Post-Cyclone Sidr nutritional status of women and children in coastal Bangladesh: an empirical study

Cyclone Sidr, a Category 4 storm, struck the southwestern coast of Bangladesh on November 15, 2007, causing 3,406 deaths, 2.51 million acres of crop damage, and aggregated damage of US$1.7 billion. It significantly damaged household food availability and increased post-cyclone nutritional insecurity. This study assesses the nutritional status of household and explores influences of various socioeconomic variables on nutritional security. More specifically, it explores the impact of the cyclone on short-term nutritional status of women of reproductive age and children under 5?years. For this study, 331 households living in three villages devastated by Cyclone Sidr were selected. The nutritional status of women of reproductive age was measured based on body mass index, and that of children aged 6?C59?months was measured based on weight-for-height (wasting), height-for-age (stunting), and weight-for-age (underweight). This study found that the nutritional status, along with other household characteristics, of the study groups was not remarkably different across the three selected villages. Findings of this study further suggest that the nutritional security situation was not much changed in the post-cyclone period compared with the pre-cyclone period primarily because of rapid and effective distribution of essential food items among cyclone survivors by the government of Bangladesh along with donor and other organizations. However, nutritional insecurity was more prevalent in the island village relative to inland and coastline villages. Similarly, fishermen were found to be the most vulnerable to nutritional insecurity in the post-cyclone period. Several recommendations are made to improve food aid distribution in the aftermath of a cyclone.     

江西南昌-樟树地区农业土壤环境质量评价

在研究区内,由于各种自然地质作用及人类活动综合影响,使作物营养有益元素及有毒、有害组分在区内表层土壤中的分布存在明显的不均衡性.以土壤中元素的含量分布为主要依据,在分析南昌-樟树地区土壤污染现状、农作物营养有益元素丰缺现状的基础上,对区内农业土壤环境质量进行了评价,并按环境质量的优劣划分了A、B、C、D共4个等级.     

影响从化荔枝生长及果实品质的地球化学特征

从化地区是广东重要的荔枝产区,本文重点对从化荔枝进行了生态地球化学调查,采集了荔枝园表层土壤和荔枝果实以及配套根系土样品,测试了营养、有益和有害元素及荔枝果实的品质。通过计算荔枝果实元素的吸收系数、果实品质与根系土营养元素的相关性,获知影响荔枝生长及果实品质的特征元素,包括常量组分N、P、MgO、NaO、CaO、Al2O3和微量元素B、S、Sb、V。最后通过分析特征元素在评价区分布状况,获知种植荔枝最理想区域为第四纪松散堆积物以及白垩纪花岗岩。     

Shifting production/shifting consumption: A political ecology of health perceptions in Kumaon,India

Despite rapid economic growth, India has not seen the improvements in food and nutritional security that other developing countries have had. This “Asian enigma” has generated a wealth of economistic analyses seeking to explain the persistence of poor nutrition, yet few studies have looked at everyday experiences of changing food systems, and how this impacts nutritional practices as well as the processes of subject formation. In this paper, I draw on qualitative research conducted in Uttarakhand, North India and examine how state-led shifts in agricultural production have resulted in changing food consumption practices and diminished perceptions of health. Villagers link this decreased health to increased chemicals in home-produced food, greater dependence on the market for food purchases, and generational changes in dietary preferences. Despite villagers’ cognizance of the negative health effects of these practices, they largely view these byproducts of capitalistic development with an air of inevitability. Following Mansfield (2011) this paper contributes to the political ecology of health literature by employing the concept of food as a “vector of intercorporeality” (Stassart and Whatmore, 2003:449) and bringing this into conversation with a poststructuralist understanding of subjectivity. I argue that within shifting landscapes of agriculture production and food consumption, notions of diminished health are indicative of the complex and always incomplete processes of subject formation. I view shifting health perceptions as intimate bodily resistances to agricultural development, and conclude that within agricultural development programs a focus on bodily health and well-being is a fecund platform for further experimental research that seeks to imagine development differently.     

