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Humans introduced paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) from Taiwan into the Pacific over 5000 years ago as a fiber source to make barkcloth textiles that were, and still are, important cultural artifacts throughout the Pacific. We have used B. papyrifera, a species closely associated to humans, as a proxy to understand the human settlement of the Pacific Islands. We report the first genetic analysis of paper mulberry textiles from historical and archaeological contexts (200 to 50 years before present) and compare our results with genetic data obtained from contemporary and herbarium paper mulberry samples. Following stringent ancient DNA protocols, we extracted DNA from 13 barkcloth textiles. We confirmed that the fiber source is paper mulberry in nine of the 13 textiles studied using the nuclear ITS-1 marker and by statistical estimates. We detected high genetic diversity in historical Pacific paper mulberry barkcloth with a set of ten microsatellites, showing new alleles and specific genetic patterns. These genetic signatures allow tracing connections to plants from the Asian homeland, Near and Remote Oceania, establishing links not observed previously (using the same genetic tools) in extant plants or herbaria samples. These results show that historic barkcloth textiles are cultural materials amenable to genetic analysis to reveal human history and that these artifacts may harbor evidence of greater genetic diversity in Pacific B. papyrifera in the past.

To mark the 20th anniversary of Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS), an interdisciplinary and international journal dedicated to the public discussion and open-access publication of high-quality studies and original research on natural hazards and their consequences, we highlight 11 key publications covering major subject areas of NHESS that stood out within the past 20 years. The papers cover all the topics contemplated in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Division on Natural Hazards including dissemination, education, outreach and teaching. The selected articles thus represent excellent scientific contributions in the major areas of natural hazards and risks and helped NHESS to become an exceptionally strong journal representing interdisciplinary areas of natural hazards and risks. At its 20th anniversary, we are proud that NHESS is not only used by scientists to disseminate research results and novel ideas but also by practitioners and decision-makers to present effective solutions and strategies for sustainable disaster risk reduction.

Science is increasingly done in large teams, making it more likely that papers will be written by several authors from different institutes, disciplines, and cultural backgrounds. A small number of “Ten simple rules” papers have been written on collaboration and on writing but not on combining the two. Collaborative writing with multiple authors has additional challenges, including varied levels of engagement of coauthors, provision of fair credit through authorship or acknowledgements, acceptance of a diversity of work styles, and the need for clear communication. Miscommunication, a lack of leadership, and inappropriate tools or writing approaches can lead to frustration, delay of publication, or even the termination of a project. To provide insight into collaborative writing, we use our experience from the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) to frame 10 simple rules for collaboratively writing a multi-authored paper. We consider a collaborative multi-authored paper to have three or more people from at least two different institutions. A multi-authored paper can be a result of a single discrete research project or the outcome of a larger research program that includes other papers based on common data or methods. The writing of a multi-authored paper is embedded within a broader context of planning and collaboration among team members. Our recommended rules include elements of both the planning and writing of a paper, and they can be iterative, although we have listed them in numerical order. It will help to revisit the rules frequently throughout the writing process. With the 10 rules outlined below, we aim to provide a foundation for writing multi-authored papers and conducting exciting and influential science.

Background Paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera (L.) L'Hér. ex Vent) is a dioecious tree native to East Asia and mainland Southeast-Asia, introduced prehistorically to Polynesia as a source of bark fiber by Austronesian-speaking voyagers. In Oceania, trees are coppiced and harvested for production of bark-cloth, so flowering is generally unknown. A survey of botanical records of paper mulberry revealed a distributional disjunction: the tree is apparently absent in Borneo and the Philippines. A subsequent study of chloroplast haplotypes linked paper mulberry of Remote Oceania directly to a population in southern Taiwan, distinct from known populations in mainland Southeast-Asia. Methodology We describe the optimization and use of a DNA marker designed to identify sex in paper mulberry. We used this marker to determine the sex distribution in selected localities across Asia, Near and Remote Oceania. We also characterized all samples using the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer sequence (ITS) in order to relate results to a previous survey of ITS diversity. Results In Near and Remote Oceania, contemporary paper mulberry plants are all female with the exception of Hawaii, where plants of both sexes are found. In its natural range in Asia, male and female plants are found, as expected. Male plants in Hawaii display an East Asian ITS genotype, consistent with modern introduction, while females in Remote Oceania share a distinctive variant. Conclusions Most paper mulberry plants now present in the Pacific appear to be descended from female clones introduced prehistorically. In Hawaii, the presence of male and female plants is thought to reflect a dual origin, one a prehistoric female introduction and the other a modern male introduction by Japanese/Chinese immigrants. If only female clones were dispersed from a source-region in Taiwan, this may explain the absence of botanical records and breeding populations in the Philippines and Borneo, and Remote Oceania.

EarthCube aims to create an integrated system to access, analyze and share information that is used by the entire geosciences community. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an organization of which more than four hundred companies and agencies are members, whose purpose is to create open source standards for sharing geospatial and observational information. The authors of this paper are users of OGC standards in our work in hydrology, meteorology, climatology, oceanography and in the solid earth sciences, in other words, in key disciplinary fields that contribute to the Geosciences. Moreover, the OGC has an effective process for engaging individuals from many countries in standards development and interoperability testing that encourages them to set aside the roles they play in their home organizations and instead focus just on what is needed to share a particular class of information across the globe. This paper examines the hypothesis that an OGC-like process could be useful for broader sharing of information in the geosciences.

