Not only are humans responsible for the anthropogenic causes of currently observed climate change, but we are also responsible for our responses to climate change. How we choose to respond provides important insights into our ability to collectively act in the face of threats with the unique characteristics of climate change. This communication attempts to provide an overview of some the difficulties in forging new policy directions along our coastlines in an era of climate change. It is meant as a referential framing for the research presented in this special issue. As this communication is being written, the world is gripped by a global pandemic caused by a variant of the coronavirus. There are important corollaries between the underlying characteristics of the coronavirus and the causes and effects of climate change. Seeing how the global citizenry is responding to the current epidemic provides some insight into the difficulties in fostering collective action towards climate change. As with the pandemic, the issue is not really one of understanding the problem, but rather the varying human responses to the problem. We can expect the same difficulties as we continue to confront the ever-growing problem of climate change.

The failure to acknowledge and account for environmental externalities or spillovers in climate change adaptation policy, advocacy and programming spaces exercabates the risk of ecological degradation, more so, degradation of land. In particular use of unsuitable water sources for irrigation may increase salinisation risks. However, little if any policy assessments and research effort has been directed at investigating how farmer perceptions mediate spillovers from the ubiquitous irrigation adaptation strategy. In this study cognitive failure and/or bias construct is examined and proposed as an analytical lens in research, policy and learning and the convergence of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation discourses. The findings from small-scale farmers, Machakos and Kakamega counties, Kenya, suggest multifaceted biases and failures about the existence and importance of externalities in adaptation planning discourses. Among other dimensions, cognitive failure which encompasses fragmented approaches among institutions for use and management of resources, inadequate policy and information support, as well as, poor integration of actors in adaptation planning accounts for adaptation failure. The failures in such Human-Environment system interactions have the potential to exercabate existing vulnerability of farmer production systems in the long run. The findings further suggest that in absence of risk message information dissemination, education level, farming experience and information accumulation, as integral elements to human capital, do not seem to have significant effect on behaviour about mitigation of environmental spillovers. Implicitly, reversing the inherent adaptation failures calls for system approaches that enhance coordinated adaptation planning, prioritises proactive mitigation of slow onset disaster risks and broadens decision support systems, such as, risk information dissemination integration into the existing adaptation policy discourses and practice.

Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer in the world, mostly from the Central Highlands region where water has been becoming a scarce resource. Since 2014, drought has been strongly affecting Central Highlands’ agriculture, particularly coffee production. The drought leads to changes in flowering, ripening and thus harvesting times of coffee. Coffee productivity has reduced about 50 percent. Ultimately, coffee quantity and quality is jeopardized which endangers coffee farmers who occupy 90 per cent of population and their livelihoods mainly rely on coffee. Most of coffee farmers have had to develop alternative strategies to respond to the drought. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected from 50 coffee households in a community in the Central Highlands, this research has indicated that farmers had to find the ways to adapt as well as to cope with drought. The ways of adaptation and coping were diverse, including short, medium and long-term plans. To strengthen the adaptation and coping strategies of farmers with drought in the short term, it is recommended that authorities provide more technical and financial support to farmers. Furthermore, longer term strategies need to focus on land use planning, investment in irrigation schemes, and consolidated afforestation schemes in appropriate areas.

Radiotherapy is the primary treatment modality for non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) across all TNM-stages. Locoregional control rates have been impressive even from the 2D-radiotherapy (RT) era, except when the ability to deliver optimal dose coverage to the tumor is compromised. However, short- and long-term complications following head and neck RT are potentially debilitating, and thus, there had been much research investigating technological advances in RT delivery over the past decades, with the primary goal of limiting normal tissue damage. On this note, with a plateau in gains of therapeutic ratio by modern RT techniques, future advances have to be focused on individualization of RT, both in terms of dose prescription and delineation of target volumes. In this review, we analyzed the guidelines and evidence related to contouring methods, and dose prescription for early and locoregionally-advanced (LA-) NPC. Next, with the preference for induction chemotherapy (IC) in patients with LA-NPC, we assessed the evidence concerning radiotherapy adaptations guided by IC response, as well as functional imaging and contour changes during treatment. Finally, we discussed on RT individualization that is guided by EBV DNA assessment, and its importance in the era of combinatorial immune checkpoint blockade therapy with RT.

