Hasil untuk "Environmental sciences"

Miguel Brilhante, Iain Darbyshire, Maria Cristina Duarte et al.

ABSTRACT Despite the extensive diversity of African flora, significant gaps remain in taxonomic research and biodiversity conservation, including under‐sampling in highly diverse regions, a shortage of taxonomic expertise, limited financial resources and delays in species descriptions. Type specimens act as effective proxies for tracking the discovery and description of species, providing a historical baseline for assessing taxonomic effort and our understanding of biodiversity. This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of Fabaceae species collected in Mozambique, one of the most diverse and ecologically important plant families in the region. It offers new insights into the taxonomic, spatial and temporal patterns shaping current botanical knowledge through an analysis of Fabaceae type specimens collected in Mozambique. We identified 273 type specimens, including 126 recognised taxa, with a notable proportion of endemism (44 strict‐endemic and 18 near‐endemic taxa) and a predominance of woody growth forms. Nearly 40% of these taxa lack IUCN conservation assessments, highlighting significant information gaps. The findings reveal that collection activity peaked during colonial botanical initiatives, driven by a small group of prolific collectors and influenced by spatial biases towards southern and central provinces. Using generalised linear modelling, we demonstrate that collection locations were significantly affected by elevation, slope, land cover and proximity to roads and harbours, reflecting the interaction between biogeographic patterns and accessibility. By identifying these historical and geographic biases, our study deepens understanding of Mozambique's botanical heritage and provides a crucial baseline for future floristic and conservation efforts in underexplored regions. Furthermore, this research underscores the vital role of herbarium type specimens as scientific resources supporting taxonomic research and conservation planning, emphasising the importance of preserving and digitising these collections to enhance their accessibility and utility.

Laila Khawaja, Sarah Muir, Sarah Jenner et al.

Abstract Objective Conducting health research with adolescents involves navigating complex challenges at both organisational and individual levels. As part of evaluating the EACH-B (Engaging Adolescents with Changing Behaviour) intervention—a school-based randomised controlled trial aimed at improving diet and physical activity in adolescents, we explored researchers’ insider experiences of programme implementation. The study investigates real-world implementation challenges and protocol adaptations in the EACH-B trial to provide practical guidance for public health interventions in schools. Applying the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 10 members of the research team. Results Researchers identified significant barriers within the ‘Inner’ settings (internal research processes) and ‘Outer’ settings (external school environment and policy landscape). Research delivery was hindered by post-pandemic school priorities—specifically academic recovery and mental health support which limited the feasibility of maintaining adolescent engagement and school access. Researcher-led adaptations emerged as a critical, yet often hidden, component of maintaining trial fidelity. The study concludes that reflexive ‘insider’ perspectives and flexible designs are essential to align research with shifting school priorities. These adaptive strategies provide a blueprint for more resilient and feasible public health interventions.

Cameron Kerr, Madhur Anand, Chris T Bauch

Public opinion on environmental issues remains polarized in many countries, posing a significant barrier to the implementation of effective policies. Behind this polarization, empirical studies have identified social susceptibility, personal prejudice, and personal experience as dominant factors in opinion formation on environmental issues. However, current coupled human-environment models have not yet incorporated all three factors in polarized populations. We developed a stylized coupled human-environment model to investigate how social susceptibility, personal prejudice, and personal experience shape opinion formation and the environment in polarized populations. Using analytical and numerical methods, we characterized the conditions under which polarization, consensus, opinion changes, and cyclic dynamics emerge depending on the costs of mitigation, environmental damage, and the factors influencing opinion formation. Our model shows that prejudice is the key driver of persistent polarization, with even slightly prejudiced populations maintaining indefinite polarization independent of their level of objectivity. We predict that polarization can be reduced by decreasing the role of prejudice or increasing the willingness to consider opposing opinions. Finally, our model shows that cost reduction methods are less effective at reducing environmental impact in prejudiced populations. Our model generates thresholds for when reducing costs or emissions is more useful depending on the factors which influence the population's opinion formation. Overall, our model provides a framework for investigating the importance of cognitive and social structures in determining human-environment dynamics.

