Monitoring procedures in environmental geochemistry and compositional data analysis theory

First discussion on compositional data analysis is attributable to Karl Pearson, in 1897. However, notwithstanding the recent developments on algebraic structure of the simplex, more than twenty years after Aitchison’s idea of log-transformations of closed data, scientific literature is again full of statistical treatments of this type of data by using traditional methodologies. This is particularly true in environmental geochemistry where besides the problem of the closure, the spatial structure (dependence) of the data have to be considered. In this work we propose the use of log-contrast values, obtained by asimplicial principal component analysis, as LQGLFDWRUV of given environmental conditions. The investigation of the log-constrast frequency distributions allows pointing out the statistical laws able togenerate the values and to govern their variability. The changes, if compared, for example, with the mean values of the random variables assumed as models, or other reference parameters, allow definingmonitors to be used to assess the extent of possible environmental contamination. Case study on running and ground waters from Chiavenna Valley (Northern Italy) by using Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3-, SO4 2- and Cl- concentrations will be illustrated

A longitudinal study of environmental tobacco smoke exposure in children: parental self reports versus age dependent biomarkers

Background: Awareness of the negative effects of smoking on children's health prompted a decrease in the self-reporting of parental tobacco use in periodic surveys from most industrialized countries. Our aim is to assess changes between ETS exposure at the end of pregnancy and at 4 years of age determined by the parents' self-report and measurement of cotinine in age related biological matrices.Methods: The prospective birth cohort included 487 infants from Barcelona city (Spain). Mothers were asked about maternal and household smoking habit. Cord serum and children's urinary cotinine were analyzed in duplicate using a double antibody radioimmunoassay. Results: At 4 years of age, the median urinary cotinine level in children increased 1.4 or 3.5 times when father or mother smoked, respectively. Cotinine levels in children's urine statistically differentiated children from smoking mothers (Geometric Mean (GM) 19.7 ng/ml; 95% CI 16.83–23.01) and exposed homes (GM 7.1 ng/ml; 95% CI 5.61–8.99) compared with non-exposed homes (GM 4.5 ng/ml; 95% CI 3.71–5.48). Maternal self-reported ETS exposure in homes declined in the four year span between the two time periods from 42.2% to 31.0% (p < 0.01). Nevertheless, most of the children considered non-exposed by their mothers had detectable levels of cotinine above 1 ng/mL in their urine.Conclusion: We concluded that cotinine levels determined in cord blood and urine, respectively, were useful for categorizing the children exposed to smoking and showed that a certain increase in ETS exposure during the 4-year follow-up period occurred.

Organizational Choice and Environmental Change

We explain the choice between franchising and vertical integration by estimating a model of relative performance in a sample of 250 Spanish car distributors, controlling for self-selection and including environmental factors. The method allows us to estimate performance counterfactuals. Organizational choice seemingly aims to contain moral hazard for both distributors and manufacturers but it is subject to start-up constraints and switching costs. While the market for franchises remained underdeveloped, information asymmetries led to the opening of integrated outlets. Their subsequent conversion into franchised outlets probably involved prohibitive transaction costs. Consequently, they performed worse than would have been expected had they been independent, as confirmed by the systematic improvement observed when they were in fact converted. The timing of such conversions suggests that switching costs were prohibitive until firms developed a substantial cushion of temporary contracts, previously forbidden by regulation.

Generating Brand Equity through Corporate Social Responsibility to Key Stakeholders

In this paper we argue that socially responsible policies have a positive impact on a firm's brand equity in the short-term as well as in the long-term. Moreover, once we distinguish between different stakeholders, we posit that secondary stakeholders such as community are even more important than primary stakeholders (customers, shareholders, workers and suppliers) in generating brand equity. Policies aimed at satisfied community interests act as a mechanism to reinforce trust that gives further credibility to social responsible polices with other stakeholders. The result is a decrease in conflicts among stakeholders and greater stakeholder willingness to provide intangible resources that enhance brand equity. We provide support of our theoretical contentions making use of a panel data composed of 57 firms from 10 countries (the US, Japan, South Korea, France, the UK, Italy, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and the Netherlands) for the period 2002 to 2007. We use detailed information on brand equity obtained from Interbrand and on corporate social responsibility (CSR) provided by the SiRi Global Profile database, as compiled by the Sustainable Investment Research International Company (SiRi).