Introduction In many scientific articles, the computational results can be based on models, e.g. for calculating the damage costs caused by a flood event. To make these models also applicable to other scenarios, they are often based on parameters which describe, for example, the properties of a flood event, such as the velocity and duration. Due to the effect the parameters have on the outcome of the model and thus as well on the conclusions, it is important for reviewers and readers to understand how these parameters work in order to evaluate the quality of the model or to reuse the source code. Figures are used frequently to support this task but explaining the behavior of the parameters through static text and figures is challenging for the paper authors. If the source code is open and reproducible, readers can investigate the code by themselves and rerun the analysis based on different parameter values. However, this is time-consuming and becoming more complex with a growing number of parameters. Readers would need to investigate which parameters are used in the model and how these can be changed. More advanced approaches like the Executable Research Compendium (ERC) support this task with the help of so-called Bindings, fine-grained links between those source code lines and data subsets that are needed to reproduce a specific computational result, e.g., a figure (Nüst et al. 2017, Konkol et al. 2019). These links can be used to create interactive figures allowing readers to change parameter values using, for example, a slider or radio buttons. Despite this benefit, researchers are often reluctant to publish their research in this format since they fear additional work. Furthermore, it remains open if ERCs eventually help authors communicate the results in a way that readers can better understand them in less time and with more confidence compared to papers that are supplemented by a folder containing the code and data. To shed light on these issues, the experiment reported in this study examines the following research questions: Compared to static articles supplemented by source code and data (RQ1) how effective are ERCs in helping readers understand the model parameters underlying the computational results reported in a scientific paper? (RQ2) how confident do readers feel when answering questions while working with ERCs? (RQ3) how much time do readers need for studying ERCs? And finally, (RQ4) which of the two approaches do readers prefer? Selecting and preparing a use case Use case We selected the paper “INSYDE: a synthetic, probabilistic flood damage model based on explicit cost analysis” (Dottori et al. 2016) since it is open access, supplemented by open and reproducible data and R code, includes a computational analysis that is visualized in a figure, and based on parameters. Changing these parameters affect the outcome of the analysis. Furthermore, the analysis and the figure are computed quickly which avoids long waiting times after changing parameter values. The paper describes a model that calculates damage costs after a flood event based on several parameters, e.g. flood duration and water flow velocity. The authors discuss these parameters and suggest alternative values. Moreover, they report on a sensitivity analysis showing that the influence of the parameters is important. Parameters We prepared the paper for the study as follows: After downloading and reproducing the code and the data, we looked for parameters in the analysis and investigated how we could make them interactive (see Konkol et al. (2019) for further details). From the numerous parameters used in the analysis, we selected “duration” of the flood event, “velocity” of the water flow, and “sediment concentration” of the water. We assumed these parameters are of particular importance since they are mentioned in the corresponding figure caption, part of a separate R file dedicated to parameters, and changing them within the range suggested in the paper affects the damage calculation. The fourth parameter mentioned in the caption, “water quality”, was not considered since it only indicates the presence of pollutants in the water and thus cannot be changed within a predefined range. Hence, it is not comparable to the other parameters. To reduce reading time to a minimum that can be handled in a study, we excluded the following sections from the text: Related Work, Discussion, Conclusion, sections reporting on the uncertainty of the analysis, parts from the abstract that refer to excluded sections, and citations. Although the section Sensitivity Analysis explains some of the model behavior, we also excluded it since we had no code to reproduce the resulting figure. The final text is available online (https://uni-muenster.sciebo.de/s/6UxNyvgG3Bb1n7U). We also made adaptations to the source code. We renamed the parameter names to more meaningful names considering their actual purpose, e.g. “v” to “velocity”. Afterwards, we created two versions, the Executable Research Compendium (https://o2r.uni-muenster.de/#/erc/tRnj5) and the folder version (https://uni-muenster.sciebo.de/s/QptKFlUumKRVAXh). For the Executable Research Compendium, we created an R Markdown including the entire source code as well as the manuscript and bindings. We uploaded the ERC to the o2r-platform. The folder contains the HTML as well as the PDF version of the manuscript and the attached materials, i.e., all datasets, R scripts, and the same R Markdown that was used for the ERC. Except for the bindings, both versions are thus identical but while the ERC is used in combination with the platform, the folder is used locally. The three selected parameters have the following properties and affect the damage cost calculation as follows: The “duration” parameter is provided in hours and the default value is 24. The range is indicated from 0 to any value larger than 0. Since 24 is the largest value we could find in the paper, we defined the range from 1-24. We thus implemented the interactive figure with a slider that ranges from 1-24 and a step size of 1 since only integer values were used in the text. Changing the duration from 1 to 12 hours while keeping the other values constant leads to no increase in damage costs. As of 13 hours, the damage costs increase more and more. The “velocity” parameter is provided in meter per seconds and the default value is 0.5. The range is indicated from 0 to any value larger than 0. Since 2.0 is the largest value we could find in the paper, we defined the range from 0.0-2.0. We thus implemented the interactive figure with a slider that ranges from 0.0-2.0 and a step size of 0.1 since the values in the text were indicated with one digit after the decimal point. Changing the velocity while keeping the other values constant leads to the first increase at 1 m/s. Further increases occur between 1.3 and 1.5 as well as at 2 m/s. The “sediment concentration” parameter is provided in percent and the default value is 0.05. The range is indicated from 0-1. We thus implemented the interactive figure with a slider that ranges from 0.00-1.00 and a step size of 0.05. Changing the sediment concentration while keeping the other values the same constantly results in higher damage costs. The experimental setup is explained in the following sections.

Background: Earth sciences is one of those sensitive field sciences that are closely needed to solve local problems within local physical and social settings. Earth researchers find state-of-the-art of topics in earth sciences by using scientific databases, conduct research on the topics, and write about them. However, the accessibility, readability, and usability of those articles for local communities are major problems in measuring the impact of research, although it may be covered by well-known international scientific databases. Objectives: To ascertain empirically whether there are differences in document distribution, in the proportions of openly accessible documents, and in the geographical coverage of earth sciences topics as revealed through analyses of documents retrieved from scientific databases and to propose new measures for assessing the impact of research in earth sciences based on those differences. Methods: Relevant documents were retrieved using ‘earth sciences’ as a search term in English and other languages from ten databases of scientific publications. The results of these searches were analysed using frequency analysis and a quantitative- descriptive design. Results: (1) The number of articles in English from international databases exceeded the number of articles in native languages from national-level databases. (2) The number of open-access (OA) articles in the national databases was higher than that in other databases. (3) The geographical coverage of earth science papers was uneven between countries when the number of documents retrieved from closed-access commercial databases was compared to that from the other databases. (4) The regulations in Indonesia related to promotion of lecturers assign greater weighting to publications indexed in Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS) and publications in journals with impact factors are assigned a higher weighting. Conclusions: The dominance of scientific articles in English as well as the paucity of OA publications indexed in international databases (compared to those in national or regional databases) may have been due to the greater weighting assigned to such publications. Consequently, the relevance of research reported in those publications to local communities has been questioned. This article suggests some open-science practices to transform the current regulations related to promotion into a more responsible measurement of research performance and impact.

Emissions of organic compounds, heavy metals and chemicals used in the ceramic industry cause significant organic and inorganic pollution of water. The effluent must be treated before it is discharged into a water body. International and EU laws control the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the wastewater. Conventional technologies, such as sedimentation, flocculation and biological treatment, have lots of drawbacks, whereas membrane technologies give many benefits, as they are chemical-free and allow a reduction of the treatment steps. One-step wastewater nanofiltration with ceramic membranes of 450 Da cut-off is able to reduce the COD of ceramic wastewater to a sufficient level. However, the working time without cleaning is limited and the rejection of membranes can be significantly reduced due to fouling. Multistage filtration can be the solution. Filtration experiments with various combinations (MF, UF and NF) of ceramic membranes were performed at a laboratory scale with single-channel membranes and at pilot scale with 7-, 19- and 151-channel membranes in order to permanently reach the limit value of a COD below 80 mg/L and to increase the operating time. Four types of membranes were sequentially tested in the cross-flow mode: MF (200 nm pore size), UF (2,000 Da), NF (450 Da) and NF (200 Da). 5-day Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) tests were performed in order to examine the wastewater biodegradability. The test results with single-channel membranes showed that in terms of the highest COD rejection and the highest permeability, the best combination was that of MF and UF membranes. Here, UF membranes were sufficient to reach the limit values. As for the multi-channel membranes, the combination of MF and NF (450 Da) was the best and the final COD concentration ranged from 11 to 48 mg/L. 5-day BOD bottle tests showed a COD/BOD ratio of 3.8, which opened up possibilities for combined treatment.

We have developed a new litmus paper test (DipTest) for detecting Escherichia coli (E. coli) in water samples by performing enzymatic reactions directly on the porous paper substrate. The paper strip consists of a long narrow piece of cellulose blotting paper coated with chemoattractant (at bottom edge), wax hydrophobic barrier (at the top edge), and custom formulated chemical reagents (at reaction zone immediately below the wax hydrophobic barrier). When the paper strip is dipped in water, E. coli in the water sample is attracted toward the paper strip due to a chemotaxic mechanism followed by the ascent along the paper strip toward the reaction zone due to a capillary wicking mechanism, and finally the capillary motion is arrested at the top edge of the paper strip by the hydrophobic barrier. The E. coli concentrated at the reaction zone of the paper strip will react with custom formulated chemical reagents to produce a pinkish-red color. Such a color change on the paper strip when dipped into water samples indicates the presence of E. coli contamination in potable water. The performance of the DipTest device has been checked with different known concentrations of E. coli contaminated water samples using different dip and wait times. The DipTest device has also been tested with different interfering bacteria and chemical contaminants. It has been observed that the different interfering contaminants do not have any impact on the DipTest, and it can become a potential solution for screening water samples for E. coli contamination at the point of source.

International audience; The widespread use of facemasks throughout the population is recommended by the WHO to reduce transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As some regions of the world are facing mask shortages, reuse may be necessary. However, used masks are considered as a potential hazard that may spread and transmit disease if they are not decontaminated correctly and systematically before reuse. As a result, the inappropriate decontamination practices that are commonly witnessed in the general public are challenging management of the epidemic at a large scale. To achieve public acceptance and implementation, decontamination procedures need to be low-cost and simple. We propose the use of hot hygroscopic materials to decontaminate non-medical facemasks in household settings. We report on the inactivation of a viral load on a facial mask exposed to hot hygroscopic materials for 15 minutes. As opposed to recent academic studies whereby decontamination is achieved by maintaining heat and humidity above a given value, a more flexible procedure is proposed here using a slow decaying pattern, which is both effective and easier to implement, suggesting straightforward public deployment and hence reliable implementation by the population.

