The Green Revolution of the 1960s brought about a dramatic rise in global crop yields. But, as most observers acknowledge, this has come at a considerable cost to biodiversity. Plant breeding, synthetic fertilizers, and mechanization steadily narrowed the number of crop varieties commercially available to farmers and promoted fencerow-to-fencerow monocultures. Many historians trace the origins ...

Often as an epidemic spreads, the leading front is irregular, reflecting spatial variation in local transmission rates. We developed a methodology for quantifying spatial variation in rates of disease spread across heterogeneous landscapes. Based on data for epidemic raccoon rabies in Connecticut, we developed a stochastic spatial model of rabies spread through the state's 169 townships. We qua...

Pesticides associated to genetically modified foods (PAGMF), are engineered to tolerate herbicides such as glyphosate (GLYP) and gluphosinate (GLUF) or insecticides such as the bacterial toxin bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between maternal and fetal exposure, and to determine exposure levels of GLYP and its metabolite aminomethyl phosphoric a...

This paper discusses the difficulties facing the post-apartheid metropolitan government of Johannesburg as it reforms itself, seeking to better respond to the needs of all its citizens, while also attracting new investment. These difficulties include high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality as well as the apartheid legacy of “separate development” with its large backlog of poor quali...

We screened 3,199 people from Shiqu County, Sichuan Province, China, for abdominal echinococcosis (hydatid disease) by portable ultrasound combined with specific serodiagnostic tests. Both cystic echinococcosis (CE) (Echinococcus granulosus infection) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE) (E. multilocularis) were co-endemic in this area at the highest village prevalence values recorded anywhere in t...

So-called AIDS myths surfaced as an outcome of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has escalated severely since mid-1990s in South Africa. Examining these “myths” shows that they belong to the narrative genre of AIDS legends. This article focuses on AIDS legends appearing commonly among Xhosa people living in two townships in Cape Town: one about infected condoms and another concerning pin-pricked orang...

Although theories from economics and evolutionary biology predict that one's age, health, and survival probability should be associated with one's subjective discount rate (SDR), few studies have empirically tested for these links. Our study analyzes in detail how the SDR is related to age, health, and survival probability, by surveying a sample of individuals in townships around Durban, South ...

Kalafong Hospital is a secondary hospital situated to the west of Pretoria. It serves as the regional burns centre for Gauteng province north of the Jukskei river. It mainly serves a poor population. This is a retrospective review of a 10-year period, looking at both numbers and the aetiology of burns treated by this unit. Only adult cases--patients over the age of 12--were assessed. Over this ...

Land surface temperature (LST) is used as an indicator for land temperature.Previous research demonstrates a strong correlation between urban growth andland temperature. The rising of will lead to heatisland if there are no preventative precautions done. Due the area's rapidurbanisation, this study focus on Kuching City. Matang Jaya, Tabuan Jaya,Satok, and Batu Kawa were chosen case studies. Th...

This article examines expulsions in and around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta Melilla informal settlements former black townships South Africa. These violent bordering processes expose injustices that constitute boundaries lawful (liberal) law, violence sovereigns use to secure territories. Drawing on Walter Benjamin we make three main theoretical arguments. First, our case studies are instances...