The long-term water quality monitoring program implemented by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in 1992 is extensive
and has provide substantial understanding of the seasonality of the waters in both Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay and
the response to improvements in effluent quality and offshore transfer of the effluent in September 2000. The monitoring program
was designed with limited knowledge of spatial and temporal variability and long-term trends within the system. This led to
an extensive spatial and temporal sampling program. The data through 2003 showed high correlation within physical parameters
measured (e.g., salinity, dissolved oxygen) and in biological measures such as chlorophyll fluorescence. To address the potential
sampling redundancies in the measurement program, an assessment of the impact of reduced levels of monitoring on the ability
to make water quality decisions was completed. The optimization was conducted by applying statistical models that took into
account whether there was evidence of a seasonal pattern in the data. The optimization used model survey average readings
to identify temporal fixed effects, model survey-average-corrected individual station readings to identify spatial fixed effects,
corrected the individual station readings for temporal and spatial fixed effects and derived a correlation model for the corrected
data, and applied the correlation model to characterize the correlation of annual average readings from reduced monitoring
programs with true parameter levels. Reductions in the number of sampling stations were found less detrimental to the quality
of the data for annual decision-making than reductions in the number of surveys per year, although there is less of a difference
in this regard for dissolved oxygen than there is for chlorophyll. The analysis led to recommendations for a substantially
lower monitoring effort with minimal loss of information. The recommendation supported an annual budget savings of approximately
$183,000. Most of the savings was from fewer surveys as approximately $21,000 came from the reduction in the number of stations
monitored from 21 to 7 and associated laboratory analytical costs. 相似文献
The quantitative assessment of plant diversity and its monitoring with time represent a key environmental issue for management
and conservation of natural resources. Assessment of plant diversity could be based on chemical analyses of secondary metabolites
(e.g. flavonoids, terpenoids), because of the substantial quantitative and qualitative between-individual variability in such
compounds. At a geographical scale, the plant populations become widely dispersed, and their monitoring from numerous routine
individual analyses could become restricting. To overcome such constraint, this study develops a multivariate calibration
model giving the relative frequency of a particular taxon from a simple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis
of a plant mixture. The model was built from a complete set of mixtures combining different taxons, according to an experimental
design (Scheffé’s matrix). For each mixture, a reference HPLC pattern was simulated by averaging the individual HPLC profiles
of the constitutive taxons. The calibration models, based on Bayesian discriminant analysis (BDA), gave statistical relationships
between the contributions of each taxon in mixtures and reference HPLC patterns of these mixtures. Finally, these models were
validated on new mixtures by using outside plants. This new biodiversity survey approach is illustrated on four chemical taxons
(four chemotypes) of Astragalus caprinus (Fabaceae). The more differentiated the taxon, the better predicted its contributions (in mixtures) were by BDA calibration
model. This new approach could be very useful for a global routine survey of plant diversity. 相似文献
The measurement of the bed shear stress along vegetated river beds is essential for accurately predicting the water level, velocity and solute and sediment transport fluxes in computational hydroenvironmental models. Details are given herein of an experimental and theoretical study to determine the bed boundary shear stress along vegetated river beds introducing a novel field measuring method, namely the FliessWasserStammtisch (FST)-hemispheres. Although investigations have been conducted previously for sedimentary channels using the FST-hemispheres, this preliminary study is thought to be the first time that such hemispheres have been used to investigate the bed shear stresses in vegetated channels. FST-hemispheres were first developed by Statzner and Müller [1989. Standard hemispheres as indicators of flow characteristics in lotic benthos research. Freshwater Biology 21, 445-459] to act as an integrated indicator of the gross hydrodynamic stresses present near the bed. Test and validation data were found to be at least of the same order of magnitude for the stresses predicted from literature for sedimentary channels, with this study establishing the commencement of a database of calibrated FST-hemisphere laboratory data for vegetated channel beds. In a series of experiments, depths ranging from 0.1 to 0.28m were considered, equating directly to comparable conditions in small rivers or streams. The results of this study provide a basis for enabling the FST-hemispheres to be used to evaluate the boundary shear stress for a wider range of applications in the future, including vegetated river beds. 相似文献
