A high pressure liquid chromatographic method for the analysis of zearalenone in chicken blood

Abstract

A high pressure liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method is described to determine zearalenone in chicken blood. Samples are extracted with acetonitrile, followed by a hexane cleanup procedure and extracted further with ethyl acetate. The analysis of zearalenone is by HPLC using a reverse phase radial compression separation system, an ultraviolet absorbance detector and a mobile phase of acetonitrile‐water 60:40 (v/v). Recoveries of zearalenone in blood at levels of 50–200 ng/ml are in the range of 66.8–72.6%.     

Moral Entrepreneurship: Resource Based Ethics

This article studies the role of entrepreneurship in business ethics and promotes a resource-based ethics. The need for and usefulness of this form of ethics emerge from an analysis of contemporary business ethics that appears to be inefficacious and from a moral business practice formed out of the relationship between the veal calf industry of the VanDrie Group and the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals (DSPA) in their development and implementation of a Welfare Hallmark for calves. Both organizations created jointly a new meat segment in the market by trust-building and partnership. The relationship shows a remodeling of capabilities of both organizations in the light of co-creation of values. The VanDrie Group established an effectuation of moral goals by being socially sensitive and resource-minded. The DSPA created openings for dialogue by being pragmatic in its ideals. Philosophically, this article sketches a resource-based ethics with Deweyan concepts as end-in-view and transactionality of means and ends. Both organizations show in their entrepreneurship the ability to create, what is called “Room for Maneuver” by exploring, socializing, individualizing, and growing. By maneuvering they set off a form of co-evolution between business and ethics. This article demonstrates what actual moral entrepreneurship can do in bringing about moral change by combining effectively social, policy, norm, and economic related values.     

Coping with insularity: the need for crop genetic improvement to strengthen adaptation to climatic change and food security in the Pacific

The capability of Pacific Island countries’ agriculture to adapt to climatic and environmental changes is analysed. After presenting key features of the region’s food cropping systems, findings of genetic diversity studies for the most important food crops are reviewed and their implications for adaptation are discussed. Biophysical and economic vulnerabilities of the food system are identified. For the major food crops, the needs for genetic improvement are detailed, and practical solutions for broadening genetic bases are suggested. The paper concludes by identifying areas for additional research on crops and agro-ecosystems adaptation aiming at increasing the flexibility of agriculture in the Pacific. In this region, plant breeding has to cope with the insularity constraints of the small island states. The new varieties need to satisfy farmers’ agronomic requirements in very diverse environments. However, because of genotype-by-environment interactions (G × E), it is difficult to identify a variety that would be accepted by most farmers on different islands. A new type of breeding programme with a pragmatic approach is therefore necessary. The geographical distribution of allelic diversity appears as a practical and cost-efficient solution.     

Assessing the impacts of sustainable development projects in the Amazon: the DURAMAZ experiment

Since 1992, a boom of “sustainable development projects” has been registered in the Brazilian Amazon, turning it into a kind of open-air laboratory for sustainability. But their real impacts remain unclear, especially because of inadequate evaluation tools. A new device is therefore needed to unveil the inner mechanisms of development aid despite the difficulties linked with the diversity of contexts or the heterogeneity in the relevant parameters. Those are the challenges we met when we engaged in comparing the impacts of sustainable development programs in 13 sites throughout the Brazilian Amazon in order to identify determining factors of sustainability. To achieve our objective, we conceived an indicator system based on the results of intensive fieldwork, including social, economic, environmental, and biographical issues. Our results show that the most prominent problem of sustainability—evaluation of effectiveness—has not been tackled; life conditions and environmental preservation continue to appear antagonistic. At the same time, variability appears among outwardly coherent social groups, showing that a case-to-case approach is definitely indispensable and confirming the need to go “beyond panaceas” to find resolutions. This article successively addresses three points. First, we present the starting point of our research, or how the Amazon region was turned into a laboratory for sustainability and how our research project aimed at analyzing the consequences of this trend. Second, we discuss how available indicator systems fail to respond to the need for a multidimensional evaluation at the local level and, therefore, how we constituted our own analytical tool. Third, we focus on some results that can be derived from our system, especially in terms of identifying key factors needed to achieve sustainability in the Amazon.     

