: Tunnel instability and lining integrity are intimately tied to the creep properties of the surrounding rock. The acquisition of rock mass creep parameters is critical in ascertaining the appropriate timing for lining construction. Nevertheless, creep tests on rock specimens conducted in a controlled setting cannot be straightforwardly extrapolated to rock mass creep analysis. This study performs laboratory-based creep tests on mudstone samples and establishes the corresponding creep constitutive model. Integration of a Mohr-Coulomb element with the Burgers model in series serves to characterise the yield creep behaviour of the rock mass. Additionally, the research outlines a series of 100 orthogonal experiments utilising randomised creep parameters, and formulates a GA-BP neural network inversion model. Employing long-term deformation measurements from the crown and sidewalls of the project site, this study deduces the creep parameters of the mudstone in the investigated tunnel section and examines the prolonged deformation traits of the surrounding rock. Drawing on the deformation traits of the surrounding rock and the forces impacting the primary support and lining structures, this paper evaluates the earliest and latest viable lining casting periods and pinpoints an optimal timing interval for lining implementation. The methodologies employed herein can serve as a benchmark for analogous endeavors internationally.

Large-scale hydrological modeling in China is challenging given the sparse meteorological stations and large uncertainties associated with atmospheric forcing data.Here we introduce the development and use of the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT model (CMADS) in the Heihe River Basin(HRB) for improving hydrologic modeling, by leveraging the datasets from the China Meteorological Administration Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS)(including climate data from nearly 40000 area encryption stations, 2700 national automatic weather stations, FengYun (FY) 2 satellite and radar stations). CMADS uses the Space Time Multiscale Analysis System (STMAS) to fuse data based on ECWMF ambient field and ensure data accuracy. In addition, compared with CLDAS, CMADS includes relative humidity and climate data of varied resolutions to drive hydrological models such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. Here, we compared climate data from CMADS, Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) and traditional weather station (TWS) climate forcing data and evaluatedtheir applicability for driving large scale hydrologic modeling with SWAT. In general, CMADS has higher accuracy than CFRS when evaluated against observations at TWS; CMADS also provides spatially continuous climate field to drive distributed hydrologic models, which is an important advantage over TWS climate data, particular in regions with sparse weather stations. Therefore, SWAT model simulations driven with CMADS and TWS achieved similar performances in terms of monthly and daily stream flow simulations, and both of them outperformed CFRS. For example, for the three hydrological stations (Ying Luoxia, Qilian Mountain, and ZhaMasheke) in the HRB at the monthly and daily Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency ranges of 0.75-0.95 and 0.58-0.78, respectively, which are much higher than corresponding efficiency statistics achieved with CFSR (monthly: 0.32-0.49 and daily: 0.26 – 0.45). The CMADS dataset is available free of charge and is expected to a valuable addition to the existing climate reanalysis datasets for deriving distributed hydrologic modeling in China and other countries in East Asia.

Disasters related to climate change on our water resources are on the rise in terms of scale and severity. Therefore, predicting groundwater levels (GWL) is a crucial means to aid adaptive capacity towards disasters related to climate change in our water resources. In this study Gradient Boosting (GB) regression modelling approach for GWL prediction as a function of rainfall and antecedent GWL is used. Firstly, we sought to demonstrate the effects of rainfall changes on our groundwater resources through a Mann-Kendall trend analysis. Secondly, we evaluated the relationship between the input and response variables and determined the optimal lag times between the variables using autocorrelations and cross-correlations. Lastly a predictive model was developed for eight groundwater stations in the Upper Crocodile. 50 % of the groundwater stations revealed declining trends, while 25% had no trends and the other 25% showed an increasing trend. Generally low cross-correlation maximum (CCmax) were obtained, with the highest CCmax being 0.299 at an optimal lag of 2-month. While the highest autocorrelation was 0.969 at a 1-month lag. The best groundwater predictive model had R2 and MSE of 0.66 and 0.06, respectively. The stations that generally performed better had both high autocorrelation and cross-correlation coefficients. GB model performed satisfactorily in predicting GWL for most of the stations in the study area. Therefore, GB can be used for GWL prediction in the Upper Crocodile.

Multisource meteorological re-analyses are the most reliable forcing data for driving hydrological models to simulate streamflow. We aimed to assess the different hydrological responses through hydrological modeling in the upper Lancang-Mekong River Basin (LMRB) using the two gridded meteorological datasets, climate forecast system reanalysis (CFSR) and the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT model (CMADS). We selected the Pearson’s correlation coefficient (R), percent bias (PBIAS), and root mean square error (RMSE) indices to compare the six meteorological variables of the two datasets. The spatial distributions of the statistical indicators in the CFSR and CMADS, namely, the R, PBIAS, and RMSE values, were different. Furthermore, the soil and water assessment tool plus (SWAT+) model was used to do hydrological modeling based on CFSR and CMADS meteorological re-analyses in the upper LMRB. Different meteorological datasets resulted in significant differences of hydrological responses, which reflected by different sensitive parameters and their optimal value. These different calibrated optimal values of sensitive parameters further lead to the different simulated water balance components between CFSR- and CMADS-based SWAT+ model. These findings can help in a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different meteorological re-analysis datasets and the roles on the hydrological modeling.

The hydrochemical composition of the Upper Jurassic groundwaters in the South German Mo-lasse Basin (SGMB) indicates a heterogeneous and varying hydrogeochemical evolution, which contradicts previous flow model concepts. For this study, the data of 88 Tertiary, Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic groundwater samples were investigated for hydrochemical elements, 2H/18O-H2O isotopes, 87Sr/86Sr ratios as well as δ11B values. In addition, the geochemical composition, 87Sr/86Sr and δ11B values were analysed from depth-oriented Upper Jurassic rock samples to delineate water-rock interactions in the aquifer systems. Slightly elevated 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the carbonates compared to the typical signatures of marine Upper Jurassic carbonates indicate a synsedimentary radiogenic influence due to the erosion of the adjacent Bohemian Massif. However, these values cannot explain the significant higher Sr-isotope fingerprint of the groundwaters in the central SGMB. Different water types occur in the Upper Jurassic aquifer, primarily distinguished by the dominant cations, calcium or sodium with subclasses of the major anions. The calcium-dominated groundwaters occur mainly at the western and northern margins of the SGMB. The sodi-um-dominated ion exchange groundwaters instead dominate in the central and eastern SGMB. With increasing strontium content, the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the Upper Jurassic groundwater samples either indicate a strontium uptake by carbonate of the host rocks, or a prevailing radiogenic sig-nature. This implies a basic interaction with terrestrial or marine Tertiary sediments. The results illustrate a downward transformational fluid flow systematic via the thick Tertiary sediment cover into the Upper Jurassic carbonate formation in the SGMB, highlighting a new understanding on the evolution of the Upper Jurassic groundwaters and a basin-wide recharge mechanism.

Hydro-climatic projections in West Africa are attributed with high uncertainties that are difficult to quantify. This study assesses the influence of the parameter sensitivities and uncertainties of three rainfall runoff models on simulated discharge in current and future times using meteorological data from 8 Global Climate Models. The IHACRES Catchment Moisture Deficit (IHACRES-CMD) model, the GR4J and the Sacramento model were chosen for this study. During model evaluation, 10,000 parameter sets have been generated for each model and used in a sensitivity and uncertainty analysis using the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) method. Out of the three models, IHACRES-CMD recorded the highest Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.92 and 0.86 for the calibration (1997-2003) and the validation (2004-2010) period respectively. The Sacramento model was able to adequately predict low flow patterns on the catchment while the GR4J and IHACRES-CMD over and under estimate low flow respectively. The use of multiple hydrological models to reduce uncertainties caused by model approaches is recommended along with other methods of sustainable river basin managements.

Climate change is a phenomenon that makes the climate system of a given region to be more unpredictable and increases the risk of water-related problems. GCMs under the new CMIP6 framework holds several climate models with many improvements as compared to past similar efforts. The improvements are mainly in the number of scenarios formulated, setup, parametrization, and resolution. In this study, 10 downscaled climate models from CMIP6 are evaluated by applying statistical and data mining tools and are ranked based on their capability to describe the historical observed series. The result of the analysis showed that the outputs of the MPI-ESM1-2-HR model have a good overall ranking among those 10 models. The output of this top-ranked model is used to understand future climate over UASB after properly bias-corrected using the QM method. Results of the bias correction step show that average annual precipitation has shown an increment of 6.5\% in the middle (SSP2-4.5) and 10.3\% in the worst (SSP5-8.5) case scenarios for the mid-century (2040 - 2069). Similarly, for the end of the century (2070 - 2099) an increment of 4.7\% and 17.5\% was predicted for the two scenarios respectively. Whereas average annual maximum temperature series showed an increment of 1.5 $\degree C$ for middle and 2.6 $\degree C$ for the worst case in the mid-century. At the same time, an increment of 2.2 $\degree C$ and 3.5 $\degree C$ were predicted for the end of the century similarly for those scenarios. Furthermore, it was predicted that the average annual minimum temperature series will have an increment of 2.6 $\degree C$ and 3.1 $\degree C$ for mid-century and 3.1 $\degree C$ and 4.7 $\degree C$ for the end century for the two scenarios respectively. An increase in precipitation with increased land degradation problems in the sub-basin increases the risk of flood events in the future.

Based on the recorded watershed characteristics, the future conditions on the basin system can be predicted using a different method. In this study, dynamic land-use change and its impacts on the streamflow for the Dabus watershed were predicted using ANN-CA based method. The model performance for accurate prediction of the future land-use change on the Dabus River watershed has been checked by validation of the simulated value with the actual value, hence the overall kappa value (k) = 0.83 for the simulated 2016-LULC validated with actual 2016-LULC. Then, 2026-LULC was predicted based on the 2004 and 2009-LULC. The streamflow for the case of 2004 and 2009-LULC has been simulated using the SWAT model. The value of NSE = 0.87 and 0.90 was attained during validation of simulated streamflow for 2004 and 2009-LULC data cases, respectively. The agreement of simulated value of streamflow with the observed data is indicated as R2 = 0.91 and 0.96 for 2004-LULC and 2009-LULC. The effects of the dynamic land-use change on streamflow for the predicted land use(2026-LULC) catchment were evaluated by T-test analysis. Hence, T-stat =0.04 and -0.002 in the case of simulated streamflow used 2004-LULC and 2009-LULC, respectively compared with simulated value using 2026-LULC.

The present study aims to evaluate the capability of the TRMM-3B42-(V7) precipitation product to estimate appropriate precipitation rates in the Upper Indus basin (UIB) and the analysis of the dependency of the estimates’ accuracies on the time scale. To that avail statistical analyses and comparison of the TMPA- products with gauge measurements in the UIB are carried out. The dependency of the TMPA estimates’ quality on the time scale is analysed by comparisons of daily, monthly, seasonal and annual sums for the UIB. The results show considerable biases in the TMPA- (TRMM) precipitation estimates for the UIB, as well as high false alarms and miss ratios. The correlation of the TMPA- estimates with ground-based gauge data increases considerably and almost in a linear fashion with increasing temporal aggregation, i.e. time scale. The BIAS is mostly positive for the summer season, while for the winter season it is predominantly negative, thereby showing a slight over-estimation of the precipitation in summer and under-estimation in winter. The results of the study suggest that, in spite of these discrepancies between TMPA- estimates and gauge data, the use of the former in hydrological watershed modelling, endeavoured presently by the authors, may be a valuable alternative in data- scarce regions, like the UIB, but still must be taken with a grain of salt.

Background: Recent reports on the national temporal trends of sepsis-related mortality in the United States (US) suggested outcome improvement in several race and ethnicity groups. However, it is unknown whether national data reflect state-level trajectories. Methods: We used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research Multiple Cause of Death dataset to identify all decedents with sepsis in the US during 2010-2019. Negative binomial regression models were fit to estimate national and state-level trends of age-adjusted sepsis-related mortality rates within race and ethnicity groups. Results: There were 1,852,610 sepsis-related deaths in the US during 2010-2019. Nationally, sepsis-related mortality rates decreased among Blacks and Asians, were unchanged among Hispanics and Native Americans, and rose among Whites. The percent of states with similar trends were 30.0% among Blacks, 32.1% among Asians, 74.3% among Hispanics, 75.0% among Native Americans, and 66.7%% among Whites, while trending in opposite direction from 3.6% among Asians to 15.0% among Blacks. Conclusions: National trends in sepsis-related mortality in the US did not represent state-level trajectories in race and ethnicity groups. Gains in sepsis outcomes among race and ethnicity groups at the national level were not shared equitably at the state level.

The Kashmir valley is prone to flooding due to its peculiar geomorphic setup compounded by the rapid anthropogenic land system changes and climate change. The study assesses the impact of land use and land cover (LULC) changes between 1980 and 2020 and extreme rainfall on peak discharge and sediment yield in the Upper Jhelum Basin (UJB), Kashmir Himalaya, India using KINEROS2 model. Analysis of LULC change revealed a notable shift from natural LULC to more intensive human-modified LULC, including a decrease in vegetative cover, deforestation, urbanization, and improper farming practices. The findings revealed a strong influence of the LULC changes on peak discharge, and sediment yield relative to the 2014 timeframe, which coincided with the catastrophic September 2014 flood event. The model predicted a peak discharge of 115101 cubic feet per second (cfs) and a sediment yield of 56.59 tons/ha during the September 2014 flooding, which is very close to the observed peak discharge of 115218 cfs indicating that the model is reliable for discharge prediction. The model predicted a peak discharge of 98965 cfs and a sediment yield of 49.11 tons/ha in 1980, which increased to 118366 cfs and, 58.92 tons/ha respectively in 2020, showing an increase in basin’s flood risk over time. In the future, it is anticipated that the ongoing LULC changes will make flood vulnerability worse, which could lead to another major flooding in the event of an extreme rainfall as predicted under climate change and, in turn compromise achievement of sustainable development goals (SDG). Therefore, regulating LULC in order to modulate various hydrological and land surface processes would ensure stability of runoff and reduction in sediment yield in the UJB, which is critical for achieving many SDGs.

