Book reviews

Landscape Transformed

London, Academy Editions, 1996, 112 pp., no price given, ISBN 1-85490-452-3

Sculpting with the Environment: a natural dialogue

Baile Oakes (Ed.)

New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1995, ISBN 0-442-01642-5, 252 pp., £45.00, hb.

After the Ruins: restoring the countryside of Northern France after the Great War

Hugh Clout

Exeter, University of Exeter Press, 1996, ISBN 0-85989-491-6,332 pp., £35.

Environmental Aesthetics: ideas, politics and planning

J. Douglas Porteous

London and New York, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-13769-1, 20 pp., £15.99.

Countryside Survey 1990 Main Report

C.J. Barr, R.G.H. Bunce, R.T. Clarke, R.M. Fuller, M.T. Furse, M.K. Gillespie, G.B. Groom, C.J. Hallam, M. Hornung, D.C. Howard & M.J. Ness

London, Department of the Environment, 1993, 174 pp., £12.00 (available from DoE Publications Sales Unit, Block 3, Spur 2, Government Buildings, Lime Grove, Eastcote, HA4 8SE)

World of Environmental Design, Volume 1: Urban Spaces I (Streets and Squares)

Francisco Asenio Cerver

Barcelona, Arco Editorial, 1995, 255 pp., US$75 (per volume) ISBN 84-8185-004-7 (complete work), ISBN 84-8185-005-5 (Volume 1)

'The Remains of Distant Times': archaeology and the National Trust

David Morgan Evans, Peter Salway & David Thackray (Eds)

Woodbridge, Suffolk, The Boydell Press, 1996, ISBN 0-85115-671-1, hb, 235 pp., £29.50

Apostle of Taste: Andrew Jackson Downing 1815-1852

D. Schuyler

Baltimore, fohns Hopkins University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8018-5229-3, $35.95     

Kairomones and their use for management of entomophagous insects

In laboratory experiments conducted to compare the kairomonal activity forMicroplitis croceipes (Cresson) of frass fromHeliothis zea (Boddie) larvae fed on different host plants,M. croceipes females responded to extracts of frass from larvae reared on cotton or soybeans but not on corn. The lack of response to frass from larvae reared on corn was shown to be a result of a lack of some appropriate chemical(s) in the corn.Lepidoptera: Noctuidae.Hymenoptera: Braconidae.In cooperation with the University of Georgia College of Agriculture Experiment Stations, Coastal Plain Station, Tifton, Georgia 31793. Accepted for publication February 9, 1981.Mention of a proprietary product in this paper does not constitute an endorsement by this product by the USDA.     

IBM,Microsoft in encryption effort

It looks like 2000 could be a big year for public key infrastructure (PKI). Five leading vendors this week announced the formation of the PKI Forum with the intention of moving the technology forward as an E-commerce enabler.     

Companies join Bright Light to tackle spam

A pioneer of anti-spam software and E-mail programs has formed partnerships with a number of leading industry players to combat the growing problem of spam, or unsolicited E-mail.     

Disaster on hold!

A new disaster recovery initiative is just being launched in the US by 20 vendors. The vendors including Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems and led by Quantum Systems have launched Prove-IT to offer the small and medium-sized business continuity and archiving services. Prove-IT is aimed at companies with annual revenue between $50 million and $500 million. There are plans to expand the initiative to Europe, according to Margaret Pereira, spokesperson for Quantum, but she gave “six months to a year” as a time frame for when the programme may move overseas.     

Quantitative determination of the population biological activity of biological sludges used in the activated sludge waste water treatment process

The population biological activity of biological sludges used in the activated sludge waste water treatment process is defined as that minimum amount of biological sludge, still able to reduce in a 21 h contact period, the soluble COD of a waste water by one half the value equivalent to the BOD_5d. This A_mg^BOD50% 21 h value was determined by incubating hundred fold serial dilutions of a biological sludge with a previously sterilized waste water and by plotting the residual soluble COD remaining after a 21 h incubation period vs the sludge dilution. The method allows any given biological sludge to be readily assayed on any given waste water. Biological sludges were found stable for periods up to three months in the frozen state or when stored at 4°C. Lyophilization of biological sludges resulted in a severe loss of population biological activity. Biological sludges of trade waste water treatment plants were followed for periods up to 70 days. A correlation was found between the population biological activity and changes in environmental factors such as reduced N and P nutrient feeding, reduced aeration or changes in pH. Minor changes resulted in a decrease in population biological activity. Drastic changes resulted in a modified shape of the soluble COD vs biological sludge dilution curves, presumably reflecting deep modifications of the waste water-treating biological community.