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Simple Summary: During overwintering diapause, the gynes of paper wasps (Polistes sp.) are mainly dormant in sheltered hibernacles, protecting them against predators and adverse weather conditions but hardly against low temperatures. By measuring the temperature inside hibernacles occupied by species from both Mediterranean (Italian; P. dominula, P. gallicus) and temperate (Austrian; P. dominula) climates (mean hibernacle temperatures: 8.5 °C and 3.2 °C, respectively), we were able to calculate the energetic demand of overwintering. The cumulative energetic costs differed between the populations. Costs were lowest for the P. dominula population from the cooler Austrian winter climate and significantly higher in P. dominula and P. gallicus from the warmer Italian climate. The lower costs of the temperate species were a result of the lower winter temperature and physiological acclimation processes. Energetic calculations with an assumed temperature increase of up to 3 °C due to climate change predict a dramatic increase of up to 40% in overwintering costs in all species. Gynes of paper wasps (Polistes sp.) spend the cold season in sheltered hibernacles. These hibernacles protect against predators and adverse weather conditions but offer only limited protection against low temperatures. During overwintering diapause, wasps live on the energy they store. We investigated the hibernacles' microclimate conditions of species from the Mediterranean (Italy, P. dominula, P. gallicus) and temperate (Austria, P. dominula) climates in order to describe the environmental conditions and calculate the energetic demand of overwintering according to standard metabolic rate functions. The temperatures at the hibernacles differed significantly between the Mediterranean and temperate habitats (average in Austria: 3.2 ± 5.71 °C, in Italy: 8.5 ± 5.29 °C). In both habitats, the hibernacle temperatures showed variance, but the mean hibernacle temperature corresponded closely to the meteorological climate data. Cumulative mass-specific energetic costs over the studied period were the lowest for the temperate P. dominula population compared with both Mediterranean species. The lower costs of the temperate species were a result of the lower hibernacle temperature and acclimation to lower environmental temperatures. Model calculations with an increased mean temperature of up to 3 °C due to climate change indicate a dramatic increase of up to 40% in additional costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and the resulting higher frequency of extreme weather events have a direct negative impact on mental health. Natural disasters are particularly associated with an increase in the prevalence of depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder. Indirect consequences of climate change, such as food shortages, economic crises, violent conflicts and forced migration, additionally represent severe psychological risk and stress factors. Climate anxiety and solastalgia, the distress induced by environmental change, are new psychological syndromes in the face of the existential threat posed by the climate crisis. Accordingly, a sustainable psychiatry must prepare for increasing and changing demands. The principles of psychiatric treatment need to focus more on prevention to reduce the overall burden on the healthcare system. Waste of resources and CO2 emissions in psychiatric treatment processes as well as infrastructure must be perceived and prevented. Psychiatric education, training and continuing education concepts should be expanded to include the topic of climate change in order to comprehensively inform and sensitize professionals, those affected and the public and to encourage climate-friendly and health-promoting behavior. More in-depth research is needed on the impact of climate change on mental health. The DGPPN becomes a sponsor and aims for climate neutrality by 2030 by committing to climate-friendly and energy-saving measures in the area of finance, in relation to the DGPPN congress as well as the DGPPN office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bamboo has being used as alternative raw material for construction, reinforcing fibers, paper production, among other applications. Although its recognized potentials as raw material, there are doubts about its environmental performance compared to traditional wood-based products, including paper production, which hinders bamboo-based paper plants in large scales. This study aims to assess the environmental performance of producing office paper from bamboo. Emergy synthesis (with 'm') and global warming potential indicators are calculated and compared with the traditional eucalyptus paper-based production. Results highlights the importance in including the renewability fractions of each input resources into emergy calculations for production systems with high human-labor intensity such as the bamboo agricultural production. Office paper produced from bamboo has similar renewability (28%), moderate environmental load (3.23 vs. 2.49), and emergy unsustainability (0.34 vs. 0.60) compared to paper produced from eucalyptus, but bamboo showed lower performance for global efficiency (568 vs. 442 sej/ton paper), emergy yield (1.09 vs. 1.49), and emergy investment (10.79 vs. 2.05). Focusing on global warming potential, office paper produced from bamboo releases 98 kgCO 2 eq. /ton paper compared to 56–267 kgCO 2 eq. /ton paper for eucalyptus. Notwithstanding, bamboo-based office paper demands four times more land area of agricultural production than eucalyptus, but it has a positive social aspect by requiring higher amount of direct human labor. This work shows the advantages of using eucalyptus rather than bamboo in producing office paper from an emergy and land demand perspectives, while global warming can still be considered inconclusive. Future efforts should consider a quantitative and qualitative analysis of human labor availability in both systems, as well an economic analysis to support discussions towards more sustainable office paper production from different raw materials. • Environmental load of bamboo and eucalyptus for office paper production are compared. • Bamboo has lower emergy performance than eucalyptus. • Including the renewability fraction of labor and services better reflects emergy results. • Bamboo paper emits 98kgCO2eq/ton, eucalyptus paper emits 56–267kgCO2eq/ton. • Bamboo paper needs 4x land compared to eucalyptus and requires more human labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent article in Development explores the molecular mechanisms behind embryonic diapause, a state of suspended development induced by nutrient deprivation. The study, conducted on mice, reveals that protein and carbohydrate depletion activate the nutrient sensors Gator1 and Tsc2, leading to embryonic diapause. The researchers also discuss the potential applicability of their findings to other mammalian species, including primates. The study expands our understanding of the role of mTOR in diapause and sheds light on how environmental stresses inhibit mTORC1 activity. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract Although paper production demonstrates high energy and water sensitivity in their life cycles, only a few systematic analyses have focused on these issues. Therefore, an energy and carbon coupled water footprint analysis of five types of Kraft wood pulp-based paper (i.e., specialty-, art-, household-, light coated-, and tissue paper) is conducted in this study to help improve the environmental performance of the paper industry. All investigations are conducted with an impact-oriented approach based on ISO standards. Results show that elemental-chlorine-free bleaching is more environmentally friendly than chlorination-alkaline extraction-hypochlorite bleaching, specifically for global warming, aquatic eutrophication, and human health (i.e., carcinogens and non-carcinogens). Gray water footprint along whole life cycles of each product is approximately twice of blue water footprint. Direct processes contribute approximately 50% to water scarcity, while their impact on aquatic eutrophication ranges from 0.002% to 50.72%. For other midpoints, indirect processes dominate the influences. Meanwhile, COD, BOD 5 , CO 2 , TP, Cr (Ⅵ), Ti, Hg, and As are key contributors. Finally, reusing sludge by direct burning in the recovery furnace, reclaiming organic compounds in black liquor before alkali recycling, and integrating black liquor gasification technology are expected to provide substantial environmental benefits. Amelioration of wastewater treatment, optimization of the national energy structure, and improvement of the efficiency of chemicals and freshwater are recommended. Highlights • Energy and carbon coupled water footprint analysis of Kraft pulp paper is applied. • The environmental benefit of black liquor recovery is dominated by reused alkali. • Direct processes contribute a lot to water scarcity and aquatic eutrophication. • COD, BOD, TP, and heavy metals are key substances. • Optimizing waste reuse and availability efficiency of chemicals is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpine skiing has been a popular activity since the 1950s. However, global warming leads to milder weather, melting glaciers, and reduced snowfall which deteriorates possibilities to skiing. The purpose of this paper is to sketch a contemporary history of alpine skiing and environmental awareness in Sweden through the narratives of ten alpine skiers. A temporal and spatial perspective contributes to make changes over time and meaning of places visible. The skiers share a fixed narrative: nature as central for skiing. This is not unproblematic since nature has been more adapted and modified and resulted in a crowded landscape. Nature is a space to be preserved but also as a space to enable skiing. In this constructed landscape, over time snowmaking is reconstructed to being normal, albeit not natural. A way to handle these changes is to care more for nature, travel less, ski more local, and show environmental awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diagnosis of dengue infection is still a critical factor determining success in the clinical management and treatment of patients. Here, the development of microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) utilizing a sandwich immunoassay on wax patterned paper functionalized with anti-dengue NS1 monoclonal