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The current research effort is focused on improving the effective use of the multiple disparate sources of data available by proposing a novel maximum likelihood based probabilistic data fusion approach for modeling residential energy consumption. To demonstrate our data fusion algorithm, we consider energy usage by fuel type variables (for electricity and natural gas) in residential dwellings as our dependent variable of interest, drawn from residential energy consumption survey (RECS) data. The national household travel survey (NHTS) dataset was considered to incorporate additional variables that are not available in the RECS data. With a focus on improving the model for the residential energy use by fuel type, our proposed research provides a probabilistic mechanism for appropriately fusing records from the NHTS data with the RECS data. Specifically, instead of strictly matching records with only common attributes, we propose a flexible differential weighting method (probabilistic) based on attribute similarity (or dissimilarity) across the common attributes for the two datasets. The fused dataset is employed to develop an updated model of residential energy use with additional independent variables contributed from the NHTS dataset. The newly estimated energy use model is compared with models estimated RECS data exclusively to see if there is any improvement offered by the newly fused variables. In our analysis, the model fit measures provide strong evidence for model improvement via fusion as well as weighted contribution estimation, thus highlighting the applicability of our proposed fusion algorithm. The analysis is further augmented through a validation exercise that provides evidence that the proposed algorithm offers enhanced explanatory power and predictive capability for the modeling energy use. Our proposed data fusion approach can be widely applied in various sectors including the use of location-based smartphone data to analyze mobility and ridehailing patterns that are likely to influence energy consumption with increasing electric vehicle (EV) adoption., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Bhowmik et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The infrastructure boom has driven up cement demand to 30 billion tons annually. To address this and promote sustainable construction, researchers are developing solutions for carbon-neutral building practices, aiming to transform industrial waste into an eco-friendly alternative. This study aims to develop and enhance the mechanical and durability properties of alkali-activated composites (AACs) by incorporating varying amounts (5, 10, 15, and 20%) of finely ground bagasse ash (GBA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers. Results indicate that higher GBA content initially reduces the 7th and 14th-day strength but results in increased strength at later ages. The optimum 28-day strength is achieved with a 10% GBA content, leading to a 10% increase in compressive strength, 8% increase in tensile strength, and 12% increase in flexural strength. Additionally, the incorporation of GBA enhanced the resistance of the composite to chloride ingress, thus reducing its conductance and increasing the overall durability. This study demonstrated the potential of GBA as an eco-friendly material, emphasizing the significance of tailored AACs formulations for durable and sustainable construction practices., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Iqbal et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Major power outages have risen over the last two decades, largely due to more extreme weather conditions. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the distribution of power outages and its relationship to social vulnerability and co-occurring hazards. We examined the associations between localized outages and social vulnerability factors (demographic characteristics), controlling for environmental factors (weather), in Washington State between 2018-2021. We additionally analyzed the validity of PowerOutage.us data compared to federal datasets. The population included 27 counties served by 14 electric utilities. We developed a continuous measure of daily outage burden using PowerOutage.us data and operationalized social vulnerability using four factors: poverty level, unemployment, disability, and limited English proficiency. We applied zero-altered lognormal generalized additive mixed-effects models to characterize the relationship between social vulnerability and daily power outage burden, controlling for daily minimum temperature, maximum wind speed, and precipitation, from 2018 to 2021 in Washington State. We found that social vulnerability factors have non-linear relationships with outages. Wind and precipitation are consistent drivers of outage occurrence and duration. There are seasonal effects that vary by county-utility area. Both PowerOutage.us and federal datasets have missing and inaccurate outage data. This is the first study evaluating differential exposure to localized outages as related to social vulnerability that has accounted for weather and temporal correlation. There is a lack of transparency into power outage distribution for those most vulnerable to climate impacts, despite known contributions by electric utilities to climate change. For effective public health surveillance of power outages and transparency, outage data should be made available at finer spatial resolution and temporal scales and/or utilities should be required to report differential exposure to power outages for socially vulnerable populations., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Richards et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Drought is a complex natural hazard that occurs when a region experiences a prolonged period of dry conditions, leading to water scarcity and negative impacts on the environment. This study analyzed the recurrence of drought and wet spells in Baluchistan province, Pakistan. Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), and Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) were used to analyze droughts in Baluchistan during 1986-2021. Statistical analysis i.e. run theory, linear regression, and correlation coefficient were used to quantify the trend and relationship between meteorological (RDI, SPEI) and agricultural (VCI) droughts. The meteorological drought indices (1, 3, 6, and 12-month RDI and SPEI) identified severe to extreme drought spells during 1986, 1988, 1998, 2000-2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2018-2019, and 2021 in most meteorological stations (met-stations). The Lasbella met-station experienced the most frequent extreme to severe droughts according to both the 12-month RDI (8.82%) and SPEI (15.38%) indices. The Dalbandin met-station (8.34%) follows closely behind for RDI, while Khuzdar (5.88%) comes in second for the 12-month SPEI. VCI data showed that Baluchistan experienced severe to extreme drought in 2000, 2001, 2006, and 2010. The most severe drought occurred in 2000 and 2001, affecting 69% of the study region. A positive correlation was indicated between meteorological (RDI, SPEI) and agricultural drought index (VCI). The multivariate indices can provide valuable knowledge about drought episodes and preparedness to mitigate drought impacts., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Rafiq et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Concrete structures are susceptible to cracking, which can compromise their integrity and durability. Repairing them with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) paste causes shrinkage cracks to appear in the repaired surface. Alkali-activated binders offer a promising solution for repairing such cracks. This study aims to develop an alkali-activated paste (AAP) and investigate its effectiveness in repairing concrete cracks. AAPs, featuring varying percentages (0.5%, 0.75%, 1%, 1.25%, 1.5%, and 1.75%) of polyethylene (PE) fibers, are found to exhibit characteristics such as strain hardening, multiple plane cracking in tension and flexure tests, and stress-strain softening in compression tests. AAP without PE fibers experienced catastrophic failure in tension and flexure, preventing the determination of its stress-strain relationship. Notably, AAPs with 1.25% PE fibers demonstrated the highest tensile and flexural strength, exceeding that of 0.5% PE fiber reinforced AAP by 100% in tension and 70% in flexure. While 1% PE fibers resulted in the highest compressive strength, surpassing AAP without fibers by 17%. To evaluate the repair performance of AAP, OPC cubes were cast with pre-formed cracks. These cracks were induced by placing steel plates during casting and were designed to be full and half-length with widths of 1.5 mm and 3 mm. AAP both with and without PE fibers led to a substantial improvement in compressive strength, reducing the initial strength loss of 30%-50% before repair to a diminished range of 2%-20% post-repair. The impact of PE fiber content on the compressive strength of repaired OPC cube is marginal, providing more flexibility in using AAP with any fiber percentage while still achieving effective concrete crack repair. Considering economic and environmental factors, along with observed mechanical enhancements, AAPs show promising potential for widespread use in concrete repair and related applications, contributing valuable insights to the field of sustainable construction materials., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Iqbal et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Urban street trees offer cities critical environmental and social benefits. In New York City (NYC), a decadal census of every street tree is conducted to help understand and manage the urban forest. However, it has previously been impossible to analyze growth of an individual tree because of uncertainty in tree location. This study overcomes this limitation using a three-step alignment process for identifying individual trees with ZIP Codes, address, and species instead of map coordinates. We estimated individual growth rates for 126,362 street trees (59 species and 19% of 2015 trees) using the difference between diameter at breast height (DBH) from the 2005 and 2015 tree censuses. The tree identification method was verified by locating and measuring the DBH of select trees and measuring a set of trees annually for over 5 years. We examined determinants of tree growth rates and explored their spatial distribution. In our newly created NYC tree growth database, fourteen species have over 1000 unique trees. The three most abundant tree species vary in growth rates; London Planetree (n = 32,056, 0.163 in/yr) grew the slowest compared to Honeylocust (n = 15,967, 0.356 in/yr), and Callery Pear (n = 15,902, 0.334 in/yr). Overall, Silver Linden was the fastest growing species (n = 1,149, 0.510 in/yr). Ordinary least squares regression that incorporated biological factors including size and the local urban form indicated that species was the major factor controlling growth rates, and tree stewardship had only a small effect. Furthermore, tree measurements by volunteer community scientists were as accurate as those made by NYC staff. Examining city wide patterns of tree growth indicates that areas with a higher Social Vulnerability Index have higher than expected growth rates. Continued efforts in street tree planting should utilize known growth rates while incorporating community voices to better provide long-term ecosystem services across NYC., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Mailloux et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Thoughtfully managed hydroperiods in natural and artificial wetlands could potentially provide a combination of desirable flood control services and high ecological functions. To explore how managed freshwater wetlands typical of the Houston, Texas area would respond to different hydrological regimes that might occur if wetlands were drained in anticipation of a heavy rain that did not materialize, we conducted a mesocosm experiment with six flooding depths and seven drought durations, followed by seven months of recovery. We found that the speed in which mesocosms dried out was a function of initial water depth, with mesocosms initially set with greater water depths (30 cm) taking ~ 38 days to dry out versus zero days for wetlands that were completely drained. Individual plant species (14 species planted; 8 species common at the end of