The Impacts of Oil Palm on Recent Deforestation and Biodiversity Loss.

Palm oil is the most widely traded vegetable oil globally, with demand projected to increase substantially in the future. Almost all oil palm grows in areas that were once tropical moist forests, some of them quite recently. The conversion to date, and future expansion, threatens biodiversity and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Today, consumer pressure is pushing companies toward deforestation-free sources of palm oil. To guide interventions aimed at reducing tropical deforestation due to oil palm, we analysed recent expansions and modelled likely future ones. We assessed sample areas to find where oil palm plantations have recently replaced forests in 20 countries, using a combination of high-resolution imagery from Google Earth and Landsat. We then compared these trends to countrywide trends in FAO data for oil palm planted area. Finally, we assessed which forests have high agricultural suitability for future oil palm development, which we refer to as vulnerable forests, and identified critical areas for biodiversity that oil palm expansion threatens. Our analysis reveals regional trends in deforestation associated with oil palm agriculture. In Southeast Asia, 45% of sampled oil palm plantations came from areas that were forests in 1989. For South America, the percentage was 31%. By contrast, in Mesoamerica and Africa, we observed only 2% and 7% of oil palm plantations coming from areas that were forest in 1989. The largest areas of vulnerable forest are in Africa and South America. Vulnerable forests in all four regions of production contain globally high concentrations of mammal and bird species at risk of extinction. However, priority areas for biodiversity conservation differ based on taxa and criteria used. Government regulation and voluntary market interventions can help incentivize the expansion of oil palm plantations in ways that protect biodiversity-rich ecosystems.

Vertical distribution of Eucalanoid copepods within the Costa Rica Dome area of the Eastern Tropical Pacific.

A variety of ecological strategies for tolerance of low-oxygen conditions within the Costa Rica Dome (CRD) area of the Eastern Tropical Pacific are documented for the copepod family Eucalanidae. During the summer of 2010, we compared the ecological strategies used by the Eucalanidae inside and outside the central CRD region. We compared the vertical and horizontal distributions of five species, Eucalanus inermis, Subeucalanus subtenuis, Subeucalanus subcrassus, Subeucalanus pileatus and Pareucalanus attenuatus together with Rhincalanus species, in the epipelagic (upper 200 m) among four locations, which we grouped into a section roughly crossing the core CRD area (inside-outside core CRD). The coastal area outside the CRD supported the most diverse assemblage, whereas overall abundance of Eucalanidae in the central CRD was 2-fold greater than outside and dominated by E. inermis (>60%). Eucalanidae in the central CRD had a shallow depth distribution, closely associated with the shallow thermocline (10-20 m). There was no evidence of daily vertical migration in the central CRD, but E. inermis demonstrated vertical migration outside the CRD. The vertical abundance patterns of Eucalanidae in the CRD region reflect complex interactions between subtle physical-chemical differences and food resources.

Potassium hydroxide: an alternative reagent to perform the modified apt test.

We tested the performance of potassium hydroxide (KOH) in the modified Apt test under different experimental conditions using sodium hydroxide as a positive control. Like sodium hydroxide, KOH differentiated fresh fetal and adult blood stains on a cloth but not dried blood. KOH may be used to perform the Apt test at the bedside.

Improving follow-up for children with asthma after an acute Emergency Department visit.

OBJECTIVE: To improve follow-up with primary care providers after acute Emergency Department (ED) asthma visits for children from low-income urban families. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective, randomized, controlled trial evaluated combined telephone asthma coaching and monetary incentive. The primary outcome was asthma-planning visits with primary care providers within 15 days of index ED visits. The subjects were urban parents whose children were treated for asthma in the ED and had Medicaid or no insurance. RESULTS: We enrolled 527 parents (264 control and 263 intervention). There was a significant difference ( P < .0001) between the intervention (35.7%) and control (18.9%) groups in the proportion of children who had asthma-planning visits and decreased mean nights/days with asthma symptoms by 4.36 intervention and 3.31 control at 2 weeks. The proportions of children with asthma-planning visits and acute asthma care visits during the 16-day to 6-month period were similar for both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Telephone coaching and a monetary incentive significantly increased the proportion of low-income urban parents who brought their children for asthma-planning visits, and decreased asthma symptoms shortly after asthma ED visits. The intervention did not increase subsequent asthma-planning visits or decrease ED visits or hospitalizations.