The influence of individual differences on organizational safety attitudes

Workplace accidents cost organizations and the economy billions of dollars annually, disabling and injuring millions of employees. Employee attitudes toward safety have been shown to relate to safe workplace behavior. In an effort to determine what contributes to stronger employee attitudes toward safety, we examined the relationships between safety attitudes and a wide array of individual differences reflecting preferences and tendencies toward risk and control. Using a sample of 190 engineering and occupational safety students from two universities, we found that agreeableness, conscientiousness, prevention regulatory focus, and fatalism related significantly to all six safety attitudes examined. Regression analyses demonstrated that agreeableness, prevention focus, and fatalism significantly related to safety attitudes when controlling for the other individual differences. This study illustrates the utility of examining individual differences when predicting safety-related attitudes.     

Pharmaceutical and personal care products in groundwater, subsurface drainage, soil, and wheat grain, following a high single application of municipal biosolids to a field

Dewatered municipal biosolids (DMBs) were applied to a field at a rate of ~22 Mg dw ha(-1) in October 2008. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) were monitored in groundwater, tile drainage, soil, DMB aggregates incorporated into the soil post-land application, and in the grain of wheat grown on the field for a period of ~1 year following application. Over 80 PPCPs were analyzed in the source DMB. PPCPs selected for in-depth monitoring included: antibiotics (tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones), bacteriocides (triclosan, triclocarban), beta-blockers (atenolol, propranolol, metaprolol), antidepressants (fluoxetine, citalopram, venlafaxine, sertraline), antifungals (miconazole), analgesics (acetaminophen, ibuprofen) and anticonvulsants (carbamazepine). PPCPs in tile were observed twice, ~3 weeks and 2 months post-application. Of all PPCPs measured in tile drainage, only carbamazepine, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, triclosan, triclocarban, venlafaxine, and citalopram were detected (5-74 ng L(-1)). PPCPs were not detected in groundwater >2 m depth below the soil surface, and concentrations above detection limits at 2 m depth were only observed once just after the first rain event post-application. In groundwater, all compounds found in tile, except carbamazepine, acetaminophen and citalopram, were detected (10-19 ng L(-1)). PPCPs were detected in DMB aggregates incorporated in soil up to 1 year post-application, with miconazole and fluoxetine having the lowest percent reductions over 1 year (~50%). For several compounds in these aggregates, concentration declines were of exponential decay form. No PPCPs were detected in the grain of wheat planted post-application on the field. No PPCPs were ever detected in water, soil or grain samples from the reference plot, where no DMB was applied.     

Some factors influencing EROD activity in winter flounder (Pleuronectes americanus) exposed to effluent from a pulp and paper mill

EROD (ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase) activity was determined in winter flounder, a sediment-inhabiting and non-migratory fish species, living near a pulp and paper mill in Newfoundland in relation to temperature, gender, sexual maturity, and lesions in the liver. Samples of liver were taken from fish captured by SCUBA divers at 0 degrees C, 5 degrees C and 16 degrees C. Enzymic activity was detected in fish living only above 0 degrees C. Adult males and juvenile fish had higher levels of EROD activity than prespawning females at 5 degrees C. Macrophage aggregates only or occurring simultaneously with bile ductule hyperplasia and clear cell foci in the liver, did not impair EROD activity but necrosis had a negative effect. Results from this study indicate the importance of water temperature, gender, sexual maturity and liver pathology in assessing EROD activity of fish in biomonitoring programs.     

推动中小建筑企业的革新:欧盟的一个案例研究

建筑业是最古老、最重要的工业之一.它提供了庇护,并为许多人类活动提供了物质框架和基础.它使我们得以生存、参加社会活动、利用我们的环境一总之,实现我们的潜力.但是,同时它也限制了我们的潜力,因为它限制了企业、革新、生产力和以及通过解决贫困、社会排斥和气候变化维持增长的能力.本文介绍了欧盟建筑部门的主要特点,探讨了与促进可持续建筑有关的一些问题.重点介绍了中小建筑企业的基本需求以及为满足这些需求而正在采取的措施.欧洲和其他大陆的发达国家可能还有许多东西要向发展中国家的发展途径和项目支持系统学习.     

