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Shallow ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs) are a promising technology for contributing to the decarbonisation of the energy sector. In heating-dominated climates, the combined use of GSHPs for both heating and cooling increases their technical potential, defined as the maximum energy that can be exchanged with the ground, as the re-injection of excess heat from space cooling leads to a seasonal regeneration of the ground. This paper proposes a new approach to quantify the technical potential of GSHPs, accounting for effects of seasonal regeneration, and to estimate the useful energy to supply building energy demands at regional scale. The useful energy is obtained for direct heat exchange and for district heating and cooling (DHC) under several scenarios for climate change and market penetration levels of cooling systems. The case study in western Switzerland suggests that seasonal regeneration allows for annual maximum heat extraction densities above 300 kWh/m$^2$ at heat injection densities above 330 kWh/m$^2$. Results also show that GSHPs may cover up to 55% of heating demand while covering 57% of service-sector cooling demand for individual GSHPs in 2050, which increases to around 85% with DHC. The regional-scale results may serve to inform decision making on strategic areas for installing GSHPs., Walch and Li contributed equally. Revision submitted to Energy

Background: Particulate matter (PM) air pollution exposure has been linked to lung function in adolescents, but little is known about the relevance of specific PM components and ultrafine particles (UFP).Objectives: To investigate the associations of long-term exposure to PM elemental composition and UFP with lung function at age 16 years.Methods: For 706 participants of a prospective Dutch birth cohort, we assessed associations of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) at age 16 with average exposure to eight elemental components (copper, iron, potassium, nickel, sulfur, silicon, vanadium and zinc) in PM2.5 and PM10, as well as UFP during the preceding years (age 13-16 years) estimated by land-use regression models. After assessing associations for each pollutant individually using linear regression models with adjustment for potential confounders, independence of associations with different pollutants was assessed in two-pollutant models with PM mass and NO2, for which associations with lung function have been reported previously.Results: We observed that for most PM elemental components higher exposure was associated with lower FEV1, especially PM10 sulfur [e.g. adjusted difference -2.23% (95% confidence interval (CI) -3.70 to -0.74%) per interquartile range (IQR) increase in PM10 sulfur]. The association with PM10 sulfur remained after adjusting for PM10 mass. Negative associations of exposure to UFP with both FEV1 and FVC were observed [-1.06% (95% CI: -2.08 to -0.03%) and -0.65% (95% CI: -1.53 to 0.23%), respectively per IQR increase in UFP], but did not persist in two-pollutant models with NO2 or PM2.5.Conclusions: Long-term exposure to sulfur in PM10 may result in lower FEV1 at age 16. There is no evidence for an independent effect of UFP exposure.

Population receptive field (pRF) mapping is a popular tool in computational neuroimaging that allows for the investigation of receptive field properties, their topography and interrelations in health and disease. Furthermore, the possibility to invert population receptive fields provides a decoding model for constructing stimuli from observed cortical activation patterns. This has been suggested to pave the road towards pRF-based brain-computer interface (BCI) communication systems, which would be able to directly decode internally visualized letters from topographically organized brain activity. A major stumbling block for such an application is, however, that the pRF mapping procedure is computationally heavy and time consuming. To address this, we propose a novel and fast pRF mapping procedure that is suitable for real-time applications. The method is built upon hashed-Gaussian encoding of the stimulus, which tremendously reduces computational resources. After the stimulus is encoded, mapping can be performed using either ridge regression for fast offline analyses or gradient descent for real-time applications. We validate our model-agnostic approach in silico, as well as on empirical fMRI data obtained from 3T and 7T MRI scanners. Our approach is capable of estimating receptive fields and their parameters for millions of voxels in mere seconds. This method thus facilitates real-time applications of population receptive field mapping.