The capital gains from trade are not enough: Evidence from the environmental accounts of Venezuela and Mexico

In principle, a country can not endure negative genuine savings for longperiods of time without experiencing declining consumption. Nevertheless,theoreticians envisage two alternatives to explain how an exporter ofnon-renewable natural resources could experience permanent negativegenuine savings and still ensure sustainability. The first one allegesthat the capital gains arising from the expected improvement in theterms of trade would suffice to compensate for the negative savings ofthe resource exporter. The second alternative points at technologicalchange as a way to avoid economic collapse. This paper uses the dataof Venezuela and Mexico to empirically test the first of these twohypotheses. The results presented here prove that the terms oftrade do not suffice to compensate the depletion of oil reservesin these two open economies.

Responsibility-allevation and effort provision in a gift-exchange experiment

Previous indirect evidence suggests that impulses towards pro-socialbehavior are diminished when an external authority is responsiblefor an outcome. The responsibility-alleviation effect states that ashift of responsibility to an external authority dampens internalimpulses toward honesty, loyalty, or generosity. In a gift-exchangeexperiment, we find that subjects respond with more generosity(higher effort) when a wage is determined by a random process thanwhen it is assigned by a third party, indicating that even a slightshift in perceived responsibility for the final payoffs can changebehavior. Responsibility-alleviation is a factor in economicenvironments featuring substantial personal interaction.

The adverse effects of environmental policy in green markets

We model green markets in which purchasers, either firms orconsumers, have higher willingness-to-pay for lesspolluting goods. The effectiveness of pollution reductionpolicies is examined in a duopoly setting. We show thatduopolists' strategic behaviour may increase pollutionlevels. Maximum emission standards, commonly used in greenmarkets, improve the environmental features of products.Nonetheless, overall pollution levels will rise becausegovernment regulation also affects market shares and bootsfirms' sales. Consequently, social welfare may be reduced.We also explore the effects of technological subsidies andproduct charges, including differentiation of charges.

Environmental factors giving rise to variations in national management accounting practice

Comparative national management accounting is the least developed aspect in the field of international accounting. Only during the second half of the 1990's some comparisons of national managementaccounting practice have appeared published but only at theregional level. In this paper a range of factors that give rise to variations in national management accounting practice are postulated. We support this list with examples from a range of analyses of national management accounting practices, drawing particularly on the work of Lizcano (1996) and Bhimani (1996).Finally, twelve key factors are identified as influencing an individual country's approach to management accounting.

Country effects in ISSP-1993 environmental data: Comparison of SEM approaches

Structural equation models (SEM) are commonly used to analyze the relationship between variables some of which may be latent, such as individual ``attitude'' to and ``behavior'' concerning specific issues. A number of difficulties arise when we want to compare a large number of groups, each with large sample size, and the manifest variables are distinctly non-normally distributed. Using an specific data set, we evaluate the appropriateness of the following alternative SEM approaches: multiple group versus MIMIC models, continuous versus ordinal variables estimation methods, and normal theory versus non-normal estimation methods. The approaches are applied to the ISSP-1993 Environmental data set, with the purpose of exploring variation in the mean level of variables of ``attitude'' to and ``behavior''concerning environmental issues and their mutual relationship across countries. Issues of both theoretical and practical relevance arise in the course of this application.

Generating global brand equity through corporate social responsibility to key stakeholders

In this paper we argue that corporate social responsibility (CSR) to various stakeholders(customers, shareholders, employees, suppliers, and community) has a positive effect on globalbrand equity (BE). In addition, policies aimed at satisfying community interests help reinforcecredibility to social responsible polices with other stakeholders. We test these theoreticalcontentions using panel data comprised of 57 global brands originating from 10 countries (USA,Japan, South Korea, France, UK, Italy, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and the Netherlands) forthe period 2002 to 2008. Our findings show that CSR to each of the stakeholder groups has apositive impact on global BE. In addition, global brands that follow local social responsibilitypolicies over communities obtain strong positive benefits in terms of the generation of BE, as itenhances the positive effects of CSR to other stakeholders, particularly to customers. Therefore,for managers of global brands it is particularly productive for generating brand value to combineglobal strategies with the satisfaction of the interests of local communities.

pH Sensitive surfactants from lysine: assessment of their cytotoxicity and environmental behavior

The toxicity and environmental behavior of new pH-sensitive surfactants from lysine are presented. Three different chemical structures are studied: surfactants with one amino acid and one alkyl chain, surfactants with two amino acids on the polar head and one alkyl chain, and gemini surfactants. The pH sensitivity of these compounds can be tuned by modifying their chemical structures. Cytotoxicity has been evaluated using erythrocytes and fibroblast cells. The toxic effects against these cells depend on the hydrophobicity of the molecules as well as their cationic charge density. The effect of hydrophobicity and cationic charge density on toxicity is different for each type of cells. For erythrocytes, the toxicity increases as hydrophobicity and charge density increases. Nevertheless, for fibroblasts cationic charge density affects cytotoxicity in the opposite way: the higher charge density, the lower the toxicity. The effect of the pH on hemolysis has been evaluated in detail. The aquatic toxicity was established using Daphnia magna. All surfactants yielded EC50 values considerably higher than that reported for cationic surfactants based on quaternary ammonium groups. Finally, their biodegradability was evaluated using the CO2 headspace test (ISO 14593). These lysine derivatives showed high levels of biodegradation under aerobic conditions and can be classified as"readily biodegradable compounds".

