Experiments were conducted in 2008, 2009, and 2010 to determine the influence of water source as carrier and other agrochemicals on glyphosate efficacy and physicochemical compatibility. Glyphosate efficacy was not affected by most water sources, when compared with deionized water, although response was not consistent across all weed species, including cereal rye, common lambsquarters, common ragweed, goosegrass, Italian ryegrass, large crabgrass, Palmer amaranth, tall morningglory, and wheat. Control by glyphosate was not negatively affected when coapplied with cloransulam-methyl, dicamba, flumioxazin, pyrithiobac-sodium, thifensulfuron-methyl plus tribenuron-methyl, trifloxysulfuron-sodium, and 2,4-D but was affected by acifluorfen and glufosinate. Calcium, manganese, and zinc solutions consistently reduced weed control by glyphosate, whereas boron seldom affected efficacy. Compared with deionized water, Italian ryegrass control was affected by water sources when applied at seedling and jointing stages more so than at tillering and heading growth stages. Calcium, manganese, and zinc reduced control regardless of growth stage. Precipitates were not produced when glyphosate was applied with the water sources or fertilizer solutions. However, transient precipitates developed when glyphosate was coapplied with cloransulam-methyl, flumioxazin, thifensulfuron-methyl plus tribenuron-methyl, and trifloxysulfuron-sodium but not when coapplied with acifluorfen, dicamba, glufosinate, pyrithiobac-sodium, and 2,4-D. Solution pH ranged from 4.11 to 5.60 after glyphosate was added, regardless of solution pH before glyphosate addition.

Since early detection of pathogens and their virulence factors contribute to intervention and control strategies, we assessed the enteropathogens in diarrhoea disease and investigated the link between toxigenic strains of Escherichia coli from stool and drinking-water sources; and determined the expression of toxin genes by antibiotic-resistant E. coli in Lagos, Nigeria. This was compared with isolates from diarrhoeal stool and water from Wisconsin, USA. The new Luminex xTAG GPP (Gastroplex) technique and conventional real-time PCR were used to profile enteric pathogens and E. coli toxin gene isolates, respectively. Results showed the pathogen profile of stool and indicated a relationship between E. coli toxin genes in water and stool from Lagos which was absent in Wisconsin isolates. The Gastroplex technique was efficient for multiple enteric pathogens and toxin gene detection. The co-existence of antibiotic resistance with enteroinvasive E. coli toxin genes suggests an additional prognostic burden on patients.

Fog interception and rainfall were measured during one year in three elfin cloud forests on small mountains along the Caribbean coast of South America and one in the Venezuelan Andes. (1) While rainfall increases from west to east in the small mountains along the coast, fog interception decreases. In 1985, the total annual rainfall and fog interception were 853 mm and 796 mm in the cloud forest of Serrania de Macuira, 1630 mm and 518 mm in Cerro Santa Ana and, 4461 mm and 480 mm in Cerro Copey. In the Andean forest of El Zum-bador, the 1985 rainfall was 1983 mm and the annual fog interception was only 72 mm. (2) Fog interception seems to be an important source of water to the elfin cloud forests of the small mountains which are surrounded by dry vegetation types and where the rainfall regime is highly seasonal. (3) Fog interception increases with altitude (in the same mountain), exposure (windward slopes) and leaf inclination. These variations of fog interception could partially explain the observed distribution of epiphytic flora in some of these cloud forests.

A tracer (51Cr-EDTA) study was undertaken with juvenile (20 g) freshwater rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, using an experimental design that minimized stress effects during feeding and drinking trials. A calculation procedure was developed, where feed intake (pellet number), tracer intake (mL), water in stomach contents (g) and drinking rate (mL·kg–1·h–1) are essential to discriminate between the major stomach water sources prandially and postprandially: water bound in food; initial water absorption of pellets; prandial water intake; postprandial water intake and endogenous stomach secretion. We put forward the hypothesis that intake of dry food with a minor water content (10 %) may impose a demand for water to moisture the feed up to the level in natural feed (75 %) as preparation for gastric emptying, whereafter food is ready to pass from the stomach through the pyloric sphincter. Moisture content of pellets increased from 9.4 to 24.9 % in the pre-meal period. The pellets were ingested with 4.0 to 19.3 μL water per pellet, reflecting high inter-individual variation. Prandially moisture content rose to 52 % and further increased to 56 % in the delay period. Moisture content was ca. 65 %, when pellets began to disintegrate and move through the sphincter in accordance with the hypothesis. Stomach secretion contributed 34–44 % of the stomach water and ingested water 25–35 %. The sampling and calculation procedure gave convincing evidence for the detailed stomach water budget and this individual approach can be very useful in comparisons of artificial and natural diets.