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PurposeThe main objective of this research is to investigate the factors that influence consumer purchase decisions for halal products before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) theory.Design/methodology/approachThe research was conducted as a survey. The influencing factors were determined based on the grey relational analysis (GRA) approach.FindingsThe findings indicate before the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers mainly purchased halal products based on four key factors: purchasing experience, certification label, Internet searches and past consumption experience. However, during the pandemic, the ranking and factors have changed to six indicators, which are past consumption experience, purchasing experience, certification labels, standardized specifications, Internet searches and halal certification labels.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was limited by the sample size and geographical area. Nevertheless, the findings could be further explored by expanding related theories toward understand human decisions based on spiritual beliefs.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study have important implications for research, practice and society. Understanding the factors influencing halal purchase decisions before and during the pandemic can help businesses, policymakers and halal certification bodies to better cater to consumers' needs and preferences and ensure the continued growth and development of the halal industry.Originality/valueThis study evaluates halal purchasing decisions between periods of certainty and uncertainty by using the GRA. Changes in halal consumption and purchase decisions in response to COVID-19 pandemic have become an emerging topic of discovery. The study addresses the gap in the literature regarding changes in consumer decision pattern.

The tectonic features of offshore SW Taiwan are dominantly controlled by the subduction and collision processes between the Eurasian and the Philippine Sea plates. Marine sediments may serve as archives of extreme events, including earthquakes, typhoons, submarine landslides, etc. The most common event bed is turbidite, while homogenites are relatively less well known. The distinction between various deposits like muddy turbidites, homogenites and hemipelagites has long been a matter of intricate controversy. Homogenites are one of the many event beds and are likely to develop in enclosed basins where suspended sediment clouds are trapped and deposited. They are very fine-grained sediments, initiated from re-suspended fine-grained sediments or from sediment gravity flows, and are transported and deposited from suspension fall-out. Two giant piston cores, MD18-3547 (35.27 m) and MD18-3548 (20.07 m), were collected in the perched/isolated basins of the Taiwan accretionary wedge, at a water depth of 1806m and 1752m respectively. A total of 29 event beds (homogenites and turbidites) are identified from the piston cores. Detailed grain-size analysis (1 cm resolution), 14C AMS dating and CT-scan of the above-mentioned cores were performed. CT scans reveal homogenites as thick structureless mud totally devoid of bioturbation while hemipelagites show bioturbation. The average thickness of homogenites and turbidites are ~250 cm and 5 cm, respectively, while the thickest homogenite layer is ~420 cm and the thickest turbidite layer is ~15 cm. All homogenite layers are floored by a thin (usually less than 10 cm thick) and fining-upward sandy unit. Grain size parameters like mean, mode, and median are highly constant for homogenites, excluding the basal sandy unit, between 6 and 8 µm. Both hemipelagite and homogenite are poorly sorted with homogenites displaying a uniform sorting throughout the unit. A total of 17 14C AMS dating of foraminifera were carried out from the two marine cores. The youngest homogenite is of ~2,375 BP cal yrs and the oldest one is ~ 17,926 BP cal yrs, while the youngest turbidite corresponds to ~2,375 BP cal yrs and the oldest one is ~18,871 BP cal yrs.Keywords: perched basins; homogenites; turbidites; ct-scan; 14C dating; grain size