Based on an interdisciplinary experience addressing traditional dimensions in marine resource management in the Pacific, the socio-ecological interconnectivity between island communities, the ocean realm and the legal context concerning the management of seabed resources (Tilot, 2006, 2010; Tilot et al., 2018, 2021a,b; Mulalap et al., 2020; Willaert, 2020a,b, c; 2021; DOSI, 2021), this paper proposes to discuss the relevance and efficacy of the concept of “Oceanian Sovereignty” (Bambridge et al., 2021) in the context of Deep Sea Mining, from the different legal, environmental, anthropological, social, political, and economic science perspectives. The policies and practices developed in the Pacific in this context could well serve as a suitable model elsewhere to reconcile competing perspectives in addition to sustaining the Human Well-being and Sustainable Livelihoods (HWSL) and the health of the Global Ocean.

The human brain functional lateralization has been widely studied over the past decades, and neuroimaging studies have shown how activation of motor areas during hand movement execution (ME) is different according to hand dominance. Nevertheless, there is no research directly investigating the effects of the participant's handedness in a motor imagery (MI) and ME task in both right and left-handed individuals at the cortical and subcortical level. Twenty-six right-handed and 25 left-handed participants were studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging during the imagination and execution of repetitive self-paced movements of squeezing a ball with their dominant, non-dominant, and both hands. Results revealed significant statistical difference (p

Pesquisa sem auxílio de agências de fomento A presente dissertação trata de uma pesquisa bibliográfica sobre diversas demonstrações do Teorema de Pitágoras, divididas em dois grupos: algébricas e geométricas. As primeiras são baseadas em semelhança de triângulos e as últimas são baseadas em comparações de áreas de diversas figuras planas. This dissertation deals with a bibliographical research on several proofs of theP ythagorean Theorem,divided into two groups: algebraic and geometric.The former are based on similarity of triangles and the latter are based on comparisons of areas of several flat figures. Dissertação (Mestrado) 2021-11-25

Genus Areas Walker, 1855: 658 Type species: Areas orientalis Walker, 1855, Published as part of Singh, Navneet, Joshi, Rahul, Kirti, Jagbir Singh, Bisht, Santosh Singh & Param, Harsimranjeet Singh, 2021, A catalogue of Indian Arctiinae (Erebidae, Lepidoptera), pp. 1-118 in Zootaxa 5058 (1) on page 19, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5058.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5602576, {"references":["Walker, F. (1855) List of the specimens of lepidopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Vol. 3. Trustees of the British Museum, London, 193 pp. [pp. 583 - 775]"]}

23. Areas (Melanareas) imperialis (Kollar, [1844]): 466 Type locality: Himalaya, Massuri [India: Uttarakhand: Massooree] Distribution: North West Himalayas, Sikkim (Dubatolov 2010), Nagaland (Chandra et al. 2019), Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh (Sondhi et al. 2021)., Published as part of Singh, Navneet, Joshi, Rahul, Kirti, Jagbir Singh, Bisht, Santosh Singh & Param, Harsimranjeet Singh, 2021, A catalogue of Indian Arctiinae (Erebidae, Lepidoptera), pp. 1-118 in Zootaxa 5058 (1) on page 19, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5058.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5602576, {"references":["Chandra, K., Kumar, V., Singh, N., Raha, A. & Sanyal, A. K. (2019) Assemblages of Lepidoptera in Indian Himalayan through long term monitoring plots. Published by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 457 pp.","Sondhi, S., Sondhi, Y. Roy, P. and Kunte, K. (2021) Moths of India, v. 2. 61. Indian Foundation for Butterflies. Available from: https: // www. mothsofindia. org / (Assessed on 20.09.2021)."]}

