Airline networks and the international diffusion of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

In fewer than four months in 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) spread from China to 25 countries and Taiwan, becoming the first new, easily transmissible infectious disease of the twenty-first century. The role of air transport in the diffusion of the disease became obvious early in the crisis; to assess that role more carefully, this study relates the spatial-temporal pattern of the SARS outbreak to a measure of airline network accessibility. Specifically, the accessibility from those countries that were infected by SARS, beginning with China, to other countries was measured using airline schedules. The country-pair accessibility measure, along with other country-level factors relevant to the disease, were tested as determinants of the speed with which SARS arrived in infected countries as well as its failure to arrive in most countries. The analyses indicate that airline network accessibility was an especially influential variable but also that the importance of this variable diminished in the latter weeks of the outbreak. The latter finding is partly attributable to public health measures, particularly health screening in airports. The timing and geography of those measures are reviewed using data from media reports and interim World Health Organization (WHO) documents during the outbreak. The uneven effort to curtail the international diffusion of SARS suggests further planning is needed to develop a concerted response to contain future epidemics.     

土壤-青菜系统中~(125)Ⅰ的生物地球化学迁移及其动态变化

采用同位素示踪技术研究了土壤-青菜生态系统中125I的生物地球化学迁移与转化机制,并运用箱式模型分析了125I的动态变化。研究结果表明,引入土壤的125I随深度而衰减,绝大部分滞留在土壤0～10cm表层内,125I的滞留量与土壤质地有关;青菜通过根部能很快吸收土壤中的125I,并可将大部分转运至地上部分,青菜各部位125I的富集系数为根>茎>叶柄>叶,嫩叶中富集的125I明显大于老叶;土壤和青菜中125I的动态分布服从指数变化方程,土壤和青菜中的碘可以相向迁移,青菜中碘的积累量即为土壤和青菜中碘迁移量的差值。     

指示冬小麦条锈病严重度的两个新的红边参数

通过人工田间诱发不同等级条锈病,在不同生育期测定了36条感染不同严重程度条锈病的冬小麦冠层光谱及相应叶片的生理生化参量。对测定的冬小麦红边一阶微分光谱进行分析,发现随着病情严重度的增加,红边一阶微分的前峰(700nm附近)越来越明显,后峰(约在725—740nm)越来越不突出,以红边一阶微分的双峰特征随病情指数的变化为基础,设计了两个新型的红边参数:DSr和Ar,它们可以分别用来描述红边一阶微分光谱曲线的陡峭度和不对称性,与其他常用的红边参数(红边位置、红边一阶微分最大值,红边一阶微分所包围面积)相比,新参数反演病情严重度的精度更高。     

气候异常对2007年度许昌小麦生产的影响

分析了2007年度气候异常引起的农业气象灾害和病虫害及其对小麦生育的影响,并提出了应对气候异常对许昌小麦生产影响的对策。     

Ecologies of actor-networks and (non)social labor within the urban political economies of nature

On September 16th, 2005 the United States began restricting the entry of commodities shipped from abroad in wood packaging materials that do not conform to phytosanitation measures meant to prevent the spread of pests and pathogens. This action results from expensive lessons learned as global commerce facilitates pandemics like Dutch elm disease. Marxist political ecology is well suited to investigate such scenarios with its emphasis on the social production of nature within accumulation regimes. Some scholars contend, however, that Marxist accounts of the contradictions that result from nature’s commodification relegate nonhuman organisms to an apolitical role in environmental transformation while reinforcing the nature/society dichotomy. Often viewed as antithetical to Marxism, actor-network theory or ANT emphasizes the ability of actants (both human and nonhuman) to enroll other actants into heterogeneous assemblages or networks. Thus, it is claimed that nonhuman organisms can be attributed ontological status in processes of environmental change, much like their human counterparts. Despite this apparent theoretical discord, political ecologists are increasingly integrating aspects of both Marx and ANT into their analyses. But a more explicit articulation of the ontological basis and epistemic import of theoretical synthesis is warranted. This paper therefore prioritizes and links the ontological status of labor in both of these theories in order to expand the definition of urban environmental politics to include the role of nonhuman organisms. By demonstrating the laboring capacity of Dutch elm disease within the networks of urban political economy, the epistemology of environmental politics is thus expanded.     

Health impacts of coal and coal use: possible solutions

Coal will be a dominant energy source in both developed and developing countries for at least the first half of the 21st century. Environmental problems associated with coal, before mining, during mining, in storage, during combustion, and postcombustion waste products are well known and are being addressed by ongoing research. The connection between potential environmental problems with human health is a fairly new field and requires the cooperation of both the geoscience and medical disciplines. Three research programs that illustrate this collaboration are described and used to present a range of human health problems that are potentially caused by coal. Domestic combustion of coal in China has, in some cases, severely affected human health. Both on a local and regional scale, human health has been adversely affected by coals containing arsenic, fluorine, selenium, and possibly, mercury. Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), an irreversible kidney disease of unknown origin, has been related to the proximity of Pliocene lignite deposits. The working hypothesis is that groundwater is leaching toxic organic compounds as it passes through the lignites and that these organics are then ingested by the local population contributing to this health problem. Human disease associated with coal mining mainly results from inhalation of particulate matter during the mining process. The disease is Coal Worker's Pneumoconiosis characterized by coal dust-induced lesions in the gas exchange regions of the lung; the coal worker's “black lung disease”.     

Identification of Anomalous Aluminium Contents in Surface and Ground Water in the Alba Territory (NW Italy)

Aluminium was determined in surface and ground waters in the Alba region of NW Italy to provide information on natural and anthropogenic sources of contamination. Determinations were made by a spectrophotometric method based on the aluminium-pyrocatechol complex. The total aluminium content of waters was determined as well as the toxic form of monomeric aluminium, obtained from samples that had been passed through 0.20 μm cellulose filters to remove colloidal and particulate material. Results were correlated with mortality data associated with Alzheimer's disease. There appeared to be a correlation between mortality data and areas having the highest aluminium content of water.     

山东省生态环境中硒及其有关元素与克山病关系*

山东省克山病主要分布于鲁中南低山丘陵棕壤与褐土的复合区,化学生态环境为微量元素缺乏区,尤其是元素硒的贫乏是克山病区的共同特征。在同一地点间隔十年的追踪调查表明,近几年来病情减轻的原因与人体硒水平上升有密切关系。1987年与1976年相比,由于病区居民硒摄入量随着膳食构成比例的变化而提高,未服硒地区的人发硒值与服硒点的人发硒值呈同样上升趋势。复合病因研究表明,克山病从环境到人体低Se外,低Mo高Mn、V等元素的不协调,可能起着与低Se复合致病作用。     

塔里木河中、下游地区沉积环境与地方病的关系

本文是“塔里木河中、下游地区地方性氟中毒,缺碘性疾病地理环境机制的研究”课题的组成部分,以阿克苏地区、巴音郭楞蒙古自治州调查的氟、碘性疾病资料为基础,探讨干旱区地质、地貌、气候、水文、土壤等自然地理各因子对地方性疾病发生、分布的影响,研究沉积、沉积类型与氟、碘等致病元素和病区发病轻重的圈定。为防病、治土、改水对策的制定提供理论基础和科学依据。