾害易发区划分中的应用

地质灾害易发区划分是进行地质灾害防治的基础工作。针对泰安市泰山区地质灾害分布特点,进行区内地质环境特征和危险性分析以及综合危险性指数(含潜在地质灾害强度指数和现状地质灾害强度指数)计算,对区内地质灾害易发程度进行定量评价,将泰山区划分成地质灾害高易发区、中易发区、低易发区和不易发区等4个等级,为今后开展地质灾害防治提供依据。