Is sex-biased maternal care limited by total maternal expenditure in polygynous ungulates?

We examined data on sex-specific differences in neonatal weight, litter size and adult female body weight in 32 populations of polygynous ungulates of 18 different species to test for the existence of a trade-off between sex-biased maternal care and the total amount of maternal expenditure. This corresponds to an extension of the hypothesis of Byers and Moodie (1990) that sex-biased maternal care is limited by a high level of maternal expenditure. We did not find any relationship between sex-biased care and two measures of total maternal expenditure. We highlighted high intraspecific variability in sex-biased care and very low intraspecific variability in total maternal expenditure. Even when this between-population variability in sex-biased care was accounted for, no relationship between sex-biased maternal care and maternal expenditure was detected. Apart from difficulties in finding suitable measures for both variables, two other reasons may account for the lack of a relationship between sex-biased maternal care and total maternal expenditure. Firstly, male offspring seem to be more affected than female offspring by harsh environmental conditions. This may lead to the variation observed in the extent of sex-specific differences in birth weight within a single species. If we assume that for a given maternal expenditure reproductive costs incurred by mothers are highest during harsh conditions, this could indicate the existence of a trade-off between sex-biased maternal care and maternal expenditure at the intra-specific level, thereby supporting the Byers and Moodie hypothesis. Secondly, polygyny is only a poor predictor of sex-biased care and factors such as compensatory growth or extended periods of growth may be expected to modify predictions for different species. Thus, environmental conditions and relative effects of maternal care on male and female lifetime reproductive success are better predictors of sex-biased care than total maternal expenditure.Communicated by P.M. Kappeler     

Training refugees as primary health care workers: Past imperfect, future conditional

Many problems have been encountered in the planning and implementation of health care in refugee camps, and more specifically in the training of refugees as primary health care workers. A review of the published literature and a "survey" of the opinions and experiences of refugee, national and international health personnel regarding training has therefore been undertaken to provide an overview of what has been done and to make recommendations for future work.
The review highlights the need to reallocate resources away from high visibility emergency aid to development activities, such as training, that will create an infrastructure for primary health care and promote self-reliance.     

Obligations to animals are based on rights

Some feminist philosophers criticize the idea of human rights because, they allege, it encapsulates male bias; it is therefore misguided, in their view, to extend moral rights to non-human animals. I argue that the feminist criticism is misguided. Ideas are not biased in favour of men simply because they originate with men, nor are ideas themselves biased in favour of men because men have used them prejudicially. As for the position that women should abandon theories of rights and embrace an ethic that emphasizes care: women who made this choice would not so much liberate themselves from the patriarchy as they would conform to its representation of women as emotional, subjective and irrational. There is, then, no good reason to withhold ascribing rights to non-human animals, based on the criticisms of rights made by some feminists.Some of the material in the discussion of the feminist critique of rights originally appeared in my The Case for Animal Rights: A Decade's Passing inA Quarter Century of Value Inquiry: Presidential Addresses of the American Society of Value Inquiry, edited by Richard T. Hull, pp. 451–455. Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1994. These passages are reprinted with the permission of the editor and publisher, whose thoughtful co-operation is gratefully acknowledged.     

Evolution of the Stewardship Idea in American Country Life

Theological and secular concepts ofstewardship evolved markedly in the 20thcentury. During this period of evolution, theAmerican Country Life Association through itschurch, academic, farm organization, andgovernmental affiliations, served as a bridgingand bonding agent in developing the stewardshipidea. As in any evolutionary process, thestewardship concept was subjected to a broadarray of influences and characterized bynotable highlights such as the Lynn Smithcritique of the Judaeo-Christian ethic, theman-in-nature statement of Douglas John Hall,and the environmental concerns of ecologistsand philosophers of the post-Rachel Carson era.Some gains have been made in understanding theplace of humans in nature, but the stewardshipidea continues as work in process.     

Determination of 27 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in water: The benefit of isotope dilution

• Isotope dilution method was developed for the determination of 27 PPCPs in water. • The established method was successfully applied to different types of water samples. • The correction effect of corresponding 27 ILSs over 70 d was investigated. • Benefit of isotopic dilution method was illustrated for three examples. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are a unique group of emerging and non-persistent contaminants. In this study, 27 PPCPs in various water samples were extracted by solid phase extraction (SPE), and determined by isotope dilution method using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem triple quadruple mass spectrometer (LC-MS/MS). A total of 27 isotopically labeled standards (ILSs) were applied to correct the concentration of PPCPs in spiked ultrapure water, drinking water, river, effluent and influent sewage. The corrected recoveries were 73%–122% with the relative standard deviation (RSD)<16%, except for acetaminophen. The matrix effect for all kinds of water samples was<22% and the method quantitation limits (MQLs) were 0.45–8.6 ng/L. The developed method was successfully applied on environmental water samples. The SPE extracts of spiked ultrapure water, drinking water, river and wastewater effluent were stored for 70 days, and the ILSs-corrected recoveries of 27 PPCPs were obtained to evaluate the correction ability of ILSs in the presence of variety interferences. The recoveries of 27 PPCPs over 70 days were within the scope of 72%–140% with the recovery variation<37% in all cases. The isotope dilution method seems to be of benefit when the extract has to be stored for long time before the instrument analysis.     

