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Rapid climate change is impacting water resources in Afghanistan. The consequences are poorly known. Suitable mitigation and adaptation strategies have not been developed. Thus, this paper summarizes current status of knowledge in relation to Afghan water resources. More than 130 scientific articles, reports and data sources are synthesized to review the potential impacts of climate change on the cryosphere, streamflow, groundwater and hydrological extremes. The available information suggests that Afghanistan is currently witnessing significant increases in temperature, less so precipitation. There is evidence of shifts in the intra-annual distribution of streamflow, with reduced summer flows in non-glaciated basins and increased winter and spring streamflow. However, in the short-term there will be an increase in summer ice melt in glaciated basins, a "glacial subsidy", which sustains summer streamflow, despite reduced snow accumulation. The future prognosis for water resources is likely to be more serious when this glacier subsidy ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the books "Fashions in Photographs, 1860-1880," Vol. 1, by Miles Lambert, "Fashions in Photographs, 1880-1900," Vol. 2, by Sarah Levitt, and "Fashions in Photographs, 1900-1920," Vol. 3, by Katrina Rolley and Caroline Aish.

Glaciers play a crucial role in the Earth System: they are important water suppliers to lowerlying areas during hot and dry periods, and they are major contributors to the observed present-day sea-level rise. Glaciers can also act as a source of natural hazards and have a major touristic value. Given their societal importance, there is large scientific interest in better understanding and accurately simulating the temporal evolution of glaciers, both in the past and in the future. Here, we give an overview of the state of the art of simulating the evolution of individual glaciers over decadal to centennial time scales with ice-dynamical models. We hereby highlight recent advances in the field and emphasize how these go hand-in-hand with an increasing availability of on-site and remotely sensed observations. We also focus on the gap between simplified studies that use parameterizations, typically used for regional and global projections, and detailed assessments for individual glaciers, and explain how recent advances now allow including ice dynamics when modeling glaciers at larger spatial scales. Finally, we provide concrete recommendations concerning the steps and factors to be considered when modeling the evolution of glaciers. We suggest paying particular attention to the model initialization, analyzing how related uncertainties in model input influence the modeled glacier evolution and strongly recommend evaluating the simulated glacier evolution against independent data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent retreat of nearly all glaciers and ice caps (GICs) located in Arctic regions is one of the most clear and visible signs of ongoing climate change. This paper synthesizes published records of Holocene GIC fluctuations from lake archives, placing their recent retreat into a longer-term context. Our compilation includes 66 lake-based GIC records (plus one non-lake-based record from the Russian Arctic) from seven Arctic regions: Alaska, Baffin Island in northeastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Scandinavian peninsula, Svalbard, and the Russian high Arctic. For each region and for the full Arctic, we summarize evidence for when GICs were smaller than today or absent altogether, indicating warmer-than-present summers, and evidence for when GICs regrew in lake catchments, indicating summer cooling. Consistent with orbitally driven high boreal summer insolation in the early Holocene, the full Arctic compilation suggests that the majority (50 % or more) of studied GICs were smaller than present or absent by ∼10 ka. We find the highest percentage (>90 %) of Arctic GICs smaller than present or absent in the middle Holocene at ∼ 7–6 ka, probably reflecting more spatially ubiquitous and consistent summer warmth during this period than in the early Holocene. Following this interval of widespread warmth, our compilation shows that GICs across the Arctic began to regrow and summers began to cool by ∼6 ka. Together, the Arctic records also suggest two periods of enhanced GIC growth in the middle to late Holocene from ∼ 4.5–3 and after ∼2 ka. The regional records show variability in the timing of GIC regrowth within and between regions, suggesting that the Arctic did not cool synchronously despite the smooth and hemispherically symmetric decline in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. In agreement with other studies, this implies a combined response to glacier-specific characteristics such as topography and to other climatic forcings and feedback mechanisms, perhaps driving periods of increased regional cooling. Today, the direction of orbital forcing continues to favor GIC expansion; however, the rapid retreat of nearly all Arctic GICs underscores the current dominance of anthropogenic forcing on GIC mass balance. Our review finds that in the first half of the Holocene, most of the Arctic's small GICs became significantly reduced or melted away completely in response