Probowo Erawan Sastroredjo, Marcel Ausloos, Polina Khrennikova

Through its initiative known as the Climate Change Act (2008), the Government of the United Kingdom encourages corporations to enhance their environmental performance with the significant aim of reducing targeted greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. Previous research has predominantly assessed this encouragement favourably, suggesting that improved environmental performance bolsters governmental efforts to protect the environment and fosters commendable corporate governance practices among companies. Studies indicate that organisations exhibiting strong corporate social responsibility (CSR), environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, or high levels of environmental performance often engage in lower occurrences of tax avoidance. However, our findings suggest that an increase in environmental performance may paradoxically lead to a rise in tax avoidance activities. Using a sample of 567 firms listed on the FTSE All Share from 2014 to 2022, our study finds that firms associated with higher environmental performance are more likely to avoid taxation. The study further documents that the effect is more pronounced for firms facing financial constraints. Entropy balancing, propensity score matching analysis, the instrumental variable method, and the Heckman test are employed in our study to address potential endogeneity concerns. Collectively, the findings of our study suggest that better environmental performance helps explain the variation in firms tax avoidance practices.

Vidya Venkatesan, Aomawa L. Shields, Russell Deitrick et al.

Eccentric planets may spend a significant portion of their orbits at large distances from their host stars, where low temperatures can cause atmospheric CO2 to condense out onto the surface, similar to the polar ice caps on Mars. The radiative effects on the climates of these planets throughout their orbits would depend on the wavelength-dependent albedo of surface CO2 ice that may accumulate at or near apoastron and vary according to the spectral energy distribution of the host star. To explore these possible effects, we incorporated a CO2 ice-albedo parameterization into a one-dimensional energy balance climate model. With the inclusion of this parameterization, our simulations demonstrated that F-dwarf planets require 29% more orbit-averaged flux to thaw out of global water ice cover compared with simulations that solely use a traditional pure water ice-albedo parameterization. When no eccentricity is assumed, and host stars are varied, F-dwarf planets with higher bond albedos relative to their M-dwarf planet counterparts require 30% more orbit-averaged flux to exit a water snowball state. Additionally, the intense heat experienced at periastron aids eccentric planets in exiting a snowball state with a smaller increase in instellation compared with planets on circular orbits; this enables eccentric planets to exhibit warmer conditions along a broad range of instellation. This study emphasizes the significance of incorporating an albedo parameterization for the formation of CO2 ice into climate models to accurately assess the habitability of eccentric planets, as we show that, even at moderate eccentricities, planets with Earth-like atmospheres can reach surface temperatures cold enough for the condensation of CO2 onto their surfaces, as can planets receiving low amounts of instellation on circular orbits.

Tuoyuan Cheng, Xiao Peng, Achmad Choiruddin et al.

This paper introduces a novel sub-sampling block maxima technique to model and characterize environmental extreme risks. We examine the relationships between block size and block maxima statistics derived from the Gaussian and generalized Pareto distributions. We introduce a weighted least square estimator for extreme value index (EVI) and evaluate its performance using simulated auto-correlated data. We employ the second moment of block maxima for plateau finding in EVI and extremal index (EI) estimation, and present the effect of EI on Kullback-Leibler divergence. The applicability of this approach is demonstrated across diverse environmental datasets, including meteorite landing mass, earthquake energy release, solar activity, and variations in Greenland's land snow cover and sea ice extent. Our method provides a sample-efficient framework, robust to temporal dependencies, that delivers actionable environmental extreme risk measures across different timescales. With its flexibility, sample efficiency, and limited reliance on subjective tuning, this approach emerges as a useful tool for environmental extreme risk assessment and management.

Andrés Alegría, Elvira Poloczanska, Sina Loeschke et al.

Abstract Climate risk assessments are crucial in quantifying and communicating risks in a clear and concise manner. In light of the rapidly proceeding climatic changes, there is a growing need for a more comprehensive integration and a more effective overview of available and relevant data that go into these assessments, particularly on the temporal and spatial dynamics of risk. In this paper, we describe the advantages, challenges and opportunities for increasing the accessibility of temporal and spatial data needed to support climate risk assessments through the development of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Atlas, integrated across IPCC Working Groups. We propose that using a climate risk framework to organise this Atlas will result in a more practical resource for understanding and informing risk assessments undertaken by the IPCC, and also make methodologies and results more accessible to a wider audience.

