The Dynamic Balance Between Experts and the Public in the Assessment of Hazards: Ocean Incineration - The U.S. Experience

Understanding environmental threats posed as a byproduct of technology has become an important role for our federal governmental agencies. This study examined environmental hazard assessment in theory and in practice. Discussion established the unique nature of environmental hazard assessment as compared to financial or natural hazard assessment. This first section examined advantages and shortcomings of four methods to judge the tolerability of environmental hazards: Natural Baselines, Risk/Cost/Benefit Analysis, Revealed Preferences, and Expressed Preferences. The differences in perspectives between expert risk assessors and the lay public was highlighted. For the case of ocean incineration of hazardous wastes the dilemma faced by agencies in selecting an assessment process was shown to be partially resolved by agency reaction to interest groups. Several agencies were involved in the assessment process including: The Air Force, the Maritime Administration, three separate branches of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Eight agency hazard assessment reports authored by these agencies were reviewed. A correlation was established between interest groups and hazard perspectives. The balance struck between expert and public hazard perspectives for each of the reports was determined. The major legal, bureaucratic, factual, and political factors influencing the balancing process was observed. The changes in the balance over time was shown to correlate with changes in the relative strength of interest groups. Two additional findings are noted. First, in a real world case example the public placed considerable weight on the role of management in forming its hazard determination for a technology. Second, there was a direct correlation between an agency\u27s distance from the management of a technology and the quality of the balancing done by the agency-as defined by placing weight on both hazard perspectives

The Wrath of Ignorance: Schizophrenic Policies in Access to Health Care for Undocumented Latinas

This study focuses on the problems of health care access experienced by undocumented Latinas: women from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Those who are undocumented may encounter significantly reduced access to health care, for the risk of discovery causes them to be more furtive in their activities. Undocumented immigrants to the U.S., especially Latin women, confront myriad obstacles in obtaining health care that are sociocultural, political, economic, and personal. The problem of competing policies in the health care arena represents one of the most formidable obstacles for undocumented persons. These conflicting conditions are such that some services are easier to access, while other services are more difficult to obtain. For example, undocumented Latinas are likely to find family planning services easier to obtain than prenatal care under terms of the new federal welfare law that eliminates prenatal care for undocumented immigrants. Even health care providers appear to have limited awareness about competing policies. As such, this qualitative interview study illustrates that it is possible to promote greater knowledge and understanding about the problems of competing policies among a selected group of health care administrators and providers. The data analysis portrays their new awareness for which policy revisions are needed to rectify and expand undocumented Latinas\u27 access to health care services. The data support the review of literature which together suggest that ignorance on the part of providers, the public, politicians, and the media is the most critical barrier preventing health care access for undocumented Latinas. Consequently, the participants promote education for themselves and for the community as the essential remedy to alleviate this population\u27s pain, despair, and increased morbidity related to health care exclusion. Moreover, the participants believe education represents the crucial tool for subjugating this wrath of ignorance among the political elite. The participants\u27 recommendations point out that social justice perspectives are integral to redefining, reconstructing, and remedizing health care policy. Recommended remedies include: upholding Latinas\u27 right to health care by expanding health care services, establishing universal access and universal health insurance, and promoting federalized reimbursement for health care. The recommendations center upon renewed emphasis in education, research, and leadership through empowerment from participation in coalitions and fora, volunteerism, partnerships between hospitals and the community, and knowledge distribution

Small-scale flows in SUMER and TRACE high-cadence co-observations

We report on the physical properties of small-scale transient flows observed simultaneously at high cadence with the SUMER spectrometer and the TRACE imager in the plage area of an active region. Our major objective is to provide a better understanding of the nature of transient phenomena in the solar atmosphere by using high-cadence imager and spectrometer co-observations at similar spatial and temporal resolution. A sequence of TRACE Fe IX/X 171 A and high-resolution MDI images were analysed together with simultaneously obtained SUMER observations in spectral lines covering a temperature range from 10 000 K to 1 MK. We reveal the existence of numerous transient flows in small-scale loops (up to 30 Mm) observed in the plage area of an active region. These flows have temperatures from 10 000 K (the low temperature limit of our observations) to 250 000 K. The coronal response of these features is uncertain due to a blending of the observed coronal line Mg X 624.85 A. The duration of the events ranges from 60 s to 19 min depending on the loop size. Some of the flows reach supersonic velocities. The Doppler shifts often associated with explosive events or bi-directional jets can actually be identified with flows (some of them reaching supersonic velocities) in small-scale loops. Additionally, we demonstrate how a line-of-sight effect can give misleading information on the nature of the observed phenomena if only either an imager or a spectrometer is used.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted by A&

