Shoot and root growth and soil water depletion were studied in mungbean and soyabean grown at three plant populations after non-flooded rice (Oryza sativa) during the post-monsoon dry season in the Philippines. The site had a shallow fluctuating water table (1-2 m) but rooting depth was restricted to 0.8 m by a volcanic tuff layer. Soyabean had a longer duration (89 days) than mungbean (68 days) and intercepted more solar radiation, but from 61 days after sowing was severely stressed and accumulated little dry matter. Mungbean avoided severe water stress due to its short duration. Despite this stress, grain yield (1.0 t ha-1) was similar for the two species and soyabean yielded more grain nitrogen but less straw nitrogen than mungbean. Higher plant population achieved by narrower row spacing increased cumulative light interception and both grain and forage yields in both crops.

K. D. Shepherd, P. J. Gregory, T. Woodhead, R. K. Pandey y E. C Magbujos: Crecimiento de la soja (Glycine max) y del frijol mungo ("Vigna radiata) en la estacidn post-monz6n despuis del arroz de secano.

Approximately 25 % of individuals with Crohn's disease (CD), a life-long relapsing-remitting disease, are diagnosed during childhood and adolescence. Symptoms of CD, including abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhoea, can lead to reduced food intake, which may negatively have an impact on nutritional status during this critical period of growth and development. The aims of the present study were to assess the growth and adequacy of dietary intakes of children with CD at Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, and compare with healthy controls. Sixty-three subjects aged 10–16 years were recruited, including: children with active CD (n 18), children with CD in remission (n 23) and healthy controls (n 22). Dietary intake was assessed using a FFQ and compared with current Australian recommended dietary intakes (RDI). Growth and dietary intakes were compared between groups. Subjects with active CD had lower weight and BMI Z scores than children in remission and controls. The energy intakes of children with active CD and those in remission were significantly lower than estimated energy requirements (P = 0·001 and P = 0·03 respectively). Children with active CD did not meet the RDI for Fe and their Ca intake was lower than the RDI (P = 0·04). In conclusion, the dietary intake of children with active CD was impaired, with inadequate intakes of energy, Ca and Fe. Reduced energy intakes during active disease may contribute to poor weight gain and impaired growth. Quantifying nutrient intake and ascertaining requirements for nutritional supplementation are essential components of successful management in paediatric CD.

Monthly and annual totals for the Penman estimate of potential evaporation have been reliably determined, for periods varying from 7 to 11 years, at 14 East African observatories. At each site, these annual and monthly totals are normally distributed, with coefficients of variation of the order of 5 and 10 per cent, respectively. Meteorological stations established for the sole purpose of supporting evaporation surveys should therefore be relocated at 5- or 6-year intervals so as to derive maximum benefit from the valuable instruments. The results of these variability analyses were applied in the evaluation of confidence limits for monthly and annual potential evaporation rates, and reference is made to recent compilations of such limits for 137 sites in Kenya and Tanzania.

Confidence limits of expected twenty-day rainfall have been computed for two widely separated maize-producing regions in Kenya. The 35-km. square survey areas were quite different topographically, and limits were derived for seven rainfall sites in each. Ratios of these limits to the corresponding long-term mean precipitations were evaluated for each site for each twenty-day period during the appropriate maize-growing seasons. For a particular period and confidence level, these ratios were almost constant for either group of seven sites. The variability computed for a single, well-chosen site is therefore representative of quite a large neighbourhood. Expected rainfall totals were also derived for a ‘fictitious’ site, simulating the average precipitation over the whole of the flatter of the two areas. The resulting limits were less extreme than those of any individual site, indicating that areal rainfall, as used in hydrology, is less variable than the agriculturally-important point rainfall.

For Muguga, in Kenya, confidence limits of expected ‘twenty-day’ rainfall may be reliably derived through a logarithmic transformation of the skew rainfall data. Frequency distributions of rainfall totals received during specific crop-growing seasons are examined for three widely separated Kenya sites. It is shown that confidence limits for such seasonal rainfall cannot be obtained by summation of the corresponding limits for the successive twenty-day intervals included within the season. Twenty-day limits should not therefore be accumulated in seasonal comparisons of crop water requirements and precipitation. Such assessments of agricultural site potential must take account of the year-to-year variability of precipitation, but are best undertaken with actual rainfall amounts.

The major impact of artificial radioactive material on the oceans has been as a potential pollutant, and, in particular, concern has centred on the public health problems that might arise through human exploitation of marine environments. This public health problem has been an important stimulus to marine pollution methodology. The development and deployment of critical path analysis techniques to the control of this material and to the assessment of its significance for human radiation exposure (Preston 1969; Foster, Ophel and Preston 1971; Slansky 1971) not only exemplifies the control of a chemical pollutant but has served as a stimulus to produce much of the basic physical, chemical and biological data required for its proper implementation. In more recent years the advantages which labelled environments confer for studies of a much wider physical, chemical or biological nature are being increasingly recognised (Natn. Sci. Fdn 1971; Volchok et al. 1971; Lowman, Rice and Richards 1971; Duursma, 1972; Preston, Jefferies and Pentreath 1972,) and many of the tools of nuclear technology, radio-isotopes, reactor propulsion systems, isotope power sources, neutron activation analysis techniques, etc., will enjoy an increasingly important role in oceanography, not only in basic investigations but also in the rational exploitation of marine resources.