Impact of drought‐related vaccination on livestock mortality in pastoralist areas of Ethiopia

Under a national Livestock Policy Forum in Ethiopia the impact of livestock vaccination during drought was assessed in order to inform the development of a best‐practice guideline. For each of the different types of vaccine used during drought years there was no significant difference in livestock mortality, for any species, in vaccinated compared with non‐vaccinated herds. The limited impact of vaccination on livestock mortality was attributed to weaknesses in the design and implementation of vaccination programmes, including use of inappropriate vaccines, low vaccination coverage, problems with vaccine dosing, incorrect timing of vaccination and problems with vaccine storage. If these weaknesses could be overcome vaccination could be a useful means to protect livestock assets, with considerable benefit‐cost ratios. Vaccination should be conducted as a standard preventive measure during normal years, and programme design should be informed by participatory epidemiological studies.     

Cross-sectional survey methods to assess retrospectively mortality in humanitarian emergencies

Since the rates and causes of mortality are critical indicators of the overall health of a population, it is important to evaluate mortality even where no complete vital statistics reporting exists. Such settings include humanitarian emergencies. Experience in cross-sectional survey methods to assess retrospectively crude, age-specific, and maternal mortality in stable settings has been gained over the past 40 years, and methods appropriate to humanitarian emergencies have been developed. In humanitarian emergencies, crude and age-specific mortality can be gauged using methods based on the enumeration of individuals resident in randomly selected households—frequently referred to as a household census. Under-five mortality can also be assessed through a modified prior birth history method in which a representative sample of reproductive-aged women are questioned about dates of child births and deaths. Maternal mortality can be appraised via the initial identification of maternal deaths in the study population and a subsequent investigation to determine the cause of each death.     

灾害生命价值评估理论研究

以生命价值定义为基础,给出了人力资本法的计算方法及其优缺点;认为支付意愿方法为生命价值评估的主流方法。基于单期的选择理论,以状态依赖的期望效用函数为基础,论述不存在遗赠意愿、存在遗赠意愿条件下降低死亡概率的边际支付意愿,揭示了改变死亡概率的边际支付意愿取决于初始的生存状态,即初始财富和初始死亡概率。个人可以通过交易重新安排消费和生存状态,达到效用最大化的目的,其条件是边际支付意愿等于提高生存概率的价格。影响生命的风险有多种,当外生风险、工作风险和消费影响死亡风险商品等风险共存条件下,风险水平高低是决定边际支付意愿的重要因素,风险越大,边际支付意愿越大。     

Arsenic and Mn levels in Isaza (Gymnogobius isaza) during the mass mortality event in Lake Biwa, Japan

The present study measured the concentrations of 25 elements (Li, Mg, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, Cs, Ba, Hg, Tl, Pb and Bi) in the whole body of Isaza which is an endemic fish species to Lake Biwa, Japan, and compared the values in the specimens from the mass mortality Isaza (MMI) and normal fresh Isaza (NFI). The mean levels of Mn and total As (T-As) were relatively higher in MMI than in NFI. In the T-As, highly toxic inorganic As was detected in MMI. Moreover we found Mn and As concentrations in surface sediment were extremely high and temporally increased. From all these results, we could infer that the dissolution of Mn and As from surface sediment of Lake Biwa might have been one of the cause for the mass mortality of Isaza.     

我国社会可接受地震人员死亡率的研究

在分析地震的特点及我国目前抗震设防中存在问题的基础上,提出了社会可接受地震人员死亡率的概念,介绍了确定可接受地震人员死亡率的方法及需要考虑的因素。同时通过对其它自然灾害和人为灾害死亡率的统计,以问卷调查的形式咨询了熟悉防震减灾工作的有关专家和政府管理部门等业内人士的意见,在此基础上,给出了较合理的社会可接受地震人员死亡率的建议值,为在抗震设防标准研究中定量考虑和控制地震人员伤亡提供了依据。