Ahmed M. Asfahani

Abstract This study elucidates the transformative influence of data integration on talent management in the context of evolving technological paradigms, with a specific focus on sustainable practices in human resources. Historically anchored in societal norms and organizational culture, talent management has transitioned from traditional methodologies to harnessing diverse data sources, a shift that enhances sustainable HR strategies. By employing a narrative literature review, the research traces the trajectory of HR data sources, emphasizing the juxtaposition of structured and unstructured data. The digital transformation of HR is explored, not only highlighting the evolution of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) but also underscoring their role in promoting sustainable workforce management. The integration of advanced technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing is examined, reflecting on their impact on the efficiency and ecological aspects of HR practices. This paper not only underscores the imperative of balancing data-driven strategies with the quintessential human element of HR but also provides concrete examples demonstrating this balance in action for practitioners and scholars in sustainable human resources.

Shekhar Sharan Goyal, Raviraj Dave, Rohini Kumar et al.

Abstract Intensive agricultural practices have powered green revolutions, helping nations attain self-sufficiency. However, these fertilizer-intensive methods and exploitative trade systems have created unsustainable agricultural systems. To probe the environmental consequences on production hubs, we map the fate of Nitrogen and Phosphorus in India’s interstate staple crop trade over the recent decade. The nation’s food bowls, while meeting national food demand, are becoming pollution-rich, sustaining around 50% of the total surplus from trade transfer, accounting for 710 gigagrams of nitrogen per year and 200 gigagrams of phosphorus per year. In combination with water balance analysis, surplus nutrient conversion to a graywater footprint further highlights an aggravated situation in major producer regions facing long-term water deficits. Given India’s role in global food security, identifying the nation’s environmental vulnerability can help in designing appropriate policy interventions for sustainable development.

Bryanne McDonough, Olivia Curtis, Tereasa Brainerd

We present radial profiles of luminosity-weighted age, $age_L$, and $ΔΣ_{SFR}$ for various populations of high- and low- mass central and satellite galaxies in the TNG100 cosmological simulation. Using these profiles, we investigate the impact of intrinsic and environmental factors on the radial distribution of star formation. For both central galaxies and satellites, we investigate the effects of black hole mass, cumulative AGN feedback energy, morphology, halo mass, and local galaxy overdensity on the profiles. In addition, we investigate the dependence of radial profiles of the satellite galaxies as a function of the redshifts at which they joined their hosts, as well as the net change in star-forming gas mass since the satellites joined their host. We find that high-mass ($M_*>10^{10.5} M_{\odot}$) central and satellite galaxies show evidence of inside-out quenching driven by AGN feedback. Effects from environmental processes only become apparent in averaged profiles at extreme halo masses and local overdensities. We find that the dominant quenching process for low-mass galaxies ($M_*<10^{10} M_{\odot}$) is environmental, generally occurring at low halo mass and high local galaxy overdensity for low-mass central galaxies and at high host halo masses for low-mass satellite galaxies. Overall, we find that environmental processes generally drive quenching from the outside-in.

Saleh Afroogh, Ali Mostafavi, Junfeng Jiao

In this paper, we propose Intelligent Environmental Empathy (IEE) as a new driver for climate peace and justice, as an emerging issue in the age of big data. We first show that the authoritarian top-down intergovernmental cooperation, through international organizations (e.g., UNEP) for climate justice, could not overcome environmental issues and crevices so far. We elaborate on four grounds of climate injustice (i.e., teleological origin, axiological origin, formation cause, and social epistemic cause), and explain how the lack of empathy and environmental motivation on a global scale causes the failure of all the authoritarian top-down intergovernmental cooperation. Addressing all these issues requires a new button-up approach to climate peace and justice. Secondly, focusing on the intersection of AI, environmental empathy, and climate justice, we propose a model of Intelligent Environmental Empathy (IEE) for climate peace and justice at the operational level. IEE is empowered by the new power of environmental empathy (as a driver of green obligation for climate justice) and putative decentralized platform of AI (as an operative system against free riders), which Initially, impact citizens and some middle-class decision makers, such as city planners and local administrators, but will eventually affect global decision-makers as well.

Anvar Kabulov, Ibrokhimali Normatov, Islambek Saymanov et al.

