scholarly journals Impact of heated waters on water quality and macroinvertebrate community in the Narew River (Poland)

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elzbieta Krolak ◽  
Krzysztof Lewandowski ◽  
Zbigniew Kasprzykowski

AbstractThe effect of heated waters from coal-burning power stations on the water parameters and the occurrence of macroinvertebrates depends on the individual characteristics of the river to which the heated waters are discharged. The objective of the study was to assess the impact of heated water from the Ostrołęka Power Station on selected water properties and the macroinvertebrate community in the Narew River. Samples were collected in years: 2013-2016 along two river stretches: upstream and downstream of the canal. The water temperature was higher and the oxygen concentrations were lower at the downstream sites compared to the upstream sites of the canal. The values of conductivity, concentrations of nitrates, phosphates, chlorides and calcium were similar at the sampling sites. A total of 33 families of macrozoobenthos were found. The numbers of families were positively correlated with the temperature and conductivity and negatively correlated with oxygen. The heated waters were found to have no effect on the Shannon-Wiener diversity index. The inflow of heated waters increased the percentage of Gammaridae, represented by species Dikerogammarus haemobaphes (Eichwald, 1841) and decreased the percentage of Chironomidae. The presence of the thermophilous bivalve Sinanodonta woodiana (Lea, 1934) was noted downstream of the canal.

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Madalozzo ◽  
Carolina Flores Gomes

Consensual union, also known as cohabitation, has become more frequent in recent decades in Brazil and many other countries. In this context, some studies have analyzed the impact of marriage on women's wages. This article analyzes the effects of marital status on Brazilian women's wages by specifically investigating the individual characteristics of these effects using data from the 2000 Brazilian Census Database. This study concludes that wages differ by up to 15 per cent between married and single women and up to 3 per cent between married and cohabiting women.


2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (1) ◽  
pp. 5063-5070
Author(s):  
Kengo Togashi ◽  
Akiko Sugahara ◽  
Yasuhiro Nagasawa ◽  
Yasuhiro Hiraguri ◽  
Kazunori Harada ◽  
...  

The use of open-plan offices is increasing as they are effective in improving intellectual productivity by fostering a communication among workers. Previous research on the relationship between the indoor sound environment and intellectual productivity has mostly reported the impact of the sound environment on the tasks that individuals work on. However, there has been no research on the impact of sound environment on office spaces where multiple workers are actually working. In this study, we developed a system that can analyze the individual characteristics of workers in relation to the sound environment by simultaneously measuring their evaluation to the sound environment and the sound environment of the office. The system collected workers' evaluation of their impressions to the sound environment through a regular questionnaire using the experience sampling method. At the same time, it measured the sound environment of the office with multiple small measurement devices. The obtained sound environment evaluation data and the acoustic data of the office were stored in a single database. Finally, this system was run in a working environment to evaluate the sound environment on a trial basis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ireneusz Ochmian ◽  
Magdalena Błaszak ◽  
Sabina Lachowicz ◽  
Renata Piwowarczyk

Abstract The aim of this study was to compare the nutritional and use value of berries grown in organic and conventional systems. The polyphenol content, fruit colour and firmness, and yeast, mould, and mycotoxin contents were assessed in blueberry fruit freshly harvested and stored for 8 weeks in controlled conditions (CA: CO2-12%; O2-1.5%, temperature 1.5 °C). The Shannon–Wiener diversity index was comparable in both systems and was lower for mould in organic fruit than in conventional fruit. Mycotoxins (deoxynivalenol, zearalenone) were found only in organic fruits. The optimal mineral content and pH of the soil allowed the cultivation of blueberry in accordance with organic standards. The storage of highbush blueberry fruit in CA cold storage for 8 weeks resulted in a slight deterioration in fruit quality and polyphenol content. The lower nutritional value of these fruits is compensated by the lack of pesticides and artificial fertilizers residues. The use of fungicides in conventional cultivation reduces the population of sensitive fungi and therefore reduces the contamination of fruits with mycotoxins.


