Communicating risk for vulnerable groups: a case study of the Mano community’s strategies for collective knowledge to action

This paper discusses the emergent interest in risk communication as a strategy for disaster risk reduction. Communication plays an essential role in understanding risk, but studies suggest that people often do not respond in the way that risk experts anticipate. For risk communication to be effective, vulnerable communities need to understand risk within the local context as well as in terms of sustainability. Risk messages offer communities a way to enhance their collective knowledge of existing vulnerabilities, leading them towards alternative solutions for action. A longitudinal study of the Mano community development approach and its recovery from the 1995 Kobe earthquake illustrates how risk communication dynamics contributed to the community’s sustainable risk reduction. The study concludes that risk communication is a collaborative way for a community to work with risk experts, own their risk information, influence existing policies and practices, develop solutions to reduce vulnerability, and ultimately enhance a community’s capacity for managing future risk.     

大学生英语口语交流障碍的心理因素及克服办法

目前大学生的英语口语表达能力总体很差,在口语交流上也出现各种障碍,其原因除学生英语学习能力较差以外,态度问题、动机偏差、缺乏自信、不耐挫折、缺乏热情、过于紧张、性格内向等心理因素也起着关键的作用。对于大学生英语口语交流存在的障碍,可以通过激发兴趣、心理暗示、教师鼓励、减少心理压力、结交外国朋友等有效方法,指导学生进行口语训练,提高学生口语水平。     

Enhancing consultation practices on Air Quality Management in local authorities

Schedule 11 of the Environment Act 1995 underpins the requirement for consultation on air quality issues. The ongoing air quality review and assessment process represents one of the largest locally based science policy and communication initiatives ever undertaken in the UK. This paper outlines the practice of consultation and communication for Air Quality Management (AQM) and reviews the interaction between Environmental Health professionals, as the leading actor in the AQM process and other stakeholders involved in air quality consultation, including the public. Results are presented from a widespread questionnaire survey of English local authorities. Data indicate that the majority of air quality consultation has been carried out with statutory consultees (by sending the review and assessment reports) and the public (via websites and leaflets) in the form of information dissemination.     

Effects of a glyphosate-based herbicide on mate location in a wolf spider that inhabits agroecosystems

Chemical communication is important to many arthropod species but the potential exists for anthropogenic chemicals to disrupt information flow. Although glyphosate-based herbicides are not acutely toxic to arthropods, little is known regarding their effects on natural chemical communication pathways. The wolf spider, Pardosamilvina, is abundant in agroecosystems where herbicides are regularly applied and uses air- and substrate-borne chemical signals extensively during mating. The aim of this study was to examine effects of a commercial formulation of a glyphosate-based herbicide on the ability of males to find females. In the field, virgin females, when hidden inside pitfall traps with herbicide, attracted fewer males than females with water. Likewise females in traps with a ring of herbicide surrounding the opening were less likely to attract males than those in traps surrounded by water. We explored the reaction of males to any airborne component of the herbicide in a laboratory two-choice olfactometer experiment. When no female pheromones were present, males were equally likely to select herbicide or water treated corridors and they all moved through the apparatus at similar speeds. When female pheromones were present, the males that selected control corridors moved more slowly than those that selected herbicide and, if we control for the initial decision time, more males selected the control corridors over the herbicide. These data suggest that glyphosate-based herbicides are “info-disruptors” that alter the ability of males to detect and/or react fully to female signals.     