The current study applied a new approach for the interpolation and regionalization of observed precipitation series to a smaller spatial scale (0.125° by 0.125° grid) across the Upper Indus Basin (UIB), with appropriate adjustments for the orographic effect and changes in glacier storage. The approach is evaluated and validated through reverse hydrology, guided by observed flows and available knowledge base. More specifically, the generated corrected precipitation data is validated by means of SWAT-modelled responses of the observed flows to the different input precipitation series (original and corrected ones). The results show that the SWAT- simulated flows using the corrected, regionalized precipitation series as input are much more in line with the observed flows than those using the uncorrected observed precipitation input for which significant underestimations are obtained.

Upper Blue Nile basin (UBNB) is the water tower of Ethiopia and downstream countries. It contributes significant moistures to the surrounding atmosphere. However, the contribution of the moisture from the basin to the precipitation in the area is not well documented. Therefore, this paper is aimed at seasonal variation of upper Blue Nile basin moisture budget and the global moistures in the role of temporal and spatial precipitation variability. To this end, we used European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) data from 1979-2017. The UBNB moisture contributed precipitation in the central parts of the study area during the summer season, while in spring; it contributed in southern part of the study area. Northwest part of the study area got precipitation from the basin moistures during autumn season. The recycling ratios for four seasons (summer, autumn, spring and winter) were 9.70%, 16.33%, 19.01%, and 35.30% respectively. The maximum amount of precipitation is extracted from the local moistures during winter season. The annual average value of recycling ratio was found 20.11%. Hence, we concluded that UBNB moisture budget had lesser contribution of precipitation over the study area. It rather contributed a significant precipitation to the neighboring countries such as Egypt and Sudan. Further studies on moisture budget are required to explain this phenomenon in the context of Ethiopia.

This study focusses on identifying a set of representative future climate projections for the Upper Indus Basin (UIB). Although a large number of GCM’s predictor sets are nowadays available in the CMIP5 archive, the issue of their reliability for specific regions must still be confronted. This situation makes it imperative to sort out the most appropriate, single or small-ensemble set of GCMs for the assessment of climate change impacts in a region. Here a set of different approaches is adopted and applied for a step-wise shortlist and selection of appropriate climate models for the UIB under two RCPs: RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, based on, a) range of projected mean changes, b) range of projected extreme changes, and c) skill in reproducing the past climate. Furthermore, because of higher uncertainties in climate projection for high mountainous regions like the UIB, a wider range of future GCM climate projections is considered by using all possible future extreme scenarios (wet-warm, wet-cold, dry-warm, dry-cold). Based on this two-fold procedure, a limited number of climate models is pre-selected, out of which the final selection is done by assigning ranks to the weighted score for each of the mentioned selection criteria. The dynamically downscaled climate projections from the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) available for the top-ranked GCMs are further statistically downscaled (bias-corrected) over the UIB. The downscaled projections up to year 2100 indicate temperature increases ranging between 2.3 °C and 9.0 °C and precipitation changes that range, from a slight annual increase of 2.2% under the drier scenarios, to as high as 15.9% for the wet scenarios. Moreover, for all scenarios, the future precipitation will be more extreme, as the probability of wet days will decrease, while, at the same time, the precipitation intensities will increase. The spatial distribution of the downscaled predictors across the UIB also shows similar patterns for all scenarios, with a distinct precipitation decrease over the south-eastern parts of the basin, but an increase in the northeastern parts. These two features are particularly intense for the “Dry-Warm” and the “Median” scenarios over the late 21st century.

Forest ecosystems make a greater contribution to carbon (C) stocks than any other terrestrial ecosystem. To understand the role of regional forest ecosystems in global climate change and carbon exchange, forest C stock and its spatial distribution within the small (2,300 km2) Liuxihe River basin were analyzed to determine the different contributors to the C stock. Forest C stocks were quantified by measuring the biomass of trees, understory vegetation, litter and roots, as well as soil organic C, using data from field samples and laboratory experiments. The results showed that forests stored 38.04 Tg C in the entire basin, with secondary and planted forests accounting for 89.82% and 10.18%, respectively, of the stored C. Five types of forests, a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, a subtropical coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest, a subtropical coniferous forest, a timber forest, and a non-wood forest, stored 257.55 ± 15.01, 218.92 ± 9.59, 195.24 ± 18.29, 177.42 ± 17.55, and 117.86 ± 6.04 Mg C ha−1, respectively. In the forest ecosystem C stocks of the basin, soils averagely contribute about 73.78%, not including root underground biomass. It provides a comprehensive method for forest ecosystem carbon investigation and forest management in small basin scale.

Climate change plays a pivotal role in the hydrology of tributaries in the upper Blue Nile basin. This study was designed to reveal the extent to which climate change impacts on stream flow of the Gumara watershed under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) climate change scenario. The study considered the RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios using the second generation Canadian Earth System Model (CanESM2). The Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM) was used for calibration and projection of future climatic data of the study area. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used for simulation of the future stream flow of the watershed. Result showed that the average temperature will be increasing by 0.84oC, 2.6oC and 4.1oC in the end of this century under RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios respectively. The change in monthly rainfall amount showed a fluctuating trend in all scenarios but the overall annual rainfall amount is projected to increase by 8.6%, 5.2% and 7.3% in RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5 respectively. Overall, this study revealed that, due to climate change, the stream flow of the watershed is found to be increasing by 4.06%, 3.26%, and 3.67% under RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios respectively.

Climate and land use changes are major factors affecting runoff in regional basins. Understanding variation by considering interactions among hydrological components is an important process for water resource management. This study aimed to assess the variation of future runoff in the Upper Chi Basin, Northeastern Thailand. QSWAT hydrological model was integrated to 3 CMIP6 GCMs including ACCESS-CM2, MIROC6, and MPI-ESM1-2-LR under SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios during 2023 – 2100. Land Change Modeler (LCM) was also used for future land use simulation. The results revealed that future average of long-term precipitation and temperature tended to increase while forest land tended to decrease and be replaced by sugarcane plantations. The accuracy assessment of baseline year runoff calculation by QSWAT during 1997 – 2022 showed acceptable result as can be seen from R2, NSE, RSR, and PBIAS indices. This result could lead to temporal and spatial simulation of future runoff. Likewise, runoff of 2 SSPs scenarios tended to increase consecutively, especially in SSP585 scenario. In addition, in case of long-term spatial changes in the subbasins scale, over 90% of the area, from upstream to outlet point, tended to get higher due to 2 major factors including future increased precipitation and changes in cultivation, which would be influential to groundwater and interflow components respectively. Methodology and result of this study can be useful to stakeholders in understanding changes in hydrological system so that they can apply it to develop a strategy for water resource management and handling factors affecting different dimensions properly and sustainably.

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.

The composition and pattern of ecosystems are important factors determining the overall status and spatial differences of ecosystem service functions. However, under the background of differential land policies and ecological protection policies, research on the trend of ecological system pattern changes in the Fenhe River Basin is insufficient. Taking the upper and middle reaches of the Fenhe River Basin as the study area, based on long-term NDVI index and multi-period LUCC remote sensing images, this study used spatial statistics and time trend analysis methods to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamic changes of vegetation, land use, landscape pattern, and explored the impact of major driving factors on ecosystem changes. The results show that: (1) From 2010 to 2020, the vegetation cover in the upper and middle reaches of the Fenhe River Basin increased, with an annual NDVI increment of 0.003 (P<0.001). NDVI showed an increasing trend spatially, with significant statistics (P<0.001) and significant changes (P<0.05) in vegetation in high-altitude mountain areas, and the vegetation cover was mostly forests or grasslands. There was no significant change in vegetation cover in the low-lying urban agglomeration area. (2) From 2010 to 2020, the area of water bodies or wetlands in the study area significantly decreased, with 51.3% converted to arable land and 33.9% transferred to construction land, while only 2.2% remained as water bodies or wetlands. From 2015 to 2020, the trend of water body changes slowed down, with the proportions of conversion to arable land and construction land being 44.0% and 18.4% respectively, while the area of wetlands or water bodies remained at 16.3%. During the period of 2015-2020, the area of water bodies or wetlands converted to other land types increased by more than 14% compared to 2010-2015. This proportion reached more than 30% compared to the 13th Five-year Plan Period. (3) From 2010 to 2020, the spatial changes of landscape diversity (SHDI) and evenness (SHEI) of LUCC showed heterogeneous characteristics. In the high-altitude areas near the river basin boundary, the values of SHDI and SHEI were below 1.0. While in the low-altitude plain areas and urban areas with relatively frequent human activities, the values of SHDI and SHEI were above 1.0, and the values in urban areas could reach above 1.5. The evolution of ecosystem patterns in the upper and middle reaches of the Fenhe River Basin in the past decade has been clarified, providing a scientific basis for the construction and management of ecological environment governance and restoration projects in the Fenhe River Basin, and providing practical references for ecological protection and high-quality development practice in the Yellow River Basin.

Climate change is challenging the agricultural sector worldwide. The pressure exerted by the altered thermal conditions drives the zonal shift for various cultivations. This study presents the multiyear analysis of the Growing Degree Days (GDD) index over the Northern Mediterranean Basin (NMB), focused on the high-value vine cultivation derived from the E-OBS dataset. To handle this extensive environmental dataset, R-language scripts and packages were applied, along with the capabilities of the GIS software. The investigated time period spans from 1969 to 2018, and the performed analysis indicates a broad shift/expansion in areas of GDD exceeding 2000 heat units. The extracted results specify the viticultural areas where the GDD index surpasses the suitable values for vine cultivation, owing to the increase of the thermal stress risk. In addition to mapping areas with GDD ≥ 2000, spatial calculations of the surface of areas meeting this criterion per country in the study area were made. In the northern parts of the NMB, the rise of the GDD index values indicates the establishment of vine plantations in the future.

Promoting the sustainable development of resource-based cities is of great significance to the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. Combining the environmental status and economic development, we objectively evaluate the ecological safety level of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin, compare and analysis the main factors affecting the ecological safety of different resource-based cities, and formulate precise and differentiated ecological safety protection measures in river basins to achieve high-quality development. Taking the Yellow River Basin as an example, this paper analyses the ecological level of the Yellow River Basin based on the theory of sustainable development, calculates the ecological safety level of 30 resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2006 to 2020 by TOPSIS model, and makes convergence analysis by classification. Through the DID empirical test of sustainable development planning policy on ecological safety factors, distinguish the development characteristics of different resource-based cities. The results show that: (1) the ecological safety level of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin is generally developing well, and there are differences among different types of resource-based cities; (2) the kinetic energy of sustainable development of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin is mainly industrial transformation, and the power of science and technology is insufficient; (3) local governments pay limited attention to environmental protection, and the sustainable development planning of resource-based cities in 2013 mainly promotes the adjustment of industrial structure of resource-based cities.

The Mara River basin (MRB) has a world-famous ecosystem, but the vegetation has been damaged due to economic development in recent years, and there is little known about the area that will experience severe vegetation damage in the future. Based on the vegetation vulnerability system, principal component analysis, and three CMIP6 scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP5-8.5), vegetation vulnerability was calculated in the base period (2010-2019), near-term period (2020-2059) and long-term period (2060-2099) in the MRB. The spatial cluster of vegetation vulnerability was revealed by spatial correlation analysis, and the transition of vegetation vulnerability of different periods was analyzed by stochastic matrix. The results showed that in all periods, the vulnerability showed a high-high cluster in the east, and a low-low cluster midstream and downstream. From the stochastic matrix, the area of high vulnerability increased the least under the SSP1-2.6, while it increased the most under the SSP5-8.5. The vegetation vulnerability upstream increased the most from the base period to the near-term period and long-term period in the MRB. By comparing the vegetation vulnerability under different scenarios, and pointing out the areas with the highest vulnerability increase, this study can better provide comprehensive decision-making for vegetation protection in the MRB.

As the most active plateau on the Earth, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has a complex crust-mantle structure. Knowledge of the distribution of such a structure provides information for understanding the underlying geodynamic processes. We obtains a three-dimensional density model of crustal and upper mantle beneath Qinghai-Tibet plateau and its surrounding areas from the residual geoid anomalies using the Earth Gravitational Model (EGM) 2008. We estimate a refined density model by iterations, using an initial density contrast model. We confirm that the EGM2008 mission products can be used to constrain the crust-mantle density structures. Our major findings are: (1). At 300-400 km depth, high-D anomalies terminate around Jinsha River Suture (JRS) in the central TP, suggesting that the Indian plate has been reached over the Bangong Nujiang Suture (BNS) and almost reach to the JRS. (2). On the eastern TP, low-D anomalies at the depth of 0-300 km together with high-D anomalies at 400-670 km further verified the current eastward subduction of Indian plate. The ongoing subduction provides forces to the occurrences of frequent earthquakes and volcano. (3). At 600 km depth, low-D anomalies inside the TP illustrate the existence of hot weak material beneath there, contributing to the external material inward-thrusting.

Traditional methods for discovery and development of new drugs can be a very time-consuming and expensive process because it includes several stages such as compound identification, pre-clinical and clinical trials before the drug is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Therefore, drug repurposing, namely using currently FDA-approved drugs as therapeutics for other diseases than what they are originally prescribed for, is emerging to be a faster and more cost-effective alternative to current drug discovery methods. In this paper, we have described a three-step in silico protocol for analyzing transcriptomics data using online databases and bioinformatics tools for identifying potentially repurposable drugs. The efficacy of this protocol was evaluated by comparing its predictions with the findings of two case studies of recently reported repurposed drugs: HIV treating drug Zidovudine for the treatment of Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration and the antidepressant Imipramine for Small-Cell Lung Carcinoma. The proposed protocol successfully identified the published findings, thus demonstrating the efficacy of this method. In addition, it also yielded several novel predictions that have not yet been published, including the finding that Imipramine could potentially treat Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a disease that currently does not have any treatment or vaccine. Since this in-silico protocol is simple to use and does not require advanced computer skills, we believe any motivated participant with access to these databases and tools would be able to apply it to large datasets to identify other potentially repurposable drugs in the future.