Aim: In this study, we examined (1) the presence of abnormally low scores (below 10th percentile) in various visual motion perception aspects in children with brain damage, while controlling for their cognitive developmental delay; (2) whether the risk is increased in comparison with the observation and expectation in a healthy control group and healthy population.Methods: Performance levels of 46 children with indications of brain damage (Mage = 7y4m, SD = 2y4m) on three visual motion perception aspects (global motion, motion speed, motion-defined form) were evaluated. We used developmental age as entry of a preliminary reference table to classify the patient’s performance levels. Then we compared the percentages of abnormally low scores with percentages expected in the healthy population using estimated base rates and the observed percentages in the control sample (n = 119).Results: When using developmental age as reference level, the percentage of low scores on at least one of the three tasks was significantly higher than expected in the healthy population [19/46, 41% (95%CI: 28–56%), p = 0.03]. In 15/19 (79% [95%CI: 61–97%] patients only one aspect of motion perception was affected. Four patients performed abnormally low on two out of three tasks, which is also higher than expected (4/46, 8.7%, 95%CI: 2.4–20.8% vs. 2.1%; z = 2.61, p < 0.01). The observed percentages in the patient group were also higher than found in the control group.Interpretation: There is some evidence that children with early brain damage have an increased risk of isolated and combined motion perception problems, independent of their performance IQ.

In recent decades, the concept of Ecosystem Services (ES) has generated a paradigm shift in the perspective of human society on nature and has had an important awareness-raising role concerning the importance of ecosystems. However, the concept has not been capable to stop the loss of biodiversity and nature in order to meet the societal challenges of ES provision, especially in urbanized territories. From the reviewed literature, it is obvious that implementing the ES concept within spatial design and planning processes poses several difficulties. In this context we state that a more comprehensive approach is needed of which the ES concept is part. To move to genuine landscape change and a shift in land use and land stewardship, we argue that a landscape design approach can play a significant activating role. The goal of this paper is to underpin this assumption from a theoretical and methodological point of view. The paper first gives an overview of the difficulties that the field of ES science and practice is facing when implementing the ES concept in landscape design and planning processes. Then a landscape design approach is presented as an alternative approach and a possible way forward for genuine landscape change to meet the societal demand for ES.

Recent studies have highlighted the possible contributions of direct connectivity between early sensory cortices to audiovisual integration. Anatomical connections between the early auditory and visual cortices are concentrated in visual sites representing the peripheral field of view. Here, we aimed to engage early sensory interactive pathways with simple, far-peripheral audiovisual stimuli (auditory noise and visual gratings). Using a modulation detection task in one modality performed at an 84% correct threshold level, we investigated multisensory interactions by simultaneously presenting weak stimuli from the other modality in which the temporal modulation was barely-detectable (at 55 and 65% correct detection performance). Furthermore, we manipulated the temporal congruence between the cross-sensory streams. We found evidence for an influence of barely-detectable visual stimuli on the response times for auditory stimuli, but not for the reverse effect. These visual-to-auditory influences only occurred for specific phase-differences (at onset) between the modulated audiovisual stimuli. We discuss our findings in the light of a possible role of direct interactions between early visual and auditory areas, along with contributions from the higher-order association cortex. In sum, our results extend the behavioral evidence of audio-visual processing to the far periphery, and suggest – within this specific experimental setting – an asymmetry between the auditory influence on visual processing and the visual influence on auditory processing.