Mediating the spaces of diet and health: A critical analysis of reporting on nutrition and colorectal cancer in the UK

The media are one of the main arenas in which nutrition information is framed and developed. Research has shown a predominantly individualistic framing of diet-related health issues such as obesity, type-2 diabetes and coronary heart disease in international media coverage. These issues are framed as personal, ’lifestyle’ issues rather than requiring policy or structural change. In addition, research has shown a tendency in nutrition research and media coverage of it, to emphasize individual ingredients or components more than overall diet. The media have a tendency to report diet related research simplistically, often without contextualization. Taking a case study approach, this paper analyses UK news media coverage and framing of British Medical Journal (BMJ) published research into dietary fibre and bowel cancer risk. I investigate how the health issue fibre and bowel cancer is framed and dissect the process of mediation (from press release to mass media to local media), analysing the shifting ’geographies of responsibility’ that result. This paper argues that media coverage of research into diet and bowel cancer can be explained by the technologies, conventions and routines of media representation. Key gatekeepers were found to have an important role in framing the information that was reported. Taking a critical approach, this paper argues that like obesity, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, coverage of nutritional means of preventing bowel cancer is set predominantly in the ’lifestyle’ frame, laying responsibility for increasing dietary fibre at the door of the individual rather than looking at broader social, economic, or political drivers of dietary change.     

广东四会优质沙糖桔产地生态地球化学特征

四会地区是中国重要的沙糖桔产区,重点对威整和地豆两处沙糖桔园进行了生态地球化学调查。采集了沙糖桔园表层至底层土壤、出露的代表性基岩、沙糖桔叶和果实样品,实测了营养、有益和有害元素以及土壤营养元素有效态的含量。通过分析得出:(1)优质沙糖桔产区植物营养、有益元素含量适宜,重金属元素中Cd、Cr、Hg等的含量符合无公害水果产地环境要求;(2)在土壤—沙糖桔生态系统中,大多数有益、营养元素从深部到表层的变化规律具有相似性;(3)沙糖桔各器官(叶、果皮、果实)中,元素大多在叶中较为富集,有害元素在果实中富集较小,大多数营养元素在果皮中较果肉中富集;(4)成土母质以砂岩及花岗岩发育而成的赤红壤较适宜,尤以砂岩为母质的土壤更好。     

Agricultural diversification and dietary diversity: A feminist political ecology of the everyday experiences of landless and smallholder households in northern Ghana

There is an emerging literature suggesting that when smallholder households diversify their agriculture, a wide range of food groups will be available, and consequently, dietary diversity will be improved. The present article brings this literature into critical conversation with research in feminist political ecology. Grounded in five years of repeated fieldwork, the article weaves together 70 in-depth interviews, and dietary as well as farm production diversity data from 30 households in northern Ghana. This dataset is analyzed by considering not only the diversity of farming systems, but also household headship, including male-headed, de facto female-headed, and de jure female-headed. Among other findings, the paper suggests that dietary diversity scores are lowest for households who have lost their farmlands to on-going land grabbing in Ghana. Furthermore, the paper suggests that while agricultural diversification is essential, it is not sufficient in itself to address nutritional challenges confronting smallholder households. In the contested and political arena of the household, the gendered politics of access to food can deeply shape how agricultural diversification contributes to dietary diversity. Overall, I do not wish to conclude that there are no benefits of increasing the diversity of farm production. Rather, I wish to stress that farm production diversity might not be the best or only strategy to improving dietary diversity among rural households. Through this case study, I also contribute to emerging research in new feminist political ecologies by demonstrating how the intersection of gender, seniority, marital status, and sexual politics shapes resource access and control.     

Geomedicine in Kenya

Geomedical research in Kenya, as in other developing countries, is still in its infancy, although a significant amount of data already exists in certain aspects of the subject. The biggest advances to date have been with the halogens (F and I) but data interpretation and the identification of meaningful correlations between geochemistry and epidemiology are hampered by the use of non-multidisciplinary approaches.Additional information is needed on the behaviour of certain nutritional and toxic elements in various environmental media (soils, plants, natural waters, etc.), but present analytical facilities are woefully inadequate for the determination of these elements at the very low levels generally required. Nor is there enough trained personnel for these types of analysis.This paper attempts to summarise and synthesise the geomedical information so far available in Kenya and emphasises the potential effectiveness of more holistic, multi-disciplinary, multi-element studies in advancing this emergent field.     

