Food,feed, and fuelwood resources of Nepal: A GIS evaluation

A GIS-based land evaluation model was developed to determine the food, feed, and fuelwood sufficiency of all districts in Nepal. Resource surpluses or deficits were calculated for each district for 1981, the year for which the national land resource data were available. Of the three resources, feed supplies were found to be the most critical. Feed deficits occurred in 57% of all districts in 1981, while food and fuelwood deficits occurred in less than 10% of all districts. Different scenarios were carried out for the year 2000 to estimate the magnitude of future resource deficits, assuming resource use and yields in Nepal remain constant in the face of growing population and livestock numbers. Linking resource data with spreadsheet and GIS systems provides a new way to understand and evaluate resources at the district and national levels. To more fully capture the usefulness of this approach, information on rates of change in productivity and land use is needed.     

A monitoring study of workers handling pesticides in warehouses and godowns.

Monitoring observations made on 60 operators involved in pesticide application work in godowns and warehouses and 60 matched control workers are reported. Occupational exposure history and medical history are noted. Biochemical investigations, plasma and RBC cholinesterase estimations are included along with medical examination of the workers. Workers were found to be mostly exposed to Celphos, DDVP, Malathion, Pyrethrum, etc, and the use of protective devices were very limited. Cases of significant reduction in plasma and RBC cholinesterase activity were found. Frequency of symptoms like dizziness, headache, lachrymation, burning sensation in eyes, nausea and anorexia, etc, were much more in the exposed workers. No cases of clinical poisoning attributable to occupational exposure to pesticides were reported by the workers.     

Human chromosomes in prenatal diagnosis: A one step high resolution technique

A simple high resolution technique for human chromosomes is described for fibroblasts obtained from amniotic fluid cell cultures. The application and clinical significance of this technique in prenatal diagnosis is discussed.     

Analyzing the relationships between travel mode indicators and the number of passenger transport fatalities at the city level

Objective: A number of efforts have been conducted on travel behavior and transport fatalities at the neighborhood or street level, and they have identified different factors such as roadway characteristics, personal indicators, and design indicators related to transport safety. However, only a limited number of studies have considered the relationship between travel behavior indicators and the number of transport fatalities at the city level. Therefore, this study explores this relationship and how to fill the mentioned gap in current knowledge.

Method: A generalized linear model (GLM) estimates the relationships between different travel mode indicators (e.g., length of motorway per inhabitants, number of motorcycles per inhabitant, percentage of daily trips on foot and by bicycle, percentage of daily trips by public transport) and the number of passenger transport fatalities. Because this city-level model is developed using data sets from different cities all over the world, the impacts of gross domestic product (GDP) are also included in the model.

Conclusions: Overall, the results imply that the percentage of daily trips by public transport, the percentage of daily trips on foot and by bicycle, and the GDP per inhabitant have negative relationships with the number of passenger transport fatalities, whereas motorway length and the number of motorcycles have positive relationships with the number of passenger transport fatalities.     

Phosphorus release in aerobic sludge digestion.

The objectives of this study are to examine the phosphorus release in aerobic sludge digestion and to better understand its governing mechanisms. In this study, phosphorus release was examined using the secondary sludge from both conventional and biological nutrient removal processes. The experiments were carried out at room temperature (22 +/- 2 degrees C), with or without automatic control of pH (4.5 to 7.8), and under three aeration schemes: fully aerobic (dissolved oxygen [DO] at 3 to 4 mg/L), low DO (0.2 to 0.8 mg/L), and cyclic (with alternate on/off aeration). The released phosphorus concentrations were 20 to 80 mg/L for the conventional sludge and 60 to 130 mg/L for the biophosphorus sludge. Higher phosphorus release also occurred at low pH (<6.0). As for the effect of DO, fully aerobic digestion caused higher phosphorus release than the low-DO and cyclic operations. For better understanding, the solid phosphorus in sludge was conceptually categorized into three forms: inorganic phosphorus precipitates, organic cellular phosphorus, and polyphosphate (poly-P) in polyphosphate-accumulating organisms. Dissolution of inorganic phosphorus precipitates is controlled by physical and chemical conditions, with pH being the most important in this study. Lowering the pH to 4 to 6 clearly promoted the release of inorganic phosphorus. Polyphosphate hydrolysis, on the other hand, was found to be regulated biologically (sensitive to occurrence of anaerobic conditions) and was insignificant in the glutaraldehyde-fixed sludge. Phosphorus release from organic phosphorus should correlate with the volatile solid (VS) digestion, which lyses the cells and frees the phosphorus covalently bonded with the organic matters. The amounts of phosphorus released per unit VS digested (deltaP/deltaVS) were therefore calculated for experiments with long periods of constant pH (to minimize interferences from dissolution/precipitation of inorganic phosphorus). The results suggested that some poly-P was hydrolyzed and released accompanying the aerobic VS digestion, but at rates far lower than those under anaerobic conditions.     

Is the environment becoming more hazardous?—A global survey 1947 to 1980

This paper examines the assertion that natural disasters are increasingly destructive using evidence from disaster reports during the period 1947–1980. The criteria for judging the impact of a given natural disaster are chiefly loss of life and the extent of the geographical area affected. In spite of uneveness and bias in the reporting of sudden impact disasters the conclusions are that both the frequency of disasters and number of people killed are increasing. Further research into the social consequences of disasters and the need for disaster preparedness training programmes are recommended.     

Using circuit theory to model connectivity in ecology, evolution, and conservation

Connectivity among populations and habitats is important for a wide range of ecological processes. Understanding, preserving, and restoring connectivity in complex landscapes requires connectivity models and metrics that are reliable, efficient, and process based. We introduce a new class of ecological connectivity models based in electrical circuit theory. Although they have been applied in other disciplines, circuit-theoretic connectivity models are new to ecology. They offer distinct advantages over common analytic connectivity models, including a theoretical basis in random walk theory and an ability to evaluate contributions of multiple dispersal pathways. Resistance, current, and voltage calculated across graphs or raster grids can be related to ecological processes (such as individual movement and gene flow) that occur across large population networks or landscapes. Efficient algorithms can quickly solve networks with millions of nodes, or landscapes with millions of raster cells. Here we review basic circuit theory, discuss relationships between circuit and random walk theories, and describe applications in ecology, evolution, and conservation. We provide examples of how circuit models can be used to predict movement patterns and fates of random walkers in complex landscapes and to identify important habitat patches and movement corridors for conservation planning.