Integrated ergonomics approach toward designing night and shift work in developing countries based on experiences in Bali, Indonesia

Recently, the effort in carrying out an integrated ergonomics approach known as "SHIP" (systemic, holistic, interdisciplinary and participatory) approach has been intensively undertaken in Bali with the aim of sustaining improvements being done. The People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia issued for the 1999-2004 period a "SHIP" Act on the Macro Guidelines of Tourism Development in which ergonomics and other factors must be considered comprehensively to attain sustainable development in tourism. Therefore the night and shift work that is recently increasingly applied in the tourism industry must also be designed and organized through this approach. In fact, however, economic factors have still been the predominant reason for workers to accept any type of night and shift work decided by the management, without taking into account possible impacts and consequences. For example, rapid forward rotation schemes seem more adapted to the hotel industry instead of traditional 6-6-6 rotation. Further, inter-city bus drivers are approved to work a 24-hour shift followed by one day off. These drivers often work an additional risky night shift after two consecutive night shifts so as to meet needed expenses for the family. Cultural or religious activities still presented constraints for workers as they carried out subsequently the night work. Therefore, proactive steps should be taken in a timely manner through the integrated SHIP approach in designing night and shift work so as to achieve work schedules compatible with both social life of shiftworkers and business concerns.     

Contribution of biomechanics to management of ligament and tendon injuries

The contribution of biomechanics to the advancement of management of ligament and tendon injuries has been significant. Thanks to Professor Y.C. Fung's writing and guidance, our field of research has done fundamental work on anatomy and biology of ligaments and tendons, developed methods to accurately determine mechanical properties, identified various experimental factors which could change the outcome measurements as well as examined biological factors that change tissue properties in-vivo. Professor Fung also gave us his quasi-linear viscoelastic theory for soft tissues so that the time and history dependent properties of ligaments and tendons could be properly described. We have further adopted Professor Fung's eight steps on methods of approach for biomechanical investigation to understand as well as enhance the treatment of ligament and tendon injuries during work or sports related activities. Examples on how to better treat the tears of the medial collateral ligament of the knee, as well as how to improve reconstruction procedures for the anterior cruciate ligament are presented in detail. Currently the use of functional tissue engineering for ligament and tendon healing is a topic of great interest. Here the use of biological scaffolds, such as porcine small intestinal submucosa, has shown promise. For the last 35 to 40 years, the field of biomechanics has made great strides in the treatment of ligament and tendon injuries, and many patients have benefited. The future is even brighter because of what has been done properly in the past. Exciting advances can be made in the field of tissue engineering through novel in-vitro culture and bioscaffold fabrication techniques. Recent technology can also allow the collection of in-vivo data so that ligament and tendon injuries can be better understood. Yet, solving new and more complex problems must still follow the stepwise methods of approach as taught by Professor Fung.     

发展海岛旅游业的制约因素及对策

21世纪将是人类对海洋全面认识,充分利用,切实保护的新世纪。特别是作为这个世纪旅游新时尚的海岛旅游业的发展,正面临来自环境条件的诸多挑战。为进一步利用海洋资源,满足现代人追求人文生态的精神生活需求,只有在切实解决资金、生态、体制等制约瓶颈的基础上,探索可持续发展的战略思路,才能逐步实现海岛旅游由传统的海洋开发向现代的生态式海洋开发转变。     

Closing Yield Gaps: How Sustainable Can We Be?

Global food production needs to be increased by 60–110% between 2005 and 2050 to meet growing food and feed demand. Intensification and/or expansion of agriculture are the two main options available to meet the growing crop demands. Land conversion to expand cultivated land increases GHG emissions and impacts biodiversity and ecosystem services. Closing yield gaps to attain potential yields may be a viable option to increase the global crop production. Traditional methods of agricultural intensification often have negative externalities. Therefore, there is a need to explore location-specific methods of sustainable agricultural intensification. We identified regions where the achievement of potential crop calorie production on currently cultivated land will meet the present and future food demand based on scenario analyses considering population growth and changes in dietary habits. By closing yield gaps in the current irrigated and rain-fed cultivated land, about 24% and 80% more crop calories can respectively be produced compared to 2000. Most countries will reach food self-sufficiency or improve their current food self-sufficiency levels if potential crop production levels are achieved. As a novel approach, we defined specific input and agricultural management strategies required to achieve the potential production by overcoming biophysical and socioeconomic constraints causing yield gaps. The management strategies include: fertilizers, pesticides, advanced soil management, land improvement, management strategies coping with weather induced yield variability, and improving market accessibility. Finally, we estimated the required fertilizers (N, P₂O₅, and K₂O) to attain the potential yields. Globally, N-fertilizer application needs to increase by 45–73%, P₂O₅-fertilizer by 22–46%, and K₂O-fertilizer by 2–3 times compared to the year 2010 to attain potential crop production. The sustainability of such agricultural intensification largely depends on the way management strategies for closing yield gaps are chosen and implemented.     