antibodies for point-of-care detection of dengue NS1 (DEN-NS1-PAD) is reported. Various assay conditions, including the length of the channel and diluent, were optimized, and the response detected by the naked eye and digitized images within 20–30 min. The DEN-NS1-PAD was successfully tested in the field for detecting dengue NS1 in buffer, cell culture media, and human serum. The limit of detection (LoD) of the DEN-NS1-PAD obtained with the naked eye, scanner, and a smartphone camera was 200, 46.7, and 74.8 ng mL−1, respectively. The repeatability, reproducibility, and stability of the DEN-NS1-PAD were also evaluated. High true specificity and sensitivity in the serum of pediatric patients were observed. These evaluation results confirm that the DEN-NS1-PAD can potentially be used in point-of-care dengue diagnostics, which can significantly impact on the spreading of mosquito-borne diseases, which are likely to become more prevalent with the effects of global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aeration, as a process in pulp and paper wastewater treatment, uses the greatest share of the energy. Therefore, if the energy efficiency of the treatment has to be improved, the focus must be on aeration. A key finding from the trials conducted for this paper, with effluent from a paper and pulp mill, was that the oxygen transfer coefficient could be doubled and the chemical oxygen demand could be decreased by 25%, if the effluent was pre-treated with 30 mg/l of aluminium coagulant (equivalent to 9.4 tonnes per day of AVR to 20000 cubic metres of effluent). Decrease in oxygen requirement implies decreases in aeration energy use. Pulp and paper mill effluents are not as biodegradable as municipal sewage, and the improvement in oxygen transfer properties of the effluent will have a positive influence over a longer period of time in the biological treatment. If the sludge is digested anaerobically, pre-treatment will also result in doubling the potential for methane generation. A holistic analysis of modifications to processes entails a study of the economic and environmental consequences as well. While the economic aspect is beyond the scope of this paper, only the net global warming as an environmental impact category has been studied, by taking recourse to specific emission coefficients. Of the four dosages of ferric aluminium sulphate considered in this analysis, the net greenhouse gas emissions are the least – 426 kg carbon dioxide equivalent per day when the daily consumption is 9.4 tonnes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The warming climate in high-latitude permafrost regions is leading to permafrost degradation. Estimating seismic wave velocities in permafrost could help predict the geomechanical properties of permafrost and provide information to plan and design resilient civil infrastructure in cold regions. This paper evaluates the performance of seven models when predicting the seismic wave velocities of permafrost statistically; these models are the time-average, Zimmerman and King, Minshull et al., weighted equation, three-phase, Biot–Gassmann theory modified by Lee (BGTL), and Dou et al. models. The data used in the evaluation are from published laboratory and in situ data, which includes 369 data points for joint P and S wave velocities from nine publications and 943 unfrozen water content data points from 12 publications. The unfrozen water content that is used in these models is determined from a modified Dall'Amico's model that is proposed, which is evaluated against six existing unfrozen water content models based on soil temperature. This paper finds that saturated nonsaline permafrost generally shares similar linear trends between the P and S wave velocities, regardless of soil type, porosity, grain size, and temperature. Fitting all existing data, an empirical linear relationship is derived between the P and S wave velocities. Among the seven models evaluated, the Minshull et al. and BGTL models are the most accurate when predicting the seismic velocities of permafrost. Practical Applications: Unfrozen water content and seismic wave velocity models are valuable tools for quantitatively predicting permafrost dynamics and degradation, with practical applications in various engineering areas with permafrost environments. As permafrost thaws due to rising temperatures, these models could be used to guide the quantitative interpretation of geophysical changes in subsurface conditions, assess the potential for ground instability, and predict future permafrost degradation. Unfrozen water content models are used to predict the percentage of unfrozen water within permafrost, which links the changes with permafrost temperature. Unfrozen water content models of permafrost are essential when assessing permafrost thaw, thermal performance, heat transfer processes in permafrost, and the effect of civil infrastructure on permafrost (Chen et al.,). The seismic wave velocity models could help engineers assess the subsurface conditions in permafrost areas; this assessment is crucial for environmental and seismic monitoring, land use planning, infrastructure design and construction, and natural resources exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the global warming issue, China is prioritizing the development of clean energy sources such as wind and solar power under its "dual carbon target". However, the expansion of these resources is constrained by their intermittency and the spatial and temporal distribution of wind and solar energy. This paper systematically reviews the evolution of wind and solar energy reserves, their development potential, and their current status in China from a geographical perspective. In conjunction with existing research, this paper anticipates future exploration in the realm of wind–solar complementary development or multi-energy complementary development, viewed through the lens of resource quantity. The anticipated findings are intended to furnish a theoretical foundation for further studies on the development and utilization of wind and solar energy resources within China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews and evaluates a 30-year-long atmospheric CO2 data series measured at the Hegyhátsál tall-tower greenhouse gas monitoring site, a member of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW), US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and pan-European Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) networks. The paper also gives the technical description of the monitoring system and its changes over time and introduces the environment of the station. This low-elevation (248 m above mean sea level – m a.m.s.l.), mid-continental central European site shows a 3.90 ± 0.83 µmolmol-1 offset relative to the latitudinally representative marine boundary layer reference concentration, presumably due to European net anthropogenic emissions. The long-term trend (2.20 µmolmol-1yr-1) closely follows the global tendencies. In the concentration growth rate, the ENSO effect is clearly detectable with a 6–7-month lag time. The summer diurnal concentration amplitude is slightly decreasing due to the faster-than-average increase in the nighttime concentrations, which is related to the warming climate. The warming climate also caused a 0.96 ± 0.41 dyr-1 advance at the beginning of the summer CO2 -deficit season in the first half of the measurement period, which did not continue later. The summer CO2 -deficit season was extended by 9.0 ± 6.1 d during the measurement period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the policy/legal status of both multistream residues and potential secondary products ('symbiosis products') and whether there could be environmental benefits associated with the utilization of residues from integrated pulp and paper and carbon steel mills as raw materials for such secondary products. Waste-related European Union (EU) and Finnish policy and legal instruments were reviewed to identify potential constraints for, and suggested next steps in, the development of potential process industry residue-based symbiosis products. The products were soil amendment pellets, low-grade concrete, and mine filler. A global warming potential (GWP) assessment and an exergy analysis were applied to these potential symbiosis products. Some indicative GWP calculations of greenhouse gas emissions associating similar and/or analogous products based on virgin primary raw materials, more energy-intensive processes, and the alternative treatment of these residues as wastes are also presented. This study addresses GWP, exergy, and legal aspects in a holistic manner to determine the potential environmental benefits of secondary products within the EU legal framework. The GWP assessment and exergy analysis indicate that the utilization of multistream residues causes very low environmental burdens in terms of GWP. The utilization option can have potential environmental benefits in terms of GWP through process replacement and avoided landfilling and waste treatment impacts, as well as potentially through emission reductions from product replacement if suitable and safe applications can be identified. Waste regulation does not define the legal requirements under which utilizing residues in such novel concepts as introduced in this study would be possible, nor how waste status could be removed and product-based legislation be applied to the potential products instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to satisfy the demands for both safety and global warming reduction, a high-strength seismic reinforced steel bar is required in the structural steel market. Recent developments in computational thermodynamics and related application software have made it possible to design a suitable material as well as support engineers of steel manufacturing companies in the production of the designed material with minimum benchmarks in practical operations. This paper reports our recent success in developing grade 600 MPa reinforced steel bars for seismic safety in South Korea. First, conventional alloy design based on CALPHAD-type computational thermodynamics was carried out. For this purpose, a typical alloy system of Fe-0.30C-0.23Si-1.37Mn-0.14V-0.22Cu (in wt%) was selected, and thermodynamic and kinetic calculations were carried out using MatCalc and JMatPro software. Second, in order to reduce V content in the steel for economic reasons, a cooling process designed using finite element (FE) simulation based on the thermodynamic database was performed. For this application, Fe-0.34C-0.22Si-1.34Mn-0.04 V (in wt%) alloy was chosen, and the FE software ABAQUS was applied for modeling the TempCore process. The mechanical properties of the steel products with a diameter of 32 mm produced based on the simulated results satisfy the required properties for grade 600 MPa seismic reinforced steel bars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation has become one of the most effective ways to deal with ecological problems such as environmental pollution, global warming and resource depletion. A comprehensive and accurate understanding of regional differences and influencing factors of green innovation level is of great significance further to promote green innovation and to realize the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. This paper analyzes the regional differences of green innovation level in China from 2011 to 2020 by using GDI, Moran's I, Getis-Ord Gi*, and other indices at provincial, urban agglomeration and prefecture-level city scales, and identifies with geographical detectors, the leading factors influencing the spatial differentiation of green innovation level as well as their interactions. The results show that from 2011 to 2020, the overall level of green innovation in China gradually improves and the regional differences gradually decrease, and that the smaller the scale, the greater the regional differences. Green innovation level increases with the increase of urban agglomeration level and the expansion of city scale. There are differences in the spatial structure features of green innovation level at different scales, the degree of spatial agglomeration decreases as the scale reduces. At provincial and prefecture-level city scale, areas of higher green innovation level are mainly located at the east side of Hu Line, while at the urban agglomeration scale, they are mainly national urban agglomerations such as Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, and regional urban agglomerations such as Ha Chang and Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration. The leading factors influencing the spatial differentiation of green innovation level and their interactions vary with the different scales. At provincial and prefecture-level city scales, the core factors are venture capital level, quality of faculty and education level. On the scale of urban agglomeration, the core factors are venture capital level and economic level. JEL Classification: M10, O32, R12. Plain language summary: This paper analyzes the regional differences of green innovation level in China from 2011 to 2020 by using GDI, Moran's I, Getis-Ord Gi*, and other indices at provincial, urban agglomeration and prefecture-level city scales, and identifies with geographical detectors, the leading factors influencing the spatial differentiation of green innovation level as well as their interactions. The results show that from 2011 to 2020, the overall level of green innovation in China gradually improves and the regional differences gradually decrease, and that the smaller the scale, the greater the regional differences. Green innovation level increases with the increase of urban agglomeration level and the expansion of city scale. There are differences in the spatial structure features of green innovation level at different scales, the degree of spatial agglomeration decreases as the scale reduces. At provincial and prefecture-level city scale, areas of higher green innovation level are mainly located at the east side of Hu Line, while at the urban agglomeration scale, they are mainly national urban agglomerations such as Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, and regional urban agglomerations such as Ha Chang and Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration. The leading factors influencing the spatial differentiation of green innovation level and their interactions vary with the different scales. At provincial and prefecture-level city scales, the core factors are venture capital level, quality of faculty and education level. On the scale of urban agglomeration, the core factors are venture capital level and economic level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is causing unprecedented changes to permafrost regions with amplified effects in the Arctic through a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. This intensified climate warming thaws both the discontinuous and continuous permafrost resulting in changes in the mechanical properties of the soils found in these regions. Since permafrost regions constitute nearly 24% of the Northern Hemisphere, understanding the strength of soils in thawed conditions is essential to analyze the stability of existing structures, and to design safer and more economical infrastructure in these regions. Specifically, thawing of the permafrost is causing considerable reductions in its strength of soils, which may lead to massive landslides, foundation failures, and so forth. Since frozen soil is a multiphase structure that consists of soil particles, unfrozen water, ice, and air, each constituent will influence the mechanical properties. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge of the impact of temperature, volumetric ice content, unfrozen water content, and frozen density on the compressive strength, peak shear strength, residual shear strength, undrained shear strength, and tensile strength of soils. The undrained shear strength of soil is said to have a linear correlation with temperature. In addition, the undrained cohesion of soil was found to depend on the temperature, whereas the undrained friction angle of soil was significantly influenced by volumetric ice content. An increase in the volumetric ice content up to 80% to 90% will cause a reduction in the peak and residual deviatoric stresses. In addition, an increase in volumetric ice content resulted in an increase in the compressive strength of the soil. The tensile and compressive strengths were found to be functions of the unfrozen water content. Global warming is causing the temperature of the permafrost, which is permanently frozen ground, to rise. This paper provides valuable insights into the impact of the changes in this ambient temperature on the strength of frozen soils in permafrost regions for a wide range of applications. Such insights are crucial for the design of resilient and stable infrastructure, such as foundations, embankments, and retaining walls, in which consideration of the reduced strength of thawed soils due to climate change will be necessary. In addition, the knowledge will allow for better management of vulnerable areas prone to landslides and erosion caused by the weakened soil strength permitting the implementation of mitigation measures before lives are lost and costly economic damages are incurred. Finally, this information will aid in early warning systems, emergency planning, and decision making to minimize the impact of hazards on human settlements and infrastructure. In this paper, a review of the current state of knowledge regarding the strength of frozen soils and the associated fluctuations in these strengths because of a rise in temperature are presented. Guidelines on the best practices for sample preparation and testing along with correlations to estimate various strength parameters are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the impact of various climate forcing agents, such as aerosols, on extreme precipitation is socially and scientifically vital. While anthropogenic absorbing aerosols influence Earth's energy balance and atmospheric convection, their role in extreme events remains unclear. This paper uses convective‐resolving radiative‐convective‐equilibrium simulations, with fixed solar radiation, to investigate the influence of absorbing aerosols on extreme precipitation comprehensively. Our findings reveal an underappreciated mechanism through which absorbing aerosols can, under certain conditions, strongly intensify extreme precipitation. Notably, we demonstrate that a mechanism previously reported for much warmer (hothouse) climates, where intense rainfall alternates with multi‐day dry spells, can operate under current realistic conditions due to absorbing aerosol influence. This mechanism operates when an aerosol perturbation shifts the lower tropospheric radiative heating rate to positive values, generating a strong inhibition layer. Our work highlights an additional potential effect of absorbing aerosols, with implications for climate change mitigation and disaster risk management. Plain Language Summary: Aerosols, particles suspended in the atmosphere, can interact with the incoming solar radiation by scattering or absorbing it. Aerosol species that absorb solar radiation generate local warming of the atmosphere. This local warming changes the vertical profile of temperature and by that affects cloud and precipitation development. In this paper we use idealized computer simulations to investigate the effect of absorbing aerosols on precipitation, and specifically on extreme precipitation events in the tropics. We demonstrate that under certain conditions, absorbing aerosols can strongly enhance extreme precipitation even despite reducing the mean. We show that this trend can be explained by a mechanism previously reported for much warmer climate conditions than currently found on Earth, involving heating by radiation of the lower part of the troposphere. These results have implications for climate change mitigation and disaster risk management. Key Points: The effect of absorbing aerosol on extreme precipitation is examined in idealized convective‐resolving radiative‐convective‐equilibrium simulationsAerosol perturbation that shifts the lower tropospheric radiative heating rate to positive values strongly enhances extreme precipitationThis trend is explained by a mechanism reported before for hothouse climate conditions involving a shift into an "episodic deluge" regime [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions stemming from the extensive use of automobiles across the globe represent a critical environmental challenge, contributing significantly to phenomena such as global warming and the deterioration of air quality. To address these challenges, there is a critical need for research and development in electric vehicles (EVs) and their associated charging infrastructure, including off-board and on-board chargers (OBCs). This paper aims to bridge the gaps in existing review literature by offering a comprehensive review of both integrated and non-integrated OBCs for EVs, based on the authors' knowledge at the time of writing. The paper begins by outlining trends in the EV market, including voltage levels, power ratings, and relevant standards. It then provides a detailed analysis of two-level and multi-level power converter topologies, covering AC-DC power factor correction (PFC) and isolated DC-DC topologies. Subsequently, it discusses single-stage and two-stage non-integrated OBC solutions. Additionally, various categories of integrated OBCs (iOBCs) are explored, accompanied by relevant examples. The paper also includes comparison tables containing technical specifications and key characteristics for reference and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing global warming trend has resulted in the mass loss of most glaciers. The Urumqi Vally, located in the dry and cold zone of China, and its widely dispersed glaciers are significant to the regional ecological environment, oasis economic development, and industrial and agricultural production. This is representative of glaciers in Middle Asia and represents one of the world's longest observed time series of glaciers, beginning in 1959. The Urumqi Headwater Glacier No. 1 (UHG-1) has a dominant presence in the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). This paper supplies a comprehensive analysis of past studies and future modeling of glacier changes in the Urumqi Valley. It has received insufficient attention in the past, and the mass balance of UHG-1 was used to verify that the geodetic results and the OGGM model simulation results are convincing. The main conclusions are: The area of 48.68 ± 4.59 km2 delineated by 150 glaciers in 1958 decreased to 21.61 ± 0.27 km2 delineated by 108 glaciers in 2022, with a reduction of 0.47 ± 0.04 km2·a−1 (0.96% a−1 in 1958–2022). The glacier mass balance by geodesy is −0.69 ± 0.11 m w.e.a−1 in 2000–2022, which is just deviating from the measured result (−0.66 m w.e.a−1), but the geodetic result in this paper can be enough to reflect the glacier changes (−0.65 ± 0.11 m w.e.a−1) of the URB in 2000–2022. The future loss rate of area and volume will undergo a rapid and then decelerating process, with the fastest and slowest inflection points occurring around 2035 and 2070, respectively. High temperatures and large precipitation in summer accelerate glacier loss, and the corresponding lag period of glacier change to climate is about 2–3 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northwest China is much more sensitive to climate warming, and the climate has varied rapidly from warm and drought to warm and humid conditions. In addition, due to the complex terrain of Northwest China, the methods and parameterization schemes of different CMIP6 models, these models are mostly applied to arid areas in Northwest China or Central Asia, lacking climate data for plateau areas and eastern Lanzhou, specifically in filtering CMIP6 models and evaluating applicable models. In this paper, 34 CMIP6 climate models are used to evaluate and forecast future trends in Northwest China under the SSP126, SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios in the short, medium and long term. CMIP6 models of temperature and precipitation are identified by applying the interannual variability skill score (IVS) between CN05.1 datasets and historical CMIP6 models, which are suitable for Northwest China. Then, we assess the characteristics, warming and wetting deviations, and uncertainties in the prediction of climatic change according to CMIP6 models over Northwest China. The results show that CMIP6 models in precipitation and temperature applicable to Northwest China are AWI‐CM‐1‐1‐MR, BCC‐CSM2‐MR, FGOALS‐g3, INM‐CM4‐8, INM‐CM5‐0 and MRI‐ESM2‐0. The multi‐model ensemble mean (MMEM) has better capability than individual CMIP6 models in precipitation and temperature prediction. Spatiotemporal climatic change over Northwest China shows overall warming and wetting trends. The IVS provides the ability to estimate CMIP6 model simulation performance both temporally and spatially. The temperature simulation is quite good in the Tarim Basin and Hexi Corridor region, and the precipitation simulation is quite good in the plateau region, Altai Mountains, Tianshan Mountains and Hexi Corridor region. Cold and wet deviations occur in Northwest China due to the topography and few stations, which are common reasons. The main sources of uncertainties in temperature prediction during this century are model uncertainty (before the 2090s) and scenario variability (after the 2090s), and model uncertainty in precipitation for CMIP6 becomes the main source of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the bias adjustment and downscaling to a resolution of 1 × 1 km of daily temperature, precipitation and solar radiation of a multimodel ensemble of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) GCMs with the local observational data set BhutanClim for Bhutan and an analysis of the results for 1996–2100. The GCMs were selected based on their ability to reproduce local temporal and spatial precipitation patterns, resulting in a total of 14 models for each shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP). The results are shown for five global warming levels (GWLs) 1.5, 2, 3, 4 and 5°C, providing insight into the projected impacts of climate change at different warming levels. The daily temperature and precipitation data are publicly available, which is of great benefit for climate impact studies, such as ecological, hydrological or infrastructure‐related studies. In this paper, we discuss showcase climate indicators. Peak‐over‐threshold climate indicators such as hot days above 30°C are relevant for human health. In the capital city of Thimphu, these are currently rare, at 4 days per year, but might increase to more than 80 for GWL5.0. Precipitation increases in the summer months, but slightly decreases in the drier winter months. Accordingly, the 3‐month SPEI drought index is projected to increase in summer, but strongly decreases in the winter months, mostly pronounced in February. The increasing severity of late‐winter and spring droughts might have a negative impact on vegetation, wildfires and water supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freezing damage in spring is one of the serious agricultural meteorological disasters for winter wheat production in the Huang-Huai-Hai plain. In order to effectively identify freezing damages of winter wheat in spring, this paper used a deep learning long short-term memory model LSTM to identify the occurrences of freezing damages of winter wheat in spring in Henan province, which was an important winter wheat planting area in China. The spatiotemporal distributions and decadal changes of freezing damages of winter wheat in spring based on the multi-source meteorological, crop, and disaster data from 99 meteorological stations from 1981 to 2020 were explored. The results indicated that: (1) the optimized LSTM model effectively identified freezing damages of winter wheat in spring. The daily minimum temperature simulated by LSTM model from 2017 to 2020 showed an average absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 8.73% and a goodness of fit (R²) with 0.90 compared to the actual minimum temperature. Based on the disaster data and freezing damage index for winter wheat in spring, the actual disaster situations from 2017 to 2020 were found to be consistent with the simulated results by the optimized LSTM model. (2) From 1981 to 2020, the harm of mild freezing damage to winter wheat in spring in Henan province had gradually weakened, and the high frequency area of mild freezing damage moved from the Northeast to the East. The overall distribution of mild freezing damage of winter wheat in spring in Henan province between 1981 and 2020 was higher in the northeastern Henan, and lower in the southwestern and southeastern Henan, with an average frequency of 0-1.75 times·10y-1 during the past 40 years. The frequency of mild freezing damage of winter wheat in spring decreased per decade, gradually decreasing from 0.843 times per decade to 0.157 times per decade. The high frequency area of mild freezing damage of winter wheat in spring moved from the Northeast to the East. (3) From 1981 to 2020, the frequency of severe freezing damage of winter wheat in spring in Henan province showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. The high frequency area of severe freezing damage of winter wheat in spring moved from the Northeast to the East. The overall distribution of severe freezing damage during the 40a period was higher in the East than in the West, and higher in the North than in the South. The average frequency of severe freezing damage in the 40a period was 0-2.75times·10y-1. The frequency of severe freezing damage of winter wheat in spring increased from 0.508 times per decade to 0.857 times per decade and then decreased to 0.289 times per decade. The high frequency area of severe freezing damage moved from the Northeast to the East. The overall trend of severe freezing damage of winter wheat in spring in Henan Province was decreasing, but the frequency of extreme weather events under climate warming was increasing. Strengthening the researches on the impacts of major agricultural meteorological disasters on agricultural production in various regions in China under climate change was still one of the future research focuses. Various accuracy evaluation indicators of the deep learning LSTM model for identifying freezing damage of winter wheat in spring proposed in this study were improved, and the simulation results of freezing damage by LSTM model were basically consistent with the actual occurrences. Our results can provide ideas and methods for large-scale freezing damage identification of winter wheat under global climate change, and also have certain reference values for other agricultural meteorological disaster identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of farming communities worldwide to provide balanced diets for the growing world population is enunciated clearly in the second of the United Nation's sustainable development goals, namely 'End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture'. Success will be dependent on our ability to preserve the economic sustainability of livestock production in small-holder