Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food,energy, water and the environment

Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the ‘nexus’ of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboration with researchers to devise solutions to some of the foremost sustainability challenges of today. Yet opportunities are missed because the private sector is rarely involved in the formulation of deliverable research priorities. We convened senior research scientists and influential business leaders to collaboratively identify the top forty questions that, if answered, would best help companies understand and manage their food-energy-water-environment nexus dependencies and impacts. Codification of the top order nexus themes highlighted research priorities around development of pragmatic yet credible tools that allow businesses to incorporate nexus interactions into their decision-making; demonstration of the business case for more sustainable nexus management; identification of the most effective levers for behaviour change; and understanding incentives or circumstances that allow individuals and businesses to take a leadership stance. Greater investment in the complex but productive relations between the private sector and research community will create deeper and more meaningful collaboration and cooperation.     

Four priorities for new links between conservation science and accounting research

Article impact statement: New collaborations with accounting research can improve conservation impact of ecosystem-based information systems.     

Motorcycle helmet effect on a per-crash basis in Thailand and the United States

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of motorcycle helmets seen in prospective on-the-street motorcycle accident investigations. The data are drawn from two detailed, in-depth studies of motorcycle accidents, in which trained investigators collected extensive accident evidence on-scene immediately after the crash. This article compares helmeted and unhelmeted motorcycle riders on a per-accident basis for fatality rates, the rate of serious (AIS > 2) brain injuries among survivors, or an outcome that involved either of the two. METHODS: Nine hundred motorcycle crashes in Los Angeles and 969 crashes in Thailand were investigated in detail at the accident scenes, including photos of vehicles, skids, damage, and sometimes the rider. Helmets were collected and injury information was obtained from riders and care providers. This evidence was then used to reconstruct collision events to identify speeds, precrash motions, collision contacts, injury causation, and helmet performance. RESULTS: In both studies, approximately 6% of riders were killed and 20-25% were hospitalized. Overall, unhelmeted riders were two to three times as likely to be killed, and three times as likely to suffer either death or survival with AIS > 2 brain injury. Unhelmeted survivors had three to four times as many AIS > 2 brain injuries as helmeted riders on a per-crash basis. Nearly 100% of riders with AIS > 4 somatic injuries died. Such injuries were 30% of Thailand fatalities and 57% of L.A. fatalities, but only about 2-3% of the overall accident population. Among the 97-98% of riders with AIS < 5 somatic injuries, helmet use could prevent about three-fourths of fatalities and brain injuries. CONCLUSIONS: Helmets were extremely effective in preventing brain injury and death in 97% of the accident population in less-than-extreme crashes. Helmet use cannot prevent all fatalities because many of those killed succumb to below-the-neck injuries that a helmet cannot prevent.     

Head and neck injuries in fatal motorcycle collisions as determined by detailed autopsy

Detailed layer-by-layer autopsy of the head and neck was performed on a prospective series of 73 fatally injured motorcyclists in order to identify occult injuries, particularly soft tissue neck injuries such as hemorrhage of vertebral and carotid arteries. The fatal cases were gathered as part of a larger study of 1,082 on-scene in-depth motorcycle crash investigations in Thailand. Detailed neck dissection was done on nearly all fatal cases. Injuries were coded using the 1990 revision of the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS 90) and an Injury Severity Score (ISS) was determined for each case. Additional AIS codes are proposed for neck injuries that were often identified during the detailed autopsy procedures, but which are not listed explicitly among existing AIS codes. Helmet use was determined based on analysis of injury patterns and helmet damage with consideration also given to witness statements. Both helmeted and unhelmeted motorcyclists showed a high frequency of occult neck injuries such as hemorrhages in the carotid sheath or surrounding the vertebral arteries, phrenic nerve, or brachial plexus. These soft tissue neck injuries sometimes accompanied more obvious injuries to cervical vertebrae or spinal cord, but about one-third of riders had no obvious injury to suggest the presence of occult neck injury. Twenty-eight motorcyclists had been wearing a helmet at the start of the collision sequence, but only nine helmets remained in place through the entire collision event. Helmeted riders showed more severe somatic (below-the-neck) injuries than unhelmeted riders, suggesting helmeted riders are less likely to die in low-threat accidents with somatic injuries below AIS-3. The most significant finding of this study was the identification of serious internal neck injuries despite the absence of external physical evidence of trauma to the neck. Virtually all riders with significant head injuries showed some of these soft tissue neck injuries. Approximately one-third of the critically injured riders who survived at least a few hours before death showed serious occult soft tissue neck injuries.     

Environmental concentrations of Roundup in combination with chlorpromazine or heating causes biochemical disturbances in the bivalve mollusc Unio tumidus

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Bivalve molluscs represent the most recognized bioindicators of freshwater pollution. However, their ability to indicate specific xenobiotics in...