Môle Saint-Nicolas, like all other communes in the Republic of Haiti, faces increasing climate variability, impacting agricultural production and water resources. Consequently, there is a pressing need for adaptation to these climatic changes. This research aims to showcase the adaptation strategies deployed by farmers to cope with the increasing climate variability. Surveys were conducted through group and individual discussions with a randomly selected cohort of 150 farmers. Two types of analysis were performed: quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data analysis was conducted using SPSS software. The findings reveal that farmers have perceived changes in rainfall patterns, temperature, wind, and their environment. These changes manifest as irregular rainfall, higher temperatures, prolonged drought periods, violent winds accompanied by rain, premature cessation of rains, and reduced flow from water sources. In response, the most common adaptation strategies developed include selecting new cultivars, early-maturing varieties, crop rotation and diversification, canal dredging, new soil preparation methods, upstream water source protection, and micro-watershed management. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to enhancing farmers' adaptive capacities by alerting stakeholders in the irrigated perimeters about the consequences of climate change, thereby incorporating the real needs of farmers in future projects.

Supply chain flexibility plays a pivotal role in enabling organizations to adapt their marketing strategies to evolving consumer preferences in dynamic market environments. This qualitative study explores how supply chain flexibility dimensions—responsiveness, agility, resilience, and sustainability—impact marketing strategy adaptation. Through semi-structured interviews and document analysis, insights were gathered from industry practitioners across diverse sectors. Key findings highlight that responsive supply chains facilitate quick adjustments in production, distribution, and sourcing to meet changing consumer demands. Agility enables rapid reconfiguration of operations to capitalize on market opportunities and respond to disruptions effectively. Resilient supply chains mitigate risks and maintain continuity during crises, safeguarding customer satisfaction and brand reputation. Integrating sustainability practices not only meets regulatory standards but also aligns with consumer preferences for eco-friendly products, enhancing corporate social responsibility. Technological advancements such as AI, IoT, blockchain, and cloud computing enhance supply chain visibility, optimize decision-making, and support real-time responsiveness. Despite benefits, challenges like legacy systems, organizational silos, resistance to change, and resource constraints hinder effective implementation. Overcoming these barriers requires strategic leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and continuous investment in technology and talent. Embracing supply chain flexibility empowers organizations to navigate complexities, drive innovation, and sustain competitive advantage. By aligning supply chain capabilities with marketing strategies, companies can enhance market responsiveness, customer satisfaction, and long-term growth in today's dynamic business landscape

The aim was to analyze the coping strategies used by primary health care (PHC) professionals. A cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted with professionals working in primary health care units in São José do Rio Preto, a large city in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil. For data collection we used an instrument developed by the researchers, containing sociodemographic and professional variables, as well as the Problem Coping Modes Scale (EMEP). We evaluated 333 PHC professionals. A difference was observed between the scores of the four coping strategies (p<0.001), with the highest score for the problem-focused strategy (3.8) and the lowest score for the emotion-focused strategy (2.4). Physicians had the lowest scores in coping strategies focused on religious practices/fantastical thinking (p<0.001) and pursuit of social support (p=0.045), while community health agents had the highest scores in these coping strategies). Professionals working in PHC have different coping strategies for the problems and stressful situations experienced in the work environment. These strategies can involve more positive attitudes focused on confrontation and problem solving, to emotional responses that involve attitudes of avoidance and denial that involve attitudes of avoidance and denial of the problem.

Water scarcity is significantly increasing water stress in Africa and some parts of the world. This is due to human induced factors such as climate change, increase of human population that raises demand which outstrips food availability, and put great changes of land use which results in changes of hydrological mechanics and water availability as whole. The investigation was through literature review and it tries to examine the criticality of water scarcity in Africa regions, and the major factors that mastermind this menace. Also possible strategies that can be promptly used to manage water scarcity at domestic level and in agriculture are described in this paper, not with standing the fact that agriculture sectors in Africa and the rest of the world remain the utmost vulnerable enterprise to water scarcity and withdrawal on the planet earth.

Climate change poses a significant threat to European security, implicitly to Romania’s naval forces in the Black Sea. Rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and ocean acidification impact maritime operations, infrastructure, and personnel, with potential ramifications for regional stability. This paper explores the implications of climate change for the Romanian Navy and proposes "Green Defence" strategies to enhance resilience and sustainability. These strategies encompass energy efficiency, renewable energy integration, sustainable procurement, and the application of advanced functional materials in naval operations and infrastructure. By adopting a proactive and multifaceted approach, the Romanian Navy can adapt to the changing climate, ensuring operational effectiveness while minimizing environmental impact. This approach aligns with broader European security concerns and contributes to a more sustainable and resilient defence posture in the face of climate-related challenges.

