Pollen transport by clothes

Pollen transport into houses via clothing was studied on different types of fabrics after clothing was aired or worn outdoors. After walking through grassland, 68 pollen grains/cm² were found on clothes (tape samples). The amount of grass pollen, and especially pollen from insect-pollinated plants, increased from the shirt towards the shoes. The amount of pollen on clothes aired outdoors in a yard depended on the concentration in the ambient air and the texture of the fabrics. On vacuumed samples, 1.2 grains/cm²/h adhered to the furry fabric of fleece and wool, whereas only 0.3 grains/cm²/h adhered to a tight weave polyamide coat and a denim jacket. A moist cotton shirt gave slightly higher pollen counts in both the tape (8.6 grains/cm²/h) and the vacuumed samples (1.0 grains/cm²/h) compared to a dry shirt (5.6 and 0.6 grains/cm²/h), but the difference was not significant. Tape samples gave tenfold higher pollen numbers compared to vacuumed samples, probably due to the more optimal location of the tape sampling area on top of the shoulders. We conclude that clothing constitutes an important route for carrying allergenic pollen into houses. Pollen transport can be decreased by shaking outdoor clothing before entering a residence. In our case, shaking removed 68% pollen grains from trousers.     

The latent Trichophytosis of human clothes

Summary In Part IV on the latent Trichophytosis of human clothes the author is presenting a survey on the role of the basic materials of textiles. The results of culture-tests performed on various textiles, the colony-formation of the more important dermatophytes on various textiles are discussed. Finally the author is analysing the survival of spores in cultures and the long-range aspects of the usefulness of textile materials.     

Environmental costs and benefits of growing Miscanthus for bioenergy in the UK

Planting the perennial biomass crop Miscanthus in the UK could offset 2–13 Mt oil eq. yr^?1, contributing up to 10% of current energy use. Policymakers need assurance that upscaling Miscanthus production can be performed sustainably without negatively impacting essential food production or the wider environment. This study reviews a large body of Miscanthus relevant literature into concise summary statements. Perennial Miscanthus has energy output/input ratios 10 times higher (47.3 ± 2.2) than annual crops used for energy (4.7 ± 0.2 to 5.5 ± 0.2), and the total carbon cost of energy production (1.12 g CO₂‐C eq. MJ^?1) is 20–30 times lower than fossil fuels. Planting on former arable land generally increases soil organic carbon (SOC) with Miscanthus sequestering 0.7–2.2 Mg C4‐C ha^?1 yr^?1. Cultivation on grassland can cause a disturbance loss of SOC which is likely to be recovered during the lifetime of the crop and is potentially mitigated by fossil fuel offset. N₂O emissions can be five times lower under unfertilized Miscanthus than annual crops and up to 100 times lower than intensive pasture. Nitrogen fertilizer is generally unnecessary except in low fertility soils. Herbicide is essential during the establishment years after which natural weed suppression by shading is sufficient. Pesticides are unnecessary. Water‐use efficiency is high (e.g. 5.5–9.2 g aerial DM (kg H₂O)^?1, but high biomass productivity means increased water demand compared to cereal crops. The perennial nature and belowground biomass improves soil structure, increases water‐holding capacity (up by 100–150 mm), and reduces run‐off and erosion. Overwinter ripening increases landscape structural resources for wildlife. Reduced management intensity promotes earthworm diversity and abundance although poor litter palatability may reduce individual biomass. Chemical leaching into field boundaries is lower than comparable agriculture, improving soil and water habitat quality.     