Intra-oceanic arc’s collision with an oceanic plateau plays a crucial role in the development of complex tectonic setting and induce subduction polarity reversal. Despite several studies and investigations, the origin and timing of subduction initiation in Solomon Island Arc (SIA) is still ambiguous. This study presents first robust zircon U-Pb ages and in-situ Hf isotope data from Choiseul, Santa Isabel (SI) and New Georgia Group (NGG), three major islands of SIA. Magmatic zircons and Hf isotope data from one gabbro sample, geochemically identical to N-MORB with Nb, Ta depletion in spidergram yielded 46 ± 1 Ma, which we decipher as the timing of Stage I magmatism by subduction of Pacific plate and subduction initiation in Choiseul. Six Choiseul andesites gave a mean age 206Pb/238U of 0.7 Ma, with εHf(t) values from +9 to +15 which represents the youngest crystallization age of Stage II magmatism with typical island arc-like signatures and a depleted mantle source. Detrital zircons from two sand sample yielded a population of mean age ranging from 0.3-0.7 Ma, 10 Ma and 48-46 Ma with εHf(t) values +9 to 15, +11 to +12 and +11 to +14 respectively and third sample has yielded a mean age 207Pb/206Pb 2.6 Ga and 500-1600 Ma with εHf(t) values -8 to +9, probably associated with Australian-type source indicating presence of a continental fragment beneath SIA. Similar ages of ca. 2.6 Ma have been obtained from inherited zircons from three gabbroic dyke sample from Santa Isabel with εHf(t) values +1 to +9 whereas one gabbroic dyke sample yields 110 ± 1 Ma, with εHf(t) values +14 to + 16 which we interpret as the basement age of SI. U-Pb dating of zircons from mafic to felsic rocks along NGG, covered mostly by Quaternary eruptive lavas. The youngest age population indicate Late Pliocene-Pleistocene 206Pb/238U ages, 2.5-1.5 Ma, interpreted as zircon crystallization ages of Stage II arc magmatism resulting from subduction of the Solomon Sea plate, as those of Choiseul Andesite. The first U-Pb age from ca. 36.8±0.5 Ma granite on Ghizo Island in New Georgia Group, revealing Late Eocene-aged magmatic zircon. This age represents the magmatic emplacement as the basement of plutonic rock from NGG that has not been reported before. We conclude that, (i) The Solomon Islands has a Cretaceous basement preserved in SI. (ii) The timing of subduction initiation and Stage I N-MORB type tholeiitic magmatism in SIA is 46 Ma followed by episodic eruptions from the early Eocene to late Eocene. (iii) Oligocene (30-20 Ma) magmatic hiatus, probably the time of subduction polarity reversal from subduction of Pacific plate to subduction of Solomon Sea plate. (iv) Stage II island arc magmatism initiated at 20-18 Ma in NGG to youngest emplacement age of Pliocene to Pleistocene in Choiseul as well as in NGG. (v)Abundant Archean zircons are present in samples from all three islands, indicate presence of micro-continent beneath Islands of Solomon. We are still working on the whole rock isotopic analysis to better constrain the tectonic and magmatic evolution of SIA.

Non-destructive and high-resolution hyperspectral analyses are widely used in planetary and environmental sciences and in mining exploration. In recent years, the scanning method was applied to lacustrine sediment cores in complement to XRF core scanning. However, this approach was rarely applied to marine sediments. The Gaoping canyon, located south of Taiwan island, is connected to the Gaoping River and is a very active canyon with large sediment transfer capacity. In particular, about 4 typhoon-driven hyperpycnal flows have been recorded by mooring systems in every recent year. Studying their frequency and intensity responding to past climate and environmental changes is a key to understand future tropical storm frequency and related climate variability. Core MD18-3574 was collected on the western levee of the Gaoping canyon and displays numerous fine laminations (millimetric to centimetric) recording the deposition of the gravity flows occurring in the canyon and on the slope. In this study, we combined non-destructive analyses such as XRF core scanning and hyperspectral imaging with high-resolution grain size and XRD bulk mineralogy analyses to understand the sedimentological and geochemical variations at the scale of the laminae. Core MD18-3574 sediments consist mainly of fine silt, presenting an alternance of fine-grained and coarse-grained laminations. The average mean grain size is 13.4 µm ranging from 9 to 20.5 µm. Thick coarser grained laminations are showing grain size distributions and asymmetric sorting of typical turbidite sequence. Grain size and bulk mineralogy display great visual and statistical correlation with XRF (Fe/Ca, Si/Al) and hyperspectral proxies (sediment darkness (Rmean), Clay_R2200). Principal component analyses (PCA) demonstrates that darker laminae are composed of coarser sediments with high Si/Al (quartz and feldspar-rich) and Clay_R2200 values and low Fe/Ca (calcite-rich) resulting from gravity flows. Inversely, lighter laminae consist of finer sediments with low Si/Al (muscovite and illite-rich), Clay_R2200 and high Fe/Ca resulting from hemipelagic deposition. Thus, such interpretation was extended to the core scale to identify gravity flows deposits layers. Moderate intensity tropical storm frequency is decreasing since the last 4 ka in response to the sea surface temperature (SST) decrease and enhanced East Asian winter monsoon since the middle Holocene. Tropical storm intensity increased after 2 ka in La Niña like periods indicating that the surge of super-typhoons hitting Taiwan could be triggered by El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) state and variability. We can then assess that tropical storm activity is controlled by SST, monsoon system and ENSO conditions. This study brings new insights in the prediction of the ongoing climate change impacts on storms activity in the western Pacific Ocean.

