A therapeutic regimen for purging dieldrin from adulterated individuals
SummaryIn four feedlots 1013 steers had become contaminated by being fed over 50% of their diet as cull seed potatoes containing 0.1 to 0.2 ppm dieldrin (dry weight basis), developing residues of up to 0.76 ppm (rendered fat). These residues were in excess of federal guidelines (0.30 ppm, rendered fat), but considered non-pathological and without physiological effect. Application of a therapeutic regimen, consisting of an initial injection of testosterone propionate and vitamins A, D and E and of daily oral doses of phenobarbital (first 20 days only) and activated charcoal in a finishing ration, resulted in marked reductions in dieldrin residues within 30 days. The rate of dieldrin loss was increased six-fold and the residual half-life reduced from a reported 150 to 250 days to about 25 to 80 days. The effectiveness of individual components or combinations was not evaluated, but the rate of charcoal feeding appeared most important.
Dieldrin uptake from a contaminated Haplustox by glasshouse-grown plants
Dieldrin uptake by carrots (Daucus carota), corn (Zea mays), lucerne (Medicago sativa), lupins (Lupinus augustifolius), ryegrass (Lolium rigidum), subclover (Trifolium subterraneum) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) grown in pots containing 4 kg soil contaminated with dieldrin (2.2 mg kg-1) was determined. Plants were grown for 3 months in a glasshouse and were then analysed for dieldrin using a gas chromatographic technique. Roots of all plants contained in excess of 2 mg kg-1 dieldrin, while the tops of all plants except carrots contained less than 0.2 mg kg-1 dieldrin. In a similar experiment, the concentration of dieldrin in the roots of carrots grown in contaminated soil-brown coal mixtures decreased from 2.4 to 0.2 mg kg-1 as the percentage of coal in the growth medium increased from 0 to 20%. These data support the recommendation that it would be unwise to allow beef cattle to graze dieldrin-contaminated land planted with these species, as grazing animals ingest roots as well as tops of plants. Results also indicate that use of the contaminated soil for carrot production is not an option. Incorporation of brown coal into the surface soil would decrease the uptake of dieldrin by plants, but the high application rates required to achieve the desired decrease would be associated with prohibitively high costs.
A Study on Greenhouse Automatic Control System Based on Wireless Sensor Network
The system proposed in this paper collects temperature of leaves and humidity on leaves of crop. As well as greenhouse environmental information such as temperature, humidity, etc. Crop diseases, especially, have deep relationship not only with indoor environmental factors but also with humidity lasting time on leaves and temperature of leaves. Accordingly, monitoring crop itself is as important as monitoring indoor environments. Using these collected greenhouse environmental data, indoor environments can be more effectively controlled, and monitoring crop itself can contribute to improve productivity and to prevent crops from damages by blight and harmful insects. In addition, it will be possible for farmers to do control plant growth through closely studying relationship between indoor environmental information and monitored information on crop itself. Collected data can be stored to database either in server installed in greenhouse or to remote server. It is made possible to collect information and control effectively and automatically greenhouse in the site or from a remote place through web browser. System components are: temperature sensor, humidity sensor, leaf temperature sensor, leaf humidity sensor, Zigbee based wireless sensor node, relay nodes for automatic control, and data server to store greenhouse information. The system is implemented using low power wireless components, and easy to install.