Applications of time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy to the environmental biogeochemistry of actinides

Time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) is a useful means of identifying certain actinide species resulting from various biogeochemical processes. In general, TRLFS differentiates chemical species of a fluorescent metal ion through analysis of different excitation and emission spectra and decay lifetimes. Although this spectroscopic technique has largely been applied to the analysis of actinide and lanthanide ions having fluorescence decay lifetimes on the order of microseconds, such as UO , Cm, and Eu, continuing development of ultra-fast and cryogenic TRLFS systems offers the possibility to obtain speciation information on metal ions having room-temperature fluorescence decay lifetimes on the order of nanoseconds to picoseconds. The main advantage of TRLFS over other advanced spectroscopic techniques is the ability to determine in situ metal speciation at environmentally relevant micromolar to picomolar concentrations. In the context of environmental biogeochemistry, TRLFS has principally been applied to studies of (i) metal speciation in aqueous and solid phases and (ii) the coordination environment of metal ions sorbed to mineral and bacterial surfaces. In this review, the principles of TRLFS are described, and the literature reporting the application of this methodology to the speciation of actinides in systems of biogeochemical interest is assessed. Significant developments in TRLFS methodology and advanced data analysis are highlighted, and we outline how these developments have the potential to further our mechanistic understanding of actinide biogeochemistry.     

Enhanced reductive dechlorination of PCE in unconsolidated soils

An Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) forum was recently held that focused on six case studies in which bioremediation of dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) was performed. The objective was to demonstrate that there is credible evidence for bioremediation as a viable environmental remediation technology. A discussion of the first case study from the ITRC forum was published in the previous issue of Remediation. This article presents a discussion of the second case study, which involves enhanced reductive dechlorination (ERD) of tetrachloroethene (PCE) in unconsolidated soils—primarily silts and clays with very low permeabilities. The project results indicate that complete reductive dechlorination was achieved and provide encouragement that large amounts of nonaqueous solvent can be brought into the reductive dechlorination treatment process by dissolution and desorption, giving support to the contention that the capacity to attack nonaqueous mass is a prerequisite for any effective treatment of DNAPL source zones. The site geology for this project was relatively unfavorable, and further work is needed to confirm that the ERD technology can economically reach a natural attenuation endpoint for this type of setting. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Bioacoustic distances between the begging calls of brood parasites and their host species: a comparison of metrics and techniques

A variety of bioacoustics distance metrics have been used to assess similarities in the vocalizations of different individuals. Here, we provide a detailed analysis of several acoustic similarity indices, some of which have been developed with the specific aim of characterizing the sensory coding of auditory stimuli. We compare different approaches through the analysis of begging calls of several passerine species and specialist brood parasitic cuckoos that putatively evolved to mimic their hosts. The different bioacoustics distances did not provide consistently correlated similarity patterns, implying that they are sensitive to different sound features. However, the encoded spectrogram alignment method was correlated with all other acoustic distance metrics, suggesting that this method provides a consistent approach to use when the perceptually salient sound parameters are unknown for a particular species. Our analyses confirm that statistical similarity of begging calls can be detected in a New Zealand pair of host and specialist parasite species. We also show detectable similarity in two other Australasian host–parasite pairs and another New Zealand system, but to a more limited extent. By examining phylogenetic patterns in the begging call diversity, we also confirm that specialist cuckoos have evolved to mimic the begging calls of their hosts but host species have not co-evolved to modify their calls in response to begging call similarity by the parasite. Our results illustrate that understanding the function and mechanism of behavioral copying and mimicry requires statistically consistent measures of similarity that are related to both the physical aspects of the particular display and the sensory basis of its perception.     

Kinetics of trace element uptake and release by particles in estuarine waters: effects of pH,salinity, and particle loading

The uptake and release of 109Cd, 51Cr, 60Co, 59Fe, 54Mn, and 65Zn were studied using end-member waters and particles from Port Jackson estuary, Australia. The kinetics of adsorption and desorption were studied as a function of suspended particulate matter (SPM) loading and salinity. Batch experiments showed that the position and slope of the pH edges are dependent on the metal and on the salinity of the water (except for Mn). The general effect of salinity was to move the adsorption edge to higher pH values, with the greatest change being found for Cd. Most of the metals showed relatively simple kinetics with an increase in uptake as a function of time and suspended particle concentrations. The time dependence of Cd uptake was more complex, with an initial adsorption phase being followed by strong mobilization from the suspended sediments, explained by chlorocomplexation and competition with seawater major cations. The reversibility of the sorption decreased in the order Co>Mn>Zn>Cd>Fe>Cr. The percentage of adsorbed metal released in desorption experiments was greater in seawater than freshwater for Cd, Zn, and Co. These results are important in understanding the cycling of pollutants in response to pH, salinity, and particle concentrations in estuarine environments. In addition, they give valuable insight into the important mechanisms controlling the partitioning of heavy metals in the Port Jackson estuary.