Involuntary soil ingestion and geophagia: A source and sink of mineral nutrients and potentially harmful elements to consumers of earth materials

Members of the animal kingdom, including humans, can ingest soil either involuntarily or deliberately, the latter practice being known as geophagy or geophagia. This paper briefly documents the often significant quantities of soil that can be consumed, but discusses in detail the importance of this ingestion in supplying mineral nutrients and potentially harmful elements (PHEs) to consumers of earth materials. Whilst geophagia is recognised as a multi-causal behaviour, a prevalent explanation is the ‘nutritional hypothesis’ where the deliberate consumption of soil is attributed to an attempt to regulate a mineral nutrient imbalance such as sodium deficiency. When soils encounter digestive fluids, chemical elements can be solubilised and are potentially available for absorption, sometimes to an extent where toxicity symptoms are evident. In grassland agricultural systems, two main pathways of chemical elements are recognised, the soil–plant–animal flow being complemented by the more direct soil–animal transfer of mineral nutrients and PHEs. In locations where the pasture herbage absorbs very low concentrations of chemical elements relative to the soil content, ingested soil particles can often be observed to be the major source of mineral nutrients/PHEs consumed by livestock. However, further research is required in quantifying the bioaccessibility – defined as the fraction that is soluble in the gastrointestinal tract and is potentially available for absorption – of soil-elements to animals. In this respect, regarding human nutrition, for more than a decade considerable work has been undertaken on the development of in vitro bioaccessibility tests (IVBA) that can rapidly and inexpensively estimate this portion of chemical elements from ingested soils. Work to date has demonstrated that significant amounts of some mineral nutrients, especially iron, can be bioaccessible to humans, as can quantities of PHEs such as lead. Paradoxically, some ingested soils can also result in mineral nutrient deficiency problems in humans and other members of the animal kingdom attributable, for example, to the adsorptive properties of earth materials that can effectively bind chemical elements.     

Responding to unmet food needs of displaced persons or refugees:

This paper identifies two types of displaced persons in two different ecological zones in Cameroon as a result of two major causes; a poisonous lake gas explosion in the North West and the effects of a civil war in Chad on Kousseri town in North Cameroon. The displaced persons, through no fault of theirs had to look up to both international and local donor organizations for assistance. This paper addresses the usual unmet food needs, analyses some of the performances that often go wrong but which can be corrected. The paper points out that donor agencies and the host government played major roles in raising food, cash, etc. but regrets to note that unsurmountable logistical problems, improper choice and use of personnel with wider expertise to handle specialized problems, inexistent buffer stocks and non-involvement of the displaced persons in managing some of the problems hindered hard-generated resources from reaching most of the beneficiaries. Better performances lie in reducing dependency on continuous external supplies and also in the local hosts allowing room for small scale agro-pastoral productions which should satisfy and even improve on the unmet nutritional difficiencies and rations of the displaced persons.     

沸石矿物处理富营养化水体研究

砚山沸石矿经物理法活化,化学法改型,制成离子交换剂(吸附剂),增强沸石矿的吸附、离子交换能力,对营养化水体有较好的净化作用。加工工艺成本低、设备简单、操作方便。     

湖泊富营养化影响与公众满意度评价方法

构建了基于韦伯-费希纳定律(Weber-Fechner Law,W-F)的湖泊富营养化及公众满意度综合评价方法,选取透明度(SD)、高锰酸盐指数(COD_Mn)、总氮(TN)、总磷(TP)、叶绿素a(Chla)5个评价因子,应用熵权系数法确定各评价因子权重分别为0.124 2、0.176 8、0.214 0、0.203 4和0.281 6,明确了湖泊富营养化综合影响指数K_i值与营养指数之间的函数关系,探讨了将公众对湖泊营养状态的感受与K_i值间建立定量的关系,根据K_i值变化范围、变化率与营养等级的对应关系,将公众对湖泊营养状态的满意度划分为4个等级:优、中、差和很差,以反映公众对湖泊富营养程度变化的响应.并以海河流域典型湖泊白洋淀为例,对方法进行了验证,结果显示:白洋淀K_i值为0.052 3,K_i值变化率为304.67,处于重度富营养化状态.不同空间的8个点位富营养化严重程度排序:南刘庄>圈头>王家寨>光淀张庄>烧车淀>枣林庄>采蒲台>端村.公众对白洋淀8个点位K_i值变化范围确定为0.029 3~0.100 6,营养状况的公众满意程度均为差,富营养状态及对公众的影响存在空间差异.     