to summer temperatures that, on average, were only moderately warmer than today. In comparison, future projections of temperature change in the Arctic far exceed estimated early Holocene values in most locations, portending the eventual loss of most of the Arctic's small GICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Creative Evaluation (CE) is an unformed constellation of evaluation approaches that is based on varied understandings of creativity. Although creativity in evaluation has been consistently valued and needed by evaluation practitioners and researchers, the use of the term CE is currently limited in its applications as it has been developed inconsistently and often in isolation to the broader evaluation practice. The authors review examples where the term CE is being used, to present this constellation of approaches and group them under concepts and contexts, aiming at fostering an exploration into CE. Purpose: This paper examines the use of term Creative Evaluation by reviewing a set of examples from varied settings like educational programmes, cultural industries and social work and aims to present the reader with a better understanding about the contexts and concepts associated with CE. The authors discuss the transdisciplinary nature of evaluation along with a review of historical developments in evaluation theory and practice that help identify the emergence of responsive, flexible and problem-solving driven approaches to evaluation that can showcase a growing connection between creativity and evaluation. Setting: Not applicable. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: Desk review was utilised for the preparation of this paper. Findings: There are different conceptualisations of the term CE applied in a variety of disciplinary and practice contexts. The term CE is used to describe both the process of applying creative thinking and the process of employing creative methods in the evaluation process. Creative thinking indicates a broader application of creativity that shapes the evaluation process and often results in the development of novel methods while creative methods indicate a more targeted use of methods that employ creative practices to achieve a specific evaluation goal like increasing engagement in the evaluation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroclimatic extremes such as intense rainfall, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and wind or storms have devastating effects each year. One of the key challenges for society is understanding how these extremes are evolving and likely to unfold beyond their historical distributions under the influence of multiple drivers such as changes in climate, land cover, and other human factors. Methods for analysing hydroclimatic extremes have advanced considerably in recent decades. Here we provide a review of the drivers, metrics, and methods for the detection, attribution, management, and projection of nonstationary hydroclimatic extremes. We discuss issues and uncertainty associated with these approaches (e.g. arising from insufficient record length, spurious nonstationarities, or incomplete representation of nonstationary sources in modelling frameworks), examine empirical and simulation-based frameworks for analysis of nonstationary extremes, and identify gaps for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater quality levels are currently deteriorating in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries due to excessive surface and subsurface human activities. Agricultural and industrial activities, landfill seepage and seawater intrusion have been attributed to the deterioration of groundwater quality in GCC states. Such a deterioration of groundwater quality could affect water security in the region, including human health and the ecosystem. Therefore, this review aims to identify the key causes of groundwater contamination across the GCC countries from the published literature. In addition, the review summarizes the major components of the groundwater contaminants across the GCC countries. The results have shown that heavy metals, several cations and anions are the leading cause of groundwater pollution. In most cases, the level of metals and ion contaminants exceeds both the local and international water quality standards. The results have observed the presence of high levels of coliform and radioactive elements in groundwater, especially Uranium and Radium, thereby posing additional risk to human health through consumption. Considering the scarcity of freshwater resources in GCC, urgent actions are required from the decision-makers and relevant regulatory bodies to set up and implement long-term mitigation strategies and stringent policies that will protect the groundwater resources from the adverse effects of anthropogenic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, several naturalization methods have been developed for removing anthropogenic influences from streamflow time series, to the point that naturalized flows are often considered true natural flows in many studies. However, such trust in a particular naturalization method does not expose the assumptions underlying the method, nor does it quantifies the associated uncertainty. This review provides an overview of streamflow naturalization approaches. The