the recovery period) were affected by drought length, flooding depth, or their interaction, although details of these responses varied among the species. The composition of the plant community at the end of the drought period was strongly affected by drought length, and the effect of the drought length treatment persisted through seven months of post-drought recovery, with the 80- and 160-day drought treatments diverging most strongly from shorter drought treatments. Above- and below-ground biomass of plants was not affected by the treatments, but above-ground dead biomass (litter) decreased with increasing drought length. Densities of mosquito larvae, snails and tadpoles were temporally variable, and were affected more during the treatment period and early in recovery than after a disturbance event late in recovery. Our results indicate that managed wetlands in southeast Texas would be quite resilient to dry periods of up to 40 days in duration, especially if water was not completely drained at the beginning of the drought. In addition, many species would persist in managed wetlands even with droughts of up to 160 days. This indicates considerable potential for managing the hydroperiods of artificial detention ponds by retaining water longer to increase ecological function, with little to no loss of flood control services, and for managing the hydroperiods of natural wetlands by draining them in advance of anticipated rains to increase flood control services, with little to no loss of ecological function., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Hockaday et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Recycling of used products can provide substantial economic and environmental benefits for supply chain players. However, many factors associated with the design of closed-loop supply chain networks are uncertain in their nature, including demand, opening cost of facilities, capacity of opened facilities, transportation cost, and procurement cost. Therefore, this study proposes a novel fuzzy programming model for closed-loop supply chain network design, which directly relies on the fuzzy ranking method based on a credibility measure. The objective of the presented optimization model aims at minimizing the total cost of the network when selecting the facility locations and transportation routes between the nodes of the network. Based on the problem characteristics, a Migratory Birds Optimization Algorithm with a new product source encoding scheme is developed as a solution approach. The inspiration for the product source coding method originates from the label information of raw material supplier and manufacturing factories on product packaging, as well as the information of each logistics node on the delivery order. This novel encoding method aims to address the limitations of four traditional encoding methods: Prüfer number based encoding, spanning tree based encoding, forest data structure based encoding, and priority based encoding, thereby increasing the likelihood of heuristic algorithms finding the optimal solution. Thirty-five illustrative examples are developed to evaluate the proposed algorithm against the exact optimization method (LINGO) and a Genetic Algorithm, Ant Colony Optimization, Simulated Annealing, which are recognized as well-known metaheuristic algorithms. The results from extensive experiments show that the proposed algorithm is able to provide optimal and good-quality solutions within acceptable computational time even for large-scale numerical examples. The suitability of the model is confirmed through a meticulous sensitivity analysis. This analysis involves adjusting the confidence level incrementally from 50% to 100%, in 5% intervals, with respect to the model's uncertain parameters. Consequently, it yields valuable managerial insights. The outcomes of this research are expected to provide scientific support for related supply chain enterprises and stakeholders., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Ren et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

As the Duwamish Valley community in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. and other environmental justice communities nationally contend with growing risks from climate change, there have been calls for a more community-centered approach to understanding impacts and priorities to inform resilience planning. To engage community members and identify climate justice and resilience priorities, a partnership of community leaders, government-based practitioners, and academics co-produced a survey instrument and collected data from the community using the Seattle Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (SASPER), an approach adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER). In addition, we conducted a process and outcome project evaluation using quantitative survey data collected from volunteers and qualitative semi-structured interviews with project team members. In October and November 2022, teams of volunteers from partner organizations collected 162 surveys from households in the Duwamish Valley. Poor air quality, extreme heat, and wildfires were among the highest reported hazards of concern. Most Duwamish Valley households agreed or strongly agreed that their neighborhood has a strong sense of community (64%) and that they have people nearby to call when they need help (69%). Forty-seven percent of households indicated willingness to get involved with resilience planning, and 62% of households said that they would use a Resilience Hub during an emergency. Survey volunteers evaluated their participation positively, with over 85% agreeing or strongly agreeing that they learned new skills, were prepared for the survey, and would participate in future assessments. The evaluation interviews underscored that while the SASPER may have demonstrated feasibility in a pre-disaster phase, CASPER may not meet all community/partner needs in the immediate disaster response phase because of its lack of focus on equity and logistical requirements. Future research should focus on identifying less resource intensive data collection approaches that maintain the rigor and reputation of CASPER while enabling a focus on equity., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.)