枇杷的不同器官中元素地球化学特征

枇杷是药用价值很高的一种经济水果。研究不同母岩类型产区的枇杷中元素的地球化学特征,发现同一品种枇杷中元素的富集部位各不相同;而不同品种的枇杷所富集的元素种类大致相同,只是富集程度有差异。有益、营养元素在叶片中的含量大多高于其他部位;有害元素不超标。与枇杷果关系较为密切的营养元素主要为N、P、K、Ca、Mg;微量营养元素为B、Zn、Cu。     

Geophagy: who eats soil and where do possible contaminants go?

Geophagy describes both purposeful and inadvertent ingestion of soil. It has long been recognized as a source of essential trace metals for wild animals and livestock, and soil ingestion by humans has also been associated with nutritional disorders. The amounts ingested purposefully by some people are large, up to 50?g/day. The amounts ingested inadvertently are much smaller and very difficult to quantify. The pathways include dust adhering to plants and to hands that ultimately is transferred to the mouth and ingested. Recently, this phenomenon has been highlighted because it can be the dominant pathway for ingestion of environmentally immobile soil contaminants. Three things must be known to estimate health impacts: how much soil is ingested, are the contaminant concentrations enriched on the soil particles ingested, and how bioavailable are the soil bound contaminants in the gut? Two hypothetical scenarios are examined in detail, one is the exposure of a child playing in lead (Pb)-contaminated sand, and the other is the exposure of a hunter consuming a deer that ingested soil at a surface discharge of deep saline groundwater in the vicinity of an underground nuclear waste repository.     

Role of larger herbvores in seagrass communities

The nutritional ecology of macroherbivores in seagrass meadows and the roles of grazing by urchins, fishes and green turtles in tropical systems and waterfowl in temperate systems are discussed in this review. Only a few species of animals graze on living seagrasses, and apparently only a small portion of the energy and nutrients in seagrasses is usually channeled through these herbivores. The general paucity of direct seagrass grazers may be a function of several factors in the composition of seagrasses, including availability of nitrogen compounds, presence of relatively high amounts of structural cell walls, and presence of toxic or inhibitory substances. The macroherbivores, however, can have a profound effect on the seagrass plants, on other grazers and fauna associated with the meadow, and on chemical and decompositional processes occurring within the meadow. Grazing can alter the nutrient content and digestibility of the plant, as well as its productivity. Removal of leaf material can influence interrelations among permanent and transient faunal residents. Grazing also interrupts the detritus cycle. Possible consequences of this disruption, either through acceleration or through decreased source input, and the enhancement of intersystem coupling by increased export and offsite fecal production, are discussed. The extent and magnitude of these effects and their ecological significance in the overall functioning of seagrass meadows only can be speculated, and probably are not uniform or of similar importance in both tropical and temperate seagrass systems. However, areas grazed by large herbivores provide natural experiments in which to test hypotheses on many functional relations in seagrass meadows.     

Changes in nutritional values induced by butachlor in juvenile diploid and triploid <Emphasis Type="Italic">Clarias gariepinus</Emphasis>

There is a paucity of information about the effects of environmental stressors on nutritional values in fish. This study investigated the effects of the organochlorine pesticide, butachlor, on key indicators of nutritional value in both diploid and triploid African catfish (Clarias gariepinus). Amino acids (AA), fatty acids (FA), and the proximate composition (protein, lipid, moisture, and ash content) in the white muscle of full-sibling juvenile fish were measured following a 21-day exposure to graded butachlor concentrations [mean measured: 26.3, 48.4, and 66.1 µg/L]. No significant differences in AAs, FAs, protein, lipid, moisture, or ash content were observed between unexposed diploid and triploid fish. In diploids, exposure to butachlor significantly altered the concentrations of some of the AAs and FAs, and protein content, when compared to the control group. In triploid fish, however, butachlor treatments had no effect on the AA or proximate composition, but significantly changed the concentration of two individual FAs in the muscle. Butachlor treatments showed fewer changes in the nutritional values of triploid fish. This research is the first to study the nutritional values in any polyploid animals following the exposure to a contaminant.     