Triple benefits from spatial resource management

Standard fishery management models suggest that regulations designed to produce maximum rent should reduce effort – and thus employment – from its open-access level. Using a simple diffusion model, we show that the opposite can be true when the spatial distribution of effort, as well as the total amount of effort, can be controlled. Under certain ecological and economic circumstances that we describe, optimal spatial management can produce “triple benefits” compared to open access: an increase in rent, an increase in standing stock, and an increase in employment. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Context-dependent genetic benefits from mate choice

Adaptive mate preferences are generally assumed to be static and open-ended, favouring the most extreme expression of display traits. In contrast to this view, three new studies show that genetic benefits from mate choice can be context-dependent. Thus, there might be short-term fluctuations in selection on mate preferences. The crucial question then is, are plastic mate preferences an optimal evolutionary outcome?     

Bacterial hitchhikers derive benefits from fungal housing

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Castoff from the West,pearls in Kantamanto? A critique of second-hand clothes trade

African countries are today the major importers of the lowest grade of second-hand clothing (SHC). With the opening of global markets and the intense circulation of fast fashion in the Global North from the 1990s, the trade of SHC has exploded in the twenty-first century. The fast fashion business model, which fuels the SHC trade, has led to reduced quality of clothes, limited clothing lifetime, and accelerated discard of clothing, which end up as donations or become waste. The complexity of the international geographies of the SHC trade creates opacity and secrecy, maintaining inequalities and imbalances between Global North (GN) and South (GS), which continue a relationship of colonial dependence. This paper presents a critical look at SHC exchange in Kantamanto, the biggest SHC market in West Africa, situated within the central business district of Accra, Ghana. The paper scrutinizes the export of unwanted donated clothing, popularly known as “Obroni w'awu” (white man is dead), to Kantamanto. We use direct observation along with an interpretive research design through the analysis of photos taken from Kantamanto, and scholarly and gray literature. The paper documents local practices of reuse, exposing a duality: on the one hand, clothing's symbolic value that is lost in the GN is reconstituted in the GS through exchange and labor-creating local economies. On the other, the global trade of SHC has become synonymous with dumping, continuing a colonialist relationship between the GN and GS whereby the GN exports unwanted clothing to predominantly African countries’ landfills.     

Nitrogen retention versus methane emission: Environmental benefits and risks of large-scale wetland creation

Coastal eutrophication by nutrient fluxes from agricultural land to marine recipients is presently combated by measures such as the implementation of watershed-scale wetland creation programs aimed at nitrogen removal. Such created agricultural wetlands - termed ‘nitrogen farming wetlands’ (NFWs) - receive nitrogen (N) loads predominantly as nitrate, facilitating N removal by denitrification. However, the conversion of agricultural soils into waterlogged wetland area is likely to increase climate gas emissions, particularly methane (CH₄). There is thus a need to evaluate the benefits and risks of wetland creation at a large, watershed-scale.Here we investigate N retention and CH₄ emission originating from watershed-scale wetland creation in South Sweden, the relation between both processes, and how CH₄ emission depends on individual wetland parameters. We combine data from intensively studied reference wetlands with an extensive wetland survey to predict N retention and CH₄ emission with simple models, to estimate the overall process rates (large-scale effects) as well as spatial variation among individual NFWs.We show that watershed-scale wetland creation serves targeted environmental objectives (N retention), and that CH₄ emission is comparably low. Environmental benefit and risk of individual wetlands were not correlated, and may thus be managed independently. High cover of aquatic plants was the most important wetland property that suppressed CH₄ net production, potentially facilitating N retention simultaneously. Further, differences between wetlands in water temperature and wetland age seemed to contribute to differences in CH₄ net production. The nationally planned wetland creation (12,000 ha) could make a significant contribution to the targeted reduction of N fluxes (up to 27% of the Swedish environmental objective), at an environmental risk equaling 0.04% of the national anthropogenic climate gas emission.     

Cleavage specificity against glucagon of the two metal chelator-sensitive proteinases from webbing clothes moth larvae

• 1.I. The 2 metal chelator-sensitive proteinases from Tineola bisselliella larvae cleave the same 7 peptide bonds in glucagon.
• 2.2. Their cleavage specificities are quite different from those of the metal chelator-sensitive proteinases from microorganisms and snake venoms.