The Indigenous Fisherman Divers of Thailand: Diving-Related Mortality and Morbidity

The Urak Lawoi are indigenous fishermen on Thailand’s west coast. The population includes an estimated 400 divers who dive using surface-supplied compressed air. In a cross-sectional survey conducted among the 6 major communities of Urak Lawoi, questionnaire-based interviews were administered to active divers, ex-divers, and families or colleagues of divers who had died in the previous 5 years. Six deaths resulting from diving-related accidents were identified, indicating a diving-related mortality rate of approximately 300 per 100,000 person-years, while in the same 5-year period 11 divers had been disabled owing to diving-related events, indicating a diving-related disabling event rate of approximately 550 per 100,000 person-years. Among 342 active divers interviewed, one third reported having suffered from decompression illness, although based on reported current symptoms over 50% were classified as suffering from recurring non-disabling decompression illness. Physical examination conducted on a subset of 98 active divers revealed the presence of spinal injury (clonus, raised muscle tone, and heightened reflexes) and of joint damage (pain in one or more joint, crepitus, or restricted movement) in 24 and 30% respectively. Improved primary prevention and medical treatment are needed to reduce mortality and morbidity among this population.     

镉"加标"沉积物对泥鳅(Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)生物毒性研究

选择泥鳅(Misgurnus anguillicaudaus)作为受试生物,以泥鳅死亡率、血液红细胞数量、红细胞体积、红细胞微核率和核异常率作为测试指标,考察了沉积物中"加标"金属镉(Cd)的毒性状况,探讨了水体沉积物中重金属的生物毒性影响.结果表明:高有机质的粘土粉砂性沉积物能够有效吸附重金属镉;镉加标暴露组泥鳅的死...     

京津冀地区“煤改电”对PM2.5污染的健康效益评估

为准确评估京津冀地区采暖期实施“煤改电”政策带来的健康效益,估算了京津冀地区各区县采暖期“煤改电”政策实施前后PM_2.5污染导致的过早死亡人数,并采用支付意愿法计算了相应的健康损失价值.结果表明,京津冀地区“煤改电”政策实施后带来了1 745人(95%CI:1 443～1 907)健康效益和23.78亿元(95%CI:14.50～30.63)经济效益.北京、天津及河北地区的健康效益分别为495人(95%CI:436～554)、 296人(95%CI:238～354)及954人(95%CI:693～1 076).经济效益分别为3.50亿元(95%CI:3.08～3.92)、 3.32亿元(95%CI:2.67～3.96)及16.96亿元(95%CI:8.75～22.75),分别占各地区GDP的0.01%、 0.02%及0.04%. COPD、 LC、 ALRI、 IHD、 STROKE减少的死亡人数分别为187人(95%CI:165～224)、 318人(95%CI:178～458)、 193人(95%CI:115～204)、 506人(95%CI:232～780)...     

The effects of seston food quality on planktonic food web patterns

In planktonic food webs, the conversion rate of plant material to herbivore biomass is determined by a variety of factors such as seston biochemical/elemental composition, phytoplankton cell morphology, and colony architecture. Despite the overwhelming heterogeneity characterizing the plant–animal interface, plankton population models usually misrepresent the food quality constraints imposed on zooplankton growth. In this study, we reformulate the zooplankton grazing term to include seston food quality effects on zooplankton assimilation efficiency and examine its ramifications on system stability. Using different phytoplankton parameterizations with regards to growth strategies, light requirements, sinking rates, and food quality, we examined the dynamics induced in planktonic systems under varying zooplankton mortality/fish predation, light conditions, nutrient availability, and detritus food quality levels. In general, our analysis suggests that high food quality tends to stabilize the planktonic systems, whereas unforced oscillations (limit cycles) emerge with lower seston food quality. For a given phytoplankton specification and resource availability, the amplitude of the plankton oscillations is primarily modulated from zooplankton mortality and secondarily from the nutritional quality of the alternative food source (i.e., detritus). When the phytoplankton community is parameterized as a cyanobacterium-like species, conditions of high nutrient availability combined with high zooplankton mortality led to phytoplankton biomass accumulation, whereas a diatom-like parameterization resulted in relatively low phytoplankton to zooplankton biomass ratios highlighting the notion that high phytoplankton food quality allows the zooplankton community to sustain relatively high biomass and to suppress phytoplankton biomass to low levels. During nutrient and light enrichment conditions, both phytoplankton and detritus food quality determine the extent of the limit cycle region, whereas high algal food quality increases system resilience by shifting the oscillatory region towards lower light attenuation levels. Detritus food quality seems to regulate the amplitude of the dynamic oscillations following enrichment, when algal food quality is low. These results highlight the profitability of the alternative food sources for the grazer as an important predictor for the dynamic behavior of primary producer–grazer interactions in nature.     

