Evaluating Dispute Resolution as an Approach to Public Participation

Public participation has become an integral part of environmental policymaking. Dispute resolution—with its focus on deliberation, problem solving, and consensus seeking among a small group of people—is one of the alternatives decisionmakers increasingly turn to for involving the public. This paper evaluates dispute resolution as a form of public participation by measuring its success against five “social goals”: incorporating public values into decisions, increasing the substantive quality of decisions, resolving conflict, building trust, and educating the public. The data for the analysis come from a “case survey,” in which researchers read and coded information on more than 100 attributes of 239 published case studies of public involvement in environmental decisionmaking. These cases describe a variety of planning, management, and implementation activities carried out by environmental and natural resource agencies at many levels of government. The paper demonstrates that dispute resolution processes typically do much better than other forms of public participation in achieving social goals, but only among the small group of actual participants. The dispute resolution cases do far worse in extending the benefits of participation to the wider public. Many dispute resolution cases lack significant outreach, either to inform the wider public or to draw the wider public’s values into decisionmaking. The benefits of conflict resolution or trust formation also often do not extend beyond a small group of participants. The findings have normative implications for the desirability of dispute resolution in certain types of environmental decisions. They also have practical implications because the exclusion of the wider public from decisionmaking can come back to haunt project proponents in the implementation stage.dispute resolution, public participation, conflict resolution, evaluation

Use of satellite remote-sensing techniques to predict the variation of the nutritional composition of corn (Zea mays L) for silage

The nutritional composition of corn (Zea mays L) silage can vary substantially within a same silo. Environmental differences within the cornfield could contribute to this variability. We explored using green vegetation index maps, known as normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) maps, to identify differences in the nutritional composition of corn at the field level. We hypothesized that the nutritional composition of the corn plant differs within the corn- field according to the vegetation index maps as detected by satellite remote-sensing techniques. Three cornfields from 3 commercial dairy farms located within the state of Virginia were utilized in this study. Landsat satellite data were obtained from the US Geological Survey to develop NDVI maps. Each cornfield was segregated in 3 regions classified as low NDVI, mid NDVI, and high NDVI. Corn plants from each region were harvested to determine their nutritional composition. At harvesting, corn plants were cut, weighed, chopped, and analyzed in the laboratory. Data were analyzed as for a complete block design, where fields and NDVI regions were considered blocks and treatments, respectively. The concentrations of ash (40 g kg-1), crude protein (102 g kg-1), neutral detergent fiber (398 g kg-1), acid detergent fiber (232 g kg-1), acid detergent lignin (14 g kg-1), and starch (304 g kg-1) did not differ at different NDVI regions. In our study none of the cornfields seemed to be environmentally stressed during the growing season of 2014. Therefore, it is plausible that the intrinsic variation of the cornfields was minimum due to the adequate growing conditions

dftatom: A robust and general Schr\"odinger and Dirac solver for atomic structure calculations

A robust and general solver for the radial Schr\"odinger, Dirac, and Kohn--Sham equations is presented. The formulation admits general potentials and meshes: uniform, exponential, or other defined by nodal distribution and derivative functions. For a given mesh type, convergence can be controlled systematically by increasing the number of grid points. Radial integrations are carried out using a combination of asymptotic forms, Runge-Kutta, and implicit Adams methods. Eigenfunctions are determined by a combination of bisection and perturbation methods for robustness and speed. An outward Poisson integration is employed to increase accuracy in the core region, allowing absolute accuracies of $10^{-8}$ Hartree to be attained for total energies of heavy atoms such as uranium. Detailed convergence studies are presented and computational parameters are provided to achieve accuracies commonly required in practice. Comparisons to analytic and current-benchmark density-functional results for atomic number $Z$ = 1--92 are presented, verifying and providing a refinement to current benchmarks. An efficient, modular Fortran 95 implementation, \ttt{dftatom}, is provided as open source, including examples, tests, and wrappers for interface to other languages; wherein particular emphasis is placed on the independence (no global variables), reusability, and generality of the individual routines.Comment: Submitted to Computer Physics Communication on August 27, 2012, revised February 1, 201

Breaking down the mussel (Mytilus edulis) shell: Which layers affect Oystercatchers' (Haematopus ostralegus) prey selection?

