Rethinking assessment of success of mitigation strategies for elephant-induced crop damage

Crop damage is the most common impact of negative interactions between people and elephants and poses a significant threat to rural livelihoods and conservation efforts. Numerous approaches to mitigate and prevent crop damage have been implemented throughout Africa and Asia. Despite the documented high efficacy of many approaches, losses remain common, and in many areas, damage is intensifying. We examined the literature on effectiveness of crop-damage-mitigation strategies and identified key gaps in evaluations. We determined there is a need to better understand existing solutions within affected communities and to extend evaluations of effectiveness beyond measurement of efficacy to include rates of and barriers to adoption. We devised a conceptual framework for evaluating effectiveness that incorporates the need for increased emphasis on adoption and can be used to inform the design of future crop-damage mitigation assessments for elephants and conflict species more widely. The ability to prevent crop loss in practice is affected by both the efficacy of a given approach and rates of uptake among target users. We identified the primary factors that influence uptake as local attitudes, sustainability, and scalability and examined each of these factors in detail. We argue that even moderately efficacious interventions may make significant progress in preventing damage if widely employed and recommend that wherever possible scientists and practitioners engage with communities to build on and strengthen existing solutions and expertise. When new approaches are required, they should align with local attitudes and fit within limitations on labor, financial requirements, and technical capacity.     

Exploring Chemical Variables in Ligustrum lucidum Ait. F. Tricolor (Rehd.) Rehd. in Relation to Air Pollutants and Environmental Conditions

Ligustrum lucidum Ait. f. tricolor (Rehd.) Rehd. in relation to atmospheric pollutants in Córdoba city, Argentina. The study area receives regional pollutants and was categorized taking into account traffic level, industrial density, type of industry, location of the sample point in relation to the street corner, treeless condition, and topographic level. Dried weight/fresh weight ratio (DW/FW) and specific leaf area (SLA) were calculated, and concentrations of chlorophylls, carotenoids, total sulfur, soluble proteins, malondialdehyde (MDA), and hydroperoxy conjugated dienes (HPCD) were determined in leaf samples. Sulfur content correlates positively with traffic density and SLA correlates negatively with some combinations of the categorical variables; MDA correlates positively with topographic level and total protein concentration correlates negatively with treeless condition. On the basis of our results, traffic, location of trees, type of industry, situation of a tree with respect to others, and topographic level are the environmental variables to bear in mind when selecting analogous sampling points in a passive monitoring program. An approximation to predict tree injury may be obtained by measuring DW/FW ratio, proteins, pigments, HPCD, and MDA as they are responsible for the major variability of data.     

垃圾焚烧烟气中HCl与消石灰的反应机理研究

测试了两种消石灰与垃圾焚烧烟气中HCl的反应率,得出了消石灰的反应率与反应时间的反应曲线,分析了消石灰与HCl的反应机理及影响消石灰最终反应率的因素。试验结果表明,消石灰与HCl反应初期按灰层扩散控制进行,两种消石灰的最终反应率分别为16％和36％。     

Male-biassed response of garden chafer, Phyllopertha horticola L., to leaf alcohol and attraction of both sexes to floral plant volatiles

Summary. Field tests were performed to evaluate the response of the garden chafer, Phyllopertha horticola (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) to known scarab attractants and to investigate the influence of trap colour and height on the number of captured beetles. Both sexes were attracted by a lure mixture composed of geraniol, eugenol, and 2-phenylethyl propionate (PEP) (ratio 3:7:3). When testing floral volatiles individually, only geraniol, eugenol and methyl anthranilate but not PEP was attractive. Response of garden chafer to (Z)- 3-hexen-1-ol was strongly male-biassed. Both the response to floral volatiles and (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol was increased by using funnel traps with yellow instead of grey vanes. Traps positioned at 50 and 125 cm above ground captured significantly more garden chafers than those at 200 cm. The strongly male-biassed response to (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol suggests that in P. horticola (subfamily Rutelinae) orientation towards plant volatiles emitted upon mechanical damage of plants is part of the male mate finding strategy as recently demonstrated for cockchafers of the genus Melolontha (subfamily Melolonthinae). Possible application of plant volatiles for control of P. horticola is discussed.     