BackgroundThere is a growing consensus that sugar consumption should be reduced and the naturally occurring, low-calorie sweeteners xylitol and erythritol are gaining popularity as substitutes, but their effect on brain circuitry regulating appetite is unknown.AimThe study’s objective was to examine the effects of the two sweeteners on cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and resting functional connectivity in brain networks involved in appetite regulation, and test whether these effects are related to gut hormone release.MethodsThe study was performed as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial. Twenty volunteers received intragastric (ig) loads of 50g xylitol, 75g erythritol, 75g glucose dissolved in 300mL tap water or 300mL tap water. Resting perfusion and blood oxygenation level-dependent data were acquired to assess rCBF and functional connectivity. Blood samples were collected for determination of CCK, PYY, insulin and glucose.ResultsWe found: (i) xylitol, but not erythritol, increased rCBF in the hypothalamus, whereas glucose had the opposite effect; (ii) graph analysis of resting functional connectivity revealed a complex pattern of similarities and differences in brain network properties following xylitol, erythritol, and glucose; (iii) erythritol and xylitol induced a rise in CCK and PYY, (iv) erythritol had no and xylitol only minimal effects on glucose and insulin.ConclusionXylitol and erythritol have a unique combination of properties: no calories, virtually no effect on glucose and insulin while promoting the release of gut hormones, and impacting appetite-regulating neurocircuitry consisting of both similarities and differences with glucose. Background: There is a growing consensus that sugar consumption should be reduced and the naturally occurring, low-calorie sweeteners xylitol and erythritol are gaining popularity as substitutes, but their effect on brain circuitry regulating appetite is unknown. Aim: The study’s objective was to examine the effects of the two sweeteners on cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and resting functional connectivity in brain networks involved in appetite regulation, and test whether these effects are related to gut hormone release. Methods: The study was performed as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial. Twenty volunteers received intragastric (ig) loads of 50g xylitol, 75g erythritol, 75g glucose dissolved in 300mL tap water or 300mL tap water. Resting perfusion and blood oxygenation level-dependent data were acquired to assess rCBF and functional connectivity. Blood samples were collected for determination of CCK, PYY, insulin and glucose. Results: We found: (i) xylitol, but not erythritol, increased rCBF in the hypothalamus, whereas glucose had the opposite effect; (ii) graph analysis of resting functional connectivity revealed a complex pattern of similarities and differences in brain network properties following xylitol, erythritol, and glucose; (iii) erythritol and xylitol induced a rise in CCK and PYY, (iv) erythritol had no and xylitol only minimal effects on glucose and insulin. Conclusion: Xylitol and erythritol have a unique combination of properties: no calories, virtually no effect on glucose and insulin while promoting the release of gut hormones, and impacting appetite-regulating neurocircuitry consisting of both similarities and differences with glucose.

16 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, supplementary material https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.698890/full#supplementary-material.-- Data Availability Statement: The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author, Benthic habitats of the deep Mediterranean Sea and the biodiversity they host are increasingly jeopardized by increasing human pressures, both direct and indirect, which encompass fisheries, chemical and acoustic pollution, littering, oil and gas exploration and production and marine infrastructures (i.e., cable and pipeline laying), and bioprospecting. To this, is added the pervasive and growing effects of human-induced perturbations of the climate system. International frameworks provide foundations for the protection of deep-sea ecosystems, but the lack of standardized criteria for the identification of areas deserving protection, insufficient legislative instruments and poor implementation hinder an efficient set up in practical terms. Here, we discuss the international legal frameworks and management measures in relation to the status of habitats and key species in the deep Mediterranean Basin. By comparing the results of a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and of expert evaluation (EE), we identify priority deep-sea areas for conservation and select five criteria for the designation of future protected areas in the deep Mediterranean Sea. Our results indicate that areas (1) with high ecological relevance (e.g., hosting endemic and locally endangered species and rare habitats),(2) ensuring shelf-slope connectivity (e.g., submarine canyons), and (3) subject to current and foreseeable intense anthropogenic impacts, should be prioritized for conservation. The results presented here provide an ecosystem-based conservation strategy for designating priority areas for protection in the deep Mediterranean Sea, This study was supported by the DG ENV project IDEM (Implementation of the MSFD to the Deep Mediterranean Sea; contract EU No. 11.0661/2017/750680/SUB/EN V.C2). MC and QG-B acknowledge support from Generalitat de Catalunya autonomous government through its funding scheme to excellence research groups (Grant 2017 SGR 315), With the institutional support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)

