Climate-influenced migration in Bangladesh: the need for a policy realignment

Recent research into migration in Bangladesh has highlighted that people migrate for better livelihoods, not necessarily in response to climatic stresses and shocks. If facilitated appropriately, internal and international migration can help build adaptive capacity to future environmental and climatic hazards. In this framing, migration happens in the context of a growing city-centred economy that promotes remittances to villages. However, a textual analysis of current and recent policies concerning climate change, development and poverty alleviation, and disaster management shows that the economic and adaptive roles of internal migration are often not included in policy framing. We argue that if migration works as a positive step towards adaptation, then the key challenge is to align the policies with this new understanding

Antimalarial Therapy Selection for Quinolone Resistance among Escherichia coli in the Absence of Quinolone Exposure, in Tropical South America

BACKGROUND: Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is thought to develop only in the presence of antibiotic pressure. Here we show evidence to suggest that fluoroquinolone resistance in Escherichia coli has developed in the absence of fluoroquinolone use. METHODS: Over 4 years, outreach clinic attendees in one moderately remote and five very remote villages in rural Guyana were surveyed for the presence of rectal carriage of ciprofloxacin-resistant gram-negative bacilli (GNB). Drinking water was tested for the presence of resistant GNB by culture, and the presence of antibacterial agents and chloroquine by HPLC. The development of ciprofloxacin resistance in E. coli was examined after serial exposure to chloroquine. Patient and laboratory isolates of E. coli resistant to ciprofloxacin were assessed by PCR-sequencing for quinolone-resistance-determining-region (QRDR) mutations. RESULTS: In the very remote villages, 4.8% of patients carried ciprofloxacin-resistant E. coli with QRDR mutations despite no local availability of quinolones. However, there had been extensive local use of chloroquine, with higher prevalence of resistance seen in the villages shortly after a Plasmodium vivax epidemic (p<0.01). Antibacterial agents were not found in the drinking water, but chloroquine was demonstrated to be present. Chloroquine was found to inhibit the growth of E. coli in vitro. Replica plating demonstrated that 2-step QRDR mutations could be induced in E. coli in response to chloroquine. CONCLUSIONS: In these remote communities, the heavy use of chloroquine to treat malaria likely selected for ciprofloxacin resistance in E. coli. This may be an important public health problem in malarious areas

I will not go, I cannot go: cultural and social limitations of disaster preparedness in Asia, Africa, and Oceania

While much work has been invested in addressing the economic and technical basis of disaster preparedness, less effort has been directed towards understanding the cultural and social obstacles to and opportunities for disaster risk reduction. This paper presents local insights from five different national settings into the cultural and social contexts of disaster preparedness. In most cases, an early warning system was in place, but it failed to alert people to diverse environmental shocks. The research findings show that despite geographical and typological differences in these locations, the limitations of the systems were fairly similar. In Kenya, people received warnings, but from contradictory systems, whereas in the Philippines and on the island of Saipan, people did not understand the messages or take them seriously. In Bangladesh and Nepal, however, a deeper cultural and religious reasoning serves to explain disasters, and how to prevent them or find safety when they strike

Update of the Scientific Opinion on opium alkaloids in poppy seeds

The CONTAM Panel wishes to thank the hearing experts: Pavel Cihlar, Daniel Doerge and Vaclav Lohr for the support provided to this scientific output. The CONTAM Panel acknowledges all European competent institutions and other stakeholders that provided occurrence data on opium alkaloids in food, and supported the data collection for the Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database. Adopted: 22 March 2018 Reproduction of the images listed below is prohibited and permission must be sought directly from the copyright holder:Figure A.1 in Appendix A: © Elsevier.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Diazoalkane complexes of ruthenium with tris(pyrazolyl)borate and bis(pyrazolyl)acetate ligands

Diazoalkane complexes [Ru(Tp)(N(2)CAr1Ar2)(PPh3)L]BPh4 (1 and 2) [Tp = tris(pyrazolyl) borate; L = P(OMe)(3), P(OEt)(3); Ar1 = Ar2 = Ph; Ar1 = Ph, Ar2 = p-tolyl; Ar1Ar2 = C12H8] were prepared by allowing chloro-compounds RuCl(Tp)(PPh3) L to react with diazoalkane in the presence of NaBPh4. Acrylonitrile CH2=C(H) CN reacts with diazoalkane complexes to give 3H-pyrazole derivatives [Ru(Tp){N=NC(Ar1Ar2)CH(CN)CH2}(PPh3){P(OMe)(3)}]BPh4 and [Ru(Tp){N=NC(Ar1Ar2)CH2C(H)CN}(PPh3)-{P(OMe)(3)}]BPh4 (3). Diazoalkane complexes [Ru(bpza)(N(2)CAr1Ar2)(PPh3)(2)]BPh4 (4) [bpza = bis(pyrazolyl)-acetate] were also prepared. All complexes were characterised by IR and NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystal structure determination of [Ru(Tp){N2C(Ph)(p-tolyl)}(PP(h)3){P(OMe)(3)}]BPh4 (1b). The differences exhibited by [Ru(Tp){N2C(Ph)(p-tolyl)}(PPh3){P(OMe)(3)}](+) and [Ru(Cp){N2C(Ph)(p-tolyl)}(PPh3){P(OMe)(3)}](+), as regards coordination of the diazoalkane ligand and reactivity towards alkenes, were explained on the basis of a comparative DFT study