The relationship between feed intake at production levels and enteric CH4 production in ruminants consuming forage-based diets is well described and considered to be strongly linear. Unlike temperate grazing systems, the intake of ruminants in rain-fed tropical systems is typically below maintenance requirements for part of the year (dry seasons). The relationship between CH4 production and feed intake in animals fed well below maintenance is unexplored, but changes in key digestive parameters in animals fed at low levels suggest that this relationship may be altered. We conducted a study using Boran yearling steers (n 12; live weight: 162·3 kg) in a 4 × 4 Latin square design to assess the effect of moderate to severe undernutrition on apparent digestibility, rumen turnover and enteric CH4 production of cattle consuming a tropical forage diet. We concluded that while production of CH4 decreased (1133·3–65·0 g CH4/d; P < 0·0001), over the range of feeding from about 1·0 to 0·4 maintenance energy requirement, both CH4 yield (29·0−31·2 g CH4/kg DM intake; P < 0·001) and CH4 conversion factor (Ym 9·1–10·1 MJ CH4/MJ gross energy intake; P < 0·01) increased as intake fell and postulate that this may be attributable to changes in nutrient partitioning. We suggest there is a case for revising emission factors of ruminants where there are seasonal nutritional deficits and both environmental and financial benefits for improved feeding of animals under nutritional stress.

Fundamental ecological principles of ecosystem-level respiration are extensively applied in greenhouse gas and elemental cycle studies. A laboratory system termed CEMS (Carbon Dioxide Evolution Measurement System), developed to explore microbial biofilm growth and metabolic responses, was evaluated as an early-warning system for microbial disturbances in industrial settings: in (a) potable water system contamination, and (b) bioreactor inhibition. Respiration was detected as CO2 production, rather than O2 consumption, including aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. Design, thresholds, and benefits of the remote CO2 monitoring technology were described. Headspace CO2 correlated with contamination levels, as well as chemical (R2 > 0.83–0.96) and microbiological water quality indicators (R2 > 0.78–0.88). Detection thresholds were limiting factors in monitoring drinking water to national and international standards (0 CFU/100 mL fecal coliforms) in both open- (>1500 CFU/mL) and closed-loop CO2 measuring regimes (>100 CFU/100 mL). However, closed-loop detection thresholds allow for the detection of significant contamination events, and monitoring less stringent systems such as irrigation water (2 fluctuations from chemical CO2 dynamics, to optimize this real-time, sustainable, low-waste technology, facilitating timeous responses to biological disturbances in bioreactors.

Due to the inefficient reproduction of microorganisms in oxygen-deprived environments of the reservoir, the applications of microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) are restricted. To overcome this problem, a new type of air-assisted MEOR process was investigated. Three compounding oil degradation strains were screened using biochemical experiments. Their performances in bacterial suspensions with different amounts of dissolved oxygen were evaluated. Water flooding, microbial flooding and air-assisted microbial flooding core flow experiments were carried out. Carbon distribution curve of biodegraded oil with different oxygen concentration was determined by chromatographic analysis. The long-chain alkanes are degraded by microorganisms. A simulation model was established to take into account the change in oxygen concentration in the reservoir. The results showed that the optimal dissolved oxygen concentration for microbial growth was 4.5~5.5mg/L. The main oxygen consumption in the reservoir happened in the stationary and declining phases of the microbial growth systems. In order to reduce the oxygen concentration to a safe level, the minimum radius of oxygen consumption was found to be about 145m. These results demonstrate that the air-assisted MEOR process can overcome the shortcomings of traditional microbial flooding techniques. The findings of this study can help for better understanding of microbial enhanced oil recovery and improving the efficiency of microbial oil displacement.

The sorption Phenolic wastewater is a kind of hazardous waste due to the presence of free phenol which is a highly toxic organic compound. Described in the literature and implemented, technology solutions for dephenolization are commonly based on thermal destruction. However, thermal treatment technologies have a range of disadvantages and the main ones of them are the losing of phenol and formaldehyde, which are valuable chemical raw materials and changing the balance of atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide. At the same time, owing to bonding properties, phenol and formaldehyde are used as polymer binders for manufacturing composite materials gradually replacing commercial synthetic resins. The paper presents results of the investigation related to developing a resource-saving technology for the recovery of phenol and formaldehyde from industrial phenolic wastewater by obtaining composite construction material and sodium phenolate. Sawdust and wastes from textolite manufacturing and processing were used as fillers and modifiers in a composite mixture. The presented technological process has been developed on the base of recycling using combined technologies through inter-industrial collaboration. This approach makes it possible to obtain high-quality recycled products from technogenic raw materials (degree of phenol conversion was 0.995) and to carry out complete dephenolization of the wastewater (residual phenol concentration was 2⋅10−2 mg/l), which can be used in the wastewater reuse system for the main chemical manufacturing.

We examined how much large-scale and localized upward and downward currents contribute to the substorm current wedge (SCW), and how they evolve over time, using the THEMIS all-sky imagers (ASIs) and ground magnetometers. One type of events is dominated by a single large-scale wedge, with upward currents over the surge and broad downward currents poleward-eastward of the surge. The other type of events is a composite of large-scale wedge and wedgelets associated with streamers, with each wedgelet having comparable intensity to the large-scale wedge currents. Among 17 auroral substorms with wide ASI coverage, the composite current type is more frequent than the single large-scale wedge type. The dawn–dusk size of each wedgelet is ~ 600 km in the ionosphere (~ 3.2 RE in the magnetotail, comparable to the flow channel size). We suggest that substorms have more than one type of SCW, and the composite current type is more frequent.

Extremely high temperatures, which negatively affect the human health and plant performances, are becoming more frequent in cities. Urban green infrastructure, particularly trees, can mitigate this issue through cooling due to transpiration, and shading. Temperature regulation by trees depends on feedbacks among the climate, water supply, and plant physiology. However, in contrast to forest or general ecosystem models, most current urban tree models still lack basic processes, such as the consideration of soil water limitation, or have not been evaluated sufficiently. In this study, we present a new model that couples the soil water balance with energy calculations to assess the physiological responses and microclimate effects of a common urban street-tree species (Tilia cordataMill.) on temperature regulation. We contrast two urban sites in Munich, Germany, with different degree of surface sealing at which microclimate and transpiration had been measured. Simulations indicate that differences in wind speed and soil water supply can be made responsible for the differences in transpiration. Nevertheless, the calculation of the overall energy balance showed that the shading effect, which depends on the leaf area index and canopy cover, contributes the most to the temperature reduction at midday. Finally, we demonstrate that the consideration of soil water availability for stomatal conductance has realistic impacts on the calculation of gaseous pollutant uptake (e.g., ozone). In conclusion, the presented model has demonstrated its ability to quantify two major ecosystem services (temperature mitigation and air pollution removal) consistently in dependence on meteorological and site conditions.

The safety of highly aggregated tourist crowds is a challenging and important issue. This paper not only provided a comprehensive analysis of the accidents of highly aggregated tourist crowds but also determined the occurrence mechanism and coping paths. Based on the analysis of multiple cases, we found that the variable status of highly aggregated tourist crowds was the result of the interaction of three main elements: multisource pressure, state mutations and management responses. A series of factors interact and result in accidents, and the lack of a management response or a low-quality management response is the root cause of such accidents. A high-quality management response is a basic safety precaution for highly aggregated tourist crowds. Therefore, forming a virtuous circle of multisource pressure, state mutations and management responses is an effective path for coping with accidents.