El presente trabajo se realizó en la empresa constructora MANPROF S.A.S, dedicada a la prestación de servicios de mantenimiento de edificios y obras de construcción. Dentro de los principales problemas identificados en la empresa se encontró que carecen de una distribución física preestablecida para la ubicación de los materiales a almacenar; esto dificulta realizar de manera rápida, eficaz y efectiva el proceso de order-picking y almacenamiento. Con este proyecto se buscó responder a la siguiente pregunta: ¿Cómo se deberían asignar los espacios para cada grupo de ítems y de paso cuál sería la mejor distribución física del almacén? En consecuencia, el objetivo de este trabajo fue rediseñar el layout de la bodega de materiales de MANPROF S.A.S. a través de una modelación matemática haciendo uso de RStudio, buscando minimizar los tiempos de order-picking y almacenamiento. Como resultado de aplicar esa modelación y la técnica del clustering se determinó que la bodega debía tener nuevas áreas internas tales como: zona de inspección, apilamiento, preparación de pedido, maquinaria y herramientas, entre otros. Para evaluar el desempeño de esta nueva distribución se realizó un modelo de simulación en el software Arena, donde se obtuvo que el tiempo promedio para el proceso de order picking y almacenamiento disminuyó en un 24% con respecto al tiempo promedio si se utilizara el layout actual. This work was carried out based on the construction company MANPROF S.A.S., dedicated to the provision of maintenance services for buildings and construction works. Among the main problems identified in the company, it was found that they lack a pre-established physical distribution for the location of the materials to be stored; this makes it difficult to perform quickly, efficiently and effectively the order-picking and storage process. With this project we sought to answer the following question: How should the spaces for each group of items be assigned and, incidentally, what would be the best physical distribution of the warehouse? Consequently, the objective of this work was to redesign the layout of the materials warehouse of MANPROF S.A.S. through a mathematical modeling using RStudio, seeking to minimize the order-picking and storage times. As a result of applying this modeling and the clustering technique, it was determined that the warehouse should have new internal areas such as: inspection area, stacking, order preparation, machinery and tools, among others. In order to evaluate the performance of this new distribution, a simulation model was made in Arena software, where it was obtained that the average time for the order picking and storage process decreased by 24% compared to the average time if the current layout was used.

Post-Tsunami in Aceh province the issue of agricultural land to non-agricultural land continues to increase. In line with the increasing population and high economic growth led to increased land demand. Residents choose a safe area that is an area far from the sea and close to the urban area as a place to live so that there is agricultural land turned function into a settlement land. he purpose of this research is to determine the rate of change in the land use of rice fields in Darul Imarah subdistrict in 2007 and 2016 and its impact on farmers income. The rate of land function was analyzed by the equality of land function and the impact of land conversion was analyzed descriptively. The results showed that the trend over the function of rice paddy field in District Darul Imarah has fluctuation from the year 2007-2016. The rate of paddy field function is 18.21 percent or 0.18 percent per year with a pattern of changing paddy fields to a residential area of 167.51 ha. While the impact of land conversion is the result of changes in the average total revenue of farmers before and after the conversion of land is experiencing the addition of Rp. 1.093.939. The average income before the conversion of agricultural land amounted to Rp. 1.263.636 and the average income after the conversion of agricultural land amounted to Rp. 2.357.575.

OBJECTIVES: The examination of retinal microvascular abnormalities through fundus photography is currently the best available non-invasive technique for assessment of cerebral vascular status. Several studies in the last decade have reported higher incidences of adverse cerebrovascular events in Schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). However, retinal microvasculature abnormalities in SCZ and BD have remained under-explored, and no study has compared this aspect of SCZ and BD till date.METHODS: Retinal Images of 100 SCZ patients, BD patients, and healthy volunteers each were acquired by trained individuals using a non-mydriatic camera with a 40-degree field of view. The retinal images were quantified using a valid semi-automated method. The average of left and right eye diameters of the venules and arterioles passing through the extended zone between 0.5 and 2 disc diameters from the optic disc were calculated.RESULTS: The groups differed significantly with respect to average diameters of both retinal venules (P < 0.001) and retinal arterioles (P < 0.001), after controlling for age and sex. Both SCZ and BD patients had significantly narrower arterioles and wider venules compared to HV. There were also significant differences between SCZ and BD patients; patients with BD had narrower arterioles and wider venules.CONCLUSION: Considering the affordability and easy accessibility of the investigative procedure, retinal microvascular examination could serve as a potential screening tool to identify individuals at risk for adverse cerebrovascular events. The findings of the current study also provide a strong rationale for further systematic examination of retinal vascular abnormalities in SCZ and BD.

