1998年全球自然灾害评析

１９９８年是全球自然灾害经济损失特别大的一年,仅次于１９９５年,根据收集到的全球自然灾害数据,对全球主要自然灾害特征和分布特点提出和分析,并对其成因进行了探讨。     

An 'inherent' biodegradability test for oil products: description and results of an international ring test. CONCAWE Biodegradation Task Force.

Current test guidelines for assessing 'inherent' (potential) biodegradability were designed for water-soluble, organic compounds of low volatility and are unsuitable for most oil products. It was against this background, that CONCAWE (the oil companies' European organisation for environment, health and safety) formed a task force to develop a standard test protocol for assessing the 'inherent' biodegradability of oil products.     

Prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 20 by chorionic villus sampling (CVS): a case report with long-term outcome

A case of prenatally diagnosed non-mosaic trisomy 20 in cells cultured from a chorionic villus sample (CVS)is presented. The term placental karyotype was also non-mosaic trisomy 20. The karyotype of thenewborn was 46,XY/47,XY,+20 in foreskin cultures and in a second skin culture; blood lymphocyte culture was 46,XY. Aside from diffuse, hypopigmentary swirls along the lines of Blaschko observed on hisextremities and trunk, referred to as hypomelanosis of Ito, the patient is clinically normal at 8¾ years ofage. In addition, he is one of the oldest reported cases of mosaic trisomy 20 confirmed after birth forwhich the clinical outcome has been monitored. This case demonstrates that these trisomy 20 findings are compatible with normal psychomotor development and phenotype. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved Weather Generator Algorithm for Multisite Simulation of Precipitation and Temperature

The KnnCAD Version 4 weather generator algorithm for nonparametric, multisite simulations of temperature and precipitation data is presented. The K‐nearest neighbor weather generator essentially reshuffles the historical data, with replacement. In KnnCAD Version 4, a block resampling scheme is introduced to preserve the temporal correlation structure in temperature data. Perturbation of the reshuffled variable data is also added to enhance the generation of extreme values. The Upper Thames River Basin in Ontario, Canada is used as a case study and the model is shown to simulate effectively the historical characteristics at the site. The KnnCAD Version 4 approach is shown to improve on the previous versions of the model and offers a major advantage over many parametric and semiparametric weather generators in that multisite use can be easily achieved without making statistical assumptions dealing with the spatial correlations and probability distributions of each variable.     

Reducing Nitrogen Export from the Corn Belt to the Gulf of Mexico: Agricultural Strategies for Remediating Hypoxia

SPAtially Referenced Regression on Watershed models developed for the Upper Midwest were used to help evaluate the nitrogen‐load reductions likely to be achieved by a variety of agricultural conservation practices in the Upper Mississippi‐Ohio River Basin (UMORB) and to compare these reductions to the 45% nitrogen‐load reduction proposed to remediate hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Our results indicate that nitrogen‐management practices (improved fertilizer management and cover crops) fall short of achieving this goal, even if adopted on all cropland in the region. The goal of a 45% decrease in loads to the GoM can only be achieved through the coupling of nitrogen‐management practices with innovative nitrogen‐removal practices such as tile‐drainage treatment wetlands, drainage–ditch enhancements, stream‐channel restoration, and floodplain reconnection. Combining nitrogen‐management practices with nitrogen‐removal practices can dramatically reduce nutrient export from agricultural landscapes while minimizing impacts to agricultural production. With this approach, it may be possible to meet the 45% nutrient reduction goal while converting less than 1% of cropland in the UMORB to nitrogen‐removal practices. Conservationists, policy makers, and agricultural producers seeking a workable strategy to reduce nitrogen export from the Corn Belt will need to consider a combination of nitrogen‐management practices at the field scale and diverse nitrogen‐removal practices at the landscape scale.     

Reproduction and development in the pycnogonid Pycnogonum littorale

Aspects of the reproductive biology of Pycnogonum littorale (Ström) are examined. Vitellogenesis occurs between November and August, the process resembling that in Nymphon gracile, annelids, and Limulus polyphemus, in which the majority of the yolk is synthesized within the oöcyte, with only a small contribution from outside, thus contrasting with the method in insects. The mode of formation of the mature yolk platelets shows similarities with the process described in Cambarus spp. Growth occurs in the post larva by a series of moults, and sometimes in the adult by a process not involving moults. The male usually has 9 moults and the female 10 or 11.     

Egg development in a littoral pycnogonidNymphon gracile

Aspects of the reproductive biology ofNymphon gracile (Leach) are examined. The eggs develop between August and February, when they are passed to the ovigerous legs of the male. The process of vitellogenesis closely resembles that of annelids andLimulus polyphemus, in which the majority of the yolk is synthesised intra-oöcytecally, with only a small extra-oöcytic contribution.     

Test of the adaptiveness of sex ratio manipulation in a parasitoid wasp

In behavioral ecology it is generally assumed that behavior is adaptive. This assumption is tested here for sex ratio manipulation in response to host size in the parasitoid wasp Spalangia cameroni. Females produce a greater proportion of daughters on larger hosts. If this behavior is adaptive, it is not through a positive effect of host size on the fitness of daughters, as theory suggests and as found for other species. Females that developed on larger hosts were not more successful at drilling into hosts, were not more successful at interspecific competition for hosts, and did not have greater dispersal ability as measured by wing loading (weight/area of wing and thorax). The possibility that S. cameroni's sex ratio manipulation may be adaptive through a negative effect of host size on the fitness of sons cannot be ruled out. Relative to males from larger hosts, males from smaller hosts had lower wing loading and thus potentially greater dispersal ability. The actual effect of wing loading on fitness remains to be tested.     

Dust emissions created by low-level rotary-winged aircraft flight over desert surfaces

There is a dearth of information on dust emissions from sources that are unique to U.S. Department of Defense testing and training activities. Dust emissions of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 from low-level rotary-winged aircraft travelling (rotor-blade ≈7 m above ground level) over two types of desert surfaces (i.e., relatively undisturbed desert pavement and disturbed desert soil surface) were characterized at the Yuma Proving Ground (Yuma, AZ) in May 2007. Fugitive emissions are created by the shear stress of the outflow of high speed air created by the rotor-blade. The strength of the emissions was observed to scale primarily as a function of forward travel speed of the aircraft. Speed affects dust emissions in two ways: 1) as speed increases, peak shear stress at the soil surface was observed to decline proportionally, and 2) as the helicopter's forward speed increases its residence time over any location on the surface diminishes, so the time the downward rotor-generated flow is acting upon that surface must also decrease. The state of the surface over which the travel occurs also affects the scale of the emissions. The disturbed desert test surface produced approximately an order of magnitude greater emission than the undisturbed surface. Based on the measured emission rates for the test aircraft and the established scaling relationships, a rotary-winged aircraft similar to the test aircraft traveling 30 km h^?1 over the disturbed surface would need to travel 4 km to produce emissions equivalent to one kilometer of travel by a light wheeled military vehicle also traveling at 30 km h^?1 on an unpaved road. As rotary-winged aircraft activity is substantially less than that of off-road vehicle military testing and training activities it is likely that this source is small compared to emissions created by ground-based vehicle movements.