CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

Save the Guinea worm?

Earlier in December I came across this blog entry about the Guinea worm, a parasite you really don't want to be infected with. For more information about it, follow the link in the previous sentence, or this one about efforts by the Carter Center (founded by former US President Jimmy Carter) to eradicate it. The worm relies on humans to complete its life cycle, so there is no reservoir of infection in other species, and infection can be avoided by measures as simple as filtering drinking water through fine cloth; as a result, these efforts have been very successful, reducing the number of cases from 3.5 million in Africa alone in 1986 to less than 5000 (all in a few African countries) in 2008.

Unforseen effect of the credit crunch?

I didn't expect this one but it makes sense. West Nile virus infections are up in California. The (possible) reason: unmaintained swimming pools, according to a paper in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

What, no sprouts?

I hate Brussels sprouts. There, I've said it. The vegetable that has become synonymous with the British Christmas dinner (presumably because in the days before global trade and improved storage made every type of food available throughout the year, it was one of the few vegetables in season in December) is to me one maliciously designed to ruin that traditional turkey dinner. So I have to admit, when a press release from the National Farmers Union (NFU) claiming that new EU pesticides legislation threatened sprout growing in the UK hit my in-box, my initial thought was 'Yippee'.

But is that response misguided? Because not only do some strange people (including one of my colleagues I was discussing the subject with a few minutes ago) actually like sprouts, but growing them is an important part of the livelihood of many farmers. And of course it's not just in sprouts where the banning of many widely used chemicals will have an impact. Farmers and crop scientists say that without many of the currently used pesticides, yields will drop and food prices rise - not what we want as a recession bites and many people are losing their jobs and incomes.

The Christmas gift that keeps on growing

Still haven’t bought the Christmas present for that special person, who is the hardest one to find a present for? Why not buy your friends and loved ones their own personalised tree in the Scottish highlands and, at the same time, reduce carbon emissions! Plant a tree for life - a great and somewhat unusual environmentally friendly and ethical Christmas gift. Read on to find out more about this great gift idea.

Precious gifts of frankincense and myrrh...

Here's another Christmas helping from the CAB Abstracts - this time on the seasonal subjects of frankincense and myrrh. These two precious plant resins have numerous uses in perfumes and medicines - not to mention anti-wrinkle creams! Frankincense comes from trees of the genus Boswellia and myrrh from species of Commiphora, both members of the Burseraceae. Boswellia and Commiphora are both native to Africa and the frankincense and myrrh are aromatic gum resins tapped from the trees by scraping back the bark.

How about some gold for Christmas?

After reading about everyday playful behaviour, such as humour and day-dreaming in the last blog by fellow ‘hand-picked’ blogger Dave Hemming, I was sitting here day-dreaming of a white Christmas and the three kings, and their myrrh, frankincense and gold. When I thought of gold I remembered screening Computers & Geosciences the other day, when I came across an interesting article, which I thought might be of interest for those of you who want to give something different this Christmas – how about finding your own gold deposit in time for Christmas? The article describes quantitative analysis of geo-scientific data to determine areas most likely to contain mineral deposits and is aimed at the mining industry. However, I can’t see why we all can’t have a go too. Read on to see how it’s done.

Gold nugget (Google images)

Nothing funny in CAB Abstracts – or is there?

The CAB Abstracts database might not be the most obvious choice for finding out about humour, but as with most subjects, a few well-chosen search terms will pull out some surprises.

Readers should be aware that laughing could be a symptom of manganese or carbon monoxide poisoning, nitrogen narcosis or viral-relatic spastic paraparesis, or consumption of Gymnopilus spectabilis or Ohwaraitake (big laughter mushroom). However, there are several studies showing positive effects of laughter.

As reported earlier in this blog, laughter elevates the levels of breast-milk melatonin. A paper in the Journal of Obesity in 2007 showed that genuine voiced laughter causes a 10-20% increase in energy expenditure (EE) and heart rate above resting values, which means that 10-15 min of laughter per day could increase total EE by 40-170 kJ (10-40 kcal). So rather than going to the gym, rent a funny DVD.

There are several papers in CABI Abstracts focusing on humour therapy. A Nottingham Trent University study showed that humour and exercise had an equally positive effect on psychological distress and positive wellbeing. However, humour exerted greater anxiety-lowering effect than exercise. A six-month study of cancer-patients showed that a 'laugh mobile', a cart which is rolled to patients' bedsides to supply them with humorous books, games and cassettes was an effective resource. Humour can reduce paediatric immunisation distress. Studies also suggest humour can help build social connections between the abled and less-abled bodied.

