Changes in fetal heart rate pattern after intrauterine paracentesis in one twin with meconium peritonitis

We report a case of in utero paracentesis of ascites in a fetus with meconium peritonitis due to volvulus at 34 weeks which resulted in the correction of an abnormal fetal heart rate pattern and enabled vaginal delivery by preventing abdominal dystocia. The intrauterine intervention also helped to establish the diagnosis and potentially reduced the respiratory compromise after birth. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chromosome preparations of both direct and long-term cultures from the same fragment of chorionic villi

A simplified method is described for processing both direct preparations and long-term cultures from the same fragment of chorionic villi. Enzyme separation of the outer trophoblast layers (used for direct preparations) from the inner mesenchymal core (used to initiate long-term cultures) facilitates the utilization of the same fragments for the two procedures, without jeopardizing the success of either method. This has proved useful in cases where the sample was so small that only one method of chromosome preparation may have been possible using other techniques.     

The effect of protected areas on forest disturbance in the Carpathian Mountains 1985–2010

Protected areas are a cornerstone for forest protection, but they are not always effective during times of socioeconomic and institutional crises. The Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe are an ecologically outstanding region, with widespread seminatural and old‐growth forest. Since 1990, Carpathian countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine) have experienced economic hardship and institutional changes, including the breakdown of socialism, European Union accession, and a rapid expansion of protected areas. The question is how protected‐area effectiveness has varied during these times across the Carpathians given these changes. We analyzed a satellite‐based data set of forest disturbance (i.e., forest loss due to harvesting or natural disturbances) from 1985 to 2010 and used matching statistics and a fixed‐effects estimator to quantify the effect of protection on forest disturbance. Protected areas in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Ukraine had significantly less deforestation inside protected areas than outside in some periods; the likelihood of disturbance was reduced by 1–5%. The effectiveness of protection increased over time in these countries, whereas the opposite was true in Romania. Older protected areas were most effective in Romania and Hungary, but newer protected areas were more effective in Czech Republic, and Poland. Strict protection (International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN] protection category Ia‐II) was not more effective than landscape‐level protection (IUCN III‐VI). We suggest that the strength of institutions, the differences in forest privatization, forest management, prior distribution of protected areas, and when countries joined the European Union may provide explanations for the strikingly heterogeneous effectiveness patterns among countries. Our results highlight how different the effects of protected areas can be at broad scales, indicating that the effectiveness of protected areas is transitory over time and space and suggesting that generalizations about the effectiveness of protected areas can be misleading.     

Improving dialogue among researchers,local and indigenous peoples and decision-makers to address issues of climate change in the North

Ambio - The Circumpolar North has been changing rapidly within the last decades, and the socioeconomic systems of the Eurasian Arctic and Siberia in particular have displayed the most dramatic...     

Detection of antibacterial-like activity on a silica surface: fluoroquinolones and their environmental metabolites

Background, scope, and aims

Antibacterial fluoroquinolones (FQs) are third-generation antibiotics that are commonly used as therapeutic treatments of respiratory and urinary tract infections. They are used far less in intensively farmed animal production systems, though their use may be permitted in the veterinary treatments of flocks or in medicated feeds. When used, only a fraction of ingested parent FQ actually reaches the in vivo target site of infection, while the remainder is excreted as the parent FQ and its metabolized products. In many species?? metabolism, enrofloxacin (EF) is converted into ciprofloxacin (CF) while both FQs are classified as parent FQs in human treatments. It is therefore likely that both FQs and their metabolic products will contribute to a common pool of metabolites in biological wastes. Wastes from intensive farming practices are either directly applied to agricultural land without treatment or may be temporarily stored prior to disposal. However, human waste is treated in sewage treatment plants (STPs) where it is converted into biosolids. In the storage or treatment process of STPs, FQs and their in vivo metabolites are further converted into other environmental metabolites (FQEMs) by ex vivo physicochemical processes that act and interact to produce complex mixtures of FQEMs, some of which have antibacterial-like activities. Biosolids are then often applied to agricultural land as a fertilizer amendment where FQs and FQEMs can be further converted into additional FQEMs by soil processes. It is therefore likely that FQ-contaminated biowaste-treated soils will contain complex mixtures of FQEMs, some of which may have antibacterial-like activities that may be expressed on bacteria endemic to the receiving agricultural soil environment. Concern has arisen in the scientific and in the general community that repeated use of FQ-contaminated biowaste as fertilizer amendments of nutrient-impoverished agricultural land may create a selective environment in which FQ-resistant bacteria might grow. The likelihood of this happening will depend, to some extent, on whether bioactive FQEMs are first synthesized from the parent FQs by the action and interaction of in vivo and ex vivo processes producing bioactive FQEMs in biowastes and biosolids. The postulated creation of a selective environment will also depend, in part, on whether such bioactive FQEMs are biologically available to bacteria, which may, in turn, be influenced by soil type, amendment regime, and the persistence of the bioactive FQEMs. Additionally, soil bacteria and soil processes may be affected in different ways or extents by bioactive FQEMs that could possibly act additively or synergistically at ecological targets in these non-target bacteria. This is an important consideration, since, while parent FQs have well-defined ecological targets (DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV) and modes of bactericidal action, the FQEMs and their possible modes of action on the many different species of soil bacteria is less well studied. It is therefore understandable that there is a lack of conclusive evidence directly attributing biosolid usage to any increase in FQ-resistant bacteria detected in biowaste-amended agricultural soil. However, a lack of evidence may simply imply that a causal relationship between biosolid usage programs and any detection of low levels of FQ-resistant bacteria in soils has yet to be established, rather than an assumption of no relationship whatsoever. Based on results presented in this paper, the precautionary principle should be applied in the usage of FQ-contaminated biosolids as fertilizer amendments of agricultural land. The aim of this research was to test whether any bioactive FQEMs of EF could be synthesized by aerobic fermentation processes using Mycobacterium gilvum (American Tissue Culture Collection) and a mixed culture of microorganisms derived from an agricultural soil. High-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) and bioautography were tested as screening techniques in the detection and analysis of bioactive FQEMs.