In Europe, decision-making power related to biodiversity conservation has been partly, and voluntarily, relinquished by countries to superior levels. In this hierarchical top-down scenario, the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive grant protection to a considerable number of taxa, and determine underlying conservation actions at (sub)national levels. The protection mandates emanating from these legal instruments are expected to be transferred effectively to lower levels, adapting general obligations to species-specific contexts. We assessed the implementation of general obligations from international agreements through local regulations, using as illustrative example the European requirement of protecting the breeding sites of protected species, and the conservation of grey wolves (Canis lupus) in Europe. After reviewing 43 wolf management and conservation plans across Europe, only 14% of wolf plans contained management guidelines issued to avoid wolf breeding site destruction or disturbance (this figure was 52% in the case of North America, n = 25 wolf plans). In Europe, we found only seven actions or guidelines designed to ensure breeding site protection/availability for wolves (from six countries). None of the plans contained a comprehensive set of measures to preserve breeding sites or guarantee their availability. Our results suggest that transposition of general obligations from international agreements into local legislation systems may be a critical point of weakness in the biodiversity conservation policy process. We recommend additional scrutiny to ensure that ambitious conservation goals are not diluted, but enforced, along its way from high-tier laws to local regulations, in accordance with the letter and spirit of international agreements.

Background: There is some evidence to suggest an association between ambient air pollution and development of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the small number of studies published to date has reported inconsistent findings. Objectives: To assess the association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution constituents and the development of PD. Methods: Air pollution exposures (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter 30.4 μg/m3) was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.54, 1.41). For PM2.5 where the contrast in exposure was more limited, the OR associated with an increase from the first quartile PM2.5 (22.3 μg/m3) was 0.50 (95% CI: 0.24, 1.01). In a subset of the population with long-term residential stability (n = 632), an increased risk of PD was observed (e.g. OR for Q4 vs Q1 NO2:1.37, 95% CI: 0.71, 2.67). Conclusions: We found no clear association between 16 years of residential exposure to ambient air pollution and the development of PD in The Netherlands. Keywords: Air pollution, Parkinson's disease, Long-term exposure, Land-use regression

Neurotechnology attempts to develop supernumerary limbs, but can the human brain deal with the complexity to control an extra limb and yield advantages from it? Here, we analyzed the neuromechanics and manipulation abilities of two polydactyly subjects who each possess six fingers on their hands. Anatomical MRI of the supernumerary finger (SF) revealed that it is actuated by extra muscles and nerves, and fMRI identified a distinct cortical representation of the SF. In both subjects, the SF was able to move independently from the other fingers. Polydactyly subjects were able to coordinate the SF with their other fingers for more complex movements than five fingered subjects, and so carry out with only one hand tasks normally requiring two hands. These results demonstrate that a body with significantly more degrees-of-freedom can be controlled by the human nervous system without causing motor deficits or impairments and can instead provide superior manipulation abilities., Can the human brain successfully control additional body parts beyond the ones we normally possess? Here, the authors study two polydactyly individuals (with an additional finger on each hand) and show that they can carry out more complex movements, performing with only one hand tasks normally requiring two.

Miguel Leal was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through grant SFRH/BD/96632/2013. Marcelo Fragoso was financed by national funds through the FCT, under the framework of the project BeSafeSlide – Landslide early warning soft technology prototype to improve community resilience and adaptation to environmental change (PTDC/GES-AMB/30052/2017)., This research aims to understand how insurance, rainfall, land cover and urban flooding are related and how these variables influenced the material damage in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) during the 2000–2011 period. Correlation coefficients show strong relationships between built-up areas and claims (0.94) and payouts (0.88). Despite no significant relationships being found between rainfall and the amount of material damage per event, three likelihood levels of flooding were determined for hourly rainfall. Unlike the studied period, the number of claims and their spatial distribution during the 2008 extreme rainfall event were strongly dependent on rainfall. Flooding related to the old watercourses assumed greater importance during this extreme event, recovering a more natural/ancient hydrological behaviour. In the LMA, the greatest material damage was the result of high-magnitude/low-probability rainfall events. Lower magnitude events can trigger numerous claims in heavily built-up areas, but they are hardly capable of producing large material damage., Portuguese Association of Insurers (APS)

