Accompanied by increasing population growth and urban sprawl, most coastal cities are unprecedentedly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts, such as sea level rise, increasing extreme storm events, and coastal flooding. Coastal resilience and sustainable development are antidotes to vulnerability; they aim to enhance the adaptive capability of absorbing disturbances and resisting uncertainty. This study explores building a quantitative assessment framework to measure resilience and provide an objective and comparable method to understand the strengths and weaknesses in a given region. The proposed 25 resilience indicators incorporate the aspects of essential livelihood protection, infrastructure and natural resource maintenance, emergency facilities and institutions, floodplain management regulations, and adaptive planning process. Each indicator is assigned the resilience quality that includes robustness, resourcefulness, redundancy, and rapidity. The aggregated resilience quality scoring reflects the systematic performance of the city to cope with the coastal hazards. The innovative part of this framework is combining hazard mitigation measures, climate adaptation strategies, and sustainable development goals together to achieve a comprehensive assessment method. In the case of New Haven, the resilience assessment is taken as a practical monitoring tool and decision-making support.

Bigeye grunt Brachydeuterus auritus is an important economic species in the waters off Sierra Leone in West Africa, with great ecological value. Based on the survey data of bottom trawl nets from 6 voyages from 2019 to 2021, the body weight-length relationship (WLR), as well as their relative fatness, were studied in depth using the method of body length and its corresponding mean body weight. This study fitted the WLR of bigeye grunt by gender, calculated its fullness, and analyzed the influence of environmental factors. The results showed that month and gender had a significant impact on body length and weight distribution (P<0.01). There was a highly significant negative correlation (P<0.01) between the condition factor (a) and the allometric factor (b) in the WLR, and salinity significantly affects b (P<0.05). The (lga)/b ratio was less affected by environmental factors which may be related to the body size and density of the fish. The difference in b between male and female populations was extremely significant (P<0.01). The relative fatness had significant seasonal variation characteristics, with highly significant effects of sex and body length (P<0.01). With increasing body length, the relative fatness showed two types of changes, continuously increasing and first increasing then decreasing, with salinity and b significantly affecting the type of change (P<0.05) and depth having a highly significant effect (P<0.01). The bigeye grunt off the coast Sierra Leone exhibited significant seasonal growth characteristics, with significant differences in growth characteristics between male and female individuals. This study suggested that salinity may be the main factor affecting its growth and development. In addition, this study hypothesised that the peak breeding season may occur during the dry season, beginning in December and ending before April of the following year. The study provides updated and more comprehensive insights into the biology and ecology of the bigeye grunt offshore Sierra Leone, West Africa, which can provide scientific basis for its resource assessment, development and utilization, and resource management.

Understanding and controlling reproductive cycles and gonadal maturation in cultivated species are crucial in aquaculture. The sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, known for its edible gonads, requires careful maturation control for both reproduction and commercialization. This study explores the impact of temperature, photoperiod, and diet on gonadal development to enhance year-round aquaculture practices. Using two independent cultivation systems, we manipulated environmental conditions to mimic different seasons. Sea urchins were exposed to natural or manipulated temperature and photoperiod conditions and fed either natural (Ulva spp.) or formulated diets. The gonadosomatic index (GI) and histological analysis assessed gonadal development. Results revealed a clear correlation between environmental conditions, diet, and gonadal maturation. Manipulated conditions accelerated maturation, with sea urchins showing advanced stages compared to natural conditions. Furthermore, sea urchins fed formulated diets exhibited higher GI values, indicating enhanced maturation. Histological analysis confirmed accelerated maturation, particularly in females. The study underscores the feasibility of controlling gonadal maturation through environmental manipulation and diet, enabling year-round marketable gonad production. Providing formulated diets rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, notably docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), enhances commercial value. These findings optimize aquaculture practices for P. lividus, highlighting its adaptability to yield-maximizing production strategies. Understanding and controlling reproductive cycles and gonadal maturation in cultivated species are crucial in aquaculture. The sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, known for its edible gonads, requires careful maturation control for both reproduction and commercialization. This study explores the impact of temperature, photoperiod, and diet on gonadal development to enhance year-round aquaculture practices. Using two independent cultivation systems, we manipulated environmental conditions to mimic different seasons. Sea urchins were exposed to natural or manipulated temperature and photoperiod conditions and fed either natural (Ulva spp.) or formulated diets. The gonadosomatic index (GI) and histological analysis assessed gonadal development. Results revealed a clear correlation between environmental conditions, diet, and gonadal maturation. Manipulated conditions accelerated maturation, with sea urchins showing advanced stages compared to natural conditions. Furthermore, sea urchins fed formulated diets exhibited higher GI values, indicating enhanced maturation. Histological analysis confirmed accelerated maturation, particularly in females. The study underscores the feasibility of controlling gonadal maturation through environmental manipulation and diet, enabling year-round marketable gonad production. Providing formulated diets rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, notably docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), enhances commercial value. These findings optimize aquaculture practices for P. lividus, highlighting its adaptability to yield-maximizing production strategies.

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The Upper Hunter Valley is a major coal mining area in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Due to the ongoing increase of mining activities, PM10 (air-borne particle with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micrometres) pollution has become a major air quality concern in local communities. The early part of this study identified two air quality subregions in the valley. This paper aims to provide a holistic summarisation of the relationships between elevated PM10 pollution in two subregions and the local- and synoptic-scale meteorological conditions for spring and summer, when PM10 pollution is relatively high. A catalogue of twelve synoptic types and a set of six local meteorological patterns have been quantitatively derived and linked to each other using the self-organising map (SOM) technique. The complex meteorology-air pollution relationships have been visualised/interpretated on the SOM planes for two representative locations. It was found that the influence of local meteorological patterns differed significantly for mean PM10 levels vs the occurrence of elevated pollution events and between air quality subregions. In contrast, synoptic types showed generally similar relationships with mean vs elevated PM10 pollution in the valley. Two local meteorological patterns, the hot-dry-northwesterly wind conditions and the hot-dry-calm conditions, were found most PM10 pollution conducive in the valley when combined with a set of synoptic counterparts. These synoptic types are featured with the influence of eastward migrating continental high pressure system and westerly troughs, or a ridge extending northwest towards coastal northern NSW or southern Queensland from the Tasman Sea. The method and results can be used in air quality research for other locations of NSW, or similar regions elsewhere.

This bibliographic study addresses key aspects related to fishing, product safety, and climate change in the Adriatic Sea region. The examination of product safety focuses on the assessment of contaminants originating from human activities such as industry, mining, agriculture, and household waste disposal. The contamination of the aquatic environment has emerged as a pressing global concern, extending to the Adriatic subbasin. Aquatic organisms, including fish, are prone to accumulating pollutants directly from polluted water sources and indirectly through the food web. The bio-accumulation of potentially hazardous substances, particularly heavy metals, pesticides, PCBs, PAHs, and antibiotic resistance in aquatic organisms, poses a significant threat to human health. Climate change effects will deplete our seafood supply in terms of quantity and safety owing to negative consequences such as higher levels of pollution, parasites, viruses, infections, acidification, and toxicities such as shellfish poisoning. Global food safety strategies should be developed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote environmentally friendly technology, which indirectly affects seafood quality and microbiological safety, especially for Adriatic Sea, which is part of the Mediterranean Sea, characterized by the most polluted waters in the world.

At an energy flux imbalance of about 1 W m–2, the ocean is storing 90 % of the heat accumulating by global warming. However, neither the causes nor the responsible geophysical processes are sufficiently well understood. More detailed investigations of the different phenomena contributing to the oceanic energy balance are warranted. Here, the role of low-level marine clouds in the air-sea interaction is analysed. TEOS-10, the International Thermodynamic Equation of State of Seawater – 2010, is exploited for a rigorous thermodynamic description of the climatic trend of the Lifted Condensation Level (LCL) of the marine troposphere. Rising Sea-Surface Temperature (SST) at constant Relative Humidity (RH) is elevating marine clouds, cooling the cloud base and reducing the downward thermal radiation. This LCL feedback effect is negative and counteracting ocean warming. At the current global SST of about 292 K, the net radiative heat flux from the ocean surface to the LCL cloud base is estimated to 24 W m–2. Per degree of SST increase, this net flux is expected to be enhanced by almost 0.5 W m–2. The climatic LCL feedback effect is relevant for the ocean’s energy balance and may thermodynamically rigorously be modelled in terms of TEOS-10 equations. LCL height may serve as a remotely measured, sensitive estimate for sea surface relative fugacity, or conventional relative humidity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered seismic shifts in how we work, and organizations behave. It has caused many organizations to transition from an office-centric culture to more flexible ways of working. This shift is necessitated by health conditions and the need for controls. It is also driven by the assumption that remote work or working from home offer a certain assurance of safety for employees against the threat of infection in highly vulnerable office conditions. The shift to remote work has so far been mainly experimental as most businesses continue to learn about what works and what doesn’t. There is also the assumption that all that matters for the efficient operability of a remote work regime is the availability and effectiveness of computing technologies and internet connectivity. Thus, once those supplies are in place remote work is expected to be fully functional and without problems. As learning continues about what works and what doesn’t, it has also become increasingly clear that beyond the threat of covid-19 and the relative safety that individual homes may offer, there are other vulnerabilities which are ignored or underestimated in the process. In most instances, the home environment of the employee, the conditions under which employees operate from home and the health and safety such environments provide (or not) are either ignored or underestimated in discussions around remote work practices. This paper highlights remote work as an emergent practice while exploring associated, but ignored, health and safety issues in employee homes.

Over the last two decades, a considerable amount of equipment has been acquired (spreaders, seeders, sprayers, among others) to respond to the challenges of Precision Agriculture (PA) concept. Most of this equipment has been purchased at a high cost. However, many of them, despite still being functional and equipped with sensors, actuators, and electronic processing units capable of adjusting to variations in speed, have become obsolete in terms of communication, and incompatible with new monitoring and control systems based on the “Isobus” protocol. This work aims to present a solution for updating the control system (“Ferticontrol”) of a “Vicon RS-EDW” spreader with variable rate application (VRA), making it compatible with the “InCommand” system from “Ag Leader”. The solution includes low-cost “Arduino” and “Raspberry Pi” microcontrollers and open-source software. The development shows that it is possible to implement a solution that is accessible to farmers in general. It also provides a niche business opportunity for young researchers to set up small technology-based enterprises associated with universities and research centers. These partnerships guarantee permanent innovation and represent a decisive step towards modern, technological, competitive, and sustainable agriculture.

Wounds are an increasing global concern, mainly due to a sedentary lifestyle, frequently associated to the occidental way of life. The current prevalence of obesity in western societies, leading to an increase in type II diabetes, and an elderly population, are also a key factor associated to the problem of wounds healing. Therefore, it stands essential to find wound dressing systems allowing reestablishing the skin integrity in the shortest possible time and with the lowest cost, avoiding further damage and promoting patients´ well-being. Wounds can be classified into acute or chronic, depending essentially on the duration of the healing process, which is associated with. It depends on the extent and depth of wound, localization, level of infection and on the patient health status. For each kind of wound and respective healing stage there is a more suitable dressing. The aim of this review was to focus on the possible wound dressing management, aiming the more adequate healing approach for each kind of wound.

Buttonweed (Cotula coronopifolia) is native to South Africa but invasive in wetlands in Europe, North America, and Australasia, where it excludes native plants. Despite being dry-fruited, field studies suggest migratory waterbirds can disperse its seeds via gut passage (endozoochory), aiding its expansion. To explore the potential for endozoochory in different regions and habitats, we collected seeds from six populations in Spain, Sweden, and the UK. Germination was tested under different salinity levels (0, 5, 10, 15 g/L) and simulated gut passage treatments: scarification, acidification, or both. No germination occurred at 15 g/L. Higher salinity reduced and delayed germination, but full gut passage treatment increased germinability and accelerated germination. Scarification or acid treatment alone resulted in intermediate germination patterns. There were significant salinity x population and gut passage x population interactions on germinability. The acceleration effect of gut passage on germination was stronger at 5-10 g/L than at 0 g/L. This study highlights how migratory birds can facilitate the spread of alien plants introduced by humans. Non-classical endozoochory by waterbirds is an understudied mechanism for the long-distance dispersal of dry-fruited alien plants. Further research on C. coronopifolia, including population genetics, is necessary to understand dispersal mechanisms and facilitate management strategies.

Many reported sea level records are often not a single measurement. They are then a composition of different records from several tide gauges. Sometimes, they are from the same tide gauge, but the tide gauge stability has been affected by earthquakes. This is the case of Guam as discussed in the present manuscript. The claimed sea level acceleration of Guam is only the result of two earthquakes that have compromised the stability of the tide gauge.

The Upper Hunter Valley is a major coal mining area containing approximately 40% of the currently identified total coal reserves in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Due to the ongoing increase of mining activities, PM10 (air-borne particle with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micrometres) pollution has become a major air quality concern in local communities. This paper summarises the spatial and temporal variability modes of PM10 pollution in the region, based on long-term multi-site monitoring data and the application of the rotated principal component analysis (RPCA) and wavelet analysis techniques. RPCA identified two distinct air quality clusters/subregions in the valley, one in the west/northwest, the other in the southeast. Wavelet analysis revealed the annual cycle to be most persistent temporal mode of PM10 variability in both subregions, with intermittent signals observed at time scales of around 120, 30~90 and under 30 days. How these variation modes are related to the effects of local PM10 emissions and the influence of meteorology at different time scales deserves further attention in future work. The findings will be used in air quality reporting and forecasting in NSW. The methodology and results can also be useful for air quality research in similar regions elsewhere.

