The socioeconomics and management of Santiago de Chile''s public urban forests

Santiago, Chile's semi-arid climate and urbanized environment poses a severe limitation for the establishment and maintenance of urban forests. Municipalities, or comunas, are the main stakeholders in the management of Santiago's public urban forests. A tenable hypothesis would be that as the socioeconomic level of a comuna increases, the better the condition of a comuna's urban forest. Unfortunately, there is little comprehensive information on management, public expenditure, and structure of Santiago's public and private urban forests. To examine this hypothesis, Santiago was divided into socioeconomic strata, then using air photo interpretation and stratified field sampling, urban forest structures were quantified by socioeconomic strata. In addition, interview surveys were used to determine municipal urban forest management and expenditures for different public urban forests based on socioeconomic strata. Urban forests in the high socioeconomic strata had fewer public trees, greater tree cover, tree and leaf area density, and leaf area index than lower socioeconomic strata. The percentage of total municipal budget allocated to public urban forest management was consistent among strata, but the total public urban forest budgets were greater in the high socioeconomic strata. Public urban forest structure is related to the socioeconomic strata of Santiago's different comunas.     

Effect of cultural practices on the development of arabica coffee berry disease,caused by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Colletotrichum kahawae</Emphasis>

In the high altitude regions of Africa, coffee berry disease (CBD), caused by Colletotrichum kahawae, is the main constraint for arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) production. However, certain agricultural practices can reduce losses caused by the disease and thereby promote optimum production. On small family farms in Cameroon, mixed cropping with fruit trees, intercropping with food crops and maintenance pruning of coffee trees are very widespread agricultural practices that can affect CBD epidemics. Consequently, an epidemiological study was conducted to assess how cultural practices affected the disease in an arabica coffee smallholding in Cameroon. The disease was monitored on a weekly basis over four successive years (2002–2005) on coffee trees in diverse cultural situations. Cultural practices likely to reduce losses due to CBD were identified. The infection rate was significantly lower on coffee trees grown intensively than on coffee trees grown in the traditional manner. Coffee trees located under the shade of fruit trees were significantly less attacked than those located in full sunlight. In addition, berries on the leafless parts of branches, near the main trunk of the coffee tree, were less infected than those on leafy sections. These results show that maintenance pruning, removal of mummified berries, and mixed cropping with shade plants are cultural practices which create environmental conditions that limit CBD development.     

QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF SURGICALLY INDUCED MITRAL REGURGITATION USING RADIONUCLIDE VENTRICULOGRAPHY AND FIRST PASS RADIONUCLIDE ANGIOGRAPHY

Radionuclide ventriculography has been used in humans to evaluate valvular incompetency. The stroke volume ratio, derived from the radionuclide ventriculogram, is used to quantify the severity of mitral regurgitation (MR). Previous studies conducted in humans have shown that left to right stroke volume ratio increases as the severity of MR increases. In this study, we evaluated radionuclide ventriculography as a noninvasive method to detect MR in dogs with surgically created mitral insufficiency. Six male and three female adult, conditioned mongrel dogs were used. Scintigraphic studies were performed prior to and 4 weeks after surgically created MR. Because of the overlap of the left and right ventricles when viewed from a left lateral position, we combined data from a first-pass radionuclide angiocardiogram with the radionuclide ventriculogram to obtain a corrected stroke volume ratio. Blood flow transit parameters were also derived from the first-pass radionuclide angiocardiogram. Standard left ventricular functional indices were also measured from the radionuclide ventriculogram. On the left lateral view of the heart, 25 to 30% of the right ventricular volume overlaps the left ventricle. After correcting for the overlap, the stroke volume ratio of normal dogs was 1.17±0.178 (mean±SD), which increased to 2.06±0.41 (mean±SD) (p<.001) 4 weeks after creation of MR. The was no significant change in left ventricular ejection fraction or peak rate of ejection following MR. The transit times of blood through the left ventricle were measured from the first-pass radionuclide angiocardiogram and were expressed as half-time clearance, peak clearance rate, and time to peak clearance rate. The baseline half-time clearance was 2.07±0.71 s (mean±SD), which increased to 6.70±4.89 s (mean±SD) (p=.02) after creation of MR. The baseline peak clearance rate was 49.75±8.96 cts/s (mean±SD), which decreased to 23.12±6.84 cts/s (mean±SD) (p<.001) after creation of MR. Stroke volume ratios significantly increased following creation of MR. Blood flow transit through the left ventricle slowed following creation of MR. The variability of these parameters were small in the baseline studies, suggesting these techniques may be clinically useful to gauge the severity of MR in dogs.     