Summary The aim of this article is threefold. Firstly, to present income-based poverty and extreme poverty indicators for 2015, when the macroeconomic crisis led to a generalized deterioration affecting all areas and regions. The second aim is to discuss long-term evolution, emphasizing the period since 2004, when sustained improvement of income indicators as well as convergence of regional and area results began. Considering the period from 2004 to 2014/2015, the third aim is to show that the reduction in poverty and extreme poverty was parallel to increased inequality in poverty regarding two critical aspects: the regional aspect, since inequality among the five regions became higher, thus reinforcing the dichotomy between the North/Northeast versus the Centre-South; the age aspect, because the recent improvements since 2004 have not sufficiently benefited children as to reverse their disadvantaged position, so much so that in 2015 children still had a share in poverty that was twice their share in the total population. The last section concerns policy measures that may reduce the impact of the crisis on the poor. Resumo Este artigo tem três objetivos. Primeiro, apresentar indicadores de pobreza para 2015, quando a crise macroeconômica levou ao seu agravamento em todas as regiões e áreas do país. Segundo, discutir a evolução de longo prazo enfatizando o período 2004-2015, caracterizado por melhoria sustentada dos indicadores e convergência espacial dos resultados até a reversão de 2015. Terceiro, mostrar que a queda da pobreza de 2004/2014 se fez acompanhar pelo agravamento da desigualdade na pobreza quanto a dois aspectos críticos: o regional - a desigualdade entre as cinco regiões aumentou, acentuando a dicotomia Norte/Nordeste versus Centro-Sul; e o etário, já que redução da pobreza e da indigência não beneficiou primordialmente as crianças, que em 2015 ainda tinham participação na pobreza e na indigência que era o dobro da sua participação na população em geral. Ao final são tratadas medidas de política passíveis de reduzir os efeitos da crise sobre os mais pobres.

This explorative study adopts a regional perspective on understanding differences in observable teaching quality by describing regional levels in teaching quality for specific regions and by examining the contribution of schools’ regional characteristics on effective teaching behaviour of 1,945 beginning teachers in secondary education. Beginning teachers working in schools located in regions of population decline have better basic teaching skills than beginning teachers working elsewhere. Multilevel analyses reveal that within the Randstad region, adaptive instruction skills are weaker in very urban areas. Schools’ changing student numbers influence the quality of adaptive instruction skills and teaching learning strategies. These findings indicate that differences in teaching quality become visible at lower regional levels and are of interest because these effects on student outcomes might not be captured in national figures. This approach adds to existing literature and is useful to tailor current professionalization programmes for beginning teachers to specific regional contexts.

Urban residence is associated with a higher risk of some psychiatric disorders, but the underlying drivers remain unknown. There is increasing evidence that the level of exposure to natural environments impacts mental health, but few large-scale epidemiological studies have assessed the general existence and importance of such associations. Here, we investigate the prospective association between green space and mental health in the Danish population. Green space presence was assessed at the individual level using high-resolution satellite data to calculate the normalized difference vegetation index within a 210 × 210 m square around each person’s place of residence (∼1 million people) from birth to the age of 10. We show that high levels of green space presence during childhood are associated with lower risk of a wide spectrum of psychiatric disorders later in life. Risk for subsequent mental illness for those who lived with the lowest level of green space during childhood was up to 55% higher across various disorders compared with those who lived with the highest level of green space. The association remained even after adjusting for urbanization, socioeconomic factors, parental history of mental illness, and parental age. Stronger association of cumulative green space presence during childhood compared with single-year green space presence suggests that presence throughout childhood is important. Our results show that green space during childhood is associated with better mental health, supporting efforts to better integrate natural environments into urban planning and childhood life.

