Seth Research Foundation

Abstract Climate change is extending pollen seasons and intensifying exposure with major consequences for respiratory health. While extensive long-term pollen records are available in the Northern Hemisphere, comparable datasets remain scarce in the Southern Hemisphere, limiting global assessments of climate impacts. Here, we presentnearly three decades of observations from the longest-operating pollen sampler in the Southern Hemisphere, located in southeast Australia—a region experiencing pronounced warming and drying. We found the peak grass pollen period advancing by 8.7 days per decade (p < 0.01), concurrent with earlier spring warming and advancing greenness phenology measured from satellites. There was a substantial redistribution in pollen fraction loadings from austral summer to austral spring. Yet, despite a lengthened grass pollen season of approximately 7 days per decade (p < 0.01), total and peak pollen concentrations have declined several-fold, consistent with a climate-related drying trend. These unique records provide rare insight into the climate sensitivity of grass pollen phenology under contrasting climate trajectories. The complex interplay between climate factors and pollen dynamics may extend the period of allergic sensitization even as overall pollen levels fall, highlighting the need to better understand climate change impacts on pollen seasons for adaptive public health strategies.

Intraluminal manometry is a tool commonly used to record motility in the human digestive tract. The recorded signal results from a combination of factors, including the hydrodynamic pressure transmitted through the intestinal contents due to contraction of the gut wall and the force of the gut wall acting on the sensors in regions of a luminal occlusion. However, the actual relationships between small bowel wall contraction, the measured intraluminal pressure, and the resultant flow have not been directly addressed. Video recording and high-resolution fiber-optic manometry were used to create spatiotemporal video maps of diameter and intraluminal pressure from isolated segments of rabbit small intestine. In the unstimulated gut, longitudinal muscle contractions were the only detectable motor pattern; circular muscle contractions were elicited by distension or erythromycin (1 μM). Longitudinal muscle contractions were not lumen-occlusive, although they caused measurable low-amplitude changes in pressure. Localized nonpropagating circular muscle contractions caused small localized, nonpropagating peaks of intraluminal pressure. Propagating contractions of circular muscle evoked larger, propagating pressure changes that were associated with outflow. Propagating circular muscle contractions often caused dilation of aboral receiving segments, corresponding to "common cavities"; these were propulsive, despite their low intraluminal pressure. The highest-amplitude pressure events were caused by lumen-occlusive circular muscle contractions that squeezed directly against the catheter. These data allow us to define the complex relationships between wall motion, intraluminal pressure, and flow. A strong correlation between circular and longitudinal muscle contraction and intraluminal pressure was demonstrated. Common-cavity pressure events, caused by propulsion of content by circular muscle contractions into a receptive segment, were often of low amplitude but were highly propulsive. Studies of wall motion in isolated preparations, combined with manometry, can assist in interpretation of pressure recordings in vivo.

Christisonia keralensis Erady (Orobanchaceae), a taxon so far known from Western Ghat, is described here as a new report to North-East India from Manas National Park, Assam. A detailed description, photograph and distribution is provided for its easy identification.

For pneumatic transport the basic principle of analysis is the material balance of the solids transported. A number of different situations could arise for the control of the solids flow. The macro approach to the control analysis will be considered first; then more detailed distributed models of the actual solids flow will be explored.

This specially curated group of 178 titles covers subjects ranging from biodiversity conservation to agriculture and ecology to zoology. Books explore urban ecology, climate change, fire mitigation, and more. These titles are included in the CSIRO Publishing BioSelect Collection.

In recent years, the impact assessment literature has established the need to develop appropriate methods for use within the political paradigm of SIA. However, practitioners must remain mindful of the need to retain an essential core of technical SIA research, and find ways of integrating this with the participatory and political components of the process, Research methods to integrate SLA with planning are equally necessary. A controversial mining proposal in Australia's Northern Territory, contested by mining, conservation and Aboriginal interests, provided the opportunity to test a new SIA method to combine the use of participatory/political and technical procedures and to integrate these two theoretical paradigms with a planning approach based on the potential for bargaining and negotiation. The method is detailed and assessed to provide a practical framework within which SIA practitioners can successfully achieve these ends.

To determine the distribution of blood lead levels in preschool children in inner Sydney and identify possible sources of environmental lead. Cross sectional community based prevalence survey of children and the houses in which they live, and a survey of volunteer children. Mort Bay and Summer Hill, residential localities in inner Sydney. Ninety-five children aged 9-48 months able to be identified in a defined geographic area and 63 children aged 9-48 months volunteered by their parents. Concentrations of lead in venous blood of all children and in samples from the home environment of Mort Bay children. Four of the children (2.5%) had blood lead levels > or = 1.21 mumol/L (25 micrograms/dL, the current Australian threshold of concern), 27 (17.1%) had levels > or = 0.72 mumol/L (15 micrograms/dL, the new US threshold for individual intervention) and 80 (50.6%) had levels > or = 0.48 mumol/L (10 micrograms/dL, the new US threshold for community intervention). Blood lead concentrations were significantly correlated with concentrations of lead in "sink" soil (r = 0.555, P = 0.026), play area soil (r = 0.492, P = 0.016) and dust from vacuum cleaners (r = 0.428, P = 0.05), and with age of child (r = -0.182, P = 0.023). The presence of the child during house renovation was a strong predictor of having a blood lead level above 0.72 mumol/L (15 micrograms/dL) (odds ratio, 4.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.8-11.7, P = 0.001). Lead in soil and in household dust in older areas of Sydney is likely to represent a significant health hazard to young children. Many thousands of children may be affected in Sydney and other Australian cities. There is an urgent need for expanded prevalence surveys, public education and the development of strategies for the abatement of lead in urban environments.

(1989). Knowledge based systems in civil engineering. Civil Engineering Systems: Vol. 6, No. 1-2, pp. 3-4.