[Long term survey on food pollution and contamination by radioactive fallout in Fukuoka, Japan (1961-1976) (author's transl)].
The contamination and the pollution of foodstuffs by radioactive fallout have been investigated since 1961 in Fukuoka city and its suburban area. The results obtained were as follows.1) Recently, the degree of the contamination of greens by radioactive fallout which fell on the leaves decreased to one thousandth in the early stage of the investigation (1961-1962). In the period of the investigation, the remarkable increase of the radioactivity of fallout was observed within a week after the Chinese nuclear bomb explosion in the atmosphere (1st, 2nd, 5th, 12th, 13th, and 15th). The radioactivity was 2 to 300 times higher than the usual level.2) The radioactivity was not remarkable in vegetables which were washed with soap, but it decreased gradually year by year. The increase of the radioactivity was also observed a few days after the atmospheric nuclear explosion.3) In milk, there were no remarkable yearly decreases of the radioactivity from the beginning of the investigation, but the seasonal variations of the radioactivity, such as higher in April and May, were observed.4) The radioactivity in diets based on the standard food production in Japan was the highest in 1967. It decreased gradually from 1967 to 1971 and after that the remarkable variation of the activity was not observed.5) 137Cs contamination of foodstuffs has been observed quantitatively by the method of gamma spectrometry, while sometimes 95Zr-95Nb, 103Ru, and 131I were also detected from the specimens obtained immediately after the nuclear explosions.
A study on the distribution of 95Zr-95Nb administered subcutaneously to rats: comparison between young and adult rats.
Following a single subcutaneous injection of 95Zr-95Nb to young and adult rats, the concentrations of the nuclides in several organs were studied during the observation period of 63 days. The concentrations in the tibia, lungs, liver, kidneys and spleen of the young rats were much higher than those in the adult rats. The concentration in the tibia, among these organs was the highest both in the youngs and in the adults. Moreover, in the tibia, 95Zr-95Nb retained longer than in other organs. So, if 95Zr-95Nb invade into the body fluid through any route of entry, the radioactive nuclides deposit mainly in the bone and may have possibility to cause radiation injury to the bone marrow.
Morpho-biometric Relationship, Relative Condition Factor and Meat Yield of Distant Scallop Bractechlamys vexillum (Reeve, 1853) in Asid Gulf, Philippines
Understanding the relationships of morphometric and biometric characters of a species allows the prediction of one trait from the other and generate a measure of relative condition. These relationships were studied for the Distant scallop Bratechlamys vexillum (Reeve, 1853) in Asid Gulf. Representative samples collected during the dry season (May 2018, n = 99) and wet season (September 2018, n = 100) were used to analyse these relationships through models of simple linear and power regression analyses, revealing allometric growth patterns. For both periods, it was revealed that shell width (SW) is a slightly better predictor than the height (SH) for total weight (TW) (R2 = 0.90 and 0.92) and the adductor muscle weight (AW) (R2 = 0.78 and 0.80). The strong functional relationship was also observed between TW and AW (R2 = 0.80 and 0.81). The relative condition factors (Kn) were high in both seasons. High meat yields were also observed in May (12.77 %) and September (14.26 %). The significant difference in meat yields (P < 0.05) can be a result of the seasonal difference manifested by the dynamics of energy partitioning during gametogenesis and spawning. These biological metrics are vital inputs in analysing mariculture prospects for the resource and a contribution to the scarce information on the biology of the species.