Antibiotic resistance genes in the bacteriophage DNA fraction of environmental samples

Antibiotic resistance is an increasing global problem resulting from the pressure of antibiotic usage, greater mobility of the population, and industrialization. Many antibiotic resistance genes are believed to have originated in microorganisms in the environment, and to have been transferred to other bacteria through mobile genetic elements. Among others, ß-lactam antibiotics show clinical efficacy and low toxicity, and they are thus widely used as antimicrobials. Resistance to ß-lactam antibiotics is conferred by ß-lactamase genes and penicillin-binding proteins, which are chromosomal- or plasmid-encoded, although there is little information available on the contribution of other mobile genetic elements, such as phages. This study is focused on three genes that confer resistance to ß-lactam antibiotics, namely two ß-lactamase genes (blaTEM and blaCTX-M9) and one encoding a penicillin-binding protein (mecA) in bacteriophage DNA isolated from environmental water samples. The three genes were quantified in the DNA isolated from bacteriophages collected from 30 urban sewage and river water samples, using quantitative PCR amplification. All three genes were detected in the DNA of phages from all the samples tested, in some cases reaching 104 gene copies (GC) of blaTEM or 102 GC of blaCTX-M and mecA. These values are consistent with the amount of fecal pollution in the sample, except for mecA, which showed a higher number of copies in river water samples than in urban sewage. The bla genes from phage DNA were transferred by electroporation to sensitive host bacteria, which became resistant to ampicillin. blaTEM and blaCTX were detected in the DNA of the resistant clones after transfection. This study indicates that phages are reservoirs of resistance genes in the environment.

The structure of Mediterranean rocky reef ecosystems across environmental and human gradients, and conservation implications

Historical exploitation of the Mediterranean Sea and the absence of rigorous baselines makes it difficult to evaluate the current health of the marine ecosystems and the efficacy of conservation actions at the ecosystem level. Here we establish the first current baseline and gradient of ecosystem structure of nearshore rocky reefs at the Mediterranean scale. We conducted underwater surveys in 14 marine protected areas and 18 open access sites across the Mediterranean, and across a 31-fold range of fish biomass (from 3.8 to 118 g m22). Our data showed remarkable variation in the structure of rocky reef ecosystems. Multivariate analysis showed three alternative community states: (1) large fish biomass and reefs dominated by non-canopy algae, (2) lower fish biomass but abundant native algal canopies and suspension feeders, and (3) low fish biomass and extensive barrens, with areas covered by turf algae. Our results suggest that the healthiest shallow rocky reef ecosystems in the Mediterranean have both large fish and algal biomass. Protection level and primary production were the only variables significantly correlated to community biomass structure. Fish biomass was significantly larger in well-enforced no-take marine reserves, but there were no significant differences between multi-use marine protected areas (which allow some fishing) and open access areas at the regional scale. The gradients reported here represent a trajectory of degradation that can be used to assess the health of any similar habitat in the Mediterranean, and to evaluate the efficacy of marine protected areas.

Assessing the environmental impact of water consumption by energy crops grown in Spain

The environmental impact of the water consumption of four typical crop rotations grown in Spain, including energy crops, was analyzed and compared against Spanish agricultural and natural reference situations. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used for the assessment of the potential environmental impact of blue water (withdrawal from water bodies) and green water (uptake of soil moisture) consumption. The latter has so far been disregarded in LCA. To account for green water, two approaches have been applied: the first accounts for the difference in green water demand of the crops and a reference situation. The second is a green water scarcity index, which measures the fraction of the soil-water plant consumption to the available green water. Our results show that, if the aim is to minimize the environmental impacts of water consumption, the energy crop rotations assessed in this study were most suitable in basins in the northeast of Spain. In contrast, the energy crops grown in basins in the southeast of Spain were associated with the greatest environmental impacts. Further research into the integration of quantitative green water assessment in LCA is crucial in studies of systems with a high dependence on green water resources.