This document was prepared in response to the questions posted by County Extension FCS faculty in Florida. Consumers in Florida counties frequently asked these questions during the 2004 hurricane season. Answers for each question have been prepared by using resources from UF/IFAS, federal agencies and other reputable sources including Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages (National Disaster Education Coalition, NDEC, 2004). This is an initial compilation of questions and answers which does not cover every single item related to emergency or hurricane situations. We welcome additional questions from those who use this document. They will be included, along with answers, in the next version of this publication. This document is FCS8789, one of a series of the Family, Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date July 6, 2005.

The estrogenic effect of butylparaben was investigated in a rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss test system. Butylparaben was administered orally to sexually immature rainbow trout every second day for up to 10 days in doses between 4 and 74 mg kg(-1) 2 d(-1) and in the water at 35 and 201 microgram l(-1) for 12 days. Plasma vitellogenin was measured before and during the exposures and the concentrations of butylparaben in liver and muscle were determined at the end of experiments. Increases in average plasma vitellogenin levels were seen at oral exposure to 9 mg butylparaben kg(-1) 2 d(-1). The ED50 values for increase in vitellogenin synthesis were 46, 29 and 10.5 mg butylparaben kg(-1) 2 d(-1), respectively, at day 3, 6 and 12. Exposure to 201 microgram butylparaben l(-1) increased vitellogenin synthesis, but exposure to 35 microgram l(-1) did not. Butylparaben showed little tendency to bioaccumulation in rainbow trout; less than 1 per thousand of the total amount of butylparaben administered orally at 51 mg kg(-1) 2 d(-1) over the 12 days experimental period was retained in liver at the end of the experiment. After 12 days exposure to 35 and 201 microgram butylparaben l(-1), plasma concentrations were 9 and 183 microgram l(-1), respectively, and for the fish exposed to 201 microgram l(-1) there was a positive correlation between concentrations of vitellogenin and butylparaben in the plasma. On the assumption that butylparaben removed from the water phase during water exposure were taken up into the fish, butylparaben uptake rates in the fish exposed to 35 and 201 microgram butylparaben l(-1) were 13 and 78 mg kg(-1) day(-1), respectively.

Non-irrigated (rainfed) agriculture is the major crop production system worldwide. It occupies large proportion of total land areas in Asia (88 %) and Africa (99 %). In some important food legume growing countries in South Asia, r

In Jordan, the only fresh water ecosystem Azraq Wetland Oasis was destroyed due to water scarcity. The destruction was a result of water over pumping from the greater basaltic Azraq basin. Hundreds of artesian wells have been drilled during the past two to three decades. This excessive drainage of water has lead to total dryness of the Azraq Oasis except from two ponds where water is pumped daily into them. This drainage of water has lead to disappearance of the vegetation where 135 species have been recorded in that site. Most farms in the area have been destroyed and deserted. Azraq Oasis used to be an attractive site for tourism affected the socioeconomic integrity of the people living in that area. Another sad case is that the use of the treated waste water in irrigation as about 50 million cubic meters are added to the water of the Zarqa River ending the King Talal Dam.

Pulsed-field gradient NMR (PFG -NMR) is widely applied to probe living tissues and biological cells structure for measuring thermodynamic binding constants, membrane permeability and rates of transmembrane exchange processes. Water movements in biological systems and food matrices are important in the engineering aspect such as quality manipulation in food processing. The measurement of diffusion properties of water molecules in food systems is now possible using PFG -NMR, and the hydration properties and hydrodynamic properties of food materials can be accurately evaluated by this method. In this paper, we measured the diffusion behavior of water in protein matrix, Tofu, and the membrane permeability in biological cell such as chlorella, yeast and human red blood cell non-invasively by PFG-NMR.

Nylon 6 and nylon 12 food packaging materials used as sausage casings are typically exposed to fatty food on one side and boiling water on the other during the cooking process. To simulate the migration behaviour under these conditions, a special migration cell was constructed and filled with olive oil on one side of the polymer and water on the other to find out what amounts of the migrants will transfer to either side and phase at 100 °C. Results show that when a nylon 6 film is exposed to the conditions as described above, total mass transfer of the monomer—caprolactam—into the water phase occurs after 2 h at 100 °C. Nylon 12 sausage casings release similar amounts of their monomer—laurolactam—into both the aqueous and oil phase. An existing computer migration model was adapted to simulate the situation of simultaneous two-sided migration applying previously determined diffusion and partitioning coefficients. The suitability of the model was confirmed by experimental data.

Guar gum is a widely used ingredient in food processing industry. This work highlights the use of guar gum as a flocculant aid in potable water treatment. Current practice of using synthetic flocculants such as polyacryl-amide has raised controversies of acrylamide residues in water and thereby increasing health risk of the population. The flocculating effect of guar gum on the settling characteristics of flocs in a bench-scale potable water clarification process is presented in this work. Data from two experimental runs, namely, run A (guar gum and primary coagulant) and run B (primary coagulant only), were used to plot settling velocity distribution curves (SVDC). Observation of these curves revealed that guar gum increased the proportion of destabilised colloidal impurities settling above a stated minimum velocity. It was found that guar gum may be used along with alum to reduce raw water turbidity from 26.5 to 1.0. It may be concluded that guar gum can be used as a safer alternative to polyacrylamide in water treatment for drinking or food processing purposes.

During winter in southern Queensland, eight rusa deer stags aged 4 years were given ad libitum lucerne (Medicago sativa) hay and confined in individual metabolism pens for 26 days. Stags ate 2.04 kg dry matter (DM) per day and drank 6.4 kg water per day, while the drinking water : food DM ratio was 3.3 l/kg. In experiment 2, seven rusa stags were given ad libitum lucerne hay or oaten (Avena spp.) hay with or without barley grain supplementation (200 g/day) for 56 days (four periods). This experiment was conducted from 26 July to 19 September 2001, when the stags were exhibiting the behaviour characteristic of the rut. Rusa stags ate 1.19 and 1.17 kg DM per day of lucerne and oaten hay respectively. Rusa stags given oaten hay drank slightly more water than those that received lucerne hay (5.34 and 4.47 kg/day, respectively). The drinking water : food DM ratios were 3.81 and 4.67 kg/kg for lucerne and oaten hay, respectively. Barley grain supplementation (200 g/day) had no influence on total food or water intakes of the rusa stags.