Prenatal diagnosis in three cases of iniencephaly with unusual postmortem findings

Iniencephaly is a rare and lethal congenital malformation of the neural tube characterized by occipital bone defect, cervical dysraphism, fixed retroflexion of the fetal head and severe lordosis of the cervicothoracic spine. The etiology is unknown. Prenatally diagnosed cases of iniencephaly are rare because careful and early ultrasonographic evaluation is necessary. We present three cases of iniencephaly prenatally diagnosed by sonography at 20–22 weeks' gestation in which therapeutic abortion was induced. The sonographic findings were compatible with the postmortem findings. The present cases of iniencephaly were found to carry unusual associated malformations such as two lobes in the right lung and chorangiosis of the placenta. Only hypoplastic lungs have been reported by previous authors. We also studied the 677C→T mutation on the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene in the parents in one of the present cases. The mother was found to be heterozygous for the 677CT polymorphism. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Book reviews

The Garden City Utopia

Robert Beevers. The Macmillan Press, 1988. £27.50. 206 pages.

Cost‐Benefit Analysis in Urban and Regional Planning

J. A. Schofield. Allen and Unwin, London, 1987. 249 pages. £30 hardback.

The Milton Park Affair — Canada's largest citizen‐developer confrontation

Claire Helman. Véhicule Press, Montréal, 1987. $12.95.

Regenerating the Inner City, Glasgow's Experience

Edited by David Donnison and Alan Middleton. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1987. £12.95.

Community Architecture

Nick Wates and Charles Knevitt. Penguin Books, London, 1987. £4.95.     

Development of an efficient and sensitive analytical method for the determination of copper at trace levels by slotted quartz tube atomic absorption spectrometry after vortex-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction in biota and water samples using a novel ligand

This study describes the determination of trace levels of copper by slotted quartz tube atomic absorption spectrometry after dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction. A ligand synthesized from the reaction of salicylaldehyde and 1-naphthylamine was used to form coordinate copper complex prior to extraction. All parameters that influence the output of complex formation, extraction, and instrumental measurement were optimized to enhance the absorbance signal of copper. Under the optimum conditions, about 104-fold enhancement in sensitivity was recorded over the conventional flame atomic absorption spectrometer, corresponding to a 0.51 ng/mL detection limit. The percent relative standard deviation calculated for the lowest concentration (4.8%) indicated high precision for the experimental procedure. Accuracy and applicability of the optimum method were determined by performing spiked recovery tests on urine, lake water, and mineral water samples. Satisfactory recovery results were obtained between 82.2 and 106.3% at four different concentrations. Matrix matching method was also performed to increase the accuracy of quantification, and the percent recovery calculated for 175 ng/mL was 105.14%.     

Land cover change detection in the Turkish coastal zone based on 28-year (1990–2018) Corine data

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment - The present study aims to estimate the effects of PM2.5 on the health and economy of Karaj city from 2012 to 2019. In this study, mortality attributed to...     

Public participation in plastics recycling schemes

Without public contributions, recycling from domestic waste would not be possible. In order to support recycling projects it is important to try to understand who recycles, how they recycle, and why they recycle. This paper presents the results of a structured survey of 500 members of the public served by schemes to collect plastics waste for recycling. Data were gathered on the characteristics, behaviours and motivations of recyclers. The authors also sought to discover how the public perceive plastics compared to other materials, and as a recyclable material. Responses were collected in such a way that the awareness of the recyclability of materials could be compared with the recycling behaviour of respondents. An element of comparison was introduced between those served by a system of bottle banks (bring scheme) and those covered by a household collection (collect scheme). The survey results are reported and their implications for the management of post-consumer plastics waste collection schemes are discussed.     

