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The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event that has shocked economies worldwide, propelling large-scale adaptation of expansionary policies. This paper examines how, specifically in the scope of developed countries, key economic indicators such as tax revenue and burden, labor force participation rate, and federal budget have been impacted by the pandemic. The specific nations examined in the paper include the United States of America (USA), Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom (UK). The article reveals that tax revenue had fallen at a rate similar to the GDP, and a redistribution of the tax burden has also occurred to some extent. Simultaneously, a fall in the labor force participation rate and increased government deficit were observed. This observation is primarily consistent across all five countries sampled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: There is widespread consensus about the need for landscape sustainability but little agreement about how to define or measure it. Objectives: The aim of the paper is to present a systematic approach for measuring progress toward landscape sustainability goals. Methods: The approach was developed based on existing literature and our experiences in applying the approach to support more sustainable agricultural landscapes. Examples applying this approach are summarized for case studies in the United States (U.S.) and Mexico. Results: The approach has six steps: the scope and objectives of the assessment are determined based on the particular context; indicators that alert pending concerns are selected and prioritized based on utility and relevance; baselines and targets are established for each indicator, and scenarios for consideration are determined; the indicator values are obtained and evaluated; trends in and tradeoffs among indicator values are analyzed; and good practices are developed, applied, and assessed. Conclusions: Insights gained from applying this approach suggest that designing sustainable landscapes depends on stakeholder engagement, effective communication, transparency and trust, timely monitoring, and continual improvement. Iterative application of the assessment approach builds capacity and promotes continual improvements in management practices, thus enabling timely responses to changing conditions while still progressing toward a set of locally defined goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern 'inflation targeting' monetary policy has been one of the prototypes of future-oriented modes of social coordination which in recent years have captured the sociological imagination. Modern central banking is commonly presented as achieving greater efficacy by directly managing economic expectations, in particular when contrasted with the previous heavy-handed, "hydraulic" transmission of policy objectives through systems of economic aggregates. Such empirical claims are mirrored in the theoretical distinction drawn by sociologists between the openness and efficacy of future-oriented coordination of expectations, and the more rigid coordination achieved through formal organizing and formalization. This paper uses the case of the US Federal Reserve's (Fed) transition to inflation targeting in the 1980s to show how the precision and flexibility of social coordination through expectations in fact relies on extensive formalization and rigid proceduralization. I show that the tightly coupled control relation on which inflation targeting rests is not possible without the constitutive exclusion of other modes of representing and intervening the economy achieved by this formalization. However, the price for the robust and precise reactivity that modern central banking has constructed between key indicators of inflation expectations and the interest rate set by monetary policy is a comprehensive procedural dis-embedding of monetary policy from the structure of economic activities whose path into the future it is meant to govern. The paper concludes that in order to better understand the conditions under which future- oriented modes of coordination fail or succeed, we need to study more closely the formalization of social relations on which they are founded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Methodology for assessing resilience of an airline cargo network. • Updated the existing (generic) analytical model for assessing resilience. • Indicators of performance as Figures-Of-Merit for assessing the network resilience. • New analytical models reflecting interests of the main stakeholders involved. • Application of methodology to assessing resilience of given airline cargo network. This paper presents modeling the resilience of an airline cargo transport network affected by a given (large scale) disruptive event. The airports represent the nodes and the air routes and flights between them the links of the network. Modeling implies synthesizing a methodology consisting of two sets of the analytical models: (a) a generic (existing) analytical model for assessing the resilience of particular airports, routes/links, and the entire network; and (b) the new analytical models of the selected indicators of the network's performance used as the FOMs (Figures-Of-Merit) for assessing the corresponding resilience. These indicators of performance include: (i) the airline flights; (ii) the airline transport work; (iii) the airline profits; (iv) the value of time of transported air cargo shipments; and (v) the inventory cost of air cargo shipments at the network nodes/airports. Such proposed methodology enabling assessment of the resilience of affected network over time, i.e., prior, during, and after the impact of a given disruptive event, has been applied to the real airline cargo network (FedEx Express, U.S.) affected by the large scale disruptive event (extreme snowstorm - the so-called nor'easter) characterized by its duration, intensity, and spatial scale. The results have indicated that the network's resilience has been affected differently regarding the particular