Infant feeding in emergencies

Recent experience of emergency relief operations in middle-income countries has shown that infant feeding issues can greatly complicate attempts to protect infant health. The two main problems are: how to protect and support breastfeeding in communities where it is no longer the norm and how to assist artificially fed infants without exposing them to the dramatically increased risks associated with artificial feeding under disaster conditions. This article explores the underlying issues and makes a number of recommendations for policy and programmes.     

Growth and physiology of Northern Red Oak: preliminary comparisons of mature tree and seedling responses to ozone

Considerable progress has been made during the past decade in the development of mechanistic models that allow complex chemical, physical, and biological processes to be evaluated in the global change context. However, quantitative predictions of the response of individual trees, stands, and forest ecosystems to pollutants and climatic variables require extrapolation of existing data sets, derived largely from seedling studies, to increasing levels of complexity with little or no understanding of the uncertainties associated with these extrapolations. Consequently, a project designed to address concerns associated with scaling from seedling to mature tree responses was initiated. During the 1990 and 1991 growing seasons, mature northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) trees and seedlings were exposed to subambient, ambient, and twice ambient ozone (O(3)) concentrations. The initial focus of the study was to identify possible trends and obvious differences between mature trees and seedlings, both in terms of growth and physiology and in response to O(3). Generally, mature trees exhibited a greater decrease in photosynthesis rates over the growing season than did the seedlings. Ozone treatments had no consistent effect on gas exchange rates of seedlings, but the twice ambient O(3) treatment resulted in reduced photosynthesis rates in the mature tree. Despite no effect of O(3) on seedling gas exchange rates, total seedling biomass was significantly less at the end of the 1991 growing season for those seedlings exposed to twice ambient O(3) levels. Disproportionate reductions in root biomass also resulted in reduced root to shoot ratios at elevated O(3) concentrations.     

Response of the predatorRhizophagus grandis to host plant derived chemicals inDendroctonus micans larval frass in wind tunnel experiments (Coleoptera: Rhizophagidae,Scolytidae)

Summary Adults of the predatory beetleRhizophagus grandis are strongly attracted to both adult and larval frass of its specific prey,Dendroctonus micans, in walking bioassays. Spruce bark and resin are relatively unattractive. Solvent extracts of larval frass that were attractive toR. grandis adults in a flight wind tunnel contained a mixture of monoterpenes of host plant origin. A synthetic mixture of these monoterpenes, (+)—-pinene, (–)—-pinene, -phellandrene,dl limonene and 3-carene, was responsible for 70–80% of the activity of the most attractive extract. We suggest that a blend of monoterpenes in frass acts as a kairomone forR. grandis but that attraction to monoterpenes is only the first of a sequence of behavioural responses that ensures successful host location and identification.     

Economic viability study of a separate household waste collection in a developing country

This article reports a study of the economic viability of a separate household waste collection project, and considers its social and environmental benefits. The study was developed from the database obtained through the pilot project on separate collections in João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba, in the northeast region of Brazil. The pilot project had been supported by the local municipal council since September 2000. The methodology applied to this study of economic viability is based on the economic quantification of the benefits and costs involved in the process of a separate collection of household waste. The benefits to the environment, owing to the reduction of the final disposal of household waste, were also evaluated. The results of this research are encouraging for the benefit cost relation (B/C) of both the quantified economic components and the environmental aspects. The values found for the relation B/C ranged from 1.27 to 1.77 depending on the economic quantification of the direct and indirect benefits to the components involved in the project, i.e., the waste collectors, the municipal council, the sellers of recycled material, and the recycling industry.     

Theory into Practice: Implementing Ecosystem Management Objectives in the USDA Forest Service

In the United States and around the world, scientists and practitioners have debated the definition and merits of ecosystem management as a new approach to natural resource management. While these debates continue, a growing number of organizations formally have adopted ecosystem management. However, adoption does not necessarily lead to successful implementation, and theories are not always put into practice. In this article, we examine how a leading natural resource agency, the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, has translated ecosystem management theory into concrete policy objectives and how successfully these objectives are perceived to be implemented throughout the national forest system. Through document analysis, interviews, and survey responses from 345 Forest Service managers (district rangers, forest supervisors, and regional foresters), we find that the agency has incorporated numerous ecosystem management components into its objectives. Agency managers perceive that the greatest attainment of such objectives is related to collaborative stewardship and integration of scientific information, areas in which the organization has considerable prior experience. The objectives perceived to be least attained are adaptive management and integration of social and economic information, areas requiring substantial new resources and a knowledge base not traditionally emphasized by natural resource managers. Overall, success in implementing ecosystem management objectives is linked to committed forest managers.     

