A fresh perspective on food safety in Canada: risk communication,public involvement,and the impact of the 2008 listeriosis outbreak

While the listeriosis outbreak of 2008 brought attention to food safety decision making in Canada, little of that attention was placed on public involvement and risk communication. With a primary focus on Health Canada (HC) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), this article describes the state of microbial-related public involvement and risk communication undertakings and suggests ways in which improvements can be made. The findings show that public involvement and risk communication activities have been strengthened since the outbreak, but they have become neither dialogical nor highly participatory. HC engages with experts to a far greater extent than with the lay public and it has fallen short in fulfilling its stated commitment to openness and transparency. Furthermore, both HC's and the CFIA's approach to risk communication has been overly general, has failed to provide opportunities for dialogue with vulnerable and more general groups with whom it is communicating and is not rooted in foodborne surveillance data. Public involvement in food safety governance would be improved if HC provided the lay public with a seat on advisory committees and improved its public involvement reporting methods. HC and the CFIA could also make risk communication improvements by creating opportunities for dialogue between officials and the general public, and by exploring alternative risk communication vehicles, such as food labels.     

基于文本故障视角的通信保障应急预案有效性评估研究

应急通信预案作为应急通信保障的行动纲领,其文本有效性将直接影响预案有效性,进而影响到整个应急救援行动的有效性。针对预案文本有效性问题,从文本故障视角出发,基于故障树分析法构建通信保障应急预案有效性评估模型;采用语句成分分析法和伪代码转换法对预案进行故障形式诊断,结合标准故障树,计算预案的有效性并给出具体评估步骤;最终,通过4个样本预案对模型进行实例分析,结果表明:该模型能够提高预案文本故障的识别效率,对预案的编制或修订具有参考意义。     

移动基站远场区功率密度分布和规划控制距离

为掌握畸变条件下移动通讯基站周围功率密度分布,合理确定其规划控制距离,在杭州市主城区选取具有不同网络类型和载波数的2057个移动基站,实测话务高峰期基站周围射频场功率密度.结果表明,畸变条件下GSM基站远场区功率密度S∝r-1.83 (非畸变条件下S∝r-2),决定系数R2=0.80;距基站天线20m内,约85.91%测点功率密度实测值小于非畸变条件下依据天线标称功率和增益计算的理论值.,频数统计结果表明,距天线1~15m范围内,运营商A所属基站S10值(表示有10%的测点功率密度高于该值)比运营商B高10.00%;距天线1~30m内,双网和三网共站基站S10值分别比单网基站高50.31%和57.10%.移动通讯基站规划控制距离以15m为宜,15m外测点功率密度值超过8μW/cm2的基站只占所测基站的0.11%.     

“At the water's edge”: community voices on climate change

The photovoice research project, “At the water's edge”, which gives voice to communities exploring the threats and impact of climate change and rising sea levels on coastal communities, was conducted during an environmental art symposium in the Noosa Biosphere Reserve, Australia in June 2009. Photos by participants illustrated both local and global threats and reflected psychological tension between global and local action. This research partnership with the local people demonstrated an innovative visualisation technique which can be used to collaboratively build capacity and consensus about adaptation to climate change. It also contributed to the Biosphere Reserve's educational and cultural aims in relation to climate change.     

计算机模拟警戒作业疲劳与绩效测量实验设计*

为探索警戒作业工间休息机制,设计计算机模拟监控警戒作业实验研究疲劳与绩效之间的关系。通过对9个时间单元绩效数据的两两比较,发现原有实验方案存在不合理性。分析心理厌倦和暂时性注意缺失对作业绩效的干扰,找出问题根源。通过调整任务界面和参数、增加声音警示音、设置时间进度条、加强实验前自我检查和培训环节对实验方案进行改进,并检验改进效果。结果表明:改进后实验方案产生的数据能客观描述监控警戒作业疲劳与绩效之间的关系,实验结论可为设计警戒作业工间休息制度提供理论依据。     

Dancing to different tunes: heterospecific deciphering of the honeybee waggle dance

Although the structure of the dance language is very similar among species of honeybees, communication of the distance component of the message varies both intraspecifically and interspecifically. However, it is not known whether different honeybee species would attend interspecific waggle dances and, if so, whether they can decipher such dances. Using mixed-species colonies of Apis cerana and Apis mellifera, we show that, despite internal differences in the structure of the waggle dances of foragers, both species attend, and act on the information encoded in each other’s waggle dances but with limited accuracy. These observations indicate that direction and distance communication pre-date speciation in honeybees.     

Cross-Platform Framing and Cross-Cultural Adaptation: Examining Elephant Conservation in Thailand

This case study investigates cross-platform framing process and framing alignment strategies of the world famous elephant conservation NGO. It examines how the intercultural adaptation facilitates the frame transformation against entrenched domesticated elephant traditions in Thailand. Besides web observation, this study conducted two field trips to interview the NGO staff and conservation experts, and observed human–elephant interaction. Enhancing the understanding of ecotourism, this study expands the framing theory by incorporating cross-platform and cross-cultural adaptation factors and provides insights of an effective Asian ecotourism model which transcends cultural differences and overcomes resistance by disseminating culturally sensitive and integrated framing strategies through various communication channels.     

Imagining Postscience: Heidegger and Development Communication

Modernization, the dominant contemporary model of development, has technoscientific rationality as its base. Alternatively, development can be understood as the ascent of individuals and communities toward their own conceptions of the good life. Such an understanding of development, it is argued, cannot be communicated under technoscientific assumptions. Instead, under the light of Heidegger's critique of technoscience and his philosophy of communication, a postscientific perspective is invoked for communicating development as good life, less violent to human communities and the environment, and less monolithic in design. Postscience evokes the multiplicity of ways in which we seek credibility for our projects in opposition to the monistic conception of truth and meaning in the technoscientific paradigm. Exploiting Heidegger's understanding of the world-disclosive power of language, development communication is understood as disclosing the genuine possibilities for the good life, concealed in a people's world, in an authentic act of engagement between the people and the communicator of development.     

Mountains and Handrails: Risk,Meaning, and Responsibility in Three National Parks

Where we live, the relationships we maintain, or the experiences we have can tell us about the way we perceive risk and the responsibility for its management. Perceptions of risk and responsibility are particularly relevant in US national parks, where unintentional injury is prevalent, yet support exists for allowing risk exposure. If experiencing risk may be both desirable (e.g., self-affirming) and undesirable (e.g., injury-causing), what is its role in a national park? Moreover, what are the expectations for visitors to encounter or to avoid it? In-depth interviews with National Park Service employees suggest that desired risk is contingent upon the circumstances in which it is encountered, and the values and prior experience of individuals. Employees perceive visitors as responsible for avoiding undesirable risk through information seeking and awareness, but also recognize considerable barriers to doing so. Theoretical and practical implications and avenues for future research are presented.