The association between normal-range triglycerides and diabetes mortality remains unclear. This cohort study aimed to elucidate this relationship by examining 19,010 US adult participants with fasting serum triglycerides below 150 mg/dL. Cox proportional hazards models were employed to estimate mortality hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Participants were followed up for a mean of 15.3 years, during which 342 diabetes deaths were recorded. A 1-natural-log-unit increase in triglycerides was associated with a 57% higher risk of diabetes mortality (adjusted HR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.04–2.38). Comparable results were obtained when triglycerides were analyzed in quartiles. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified an optimal triglyceride cutoff of 94.5 mg/dL for diabetes mortality; individuals with triglyceride levels above this threshold faced a greater risk of diabetes mortality (adjusted HR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.12–1.83). Further investigation revealed a positive association between normal triglyceride levels and all-cause mortality, though no association was observed between normal triglycerides and mortality from hypertension or cardiovascular disease. In conclusion, elevated triglycerides within the normal range were associated with an increased risk of diabetes mortality. Individuals with triglyceride levels of 95 mg/dL or higher may require vigilant monitoring for diabetes and its associated complications.

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.

Intercropping as a practice is very crucial in livelihood sustainability among smallholder farm-ing communities in many growing countries. However, for most cropping systems, the benefits of intercropping have yet to be optimized due to a lack of knowledge regarding spatial ar-rangements and planting densities. The objective of the study was to find out the profitability of maize-vegetable intercropping and the yields obtained from various spatial arrangements and planting densities of intercrops. From May to October 2019 and 2020 respectively, Experimental trials were set up in the rainy season in Northern, Upper West and Upper East regions of Ghana comprising of eight treatments each. A randomized complete block experimental design was used for the field layout with three to four replications. Data was collected on grain and fruit yield and land equivalent ratios was estimated (LER). At the end of the trial, important spatial arrangements and planting densities were identified that can be adopted by smallholder famers for system intensification. For okra, the optimal intercropping system under sufficient rainfalls was 2 okra rows at higher density and 2 maize rows at lower density for Upper West Region. In Upper East Region, the optimal spatial arrangement to recommend is 1 row of maize at recom-mended density: 2 rows of okra at lower density under well distributed rainfalls. For roselle, intercropping with spatial arrangement of 2 rows of maize at higher density: 1 row of okra at recommended density was recommended in Northern Region.

Water resources provided by alpine glaciers are an important pillar for people living in the arid regions in the west of China. In this study, the HBV (Hydrologiska Byrans Vattenavdelning) light model was applied to simulate glacier mass balance and runoff in the Koxkar River Basin (KRB) on the south slope of Mt. Tumur, western Tianshan Mts.. Daily temperature and precipitation were calculated by multiple linear regressions and gradient-inverse distance weighting, respectively, based on in-situ observed data by automatic weather stations (AWSs) in the basin (2007–2009) and at four meteorological stations neighbering the basin (1959–2009). Observed daily air temperature and precipitation were taken as input data for the HBV model, which was calibrated using runoff in 2007/08 and 2009/10, and validated in 2008/09 and 2010/11. Generally, the model could simulate runoff very well. The annual glacier mass balance and runoff were calculated using the HBV model driven by interpolated meteorological data for the period of 1959–2009. The simulated glacier mass balance were reasonable when compared with those observed values at nearby glaciers, indicating a decrease trend of mass balance in the basin with an average value of –370.4 mm a^-1 since 1959. The annual runoff showed a slight increase trend (5.51 mm a^-1). Futher analysis indicated that the runoff is more sensitive to temperature than precipitation amuont in the Koxkar river basin.

Even though inhalation dosimetry is determined by three factors (i.e., breathing, aerosols, and the respiratory tract), the first two categories have been more widely studied than the last. Both breathing and aerosols are quantitative variables that can be easily changed, while respiratory airway morphologies are difficult to reconstruct, modify, and quantify. Despite several methods are available for model reconstruction and modification, developing an anatomically accurate airway model and morphing it to various physiological conditions remains labor-intensive and technically challenging. The objective of this study is to explore the feasibility of using an adjoint-CFD model to understand airway shape effects on vapor deposition and control vapor flux into the lung. A mouth-throat model was used, with the shape of the mouth and tongue being automatically varied via adjoint morphing, and the vapor transport being simulated using ANSYS Fluent coupled with a wall absorption model. Two chemicals with varying adsorption rates, Acetaldehyde and Benzene, were considered, which exhibited large differences in dosimetry sensitivity to airway shapes. For both chemicals, large shape deformations were explored to find the maximal possible morphing; both the maximal and intermediate deformations were simulated for morphology parametric studies. Results show that changing the mouth-tongue shape can alter the oral filtration by 3.2% for Acetaldehyde and 0.27% for Benzene under a given inhalation condition. This study demonstrates that the hybrid adjoint-CFD approach can be a practical and efficient method to investigate morphology-associated variability in inhalation dosimetry of vapors and nanomedicines.

This paper proposes an upper bound for mine productivity and also a simple truck dispatch rule that demonstrates how tight the upper bound can be using simulation. It also proposes a greedy search to approximate the productivity upper bound, which is faster and often exact. Uncertainty is added to the simulation in order to verify how the productivity responds to it. Typically, the productivity upper bound is less tight close to its saturation point as a function of the number of trucks, where adding more trucks only increases queues. Furthermore, more uncertainty in the model typically leads to a less tight upper bound. The results are conducted using real data from an open pit mine in Brazil.

Background: A new access technique was developed to reduce postoperative adverse events after the extraction of impacted maxillary wisdom teeth. Hence, this study aimed to assess the occurrence of adverse events after extraction of maxillary impacted wisdom teeth using traditional or modified access. Methods: Two different surgical incision designs were used for bilateral wisdom tooth extractions in 30 patients. The traditional incision was performed distal to the second molar in the center of the tuberosity, followed by a buccal releasing incision. After tooth extraction the wound was secured by sutures. The new technique consists of an oblique incision from the distal palatal aspect of the tuberosity towards the buccal aspect of the second molar. After tooth extraction, cyanoacrylate glue was used on the wound. Results: Lower pain was reported by patients at the site treated with the new technique (p&lt;0.01). Edema, postsurgical bleeding, and hematoma were similar in both groups. The surgical time was shorter for the new technique (p&lt;0.01). Conclusions: The new technique applied for the extraction of impacted maxillary wisdom teeth reduced postsurgical pain and the duration of surgery.

Climate change is a global issue that draws widespread attention from the international society. As an important component of the climate system, the water cycle is directly affected by climate change. Thus, it is very important to study the influences of climate change on the basin water cycle with respect to maintenance of healthy rivers, sustainable use of water resources, and sustainable socioeconomic development in the basin. In this study, by assessing the suitability of multiple General Circulation Models (GCMs) recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM) and Automated Statistical Downscaling model (ASD) were used to generate future climate change scenarios. These were then used to drive distributed hydrologic models (Variable Infiltration Capacity, Soil and Water Assessment Tool) for hydrological simulation of the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins, thereby quantifying the effects of climate change on the basin water cycle. The results showed that suitability assessment adopted in this study could effectively reduce the uncertainty of GCMs, and that statistical downscaling was able to greatly improve precipitation and temperature outputs in global climate mode. Compared to a baseline period (1961–1990), projected future periods (2046–2065 and 2081–2100) had a slightly decreasing tendency of runoff in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin. In particular, a significant increase in runoff was observed during flood seasons in the southeast part. However, runoff of the upper Yellow River basin decreased continuously. The results provide a reference for studying climate change in major river basins of China.

We present large eddy simulations of a mid-latitude open ocean front using a modified state of the art computational fluid dynamics code. We investigate the energy and information fluxes at the submesoscale/small-scale range in the absence of any atmospheric forcing. We find submesoscale conditions (Ro∼1, Ri∼1) near surface, within baroclinic structures related with partially imbalanced frontogenetic activity. Near surface, the simulations show a significant scale coupling on scales larger than ∼103(m). This is manifested as a strong direct energy cascade and intense mutual communication between scales, where the latter was evaluated using an estimator based on Mutual Information Theory. At scales smaller than ∼103(m) the results show near-zero energy flux, however, at this scale range, the estimator of mutual communication still shows values corresponding with a significant level of communication between them. This fact motivates to investigate the nature of the self-organized turbulent motion at this scale range with weak energetic coupling but where communication between scales is still significant and to inquire into the existence of synchronization or functional relationships between scales with emphasis on eventual underlying non-local processes.

Collisional mountain belts commonly develop intramontane basins from mechanical and isostatic subsidence during orogenic development. These frequently display a relict top surface, evidencing a change interval from basin infilling to erosion often via capture or overspill. Such surfaces provide markers that inform on orogenic growth patterns via climate and base level interplay. Here, we describe the top surface from the Sorbas Basin, a key intramontane basin within the Betic Cordillera (SE Spain). The surface is fragmentary comprising high elevation hilltops and discontinuous ridges developed onto the variably deformed final basin infill outcrop (Gochar Formation). We reconstruct surface configuration using DEM interpolation and apply ¹⁰Be/²⁶Al cosmonuclides to assess surface formation timing. The surface is a degraded Early Pleistocene erosional pediment developed via autogenic switching of alluvial fan streams under stable dryland climate and base level conditions. Base level lowering since the Middle Pleistocene focused headwards incision up interfan drainages, culminating in fan head capture and fan morphological preservation within the abandoned surface. Post abandonment erosion has lowered the basin surface by 31 m (average) and removed ~5.95 km³ of fill. Regional basin comparisons reveal a phase of Early Pleistocene surface formation, marking landscape stability following the most recent Pliocene-Early Pleistocene mountain building. Post-surface erosion rate quantification is low and in accordance with ¹⁰Be denudation rates typical of the low uplift Betic Cordillera.

Human activities (e.g., exploitation, utilization, and conservation) exert substantial impact on forest ecological functions (FEF). The human influence on FEF significantly varies across developmental stages, which are attributed to the temporal and spatial in nature. This study evaluates some notable FEF indices (FEFI) in the 448 counties within the Yellow River basin (YRB) using panel data from the Seventh to Ninth National Forest Inventory. Data analysis involves employing the residual trends, geographical and temporal weighted regression. Results indicate that, firstly, the overall forest ecological function in the YRB is moderate to inferior, with superior FEF in counties endowed with more natural forest resources. Afforestation demonstrates a short-term improvement, but its effectiveness diminishes over time. Secondly, the positive spatial correlation is stronger among counties, characterized by both high-high and low-low agglomeration effects. Scattered planting, simple stand structure, and concentrated harvesting of forests at the identical stand ages hinder the formation of complex and large-scale FEF agglomerations. Thirdly, significant spatial-temporal differences exist in the impact of human activities on FEF. In the upper reaches of the basin, increased vegetation coverage through agricultural and forestry production benefited FEF, however, some over-exploitation of forests and grasslands is observed there. In the middle reaches, the economic development, expanding population and the greening activities help to improve FEF effectively, but excessive water using in agricultural production brought more difficulties to FEF improvement. In the lower reaches of the basin, improved wastelands and forest protection positively influence FEF. This study recommends that county governments should prioritize forest management with multi-species and multi-layered complex forests. Each county should define its position in regional development and ecological protection, considering the potential impacts on neighboring regions. This holistic approach promotes more effective integrated regional management.

In this work we introduce a novel approach to generate lower and upper L2 estimates for solution derivatives of arbitrary order to a general class of dissipative systems in the case that such estimates are available for the solutions themselves. Our method also works in reverse order: from the L2 estimates of solution derivatives of some (arbitrary) order we can derive lower and upper L2 estimates for the solutions and then to their derivatives of any order. This procedure is based on very simple monotonicity properties combined with standard energy estimates in physical space, following previous ideas of Kreiss, Hagstrom, Lorenz and Zingano. For simplicity, it is applied here in the context of algebraic rates, but the method can be used in other contexts as well (exponential, logarithm, and so forth).

The Indus basin is considered as the one with the highest dependence on snowmelt runoff in High Mountain Asia. The recent High Mountain Asia snow reanalysis enables to go beyond previous studies by evaluating both snowmelt and snow sublimation at the basin scale. Over 2000-2016, basin-average snowmelt is 101 11 Gt.a^-1 (121 ± 13 mm.a^-1), which represents about 25-30% of basin-average annual precipitation. Snow sublimation accounts for 11% of the mean annual snow ablation, but with a large spatial variability across the basin.

We use earthquake ground motion modelling via Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) and numerical simulation of seismic waves to consider the effects of site amplification and basin resonance in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. While spectral accelerations at short periods are sensitive to near-surface conditions (i.e., Vs30), our results suggest that, for basins as deep as Jakarta’s, available GMPEs cannot be relied upon to accurately estimate the effect of basin depth on ground motions at long periods (>1 s). Amplitudes at such long periods are influenced by entrapment of seismic waves in the basin, resulting in longer duration of strong ground motion, and interference between incoming and reflected waves as well as focusing at basin edges may amplify seismic waves. In order to simulate such phenomena in detail, a basin model derived from a previous study is used as a computational domain for deterministic earthquake scenario modeling in a 2-dimensional cross-section. A M_w 9.0 megathrust, a M_w 6.5 crustal thrust and a M_w 7.0 instraslab earthquake are chosen as scenario events that pose credible threats to Jakarta, and the interactions with the basin of seismic waves generated by these events were simulated. The highest PGV amplifications are recorded at sites near the middle of the basin and near its southern edge, with maximum amplifications of PGV in the horizontal component of 200% for the crustal, 600% for the megathrust and 335% for the deep intraslab earthquake scenario, respectively. We find that the levels of ground motion response spectral acceleration fall below those of the 2012 Indonesian building Codes's design response spectrum for short periods (< 1 s), but closely approach or may even exceed these levels for longer periods.