terminology associated with naturalization is discussed, and a classification of naturalization methods according to their data requirements and main assumptions is proposed. A large set of studies developing or applying naturalization methods are reviewed, and the main challenges associated with the methods applied are assessed. To give a more concrete example, a focus is made on studies conducted in France over the last decade, which applied naturalization methods to estimate water extraction limits in rivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This survey covers the literature data published on the chemistry of synthesis of hydrazonoyl halides within the past 20 years. Furthermore, we covers the biological activities of some hydrazonoyl halides specifically, antiarthropodal, herbicidal, acaricidal, antimicrobial, anthelmintic, antiviral, insecticidal, antisarcoptic and miticidal activities. In addition, the expenditures of hydrazonoyl for example insecticides, weed adjusting and antihypertensive causes as well as cyclooxygenase besides lipoxygenase hindrance are stated. Additionally, their interaction phytotoxicity and dermatitis properties are pointy out in accumulation to their metabolic fate. The aim of the current survey is to take along to the reader's consideration the chance of the preparation and biological activities of hydrazonoyl halides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eutrophication has been a critical environmental issue due to soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loss in runoff from agricultural lands. Plant hedgerow is an important measure to prevent soil erosion and reduce agricultural non-point source pollution (NPSP). In the present study, we searched 3683 research papers on plant hedgerows published from 1980 to March 2020. After screening, we used 53 effective papers on plant hedgerows for the meta-analysis by using Stata 15.1. The results showed that plant hedgerows significantly increased soil organic matter (SOM) (standardized mean difference (SMD) = 1.46; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.12–1.80 > 0), total N (TN) (SMD = 1.33; 95% CI 0.98–1.68 > 0), total P (SMD = 0.73; 95% CI 0.26–1.20 > 0), alkali N (SMD = 0.86; 95% CI 0.52–1.21 > 0), available P (SMD = 1.28; 95% CI 0.75–1.81 > 0) and readily available potassium (K) (SMD = 1.20; 95% CI 0.75–1.65 > 0) concentrations but exhibited no significant effects on soil total K concentration (SMD = 0.17; 95% CI − 0.13–0.47 < 0). Plant hedgerows showed a greater effect on SOM increase than soil N, P, and K, and soil TN increase than the available state, but the opposite trend was observed for P and K. This meta-analysis can clarify the influence of plant hedgerows on soil nutrients and provide ideas for the prevention and control of agricultural NPSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrological properties of the clearcutting of forested catchments were widely investigated by analyzing runoff in the pre- and post-harvesting periods. Deforestation worldwide is primarily to meet the wood and fiber products demand for household and industry. It is a widely known phenomenon that deforestation enhances the streamflow and water yield. However, due to the complexity of forest structure and functions, little is known about the exact estimation of a percent increase in water yield after various harvesting intensities of conifers and broadleaved forest globally. To assess these effects, this study analyzed 145 catchments dataset collected from 21 publications. The study evaluates the influence of 25, 50, 75, and 100% deforestation on streamflow. Moreover, changes in the context of various variables like treatment years, elevation, area and mean annual precipitation were also analyzed. Overall comparison showed that after harvesting of broadleaved water yield increases up to 8-23% and in needle-leaved up to 9-28%. The study provides scientific insight into the essential role that annual precipitation, area, elevation, and year of treatment play in influencing hydrology. This research suggests that a target specific approach should be adopted in future forest management under the umbrella of integrated research to mitigate the challenges of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Reviews the book 'State Profiles: The Population and Economy of Each U.S. State, 2002,' edited by Helmut F. Wendel and others.

Reviews the book 'Ian Ramsey: To Speak Responsibly of God,' by Jerry H. Gill.

Reviews the book `Concepts: Grammaire francaise et textes choisis,` by Deborah Aish Metford and John Seymour Metford.

The article analyzes the short story "The Trope Teacher," by Chaim Potok. It describes the story as an allegorical tale which centered on the fate of Isaac Zapiski, an observant Ashkenazi Jew. It says that the role of Ilana Davita Chandal in the story is to make conscious the existence of a psychosis in the story as well as to entice reflection in the psyche of other characters. The resolution of the action in the story is explained.

Reviews two books. "The Psychological Development of Girls and Women: Rethinking Change in Time," by Sheila Greene; "Future Girls: Young Women in the 21st Century," by Anita Harris.

Reviews the book "Fixing God's Torah: The Accuracy of the Hebrew Bible Text in Jewish Law," by B. Barry Levy.