Greening the Fife Economy: Ecological Modernization as a Pathway for Local Economic Development

Progress in the greening of UK local government has been hampered by uncertainty about the relationship between resource use and environmental protection. Ecological modernizationmay offer the most appropriateparadigm to reconcile economic, social and environmentalinterpretationsof sustainability. The transition from corporate to strategic environmental management currently being attempted by some 'green' authorities can be construed as an attempt to promote ecological modernization in the form of institutional learning. Fife Council in Scotland provides an interesting case study. Progress with corporate environmental management has become bound up with a radical devolution of decision making. Efforts to link the authority's Sustainable Development Policy to a Local Agenda 21 programme have been initiated with the piloting of sustainability indicators.     

Rapid prenatal diagnosis of Patau's syndrome in a fetus with an abdominal wall defect by 72 hour culture of cells from amniotic fluid

A woman in the 32nd week of pregnancy was referred for investigation because of fetal abnormalities, including an abdominal wall defect, detected by ultrasonography. In view of the increased risk of chromosome abnormality, amniocentesis was performed to enable informed decisions about the management of the pregnancy and delivery to be taken. Cells from the liquor were inoculated into standard lymphocyte culture medium and incubated for 72 h. Slides with a high mitotic index and good quality metaphases, comparable to those from a blood culture, were obtained after harvesting. Cytogenetic analysis showed the karyotype to be 46,XY,—14,+t(13ql4q), which is consistent with Patau's syndrome. This technique appears to be an option for rapid karyotyping in cases of abdominal wall defect, where a chromosomal abnormality is suspected.     

Evaluation of a population mobility,mortality, and birth surveillance system in South Kivu,Democratic Republic of the Congo

Prospective, community-based surveillance systems for measuring birth, death, and population movement rates may have advantages over the ‘gold-standard’ retrospective household survey in humanitarian contexts. A community-based, monthly surveillance system was established in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in partnership with a local implementing partner and the national ministry of health. Data were collected on the occurrence of births, deaths, arrivals, and departures over the course of one year, and a retrospective survey was conducted at the end of the period to validate the information. Discrepancies between the two approaches were resolved by a third visit to the households with discordant records. The study found that the surveillance system was superior in terms of its specificity and sensitivity in measuring crude mortality and birth rates as compared to the survey, demonstrating the method's potential to measure accurately important population-level health metrics in an insecure setting in a timely, community-acceptable manner.     

Monitoring and reporting attacks on education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia

The United Nations' Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism is charged with documenting six grave violations against children in a time of conflict, including attacks on schools. Many of these incidents, however, remain unreported across the globe. This study explores whether or not a local knowledge base of education and child protection actors in North and South Kivu Provinces, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in Mogadishu, Somalia, could contribute to a more complete record of attacks on education in those areas. Hundreds of semi‐structured interviews were conducted with key informants across the three settings, and in total 432 attacks on education were documented. Purposive samples of these reports were verified and a large majority was confirmed. Local non‐governmental organisations and education institutions were most knowledgeable about these incidents, but most never reported them to a monitoring authority. The study concludes that attack surveillance and response were largely insufficient, and recommends investing in mechanisms that utilise local knowledge to address these shortcomings.     

Primary site and initial products of ammonium assimilation in the symbiotic sea anemone Anemonia viridis