indicators of performance as FOMs. It has been the least affected regarding 'value of time' and the most regarding 'inventory cost' of the air cargo shipments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable federal interest in disaster resilience as a mechanism for mitigating the impacts to local communities, yet the identification of metrics and standards for measuring resilience remain a challenge. This paper provides a methodology and a set of indicators for measuring baseline characteristics of communities that foster resilience. By establishing baseline conditions, it becomes possible to monitor changes in resilience over time in particular places and to compare one place to another. We apply our methodology to counties within the Southeastern United States as a proof of concept. The results show that spatial variations in disaster resilience exist and are especially evident in the rural/urban divide, where metropolitan areas have higher levels of resilience than rural counties. However, the individual drivers of the disaster resilience (or lack thereof)—social, economic, institutional, infrastructure, and community capacities—vary widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we conceptualize and develop an index of sociodemographic risk that we hypothesize will be an improvement over the standard poverty measure as a measure of risk for children’s development. The poverty line is widely used in government statistics and in research but is also widely acknowledged to have multiple shortcomings. Using recent data from the National Survey of America’s Families, we develop and examine a Sociodemographic Risk Index for two potential purposes: (a) to serve as a summary indicator of children’s environments that affect their well-being, and (b) to serve as a variable that can be used to identify at-risk subgroups of children whose well-being should be examined separately in indicator reports. Based on substantial research on children’s development, we chose five variables for the index: family income, family structure, parent education, family size, and home ownership. An additive sociodemographic risk index using these variables is strongly associated with multiple measures of child well-being in both bivariate and multivariate analyses. Hence, it serves as a good marker of risk for children and therefore as an indicator that could be monitored over time, across groups, and across places, as well as a variable that could be used to identify subgroups of at-risk children whose well-being should be monitored. However, analyses do not indicate that it performs better at identifying at-risk children than the current poverty measure. Therefore, we recommend the Sociodemographic Risk Index primarily as an additional summary indicator to be monitored, rather than as a replacement for the poverty measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streamflow-duration assessment methods (SDAMs) are rapid, indicator-based tools for classifying streamflow duration (e.g., intermittent vs perennial flow) at the reach scale. Indicators are easily assessed stream properties used as surrogates of flow duration, which is too resource intensive to measure directly for many reaches. Invertebrates are commonly used as SDAM indicators because many are not highly mobile, and different species have life stages that require flow for different durations and times of the year. The objectives of this study were to 1) identify invertebrate taxa that can be used as SDAM indicators to distinguish between stream reaches having intermittent and perennial flow, 2) to compare indicator strength across different taxonomic and numeric resolutions, and 3) to assess the relative importance of season and habitat type on the ability of invertebrates to predict streamflow-duration class. We used 2 methods, random forest models and indicator species analysis, to analyze aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate data (presence/absence, density, and biomass) at the family and genus levels from 370 samples collected from both erosional and depositional habitats during both wet and dry seasons. In total, 36 intermittent and 53 perennial reaches were sampled along 31 forested headwater streams in 4 level II ecoregions across the United States. Random forest models for family- and genus-level datasets had stream classification accuracy ranging from 88.9 to 93.2%, with slightly higher accuracy for density than for presence/absence and biomass datasets. Season (wet/dry) tended to be a stronger predictor of streamflow-duration class than habitat (erosional/depositional). Many taxa at the family (58.8%) and genus level (61.6%) were collected from both intermittent and perennial reaches, and most taxa that were exclusive to 1 streamflow-duration class were rarely collected. However, 23 family-level or higher taxa (20 aquatic and 3 terrestrial) and 44 aquatic genera were identified as potential indicators of streamflow-duration class for forested headwater streams. The utility of the potential indicators varied across level II ecoregions in part because of representation of intermittent and perennial reaches in the dataset but also because of variable ecological responses to drying among species. Aquatic invertebrates have been an important field indicator of perennial reaches in existing SDAMs, but our findings highlight how including aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates as indicators of intermittent reaches can further maximize the data collected for streamflow-duration classifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Forestry Review is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: Nurses are on the forefront of delivering care to patients hospitalized with COVID‐19. Nurses' impact on patient care can be discerned through assessment and documentation strategies, including structured and unstructured narratives, clinical pathways, flowsheets, and problem‐based approaches. To date, there are no published reports regarding nursing assessment and documentation during the COVID‐19 pandemic using an assessment