Smallholder farmers in Ethiopia face increasing challenges from climate change and variability, which threaten their food security and livelihoods. This study examines how adopting single and combined climate change adaptation practices affects their vulnerability to food insecurity in Bench Maji Zone, southwest Ethiopia. Through multistage sampling, data was gathered from 390 rural households in four climate-prone districts. The study examines the impacts resulting from both individual and combined implementations of adaptation techniques. These techniques encompass crop management practices, soil and water conservation measures, and livelihood portfolio diversification strategies. The study employed the multinomial endogenous treatment effect regression model to address selection bias and endogeneity resulting from various sources of heterogeneity, whether observed or unobserved. The results show that farmers who adopted adaptation practices were less vulnerable to food insecurity than those who did not. The study also finds that adopting multiple practices has a more significant impact than adopting single practices. Our findings suggest that implementing climate change adaptation strategies can increase the resilience of smallholder farmers in the study area and decrease their vulnerability to food insecurity. The study recommends supporting farmers in adopting these strategies through research and development, information dissemination, and collaborations among farmers, researchers, and extension services.

In today's volatile and competitive business landscape, achieving synergy between supply chain agility and marketing flexibility is imperative for organizations striving to enhance resilience and maintain competitiveness. This qualitative study explores the integration of these strategic elements and their impact on organizational performance in turbulent markets. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders from diverse industries to capture insights into adaptation strategies, challenges, and outcomes associated with aligning supply chain agility and marketing flexibility. Findings reveal that supply chain agility, characterized by rapid response capabilities to disruptions and fluctuating demands, is essential for optimizing operational efficiency and maintaining continuity in uncertain environments. Meanwhile, marketing flexibility enables organizations to adjust strategies swiftly based on real-time market insights, enhancing customer engagement and market responsiveness. The study identifies organizational silos, resistance to change, and technological limitations as primary barriers to achieving seamless integration. Benefits of synergy include improved customer satisfaction, accelerated time-to-market for new products, and enhanced competitive advantage through personalized marketing strategies and optimized resource allocation. Moreover, organizations that effectively integrate supply chain agility with marketing flexibility reported greater innovation, employee satisfaction, and sustainable growth.

Climate change-induced events amplify existing social, political, economic, infrastructural and environmental concerns in many Global South cities, and perhaps no city is more vulnerable than Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka. Climate-induced rural-urban migration is a profound concern, and Dhaka’s political leaders have embraced technology-based innovation as a solution pathway. This article explores the societal impact of Dhaka’s innovation environment strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Employing a case study qualitative methodology, our three findings expand knowledge about innovation-urban climate mitigation as understood by Dhaka-based entrepreneurs: First, the most effective innovations were not the most technologically advanced, but those with the highest degree of participant ownership. Second, gaps between recipient, corporate and governmental understandings of effective mitigation and adaptation harmed projects, and were driven by different definitions of risk and competing understandings of vulnerability. Third, even the most technical climate adaptation measures were inherently political in their application. We discuss how to better position urban climate innovation infrastructures in Bangladesh and beyond, including developing a better recognition of innovation lifecycles for urban climate adaptation and widening our definitions of ‘innovation’ to better incorporate more effective and inclusive climate adaptation solutions.

Climate change causes weather extremes to rise in frequency and severity, which could have detrimental effects on human life, property and livelihood activity. There is significant uncertainty about the influences of anthropogenic climate change on the occurrence and severity of small-scale, sudden onset weather phenomena such as hailstorms and subsequent loss and damage. Yet, several studies indicate that there is an apparent stable connection between hailstorm activity and hailstorm damage. Severe hailstorm events are observed in Bangladesh in recent years, which are, in fact, rapid-onset disasters but low exposure in terms of giving government response and media consideration. Hence this study examines potential impacts and management strategies for loss and damage resulting from hailstorm events among smallholder farmers in Kurigram District's Phulbari Upazila of Bangladesh. Firstly, the direct and long term economic and non-economic loss and damage caused by the hailstorm on human well-beings and livelihoods were assessed. Then, the study evaluated the current adaptation, coping, management and response strategies at the institutional and community level in the context of such extreme events. Finally, a regulatory framework and implementation approaches had suggested achieving the country's resilience against disaster and climate change-induced loss and damage. Participatory Vulnerability Analysis, Key Informant Interviews and Sample Surveys accumulated the primary data for the study. In addition, secondary data were collected through analysis of literature, published and unpublished scientific articles and media reports, etc. This research outcome will help countries develop a guideline to address climate change and disaster-related loss and damage.