Author(s):  
Richard C. Eichenberg

Scholars and governments are interested in four sets of questions concerning public opinion on foreign policy and national security policy. First, what do public opinion polls measure? How do citizens, who are generally uninformed about foreign policy and world affairs, form opinions on these matters? Second, how rational is public opinion? Is it stable or volatile? Are opinions coherent? Do opinions plausibly reflect the flow of world events? Third, what factors influence the formation of citizen opinions? Specifically, what is the impact of fundamental attitudes toward war and military force, partisanship, ideology, and gender? Finally, how universal are the determinants of citizen opinion, especially on crucial issues of war and peace? Are the findings in global comparisons the same as those in the American or European contexts? Considerable scholarship has been devoted to these four questions. Scholars now characterize public opinion as rational, in the sense that it is fairly stable, coherent, and responsive to real world events. Attitudes toward war and military force are a major focus of the research literature because many specific policy attitudes flow from fundamental views of war. Gender has also become a major focus of research because many studies find that women are less supportive of the use of military force for most purposes. Finally, scholars are beginning to discover that some opinion patterns are universal across societies, while others are more affected by the individual characteristics of national societies. Studies of global public opinion have expanded greatly, with recent scholarship focusing on global attitudes toward gender equality, immigration, and climate change.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Licia C. Papavero ◽  
Francesco Zucchini

Studies on female legislative behavior suggest that women parliamentarians may challenge party cohesion by allying across party lines. In this paper we analyze a specific parliamentary activity – bill co-sponsorship – in the Italian lower Chamber, between 1979 and 2016, as a source of information about MPs’ original preferences to study how gender affects party cohesion. Do women form a separated group in the Italian parliament? On average, are they more or less distant from the center of their parties than men? Does gender affect systematically party cohesion? A principal component analysis of co-sponsorship data allows us to identify the ideal points of all MPs in a multidimensional space for each legislature. Based on these data we estimate the impact of gender on party cohesion at the individual level while controlling for the impact of several other variables of different kind (individual, partisan, and institutional). We find that: (1) on average, women show lower cohesion as a group inside different parties and higher party cohesion than men; (2) the influence of gender on party cohesion is not conditional upon individual characteristics, upon the size and organization of parliamentary parties, and upon the share of women in their parliamentary groups; (3) the different behavior of women MPs may depend on the different patterns of recruitment in the parties.


Author(s):  
Steven L. Grover ◽  
Cathy A. Enz

ABSTRACTThis study examined the impact of situational and individual characteristics on sales representatives' propensity to lie or to tell the truth. The situational elements were the honesty of the organisation climate and its formal rules about lying to customers. The individual elements were the participants' degree of Machiavellianism and tolerance for ambiguity. The results indicated that more Machiavellian people were more likely to lie and that they were less guided by the rules than people who were low in this trait. In addition, rules and climate work together for people with a high tolerance for ambiguity in a complex manner.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
Thomas Müller

The article devoted to one of the topical problems of penitentiary institutions – the return to society of a prisoner who has served a sentence, provided that he or she will never commit crimes. This is the most difficult problem that arises in the course of the implementation by the penitentiary system of its main function – to ensure the safety of society. In many countries, the degree of prisoners’ isolation is determined by their categorization. German practice is based on a risk assessment of illegal conduct in relation to a particular person. The risk of violent acts is not necessarily related to the nature of the committed crime or the length of the sentence. The prison administration makes its own decision on the choice of the regime of detention. The penitentiary system (not the court) develops flexible security measures that can be changed in relation to the prisoner’s personality. All measures taken against prisoners should be based on the proportionality principle. The analysis of various rehabilitation programs for prisoners, used in Western Europe, leads the author to the conclusion that the most effective of them is individual therapy, which reduces the risk of recidivism by almost half. As a standard used in Germany, the author specify the principle of “risk – need – quick res-ponse”. The higher the risk of recidivism, the more intense the impact on the prisoner’s behavior should be. However, the application of this principle will be effective only when the selected cognitive techniques and practical training technologies coincide with the individual characteristics and the prisoner’s ability to learn. In addition, the results achieved by the prison administration must be supported by post-penitentiary rehabilitation programs. The article also describes the system of selection and training of prison personnel in Germany.