Impact of Intracoastal Waterway maintenance dredging on a mud bottom benthos community

The effects of hydraulic dredging on the benthic infauna of a mud bottom area were investigated in Georgia in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Complete displacement of the benthic community was caused by dredging; however, the community began to recover within a month following the cessation of dredging. Within two months the diversity and species composition of the dredged channel were similar to that of a control area and little change in sediment composition resulted. Thus, no apparent limitation was imposed on the normal benthic population by habitat alteration. Recolonisation was too rapid to have been caused by the settling of immature or larval stages from the water column alone. Bank slumping and migration of adult forms have been postulated as other means of recolonisation.     

Real time polymerase chain reaction for rapid and quantitative determination of Cystofilobasidium infirmominiatum on the surfaces of apple,pear, and sweet cherry fruit

The objectives of this study were to develop primers and a real time PCR protocol for the postharvest biocontrol yeast Cystofilobasidium infirmominiatum (Cim). The application of this technology was developed to quantify Cim on the surfaces of apple, two pear cultivars, and sweet cherry fruit treated over a range of concentrations. Statistically significant relationships were observed between Cim DNA on fruit surfaces, expressed as μg/m², and CFU/L of dip suspensions for apple, pear, and sweet cherry. In addition, the relationship for each fruit was significantly different from the other three fruits. Threshold values of concentrations of Cim DNA on the fruit surface were calculated based on regression equations and a dose of 2.0 × 10¹¹ CFU/L of dip suspension, the dose for optimum decay control, and were 4.8, 7.0, 16.5, and 25.2 μg/m² for Bosc pear, Lapins sweet cherry, d’Anjou pear, and Golden Delicious apple, respectively. Monitoring Cim DNA concentration on fruit surfaces will assure that Cim is being properly applied to fruit and that a sufficient number of cells are present for optimum decay control.     

The effects of age on the erythrocyte sodium and potassium concentrations of dairy cows during late pregnancy and early lactation

Blood samples were taken at weekly intervals from 54 dairy cows (mainly Friesians and Jerseys) during the periods 8 weeks before and 8 weeks after calving. The cows were divided into two age groups; group 1 consisting of 26 cows aged 2 1/2 years and group 2 consisting of 28 cows aged 5–9 years. The changes in the erythrocyte sodium (ENa) and the erythrocyte potassium (EK) concentrations before and after calving were expressed as the slopes for each component regressed on weeks. In the older cows the concentration of ENa decreased (p<0.05) while that of EK increased (p<0.05) after calving. Both the ENa and EK concentrations varied significantly (p<0.01) between cows in the two age groups. The prepartum and postpartum ENa and the postpartum EK concentrations varied significantly (p<0.05) between weeks. EK type did not influence the changes in ENa or EK concentrations before or after calving.     

Micro-scaled high-throughput digestion of plant tissue samples for multi-elemental analysis

Background  

Quantitative multi-elemental analysis by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry depends on a complete digestion of solid samples. However, fast and thorough sample digestion is a challenging analytical task which constitutes a bottleneck in modern multi-elemental analysis. Additional obstacles may be that sample quantities are limited and elemental concentrations low. In such cases, digestion in small volumes with minimum dilution and contamination is required in order to obtain high accuracy data.