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) has been a popular research area in the last decade. The dependability of CPS is still a critical issue, and rare survey has been published in this domain. CPS is a dynamic complex system, which involves various multidisciplinary technologies. To avoid human error and to simplify management, self-management CPS (SCPS) is a wise choice. And to achieve dependable self-management, systematic solution is necessary to verify the design and to guarantee the safety of self-adaptation decision, as well as to maintain the health of SCPS. This survey first recalls the concepts of dependability, and proposes a generic environment-in-loop processing flow of self-management CPS, and then analyzes the error sources and challenges of self-management through the formal feedback flow. Focus on reducing the complexity, we first survey the self-adaptive architecture approaches and applied dependability means; then we introduce a hybrid multi-role self-adaptive architecture, and discuss the supporting technologies for dependable self-management at the architecture level. Focus on dependable environment-centered adaption, we investigate the verification and validation (V&V) methods for making safe self-adaptation decision and the solutions for processing decision dependably. For system-centered adaption, the comprehensive self-healing methods are summarized. Finally, we analyze the missing pieces of the technology puzzle and the future directions. In this survey, the technical trends for dependable CPS design and maintenance are discussed, an all-in-one solution is proposed to integrate these technologies and build a dependable organic SCPS. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive survey on dependable SCPS building and evaluation.

The missing link between cross-sectoral resource utilisation and management, and full-scale adoption of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has been lack of analytical tools to support policy and decision-making. This paper defined WEF nexus sustainability indicators and developed a methodology to calculate composite indices to facilitate WEF nexus performance, monitoring and evaluation. WEF nexus indicators were integrated through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM). Data were normalised to determine composite indices. The method established quantitative relationships among WEF nexus sectors to indicate resource utilisation and performance over time, using South Africa as a case study. A spider graph of normalised indices was used to illustrate WEF nexus indicator performance and inter-relationships, providing a synopsis of the level of interactions and inter-connectedness of WEF nexus sectors. The shape of the spider graph is determined by the level of the interdependencies and interactions among the WEF nexus sectors, whose management is viewed either as sustainable or unsustainable depending on the classification of the developed integrated index. The spider graph produced for South Africa shows an over emphasis on food self-sufficiency and water productivity at the expense of other sectors, which results from the sectoral approach in resource management. Although the calculated integrated index of 0.203 for South Africa is classified as lowly sustainable, the emphasis is on the quantitative relationships among the indicators and on how to improve them to achieve sustainability. The developed method provides evidence to decision makers, indicating priority areas for intervention. The analytical model is another niche area for the WEF nexus, as it is now capable to evaluate synergies and trade-offs in a holistic way to improve efficiency and productivity in resource use and management for sustainable development.

Adaptation to climate change is being addressed in many domains. This means that there are multiple perspectives on adaptation; often with differing visions resulting in disconnected responses and outcomes. Combining singular perspectives into coherent, combined perspectives that include multiple needs and visions can help to deepen the understanding of various aspects of adaptation and provide more effective responses. Such combinations of perspectives can help to increase the range and variety of adaptation measures available for implementation or avoid maladaptation compared with adaptations derived from a singular perspective. The objective of this paper is to present and demonstrate a framework for structuring the local adaptation responses using the inputs from multiple perspectives. The adaptation response framing has been done by: (i) contextualizing climate change adaptation needs; (ii) analyzing drivers of change; (iii) characterizing measures of adaptation; and (iv) establishing links between the measures with a particular emphasis on taking account of multiple perspectives. This framework was demonstrated with reference to the management of flood risks in a case study Can Tho, Vietnam. The results from the case study show that multiple perspective framing of adaptation responses enhance the understanding of various aspects of adaptation measures, thereby leading to flexible implementation practices.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a crop of nutritional and economic importance worldwide, cultivated in more than 100 tropical and subtropical countries including Ecuador, traditionally cultivated in its three continental regions: the Amazon, the Coast and in the valleys of the Sierra. The purpose of this study was to characterize 195 accessions from INIAP's Ecuadorian cassava collection through 1) morphological characterization with qualitative and quantitative descriptors; and 2) ecogeographic characterization to know the climatic, geophysical and edaphic conditions in which cassava grows and which environments are frequent or marginal for its cultivation. For the morphological characterization, 27 morphological descriptors were used (18 qualitative and nine quantitative), and for the ecogeographic characterization, 55 variables (41 climatic, two geophysical and 12 edaphic). As a result, four morphological groups and three ecogeographic groups were identified. In the research, morphological variability was evidenced, mainly in descriptors related to the leaf, stems and inflorescences. In addition, it was possible to identify accessions that can adapt to extreme conditions of drought and poor soils, which could be used for improvement.

