Assignment of the New Type of Ecological Services for Providing Human Safety Under Conditions of Urban Environment

The main aim of the study is to separate a new category of ecological services for providing human and environmental safety under conditions of accelerated urbanization in the system of eco-services.Urbanization decreased the potential of ecological services and the set of provided functions at the expanse of absorbing essential territories of natural ecosystems and disturbing the ecological balance of the environment. The urbogenic environment that men made and natural dangerous phenomena intensify synergetically in models the new level of threats for both a human and all biotic and abiotic components. There was offered to separate an integral safety service as a new type of eco-services, based on the principle of providing human safety through environmental one. It was demonstrated, that safety services will improve other categories of ecological services, widen the assortment, diversity and mutual dependence of functions. There was presented the succession of steps for identifying and assessing safety services. Indicators and possible types of giving safe and high-quality drinking water to the population were given.The demand for safety services will grow with the development of urbanization processes. Separation and provision of services by functions of the human protection against natural and men made threats increases the total potential of eco-services

Usual energy and macronutrient intakes in 2-9-year-old European children

OBJECTIVE: Valid estimates of population intakes are essential for monitoring trends as well as for nutritional interventions, but such data are rare in young children. In particular, the problem of misreporting in dietary data is usually not accounted for. Therefore, this study aims to provide accurate estimates of intake distributions in European children. DESIGN: Cross-sectional setting-based multi-centre study. SUBJECTS: A total of 9560 children aged 2-9 years from eight European countries with at least one 24-h dietary recall (24-HDR). METHODS: The 24-HDRs were classified in three reporting groups based on age- and sex-specific Goldberg cutoffs (underreports, plausible reports, overreports). Only plausible reports were considered in the final analysis (N=8611 children). The National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Method was applied to estimate population distributions of usual intakes correcting for the variance inflation in short-term dietary data. RESULTS: The prevalence of underreporting (9.5%) was higher compared with overreporting (3.4%). Exclusion of misreports resulted in a shift of the energy and absolute macronutrient intake distributions to the right, and further led to the exclusion of extreme values, that is, mean values and lower percentiles increased, whereas upper percentiles decreased. The distributions of relative macronutrient intakes (% energy intake from fat/carbohydrates/proteins) remained almost unchanged when excluding misreports. Application of the NCI-Method resulted in markedly narrower intake distributions compared with estimates based on single 24-HDRs. Mean percentages of usual energy intake from fat, carbohydrates and proteins were 32.2, 52.1 and 15.7%, respectively, suggesting the majority of European children are complying with common macronutrient intake recommendations. In contrast, total water intake (mean: 1216.7 ml per day) lay below the recommended value for >90% of the children. CONCLUSION: This study provides recent estimates of intake distributions of European children correcting for misreporting as well as for the daily variation in dietary data. These data may help to assess the adequacy of young children's diets in Europe

Towards more ecoefficient food production: MFA approach

The food flux comprises four mutually linked loops: 1)plant production, 2)livestock husbandry, 3) food processing industry and 4) human consumption. In the present paper MFA approach has been used to describe the system. A general framework and practical solutions for estimating and balancing the materials flow are outlined. The focus in this paper is agriculture

Dispelling urban myths about default uncertainty factors in chemical risk assessment - Sufficient protection against mixture effects?

© 2013 Martin et al.; licensee BioMed Central LtdThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Assessing the detrimental health effects of chemicals requires the extrapolation of experimental data in animals to human populations. This is achieved by applying a default uncertainty factor of 100 to doses not found to be associated with observable effects in laboratory animals. It is commonly assumed that the toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic sub-components of this default uncertainty factor represent worst-case scenarios and that the multiplication of those components yields conservative estimates of safe levels for humans. It is sometimes claimed that this conservatism also offers adequate protection from mixture effects. By analysing the evolution of uncertainty factors from a historical perspective, we expose that the default factor and its sub-components are intended to represent adequate rather than worst-case scenarios. The intention of using assessment factors for mixture effects was abandoned thirty years ago. It is also often ignored that the conservatism (or otherwise) of uncertainty factors can only be considered in relation to a defined level of protection. A protection equivalent to an effect magnitude of 0.001-0.0001% over background incidence is generally considered acceptable. However, it is impossible to say whether this level of protection is in fact realised with the tolerable doses that are derived by employing uncertainty factors. Accordingly, it is difficult to assess whether uncertainty factors overestimate or underestimate the sensitivity differences in human populations. It is also often not appreciated that the outcome of probabilistic approaches to the multiplication of sub-factors is dependent on the choice of probability distributions. Therefore, the idea that default uncertainty factors are overly conservative worst-case scenarios which can account both for the lack of statistical power in animal experiments and protect against potential mixture effects is ill-founded. We contend that precautionary regulation should provide an incentive to generate better data and recommend adopting a pragmatic, but scientifically better founded approach to mixture risk assessment. © 2013 Martin et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.Oak Foundatio