framework to capture clinical decision making, nursing diagnoses, and key social determinant of health (SDoH) data. Hence, the purpose of this investigation was to conduct an exploratory nursing documentation audit of patients hospitalized with COVID‐19 during the first surge to identify types and frequency of nurse‐sensitive indicators, including SDoH. Method: This pilot study utilized a retrospective chart review design at a single academic medical center, utilizing Gordon's Eleven Functional Health Patterns (FHP) framework to extract clinical, social, and nursing assessment data for patients hospitalized with COVID‐19. Descriptive statistics were computed for continuous variables and counts/percentages for categorical variables. Findings: Data from 94 patient records were analyzed. Most patients were male (59.6%), with a mean age of 58 years. Nearly 15% of patients were Black and 12.8% were Hispanic, most residing in four geographic areas. Nine of the 11 FHPs were reflected in nurse‐sensitive indicators documented in the electronic health record. SDoH data were inconsistently documented, including race, education, history of neglect/abuse, and occupation. Conclusion: The FHP framework captured many nurse‐sensitive indicators during the first COVID‐19 surge, although screening for and documenting SDoH data were limited. Implications for nursing practice: Findings can influence the development of nursing assessment and documentation during crisis care delivery that are inclusive of distinct sociodemographic factors, in addition to clinical factors, to provide comprehensive, culturally sensitive care. Such documentation will enhance the use of nursing knowledge guided by a nursing framework to make visible the essential contributions of nurses to healthcare delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elder abuse is a growing problem in the United States. Incidents of physical and sexual abuse, as well as neglect, continue to rise as the population ages. Maltreatment of the elderly is associated with increased morbidity and mortality rate, as well as increased health care costs. Fear, shame, and lack of knowledge contribute to underreporting of elder abuse and put the safety of elders at risk. This paper describes indicators of physical and sexual abuse and neglect in the elderly intensive care unit patient and presents how abuse can be identified in the critical care setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides a comprehensive empirical assessment of American stimulus policies aimed at renewable energy (RE) technologies. We use an indicator-based methodology to assess progress with respect to energy, environmental and socio-economic issues resulting from RE stimulus programs linked to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and review and analyze the emerging but scattered literature. Overall, our results indicate that stimulus programs have had a positive effect on the RE sector. This is despite the fact that they were originally planned to work in combination with a greenhouse gas ‘cap-and-trade’ system, which has not been implemented. From the methodological perspective, our approach is resource-intensive and our analysis highlights numerous challenges, notably related to causality and additionality. Despite these limitations, this research improves our understanding of the broad effects and impacts of RE stimulus programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying a technical analysis trading system based on the moving average crossover rule for companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange does not produce significant profits, but leads to consistent excess returns and lower risk versus the benchmark buy and hold strategy for a potential investor during the 2001-2011 period. Comparing the results with the ones obtained for companies listed on two more developed markets, the United States and South Korea, a significant return surplus on the local market can be identified. The results point out that the local market is less efficient than the two foreign ones but also that the Romanian stock market is not weak form informational efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1960s, The United States has experienced increased income inequality. Economist Robert Frank has argued that this increase in inequality has resulted in an expenditure cascade as people have tried to maintain their relative socioeconomic statuses by imitating the spending patterns of those in their reference groups. Although some researchers have tried to empirically determine the extent to which Frank's assessment is correct, none have focused on the implications of Frank's argument for the dynamics of consumption. That is, none have focused on how time series of measures of consumption should look, assuming Frank is right. This paper does exactly that. Drawing on a mathematical model from population biology, it is argued that if Frank is correct, measures of consumption should exhibit exponential growth. It was found that the exponential growth models provided excellent fits to available data on United States consumption measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: On May 24–25, 2005 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the University of Michigan sponsored a technical workshop on the topic of connecting social and environmental factors to measure and track environmental health disparities. The workshop was designed to develop a transdisciplinary scientific foundation for exploring the conceptual issues, data needs, and policy applications associated with social and environmental factors used to measure and track racial, ethnic, and class disparities in environmental health. Papers, presentations, and discussions focused on the use of multilevel analysis to study environmental health disparities, the development of an organizing framework for evaluating health disparities, the development of indicators, and the generation of community-based participatory approaches for indicator development and use. Group exercises were conducted to identify preliminary lists of priority health outcomes and potential indicators and to discuss policy implications and next steps. Three critical issues that stem from the workshop were: (a) stronger funding support is needed for community-based participatory research in environmental health disparities, (b) race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position need to be included in environmental health surveillance and research, and (c) models to elucidate the interrelations between social, physical, and built environments should continue to be developed and empirically tested. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Sustainable Neighborhoods for Happiness Index (SNHI) was developed to assess and compare cities on their levels of sustainability and happiness. While the SNHI has proven useful at the city level, applying it to neighborhoods, streets, and communities requires consideration of former and integration of new indicators to properly reflect neighborhood-level measures and application. Our article describes the process and results of scaling down the indicators for each of the nine SNHI domains (e.g., food, water, transportation). To demonstrate the applicability at neighborhood/community scale, we also present a pilot project where the refined SNHI was applied to a southwestern United States neighborhood. Finally, we discuss the intended broader impacts of the index along with the personal motivation of the research team in pursuing this study. Ultimately, we are striving for reconnection with a deeper sense of happiness and a desire to go beyond measures of economic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National parks include environmentally and historically important areas of America that are to be both preserved and enjoyed by the public. Moreover, national parks are a manifestation of American democracy and should be accessible to all Americans. Transportation is an important component of national park planning and management; transportation serves as a means of access to national parks, and also provides a range of transportation settings that offer diverse recreational opportunities. This study adapts the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS), a longstanding conceptual framework in parks and outdoor recreation, to management of transportation in national parks in the form of a Transportation Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (T-ROS). On-site visitor surveys were conducted in five National Park Service units ranging from urban to rural recreation settings to identify transportation-related indicators of quality, a vital component of the ROS and proposed T-ROS frameworks. Indicators are measurable, manageable variables that are proxies for management objectives. Indicators were identified for three important contexts of transportation in national parks. The first context was mode of transportation; national parks offer a wide variety of modes of transportation, and indicators are likely to vary across these types of transportation. Driving through national parks is supported by a system of iconic roads that connect many of the parks' scenic features. However, visitors increasingly experience national parks on public transit and along bikeways. The second context was type of park. There are more than 400 units of the national park system, and these areas vary across a spectrum from rural to urban; transportation-related indicators may vary across this spectrum of parks. The third context was race/ethnicity of visitors. Visitors to national parks vary in many ways, including their race and ethnicity. Minority racial/ethnic groups have been historically underrepresented in the national parks. This suggests that it is important to explore how transportation-related indicators might vary across racial/ethnic groups as a way to encourage more diverse visitors to the national parks and advance the democratic ideal of the national park system. Study findings identify a number of transportation-related indicators that can be used to build a T-ROS system. Findings also suggest that these indicators often vary across mode of transportation, type of park, and race/ethnicity of park visitors. Based on these findings, a T-ROS conceptual framework is proposed. Study results extend the ROS framework to transportation-related recreation opportunities, provide quantitative measures of the diversity of transportation-related recreation experiences, and strengthen the linkage between transportation and recreation for racial/ethnic minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is focused on the use of technical analysis and it's indicators. The main aim is the evaluation of technical analysis for selected index instruments which are traded on NYSE. The secondary objective is the optimization of indicator's parameters of technical analysis and subsequent comparison of profitability of business strategies based on these optimized parameters. The empirical analysis includes the backtesting of optimized indicators and comparison with the default settings of these indicators. The optimization and backtesting were performed on cyclical stocks, represented by stock index S&P 500 Financial from 11/1/2014 to 10/31/2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waterfront cities worldwide have begun the process of regenerating and developing their formerly industrial waterfronts into land uses that reflect a post-industrial economic vision of mixed urban uses supporting a diverse economy and wide range of infrastructure. These revitalization projects require distinct planning and management tactics to determine project-defined successes inclusive of economic, ecological, and human well-being perspectives. While empirically developed templates for economic and ecological measures exist, the multi-dimensionality and subjective nature of human well-being is more difficult to assess. Through an extensive review of indicator frameworks and expert interviews, our research proposes an organizational, yet adaptable, human well-being indicators framework for the management and development of urban