The Ylistrum japonicum is a commercially valuable scallop known for its long-distance swimming abilities. Despite its economic importance, genetic and genomic research on this species is limited. This study presents the first complete mitochondrial genome of Y. japonicum. The mitochondrial genome is 19,475 bp long and encompasses 13 protein-coding genes, 3 ribosomal RNA genes, and 23 transfer RNA genes. By selecting 15 Pectinidae species and additional outgroup taxa, we have constructed phylogenetic trees to elucidate the evolutionary placement of Ylistrum within the family Pectinidae. Our analysis reveals that Ylistrum is a basal lineage to the Pectininae clade, distinct from its previously assigned tribe, Amusiini. This study offers critical insights into the genetic makeup and evolutionary history of Y. japonicum, enhancing our knowledge of this economically vital species.

Coilia nasus is an important fish resource in the Yangtze River, and the Yangtze River Estuary is a crucial migration pathway for it. In this study, we used otolith microchemistry to analyze the strontium/calcium (Sr/Ca) ratios and Sr contents in the sagitta otolith of C. nasus from the south branch (SB) and north branch (NB) of the Yangtze River Estuary, and obtained the diversity of migration patterns and spawning grounds distribution for C. nasus. The results indicate that C. nasus from both branches include two types of habitat history: freshwater (F)-brackish water (B) (Type I) and F-B-seawater (S) (Type II), with Type I being dominant at 62.50% in both branches. The C. nasus from SB comprises six migration patterns, while that from NB has seven migration patterns. The C. nasus from both branches hatch in F habitats. At the time of capture, the C. nasus from SB predominantly remain in F, accounting for 62.5%, while C. nasus from NB primarily stay in B, accounting for 87.5%. Throughout the migration process, C. nasus from both branches switch between different habitats, with C. nasus from NB exhibiting more frequent transitions between F and B, showing a greater reliance on the estuarine brackish habitat. The radius of the first blue region near the core (Lf) and freshwater coefficient (Fc) of otolith for C. nasus from both branches are divided into three groups: Long-distance freshwater dependence (LD), medium-distance freshwater-dependent (MD), and short-distance freshwater dependence (SD), with the LD only appearing in the SB, while the NB is primarily represented by the MD. There is a correlation between the differences in Lf among different groups of C. nasus and the differences in the distance from the spawning grounds of C. nasus in different sections of the Yangtze River to the Estuary (DYRE), reflecting the distribution pattern of C. nasus spawning grounds in different sections of the Yangtze River. This study provides theoretical guidance for the protection of migration pathway and maintenance of spawning grounds for C. nasus, which has significant practical value in the precise management of C. nasus resources in the Yangtze River Estuary.

Hypophthalmichthys nobilis are widely distributed in the Yangtze River basin and its related lakes. They are an important economic fish species and are a famous cultured species known as the "Four Famous Domestic Fishes" in China. Currently, with the fishing ban in the Yangtze River basin, fishing for H. nobilis in natural water bodies of the Yangtze River basin has been completely prohibited. In order to identify the sources of H. nobilis appearing in the market, further control and accountability, it is necessary to trace the sources of H. nobilis in the Yangtze River basin and its related water bodies. Therefore, this study identified and traced different sources of H. nobilis through muscle element fingerprint analysis (EFA). The results show that H. nobilis from different stations have characteristic element compositions. The characteristic element of H. nobilis from Wuhan (WH) is Pb, which is significantly higher than that in other stations; the characteristic element from Anqing (AQ) is Hg, which is significantly higher than that in other stations; and the characteristic element from Taihu (TH) is Al, which is significantly higher than that in other water areas. Multivariate analysis selected different spatial distribution patterns of 4 discriminant elements ratios (Pb/Ca, Cr/Ca, Na/Ca, Al/Ca) in the muscle of H. nobilis in the Yangtze River basin and its related lakes. The study suggests that the screened discriminative elements can be used to visually distinguish different sources of H. nobilis, and to quickly trace and verify the origin of newly emerging samples. Therefore, the use of selected discriminant element fingerprint features to trace the origin of new samples has been proven to be feasible. By further discriminating and verifying the muscle element fingerprints of new samples, the discrimination rate is high. Therefore, Multivariate analysis for muscle element fingerprint can be used for origin traceability of samples of unknown origin in market supervision.

The study aimed to analyze thoracic and lumbar erector spinae muscle activations during 3D elongation exercises in individuals with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Participants included 24 adolescents, meeting specific criteria such as a Cobb angle between 10° and 20°, and not having undergone surgical or brace treatments. EMG data were collected to evaluate muscle activations. The study found no significant interaction between exercise type and the side of the curve, but a significant main effect of exercise type on muscle activation, irrespective of Cobb angle. Different exercise types significantly affected muscle activity, with the highest activations in the TheraBand exercise, followed by manual and without equipment conditions. This suggests that exercise type significantly impacts muscle engagement in AIS patients, providing valuable insights for targeted exercise program design. The study, however, focused on short-term muscle activation, not long-term Cobb angle progression, pointing to the need for further research in this area.

Heterosis of growth traits in economic fish has benefited the production of aquaculture for many years, yet its genetic and molecular basis has been remained obscure. Nowadays, a new germplasm of hybrid Jinhu grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus♀ × E. tukula♂), exhibiting paternal-biased growth heterosis, has provided an excellent model for investigating the potential regulatory mechanisms of heterosis. We integrated transcriptome and methylome to unravel the changes of gene expression, epigenetic modification, and subgenome dominance in Jinhu grouper compared with maternal E. fuscoguttatus. Integration analyses showed that the heterotic hybrids showed lower genomic DNA methylation levels than the purebred parent, and the up-regulated genes were mostly DNA hypomethylation. Furthermore, allele-specific expression (ASE) detected paternal subgenome dominance regulated paternal-biased heterosis, and paternal bias differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were wholly up-regulated in the muscle. Muti-omics results highlighted the role of lipid metabolism, particularly “Fatty acid synthesis”, “EPA biosynthesis”, and “Signaling lipids”, in Jinhu grouper heterosis formation. Coherently, our studies have proved that the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) of Jinhu grouper was greater than that of maternal E. fuscoguttatus (8.46% vs 7.46%). Finally, we constructed a potential regulatory network for control of the heterosis formation in Jinhu grouper. Among them, fasn, pparg, dgat1, igf1, pomca, fgf8a, and fgfr4, were identified as key genes. Our results provide new and valuable clues for understanding paternal-biased growth heterosis in Jinhu grouper, taking a significant step towards the molecular basis of heterosis.

Off-grid electrification planning increasingly recognizes the importance of productive use of electricity (PUE) to promote community value creation and (financial) project sustainability. To ensure a sustainable and efficient integration in the community and energy system, PUE assets must carefully be evaluated to match both the community needs and the residential electricity demand patterns. We propose a novel methodology interlinking qualitative interviews, statistical analysis, and energy system modelling to optimize decision-making for PUE integration in off-grid energy systems in rural Madagascar by aligning relevant PUE effectively with anticipated residential electricity demand patterns based on socio-economic determinants of the community. We find that a possible contribution of the PUE to reducing the electricity costs depends signifi-cantly on three factors: 1. the residential electricity consumption patterns that are influenced by the socio-economic composition of the community, 2. the degree of flexibility of i) PUE assets and ii) operational preferences of the PUE user, and 3. the capacity of community members to finance and operate PUE assets. Our study demonstrates that significant cost reductions for PUE-integrated off-grid energy systems can be achieved by applying our proposed methodology. When matching PUE and residential consumption patterns, the integration of PUE assets in residential community energy system can reduce the financial risk of operators, provided the PUE enterprise operates reliably and sustainably. We highlight that the consideration of local value chains and co-creation approaches are essential to ensure the energy system is addressing the community’s needs, creates value for the community, enhances the project´s financial sustainability, and is achieving the overall objectives of decentralized energy system planning.

This study presents a world review as well as new additional data in form of submerged speleothems that are used for paleo sea level reconstructions. Speleothems significantly contributed to the understanding of the global and regional sea level variations during the Middle and Late Quaternary. The studied speleothems cover the last 1.4 Myr and are focused mainly on Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1, 2, 3, 5.1, 5.3, 5.5, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 7.5. Results reveal that submerged speleothems represent extraordinary archives providing detailed information on former sea level changes. We present also new results from stalactites collected in central Mediterranean sea, at Favignana and Ustica islands (Sicily, Italy), both characterized by continental, phreatic or marine layers. The study and analysis of the latter speleothems provide results of great interest for relative sea level changes over the last 1000 years.

Capulus danieli, a distinct member of Capulidae, exhibits a unique ecological behaviour by attaching and drilling onto the pecten, distinguishing itself from other gastropods. Herein, we present the first characterisation of the mitochondrial genome of Capulus danieli. The results showed that the genome spans 15600 base pairs, with an A + T content of 71.12% and a G + C content of 28.88%. Within this genetic makeup, we identified 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and 2 ribosomal RNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a close evolutionary relationship between Capulus danieli and members of the Ficoidea superfamily. The divergence time estimation suggested that Capulus danieli diverged approximately 52.29 million years ago. These findings significantly contribute to our understanding of the evolutionary history and genetic architecture of Capulus danieli, shedding light on its unique ecological adaptations to the marine environment.

Human induced climate change led to the recognition of Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) as one of the remedies in building adaptive capacity and resilience of communities. It recognizes the resources and the skills as well as the agency of communities in shaping the optimal strategy. CBA interventions are vital in addressing community needs and contextual specificities, enable participatory and inclusive engagement and thereby facilitate more profound adaptation impacts. Agent-based modelling (ABM) harbors the potential to be the ideal tool to support developing of tailored adaptation strategies while considering capacities, resources, skills, priorities, needs and the cultural context of local communities. ABM allows to capture the complex relationships among various components within community decision making on CBA actions, the CBA actions themselves and the environment. There exist plenty of tools, however they provide for varying degrees of freedom in agent definition, sensitivity analysis, scalability, experiment design and output analysis to name a few. A set of required key criteria for CBA modelling is developed and all available ABM modelling and simulation tools are assessed for their suitability for CBA. NetLogo emerges as the most fitting tool for incorporating and handling the special features of CBA. It is closely followed by GAMA and Envision. The article provides insights and guidance to researchers and practitioners in selecting ABM tools aligned with the specific requirements of their CBA simulations and projects.

Climate simulations in West Africa have been attributed with large uncertainties. Global climate projections are not consistent with changes in observations at the regional or local level of the Niger basin, making management of hydrological projects in the basin uncertain. This study evaluates the potential of using the quantile mapping bias correction to improve the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) outputs for use in hydrology impact studies. Rainfall and temperature projections from 8 CMIP5 Global Climate Models (GCM) were bias corrected using the quantile mapping approach. Impacts of climate change was evaluated with bias corrected rainfall, temperature and potential evapotranspiration (PET). The IHACRES hydrological model was adapted to the Niger basin and used to simulate impacts of climate change on discharge under present and future conditions. Bias correction significantly improved the accuracy of rainfall and temperature simulations compared to observations. Nash coefficient (NSE) for monthly rainfall comparisons of 8 GCMs to the observed was improved by bias correction from 0.69 to 0.84. The standard deviations among the 8 GCM rainfall data were significantly reduced from 0.13 to 0.03. Increasing rainfall, temperature, PET and river discharge were projected for all GCMs used in this study under the RCP8.5 scenario. These results will help improving projections and contribute to the development of sustainable climate change adaptation strategies.

An improved FSM method is used in geophysical and environmental corrections to enhance the final product of the along track Jason-2 SLA data and extend it near the Red Sea borders. In this study the ionospheric correction range, wet tropospheric correction range, sea state bias correction range and dry tropospheric correction range are enhanced and improved using FSM01, which helped to retrieve three more tracks (106, 170 and 234), earlier neglected by the distribution centers, and extend the tracks towards the coast. The FSM01 SLA is compared with Jason-2 SLA and AVISO SLA for the available 5 tracks, in which the FSM01 SLA show a good agreement and higher correlation with the Jason-2 SLA compared with that of AVISO, in addition to that it fills the gaps in the times series of all tracks. The new retrieved tracks also compared with those retrieved by AVISO, both data show similar variability, with FSM01 SLA show no gaps in the time series. The FSM01 SLA also extended towards the coast and show high correlation with the coastal tide measurements.

The Wester coastal Delta zone of the Netherlands, the relatively more crowded area of the country hosting ten out of seventeen heading to twenty million people, asks for a growing alertness on the topic of resiliency the light of climate-change, like many coastal urban areas do. Approaches of resiliency are often pre-dominated by governmental rescue planning and mobilization of technology innovative solutions. By comparing the float disasters of the 2015 Katrina and 2012 Sandy thunder-storms that hit respectively New Orleans and New York we can learn that the behaviour of people can make the difference in overcoming climate change impact disasters. Post-PhD research with focus on the Dutch Zaanstreek-Waterland area north of the city of Amsterdam, where in 1916 a severe flood took place, proved such. The outcome from focus group sessions is that the alertness and availability of the people to act in case of disaster urgency makes a positive difference, if the memory of the area residents to previous disaster handling is kept alert. This Zaanstreek-Waterland research showed that the disaster from 100 year before still kept the residents alert into resiliency. With that result the defi-nition of resilience should be improved by adding: ‘the interplay in a triangular relationship of civil servants, technicians and residents’.

European strategic policy directions towards a sustainable blue economy have strengthened interest in maritime investments, thus increasing sectoral competition for marine space. Emerging repercussions out of such a rising interest need to be handled by Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) as a means for: properly allocating marine space to diverse uses; managing conflicts and promoting synergies among them; and pursuing a multi-use perspective of this space. A critical stage of each MSP exercise is the exploration of land-based spatial/developmental directions and their current or potential repercussions in the marine environment in order for constraints but also perspectives in policy choices/maritime uses in the MSP context to be featured; and attainment of a successful coherence or coordination between land and marine spatial/developmental policies to be ensured, by analyzing Land-Sea-Interaction (LSI) and embedding it in the MSP. The latter is the focus of this paper aiming to illuminate critical issues emerging from land-based (terrestrial) policy frameworks for feeding MSP endeavors; and is accomplished in the Northern Aegean Sea, Greece. Towards this end, a multilevel approach is adopted, delving into diverse policy contexts at the local, regional and national/European level and aiming to attain more informed MSP decisions in the specific study region.