Cancer, a disease of multicellular organisms, probably developed almost immediately following the transition from unicellular to metazoan life, about one billion years ago. Great efforts have been made to understand the carcinogenesis for many years. In this paper, We tried to explain the cancer based on “chaos”, “adaptation” and “information” with the context of new literature findings.

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly recognised for their potential to address both the climate and biodiversity crises. These outcomes are interdependent, and both rely on the capacity of NbS to support and enhance the health of an ecosystem: its biodiversity, the condition of its abiotic and biotic elements, and its capacity to function normally despite environmental change. However, while understanding of ecosystem health outcomes of nature-based interventions for climate change mitigation is growing, the outcomes of those implemented for adaptation remain poorly understood with evidence scattered across multiple disciplines. To address this, we conducted a systematic review of the outcomes of 109 nature-based interventions for climate change adaptation using 33 indicators of ecosystem health across eight broad categories (e.g. diversity, biomass, ecosystem functioning and population dynamics). We showed that 88% of interventions with positive outcomes for climate change adaptation also reported measurable benefits for ecosystem health. We also showed that interventions were associated with a 67% average increase in local species richness. All eight studies that reported benefits in terms of both climate change mitigation and adaptation also supported ecosystem health, leading to a triple win. However, there were also trade-offs, mainly for forest management and creation of novel ecosystems such as monoculture plantations of non-native species. Our review highlights two major limitations of research to date. First, only a limited selection of metrics are used to assess ecosystem health and these rarely include key aspects such as functional diversity and habitat connectivity. Second, taxonomic coverage is poor: 67% of outcomes assessed only plants and 57% did not distinguish between native and non-native species. Future research addressing these issues will allow the design and adaptive management of NbS to support healthy and resilient ecosystems, and thereby enhance their effectiveness for meeting both climate and biodiversity targets.

Human induced climate change led to the recognition of Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) as one of the remedies in building adaptive capacity and resilience of communities. It recognizes the agency of communities in shaping the optimal strategy. CBA interventions are vital in addressing community needs and contextual specificities, enable participatory and inclusive engagement and thereby facilitate more profound adaptation impacts. Agent-based modelling (ABM) has the potential to be an invaluable approach in developing tailored adaptation strategies considering capacities, resources, skills, priorities, needs and the cultural context of local communities. ABM allows to capture the complex relationships among various components within community decision making on CBA actions, the CBA actions themselves and the environment, however available tools provide for various degrees of freedom in agent definition, sensitivity analysis, scalability, experiment design and output analysis to name a few. This article assesses all available ABM modelling and simulation tools for its application in the context of CBA. NetLogo emerges as the most suitable tool for incorporating and handling the special features of CBA. It is closely followed by GAMA and Envision. The article provides insights and guidance to researchers and practitioners in selecting ABM tools aligned with the specific requirements of their CBA simulations and projects.

According to current forecasts, global heating is likely to exceed 2,8°C by the end of the century. This makes substantial adaptation measures necessary to secure a broad basis for livelihoods provision and the conservation of biodiversity. While the implementation of top-down and technocratic adaptation efforts is the majority, related adaptation shortcomings of socio-economic and ecological nature are becoming more and more apparent. Community-based adaptation (CBA) with its participatory, inclusive and needs-based bottom-up approach offers a promising and powerful alternative. This article uses a semi-systematic literature review approach to screen the current literature and identify core issues of CBA. Linking communality, locality, multidimensionality, power imbalances, transformative potential, localisation, the triad of adaptation metrics and adaptation with nature to corresponding potential actions for practical implementations provides a more holistic conceptualisation and broadens the horizons for further learnings, research and improved application.

There is a growing consensus that to effectively adapt to climate change, cities need user-friendly tools and reliable high-resolution biophysical and socio-economic data for analysis, mapping, modeling, and visualization. This study examines availability of various types of information used in climate adaptation plans of 40 municipalities with population less than 300,000 people in the United and in France, probing into the choice and usage of relevant information by small municipalities. We argue that non-climatic spatial data, such as population demographic and socio-economic patterns, urban infrastructure, and environmental data must be integrated with climate tools and datasets to inform effective vulnerability assessment and equitable climate adaptation planning goals. Climate adaptation plans frequently fail to address the existing structural inequalities and environmental injustices in urban infrastructure and land use. Adaptation methodological approaches should be reassessed in the context of much needed societal transformation. Lessons learned from our studies offer valuable insights for potential development of the national and state-level climate adaptation information services for cities.