Let $S=\left(s_1, \ldots, s_n\right)$ be a finite sequence of integers. Then $S$ is a Gilbreath sequence of length $n$, $S\in\mathbb{G}_n$, iff $s_1$ is even or odd and $s_2, \ldots, s_n$ are respectively odd or even and $\min\mathbb{K}_{\left(s_1, \ldots, s_m\right)}\leq s_{m+1}\leq\max\mathbb{K}_{\left(s_1, \ldots, s_m\right)}\forall m\in\left[\left.1, n\right)\right.$. This, applied to the order sequence of prime number $P$, defines Gilbreath polynomials and two integer sequences A347924 \cite{oeisA347924} and A347925 \cite{oeisA347925} which are used to prove that Gilbreath conjecture $GC$ is implied by $p_n-2^{n-1}\leqslant\mathcal{P}_{n-1}\left(1\right)$ where $\mathcal{P}_{n-1}\left(1\right)$ is the $n-1$-th Gilbreath polynomial at 1.

In this paper, we give some upper and lower bounds for the multiplicative Randic index, reduced reciprocal Randic index, Narumi-Katayama index and symmetric division index a graph using solely the vertex degrees. Then we obtain upper and lower bounds for these indices for the complete graphs, path graphs and Fibonacci-sum graphs. Finally, we compared the bounds of these indices for a general graph and some special graphs.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the Hapo ms, a passive upper limbs exoskeleton developed to assist workers for tasks with arms in front of the body. Twelve participants had to perform a static task, a manual handling task and a load carrying task two times: with and without the exoskeleton. In all cases subjective (perceived effort in arm and back areas, comfort) and objective (muscular activity, postural balance) criteria were evaluated. Results have shown a decrease in anterior deltoid (-12 to -18% depending of the task) and in biceps brachii (-19% to -33% depending of the task) muscular activity. No significant difference was pointed out in back muscle and postural balance was not significantly perturbed due to the wear of the exoskeleton. Finally, perceived effort reduction was observed during the three tasks (except in back area for task 1). To conclude, the Hapo ms seems well adapted to assist upper arms during tasks with arms in front of the body.

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) is a critical factor for enhancing the soil erosion risk and land degradation process in the Wabi Shebelle Basin. Up-to-date spatial and statistical data on basin-wide erosion rates can provide an important basis for planning and conservation of soil and water ecosystems. The objectives of this study were to examine the magnitude of LULCC and consequent changes in the spatial extent of soil erosion risk, and identify priority areas for Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) in the Erer Sub-Basin, Wabi Shebelle Basin, Ethiopia. The soil loss rates were estimated using an empirical prediction model of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) outlined in the ArcGIS environment. The estimated total annual actual soil loss at the sub-basin level was 1.01 million tons in 2000 and 1.52 million tons in 2018 with a mean erosion rate of 75.85 t ha^–1 y^–1 and 107.07 t ha^–1 y^–1, respectively. The most extensive soil loss rates were estimated in croplands and bare land cover, with a mean soil loss rate of 37.60 t ha^–1 y^–1 and 15.78 t ha⁻¹ y⁻¹, respectively. The soil erosion risk has increased by 18.28% of the total area, and decreased by 15.93%, showing that the overall soil erosion situation is worsening in the study area. We determined SWC priority areas using the Multi-Criteria Decision Rule (MCDR) approach, indicates that the top three levels identified for intense SWC account for about 2.50%, 2.38%, and 2.14%, respectively. These priority levels are typically situated along the steep slopes in Babile, Fedis, Fik, Gursum, Gola Oda, Haramaya, Jarso, and Kombolcha districts that need emergency SWC measures.

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has been an important source of income for communities in the Madre de Dios River Basin in Peru for hundreds of years. However, in recent decades, the scale of ASGM activities in the region has increased dramatically, and exposures to a variety of occupational and environmental hazards related to ASGM, including mercury, are becoming more widespread. The aims of our study were to: (1) examine patterns in the total hair mercury level of human participants in several communities in the region and compare these results to the 2.2 µg/g total hair mercury level equivalent to the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee of Food Additives (JECFA)’s Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI); and (2), to measure the mercury levels of paco (Piaractus brachypomus) fish raised in local aquaculture ponds, in order to compare these levels to the EPA Fish Tissue Residue Criterion of 0.3 µg Hg/g fish (wet weight). We collected hair samples from 80 participants in four communities (one control and three where ASGM activities occurred) in the region, and collected 111 samples from fish raised in 24 local aquaculture farms. We then analyzed the samples for total mercury. Total mercury levels in hair were statistically significantly higher in the mining communities than in the control community, and increased with increasing distance away from the Madre de Dios headwaters (as the crow flies), did not differ by sex, and frequently exceeded the reference level. Regression analyses indicated that higher hair mercury levels were associated with residence in ASGM communities. The analysis of paco fish samples found no samples that exceeded the EPA tissue residue criterion. Collectively, these results align with other recent studies showing that ASGM activities are associated with elevated human mercury exposure. The fish farmed through the relatively new process of aquaculture in ASGM areas appeared to have little potential to contribute to human mercury exposure. More research is needed on human health risks associated with ASGM to discern occupational, residential, and nutritional exposure, especially through tracking temporal changes in mercury levels as fish ponds age, and assessing levels in different farmed fish species. Additionally, research is needed to definitively determine that elevated mercury levels in humans and fish result from the elemental mercury from mining, rather than from a different source, such as the mercury released from soil erosion during deforestation events from mining or other activities.

In the last years, new numerical methods have been applied to weather data for water budget es-timation. Geostatistics is one of the most powerful approaches, when it comes to studying spatially relevant natural phenomena, as it takes into account the spatial correlation among measurements over a specific study area and increases the reliability of the estimation by providing the associate uncertainty. In this study, we tested the feasibility of using a geostatistical method called Ordinary Kriging to provide a reliable estimation of the water budget of the Foro river basin (Periadriatic area, Central Italy), by comparing the obtained results with a more traditional yet robust approach based on the Thiessen polygon spatialization method, considered here as a reference. The spatial estimation with the selected geostatistical and traditional approaches was performed on the av-erage monthly rainfall and temperatures derived from 33-year-long time series measured at the weather station of the regional monitoring network. To transform the spatial variables quantities of both rainfall and air temperature into actual runoff estimates that ideally represent the river dis-charge, we used both the Turc and Thornthwaite methods, considering variable Potential Infiltra-tion Coefficients according to the hydrogeological complexes’ distribution. For the geostatistical method, the same procedure was applied to the 95% confidence interval limits, to quantitatively assess the possible impact of the spatial uncertainty on the estimation of the river discharge. The results obtained by both methods, subsequently converted into monthly discharges, were com-pared to the average monthly discharges related to 33-year-long time series measured at different locations along the Foro river. The results obtained with the geostatistical approach proved to be in line with the ones from the traditional method. Additionally, using the rainfall and temperature values obtained with the Ordinary Kriging and the corresponding confidence interval limits, it was possible to quantify the uncertainty associated with the discharge values, making the estimates more reliable than the ones obtained with the traditional approach. However, the yearly distribu-tion of river discharge obtained by both the geostatistical and traditional methods appeared to be dissimilar to the measured ones. In such anthropized and groundwater-dependent river basins, the surface water use as well as the regulatory effect of the alluvial aquifer regime may affect the river discharge variability over the year and then can account for similar discrepancies between the in-flow and outflow water volumes.

Abstract: In this study the semi-distributed model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool), were applied to evaluate stream flow of Didessa sub basin, which is one of the major sub basins in Abay river basin of Ethiopia. The study evaluated the quality of observed meteorological and hydrological data, established SWAT hydrological model, identified the most sensitive parameters, evaluated the best distribution for flow and developed peak flow for major tributary in the sub basin. The result indicated that the SWAT model developed for the sub basin evaluated at multi hydro-gauging stations and its performance certain with the statistical measures, coefficient about determination (R2) and also Nash coefficient (NS) with values ranging 0.62 to 0.8 and 0.6 to 0.8 respectively at daily time scale. The values of R2 and NS increases at monthly time scale and found ranging 0.75 to 0.92 and 0.71 to 0.91 respectively. Sensitivity analysis is performed to identify parameters those were most sensitive for the sub basin. CN2, GWQMN, CH_K, ALPHA_BNK and LAT_TIME are the most sensitive parameters in the sub basin. Finally, the peak flow for 2-10000 returns periods were determined after the best probability distribution is identified in EasyFit computer program.

This paper presents a critical review and comparison of the results of recently published studies in the fields of human-machine interface and the use of sonomyography (SMG) for the control of upper limb prothesis. For this review paper, a combination of the keywords "Human Machine Interface", "Sonomyography", "Ultrasound", "Upper Limb Prosthesis", "Artificial Intelligence" and "Non-Invasive Sensors" was used to search for articles on Google Scholar and PubMed. Sixty-one articles were found, of which 59 were used in this review. For a comparison of the different ultrasound modes, feature extraction methods, and machine learning algorithms, 16 articles were used. It was found that various modes of ultrasound devices for prosthetic control, various machine learning algorithms for classifying different hand gestures, as well as various feature extraction methods for increasing the accuracy of artificial intelligence used in their controlling systems are reviewed in this article. The results of the review article show that ultrasound sensing has the potential to be used as a viable human-machine interface in order to control bionic hands with multiple degrees of freedom. Moreover, different hand gestures can be classified by different machine learning algorithms trained with extracted features from collected data with an accuracy of around 95%.

This study introduces an alternative to the existing methods for measuring ocean currents based on a recently developed technology. The SailBuoy is an unmanned surface vehicle powered by wind and solar panels that can navigate autonomously to predefined way-points and record velocity profiles using an integrated downward-looking Acoustic Doppler Profiler (ADCP). Data, collected on two validation campaigns, shows a satisfactory correlation between the SailBuoy current records and traditional observation techniques such as bottom mounted and moored current profilers and moored single-point current meter. While the highest correlations were found in tidal signals, strong current, and calm weather conditions, low current speeds and varying high wave and wind conditions reduced correlation considerably. Filtering out some events with high sea surface roughness associated with high wind and wave conditions may increase the SailBuoy ADCP listening quality and lead to better correlations. Not yet resolved is a systematic offset between the measurements obtained by the SailBuoy and the reference instruments of ± 0.03 m/s. Possible reasons are discussed to be the differences between instruments (various products) as well as changes in background noise levels due to environmental conditions.

Crohn’s disease (CD) is a progressive, multifactorial, immune-mediated disease characterized by chronic inflammation of any part of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Pediatric patients present with a more extensive form of the disease, especially in the upper GI tract with various histopathological inflammatory patterns. Our study aims to analyze the endoscopic and histopathological findings in children with diagnosed CD and compare results on the initial and follow-up tests. Our study included 100 children and adolescents with CD, with performed endoscopic and histopathological (HP) procedures. The results of multiple biopsies performed in these 8 years were matched and compared. We found a statistically significant decrease in stool changes, weight loss, and abdominal pain as presenting symptoms, and in the fecal calprotectin levels. On esophagogastroduodenoscopy and ileo-colonoscopy 36.59% and 64.86% patients had specific findings, respectively. Non-caseating granulomas were found on 9% of oesophageal, 18% of gas-tric, and 12% of duodenal biopsies. In the lower GI tract, we have observed a disease progression in the rectum and descending colon between the first and second biopsies. Our study showed that more than a third of patients had specific endoscopic (36.59%) and histopathologic (32%) findings in the upper GI tract, and an additional 23% had HP findings highly suggestive of CD. We demonstrated the importance of regular endoscopic and histopathological assessments of pediatric CD patients.

Background and Objectives: Intramedullary spinal cord tumors (IMSCT) are rare entities. Especially, a location in the upper cervical spine as a highly eloquent region carries the risk of postoperative neurological deficits, such as tetraparesis or respiratory dysfunction. Evidence for respiratory dysfunction is scarce. The aim of this study was to describe the early and late postoperative clinical course of this highly eloquent tumours. Patients and Methods: This is a single-centre retrospective cohort study. We included 35 patients with IMSCT at levels of craniocervical junction to C4 who underwent surgical treatment between January 2008 and December 2022. The authors analysed the patients' preoperative status, tumour- and surgery-specific characteristics, and follow-up functional status. Results: The study cohort included 22 patients with grade II ependymoma (62.9%), 2 low-grade astrocytomas (5.7%), 2 glioblastomas (5.7%), 6 hemangioblastomas (17.1%), 2 metastases (5.7%), and 1 patient with partially intramedullary schwannoma (2.9%). Gross total resection was achieved in 76% of patients. Early dorsal column related symptoms and motor deterioration occurred in 64% and 44% of patients, respectively. At a follow-up of 3.27 ± 3.83 years, 43% and 33% of patients preserved postoperative sensory and motor deterioration, respectively. The median McCormick Scale grade was 2 in the preoperative and late postoperative periods, respectively (p=0.0897, α=0.05). Only two out of 35 patients (5.7%) developed new intermittent respiratory dysfunction, of whom two were transient. There were no surgery-related deaths. Conclusions: The surgery of IMSCT of the upper cervical spine could be performed without major procedure-related risk. Roughly a half of the patients develop new neurological deficit in the immediate postoperative period. However, most of the patients still maintain functional independence. The rate of respiratory insufficiency is low and is strongly influenced by the rapid neurological deterioration in high-grade tumours.

