Investigation into qualitative discourses of the occupational safety and health inspectors in order to promote enforcement

The aim of this study is to conduct an ex-post evaluation of the OSH Enforcement Act. The focus of the study was to collate the views of occupational safety and health (OSH) inspectors on how the OSH Enforcement Act and the practices of the governmental OSH inspectorate operate from an effectiveness perspective. The questionnaire included open questions addressed to OSH inspectors. The results indicated that there is a tension between the quantitative performance targets, e.g., the number of inspections and the effectiveness of the practical enforcement work. Harmonizing the enforcement practices should be implemented at two levels: OSH local agencies and individual inspectors. OSH inspectors believe that developing the professional skills of OSH inspectors and the monitoring of OSH management systems are important ways of promoting the effectiveness of OSH enforcement.     

How Aware Are Other Nations of Climate Change? Analyzing Germans’ Second-Order Climate Change Beliefs About Chinese,US American and German People

ABSTRACT

What people believe about the beliefs of other people – second-order beliefs – has been acknowledged as a key factor that shapes public support for international climate policy. However, very little is known about their origins. Based on data from an online survey (n?=?935), we analyzed how German citizens assess the climate change awareness in their own nation as compared to those of the US and China. Even if the public climate change awareness in the US and China factually differs, we found that German citizens equivalently rate both nations similar and much lower than their own, a finding which can be explained with social identity processes and “in-group”/“out-group” biases. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrate that the attention individuals pay towards television and social media predict second-order beliefs on climate change awareness positively, while attention to print media is a negative predictor.     

Beyond behaviour change: technological artefacts and characterological development

Addressing the root causes of (un)sustainability entails fundamentally changing our ways of living. This requires going beyond technology and behaviour-oriented approaches common under the umbrella of sustainable development (SD). More fundamental change is required to increase the possibility of realizing ecological and psychological well-being. Here, such change is conceptualized as ‘characterological change’. Next to SD another domain is introduced: characterological development (CD). The potential role of design-interventions in CD is explored in this article. Two studies were conducted, a literature study and experts interviews, covering the fields of Design for Sustainable Behaviour, Persuasive Technology, Practice-Oriented Design and Philosophy of Technology. The literature study shows that current research and interventions predominantly fall within the domain of SD, leaving character and related notions largely unaddressed. The expert interviews (n = 10) show a consensus that (design) research concerning the relation between technological artefacts and human character would be valuable. Research challenges and opportunities for design towards ‘living the good life within ecological means’ are discussed.     

制度变迁对旅游发展的效应及其研究框架——从一个新制度经济学的视角

一个完善的制度是保证旅游业持续发展的关键.在新制度经济理论的指导下和界定制度变迁相关概念的基础上,分析了制度变迁对旅游发展的效应.从制度变迁对旅游发展是否存在效应、正效应还是负效应、具体效应与不同区域的效应有无差异等方面构建了研究框架和主要内容.     

Weak indirect effects inherent to nitrogen biogeochemical cycling within anthropogenic ecosystems: A network environ analysis

Indirect effects are assumed to be the major causes of the complexity and stability of ecological networks. The complexity of urban-rural complexes (URCs) could also be attributed to the indirect effects associated with human activities. No studies, however, have quantified the strength of indirect effects in relation to urban biogeochemistry. A network environ analysis (NEA) was used for this study to investigate and compare indirect effects in relation to the nitrogen (N) cycling networks of 22 natural ecosystems and five URCs. Results show that indirect effects were proven to be weak for URC N cycling networks (accounting for only ∼2% of the overall effects measured in natural ecosystems). The weak indirect effects found provide a counterexample for the hypothesis that indirect effects are in fact the dominant components of biogeochemical networks. It also implies that human activity in itself does not always raise the complexity of ecological processes as previously suggested. Weak indirect effects also lead to perturbation fragility for URC N cycles (where the decay rate is greater in comparison to natural ecosystems by a factor of 13). In order to improve the robustness and efficiency of URC biogeochemical cycling, a knockout analysis was carried out. By comparing results after removing single interactions between natural ecosystems and URCs it was found that the loss of indirect effects require cooperative strategies to optimize N cycling networks within URCs.     