farming systems which will require regenerative approaches to reverse land degradation and retain biodiversity. Animal products are important components of world food baskets because their nutrient profile most closely resembles the dietary requirements of mankind. Key micronutrients, including iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12, zinc and iodine, are more readily available from animal-sourced foods, which are critical for a balanced diet for those with higher nutrient requirements such as growing children and pregnant and lactating women. The developing Asian economy of Laos, together with that of the Pacific Island nations of Vanuatu and Samoa provide some interesting contrasts in servicing the nutritional needs of their predominantly rural populations as their respective governments address the issues of undernutrition and hidden hunger. The paper explores some of the challenges that governments face in sustaining resilient animal production to supply essential nutrients for food baskets across our region. These include the broader contexts of resource availability, education, cultural traditions, socioeconomic status, gender equality and women's empowerment. The role of animal products in providing balanced diets to minimise nutrient deficiencies in the peoples of Laos, Vanuatu and Samoa is reviewed in this perspective. This article belongs to the Collection Sustainable Animal Agriculture for Developing Countries 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An enhanced ejector-subcooler CO 2 transcritical refrigeration cycle is presented. • A parametric analysis and optimization of the enhanced cycle and the baseline cycle are carried out. • The results suggest the integration of the proposed cycle could achieve more compact and reliable systems. • The maximum COP improvements are computed as 11.7%-17.5% when the gas cooler outlet temperature ranges from 35 °C to 50 °C and the evaporating temperature is -40 °C. The main drawback associated with CO 2 refrigeration systems is related to their performance reduction during transcritical operation at warm climate conditions, which may be compensated by better cycle architectures such as the split-cycle with subcooling or the flash-tank configuration, among others. Specifically, the use of standard gas-ejectors together with parallel compressors provides even better efficiency improvements, not being able to use them with low-temperature evaporators to prevent the triple point inside the ejector. This paper proposes an enhanced cycle with a gas ejector for two-stage compressor architectures with vapor injection from the flash-tank, which is able to operate at low evaporating temperatures and that provides a greater performance improvement the more severe the climate conditions are. The methodology conducted is based on a thermodynamic analysis that includes parametric evaluation and cycle optimization, comparing the results to a conventional CO 2 transcritical cycle with flash-tank and dynamic vapor injection architecture. The main results show that a maximum Coefficient of Performance improvement of 17.5% is achievable for transcritical operation at -40 °C evaporating temperature. The compressor displacement capacity required with the enhanced cycle is up to 9% lower for the same refrigeration demand, reducing the electrical consumption as well as the compressor expenditure. Moreover, greater vapor injection mass flow rates are obtained by the gas-ejector injection with discharge temperature reductions up to 18%, enhancing the system reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ejector cycles achieved higher performance than booster cycle within the gas cooler outlet temperature range of 31 and 50°C. • Multi-ejectors can be applied to ejector cycles with different configurations. • Up to 17% annual energy consumption reduction was found using ejector cycles. • Unit product exergy costs of ejector cycles are up to 28% lower than booster cycle. Restrictions on high-GWP refrigerants have made the use of transcritical CO 2 refrigeration systems widespread. Using transcritical booster refrigeration cycle in warm climates is unsatisfactory due to its high energy consumption. This paper presents theoretical analysis and performance comparison of three different transcritical CO 2 supermarket refrigeration cycle configurations with ejector expansion in Türkiye, which has different climatic regions. Bin-hour data were derived using hourly dry-bulb temperature values for provinces from 7 different regions in Türkiye. The applicability of multi-ejectors to each modeled cycle was also investigated. Annual energy consumption and environmental impact reductions of up to 17% were obtained using ejector expansion cycle compared to booster cycle. Ejector expansion cycles achieved higher performance than booster cycle up to 46% in terms of exergy efficiency at investigated ambient temperatures. Unit product exergy costs of the ejector cycles were found up to 28% lower than booster cycle. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The country's energy demand is experiencing rapid growth, and fossil fuels remain the primary resources to meet this increasing need. However, global warming poses a significant challenge for governments and industries worldwide. To address this issue, utilizing methane as a fossil fuel and implementing CO2 capture and sequestration can prove to be effective mitigation strategies. This paper presents an innovative idea to utilize unmineable coal seams in the Singrauli coal field for CO2 sequestration while extracting associated CBM to offset the cost of the sequestration process. The findings reveal that the field has great potential for CO2 sequestration. The estimated average maximum sorption capacities of CO2 and CH4 in the coal seams under in situ conditions of the basin are 39.50 m3/t and 11.15 m3/t, respectively. The total maximum sorption capacities of CO2 and CH4 in the potential coal seams are estimated to be 10,758.00 Mm3 and 3,215.00 Mm3, respectively. These results indicate that the unmineable coal seams in the Singrauli coalfield hold potential for CO2 sequestration and the extraction of available CBM from the coal seams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades of industrial growth, the amount of carbon dioxide has augmented rapidly in to the environment. CO2 rising level in the environment is enormously contributing to increase in surface temperature of earth. The paramount domineering issue is the worrying speed at which the CO2 amount is increasing in the atmosphere. The available CO2-reducing technologies have the potential to reduce emission cost of carbon dioxide. Numerous recommended techniques can be amended to existing plants based on nonrenewable type fuel source. To date, considerable work has been done for CO2 capturing using a variety of adsorbent either commercially available or synthesized by suitable activation technique. In this review paper, CO2 capture by adsorption using a variety of adsorbents such as carbonaceous, non-carbonaceous and modified adsorbents has been studied. Various methods of physical and chemical activation to produce activated carbon for enhanced CO2 capture from different class of biomass have been investigated. All the information in CO2 capture and related issues have been described, summarized and thoroughly presented in the review article with emphasis on date pits-derived activated carbons. The reported adsorption capacity for various class of adsorbent has been discussed in detail and presented in the review article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its focus on the species level of the Anthropos, there is growing concern that the Anthropocene analytic lacks the conceptual nuance needed to grapple with the unevenly distributed harms and responsibilities tied up with issues of biodiversity loss, global warming, and land use change. Conceptual variants like the patchy Anthropocene have been proposed to better capture the justice implications of these socio‐ecological crises, directing attention to their spatially ubiquitous yet context‐specific character. The figure of the plantation has come to play an important role in this scholarship due to the contribution intensive agriculture had made to these interlinking crises. Through empirical study of the regenerative agricultural movement, this paper reflects on how regenerative farmers use different sites (fields, soils, livestock stomachs) to apprehend their agro‐ethical responsibilities to more‐than‐human actors both near to and far from the landscapes they manage. Our aims here are two‐fold. First, we provide a more affirmative account of agricultural management than is currently offered by plantation farming: a model of food production that is not just 'in' the Anthropocene, but 'for' it. Second, we contribute to ongoing discussions unfolding in the social sciences around the tools needed to conceptualise the interlinking spatial and justice aspects of the Anthropocene transition. By bringing the patchy analytic into conversation with more established geographic writing on scale, volume, and horizontal connections, we show the merit of juxtaposing multiple models of spatial relation as a way of gaining ethical and conceptual traction on complex socio‐ecological issues. We argue that the 'polymorphic' spatial imaginaries of regenerative agriculturalists can offer some guidance on the tools needed to attend to the specificity of local Anthropocene outcomes in relation to socio‐ecological forces actuating the world at much greater spatio‐temporal scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding effective carbon reduction pathways is an important breakthrough in combating climate warming. In recent years, green financial policies have been recognized as important institutional initiatives globally. In China, the impact of green financial policies on carbon emission reduction and their paths remains to be explored. On the basis of panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2018, this paper examines the carbon emission reduction effect of China's green finance reform and innovation pilot policy (GFRIPP) from the perspective of financial decentralization. China's GFRIPP has a significant carbon emission reduction effect. Unlike the provinces that did not implement the GFRIPP, the provinces that implemented the GFRIPP experienced a 0.053 reduction in their carbon emission intensity growth rate, and financial decentralization