Multimission satellite altimetry (e.g. ERS, Envisat, TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason) data have enabled a synoptic view of ocean variations in the past decades, including sea-level rise and mesoscale circulations. Since 2016, the Sentinel-3 mission has provided better spatial and temporal sampling compared with its predecessors. The Sentinel-3 Ku/C Radar Altimeter (SRAL) is one of the synthetic aperture radar altimeters (SAR Altimeter) which is more precise in coastal and lake observations. In this study, we validate Sentinel-3 Level-2 products in Baltic Sea coastal areas and two lakes in Estonia. Moreover, the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) Level-3 sea-level anomaly data and the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) reanalysis model outcomes are compared with measurements from a tide gauge network. A dense in situ water level network deployed along the coast for geodetic observation was utilised to provide ground truths for validating altimetry results. Three validation methods were used for Level-2 data: (i) collocated Sentinel-3 and GNSS ship measurements; (ii) a national geoid model (EST-GEOID2017) with sea-level anomaly correction; (iii) collocated Sentinel-3 and buoy measurements. The validations were carried out in seven Sentinel-3A/B overpasses in 2019. Our results show that the uncertainty of the Sentinel-3 Level-2 altimetry product is below decimetre level on the Estonian coast and the targeted lakes. Results from CMEMS Level-3 showed a correlation of 0.8 (RMSE 0.19 m) and 0.91 (RMSE 0.27 m) when compared against tide gauge measurements and NEMO model, respectively.

A study is made of the progressive ‘decoherence’ of cosmic ray extensive air shower particle detector signals in small air showers through measurements of coincidence rates for pairs of detectors versus the detector separation. Measurements are made both when only the two separated detectors themselves trigger in coincidence, and when that coincidence trigger also requires the detection of a local air shower by a small external air shower array. The addition of the explicit air shower trigger ensures that the latter data correspond to showers of a larger particle size, and triggering by very localised shower cores is then unlikely. When including a shower trigger, the decoherence results appear substantially different in form. The coincidence rate between two detectors only can be approximated by a power law variation with separation distance. When triggering involves an air shower array, the variation becomes close to an exponential form with characteristic exponent distances varying systematically with increasing detector and air shower size thresholds. A result is that one can see that small air showers will exhibit clear non-Poissonian density fluctuations near their cores out to distances of ~5m, or at shower energies below ~0.05 PeV. These ideas can be helpful in understanding the statistical properties of signals when using large detectors in air shower arrays.

Approximately 20% of the world's population resides in coastal areas at risk of rising sea levels due to climate change. This could lead to severe weather events and ecological impact on critical infrastructure. To combat the effects of water-based environmental forces on the land, hard engineering methods such as seawalls have been utilized. However, a more sustainable solution is emerging in nature-based engineering, which involves growing vegetation. This approach can help extend the lifespan of existing technology and provide climate change adaptation and resilience for coastal and riverine communities. The following paper will review seaweed farms as an advanced nature-based mitigation approach. The paper also outlines the findings of experiments at RWTH Aachen University's hydraulic laboratory. These tests involved using seaweed as a natural solution to dampen waves in a model system to test a hypothesis. One result involving a system with two lines of seaweed revealed 15 percent wave damping. Using seaweed as a nature-based solution, a gentle engineering approach to designing future vegetated protection systems can extend the design life of existing coastal infrastructure. This can also provide protection against climate-induced sea level rise, promote coastal risk mitigation, restore ecosystems, and foster blue bio-economic development.

This study introduces a technique to uncover concealed patterns in satellite altimetry data, reflecting sea level variations in inland water bodies. We applied the methodology to the Caspian Sea, using altimetry data from four satellite missions over 27 years (1993-2020): TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason1, Jason2, and Jason3. The approach involves two steps: estimating sea level trends and identifying breakpoints that indicate trend shifts; and leveraging time lags between breakpoints at various locations to classify water drainage areas according to their degree of influence on each period. By revealing concealed patterns in the altimetry data, this technique can provide insights to understand the impacts of global warming and local climate changes on sea level fluctuations in the Caspian Sea. We hope that our study can facilitate subsequent interdisciplinary research on the intricate interplay between climate change and hydrological processes in inland water bodies.

The extent of access to energy of displaced populations in settlements and camps in Africa is largely 14 unknown. A multitude of contextual factors, such as the location and the characteristics of housing, 15 the legal status, the socio-cultural background, and the availability of humanitarian and public ser- 16 vices impact the living conditions and the needed energy services. Limitations in accessing energy 17 services have direct, multilayered, and far-reaching implications, including impacts on health, nu- 18 trition, education, protection, and livelihood. The objective of this article is to contribute to a more 19 comprehensive overview of the current state of energy access in displacement contexts on the Afri- 20 can continent by identifying and utilizing existing data. After a screening of the vast and various 21 available information, setting up of a database, consolidating the gathered data as well as assessing 22 the quality through a quality assessment method, the currently available information is visualized 23 and discussed. Considerable differences in the access to electricity for displaced persons across the 24 countries are found. For both electricity and clean cooking, the availability for displaced persons 25 ranges from nearly no access at all up to an access rate of 100%. More strikingly, the results also 26 show that besides South Africa and countries in the Maghreb region, the access to both clean cook- 27 ing and electricity for displaced persons is very low. At the same time, the fragmented data availa- 28 bility, the poor data quality, and the questionable expediency of available data allows neither solid 29 theoretical conclusions nor planning of effective practical implementation measures. Novel inter- 30 disciplinary research, conceptual frameworks and indicators are needed for the purpose of compa- 31 rability and consistency. Future research has the potential to more comprehensively capture the 32 current state of access to energy in displacements contexts and in a next step to examine how energy 33 is interwoven in the lives of displaced people to derive a set of more detailed context-sensitive en- 34 ergy indicators. It is essential that the concerned persons, the displaced persons themselves are in- 35 cluded in the research in a meaningful way.

Groupers (Epinephelidae) are ecologically important mesopredators that support valuable fisheries across the globe. Many groupers display slow growth and maturity, high longevity, ontogenetic habitat shifts, spawning-related migrations and aggregations, and protogynous hermaphroditism, which make them susceptible to overexploitation. In this review, I synthesize available information related to the management of grouper fisheries across the southeastern and Caribbean U.S. I highlight current management challenges, such as managing multispecies reef fish fisheries with growing recreational fishing effort. I discuss management interventions with limited success, such as establishing marine protected areas to improve the populations of groupers that display protogynous hermaphroditism. I also highlight management successes, such as recovering historically depleted grouper stocks, and ecosystem-based considerations in grouper stock assessments. I discuss how climate change and anthropogenic effects are expected to affect groupers. Lastly, I provide examples of stakeholders involved in monitoring and management efforts directed at grouper stocks. The purposes of this review are to demonstrate the complexities of managing grouper fisheries and provide a road map for future research and conservation efforts into these economically and ecologically relevant fishes within and beyond the region.

One-fifth of the world’s population and critical infrastructures are near the coast and regions at high risk of sea level elevation. Climate change is expected to increase coastal extreme events, rising sea levels, and impact on ecosystem. This paper reviews coastal physical processes, wave and impacts, and the introduction of nature-based models for the mitigation of flooding, erosion, and recovery. Hard engineering like seawalls has been used to prevent, protect, and control water-based environmental forces with an extended impact on the land. A nature-based engineering solution, such as growing vegetation, is being adopted as a sustainable solution to help make existing technology live its design life and provide climate change adaptation and resilience for coastal and riverine communities. This paper presents applications of seaweed farms as an advanced nature-based mitigation approach. The result of the experiments conducted at RWTH Aachen University on wave damping of seaweed types and farming structures to validate the hypothesis will be presented in part B. A soft engineering approach to designing future vegetated protection systems using seaweed as a nature-based solution can help existing coastal infrastructure design life and protect against climate-induced SLR rise and adaptation, coastal risk mitigation, ecosystem restoration, and blue bio-economic development.

The hyper-arid environment is characterized by high inter-annual climatic fluctuations. The yearly average rainfall can change substantially for several years, forming wet or dry sub-periods. Observing rainfall trends over a sub-period can lead to a false perception of a change in the trend but may in fact represent a periodic cycle when examined on a larger time scale. We aimed to better characterize the rainfall regime prevailing in the hyper-arid Arava Valley (Israel/Jordan), and to examine the response of vegetation to annual rainfall. We hypothesized that annual and perennial vegetation would respond differently to wet and dry sub-periods, and that grazing activities will impact vegetation growth. We used a time series of monthly rainfall, from which we calculated Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), and calculated proxies of perennial and annual vegetation over the last four decades using Landsat-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). We found no clear trend in rainfall amounts during this period, however we did identify wet and dry sub-periods which were statistically distinct in rain and in vegetation patterns from each other. The highest levels of correlation between rainfall and the NDVI derived proxies were found when examining average rainfall over a period of two- three years for the annual vegetation and over four years for perennial vegetation. Using the Mann-Kendall test, we identified a time lag of two to four years, with the proxies of annual vegetation responding faster than the proxies of perennial vegetation, to shifts between wet and dry sub-period. In addition, we found a consistent difference between natural vegetation cover in Jordan (grazed) and Israel (non-grazed), favoring the development of natural vegetation on the Israeli side. We conclude that integrating between long-term remote sensing satellite imagery and climatic records revealed the greater resilience of perennial vegetation in the hyper-arid region to climatic fluctuation, and enabled us to identify the vegetation’s sensitivity to anthropogenic impact.

In the past two decades, several floods have affected people and their properties in Burkina Faso, with the unprecedented flooding occurring in Ouagadougou in September 2009. So far, most studies have focused on Ouagadougou and surrounding localities and have paid little attention to other flood-prone regions in Burkina Faso. Specifically, there is a data and knowledge gap about the flood risk in the Haut-Bassins region, which in turn hampers the development of mitigation strategies and risk reduction measures in communities. This study demonstrates how data collected at the household level can be used to understand flood risk and its components at the village level in this data-scarce region. Using an indicator-based method, we analyze both flood risk and flood risk perception at the village level. Moreover, we determine the factors influencing flood risk perception at the household level using an ordered logit model. We find that 12 out of the 14 villages considered, experience high levels of flood risk. The management of runoff from the nearest urban areas and poorly designed civil engineering infrastructures, such as roads, were highlighted by the households as significant factors that increase their vulnerability. Hence, dependencies in space and between urban and rural areas may play a substantial role in modifying risk. The perceived flood risk consistently exceeds the estimated flood risk, with an insignificant positive correlation between both risk indices. Regression results indicate that flood risk perception is mainly influenced by informational and behavioral factors of the households. The findings of this study can provide valuable information to municipal and regional authorities involved in disaster risk management in the study area. Moreover, the method is transferable to other data-scarce regions

This paper introduces a new destriping algorithm for remote sensing data. The method is based on combined Haar Stationary Wavelet transform and Fourier filtering. State-of-the-Art methods based on the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) may not always be effective and may cause different artifacts. Our contribution is three-fold: i) we propose to use the Undecimated Wavelet transform (UWT) to avoid as much as possible shortcomings of the classical DWT; ii) we combine a spectral filtering and UWT using the simplest possible wavelet, the Haar basis, for a computational efficiency; iii) we handle 2D fields with missing data, as commonly observed in ocean remote sensing data due to atmospheric conditions (e.g., cloud contamination). The performances of the proposed filter are tested and validated on the suppression of horizontal strip artifacts in cloudy L2 Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and ocean color snapshots.

Sea surface wind forecasts in the Adriatic Sea often suffer for unadequate modelling, especially for the wind speed. This has detrimental effects on the accuracy of sea level and storm surge predictions. We present a numerical method to reduce the bias between the sea surface wind observed by the scatterometers and that supplied by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) global atmospheric model, for storm surge forecasting applications. The method, called “wind bias mitigation”, relies on scatterometer observations to determine a multiplicative factor ∆ws which modulates the standard model wind in order to decrease the bias between scatterometer and model. We compare four different mathematical approaches to this method, for a total of eight different formulations of the multiplicative factor ∆ws. Four datasets are used for the assessment of the eight different bias mitigation methods: a collection of 29 Storm Surge Events (SEVs) cases in the years 2004-2014, a collection of 48 SEVs in the years 2013-2016, a collection of 364 cases of random sea level conditions in the same period, and a collection of the seven SEVs in 2012-2016 that were worst predicted by the Centro Previsioni e Segnalazioni Maree, Comune di Venezia (Tide Forecast and Early Warning Centre of the Venice Municipality - CPSM). The statistical analysis shows that the bias mitigation procedures supplies a mean wind speed more accurate than the standard forecast, when compared with scatterometer observations, in more than 70% of the analyzed cases.

According to current forecasts, global heating is likely to exceed 2,8°C by the end of the century. This makes substantial adaptation measures necessary to secure a broad basis for livelihoods provision and the conservation of biodiversity. While the implementation of top-down and technocratic adaptation efforts is the majority, related adaptation shortcomings of socio-economic and ecological nature are becoming more and more apparent. Community-based adaptation (CBA) with its participatory, inclusive and needs-based bottom-up approach offers a promising and powerful alternative. This article uses a semi-systematic literature review approach to screen the current literature and identify core issues of CBA. Linking communality, locality, multidimensionality, power imbalances, transformative potential, localisation, the triad of adaptation metrics and adaptation with nature to corresponding potential actions for practical implementations provides a more holistic conceptualisation and broadens the horizons for further learnings, research and improved application.