Sustainability and materiality: The bioregional and cultural challenges to evaluation

The current debate on indicators for sustainability and life-cycle assessment of materials relies heavily on universalised systems theory, first developed by Bertalanffy in the 1950s. Various ecolabelling and environmental auditing schemes have attempted to account for all the variables required to measure the sustainability of a given product or material in relation to its resource use. The aim has always been to try and harmonise standards used to facilitate trade regardless of location and using a standard neo-classical economic framework. This paper questions the hegemonic position that synchronic systems analysis currently enjoys by proposing an alternative approach that recognises evolving and relative standards based on localised cultural and economic valuation. This alternative approach is underpinned by the concept of bioregionalism which combines physical, economic and cultural mapping of local resources using local parameters and evaluation methods. Recent bioregional research into local information on environmentally benign materials in Aberdeenshire, Scotland is used to illustrate one way of bringing a meaningful regional framework back into the debate on indicators of sustainability in relation to materiality.     

Development of a multi-factor model for predicting the effects of ambient ozone on the biomass of white clover

Results are presented from the UN/ECE ICP Vegetation (International Cooperative Programme on effects of air pollution on natural vegetation and crops) experiments in which ozone(O(3))-resistant (NC-R) and -sensitive (NC-S) clones of white clover (Trifolium repens cv. Regal) were exposed to ambient O(3) episodes at 14 sites in eight European countries in 1996, 1997 and 1998. The plants were grown according to a standard protocol, and the forage was harvested every 28 days for 4-5 months per year by excision 7 cm above the soil surface. Biomass ratio (NC-S/NC-R) was related to the climatic and pollutant conditions at each site using multiple linear regression (MLR) and artificial neural networks (ANNs). Twenty-one input parameters [e.g. AOT40, 7-h mean O(3) concentration, daylight vapour pressure deficit (VPD), daily maximum temperature] were considered individually and in combination with the aim of developing a model with high r(2) and simple structure that could be used to predict biomass change in white clover. MLR models were generally more complex, and performed less well for unseen data than non-linear ANN models. The ANN model with the best performance had five inputs with an r(2) value of 0.84 for the training data, and 0.71 for previously unseen data. Two inputs to the model described the O(3) conditions (AOT40 and 24-h mean for O(3)), two described temperature (daylight mean and 24-h mean temperature), and the fifth input appeared to be differentiating between semi-urban and rural sites (NO concentration at 17:00). Neither VPD nor harvest interval was an important component of the model. The model predicted that a 5% reduction in biomass ratio was associated with AOT40s in the range 0.9-1.7 ppm x h (microl l(-1) h) accumulated over 28 days, with plants being most sensitive in conditions of low NO(x), medium-range temperature, and high 24-h mean O(3) concentration.     

The formation of reactive oxygen species catalyzed by neutral, aqueous extracts of NIST ambient particulate matter and diesel engine particles

It is important to characterize the chemical properties of particulate matter in order to understand how low doses, inhaled by a susceptible population, might cause human health effects. The formation of reactive oxygen species catalyzed by neutral, aqueous extracts of two ambient particulate samples, National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Materials (SRM) 1648 and 1649, and two diesel particulate samples, NIST SRM 1650 and SRM 2975, were measured. The formation of reactive oxygen species was estimated by measuring the formation of malondialdehyde from 2-deoxyribose in the presence of ascorbic acid; H2O2 was not added to this assay. SRM 1649, ambient particulate matter collected from Washington, DC, generated the most malondialdehyde, while SRM 2975, diesel particulate matter collected from a forklift, yielded the least amount. Desferrioxamine inhibited the formation of malondialdehyde from the particulate samples providing additional data to support the observation that transition metals were involved in the generation of reactive oxygen species. Six transition metal sulfates (iron sulfate, copper sulfate, vanadyl sulfate, cobalt sulfate, nickel sulfate, and zinc sulfate) were assayed for their ability to generate reactive oxygen species under the same conditions used for the particulate samples in order to facilitate comparisons between particles and these transition metals. The concentration of transition metals was measured in aqueous extracts of these particulate samples using ion-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis. There was qualitative agreement between the concentrations of Fe, Cu, and V and the amount of malondialdehyde produced from extracts of these particulate samples. These data suggest that transition metals can be dissolved from particles in neutral, aqueous solutions and that these metals are capable of catalyzing the formation of reactive oxygen species.