A review of climate change adaptation policies applied to landscape planning and design in Korea

This paper reviews how recent climate change policies in Korea have affected practices in landscape planning and design. By illuminating the gaps between government policies on climate change and actual practices in planning and design, the study aims to provide useful directions for future research and practices. The primary problems we found are as follows: (1) the government’s recent aggressive climate change policies have partly resulted in an adverse effect on the environment; (2) planning and design tools to implement climate change policies do not tend to consider local characteristics and different biophysical and sociocultural contexts; (3) climate change policies in Korea developed by different governmental departments are not coordinated well enough to effectively meet the policy goals; and (4) design tools or guidelines intended to aid the implementation of climate change policies at site level must be improved through the use of creative ideas and empirical tests. For future research, we recommend hunting for critical evidence as to why climate change policies are not implemented effectively in a particular local context, and determining how such failures can be overcome by applying adequate measures in planning and design.     

Vascular mechanics in the clinic

The bioengineer has more to contribute to medicine than he/she ever has in the past. The successful contribution must be based on such experiences as described by Donald McDonald in his collaboration with John Womersley. Clinician and engineer must come to know the other's problems, their weaknesses and their strengths. They must be prepared to compromise, but to know where compromise is warranted, and where it is not. The clinician must be prepared to change if he/she is to gain help from the engineer. Blind acceptance of old concepts (of "hypertension", and of cuff sphygmomanometric accuracy, etc.) needs enlightenment, while acceptance of physiological reality such as wave reflection needs emerge. The clinician's vocabulary will need to change. This chapter opens with a discussion of a time where knowledge of engineering, physics, physiology and medicine was meagre. These disciplines were small, but they did interconnect through the work of renaissance (and later) scientists. With increase in knowledge, the disciplines enlarged, and grew apart from each other. The challenge of today is to bring these closer together so that there may be some connection, some overlap, and so that the crevices between the disciplines are not so deep, and not such a deterrent to those who wish to engage in interdisciplinary activity.     

Knowledge, power, man and justice: ethical problems in biomedical research.

This essay attempts to raise some ethical problems related to biomedical research as they revolve around the issues of knowledge, power, man and justice. The arguments connected with such matters will not provide answers, but rather soundings for unchartered waters. Much more can and needs to be developed about the nature of knowledge and the politics of its use and abuse. A more detailed analysis and critique of man's nature might be engaged in to determine many concerns, not least of which is whether we can even talk about human nature. The idea of justice is elusive at the best of times and is particularly complicated at a time in history when social and economic interpretation is so complex. Much more must be debated before we can produce a detailed map. Fundamental to all of this, though, hopefully will be a dialogue among the many disciplines concerned with human research. We can not afford to work in isolation. The consequences of our decisions are too great.     

Forest Operations and Woody Biomass Logistics to Improve Efficiency,Value, and Sustainability

This paper reviews the most recent work conducted by scientists and engineers of the Forest Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the areas of forest operations and woody biomass logistics, with an emphasis on feedstock supply for emerging bioenergy, biofuels, and bioproducts applications. This work is presented in the context of previous research in this field by the agency and is measured against the goals and objectives provided by several important national-level initiatives, including the USDA Regional Biomass Research Centers. Research conducted over the past 5 years in cooperation with a diverse group of research partners is organized in four topic sections: innovative practices, innovative machines, sustainability, and integration. A wide range of studies in operations and logistics address advances in harvest and processing technology, transportation systems, scheduling and planning, feedstock quality, biomass conversion processes, and environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions. We also discuss potential future research to address persistent knowledge gaps, especially those in fire and fuel management. Overall, the research reviewed here aligns well with broad national goals of providing the USA with sustainable and efficient forest biomass management and production systems, specifically including: (1) improved harvest, collection, handling, and transportation systems for woody biomass; (2) cost and equipment information and options for field processing biomass to improve efficiency and mitigate impacts; and (3) forest biomass management systems and technologies to offset impacts and enhance environmental outcomes. However, as needs evolve, professionals in this field must strive to adapt research, development, and dissemination to address relevant future challenges and strengthen capabilities to solve critical problems in the forest sector.     