weakened the carbon emission reduction effect of the policy. The impact of GFRIPP on carbon emissions also has significant regional heterogeneity. The carbon emission reduction effect of GFRIPP in the central and western regions is more significant than in the eastern region and is more vulnerable to the weakening impact of financial decentralization. On the basis of the above conclusions, the role of green finance in promoting carbon emission reduction should be given more attention, the communication between central and local policies should be strengthened, a scientific green financial system should be formulated and implemented, and carbon neutrality must be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming, mainly caused by human activities, demands urgent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Establishing a carbon market central to this effort involves the allocation of carbon emission quotas. The uncertainty of consensus cost in the carbon market will bring the risk of loss to the whole consensus process. In this paper, we focus on solving the problem of group consensus decision with risk averse decision maker. First, three new distributionally robust two-stage minimum asymmetric adjustment cost consensus models based on conditional value at risk (CVaR) are proposed. Considering that it is difficult to obtain historical decision-making data with risk in the carbon market, a novel box ambiguous set and a polyhedron ambiguous set are constructed, respectively. The risk expectation cost of group consensus decision-making problem under the worst-case condition is measured. Then, a computable linear equivalent form of the proposed model is derived in order to facilitate calculation. Finally, numerical cases based on carbon emission quotas are carried out. The numerical results show that the consensus cost of this method is better than the results under the stochastic programming method, and it brings new solutions to the group decision-making progress in the allocation of carbon emission quotas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue aims to display the breadth and depth of qualitative studies of the environment. In terms of breadth, the work here demonstrates that sociology should have a capacious definition of the environment and treat it with the same scrutiny as other folk concepts. Doing so—with the caveat that individual studies need to carefully operationalize 'the environment'—reveals how a sociology of the environment has great deal to contribute to our understandings of community, culture, and inequality. In terms of depth, these articles develop new theoretical and empirical areas for environmental sociology, expanding the subfield internationally and bringing it up to date in terms of its relevance for understanding our current moment of pandemic, global warming, and nature fetishization. The outstanding papers collected in this special issue provide manifold lessons, connect to other sociological subfields, and, together, generate a sense of urgency for more qualitative studies of the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractWe live in troubling times. Amongst global political instability, rising economic inequality and a rapacious Western consumerist lifestyle, we face the impending risks of global warming and ecological collapse. In this short opinion paper, we bring this topic to the agenda of ecological psychology in the hope of stimulating fruitful conversation. To do so, we ask how ecological psychologists should conceptualize the environment in these precarious times. We will argue that the current ecological catastrophe shows that the environment should not be described simply in terms of affordances, but as an ecosystem on which many affordances depend. Not only does this conceptualization hold scientific implications, it speaks to an active morality that could help us change our ways, and play our part in holding open a just future for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates the enhanced resilience performance of steel structures with viscoelastic friction dampers (VEFDs) based on numerical simulations of building responses. Velocity-dependent dampers, which are widely used to increase seismic resilience, may increase the axial force of the column under strong earthquake conditions because the generated force depends on the interstory velocity. This often leads to plastic hinges being placed on the columns of the structure, which can lead to structural collapse via weak-layer failure. In addition, while viscoelastic dampers are effective in reducing story drift, peak acceleration, and peak velocity, the proposed hybrid VEFD offers the additional benefit of reducing base shear via the friction damper. Simulation results for 10- and 20-story buildings with the novel VEFDs show that the proposed dampers can control drift and plastic deformation in structural members. Nonlinear dynamic analysis of 20 far-fault seismic ground motion records conducted using OpenSees also reveals lower peak absolute floor acceleration and velocity. Overall, the results suggest that the proposed VEFD has excellent potential for use in the performance-based seismic design of structures because it can reduce both structural and nonstructural damage. The results verify the damper's effectiveness in controlling story drift without a significant increase in the base shear. Collapse probability assessment also demonstrates the collapse resistance of moment-resisting frames when used in conjunction with VEFDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of recently accelerating global warming, the changes in vegetation trends are vital for the monitoring of the dynamics of both whole ecosystems and individual species. Detecting changes within the time series of specific forest ecosystems or species is very important in the context of assessing their vulnerability to climate change and other negative phenomena. Hence, the aim of this paper was to identify the trend change points and periods of greening and browning in multi-annual time series of the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) of four main forest-forming tree species in the temperate zone: pine, spruce, oak and beech. The research was conducted over the last two decades (2002–2022), and was based on vegetation indices data derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). To this end, several research approaches, including calculating the linear trends in the moving periods and BEAST algorithm, were adapted. A pattern of browning then greening then constant was detected for coniferous species, mostly pine. In turn, for broadleaved species, namely oak and beech, a pattern of greening then constant was identified, without the initial phase of browning. The main trend change points seem to be ca. 2006 and ca. 2015 for coniferous species and solely around 2015 for deciduous ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first data on the biodiversity of lithophytic algae from Bulgarian megaliths obtained after the application of the direct sampling method, subsequent cultivation, and processing by light microscopy. A rich algal flora was found: 90 species and 1 variety of 65 genera from Cyanoprokaryota/Cyanobacteria (29 species, 13 genera), Chlorophyta (40 species and 1 variety, 38 genera), Streptophyta (5 species, 1 genus), and Ochrophyta (16 species, 13 genera). Among them were the globally rare Pseudodictyochloris multinucleata (Chlorophyta), found for the first time in such lowland and warm habitats, and Scotiella tuberculata (Chlorophyta), for which this is the first finding in the country. Three of the recorded species are conservationally important. The low floristic similarity between the sites (0–33%) shows the diversity of the algal flora, with no common species found for all the megaliths studied. The most widespread were the strongly adaptive and competitive Stichococcus bacillaris, Apatococcus lobatus, and Chloroidium ellipsoidium (Chlorophyta). The correlations estimated between the species number and substrate temperature (18.1–49.6 °C) suggest the prospect of future research related to the impact of global warming. In addition, the study points to the safety aspects as it revealed species from nine potentially toxin-producing cyanoprokaryotic genera that could be harmful to visitors' health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the radiation budget and its temporal variability over Poland. The data analysis is based on the MERRA-2 reanalysis for the years 1980–2020. During the last four decades, the enhancement of climate warming has been observed, which coincides with the changes in the radiation budget. Positive and statistically significant trends at the top of the atmosphere (TOA; 0.7 ± 0.2 W/m2/10 year) and on the Earth's surface (1.5 ± 0.2 W/m2/10 year) radiation budget (net downward flux) are mainly a consequence of changes in the amount of aerosol and greenhouse gases (GHG). According to MERRA-2, the AOD during this period decreased by − 0.19 (at 550 nm), which is 87% of the long-term (1980–2021) mean value (0.22). The reduction of AOD is due mainly to the decline of non-absorbing sulfate particles, which leads to a reduction of single-scattering albedo (SSA) by − 0.008 per decade and Angstrom exponent (AE) by − 0.06 per decade (both trends statistically significant). On the other hand, the GHG concentration increased by 4.9%/10 year and 3%/10 year, respectively, for CO2 and CH4. The total column of water vapor increased (1.3%/10 year), while ozone decreased (− 1%/10 year). Despite the fact that cloud cover and cloud optical depth (COD) decreased (− 1.8%/10 year and − 1.0%/10 year), the impact of cloud on temporal variability radiation budget is small. It can be explained by nearly compensated shortwave (SW) cooling and longwave (LW) heating effects. During the analysis period, near-surface air temperature increased by 2.0 °C. The estimated increase in SW net surface radiation (7.9 W/m2) leads to climate warming by 0.8 °C, which is a consequence mainly of the reduction of aerosol (0.4 °C) and cloud cover (0.2 °C). The impact of the change of SW radiation on air temperature is more pronounced during the warm season, while during the cold, air temperature change is controlled mainly by the variability of air mass advection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews and evaluates a 30-year-long atmospheric CO2 data series measured at Hegyhátsál tall-tower greenhouse gas monitoring site, a