How to address data privacy concerns when using social media data in conservation science

Social media data are being increasingly used in conservation science to study human–nature interactions. User-generated content, such as images, video, text, and audio, and the associated metadata can be used to assess such interactions. A number of social media platforms provide free access to user-generated social media content. However, similar to any research involving people, scientific investigations based on social media data require compliance with highest standards of data privacy and data protection, even when data are publicly available. Should social media data be misused, the risks to individual users' privacy and well-being can be substantial. We investigated the legal basis for using social media data while ensuring data subjects’ rights through a case study based on the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. The risks associated with using social media data in research include accidental and purposeful misidentification that has the potential to cause psychological or physical harm to an identified person. To collect, store, protect, share, and manage social media data in a way that prevents potential risks to users involved, one should minimize data, anonymize data, and follow strict data management procedure. Risk-based approaches, such as a data privacy impact assessment, can be used to identify and minimize privacy risks to social media users, to demonstrate accountability and to comply with data protection legislation. We recommend that conservation scientists carefully consider our recommendations in devising their research objectives so as to facilitate responsible use of social media data in conservation science research, for example, in conservation culturomics and investigations of illegal wildlife trade online.     

Exploring human–nature interactions in national parks with social media photographs and computer vision

Understanding the activities and preferences of visitors is crucial for managing protected areas and planning conservation strategies. Conservation culturomics promotes the use of user-generated online content in conservation science. Geotagged social media content is a unique source of in situ information on human presence and activities in nature. Photographs posted on social media platforms are a promising source of information, but analyzing large volumes of photographs manually remains laborious. We examined the application of state-of-the-art computer-vision methods to studying human–nature interactions. We used semantic clustering, scene classification, and object detection to automatically analyze photographs taken in Finnish national parks by domestic and international visitors. Our results showed that human–nature interactions can be extracted from user-generated photographs with computer vision. The different methods complemented each other by revealing broad visual themes related to level of the data set, landscape photogeneity, and human activities. Geotagged photographs revealed distinct regional profiles for national parks (e.g., preferences in landscapes and activities), which are potentially useful in park management. Photographic content differed between domestic and international visitors, which indicates differences in activities and preferences. Information extracted automatically from photographs can help identify preferences among diverse visitor groups, which can be used to create profiles of national parks for conservation marketing and to support conservation strategies that rely on public acceptance. The application of computer-vision methods to automatic content analysis of photographs should be explored further in conservation culturomics, particularly in combination with rich metadata available on social media platforms.     

Digital data sources and methods for conservation culturomics

Ongoing loss of biological diversity is primarily the result of unsustainable human behavior. Thus, the long-term success of biodiversity conservation depends on a thorough understanding of human–nature interactions. Such interactions are ubiquitous but vary greatly in time and space and are difficult to monitor efficiently at large spatial scales. However, the Information Age also provides new opportunities to better understand human–nature interactions because many aspects of daily life are recorded in a variety of digital formats. The emerging field of conservation culturomics aims to take advantage of digital data sources and methods to study human–nature interactions and thus to provide new tools for studying conservation at relevant temporal and spatial scales. Nevertheless, technical challenges associated with the identification, access, and analysis of relevant data hamper the wider adoption of culturomics methods. To help overcome these barriers, we propose a conservation culturomics research framework that addresses data acquisition, analysis, and inherent biases. The main sources of culturomic data include web pages, social media, and other digital platforms from which metrics of content and engagement can be obtained. Obtaining raw data from these platforms is usually desirable but requires careful consideration of how to access, store, and prepare the data for analysis. Methods for data analysis include network approaches to explore connections between topics, time-series analysis for temporal data, and spatial modeling to highlight spatial patterns. Outstanding challenges associated with culturomics research include issues of interdisciplinarity, ethics, data biases, and validation. The practical guidance we offer will help conservation researchers and practitioners identify and obtain the necessary data and carry out appropriate analyses for their specific questions, thus facilitating the wider adoption of culturomics approaches for conservation applications.     