Areas used for the production of organic plants have been permanently increasing for many years, both in the world and in Serbia. This type of agricultural production in Serbia was performed in the area of 14,357.96 ha, and the leading role belonged to cereals. Since great attention has been paid to spelt wheat in the production of organic food, the organic system of agricultural production has been distributed over ever larger areas. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to present data on the areas cultivated with this type of cereals in Serbia according to regional distribution in 2012, 2015 and 2016 provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Serbia. Spelt wheat is cultivated on the area of 157.9 ha. The greatest areas are in Vojvodina (120.04 ha), followed by the areas in the south and Eastern Serbia (22.3 ha), Šumadija and western Serbia (14.1 ha), while the smallest production of organic spelt wheat is registered in Belgrade (only 1.5 ha). The varieties Nirvana and Ostro are the only spelt wheat varieties released in Serbia. Since spelt wheat has very good biological and agronomic traits, with the high nutritional and specific functional value of the grain, deserves more attention, particularly for growing within the organic farming system and production. Površine pod organskom biljnom proizvodnjom već duži niz godina beleže kontinurano povećanje, kako u svetu, tako i u Srbiji. Ovaj vid poljoprivredne proizvodnje u Srbiji se odvija na ukupno 14.357,96 ha, pri čemu vodeću ulogu zauzimaju žita. S'obzirom na to da se za krupnik beleži sve veće interesovanje u proizvodnji zdravstveno bezbedne hrane, on u organskom sistemu poljoprivredne proizvodnje zauzima sve veće površine. U tom smislu, cilj ovog rada je bio da se prema podacima Ministarstva poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede Republike Srbije, prikažu podaci o proizvodnji u organskom sistemu gajenja ove vrste žita u Srbiji, prema regionalnoj raspodeli za 2012, 2015 i 2016. godinu. U proseku, za ovaj vremenski period, krupnik se proizvodio na površini od 157,9 ha. Najveće površine bile su zastupljene u regionu Vojvodine (120,04 ha), a zatim slede južna i istočna Srbija (22,3 ha), Šumadija i zapadna Srbija (14,1 ha). Na područiju beogradske opštine, krupnik se proizvodio na svega 1,5 ha. Jedine dve priznate sorte u Srbiji su Nirvana i Ostro. S obzirom na to da krupnik poseduje veoma dobre biološke i agronomske osobine, to ga čini naročito pogodnim za gajenje u organskom sistemu poljoprivredne proizvodnje.

BACKGROUND: To investigate associations between annual average air pollution exposures and health, most epidemiological studies rely on estimated residential exposures because information on actual time-activity patterns can only be collected for small populations and short periods of time due to costs and logistic constraints. In the current study, we aim to compare exposure assessment methodologies that use data on time-activity patterns of children with residence-based exposure assessment. We compare estimated exposures and associations with lung function for residential exposures and exposures accounting for time activity patterns.METHODS: We compared four annual average air pollution exposure assessment methodologies; two rely on residential exposures only, the other two incorporate estimated time activity patterns. The time-activity patterns were based on assumptions about the activity space and make use of available external data sources for the duration of each activity. Mapping of multiple air pollutants (NO2, NOX, PM2.5, PM2.5absorbance, PM10) at a fine resolution as input to exposure assessment was based on land use regression modelling. First, we assessed the correlations between the exposures from the four exposure methods. Second, we compared estimates of the cross-sectional associations between air pollution exposures and lung function at age 8 within the PIAMA birth cohort study for the four exposure assessment methodologies.RESULTS: The exposures derived from the four exposure assessment methodologies were highly correlated (R > 0.95) for all air pollutants. Similar statistically significant decreases in lung function were found for all four methods. For example, for NO2 the decrease in FEV1 was -1.40% (CI; -2.54, -0.24%) per IQR (9.14 μg/m3) for front door exposure, and -1.50% (CI; -2.68, -0.30%) for the methodology which incorporates time activity pattern and actual school addresses.CONCLUSIONS: Exposure estimates from methods based on the residential location only and methods including time activity patterns were highly correlated and associated with similar decreases in lung function. Our study illustrates that the annual average exposure to air pollution for 8-year-old children in the Netherlands is sufficiently captured by residential exposures.