member of WMO GAW, NOAA, and ICOS networks (id. code: HUN). The paper also gives the technical description of the monitoring system, and that of the physical environment of the station. This low elevation (248 m above m.s.l.), mid-continental Central European site shows a 3.90±0.83 µmol mol‑1 offset relative to the latitudinally representative marine boundary layer reference concentration presumably due to the European net anthropogenic emissions. The long-term trend (2.20 µmol mol‑1 year‑1) closely follows the global tendencies. In the concentration growth rate, the ENSO effect is clearly detectable with a 6–7 months lag-time. The summer diurnal concentration amplitude is slightly decreasing due to the faster-than-average increase of the nighttime concentrations, which is related to the warming climate. The warming climate also caused a 0.96±0.41 day year‑1 advance in the beginning of the summer CO2-deficit season in the first half of the measurement period, which did not continue later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration has been increasing rapidly since the Industrial Revolution, which has led to unequivocal global warming and crucial environmental change. It is extremely important to investigate the interactions among atmospheric CO2, the physical climate system, and the carbon cycle of the underlying surface for a better understanding of the Earth system. Earth system models are widely used to investigate these interactions via coupled carbon-climate simulations. The Chinese Academy of Sciences Earth System Model version 2 (CAS-ESM2.0) has successfully fixed a two-way coupling of atmospheric CO2 with the climate and carbon cycle on land and in the ocean. Using CAS-ESM2.0, we conducted a coupled carbon-climate simulation by following the CMIP6 proposal of a historical emissions-driven experiment. This paper examines the modeled CO2 by comparison with observed CO2 at the sites of Mauna Loa and Barrow, and the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) CO2 product. The results showed that CAS-ESM2.0 agrees very well with observations in reproducing the increasing trend of annual CO2 during the period 1850–2014, and in capturing the seasonal cycle of CO2 at the two baseline sites, as well as over northern high latitudes. These agreements illustrate a good ability of CAS-ESM2.0 in simulating carbon-climate interactions, even though uncertainties remain in the processes involved. This paper reports an important stage of the development of CAS-ESM with the coupling of carbon and climate, which will provide significant scientific support for climate research and China's goal of carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon building is an unavoidable development trend in the construction industry, especially in the critical moment of global warming, it is necessary to make a comprehensive evaluation of low-carbon buildings. At this stage, low carbon building has become an important direction in the construction field, and whether the low carbon building reaches the corresponding standards and the advantages played by the low carbon field need to be assessed with perfect evaluation indexes. Based on this, this paper constructs a low-carbon building evaluation system from the whole life cycle of the building using the hierarchical analysis method (AHP) and BP neural network method. Firstly, the definition and influencing factors of low-carbon buildings are analyzed, secondly, the evaluation index system of low-carbon buildings is constructed, and then the evaluation index system of low-carbon buildings is verified by using the hierarchical analysis method, and the results show that the evaluation results based on the hierarchical analysis and the BP neural network method are more accurate than those of the traditional hierarchical analysis method. The results show that the evaluation results based on hierarchical analysis and BP neural network are more accurate than the traditional hierarchical analysis method. It shows that the BP neural network method can effectively reduce the influence of subjective factors in the hierarchical analysis method and improve the objectivity of the evaluation results. On this basis, this paper proposes countermeasures to promote the development of low-carbon buildings, in order to provide a certain reference for the long-term development of low-carbon buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the second most predominant greenhouse gas, methane-targeted emission mitigation holds the potential to decelerate the pace of global warming. Satellite remote sensing is an important monitoring tool, and we review developments in the satellite detection of methane. This paper provides an overview of the various types of satellites, including the various instrument parameters, and describes the different types of satellite retrieval algorithms. In addition, the currently popular methane point source quantification method is presented. Based on existing research, we delineate the classification of methane remote sensing satellites into two overarching categories: area flux mappers and point source imagers. Area flux mappers primarily concentrate on the assessment of global or large-scale methane concentrations, with a further subclassification into active remote sensing satellites (e.g., MERLIN) and passive remote sensing satellites (e.g., TROPOMI, GOSAT), contingent upon the remote sensing methodology employed. Such satellites are mainly based on physical models and the carbon dioxide proxy method for the retrieval of methane. Point source imagers, in contrast, can detect methane point source plumes using their ultra-high spatial resolution. Subcategories within this classification include multispectral imagers (e.g., Sentinel-2, Landsat-8) and hyperspectral imagers (e.g., PRISMA, GF-5), contingent upon their spectral resolution disparities. Area flux mappers are mostly distinguished by their use of physical algorithms, while point source imagers are dominated by data-driven methods. Furthermore, methane plume emissions can be accurately quantified through the utilization of an integrated mass enhancement model. Finally, a prediction of the future trajectory of methane remote sensing satellites is presented, in consideration of the current landscape. This paper aims to provide basic theoretical support for subsequent scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been fruitful publications on thermal comfort of urban residential buildings in China. However, there is a lack of reviews on this topic to perform a comprehensive analysis and find opportunities to meet occupants' thermal comfort needs while improving building energy efficiencies. This paper addresses this issue by presenting a systematic review on the advancements in research on thermal comfort in urban residential buildings in China. Firstly, two common thermal comfort research approaches, i.e., field studies and laboratory studies, are discussed. Secondly, eleven main thermal comfort evaluation indicators are summarized. Finally, this paper analyzes the thermal comfort survey data from different researchers, discusses the impacts of adaptive behaviors on human thermal comfort, and provides recommendations for future research on urban residential thermal comfort. It was found that people have higher and higher requirements for their indoor thermal environment as time goes by, especially in the winter; the thermoneutral temperature is higher in warmer climate regions in the summer but lower in the winter than in colder climate regions; the thermoneutral temperature tends to increase with the indoor air temperature due to an adaptation to the indoor thermal environment. The outcomes of this paper provide valuable information on thermal comfort behaviors of urban residents in different climate zones in China, which can serve as a resource for the academic community conducting future research on thermal comfort and assist policymakers in enhancing building energy efficiencies without compromising the occupants' comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses trending AI foundation models, especially emerging computer vision foundation models and their performance in natural landscape feature segmentation. While the term foundation model has quickly garnered interest from the geospatial domain, its definition remains vague. Hence, this paper will first introduce AI foundation models and their defining characteristics. Built upon the tremendous success achieved by Large Language Models (LLMs) as the foundation models for language tasks, this paper discusses the challenges of building foundation models for geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) vision tasks. To evaluate the performance of large AI vision models, especially Meta's Segment Anything Model (SAM), we implemented different instance segmentation pipelines that minimize the changes to SAM to leverage its power as a foundation model. A series of prompt strategies were developed to test SAM's performance regarding its theoretical upper bound of predictive accuracy, zero-shot performance, and domain adaptability through fine-tuning. The analysis used two permafrost feature datasets, ice-wedge polygons and retrogressive thaw slumps because (1) these landform features are more challenging to segment than man-made features due to their complicated formation mechanisms, diverse forms, and vague boundaries; (2) their presence and changes are important indicators for Arctic warming and climate change. The results show that although promising, SAM still has room for improvement to support AI-augmented terrain mapping. The spatial and domain generalizability of this finding is further validated using a more general dataset EuroCrops for agricultural field mapping. Finally, we discuss future research directions that strengthen SAM's applicability in challenging geospatial domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic and geographic factors characterizing local conditions, as well as the ecological state of the external environment, have a direct effect on human health, morbidity, and life expectancy. The paper considers the basic concepts of medical ecology, a pathogenetic role of environmental atmospheric pollution in the development of environmentally induced and environmentally dependent diseases associated with exposure to meteorological factors. In addition to the major hygienic risk factors affecting the public health (a level of air, water, and soil