The article analyzes the impact of environmental conditions on agricultural production in the Aral Sea region. The development of mathematical models for solving the problems of optimizing agricultural production, the spread of dust and salt particles from above-ground sources of heavy and light aerosols, depending on meteorological conditions, algorithmic and managerial decision-making methods is scientifically substantiated. It is also proposed to develop methods and tools for interactive analysis of water and soil, models, methods and monitoring algorithms to determine the impact of environmental factors on agricultural production.

Hambur Wang

Air pollution has emerged as a serious challenge for China, posing a threat to public health and hindering the progress of sustainable economic development. In response to air pollution and other environmental issues, the Chinese government introduced a new Environmental Protection Law in 2015. This paper investigates the impact of the new Environmental Protection Law's implementation and corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investments on air pollution and public subjective well-being. Using panel data at the macro level, we employ a difference-in-differences (DID) model, with Chinese provinces and municipalities as units of analysis, to examine the combined effects of the new Environmental Protection Law and changes in corporate ESG investment intensity. The study evaluates their impacts on air quality and public subjective well-being. Findings indicate that these policies and investment behaviors significantly improve public subjective well-being by reducing air pollution. Notably, an increase in ESG investment significantly reduces air pollution levels and is positively associated with enhanced well-being. These results underscore the critical role of environmental legislation and corporate social responsibility in improving public quality of life and provide empirical support for promoting sustainable development in China and beyond.

Priyanka N. deSouza, Amanda Rees, Emilia Oscilowicz et al.

Background Odors are a documented environmental justice challenge in Denver, Colorado. Complaints are an important modality through which residents express their concerns. Objective We investigated disparities in environmental justice related-variables based on home and workplace census block groups (race/ethnicity, education-levels, renter-occupied housing, median income and median home values, gentrification) based on locations of odor complaints as well as that of potentially malodorous facilities. We report key themes identified in complaints. Methods We obtained odor complaints for 2014-2023, and the locations of facilities required to submit odor management plans as of 2023 from the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment. We downloaded residential census block group-level socioeconomic data from the 2016-2020 American Community Survey; and workplace-based socioeconomic data from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics dataset for 2020. We categorized neighborhoods as gentrified or not based on a typology produced by the Urban Displacement Project. We assessed exposure to potentially malodorous facilities and complaints within each census block group and investigated exposure disparities by comparing distributions of environmental justice-related variables based on if a facility or a complaint has been made, and census block group-level odor intensity categories. Results Less privileged census block groups were significantly disproportionately burdened with potentially malodorous facilities. Importantly, our study also reveals disparities in the location of facilities, not just in traditional residence/-based environmental justice-related variables, but in workplace/-based factors, as well. We did not observe similar disparities for odor complaints. However, complaints were significantly higher in gentrified neighborhoods.

Ye Yuan, Yongtong Zhu, Jiaqi Wang et al.

IntroductionSpiking neural networks (SNNs), inspired by biological neural networks, have received a surge of interest due to its temporal encoding. Biological neural networks are driven by multiple plasticities, including spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), structural plasticity, and homeostatic plasticity, making network connection patterns and weights to change continuously during the lifecycle. However, it is unclear how these plasticities interact to shape neural networks and affect neural signal processing.MethodHere, we propose a reward-modulated self-organization recurrent network with structural plasticity (RSRN-SP) to investigate this issue. Specifically, RSRN-SP uses spikes to encode information, and incorporate multiple plasticities including reward-modulated spike timing-dependent plasticity (R-STDP), homeostatic plasticity, and structural plasticity. On the one hand, combined with homeostatic plasticity, R-STDP is presented to guide the updating of synaptic weights. On the other hand, structural plasticity is utilized to simulate the growth and pruning of synaptic connections.Results and discussionExtensive experiments for sequential learning tasks are conducted to demonstrate the representational ability of the RSRN-SP, including counting task, motion prediction, and motion generation. Furthermore, the simulations also indicate that the characteristics arose from the RSRN-SP are consistent with biological observations.

Grishin Igor, Selivanov Victor, Rudenko Marina et al.