Fate of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in wastewater treatment plants - Conception of a database and first results

We created a database in order to quantitatively assess the occurrence and removal efficiency of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). From 117 scientific publications, we compiled 6641 data covering 184 PPCPs. Data included the concentrations of PPCPs in WWTP influents and effluents, their removal efficiency and their loads to the aquatic environment. The first outputs of our database allowed to identify the most investigated PPCPs in WWTPs and the most persistent ones, and to obtain reliable and quantitative values on their concentrations, frequency of detection and removal efficiency in WWTPs. We were also able to compare various processes and pointed out activated sludge with nitrogen treatment and membrane bioreactor as the most efficient ones.     

城市污水处理厂及其受纳水体中5种典型PPCPs的赋存特征和生态风险

以5种药品及个人护理用品(pharmaceuticals and personal care products,PPCPs)包括氯贝酸、酮洛芬、萘普生、双氯芬酸和布洛芬为目标物,初步研究了它们在上海某生活污水处理厂不同污水处理单元中的赋存特征和去除特性,探讨了污水处理厂受纳河流中5种PPCPs的分布情况,并对其在受纳水体中的生态风险进行了初步评估.结果表明,5种PPCPs在污水处理厂进水中均被检出,表明生活污水是污水处理厂中PPCPs的来源之一.5种PPCPs在整个污水处理工艺中不能全部去除,微生物转化/降解是主要降解机制.受纳污水河流中5种PPCPs的分布特征与污水处理厂出水中的相似,且排污口下游水体中目标物浓度普遍高于上游,反映出污水处理厂排放可能是其受纳水体中PPCPs的主要来源之一.初步风险评估结果表明,受纳水体中双氯芬酸存在高生态风险,而酮洛芬、萘普生、氯贝酸和布洛芬的生态风险相对较低.     

骆马湖表层水体中32种PPCPs类物质的污染水平、分布特征及风险评估

为评价骆马湖水体中药品和个人护理品(PPCPs)的污染水平、空间分布特征及生态风险,利用高效液相色谱-串联质谱测定了骆马湖水体中22个采样点的32种PPCPs.结果表明,骆马湖表层水体中共检出了23种PPCPs,总浓度范围为892~1 536 ng·L~(-1),其中浓度最高的为诺氟沙星(256~707 ng·L~(-1)),其次是酮洛芬(85~438 ng·L~(-1))、安赛蜜(101~290 ng·L~(-1))及萘普生(1.9~112 ng·L~(-1)).不同采样位点的PPCPs浓度存在一定的空间差异,呈现湖东北部地区较高,西南部地区较低的趋势.房亭河入湖口处PPCPs浓度较高,嶂山闸出湖口处浓度较低.对13种药物类PPCPs生态风险评价结果表明,诺氟沙星RQs为0.26~0.72,对于骆马湖水生生态系统表现为中风险,吉非罗齐在大部分采样点RQs0.01,表现为低风险,其余的化合物RQs0.01未表现出生态环境风险.采用简单叠加模型计算PPCPs的联合毒性风险熵范围为0.29~0.75,整体上看,骆马湖PPCPs对于水生生物表现出中风险.对6种PPCPs的人体健康风险结果表明,RQs均小于1,表明骆马湖PPCPs对人体健康无直接风险.     

Obligations to animals are not necessarily based on rights

I offer a very qualified argument to the effect that rights are grounded in a certain sort of prejudice that privileges individualistic and perhaps masculinist ways of thinking about moral life. I also propose that we look carefully at other conceptions of social ontology and moral life, including the much discussed care conception.     

乡镇工业职业卫生服务与初级卫生保健相结合初探

针对我国乡镇工业职业卫生面临的“高需求、低服务”。以及与农村初级卫生保健(PHC)相脱节问题。提出实施乡镇企业职业卫生与PHC相结合的必要性和迫切性。结合WHO职业卫生合作中心(上海)在华东地区的试点探索,提出两者结合的内容和方式的若干设想,强调从更新观念全面认识PHC和把职业卫生与安全作为PHC组成部分入手,深入实践,共同为卫生部领导下的全国性探索作贡献。