Search

Congressional legislators have proposed changes to the ways in which funds are used to clean up toxic waste sites. The program devised by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Superfund statute, has not succeeded as well as originally intended. Proposals in the late 1990s suggest clean-up strategies should be developed in tandem with site redevelopment strategies. Economic incentives and increased public involvement in transforming toxic waste sites would better ensure success.

We examine the use of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forecasts for flood planning in the Pacific Northwest. Our investigation relies on (1) case studies of three counties vulnerable to flooding that have had access to long-term forecasts of ENSO conditions, and (2) examination of data collected from a survey of nearly 60 local emergency managers, planners, and public works staff. Results suggest that climate forecasts can facilitate flood planning when used by public and private policy entrepreneurs to build political support for flood mitigation measures. Understanding the social processes and regulatory machinery involved in applying these forecasts is critical to their more effective use. This use could be promoted by an extension service to disseminate climate information and proactive efforts to identify and work with entrepreneurial hazard planners and managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which examined the role of forecasts, based on the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, in flood planning in the Pacific Northwest. La niña in the Pacific Northwest; Counts of high mean flow events; Variation in the strength of ENSO signals across different watersheds.

Water utilities that rely on surface water may be vulnerable to future droughts and floods, a vulnerability that may be magnified by climate perturbations as well as shorter-term and, in some cases, ongoing changes in the political and regulatory environment in which utilities operate. Unfortunately, day-to-day responsibilities currently occupy most utility operators, leaving little time to plan for inherently uncertain effects. The record of actual responses to past droughts and floods can be illuminating, however, particularly when placed in the context of plausible hydrologic disruption and pressures such as population growth, floodplain development and new regulatory demands. This paper draws on interviews with water utility operators in the northwestern USA to highlight opportunities and constraints that water utilities may face vis-à-vis such disruptions. Key considerations affecting vulnerabilities include water rights, institutional barriers to efficient utility operations, hazard management policy and the fiscal status of utilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes how future land use assumptions are incorporated into the United States Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 or Superfund cleanup decisions. Background on the Superfund program; Stages of the remedial process; Consequences of tailoring the remedial process to land use.

The article focuses on the study of the developmental progressions and regressions in the utilization of memory strategies of educable mentally retarded (EMR) individuals. Experiments, which used a directed forgetting paradigm, were participated by EMR students, nonretarded and retarded adults. The experiment aims to determine the remembering strategies of the responders.

The glutamine synthetase system of strain L mouse cells is regulated by at least two natural substances: glutamine and a glucocorticoid hormone. In a chemically defined cell culture system, cortisol or dexamethasone promotes intracellular accumulation of the synthetase by a process which depends upon genetic transcription. The accumulation is most rapid if the hormone is added to a glutamine deficient culture medium. High concentrations of glutamine promote rapid disappearance of the enzyme by a mechanism which depends on unimpaired protein synthesis. Ways in which the two regulatory substances collaborate to influence the synthetase level and other growth-related processes of L cells in culture are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an obituary for Abram I. Chasens, former professor and chair of periodontology and oral medicine at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) School of Dental Medicine, and past president of the New Jersey Society of Periodontists and the Northeastern Society of Periodontists.