Author(s):  
Zhao Zhou ◽  
Robert Verburg

Rather than the view of the entrepreneur as a ‘lone ranger’, recent work has focused on the importance of teams in bringing a start-up to growth and success. Here, we aim to bridge the gap between the individual characteristics of entrepreneurs and the characteristics of their teams by examining openness of founders in relation to creative team environment (CTE), innovative work behaviour (IWB) and performance. On the basis of upper echelon theory and integrating other complementary theories such as the attention-based view, we develop a theoretical framework and test this using a survey of 322 high-tech entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a mediating role of CTE and IWB in the relation between openness of entrepreneurs and performance. The implications of the results for managerial practices and future research directions are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 881-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Stengel ◽  
Stefan Stapelberg ◽  
Oliver Sus ◽  
Cornelia Schlundt ◽  
Caroline Poulsen ◽  
...  

Abstract. New cloud property datasets based on measurements from the passive imaging satellite sensors AVHRR, MODIS, ATSR2, AATSR and MERIS are presented. Two retrieval systems were developed that include components for cloud detection and cloud typing followed by cloud property retrievals based on the optimal estimation (OE) technique. The OE-based retrievals are applied to simultaneously retrieve cloud-top pressure, cloud particle effective radius and cloud optical thickness using measurements at visible, near-infrared and thermal infrared wavelengths, which ensures spectral consistency. The retrieved cloud properties are further processed to derive cloud-top height, cloud-top temperature, cloud liquid water path, cloud ice water path and spectral cloud albedo. The Cloud_cci products are pixel-based retrievals, daily composites of those on a global equal-angle latitude–longitude grid, and monthly cloud properties such as averages, standard deviations and histograms, also on a global grid. All products include rigorous propagation of the retrieval and sampling uncertainties. Grouping the orbital properties of the sensor families, six datasets have been defined, which are named AVHRR-AM, AVHRR-PM, MODIS-Terra, MODIS-Aqua, ATSR2-AATSR and MERIS+AATSR, each comprising a specific subset of all available sensors. The individual characteristics of the datasets are presented together with a summary of the retrieval systems and measurement records on which the dataset generation were based. Example validation results are given, based on comparisons to well-established reference observations, which demonstrate the good quality of the data. In particular the ensured spectral consistency and the rigorous uncertainty propagation through all processing levels can be considered as new features of the Cloud_cci datasets compared to existing datasets. In addition, the consistency among the individual datasets allows for a potential combination of them as well as facilitates studies on the impact of temporal sampling and spatial resolution on cloud climatologies.For each dataset a digital object identifier has been issued:Cloud_cci AVHRR-AM: https://doi.org/10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/AVHRR-AM/V002Cloud_cci AVHRR-PM: https://doi.org/10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/AVHRR-PM/V002Cloud_cci MODIS-Terra: https://doi.org/10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/MODIS-Terra/V002Cloud_cci MODIS-Aqua: https://doi.org/10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/MODIS-Aqua/V002Cloud_cci ATSR2-AATSR: https://doi.org/10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/ATSR2-AATSR/V002Cloud_cci MERIS+AATSR: https://doi.org/10.5676/DWD/ESA_Cloud_cci/MERIS+AATSR/V002


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 162-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Słomiński ◽  
Aleksandra Nowacka

Abstract Introduction. The improvement of outcomes in sport requires the creation of appropriate conditions for training and the search for more effective forms of its organisation and effective technology. Starting with this belief, the aim of the work is to identify the size and structure of the training loads and determine the effectiveness of the training process of an elite athlete in the Olympic macrocycle (2004-2008). Material and methods. We analysed loads in the four-year training cycle from 2004 to 2008. The parameters of the loads relating to the intensity (T1-T5) and type of training (general, special, and specific) were analysed. The present study also attempted to assess the impact of the work on the results obtained. Due to the nature of the competitive effort, we used the measurable parameter of distance (m, km) in the load analysis depending on the type and intensity of the physical effort. Results. This work reports on the implementation of a specially designed four-year training programme. The material gathered and the conclusions resulting from its analysis have made it possible to identify organisational and training solutions suitable for the athletic proficiency phase. The analysis of training loads indicated that in the training of a highly skilled swimmer, the general work is particularly important and that the largest volume was realised in the second intensity range (T2). Conclusions. The positive training and competition outcomes were the result of a deliberate training process. The training proved to be effective, leading to an increase in the athlete’s training status. This was achieved primarily owing to the training loads, which were accurately planned and implemented according to the special requirements of the race distance and the individual characteristics of the swimmer.


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