It is generally accepted that UAVs - unmanned aerial vehicles, otherwise known as drones, are used only for military purposes. This is a misconception: since the 60s of the last century, Russian and American specialists have been building unmanned UAVs not only for the armies of their countries, but also for peaceful purposes. The purpose of the article is to study the possibilities and progress in the development of drones for civil and needs. In preparing and writing the article, such research methods as general scientific methods of historical and logical, abstract and concrete, analysis and synthesis, comparisons and analogies were used. The main result of the study is the conclusion that unmanned aerial vehicles can be successfully used for civilian purposes, and not just for military purposes. Drones are now actively used for agricultural and environmental purposes. They are called “eco-drones”. They are no different from ordinary ones; the prefix is designed to emphasize their purely peaceful, scientific purpose.

Lin Xiao, Tamás Szalai, Lluís Galbany et al.

Thanks to the mid-infrared capability offered by Spitzer, systematic searches of dust in SNe have been carried out over the past decade. Studies have revealed the presence of a substantial amount of dust over a broad range of SN subtypes. How normal SNe present mid-IR excess at later time and turn out to be dusty SNe can be affected by several factors, such as mass-loss history and envelope structure of progenitors and their explosion environment. All these can be combined and related to their environmental properties. A systematic analysis of SNe that exploded under a dusty environment could be of critical importance to measure the properties of the dust-veiled exploding stars, and whether such an intense dust production process is associated with the local environment. In this work, we firstly use the IFS data to study the environmental properties of dusty SNe compared to those of normal ones, and analyze correlations between the environmental properties and their dust parameters. We find that dusty SNe have a larger proportion located at higher SFR regions compared to the normal types. The occurrence of dusty SNe is less dependent on metallicity, with the oxygen abundance spanning from subsolar to oversolar metallicity. We also find the host extinction of dusty SNe scatters a lot, with about 40% of dusty SN located at extremely low extinction environments, and another 30% of them with considerably high host extinction of E(B-V)>0.6 mag.

Yu-Hsuan Ho, Zhewei Liu, Cheng-Chun Lee et al.

Understanding the key factors shaping environmental hazard exposures and their associated environmental injustice issues is vital for formulating equitable policy measures. Traditional perspectives on environmental injustice have primarily focused on the socioeconomic dimensions, often overlooking the influence of heterogeneous urban characteristics. This limited view may obstruct a comprehensive understanding of the complex nature of environmental justice and its relationship with urban design features. To address this gap, this study creates an interpretable machine learning model to examine the effects of various urban features and their non-linear interactions to the exposure disparities of three primary hazards: air pollution, urban heat, and flooding. The analysis trains and tests models with data from six metropolitan counties in the United States using Random Forest and XGBoost. The performance is used to measure the extent to which variations of urban features shape disparities in environmental hazard levels. In addition, the analysis of feature importance reveals features related to social-demographic characteristics as the most prominent urban features that shape hazard extent. Features related to infrastructure distribution and land cover are relatively important for urban heat and air pollution exposure respectively. Moreover, we evaluate the models' transferability across different regions and hazards. The results highlight limited transferability, underscoring the intricate differences among hazards and regions and the way in which urban features shape hazard exposures. The insights gleaned from this study offer fresh perspectives on the relationship among urban features and their interplay with environmental hazard exposure disparities, informing the development of more integrated urban design policies to enhance social equity and environmental injustice issues.

Jordan C. Richard, Eric M. Leis, Christopher D. Dunn et al.

Freshwater mussels (Unionida) are among the world’s most imperiled taxa, but the relationship between freshwater mussel mortality events and infectious disease is largely unstudied. We surveyed viromes of a widespread and abundant species (mucket, <i>Actinonaias ligamentina</i>; syn: <i>Ortmanniana ligamentina</i>) experiencing a mortality event of unknown etiology in the Huron River, Michigan, in 2019–2020 and compared them to viromes from mucket in a healthy population in the St. Croix River, Wisconsin and a population from the Clinch River, Virginia and Tennessee, where a mortality event was affecting the congeneric pheasantshell (<i>Actinonaias pectorosa</i>; syn: <i>Ortmanniana pectorosa</i>) population. We identified 38 viruses, most of which were associated with mussels collected during the Huron River mortality event. Viral richness and cumulative viral read depths were significantly higher in moribund mussels from the Huron River than in healthy controls from each of the three populations. Our results demonstrate significant increases in the number and intensity of viral infections for freshwater mussels experiencing mortality events, whereas individuals from healthy populations have a substantially reduced virome comprising a limited number of species at low viral read depths.