Using front-end and formative evaluation to design and test persuasive bird feeding warning signs

Wildlife feeding is a wide-spread and controversial practice that can pose serious threats to the safety of both wildlife and visitors. The design and effectiveness of warning signs in recreational areas varies considerably and is rarely the product of theoretical models or scientific research. This study uses front-end and formative evaluation to design and test the perceived effectiveness of warning signs relating to bird feeding. Stage One examined visitors' beliefs, attitudes and bird feeding behaviour and found significant differences between feeders and non-feeders. Stage Two involved designing and evaluating three signs that built on the beliefs, knowledge and mis/conceptions identified in Stage One. Respondents thought the sign that focused on the birds' health and safety would be the most persuasive, however, elements of the other two signs were also positively evaluated. The article concludes with recommendations for the wording of future bird feeding warning signs. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Are country and culture values interchangeable? A case example using occupational stress and coping

Cross cultural research in occupational stress and coping has produced a wealth of knowledge. Although advances have been made, there are still problems to be solved. One of these problems is the confusion generated in the literature by researchers claiming that nation or country represents cultural values, and the use of the two terms interchangeably. It remains unclear whether this practice is correct. The present article reported on this by using 511 full-time employees from Australia, Singapore and Sri Lanka to study occupational stress and coping. Results revealed that cultural value paradigms (i.e. Individualism–Collectivism) were distributed across the three nations such that over 60% of participants were either high or low in both I–C paradigms. The findings also indicated that the relationship between cultural value paradigm and country impacted on stress and coping differently. The study shows that significant differences exist within countries as well as between countries, such that any attempt to equate ‘culture’ with ‘country’ becomes problematic. Therefore these findings established that country or nation is not the same as culture values and cannot be used interchangeably.

Feasibility of controlling nitrification in predenitrification plants using DO, pH and ORP sensors

Experimental studies were carried out on a bench-scale nitrogen removal system with a predenitrification configuration to gain insights into the spatial and temporal variations of DO, pH and ORP in such systems. It is demonstrated that these signals correlate strongly with the operational states of the system, and could therefore be used as system performance indicators. The DO concentration in the first aerobic zone, when receiving constant aeration, and the net pH change between the last and first aerobic zones display strong correlations with the influent ammonia concentration for the domestic wastewater used in this study. The pH profile along the aerobic zones gives good indication on the extent of nitrification. The experimental results also showed a good correlation between ORP values in the last aerobic zone and effluent ammonia and nitrate concentrations, provided that DO in this zone is controlled at a constant level. These results suggest that the DO, pH and ORP sensors could potentially be used as alternatives to the on-line nutrient sensors for the control of continuous systems. An idea of using a fuzzy inference system to make an integrated use of these signals for on-line aeration control is presented and demonstrated on the bench-scale system with promising results. The use of these sensors has to date only been demonstrated in intermittent systems, such as sequencing batch reactor systems.

Quantification of geological uncertainty and risk using stochastic simulation and applications in the coal mining industry

Stochastic simulation is a recognised tool for quantifying the spatial distribution of geological uncertainty and risk in earth science and engineering. Metals mining is an area where simulation technologies are extensively used; however, applications in the coal mining industry have been limited. This is particularly due to the lack of a systematic demonstration illustrating the capabilities these techniques have in problem solving in coal mining. This paper presents two broad and technically distinct areas of applications in coal mining. The first deals with the use of simulation in the quantification of uncertainty in coal seam attributes and risk assessment to assist coal resource classification, and drillhole spacing optimisation to meet pre-specified risk levels at a required confidence. The second application presents the use of stochastic simulation in the quantification of fault risk, an area of particular interest to underground coal mining, and documents the performance of the approach. The examples presented demonstrate the advantages and positive contribution stochastic simulation approaches bring to the coal mining industry