Another study stressed the importance of “the discursive recourse of "laughter” and how it was employed to manage interactional difficulty during the rock climbing experience.” There’s nothing like the threat of an imminent death plunge to spark off witty repartee, apparently.

A study of soccer players showed that there was a correlation between use of humour and the likeability of the head and assistant coaches. For head coaches, there was a strong relationship between the use of humour and liking the coaches. For the assistant coach, the humour-liking relationship was found to be a moderate relationship. The link between humour and results was not recorded, so the ability of coaches to see the funny side of suffering an 8-0 defeat, and their subsequent likeability, is unclear.

Observations on human behaviour in experimental semistarvation and rehabilitation” from 1948 came up with the rib-tickling revelation that “”humour" dried up " with extreme hunger, and the tone of the group became sober and serious, apart from the exhibition of irony and sarcasm.” The quality of the jokes is not detailed for this research.

A couple of Canadian authors argue that “leisure researchers should give more attention to the psychology of everyday playful behaviours, such as humour, day-dreaming, fantasy, and make-believe.” Some cynics may have thought that’s what they did in the first place.

In the words of two Scandinavian researchers: “Humour is to be regarded as a salutogenic factor. As with other such factors there are reasons to believe that humour is a part of the individual's personality with the possibility of being strengthened by influences from the family, school, and workplace. The use of humour in population-based health promotive intervention strategies is a field lacking evidence-based knowledge.”

It’s the way you tell ‘em.

Scope for significant GHG emissions cut in agriculture

At the same time as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference on Climate Change opened in Poznan, a new report on building a low carbon economy was published on Monday, 1st December, by the Government’s Committee on Climate Change, chaired by Lord Turner. The Soil Association welcomed the announcement by Lord Turner that there is ‘scope for significant emissions cuts in agriculture’. Peter Melchett, the Soil Association director said ‘we share Lord Turner’s apparent disappointment that so little has been done to look for options to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture. When the food we buy accounts for 30% of our personal carbon footprint we think it’s a scandal that, in the Committee on Climate Change’s words, ‘the policy framework for delivering abatement (from farming) is underdeveloped’. This means the government have neglected the climate change impact of food and farming, and the Soil Association welcomes the fact that the Committee on Climate Change will be making this a priority over the next 12 months. How might this be achieved? Read on and find out.

Algae surface again

...not as harmful blooms but as biofuel feedstocks.

A 20-year study by the Aquatic Species Program, funded by the US Department of the Environment, concluded in July 1998 that even with the most optimistic lipid yields, production of biodiesel from algae would only become cost-effective if petrodiesel prices rose to twice the 1998 levels.

And here we are...

Participants at the International Algae Congress in Amsterdam are focussing on the potential of algae for biofuel production, looking at species and cultivation technologies. Much background work was done by the Aquatic Species Program which screened over 3000 species for high lipid content. Some algae can produce up to 60% of their biomass in the form of oil which can be used without further processing, for some purposes, or transformed into biodiesel, but the challenge lies in finding high-oil-yielding algae with a fast growth rate. Cultivation technology is still a leading issue and a lab scale photobioreactor from Wageningen University is on display at the congress. The purpose of the bioreactor is to study the effects of design parameters on the productivity of microalgae. Open-pond systems, such as those used in the Aquatic Species Program, are unlikely to succeed...they require hardy high-yielding strains  which are fast-growing, and are resistant to environmental fluctuations and infection and competition from other microorganisms.

The pros and cons of algae for biofuels...algae are not part of the food supply and would not be competing with food crops for land; oil yields are high; sustainable production using wastewater for nutrient supply and carbon dioxide from power plants is possible; algae in photobioreactors will not become invasive (which is a concern with some potential biofuel crops). The cons - I'm sure there are some - the main problem seems to be the cost involved in the technology for production and harvesting. Can biodiesel from algae ever be economically competitive with other forms of liquid biofuel? And what about rural communities? Will small-scale systems be developed which can be used by rural communities to generate income or energy?

For some of the latest research have a look for 'algae'and 'biofuels' on CAB Abstracts or the specialized subset Biofuels Abstracts.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, 1-12 December 2008

The 14th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the 4th meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol opened today in Poznan, Poland. The conference will draw almost 11000 participants, including government delegates from the 187 Parties to the UNFCCC and representatives from business and industry (See announcement video by the UNFCCC Executive Secretary on Climate Change or read on for more details).