Household incidence of pollution control policies: A robust welfare analysis using general equilibrium effects

This study assesses the incidence of pollution control policies on households. In contrast to previous studies, we employ an integrated framework combining a multisector general equilibrium model with a stochastic dominance analysis using household-level data. We consider three policy instruments in a domestic emission trading system: (i) an output-based allocation (OBA) of permits; (ii) the use of the proceeds of permit sales to reduce payroll taxes (RPT); (iii) and the use of these proceeds to reduce consumption taxes instead (UCS). The general equilibrium results suggest that the return to capital is more negatively affected than the wage rate in all simulations, since polluting industries are capital intensive. Abstracting from pollution externalities, the dominance analysis suggests that all three policies have a normatively robust negative (positive) impact on welfare (poverty). Formal dominance tests indicate that RPT first-order welfare dominates OBA over all values of household incomes. UCS also first-order poverty dominates RPT for any choice of poverty line below $CAN 18,600, and poverty dominates for any poverty line (and thus welfare dominates) at the second order. Finally, while the three pollution control policies do not have a numerically large impact on inequality (in comparison to the base run), statistical tests indicate that inequality increases significantly more with OBA and RPT than with UCS.     

T-2毒素的毒性效应及致毒机制研究进展

T-2毒素是由多种镰刀菌产生的单端孢霉烯族化合物中毒性较强的一种毒素,广泛存在于谷物和谷类食品中.经食物连续摄入T-2毒素会对人类和动物的健康造成潜在危害.目前,T-2毒素对人和动物健康的影响受到了社会的广泛关注,已成为毒理学领域研究的热点课题之一.在综述了T-2毒素的生物转化、代谢途径及其毒理学效应与机制基础上,对现...     

新烟碱类杀虫剂污染特征及其毒性效应

综述了新烟碱类杀虫剂在土壤、水体和大气中的赋存现状及其对无脊椎动物、脊椎动物和人类的毒性效应.新烟碱类杀虫剂普遍存在于多介质环境中,特别在农业种植区具有较高的残留浓度.新烟碱类杀虫剂对非靶标动物的影响主要表现在氧化应激、抑制活动能力、损伤DNA和生育功能;亦会对人类的生育、生殖、神经以及脏器功能带来风险.因此,今后亟需系统研究新烟碱类杀虫剂在多环境介质中的赋存及污染状况,深入探讨新烟碱类杀虫剂对非靶标生物的健康危害,以便全面了解此类杀虫剂对生态环境及非靶标生物造成的潜在风险.     

绿狐尾藻对铜绿微囊藻和羊角月牙藻的抑藻效应

分别将不同起始浓度(10~5、10~6、10~7、10~8和10~9ind.·L~(-1))的铜绿微囊藻和羊角月牙藻分组与绿狐尾藻进行共培养,连续10 d,每天测定各组铜绿微囊藻或羊角月牙藻的光密度值,用以确定绿狐尾藻对两种藻类不同浓度的生长抑制情况.结果表明,2. 5 g·(200 m L)~(-1)的绿狐尾藻对起始浓度为10~7ind.·L~(-1)和10~8ind.·L~(-1)的铜绿微囊藻具有明显的抑制作用;而对实验所设的所有起始浓度的羊角月牙藻生长均没有显著的抑制作用.并且,采用溶剂浸提与气相色谱-质谱联用(GC-MS)测定的方法,分析了绿狐尾藻粉末浸提液和绿狐尾藻生长液中可能存在的化感物质,通过分析,确定棕榈酸是绿狐尾藻分泌的化感物质之一,并且发现了3种可能是绿狐尾藻分泌的新型化感物质:3-乙基-3-甲基庚烷、磷酸三乙酯和酞酸二丁酯.