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The summer of 2023 highlighted the growing threat of wildfires in isolated areas, with Maui Island in Hawaii experiencing one of its largest wildfires. Our study employs a multi-source approach, integrating high-resolution optical data, thermal infrared data, and demographic information to assess the environmental, built, and social impacts of this event. Our innovative tri-environmental framework reveals significant vegetation degradation, land cover change, and disproportionate effects on various demographic groups. The fire caused extensive damage, with residential properties incurring 77.6% of the total losses, equating to approximately $563.2 million. Social impacts were profound, particularly among females, children, and the elderly, with employment and commuting disruptions affecting both low- and high-income groups. The study highlights the effectiveness of combining dasymetric mapping with real-time satellite data to refine population distribution estimates in affected areas. Our findings are applicable beyond wildfires, offering valuable insights into disaster response and mitigation strategies across various natural hazards like floods and earthquakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behavior of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has undergone significant changes since the year 2000. Meanwhile, a notable westward shift and strengthening in the atmosphere‐to‐ocean Bjerknes feedback were observed. We find that this shift can be primarily attributed to a weakened relationship between the zonal gradient of precipitation anomaly and that of sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly since 2000.This weakened relationship is a comprehensive manifestation of reduced El Niño‐related precipitation anomalies in the central‐eastern tropical Pacific and increased anomalies in the western tropical Pacific. These changes are connected to the mean state change in the tropical Pacific after 2000, where the cooler background SSTs in the central‐eastern tropical Pacific suppress upward motion, and the warmer background SSTs in the western tropical Pacific promote upward motion in the overlying atmosphere. Our findings offer a potential explanation for the westward shift and strengthening in the atmosphere‐to‐ocean Bjerknes feedback since 2000. Plain Language Summary: The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate phenomenon that plays a major role in global weather and climate systems. The development of ENSO is mainly attributed to a positive feedback known as the Bjerknes feedback, which represents the atmospheric response to the oceanic forcing and vice versa. It is noted that ENSO has behaved differently since the year 2000. Concurrently, a pronounced westward movement and strengthening in the atmosphere‐to‐ocean Bjerknes feedback have also been observed. Analyses show that changes in the Bjerknes positive feedback are largely due to a weakened relationship between anomalous rainfall patterns and sea surface temperatures (SSTs). This implies that during El Niño events, there is less rainfall in the central and eastern parts of the tropical Pacific, and more rainfall in the western tropical Pacific. These changes are linked to a cooling of background SSTs in the central‐eastern tropical Pacific, which reduces the upward air movement and rainfall in that region, and a warming of background SSTs in the western Pacific, which promotes the upward air movement and rainfall. Key Points: Westward shift and strengthening of the atmosphere‐to‐ocean Bjerknes feedback in the tropical Pacific have been observed since 2000A weakened precipitation‐to‐sea surface temperature (SST) response drives the changes in the atmosphere‐to‐ocean Bjerknes feedbackChanges in precipitation‐to‐SST response are linked to the interdecadal shift in the tropical Pacific background state [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Victoria mode (VM), similar to the Pacific meridional mode (PMM), is forced by North Pacific Oscillation atmospheric variability. Both the boreal spring VM and PMM can trigger the onset of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events in the following winter. Previous studies have examined the precursor relationship between the PMM and ENSO based on a subset of models drawn from the North American Multimodel Ensemble (NMME) system. They suggested that the PMM can act as a precursor to El Niño events, whereas it fails to predict La Niña events. Utilizing the hindcasts of these models from NMME, this study further investigates the role of the VM as an ENSO predictor to examine the real usefulness of the VM for ENSO prediction. When compared with the PMM, the VM can predict both El Niño and La Niña events with some skill, showing that the VM seems to be a more reliable predictor of ENSO. We found that the unique role of the VM in ENSO prediction originates from the symmetric impact of the VM on ENSO events. The VM, as a basin-scale sea surface temperature (SST) pattern, combines the role of the SST over the subtropical northeastern Pacific that is similar to the PMM in initializing El Niño events with that of the SST over the western North Pacific that is different from PMM in initializing La Niña events, resulting in the symmetric