When clothes are worn and washed, they emit fibres into the ecosystem via discharges of sewage that have been linked to the global dispersion of clothing fibres. Facilities that treat sewage divert some fibres from sewage effluent to sludge, but no current methods of filtration eliminate their environmental release. While filters for washing-machines are sold to consumers with the argument they will reduce the emissions of fibres from clothes to the environment, there is insufficient scientific peer-reviewed evidence assessing their ability to retain fibres from washed clothes and reduce environmental contamination. To improve our understanding and develop more realistic methods to assess the efficiency of filters, we washed replicate cotton and polyester garments in replicate domestic front-loaded washing-machines with and without replicate filters (micro- and milli-meter-sized pores), and then quantified the masses of the fibres retained by the filters and those released in the effluent. Here we show micrometer-sized filters significantly reduced the mass of cotton by 67% (F-2,F-6= 11.69, P

Unclassified tailings are the main backfilling aggregates in mines and their settling is the first step in the utilization of tailings; thus, it is very important to determine their settling behavior. The aim of this study was to understand the flocculating settling behavior of unclassified tailings with different factors. The combination of property detection, laboratory experiments and industrial tests were used to assess the flocculating settling behavior of unclassified tailings; the orthogonal experimental design and the control variate method were used for an experimental design. The results show that the flocculating settling velocity of unclassified tailings decreases with the increase of slurry concentration and that this settling velocity increases first and then decreases with the increase of flocculant unit consumption. The underflow concentration is positively correlated with the slurry concentration and negatively correlated with the flocculant unit consumption and flocculant concentration. Slower feed velocity could produce higher concentration underflow but lower clarity overflow water. The greater the mud height, the higher the underflow concentration and the suspended solids concentration in the overflow water. The underflow concentration has a maximum at the rake speed of 0.3 r/min, and the rake speed has little effect on the suspended solids concentration in the overflow water. By analyzing the settling velocity, the underflow concentration, the suspended solids concentration in the overflow water and the solid flux, the following parameters of the flocculating settling experiments were determined: the flocculant type is APAM with a molecular weight of 12 million, the flocculant unit consumption is 30 g/t, the slurry concentration is 6 vol.%, the flocculant concentration is 0.1 wt.%, the rake speed is 0.3 r/min, and the feed velocity is 0.4 L/min (its solid flux is 0.523 t/(m2·h)). The industrial tests were carried out based on the laboratory settling data, and the appropriate selection parameters of the industrial tests were estimated.

Generation of wastewater is one of the main environmental sustainability issues across food sector industries. The constituents of food process effluents are often complex and require high energy and processing for regulatory compliance. Wastewater streams are the subject of microbiological and chemical criteria, and can have a significant eco-toxicological impact on the aquatic life. Thus, innovative treatment approaches are required to mitigate environmental impact in an energy efficient manner. Here, dielectric barrier discharge atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) was evaluated for control of key microbial indicators encountered in food industry effluent. This study also investigated the eco-toxicological impact of cold plasma treatment of the effluents using a range of aquatic bioassays. Continuous ACP treatment was applied to synthetic dairy and meat effluents. Microbial inactivation showed treatment time dependence with significant reduction in microbial populations within 120 s, and to undetectable levels after 300 s. Post treatment retention time emerged as critical control parameter which promoted ACP bacterial inactivation efficiency. Moreover, ACP treatment for 20 min achieved significant reduction (≥2 Log10) in Bacillus megaterium endospores in wastewater effluent. Acute aquatic toxicity was assessed using two fish cell lines (PLHC-1 and RTG-2) and a crustacean model (Daphnia magna). Untreated effluents were toxic to the aquatic models, however, plasma treatment limited the toxic effects. Differing sensitivities were observed to ACP treated effluents across the different test bio-assays in the following order: PLHC-1 > RTG-2 ≥ D. magna; with greater sensitivity retained to plasma treated meat effluent than dairy effluent. The toxic effects were dependent on concentration and treatment time of the ACP treated effluent; with 30% cytotoxicity in D. magna and fish cells observed after 24 h of exposure to ACP treated effluent for concentrations up to 5%. The findings suggest the need to employ wider variety of aquatic organisms for better understanding and complete toxicity evaluation of long-term effects. The study demonstrates the potential to tailor ACP system parameters to control pertinent microbial targets (mono/poly-microbial, vegetative or spore form) found in complex and nutritious wastewater effluents whilst maintaining a safe eco-toxicity profile for aquatic species.

The current technologies of algal biofuels production and wastewater treatment (e.g., aerobic) process are still in question, due to the significant amount of fresh water and nutrients requirements for microalgae cultivation, and negative energy balance in both processes, especially when considered in the context of developing counties around the world. In this research, a simplistic sustainable approach of algal biofuels production from wastewater was proposed using a Hybrid Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (HABR) and Photobioreactor (PBR) system. The study suggests that the HABR was capable of removing most of the organic and solid (>90% COD and TSS removal) from wastewater, and produced a healthy feedstock (high N: P = 3:1) for microalgae cultivation in PBRs for biofuels production. A co-culture of Chlorella vulgaris, Chlorella sorokiniana, and Scenedesmus simris002 showed high lipid content up to 44.1%; and the dominant FAMEs composition (C16-C18) of 87.9% in produced biofuels. Perhaps, this proposed low-cost technological approach (e.g., HABR-PBR system) would connect the currently broken link of sustainable bioenergy generation and wastewater treatment pathway for developing countries.

Stormwater biofilters are used to attenuate the flow and volume of runoff and reduce pollutant loading to aquatic systems. However, the capacity of biofilters to remove microbial contaminants remains inadequate. While biochar has demonstrated promise as an amendment to improve microbial removal in laboratory-scale biofilters, it is uncertain if the results are generalizable to the field. To assess biochar performance in a simulated field setting, sand and biochar-amended sand biofilters were periodically dosed with natural stormwater over a 61-week conditioning phase. Impact of media saturation was assessed by maintaining biofilters with and without a saturated zone. Biochar-amended biofilters demonstrated improved Escherichia coli removal over sand biofilters during the first 31 weeks of conditioning though media type did not impact E. coli removal during the last 30 weeks of conditioning. Presence of a saturated zone was not a significant factor influencing E. coli removal across the entire conditioning phase. Following conditioning, biofilters underwent challenge tests using stormwater spiked with wastewater to assess their capacity to remove wastewater-derived E. coli, enterococci, and male-specific (F+) coliphage. In challenge tests, biochar-amended biofilters demonstrated enhanced removal of all fecal indicators relative to sand biofilters. Additionally, saturated biofilters demonstrated greater removal of fecal indicators than unsaturated biofilters for both media types. Discrepant conclusions from the conditioning phase and challenge tests may be due to variable influent chemistry, dissimilar transport of E. coli indigenous to stormwater and those indigenous to wastewater, and differences in E. coli removal mechanisms between tests. Mobilization tests conducted following challenge tests showed minimal (

In this paper, we report how few layers graphene that can be produced in large quantity with low defect ratio from exfoliation of graphite by using a high intensity probe sonication in water containing liquid hand soap and PVP. It was founded that the graphene powder obtained by this simple exfoliation method after the heat treatment had an excellent exfoliation into a single or layered graphene sheets. The UV-visible spectroscopy, FESEM, TEM, X-ray powder diffraction and Raman spectroscopy was used to analyse the graphene product. The thermal diffusivity of the samples was analysed using a highly accurate thermal-wave cavity photothermal technique. The data obtained showed excellent enhancement in the thermal diffusivity of the graphene dispersion. This well-dispersed graphene was then used to fabricate an electrically conductive polymer-graphene film composite. The results demonstrated that this low cost and environmental friendly technique allowed to the production of high quality layered graphene sheets, improved the thermal and electrical properties. This may find use in the wide range of applications based on graphene.

The Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) procedure was used to compare waste management options for kraft pulp mill sludge following its anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion of sludge is advantageous because it produces biogas that may be used to generate electricity, heat and biofuels. However, adequate management of the digested sludge is essential. Landfill disposal is a non-sustainable waste management alternative. Kraft pulp mill digested sludge applied to land may pose risks to the environment and public health if the sludge has not been properly treated. This study is aimed to compare several recycling alternatives for anaerobically digested sludge from kraft pulp mills: land application, landfill disposal, composting, incineration, pyrolysis/gasification, and biofuel production by algae. The MCDA procedure considered nine criteria into three domains to compare digested sludge recycling alternatives in a kraft pulp mill: environmental (CO2 emission, exposure to pathogens, risk of pollution, material and energy recovery), economic (overall costs, value of products) and technical (maintenance and operation, feasibility of implementation). The most suitable management options for digested sludge from kraft pulp mills were found to be composting and incineration (when the latter was coupled with recycling ash to the cement industry). Landfill disposal was the worst option, presenting low performance in feasibility of implementation, risk of pollution, material and energy recovery.

The sustainable recovery of resources from wastewater streams can provide many social and environmental benefits. A common strategy to recover valuable resources from wastewater is to harness the products of fermentation by complex microbial communities. In these fermentation bioreactors high microbial community diversity within the inoculum source is commonly assumed as sufficient for the selection of a functional microbial community. However, variability of the product profile obtained from these bioreactors is a persistent challenge in this field. In an attempt to address this variability, the impact of inoculum on the microbial community structure and function within the bioreactor was evaluated using controlled laboratory experiments. In the course of this work, sequential batch reactors were inoculated with three complex microbial inocula and the chemical and microbial compositions were monitored by HPLC and 16S rRNA amplicon analysis, respectively. Microbial community dynamics and chemical profiles were found to be distinct to initial inoculate and highly reproducible. Additionally we found that the generation of a complex volatile fatty acid profile was not specific to the diversity of the initial microbial inoculum. Our results suggest that the composition of the original inoculum predictably contributes to bioreactor community structure and function., United States. National Institutes of Health (P30-ES002109)

Leachate from mature landfills is typically characterized by high ammonium (NH4+) content, low biodegradability (low BOD5/COD ratio) and high fraction of refractory and large organic molecules such as humic and fulvic acids. Mature leachate effluents are known to contain recalcitrant and/or non-biodegradable organic substances and biological processes are not efficient in these cases. A promising alternative to complete oxidation of biorecalcitrant leachate is the use of ultrasonic process as pre-treatment to convert initially biorecalcitrant compounds to more readily biodegradable intermediates, followed by biological oxidation of these intermediates to biomass and water. The objectives of this study are to investigate the effect of son catalysts process on biodegradability improvement. Results showed that when applied as relatively brief pre-treatment systems, the sonocatalysis processes induce several modifications of the matrix, which results in significant enhancement of its biodegradability. For this reason, the integrated chemical–biological systems proposed here represent a suitable solution for the treatment of landfill leachate samples with an efficient remediation of the relevant parameters (COD, TOC).

Five full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in China using typical biodegradation processes (SBR, oxidation ditch, A2/O) were selected to assess the removal of four popular artificial sweeteners (ASs). All four ASs (acesulfame (ACE), sucralose (SUC), cyclamate (CYC) and saccharin (SAC)) were detected, ranging from 0.43 to 27.34μg/L in the influent. Higher concentrations of ASs were measured in winter. ACE could be partly removed by 7.11–50.76% through biodegradation and especially through the denitrifying process. The A2/O process was the most efficient at biodegrading ASs. Adsorption (by granular activated carbon (GAC) and magnetic resin) and ultraviolet radiation-based advanced oxidation processes (UV/AOPs) were evaluated to remove ASs in laboratory-scale tests. The amounts of resin adsorbed were 3.33–18.51 times more than those of GAC except for SUC. The adsorption ability of resin decreased in the order of SAC > ACE > CYC > SUC in accordance with the pKa. Degradation of ASs followed pseudo-first-order kinetics in UV/H2O2 and UV/PDS. When applied to the secondary effluent, ASs could be degraded from 30.87 to 99.93% using UV/PDS in 30 minutes and UV/PDS was more efficient and economic.

We show in this study that the combination of a swirl flow reactor and an antimicrobial agent (in this case copper alginate beads) is a promising technique for the remediation of contaminated water in waste streams recalcitrant to UV-C treatment. This is demonstrated by comparing the viability of both common and UV-C resistant organisms in operating conditions where UV-C proves ineffective - notably high levels of solids and compounds which deflect UV-C. The swirl flow reactor is easy to construct from commonly available plumbing parts and may prove a versatile and powerful tool in waste water treatment in developing countries.

For the effective application of a modified packed bed biofilm reactor (PBBR) in wastewater industrial practice, it is essential to distinguish the tolerance of the system for heavy metals removal. The industrial contamination of wastewater from various sources (e.g. Zn, Cu, Cd and Ni) was studied to assess the impacts on a PBBR. This biological system was examined by evaluating the tolerance of different strengths of composite heavy metals at the optimum hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2 hours. The heavy metal content of the wastewater outlet stream was then compared to the source material. Different biomass concentrations in the reactor were assessed. The results show that the system can efficiently treat 20 (mg/l) concentrations of combined heavy metals at an optimum HRT condition (2 hours), while above this strength there should be a substantially negative impact on treatment efficiency. Average organic reduction, in terms of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the system, is reduced above the tolerance limits for heavy metals as mentioned above. The PBBR biological system, in the presence of high surface area carrier media and a high microbial population to the tune of 10 000 (mg/l), is capable of removing the industrial contamination in wastewater.

There is growing interest in links between poor health and socio-environmental inequalities (e.g. inferior housing, crime and industrial emissions) under the environmental justice agenda. The current project assessed associations between soil metal content, air pollution (NO2/PM10) and deprivation and health (respiratory case incidence) across Glasgow. This is the first time that both chemical land quality and air pollution have been assessed citywide in the context of deprivation and health for a major UK conurbation. Based on the dataset ‘averages’ for intermediate geography areas, generalised linear modelling of respiratory cases showed significant associations with overall soil metal concentration (p = 0.0367) and with deprivation (p < 0.0448). Of the individual soil metals, only nickel showed a significant relationship with respiratory cases (p = 0.0056). Whilst these associations could simply represent concordant lower soil metal concentrations and fewer respiratory cases in the rural versus the urban environment, they are interesting given (1) possible contributions from soil to air particulate loading and (2) known associations between airborne metals like nickel and health. This study also demonstrated a statistically significant correlation (−0.213; p

Generation of biofuels from sugars in lignocellulosic biomass is a promising alternative to liquid fossil fuels, but efficient and inexpensive bioprocessing configurations must be developed to make this technology commercially viable. One of the major barriers to commercialization is the recalcitrance of plant cell wall polysaccharides to enzymatic hydrolysis. Biomass pretreatment with ionic liquids (ILs) enables efficient saccharification of biomass, but residual ILs inhibit both saccharification and microbial fuel production, requiring extensive washing after IL pretreatment. Pretreatment itself can also produce biomass-derived inhibitory compounds that reduce microbial fuel production. Therefore, there are multiple points in the process from biomass to biofuel production that must be interrogated and optimized to maximize fuel production. Here, we report the development of an IL-tolerant cellulase cocktail by combining thermophilic bacterial glycoside hydrolases produced by a mixed consortia with recombinant glycoside hydrolases. This enzymatic cocktail saccharifies IL-pretreated biomass at higher temperatures and in the presence of much higher IL concentrations than commercial fungal cocktails. Sugars obtained from saccharification of IL-pretreated switchgrass using this cocktail can be converted into biodiesel (fatty acid ethyl-esters or FAEEs) by a metabolically engineered strain of E. coli. During these studies, we found that this biodiesel-producing E. coli strain was sensitive to ILs and inhibitors released by saccharification. This cocktail will enable the development of novel biomass to biofuel bioprocessing configurations that may overcome some of the barriers to production of inexpensive cellulosic biofuels.