We present a novel perspective on how connected vehicles can reduce total vehicular delay arising due to the capacity drop phenomenon observed at fixed freeway bottlenecks. We analytically determine spatial regions upstream of the bottleneck, called zones of influence, where a pair of connected vehicles can use an event-triggered control policy to positively influence a measurable traffic macrostate, e.g., the total vehicular delay at bottlenecks. These analytical expressions are also able to determine the boundaries (called null and event horizons) of these spatial extents, outside of which a connected vehicle cannot positively influence the traffic macrostate. These concepts can help ensure that information is disseminated to connected vehicles in only those spatial regions where it can be used to positively impact traffic macrostates. Some scenarios examined in this study indicate that communication between connected vehicles may be required over a span of several kilometers to positively impact traffic flow and mitigate delays arising due to the capacity drop phenomenon., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Jerath et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

A development of grazing resistance in Escherichia coli K-12 was examined in the presence of a bacterivorous protist, Spumella sp. TGKK2. Two transformants were generated from E. coli K12 for grazing experiments. One was E. coli K-12-TGF, which possesses tetracycline resistance and green fluorescence. The other was E. coli K-12-KRF with kanamycin resistance and red fluorescence. These strains can be selectively colonized on antibiotic-containing agar media and further confirmed by their fluorescent colors. First, we added protist-untouched E. coli K-12-KRF to protist-touched residual E. coli K-12-TGF that had been attacked by Spumella sp. TGKK2 in a batch test. Then the survivability of the respective strains was investigated. Consequently, E. coli K-12-KRF was predated preferentially. On the other hand, E. coli K-12-TGF in the same tube was less predated, indicating some grazing resistance. Similar phenomena were observed when the conditions of these two strains of bacteria were reversed. Also, a continuous culture device supplied with a glucose-containing medium as a substrate was operated. The device connected two complete mixed reactors in series. E. coli K-12-TGF was cultivated in the first reactor, and then grown E. coli K-12-TGF was predated by Spumella sp. TGKK2 in the second reactor. The effluent in the second reactor containing residual E. coli K-12-TGF and Spumella sp. TGKK2 was supplemented with batch-cultured E. coli K-12-KRF. Consequently, it was confirmed that bach-cultured E. coli K-12-KRF never exposed to protist was predated preferentially. These findings reveal that E. coli K12 acquires some predation resistance through coexistence with the bacterivorous protist., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Nakamura, Miyauchi. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The Chesapeake Bay watershed is representative of governance challenges relating to agricultural nonpoint source pollution and, more generally, of sustainable resources governance in complex multi-actor settings. We assess information flows around Best Management Practices (BMPs) undertaken by dairy farmers in central Pennsylvania, a subregion of the watershed. We apply a mixed-method approach, combining Social Network Analysis, the analysis of BMP-messaging (i.e. information source, flow, and their influences), and qualitative content analysis of stakeholders' interviews. Key strategic actors were identified through network centrality measures such as degree of node, betweenness centrality, and clustering coefficient. The perceived influence/credibility (by farmers) of BMP-messages and their source, allowed for the identification of strategic entry points for BMP-messages diffusion. Finally, the inductive coding process of stakeholders' interviews revealed major hindrances and opportunities for BMPs adoption. We demonstrate how improved targeting of policy interventions for BMPs uptake may be achieved, by better distributing entry-points across stakeholders. Our results reveal governance gaps and opportunities, on which we draw to provide insights for better tailored policy interventions. We propose strategies to optimize the coverage of policy mixes and the dissemination of BMP-messages by building on network diversity and actors' complementarities, and by targeting intervention towards specific BMPs and actors. We suggest that (i) conservation incentives could target supply chain actors as conservation intermediaries; (ii) compliance-control of manure management planning could be conducted by accredited private certifiers; (iii) policy should focus on incentivizing inter-farmers interaction (e.g. farmers' mobility, training, knowledge-exchange, and engagement in multi-stakeholders collaboration) via financial or non-pecuniary compensation; (iv) collective incentives could help better coordinate conservation efforts at the landscape or (sub-)watershed scale; (v) all relevant stakeholders (including farmers) should be concerted and included in the discussion, proposition, co-design and decision process of policy, in order to take their respective interests and responsibilities into account., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Dingkuhn et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Heat waves significantly impact people's lives and livelihoods and are becoming very alarming and recognized as hot topics worldwide, including in Bangladesh. However, much less is understood regarding recent hotspots, the frequency of heat waves over time, and their underlying causes in Bangladesh. The objective of the study is to explore the current scenario and frequency of heat waves and their possible causes across