广州地区室内灰尘中典型非邻苯增塑剂的污染特征与暴露风险

非邻-苯二甲酸酯增塑剂作为邻-苯二甲酸酯的替代物被广泛用于生产和生活用品中,但目前对其环境存在和人体暴露风险知之甚少.为研究室内环境的污染状况及人体暴露,分析了广州市83户住宅灰尘中12种典型非邻苯增塑剂.结果表明,对-苯二甲酸二辛酯（DEHT）、偏苯三酸三辛酯（TOTM）、乙酰柠檬酸三丁酯（ATBC）、己二酸庚基壬基酯、己二酸二（2-乙基己基）酯和偏苯三酸三辛烷基酯100%检出.非邻-苯二甲酸酯增塑剂总含量中值为101 μg·g^-1,含量范围为22.4~615 μg·g^-1.DEHT的含量最高（含量范围9~487 μg·g^-1）,其次是TOTM （含量范围0.3~87 μg·g^-1）和ATBC （含量范围1.7~50 μg·g^-1）.通过暴露模型评估了成人与儿童经灰尘摄食的日暴露量,其中儿童摄入的非邻苯增塑剂总日暴露量为367 ng·（kg·d）^-1,是成人日暴露量43 ng·（kg·d）^-1的8~9倍.进一步通过危险商对暴露量进行风险评价,结果表明成人和儿童经灰尘摄食对非邻苯增塑剂的暴露风险均处于可接受范围.     

COVID-19疫情期间京津冀大气污染物变化及影响因素分析

为了应对COVID-19疫情,京津冀地区采取了一系列严格的管控措施,这些措施导致了大气污染物人为源排量的减少,为探究大气污染受人类活动的影响程度提供了时机.将疫情防控分为前期、初期、中期和后期这4个阶段,并结合气象、交通量和工业数据,综合运用数理统计和空间分析方法,得出各时间段大气污染物的变化情况及影响因素,为京津冀地区进一步治理大气污染提出了合理化建议.结果表明：①京津冀三地在疫情防控期总体的AQI值和6项污染物同比2019年均有下降,其中SO₂、PM₁₀和NO₂的降幅较大（分别为26.5%、24.3%和16.9%）;由初期到后期,各污染物（除O₃）总体处于下降趋势;O₃在初期增幅大（76.2%）,中后期增幅放缓.②防控初期北京市的重污染天气是污染物本地积累、二次转化和区域传输共同作用的结果;北京2月份的PM_2.5浓度同比相似气象条件下的2014年2月偏低近6成;若仅考虑人为减排的影响,则各污染物浓度同比2019年均有下降.③防控中后期,随着交通量和工业复工率进一步扩大,各污染物变化趋于平稳或有微升;重工业城市的热异常辐射强度与主要污染物的灰色关联度大于0.6,即控制工业排量仍是治理大气污染的关键.     

冬季颗粒物暴露对体育教师自觉症状及肺功能健康影响的研究

拟通过对比冬季雾霾天气颗粒物对户外体育教师和室内教师的自觉症状及肺功能的影响,为高污染天气下室外体育教师的个人防护提供理论参考,为完善颗粒物的人体健康暴露风险评估提供方法支持和理论依据。通过问卷调查和个体颗粒物暴露的研究方法,对80名室外体育教师和80名室内教师的个体呼吸机能状况、自觉症状评价、用力呼气肺活量(FVC)、第1秒用力呼气容量(FEV_1)、FEV_1/FVC、峰流速值(PEF)、肺活量(VC)和每分钟最大通气量(MVV)进行调查和测定,比较户外教师和室内教师、不同教龄和日工作时长以及吸烟史对颗粒物暴露的易感性及在呼吸系统症状、肺通气功能上的差异。研究结果表明,同样的工作时间内,室内和室外教师在个人的颗粒物暴露浓度和剂量上呈现出差异显著性;教龄、日工作时间和吸烟史与个人的自觉症状评价和肺功能指标之间存在着显著的相关关系,具有显著性差异(P 0.05或P 0.01)。以上研究表明,冬季雾霾天气下教师的健康状况受到一定的负面影响,户外体育教师肺功能和自我症状评价状况劣于室内教师;雾霾天气下教龄和日工作时长、肺功能和吸烟史与自我症状评价状况呈负相关。     