This study uses Landsat 8 and Digital Elevation Models (DEM) to show the dominant orientations of digital lineaments and morphotectonic features between measured trends and the tectonic evolution of the Upper Guajira, Colombia, in the northernmost region of the South American plate. Data from Landsat-8 and hillshaded images of three Digital Elevation Model (DEM) images with different resolutions (SRTM: 90m, ASTER-GDEM: 30m and Alos-Palsar: 12.5m), were used for the extraction and mapping of morpholineaments, drainage network and morphological features. Lineaments were analyzed by means of north azimuth frequency, length, density distributions, lithological distributions and geochronological periods. Tectonic control was supported by using the digitized geological map created by the Colombian Geological Service (SGC). Lineaments and faults were analyzed through the interpretation of a Riedel shear model as a result of the transtensional/transpressional tectonic arrangement of the Caribbean and South American plates. The directional trends of lineaments and faults indicate two dominant directions: NE-SW and E-W. The azimuth distribution analysis of measured structures and drainage channels show similar trends, except for some differences in the predominant directions of some drainage channels. The similarity in the orientation of lineaments, faults and drainage system highlights the degree of control exerted by underlying structures on the surface geomorphological features. Drainage channel classification illustrates the morphological and neo-tectonic complexity of the region. The extracted lineaments were divided into five geochronological groups based on the main ages of host rock formations according to the Colombian Geological Service (SGC) geological map. From the Cretaceous onward, the lineament azimuth frequency rotates from a NE-SW trend to a prominent E-W direction, which resembles the translation that Caribbean plate has been undergoing since the Cretaceous. Our results confirm that Remote Sensing techniques are reliable and useful to study the morphotectonic of an area and can be applied to zones of difficult access.

Background: The secretion of alarmin cytokines by epithelial cells, including thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), interleukin (IL)-25, and IL-33, heralds the onset of the inflammatory cascade and immune effector infiltration in asthma. However, alarmin cytokine expression in the upper airways in asthma remains largely unknown. Methods: We recruited 40 participants with asthma who were categorized into four severity groups as per the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) classifications (10 in each group of GINA-1/2, -3, -4, and -5). Cells were derived from buccal, nasal and throat brushings, and intracellular alarmin cytokine expression (TSLP, IL-25, and IL-33) was assessed in cytokeratin 8+ (Ck8+) epithelial cells immediately after collection using flow cytometry with fluorescence minus one (FMO) controls. We assessed differences in alarmin cytokine expressions across asthma severity using quantile regression adjusted for age and sex. Results: Of all patients, 24 (60%) were females with a mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 41 (16) years. TSLP levels in Ck8+ epithelial cells in nasal samples of GINA-5 patients were significantly (p=0.03) higher than other GINA groups after adjusting for age and sex but did not differ between patients with and without nasal comorbidities. However, we did not find any significant changes in TSLP levels in Ck8+ epithelial cells in buccal and throat samples across GINA groups. IL-25 or IL-33 (obtained from nasal, buccal, and throat epithelial cell samples) were not significantly different across GINA groups. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates for the first time that Ck8+ nasal epithelial cells from GINA-5 asthmatics express elevated levels of TSLP.

An early hypothesis in robot-assisted stroke therapy was that sensorimotor stimulation through robotic assistance is beneficial for recovery. Despite 25 years of upper-limb rehabilitation robotics research, this hypothesis remains untested barring a few studies with small sample sizes. This review aims to provide a critical summary of the current state of this hypothesis by collating evidence from rehabilitation robotics and other related therapeutic approaches. The review starts with a causal model to expose the various direct and indirect routes through which robotic assistance can aid sensorimotor recovery. The indirect routes include the influence of robotic assistance on therapy intensity, patient motivation, and active participation. The direct route is through changes in cortical networks through Hebbian(-like) learning and changes in peripheral tissue properties. There is currently mixed evidence for the direct causal effect of robotic assistance on recovery from the upper-limb rehabilitation robotics literature. However, evidence from the neuromuscular electrical stimulation literature provides some support for this causal role. Based on the data at hand, we hypothesize that the enhanced movement-related sensory feedback from robotic assistance has a direct, possibly small, causal role in the sensorimotor recovery of the upper-limb, and this effect might be detectable with high-intensity therapy. Large, high-intensity, controlled studies are warranted to support or refute the role of robotic assistance on recovery, which is both scientifically and practically important.

This paper considers the general ocean circulation within the thermodynamical closure of our climate theory, which aims to deduce the generic climate state from first principles. The preceding papers of the theory have reduced planetary fluids to warm/cold masses and determined their bulk thermal properties, which provide prior constraints for the derivation of the upper-bound circulation when the potential vorticity is homogenized in moving masses. In a companion paper on the atmosphere, this upper bound is seen to reproduce the prevailing wind, forsaking therefore previous discordant explanations of the easterly trade and the polar jet stream. In this paper on the ocean, we again show that this upper bound may replicate broad features of the observed circulation, including a western-intensified subtropical gyre and a counter-rotating tropical gyre feeding the equatorial undercurrent. Together, we posit that PV homogenization may provide a unifying dynamical principle of the large-scale planetary circulation, which may be interpreted as the maximum macroscopic motion extractable by microscopic stirring --- within the confine of the thermal differentiation.

This study aims to establish whether the use of biomaterials, particularly polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), for surgical reconstruction of the esophagus with templates, Montgomery salivary tube, after radical oncology surgery for malignant neoplasia is an optimal choice for patients’ safety and for optimal function preservation and organ rehabilitation. Methods: Structural analysis by Raman spectrometry and biomechanical properties with dynamic mechanical analysis are performed for fatigue strength and toughness, essential factors in durability of a prosthesis in the reconstruction practice of the esophagus. Nanocomposites with silicone elastomers and nanoparticles used in implantable devices and in the reconstruction surgery are facing risks of infection and fatigue strength when required to perform a mechanical effort for long periods of time. Results: This report takes into account the effect of silver (Ag) nanoparticles on the fatigue strength using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix, representative for silicon elastomers used in implantable devices. PDMS with 5% (wt) Ag nanoparticles of 100-150 nm during mechanical fatigue testing at shear strength loses elasticity properties after 400 loading-unloading cycles and up to 15% shear strain. The fatigue strength, toughness, maximum shear strength are the key issues in designing Montgomery salivary tube with appropriate biomechanical behavior for each patient. Conclusions: Prosthesis design needs to indulge both clinical outcome as well as design methods and research in the field of biomaterials.

Lake Chapala is a natural ecosystem of Mexico, declared Ramsar site, currently, is an area with importance in the agricultural sector, tourism, and important source of drinking water in the Metropolitan area of Guadalajara, considered as a thermo regulatory body. This study used tools such as Rhtest, as well as analyzing extreme climate indices using RClimdex. In addition, the relationship with the change in water surface of Lake Chapala was assessed through the NDWI index, using Landsat images, between 1985 and 2018. According to the obtained results, the signs of climatic variability are detected in the study region, which, directly affects the basin runoff and water levels in the lake, as well as, the factor of water overexploitation in the basin, so it is considered that the lake conditions mostly depend on the type of management that is given to the resource. Finally, the results will help the understanding of climate variability and its water resources influence of the Lerma Chapala basin, which will assist in future research.

Summer annual species are the most widely grown crops in the Upper Midwest, but reliance on a summer annual system has led to excessive soil and nutrient loss when crops are not present. Integrating winter rye (Secale cereale L.), known for its hardiness and environmental benefits, into the rotation can address these issues. However, there's limited understanding of the phenotypic diversity in winter rye during key growth stages that overlap with the typical planting dates for corn (Zea mays L.), soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr], and late-planted crops like dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Thus, the objectives of this study were to evaluate changes in biomass accumulation and quality of winter rye and triticale (x Triticosecale Wittmack) cultivars at three growth stages. Twenty cultivars were assessed over the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 growing seasons across three environments in Minnesota. Winter rye and triticale were harvested for biomass at the tillering, booting, and soft dough growth stages and rye biomass yield and quality [i.e., crude protein, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and 48-hour digestibility (NDFD)] were determined following harvest. Overall, there was little variation in each parameter among the cultivars within a location and growth stage. NDFD had some variation at the soft dough stage where digestibility ranged from 273 to 324 g kg-1 at the Crookston site and 332 to 406 g kg-1 at the St. Paul site. The lack of difference between cultivars indicates a wide range of choice when selecting a winter rye cultivar.

Wearable exoskeleton solutions for upper limb rehabilitation or assistance, particularly for the hand area, have become increasingly attractive to researchers, proving to be effective over time in treating hand movement impairments following various neurological diseases. In the present work, the development of a wearable exoskeleton-type device for active hand rehabilitation has been addressed, based on fluid actuators made of elastomeric material and on myoelectric control by capturing myoelectric signals from the forearm area. The flexion movement of the fingers (phalanges) is actively assisted by pneumatic actuation of the built-in actuators and the extension movement is assisted by a depressurization control of the actuator. The device has been designed to be as easy to use as possible, light in weight, and to provide a high degree of comfort when used by the patient for rehabilitation training or daily life activities (ADL), which can be performed in the comfort of one's own home.

In this paper, a seamless connection between sensor technology and machine learning (ML) has been presented which has wide applicability in rehabilitation and physical medicine. The intent is to identify an ML algorithm which has a better performance, easy to deploy, and has less training time and consumes less computational resources. In short, we propose an algorithm which maximizes the synergy between a sensor and ML by maximizing classification performance and easy to do implementation, which is robust in computational power and lower in resource consumption. The premise of the work is to show the important considerations for evaluating ML algorithms for Upper-limb activity recognition for Physical medicine and rehabilitation field.

Rapid development and deployment of vaccines greatly reduced mortality and morbidity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most widely used COVID-19 vaccines approved by national regulatory authorities require intramuscular administration. SARS-CoV-2 initially infects the upper respiratory tract where the infection can be eliminated with little or no symptoms by an effective immune response. Failure to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract results in lower respiratory tract infections that can lead to severe disease and death. Presently used intramuscularly administered COVID-19 vaccines are effective in reducing severe disease and mortality but are not entirely able to prevent asymptomatic and mild infections as well as person to person transmission of the virus. Individual and population differences also influence susceptibility to infection and the propensity to develop severe disease. This article provides a perspective on the nature and the mode of delivery COVID-19 vaccines that can optimize protective immunity in the upper respiratory tract to reduce infections and virus transmission as well as severe disease.

Our image recognition system mainly judges whether the left upper limb in the image is the left upper limb or the right upper limb through our deep learning model in the image. The doctor then could give the correct surgical position. From the experimental results, it could be found that the precision rate and recall rate of the intelligent image recognition system proposed in this paper for preventing the upper limb dislocation surgery could reach 98% and 93%, respectively. It proved that our intelligent image recognition system could indeed assist orthopedic surgeons to prevent the occurrence of left and right dislocation in upper limb surgery. At the same time, this paper also completes the IRB application approval through the prototype experimental results and will conduct the second phase of human trials in the future. It showed that the research results of this paper will be of great benefit and research value to upper limb orthopedic surgery.

In computational neuroscience, spiking neurons are often analyzed as computing devices that register bits of information, with each action potential carrying at most one bit of Shannon entropy. Here, I question this interpretation by using Landauer's principle to estimate an upper limit for the quantity of thermodynamic information that can be dissipated by a single action potential in a typical mammalian neuron. I show that an action potential in a typical mammalian cortical pyramidal cell can carry up to approximately 3.4e11 natural units of thermodynamic information, or about 4.9e11 bits of Shannon entropy. This result suggests that an action potential can process much more information than a single bit of Shannon entropy.

Seyfe Lake is an important part of the natural ecosystem of Central Anatolia and lies within a 1487 km² closed basin. Groundwater withdrawal for irrigation and recent climatic change have caused lake area to decrease for decades and to completely disappear briefly in August 2008. Groundwater quality is crucial for sustainable irrigation in the Seyfe Basin. A key finding of this study is the difference in the Hardie-Eugster alkalinity-to-calcium ratio of the lake water and that of most groundwater wells in the basin. This difference in the chemical signature of Seyfe Lake and basin groundwater means the evaporative salinization pathway of most groundwater discharged into the lake cannot account for the composition of Seyfe Lake. The ratio of actual evapotranspiration to precipitation will increase under current climate change projections. A second finding, with implications for soil salinization, is that most groundwater in Seyfe Basin has a Hardie-Eugster alkalinity-tocalcium ratio greater than unity, meaning soil alkalization will accompany soil salinization.

Background and Objectives: Renal cell carcinomas and upper tract urothelial carcinomas are types of malignancies that originate in the kidneys. Each of these examples shows an increasing trend in the frequency and the mortality rate. This study aims to comprehensively define carcinomas by analysing clinical, paraclinical, and histological aspects to predict aggressiveness and mortality. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective investigation on a group of patients suspected with kidney cancers. Results: We identified 188 cases. We observed a higher mortality rate and older age in individuals with urothelial carcinomas. Anemia, acute kidney injury, hematuria and perineural invasion were the main risk factors that predicted their mortality. Tumour size in renal cell carcinomas correlates with the presence of necrosis and sarcomatoid areas. Factors that indicate a higher rate of death are older age, exceeding of the renal capsule, the lesion that includes the entire kidney, lymphovascular invasion, acute kidney injury, and anemia. Conclusions: Even if they originate at the renal level, and the clinical-paraclinical picture is similar, the histopathological characteristics make the difference. In addition, to these are added the previously mentioned common parameters that can represent important prognostic factors. In conclusion, the characteristics commonly identified in one type of cancer may act as risk factors for the other tumor. The detected data include threshold values and risk factors, making a significant contribution to the existing literature.

Detailed description of carbonate minerals different in magnesium content of Triassic dolomites were presented in this article. The tests were carried out to determine geochemical and miner-alogical features in the terms of their geoengineering properties. The following carbonate phas-es were identified: a low-Mg calcite, a high-Mg calcite, a proto-dolomite, an ordered dolomite and a huntite. The following research methods were used: microscopic analysis, X-Ray Diffrac-tion, X-Ray Fluorescence and Electron probe microanalysis. The samples were collected from the Tarnowice formation which is the lower part the profile of the Upper Muschelkalk. On the basis of the results the chemical formulas of carbonate phases were calculated. The ranges of Mg and Ca content were presented in formulas. The results indicate of Mg in low-Mg calcite ranges from 0.6 to 1.2%, in high-Mg calcite from 7.47 to 10.41%. In proto-dolomite it ranges from 10.96 to 11.78%. In ordered dolomite Mg content is stoichiometric value for dolomite – 13.18%. Due to the reduced Mg content in identified huntite (the value ranges from 13.62% to 17.76), this carbonate phase was named as de-huntite.