Insights in disease management - Editorial

Editorial on the Research Topic Insights in disease management The Research Topic “Insights in Disease Management” brings together innovative Research Topics from the disease management sector. This is a key time to reduce losses to diseases so that we can produce more food that we need for the growing global population but also to control diseases in a way that minimises the environmental footprint of crop production. The issue covers insights using examples in both protected and field crops, covering most pathogen groups – bacteria (Reglinski et al.), viruses (Codod et al.), fungi (Dutta et al.; Sangiorgio et al.), and oomycetes (Sharma et al.). Underpinning many current approaches to disease management is the idea of integrated pest management, which is often portrayed as a triangle representing different tiers of approaches. The foundations of the IPM triangle are practices such as crop rotation to separate crops and pathogens in space and time, use of resistant varieties, and various effects of management practices such as under-sowing or inter-cropping to alter the microclimate, release biofumigants, maintain beneficial microbes or to act as a physical barrier. Papers in this issue connected with this layer of the IPM triangle cover aspects such as improved host resistance with marker-assisted selection, genome sequencing, and improved understanding of resistance genes (Sharma et al.). Also connected to host resistance is the paper by Reglinski et al. except that this concerns host resistance induced by application of a chemical elicitor. This human intervention is preferable to applications of chemical pesticides (usually depicted at the top of the IPM triangle to represent a measure used only as a last resort), which despite often providing efficient disease control and associated benefits of enhanced yield, is acknowledged to have potential non-target effects in the environment. One such non-target effect is the impact of fungicides and other pesticides on microbial endophytes and more broadly, the phytobiome, which Sangiorgio et al. argue, has potential to confer a degree of natural biological control, protecting against pathogens both on the plant surface and within host tissues. They review how genetic sequencing techniques are providing new insights into the degree of protection conferred by the phytobiome towards pathogens in addition to other roles affecting resistance to abiotic stress and nutrient uptake, ultimately affecting plant phenotype, growth, yield and quality. They conclude that future research on plant disease control should also consider impacts to microbe-mediated plant fitness. Indeed, even applications of biological control agents have potential to affect the phytobiome, but this approach is nevertheless regarded as less damaging to the environment compared to chemical control. One of the main biocontrol agents that has been used successfully for over 50 years is Trichoderma. This fungal genus is reviewed by Dutta et al., covering its use as a bio-fungicide, long-term biocontrol agent, defence activator and plant growth stimulator. The use of available biologicals or chemical control options are greatly enhanced by monitoring and forecasting schemes to indicate exactly when the target pathogen will occur. This is increasingly being seen as a form of precision agriculture, directing not only where but also when to make an intervention to protect crops from imminent disease. Various processes have been investigated, ranging from optical sensing from platforms such as satellites, drones or tractor and hand-held devices, to weather-based forecasts, or taking environmental samples (irrigation water, soil or the air) and performing various diagnostic tests, some of which are compatible with being automated and linked to wireless reporting. One key step in determining an efficient sampling or monitoring regime is to understand the spatial distribution of the pest or pathogen in question. The paper by Codod et al. is an example of this – explaining how the whitefly-transmitted virus complex affecting yellow squash (Cucurbita pepo) occurs initially in a sparse, random pattern, mainly around edges of fields but becomes aggregated, with spread mainly along rows, which will inform future developments to improve scouting, monitoring, and management strategies. This issue therefore brings together the core components of IPM, including traditional epidemiological studies, bio-control and cutting-edge ‘omics’, which are currently reshaping IPM, particularly through studies of functional genomics and the microbiome. These approaches are increasingly necessary to deliver sustainable crop production that will feed the world, while having a low environmental impact