Materials and methods

FQEMs derived from M. gilvum and mixed (soil) culture aerobic ferments were fractionated using preparative HPTLC. A standard strain of Escherichia coli was then used as the reporter organism in a bioautography assay in the detection of bioactive-FQEMs on a mid-section of the HPTLC plate. Plate sections were reassembled, and a photograph was taken under low-intensity ultraviolet (UV) light to reveal regions that contained analytes that had UV chromophores and antibacterial-like activities.

Results and discussion

Many fractionated FQEMs displayed antibacterial-like activity while bound to silica gel HPTLC plates. These results also provide evidence that sufficient quantities of biologically active FQEMs were biologically available from a silica gel surface to prevent the adherent growth of E. coli. Six to seven FQEMs derived from EF using aerobic fermentation processes had antibacterial-like activities, while two FQEMs were also detectable using UV light. Furthermore, similar banding patterns of antibacterial-like activity were observed in both the monoculture (M. gilvum) and mixed culture bioautography assays, indicating that similar processes operated in both aerobic fermentations, either producing similar biologically active FQEMs or biologically active FQEMs that had similar physicochemical properties in both ferments. The simplest explanation for these findings is that the tested agricultural soil also contained mycobacteria that metabolized EF in a similar way to the purchased standard monoculture M. gilvum. Additionally, the marked contrast between the bioautography results and the UV results indicated that the presence of UV chromophores is not a prerequisite for the detection of antibacterial-like activity.

Conclusions

A reliance on spectrophotometric techniques in the detection of bioactive FQEMs in the environment may underestimate component antibacterial-like activity and, possibly, total antibacterial-like activity expressed by EF and its FQEMs. The described bioautography method provides a screening technique with which antibacterial-like activities derived from EF and possibly other FQs can be detected directly on silica gel HPTLC plates.

Recommendations

It is recommended that both bioassay and instrumental analytical techniques be used in any measurement of hazard and risk relating to antibacterial-like activities in the environment that are derived from fluoroquinolone antibiotics and their environmental metabolites.     

How Resilient Are Europe’s Inshore Fishing Communities to Change? Differences Between the North and the South

One would hypothesize that the Common Fisheries Policy, as the umbrella framework for fisheries management in the EU would have the greatest impact on fishers’ communities across Europe. There are, however, biological, economic, social, and political factors, which vary among fishing communities that can affect how these communities react to changes. This paper explores the links between institutional arrangements and ecological dynamics in two European inshore fisheries socio-ecological systems, using a resilience framework. The Mediterranean small-scale fishers do not seem to have been particularly affected by the Common Fisheries Policy regulations but appear affected by competition with the politically strong recreational fishers and the invasion of the rabbit fish population. The inshore fishers along the East coast of Scotland believe that their interests are not as sufficiently protected as the interests of their offshore counterpart. Decisions and initiatives at global, EU, and sometimes national level, tend to take into account those fisheries sectors which have a national economic importance. A socio-ecological analysis can shift the focus from biological and economic aspects to more sustainable long-term delivery of environmental benefits linked to human wellbeing.