水雾荷电净化空气飘尘与细菌的研究

研究一种高压静电水雾场产生的荷电净化空气中飘尘与细菌的方法。实验结果表明:在静电电压15kV、通风量540m~3/h的工况下,实验装置的一次性除尘效率高于80%、除菌效率达到88%以上;实验装置可以连续运行,能耗低、出风无二次污染。     

Modeling Parent and Metabolite Fate and Transport in Subsurface Drained Fields With Directly Connected Macropores1

Abstract: Few studies exist that evaluate or apply pesticide transport models based on measured parent and metabolite concentrations in fields with subsurface drainage. Furthermore, recent research suggests pesticide transport through exceedingly efficient direct connections, which occur when macropores are hydrologically connected to subsurface drains, but this connectivity has been simulated at only one field site in Allen County, Indiana. This research evaluates the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) in simulating the transport of a parent compound and its metabolite at two subsurface drained field sites. Previous research used one of the field sites to test the original modification of the RZWQM to simulate directly connected macropores for bromide and the parent compound, but not for the metabolite. This research will evaluate RZWQM for parent/metabolite transformation and transport at this first field site, along with evaluating the model at an additional field site to evaluate whether the parameters for direct connectivity are transferable and whether model performance is consistent for the two field sites with unique soil, hydrologic, and environmental conditions. Isoxaflutole, the active ingredient in BALANCE^® herbicide, was applied to both fields. Isoxaflutole rapidly degrades into a metabolite (RPA 202248). This research used calibrated RZWQM models for each field based on observed subsurface drain flow and/or edge of field conservative tracer concentrations in subsurface flow. The calibrated models for both field sites required a portion (approximately 2% but this fraction may require calibration) of the available water and chemical in macropore flow to be routed directly into the subsurface drains to simulate peak concentrations in edge of field subsurface drain flow shortly after chemical applications. Confirming the results from the first field site, the existing modification for directly connected macropores continually failed to predict pesticide concentrations on the recession limbs of drainage hydrographs, suggesting that the current strategy only partially accounts for direct connectivity. Thirty‐year distributions of annual mass (drainage) loss of parent and metabolite in terms of percent of isoxaflutole applied suggested annual simulated percent losses of parent and metabolite (3.04 and 1.31%) no greater in drainage than losses in runoff on nondrained fields as reported in the literature.     

电感耦合等离子体质谱法在环境监测中的应用

针对ICP-MS技术的使用特点及其近年来在环境监测领域的应用进行综合阐述，并对ICP-MS技术的发展前景作出简单的评述。     

人口流动规律及其政策含义

人口流动是人力资源配轩优化的根本创新路径,人口流动的一般规律是:如果流动人口为理性行为选择者,在社会制度安排许可的发展环境下,当不同区域和不同产业间形成比较收益差异,存在着流动收益大于流动成本的潜在和现实的各种获利机会时,就必定驱使人们由低收益领域向高必益领域流动,而且比较收益差异量与流动人口的流速、流量正相关,并必然导致产生收益率及人口分布走向平均化的趋势,社会发展也将获得最优化的人力资源配置结果.其相关政策含义:一是人口流动是流动人口的理性选择;二是切实保障公民的自由流动权利;三是利用比较利益差别促进人口流动;四是降低各种不必要的流动成本和流动风险;五是建构人口流动的有效率社会发展框架.     

外源8''-炔基脱落酸强化东南景天吸收重金属的研究

为探究脱落酸类似物8''-炔基脱落酸[8''-（C₂H）ABA]强化东南景天富集重金属的效应,通过水培的方法研究了外源8''-（C₂H）ABA分别对Cd（20 mg·L^-1）、Zn（160 mg·L^-1）单一胁迫下东南景天Cd/Zn积累和生理特性的影响,以及初步探讨了8''-（C₂H）ABA在植物重金属胁迫响应中的作用.实验结果表明：与天然ABA相比,外源8''-（C₂H）ABA能达到与ABA类似的作用效果,且对Cd胁迫下东南景天促进效果好于Zn;在Cd胁迫下,与对照相比,外源8''-（C₂H）ABA能显著增加东南景天根、叶中的Cd含量（44.2%、27.5%）,以及光合色素（10.7%）和叶中过氧化物酶（SOD）活性（52.9%）、超氧化物歧化酶（POD）（24.7%）和过氧化氢酶（CAT）活性（27.9%）抗氧化酶活性,使可溶性糖（SS）（13%）和游离脯氨酸（Pro）（37.4%）含量增加,而叶中丙二醛（MDA）（40%）含量明显降低.上述结果表明,一定浓度的8''-（C₂H）ABA可以提高东南景天抗氧化酶活性来增强其对重金属Cd的抗性及吸收和转运能力,在强化东南景天修复重金属污染方面具有应用潜力.