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Climate change impacts crop production worldwide, and coastal regions are particularly vulnerable to its adverse effects. Given the projected rise in temperature and shifting precipitation patterns, it is crucial to examine the current challenges faced by farmers in coastal Bangladesh. Using Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), we assessed the perceptions and experiences of farmers and stakeholders regarding the existing agricultural practices, the challenges they face in crop cultivation, and the adoption of climate-adaptive practices in 2 sub-districts in the southeastern coastal region of Bangladesh. Moreover, using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the Standardized Terrestrial Water Storage Index (STI), we assessed the frequency and intensity of different climatic conditions in these two sub-districts. Results show that 100% of the respondents reported an increase in dry climatic conditions, the occurrence of untimely precipitation, and a decline in irrigation water during the cropping season. All the respondents in the FGDs expressed a loss of crop production because of these climate-induced disturbances. Despite these challenges, farmers have been implementing several climate-adaptive practices. Among the 9 mentioned climate-adaptive practices, 50% of FGD respondents utilize organic fertilizers, 42% cultivate heat- and drought-resilient crop varieties, use improved irrigation and harvest rainwater, and 25% cultivate integrated crops. The results of quantitative analysis of 3- and 6-month SPEI and STI values show that this region experienced frequent and intense dry climatic conditions during the growing-season, which supports the farmers' and stakeholders' concern about the increasing occurrence of droughts during crop growing periods. The results suggest that despite adopting climate-resilient practices under increasing growing-season droughts, farmers require support from the government and NGOs in capacity-building training and input support (e.g., stress-resilient seeds). This study holds practical implications for government, NGOs, and policymakers for ensuring sustainable agricultural productivity in the coastal region of Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaining a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics and propagation of precipitation-based meteorological drought to terrestrial water storage (TWS)-derived hydrological drought is of the utmost importance. This study aims to disentangle the frequency–time relationship between precipitation-derived meteorological and TWS-based hydrological drought from June 2002 to June 2017 based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Terrestrial Water Storage Index (STI) by employing wavelet coherence rather than a traditional correlation coefficient. The possible influencing factors on drought propagation in 28 regions across the world are examined. The results show that the number of drought months detected by the STI is higher than that detected by the SPI worldwide, especially for slight and moderate drought. Generally, TWS-derived hydrological drought is triggered by and occurs later than precipitation-based meteorological drought. The propagation characteristics between meteorological and hydrological droughts vary by region across the globe. Apparent intra-annual and interannual scales are detected by wavelet analysis in most regions, but not in the polar climate region. Drought propagation differs in phase lags in different regions. The phase lag between hydrological and meteorological drought ranges from 0.5 to 4 months on the intra-annual scale and from 1 to 16 months on the interannual scale. Drought propagation is influenced by multiple factors, among which the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, and potential evapotranspiration are the most influential when considering one, two, or three factors, respectively. The findings of this study improve scientific understanding of drought propagation mechanisms over a global scale and provide support for water management in different subregions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To explore the application effect of scenario simulation and micro-video combined feedback method in the anti-choking training of nurse attendants in Geriatric Psychiatry. Methods: A questionnaire survey on choking-related knowledge of 52 nurse attendants in the Geriatric Department was completed before the training. Nurse attendants were given centralized training in related knowledge of choking in five courses. After the training, the materials based on micro-video were introduced to nurse attendants for learning at any time. After the training, the method of situational simulation was used to check the degree of knowledge related to choking of nurse attendants. The primary assessment outcomes included comparison between the choking-related knowledge questionnaires before and after the training completed by nurse attendants; comparison between scores of choking-related know-how special examination by Nursing Department in 2017 and 2018. Results: The scores of choking-related knowledge questionnaires by nurse attendants after the training(92.37±3.70)were significantly higher than those before the training(44.04±11.38), with a significant difference(P<0.01). Score of Nursing Department quarterly choking-related know-how special examination(88.13±3.68)in 2018 was significantly higher than that in 2017(65.68±6.41), with a significant difference(P<0.01). Conclusion: Choking-related know-how training to nurse attendants in Geriatric Psychiatry by means of the scenario simulation and micro-video combined feedback method can improve the mastery of choking related know-how of nurse attendants, enhance their choking prevention and emergency treatment skills, and promote the quality of nursing safety management to some extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the effect of adding onion paste feeding solution into the diet on prevention of constipation among elderly long-term bedridden patients receiving naso-gastric tube feeding. Methods A convenient sampling of 28 elderly long-term bedridden patients receiving naso-gastric tube feeding were recruited in this study. The onion paste feeding solution was added into the diet, in order to prevent the constipation. The study was conducted in two stages (September to October 2017, November to December 2017), and the defecation condition of patients before and after implementation of onion paste feeding solution were compared. Results After implementation of onion paste feeding solution, the interval between defecations was shortened. After implementation of onion paste feeding solution, patients had fewer defecation of hard stools, defecation insufficiency, defecation difficulty and usage of glycerine enema or phenolphthalein (P <0.05). Conclusion Adding onion paste can effectively relieve the symptoms of constipation in elderly long-term bedridden patients receiving naso-gastric tube feeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrological droughts bring about great losses in agriculture, ecosystem and socioeconomics, so it is important to establish hydrological models or indicators to describe the occurrence, severity and duration of drought. But it remains challenging to obtain the whole relevant hydrological variables (e.g.., surface water, soil moisture, and groundwater) on the appropriate temporal and spatial scales. Now the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite observations can provide realistic spatiotemporal variations of vertically integrated measurement of water storage (groundwater, glacier ice, soil moisture, surface water, snow water equivalent, permafrost, etc.) at large research area. Here we present a new GRACE-derived index (GNSI) to investigate drought conditions and evaluate its applicability. We obtain the Release-05 GRACE terrestrial water storage data from the University of Texas Center for Space Research and precipitation data in the high spatial resolution from the version 4.02 of the gridded Climatic Research Unit Time-series dataset from March 2002 to December 2016. We choose July 2010 in which drought occurred in many countries as an example to evaluate the performances of the drought indices. The GNSI and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) reach good agreement in the spatial distribution of drought conditions in south China, northern India, western Russia, middle Europe, west side of South America and Western Australia. However, the intensities among the two indices in some regions are different, such as in the middle of China, United States and Greenland. In the middle of China, the GNSI detects more normal area while SPI captures some dry conditions. In the northern part of the United States, the GNSI reveals two obvious drought regions whereas the SPI does not. Furthermore, GNSI is compared with SPI at different time scales. The GNSI shows time lag about three months compared with SPI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]