Mapping the public first-aid training landscape: a scoping review

While the public can play a vital role in saving lives during emergencies, intervention is only effective if people have the skills, confidence, and willingness to help. This review employs a five-stage framework to systematically analyse first aid and emergency helping literature from 22 countries (predominately in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States). The review covers 54 articles that investigate public first-aid knowledge and uptake of first-aid training (40); public confidence in first-aid skills and willingness to help during an emergency (21); and barriers to or enablers of learning first aid and delivering first aid in an emergency (25). The findings identify high levels of perceived knowledge, confidence, and willingness to help, supporting the contention that the public can play a vital role during an emergency. However, the findings also point to low uptake levels, low tested skill-specific knowledge, and barriers to learning first aid and helping, indicating that the first-aid training landscape is in need of improvement.     

Adaptation to climate change and freshwater resources in Vusama village,Viti Levu,Fiji

Regional Environmental Change - Changing precipitation patterns including more intense and prolonged dry periods have become a growing concern for people living in the Pacific Island region. People...     

An improved method to study the impact of pesticide sprays on small song birds

Abstract

Four test groups of small songbirds (Zebra Finch, Poephila guttata) were sprayed in a chamber with varying concentrations of fenitrothion. Exposure levels were assessed by monitoring air concentrations, deposits of the active ingredient (AI) on glass plates and droplets/cm² on Kromekote® cards. All indices of exposure were linearly correlated and the mean AI deposit on glass plates for the four groups tested were equivalent to 38, 51, 139 and 255 g/ha or 14%, 18%, 50% and 91% of the highest permissible emitted rate for broadscale forest spraying in Canada. Significant depression in body weights and brain acetylcholinesterase levels were noted only for the highest exposure group. Fenitrothion residues in blood were detectable only at the highest exposure level, and in liver at the two higher levels. Carcass and feather residues were much higher than those in blood and liver, and were detectable at all exposure levels but the residues did not increase linearly with exposure. For one of the spray groups, we were able to compute an equivalent acute oral dose based on matching acetylcholinesterase inhibition.     

Innovation through collaboration: scaling up solutions for sustainable development

The open collaborative philosophy employed in the success of open source (OS) software can be applied to hardware design. Specifically, the development of OS appropriate technologies (OSAT) can improve sustainable development efforts worldwide. Yet, widespread OSAT use is far from ubiquitous. Given that lack of communication, access to information and poor collaboration are among the largest barriers to a more effective OSAT dissemination, this paper explores opportunities to overcome such obstacles using four techniques: (1) collaborative online platforms, (2) crowd-sourcing, (3) the concept of knowledge commons, and (4) enabled educational institutions through service learning and applied research. The results are analyzed, and conclusions are drawn that outline paths to higher multiuser collaboration for OSAT deployment.     

Packaging waste and the polluter pays principle: a taxation solution

Packaging waste has become a focus for attention by policy‐makers in a number of countries. This article offers a simple policy measure — a packaging tax or levy — which serves the required aims of policy, namely: reducing waste at source; increasing the rate of recycling; and consistency with the polluter pays principle. The tax is illustrated in the context of beverage containers in the UK and Japan. The merits of the proposal are its simplicity and flexibility. The article suggests that the relevant environmental damages are captured by waste disposal costs and litter. Other life cycle impacts, such as emissions from energy use, could be included but only if there are not more efficient ways of regulating them.     

Derelict land: the case for a strategic approach

This paper examines the rationale underlying the ‘strategic approach’ to the prevention and reclamation of derelict land proposed in research recently published by the Department of the Environment. It outlines the main features and the processes involved in this approach and indicates the form and content of the documentation which might accompany its adoption. The paper focuses upon the tasks involved in the preparation of strategies for derelict land but the principles it examines will have wider application in other policy fields. It concludes with an examination of the practical problems which the adoption of a strategic approach may entail and the ways in which it would enhance the activities of the recently announced Urban Regeneration Agency for England.