Gradual depletion of the world petroleum reserves and the impact of environmental pollution highlight the importance of developing alternative energy resources such as plant biomass. To address these issues, intensive research has focused on the plant Jatropha curcas, which serves as a rich source of biodiesel because of its high seed oil content. However, producing biodiesel from Jatropha generates large amounts of biomass waste that are difficult to use. Therefore, the objective of our research was to analyze the effects of different conditions of torrefaction on Jatropha biomass. Six different types of Jatropha tissues (seed coat, kernel, stem, xylem, bark, and leaf) were torrefied at four different temperature conditions (200°C, 250°C, 300°C, and 350°C), and changes in the metabolite composition of the torrefied products were determined by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance analyses. Cellulose was gradually converted to oligosaccharides in the temperature range of 200°C-300°C and completely degraded at 350°C. Hemicellulose residues showed different degradation patterns depending on the tissue, whereas glucuronoxylan efficiently decomposed between 300°C and 350°C. Heat-induced depolymerization of starch to maltodextrin started between 200°C and 250°C, and oligomer sugar structure degradation occurred at higher temperatures. Lignin degraded at each temperature, e.g., syringyl (S) degraded at lower temperatures than guaiacyl (G). Finally, the toxic compound phorbol ester degraded gradually starting at 235°C and efficiently just below 300°C. These results suggest that torrefaction is a feasible treatment for further processing of residual biomass to biorefinery stock or fertilizer.

In this paper, we present the updated SAGE-CCI-OMPS+ climate data record of monthly zonal mean ozone profiles. This dataset covers the stratosphere and combines measurements by nine limb and occultation satellite instruments – SAGE II (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gases Experiment II), OSIRIS (Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imaging System), MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding), SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging Spectrometer for Atmospheric CHartographY), GOMOS (Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars), ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer), OMPS-LP (Ozone Monitor Profiling Suite Limb Profiler), POAM (Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement) III, and SAGE III/ISS (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gases Experiment III on the International Space Station). Compared to the original version of the SAGE-CCI-OMPS dataset (Sofieva et al., 2017b), the update includes new versions of MIPAS, ACE-FTS, and OSIRIS datasets and introduces data from additional sensors (POAM III and SAGE III/ISS) and retrieval processors (OMPS-LP). In this paper, we show detailed intercomparisons of ozone profiles from different instruments and data versions, with a focus on the detection of possible drifts in the datasets. The SAGE-CCI-OMPS+ dataset has a better coverage of polar regions and of the upper troposphere and the lower stratosphere (UTLS) than the previous dataset. We also studied the influence of including new datasets on ozone trends, which are estimated using multiple linear regression. The changes in the merged dataset do not change the overall morphology of post-1997 ozone trends; statistically significant trends are observed in the upper stratosphere. The largest changes in ozone trends are observed in polar regions, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. The updated SAGE-CCI-OMPS+ dataset contains profiles of deseasonalized anomalies and ozone concentrations from 1984 to 2021, in 10∘ latitude bins from 90∘ S to 90∘ N and in the altitude range from 10 to 50 km. The dataset is open access and available at https://climate.esa.int/en/projects/ozone/data/ (last access: 9 March 2023) and at ftp://cci_web@ftp-ae.oma.be/esacci (ESA Climate Office; last access: 9 March 2023).

Changes in pollutant concentrations in environmental media occur both from pollutant transport in water or air and from local processes, such as adsorption, degradation, precipitation, straining, and so on. The terms "fate and transport" and "transport and fate" reflect the coupling of moving with the carrier media and biogeochemical processes describing local transformations or interactions. The Journal of Environmental Quality (JEQ) was one of the first to publish papers on fate and transport (F&T). This paper is a minireview written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of JEQ and show how the research interests, methodology, and public attention have been reflected in fate and transport publications in JEQ during the last 40 years. We report the statistics showing how the representation of different pollutant groups in papers changed with time. Major focus areas have included the effect of solution composition on F&T and concurrent F&T, the role of organic matter, and the relative role of different F&T pathways. The role of temporal and spatial heterogeneity has been studied at different scales. The value of long-term F&T studies and developments in modeling as the F&T research approach was amply demonstrated. Fate and transport studies have been an essential part of conservation measure evaluation and comparison and ecological risk assessment. For 50 years, JEQ has delivered new insights, methods, and applications related to F&T science. The importance of its service to society is recognized, and we look forward to new generations of F&T researchers presenting their contributions in JEQ.

This paper introduces the recent European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) quality-assurance efforts at instrument level. Within two dedicated campaigns and five single-site intercomparison activities, 21 EARLINET systems from 18 EARLINET stations were intercompared between 2009 and 2013. A comprehensive strategy for campaign setup and data evaluation has been established. Eleven systems from nine EARLINET stations participated in the EARLINET Lidar Intercomparison 2009 (EARLI09). In this campaign, three reference systems were qualified which served as traveling standards thereafter. EARLINET systems from nine other stations have been compared against these reference systems since 2009. We present and discuss comparisons at signal and at product level from all campaigns for more than 100 individual measurement channels at the wavelengths of 355, 387, 532, and 607 nm. It is shown that in most cases, a very good agreement of the compared systems with the respective reference is obtained. Mean signal deviations in predefined height ranges are typically below ±2 %. Particle backscatter and extinction coefficients agree within ±2 × 10−4 km−1 sr−1 and ± 0.01 km−1, respectively, in most cases. For systems or channels that showed larger discrepancies, an in-depth analysis of deficiencies was performed and technical solutions and upgrades were proposed and realized. The intercomparisons have reinforced confidence in the EARLINET data quality and allowed us to draw conclusions on necessary system improvements for some instruments and to identify major challenges that need to be tackled in the future.

In recent years, with the development of geological prospecting from shallow ore to deep and hidden ore, the difficulty of prospecting is increasing day by day, so the application of computer technology and new methods of geological and mineral exploration is paid more and more attention. The mining and prediction of geological prospecting information based on deep learning have become the frontier field of earth science. However, as a deep artificial intelligence algorithm, deep learning still has many problems to be solved in the big data mining and prediction of geological prospecting, such as the small number of training samples of geological and mineral images, the difficulty of building deep learning network models, and the universal applicability of deep learning models. In this paper, the training samples and convolutional neural network models suitable for geochemical element data mining are constructed to solve the above problems, and the model is successfully applied to the prediction research of gold, silver, lead and zinc polymetallic metallogenic areas in South China. Taking the Pangxidong research area in the west of Guangdong Province as an example, this paper carries out prospecting target prediction research based on a 1:50000 stream sediment survey original data. Firstly, the support vector machine (SVM) model and statistical method were used to determine the ore-related geochemical element assemblage. Secondly, the experimental data of geochemical elements were augmented and a dataset was established. Finally, ResNet-50 neural network model is used for data training and prediction research. The experimental results show that the areas numbered 9, 29, 38, 40, 95, 111, 114, 124, 144 have great metallogenic potential, and this method would be a promising tool for metallogenic prediction. By applying the ResNet-50 neural network in metallogenic prediction, it can provide a new idea for the future exploration of mineral resources. In order to verify the generality of the research method in this paper, we conducted experimental tests on the geochemical dataset of B area, another deposit research area in South China. The results show that 100% of the prediction area obtained by using the proposed method covers the known ore deposit area. This model also provides method support for further delineating the prospecting target area in study area B.

