Affirmative action within the fire service: The background on the law and its effect on the fire service and how fire department policies reflect the affirmative action legislation.

This research studied ten full time fire departments in the United States to develop a quantitative study showing demographic make-up of the fire department rosters and the citizens in which they serve. Affirmative action has been a polarizing issue since the day the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed. Many thoughts and feelings had been researched but no quantitative studies could be found. This study asked three main questions. Are the fire departments being studied meeting the number requirements set forth by the law in relation to equal representation of the community serviced by the department? Are the departments’ policies and programs consistent with affirmative action? If they are deficient, in what ways are the various fire departments lacking? Finally, what are the issues that the fire chiefs identified in the interview that affect affirmative action policy and procedure in their departments? This research showed substantial deficiencies within the departments studied. It was important to address the actual numbers for a baseline on how fire departments have been unable to meet the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and still have a considerable amount of work to do to diversify the fire service. It was shown that concentrated recruitment of candidates was beneficial and that fire departments across the nation need to be more aware of hiring policies and procedures that work to diversify their departments. The fire chiefs generally stated that they felt diversity was good but there were many factors affecting their hiring policies and procedures that were addressed in this research

A Proposed Method of Test for Spoilage of Fruits and Vegetables

This document is intended to provide all procedures and background needed for testing fruits and vegetables for deter- mination of spoilage progression during storage. This method of testing was developed for research into the effect of household refrigeration storage conditions on the shelf life of fruits and vegetables (Pate and Brehm-Stecher 2005). Instructions start with the procurement of the produce and sample preparation prior to placement within the environ- mental chamber. Data collection procedures used throughout the experiments are specified and a checklist for visually identifying physical attributes of “spoilage” and “freshness” are developed. Procedures for the counting of microorgan- isms and data collection are explained step-by-step

Chapter 8 Stakeholders' normative notions of sustainability

Chapter 8 = Many fisheries world-wide are not operating sustainably. Returning to sustainable levels is challenging as fisheries are embedded in complex marine social-ecological systems and bringing the system back to a path of sustainability will likely involve conflicts and tough choices. A first step towards a path of sustainability relates to understanding the (different) normative notions of sustainability held by different stakeholder groups. We use the (German) Western Baltic Sea as a case study to elicit these normative views. At a workshop with representatives of relevant stakeholder groups, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey. Questions were inspired by the stochastic-viability-conceptualization of strong ecological-economic sustainability under uncertainty. The survey focused on sustainability as a normative goal for fisheries management from a societal perspective. It returns quantitative results which can be directly utilized in fisheries management. We find considerable variation across as well as within stakeholder groups in their normative views on sustainability. Still, it seems to be consensus among all stakeholders that the different groups have legitimate claims to the Western Baltic Sea, providing common ground on how to 28 sustainably use the WBS, and a well-designed transdisciplinary approach with broad exchange between different stakeholders and science seems useful to steer the WBS into a sustainable future

Slow feedbacks resulting from strongly enhanced atmospheric methane mixing ratios in a chemistry-climate model with mixed-layer ocean

In a previous study the quasi-instantaneous chemical impacts (rapid adjustments) of strongly enhanced methane (CH4) mixing ratios have been analysed. However, to quantify the influence of the respective slow climate feedbacks on the chemical composition it is necessary to include the radiation-driven temperature feedback. Therefore, we perform sensitivity simulations with doubled and quintupled present-day (year 2010) CH4 mixing ratios with the chemistry-climate model EMAC (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Hamburg version - Modular Earth Submodel System (ECHAM/MESSy) Atmospheric Chemistry) and include in a novel set-up a mixedlayer ocean model to account for tropospheric warming. Strong increases in CH4 lead to a reduction in the hydroxyl radical in the troposphere, thereby extending the CH4 lifetime. Slow climate feedbacks counteract this reduction in the hydroxyl radical through increases in tropospheric water vapour and ozone, thereby dampening the extension of CH4 lifetime in comparison with the quasi-instantaneous response. Changes in the stratospheric circulation evolve clearly with the warming of the troposphere. The Brewer-Dobson circulation strengthens, affecting the response of trace gases, such as ozone, water vapour and CH4 in the stratosphere, and also causing stratospheric temperature changes. In the middle and upper stratosphere, the increase in stratospheric water vapour is reduced with respect to the quasi-instantaneous response. We find that this difference cannot be explained by the response of the cold point and the associated water vapour entry values but by a weaker strengthening of the in situ source of water vapour through CH4 oxidation. However, in the lower stratosphere water vapour increases more strongly when tropospheric warming is accounted for, enlarging its overall radiative impact. The response of the stratosphere adjusted temperatures driven by slow climate feedbacks is dominated by these increases in stratospheric water vapour as well as strongly decreased ozone mixing ratios above the tropical tropopause, which result from enhanced tropical upwelling. While rapid radiative adjustments from ozone and stratospheric water vapour make an essential contribution to the effective CH4 radiative forcing, the radiative impact of the respective slow feedbacks is rather moderate. In line with this, the climate sensitivity from CH4 changes in this chemistry-climate model set-up is not significantly different from the climate sensitivity in carbon-dioxide-driven simulations, provided that the CH4 effective radiative forcing includes the rapid adjustments from ozone and stratospheric water vapour changes

Periodic refractive index modifications inscribed in polymer optical fibre by focussed IR femtosecond pulses

Focussed femtosecond laser pulses were used to inscribe a periodic array of modifications in the core of a polymer optical fibre. Structural and refractive-index modifications have been observed at different pulse energies using DIC microscopy