Bangladesh. The Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope techniques were used to determine seasonal and annual temperature trend patterns of heat wave frequencies. Daily maximum temperature datasets collected from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) during 1991-2021 are applied. The frequency of days with Tmax≥ 36°C as the threshold was used to compute different types of heat waves based on the BMD's operational definition. The results show that the mild heat wave (MHW) days followed the subsequent hotspot order: Rajshahi (103) > Chuadanga (79), Ishurdi (60), and Jessore (58), respectively. The frequency of days with Tmax≥36°C was persistence for many days in 2014, especially in the western part of Bangladesh compared to other parts. Similarly, the heat waves condition shown its deadliest event by increasing more days in 2021. The highest increasing trend was identified at the Patuakhali site, with a rate of 0.516 days/year, while the highest decreasing trend was noticed at the Chuadanga site, with a rate of -0.588 days/year. The frequency of days (Tmax≥36°C) is an increasing trend in the south-western part of Bangladesh. The synoptic condition in and around Bangladesh demonstrates that the entrance of heat waves in Bangladesh is due to the advection of higher temperatures from the south/southwest of the Bay of Bengal. The outcomes will guide the national appraisal of heatwave effects, shedding light on the primary causes of definite heatwave phenomena, which are crucial for developing practical adaptation tools., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Rahman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a three-dimensional structural asymmetry of the spine and trunk affecting 2-4% of adolescents. Standard treatment is observation, bracing, and surgery for small, moderate, and large curves, respectively. Schroth exercises aim to correct posture and reduce curve progression., Purpose: This study aimed to determine the effect of Schroth exercises added to the standard care compared to standard care alone on torso asymmetry in AIS., Methods: In a randomized controlled trial (NCT01610908), 124 participants with AIS (age: 10-18, Cobb: 10°-45°, Risser: ≤3) were randomly assigned to the control (Standard care only) or Schroth (Standard care + Schroth treatment) group. Schroth treatment consisted of 1-hour weekly supervised sessions and 30-45 minutes of daily home exercises for six months. The control group received Schroth exercises in the last six months of the 1-year monitoring period. Markerless 3D surface topography assessed torso asymmetry measured by maximum deviation (MaxDev) and root mean square (RMS). Intention to treat linear mixed effects model analysis was compared to the per protocol analysis., Results: In the intention to treat analysis, the Schroth group (n = 63) had significantly larger decreased RMS (-1.2 mm, 95%CI [-1.5,-0.9]mm, p = 0.012) and MaxDev (-1.9mm, 95%CI [-2.4,-1.5]mm, p = 0.025) measurements compared to controls (n = 57) after six months of intervention. In the per protocol analysis (Schroth n = 39, control n = 36), the Schroth group also had a significantly larger decrease compared to the control in both the RMS (-1.0mm, 95%CI [-1.9, -0.2]mm, p = 0.013) and MaxDev measurements (-2.0mm, 95%CI [-3.3,-0.5]mm, p = 0.037). For the control group, both the intention to treat and per protocol analysis showed no difference in RMS and MaxDev in the last six months of Schroth intervention (p>0.5)., Conclusion: Schroth Exercise treatment added to standard care (observation or bracing) reduced asymmetry measurements in AIS. As expected, a greater effect was observed for participants who followed the prescribed exercise treatment per protocol., Competing Interests: The authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Dr. Parent is a Schroth certified therapist. Dr. Schreiber became an International Schroth Scoliosis Therapy (ISST) instructor and opened the Curvy Spine clinic after the data for this project had been collected. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials., (Copyright: © 2024 Mohamed et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The incidence and morbidity of femoral fractures increases drastically with age. Femoral architecture and associated fracture risk are strongly influenced by loading during physical activities and it has been shown that the rate of loss of bone mineral density is significantly lower for active individuals than inactive. The objective of this work is to evaluate the impact of a cessation of some physical activities on elderly femoral structure and fracture behaviour. The authors previously established a biofidelic finite element model of the femur considered as a structure optimised to loading associated with daily activities. The same structural optimisation algorithm was used here to quantify the changes in bone architecture following cessation of stair climbing and sit-to-stand. Side fall fracture simulations were run on the adapted bone structures using a damage elasticity formulation. Total cortical and trabecular bone volume and failure load reduced in all cases of activity cessation. Bone loss distribution was strongly heterogeneous, with some locations even showing increased bone volume. This work suggests that maintaining the physical activities involved in the daily routine of a young healthy adult would help reduce the risk of femoral fracture in the elderly population by preventing bone loss., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Villette, Phillips. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Diarrhea remains a leading cause of childhood illness throughout the world that is increasing due to climate change and is caused by various species of ecologically sensitive pathogens. The emerging Planetary Health movement emphasizes the interdependence of human health with natural systems, and much of its focus has been on infectious diseases and their interactions with environmental and human processes. Meanwhile, the era of big data has engendered a public appetite for interactive web-based dashboards for infectious diseases. However, enteric infectious diseases have been largely overlooked by these developments., Methods: The Planetary Child Health & Enterics Observatory (Plan-EO) is a new initiative that builds on existing partnerships between epidemiologists, climatologists, bioinformaticians, and hydrologists as well as investigators in numerous low- and middle-income countries. Its objective is to provide the research and stakeholder community with an evidence base for the geographical targeting of enteropathogen-specific child health interventions such as novel vaccines. The initiative will produce, curate, and disseminate spatial data products relating to the distribution of enteric pathogens and their environmental and sociodemographic determinants., Discussion: As climate change accelerates there is an urgent need for etiology-specific estimates of diarrheal disease burden at high spatiotemporal resolution. Plan-EO aims to address key challenges and knowledge gaps by making and disseminating rigorously obtained, generalizable disease burden estimates. Pre-processed environmental and EO-derived spatial data products will be housed, continually updated, and made publicly available for download to the research and stakeholder communities. These can then be used as inputs to identify and target priority populations living in transmission hotspots and for decision-making, scenario-planning, and disease burden projection., Study Registration: PROSPERO protocol #CRD42023384709., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright: © 2024 Colston et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The material properties of some bones are known to vary with anatomical location, orientation and position within the bone (e.g., cortical and trabecular bone). Details of the heterogeneity and anisotropy of bone is an important consideration for biomechanical studies that apply techniques such as finite element analysis, as the outcomes will be influenced by the choice of material properties used. Datasets detailing the regional variation of material properties in the bones of the skull are sparse, leaving many finite element analyses of skulls no choice but to employ homogeneous, isotropic material properties, often using data from a different species to the one under investigation. Due to the growing significance of investigating the cranial biomechanics of the rabbit in basic science and clinical research, this study used nanoindentation to measure the elastic modulus of cortical and trabecular bone throughout the skull. The elastic moduli of cortical bone measured in the mediolateral and ventrodorsal direction were found to decrease posteriorly through the skull, while it was evenly distributed when measured in the anteroposterior direction. Furthermore, statistical tests showed that the variation of elastic moduli between separate regions (anterior, middle and posterior) of the skull were significantly different in cortical bone, but was not in trabecular bone. Elastic moduli measured in different orthotropic planes were also significantly different, with the moduli measured in the mediolateral direction consistently lower than that measured in either the anteroposterior or ventrodorsal direction. These findings demonstrate the significance of regional and directional variation in cortical bone elastic modulus, and therefore material properties in finite element models of the skull, particularly those of the rabbit, should consider the heterogeneous and orthotropic properties of skull bone when possible., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Agricultural land preparation and weed control techniques are essential farm management tools that affect the dynamics of soil water infiltration and the estimation accuracy of infiltration models. To analyse the interaction effect of tillage and weed control methods on the changes in soil physical properties and the efficacy of infiltration models, an experiment was conducted on a sandy clay loam forest ochrosol at Hodzo near Ho in Ghana. Four tillage systems (No Tillage [NT], Reduced Tillage [RT], Plough + Harrow + Ridging [PHR], and Deep Tillage + Plough + Harrow + Ridging [DPHR]) and three weed control methods (Hoeing [H], Machete [MAT] and No Weeding [NW]) were employed. The study also tested the reliability of the models (Kostiakov, Philip, and Horton) using the goodness of fit statistical criteria: Root mean squared error (RMSE), Mean absolute error (MAE), Coefficient of determination (R2), and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE). The results show that conservation tillage systems (CsT) and conventional tillage systems (CT) with MAT weeding treatments recorded the highest moisture content across the studied soil profile, especially for NT x MAT (11.189%) which was significant (p < 0.05) in the 15-30 cm layer; the lowest were observed in the CsT and CT with H weeding interactions, especially for the DPHR x H (8.086%). Comparing the interaction effect on the soil infiltration, the highest mean infiltration rate was significant (p < 0.05) under the NT X H treatment combination whilst the lowest infiltration rate was recorded in the DPHR X H and PHR X NW treatment combinations. The efficiency of the fitting models (Kostiakov > Horton > Philip) highly prioritised the soil tillage operations and weed management under the treatments DPHR x MAT > DPHR x NW > DPHR x H > RT x MAT > PHR x NW > PHR x MAT > NT x NW > RT x MAT > PHR x H > RT x H > NT x MAT > RT x NW > NT x H in that order. The trend shows that the increase in tillage intensity and the decrease in weed management