No Abstract available.
Natural Resources* ; Education, Medical*

OBJECTIVEUsing geographic information system (GIS) and the remote sensing techniques (RS), we developed a schistosomiasis database and geographic distribution map in Zhongxiang city,Hubei province in order to display and analyze the endemic situation longitudinally after the water conservancy project is completed.

METHODSEpidemiological data of schistosomiasis and the correlated climate and hydrology data for the last 30 years were collected and the relevant GIS databases were established under Artificial Neural Networks(ANN) and network training of Landsat TM images.

RESULTSGIS database of schistosomiasis in Zhongxiang city, Hubei province and its vicinity areas were developed including 1 maps regarding the epidemic situation of schistosomiasis. The areas of snail distributing were 4.4 hm2, 8.2 hm2, 24 hm2, 130.4 hm2, 8.13 hm2 and 7.53 hm2, respectively.

CONCLUSIONThe maps created by GIS database and RS techniques supported the complicated query on space and property, providing a new way in keeping,updating and analyzing available data. The techniques used should be able to provide evidence for the control of schistosomiasis to this water conservancy project.

Animals ; China ; epidemiology ; Climate ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; Databases, Factual ; Humans ; Schistosomiasis ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Snails ; Water

China ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; Electricity

OBJECTIVETo recognize and assess the impact of the South-to-north Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) on the ecological environment of Xiangfan, Hubei Province, situated in the water-out area, and develop sound scientific countermeasures.

METHODSA three-layer BP network was built to simulate topology and process of the eco-economy system of Xiangfan. Historical data of ecological environmental factors and socio-economic factors as inputs, and corresponding historical data of ecosystem service value (ESV) and GDP as target outputs, were presented to train and test the network. When predicted input data after 2001 were presented to trained network as generalization sets, ESVs and GDPs of 2002, 2003, 2004... till 2050 were simulated as output in succession.

RESULTSUp to 2050, the area would have suffered an accumulative total ESV loss of RMB104.9 billion, which accounted for 37.36% of the present ESV. The coinstantaneous GDP would change asynchronously with ESV, it would go through an up-to-down process and finally lose RMB89.3 billion, which accounted for 18.71% of 2001.

CONCLUSIONSThe simulation indicates that ESV loss means damage to the capability of socio-economic sustainable development, and suggests that artificial neural networks (ANNs) provide a feasible and effective method and have an important potential in ESV modeling.

China ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; economics ; Costs and Cost Analysis ; Ecosystem ; Forecasting ; Models, Theoretical ; Neural Networks (Computer) ; Social Conditions ; Water Supply

This paper presented a study on the dynamic of essential oil accumulation in Japanese mint SK33 (M. arrvensis L.) and the influence of storage time on its quantity and quality. This mint was cultivated at Co Nhue experimental station, Tu Liem district, Ha Noi City between 2000 and 2002. The results showed that during the vegetation and development process, the essential oil content in the plant gradually increased and achieved maximum at first branch flowering stage and reduced to minimum at the end of flowering stage. The menthol content in essential oil of Japanese mint SK33 reached the highest value at full flowering stage (81.79%). The best harvest time for this mint is from the beginning flowering stage to full flowering period. After harvesting the whole plants can be stored during 20 days without the change in content and quality of essential oil
oils ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; Oils, Volatile

Environmental pollution induced by food wastes is considered as one of very serious problems in the world, and it is the most important to reduce the production of food wastes. In this study, environmental campaign for reducing food waste was conducted by applying various campaign methods using such as a bulletin board, intra-network, slogans & posters and news letters, as well as some systems such as penalty and prize in a business & industry foodservice. We investigated customers' recognition and execution degree before and after environmental campaign for the purpose of analyzing the changes of customers' attitude by the campaign. The subjects of this study had generally high level of recognition of environmental problem(3.09 point) compared to the execution degree(1.88 point)(Max. 5 points), implying necessity for the induction of actual execution of food wastes reduction by continuous environmental campaign. After environmental campaign, the recognition of environmental problem related to food wastes was significantly increased from 3.09 point to 3.29 point (p<0.001), and the execution degree for food wastes reduction was also greatly increased from 1.88 to 2.70 point (p<0.001). These changes indicated that campaign for food wastes reduction has raised customers' recognition and execution for environmental protection.
Awards and Prizes ; Commerce ; Natural Resources* ; Environmental Pollution

The rapid appraisal method was used to identify the botanicals used ethnomedicinally from a total of 300 randomly selected respondents drawn from the existing three geo-political zones of Ekiti State, Nigeria. The results obtained revealed that about 40% of the 71 botanicals identified presently rare. Most of the presently abundant botanicals are species primarily cultivated for other purpose other than medicine. Most of the identified species are valued for their curative effects on malaria and fever, the predominant diseases in the study area. The need for the conservation of the rare species cannot be over emphasised as most rural dwellers in the study area depend mostly on herbs from these species. Strategies towards the attainment of this goal are proposed.
Conservation of Natural Resources ; Nigeria ; Plants, Medicinal

OBJECTIVETo investigate the common resource of Chinese herbal medicine in western of Luoding City, Guangdong Province, and propose pertinent suggestions concerning the exploitation,utilization and conservation of the medicinal resources.

METHODSWith plant taxonomy method, we selected the JiaYi town as the center for local common Chinese herbal medicine resources, ecological environment and non-governmental investigation of medicinal.

RESULTSThere were 123 species of medicinal plants in Jiayi Town, including pteridophyte 11 species, gymnosperm 5 species, dicotyledon 97 species,and monocotyledon 12 species.

CONCLUSIONThis region has an excellent ecological environment and forest plant communities preserved relatively intact suitable for the growth of Lingnan Chinese herbal medicine, as well as a profound cultural background of folk medicine. The resources should be actively protected for further rational development and utilization.

China ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal

This study was conducted to investigate the wild and cultivated resource situation of Rheum tanguticum in main production area of China, estimate its reserves, and put forward the feasible approach for the sustainable utilization of R. tanguticum. On the basis of the literature data about R. tanguticum, conbined with interview, investigation and sampling investigation, the total reserve of resources is estimated using the route-quadrat method and the vegetation and soil-type map area method proposed by our research group. The results indicate that there is no obvious change between the present distribution ranges of the wild R. tanguticum and its historical records, but its population density has changed clearly. The reserve of the wild R. tanguticum has seriously declined in lots of place, even faced the exhaustion in some regions. According to the investigation, the resource reserve of the wild R. tanguticum is no more than 5 000 t, and the cultivated is about 1 607 t. The resource reserve of the wild R. tanguticum is nearly depleted, and this suggests that the wild R. tanguticum should be enrolled in the protection plant list, and the cultivated will become the main resource of Rhubarb in the future. So it is extremely neccessary to collect and protect the germplasm resource of R. tanguticum, establish the germplasm nursery and repository, and conduct breeding research on those bases.
China ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; Rheum ; growth & development

Collected and preserved germplasm resource of Dendrobium chrysotoxum to lay the foundation for screening fine germplasm. Through refering literatures, visiting and field survey to investigate the distribution, botanic characters and apply status of D. chrysotoxum, furthermore to collect the germplasm resource. The result show that wild germplasm resource of D. chrysotoxum has obvious differences in stem characters, leaf shape as well as flower color aspects. In addition, in recent ten years, the reserves of D. chrysotoxum germplasm resource seriously descended. Through this study, we can draw a conclusion that D. chrysotoxum germplasm resource exist diversity in biology. In these germplasm resource, there are high yield and good quality variety.
Conservation of Natural Resources ; Dendrobium ; growth & development