Creating Connections Between Environmental and Human Health and Messaging a Call to Pro-Environmental Action

Final project for ENSP 400: Capstone in Environmental Science and Policy (Fall 2017). University of Maryland, College Park.The Montgomery County Department of Parks, and other environmentally-oriented organizations, have historically had a difficult time communicating the importance of environmental issues to the general public. A major reason is that much of this communication has promoted environmental protection for the intrinsic sake of the environment, and not for human well-being. As a result, people who are not already environmentally inclined may not be interested in protecting it; they are unaware of how environmental crises may impact their own well-being. If they were made aware of such impacts, they might be more invested in environmental protection. To address this issue, we investigated the connections between environmental and human health, and determined how those connections should be crafted and messaged, to initiate a call to pro-environmental action among diverse groups in the Montgomery County public. We carried these tasks out in the context of a park system and focused our work on how parks are beneficial to both human and environmental health, and how they can be used to message human-environment connections and pro-environmental behavior. We researched the history of environmental communication in the U.S., current environmental-human health connections in water and air quality, and communication strategies that could encourage sustainability and support for parks in the County. This research culminated in a set of final recommendations for optimizing the pro-environmental messaging of the Department of Parks. Research into the history of environmental communication revealed wide variety of message types to gain support for sustainable behavior. Since the 1950s, messages catering to human values—altruistic or egoistic—and messages in line with social and media norms, have been prevalent. We believe that such messages could be used by the Department of Parks to promote park visitation and support. The investigation of environmental-human health connections revealed water and air quality deterioration as strong forces that are affecting both environmental and human health. Such forces, ranging from lead poisoning in water to carbon emissions in air, were found to be detrimental to both environments and humans, thus connecting the two—when environments are damaged, human health is damaged as well. However, parks can help mitigate these forces in a variety of ways. Finally, the most effective forms of communication are those that are simple; messages that are straightforward and easy to understand by varied audiences. Furthermore, we found that messages that encourage environmental-human health protection were most effective when crafted as a social norm or human value, not by using information alone. Based on of these findings, we devised a set of recommendations for Department of Parks messaging that include four steps that should be used in crafting Department messages: begin with an introductory hook; describe environmental-human health connections; craft environmental-human health connections; conclude with a call to action. We hope that these steps will help the Department garner optimal public support for its parks and natural environment.Montgomery Count

Sperm Chromatin-Induced Ectopic Polar Body Extrusion in Mouse Eggs after ICSI and Delayed Egg Activation

Meiotic chromosomes in an oocyte are not only a maternal genome carrier but also provide a positional signal to induce cortical polarization and define asymmetric meiotic division of the oocyte, resulting in polar body extrusion and haploidization of the maternal genome. The meiotic chromosomes play dual function in determination of meiosis: 1) organizing a bipolar spindle formation and 2) inducing cortical polarization and assembly of a distinct cortical cytoskeleton structure in the overlying cortex for polar body extrusion. At fertilization, a sperm brings exogenous paternal chromatin into the egg, which induces ectopic cortical polarization at the sperm entry site and leads to a cone formation, known as fertilization cone. Here we show that the sperm chromatin-induced fertilization cone formation is an abortive polar body extrusion due to lack of spindle induction by the sperm chromatin during fertilization. If experimentally manipulating the fertilization process to allow sperm chromatin to induce both cortical polarization and spindle formation, the fertilization cone can be converted into polar body extrusion. This suggests that sperm chromatin is also able to induce polar body extrusion, like its maternal counterpart. The usually observed cone formation instead of ectopic polar body extrusion induced by sperm chromatin during fertilization is due to special sperm chromatin compaction which restrains it from rapid spindle induction and therefore provides a protective mechanism to prevent a possible paternal genome loss during ectopic polar body extrusion

The Chemical Senses in Birds

7.1 CHEMICAL SENSES The chemical senses generally fall into three categories: chemesthesis (irritation and pain), olfaction (smell), and gustation (taste). Traditionally, the emphasis in describing responsiveness to chemical stimuli has been placed on taste and smell. The reality is more complex. For example, the sensory afferents for chemesthetic perception are in close proximity with olfactory receptors in the nasal cavity and with gustatory receptors in the oral cavity. Because external chemical stimuli can be processed by multiple sensory systems, there has been a great deal of confusion in the literature on the importance of individual sensory modalities. Generally, the principal mediating sensory modality may be related to stimulus type, concentration, and presentation. However, when perception of external chemical stimuli occurs via the integrated perception across modalities, the combined perceptual quality is commonly referred to as flavor

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Spectral Mapping of Jupiter and the Galilean Satellites: Results from Galileo's Initial Orbit

The Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer performed spectral studies of Jupiter and the Galilean satellites during the June 1996 perijove pass of the Galileo spacecraft. Spectra for a 5-micrometer hot spot on Jupiter are consistent with the absence of a significant water cloud above 8 bars and with a depletion of water compared to that predicted for solar composition, corroborating results from the Galileo probe. Great Red Spot (GRS) spectral images show that parts of this feature extend upward to 240 millibars, although considerable altitude-dependent structure is found within it. A ring of dense clouds surrounds the GRS and is lower than it by 3 to 7 kilometers. Spectra of Callisto and Ganymede reveal a feature at 4.25 micrometers, attributed to the presence of hydrated minerals or possibly carbon dioxide on their surfaces. Spectra of Europa's high latitudes imply that fine-grained water frost overlies larger grains. Several active volcanic regions were found on Io, with temperatures of 420 to 620 kelvin and projected areas of 5 to 70 square kilometers