Horizontal patterns of plankton communities in lakes are assumed to be transitory resulting from instantaneous weather conditions and water currents. High dispersal is suggested to constrain local optimization of communities and to result in strong synchrony of temporal dynamics at different sites. However, spatio-temporal dynamics of plankton are rarely analysed in lakes mainly due to the samp...

This study aimed to assess the relationship between birth weight and maternal exposure to passive smoking during pregnancy, and to investigate some other determinants of birth weight. A retrospective cohort study in Baghdad, Iraq was conducted during February to August 2004 on a random sample of 300 non-smoker housewife mothers, interviewed 24 hours after delivery: 150 were not exposed to passi...

OBJECTIVE The overall goal of this study was to understand the time use, including leisure occupations, of a sample of young offenders in Melbourne, Australia. METHOD This study investigated how 37 probationary young offenders (from 13-18 years of age) spent their wakeful time during 1 week. The study used a combination of the Experience Sampling Method and interviewing. Participants were bee...

BACKGROUND To characterize participant reasons for withdrawing from a diabetes focused longitudinal clinical observational trial (TEDDY) during the first three study years. METHODS 8677 children were recruited into the TEDDY study. At participant withdrawal staff recorded any reason parents provided for withdrawal. Reasons were categorized into (1) family characteristics and (2) protocol reas...

Six months after new legislation in Turkey banning smoking in all public places, a national survey was carried out to assess its implementation. This paper summarizes the main findings on the public's awareness of and support for the new law. In a household interview survey of 32 972 adults representative of the Turkish adult population, a high proportion of both non-smokers and current smokers...

It is difficult to assess pollution in remote areas of less-developed regions owing to the limited availability of energy, equipment, technology, trained personnel and other key resources. Passive sampling devices (PSDs) are technologically simple analytical tools that sequester and concentrate bioavailable organic contaminants from the environment. Scientists from Oregon State University and t...

Complexity of contaminants exposure needs to be taking in account for an appropriate evaluation of risks related to mixtures of pesticides released in the ecosystems. Toxicity assessment of such mixtures can be made through a variety of toxicity tests reflecting different level of biological complexity. This paper reviews the recent developments of passive sampling techniques for polar compound...

Weekly-fortnightly ozone (O3) concentrations measured by passive sampling at 81 forest monitoring plots in France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland over the period 2000-2002 were used to estimate the cumulative exposure index AOT40. The estimation method is based on a deterministic model which describes the O3 daily profile as a function of relative altitude (the difference between the altitude of ...

L m 2-stable digital-control networks for multiple continuous passive plants. A constructive method is presented in which L m 2-stability can be guaranteed for networked control of multiple passive plants in spite random time varying delays and data dropouts. The passive plants are interfaced to a wave variable based passive sampler (PS) and passive hold (PH) which allows a passive digital cont...