Global change pressures on soils from land use and management

Soils are subject to varying degrees of direct or indirect human disturbance, constituting a major global change driver. Factoring out natural from direct and indirect human influence is not always straightforward, but some human activities have clear impacts. These include land‐use change, land management and land degradation (erosion, compaction, sealing and salinization). The intensity of land use also exerts a great impact on soils, and soils are also subject to indirect impacts arising from human activity, such as acid deposition (sulphur and nitrogen) and heavy metal pollution. In this critical review, we report the state‐of‐the‐art understanding of these global change pressures on soils, identify knowledge gaps and research challenges and highlight actions and policies to minimize adverse environmental impacts arising from these global change drivers. Soils are central to considerations of what constitutes sustainable intensification. Therefore, ensuring that vulnerable and high environmental value soils are considered when protecting important habitats and ecosystems, will help to reduce the pressure on land from global change drivers. To ensure that soils are protected as part of wider environmental efforts, a global soil resilience programme should be considered, to monitor, recover or sustain soil fertility and function, and to enhance the ecosystem services provided by soils. Soils cannot, and should not, be considered in isolation of the ecosystems that they underpin and vice versa. The role of soils in supporting ecosystems and natural capital needs greater recognition. The lasting legacy of the International Year of Soils in 2015 should be to put soils at the centre of policy supporting environmental protection and sustainable development.     

Analytical laboratory: world class distinction with world-wide connection; from managing instrumentation to managing knowledge

A recent article [F.R. Antonucci, D.A. Barnett, The changing corporate analytical laboratory, CHEMTECH, October 1998] forecasts a change in the way corporate analytical laboratories will operate. At Champion International's Applied Technologies corporate analytical laboratory, this revolutionary change is a movement away from the traditional culture of complete reliance on in-house expertise and instrumentation. Instead, customer needs will be addressed through a network of resources that leverage the both in-house and noncorporate instruments and expertise. We have coined the term “virtual laboratory” for this new laboratory paradigm. This revolution requires the role of corporate analytical scientists to change from one of data and information generators to one of knowledge workers. Associated with this role change is the potential for a dramatic increase in the value of the chemist's contribution to the company, an opportunity for them to function as important business partners with the manufacturing sites and product development centers. The laboratory knowledge workers, the customers, and the virtual laboratory must all work synchronously around prenegotiated expectations regarding cost, quality, and timeliness. The mechanism allowing this change is a Lotus Notes database entitled the Testing Connection. In fact, this database can be viewed as the cornerstone of the virtual laboratory concept. This database allows for the capture of data, information, and knowledge and for collaborative problem solving. All of these capabilities result in faster and better action on customer issues. Also, the migration from problem solving to problem prediction and prevention is achievable.     

A framework for assessing ecological quality based on ecosystem services

Existing environmental legislation and ecological quality definitions such as ecosystem integrity tend to rely on measures that, either implicitly or explicitly, utilize naturalness as a key criterion. There are marked practical difficulties with employing the concept of naturalness in human dominated landscapes, and the management of such ecosystems is inevitably going to need to take account of human needs and expectations. We propose that ecological quality could be assessed by its ecosystem service profile (ESP): the overlap between societal expectations for, and the sustainable provision of, suites of ecosystem services. The status for each individual ecosystem service is defined by the ratio of its sustained provision to the expected level of provision for the service. The ESP measure is a multi-criterion, context-specific assessment of the match between expectation for and sustainable supply of ecosystem services. It provides a flexible measure of quality which takes into account that the “ideal” ecosystem state is largely dependent on the specific management context. The implementation of ESPs challenges us to develop indicators for the sustained provision of individual ecosystem services, much better understanding of the trade-offs among services, and practical tools for gauging societal demands. All of which are challenging problems. The proposed framework can help to strategically address research needs and monitoring requirements and foster a more integrative approach to ecosystem assessment and management in the future. The need for this follows from the fact that the undisturbed reference state represents only one aspect of an ecosystem and that ecological quality in human dominated landscapes will, ultimately, be determined by the value society places on the sustainable provision of multiple ecosystem services.     