Background Medicine quality screening devices hold great promise for post-market surveillance (PMS). However, there is little independent evidence on their field utility and usability to inform policy decisions. This pilot study in the Lao PDR tested six devices’ utility and usability in detecting substandard and falsified (SF) medicines. Methodology/principal findings Observational time and motion studies of the inspections by 16 Lao medicine inspectors of 1) the stock of an Evaluation Pharmacy (EP), constructed to resemble a Lao pharmacy, and 2) a sample set of medicines (SSM); were conducted without and with six devices: four handheld spectrometers (two near infrared: MicroPHAZIR RX, NIR-S-G1 & two Raman: Progeny, Truscan RM); one portable mid-infrared spectrometer (4500a), and single-use paper analytical devices (PAD). User experiences were documented by interviews and focus group discussions. Significantly more samples were wrongly categorised as pass/fail with the PAD compared to the other devices in EP inspections (p, Author summary Substandard and falsified (SF) medicines threaten the lives of millions of people, especially where pharmaceutical legislation and regulation are limited. Screening for SF medicines in supply chains (‘post-market surveillance’) by medicine inspectors is crucial but currently relies only on subjective visual inspection of medicines in most countries. Many innovative portable screening technologies now exist and could be key additional assets to the current practice, but none have been extensively evaluated for medicine quality post-market surveillance. We assessed the utility and usability of six screening devices in the hands of Lao medicines inspectors in a pharmacy constructed to resemble a Lao pharmacy. Five spectrometers showed promising accuracies to identify falsified medicines, but difficulties to correctly set them up before running tests were observed. Reading and interpreting colour barcodes of the ‘paper analytical cards’–a lab-on-a-chip test by inspectors were difficult, leading to lower accuracy than with spectrometers. The study suggests that overconfidence in devices may cause harm by reducing inspectors’ investment in visual inspection—a crucial step to identify falsified medicines. Advantages/limitations of the devices are also documented to inform policy.

PurposeIt is a well held belief that the full moon period and the date Friday 13th has an impact on the number of emergency call outs for emergency services. The purpose of this paper is to critically explore that belief. It also examines the versatility and richness of response records, and demonstrates the effectiveness of combining data sets.Design/methodology/approachThe work takes four varied data sets, from four rescue agencies along with the International Search and Rescue Database and compared the average number of calls on a full moon night, non-full moon and full moon period (the full moon night, the day before and day after). The average number of incidents on Friday 13th was also investigated. It uses a statistical approach to test the difference between “normal” dates and those dates traditionally believed to be busier.FindingsAlthough there were differences between Friday 13th, full moon nights, full moon periods and “normal” days, the differences were in general extremely small, not significantly significant and in most cases actually dropped during the supposedly unlucky period. The exception to this is a very small increase in the average number of responses during full moons for most data sets, although this was not statistically significant. This paper concludes that there is no evidence in the data for any impact of the full moon upon rescue teams’ activities.Research limitations/implicationsThis research deals with a small set of responses, from the UK only, and addresses an issue that is clearly not the most pressing. However, it does demonstrate evidenced-based management in practice, in that resources have incorrectly been assigned in the past to these dates.Practical implicationsThis work shows that preconceptions exist within the emergency services and that, without evidence-led management, resources can be allocated on hearsay. This shows that widely available software and techniques can be applied to organisational data and used to make management decisions more appropriate.Social implicationsRescue organisations are almost exclusively charity or public sector organisations, meaning that their budgets are sourced from donations or the tax-payer. Putting to bed misconceptions over resources for certain dates will ultimately benefit society in those terms.Originality/valueThere has been very little work on this phenomenon, although some works on A&E department admissions have taken place. This is the only work to date to combine data in this way for this purpose.

© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. This paper discusses an image processing architecture and tools to address the problem of ship detection in synthetic-aperture radar images. The detection strategy relies on a tree-based representation of images, here a Maxtree, and graph signal processing tools. Radiometric as well as geometric attributes are evaluated and associated with the Maxtree nodes. They form graph attribute signals which are processed with graph filters. The goal of this filtering step is to exploit the correlation existing between attribute values on neighboring tree nodes. Considering that trees are specific graphs where the connectivity toward ancestors and descendants may have a different meaning, we analyze several linear, nonlinear, and morphological filtering strategies. Beside graph filters, two new filtering notions emerge from this analysis: tree and branch filters. Finally, we discuss a ship detection architecture that involves graph signal filters and machine learning tools. This architecture demonstrates the interest of applying graph signal processing tools on the tree-based representation of images and of going beyond classical graph filters. The resulting approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms. Finally, a MATLAB toolbox allowing users to experiment with the tools discussed in this paper on Maxtree or Mintree has been created and made public.

A consortium of polar scientists combined observational forces in a field campaign of unprecedented complexity to uncover the secrets of clouds and their role in Arctic amplification. Two research aircraft, an icebreaker research vessel, an ice-floe camp including an instrumented tethered balloon, and a permanent ground-based measurement station were employed in this endeavour. Clouds play an important role in Arctic amplification. This term represents the recently observed enhanced warming of the Arctic relative to the global increase of near-surface air temperature. However, there are still important knowledge gaps regarding the interplay between Arctic clouds and aerosol particles, surface properties, as well as turbulent and radiative fluxes that inhibit accurate model simulations of clouds in the Arctic climate system. In an attempt to resolve this so-called Arctic cloud puzzle, two comprehensive and closely coordinated field studies were conducted: the ”Arctic CLoud Observations Using airborne measurements during polar Day (ACLOUD)” aircraft campaign, and the ”Physical feedbacks of Arctic boundary layer, Sea ice, Cloud and AerosoL (PASCAL)” ice breaker expedition. Both observational studies were performed in the framework of the German ”ArctiC Amplification:Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)3” project. They took place in the vicinity of Svalbard (Norway) in May and June 2017. ACLOUD and PASCAL explored four pieces of the Arctic cloud puzzle: Cloud properties, aerosol impact on clouds, atmospheric radiation, and turbulent-dynamical processes. The two instrumented Polar 5 and Polar 6 aircraft, the icebreaker research vessel (RV) Polarstern, an ice-floe camp including an instrumented tethered balloon, and the permanent, ground-based measurement station at Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard) were employed to observe Arctic low and mid-level, mixed-phase clouds, and to investigate related atmospheric and surface processes. The Polar 5 aircraft served as a remote sensing observatory examining the clouds from above by downward-looking sensors; the Polar 6 aircraft operated as a flying in-situ measurement laboratory sampling inside and below the clouds. Most of the collocated Polar 5/6 flights were conducted either above RV Polarstern or over the Ny-Ålesund station, both of which monitored the clouds from below using similar but upward-looking remote sensing techniques as the Polar 5 aircraft. Several of the flights were carried out underneath collocated satellite tracks. The paper motivates the scientific objectives of the ACLOUD/PASCAL observations and describes the measured quantities, retrieved parameters, and the applied complementary instrumentation. Furthermore, it discusses selected measurement results, and poses critical research questions to be answered in future papers analyzing the data from the two field campaigns.

The rapid development of automated measurement equipment enables researchers to collect greater quantities of time-resolved data from indoor and outdoor environments. While significant, the interpretation of the resulting data can be a time-consuming effort. This paper introduces an automated process of interpreting PM2.5 time-resolved data and differentiating PM2.5 emissions resulting from indoor and outdoor sources. We use Random Forest (RF), a machine learning approach, to study a dataset of 836 indoor emission events that occurred over a 2-week period in 18 apartments in California. In this paper, we show model development and evaluate its performance as the sample size and source vary. We discuss the characteristics of the dataset that tended to help the source identification and why. For example, we show that data from many events and from different apartments are essential for the model to be suitable for analyzing a new separate dataset. We also show that longitudinal data appear to be more helpful than the time frequency of measurements within a given apartment. We use the resulting RF model to analyze PM2.5 data of an entirely separate dataset collected from 65 new homes in California. The RF model identifies 442 indoor emission events, with only a few misidentifications.