The investigation of submerged speleothems for sea level studies has made significant contributions to the understanding of the global and regional sea level variations during the Middle and Late Quateranry. This has been especially the case for the Mediterranean Sea, where more than 300 submerged speleothems sampled in 32 caves have been analysed so far. Here, we present a comprehensive review of the results obtained from the study of submerged speleothems since 1978. The studied speleothems cover the last 1.4 Ma and are focused mainly on Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1, 2, 3, 5.1, 5.3, 5.5, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 7.5. Results reveal that submerged speleothems represent extraordinary archives providing accurate information on former sea level changes, also considering that the Mediterranean Sea is devoid of any tropical corals since the Miocene. New results from a stalagmite collected at Palinuro (Campania, Italy) characterized by marine overgrowth are also reported. The measured elevations of speleothems are contaminated by the local response to glacial- and hydro-isostatic adjustment (GIA), and thus might significantly deviate from the global eustatic signal. Age and altitude comparation between Mediterranean speleothems, flowstone from Bahamas with local GIA provide a new scenario for MIS 5 and 7 sea level reconstrutions.

The national study analyzes sea level rise (SLR) impacts based on 36 different SLR and storm surge scenarios across 5.7 million geographic locations and 3 time periods. Taking an approach based on engineering design guidelines and current cost estimates, the study details projected cost impacts for states, counties, and cities. These impacts are presented from multiple perspectives including total cost, cost per-capita, and cost per-square mile. The purpose of the study is to identify specific locations where infrastructure is vulnerable to rising sea levels. The study finds that Sea Level Rise (SLR) and minimal storm surge is a $400 billion threat to the United States by 2040 that includes a need for at least 50,000 miles of protective barriers. The research is limited in its scope to protecting coastal infrastructure with sea walls. Additional methods exist and may be appropriate in individual situations. The study is original in that it is a national effort to identify infrastructure that is vulnerable as well as the cost associated with protecting this infrastructure.

Sea level rise due to global warming is a continuing and, disappointingly, accelerating process, which has already affected and will further impact coastal lowlands and the social and economic activities in these areas. Delos Island, situated in the middle of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea, was considered the most sacred of all islands in ancient Greek culture and a trading hub for the entire eastern Mediterranean. Uninhabited since the 7th century AD, and consistently the focus of research and touristic attention, the island is designated as an archaeological site and inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List. Previous studies on the relative sea level (rsl) changes suggest a steadily rsl rise during the last 6,300 years, starting from a sea level at -4.80±0.20m in the Late Neolithic. The seafront of the ancient city of Delos is subject to the effects of the rsl rise, which have caused significant coastline retreat and exposure to the northerly winds and waves, whereas parts of the coastal lowland where the remains of the ancient city lie are inundated, forming extended wetlands. The future impacts of rsl rise on the seafront of ancient Delos are illustrated on very high-resolution digital surface models, evaluating both the flooding risk under different climatic projections, as provided by the IPCC AR6 report, and the ongoing land subsidence, as recorded by GNSS data. An rsl rise ranging from 87cm (SSP1-2.6 scenario) to 148cm (SSP5-8.5 scenario) is anticipated by 2150, requiring both resilience strategies and adaptation solutions as well as mitigation policies to cope with the effects of climate change.

Since the 1960s, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa have been affected by an urban crisis due to the demographic explosion in cities and the resulting land pressures. These have resulted in the proliferation of spontaneous housing areas which question the future of urban vegetation and its degree of inclusion in city planning. To analyze the state of knowledge on the research already carried out on the development of urban landscape, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, a literature review on urban forestry covering the period 1998-2022 was carried out in order to better orient future research works for a greater consideration to urban forestry and their contributions in combating the adverse effects of climate change. Out of a set of 110 scientific papers selected, 50 were considered relevant because of their direct link with urban forestry. From the analysis of this papers, a classification of the articles according to 05 themes was carried out. These are: management of green spaces in urban areas, functions of trees in an urban environment, development of urban forestry, characterization of urban tree flora and financing of urban forestry. Thus, “function of trees in an urban environment and the characterization of urban tree flora” are the most addressed respectively at 42% and 28%. “Financing urban forestry” is practically not addressed (2%). The analysis of the 50 selected articles reveals a significant geographic concentration of urban forestry research. Countries like South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana are more represented in the literature, while vast regions in Central and Western Africa (e.g., Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Niger) have minimal or no documented research on urban forestry. Future research should address these underrepresented themes, as they are crucial for the long-term sustainability of urban forestry projects. Particularly, research on financing mechanisms is essential to unlock sustainable funding sources for urban forestry, a critical barrier to its expansion.

AbstractLocal estimates of coastal flood risk are required for coastal planning and development, including the location and design of sea-defences and coastal buildings, such as harbours and associated infrastructure. This paper discusses the use of three parameters associated with estimating such risks; the flood return period, the instantaneous flood probability and the flood design risk, and it describes the mathematical background for their derivation. The discussion is extended to include the effects of sea level rise and how it can be incorporated into the calculations. Flood height can vary quite rapidly with distance along the coast, being affected by coastal topology, which may magnify or diminish the tidal and surge effects. Similarly land heave influences the local effects of sea level rise and can be influenced by water extraction, tectonic movements and melting ice. Tide gauge measurements provide a local historical record from which the various parameters can be retrieved. This paper discusses the algorithms used to derive these measures from tide-gauge records. The figures have been derived for four tide gauges located on the UK east coast.

Understanding the dynamics of Organic Carbon mineralization is fundamental in forecasting biosphere to atmosphere Net Carbon Ecosystem Exchange (NEE). With this perspective, we developed 3D-CMCC-PSM, a new version of the hybrid Process Based Model 3D‐CMCC FEM where also heterotrophic respiration (R_h) is explicitly simulated. The aim was to quantify NEE as a forward problem, by subtracting Ecosystem Respiration (R_eco) to Gross Primary Productivity (GPP). To do so, we developed a simplification of the Soil Carbon dynamics routine proposed in DNDC [1]. The method calculates decomposition as a function of soil moisture, temperature, state of the organic compartments, and relative abundance of microbial pools. Given the pulse dynamics of soil respiration, we introduced modifications in some of the principal constitutive relations involved in phenology and littering sub-routines. We quantified the model structure related uncertainty in NEE, by running our training simulations over 1000 random parameter-sets extracted from parameters distributions expected from literature. 3D-CMCC-PSM predictability was tested on independent time series for 6 Fluxnet sites. The model resulted in daily and monthly estimations highly consistent with the observed time series. It showed lower predictability in Mediterranean ecosystems, suggesting that it may need further improvements in addressing evapotranspiration and water dynamics.

The Baltic Sea coast is one of the geographical areas of Europe most threatened by the current climate change. This issue concerns erosional processes, groundwater flows affecting sea-shore settings. Long term hydrological investigations within the western sector of the Łeba Barrier, northern Poland, based on a network of monitoring stations, coupled with the meteorology records of the past 12 years, revealed significant fluctuations in ground water fluxes from the Baltic Sea on the adjoining mainland. Groundwater resources are negatively affected by sea-level drops in the coastal areas along the southern Baltic coast. The low sea levels strengthen the effects of low precipitation and high temperatures, causing altogether the occurrence of hydrogeological drought in the coastal sandbar areas. Drought periods are characterized by lowering of water-tables in the Slowinski National Park. The obtained results have direct relevance to a long-term assessment of water resources, environmental protection of the climatically most susceptible ecosystems, as well as the tourism management of this popular visitors’ destination.

Pandemics, and other risk-related contexts, require dynamic changes in behavior as situations develop. Human behavior is influenced by both explicit (cognitive) and implicit (intuitive) factors. In this study, we used psychological distance as a lens to understand what influences our decision-making with regards to risk in the context of COVID-19. The study was based on the rationale that our relational needs are more concrete to us than the risk of the virus. First, we explored the impact of social-psychological distance on participants’ risk perceptions and behavioral willingness. As hypothesized, we found that close social relationships of agents promoted willingness to engage in risky behavior. In the second phase, we tested an intervention designed to increase the concreteness of information about virus transmission as a mechanism to mitigate the bias of social influence. We found that the concreteness intervention resulted in significantly reduced willingness to engage in risky behavior. As such, communications aimed at changing the behavior of citizens during times of increased risk or danger, should consider conceptually concrete messaging when communicating complex risk, and hence may provide a valuable tool in promoting health-related behavior.

Sea level rise (SLR) is a critical consequence of climate change, posing significant threats to coastal regions worldwide. Accurate and efficient assessment of potential inundation areas is crucial for effective coastal planning and adaptation strategies. This study aims to explore the utility of free and open source software for geospatial (FOSS4G) tools for mapping SLR inundation, providing cost-effective solutions that are accessible to researchers and policymakers. We employed a combination of geospatial data, including high-resolution elevation models, tidal data, and projected SLR scenarios. Utilizing widely available FOSS4G tools like QGIS, GDAL/OGR and GRASS GIS we developed an integrated workflow to map inundation extents using a passive bathtub approach for various SLR scenarios. Our findings demonstrate that FOSS4G tools offer reliable and accessible means to map SLR inundation, empowering stakeholders to assess coastal vulnerabilities and devise sustainable adaptation measures. The open-source approach facilitates collaboration and reproducibility, fostering a comprehensive understanding of the potential impacts of SLR on coastal ecosystems and communities.

Mediterranean Sea are dynamic habitats in which human activities have been conducted for centuries and which feature micro-tidal environments with about 0.40 m of range. For this reason, human settlements are still concentrated along a narrow coastline strip, where any change in the sea level and coastal dynamics may impact anthropic activities. We analyzed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and Copernicus Earth Observation data. Aim of this research is to provide estimates and detailed maps (in three coastal plain of Sardinia (Italy) and in the Pontina Plain (southern Latium, Italy) of: i) the past marine trasgression occurred during MIS 5.5 higstand 119 kyrss BP; ii) the coastline regression occurred during the last glacial maximum MIS 2 (21.5 krs cal BP) and iii) the potential marine submersion for 2100 and 2300. The objective of this multidisciplinary study is to provide maps of sea-level rise future scenarios using the IPCC RCP 8.5 2019 [1]projections and glacio-hydro-isostatic movements for the above selected coastal zones, which are the locations of touristic resorts, railways, and heritage sites. We estimated a potential loss of land for the above areas of between about 146 km² (IPCC 2019-RCP8.5 scenario [1]) and 637 km² along a coastline length of about 268 km.

Barchan dune fields are a dominant landscape feature in SE Qatar and a key element of the peninsula’s geodiversity. The migration of barchan dunes is mainly controlled by dune size, wind pattern, vegetation cover and human impact. We investigate the variability of dune migration in Qatar over a time period of 50 years using high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery and explore its relation to the regional Shamal wind system, teleconnection patterns, and limitations in sand supply associated with the transgression of the Arabian Gulf. We detect strong size-dependent differences in migration rates of individual dunes as well as significant decadal variability on a dune-field scale, which was found to be correlating with the intensity of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM). High uncertainties associated with the extrapolation of migration rates back into the Holocene, however, do not permit to further specify the timing of the loss of sand supply and the onset of the mid-Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) highstand. For the youngest phase considered in this study (2006–2015), human impact is anticipated to have accelerated dune migration under a weakening Shamal regime through sand mining and excessive vehicle frequentation upwind of the core study area.

An analysis of the physical and chemical phenomena accompanying the electrical discharges was carried out, principal factors inactivating microorganisms is studied. Characteristic factors of an electric discharge in cavitation mode providing a synergistic effect when disinfecting water with a discharge and chemical reagents are identified in order of importance. As a result of the integral action of cavitation, the inactivation of bacteria is intensified both due to the emergence of chem-ically active particles and due to local shock waves, acoustic currents and ultraviolet radiation in the area of cavitating bubbles. The similarity of cavitation processes in water systems implemented by underwater electric discharges and with the ultrasound has been experimentally proved. The main advantage of electric discharge cavitation in comparison with ultrasonic one is the wide band of ultrasonic frequencies of radiation inherent in electric discharge, high intensity and power of cav-itation processes, and, accordingly, the possibility of a significant increase in the volume of the disinfected liquid. The study enable better understanding and prediction of the effects that occur during a high-voltage underwater electrical discharge and have a bactericidal effect.

A configurable design of a microstrip square spiral RFID tag antenna, for a wide range of microwave frequencies in S- and C-band, is presented. The design is parameterized in dimensions, and hence changing the design frequency (or frequencies) is easy, by changing only an initial value for the spiral geometry. A tag specimen was fabricated using Cu electroplating technique according to the design for frequencies of interest in the areas of 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. The substrate material is a 320 μm high resistivity Si and the bridge dielectric is a 15μm polyimide PI2525. The microfabrication process involves steps of metallic structure pattern transfer techniques with optical UV lithography procedures. The reflection coefficient and gain of the specimen were measured inside an anechoic enclosure using a vector network analyzer (VNA) and a TEM horn test antenna over a frequency range of up to 6 GHz. Simulated and measured results are presented and discussed, exhibiting reasonable agreement.

Investigation of sea-level positions during the highly-dynamic Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3: 29-61 kyrs BP) proves difficult because: i) in stable and subsiding areas, coeval coastal sediments are currently submerged at depths of few to several tens of meters below present sea level; ii) in uplifting areas, the preservation of geomorphic features and sedimentary records is limited due to the erosion occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) with sea level at depth of -130 m, followed by marine transgression that determined the development of ravinement surfaces. This study discusses previous research in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, and describes new fossiliferous marine deposits laying on metamorphic bedrock of Cannitello (Calabria, Italy). Radiocarbon ages of marine shells (about 43 kyrs cal BP) indicate that these deposits, presently between 28 and 30 meters above sea level, formed during MIS 3.1. Elevation correction of the Cannitello outcrops (considered in an intermediate-to-far-field position with respect to the ice sheet) with the local vertical tectonic rate and Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) rate allows to propose a revision of the eustatic depth for this highstand. Our results are consistent with recently proposed estimates based on a novel ice sheet modelling technique.