There is a rapidly growing need to communicate to the public and policymakers on the nature and impact of climate change and its associated extremes, which manifest themselves across essential Food-Energy-Water Systems (FEWS). The complexity of this nexus demands analytical tools that can capture the essence of FEWS with the climate system, which may be difficult to stage and implement from a computationally efficient point-of-view. Reduced Complexity Models (RCMs) can synthesize important facets of a system quickly and with less dependence on difficult-to-assign inputs. We report on the development of an RCM framework for the FEWS nexus, to serve as a basic research tool in facilitating parameter sensitivity experiments as well as a means to establish more insightful dialogue with stakeholders through joint scenario construction. Three stand-alone and coupled models at the basin scale have been configured using Stella Architect software to simulate: 1) major flows and storage of water, 2) power plant operations and subsequent impacts on river reaches; and 3) nitrogen (N) mobilization and transport from atmospheric and landmass sources to riverine receiving waters. The Delaware River Basin is chosen for a contemporary simulation test case. Modeled results are calibrated and validated using observed stream gauge data, indicating reliable model performance at the monthly and annual time steps (0.57 < NSE < 0.98). A set of single and multi-factor climate, technology, and policy experiments are then explored using the RCM framework. Basin-scale system sensitivities are investigated across a set of intensified climate extremes, revealing the crucial roles of sewage treatment and energy infrastructure for climate resilience, significant exacerbations as well as mitigations of thermal and N pollution under opposing climate extremes, and important tradeoffs between river temperature and electricity production that are explored with technology and policy scenarios.

Cigarette smoking is associated with surgical complications, including wound healing and surgical site infection. However, the association between smoking status and postoperative wound complications is not completely understood. Our objective was to investigate the effect of smoking on postoperative wound complications for major surgeries. Data were collected from the 2013 to 2018 participant use files of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. A propensity score matching procedure was used to create the balanced smoker and nonsmoker groups. Multivariable logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for postoperative wound complications, pulmonary complications, and in-hospital mortality associated with smokers. A total of 1 156 002 patients (578 001 smokers and 578 001 nonsmokers) were included in the propensity score matching analysis. Smoking was associated with a significantly increased risk of postoperative wound disruption (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.56-1.75), surgical site infection (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.28-1.34), reintubation (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.40-1.54), and in-hospital mortality (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.07-1.19) compared with nonsmoking. The length of hospital stay was significantly increased in smokers compared with nonsmokers. Our analysis indicates that smoking is associated with an increased risk of surgical site infection, wound disruption, and postoperative pulmonary complications. The results may drive the clinicians to encourage patients to quit smoking before surgery.

