A new type of infrared organ in the Australian "fire-beetle" Merimna atrata (Coleoptera: Buprestidae)

 The Australian buprestid beetle Merimna atrata (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) approaches forest fires because its larvae develop in freshly burnt wood. So far nothing is known about possible sensory systems enabling the beetles to detect fires and to cope with the thermal environment close to the flames. We found that M. atrata has two pairs of infrared (IR) organs on the ventrolateral sides of the abdomen. Each IR organ consists of a specialized IR-absorbing area which is innervated by one thermosensitive multipolar neuron. The primary dendritic branches ramify into more than 800 closely packed terminal endings which contain a large number of mitochondria. We called the special morphology of the dendritic region a terminal dendritic mass. The type of IR receptor found in M. atrata is unique in insects and can best be compared with the IR organs of boid snakes. Received: 14 August 2000 / Accepted in revised form: 18 October 2000     

Methodological Development of an Index of Coastal Water Quality: Application in a Tourist Area

With the aim of obtaining an index of coastal water quality, a methodological procedure based on numerical classification and discriminant analysis is presented. The procedure was applied to nutrient data (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate) analyzed along the coastal waters of a Spanish tourist area. Using numerical classification, three levels of nutrient loading were revealed, characterizing oligotrophic, mesotrophic, and potentially eutrophic waters. Discriminant analysis was shown to be an effective methodological tool in the discrimination between trophic groups. For every group, the discriminant procedure generated the centroids. The centroids representing oligotrophic and potentially eutrophic conditions were used to establish the two extremes of the continuum of mesotrophic conditions in these coastal waters: Standardizing values from -1 to 1, the centroids for oligotrophic and potentially eutrophic waters yielded an interval that defined the range of mesotrophic conditions. This interval is proposed as a water quality index. The ability of the coastal water quality index to successfully predict mesotrophic conditions was proved with random samples.     

Mental health outcomes of job stress among Chinese teachers: role of stress resource factors and burnout

This study examined the mental health outcomes of job stress among Chinese teachers in Hong Kong. A total of 269 Chinese teachers participated in Study 1 which provided cross‐sectional data regarding the associations among stress resource factors, burnout, and negative mental health. Study 2 was a six‐month longitudinal study which aimed to establish the direction of the associations among the hypothesized variables across two time points with a separate sample of 61 Chinese secondary school teachers. Results of the structural equation modelling analyses on the cross‐sectional data at T1 showed that stress resource factors of self‐efficacy and proactive attitude were negatively related to burnout, which in turn had a direct effect on negative mental health. Stress resource factors were also directly linked to mental health status of teachers. Results of similar analyses on the longitudinal data at T2 further indicated that burnout at T1 had a direct impact on burnout at T2, which in turn had a direct effect on negative mental health at T2. Findings and limitations of the study were discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrating Landscape Analysis and Planning: A Multi-Scale Approach for Oriented Management of Tourist Recreation

Tourism and landscape are interdependent concepts. Nature- and culture-based tourism are now quite well developed activities and can constitute an excellent way of exploiting the natural resources of certain areas, and should therefore be considered as key objectives in landscape planning and management in a growing number of countries. All of this calls for careful evaluation of the effects of tourism on the territory. This article focuses on an integrated spatial method for landscape analysis aimed at quantifying the relationship between preferences of visitors and landscape features. The spatial expression of the model relating types of leisure and recreational preferences to the potential capacity of the landscape to meet them involves a set of maps showing degrees of potential visitor satisfaction. The method constitutes a useful tool for the design of tourism planning and management strategies, with landscape conservation as a reference.     

Removal of Cr(VI) from Cr-contaminated groundwater through electrochemical addition of Fe(II)

The conventional chemical reduction-precipitation technique in the removal of Cr(VI) from contaminated groundwater involves a two-step process whereby Cr(VI) is first reduced to Cr(III) at an acidic pH by a reducing agent and in a subsequent step, Cr(III) is precipitated as insoluble hydroxide at an alkaline pH. In a variation of this method, Fe(II) is added electrochemically to the Cr(VI) containing water. From a pure iron electrode, Fe(2+) ions are released into the solution and bring forth the reduction of Cr(VI). At the cathode, H(2)O is reduced whereby the OH(-) ions entering the solution keep the pH of the solution in the alkaline range. This latter fact greatly facilitates simultaneous reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) and co-precipitation of hydroxides of trivalent Cr and Fe. On the basis of a set of experimental data, it is shown that this process is both thermodynamically and kinetically efficient, meaning, with the electrochemical method, rapid and nearly complete removal of Cr(VI) from a groundwater source with both high and low levels of Cr-contamination can be achieved. These factors make the electrochemical process superior to the conventional chemical process in remediation of Cr-contaminated groundwater.