Frequent flooding from sea-level rise (SLR) is one of the immediate climate change impacts affecting low-lying and exposed coastal communities. These communities rely upon the delivery of three-waters services for wastewater, stormwater and water supply. Due to ongoing SLR, managing these networks will increasingly be a challenge. This raises the issue of how local government can reconcile maintaining levels of service as the impacts of climate change and their uncertainties worsen over the coming decades (and beyond). Can they be adapted over time to retain levels of service or will they eventually require retreat and if so at what adaptation threshold? This paper explores managed retreat of two-waters infrastructure (wastewater and stormwater) as an adaptation option using a Dynamic Adaptive Pathway Planning (DAPP) approach. In the study, we use DAPP to frame the retreat of two-water networks, developing a combination of an area specific retreat strategy, pathway portfolios, retreat phases, land use change signaling and identify pathway conflicts and synergies. Repurposing retreated areas by utilizing Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) options was found to extend retreat thresholds for adjacent areas. A systematic ’routine’ developed in this study provides a structured approach for managed retreat of two-water infrastructure with the aim to reduce future disruption from flooding, signal land use changes early and allow for gradual budget adjustments by the agencies to manage expenditure over time. This approach helps inform and improve the decision-making process for the agencies and the communities they serve, by providing a stepwise process that can be communicated spatially and visually, thereby making a retreat adaptation option more manageable.

Trichiurus japonicus is the most productive fish caught in our country. In order to understand the seasonal distribution of Trichiurus japonicus in the central and southern parts of the East China Sea and Yellow Sea, three species distribution models were adopted, namely Random Forest Model, K-nearest neighbor algorithm and gradient ascending decision Tree model, based on the data of trawling surveys in the central and southern parts of the East China Sea and Yellow Sea from 2008 to 2009. Combined with variance inflation factor and cross-check, the distribution model of Trichiurus japonicus was screened and constructed to analyze the influence of environmental factors on the distribution of Trichiurus japonicus in the central and southern parts of the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea. The results showed that the random forest model had the advantages of fitting effect and prediction ability among the three models. The analysis of this model showed that the water depth, bottom water temperature and surface salinity had a great influence on the habitat distribution of Trichiurus japonicus. The relative resources of Trichiurus japonicus increased with the increase of bottom water temperature and reached the maximum at 23.8℃, and first increased and then decreased with the increase of water depth and surface salinity, reaching the maximum at 72 m and 31.2‰, respectively. The random forest model was used to predict the spatial distribution of Trichiurus japonicus in the East China Sea and the central and southern Yellow Sea during 2008-2009, and the results showed that the predicted results were close to the actual situation. The research results can provide reference for the exploitation and protection of Trichiurus japonicus resources in the East China Sea and the central and southern Yellow Sea.

Development of the continental shelf has accelerated significantly as nations around the world seek to harness offshore renewable energy. Many areas marked for development align with submerged palaeolandscapes. Poorly understood and difficult to protect, these vulnerable, prehistoric landscapes provide specific challenges for heritage management. Indeed, there now appears to be a schism between what underwater cultural heritage policy intends and what it is achieving in practice. Shortcomings in international and national legislature ensures that large parts of the continental shelf, including areas under development, may have little or no legal protection.

We present an attempt to estimate the long-term changes of Relative Sea Level (RSL) and the different factors contributing to such trends on a local and regional scale using a statistical linear model. The time series analysed correspond to 17 tide-gauges grouped in three different areas: the northern and western Atlantic coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and the southern and eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands. The analysis was performed for two periods: 1948-2019, using tide-gauge data, and 1993-2019, using both tide-gauge and altimetry data for comparison. The trends for the period 1948-2019 ranged between 1.09 0.14 (Canary Islands) and 2.05 0.21 mm/yr, for the northern and western Atlantic Iberian Peninsula. Altimetry data during the period 1993-2019 yielded quite homogeneous results for all the locations and regions, ranging between 2.7 0.4 and 3.0 0.3 mm/yr. On the contrary, the results obtained from tide-gauge data for this recent period showed a large dispersion, very likely due to local effects or even levelling or instrumental errors. Nevertheless, when the results were averaged for each area, the observed trends were comparable to the altimetry results, with values of 2.3 0.8, 2.7 0.5 and 2.8 0.8 mm/yr for the three regions of study. A stepwise forward linear regression has been used to relate the observed RSL variability to the atmospheric forcing and the thermosteric and halosteric components of the sea level. Surprisingly, the thermosteric and halosteric contributions were not significantly correlated to the observed RSL in many cases, and consequently the steric, the total addition of mass, the mass of salt, and the freshwater contributions to the observed sea level trends could not be reliably estimated. This result seems to be the consequence of the scarcity of temperature and salinity data. This hypothesis is confirmed by the exception of L’Estartit tide-gauge. This location is close to a well sampled region. In this case, the atmospheric variables and the thermosteric and halosteric terms explained the 80 % of the observed RSL variance and the contributions of these terms could be estimated. The freshwater contribution for this location was between 1.3 and 1.4 mm/yr, consistent with recent estimations of the contributions of glaciers and Greenland and Antarctica Ice Sheets. These results highlight the importance of monitoring programs and routine sampling for the determination of the different factors contributing to the sea level variability.

Data collected at the Cascais tide gauge, located on the west coast of Portugal Mainland, have been analyzed and sea level rise rates have been updated. Based on a bootstrapping linear regression model and on polynomial adjustments, time series are used to calculate different empirical projections for the 21^st century sea level rise, by estimating the initial velocity and its corresponding acceleration. The results are consistent to an accelerated sea level rise, showing evidence of a faster rise than previous century estimates. Based on different numerical methods of second order polynomial fitting, it is possible to build a set of projection models of relative sea level rise. Appling the same methods to regional sea level anomaly from satellite altimetry, additional projections are also built with good consistency. Both data sets, tide gauge and satellite altimetry data, enabled the development of an ensemble of projection models. The relative sea level rise projections are crucial for national coastal planning and management since extreme sea level scenarios can potentially cause erosion and flooding. Based on absolute vertical velocities obtained by integrating global sea level models, neo-tectonic studies and permanent Global Positioning System (GPS) station time series, it is possible to transform relative into absolute sea level rise scenarios, and vice-versa, allowing the generation of absolute sea level rise projection curves and its comparison with already established global projections. The sea level rise observed at the Cascais tide gauge has always shown a significant correlation with global sea level rise observations, evidencing relatively low rates of composed vertical land velocity from tectonic and post-glacial isostatic adjustment, and residual synoptic regional dynamic effects rather than a trend. An ensemble of sea level projection models for the 21st century is proposed with its corresponding probability density function, both for relative and absolute sea level rise for the west coast of Portugal Mainland.

Daily maximum surface air temperature (Tamax) is a crucial factor for understanding complex land surface processes under rapid climate change. Remote detection of Tamax has widely relied on the empirical relationship between air temperature and land surface temperature (LST), a product derived from remote sensing. However, little is known about how such a relationship is affected by the high heterogeneity in landscapes and dynamics in seasonality. This study aims to advance our understanding of the roles of land cover and seasonal variation in the estimation of Tamax using the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) LST product. We developed statistical models to link Tamax and LST in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China for five major land-cover types (i.e., forest, shrub, water, impervious surface, cropland, and grassland) and two seasons (i.e., growing season and non-growing season). Results show that the performance of modeling the Tamax-LST relationship was highly dependent on land cover and seasonal variation. Estimating Tamax over grasslands and water bodies achieved superior performance; while uncertainties were high over forested lands that contained extensive heterogeneity in species types, plant structure, and topography. We further found that all the land-cover specific models developed for the plant non-growing season outperformed the corresponding models developed for the growing season. Discrepancies in model performance mainly occurred in the vegetated areas (forest, cropland, and shrub), suggesting an important role of plant phenology in defining the statistical relationship between Tamax and LST. For impervious surfaces, the challenge of capturing the high spatial heterogeneity in urban settings using the low-resolution MODIS data made Tamax estimation a difficult task, which was especially true in the growing season.

Smallholder farmers in Ethiopia face increasing challenges from climate change and variability, which threaten their food security and livelihoods. This study examines how adopting single and combined climate change adaptation practices affects their vulnerability to food insecurity in Bench Maji Zone, southwest Ethiopia. Through multistage sampling, data was gathered from 390 rural households in four climate-prone districts. The study examines the impacts resulting from both individual and combined implementations of adaptation techniques. These techniques encompass crop management practices, soil and water conservation measures, and livelihood portfolio diversification strategies. The study employed the multinomial endogenous treatment effect regression model to address selection bias and endogeneity resulting from various sources of heterogeneity, whether observed or unobserved. The results show that farmers who adopted adaptation practices were less vulnerable to food insecurity than those who did not. The study also finds that adopting multiple practices has a more significant impact than adopting single practices. Our findings suggest that implementing climate change adaptation strategies can increase the resilience of smallholder farmers in the study area and decrease their vulnerability to food insecurity. The study recommends supporting farmers in adopting these strategies through research and development, information dissemination, and collaborations among farmers, researchers, and extension services.

At the end of the dry season in early March to early April each year, extensive agricultural biomass waste burnings occur throughout insular mainland Southeast Asia. During this biomass burnings period, smoke aerosols blanket the whole regions and were transported and dispersed by predominant westerly and south westerly winds to southern China, Taiwan and as far southern Japan and the Philippines. The extensive and intense burnings coincided with some wildfires in the forests due to high temperature making the region one of the global hot spots of biomass fires. In this study, we focus on the effect of pollutants emitted from biomass burnings in March 2019 at the height of the burnings period to the exposed population and their health impact. The Weather Research Forecast- Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model was used to predict the PM2.5 concentration over the simulating domain and health impacts are then assessed on the exposed population in the four countries of Southeast Asia, namely Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Using the health impact based on log-linear concentration response function and Integrated Exposure Response (IER), the results show that at the peak period of the burnings from 13 to 20 March 2019, Thailand experienced the highest impact, with an estimated 2170 premature deaths. Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia followed, with estimated mortalities of 277, 565, and 314 deaths respectively. However, when considering the impact per head of population, Laos exhibited the highest impact, followed by Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The results highlight the significant health impact and associated economic cost of agricultural waste burnings in Southeast Asia at the end of the dry season. And hence policy makers should take these into account to design measures to reduce the negative impact of widespread burnings on exposed population in the region.

Sea level rise is one of the main factor of risk for the preservation of cultural heritage sites located along the coasts of the Mediterranean basin. Coastal retreat, erosion and storm surges are yet posing serious threats to archaeological and historical structures built along the coastal zones of this region. In order to assess the coastal changes by the end of 2100 under an expected sea level rise of about 1 m, a detailed determination of the current coastline position and the availability of high resolution DSM, is needed. This paper focuses on the use of very high-resolution UAV imagery for the generation of ultra-high resolution mapping of the coastal archaeological area of Pyrgi, near Rome (Italy). The processing of the UAV imagery resulted in the generation of a DSM and an orthophoto, with an accuracy of 1.94 cm/pixel. The integration of topographic data with two sea level rise projections in the IPCC AR5 2.6 and 8.5 climatic scenarios for this area of the Mediterranean, were used to map sea level rise scenarios for 2050 and 2100. The effects of the Vertical Land Motion (VLM) as estimated from two nearby continuous GPS stations located as much as close to the coastline, were included in the analysis. Relative sea level rise projections provide values at 0.30±0.15 cm by 2050 and 0.56±0.22 by 2100, for the IPCC AR5 8.5 scenarios and at 0.13±0.05 cm by 2050 and 0.17±0.22 by 2100, for the IPCC AR5 2.6 scenario. These values of rise will correspond to a potential beach loss between 12.6% and 23.5% in 2100 for RCP 2.6 and 8.5 scenarios, respectively, while during the highest tides the beach will be reduced up to 46.4%. With these sea level rise scenarios, Pyrgi with its nearby Etruscan temples and the medieval castle of Santa Severa will be soon exposed to high risk of marine flooding, especially during storm surges, thus requiring suitable adaptation strategies.

Coastal flooding exacerbated by climate change is recognised as a major global threat which is expected to impact more than a quarter of people currently residing in Pacific Islands countries. While most research in the last decade has focused on understanding the dynamics and impacts of future coastal flooding from extreme sea levels, relative sea level rise (RSLR) effects on tsunami hazards are not well understood. Far-field or distant-sourced tsunamis tend to have relatively lower impacts in Pacific Island states compared with locally sourced events, but there is limited understanding on how the impact of far-field tsunamis changes over time due to RSLR. Using the hydrodynamics software BG-Flood, we modelled the Tōhoku tsunami from propagation to inundation in Samoa under incremental SLR to examine the effects that RSLR has on changing the exposure of the built environment (e.g., buildings) to a far-field tsunami. Outputs of maximum tsunami inundation and flow depth intensities which incorporate incremental SLR were then combined with digital representations of buildings and depth-damage functions in the RiskScape multi-hazard risk modelling software to assess the changes in building exposure over time. Results indicate that present day buildings exposure in Samoa to a Tōhoku-oki type far-field tsunami will increase by approx. 600% with 1 m RSLR by 2080–2130, and approx. 2,350% with 2 m RSLR by 2130–2140. These findings provide a useful baseline for tsunami hazard risk assessment under changing sea level conditions in analogous island environments.

