Coexistence between People and Elephants in African Savannas

Abstract: The decline in the range and numbers of elephants as a result of expanding human activity in Africa is recognized as one of the continent's more serious conservation problems. Understanding the relationship between human settlement patterns and elephant abundance is fundamental to predicting the viability of elephant populations. The prevailing model of human-elephant interaction predicts a negative linear relationship between rising human density and declining elephant density at a coarse (national or subcontinental) scale. Using observed elephant densities and human population data, we tested this prediction in a study area of 15,000 km² in northwestern Zimbabwe. The results did not fit a linear model. Elephant and human coexistence occurs at various levels of human density, up to a threshold of human density beyond which elephant populations disappear. This threshold seems to be related to a particular stage in the process of agriculturally transformed land becoming spatially dominant over the natural woodland that constitutes elephant habitat. Within the contexts of conservation and sustainable development in African savannas, investigating spatial relationships between elephant and human abundance should be a priority topic for future research.     

Prenatal diagnosis of thalidomide syndrome

A case of thalidomide syndrome diagnosed by ultrasound in the 17th week of pregnancy is presented. The pregnant woman had leprosy and received adjuvant treatment with thalidomide. The affected fetus was exposed to the drug until the 35th day of pregnancy and presented absent external ears, upper limb phocomelia and absent tibiae and fibulae. No internal organ abnormalities were noticed at autopsy.     

Ecodesign methods focused on remanufacturing

Understanding the product's ‘end-of-life’ is important to reduce the environmental impact of the products' final disposal. When the initial stages of product development consider end-of-life aspects, which can be established by ecodesign (a proactive approach of environmental management that aims to reduce the total environmental impact of products), it becomes easier to close the loop of materials. The ‘end-of-life’ ecodesign methods generally include more than one ‘end-of-life’ strategy. Since product complexity varies substantially, some components, systems or sub-systems are easier to be recycled, reused or remanufactured than others. Remanufacture is an effective way to maintain products in a closed-loop, reducing both environmental impacts and costs of the manufacturing processes. This paper presents some ecodesign methods focused on the integration of different ‘end-of-life’ strategies, with special attention to remanufacturing, given its increasing importance in the international scenario to reduce the life cycle impacts of products.     

Influence of diatoms on copepod reproduction. III. Consequences of abnormal oocyte maturation on reproductive factors in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Calanus helgolandicus</Emphasis>

Observations of gonads and oocyte development stages (OS) have been achieved in Calanus helgolandicus females fed different algal diets and starved in filtered sea water under laboratory conditions during 8 days. The effects of 20 diets on egg production rates (EPR), hatching success (HS) and proportion of abnormal larvae (AL, development stages N1-2) were examined. With the control diet Prorocentrum minimum EPR and HS values were high, while AL was very low, coinciding with intact cell structures in oogonia (OO) and normal OS (OS1-OS4). With the other diets, oocyte maturation, EPR, HS and AL patterns were partially or totally impaired. Decrease of EPR coincided with the arrest of OS3 maturation and oocyte degradations, characterised by cell fragmentation, presence of apoptotic bodies in the OS3, degradation of cytoplasm in OS3 and OS4 and consequently the arrest of OS4 formation. These degradations were reversible when females were fed a favourable diet. Results reflect the presence of two distinct inhibitory mechanisms. Inhibition mechanism (1) impairs egg production. It was induced by starvation or by several species belonging to Bacillariophyceae (Chaetoceros calcitrans, Guinardia delicatula, Guinardia striata, Odontella regia, Rhizosolenia setigera, Stephanopyxis turris, Thalassiosira pseudonana) and mixed-diatom assemblages (collected in the field) and to the prymnesiophyte Pavlova lutherii. Remarkably other diatoms like Navicula sp., Nitzschia sp., Skeletonema costatum and Thalassiosira rotula did not induce mechanism (1) Inhibitory mechanism (2) affected exclusively HS and AL and was triggered by species independent of the production of polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUA), which are supposed to have adverse impacts on HS and larval development.     

Identification of the dimethylbenzyl mercapturic acid in urine of rats treated with 1,2,3-trimethylbenzene.

The structure was investigated of the mercapturic acid excreted in urine of rats after the i.p. administration of 1,2,3-trimethylbenzene. Of the two regioisomeric mercapturic acids, i.e. N-acetyl-S-(2,3-dimethylbenzyl)-L-cysteine and N-acetyl-S-(2,6-dimethyl-benzyl)-L-cysteine, only the former was isolated by preparative HPLC and identified, by comparison with an authentic specimen. The excretion rate of the mercapturate was estimated to be approximately 5% of dose, not a substantial metabolic route.     

Development of vermicast from sludge and powdered oyster shell

Soil acidification is one of the rising land degradation issues facing world agriculture. The risk of acidification is currently being assessed as part of agriculture productivity and sustainable theme. This study was conducted to produce a new vermicomposting cast as a recycling resource derived from municipal sewage sludge and waste oyster shell. The earthworm, Eisenia Andrei, was fed under different conditions. The most suitable mixture was 77:23 w/w% of sewage sludge and waste oyster shell. Powdered oyster shell (POS) sludge blend provided a stable pH, due to its buffering capacity during vermiculture because of the Ca²⁺ and OH^? release effect. The vermicast products fulfilled the cast standards of Korea Ministry of Environment for all the parameters such as moisture content, pH, salinity, organic carbon, TKN, Phosphate, and heavy metals. Slowly released organic matter when added to soil improves the capacity of the soil to hold nutrients for plants, improve soil aeration for roots, and improves soil drainage. This product will be an addition to already-commercialized sludge vermicast as a higher value product.