We consider open non-twist Hamiltonian systems represented by an area-preserving two-dimensional map describing incompressible planar flows in the reference frame of a propagating wave, and possessing exits through which map orbits can escape. The corresponding escape basins have a fractal nature that can be revealed by the so-called basin entropy, a novel concept developed to quantify final-state uncertainty in dynamical systems. Since the map considered violates locally the twist condition, there is a shearless barrier that prevents global chaotic transport. In this paper we show that it is possible to determine the shearless barrier breakup by considering the variation of the escape basin entropy with a tunable parameter.

Soil temperature reflects the impact of local factors，such as vegetation，soil and the atmosphere of a region. Therefore, it is important to understand the regional variation of soil temperature. However, lack of observations with adequate spatial and/or temporal coverage, it would be difficult to use the observation data to study the regional variation. Based on the observation data from Nanchang and Ganzhou stations and ERA-Interim/Land reanalysis data, this study analyzed the temporal-spatial distribution characteristics of soil temperature over Poyang Lake Basin. The results showed close correlations between observation data and reanalysis data at different depths. Reanalysis data could mainly reproduce the temporal-spatial distributions of soil temperature over the Poyang Lake Basin, but generally underestimate their magnitudes. Temporally, there is an obvious warming trend in the basin. Seasonally, the temperature raised fastest in spring and slowest in summer, except for the ST4, which rising fastest in spring and slowest in winter. In terms of depths, the temperature of ST1 rises fastest. For the other layers, the warming trend is almost similar. An abrupt change of annual soil temperature at all depths occurred in 1997, and annual soil temperatures at all depths were abnormally low in 1984. Spatially, annual soil temperature decreased with latitude, except for the summer ST1. Because of the high temperature and precipitation in summer, the ST1 are higher around the lake and the river. The climatic trend of soil temperature presents the general increase trend from south to north, opposite to the distribution of soil temperature. The findings provide a basis for understanding and assessing the variation of the soil temperature over the Poyang Lake Basin.

Our image recognition system mainly judges whether the left upper limb in the image is the left upper limb or the right upper limb through our deep learning model in the image. The doctor then could give the correct surgical position. From the experimental results, it could be found that the precision rate and recall rate of the intelligent image recognition system proposed in this paper for preventing the upper limb dislocation surgery could reach 98% and 93%, respectively. It proved that our artificial intelligent image recognition system, AIIRS, could indeed assist orthopedic surgeons to prevent the occurrence of left and right dislocation in upper limb surgery. At the same time, this paper also completes the IRB application approval through the prototype experimental results and will conduct the second phase of human trials in the future. It showed that the research results of this paper will be of great benefit and research value to upper limb orthopedic surgery.

Background: Patients undergoing dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) may experience recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB). We investigated the clinical characteristics and risk factors for recurrent non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (NVUGIB) in patients who had experienced NVUGIB during receiving DAPT. Methods: We enrolled patients diagnosed with NVUGIB during receiving DAPT between 2006 and 2020. Definite bleeding was confirmed by esophagogastroduodenoscopy in all NVUGIB patients. Results: A total of 124 patients were diagnosed with NVUGIB during receiving DAPT. Male was predominant (n = 103, 83.1%), bleeding mostly from the stomach (n = 94, 75.8%) and peptic ulcers (n = 72, 58.1%). After successful hemostasis of NVUGIB, 36 patients (29.0%) experienced at least one episode of recurrent upper GIB, 19 patients (15.3%) died, and 7 (5.6%) patients had a bleeding-related death. Multivariate analysis showed that age was a significant factor for re-bleeding (odds ratio [OR],1.050; 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.001-1.102, P-value:0.047), all-cause mortality (OR,1.096; 95% CI:1.020-1.178, P=0.013), and re-bleeding related mortality (OR,1.187; 95% CI:1.032-1.364, P-value:0.016). In Kaplan-Meier analysis, the cumulative probabilities of re-bleeding, death, and bleeding-related death were significantly higher in patients aged 70 and older (P=0.008, &lt;0.001, and 0.009, respectively). Conclusion: Clinicians should be cautious about re-bleeding and mortality when elderly patients who experienced NVUGIB during receiving DAPT.Keywords: dual antiplatelet therapy; upper gastrointestinal tract; bleeding; mortality

Integrated disaster risk reduction in schools represents a key component of safety strategies within the educational sector of every country. In this study, a series of 850 face-to-face interviews (650 with students and 200 with teachers) were conducted throughout 2023 in 10 out of the total 18 municipalities in the Western Morava Basin of the Republic of Serbia. The paper proposes two central hypotheses regarding school-based disaster risk reduction. Firstly, it suggests that gender, age, parent's employment, academic achievement, living situation, paternal and maternal education levels, and engagement with social media collectively influence students' perspectives on this matter. Secondly, it posits that gender, age, marital status, parenthood, and educational background significantly impact teachers' viewpoints on school-based disaster risk reduction. Multivariate linear regression was used to explore predictors of students' and teachers' insights on school-based disaster risk reduction. Various statistical tests including Chi-square, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation were employed to investigate the influence of demographic and socioeconomic factors on these insights. The results of multivariate regression analyses indicate that age, gender and marital emerge as the primary predictors across various facets of students' and teachers' insights on school-based disaster risk reduction (awareness of disasters, disaster education activities, attitudes on disaster risk reduction education, enhancement of disaster information accessibility, etc). The results of this study provide insight into the key factors influencing students' and teachers' perceptions of disaster risk reduction in schools. As such, they can serve as a basis for improving educational programs, developing policies and strategies, normative educational frameworks, teacher training, and further research in disaster education.

Certain micronutrients exhibit immunomodulatory effects. However, no intervention has yet investigated the effect of an individualized supplementation on the severity of upper respiratory tract infections (URI). Therefore, we investigated whether a personalized supplementation moderates the incidence and severity of URI. Selenium, zinc, and vitamin D was measured from 59 healthy participants ) in dried blood spots. Accordingly, a personalized supplement was provided with or without the respective micronutrients. We used WURSS-21 questionnaires to assess the disease status. The blood values converged during the intervention and micronutrients no longer differed at the end of the intervention period between treated and untreated volunteers. The incidence and severity of the illness did not significantly differ between the groups. However, when analyzing the WURSS-21 score by the intention to treat, the initially randomized treatment arm revealed a significantly higher score than the placebo arm. Upon acute administration, individualized combination of selenium, zinc and vitamin D does not reduce the number or contribute to a milder course of URIs. Therefore, supplementation in acute infectious situations seems questionable. Further studies must address the habitual diet in more detail to better understand the impact of individual micronutrient status on the prevention of URI.

This study aimed to introduce a novel machine learning (ML) model designed to predict the need of interventions during endoscopy in patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB). The risk stratification tools in current use, such as the Glasgow Blatchford Score (GBS) and pre-endoscopic Rockall score, have limitations in accurately predicting the need for endoscopic interventions. All patients diagnosed with UGIB from January 2013 to October 2023 who underwent endoscopy were included in the study. Variables extracted included demographics, social history ,clinical history, clinical presentation and symptoms, drug history, management prior to endoscopy, findings during endoscopy, laboratory variables and vitals, and post-endoscopic results. Three machine learning models including Random Forest Classifier (RFC), Gradient Boosting Classifier (GBC), and AdaBoost Classifier were used to evaluate the need for intervention during endoscopy in our study. A total of 1372 patients were included from three major hospitals in Jordan, of whom 242 underwent endoscopic intervention. The GBC outperformed all other models and pre-endoscopic scores in predicting the need for endoscopic intervention with an area under the curve of 0.861. Findings during endoscopy, platelet count, pulse rate and systolic blood pressure during admission were the most contributing features in predicting the need for the need of endoscopic intervention. This study highlights the potential of machine learning models in enhancing decision making for UGIB management.

In the last decade, robotic-mediated rehabilitation has emerged as a potential solution to improve repetitive task training. Each device in this field has a unique development history shaped by engineers’ expertise in specific programming languages or platforms. In this work we adopt an approach that tries to abstract from the final implementation with the aim to make control logic more shareable and understandable. The authors will present the outcomes of the application of a Rapid Control Prototyping strategy to an upper-limb robotic exoskeleton. A model-based design approach implemented on a real-time target machine is presented. This modern design approach was explored with several control strategies and was used to test the exoskeleton’s performances. The proposed method highlights how it is possible to develop the entire control architecture in a single programming environment.

The surface electromyogram (sEMG)--based gesture recognition to the development of intelligent prostheses has emerged as a promising avenue for upper limb amputees. However, the temporal variations in sEMG have rendered recognition models less efficient than anticipated. Cross-session calibration and training data indicate the capacity to reduce this variation. The impact of varying calibration and training data amounts on gesture recognition performance for amputees is still unknown. To assess these effects, we present four datasets for the evaluation of calibration data and examine the impact of training data volume on benchmark performance. Two amputees who had undergone amputations years prior were recruited and seven sessions of data were collected for analysis from each of them. The experimental results show that the calibration data improved the average accuracy per subject by 3.03% and 6.16%, respectively, compared to the baseline results. Moreover, it was found that to collect training data for modeling, boosting the number of training sessions proves more efficient than increasing the number of trials within a single session. Two potentially effective strategies are proposed in light of this research to enhance the cross-session models further. We consider these findings to be of the utmost importance for the commercialization of intelligent prostheses, as they demonstrate the criticality of gathering calibration and cross-session training data, as well as offer effective strategies for maximizing the utilization of the entire dataset.

The presence of bubbles near the sea surface under certain conditions leads to abnormal sound scattering and a significant change in the acoustic properties of the upper layer of the sea. The article presents some results of sound scattering studies under various sea conditions, up to stormy conditions, when extensive bubble clouds arise. By the method of unsteady acoustic spectroscopy, data on the size distribution of bubbles at various depths have been obtained, which can be described by a power function with exponential decay at small bubble sizes of the order of 10 microns. Estimates of the gas content in bubble clouds and their influence on the acoustic characteristics of the upper layer of the sea have been carried out. It is shown that at sufficiently high concentrations, sharp increases in absorption and dispersion of the sound velocity are observed. Modeling of sound propagation in the presence of a quasi-homogeneous bubble layer shows that it leads both to a change in the laws of the average decay of the sound field along the sound propagation path and to a change in the shallow spatial structure of the field.

The Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian Age) Smackover Formation is a significant source for hydrocarbon production in southwest Alabama. Brooklyn Field is in southeast Conecuh County, Alabama and has been a major producer of oil and natural gas for the state. The Smackover is a carbonate formation that is divided into seven distinct lithofacies. In southwest Alabama, the Smackover Formation is heavily influenced by paleotopography from the underlying Paleozoic rocks of the Appalachian system. The goal of this study is to determine elemental ratios in rock core within the Smackover Formation using a X-ray fluorescence (XRF) handheld scanner, to correlate between lithofacies in the Smackover Formation and elementally characterize the upper oolitic grainstone reservoir and the lower thrombolite boundstone. Eight wells were used for the study within Brooklyn Field and Little Cedar Creek fields. Cores from the eight wells were scanned on six-inch intervals. Chemical logs were produced to show elemental weights in relation to depth and lithofacies. Well data collected for chemical signatures within producing zones were correlated to reservoir lithofacies and porosity. Aluminum, silicon, calcium, titanium, and iron were the most significant (>95% confidence level) predictors of porosity and is related to the depositional environment and subsequent diageneses of the strata. XRF data suggests relative enrichments in iron, titanium, and potassium may be related to deposition in relatively restricted marine waters.

Stability considerations play a central role in structural dynamics to determine states that are robust against perturbations during the operation. Linear stability concepts, such as the complex eigenvalue analysis, constitute the core of analysis approaches in engineering reality. However, most stability concepts are limited to local perturbations, i.e. they can only measure a state’s stability against small perturbations. Recently, the concept of basin stability has been proposed as a global stability concept for multi-stable systems. As multi-stability is a well-known property of a range of nonlinear dynamical systems, this work studies the basin stability of bi-stable mechanical oscillators that are affected and self-excited by dry friction. The results indicate how the basin stability complements the classical binary stability concepts for quantifying how stable a state is given a set of permissible perturbations.

Water scarcity is a key challenge to global development. In Brazil, the Sao Francisco River Basin (SFB) has experienced water scarcity problems because of decreasing streamflow and increasing demands from multiple sectors. However, the drivers of decreased streamflow, particularly the potential role of surface-groundwater interaction, have not been yet investigated. Here, we assess long-term trends in baseflow, quickflow, and streamflow of the SFB during 1980–2015 and constrain the most likely drivers of observed decreases through trend analysis of precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), and terrestrial water storage change (TWS). We found that over 82% of the observed decrease in streamflow can be attributed to a significant decreasing baseflow trend (< -20 m3 s-1 y-1) along the SFR with spatial agreement between decreased baseflow, increased ET, and irrigated agricultural land. We also noted a decrease in TWS across the SFB with trends exceeding -20 mm y-1. Overall, our findings indicate that decreasing groundwater contributions (i.e., baseflow) is providing the observed reduction in total SFR flow. A lack of significant P trends indicates that only P variability likely has not caused the observed baseflow reduction, mainly in the Middle and Sub-middle SFB. Therefore, groundwater and surface withdrawals may be likely a driver of water scarcity over the SFB.

The heavy demand of water resources from the Zarqa River Basin (ZRB) has resulted in a base-flow reduction of the River from 5m³/s to less than 1m³/s. This paper aims at predicting Curve Numbers (CN) as a baseline scenario and proposing restoration scenarios for ZRB. The method includes classifying the soil type and land use, predicting CNs, and proposing CN restoration scenarios. Prediction of existing CNs will be in parallel with the runoff prediction using the US Army Corps of Engineers HEC-1 Model, and Rainfall-Runoff Model (RRM). The models have been set up at the land use distribution of 0.3% water body, 9.3% forest and orchard, 71% mixture of grass, weeds, and desert shrubs, 7.0% crops, 4.0% urban areas, and 8.4% bare soil. The results show that CN under dry condition are 59, 78 under a normal condition and 89 under a wet condition. During vegetation period, CN are 52, 72 and 86 for the dry, normal and wet condition respectively. The restoration scenarios; CN decreases runoff, and increases soil moisture when using the contours, terraces and crop residues. Analyzing results of CN scenarios will be a fundamental tool to support end-users related to their targets to achieve watershed restoration.