We develop and apply a systematic literature review methodology to identify and characterize the ways in which the peer-reviewed literature depicts how climate change adaptation is occurring in Australia. We reviewed the peer-reviewed, English-language literature between January 2005 and January 2018 for examples of documented adaptation actions. Our results challenge previous assumptions that adaptation action is not happening in Australia and describes adaptation processes that are underway. For the most part, actions can be described as preliminary or groundwork, with a particular focus on documenting stakeholder perspectives on climate change and adaptation, and modelling or scenario planning in the coastal zone, agriculture and health sectors. Where concrete adaptations are reported, they are usually in the agricultural sector and are most common in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s food basket. The findings of the review advance our understanding of adaptation to climate change as a process and the need to consider different stages in the process when tracking adaptation.

Childhood is an obvious period for motor learning since children’s musculoskeletal and nervous systems are still in development. Adults adapt movements based on reward feedback about success and failure but it is less established whether school-age children also exhibit such reward-based motor learning. We designed a new ‘circle-drawing’ task suitable for assessing reward-based motor learning in both children and adults. Participants drew circles with their unseen hand on a tablet. They received binary reward feedback after each attempt based on the proximity of the average radius of their drawing to a target radius set as double the radius of their baseline drawings. We rewarded about 50% of the trials based on a performance-dependent reward criterion. Both children (7-17 years old) and adults increased the radius of their drawings in the direction of the target radius. We observed no difference in learning between children and adults. Moreover, both groups changed the radius less following reward than following reward absence, which is a sign of reward-based motor learning. We conclude that school-age children, like adults, exhibit reward-based motor learning.

The field of domain adaptation, particularly in cross-domain sentiment classification, leverages labeled data from a source domain alongside unlabeled or sparsely labeled data from a target domain. The objective is to enhance performance in the target domain by mitigating the discrepancies in data distributions. Traditional methods in this area have focused on identifying and differentiating between pivotal sentiment words (shared across domains) and domain-specific sentiment words. In our work, we introduce a novel framework called Sentiment Domain Adapter (SDA), which incorporates a Category Attention Network (CAN) alongside a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). This approach treats pivotal and domain-specific words as part of a collective category of attributes, which SDA learns to discern automatically, thereby enhancing domain adaptation. Additionally, SDA seeks to provide interpretative insights by learning these category attributes. Our model's optimization targets three main goals: (1) supervised classification accuracy, (2) minimizing the disparity in category feature distribution, and (3) maintaining domain invariance. Evaluations on three benchmark datasets for sentiment analysis affirm that SDA surpasses several established baselines.

We present a novel approach for adapting text written in standard Finnish to different dialects. We experiment with character level NMT models both by using a multi-dialectal and transfer learning approaches. The models are tested with over 20 different dialects. The results seem to favor transfer learning, although not strongly over the multi-dialectal approach. We study the influence dialectal adaptation has on perceived creativity of computer generated poetry. Our results suggest that the more the dialect deviates from the standard Finnish, the lower scores people tend to give on an existing evaluation metric. However, on a word association test, people associate creativity and originality more with dialect and fluency more with standard Finnish.

Propagation of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) in cultured cells results in genetic adaptations that confer improved growth in vitro and significant attenuation in vivo. Mutations in RL13 arise quickly during cell culture passage, while mutations in the UL128-131A locus emerge later during fibroblast passage and disrupt expression of a glycoprotein complex that is important for entry into epithelial and endothelial cells. As in vivo CMV replicates in the context of host antibodies, we reasoned that antibodies might mitigate the accumulation of adaptive mutations during cell culture passage. To test this, CMV in infant urine was used to infect replicate fibroblast cultures. One lineage was passaged in the absence of CMV-hyperimmuneglobulin (HIG) while the other was passaged with HIG in the culture medium. The former lost epithelial tropism and aquired mutations disrupting RL13 and UL131A expression, whereas the latter retained epithelial tropism and both gene loci remained intact after 22 passages. An epitheliotropic RL13+/ UL131A+ virus was isolated by limiting-dilution in the presence of HIG and expanded to produce a working stock sufficient to conduct cell tropism experiments. Thus, culture in the presence of antibodies may facilitate in vitro experiments using viruses that are genetically more authentic than has been previously possible.