effect of the VM on ENSO prediction. Thus, it is useful to consider VM variability as a reference for ENSO prediction. Significance Statement: We aim to investigate whether the robust relationship between the boreal spring Victoria mode (VM) and the following winter ENSO in observations and climate models has any real predictive use, thus bridging the gap between theory and practical application. Our analyses based mainly on model hindcast datasets examine the forecasting skill of the VM for El Niño and La Niña events. We also reveal the symmetric impact of VM on ENSO through the analysis of observations, which explains the VM's skill in predicting both El Niño and La Niña events. This study deepens our understanding of the effect of North Pacific SST variability on ENSO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the acceleration of urbanization, there is an urgent need to build more transportation facilities to alleviate travel pressure. However, during the construction of a subway station, a large amount of muck is generated and must be transported to a treatment center. In response to transportation policies, this paper establishes a regional and time-limited transportation model for muck trucks based on their departure time points. The model aims to dispatch the least number of vehicles and complete all transportation tasks as quickly as possible, taking into account constraints such as restricted travel time. This paper uses the NSGA-II algorithm with multi-segment encoding to solve this problem, and numerical experiments are conducted to analyze the performance of the proposed method. The results indicate that the improved algorithm has better convergence and distribution than the standard NSGA-II. The study also validates the effectiveness of the proposed method through a real-world example of muck transportation at subway stations in a specific city. The collaborative scheduling schemes developed through the methods proposed in this paper have effectively avoided the travel restriction period, providing managers with multiple decision-making options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Victoria Mode (VM) is defined as the second empirical orthogonal function (EOF) of sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the North Pacific. It is independent of the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) and represents the second climate mode of North Pacific variability. Using a first-order autoregressive model and forcing indices that track the Aleutian low, the North Pacific Oscillation (NPO), anomalous ocean circulation in the Kuroshio–Oyashio Extension (KOE), and the cold tongue (CT) and warm pool (WP) El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), this study reconstructs the North Pacific SSTAs and examines the relative contributions of different forcing mechanisms to the VM variance. It is found that the NPO and ENSO, especially the WP ENSO, are the dominant sources of VM variability, whereas the contributions of the Aleutian low and zonal advection in the KOE region are relatively small. Further analysis shows that the forcing mechanisms acting on the VM are frequency dependent. At decadal and longer time scales, the VM variance comes mainly from the WP ENSO, whereas at interannual-time-scale contributions from the NPO and CT ENSO are important. This study suggests that the VM is an oceanic response to the NPO forcing and atmospheric teleconnections excited by ENSO events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kinesin family member 18A (KIF18A), as a member of the kinesin superfamily, is significantly overexpressed and abnormally functions in various human cancers. But, its expression profiling in the lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remains unclear. In the present work, using the data derived from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we assessed the expression pattern and prognostic value of KIF18A in LUAD. In addition, we analyzed the underlying mechanism of its gene dysregulation. Experimental and bioinformatic analysis results showed that KIF18A expression was dramatically increased in LUAD tissues compared with the normal counterparts. Moreover, the patients with high KIF18A expression had significantly poorer overall survival (OS) and recurrence‐free survival (RFS). Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that increased KIF18A expression was independently associated with unfavorable OS and RFS. In addition, by analyzing deep sequencing data from TCGA‐LUAD, we found that KIF18A mutation was detected in 2.6% of LUAD cases, and increased KIF18A expression was associated with genetic amplification rather than DNA methylation. Moreover, gene co‐expression network analysis revealed that a total of 339 KIF18A co‐expressed genes were detected and enriched in several tumor‐related pathways, especially cell cycle. Knockdown of KIF18A significantly inhibited cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, silencing KIF18A induced LUAD cells apoptosis and arrested the cell cycle in the G2/M phase. KIF18A promotes cell proliferation, inhibits apoptosis, and is a valuable prognostic predictor and potential therapeutic target for the patients with LUAD. © 2019 IUBMB Life, 2019 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]