waterfront revitalization projects. We analyze the framework through the lens of two waterfront projects in the Puget Sound region of the United States and identify several key factors necessary to developing project-specific human well-being indicator frameworks for urban waterfront revitalization projects. These factors include: initially specify goals and objectives of a given project, acknowledge contextual conditions including prospective land uses and projected users, identify the stage of development or management to use appropriate indicators for that stage, and develop and utilize data sources that are at a similar scale to the size of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indicator development literature is reviewed to clarify if a comprehensive framework or set of frameworks exists that can be used to measure poverty solutions across contexts and to identify the conceptual principles that have guided their development. A need for an integrative framework that adopts a tiered approach is warranted. Four guiding principles proposed as key components of a sound framework include capabilities, social inclusion, meaningfulness to those in poverty, and sustainability. Twelve domains are defined and compatible with the guiding principles. Finally, a process for developing a comprehensive, principle based indicator framework of poverty solutions is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

United States (U.S.) pregnant and postpartum (P/PP) women and their infants may be particularly vulnerable to effects from disasters. In an effort to guide post-disaster assessment and surveillance, we initiated a collaborative process with nationwide expert partners to identify post-disaster epidemiologic indicators for these at-risk groups. This 12 month process began with conversations with partners at two national conferences to identify critical topics for P/PP women and infants affected by disaster. Next we hosted teleconferences with a 23 member Indicator Development Working Group (IDWG) to review and prioritize the topics. We then divided the IDWG into three population subgroups (pregnant women, postpartum women, and infants) that conducted at least three teleconferences to discuss the proposed topics and identify/develop critical indicators, measures for each indicator, and relevant questions for each measure for their respective population subgroup. Lastly, we hosted a full IDWG teleconference to review and approve the indicators, measures, and questions. The final 25 indicators and measures with questions (available online) are organized by population subgroup: pregnant women (indicators = 9; measures = 24); postpartum women (indicators = 10; measures = 36); and infants (indicators = 6; measures = 30). We encourage our partners in disaster-affected areas to test these indicators and measures for relevancy and completeness. In post-disaster surveillance, we envision that users will not use all indicators and measures but will select ones appropriate for their setting. These proposed indicators and measures promote uniformity of measurement of disaster effects among U.S. P/PP women and their infants and assist public health practitioners to identify their post-disaster needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to analyse the role of measurement in legitimising a specific conception of freedom of information. From a neo-Gramscian perspective, the work draws attention to the way a political and ideological paradigm influences measuring instruments, as well as the contribution of such tools in strengthening the hegemony of that paradigm. By illustrating the rise of neoliberalism as a case in point, the study hypothesises a neoliberal influence on the measurement of freedom of information. To test such assumption, the work describes three ideal typical models of freedom of information – the liberal, egalitarian and neoliberal models – and their connection with specific conceptions of democracy. Then, the article focuses on the Freedom of the Press Index by Freedom House, that is the most used and recognised instrument for measuring freedom of information. Though the Freedom House contends to measure a liberal conception of freedom of information, the analysis of the indicators of the Freedom of the Press Index shows that they mirror the neoliberal model at least with respect to the role of State and Market on media systems, and the conception of media pluralism. The results bring into question the uncritical acceptance of the Freedom of the Press Index as the universal yardstick of freedom of information. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an analysis of the performance of the European Union (EU) member states and the USA in biotechnology based on various science, technology and commercialisation indicators. The performance analysis shows that European countries can be grouped into three clusters: Cluster 1, with the best-performing countries, includes Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Cluster 2 performs at a level that is roughly similar to the European median and includes Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Germany, France and the UK. Cluster 3 - Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg - performs well below the European median. The best-performing European countries achieve higher performance scores than the USA. Within the whole spectrum of the considered European countries, the USA would be positioned in the first half. The comparison of the scientific and commercialisation performance of the individual countries reveals clear evidence for a positive correlation between scientific and commercial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines measures of student success, with a focus on how they apply to community colleges. A conceptual framework is presented as a way of facilitating thinking about and accurately grounding discussions of student success. The article closes with an examination of emerging concepts related to the measurement of student success in higher education generally and at community colleges particularly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Infrastructure systems are the foundation for economic growth and productivity. Business and commerce depend on roadways, waterways, pipelines, electricity lines, and broadband connections to transport goods, gain access, provide services, communicate, and efficiently function. Despite the importance of infrastructure, empirical economists have been hindered by the lack of infrastructure performance measures. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is supporting the development of a national index to measure and understand infrastructure performance. In contrast to established infrastructure assessments which rely on dollars spent or counting highway miles, this index applies a rigorous, repeatable, and universal methodology to quantify infrastructure performance. This article documents the methodology for developing a national infrastructure index and the application for one sector: transportation. The integration of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) into the methodology as a mechanism to weight performance indicators is discussed as well as the challenges faced in constructing a Transportation Performance Index. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recent volatility of food crop prices and the rising cost of inputs-fossil fuels, fertilizers, and pesticides-have made it nearly impossible for many of the world's smallholder farmers to continue managing their agroecosystems, leaving their countries dependent on ever more costly food imports. Food Sovereignty, a food system model spearheaded by La Via Campesina and other rural social movements around the globe, represents a unique opportunity to address the vulnerability of national food systems. Thanks to its mass organizations and popular participation in national policy, Cuba is one of the few countries with the capacity to implement food sovereignty, which could help it minimize the threats posed by food price fluctuation, extreme climatic events-the island experienced three catastrophic hurricanes in 2008 alone-and the persistent U.S. hostility towards its national project. The advance of food sovereignty in Cuba, as elsewhere, requires a profound commitment to the principles of agroecology, a heightened appreciation for smallholder farmer participation in increasing food production, and the possibility to design, manage and implement such a model at the national level. Guided by the principles of agroecology, and with the express aim of advancing the struggle for food sovereignty, researchers at the Universidad Central de Las Villas (UCLV) in Villa Clara province, Cuba are developing indicators of food sovereignty for practical use at the smallholder farm level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. The use of species traits to interpret biological changes in invertebrate assemblages across environmental gradients has been suggested as a method to improve discrimination over existing species composition methods. One reason for greater potential discrimination and predictive ability is the assumed universality of traits across a range of spatial and temporal scales. We explore this assumption by comparing the consistency of stressor–response relationships of a trait characteristic (percent clinging taxa) and a common taxonomy-based metric [percent Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT)] over a stressor gradient of increasing benthic fine sediment. 2. We use invertebrate assemblage and environmental data from three large-scale surveys that cover the western United States, eastern United States and the Mid-Atlantic Highlands of the US. These three datasets allow us to compare stressor–response relationships in terms of geographic position (west versus east) and spatial scale (entire east versus a sub-region of the east). We compare the slopes and intercepts of the two measures of assemblage response. 3. Trait characteristics exhibited more consistent stressor–response relationships than identity characteristics. Stressor–response relationships generated for clinging invertebrate richness had statistically similar slopes over sediment gradients, regardless of spatial scale or geographic location. In contrast, slopes were significantly different for relationships generated with EPT richness over sediment gradients. 4. Results of this study support the hypothesis that trait-based measures have a more consistent response to a stressor gradient than identity-based assemblage measures. Choosing consistent measures of community response will facilitate comparisons among assemblages across large spatial scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To develop public health adaptation strategies and to project the impacts of climate change on human health, indicators of vulnerability and preparedness along with accurate surveillance data on climate-sensitive health outcomes are needed. We researched and developed environmental health indicators for inputs into human health vulnerability assessments for climate change and to propose public health preventative actions. DATA SOURCES: We conducted a review of the scientific literature to identify outcomes and actions that were related to climate change. Data sources included governmental and nongovernmental agencies and the published literature. DATA EXTRACTION: Sources were identified and assessed for completeness, usability, and accuracy. Priority was then given to identifying longitudinal data sets that were applicable at the state and community level. DATA SYNTHESIS: We present a list of surveillance indicators for practitioners and policy makers that include climate-sensitive health outcomes and environmental and vulnerability indicators, as well as mitigation, adaptation, and policy indicators of climate change. CONCLUSIONS: A review of environmental health indicators for climate change shows that data exist for many of these measures, but more evaluation of their sensitivity and usefulness is needed. Further attention is necessary to increase data quality and availability and to develop new surveillance