Soil quality changes in land degradation as indicated by soil chemical, biochemical and microbiological properties in a karst area of southwest Guizhou, China

Not only the nutritional status and biological activity but also the soil ecological functioning or soil health has been impacted profoundly by land degradation in the karst area of southwest China where the karst ecosystems are generally considered as extremely vulnerable to land degradation under intensified land-use changes. The objectives of this study are to elucidate the changes in overall soil quality by a holistic approach of soil nutritional, biological activity, and soil health indicators in the karst area as impacted by intense cultivation and vegetation degradation. Topsoil samples were collected on selected eco-tesserae in a sequence of land degradation in a karst area of southwest Guizhou in 2004. The soil nutrient pools of organic carbon (C_org), extractable extracellular carbon (C_ext), total soil nitrogen (N_t), alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen (N_ah), total phosphorus (P_t), available phosphorus (P_a) were analyzed by wet soil chemistry. The soil biological properties were studied by means of measurements of microbial biomass carbon (both by fumigation–extraction, FE-C_mic, and by calculation from substrate-incubation respiration, SIR-C_mic) of respiration [respiration without addition of substrates, basal respiration (BR), and potential respiration (PR) with substrate-incubation] and of soil enzyme activities (invertase, urease, and alkaline phosphatase). Soil health status was assessed by simple indices of C_mic/C_org and BR/C_mic in conjunction with bacterial community structures determined by polymerase chain reaction and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. While the nutritional pool parameters, such as C_org and C_ext, described basically the changes in soil life-supporting capacity with cultivation interference and vegetation declined, those parameters of biological activity such as FE-C_mic, SIR, and SIR-C_mic as well as bacterial community structures measured by molecular method evidenced well the changes in soil functioning for ecosystem health with the land degradation.     

Their grass is greener but ours is sweeter – Thoroughbred breeding and water management in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia

The Upper Hunter region of New South Wales (NSW) around Scone is reputed to be the second most significant thoroughbred breeding region in the world after the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. This article identifies the importance and cultural constructions of grass, and hence water, in the thoroughbred breeding industry in this region. Thoroughbred stud managers attempt to produce environments attractive to potential horse purchasers and owners with mares to be mated. These environments are constructed from perceptions of how a thoroughbred stud should appear, and from the physical conditions of specific locations. One perception is that the grass should be green. There are differing opinions in the thoroughbred breeding industry about the nutritional value of irrigated grasses, the role of these grasses in horse development and the associated access to, cost of and efficacy of water used for this purpose. The paper concludes that effective water management in this industry is only possible if various cultures of nature are understood, where necessary challenged, and subsequently included in policy and planning.     

海南岛红树植物的解剖生态研究及其地质意义

在对不同红树属种系统解剖的基础上,总结了红树植物根、茎、叶等不同营养器官的一般性解剖结构特征,探讨了红树植物解剖结构与生态适应间的关系,指出了现代红树植物解剖、生态的研究在古植物学和煤沉积学方面的意义。     

梵净山西麓古茶树立地岩-土系统地球化学特征分析

以梵净山西麓印江县紫薇镇古茶树立地剖面上的岩石和土壤为研究对象,使用ICP-MS和ICP-AES测定21种元素的含量,分析古茶树立地岩石-土壤系统的地球化学特征,以期为印江县古茶树保护及开发提供科学依据。结果表明：古茶树生长地岩石-土壤系统的主量、微量和重金属元素富集程度低（EF <3）,受人为因素影响程度小,可为古茶树提供安全的生长环境。其中主量元素K和Al在岩石-土壤系统中含量丰富,Ca、Mg、Na元素含量较少,符合茶树喜钾嫌钙的生理特征;微量元素在岩石-土壤系统中含量变化均匀,但与地球化学丰度值和中国土壤背景值相比,其含量较少;重金属元素含量均低于无公害农产品种植业产地环境条件限定值。同时研究发现该岩土系统中Se元素含量丰富,可为当地发展富硒茶提供参考。