Coastal areas are highly vulnerable to climate change hazards (e.g., sea-level rise, flooding, coastal erosion), which can lead to significant impacts at the ecosystem and societal level. Interest in Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) is gaining importance due to its potential multiple benefits, including social and environmental aspects, when compared to more traditional approaches such as hard engineering interventions. When assessing EbA strategies, further understanding of the nature-society functions, processes, values, and benefits is needed to increase its application. This study contributes to a better knowledge of EbA by developing a systematic literature review of studies performing socio-economic assessments of climate change adaptation in coastal areas. The analysis of 54 publications revealed that most of the studies assessed adaptation solutions through cost-benefit analysis, followed by multi-criteria analysis, and other techniques. Hybrid adaptation strategies based on different combinations of hard, soft and EbA interventions were considered as potential optimal solutions in a significant part of the assessments. This study suggests the potential co-benefits of EbA in the form of ecosystem services, livelihood diversification or biodiversity conservation, but also stresses the need for further research on this topic, as well as on evaluating how EbA perform in the long-term under climate changing conditions scenarios.

Community engagement in climate action and adaptation planning is an essential prerequisite for overcoming existing and projected environmental injustices associated with the negative impacts of climate change. Diversity and inclusion of stakeholders are crucial for addressing equity both in the development and implementation of local climate plans. Our study attempts to evaluate and compare consideration of equity in climate action and climate adaptation plans of Michigan cities and its association with a diversity of stakeholders involved in the planning process. Data analysis is based on the content of eight municipal climate action and/or climate adaptation plans, related documents, and interviews with city planners along with community activists. Data derived from climate action and adaptation plans were also compared to the strategies outlined in the Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu, which integrates climate science and indigenous knowledge. The study concludes that municipalities that engage more diverse groups of stakeholders appear to be more attentive to social equity and more likely to offer specific climate action and adaptation measures focusing on vulnerable groups. Integration of indigenous knowledge could provide valuable insights for municipalities through collaboration with tribal communities and climate adaptation experts.

Alopecurus myosuroides (blackgrass) is a problematic weed of Western European winter wheat and its success is largely due to widespread multiple-herbicide resistance. Previous analysis of F2 seed families derived from two distinct blackgrass populations exhibiting equivalent non-target site resistance (NTSR) phenotypes shows resistance is polygenic and evolves from standing genetic variation. Using a CIDER-seq pipeline we show that herbicide resistant (HR) and herbicide sensitive (HS) F3 plants from these F2 seed families as well as the parent populations they were derived from carry extra-chromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA). We identify the similarities and differences in the coding structures within and between resistant and sensitive populations. Although the numbers and size of detected eccDNAs varied between the populations, comparisons between HR and HS blackgrass populations identified shared and unique coding content, predicted genes, and functional protein domains. These include genes related to herbicide detoxification such as Cytochrome P450s, ATP-binding cassette transporters and glutathione transferases including AmGSTF1. eccDNA content was mapped to the Alopecurus myosuroides reference genome, revealing genomic regions at distal end of chromosome 5 and the near center of chromosome 1 and 7 as regions with high number of mapped eccDNA gene density. Mapping to 15 known herbicide-resistant QTL regions showed the eccDNA coding sequences match 12 with four QLT matching HS coding sequences one region only contained HR coding sequences. These findings establish that like other pernicious weeds, blackgrass has eccDNAs that contain homologs of chromosomal genes, and these may contribute genetic heterogeneity and evolutionary innovation to rapidly adapt to abiotic stresses including herbicide treatment.

The period of study in the online environment can be a very demanding trial for students and masters, especially for those who are not familiar with computer technology. This is largely due to a complex of factors that come from the changes to which they are subjected, such as: leaving the parental home and settling into another living environment (living in dormitories or other forms of accommodation) but also settling with an unfamiliar and very different educational environment from what they were familiar with. Along with all the changes occurring in the family and social plan, the students had to adapt to the educational system made exclusively online. Higher educa-tion institutions in Romania use, as a method of knowledge transmission, traditional learning methods, namely they use face-to-face lecture-type courses in a lecture hall or practical and ex-planatory activities in a seminar/laboratory room. The emergence of this pandemic forced higher education institutions to switch to an online teaching mode for all types of activities included in the educational process.

The paper provides a critical synthesis of analysis and evaluation of some case studies in the Italian national context, which allowed, through an inductive method, to assess, in terms of integration and coherence, the process of transposition of climate change adaptation contents, possibly already contained within a regional urban framework (Regional Urban Laws) or specific Regional Adaptation Strategies or Local Adaptation Plans, within the territorial and urban planning tools of metropolitan or local scale.