Methane is a greenhouse gas and identified as a key driver of near-term climate change. Bottom-up approaches estimate annual methane loss from US natural gas production and transport at 6 Tg, but recent studies suggest this may be an underestimate. To investigate this possibility, an equipment-based emissions inventory, using EPA emission factors, was developed to calculate methane emissions from oil and gas operations in the Delaware Basin, USA. Emission factors and activity data were then updated using contemporary and region-specific measurement data. The original inventory estimated emissions at 315 Gg CH4 y-1 (gas production-normalized rate of 0.6% loss), while the updated inventory estimated emissions of 1,500 Gg CH4 y-1 (2.8% loss). The largest changes resulted from large fugitive emissions from oil production (+430 Gg CH4 y-1), updating maintenance activity emissions (+214 Gg CH4 y-1), considering flaring inefficiency (+174 Gg CH4 y-1), and the inclusion of associated gas venting (+136 Gg CH4 y-1). This study suggests that a systematic underestimate probably exists in current bottom-up inventories and identifies sources currently missing or may be incorrect. We also strongly recommend that emission factors should be validated through direct comparison against measurement campaigns that include long-tail distributions typical of oil and gas activities.

Main pathogens affecting carob (Ceratonia siliqua) tree in the Mediterranean basin are described in this overview. The most widespread diseases periodically occurring on carob orchards are powdery mildew (Pseudoidium ceratoniae) and cercospora leaf spot (Pseudocercospora ceratoniae). The causal agents of so-called “black leaf spots” (e.g. Pestaliotiopsis, Phyllosticta and Septoria spp.) are responsible for similar symptoms to above mentioned foliar diseases but are reported on carob orchards with a negligible frequency. Likewise, canker and branch diebacks caused by fungal species belonging to Botryosphaeriaceae are almost never recorded. Among wood diseases that may compromise old or previously damaged carob specimens, “brown cubical heart rot” caused by Laetiporus sulphureus is the most widespread and recurrent issue; this pathogen is also well-known for edible fruit bodies that are also appreciated for pharmaceutical and industrial purposes. On the other hand, “white decays” caused by Fomes and Ganoderma species are less common and reported for the first time in this review. Like-gall protuberances on twigs at uncertain aetiology or tumours on branches associated to Rhyzobium radiobacter are described although these symptoms are seldom detected as it happens also for necrotic leaf spots caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. ciccaronei. A list of worldwide pathogens not yet recorded but at high-risk potential of introduction in Italian carob producing area is also provided. Finally, some concerns are addressed to new phytopathogenic fungi vectored by invasive Xylosandrus compactus ambrosia beetle. Comprehensively, all described pathogens could potentially in near future become limiting factors for carob production, because they could be favoured by high-density orchards, increasing global network of trade exchanges and high frequency through which extreme events of climate changes globally occur. Thus, symptoms and signs, causal agents, epidemiology and whenever applicable recommendations for disease prevention and management are provided in this review.

To estimate The potential inventory of natural gas hydrates in the Levant Basin we correlated the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ), modeled with locally estimated thermodynamic parameters, with seismic indicators of gas. Compilation of oceanographic measurements define the deep-water temperature and salinity to 13.8°C and 38.8‰ respectively, predicting the top GHSZ at a water depth of 1250±5 m. Assuming beneath the seafloor a hydrostatic pore-pressure, the water body salinity, and geothermal gradients ranging between 20 to 28.5°C/km, yields a useful first-order base-GHSZ approximation. Our model predicts that the entire northwestern half of the Levant Basin lies within the GHSZ, with a median thickness of ~150 m. High amplitude seismic reflectivity (HASR) imaged on an extensive 3D seismic dataset, consistently correlates with verified active seafloor gas seepage and is pervasively distributed across the deep-sea fan of the Nile within the Levant. Two main trends observed for the distribution of HASR are suggested to represent: (1) shallow gas and possibly hydrates, within buried channel-lobe systems 25 to 100 m beneath the seafloor; and (2) a regionally discontinuous bottom simulating reflection (BSR) broadly matching the modeled base GHSZ. We therefore estimate the potential methane hydrates reserve within the Levant Basin at ~4 Tcf.

The extant Keteleeria is endemic to East and Southeast Asia, while it is widely distributed in the northern hemisphere in Earth’s history. In this paper, we reported a novel wood fossil of Keteleerioxylon changchunense Shi, Sun, Meng et Yu sp. nov. collected from the middle member of Yingcheng Formation, Yingcheng Coal Mine, Changchun City, Jilin Province, Northeast China. The quantitative growth-ring analyses of K. changchunense indicate that it was evergreen and its leaf longevity was 1-3 years, which is consistent with the foliar retention of extant Keteleeria. Its high ring markedness index (RMI) indicates that the climate seasonality was pronounced during the early Albian in Songliao Basin, Northeast China. The fossil records of Keteleeria and closely related taxa indicate that this group might originate in Northeast China, spread and migrated northward during the Cretaceous, gradually decreased in the Cenozoic, and so far only survives in East and Southeast Asia.

Steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) consists of short hooked steel fibres randomly distributed and oriented within the cementitious matrix. The contribution of fibre in bridging cracks to provide the stress transfer required relies upon the orientation of the fibre in the concrete. Bridging fibre aligned with a crack are less effective than those inclined to it. Therefore, understanding the pull-out behaviour of misaligned fibre is a key factor to quantify and optimize the design of SFRC in the structural applications. In the laboratory a single oriented fibre embedded in a solid cylinder of concrete is subjected to a pull-out test where the axis of a tensile force is aligned with the axis of the cylinder. Based upon the observed behaviour this paper presents a new analytical bounding approach to capture the pull-out response of misaligned hooked-end steel fibre embedded in a concrete matrix. The analysis is based upon a transversely isotropic condition assumed for the plasticity that occurs in the cold drawn fibre. The model accounts for the influence of fibre diameter and the combined strengths of the steel and concrete. The model predictions have also been compared with other experimental results published in the literature. The results showed that the model can predict pull-out loads reasonably for different fibre orientations between bounds of failure derived from the strengths of the two constituents. A critical orientation is observed at maximum strength. Therein, an understanding of the pull-out behaviour of misaligned, hooked-end fibres is necessary to optimize the strength of concrete from this method of reinforcement.

Running is a basic form of human locomotion and one of the most popular sports worldwide. While the leg biomechanics of running have been studied extensively, few studies have focused on the upper-body movement. However, an effective arm swing and longitudinal rotation of the shoulders play an important role in running efficiency as they must compensate for the longitudinal torques generated by the legs. The aim of this study is to assess the upper-body rotation using wearable inertial sensors and to elucidate its relation to energy expenditure. Eighty-six junior elite middle and long-distance runners (37 female, 49 male) performed an incremental treadmill test with sensors attached on both shoulders, tibiae and the sacrum. Mean and total horizontal shoulder and pelvis rotation per stride were derived while energy costs were determined using respiratory gas analysis and blood sampling. Results show that shoulder and pelvis rotation increase with running speed. While shoulder rotation is more pronounced in female than in male runners, there is no sex difference for pelvis rotation. Energy cost of running and upper trunk rotation prove to be slightly negatively correlated. In conclusion, upper body rotation appears to be an individual characteristic influenced by a sex-specific body mass distribution.

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a major health problem within the global cattle industry. This disease has a complex aetiology, with viruses playing an integral role. In this study, metagenomics was used to sequence viral nucleic acids in the nasal swabs of BRD affected cattle. Viruses detected included those well known for their association with BRD in Australia (bovine viral diarrhea virus 1), as well as viruses known to be present but not fully characterised (bovine coronavirus) and viruses that have not been reported in BRD affect cattle in Australia (bovine rhinitis, bovine influenza D, and bovine nidovirus). Nasal swabs from a case control study were subsequently tested for 10 viruses and the presence of at least one virus was found to be significantly associated with BRD. Some of the more recently detected viruses had inconsistent association with BRD. Full genome sequences for bovine coronavirus, a virus increasingly associated with BRD, and bovine nidovirus were complete. Both viruses belong to the Coronaviridae family, which are frequently associated with disease in mammals. This study has provided greater insights into the viral pathogens associated with BRD and highlighted the need for further studies to elucidate more precisely the roles viruses play in BRD.

UEDVT still remains an underdiagnosed entity due to a significant percentage of patients who remain asymptomatic. The etiology of UEDVT is overwhelmingly attributed to secondary causes including but not limited to central venous access devices and malignancy. Treatment modalities include anticoagulation, catheter directed thrombolysis, percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy or a multimodality approach along with the management of underlying etiology. We describe a case of a female with breast cancer, who came with left UEDVT and CVC malfunction and was successfully treated using the ClotTriever system to maintain continuous intravenous access.

Despite the overall extension of the Amazon basin (approximately 6,000,000),which encompasses such a complex ecosystem and territories belonging to seven different nations, it is worth mentioning that environmental assessment related to changes in land use and land cover (LULC) in this region are often conducted respecting geopolitical boundaries associated with each country or taking into account the so-called Amazon biome. With the purpose of prospecting the intricate and hidden hydrological patterns, we undertake an in-depth evaluation of the water balance along the 2001-2021 time span across the whole basin, whose behavior depends on the features deriving from the metamorphoses in land use and land cover. To accomplish that task, the influence of the components of the water balance, namely rainfall and evapotranspiration, jointly with the terrestrial topographic mapping, are examined to investigate the interactions among the physical mechanisms that make up the hydrological cycle and the corresponding physical hydrological processes triggered by deforestation and reforestation in the region. More specifically, the modeling approach was rigorously designed to also consider, separately or not Negro, Solimões, Madeira, Tapajós and Xingu hydrographic sub-basins, which are the most important ones of the Amazon basin. The results highlight that, in the southern region of the Amazon, specifically within the Madeira river sub-basin, the lowest forest coverage is observed (56.0%), whereas in the northern Negro river sub-basin, the most notable forest coverage is observed (85.0%).The most preserved forest areas, such as the Negro and Solimões river sub-basins, with percentages of 81.9% and 74.2%, respectively, have higher annual rates of precipitation and evapotranspiration over time. On the other hand, regions that suffered the most intense deforestation along the time period studied, such as the Madeira, Tapajós and Xingu sub-basins, have lower annual rates of precipitation and evapotranspiration, with a preservation percentage of 54.6%, 62.6% and 70, 7%, respectively. As the pace of deforestation slowed between 2003 and 2013, annual precipitation rates increased by 12.0%, while evapotranspiration decreased by 2.0%. The hydrological findings of this paper highlight th predominant role of the forest in the context of the global water balance of the Amazon basin and the potential to also produce distinct impacts within different parts of the basin in terms of having more or less rainfall and evaporation. In addition, those variabilities in the hydrological operational components and mechanisms due to changes in land cover and land use also reveals the potential impacts that could be expected in the surrounding areas, closer or farther, notably beyond the limits of the Amazon basin.

In this work a new hydroelectric basin modelling approach is described and applied to the Pontecosi basin, Italy. Several types of data sources were used to learn the model: a number of weather stations, satellite observations, Reanalysis dataset and basin data. With the goal of predicting the water level of the basin, the model was composed by three cascade modules. Firstly, different spatial interpolation methods, such as Kriging, Radial Basis Function and Natural Neighbours, were compared and applied to interpolate the weather stations data nearby the basin area to infer the main environmental variables (air temperature, air humidity, precipitation and wind speed) in the basin area. Then, using these variables as inputs, a neural network was trained to predict the mean soil moisture concentration over the area, also to improve the low availability due to satellite orbits. Finally, a non-linear auto regressive exogenous input (NARX) model was trained to simulate the basin level with different prediction horizons, using the data from the previous modules and past basin data (water level, discharge flow rate, turbine flow rate). Accurate predictions of the basin water level were achieved within 1 to 6 hours ahead, with mean absolute errors (MAE) between 2cm and 10cm respectively.

Ternate Island is a volcanic island resulting from the activity of the Gamalama Volcano which is located in the northern Maluku archipelago, Indonesia. Ternate Island is famous as the only island that produces special spices and is the zero point of the world's spice route because the main producer of cloves is here. As a small island, Ternate Island has several limitations including the availability of water resources. Given the scarcity of surface water on the island of Ternate, groundwater in shallow aquifers and deep aquifers is the main source of fresh water which is important for irrigation activities, tourism, services and supporting urban and industrial infrastructure, as well as drinking water needs for people who live densely and are concentrated in the east. and the southern part of the island which is now the city of Ternate. The phenomenon of groundwater utilization in Ternate City is generally massively carried out to support economic activities in the city of Ternate. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential and quality of groundwater resources which are an important part of water management on the island of Ternate by microzoning the quality of groundwater for the sustainability of the city which is famous as the world's spice city based on its groundwater potential. Determination of groundwater samples as many as 67 wells distributed on the island of Ternate, 58 well sample points were categorized as free aquifers (MA-SG) and 7 points of depressed aquifers (SB). Ternate island area of ​​102 km2 with volcanic geology in 3 rock categories. Geological distribution also affects the hydrogeological potential and groundwater quality on the island of Ternate. Piper's trilinear diagram and stiff diagram methods were adopted for the assessment of the main ion quality of groundwater and the distribution of groundwater potential was interpolated with cubic splines to obtain correlations between sample points based on basic parameters of volcanic hydrogeology. The total potential for groundwater recharge is 1,291 million m3/year, there are 5 groundwater quality zones spread among 67 sample points with 76% distribution of elements Calcium Bicarbonate (CaCO3), Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHCO₂), magnesium bicarbonate Mg(HCO3)2 and widely distributed on the island of ternate, while 25% magnesium chloride (MgCl2) and potassium chloride (KCL) are scattered locally on the island of ternate. On an ongoing basis the bicarbonate facies micro-zonation is hydrogeochemical with local flow interactions in volcanic deposits, where infiltration tends to be close to the groundwater sample point, while the chloride facies is a groundwater zone that is correlated with flow patterns from upstream to downstream and has interacted with magma or was intruded. seawater is characterized by high Ca and TDS.