A Multiscale Conceptual Framework for Integrated Ecogeomorphological Research to Support Stream Naturalization in the Agricultural Midwest

The complexity of fluvial systems necessitates interdisciplinary research in fluvial geomorphology and aquatic ecology to develop a fundamental understanding of interconnections among biotic and abiotic aspects of these systems. Integrated knowledge of this type is vital for environmental management of streams in human-dominated environments. A conceptual framework is presented for integrating geomorphological and ecological research on streams in East Central Illinois, USA, a glaciated low-relief agricultural landscape. The framework embodies a multiscale perspective in which a geomorphological conception of the fluvial system is used to define a hierarchy of characteristic spatial scales for exploring important linkages between stream geomorphology and aquatic ecology. The focus ecologically is on fish, because a rich body of historical information exists on fisheries in East Central Illinois and because past work has suggested that availability of physical habitat is a major factor influencing the community characteristics of fish in this human-altered environment. The hierarchy embodied in the framework includes the network, link, planform, bar unit, bar element, and bedform/grain scales. Background knowledge from past research is drawn upon to identify potential linkages between geomorphological and ecological conditions at each of these scales. The conceptual framework is useful for guiding integrated ecogeomorphological research at specific scales and across different scales. It also is helpful for illustrating how widespread human modification of streams has catastrophically altered the scalar structure of fluvial systems in East Central Illinois. Knowledge emerging from the integrated research provides a basis for environmental-management schemes directed toward stream naturalization.     

An examination of attributions and emotions in the transactional approach to the organizational stress process

Although the transactional model of the stress process (Lazarus, 1966, 1993; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984, 1987) continues to be utilized in a significant amount of stress research, much of the current literature on job stress focuses on pinpointing objective stressors. This paper examines Lazarus' transactional appraisal approach and includes a specific discussion of the process by which employees' attributions regarding stressors and the resulting emotions significantly influence their choices of coping mechanisms. Given that a single work event can be interpreted in a variety of ways, the role of individuals' cognitive processing is being ignored by much of the current empirical stress research. This paper examines and highlights the importance of the cognitive and emotional components within the organizational stress process. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Composites Produced from Natural Rubber and Chrome-Tanned Leather Wastes: Evaluation of their In Vitro Toxicological Effects for Application in Footwear and Textile Industries

A new composite has been developed from natural rubber and chrome-tanned leather waste for use in footwear and textile industries. The contribution of this material to environmental quality and sustained development should be highligh because chrome tanned leather wastes, a major environmental problem, can be recycled. However, the safety of this new material for human use is questionable, as it is already well reported in the literature that chromium, particularly in its hexavalent oxidation state, can be genotoxic and carcinogenic to living beings. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro biocompatibility of this composite material for possible use in the footwear and textile industries, through cytotoxicity, cell adhesion, and genotoxicity tests. Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used to measure both concentrations of total and hexavalent chromium. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the composite exhibits low levels of cytotoxicity and genotoxicity, and possesses favorable properties for initial cell adhesion. Furthermore, it was verified that the composites released low concentrations of chromium and that the predominant species released would be trivalent chromium. The results of the present study open the possibility of the incorporation of solid residues of tanned leather into chromium without necessarily the chromium contained in these residues influences the toxicity and genotoxicity of this new material.     

Leaching and sorption of neonicotinoid insecticides and fungicides from seed coatings

Seed coatings are a treatment used on a variety of crops to improve production and offer protection against pests and fungal outbreaks. The leaching of the active ingredients associated with the seed coatings and the sorption to soil was evaluated under laboratory conditions using commercially available corn and soybean seeds to study the fate and transport of these pesticides under controlled conditions. The active ingredients (AI) included one neonicotinoid insecticide (thiamethoxam) and five fungicides (azoxystrobin, fludioxonil, metalaxyl, sedaxane thiabendazole). An aqueous leaching experiment was conducted with treated corn and soybean seeds. Leaching potential was a function of solubility and seed type. The leaching of fludioxonil, was dependent on seed type with a shorter time to equilibrium on the corn compared to the soybean seeds. Sorption experiments with the treated seeds and a solution of the AIs were conducted using three different soil types. Sorption behavior was a function of soil organic matter as well as seed type. For most AIs, a negative relationship was observed between the aqueous concentration and the log K_oc. Sorption to all soils tested was limited for the hydrophilic pesticides thiamethoxam and metalaxyl. However, partitioning for the more hydrophobic fungicides was dependent on both seed type and soil properties. The mobility of fludioxonil in the sorption experiment varied by seed type indicating that the adjuvants associated with the seed coating could potentially play a role in the environmental fate of fludioxonil. This is the first study to assess, under laboratory conditions, the fate of pesticides associated with seed coatings using commercially available treated seeds. This information can be used to understand how alterations in agricultural practices (e.g., increasing use of seed treatments) can impact the exposure (concentration and duration) and potential effects of these chemicals to aquatic and terrestrial organisms.