Total energy expenditure in obese Kuwaiti primary school children assessed by the doubly-labelled water technique

The aim of this pilot study was to assess body composition and total energy expenditure (TEE) in 35 obese 7–9 years old Kuwaiti children (18 girls and 17 boys). Total body water (TBW) and TEE were assessed by doubly-labeled water technique. TBW was derived from the intercept of the elimination rate of deuterium and TEE from the difference in elimination rates of 18O and deuterium. TBW was used to estimate fat-free mass (FFM), using hydration factors for different ages and gender. Fat mass (FM) was calculated as the difference between body weight and FFM. Body weight was not statistically different but TBW was significantly higher (p = 0.018) in boys (44.9% ± 3.3%) than girls (42.4% ± 3.0%), while girls had significantly higher estimated FM (45.2 ± 3.9 weight % versus 41.6% ± 4.3%; p = 0.014). TEE was significantly higher in boys (2395 ± 349 kcal/day) compared with girls (1978 ± 169 kcal/day); p = 0.001. Estimated physical activity level (PAL) was significantly higher in boys; 1.61 ± 0.167 versus 1.51 ± 0.870; p = 0.034. Our results provide the first dataset of TEE in 7–9 years old obese Kuwaiti children and highlight important gender differences to be considered during the development of school based interventions targeted to combat childhood obesity

Impacts of Reducing UK Beef Consumption Using a Revised Sustainable Diets Framework

The impact of beef consumption on sustainability is a complex and evolving area, as sustainability covers many areas from human nutrient adequacy to ecosystem stability. Three sustainability assessment frameworks have been created to help policy makers unpack the complexities of sustainable food systems and healthy sustainable dietary change. However, none of these frameworks have yet to be applied to a case study or individual policy issue. This paper uses a hybrid version of the sustainability assessment frameworks to investigate the impact of reducing beef consumption (with a concurrent increase in consumption of plant-based foods, with a focus on legumes) on sustainability at a UK level. The aim of this paper is to understand the applicability of these overarching frameworks at the scale of an individual policy. Such an assessment is important, as this application of previously high-level frameworks to individual policies makes it possible to summarise, at a glance, the various co-benefits and trade-offs associated with a given policy, which may be of particular value in terms of stakeholder decision-making. We find that many of the proposed metrics found within the sustainability assessment frameworks are difficult to implement at an individual issue level; however, overall they show that a reduction in beef consumption and an increase in consumption of general plant-based foods, with a focus around legumes production, would be expected to be strongly beneficial in five of the eight overarching measures which were assessed

Detection and Treatment of Mineral Nutrition Problems in Grazing Sheep

Livestock Production/Industries,

Retrospective on U.S. Health Risk Assessment: How Others Can Benefit

Dr. Paustenbach reviews the scientific underpinnings of about twenty years of health risk assessment practice and their implications for environmental policy. He observes that more than 600 peer-reviewed papers provide a wealth of information that can save other countries billions of dollars. He also briefly reviews risk-assessment practices outside the U.S

Evaluation of the utility of sediment data in NASQAN (National Stream Quality Accounting Network)

Monthly suspended sediment discharge measurements, made by the USGS as part of the National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN), are analysed to assess the adequacy in terms of spatial coverage, temporal sampling frequency, accuracy of measurements, as well as in determining the sediment yield in the nation's rivers. It is concluded that the spatial distribution of NASQAN stations is reasonable but necessarily judgemental. The temporal variations of sediment data contain much higher frequencies than monthly. Sampling error is found to be minor when compared with other causes of data scatter which can be substantial. The usefulness of the monthly measurements of sediment transport is enhanced when combined with the daily measurements of water discharge. Increasing the sampling frequency moderately would not materially improve the accuracy of sediment yield determinations