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Abstract Satellite remote sensing is becoming a widely used monitoring technique in coastal sciences. Yet, no benchmarking studies exist that compare the performance of popular satellite-derived shoreline mapping algorithms against standardized sets of inputs and validation data. Here we present a new benchmarking framework to evaluate the accuracy of shoreline change observations extracted from publicly available satellite imagery (Landsat and Sentinel-2). Accuracy and precision of five established shoreline mapping algorithms are evaluated at four sandy beaches with varying geologic and oceanographic conditions. Comparisons against long-term in situ beach surveys reveal that all algorithms provide horizontal accuracy on the order of 10 m at microtidal sites. However, accuracy deteriorates as the tidal range increases, to more than 20 m for a high-energy macrotidal beach (Truc Vert, France) with complex foreshore morphology. The goal of this open-source, collaborative benchmarking framework is to identify areas of improvement for present algorithms, while providing a stepping stone for testing future developments, and ensuring reproducibility of methods across various research groups and applications.

Increasing evidence exists that the gut microbiome influences toxicity as well as outcomes in a variety of cancers. To investigate the role of the gut microbiome in pediatric neuro-oncology, microbiome analysis has been included in multiple prospective pediatric neuro-oncology clinical trials (NCT05009992, NCT04732065, NCT04775485). In these trials, the OMNIgene-GUT tm preservation tubes are used for the collection of the feces. OMNIgene-GUT tm has demonstrated reliability in preserving the composition of the gut microbiome in adults; however, its validation for use in the pediatric population remains limited. Therefore, we compared the quality of the DNA by 16S rRNA gene sequencing after various methods of stabilizing fecal samples in pediatric populations, from the direct freeze method at - 80 °C to preserving samples with OMNIgene-GUT tm at room temperature for various durations. Our results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the alpha-diversity, and beta-diversity. However, pairwise differential abundance analyses demonstrated that OMNIgene-GUT™ is superior in maintaining microbial community structure compared to storing samples without any preservation method. With the OMNIgene-GUT tm 's stabilization of the fecal samples being superior and its ease-of-use benefits, it proves to be a valid and ideal method of stabilizing fecal samples for current and future pediatric clinical trials., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Competing interests: Raoull Hoogendijk declares that he has no conflict of interest. Thijs J.M. van den Broek declares that he has no conflict of interest. Hyunju Lee declares that she has no conflict of interest. Sabine Mueller declares that she has no conflict of interest. Cassie Kline declares that she has no conflict of interest. John Bianco declares that he has no conflict of interest. Janetta Top declares that she has no conflict of interest. Marcel R. de Zoete declares that he has no conflict of interest. Lennart Kester declares that he has no conflict of interest. Friso Calkoen declares that he has no conflict of interest. Jasper van der Lugt declares that he has no conflict of interest, (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Muddy coasts provide ecological habitats, supply food and form a natural coastal defence. Relative sea level rise, changing wave energy and human interventions will increase the pressure on muddy coastal zones. For sustainable coastal management it is key to obtain information on the geomorphology of and historical changes along muddy areas. So far, little is known about the distribution and behaviour of muddy coasts at a global scale. In this study we present a global scale assessment of the occurrence of muddy coasts and rates of coastline change therein. We combine publicly available satellite imagery and coastal geospatial datasets, to train an automated classification method to identify muddy coasts. We find that 14% of the world's ice-free coastline is muddy, of which 60% is located in the tropics. Furthermore, the majority of the world's muddy coasts are eroding at rates exceeding 1 m/yr over the last three decades., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

A spectroscopic characterization is presented of the minor photosystem II chlorophyll a/b-binding protein CP29 (or the Lhcb4 protein) from spinach, prepared by a modified form of a published protocol [Henrysson, T., Schroder, W. P., Spangfort, M. & Akerlund, H.-E. (1989) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 977, 301-308]. The isolation procedure represents a quicker, cheaper means of isolating this minor antenna protein to an equally high level of purity to that published previously. The pigment-binding protein shows similarities to other related light-harvesting complexes (LHCs), including the bulk complex LHCIIb but more particularly another minor antenna protein CP26 (Lhcb5). It is also, in the main, similar to other preparations of CP29, although some significant differences are discussed. In common with CP26, the protein binds about six chlorophyll a and two chlorophyll b molecules. Two chlorophyll b absorption bands are present at 638 and 650 nm and they are somewhat more pronounced than in a recent report [Giuffra, E., Zucchelli, G., Sandonà, D., Croce, R., Cugini, D., Garlaschi, F.M., Bassi, R. & Jennings, R.C. (1997) Biochem. 36, 12984-12993]. The bands give rise to positive and negative linear dichroism, respectively; both show negative CD bands (cf. bands with similar properties at 637 and 650 nm in CP26). Chlorophyll a absorption is dominated by a large contribution at 674 nm which also shows similarities to the major band in LHCIIb and CP26, while (as for CP26) a reduction in absorption around 670 nm is observed relative to the bulk complex. Principal differences from LHCIIb and CP26, and from other CP29 preparations, occur in the carotenoid region.