Defending the scientific integrity of conservation‐policy processes

Government agencies faced with politically controversial decisions often discount or ignore scientific information, whether from agency staff or nongovernmental scientists. Recent developments in scientific integrity (the ability to perform, use, communicate, and publish science free from censorship or political interference) in Canada, Australia, and the United States demonstrate a similar trajectory. A perceived increase in scientific‐integrity abuses provokes concerted pressure by the scientific community, leading to efforts to improve scientific‐integrity protections under a new administration. However, protections are often inconsistently applied and are at risk of reversal under administrations publicly hostile to evidence‐based policy. We compared recent challenges to scientific integrity to determine what aspects of scientific input into conservation policy are most at risk of political distortion and what can be done to strengthen safeguards against such abuses. To ensure the integrity of outbound communications from government scientists to the public, we suggest governments strengthen scientific integrity policies, include scientists’ right to speak freely in collective‐bargaining agreements, guarantee public access to scientific information, and strengthen agency culture supporting scientific integrity. To ensure the transparency and integrity with which information from nongovernmental scientists (e.g., submitted comments or formal policy reviews) informs the policy process, we suggest governments broaden the scope of independent reviews, ensure greater diversity of expert input and transparency regarding conflicts of interest, require a substantive response to input from agencies, and engage proactively with scientific societies. For their part, scientists and scientific societies have a responsibility to engage with the public to affirm that science is a crucial resource for developing evidence‐based policy and regulations in the public interest.     

Using Twitter to communicate conservation science from a professional conference

Scientists are increasingly using Twitter as a tool for communicating science. Twitter can promote scholarly discussion, disseminate research rapidly, and extend and diversify the scope of audiences reached. However, scientists also caution that if Twitter does not accurately convey science due to the inherent brevity of this media, misinformation could cascade quickly through social media. Data on whether Twitter effectively communicates conservation science and the types of user groups receiving these tweets are lacking. To address these knowledge gaps, we examined live tweeting as a means of communicating conservation science at the 2013 International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB). We quantified and compared the user groups sending and reading live tweets. We also surveyed presenters to determine their intended audiences, which we compared with the actual audiences reached through live tweeting. We also asked presenters how effectively tweets conveyed their research findings. Twitter reached 14 more professional audience categories relative to those attending and live tweeting at ICCB. However, the groups often reached through live tweeting were not the presenters’ intended audiences. Policy makers and government and non‐governmental organizations were rarely reached (0%, 4%, and 6% of audience, respectively), despite the intent of the presenters. Plenary talks were tweeted about 6.9 times more than all other oral or poster presentations combined. Over half the presenters believed the tweets about their talks were effective. Ineffective tweets were perceived as vague or missing the presenters’ main message. We recommend that presenters who want their science to be communicated accurately and broadly through Twitter should provide Twitter‐friendly summaries that incorporate relevant hashtags and usernames. Our results suggest that Twitter can be used to effectively communicate speakers’ findings to diverse audiences beyond conference walls.     

Coastal landscape preference evaluation: A comparison among tourists in Greece

An evaluation of coastal landscape of pine forest in Greece by summer visitors of various nationalities was carried out. The visual preferences for a set of landscape, represented in photographs, expressed by these various nationality groups were compared. The subjects used in this research came from Greece, Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, Austria, Yugoslavia, and Scandinavian countries. The findings show that there is an agreement over the basic preference, but, nevertheless, there are differences of opinion between the nationality groups that might be attributed to cultural influences and the effect of being familiar with their own environments. Since coastal landscape plays an important role in the tourist industry, these findings could be very useful to policy-making agencies.     

Refuse treatment options: a case study

Records in public archives were evaluated for the period 1981-1991. Simple surveys of peoples and of technology and physical premises provided insight to gauge the attitudes of a local community in the Melbourne municipality and the Melbourne City Council towards composting of organic waste materials. There is a lag in perception and attitudes between the local community and the local government towards composting of organic refuse as a solid waste treatment option. The simple methodology of the study still made it possible to verify past and present perceptions and attitudes.     

青藏铁路列车运行控制系统的安全性分析

分析了青藏铁路中多种不利因素对轨道电路参数的影响 ;提出了在青藏铁路不宜采用现行基于轨道电路的列车运行控制系统 ,而应选择基于通信的列车运行控制系统的理由 ;给出了系统的基本结构及提高系统可靠性的措施 ;与此同时 ,就人们关心的无线传输列车控制数据的可靠性和安全性难题 ,通过建立马尔可夫模型的方法进行了分析