Epidemiological simulations as a method are used to better understand and predict the spreading of infectious diseases, for example of COVID-19.This paper presents an approach that combines a well-established approach from transportation modelling that uses person-centric data-driven human mobility modelling with a mechanistic infection model and a person-centric disease progression model. The model includes the consequences of different room sizes, air exchange rates, disease import, changed activity participation rates over time (coming from mobility data), masks, indoors vs. outdoors leisure activities, and of contact tracing. The model is validated against the infection dynamics in Berlin (Germany).The model can be used to understand the contributions of different activity types to the infection dynamics over time. The model predicts the effects of contact reductions, school closures/vacations, masks, or the effect of moving leisure activities from outdoors to indoors in fall, and is thus able to quantitatively predict the consequences of interventions. It is shown that these effects are best given as additive changes of the reinfection rate R. The model also explains why contact reductions have decreasing marginal returns, i.e. the first 50% of contact reductions have considerably more effect than the second 50%.Our work shows that is is possible to build detailed epidemiological simulations from microscopic mobility models relatively quickly. They can be used to investigate mechanical aspects of the dynamics, such as the transmission from political decisions via human behavior to infections, consequences of different lockdown measures, or consequences of wearing masks in certain situations. The results can be used to inform political decisions.Author summaryEvidently, there is an interest in models that are able to predict the effect of interventions in the face of pandemic diseases. The so-called compartmental models have difficulties to include effects that stem from spatial, demographic or temporal inhomongeneities. Person-centric models, often using social contact matrices, are difficult and time-consuming to build up. In the present paper, we describe how we built a largely data-driven person-centric infection model within less than a month when COVID-19 took hold in Germany. The model is based on our extensive experience with mobility modelling, and a synthetic data pipeline that starts with mobile phone data, while taking the infection dynamics and the disease progression from the literature. The approach makes the model portable to all places that have similar so-called activity-based models of travel in place, which are many places world-wide, and the number is continuously increasing. The model has been used since its inception to regularly advise the German government on expected consequences of interventions.

Susan Lynn Williams (1951–2018) was an exceptional marine ecologist whose research focused broadly on the ecology of benthic nearshore environments dominated by seagrasses, seaweeds, and coral reefs. She took an empirical approach founded in techniques of physiological ecology. Susan was committed to applying her research results to ocean management through outreach to decision-makers and resource managers. Susan’s career included research throughout the USA in tropical, temperate, and polar regions, but she specialized in tropical marine ecology. Susan’s scholarship, leadership, and friendship touched many people, leading to this multi-authored paper. Susan’s scholarship was multi-faceted, and she excelled in scientific discovery, integration of scientific results, application of science for conservation, and teaching, especially as a mentor to undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. Susan served in a variety of leadership positions throughout her career. She embodied all facets of leadership; leading by example, listening to others, committing to the “long haul,” maintaining trust, and creating a platform for all to shine. Susan was an important role model for women in science. Susan was also a loyal friend, maintaining friendships for many decades. Susan loved cooking and entertaining with friends. This paper provides an overview of the accomplishments of Susan in the broad categories of scholarship, leadership, and friendship.

The accurate identification of urban functional areas is of great significance for optimizing urban spatial structure, rationally allocating spatial elements, and promoting the sustainable development of the city. This paper proposes a method to precisely identify urban functional areas by coupling Open Street Map (OSM) and Point of Interest (POI) data. It takes the central urban area of Hangzhou as a case study to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of the functional areas. The results show that: (1) The central urban areas of Hangzhou are divided into 21 functional areas (6 single functional areas, 14 mixed functional areas and 1 comprehensive functional area). (2) The single functional areas and the mixed functional areas show the geographical distribution characteristics of the looping stratification, which means “Core-periphery” differentiation is obvious, and the comprehensive functional area is relatively scattered. (3) The mixed degree of regional function with ecological function and production function is low while comprehensive functional areas are usually associated with higher potential and vitality. (4) The identification results are in great agreement with the actual situation of Hangzhou central urban area, and the method is feasible. Therefore, this paper can provide a reference for urban development planning and management.

The world of science is growing at an unprecedented speed with more and more scholarly papers produced each year. The scientific landscape is constantly changing as research specialties evolve, merge or become obsolete. It is difficult for researchers, research managers and the public alike to keep abreast with these changes and maintain a true and fair overview of the world of science. Such an overview is necessary to stimulate scientific progress, to maintain flexible and responsive research organizations, and to secure collaboration and knowledge exchange between different research specialties and the wider community. Although science mapping is applied to a wide range of scientific areas, examples of their practical use are sparse. This paper demonstrates how to use a topical, scientific reference maps to understand and navigate in dynamic research landscapes and how to utilize science maps to facilitate strategic thinking. In this study, the research domain of biology at Aarhus University serves as an example. All scientific papers authored by the current, permanent staff were extracted (6,830 in total). These papers were used to create a semantic cognitive map of the research field using a co-word analysis based on keywords and keyword phrases. A workflow was written in Python for easy and fast retrieval of information for topic maps (including tokens from keywords section and title) to generate intelligible research maps, and to visualize the distribution of topics (keywords), papers, journal categories, individual researchers and research groups on any scale. The resulting projections revealed new insights into the structure of the research community and made it possible to compare researchers or research groups to describe differences and similarities, to find scientific overlaps or gaps, and to understand how they relate and connect. Science mapping can be used for intended (top-down) as well as emergent (bottom-up) strategy development. The paper concludes that science maps provide alternative views of the intricate structures of science to supplement traditional bibliometric information. These insights may help strengthen strategic thinking and boost creativity and thus contribute to the progress of science.

Evaluation of tourism competitiveness is useful for measuring the level of regional tourism development. It is of great importance to understand the advantages and disadvantages of tourism development correctly and formulate corresponding development strategies. To investigate tourism competitiveness, this paper established an evaluation index system, including tourism development competitiveness, tourism resource competitiveness, and tourism-support competitiveness, for 14 prefectures and cities in Xinjiang in China. The characteristics and laws of spatial differentiation were analyzed. Factor analysis was applied to examine the spatial differentiation of regional tourism competitiveness. The results showed an obvious spatial differentiation in tourism competitiveness among the 14 prefectures and cities. In terms of development competitiveness, Yili and Urumqi constituted the spatial center, followed by Changji, Altay, and Ba Prefecture. As the provincial capital, Urumqi has political, economic, cultural, transportation, and geographic advantages, but its competitiveness is not prominent in terms of monopoly and efficiency. In terms of resource competitiveness, Yili is the core attraction, while Urumqi, Kashgar, Altay, and Ba Prefecture are dominant attractions. With respect to supporting competitiveness, Bo Prefecture has high value, followed by Urumqi City and Aksu. Hetian and Ke Prefecture have the lowest values. The comprehensive competitiveness of tourism is centered on Yili. Urumqi and Bo Prefecture are subcenters, and Changji, Altay, Ba Prefecture, Aksu, and Kashgar are characterized as multi-polar competition areas. Using the KMO and Bartlett’s sphericity tests, the cumulative contribution variance of the eigenvalues of the eight factors extracted by the maximum variance rotation method was found to be 92.714%. Socio-economic conditions, tourism resources, infrastructure construction, regional cultural influence, ecological environment carrying capacity, tertiary industry development, tourism service level, and living security system are the main driving factors affecting the spatial differentiation of tourism competitiveness in Xinjiang. Analyzing the spatial evolution characteristics and the driving factors of the regional tourism competitiveness in Xinjiang, this paper seeks to promote the optimal allocation of tourism production factors in the macro regional system, and provide theoretical guidance and an empirical basis for the comprehensive and harmonic development of regional tourism.

To evaluate actions taken to implement the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the primary goal of which was to foster competition in the industry, the FCC created a standardized form (Form 477) to collect information about broadband deployment and competition in local telephone service. These data represent the best publicly available record of broadband provision in the United States. Despite the potential benefits offered by this database, there are several nuances to these data related to shifting geographies and reporting requirements that uncorrected, prevent them from being used as an uninterrupted time series for longitudinal analyses. Given the analytical challenges associated with the FCC Form 477 data, the purpose of this paper is to present a solution to the fragmented nature of these data which prevents meaningful longitudinal analyses of the digital divide. Specifically, this paper develops and describes a procedure for producing an integrated broadband time series (BITS) for the last decade (2008–2018). This includes the procedures for using these data, their value to social and economic analysis, and their underlying limitations. The core contribution of this paper is the creation of data infrastructure for investigating the evolution of the digital divide.