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Photodynamic therapy (PDT) provides a potential therapeutic approach for killing malignant cell/solid tumors, but currently approved photosensitizers (PSs) are generally excited by visible light, limiting the penetration depth in tissues. It is necessary to develop a near-infrared (NIR) responsive photodynamic platform, providing maximum tissue penetration. Here, we present a gold nanopeanut platform exhibiting dual functions of NIR PDT and two-photon luminescence imaging. The nanopeanut with a size less than 100 nm exhibits two distinct NIR surface plasmon absorption bands at approximately 1110 and 1300 nm. To perform PDT, we conjugated commercial toluidine blue O (TBO) PS on the surface of the nanopeanuts. With spectral overlap, the 1230-nm femtosecond Cr: forsterite laser can excite the surface plasmons of nanopeanuts, transfer energy to TBO, and generate singlet oxygen to kill cells. Moreover, the plasmon resonance-enhanced two-photon luminescence of nanopeanuts can be used to map their delivery in vivo. These results demonstrate that the PS-conjugated gold nanopeanut is an effective theranostic system for NIR PDT.

Climate change and population growth are increasing the frequency of flooding and drought, resulting in conflict over water resources. Social impact assessments (SIA) of the allocation and management of water resources provide a way of reducing and resolving such conflicts. This article first explores the nature of SIA for water environments through an inductive analysis of the cases mentioned in more than 30 papers. Next, it identifies important advantages of SIA over integrated water resources management (IWRM) practices and indicates that while IWRM solves water-related issues to improve social well-being, it cannot entirely grasp the overall social impact of planned interventions. Following this, it analyzes the water environment governance structures in Taiwan, using questionnaire responses from water environment management professionals to discuss challenges of effectively implementing water environment SIA. The questionnaire covers 26 detailed tasks of SIA advocated by Vanclay et al. This research is the first to have evaluated the difficulty of the tasks. The survey results can be used as a reference for the implementation of SIA in other regions. The results show that (1) the water environment SIA is indeed necessary; (2) Taiwan’s water environment professionals need to improve from their current lack of understanding of SIA; (3) it is difficult to implement the water environment SIA; (4) it is necessary for SIA to clarify and integrate the authorities and responsibilities of relevant government departments; (5) the professionals believe the myth of quantification of SIA; and (6) water environment SIA must be integrated with the existing IWRM. Finally, we emphasize the need to integrate SIA and IWRM in a mutually complementary way, and illuminate the need for an integrated SIA framework for water environment management.

With improvements in data quality and technology, the statistical downscaling data of General Circulation Models (GCMs) for climate change impact assessment have been refined from monthly data to daily data, which has greatly promoted the data application level. However, there are differences between GCM downscaling daily data and rainfall station data. If GCM data are directly used for hydrology and water resources assessment, the differences in total amount and rainfall intensity will be revealed and may affect the estimates of the total amount of water resources and water supply capacity. This research proposes a two-stage bias correction method for GCM data and establishes a mechanism for converting grid data to station data. Five GCMs were selected from 33 GCMs, which were ranked by rainfall simulation performance from a baseline period in Taiwan. The watershed of the Zengwen Reservoir in southern Taiwan was selected as the study area for comparison of the three different bias correction methods. The results reveal that the method with the wet-day threshold optimized by objective function with observation rainfall wet days had the best result. Error was greatly reduced in the hydrology model simulation with two-stage bias correction. The results show that the two-stage bias correction method proposed in this study can be used as an advanced method of data pre-processing in climate change impact assessment, which could improve the quality and broaden the extent of GCM daily data. Additionally, GCM ranking can be used by researchers in climate change assessment to understand the suitability of each GCM in Taiwan.

Extreme uneven spatial and temporal distributions of rainfall pose the risk of water shortage to the industries in Taiwan, particularly during dry seasons, which may be worsen under climate change. This study aims to develop adaptation actions for an industrial company to reduce the risk of droughts. The Formosa Plastics Corporation (FPC) in Chuoshui River watershed is selected as a study case and an integrated risk assessment tool of water resources TaiWAP is used. The water shortage of FPC is mainly in the dry seasons because the water rights of public and agricultural uses are prioritized over industrial use. The considered adaptation options including water reuse, a desalination plant, smart agricultural water management, and rainwater harvesting. The results show that the waste-water reuse and sea-water desalination are the most effective adaptation options, which reduces the water shortage risks 33–44% per day in the return period of ten years. The results are generalized for the reference of other studies. The risk assessment and adaptation measure identification of the company require regional information. Moreover, some adaptation measures that the company implements help reduce the water shortage of the region and are consequently beneficial to the company, e.g., smart agricultural water management.

Hydrological assessment is critical to the successful implementation of adaption measures. In this study, projections of seven global circulation models (GCMs) associated with high and medium–low Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP 8.5 and RCP 4.5) for the period 2021–2040 and 2081–2100 were adopted to assess changes on runoffs in the Gilgel Abbay watershed, the upper Blue Nile basin. A weather generator was employed to generate daily temperature and precipitation to drive a hydrological model for impact assessment. Despite the projected magnitude of changes varied among different GCMs and RCPs, increasing runoffs in wet-season and decreasing in dry-season are observed in both periods, mainly attributed to the change in projected precipitation. Such changes are profound in cases of RCP 8.5 with respect to those of RCP 4.5 and in cases of 2081–2100 with respect to those of 2021–2040. Although the increasing runoffs would provide greater inflow to Lake Tana, the increase of precipitation in wet-season would imply a higher possibility of flash floods. On the other hand, decrease runoffs in dry-season further intensify existing shortage of irrigation water demand. These changes will have deleterious consequences on the economic wellbeing of the country and require successful implementation of adaption measures to reduce vulnerability.