Rice production in the Tonle Sap basin is one of the main drivers for economic and social development in Cambodia. The Tonle Sap basin has experienced many different forms of disasters while more attention has been drawn to drought disaster. The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of drought on agriculture and food security through a case study of the Baribo basin, a sub-basin of Tonle Sap basin, Cambodia. Ground observations and satellite-based products were used for drought assessment from 1985 to 2008 which was the period with relatively good data quality. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standard Vegetation Index (SVI) were selected for meteorological and agricultural droughts assessment, correspondingly. Both SPI and SVI consistently suggested that drought is a major natural hazard causing food insecurity in the target basin. The highest drought intensity (DI) and severity (DS) occurred between 1993-1994 and the longest drought duration (DD) occurred between 2002 and 2006. The most severe damage to rice production was in 2004, affecting about 46% of the total cultivated area. The analysis showed that drought duration had a strong relationship with the affected area growing rice as well as food insecurity in the Tonle Sap basin.

The River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) is an essential component of the European Union Water Framework Directive that details an integrated approach required to protect, improve and sustainably manage water resources. RBMP were intended to be produced for the periods 2009-2015, 2016-2021 and 2022-2027. However, after two years of delays in the development processes, the Republic of Ireland produced its first RBMP in 2010. The second RBMP cycle was also implemented in 2018 and is expected to run until the end of 2021 to give way to the third RBMP, whose consultation processes have been ongoing since December 2019. This paper contributes to the forthcoming RBMP by assessing stakeholders’ perspectives on the second RBMP through a desk-based review and by conducting interviews with nine institutions (14 interviewees). The qualitatively analysed interviews reveal a broad spectrum of actors associated with water management and governance in the Republic of Ireland through a three-tier governance structure that has been delivered (with amendment) through the first two RBMPs. Organisations such as the An Fóram Uisce|The Water Forum, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Local Authority Waters, and the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme have responsibilities designated in the RBMPs to deliver improved water quality, integrated catchment management, community engagement and awareness-raising. Trust has also been building up among these organisations and other agencies in the water sector. Despite these responsibilities and progress, the interviews identified communication lapses, ineffective collaboration and coordination among stakeholders and late implementation to be hampering the successful delivery of the second RBMP, in addition to significant pressures acting on water bodies from agricultural activities and urban wastewater treatment. Towards the third RBMP, the paper concludes that optimised water sector finance, enhanced and well-resourced communications, and improved stakeholder collaboration are needed to foster effective and efficient water services delivery and quality. More so, given the cross-cutting impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on water resources and the interconnected relations among the goals, the paper further recommends the integration of the SDGs in the various plans of actions and a co-benefits approach to derive the triple benefits from biodiversity, climate change initiatives and water quality measures.

This study evaluates spatial analyses of groundwater quality and environmental changes to obtain information on the groundwater contamination in the Permian Basin, Texas. Coupled with the U.S. government’s open data, these analyses can identify regions where environmental change could have potentially effected groundwater quality. A total of thirty-six wells were selected within the six counties: Andrews, Martin, Ector, Midland, Crane, and Upton. Spatial distribution maps were created for six different parameters: pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride, fluoride, nitrate, and arsenic. Total groundwater quality maps incorporate all the contaminants and denote regions of poor, medium, and optimum conditions. To identify spatial changes in groundwater quality, maps were separated into two different time intervals, 1992-2005 and 2006-2019. We found that groundwater contamination resulted primarily from the mobilization of the contaminant from natural sources or anthropogenic activities such as chemical fertilizers. Overall, groundwater quality decreased during the study period from 1992 to 2019 as population and urban growth began to develop in the Permian Basin. This study contributes on understanding of the response of groundwater quality associated with environmental change in the Permian Basin. Therefore, this research provides important information for groundwater managements in developing plans for the use of water resource in the future for Texas.

Due to the use of structural and seismic techniques an attempt has been made in this study to determine the hydrocarbon potential and future exploration in Pakistan's Lower Indus basin area and offshore region. In addition to the possibility of hydrocarbon accumulation, the major goals of this research are to analyze structural patterns in the subsurface of the study region, identify the horizons of various formations using surface seismic, and interpret seismic lines. Seismic data has been used to find and integrate the exposed Cretaceous/Tertiary basalt at Ranikot in the lower Indus basin to the well-known Deccan basalts of the Indo-Pak plate, which is the secondary goal of the current investigation. According to the interpretation of seismic data, the Indo-Pakistan plate has experienced rifting because of tectonic activity. Graben and horst structures have been identified in the study area horizon, which indicates that the area has undergone major structural and depositional changes. While faults provide a pathway for hydrocarbons to migrate from their source to reservoir rock, grabens are principally responsible for the accumulation of hydrocarbons. We further deduce that the prior exploration failures in the area were due to a lack of knowledge of the subsurface formations and structural trends, which are essential for characterizing the hydrocarbon play and trap features. Our results can be productive for the local hydrocarbon drilling projects as well as worldwide tectonic stratigraphy studies on passive continental edges.

Study of spatiotemporal dynamics of temperature is vital to assess changes in climate, especially in the Himalayan region where livelihoods of billions of people living downstream depends on water coming from the melting of snow and glacier ice. To this end, temperature trend analysis is carried out in Narayani river basin, a major river basin of Nepal characterized by three climatic regions: tropical, subtropical and alpine. Temperature data from six stations located within the basin were analyzed. The elevation of these stations ranges from 460 to 3800 m a.s.l. and the time period of available temperature data ranges from 1960–2015. Multiple regression and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) methods were applied to fill in missing data and to detect trends. Annual as well as seasonal trends were analyzed and a Mann-Kendall test was employed to test the statistical significance of detected trends. Results indicate significant cooling trends before 1970s, and warming trends after 1970s in the majority of the stations. The warming trends range from 0.028 ∘" style="position: relative;">∘C year−1" style="position: relative;">−1 to 0.035 ∘" style="position: relative;">∘C year−1" style="position: relative;">−1 with a mean increasing trend of 0.03 ∘" style="position: relative;">∘C year−1" style="position: relative;">−1 after 1971. Seasonal trends show highest warming trends in the monsoon season followed by winter, pre-monsoon, and the post-monsoon season. However, difference in warming rates between different seasons was not significant. An average temperature lapse rate of −0.006 ∘" style="position: relative;">∘C m−1" style="position: relative;">−1 with the steepest value (−0.0064 ∘" style="position: relative;">∘C m−1" style="position: relative;">−1) in pre-monsoon season and least negative (−0.0052 ∘" style="position: relative;">∘C m−1" style="position: relative;">−1) in winter season was observed for this basin. A comparative analysis of the gap-filled data with freely available global climate datasets show reasonable correlation thus confirming the suitability of the gap filling methods.

Robot-assisted gait training (RAGT) is a promising treatment for stroke rehabilitation. Although the coordination between the upper and lower limbs is important for locomotor training, commercially available robotics for gait training mainly focus on the restoration of lower limb function. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility and usability of complex upper and lower limb RAGT in stroke patients using the GTR-A®, end effector-type robotic device. Patients with subacute stroke (N=9) received 30-minute RAGT thrice a week for two weeks (six sessions). Functionally, the hand grip strength (HGS), Functional Ambulatory Categories, modified Barthel Index, muscle strength test sum score, Berg Balance Scale, Timed Up and Go test, and Short Physical Performance Battery were used. The heart rate and a structured questionnaire were used to evaluate cardiorespiratory fitness and the usability of RAGT. Among the nine patients, all functional parameters between the baseline and post-training were significantly improved after RAGT, except for HGS and the muscle strength test. The questionnaire’s mean scores for each domain were as follows: safety 4.40±0.35, effects 4.23±0.31, efficiency 4.22±0.77, and satisfaction 4.41±0.25. The GTR-A® is a feasible and safe robotic device for patients with gait impairment after stroke. It showed functional improvement with endurance training effects.

El Olivo Cave (Pruvia de Arriba, Llanera, Asturias, Spain) is a small karst cave located in the Aboño River basin and formed in the Cretaceous limestone of the Mesozoic cover of the Cantabrian Mountains (north of the Iberian Peninsula). It contains an important upper Pleistocene sedimen-tary, archaeological and paleontological record, with abundant technological evidence and faunal remains. The archaeological record shows a first occupation that could correspond to the Middle Paleolithic and a second occupation in the Middle Magdalenian. The stratigraphic sequence inside and outside the cave was studied with geoarchaeological methodology. In this paper, the lithostratigraphic sequence is analyzed and the data from the granulometric, mineralogical, edaphological and radiometric analyses are presented. The results of these analyses enable an accurate interpretation of both the lithostratigraphy of the deposit as well as the processes re-sponsible for its formation and subsequent evolution. The available numerical dates allow us to locate the first sedimentation episode in the cave in OIS 7a, in the Middle Pleistocene, the base of the outer fluvial sedimentation in the cold OIS 3a stage of the Upper Pleistocene and the Magdalenian occupation in the Last Glacial Maximum (OIS 2) at the end of the Late Pleistocene.

MAD is the gold standard therapy for mild/moderate OSA and is a second-choice treatment in patients with severe OSA not responding to CPAP. The aim of this study was to analyze the upper airway characteristics of OSA patients and the morphological changes in the upper airway, inducted by four different types of mandibular advancement devices, using CBCT 3D imaging. Twenty-two patients were recruited after OSA diagnosis with polysomnography. Four different customized and titratable MAD were used and an initial CBCT scan was obtained for each patient. After 6 months to the end of the MAD titration phase, all the subjects showed an AHI of &lt; 5 or a decrease of 50% in AHI with MAD when compared with initial AHI and a second CBCT scan with MAD in situ was performed. An important improvement of the airway was observed (+33.76%) and a significant difference in the enlargement ratio between the posterior soft palate (+32.41%) and the posterior tongue (+36.96%) region was also found. The greatest increase in airway volume was achieved in patients treated with the MAD Forward and TAP (respectively +42.77% and + 41.63%). MAD therapy is effective to treat mild/severe OSA with increased upper airway volume. The design of the MAD can influence the effectiveness of the treatment.

Aim: To develop an index for quantitative assessment of the upper limb motor function in children with cerebral palsy before and after robot-assisted therapy. Method: An upper limb motor function index was developed using kinematic, surface electromyography and three-axis inertial measurements unit data collected from 15 children with cerebral palsy (CP) and 15 typically developed children. Children with CP underwent 18 robot-assisted therapy sessions with the REAplan device. All children were evaluated, using kinematic data from the REAplan, electromyography and three-axis inertial measurements unit readings from its accelerometer. A principal component analysis was conducted to produce an evaluation index, which is able to detect the deviation from the upper limb motor function of typically developing children group. Children with CP were evaluated twice before and after the intervention with Box and Blocks test and Finger-To-Nose test. The discriminative and concurrent validity of the upper limb motor function index were investigated. Results: The upper limb motor function index was higher in children with CP post therapy (p<0.001). Finger-To-Nose test values improved after robot-assisted therapy (p<0.03). A weak but positive correlation was observed between upper limb motor function index and clinical tests (r=0.012, p=0.95 and r=0.13, p= 0.54 for Box and Blocks test and Finger-To-Nose test respectively). Interpretation: The upper limb motor function index successfully differentiated between the typically developing children and children with CP and was effective in assessing the improvement of the upper limb motor function after robot-assisted therapy. The upper limb motor function index could be extended to assess and monitor rehabilitation therapies of other populations, such as those with stroke and Parkinson’s disease.

The upper extremities limitation represents one of the essential functional impairments in patients with cervical spinal cord injury. Electromechanics assisted devices and robots are increasingly used in neurorehabilitation to help functional improvement in patients with neurological diseases. This review aimed to systematically report the evidence-based, state-of-art on clinical applications and robotic-assisted arm training (RAT) in motor and functional recovery in subjects affected by cervical spinal cord injury. The present study has been carried out within the framework of the Italian Consensus Conference on "Rehabilitation assisted by robotic and electromechanical devices for persons with disability of neurological origin" (CICERONE). PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) databases were systematically searched from inception to September 2021. The 10-item PEDro scale assessed the study quality for the RCT and the AMSTAR-2 for the systematic review. Two different authors rated the studies included in this review. If consensus was not achieved after discussion, a third reviewer was interrogated. The 5-item Oxford CEBM scale was used to rate the level of evidence. A total of 11 studies were included. The selected studies were: two systematic reviews, two RCTs, one parallel-group controlled trial, one longitudinal intervention study and five case series. One RCT was scored as a high-quality study, while the systematic review was of low quality. RAT was reported as feasible and safe. Initial positive effects of RAT were found for arm function and quality of movement in addition to conventional therapy. The high clinical heterogeneity of treatment programs and the variety of robot devices could severely affect the generalizability of the study results; therefore, future studies are warranted to standardize the type of intervention and evaluate the role of robotic-assisted training in subjects affected by cervical spinal cord injury.

A linear stability analysis of the parallel uniform flow in a horizontal channel with open upper boundary is carried out. The lower boundary is considered as an impermeable isothermal wall, while the open upper boundary is subject to a uniform heat flux and it is exposed to an external horizontal fluid stream driving the flow. An eigenvalue problem is obtained for the two-dimensional transverse modes of perturbation. The study of the analytical dispersion relation leads to the conditions for the onset of convective instability as well as to the determination of the parametric threshold for the transition to absolute instability. The results are generalised to the case of three-dimensional perturbations.