Ontogenetic Shifts in Resource Allocation: Colour Change and Allometric Growth of Defensive and Reproductive Structures in the Caribbean Spiny Lobster Panulirus argus

Resource allocation theory predicts a disproportionately large allocation of resources to defensive structures during early ontogeny in organisms that are subject to more intense predation at smaller than at larger body sizes. We tested this prediction on the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus, which exhibits a negative relationship between predation risk and body size with a high natural mortality of smaller individuals. Independent allometric growth analyses demonstrated that numerous defensive structures (e.g. orbital horns, segments supporting the antenna, the tail fan) display negative allometric growth throughout ontogeny. We interpret these findings as lobsters investing disproportionately more resources to defensive structures when small to improve survivorship. Similarly, we observed an ontogenetic shift in lobster colour pattern; small individuals (\u3c23mm carapace length) that inhabit nursery grounds (preferably among red algae) displayed a disruptive pattern (camouflage), whereas larger juveniles displayed a bicolour pigmentation typical of adult lobsters. This shift in colour pattern further suggests that small lobsters employ cryptic coloration throughout their asocial algal stage. However, this cryptic coloration offers no advantage when lobsters grow larger and start dwelling in crevices. Other structures linked to reproduction (e.g. female pleopods and male pereopods) experienced either isometric or positive allometric growth throughout ontogeny. Our results support one of the main predictions of resource allocation theory and demonstrate ontogenetic shifts in defensive structures and coloration concomitantly with changes in lobster mortality risk mediated by size-dependent predation risk. © 2012 The Linnean Society of Londo

Efficacy of plant essential oils on postharvest control of rots caused by fungi on different stone fruits in vivo.

The antifungal activity of plant essential oils was evaluated as postharvest treatment on stone fruit against brown rot and grey mold rot of stone fruit caused by Monilinia laxa and Botrytis cinerea, respectively. The essential oils from basil (Ocimum basilicum), fennel (Foeniculum sativum), lavender (Lavandula officinalis), marjoram (Origanum majorana), oregano (Origanum vulgare), peppermint (Mentha piperita), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), sage (Salvia officinalis), savory (Satureja montana), thyme (Thymus vulgaris), and wild mint (Mentha arvensis) were tested at two different concentrations on apricots (cv. Kyoto and cv. Tonda di Costigliole), nectarines (cv. Big Top and cv. Nectaross) and plums (cv. Italia and cv. TC Sun). The volatile composition of the essential oils tested was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. The treatments containing essential oils from oregano, savory, and thyme at 1% (vol/vol) controlled both B. cinerea and M. laxa growing on apricots cv. Tonda di Costigliole and plums cv. Italia and cv. TC Sun; however, the same treatments were phytotoxic for the carposphere of nectarines cv. Big Top and cv. Nectaross. Treatments with 10% (vol/vol) essential oils were highly phytotoxic, notwithstanding their efficacy against the pathogens tested. The essential oils containing as major components α-pinene, p-cymene, carvacrol, and thymol showed similar results on stone fruit, so their antimicrobial activity and the phytotoxicity produced could be based on the concentration of their principal compounds and their synergistic activity. The efficacy of the essential oil treatments on control of fungal pathogens in postharvest depended on the fruit cultivar, the composition and concentration of the essential oil applied, and the length of storage

Search for photospheric footpoints of quiet Sun transition region loops

CONTEXT:The footpoints of quiet Sun Transition Region (TR) loops do not seem to coincide with the photospheric magnetic structures appearing in traditional low-sensitivity magnetograms. AIMS: To look for the so-far unidentified photospheric footpoints of TR loops using G-band bright points (BPs) as proxies for photospheric magnetic field concentrations. METHODS: Comparison of TR measurements with SoHO/SUMER and photospheric magnetic field observations obtained with the Dutch Open Telescope. RESULTS: Photospheric BPs are associated with bright TR structures, but they seem to avoid the brightest parts of the structure. BPs appear in regions that are globally redshifted, but they avoid extreme velocities. TR explosive events are not clearly associated with BPs. CONCLUSIONS: The observations are not inconsistent with the BPs being footpoints of TR loops, although we have not succeeded to uniquely identify particular BPs with specific TR loops.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 10 pages, 10 figures. Due to size limitations, the quality of fig3 is not goo