Exploring nationality and social identity to explain attitudes toward conservation actions in the United States and Australia

Understanding human attitudes toward wildlife management is critical to implementing effective conservation action and policy. Understanding the factors that shape public attitudes toward different wildlife management actions is limited, however, which can result in unpredictable public responses to interventions. We drew on comparisons between residents of 2 countries on separate continents to explore differences in attitudes toward wildlife management and determine factors important in shaping these attitudes. We surveyed representative publics via market research panels in Australia (n = 881 respondents) and the United States (n = 1287). We applied a social-identity approach and demography to identify factors that explained variance between responses about wildlife management. We compared responses between countries overall and within subgroups of respondents who strongly identified as environmentalists, animal rights activists, wildlife conservation advocates, and farmers. We created aggregate scores for the management-related response items per respondent and used regression analyses to identify the relative importance of country, identity, age, and gender in explaining variance between responses. These factors accounted for 15.3% of variance among responses. Australians overall were generally more accepting of lethal wildlife management actions than U.S. respondents. Differences in national attitudes reflected differences between United States and Australian wildlife management and policy, highlighting the importance of understanding social attitudes in shaping conservation policy. Identifying as a farmer followed by identifying as an animal rights activist most shaped attitudes toward wildlife management. Identity-related conflicts could be initiated or exacerbated by conservation interventions that fail to consider identity-related processes.     

Test procedure for evaluating the human–machine interface of vehicles with automated driving systems

Abstract

Objective: The human–machine interface (HMI) is a crucial part of every automated driving system (ADS). In the near future, it is likely that—depending on the operational design domain (ODD)—different levels of automation will be available within the same vehicle. The capabilities of a given automation level as well as the operator’s responsibilities must be communicated in an appropriate way. To date, however, there are no agreed-upon evaluation methods that can be used by human factors practitioners as well as researchers to test this.

Methods: We developed an iterative test procedure that can be applied during the product development cycle of ADS. The test procedure is specifically designed to evaluate whether minimum requirements as proposed in NHTSA’s automated vehicle policy are met.

Results: The proposed evaluation protocol includes (a) a method to identify relevant use cases for testing on the basis of all theoretically possible steady states and mode transitions of a given ADS; (b) an expert-based heuristic assessment to evaluate whether the HMI complies with applicable norms, standards, and best practices; and (c) an empirical evaluation of ADS HMIs using a standardized design for user studies and performance metrics.

Conclusions: Each can be used as a stand-alone method or in combination to generate objective, reliable, and valid evaluations of HMIs, focusing on whether they meet minimum requirements. However, we also emphasize that other evaluation aspects such as controllability, misuse, and acceptance are not within the scope of the evaluation protocol.     

Long-term impacts of exposure to high temperatures on human capital and economic productivity

Weather anomalies have a range of adverse contemporaneous impacts on health and socio-economic outcomes. This paper tests if temperature anomalies around the time of birth can have long-term impacts on individuals' economic productivity. Using unique data sets on historical weather and earnings, place and date of birth of all 1.5 million formal employees in Ecuador, we find that individuals who have experienced in-utero temperatures that are 1 °C above average are less educated and earn about 0.7% less as adults. Results are robust to alternative specifications and falsification tests and suggest that warming may have already caused adverse long-term economic impacts.     

浅析职业安全健康领域人力资源管理创新

我国职业安全健康领域人力资源管理存在管理理念落后,激励因素不足,培训开发力度不足等问题,制约我国职业安全健康事业的发展。为盘活现有的人力资源,实现职业安全健康领域人力资源创新管理,笔者认为一是要进行观念创新;二是要进行机制创新;三是要营造有利于职业安全健康领域人力资源管理创新的环境。本文就职业安全健康领域人力资源管理创新提出三点建议：（1）提升职业安全健康领域人力资源管理战略高度;（2）提高职业安全健康领域人力资源管理专业水平;（3）加强职业安全健康领域人力资源管理权力约束机制建设。     