Change to global climate, including both its progressive character and episodic extremes, constitutes a critical societal challenge. We apply here a framework to analyze Climate-induced Extremes on the Food, Energy, Water System Nexus (C-FEWS), with particular emphasis on the roles and sensitivities of traditionally-engineered (TEI) and nature-based (NBI) infrastructures. The rationale and technical specifications for the overall C-FEWS framework, its component models and supporting datasets are detailed in an accompanying paper (Vörösmarty et al., this issue). We report here on initial results produced by applying this framework in two important macro-regions of the United States (Northeast, NE; Midwest, MW), where major decisions affecting global food production, biofuels, energy security and pollution abatement require critical scientific support. We present the essential FEWS-related hypotheses that organize our work with an overview of the methodologies and experimental designs applied. We report on initial C-FEWS framework results using five emblematic studies that highlight how various combinations of climate sensitivities, TEI-NBI deployments, technology, and environmental management have determined regional FEWS performance over a historical time period (1980–2019). Despite their relative simplicity, these initial scenario experiments yielded important insights. We found that FEWS performance was impacted by climate stress, but the sensitivity was strongly modified by technology choices applied to both ecosystems (e.g., cropland production using new cultivars) and engineered systems (e.g., thermoelectricity from different fuels and cooling types). We tabulated strong legacy effects stemming from decisions on managing NBI (e.g., multi-decade land conversions that limit long-term carbon sequestration). The framework also enabled us to reveal how broad-scale policies aimed at a particular net benefit can result in unintended and potentially negative consequences. For example, tradeoff modeling experiments identified the regional importance of TEI in the form wastewater treatment and NBI via aquatic self-purification. This finding, in turn, could be used to guide potential investments in point and/or non-point source water pollution control. Another example used a reduced complexity model to demonstrate a FEWS tradeoff in the context of water supply, electricity production, and thermal pollution. Such results demonstrated the importance of TEI and NBI in jointly determining historical FEWS performance, their vulnerabilities, and their resilience to extreme climate events. These infrastructures, plus technology and environmental management, constitute the “policy levers” which can actively be engaged to mitigate the challenge of contemporary and future climate change.

Forests provide several critical ecosystem services that help to support human society. Alteration of forest infrastructure by changes in land use, atmospheric chemistry, and climate change influence the ability of forests to provide these ecosystem services and their sensitivity to existing and future extreme climate events. Here, we explore how the evolving forest infrastructure of the Midwest and Northeast United States influences carbon sequestration, biomass increment (i.e., change in vegetation carbon), biomass burning associated with fuelwood and slash removal, the creation of wood products, and runoff between 1980 and 2019 within the context of changing environmental conditions and extreme climate events using a coupled modeling and assessment framework. For the 40-year study period, the region’s forests functioned as a net atmospheric carbon sink of 687 Tg C with similar amounts of carbon sequestered in the Midwest and the Northeast. Most of the carbon has been sequestered in vegetation (+771 Tg C) with more carbon stored in Midwestern trees than in Northeastern trees to provide a larger resource for potential wood products in the future. Runoff from forests has also provided 4,651 billion m3of water for potential use by humans during the study period with the Northeastern forests providing about 2.4 times more water than the Midwestern forests. Our analyses indicate that climate variability, as particularly influenced by heat waves, has the dominant effect on the ability of forest ecosystems to sequester atmospheric CO2to mitigate climate change, create new wood biomass for future fuel and wood products, and provide runoff for potential human use. Forest carbon sequestration and biomass increment appear to be more sensitive to heat waves in the Midwest than the Northeast while forest runoff appears to be more sensitive in the Northeast than the Midwest. Land-use change, driven by expanding suburban areas and cropland abandonment, has enhanced the detrimental heat-wave effects in Midwestern forests over time, but moderated these effects in Northeastern forests. When developing climate stabilization, energy production and water security policies, it will be important to consider how evolving forest infrastructure modifies ecosystem services and their responses to extreme climate events over time.