databases, especially for climate-sensitive morbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many environment programs encourage community participation. Lacking are evaluation guidelines for programs that engage the public. While typologies exist that explain dimensions of participation, evaluation of the participatory effort within programs is lagging. This article tests the theoretical principles of participatory democracy on Australia's Coastcare program, a federally funded community-based natural resource management initiative. Five indicators developed to evaluate the participatory approach of a planning effort in the United States are applied in this instance to verify the success of the Coastcare's goals of encouraging stewardship within local communities. The study is based on the analysis of qualitative data generated from a combination of 173 key stakeholder interviews and questionnaires. The application of the indicators revealed both strengths and challenges for Coastcare in achieving its goals. This case study illustrates that utilisation of appropriate indicators has the capacity to provide much needed information that can assist policy reform while providing continued support to local groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited by the availability of data, conservation planners must use surrogates for biodiversity when selecting conservation areas. Although several methods have been proposed for selecting surrogates, no clear set of species attributes have been described that allow for the efficient a priori selection of surrogate groups. We used a database of 1449 species in two regions of the United States to (1) examine the consistency in the performance of simple taxonomic-based surrogates of biodiversity and (2) test five hypotheses proposed to explain surrogate performance. First, we compared the ability of sites selected to protect members of seven surrogate groups to protect non-surrogate species in the north-western United States and in the Middle-Atlantic region of the eastern United States. Then, in a separate analysis, we tested whether surrogate performance could be explained by (1) taxonomic diversity; (2) nested species distributions; (3) hotspots of biodiversity; (4) species range sizes; (5) environmental diversity. Our first analysis revealed little consistency in the performance of surrogates in the two different study regions. For example, butterflies provided protection for 76% of all other species in the north-western United States but only 56% of all other species in the eastern United States. Our second analysis revealed only weak associations between species characteristics and surrogate performance. Furthermore, these associations proved inadequate for selecting successful surrogates across study regions. Overall, our results suggest that in lieu of searching for optimal surrogate groups, research efforts will be better spent by developing alternative methods for assessing conservation value in areas where data on species distributions are limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indicators have been used for many years to designate the microbiological quality of water. In 1914, the U.S. Public Health Service set a standard that required that drinking water show no evidence of coliform organisms (U.S. Treasury Department, 1914). Today, almost 100 years later, drinking waters in the United States must meet the standards established in the Total Coliform Rule, which requires that drinking water show no evidence of the presence of total coliform bacteria in 100 mL of water (U.S. EPA, 1989). However, as limitations with the use of coliforms have become apparent and the applications for indicator microorganisms have expanded, new indicators have been proposed and, in some cases, adopted, for specific purposes, as discussed in detail in a number of recent reports (i.e., National Research Council, 2004; World Health Organization, 2003). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effectively predicting cyclical movements in the economy is a major challenge. The U.S. leading index (LI) has long been used to analyze and predict economic fluctuations. We describe and test a new procedure for making the LI more timely. The new LI significantly outperforms its older counterpart. It offers substantial gains in real-time, out-of-sample forecasts of changes in aggregate economic activity (real GDP, the index of coincident indicators, and industrial production) and provides timely and accurate ex ante information for predicting not only business cycle turning points, but also monthly changes in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed diatom and water chemistry data collected by The Academy of Natural Sciences from 47 rivers throughout the eastern United States to address several ecological questions. How does the composition of diatom assemblages vary over large regional scales? What are the most important environmental factors affecting assemblage composition and how does their influence vary among regions and with spatial scale? How do distributions and autecological characteristics of individual taxa vary spatially? What are the implications of answers to these questions for use of diatoms as water quality indicators? Data for 186 samples at 116 sites were collected from 1951 to 1991 on moderate- to large-sized rivers ranging from Maine to Texas as part of Academy monitoring and survey programs, most initiated and implemented by Dr. Ruth Patrick. Several sites were highly impaired by point and non-point source pollution. Diatom assemblages grouped into four main categories, based on multivariate analyses. Group membership correlated equally well with intermediate-scale geographic regions and water chemistry: (1) Northeastern US rivers with lower alkalinity and hardness, and pH 6.5–7.8; (2) Primarily dilute coastal plain rivers in the southeastern United States with the lowest average pH (5.5–7.3) of all sites and some with high DOC; (3) Rivers within and west of the Appalachian Mountains, generally having higher pH (>7.5) than those in other regions, but