Invertebrates containing endosymbiotic dinoflagellate algae (zooxanthellae) retain excretory nitrogen, and many are able to take up ammonium from the surrounding seawater. However, the site of assimilation and role of nitrogen recycling between symbiont and host remains unclear. In the present study, ammonium uptake by the symbiotic sea anemone Anemonia viridis (Forskål) was examined by following the pathway of assimilation using ¹⁵N-enriched ammonium. Since zooxanthellae became enriched with ¹⁵N from ammonium at up to 17 times the rate of the host, they appear to be the primary site of assimilation. In the light, the rate of zooxanthellae enrichment at 20?M was twice that at 10?M, whereas the rate of host enrichment was not significantly affected by ammonium concentration. When anemones were incubated with [¹⁵N]ammonium in the dark, after 12?h without light the rate of enrichment was lowered in both zooxanthellae and host. However, while the enrichment of the host was significantly reduced when the light level was lowered from 300 to 150?μmol photons m^?2?s^?1, zooxanthellae enrichment was unchanged. Low molecular weight material from the zooxanthellae became enriched at 20 times the rate of that from the host, and enrichment was detected in the amino acids glutamate, glutamine, aspartate, alanine, glycine, phenylalanine, threonine, valine, tyrosine, and leucine from zooxanthellae. In the zooxanthellae, amino acids accounted for 65% of the total enrichment of low molecular weight material. Of the amino acids detected in zooxanthellae, over 90% of the enrichment was accounted for by glutamate, glutamine and aspartate. The enrichment of the amide group of glutamine was greater than that of the amine group of glutamate or glutamine, consistent with the glutamine synthetase/glutamine 2-oxoglutarate amidotransferase cycle as the mechanism of ammonium assimilation. To examine the flux of ¹⁵N from zooxanthellae to host, anemones were pulse-labelled with [¹⁵N]ammonium and then transferred to an unlabelled chase. Over a 2?h period there was no evidence for a flux of nitrogen from zooxanthellae to host. However, during the chase period, the enrichment of low molecular weight material declined and that of high molecular weight material increased in both zooxanthellae and host, indicating that protein was synthesized using ¹⁵N from ammonium in both components of the symbiosis. Again by using a pulse-chase system, it was found that glutamate was metabolised most rapidly by zooxanthellae, followed by (in order of decreasing rate of turnover) aspartate, alanine, glycine and valine (no data are available for glutamine). Unlike these amino acids, nitrogen was transferred to the essential amino acids phenylalanine and threonine, increasing their enrichment during the chase period. While recycled nitrogen is clearly important to this symbiosis, the mechanism by which it is cycled remains to be resolved.     

Assessing effects of non-native crayfish on mosquito survival

Introductions of non-native predators often reduce biodiversity and affect natural predator–prey relationships and may increase the abundance of potential disease vectors (e.g., mosquitoes) indirectly through competition or predation cascades. The Santa Monica Mountains (California, U.S.A.), situated in a global biodiversity hotspot, is an area of conservation concern due to climate change, urbanization, and the introduction of non-native species. We examined the effect of non-native crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) on an existing native predator, dragonfly nymphs (Aeshna sp.), and their mosquito larvae (Anopheles sp.) prey. We used laboratory experiments to compare the predation efficiency of both predators, separately and together, and field data on counts of dragonfly nymphs and mosquito larvae sampled from 13 local streams. We predicted a lower predation efficiency of crayfish compared with native dragonfly nymphs and a reduced predation efficiency of dragonfly nymphs in the presence of crayfish. Dragonfly nymphs were an order of magnitude more efficient predators than crayfish, and dragonfly nymph predation efficiency was reduced in the presence of crayfish. Field count data showed that populations of dragonfly nymphs and mosquito larvae were strongly correlated with crayfish presence in streams, such that sites with crayfish tended to have fewer dragonfly nymphs and more mosquito larvae. Under natural conditions, it is likely that crayfish reduce the abundance of dragonfly nymphs and their predation efficiency and thereby, directly and indirectly, lead to higher mosquito populations and a loss of ecosystem services related to disease vector control.     

Life history costs of olfactory status signalling in mice

Large body size confers a competitive advantage in animal contests but does not always determine the outcome. Here we explore the trade-off between short-term achievement of high social status and longer-term life history costs in animals which vary in competitive ability. Using laboratory mice, Mus musculus, as a model system, we show that small competitors can initially maintain dominance over larger males by increasing investment in olfactory status signalling (scent-marking), but only at the cost of reduced growth rate and body size. As a result they become more vulnerable to dominance reversals later in life. Our results also provide the first empirical information about life history costs of olfactory status signals. Received: 15 December 1999 / Revised: 6 June 2000 / Accepted: 24 June 2000     

Distributional patterns of adult male loggerhead sea turtles (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Caretta caretta</Emphasis>) in the vicinity of Cape Canaveral,Florida, USA during and after a major annual breeding aggregation

Satellite transmitters were attached to 25 reproductively active and four inactive adult male loggerhead sea turtles (86.6–107.0 cm SCLmin) captured from the Port Canaveral, FL, USA shipping channel to assess horizontal and vertical distributions. During the breeding period, male loggerheads aggregated (44% of 755 turtle days) in a 117.6 km² core area that encompassed the shipping channel. Median dive duration during the breeding period was 27 min (IQR = 15–42 min) and males spent 4% (IQR = 3–5%) of the time at the surface, with significantly shorter dives associated with reproductively active males. Migrant and resident males dispersed concurrently, with residents shifting > 30 km east across the continental shelf over a more protracted departure schedule than migrants. Dive duration and time spent at the surface increased through the fall. Cluster analysis revealed the strongest association for dive duration with sea state during and after the breeding period, with significantly longer dives during more turbulent conditions. In contrast, univariate associations with surface interval duration were not elucidated.