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 2011, Vol. 405, Issue 1-2, pp. 87 – 92 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2011.05.021Predators are able to identify fine characteristic features of prey and use them to maximise the profitability of foraging. Oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus select thin-shelled mussels Mytilus edulis to hammer through because they are easier to crack than thick-shelled mussels. But mussel shells are composite structures, so we need to ask what it is about these thin-shelled mussels that make them vulnerable. Here we show that the mussels damaged by Oystercatchers were mainly distinguished by having a significantly thinner prismatic layer than undamaged mussels. Regression analysis indicated that the Oystercatchers' shell selection was independently influenced by the thickness of the prismatic and nacreous layers, but the coefficient for the thickness of the prismatic layer was almost one and a half times that for the nacreous layer. Thus the thickness of the prismatic layer largely determines the vulnerability of the mussel shells. Oystercatchers were more likely to attack mussels by the right valve than the left, and this tendency was accentuated in larger mussels and those with a thicker nacreous layer

Dynamics of cathode-associated microbial communities and metabolite profiles in a glycerol-fed bioelectrochemical system

Electrical current can be used to supply reducing power to microbial metabolism. This phenomenon is typically studied in pure cultures with added redox mediators to transfer charge. Here, we investigate the development of a current-fed mixed microbial community fermenting glycerol at the cathode of a bioelectrochemical system in the absence of added mediators and identify correlations between microbial diversity and the respective product outcomes. Within 1 week of inoculation, a Citrobacter population represented 95 to 99% of the community and the metabolite profiles were dominated by 1,3-propanediol and ethanol. Over time, the Citrobacter population decreased in abundance while that of a Pectinatus population and the formation of propionate increased. After 6 weeks, several Clostridium populations and the production of valerate increased, which suggests that chain elongation was being performed. Current supply was stopped after 9 weeks and was associated with a decrease in glycerol degradation and alcohol formation. This decrease was reversed by resuming current supply; however, when hydrogen gas was bubbled through the reactor during open-circuit operation (open-circuit potential) as an alternative source of reducing power, glycerol degradation and metabolite production were unaffected. Cyclic voltammetry revealed that the community appeared to catalyze the hydrogen evolution reaction, leading to a +400-mV shift in its onset potential. Our results clearly demonstrate that current supply can alter fermentation profiles; however, further work is needed to determine the mechanisms behind this effect. In addition, operational conditions must be refined to gain greater control over community composition and metabolic outcomes

Impacts of birds of prey on gamebirds in the UK: a review

The influence of predators on the distribution, density and dynamics of their prey species has long been of interest to ecologists and wildlife managers. Where the prey population is also utilised by humans, conflicts may arise through competition for a limited resource. Because gamebird shooting in the UK provides employment, recreation and income, the impact of birds of prey on gamebird populations has been the subject of intense debate for many years. A variety of approaches has been used to assess the impacts that raptors have on gamebird populations. Here we review the applicability and limitations of the methods used and assess the scientific evidence for population-level and economic impacts of raptors on gamebird populations in the UK. Raptors may, in some situations, take large numbers of gamebirds and may be an important proximate cause of mortality, although few studies have assressed the impacts of raptors on either breeding or pre-shooting densities. Two exceptions are studies of Hen Harrier and Peregrine predation on Red Grouse on moorland in Scotland and Sparrowhawk predation on Grey Partridge on farmland in England. Both these studies suggested that raptors could have population-level impacts when their gamebird prey was already at low density. Studies on predation of captively bred gamebirds suggest that numbers taken by raptors at release pens vary considerably and in a few cases raptors have been documented killing relatively large numbers. On the whole, however, it appears that raptors account for a relatively small proportion of mortality among released birds and the impact on subsequent shooting bags is unknown. We summarise important gaps in current knowledge and recommend specific areas for future research

The Welfare Implications of Using Exotic Tortoises as Ecological Replacements

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Ecological replacement involves the introduction of non-native species to habitats beyond their historical range, a factor identified as increasing the risk of failure for translocations. Yet the effectiveness and success of ecological replacement rely in part on the ability of translocatees to adapt, survive and potentially reproduce in a novel environment. We discuss the welfare aspects of translocating captive-reared non-native tortoises, <em>Aldabrachelys gigantea</em> and <em>Astrochelys radiata</em>, to two offshore Mauritian islands, and the costs and success of the projects to date.</p> <h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p>Because tortoises are long-lived, late-maturing reptiles, we assessed the progress of the translocation by monitoring the survival, health, growth, and breeding by the founders. Between 2000 and 2011, a total of 26 <em>A. gigantea</em> were introduced to Ile aux Aigrettes, and in 2007 twelve sexually immature <em>A. gigantea</em> and twelve male <em>A. radiata</em> were introduced to Round Island, Mauritius. Annual mortality rates were low, with most animals either maintaining or gaining weight. A minimum of 529 hatchlings were produced on Ile aux Aigrettes in 11 years; there was no potential for breeding on Round Island. Project costs were low. We attribute the success of these introductions to the tortoises’ generalist diet, habitat requirements, and innate behaviour.</p> <h3>Conclusions/Significance</h3><p>Feasibility analyses for ecological replacement and assisted colonisation projects should consider the candidate species’ welfare during translocation and in its recipient environment. Our study provides a useful model for how this should be done. In addition to serving as ecological replacements for extinct Mauritian tortoises, we found that releasing small numbers of captive-reared <em>A. gigantea</em> and <em>A. radiata</em> is cost-effective and successful in the short term. The ability to release small numbers of animals is a particularly important attribute for ecological replacement projects since it reduces the potential risk and controversy associated with introducing non-native species.</p> </div

First report of Bean common mosaic virus in Western Australia

No abstract availabl