A Risk Assessment for Consumers of Mourning Doves

Recreational and subsistence hunters and anglers consume a wide range of species, including birds, mammals, fish and shellfish, some of which represent significant exposure pathways for environmental toxic agents. This study focuses on the Department of Energy's (DOE'S) Savannah River Site (SRS), a former nuclear weapons production facility in South Carolina. The potential risk of contaminant intake from consuming mourning doves ( Zenaida macroura ), the most popular United States game bird, was examined under various risk scenarios. For all of these scenarios we used the mean tissue concentration of six metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, selenium, chromium, manganese) and radiocesium, in doves collected on and near SRS. We also estimated risk to a child consuming doves that had the maximum contaminant level. We used the cancer slope factor for radiocesium, the Environmental Protection Agencies UptakeBiokinetic model for lead, and published reference doses for the other metals. As a result of our risk assessments we recommend management of water levels in contaminated reservoirs so that lake bed sediments are not exposed to use by gamebirds and other terrestrial wildlife. Particularly, measures should be taken to insure that the hunting public does not have access to such a site. Our data also indicate that doves on popular hunting areas are exposed to excess lead, suggesting that banning lead shot for doves, as has been done for waterfowl, is desirable.     

Ethnic Differences in Risk from Mercury among Savannah River Fishermen

Fishing plays an important role in people's lives and contaminant levels in fish are a public health concern. Many states have issued consumption advisories; South Carolina and Georgia have issued them for the Savannah River based on mercury and radionuclide levels. This study examined ethnic differences in risk from mercury exposure among people consuming fish from the Savannah River, based on site-specific consumption patterns and analysis of mercury in fish. Among fish, there were significant interspecies differences in mercury levels, and there were ethnic differences in consumption patterns. Two methods of examining risk are presented: (1) Hazard Index (HI), and (2) estimates of how much and how often people of different body mass can consume different species of fish. Blacks consumed more fish and had higher HIs than Whites. Even at the median consumption, the HI for Blacks exceeded 1.0 for bass and bowfin, and, at the 75th percentile of consumption, the HI exceeded 1.0 for almost all species. At the White male median consumption, noHI exceeded 1, but for the 95th percentile consumer, the HI exceeded 1.0 almost regardless of which species were eaten. Although females consumed about two thirds the quantity of males, HIs exceeded 1 for most Black females and for White females at or above the 75th percentile of consumption. Thus, close to half of the Black fishermen were eating enough Savannah River fish to exceed HI = 1. Caution must be used in evaluating an HI because the RfDs were developed to protect the most vulnerable individuals. The percentage of each fish species tested that exceeded the maximum permitted limits of mercury in fish was also examined. Over 80% of bowfin, 38% of bass, and 21% of pickerel sampled exceeded 0.5 ppm. The risk methodology is applicable anywhere that comparable data can be obtained. The risk estimates are representative for fishermen along the Savannah River, and are not necessarily for the general populations.     

Family Phone Therapy in University Counseling and Psychological Service Centers: A Family Systems Approach

Abstract

This paper offers family phone therapy as a method for student mental health practitioners to overcome the obstacle of geographic distance between students and their families when family therapy is the treatment of choice. The issues of confidentiality, triangulation, diversionary conversation, and mixed communication, which present unique concerns when engaging in family phone therapy, are introduced and strategies to deal with them are discussed. A case example is presented to demonstrate the utility of family phone therapy in dealing with problems that students who use university mental health services can typically experience. Finally, implications of dealing with students' developmental tasks from an individual or family systems perspective are discussed.     