with relatively low chloride concentrations; and (4) Gulf Coast rivers with the highest chloride (>100 mg l−1), hardness (>250 mg l−1), and pH of rivers in all the groups. Hardness, pH, alkalinity, and Cl explained most of the variation among diatom assemblages, based on ordination analysis. Factors related to water quality problems, such as BOD, P, NH4, and turbidity explained much less variability at the eastern US scale, but were more important in the four intermediate-scale regions. Diatom taxa abundance-weighted mean values for water chemistry characteristics varied among the four intermediate-scale regions, often greatly, and in proportion to the average measured values for each region. Design of calibration data sets for development of water quality indicators should account for spatial scale in relation to species dispersal, regional geochemistry and habitat types, and human-influenced water chemistry characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights a study launched by the European Commission's Directorate General for Research in 2000 to examine the structural similarities and differences between European and U.S. biotechnology research centers. Problems associated with collecting any sort of data on biotechnology; Definition of biotechnology used by the research team; Geographic coverage of the study.

Facing challenges in water demands and population size, particularly in the water-scarce regions in the United States, the reuse of treated municipal wastewater has become a viable potential to relieve the ever-increasing demands of providing water for (non-)potable use. The objectives of this study were to assess microbial quality of reclaimed water and to investigate treatability of microorganisms during different treatment processes. Raw and final treated effluent samples from three participating utilities were collected monthly for 16 months and analyzed for various microbial pathogens and fecal indicator organisms. Results revealed that the detectable levels of microbial pathogens tested were observed in the treated effluent samples from all participating utilities. Log10 reduction values (LRVs) of Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts were at least two orders of magnitude lower than those of human adenovirus and all fecal indicator organisms except for aerobic endospores, which showed the lowest LRVs. The relatively higher LRV of the indicator organisms such as bacteriophages suggested that these microorganisms are not good candidates of viral indicators of human adenovirus during wastewater treatment processes. Overall, this study will assist municipalities considering the use of wastewater effluent as another source of drinking water by providing important data on the prevalence, occurrence, and reduction of waterborne pathogens in wastewater. More importantly, the results from this study will aid in building a richer microbial occurrence database that can be used towards evaluating reuse guidelines and disinfection practices for water reuse practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wall graffiti can be indicators of attitudes, behavioral dispositions, and social processes in settings where direct measurement is difficult. The autographed inscriptions of inner city "graffiti kings" in Philadelphia are analyzed in terms of their style, motivation, and preferred setting. Graffiti written by teenage gangs delineate their turf or area of control: their content may indicate contested space and gang violence. Graffiti in an ethnic neighborhood identify tension zones related to social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted the National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) as part of the National Aquatic Resource Survey (NARS) program to determine the condition of wetlands across the 48 contiguous states of the United States (US). Sites were selected using a generalized random tessellated stratified (GRTS) probability design. We quantified the types, extent, and magnitude of human activities as indicators of potential stress on a sample of 1138 wetland sites representing a target population of 251,546 km2 of wetlands in the US. We used field observations of the presence and proximity of more than 50 pre-determined types of human activity to define two types of indices that quantify human influences on wetlands. We grouped these observations into five types of human activity (classes) and summed them within and across these classes to define five metrics and an overall Human Disturbance Activity Index (HDAI). We calculated six Anthropogenic Stress Indices (ASIs) by summing human disturbance activity observations within stressor categories according to their expected effect on each of six aspects of wetland condition. Based on repeat-visit data, the precision of these metrics and indices was sufficient for regional and national assessments. Among the six categories of stress assessed nationally, the percentage of wetland area having ASI levels indicating high stress levels ranged from 10% due to filling/erosional activities to 27% due to vegetation removal activities. The proportion of wetland area with no signs of human disturbance activity (HDAI = 0) within a 140-m diameter area varied widely among the different wetland ecoregions/types we assessed. No visible human disturbance activity was evident in 70% of estuarine wetlands, but among non-estuarine wetlands, only 8% of the wetland area in the West, 15% of the Interior Plains, 22% of the Coastal Plains, and 36% of the Eastern Mountains and Upper Midwest lacked visible evidence of disturbance. The woody wetlands of the West were the most highly stressed reporting group, with more than 75% of their wetland area subject to high levels of ditching, hardening, and vegetation removal. The NWCA offers a unique opportunity to quantify the type, intensity, and extent of human activities in and around wetlands and to assess their likely stress on wetland ecological functions, physical integrity, and overall condition at regional and continental scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]