人力资本对中国经济增长的影响——基于扩展Solow模型的研究

人力资本综合存量的度量方法有采用产出法分析,也有用投入法来分析;有从理论上推理,也有从经验数据上论证。分析方法有从教育人力资本角度出发,也有从健康人力资本角度出发。而绝大多数文献很少将教育和健康因素同时纳入考虑,仅分析其中一个方面无疑会带来测量的误差。若能同时考虑教育和健康,由新的度量方法产生新数据,由此带来新结论或是能对已有结论作进一步地论证,则是对以往文献研究的一个补充。因此,本文从四个维度建立新型人力资本综合测量体系,通过因子分析法对人力资本的综合水平进行了衡量。其中四个维度主要是指教育、劳动力再培训、身心健康和劳动力合理流动。在此基础上,把人力资本综合存量这一指标引入Solow模型中,构建扩展的Solow模型。利用扩展Solow模型,并结合最新人口统计数据进行实证分析,建立扩展的中国经济增长模型。研究发现人力资本和技术进步正逐渐成为我国经济增长的主要影响因素,劳动力数量对经济增长的影响在逐渐减弱。在我国经济发展的新阶段,如何在控制人口数量和提高经济发展水平方面协调各项工作成为当前的热点问题。为此我们针对教育投入,全民人口素质,中高端人才培养,经济增长方式创新等方面提出一些建议。     

Emergy Evaluation of a Village Ecosystem in Wolong Nature Reserve in China

Abstract

Due to historic reasons, there are several human settlements in nature reserves and national parks, which may constitute a threat to biodiversity. Establishment of nature reserves may however generate constraints for development of local communities residing in these reserves. The village ecosystem of Zhuanjinglou Village in Wolong Nature Reserve includes population, farming and livestock (domestic and alpine) and forest ecosystem. An emergy analysis of agro-ecosystem (including the farming and livestock ecosystem) and energy consumption in Zhuanjinglou Village indicates that livestock ecosystem plays an important role in village ecosystem, which may be the source of great pressure on the state of the local environment. The increasing ratio of electricity in energy consumption may play a positive role for environmental conservation. Despite some successful experiences, there are some remaining issues that need to be addressed in the ecological rehabilitation of the village ecosystem.     

The Concept and Theoretical Implications of Carbon Emissions Rights Based on Individual Equity

Abstract

Climate change has become a hot topic in international environmental negotiations. For post-Kyoto international climate regime negotiations, many countries have proposed a variety of frameworks to share the emission reduction responsibilities and allocate carbon emission rights, and have tried to quantify the emission reduction obligations of all countries based on the perspectives of international equity and individual equity. In this paper, the authors have distinguished the concepts of carbon emissions rights based on these two perspectives respectively, have analyzed the relationship between carbon emissions per capita and economic development, and have calculated and compared the proportion of cumulative emissions per capita of different countries in history and future, and then authors conclude that emission reduction obligations should be allocated based on each country’s conditions, including historical emissions, development stage, and future demands. Developed countries should take the initiative to significantly reduce their emissions because they have already accomplished their industrialization process. However, developing countries are still in the process of industrialization, which requires more emission rights to meet their development needs. For China, the concept of carbon emissions based on individual equity can be used as a theoretical tool for the allocating the international carbon emissions rights.     

上海城市人居生态质量综合评价研究

基于上海城市气象站点数据、卫星遥感反演的土地利用数据、气象灾情记录数据和植被叶面积指数数据,运用层次分析法结合专家咨询法,建立了上海城市人居生态质量评价指标体系,并综合应用遥感和地理信息系统(GIS)空间分析技术,从湿润指数、气象灾害指数、水体密度指数、植被覆盖指数和植被质量指数开展了上海城市250m空间格网的人居生态质量评价和等级划分。结果表明:建立的评价指标体系对上海城市人居生态质量评价是可行的,上海人居生态质量在多数地区都为良或一般等级,在闵行、宝山和嘉定一些地区以及青浦和浦东个别地区人居生态质量为差,而在崇明北部和南部一些地区以及浦东、南汇和奉贤沿海极少地区人居生态质量为优等级。     

Parallel and Serial Methods of Calculating Thermal Insulation in European Manikin Standards

Abstract

Standard No. EN 15831:2004 provides 2 methods of calculating insulation: parallel and serial. The parallel method is similar to the global one defined in Standard No. ISO 9920:2007. Standards No. EN 342:2004, EN 14058:2004 and EN 13537:2002 refer to the methods defined in Standard No. EN ISO 15831:2004 for testing cold protective clothing or equipment. However, it is necessary to consider several issues, e.g., referring to measuring human subjects, when using the serial method. With one zone, there is no serial-parallel issue as the results are the same, while more zones increase the difference in insulation value between the methods. If insulation is evenly distributed, differences between the serial and parallel method are relatively small and proportional. However, with more insulation layers overlapping in heavy cold protective ensembles, the serial method produces higher insulation values than the parallel one and human studies. Therefore, the parallel method is recommended for standard testing.