intensity induce the quality of the estimation process and vice versa. The study, therefore, identified the use of machete (MAT) with DPHR under the Kostiakov model as the efficient land management for modelling the cumulative infiltration characteristics of the sandy clay loam ochrosols of the study area., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Atta-Darkwa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Previous studies have primarily focused on predicting stress arousal, encompassing physiological, behavioral, and psychological responses to stressors, while neglecting the examination of stress appraisal. Stress appraisal involves the cognitive evaluation of a situation as stressful or non-stressful, and as a threat/pressure or a challenge/opportunity. In this study, we investigated several research questions related to the association between states of stress appraisal (i.e., boredom, eustress, coexisting eustress-distress, distress) and various factors such as stress levels, mood, productivity, physiological and behavioral responses, as well as the most effective ML algorithms and data signals for predicting stress appraisal. The results support the Yerkes-Dodson law, showing that a moderate stress level is associated with increased productivity and positive mood, while low and high levels of stress are related to decreased productivity and negative mood, with distress overpowering eustress when they coexist. Changes in stress appraisal relative to physiological and behavioral features were examined through the lenses of stress arousal, activity engagement, and performance. An XGBOOST model achieved the best prediction accuracies of stress appraisal, reaching 82.78% when combining physiological and behavioral features and 79.55% using only the physiological dataset. The small accuracy difference of 3% indicates that physiological data alone may be adequate to accurately predict stress appraisal, and the feature importance results identified electrodermal activity, skin temperature, and blood volume pulse as the most useful physiologic features. Implementing these models within work environments can serve as a foundation for designing workplace policies, practices, and stress management strategies that prioritize the promotion of eustress while reducing distress and boredom. Such efforts can foster a supportive work environment to enhance employee well-being and productivity., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Awada et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Although many studies have focused on chromium removal from aqueous media by ternary Nano adsorbents, still the integrated kinetics, equilibrium, and thermodynamic mechanisms of chromium removal remain unknown. Thus in this study, we have synthesized a novel ternary oxide nanocomposite comprising iron, manganese, and stannous (Fe2O3-MnO2-SnO2) in a facile method as a promising adsorbent for the removal of Cr(VI) from an aqueous medium. The Fe2O3-MnO2-SnO2 system was firstly characterized by FTIR, XRD, TGA, BET, and SEM/EDX. The effect of parameters, for instance, pH, temperature, initial Cr(VI) intensity, and adsorbent dose, have been examined to optimize the Cr(VI) adsorption performance. The adsorption of Cr(VI) onto Fe2O3-MnO2-SnO2 nanoadsorbent is associated with an adsorption/reduction mechanism. Using an initial Cr(VI) intensity of 50 mg L-1, 200 rpm agitation, 2.5-g L-1 of adsorbent, pH 2, 90 minutes adsorption time, and 298 K temperature, a maximum adsorption capability of 69.2 mg Cr(VI) g-1 for Fe2O3-MnO2-SnO2 was obtained. Models of pseudo-2nd-order kinetics and Langmuir's isotherm were best suited to the investigated data. Besides, thermodynamic parameters show that Cr(VI) adsorption onto Fe2O3-MnO2-SnO2 was random and dominated by entropy. The reusability of Fe2O3-MnO2-SnO2 was found to be consistently high (remaining above 80% for Cr(VI)) over four adsorption-desorption cycles. Chromium adsorption from the tannery wastewater was achieved 91.89% on Fe2O3-MnO2-SnO2. Therefore, Fe2O3-MnO2-SnO2 nanoparticles, being easy to be synthesized, reusable and having improved adsorption capability with higher surface area, could be a desirable option for removing Cr(VI) from aqueous environments., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Uddin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Ambient temperature and relative humidity can affect asthma symptoms. Apparent temperature is a measure of temperature perceived by humans that takes into account the effect of humidity. However, the potential link between personal exposures to apparent temperature and asthma symptoms has not been investigated. We conducted a panel study of 37 asthmatic children, aged 5-11 years, during an early spring season (average daily ambient temperature: 14°C, range: 7-18°C). Asthma symptoms were measured 4 times for each participant with a 2-week interval between consecutive measurements using the Childhood Asthma-Control Test (C-ACT). Average, minimum, and maximum personal apparent temperature exposures, apparent temperature exposure variability (TV), and average ambient temperature were calculated for the 12 hours, 24 hours, week, and 2 weeks prior to each visit. We found that a 10°C lower in 1-week and 2-week average & minimum personal apparent temperature exposures, TV, and average ambient temperature exposures were significantly associated with lower total C-ACT scores by up to 2.2, 1.4, 3.3, and 1.4 points, respectively, indicating worsened asthma symptoms. Our results support that personal apparent temperature exposure is potentially a stronger driver than ambient temperature exposures for the variability in asthma symptom scores. Maintaining a proper personal apparent temperature exposure could be an effective strategy for personalized asthma management., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.)

Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change, yet many of their impacts on human populations are not well understood. We examine the relationship between prior extreme weather events and food environment characteristics. To do so, we conduct a U.S. county-level analysis that assesses the association between extreme weather events and two common food retail environment dimensions. Overall, we find a relationship between higher levels of historic extreme weather exposure and lower food availability and accessibility. In addition, we find heterogeneity in association across the distribution of the number of extreme weather events and event type. Specifically, we find that more localized extreme weather events are more associated with a reduction of access and availability than broad geographic events. Our findings suggest that as extreme weather events amplify in intensity and increase in frequency, new approaches for mitigating less acute and longer-term impacts are needed to address how extreme weather may interact with and reinforce existing disparities in food environment factors. Furthermore, our research argues that integrated approaches to improving vulnerable food retail environments will become an important component of extreme weather planning and should be a consideration in both disaster- and food-related policy., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Scharadin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Lake sediments store metal contaminants from historic pesticide and herbicide use and mining operations. Historical regional smelter operations in the Puget Sound lowlands have resulted in arsenic concentrations exceeding 200 μg As g-1 in urban lake sediments. Prior research has elucidated how sediment oxygen demand, warmer sediment temperatures, and alternating stratification and convective mixing in shallow lakes results in higher concentrations of arsenic in aquatic organisms when compared to deeper, seasonally stratified lakes with similar levels of arsenic pollution in profundal sediments. In this study we examine the trophic pathways for arsenic transfer through the aquatic food web of urban lakes in the Puget Sound lowlands, measuring C and N isotopes-to determine resource usage and trophic level-and total and inorganic arsenic in primary producers and primary and secondary consumers. Our results show higher levels of arsenic in periphyton than in other primary producers, and higher concentrations in snails than zooplankton or insect macroinvertebrates. In shallow lakes arsenic concentrations in littoral sediment are similar to deep profundal sediments due to arsenic remobilization, mixing, and redeposition, resulting in direct arsenic exposure to littoral benthic organisms such as periphyton and snails. The influence of littoral sediment on determining arsenic trophic transfer is evidenced by our results which show significant correlations between total arsenic in littoral sediment and total arsenic in periphyton, phytoplankton, zooplankton, snails, and fish across multiple lakes. We also found a consistent relationship between percent inorganic arsenic and trophic level (determined by δ15N) in lakes with different depths and mixing regimes. Cumulatively, these results combine to provide a strong empirical relationship between littoral sediment arsenic levels and inorganic arsenic in edible species that can be used to screen lakes for potential human health risk using an easy, inexpensive sampling and analysis method., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Hull et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Alaska is one of the most seismically active regions of the world. Coincidentally, the state has also experienced dramatic impacts of climate change as it is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the United States. Through mechanisms such as permafrost thaw, water table fluctuation, and melting of sea ice and glaciers, climatic-driven changes to the natural and built-environment influence the seismic response of infrastructure systems. This paper discusses the challenges and needs posed by earthquake hazards and climate change to Alaska's infrastructure and built environment, drawing on the contributions of researchers and decision-makers in interviews and a workshop. It outlines policy, mitigation, and adaptation areas meriting further attention to improve the seismic resilience of Alaska's built environment from the perspectives of engineering and complementary coupled human-environmental systems., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Turner et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Bangladesh has been ranked as one of the world's top countries affected by climate change, particularly in terms of agricultural crop sector. The purpose of this study is to identify spatial and temporal changes and trends in long-term climate at local and national scales, as well as their implications for rice yield. In this study, Modified Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope tests were used to detect significant trends and the magnitude of changes in temperature and rainfall. The temperature and rainfall data observed and recorded at 35 meteorological stations in Bangladesh over 65-years in the time span between the years 1949 and 2013 have been used to detect these changes and trends of variation. The results show that mean annual Tmean, Tmin, and Tmax have increased significantly by 0.13°C, 0.13°C, and 0.13°C/decade, respectively. The most significant increasing trend in seasonal temperatures for the respective Tmean, Tmin, and Tmax was 0.18°C per decade (post-monsoon), 0.18°C/decade (winter), and 0.23°C/decade (post-monsoon), respectively. Furthermore, the mean annual and pre-monsoon rainfall showed a significant increasing trend at a rate of 4.20 mm and 1.35 mm/year, respectively. This paper also evaluates climate variability impacts on three major rice crops, Aus, Aman, and Boro during 1970-2013. The results suggest that crop yield variability can be explained by climate variability during Aus, Aman, and Boro seasons by 33, 25, and 16%, respectively. Maximum temperature significantly affected the Aus and Aman crop yield, whereas rainfall significantly affected all rice crops' yield. This study sheds light on sustainable agriculture in the context of climate change, which all relevant authorities should investigate in order to examine climate-resilient, high-yield crop cultivation., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Alam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)