Annual U.S. production of bioethanol, primarily produced from corn starch in the U.S. Midwest, rose to 57 billion liters in 2021, which fulfilled the required conventional biofuel target set forth by the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. At the same time, the U.S. fell short of the cellulosic or advanced biofuel target of 79 billion liters. The growth of bioenergy grasses (e.g., Miscanthus and switchgrass) across the Central and Eastern U.S. has the potential to feed enhanced cellulosic bioethanol production and, if successful, increase renewable fuel volumes. However, water consumption and climate change and its extremes are critical concerns in corn and bioenergy grass productivity. These concerns are compounded by the demands on potentially productive land areas and water devoted to producing biofuels. This is a fundamental Food-Energy-Water System (FEWS) nexus challenge. We apply a computational framework to estimate potential bioenergy yield and conversion to bioethanol yield across the U.S., based on crop field studies and conversion technology analysis for three crops—corn, Miscanthus, and two cultivars of switchgrass (Cave-in-Rock and Alamo). The current study identifies regions where each crop has its highest yield across the Center and Eastern U.S. While growing bioenergy grasses requires more water than corn, one advantage they have as a source of bioethanol is that they control nitrogen leaching relative to corn. Bioenergy grasses also maintain steadily high productivity under extreme climate conditions, such as drought and heatwaves in the year 2012 over the U.S. Midwest, because the perennial growing season and the deeper and denser roots can ameliorate the soil water stress. While the potential ethanol yield could be enhanced using energy grasses, their practical success in becoming a potential source of ethanol yield remains limited by socio-economic and operational constraints and concerns regarding competition with food production.

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Risk events can be frequently encountered in karst geological environments during excavation construction; thus, a suitable risk-control scheme is essential to reduce the negative impact of accidents. A decision-making approach based on the fuzzy VIKOR method is proposed to identify the optimal risk-control scheme, where a triangular fuzzy set is adopted to express the experts’ judgements. A decision hierarchy is constructed based on four criteria and twelve sub-criteria, which are determined based on engineering experience and the construction environment. The developed approach was utilized to determine the optimal risk-control scheme to address risk events for excavation construction in karst regions. A countermeasure scheme, i.e., pressure grouting with a two-phase liquid system, was implemented. The basic principles and steps of the implementation of the proposed scheme are presented. The applicability of the identified scheme was verified by the core recovery and modified number of blows using a standard penetration test. A flowchart of optimal scheme identification for geotechnical engineering practice is provided.

Climate change continues to challenge food, energy, and water systems (FEWS) across the globe and will figure prominently in shaping future decisions on how best to manage this nexus. In turn, traditionally engineered and natural infrastructures jointly support and hence determine FEWS performance, their vulnerabilities, and their resilience in light of extreme climate events. We present here a research framework to advance the modeling, data integration, and assessment capabilities that support hypothesis-driven research on FEWS dynamics cast at the macro-regional scale. The framework was developed to support studies on climate-induced extremes on food, energy, and water systems (C-FEWS) and designed to identify and evaluate response options to extreme climate events in the context of managing traditionally engineered (TEI) and nature-based infrastructures (NBI). This paper presents our strategy for a first stage of research using the framework to analyze contemporary FEWS and their sensitivity to climate drivers shaped by historical conditions (1980–2019). We offer a description of the computational framework, working definitions of the climate extremes analyzed, and example configurations of numerical experiments aimed at evaluating the importance of individual and combined driving variables. Single and multiple factor experiments involving the historical time series enable two categories of outputs to be analyzed: the first involving biogeophysical entities (e.g., crop production, carbon sequestered, nutrient and thermal pollution loads) and the second reflecting a portfolio of services provided by the region’s TEI and NBI, evaluated in economic terms. The framework is exercised in a series of companion papers in this special issue that focus on the Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States. Use of the C-FEWS framework to simulate historical conditions facilitates research to better identify existing FEWS linkages and how they function. The framework also enables a next stage of analysis to be pursued using future scenario pathways that will vary land use, technology deployments, regulatory objectives, and climate trends and extremes. It also supports a stakeholder engagement effort to co-design scenarios of interest beyond the research domain.