AbstractBackground: In Ethiopia, 8.6% of maternal deaths are attributed to abortion. Despite the legalization of abortion and improved accessibility of safe abortion services, almost six in 10 abortions in Ethiopia are performed outside of the health facility. Abortion considered as an indicator for various aspects of reproductive health and healthcare access within a particular region or country. Despite the significance of the problem, there is a limited understanding of the magnitude of abortion and the contributing factors in the study area. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of abortion and determinant factors among reproductive-age women in the Sidama regional state of Ethiopia.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from October to November 11, 2022, among 1,130 women of reproductive age. We utilized a multi-stage sampling method to select eligible women. A structured and pretested questionnaire was utilized to collect the data using Open Data Kit (ODK) mobile application. Due to the hierarchical nature of the data, a multilevel logistic regression model was applied. Variables with p-values < 0.25 on bi-variable analysis were included in a multivariable regression model. In the multivariable regression model, variables with a p-value < 0.05 were declared as statistically significant factors of abortion. Results: Nearly one-fifth (19.5%) of the women had a history of abortion. From the individual level determinates; women with formal education (AOR=0.44; 95% CI: 0.24-0.79), and planned pregnancy (AOR=0.41; 95% CI: 0.28-0.61) had lower odds of abortion. While from the community related factors; urban residence increased the odds of abortion (AOR=2.25; 95% CI: 1.20-4.20) as compared to the rural residence.Conclusion: the prevalence of abortion among reproductive age women of Northern Zone of Sidama Region was high. Education and a planned pregnancy serve as protective factors for abortion, while the risk of abortion increased among women reside in urban area. Therefore, to lower the abortion rate, it is better to implement a comprehensive approach, focusing on education, family planning, and urban-specific intervention.

In the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown great potential in document-level event extraction tasks, but existing methods face challenges in the design of prompts. To address this issue, we propose an optimization strategy called "Definition-driven Document-level Event Extraction (DDEE)." By adjusting the length of the prompt and enhancing the clarity of heuristics, we have significantly improved the event extraction performance of LLMs. We used data balancing techniques to solve the long-tail effect problem, enhancing the model's generalization ability for event types. At the same time, we refined the prompt to ensure it is both concise and comprehensive, adapting to the sensitivity of LLMs to the style of prompts. In addition, the introduction of structured heuristic methods and strict limiting conditions has improved the precision of event and argument role extraction. These strategies not only solve the prompt engineering problems of LLMs in document-level event extraction but also promote the development of event extraction technology, providing new research perspectives for other tasks in the NLP field.

The sea level rise, a consequence of climate change, is one of the biggest challenges that countries and regions with coastal lowland areas will face in the medium term. This study proposes a methodology for assessing the vulnerability to sea level rise (SLR) on the Atlantic coast of Portugal mainland. Some scenarios of extreme sea level for different return periods and extreme flooding events were estimated for 2050 and 2100, as proposed by the European Union Directive 2007/60/EC. A set of physical parameters are considered for the multi-attribute analysis technique implemented by the Analytic Hierarchy Process, in order to define a Physical Vulnerability Index fundamental to assess coastal vulnerability. For each SLR scenario, coastal vulnerability maps, with spatial resolution of 20 m, are produced at national scale to identify areas most at risk of SLR, constituting key documents for triggering adaptation plans for such vulnerable regions. For 2050 and 2100, it is estimated 903 km² and 1146 km² of vulnerable area, respectively, being the district of Lisbon the most vulnerable district in both scenarios. Results are available through a Web Map Service, for Portuguese public entities, and through a web map viewer for public and communities in general.

With increasing air and sea temperatures, the thermodynamic environments over the oceans become more favourable for the development of intense tropical cyclones (TCs) with rapid intensification (RI). In fact, the number of TCs undergoing RI is rising (Zhao, et al., 2018; Bhatia, et al., 2019; Song, et al., 2020; Hong & Wu, 2021; Liu, et al., 2022). RI over coastal sea areas before landfalling is particularly impactful and threatening to coastal lives and properties. There have been studies showing that offshore areas within 400 km of the coastline have experienced a significant increase in RI events with the count tripling from 1980 to 2020 (Li et al., 2023). The south China coastal region consists of highly densely populated cities especially the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. Intense TCs maintaining its strength or RI of TCs close to the coastal region presents substantial forecasting challenges. This study investigates the effect of sea surface and subsurface temperature and salinity on the intensification of five TCs, namely Super Typhoons Hato in 2017 and Mangkhut in 2018, Typhoon Talim, Super Typhoon Saola and Severe Typhoon Koinu in 2023, which significantly affected the south China coastal region and triggered high TC warning signals in Hong Kong. The analysis utilized the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) TC track and intensity data, along with the sea temperature and salinity profiles generated using the China Ocean ReAnalysis version 2 (CORA2) of the National Marine Data and Information Service (NMDIS) of China. While high sea surface temperature (SST) of 30°C or above, low surface sea surface salinity (SSS) of 34 psu or below, and strong salinity stratification of at least 0.8 psu per 100 m depth may offer useful hints for predicting RI, they are part of a broader set of contributing factors. This study represents the initial documentation of sub-surface salinity's impact on intense TCs over the South China Sea (SCS) in recent years and will encourage further research to refine forecasting RI of TCs before making landfall near PRD taking into account the effect of freshwater from the Pearl River.

Drought negatively affects the growth and development of barley. To explore the genetic variation in barley under drought stress, ten breeding genotypes were tested using polyethylene glycol-6000 to simulate drought conditions. We observed that drought stress adversely affected germination-related traits across all barley genotypes and this impact varied between genotypes, suggesting genotype-specific drought tolerance. The drought tolerance index was an ideal criterion for selecting drought-tolerant genotypes as it well characterized the gradient responses of barely genotypes to drought stress. Based on this indicator, genotype OB1878-ON-50 is recommended as a significant germplasm resource for breeding programs under lower precipitation conditions due to its superior tolerance to drought stress.

Portugal Mainland has hundreds of thousands of people living in the Atlantic coastal zone, with numerous high economic value activities and a high number of infrastructures that must be protected from natural coastal hazard, namely extreme storms and sea level rise (SLR). In the context of climate change adaptation strategies, a reliable and accurate assessment of the physical vulnerability to SLR is crucial. This study is a contribution to the implementation of flooding standards imposed by the European Directive 2007/60/EC, which requires each member state to assess the risk associated to SLR and floods caused by extreme events. Therefore, coastal hazard in the Continental Atlantic coast of Portugal Mainland was evaluated for 2025, 2050 and 2100 in the whole coastal extension with different sea level scenarios for different extreme event return periods and due to SLR. A coastal flooding probabilistic map was produced based on the developed methodology using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. The Extreme Flood Hazard Index (EFHI) was determined on flood probabilistic bases through five probability intervals of 20% of amplitude. For a given SLR scenario, the EFHI is expressed, on the probabilistic flooding maps for an extreme tidal maximum level, by five hazard classes ranging from 1 (Very Low) to 5 (Extreme).

The Vu Gia - Thu Bon River Basin (VG-TB) is confronting numerous challenges related to water security (WS), particularly in the face of the impacts of climate change. These challenges manifest in salinity intrusion, altered rainfall patterns, and reduced water supply in downstream areas. To assess the current state of water security in the basin, the study employed statistical analysis methods, Process Analysis Method (PAM), SMART, and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to develop a comprehensive Assessment Framework for Water Security (AFWS) in the VG-TB. The AFWS encompasses five key dimensions, 17 indicators, and 28 variables, aligning with the UN-Water definition of water security and addressing the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) criteria for global water sustainability. It also adheres to the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) approach to water security assessment as outlined in the Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO) reports. This allows for the computation of a comprehensive Water Security Index (WSI) for specific regions, serving as a foundation for decision-making and policy formulation aimed at enhancing water security in the context of climate change and facilitating sustainable basin development in the future.

The agronomic characteristics of Cenchrus purpureus were assessed through a randomized block experimental design with seven accessions (Taiwan grass, King grass, Elephant grass, Merkeron, CT-115, Purpule grass and Maralfalfa) as treatments and four replications research was carried out at the Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Tantoyuca, in 2019 and 2020, under rainfed conditions. Sowing density was established at 36 tillers in 25 m2. Green and dry matter yield, daily rates of dry matter accumulation in leaves, leaf/stem ratio, height, leaf area index and cutting frequency were assessed. Rainfall amount, temperature, relative humidity and global radiation levels were recorded to assess their effect on the evaluated variables. One-way ANOVA and multivariate analysis techniques, such as multiple linear regression (MLR), Clustering, and Principal component analysis (PCA) with the Statistica V7 software, were used. The leaf area index was greatest (p &lt; 0.05) on the dry season. Green and dry matter yield were greatest in Maralfalfa (p &lt; 0.05). Variation in the results is attributed to weather phenomena; nonetheless, Elephant grass and Maralfalfa showed the highest yields. Quality parameters must be evaluated to identify those grasses with the best attributes.

The paper aims to introduce user-friendly modelling approaches to analyze how abiotic factors influence various trophic levels within the marine ecosystem, both naturally and through human impact. It specifically investigates the connections between environmental parameters (like temperature, salinity, and nutrients) and plankton along the Romanian Black Sea coast during the warm season (May-September) over a decade. Utilizing machine learning (ML) algorithms and data collected during this period, models were developed to project the proliferation of zooplankton. During the warm season, water temperature emerged as a significant factor affecting copepods and “other groups” zooplankton densities, while no discernible impact was noted on Noctiluca scintillans blooms. Salinity fluctuations notably influenced typical phytoplankton proliferation, with phosphate concentrations primarily driving widespread blooms. Two scenarios were explored for forecasting zooplankton growth: Business as Usual, predicting modest increases in temperature, salinity, and constant nutrient levels, and the Mild scenario, anticipating more substantial temperature and salinity increases while nutrients decrease significantly by 2042. The findings highlight that under both scenarios, Noctiluca scintillans displays notably high densities, with the second scenario projecting even higher values, surpassing the first by around 70%. These densities indicate characteristics of a eutrophic ecosystem, suggesting the potential implications of altered abiotic factors on ecosystem health.

Recent studies on seafloor mapping have presented different modelling methods for the automatic classification of seafloor sediments. However, most of these studies have applied these models to seafloor data with appropriate number of ground-truth samples, which raises the question whether these methods are applicable to studies with smaller numbers of ground-truth data. In this study, we aim to address this issue by conducting sediment class-specific predictions using ensemble modelling to map areas with limited or without ground-truth data and combined with hydro-acoustic datasets. The resulting class-specific maps were then assembled into one map, where the most probable class was assigned to the appropriate location. Our approach was able to predict sediment classes without bias to the class with more ground-truth data and produced reliable seafloor sediment distributions maps that can be used for seafloor monitoring. Sediment shifts of a heterogenous seafloor in the Sylt Outer Reef, German North Sea were also assessed to understand the sediment dynamics in the area. The analyses of sediment shifts showed that the western area of the Sylt Outer Reef is highly active, and the results of the analyses assisted in providing recommendations on future seafloor monitoring activities.

This work assesses sea-level rise using three different models created on Free and Open-Source Software for Geographic Information System (FOSS4GIS). Based on regional projections of Special Report on Climate Change and Oceans and Cryosphere (SROCC) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the models were applied to a case of study on Rio Grande do Sul coast – Brazil under different sea-level rise scenarios by the end of this century. The End Point Rate for QGIS (EPR4Q), calculates a shoreline projection using End Point Rate method. The Uncertainty Bathtub Model (uBTM), analyses the sea-level rise impact by the uncertainty of sea-level projec-tions and vertical error of the Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM/DTM). The Bruun Rule for Google Earth Engine Model (BRGM) predicts the shoreline position with sea-level rise, using topographic and bathymetric data from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Coastal Modelling System (SMC – Brazil), respectively. The results indicated a maximum shoreline retreat for 2100 of -502 m and -1727 m using EPR4Q and BRGM, correspondingly. The uBTM using the land-use of Mapbiomas showed a maximum of 44.57 km2 of urban area impacted by the sea-level flood. This research highlights the possibility of performing coastal management analysis in GIS environ-ment using non-commercial software.

This study presents PlanteSaine, a novel mobile application powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) models explicitly designed for maize, tomato, and onion farmers in Burkina Faso. Agriculture in Burkina Faso, like many developing nations, faces substantial challenges from plant pests and diseases, posing threats to both food security and economic stability. PlanteSaine addresses these challenges by offering a comprehensive solution that provides farmers with real-time identification of pests and diseases. Farmers capture images of affected plants with their smartphones, and PlanteSaine's AI system analyzes these images to provide accurate diagnoses. The application's offline functionality ensures accessibility even in remote areas with limited internet connectivity, while its messaging feature facilitates communication with agricultural authorities for guidance and support. Additionally, PlanteSaine includes an emergency alert mechanism to notify farmers about pest and disease outbreaks, enhancing their preparedness to deal with these threats. An AI-driven framework, featuring an image feature extraction phase with EfficientNetB3 and an artificial neural network (ANN) classifier, was developed and integrated into PlanteSaine. The evaluation of PlanteSaine demonstrates its superior performance compared to baseline models, showcasing its effectiveness in accurately detecting diseases and pests across maize, tomato, and onion crops. Overall, this study highlights the potential of PlanteSaine to revolutionize agricultural technology in Burkina Faso and beyond. Leveraging AI and mobile computing, PlanteSaine provides farmers with accessible and reliable pest and disease management tools, ultimately contributing to sustainable farming practices and enhancing food security. The success of PlanteSaine underscores the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in addressing pressing challenges in global agriculture

This paper investigates the impact of price and real exchange rate volatility on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in a panel of 10 Latin American and Caribbean countries, observed between 1990 and 2012. Both price and exchange rate volatility series are estimated through the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity model (GARCH). Our results, obtained employing the Fixed Effects estimator, confirm the theory of hysteresis and option value, in so far it is found a statistically significant negative effect of exchange rate volatility on FDI. Price volatility, instead, turns out to be positive but insignificant. Moreover, we show that human capital and trade openness are key for attracting foreign capital. From the policy perspective, our analysis suggests the importance of stabilization policies as well as the one of government credibility in promoting trade openness and human capital formation.