Environmental policy and human capital inequality: A matter of life and death

This paper analyzes the economic implications of an environmental policy when we account for the life expectancy of heterogeneous agents. In a framework in which everyone suffers from pollution but health status also depends on individual human capital, we find that the economy may be stuck in a trap in which inequality rises steadily, especially when the initial pollution intensity of production is too high. We emphasize that such inequality is in the long run costly for the economy in terms of health and growth. Therefore, we study whether a tax on pollution associated with an investment in pollution abatement can be used to address this situation. We show that a stricter environmental policy may allow the economy to escape from the inequality trap while enhancing the long-term growth rate when the initial inequality in human capital is not too large.     

Home buyouts and household recovery: neighborhood differences three years after Hurricane Sandy

Home buyout programs facilitate the permanent relocation of residents away from areas considered to be at risk from future hazards, though few studies have examined the impacts of home buyout programs on affected households and communities beyond the program implementation period. In this paper, we examine between-neighborhood variation in key recovery indicators for three neighborhoods that followed different paths to recovery after Hurricane Sandy: one that rebuilt in situ, one that participated in a buyout and relocated, and one located immediately adjacent to the buyout zone. Three years post-disaster, buyout participants are faring worse in terms of place attachment and social capital compared to residents in the other two neighborhoods, while the neighborhood adjacent to the buyout zone is also showing signs of decline. These findings suggest that the social costs of buyouts extend well into the recovery period, and that the place-based ties and social networks that would typically help individuals cope with disaster impacts and persevere through adversity may be diminished for buyout participants, ultimately hindering their recovery. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of buyouts on participating and affected communities, as well as implications for research and policy.     

Is software sustainability considered in the CSR of software industry?

Software is a key factor in the functioning of today’s world. Software is supposed to have some characteristics such as: reliability, security, etc., but it is not at all easy to find energy efficiency considered as being one of software’s most important features. Aspects related to Green Software have begun to be considered vital and basic, due to pressure from a society which is becoming more and more aware of environmental problems. In this paper we want to explore whether software companies, responsible for developing software, are aligning their strategies with environmental concerns. To do so, we have checked the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies of the ten most important software companies and looked at these documents with reference to the UN’s sustainable development goals. A well-defined method for carrying out the analysis of the CSR policies led the authors to identify which of the sustainability actions proposed can be classified within any of the software sustainability dimensions. The analysis of these actions shows that sustainability is considered in most of the companies; nonetheless, most attention is currently devoted to hardware-based initiatives intended to reduce the carbon footprint of the hardware resources of the companies. In addition, green software initiatives are still not the priority, despite the influence of software on energy consumption, and in spite of its impact on the environment. Using the set of actions selected, a set of specific actions for software sustainability, to be included in the CSR of software companies, has been defined.     

So animal a human ..., or the moral relevance of being an omnivore

It is argued that the question of whether or not one is required to be or become a strict vegetarian depends, not upon a rule or ideal that endorses vegetarianism on moral grounds, but rather upon whether one's own physical, biological nature is adapted to maintaining health and well-being on a vegetarian diet. Even if we accept the view that animals have rights, we still have no duty to make ourselves substantially worse off for the sake of other rights-holders. Moreover, duties to others, such as fetuses and infants, may require one to consume meat or animal products. Seven classes of individuals who are not required to be or become vegetarians are identified and their examption is related to nutritional facts; these classes comprise most of the earth's population. The rule of vegetarianism defines a special or provisional duty rather than any general or universal rule, since its observance it based upon the biological capacities of individual humans whose genetic constitution and environment makes them suitably herbivorous. It is also argued that generalizing the vegetarian ideal as a social goal for all would be wrongful because it fails to consider the individual nutritional needs of humans at various stages of life, according to biological differences between the sexes, and because it would have the eugenic effect of limiting the adaptability of the human species. The appeal to the natural interests of omnivores will not justify any claim that humans may eat amounts of meat or animal products in excess of a reasonable safety margin since animals have rights-claims against us.