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On a worldwide scale, land use and land cover changes (LULCC) is a major driver of global change and biodiversity erosion. This study aims to monitor at the scale of Sri Lanka, LULCC and vegetation dynamics, to identify the main changes and their drivers. It places emphasis on multiscale geospatial monitoring with satellite data but also mobilises the interdisciplinary knowledge of a research programme. First, national scale data allows the identification of major changes with the MODIS NDVI dataset using Mann-Kendall tests and time profile analysis. A second local scale was mobilised with a systematic diachronic visual interpretation of high-resolution images on Google Earth. The third step, a macro-regional scale focus on the South and East coasts, used LANDSAT imagery (Stacked K-means) verified by field studies (botanical and vegetation analysis, and interviews). About 92.5% of the island of Sri Lanka is stable or presents no significant trends in the vegetation cover. 5% show a significant positive (greening) trend between 2000 and 2020 around the Puttalam lagoon, west of the Samanalawewa Reservoir, in the Udawalawe National Park, east and north of Ella, and the Nuwaragala Forest Reserve. Only about 2.5% (165,000 ha) of the Island shows a negative significant trend mainly in the periphery of Colombo and Trincomalee. The first driver is a set of national planning decisions in terms of infrastructure development (including urban growth, housing programmes and agricultural fields, and the management of protected areas). The second driver comes under rural dynamics with increasing tree density in rural landscapes over the Uva Province. Infrastructure development initiated by the state, creates both underlying conditions for other activities and negative impacts on coastal ecosystems, such as degradation of wetlands (including protected areas). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southern coastal zone of Sri Lanka has been subjected to a variety of natural and anthropogenic influences over the past three decades. Understanding impacts of such influences on Land Use Land Cover (LULC) is vital for proper management of the coastal zone. This study, therefore, focused on mapping the change/s in the distribution of selected LULC in the selected sites, Bundala, Galle, Kalametiya, and Hambantota of the southern coastal zone, over last 24 years using satellite imagery. LULC maps of nine classes (mangrove, inland vegetation, marsh and grass, sand, bare land, built-up, cultivation, water, and unclassified) were created by employing an onscreen digitization technique achieving an accuracy of >70%. Trend analysis and two-sample proportion tests were used for statistical analyses, whereas geometric calculations were used for descriptive analyses. The results showed the highest overall change in LULC in Kalametiya, followed by Hambantota, Galle, and Bundala. The changes in the LULC classes are mainly attributed to the conversion of water to mangroves, marsh and grass areas in Kalametiya, water to built-up areas in Hambantota, cultivations to built-up areas in Galle, and marsh and grass areas to bare lands in Bundala. The causes of LULC changes were site specific. Trend analyses indicate the least LULC changes in Bundala possibly by 2025. The study highlights the significance of taking into account geographical dislocations when considering and anticipating the potential impacts of development projects over broader extents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to highlight quantitatively the growth and development of climate change literature in terms of publication output as per Web of Science® (1991-2012, September).The focus of this analysis is to study the literature on climate change published from five developing countries namely Argentina, Brazil, China, India and Mexico. This paper is a comparative study on year wise, document type, most productive authors, subject wise, journal wise, institution wise, and language wise distributions. 7065 records have been retrieved for climate change for the studies countries. Country-wise climate change records and most prolific authors for the five countries have been identified. Authorship and collaboration trend was towards multi-authored papers. Institution-wise climate change records for these countries have also been generated. The topper here is Chinese Academy of Science, China (1843 records). We have grouped the listed publications from Web of Science® under 'climate change' into six broad subjects among which 'Geosciences (multidisciplinary)' has recorded maximum publications (22.4%) followed by 'Environmental Sciences' (21.6%) while 'Meteorology and atmospheric sciences' has recorded the least (9.3%). English language occupies the first place with 6882 out of 7065 records for the studied countries. KEYWORD: Climate change literature, Scientometric analysis, Developing countries, Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, 1. INTRODUCTION Climate is a component of the natural environment within which and against whose bounds human civilization has developed and prospered [1]. Climate change is one of the most [...]

The simultaneous determination of anticancer and antibiotic drugs in biological samples with fast and sensitive methods is an essential task for the effective monitoring of drug therapy. A novel electrochemical sensor for the simultaneous determination of anticancer drug Flutamide (FLU) and antibiotic drug Nitrofurantoin (NF) was developed based on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with N-CQD@Co 3 O 4 /MWCNTs hybrid nanocomposite. The electro-kinetics of the developed sensor was studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The electrochemical performance of FLU and NF on the N-CQD@Co 3 O 4 /MWCNTs/GCE surface was examined using CV and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques. At an optimized condition, the developed sensor exhibits excellent performance in simultaneous determination of FLU and NF with a linear range of 0.05-590 μM and 0.05-1220 μM and detection limit of 0.0169 μM and 0.044 μM respectively. Furthermore, the developed sensor exhibits satisfactory results in the real sample analysis., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

We report a sensitive non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug aspirin (ASA) sensor studies using the nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQD) decorated copper oxide (Cu 2 O). A simplistic approach of electrochemical deposition method has been used to prepare the N-CQD incorporated with copper oxide (N-CQD/Cu 2 O) and the resulting composite has characterized by analytical techniques. Modified glassy carbon electrode of N-CQD/Cu 2 O/GCE is developed and is used for the sensor studies of aspirin. The modified N-CQD/Cu 2 O/GCE has exhibited a higher current (I pa ) response to the oxidation process when compared to N-CQD/GCE, Cu 2 O/GCE and bare GCE. Furthermore, it has shown a good linear range of 1-907 µM with a limit of detection (LOD) ∼0.002 µM and sensitivity ∼21.87 µA µM -1  cm -2 . The developed sensor has displayed outstanding repeatability, stability and accumulation time along with better electro-catalytic response in berries for real-life application., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: This paper describes a growing biodiversity platform, launched in 2008, which organizes knowledge on the biodiversity of India. The main objective and originality of the India Biodiversity Portal (IBP) is to aggregate curated biodiversity data of different kinds (e.g. distribution maps, temporal distribution or life history) in an integrated platform where amateurs and experts can easily interact., New Information: Since its launch, the platform has seen an exceptional increase in both user activity and biodiversity data. Currently the portal has descriptions of over 20,400 species, and has aggregated approximately 1,280,000 observations covering more than 30,000 species, which already constitutes a unique source of information for scientists and stakeholders in conservation. Over 8500 users have registered on the portal. The amount of data generated and to be generated in the next few years by this portal will certainly help the effective implementation of biodiversity conservation and management in one of the most ecologically diverse countries in the world.