Mangroves are among the most significant and valuable coastal ecosystems providing considerable benefits, many goods and services, to humans through forest products, fisheries and medicines. In addition and importantly, they play a major role in ecological and natural disaster protection in coastal areas. Asian people have used mangroves in their lives and economies over a long period of history. Unfortunately, mangrove forests in this region have been under threat of severe destruction especially since the 1980's due to conflicting development purposes. Encouragingly, the mangrove forests areas of Southeast Asia slightly increased while those in south Asia and East Asia have slightly declined over the past decade. Today, intensive management of mangrove forests in Asian countries is evident, especially rehabilitation, protection and conservation. The sustainable management of mangrove forests will not be achieved without close participation of all stakeholders strong technical supporting and strict law enforcement by Governments who look upon their mangrove ecosystems as excellent resources for a world that must find ways of placing a dollar value on natural eco-resources.

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Glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and divinyl benzene (DVB) were cografted onto a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) film with a thickness of 35 μm by electron-beam-induced graft polymerization. First, one surface of the resultant GMA/DVB-cografted film reacted with trimethylammonium chloride to convert the epoxy group of the cograft chain into trimethylammonium group capable of selectively permeating mono-valent cations. Second, the remaining epoxy group across the entire film was converted into a sulfonic acid group by a reaction with sodium 3-mercapto-1-propanesulfonate. Electrodialysis of a mixture of 0.5 mol/L NaCl and 0.05 mol/L MgCl₂ using a pair of the resultant mono-valent cation selective cation-exchange membrane and a commercially available anion-exchange membrane exhibited a permselectivity coefficient of 0.56.

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The dependence of the change in the texture of vegetables on the dehydration and penetration behavior of sodium chloride was examined using radishes, turnips and cucumbers. In the model examination, the elastic modulus of salted vegetables was constant, and the ratio of the elastic modulus of salted vegetables to that of raw vegetables was about 0.3, independent of the kind of vegetable when the dehydration rate was 25% or more, and when the sodium chloride concentration of the vegetable was 1% or more. When a whole turnip was pickled, the elastic modulus of the salted vegetable was constant and the ratio of elastic modulus was about 0.3, independent of the kind of the vegetable when the sodium chloride concentration of the vegetable was 1% or more. This result was the same as that of the model examination.
The above results suggest that one indicator for ending the soaking of vegetables is the time when the sodium chloride concentration in the vegetable becomes 1% or more. The texture of the vegetable after soaking was predicted by measuring the physical properties of the raw vegetable.

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