Prenatal diagnosis of renal agenesis in a twin gestation

Bilateral renal agenesis is a lethal congenital anomaly. It appears to be transmitted in a polygenic pattern. The prenatal ultrasound findings consist of severe oligohydramnios, absence of the fetal bladder, and failure to identify fetal kidneys. Twin gestations with renal agenesis have been described in the paediatric literature. We detail a case of a patient with two prior affected pregnancies with bilateral renal agenesis. Her latest pregnancy was diagnosed prenatally, with one fetus with bilateral and the other fetus with unilateral renal agenesis. The ultrasound findings should be differentiated from the stuck twin phenomenon.     

Book reviews

Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk. Ulrich Beck, translated by Amos Weisz, 1995 Cambridge, Polity Press, first published Germany 1988. ISBN 0 7456 077632, hb £39.50; ISBN 0 7456 13772, pk £12.95

Environmentally Sustainable Business: a local and regional perspective. Peter Roberts, 1995, London, Paul Chapman. ISBN 1 85396 240 6, price not given

Methods of Environmental Impact Assessment. Peter Morris & Riki Therivel (Eds) 1995, London, UCL Press, 378 pp. ISBN 1 85728 117 9, hb £45.00; 1 85728 118 7, pb £14.95

A Guide to Local Environmental Auditing. Hugh Barton & Noel Bruder, 1995, London, Earthscan, 370 pp. ISBN 1 85 383 2340, pb £18.95

Household Waste Recycling. Richard Waite, 1995, London, Earthscan, ISBN 1 8538 3 2421, hb £29.95

A Seed in Time: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Urban and Community Forestry. Forestry Commission, 1994. ISBN 0 885 38 328 3, £9.50 inc p&p (Copies available from: Marcus Sangster, Forestry Commission, 231 Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh EH12 7AT)

Environmental Policy in New Zealand: the politics of clean and green? Tom Buhrs & Robert Bartlett, 1993, Auckland, Oxford University Press viii + 192 pp.

Green Politics. Stephen Rainbow, 1993, Auckland, Oxford University Press xv + 106 pp.

The Future of Community Lands: human resources. E. Ndione, P. DeLeener, M. Ndiaye, P. Jacolin & J.-P. Perier, 1995, London, Intermediate Technology, 236 pp. ISBN 1 339 2480, £14.95     

The effect of consumption of pork enriched by organic selenium on selenium status and lipid profile in blood serum of consumers

Abstract

The aim of the research was to evaluate the effect of consumption of selenium-enriched pork on selected health indicators of probands. The intake of feed mixture with increased organic selenium at the dose of 0.3?mg.kg^?1 probably increases selenium concentration in MSM (musculus semimembranosus). In the pork enriched with organic selenium, the concentration was higher by 1.045?±?0.10?mg.kg^?1 compared with the control group 0.701?±?0.05?mg.kg^?1 at significance P?<?0.001. Sixteen participants in the experiment were represented by 8 men at the average age of 41.5?±?11.9?years and 8 women at the average age of 41.4?±?7.9?years. All the probands consumed meat enriched with selenium three times a week during one month. By consumption of the enriched pork, there was an increase of the selenium concentration in blood serum of probands traced with selenium increase from 73.19?±?15.68?μg.L^?1 to 73.73?±?15.13?μg.L^?1 (P?>?0.05). From the results we can see that consumption of enriched pork with selenium was significantly manifested in lowering of total cholesterol levels, which was associated with LDL cholesterol lowering (P?<?0.05). Differences among the HDL cholesterol and triglycerides samples were not significant.     

Evaluation of synchrotron X-ray computerized microtomography for the visualization of transport processes in low-porosity materials

Synchrotron-source X-ray computerized microtomography (CMT) is evaluated as a method to visualize transport processes. We conclude that CMT is adequate for visualization of transport experiments if the right conditions exist. Namely, 1) not much more than one-order-of-magnitude range in concentration data is needed for the study, 2) the pore space in the samples are greater than approximately 2--50 mum, depending on the sample size and system setup; 3) the sample is fine-grained enough so that a representative elemental volume (REV) can be contained by a 2--10 mm diameter sample, and 4) the transport process is slow enough that significant changes do not occur within the 25--50 min (and possibly less in the future) needed to collect data for one three-dimensional image. Absorption edge difference imaging (AEDI) in association with CMT is introduced as a method to enhance pore-space visualization. We successfully imaged the pore space in a low-porosity granodiorite, diorite and fine-grained granite cores and a higher-porosity soil aggregate sample. We found that the pore space important to transport in the core samples was smaller than what we were able to visualize with CMT. We also made rudimentary associations of minerals with pore-space location.     

Field Deaths in Plant Agriculture

We know that animals are harmed in plant production. Unfortunately, though, we know very little about the scale of the problem. This matters for two reasons. First, we can’t decide how many resources to devote to the problem without a better sense of its scope. Second, this information shortage throws a wrench in arguments for veganism, since it’s always possible that a diet that contains animal products is complicit in fewer deaths than a diet that avoids them. In this paper, then, we have two aims: first, we want to collect and analyze all the available information about animal death associated with plant agriculture; second, we try to show just how difficult it’s to come up with a plausible estimate of how many animals are killed by plant agriculture, and not just because of a lack of empirical information. Additionally, we show that there are significant philosophical questions associated with interpreting the available data—questions such that different answers generate dramatically different estimates of the scope of the problem. Finally, we document current trends in plant agriculture that cause little or no collateral harm to animals, trends which suggest that field animal deaths are a historically contingent problem that in future may be reduced or eliminated altogether.