This study proposes a flexible and adaptable protocol for the establishment of agricultural management zones that utilises remote sensing, ground truthing (apparent electrical conductivity and soil sampling), the IRRIGOPTIMAL® system and machine learning. This protocol could contribute significantly to the rational use of inputs (water, fertilizers and pesticides) and to the further efficient development of an optimal irrigation system with variable irrigation rates. The methodology to develop this protocol was applied to olive and alfalfa plots in Heraklion (Crete, Greece) to monitor soil and crop responses for the period 2022-2024. Spatial and temporal assessment of selected soil and plant parameters (moisture, photosynthetic activity) using ground and vegetation reflectance mapping by satellites and unmanned aerial systems provides important information in both the pre- and main phases of the management zone delineation. Geophysical methods such as electromagnetic induction, applied in the main phase of management zone delineation, provide a robust technique to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of apparent electrical conductivity. The Random Forest machine learning model was found to be most suitable for predicting soil electrical conductivity based on satellite-derived salinity indices and ground electromagnetic induction. Finally, the IRRIGOPTIMAL® system provides real-time monitoring of a variety of weather and soil parameters to determine the optimal cultivation of crops based on the creation of agricultural management zones.

Two coupled climate models which participated the CMIP6 project (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6), the Earth System Model of Chinese Academy of Sciences version 2 (CAS-ESM2-0) and the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology Earth System Model version 3 (NESM3), were assessed in terms of the impact of four new sea ice parameterization schemes. These four new schemes are related to air-sea heat flux, radiation penetration and absorption, melt ponds, ice-ocean flux, respectively. To evaluate the effectiveness of these schemes, key sea ice variables with and without these new schemes, such as sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea ice thickness (SIT), were compared against observation and reanalysis product from 1980 to 2014. The simulations followed the design of historical experiments within the CMIP6 framework. The results revealed that both models demonstrated improvements in simulating Arctic SIC and SIT when the new parameterization schemes were implemented. The model bias of SIC in some marginal sea ice zones of Arctic was reduced, especially during March. The SIT was increased and the transpolar gradient of SIT was reproduced. The changes of spatial pattern of SIC and SIT after adding new schemes bear similarities between the two coupled models. This suggests that the new schemes have potential for broad application in climate models, especially for those with underestimated SIT.

Introduction: One of the key strategies to achieve sustainable development goal by reduce preventable maternal deaths below 70 per 100,000 is increasing awareness about major obstetrics danger sign. Mother's awareness of obstetric danger signs in developing country is relatively low regardless of attempts trough many local and national program. It is crucial to increase women’s knowledge of obstetric danger signs through education and awareness-raising efforts. Despite its importance to reduce maternal deaths, Studies are limited only to the Northern Ethiopia. Objective: This study aimed to assess prevalence of knowledge of obstetric danger signs and associated factors among women who delivered in the last 12 months in Sidama region, Ethiopia. Methods: We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study from October to November, 2022. A multi-stage sampling procedure was utilized to select study participants. A structured and pretested questionnaire was utilized to collect data. A multilevel mixed-effects negative binomial regression model was used to control effects of clusters and confounders.Results: Out of 1,140 study participants, only 1,130 study participants took part in the study making a response rate of 99.12%. The overall prevalence of knowledge of obstetrics danger sign was estimated as 22.3% (95%CI: 18.7, 25.9). Government employed women (AIRR = 1.37; 95% CI: 1.2, 1.6), women who had access to mass media (AIRR = 1.16; 95% CI: 1.08, 1.25), women who had received model family training (AIRR = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.1, 1.25), autonomous women (AIRR = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.25), women who had faced health problems during pregnancy (APR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.11, 1.32) and urban women (APR = 1.22; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.62) were factors associated positively with knowledge of obstetrics danger sign. Conclusion: The prevalence of knowledge of obstetrics danger sign is found to be lower compared with the national average. Residence, mass-media exposure, model family planning, problem faced during pregnancy and women autonomy are the main predictors of knowledge of obstetrics danger sign. Public health policy makers should enhance health literacy at for focused on rural community. Awareness creation should be improved through mass media. Health providers should educate women during maternity health services to empower women for decision making process.

The definition of UTC in 1972 balanced the needs of the time and frequency community for a universal time scale that was traceable to the definition of frequency in the SI system of units with the needs of the astronomical community for a time scale that was closely linked to UT1, a time scale related to the rotation of Earth. The balance between these two considerations has changed very significantly since 1972, and there is widespread agreement that the method of relating UTC to UT1 should be changed by increasing the maximum tolerance between the two scales to more than the current limit of 0.9 s. I propose to realize this decision by means of an algorithmic adjustment process based on the variation in the length of the day over the previous centuries. I use these historical data to extrapolate the length of the day for a century into the future, and to compute a periodic rate adjustment to UTC based on this extrapolation. The adjustment process will not use time steps. The magnitude of the periodic rate adjustment will be re-considered every century, but the basic adjustment algorithm will not change. I suggest a maximum tolerance between UT1 and UTC that is large enough to absorb the irregular and unpredictable variations in the length of the day with respect to the long-term average increase in this value but plays no role in determining the parameters of the adjustment process that is proposed. I also propose that the adjustment be implemented at 12 UTC on 1 January since that is closest to a universal holiday in all time zones.

This paper, from the perspective of Mode 3 of knowledge production, takes the important carrier of knowledge, scientific research papers, as the research object. The mainstream databases (SCIE and SSCI) are chosen as the data sources. Firstly, bibliometric methods are applied to analyze the cooperation status among the main bodies of paper production, including authors and their affiliated institutions, countries, and disciplines; secondly, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to construct a comprehensive evaluation model for the state of research cooperation in carbon neutrality. Based on the evaluation model, the cooperation characteristics of different disciplinary fields and the relationship between paper cooperation status and high-impact research papers are comparatively analyzed. At the same time, an analysis is conducted on the support from the government, the sponsorship from enterprises, and the participation of the public in the process of paper production. Finally, some suggestions are put forward on how to build an innovative ecosystem for carbon neutrality research from the perspective of Mode 3 of knowledge production.

Dams fragment stream habitat and fishways around dams typically serve few species that are strong swimmers or jumpers. We test a prototype wetted ramp designed to allow upstream passage of small-bodied fishes while blocking upstream movement of invasive sea lamprey in the Laurentian Great Lakes. We tested short, smooth ramps with 5-10 mm water depth in various combinations of ramp angle, water flow and swim channel width with the aim to selectively block adult migrating sea lamprey while passing sub-adult white suckers (Catostomus commersonii) and creek chubs (Semotilus atromaculatus). Sea lamprey easily passed a 0.75 ramp at 5 angle, but very few individuals passed a similar ramp at 10 angle and none passed a longer ramp at the 5 angle. Limiting the amplitude of tailbeats in a narrow channel did not hamper lamprey or the other species. Greater water flow, and thereby greater immersion depth on the ramp fostered passage for all species. Smaller-bodied individual of creek chubs and white suckers performed best on the ramp. We show that wetted ramps could be incorporated into fishways at low-head dams to aid passage of smaller-bodied fishes while also blocking the spawning migration of adult sea lamprey.

Marine sand, in addition to oil and gas resources, is the second largest marine mineral resource. The rational development and utilization of marine sand resources are conducive to the growth of the marine economy. Marine sand can be categorized into surface marine sand and buried marine sand. Buried marine sand deposits are buried beneath the sea floor, making it challenging to locate them due to their thin distribution. Consequently, there exist numerous technical difficulties associated with marine sand exploration. In this study, various geophysical methods such as sub-bottom profile survey and single-channel seismic survey were employed in the northern offshore waters of the South China Sea along with offshore engineering geological drilling. As a result, two distinct marine sand bodies were delineated within the study area. Additionally, five reflective interfaces (R0, R1, R2, R3 and R4) were identified from top to bottom. These interfaces can be divided into five seismic sequences: A2, B2, C2, D2 and E2 respectively. Three sets of strata were recognized: the Quaternary Holocene Marine sedimentary layer (Q4m), the Upper Pleistocene alluvial layer, and the diluvial sedimentary layer (Q3al+pl) as well as the Upper Pleistocene Marine sedimentary layer (Q3m). Sequence A2 and B2 corresponded to Quaternary Holocene Formation (Q4m) within the study area while sequence C2 corresponded to B2 as well as upper Pleistocene alluvial and alluvial deposits (Q3al+pl), which represent one of the main occurring layers of sand in this region. Lastly, E2 represents a layer composed mainly of silty clay and round gravel known as upper Pleistocene marine sediment layer (Q3m). In total, two ore bodies containing marine sand have been discovered during this study. The estimated total resource amounts approximately 46 million m³ with an average thickness around 11 meters.

The infrared (IR) satellite remote sensing of sea surface skin temperature (SSTskin) is challenging in the northern high latitude region, especially in the Arctic because of its extreme environmental conditions, and thus the accuracy of SSTskin retrievals is questionable. Several Saildrone uncrewed surface vehicles were deployed at the Pacific side of the Arctic in 2019, and two of them, SD-1036 and SD-1037, were equipped with a pair of IR pyrometers on the deck whose measurements have been shown to be useful in the derivation of SSTskin with sufficient accuracy for scientific applications, providing an opportunity to validate satellite SSTskin retrievals. This study aims to assess the accuracy of MODIS-retrieved SSTskin from both Aqua and Terra satellites by comparisons with collocated Saildrone-derived SSTskin data. The mean differences in SSTskin from the SD-1036 and SD-1037 measurements are different by ~0.4 K, largely resulting from differences in the atmospheric conditions experienced by the two Saildrones. The performance of MODIS on Aqua and Terra in retrieving SSTskin is comparable. Negative brightness temperature (BT) differences between 11 μm and 12 μm channels are identified as being physically based, but are removed from the analyses as they present anomalous conditions for which the atmospheric correction algorithm is not suited. Overall, the MODIS SSTskin retrievals show negative mean biases, -0.234 K for Aqua and -0.295 K for Terra. The variations in the retrieval inaccuracies show an association with diurnal warming events in the upper ocean from long periods of sunlight in the Arctic. Also contributing to inaccuracies in the retrieval is the surface emissivity effect in BT differences characterized by the Emissivity-introduced BT difference (EΔBT) index. This study demonstrates the characteristics of MODIS-retrieved SSTskin in the Arctic, at least at the Pacific side, and underscores that more in situ SSTskin data at high latitudes are needed for further error identification and algorithm development of IR SSTskin.

We propose and experimentally realize a scheme of the optical nonreciprocity (ONR) using degenerate two-level atoms embedded in an optical ring cavity. For the degenerate transition Fg=4→Fe=3, we first study the cavity-transmission property in different coupling field, and verify that within the strong-coupling regime, the single-dark-state peak formed by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) shows ONR. Qualitative theoretical analysis shows that the stable ground-state Zeeman coherence is necessary for intracavity EIT. However, due to the frequency degeneracy, the large Rabi frequency of counter-propagating coupling field can reduce the number of effective atoms and weaken the strong-coupling of the atom-cavity, which determines that ONR based on intracavity EIT occurs only at weaker probe intensity. Furthermore, the ONR transmission with high contrast, linewidth-narrowed and broadband is experimentally demonstrated.

Overexpression of a constitutively active truncated form of OsCDPK1 (OEtr) in rice produced smaller seeds, but a double-stranded RNA gene-silenced form of OsCDPK1 (Ri) yielded large seeds, suggesting that OsCDPK1 plays a functional role in rice seed development. In the study presented here, we propose a model in which OsCDPK1 plays key roles in negatively controlling the grain size, amylose content, and endosperm appearance, and also affects the physicochemical properties of the starch. The dehulled transgenic OEtr grains were smaller than the dehulled wild-type grains, and the OEtr endosperm was opaque and had a low amylose content and numerous small loosely packed polyhedral starch granules. However, the OEtr grain sizes and endosperm appearances were not affected by the temperature being either optimal (25 °C ) or low (22 °C) or high (31 °C) during the grain-filling phase. In contrast, the transgenic Ri grains were larger, had higher amylose contents, and had more transparent endosperms filled with tightly packed polyhedral starch granules. This demonstrates that OsCDPK1 plays a novel functional role in starch biosynthesis during seed development and affects the transparent appearance of the endosperm. These results improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms through which the grain filling process occurs in rice.

Panel data of our interest consist of a moderate number of panels, while the panels contain a small number of observations. An estimator of common breaks in panel means without a boundary issue for this kind of scenario is proposed. In particular, the novel estimator is able to detect a common break point even when the change happens immediately after the first time point or just before the last observation period. Another advantage of the elaborated change point estimator is that it results in the last observation in situations with no structural breaks. The consistency of the change point estimator in panel data is established. The results are illustrated through a simulation study. As a by-product of the developed estimation technique, a theoretical utilization for correlation structure estimation, hypothesis testing, and bootstrapping in panel data is demonstrated. A practical application to non-life insurance is presented as well.