Social movement as civic education: communication activities and understanding of civil disobedience in the Umbrella Movement

Occupy Central, which would later evolve into the Umbrella Movement, was conceived as a civil disobedience campaign when it was first proposed in early 2013. Although the history of civil disobedience in Hong Kong arguably spans decades, the concept was seldom discussed in the public arena, and the practice was not well established in the society's repertoire of contentious actions. The years 2013 and 2014 thus constituted a “critical discourse moment” in which the concept of civil disobedience was intensively discussed and debated. This study seeks to determine whether the Occupy Central campaign and the Umbrella Movement had an educational function that led to increased levels of the public's understanding of civil disobedience. The analysis of the responses to two surveys conducted in September 2013 and October 2014 showed that the public's understanding of civil disobedience increased substantially over the year. After the Umbrella Movement started, attitudinal support for and actual participation in the movement, the political use of social media, and discussions with disagreeing others significantly predicted the understanding of civil disobedience. The theoretical and social implications of the findings are discussed.     

Why planners don't

This paper deals with a study which the authors undertook of the planning function in five major U.S. corporations. None of the five engaged in true strategic planning. The authors advance explanations for this relatively low level of planning activity, based on the environmental, organizational, and managerial characteristics of the firms. The authors urge the rapid development of a more sophisticated contingency theory of corporate planning to facilitate practice, teaching, and research.     

Sex-specific effects of interventions that extend fly life span

Genetic and environmental interventions that extend life span are a current focus in research on the biology of aging. Most of this work has focused on differences among genotypes and species. A recent study on fruit flies shows that life span extension because of dietary restriction can be highly sex-specific. Here we review the literature on sex-specific effects of 56 genetic and 41 environmental interventions that extend life span in Drosophila melanogaster. We found that only one-sixth of the experiments provided statistical tests of differences in response between males and females, suggesting that sex-specific effects have been largely ignored. When measured, the life span extension was female-biased in 8 of 16 cases, male-biased in 5 of 16 cases, and not significantly different in only 3 of 16 cases. We discuss possible explanations for the sex-specific differences and suggest various ways in which we might test these hypotheses. We argue that understanding sex differences in the response to life span-extending manipulations should lead to new insights about the basic mechanisms that underlie the biology of aging in both sexes.     

A Quantitative Risk Assessment of Waterborne Cryptosporidiosis in France Using Second-Order Monte Carlo Simulation

A pragmatic quantitative risk assessment (QRA) of the risks of waterborne Cryptosporidium parvum infection and cryptosporidiosis in immunocompetent and immunodeficient French populations is proposed. The model takes into account French specificities such as the French technique for oocyst enumeration performance and tap water consumption. The proportion of infective oocysts is based on literature review and expert knowledge. The probability of infection for a given number of ingested viable oocysts is modeled using the exponential dose-response model applied on published data from experimental infections in immunocompetent human volunteers challenged with the IOWA strain. Second-order Monte Carlo simulations are used to characterize the uncertainty and variability of the risk estimates. Daily risk of infection and illness for the immunocompetent and the immunodeficient populations are estimated according to the number of oocysts observed in a single storage reservoir water sample. As an example, the mean daily risk of infection in the immunocompetent population is estimated to be 1.08 x 10(-4) (95% confidence interval: [0.20 x 10(-4); 6.83 x 10(-4)]) when five oocysts are observed in a 100 L storage reservoir water sample. Annual risks of infection and disease are estimated from a set of oocyst enumeration results from distributed water samples, assuming a negative binomial distribution of day-to-day contamination variation. The model and various assumptions used in the model are fully explained and discussed. While caveats of this model are well recognized, this pragmatic QRA could represent a useful tool for the French Food Safety Agency (AFSSA) to define recommendations in case of water resource contamination by C. parvum whose infectivity is comparable to the IOWA strain.     

Regulating Shareholder Value: A Case Study of the Introduction of Value–based Measures in a Water Company

The implementation of a value–based measurement system within a privatized UK regional water company is examined by means of a longitudinal case study. Evidence is presented of how the system was developed within the context of a regulatory environment, which presented special considerations to the company in designing and implementing an appropriate system. In particular the paper considers the implementation issues surrounding the management of the introduction of the value–based measures at the operational level. The authors describe the drivers behind the introduction of the new system and the technical, political and cultural challenges raised by its implementation.