Insights from complete-incomplete brood sex-ratio disparity

An assertion deeply rooted in the ornithological literature holds that sex-specific mortality causes a sex ratio disparity (SRD) between complete and incomplete broods. Complete broods are thought to reflect the primary sex ratio before any bias introduced by developmental mortality. Contrary to this view, however, complete and incomplete broods should exhibit identical sex ratio distributions even when the sexes experience differential mortality, as shown in the classic paper of Fiala (Am Nat 115: 442–444, 1980). Therefore, in partially unsexed samples, primary sex ratio biases cannot be distinguished from biases caused by differential mortality. In addition, complete broods do not represent primary sex ratio more accurately than incomplete ones and might even be misleading. Despite Fiala’s prediction, SRD does occur in some empirical studies. We show that this pattern could arise if (1) primary sex ratio affects chick mortality rates independently of sex (direct effect), (2) primary sex ratio covaries with a variable that also affects mortality rate, or (3) sex differential mortality covaries with overall mortality rate (indirect effects). Direct effects may cause stronger SRD than indirect ones with a smaller and opposite bias in the overall sex ratio and could also lead to highly inconsistent covariate effects on brood sex ratios. These features may help differentiate direct from indirect effects. Most interestingly, differences in covariate effects between complete and incomplete broods imply that influential variables are missing from the analysis.     

Effects of age and sex ratios on offspring recruitment rates in translocated black rhinoceros

Success of animal translocations depends on improving postrelease demographic rates toward establishment and subsequent growth of released populations. Short‐term metrics for evaluating translocation success and its drivers, like postrelease survival and fecundity, are unlikely to represent longer‐term outcomes. We used information theory to investigate 25 years of data on black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) translocations. We used the offspring recruitment rate (ORR) of translocated females—a metric integrating survival, fecundity, and offspring recruitment at sexual maturity—to detect determinants of success. Our unambiguously best model (AICω = 0.986) predicted that ORR increases with female age at release as a function of lower postrelease adult rhinoceros sex ratio (males:females). Delay of first postrelease reproduction and failure of some females to recruit any calves to sexual maturity most influenced the pattern of ORRs, and the leading causes of recruitment failure were postrelease female death (23% of all females) and failure to calve (24% of surviving females). We recommend translocating older females (≥6 years old) because they do not exhibit the reproductive delay and low ORRs of juveniles (<4 years old) or the higher rates of recruitment failure of juveniles and young adults (4–5.9 years old). Where translocation of juveniles is necessary, they should be released into female‐biased populations, where they have higher ORRs. Our study offers the unique advantage of a long‐term analysis across a large number of replicate populations—a science‐by‐management experiment as a proxy for a manipulative experiment, and a rare opportunity, particularly for a large, critically endangered taxon such as the black rhinoceros. Our findings differ from previous recommendations, reinforce the importance of long‐term data sets and comprehensive metrics of translocation success, and suggest attention be shifted from ecological to social constraints on population growth and species recovery, particularly when translocating species with polygynous breeding systems.     

The Toad-Headed Agama Phrynocephalus guttatus (Reptilia: Agamidae): The Correlates of Survival in a Translocated Population in the Southwestern Kalmyk Republic

Observations of a translocated population of toad-headed agamas (Phrynocephalus guttatus) in the south of the Kalmyk Republic (1998–2001) have shown that seasonal differences in animal survival are manifested only in juveniles and the survival rate of juveniles is higher than that of adult individuals. A significant correlation between survival rate and sex is also characteristic only of juveniles: survival rate is higher in females than in males. In adult males, survival positively correlates with the level of activity; in juvenile males, with body size. In adult females, survival inversely correlates with body size and weight.     

钾细菌在剩余污泥资源化中的应用

通过对钾细菌在剩余污泥中的接种,利用钾细菌将土壤中难溶性钾转化为可溶性钾是增加作物钾素营养的一个途径,将含大量钾细菌的剩余污泥制成的微生物肥料应用于农田中,从而达到剩余污泥的资源化利用,为剩余污泥的科学处理提供依据。     

臭氧在污泥减量技术中的应用

大量的剩余污泥已成为国内外污水处理行业亟待解决的问题,因此各种物理、化学和生物方法被应用到污泥处理中,臭氧以其独特的性质从一开始应用就备受青睐.详细地说明了臭氧在污泥减量技术中应用的背景及原理,重点介绍了臭氧对污泥性质的影响,并分别从臭氧氧化技术与传统活性污泥法组合、与AO工艺组合、与膜生物反应器(MBR)组合、与磷回收工艺组合、与SBR工艺组合等角度分析了臭氧在污泥减量技术中的应用与现状、目前存在的问题及未来的发展方向.     

Incorporating Collateral Data in Conservation Biology

Abstract:  Conservation biologists often need to set ecological modeling assumptions or estimate parameters from sparse data. In some cases this problem can be addressed by incorporating data from closely related species or from the same species at different sites (i.e., collateral data). Currently no structured methods exist for incorporating such information. An analogous problem in Actuarial science is to set premium rates in situations with little direct data on claim frequency or size. The rates are estimated using actuarial credibility theory, which incorporates collateral data with the direct data. actuarial credibility theory combined with the actuarial control cycle financial management process also provides an adaptive mechanism for updating assumptions. This theory may have some utility for ecologists wanting to incorporate collateral data in an adaptive management framework, a companion to approaches such as Bayesian updating. We describe the historical development of actuarial credibility theory from early ad hoc methods to empirical Bayes approaches. We explore some of the theory's strengths, such as relative simple formulae for incorporation collateral data, and we explore some of the theory's weaknesses, such as the use of the best linear approximation to the Bayes estimate. We illustrate potential applications of the theory using an example on the mortality rate of the Powerful Owl (  Ninox strenua ).