Based on cybernetic categories of natural control mechanisms, four generations of ecosystem models are distinguished: feed-forward, feedback, self-adaptation and self-organization models. The analysis of the natural control mechanisms in aquatic ecosystems suggests that different processes are controlled in different ways, and, although the four mechanisms were identified in historical sequence, they all operate simultaneously. The concept of self-organization of an ecosystem is introduced and specified for a model of an aquatic pelagic ecosystem. The concept of the ecosystem as a multilayer, multigoal and multiechelon hierarchical system with hierarchy of the levels of biological organization is also introduced. 相似文献
A growing body of large-N cross-national studies has identified key predictors of environmental behavior. Adopting a social dilemma perspective, where individuals must choose collective over self-interest to act pro-environmentally, integrated national datasets for 30 countries are used to examine the effects of generalized trust, trust in government, leftism, and post-materialism on three types of environmental behavior (intended action, informal action, and formal action). At the individual level, all predictors but institutional trust have significant positive effects on each type of behavior. Institutional trust is associated with greater willingness to make economic sacrifice for the environment and with less frequent informal environmental behavior, but it is unrelated to formal behavior. However, at the country level, the effect of trust is limited to intended behavior and depends on the type of trust. Individuals in countries with higher generalized trust averages are less willing to sacrifice for the environment, and those in countries with higher averages of institutional trust are more willing to do so. 相似文献
Objective: The present research relies on 2 main objectives. The first is to investigate whether latent model analysis through a structural equation model can be implemented on driving simulator data in order to define an unobserved driving performance variable. Subsequently, the second objective is to investigate and quantify the effect of several risk factors including distraction sources, driver characteristics, and road and traffic environment on the overall driving performance and not in independent driving performance measures.
Methods: For the scope of the present research, 95 participants from all age groups were asked to drive under different types of distraction (conversation with passenger, cell phone use) in urban and rural road environments with low and high traffic volume in a driving simulator experiment. Then, in the framework of the statistical analysis, a correlation table is presented investigating any of a broad class of statistical relationships between driving simulator measures and a structural equation model is developed in which overall driving performance is estimated as a latent variable based on several individual driving simulator measures.
Results: Results confirm the suitability of the structural equation model and indicate that the selection of the specific performance measures that define overall performance should be guided by a rule of representativeness between the selected variables. Moreover, results indicate that conversation with the passenger was not found to have a statistically significant effect, indicating that drivers do not change their performance while conversing with a passenger compared to undistracted driving. On the other hand, results support the hypothesis that cell phone use has a negative effect on driving performance. Furthermore, regarding driver characteristics, age, gender, and experience all have a significant effect on driving performance, indicating that driver-related characteristics play the most crucial role in overall driving performance.
Conclusions: The findings of this study allow a new approach to the investigation of driving behavior in driving simulator experiments and in general. By the successful implementation of the structural equation model, driving behavior can be assessed in terms of overall performance and not through individual performance measures, which allows an important scientific step forward from piecemeal analyses to a sound combined analysis of the interrelationship between several risk factors and overall driving performance. 相似文献
This paper analyses the contribution of virtue ethics, the study of good character traits, to the humanitarian context. It argues that a virtue ethics perspective paints a realistic picture of the use of ethical standards in morally complex circumstances. Virtuous relief workers can employ standards in their thinking, but they are also committed to professional excellence that goes beyond any formal code. The concept of virtue ethics places a stress on moral development, which can be facilitated by role models that impart modest and feasible ideals. However, virtue ethics cannot provide simple guidelines on how to resolve difficult situations. It is possible that two virtuous persons can disagree on what should be done in a particular instance. In addition, a virtue ethics perspective emphasises the need for both individuals and organisations to discuss the actual purpose of relief work in order to pinpoint the virtues of a good relief professional. 相似文献