The Medical Care of Older Patients

Proper medical care for growing numbers of older people depends upon application of advances in medicine to the special problems of ageing. Despite gaps in understanding of the ageing process, high-quality care can be achieved through routine use of knowledge already available.Older people differ structurally, functionally and psychologically. Health influences every aspect of their lives. Their reactions to stress and disease are altered. In practice, the doctor must assess the biological changes of ageing and their possible influences on symptoms and signs. Modifications in the application of ordinary methods of medicine and surgery are determined by functional impairments and structural defects. While the medical problems of the aged are special, the approach must be general; the practitioner needs experience with disease in all age groups and should be alert to the adverse effects on old people of the universal misunderstandings of ageing and its problems.     

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA): a practical tool for rapid diagnosis of viruses and other infectious agents.

Tissue culture techniques are inadequate to diagnose some viral infections. Thus, solid-phase immunoassays have been developed for the direct detection of viral antigens in clinical specimens. While radioimmunoassays (RIA) have attained widespread use, solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) offer a number of advantages over RIA systems. ELISAs can be established with approximately the same sensitivity as radioimmunoassays without utilizing unstable, gamma-emitting isotopes. However, before ELISA systems can obtain widespread usage, a number of aspects of the test must be optimized. These include the preparation and use of reagents, the nature of the solid phase, the choice of enzyme, and the enzyme-antibody conjugation method. With the solving of these problems, ELISA should attain widespread usage for rapid diagnosis of a large number of infectious agents.     

生态系统管理学的概念框架及其生态学基础

系统地要领了生态系统管理学产生的历史背景和发展进程,讨论了生态系统管理的一些基本概念,生态学基础,管理目标及管理体制与实施方式,详细地论述了生态系统的生态学完整性与边界和时空尺度,生态系统的结构,功能与生态系统整体性,生态系统演替与系统动力学特性,生态系统的干扰与系统稳定性,生态系统的复杂性与不确定性,生态系统多样性与可持续生态系统,生态模型与数据收集和监测,人类活动对环境影响的双重性等生态学基础问题,阐述了在维持生态系统产品和服务功能的可持续性总体目标下,各类生态系统管理的具体目标。     

Global land cover characterization from satellite data: from research to operational implementation?

Satellite data provide the basis for geographically referenced global land cover characterization that is internally consistent, repeatable over time, and potentially more reliable than ground-based sources. During the last 20 years considerable research efforts have been devoted to the extraction of land cover information from these data. Only during the last few years have these methods begun to be applied in operational contexts. Such applications have thus far primarily addressed key global change issues such as the global carbon balance. Examples of the successful quasi-operational implementation of remote sensing include NASA's Humid Tropical Landsat Pathfinder project, where high resolution data are being used at subcontinental scales to measure change in the areal extent of tropical rain forests throughout the world, and the Tropical Ecosystem Environment observation by Satellite (TREES) project to assess forest cover in the tropics. At coarser resolutions, a number of land cover products suitable for incorporation in global and regional models have been developed. Alternatives to traditional land cover classifications have also been developed to describe gradients and mosaics in the vegetation more realistically. These land cover products offer the possibility for applications in ecological and human dimensions research at regional and global scales, as well as for implementation of international agreements that require land cover information. Recently launched and future satellites will carry sensors that provide data with greatly improved capabilities for land cover characterization and advancements in computing environments make it feasible to take advantage of these new data. However, several challenges must be overcome in making a transition from research to operational land cover monitoring, including automation of methods to analyse the satellite data, more effective techniques for validation, and assurance of long-term continuity in the availability of satellite measurements.     