A one-dimensional model for fluid and solute transport in poroelastic materials (PEM) is studied. Although the model was recently derived and some exact solutions, in particular steady-state solutions and their applications, were studied, special cases occurring when some parameters vanish were not analysed earlier. Since the governing equations are nonintegrable in nonstationary case, the Lie symmetry method and modern tools for solving ODE systems are applied in order to construct time-dependent exact solutions. Depending on parameters arising in the governing equations, several special cases with new Lie symmetries are identified. Some of them have a highly nontrivial structure that cannot be predicted from a physical point of view or using Lie symmetries of other real-world models. Applying the symmetries obtained, multiparameter families of exact solutions are constructed, including those in terms of elementary and special functions (hypergeometric, Whittaker, Bessel and modified Bessel functions). A possible application of the solutions obtained is demonstrated and it is shown that some exact solutions can describe (at least qualitatively) the solute transport in PEM. The obtained exact solutions can also be used as test problems for estimating the accuracy of approximate analytical and numerical methods for solving relevant boundary value problems.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) image object detection has great application value in military and civilian fields. However, the objects in the captured images from UAVs have problems of large scale variation, complex backgrounds, and a large proportion of small objects. To resolve these problems, a multi-scale object detector based on coordinate and global information aggregation is proposed, named CGMDet. Firstly, a Coordinate and Global Information Aggregation Module (CGAM) is designed by aggregating local, coordinate, and global information, which can obtain features with richer context information. Secondly, a Multi-Feature Fusion Pyramid Network (MF-FPN) is proposed, which can better fuse features of different scales and obtain features containing more context information through repeated use of feature maps, to better detect multi-scale targets. Moreover, more location information of low-level feature maps is integrated to improve the detection results of small targets. Furthermore, we modified the bounding box regression loss of the model to make the model more accurately regress the bounding box and faster convergence. Finally, the proposed CGMDet was tested on VisDrone and UAVDT datasets and mAP0.5 of 50.9% and 48% was obtained, respectively. At the same time, our detector achieved the best results compared to other detectors.

The study examines the survival status of Scapharca broughtonii and Scallop Chlamys farreri under diverse seasons, sizes, and mixed breeding ratios. The objective is to explore the feasibility and economic benefits of the mixed breeding patterns of different shellfish varieties. The findings demonstrate that the overwintering mortality rate of mixed-cultured S.broughtonii ranges from 12.04% to 16.85%, which is conspicuously lower than that of individually cultured S.broughtonii. The summer mortality rate of mixed-cultured S.broughtonii with a size of 2.5 - 4.0 cm is significantly lower than that of individually cultured S.broughtonii (P < 0.05). There is no notable difference in the mortality between monoculture and polyculture of C.farreri. There is no significant disparity in the growth of C.farreri and S.broughtonii in monoculture and polyculture. The optimal polyculture size of the two scallops is 2.5 cm, and the ideal polyculture ratio is 1:1. The co-culture model of S.broughtonii and C.farreri in suspension cages has a high input-output ratio (1:1.9). It can effectively lower the winter and summer mortality rates of ark clams, representing an efficacious new methodology for marine shellfish farming.

The arsRBC operon encodes a 3-protein arsenic resistance system. ArsR regulates the transcription of the operon, while ArsB and ArsC are involved in exporting trivalent arsenic and reducing pentavalent arsenic respectively. Previous research in Agrobacterium tumefaciens 5A demonstrated ArsR has regulatory control over a wide range of metal related proteins and metabolic pathways. We hypothesized that ArsR has broad regulatory control in other Gram-negative bacteria and set out to test this. Here, we use differential proteomics to investigate changes caused by the presence of the arsR gene in human microbiome-relevant Escherichia coli during arsenite (AsIII) exposure. We show that ArsR has broad-ranging impacts such as the expression of TCA cycle enzymes during AsIII stress. Additionally, we found that the Isc [Fe-S] cluster and molybdenum cofactor assembly proteins are upregulated regardless of the presence of ArsR under these same conditions. An important finding from this differential proteomics analysis was the identification of response mechanisms that were strain, ArsR, and arsenic specific, providing new clarity to this complex regulon. Given the widespread occurrence of the arsRBC operon, these findings should have broad applicability across microbial genera, including sensitive environments such as the human gastrointestinal tract.

Climate change is expected to affect the agricultural sector in ways that are often unclear to predict. If in the short- medium-terms farmers may adapt to climate change by adjusting agricultural practices, in the long-term these adjustments may become insufficient, forcing farmers to change their farming systems. The extent and direction in which these farming system transitions will occur is still a subject underexplored in the literature. We propose a new framework to explore the marginal effect of climate change on the choice of the farming system, while controlling the effect of other drivers known to also influence farming system choice. Using a spatial-explicit farming system choice-model developed by a previous study in an extensive agricultural region of southern Portugal, we applied a space-for-time approach to simulate the effect of climate change on the future dynamics of the farming systems in the study area. Results suggest that climate change will force many farmers to change the farming system in a foreseeable future. The extent of the projected changes in farming systems is likely to trigger significant social, economic, or environmental impacts, which should require early attention from policy makers.

The Covid-19 pandemic was a challenge for the whole world and it had major secondary effects on humans and environmental health. The viral infection induced, in many situations, secondary bacterial infections, especially enteric infections by destabilizing the balance of the gastrointestinal microbiota. The large-scale use of antibiotics and biocides both for curative and preventive purposes has determined an increase in bacterial resistance and at the same time the possibility of pathogenic microorganisms’ multiplication and their dissemination to natural environments. Wastewater is the main vector of faecal microorganisms that favour their dissemination into natural aquatic ecosystems. The present paper aimed to analyze the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on the microbiological quality of wastewater from sewage treatment plants in Romania and its impact on receiving rivers. In order to highlight different and important areas of Romania, 3 cities from the east, center and west were selected for a microbiological evaluation of their WWTPs influent and effluent between ante-Covid-19 and Covid-19 pandemic peak period, when the Covid-19 pandemic had a direct impact on WWTPs microbial composition. Our study showed a higher contamination with fecal bacteria linked to a higher Covid-19 incidence. The increased usage of pharmaceutical compounds, at their turn, increased the number of resistant bacteria reaching the environment via WWTP effluents.

Particulate organic carbon (POC) is a pivotal component within the marine carbon cycle, actively involved in diverse biogeochemical processes. This study focuses on Mediterranean as the research region, selecting the most influential factors from 47 potential ones influencing surface POC. Using geographic detector for factor identification, ten primary influencers were identified. Preliminarily optimized random forest (BRF), backpropagation neural network, adaptive boosting, and extreme gradient boosting were utilized to construct POC assessment models. Notably BRF exhibited superior performance in estimating the sea surface POC. Further optimization of RF using the tuneRanger R package resulted in R² of 0.868, mean squared error of 1.119 (mg/m³) ², and mean absolute error of 1.041 (mg/m³). Surface POC concentrations in the Mediterranean for May and June 2017 were estimated. Spatial distribution analysis unveiled higher concentrations in the west, lower in the east, higher in the north, lower in the south, with higher levels near the coast and lower far from the coast. Additionally, the study deliberated on the impact of human activities on surface POC in the Mediterranean. This research contributes a high-precision method for satellite retrieval of surface POC concentrations in the Mediterranean, thereby enriching the understanding of POC dynamics in the area.

Recent studies have elucidated the diversity of genes encoding venom in sea anemones. However, most of those genes are yet to be explored in an evolutionary context. Insulin is a common peptide across metazoans and has been coopted into a predatory venom in many venomous lineages. In this study, we focus on the diversity of insulin-derived venoms in sea anemones and on elucidating their evolutionary history. We sourced data for 34 species of sea anemones and found sequences belonging to two venom families that have Insulin PFAM annotations (Cono-Insulin, VP302). Our findings show that both families have undergone duplication events. Members of each of the independently evolving clades have consistent predicted protein structures and distinct dN/dS values. Our work also shows that VP302 is part of a multidomain venom contig and has experienced a secondary gain into the venom system of cuticulate sea anemones.

Sea cucumber peptides are small molecular peptides with biological function obtained from fresh sea cucumber as feedstock, which were hydrolyzed by protease, separated ,and purified. As the main product of sea cucumber refinement, it more accurately expresses the nutritional effect of sea cucumber and has a wide range of potential applications. It has been demonstrated that sea cucumber has a certain value-added effect on bone mineral density regulation, but the differences in bone mineral density regulation of extracts from different parts of sea cucumber and the techniques contributing to the efficient isolation of bone sea cucumber peptides have not been reported. Firstly, the aim of this study was to reveal the differences in osteogenic activities of enzymatic peptides from three major parts of sea cucumber: the body wall, the egg protein, and the intestinal protein. Then, the bone-enhancing sea cucumber peptides were isolated based on the characteristics of the dif-ferences in molecular weight distribution, hydrophilicity, and ionisation degree of sea cucumber, and to explore the possible mechanisms of their action. The findings indicated that sea cucumber peptides extracted from three distinct sites exhibited a dose-dependent enhancement of osteoblast proliferation and differentiation. Upon evaluating the three methods of sea cucumber peptide separation based on molecular weight distribution, hydrophilicity, and ionization, it was observed that the fraction isolated by hydrophobicity and

A recent research has identified an inverse amplitude link between obliquity damping and short eccentricity amplification during Mid-Late Pleistocene based on LR04 δ18O and equatorial Pacific Site 846 sea surface temperature records, which is associated with the Earth's long-term cooling. In the present study, new evidence of this anticorrelation is presented from Antarctic D-CO2-CH4 records, global benthic-planktic δ18O, and regional (Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean, and Indian) climate-related proxies. Based on a critical review of theoretical constrains (Earth's oblateness changes and ice-volume phase lag in the obliquity band <5.0 kyr), this widespread and symmetric (bipolar) obliquity response damping has been interpreted as an effect of the obliquity-oblateness feedback, which could be the latent physical mechanism at the origin of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT). Indeed, results and considerations of the present work suggest that fast and positive/negative net variation of the Earth's oblateness in the obliquity band was controlled by dominant glacio-eustatic water mass component and, assuming a rapid response of the ice-volume to surface temperature changes, the mean obliquity lag response is estimated to be <5.0 kyr over the past 800 kyr. These elements may explain the interglacial/glacial damping observed in the obliquity response. The consolidation of the Earth's long-term icy-state in the subtrend IV, culminated with the post-MPT obliquity damping, might have contributed to the strengthening of the short eccentricity response by mitigating the obliquity ‘ice-killing’ during obliquity maxima (interglacials), favouring the obliquity-cycle skipping and a feedback amplified ice-growth in the short eccentricity band (obliquity damping hypothesis). This could suggest a different impact of the climate friction than what is generally believed, which is presumably the latent physical mechanism that triggers transient ‘competitive’ interaction between obliquity and short eccentricity started early during the Piacenzian.

The use of educational robotics has become increasingly popular in STEM education, offering motivating and hands-on learning experiences. This paper explores the potential of educational robotics for teaching plane curves at the university level. Specifically, it investigates the development and implementation of a LEGO SPIKE Prime robot designed to draw various central trochoids, including epicycloids and hypocycloids. The robot’s construction and programming are described, emphasizing the relationship between the robot’s physical movements and the mathematical equations of the curves it produces. The study also examines the integration of dynamic geometry software, which allows for visualization of the curves and verification of the robot’s accuracy. The paper concludes that educational robotics can serve as a valuable tool for enhancing both theoretical and practical understanding of mathematical and engineering concepts, offering a more engaging and interactive approach to learning.

Subnational governments play a key role responding to climate change risks in terms of policy strategies and instruments. This article analyzes how Brazilian municipal and state governments have developed and implemented public policies to mitigate and to adapt to climate change risks. We surveyed all cities’ and states’ climate policies within the country. The methodological approach includes five main points of analysis: 1. mitigation targets and intentions; 2. adaptation actions; 3. stakeholders’ participation; 4. policy implementation; 5. participation in networks related to climate change. Our results suggest that even though subnational climate policies in Brazil are isolated initiatives within the national context, they play an important role responding to climate change risks in different scales and levels. The strongest Brazilian policies with both mitigation and adaptation actions counted on previous mobilization for the climate issue involving different stakeholders from several segments of the society. These governments have also participated in transnational cooperation networks related to climate change.

The recent mountain pine beetle outbreaks have caused widespread mortality among lodgepole pine trees in western North America, resulting in a reduced population of surviving trees. While previous studies have focused on the cascading impacts of these outbreaks on the physiology and growth of the surviving trees, there remains a need for a comprehensive study into the interactions among various physiological traits and the growth in post-outbreak stands. Specifically, the relationship between chemical (primarily terpenes) and anatomical (mainly resin ducts) defences, as well as the allocation of non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) to support these defence modalities, is poorly understood. To address these gaps, we conducted a field survey of surviving lodgepole pine trees in post-mountain pine beetle outbreak stands in western Canada. Our retrospective analysis targeted to determine correlations between the post-outbreak concentrations of monoterpenes, diterpenes, and NSCs in the phloem, and the historical resin duct characteristics and growth traits before and after the outbreak. We detected strong correlations between post-outbreak concentrations of monoterpenes and historical resin duct characteristics, suggesting a possible link between these two defence modalities. Additionally, we found a positive relationship between NSCs and the total concentrations of monoterpenes and diterpenes, suggesting that NSCs likely influence the production of these terpenes in lodgepole pine. Furthermore, historical tree growth patterns showed strong positive correlations with many individual monoterpenes and diterpenes. Interestingly, while surviving trees had enhanced anatomical defences after the outbreak, their growth patterns did not vary before and after the outbreak conditions. The complexity of these relationships emphasizes the dynamics of post-outbreak stand dynamics and resource allocation in lodgepole pine forests, highlighting the need for further research. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of conifer defenses and their coordinated responses to forest insect outbreaks, with implications for forest management and conservation strategies.

Flood disasters have become an annual occurrence along the East Coast of North Sumatra (ECNS) and Medan City. Numerous studies have examined the causal factors flood disasters in this area, such as changes in land use, drainage issues, and population growth, but the intensity of flood disasters continues to rise. In this research, we focused on evaluating the unexplored factors of land subsidence and rising sea levels in this region. Our investigation uses multi-sensor satellite data and field surveys to conduct an assessment of the rate of land subsidence and sea level rise and assess their implications on flood disasters. This study highlights the potential of multi-sensor satellite data as a primary resource for assessing flood disasters in coastal areas and densely populated large cities. Furthermore, we propose a solution to reduce the negative impact of flood disasters by by engaging local communities and environmental enthusiasts in mangrove reforestation along the coastline.