Sustainable consumption American style: Nutrition education,active living and financial literacy

The 1992 Earth Summit highlighted the critical role of consumption in affluent nations as a source of global environmental deterioration. While most developed countries have begun over the past decade to grapple with the difficult challenges of reducing household demand for energy and materials, sustainable consumption has yet to attract substantive attention in the United States. There exist, however, several strategic openings that American proponents of more environmentally benign household provisioning could exploit to launch a public dialogue about the environmental implications of contemporary consumption. First, public health professionals have in recent years begun to make significant strides publicizing the nutritional inadequacy of the American diet and the contributory role it plays in elevating incidences of chronic disease. Second, the rapid increase in the rate of obesity in the country is now coming to be understood as a health problem that is attributable to the prevalence of sedentary lifestyles. Finally, there is growing public concern in the United States over the accumulation of unprecedented levels of consumer debt and the epidemic of personal bankruptcies. The intent of this paper is to highlight the need to consider the personal dimensions of everyday life when formulating strategies to foster more sustainable consumption.     

A New Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Development

A critical review of the multidisciplinary literature on sustainable development reveals a lack of a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding sustainable development and its complexities. A critical review shows that the definitions of sustainable development are vague; there is a lack of operative definitions and disagreement over what should be sustained; the concept is unclear in terms of emotional commitment; and it “remains a confused topic”, “fraught with contradictions”. This article aims to theoretically synthesize the interdisciplinary literature on sustainable development, and then identify the results by broad categories. Therefore, this article uses conceptual analysis, which reviews multidisciplinary literature on sustainable development, which recognizes patterns and similarities within the literature, then it synthesizes the patterns to different categories and independent concepts, where each concept has distinctive meanings and represents close ideas on sustainability. The analytical process elaborates seven concepts that together assemble the theoretical framework of ‘sustainable development’ and each concept represents distinctive meanings of the theoretical framework.     

Shortened fetal long bones: a possible in utero manifestation of placental function

Shortened fetal long bones (SFLB) are usually indicative of a skeletal dysplasia. Our aim in this observational retrospective study was to describe a new association between SFLB, small for gestational age (SGA) fetuses and placental abnormalities, and to suggest an aetiologic explanation. During the last decade we have evaluated nine cases in which SFLB (more than 2SD below the mean) was associated with SGA, abnormal maternal serum placental hormones and abnormal placental sonography. Six cases had significantly increased second trimester maternal serum βhCG and four developed toxaemia of pregnancy or had chronic hypertension. On histology, mature placentas with vascular abnormalities, including chorangiosis, large infarcts and slightly increased syncytial knots were noted. The combination of SFLB, SGA fetuses and placental abnormalities (sonographic, as well as histological) suggested a possible common pathway in the aetiology of this association. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Complex karyotypic mosaicism as a result of non-disjunction and subsequent centromere fission

Karyotypic discrepancy among four different cell types is described in tissues derived from a pregnancy terminated because of chromosomal anomalies. Chorionic villus cells demonstrated 46,XX (direct preparation) and 46, XX/47,XX,+marl (cultured cells) karyotypes, while fetal skin fibroblasts had a karyotype of 47,XX,+ 18 and the placenta showed a triple mosaicism of 47,XX, + 18/47,XX,+mar1/48,XX,+ 18,+mar2. The origin of this complex chromosomal distribution and its significance are discussed in comparison with findings in similar cases.     

Retention of nitrogen and phosphorous from liquid swine and poultry manures using highly characterized peats

This paper reports on research designed to test the hypothesis that differences in peat composition will cause differences in amounts of N and P retained during contact with liquid swine manure (LSM) and liquid poultry manure (LPM). Peat types representing a wide range of properties were tested in order to establish which chemical and physical properties might be most indicative of their capacities to retain N and P from LSM and LPM. Eight-percent slurries (peat/LSM and peat/LPM) were measured for total nitrogen (TKN) and total phosphorous (TP) after 6, 24 and 96 hours. Tests were done to determine the TKN and TP contents of these peats, the LSM, and the LPM, both before and after they were mixed together. The N and P retention results revealed that most peats worked reasonably well at retaining N and P from either LSM or LPM. However, some peats were more effective than others. These peats also decreased the N and P levels in the liquid portion of the LSM. Peats with higher N retention capacities tended to have lower ash contents, but higher macroporosities and total cellulose contents. Peats with higher P retention capacities tended to have lower bulk densities, ash contents, total guaiacyl lignins contents, fulvic acids contents, but higher microporosities, macroporosities, H contents, and total cellulose contents. Peats with higher N and P retention capacities also had humic acid contents between 5-7%. The results of this study suggest that if these peats are used to reduce odors and N and P contamination, possible byproducts could be the production of odorless fertilizers.     

Strategies of international cooperation in an international project: advantages and pitfalls.

The MEPS (musculoskeletal--eyestrain--psychosocial--stress) study involved an extensive degree of multidisciplinary and multicultural cooperation. The objective was to examine the effects of multiple ergonomic interventions on visual, musculoskeletal, postural, and psychosocial outcomes amongst operators of visual display terminals (VDTs). The inherent complexity of a comprehensive ergonomic investigation requires participation of researchers from a variety of disciplines, as well as comparisons among populations with different geographical and cultural backgrounds. The design and execution of the resulting research protocol presents a number of challenges. This paper discusses the advantages and pitfalls associated with multidisciplinary multinational cooperation. Advantages include the necessity for development of a common language and perspective providing a basis for future collaboration. Pitfalls include logistic and coordination difficulties associated with conducting standardized procedures in different locations, as well as the inherent potential for professional conflict. It is argued that such pitfalls ought to be understood and integrated into the project planning process.