Integrating Environmental Impact Assessment within Kuwait Master Plans as a Tool for Human and Ecological Risk Control

Although it was claimed that the Kuwait Master Plans have helped guide the development in Kuwait from a small mud brick town of 150,000 inhabitants to today's modern metropolis of about 3 million inhabitants, this article argues that the implementation of the first plan in 1952 planted the seeds of human and ecological risk problems in Kuwait, which were intensified later in the 1960s and 1970s. As the latest 2007 Master Plan comprises major development projects, which could certainly have adverse ecological impacts on the environment and human well-being, this article highlights the importance of integrating environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the development projects within the Master Plan as a tool for sustainable development and as an assessment of human and ecological risks before the implementation of such projects. According to the current status, the level of collaboration among the concerned organizations responsible for preparing the Master Plans and conducting the EIA is behind the ambition. This article recommends setting out documented environmental criteria for land use planning and major development projects implementation, so as to control pollution and prevent any environmental change that might impair the public's health or influence future ecological stability.     

HEALTH,VITAL GOALS,AND CENTRAL HUMAN CAPABILITIES

I argue for a conception of health as a person's ability to achieve or exercise a cluster of basic human activities. These basic activities are in turn specified through free‐standing ethical reasoning about what constitutes a minimal conception of a human life with equal human dignity in the modern world. I arrive at this conception of health by closely following and modifying Lennart Nordenfelt's theory of health which presents health as the ability to achieve vital goals. Despite its strengths I transform Nordenfelt's argument in order to overcome three significant drawbacks. Nordenfelt makes vital goals relative to each community or context and significantly reflective of personal preferences. By doing so, Nordenfelt's conception of health faces problems with both socially relative concepts of health and subjectively defined wellbeing. Moreover, Nordenfelt does not ever explicitly specify a set of vital goals. The theory of health advanced here replaces Nordenfelt's (seemingly) empty set of preferences and society‐relative vital goals with a human species‐wide conception of basic vital goals, or ‘central human capabilities and functionings’. These central human capabilities come out of the capabilities approach (CA) now familiar in political philosophy and economics, and particularly reflect the work of Martha Nussbaum. As a result, the health of an individual should be understood as the ability to achieve a basic cluster of beings and doings—or having the overarching capability, a meta‐capability, to achieve a set of central or vital inter‐related capabilities and functionings.     

Representing Variable Habitat Quality in a Spatial Food Web Model

Why are marine species where they are? The scientific community is faced with an urgent need to understand aquatic ecosystem dynamics in the context of global change. This requires development of scientific tools with the capability to predict how biodiversity, natural resources, and ecosystem services will change in response to stressors such as climate change and further expansion of fishing. Species distribution models and ecosystem models are two methodologies that are being developed to further this understanding. To date, these methodologies offer limited capabilities to work jointly to produce integrated assessments that take both food web dynamics and spatial-temporal environmental variability into account. We here present a new habitat capacity model as an implementation of the spatial-temporal model Ecospace of the Ecopath with Ecosim approach. The new model offers the ability to drive foraging capacity of species from the cumulative impacts of multiple physical, oceanographic, and environmental factors such as depth, bottom type, temperature, salinity, oxygen concentrations, and so on. We use a simulation modeling procedure to evaluate sampling characteristics of the new habitat capacity model. This development bridges the gap between envelope environmental models and classic ecosystem food web models, progressing toward the ability to predict changes in marine ecosystems under scenarios of global change and explicitly taking food web direct and indirect interactions into account.     

Predicting shifting sustainability trade‐offs in marine finfish aquaculture under climate change

Defining sustainability goals is a crucial but difficult task because it often involves the quantification of multiple interrelated and sometimes conflicting components. This complexity may be exacerbated by climate change, which will increase environmental vulnerability in aquaculture and potentially compromise the ability to meet the needs of a growing human population. Here, we developed an approach to inform sustainable aquaculture by quantifying spatio‐temporal shifts in critical trade‐offs between environmental costs and benefits using the time to reach the commercial size as a possible proxy of economic implications of aquaculture under climate change. Our results indicate that optimizing aquaculture practices by minimizing impact (this study considers as impact a benthic carbon deposition ≥ 1 g C m^?2 day^?1) will become increasingly difficult under climate change. Moreover, an increasing temperature will produce a poleward shift in sustainability trade‐offs. These findings suggest that future sustainable management strategies and plans will need to account for the effects of climate change across scales. Overall, our results highlight the importance of integrating environmental factors in order to sustainably manage critical natural resources under shifting climatic conditions.