Climate change effects on hydroecology of arctic freshwater ecosystems

In general, the arctic freshwater-terrestrial system will warm more rapidly than the global average, particularly during the autumn and winter season. The decline or loss of many cryospheric components and a shift from a nival to an increasingly pluvial system will produce numerous physical effects on freshwater ecosystems. Of particular note will be reductions in the dominance of the spring freshet and changes in the intensity of river-ice breakup. Increased evaporation/evapotranspiration due to longer ice-free seasons, higher air/water temperatures and greater transpiring vegetation along with increase infiltration because of permafrost thaw will decrease surface water levels and coverage. Loss of ice and permafrost, increased water temperatures and vegetation shifts will alter water chemistry, the general result being an increase in lotic and lentic productivity. Changes in ice and water flow/levels will lead to regime-specific increases and decreases in habitat availability/quality across the circumpolar Arctic.     

Gaudeamus lavocati sp. nov. (Rodentia, Hystricognathi) from the early Oligocene of Zallah, Libya: first African caviomorph?

A new African species of hystricognathous rodent, Gaudeamus lavocati sp. nov., is described herein from the early Oligocene deposits of Zallah locality (Sirt basin, Central Libya). The dental morphology of this species is very close to that of some earliest South American caviomorphs. It allows a reinterpretation of molar crest homologies among earliest caviomorphs, pentalophodonty being confirmed as the plesiomorphic molar condition in Caviomorpha. This morphological resemblance argues for close affinities between Gaudeamus and earliest South American hystricognaths. Cladistic analysis supports Gaudeamus lavocati sp. nov. as the first known African representative of Caviomorpha, implying that its ancestors were part of the African phiomyid group that crossed the South Atlantic by a direct immigration route. Alternatively, the series of derived dental features of Gaudeamus could also be interpreted as evolutionary synchronous convergences of an African hystricognath lineage towards the specialized pattern of some caviomorphs. However, the high level of similarities concerning teeth morphology and enamel microstructure and the similar age of fossiliferous strata on both continents make this interpretation less probable. The phylogenetic position of this taxon is of considerable importance because it represents an enigmatic component of the phiomorph–caviomorph radiation in Africa and appears as a new clue toward the understanding of caviomorph origins.     

A characterization of sustainability with indicators

Economists favor the use of criteria to characterize sustainability. In practice, policy-makers use indicators, i.e., measurements based on the current economic state and decisions, representing given sustainability issues. In this paper, I introduce a criterion characterizing sustainability with indicators and thresholds acting as constraints. I interpret the thresholds as minimal rights to be guaranteed to all generations, and define sustainable trajectories as those satisfying all the constraints at all times. The new criterion is a “generalized” maximin criterion. The approach is applied to a simple production-consumption economy with non-renewable resources. To derive some policy recommendations on the use of indicators to deal with sustainability, I discuss the implications of such a criterion in terms of trade-off between sustainability thresholds, efficiency, and time-consistency. In particular, the resulting problem is time-inconsistent, and sustainability thresholds may be revised over time. Following the time-inconsistent policy based on indicators, with dynamic revision of the thresholds, may, however, result in a sustained utility path, and even in utility growth.     

Allowing for MSD prevention during facilities planning for a public service: an a posteriori analysis of 10 library design projects.

Research was conducted to identify an ergonomics-based intervention model designed to factor in musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) prevention when library projects are being designed. The first stage of the research involved an a posteriori analysis of 10 recent redesign projects. The purpose of the analysis was to document perceptions about the attention given to MSD prevention measures over the course of a project on the part of 2 categories of employees: librarians responsible for such projects and personnel working in the libraries before and after changes. Subjects were interviewed in focus groups. Outcomes of the analysis can guide our ergonomic assessment of current situations and contribute to a better understanding of the way inclusion or improvement of prevention measures can support the workplace design process.