Epidemiology of tornado destruction in rural northern Bangladesh: risk factors for death and injury

The epidemiology of tornado-related disasters in the developing world is poorly understood. An August 2005 post-tornado cohort study in rural Bangladesh identified elevated levels of death and injury among the elderly (≥ 60 years of age) (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 8.9 (95 per cent confidence interval (CI): 3.9-20.2) and AOR = 1.6 (95 per cent CI: 1.4-1.8), respectively), as compared to 15-24 year-olds, and among those outdoors versus indoors during the tornado (AOR = 10.4 (95 per cent CI: 5.5-19.9) and AOR = 6.6 (95 per cent CI: 5.8-7.5), respectively). Females were 1.24 times (95 per cent CI: 1.15-1.33) more likely to be injured than males. Elevated risk of injury was significantly associated with structural damage to the house and tin construction materials. Seeking treatment was protective against death among the injured, odds ratio = 0.08 (95 per cent CI: 0.03-0.21). Further research is needed to develop injury prevention strategies and to address disparities in risk between age groups and between men and women.     

Disposition of bisphenol A in pregnant mice and fetuses after a single and repeated oral administration

The risk assessment of bisphenol A (BPA) on the development of offspring of humans is an important issue. There have been some reports on the fate of BPA in rodents, but information on the BPA level in fetal organs essential for the extrapolation to humans is inadequate. In the present study, we investigated the distribution pattern of ¹⁴C-BPA-derived radioactivity in fetal tissues following administration of 10?mg/kg ¹⁴C-BPA to the pregnant mice. The radioactivity was rapidly transferred through placenta and distributed to all fetal organs including reproductive organs and brains in a similar level. The concentration declined slowly compared with dams. Analysis of metabolites in fetuses showed that a fraction of BPA was unexpectedly large compared to the maternal blood. There was no clear effect of the fetal position in a uterus to influence the radioactivity concentration in whole fetuses. The dose dependence of pharmacokinetics should be recognized to extrapolate the pharmacokinetic result from animal experiments at high doses to humans at low doses. Similar experiments were conducted with an addition of two doses, 1 and 100?mg/kg, respectively. The pharmacokinetics seemed to be linear between 1 and 10?mg/kg, although at 100?mg/kg BPA was absorbed slowly and the radioactivity concentrations in fetuses were much higher than expected based on the linear dose dependence. Repeated doses were administered to pregnant mice since humans are exposed to BPA chronically. Radioactivity level in most of the fetal tissues on repeated administration was higher than single administration.     

Consideration on safety for emerging technology – Case studies of seven service robots

Despite the fact that several manufacturers of service robots launched their innovations into the market, worldwide guidelines or regulations concerning the safety aspects of service robots are not yet available. However the general principles and methodologies of safety of machinery (e.g., ISO/IEC Guide 51, partly ISO14121, ISO12100) could be implemented to a certain degree. The safety of seven service robots as an emerging technology was verified by safety professionals of “NPO – the Safety Engineering Laboratory” a Non Profit Organization. NPO verified the “Critical Hazards” for each service robot mentioned by the respective manufacturers. For those cases, both the “As Low As Reasonably Practicable” principle and the “Reasonable Alternative Design” standard were applied for judging if the risk associated with the Critical Hazards were tolerable or not and if state of the art measures for reducing the risk were applied adequately. These experiences will help to establish guidelines for the safety of service robots as an emerging technology in the future.     

Influence of the Hydrothermal Pre-treatments on the Adsorption Characteristics of Activated Carbons from Woods

The hydrothermal treatments were conducted prior to the carbonization of oak woods and the obtained charcoals were activated using carbon dioxide or water vapor. The hydrothermal treatments brought about the elutions of acid-soluble lignin fractions as well as hemicellulose fractions accompanied with the decomposition of lignin carbohydrate complexes in the cell walls, which lowered not only the carbon yield of charcoal but also the crystal parameters for the carbon crystallites. However, the activated carbons (AC) produced via the hydrothermal pre-treatment showed superior adsorption properties especially for the adsorptions of 2-methylisoborneol and geosmin as compared with the untreated commercial AC. The hydrothermal treatments prior to the carbonization have some potential to increase the fractions of meso-pores effective for the adsorption of globular shaped molecules.     

Properties and biodegradability of chain-extended copoly(succinic anhydride/ethylene oxide)

Chain-extension reactions were carried out using titanium-iso-propoxide (TIP) as a catalyst for a series of polyesters or copolyesterethers with low molecular weights (M _n =1500–10,000) synthesized by the ring-opening copolymerization of succinic anhydride (SA) with ethylene oxide (EO). The copolymers having aM _n from 25,000 to 50,000 of different properties were obtained. Both the melting point (T _m ) and the fusion heat (H), which indicate the crystallinity of the copolymers, rose with an increase in SA content in the copolymers. Semitransparent films were prepared by compression molding of the copolymers. The biodegradation of the copolymer films was evaluated by enzymatic hydrolysis by lipases and by an aerobic gas evolution test in standard activated sludge. The hydrolyzability of these copolymers by three kinds of lipases was affected by their copolymer composition SA/EO, form, andM _n . The copolyesterether (SA/EO=43/57,M _n =48,900) was more easily biodegraded by standard activated sludge compared to the polyester (SA/EO=47/53,M _n =36,300).Presented at the Pacifichem-95, December 17–22, 1995, Honolulu, Hawaii.     

Applications of time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy to the environmental biogeochemistry of actinides

Time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) is a useful means of identifying certain actinide species resulting from various biogeochemical processes. In general, TRLFS differentiates chemical species of a fluorescent metal ion through analysis of different excitation and emission spectra and decay lifetimes. Although this spectroscopic technique has largely been applied to the analysis of actinide and lanthanide ions having fluorescence decay lifetimes on the order of microseconds, such as UO , Cm, and Eu, continuing development of ultra-fast and cryogenic TRLFS systems offers the possibility to obtain speciation information on metal ions having room-temperature fluorescence decay lifetimes on the order of nanoseconds to picoseconds. The main advantage of TRLFS over other advanced spectroscopic techniques is the ability to determine in situ metal speciation at environmentally relevant micromolar to picomolar concentrations. In the context of environmental biogeochemistry, TRLFS has principally been applied to studies of (i) metal speciation in aqueous and solid phases and (ii) the coordination environment of metal ions sorbed to mineral and bacterial surfaces. In this review, the principles of TRLFS are described, and the literature reporting the application of this methodology to the speciation of actinides in systems of biogeochemical interest is assessed. Significant developments in TRLFS methodology and advanced data analysis are highlighted, and we outline how these developments have the potential to further our mechanistic understanding of actinide biogeochemistry.