pollution), the levels of acoustic and electromagnetic background, the type of human nutrition, architectural and planning conditions of human life are of significant importance. Global climate warming causes numerous environmental changes, primarily an increase in surface air temperature, which in turn entails global changes in weather conditions that lead to various weather anomalies. Human health is directly dependent on environmental conditions and a degree of adaptation to them. The paper highlights the issues of diagnosing environmentally induced diseases and measures to counteract their spread. Based on the system diagnosis using physiological indicators of human health and the integration of the adaptation and nosological approaches, a hardware-software complex has been developed and introduced into medical practice. Corrective technologies of regenerative medicine that are used for ecologically dependent pathologies are described. Their application in the process of the complex sanatorium and resort treatment is most effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, under the influence of changes in natural conditions and human social activities, the issue of global warming has become increasingly prominent. So it is crucial to effectively predict the future trend of temperature changes. In this regard, from the perspective of statistical models, this paper studies a new combination model, namely the new GM-ARIMA model, based on linear combination of weight calculation. Furthermore, it also analyzes the prediction effect through comparative experiments and uses multiple performance evaluation indicators, so as to prove the scientificity and effectiveness of the proposed combination model in this paper. Finally, according to the experimental results, it can be clearly found that among the four methods for calculating the weights of linear combination, namely the equal weight method, the variance reciprocal method, the residual reciprocal method and the standard deviation method, the combination model using the standard deviation method for calculation has the highest prediction accuracy, so it is finally decided to use this method to build the combination model (namely S-GM-ARIMA). In addition, the experimental results show that the S-GM-ARIMA model achieves the best prediction results compared to other existing prediction models. Among them, the MAE of S-GM-ARIMA decreases by 10.38% and 16.22% compared to the GM(1,1) model and ARIMA model, respectively. The RMSE of S-GM-ARIMA decreases by 4.52% and 10.03% compared to the GM(1,1) model and ARIMA model, respectively. And the MAPE of S-GM-ARIMA decreases by 10.34% and 16.17% compared to the GM(1,1) model and ARIMA model, respectively. Therefore, the new GM-ARIMA combination model studied in this paper has relatively higher prediction accuracy when making predictions, and can be used to make more effective and accurate predictions of global average temperature. This study can also provide reference for countries in making decisions to address global warming issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urolithiasis is a disease of the genitourinary system, which is defined as the presence of urinary stones at any place in the urinary tract, resulting from the precipitation reaction of chemical compounds. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the important role of selected environmental factors (climate, ambient temperature) and the type of profession performed in the development of urolithiasis. In this field, the literature including original and review papers related to the epidemiology, pathogenesis and risk factors of urolithiasis was analyzed. The study used electronic databases such as Medline, Web of Science and Google Scholar. The prevalence of urolithiasis has increased in recent decades in both developed and developing countries. It is believed that this growing trend is associated with lifestyle changes such as the lack of physical activity, poor eating habits and global warming. Many factors are responsible for the formation of urinary stones. In literature, there is a division into individual and environmental factors. Today, external factors in the form of climate changes (global warming), geographical conditions and seasonal fluctuations, and the type of profession performed are becoming more and more important in the context of the occurrence of urinary stones. Currently, the presence of urolithiasis is becoming a significant problem all over the world and searching for causes is not easy, but particular attention should be paid to certain predispositions resulting from environmental factors, such as ambient temperature and the type of work performed. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2019;32(6):761-75. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensification of global warming has resulted in extremely hot weather in many parts of the world, posing a severe challenge to the health and safety of outdoor workers. Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) textiles with no energy input requirements can effectively achieve temperature management. However, few wearable radiative cooling devices have been successfully prepared. This study demonstrates a radiative cooling paper (RCP) with tunable stiffness for the thermal management of human head by using SiO 2 fibers and fumed SiO 2 as emitters. The as-prepared RCP exhibits high sunlight reflectivity of 0.97, and high emissivity of 0.91 in the atmospheric window. The results demonstrate that the RCP hat can prevent hair from overheating by reducing the temperature by an average of 12.9 °C compared with a white cotton hat under peak daylight conditions. Besides, the RCP exhibits outstanding integrated properties of high mechanical properties, waterproofness, and air permeability. Therefore, it is more suitable than other textiles for the manufacture of radiative cooling hats, and offers a promising solution to solve the problem of head thermal management in outdoor conditions. [Display omitted] • This study designed and prepared a ceramic fiber paper with remarkable passive daytime radiative cooling performance. • The radiative cooling paper (RCP) exhibits good impact strength, superhydrophobicity, and air permeability. • The RCP is suitable for the manufacture of radiative cooling hat to achieve the thermal management of human head. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Currently there are several methodologies available for estimating the carbon footprint of products. In this study a comparison has been made between the outcomes and the implications of three different methodologies applied to office paper: (1) the ISO 14040/14044 standards limited to the analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the corresponding impact category global warming; (2) the PAS 2050; and (3) the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) framework. The carbon footprint of office paper from cradle-to-costumer is 4.64, 4.74 and 4.29gCO2eq per A4 sheet according to, respectively, the ISO 14040/14044 standards, the PAS 2050 and the CEPI framework. The ISO 14040/14044 standard methodology allows the quantification of 98% of the total GHG emissions with the smallest effort in data collection. The major hot spots are the stages of eucalypt pulp and office paper production and chemical and fuel production for all methodologies. General methodologies such as those analysed in this study are not enough for the comparison of products. More specific rules, such as Product Category Rules, that limit the degree of freedom in the choice of the functional unit, system boundary, allocation rules, data quality, between others, should be developed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper documents new country records of five alien armoured scale insect species (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Diaspididae), in India, their possible spread and probable threat to crops and ornamental plants grown indoors and outdoors. The insects were mostly collected in open fields, and on indoor plants grown in residential and office areas. The following alien species are recorded from India for the first time: Duplaspidiotus claviger (Cockerell), Lepidosaphes laterochitinosa Green, Kuwanaspis howardi (Cooley), Rutherfordia malloti (Rutherford) and Aulacaspis alisiana Takagi. Each of the five species is diagnosed using a combination of unique field and slide-mounted identification characters. Ecological information on host-plants, distribution, and economic importance is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on various issues related to agriculture in Australia including shortage of agricultural graduates, global warming, and retention of prime agricultural land as discussed in the papers in the agricultural competitiveness issue. Topics include establishment of intern programs to attract entrants to agriculture courses, sequestration of carbon, and development of national standards by federal government for protection of prime agricultural land from mining and encroachment.

In recent decades, the atmospheric moisture capacity has increased globally in concert with global warming, with a particularly notable warming trend in Arctic regions. However, due to limited observational data, the variation and causes of polar precipitation, especially large-scale precipitation events associated with Arctic cyclones, remain unclear. In this paper, GPM satellite data are compared with ERA5 reanalysis data to explore the characteristics of summer precipitation at the northern margin of the Eurasian region (NMER) and the influence of cyclone activity on precipitation. It is revealed that high precipitation values in the Arctic region, as indicated by the GPM and ERA5 data, are mainly concentrated at the NMER. However, the GPM data show an overall larger precipitation amount, while the station observations more closely agree with the ERA5 precipitation changes at the NMER. The cyclone identification results indicate that summer cyclones at the NMER are mainly distributed in the Barents, Kara and Laptev Seas, and the precipitation contribution rate of ERA5-derived cyclones is 37.35%, which is significantly higher than that of GPM-derived cyclones (29.47%). Furthermore, high cyclone activity results in more intense precipitation, with the top 5% of the strongest cyclones contributing 60% (GPM) and 40% (ERA5) to the total cyclonic precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]