Our understanding of natural ecosystems can be measured by our ability to predict their responses to external disturbances. Predictions made during environmental impact assessment (EIA) for major development projects are hypotheses about such responses, which can be tested with data collected in environmental monitoring programmes. The systematic comparison of predicted and actual impacts has been termed environmental impact audit. Ecosystem disturbances associated with major resource developments, though of lesser magnitude than those associated with natural cataclysms, are generally of far greater magnitude than those which can be applied experimentally. Environmental audit can hence provide critical tests of theory in a number of natural sciences. It is also needed to improve the scientific content of EIA. Audits of 4 and 29 EISs respectively have been carried out previously in the UK and USA, but this is the first national scale audit for any country. It is also the first attempt to select, from the many vague statements in EISs, only those predictions that are scientifically testable, and to determine and analyse their quantitative accuracies. Its principal results are as follows. The average accuracy of quantified, critical, testable predictions in environmental impact statements in Australia to date is 44%±5% s.e. Predictions where actual impacts proved more than expected were on average significantly (p<0.05) less accurate (33%±9%) than those where they proved as or less severe (53%±6%). 相似文献
Call centre workplaces are in many ways a challenge to occupational health and safety. The occupation itself can be described as an IT information technology-supported, communication-intensive form of work with often unusual working hours and a high rate of part-time employment. Data on the employee turnover as well as absenteeism related to occupational disability is quite contradictory. Occupational safety and its proponents still have to find new ways into the corporate structures and cultures of this relatively new and rapidly growing branch of industry. In a 2-year research and development project, using a holistic approach and under consideration of all the relevant disciplines, call centre workplaces were studied, and organisational measures were developed and field tested by putting them into practice. Practical help was developed for a sustainable strategy for successful and healthy work in call centres. 相似文献
A new analytical method using accelerated solvent extraction was developed for the determination of 10 particle-associated polar and semipolar pesticides. In addition, six deuterated analogues of the target compounds were evaluated as internal standards. The method yielded acceptable accuracy (73–103% recovery) and precision (<25% relative standard deviation) for eight compounds. Using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) as cleanup step resulted in higher recoveries compared to solid phase extraction (SPE) cleanup.
Deuterated standards with 10 or more deuterium atoms performed well as internal standards concerning similar recovery and correlation with the target analytes.
The method was employed to extract particle-associated pesticides from 16 streams located in an area with intense agriculture in France. Acetochlor, pirimicarb, tebuconazole, fenpropidin, -endosulfan and chlorfenvinphos were detected at concentrations up to 1 mg kg−1 dry weight. A comparison with aquatic toxicity data indicated potential risk to the benthic fauna exposed to these concentrations of pirimicarb, -endosulfan and chlorfenvinphos.
We suggest that the method presented here be used for the extraction and quantitation of particle-associated polar pesticides. 相似文献
For Europe, a new regime in chemicals regulation is about to start. After the proposal of the European Commission concerning the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACh) passed its readings in the European Parliament and some differences with the European Council of Ministers were resolved, the regulation will come into force in June 2007. This paper is focused on the question how serious the cost burdens for industry induced by REACh will be, and whether the New European Member States (NMS) which joined the European Union in May 2004 will be able to cope with the regulation. This evaluation has been done by assessing the legislative, administrative and economic framework in New Member States and by analysing real business cases in companies. The empirical showcase business impact studies are at the same time of interest for companies of EU-15 states, other European countries who may implement the regulation, and even for exporters of raw materials and chemicals outside Europe, who will also have to comply with REACh if they market in the European Community. The results give no indications that REACh adoption will bring significant drawbacks to companies in the NMS. The emerging regulation will bring challenges for individual companies, especially for small and medium-sized ones, but for the European chemical industry as a whole, there is no question that it will be able to cope with REACh burdens without losing its global competitiveness. 相似文献
Individual recognition is generally assumed to be a prerequisite for establishing and maintaining a complex social system.
Indeed, there is good evidence that highly social species have complex systems of vocal communication with individual recognition
by acoustic cues. In this study, we provide experimental evidence that vocal class and individual recognition is present in
a non-passerine bird, the spectacled parrotlet (Forpus conspicillatus). Spectacled parrotlets live in a complex system of social relationships. Soon after fledging, the young establish close
sibling relationships which are important for successful socialization, pairing and reproduction. In a series of playback
experiments we tested if spectacled parrotlets use contact calls for vocal recognition. The results showed that spectacled
parrotlets discriminate between the contact calls of different social categories. Adult birds preferred to respond to the
contact calls of their mates. Subadult individuals recognized the contact calls of their siblings. During the period of pair
bond formation, the affiliative contacts to the siblings decrease, but the parrotlets continue to respond to the calls of
their siblings. This is the first evidence that vocal sibling recognition might outlast the period of strong sibling interaction
and extends into the period of pair bond formation. In cases of mate loss or divorce, the acoustic contact to their siblings
might facilitate the re-establishment of close sibling relationships.
Received: 29 October 1997 / Accepted after revision: 5 April 1998 相似文献
Much of our understanding of physiology and metabolism is derived from investigating mouse mutants and transgenic mice, and
open-access platforms for standardized mouse phenotyping such as the German Mouse Clinic (GMC) are currently viewed as one
powerful tool for identifying novel gene-function relationships. Phenotyping or phenotypic screening involves the comparison of wild-type control mice with their mutant or transgenic littermates. In our study, we explored
the extent to which standardized phenotyping will succeed in detecting biologically relevant phenotypic differences in mice
generated and provided by different collaborators. We analyzed quantitative metabolic data (body mass, energy intake, and
energy metabolized) collected at the GMC under the current workflow, and used them for statistical power considerations. Our
results demonstrate that there is substantial variability in these parameters among lines of wild-type C57BL/6 (B6) mice from
different sources. Given this variable background noise in mice that serve as controls, subtle phenotypes in mutant or transgenic
littermates may be overlooked. Furthermore, a phenotype observed in one cohort of a mutant line may not be reproducible (to
the same extent) in mice coming from a different environment or supplier. In the light of these constraints, we encourage
researchers to incorporate information on intrastrain variability into future study planning, or to perform advanced hierarchical
analyses. Both will ultimately improve the detectability of novel phenotypes by phenotypic screening.
Carola W. Meyer and Ralf Elvert contributed equally to this work. 相似文献