Metastasis is a systemic condition and the major challenge among cancer types, as it can lead to multiorgan vulnerability. Recently, attention has been drawn to cellular senescence, a complex stress response condition, as a factor implicated in metastatic dissemination and outgrowth. Here, we examine the current knowledge of the features required for cells to invade and colonize secondary organs and how senescent cells can contribute to this process. First, we described the role of senescence in placentation, itself an invasive process which has been linked to higher rates of invasive cancers. Second, we describe how senescent cells can contribute to metastatic dissemination and colonization. Third, we discuss several metabolic adaptations by which senescent cells could promote cancer survival along the metastatic journey. In conclusion, we posit that targeting cellular senescence may have a potential therapeutic efficacy to limit metastasis formation.

Daytime napping offers benefits for motor memory learning and is used as habitual countermeasure to improve daytime functioning. A single napping is shown to ameliorate motor memory learning, although the effect of consecutive napping on motor memory consolidation remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the effect of daytime napping over multiple days on motor memory learning. Twenty university students were divided into the napping group and no-nap (awake) group. Napping group performed motor adaption tasks before and after napping for three consecutive days, whereas no-nap group performed the task on the similar time schedule as the napping group. In addition, a subsequent retest was conducted one week after the end of the intervention. The speed to complete the task of the napping group was significantly shorter than that of the awake group in the retention test. No significant difference was confirmed for trajectory length to complete the task. Thus, consecutive napping may facilitate motor learning and motor memory consolidation in the long term.

Herbicide resistance is an evolutionary process that affects entire agricultural regions' yield and productivity. The high number of farms and the diversity of weed management can generate hot selection spots along regions. Resistant biotypes can present a diversity of mechanisms of resistance and resistance factors depending on selective conditions inside the farm; this situation is similar to predicts by the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution. In Mexico, the agricultural region of Bajio has been affected by herbicide resistance for 25 years. To date, Avena fatua L. is one of the most abundant and problematic weed species. The objective of this study was to determine the mechanism of resistance of biotypes with failures in the weed control in 70 wheat and barley crop fields in Bajio, Mexico. The results showed that 70% of farms have biotypes with TSR, the most common mutations where Trp – 1999 – Cys, Asp – 2078 – Gly, Ile – 2041 – Asn, such mutations confer cross-resistance to ACCase-inhibiting herbicides. Metabolomic fingerprinting showed four different metabolic expression patterns. The results confirmed that in the Bajio exist multiple selection sites for both resistance mechanisms, which proves that this area can be considered as a geographic mosaic of resistance.

We here report the de novo transcriptome assembly and functional annotation of Eusirus cf. giganteus clade g3, providing the first database of expressed sequences from this giant Antarctic amphipod. RNA-sequencing, carried out on the whole-body of a single juvenile individual likely undergoing molting, revealed the dominant expression of hemocyanins. The mRNAs encoding these oxygen-binding proteins cumulatively accounted for about 40% of the total transcriptional effort, highlighting the key biological importance of high hemocyanin production in this Antarctic amphipod species. We speculate that this observation may mirror a strategy previously described in Antarctic cephalopods, which compensate the decreased ability to release oxygen to peripheral tissues at sub-zero temperatures by massively increasing total blood hemocyanin content compared with temperate species. These preliminary results will undoubtedly require confirmation through proteomic and biochemical analyses aimed at characterizing the oxygen-binding properties of E. cf. giganteus clade g3 hemocyanins, and at investigating whether other Antarctic arthropod species exploit similar adaptations to cope with the challenges posed by the extreme conditions of the polar environment.

Riverbed farming (RbF) has emerged as an alternative form of agriculture. This farming supports the poor and marginalized farmers to adapt to climate change, especially in the degraded lands because of floods and flood-induced riverbank erosions every year. The government and non-government organizations (GOs/NGOs) have supported and built capacities of farmers to adopt this as an effective adaptation strategy in the region. This study aims to analyze the determinants of riverbed farming at the household level mainly in Deukhuri valley of Western Terai, Nepal. A total of 150 households were selected randomly for the study in Sisahaniya rural municipality for the household survey. The determinants of the adoption of riverbed farming have been analyzed utilizing independent variables such as age, gender, education, occupation, ethnicity, family size, and others. Education and occupation are positively significant for the adoption of riverbed farming whereas the family size is negatively significant. Agriculture is the main occupation in the area and education helped them to understand the concept and procedure of RbF as alternative farming in the degraded lands. However, not all the family members have actively contributed to the RbF. This is an interesting study that could be expanded with the support of GOs/NGOs.

An opinion dependent cross sectional survey was conducted among charland peoples of Noakhali, Bangladesh with a view to identify the factors that affect green economy. Nijhumdwip Island and Tamaruddi union are highly affected by cyclone and soil salinity. Unpredictable rainfall is the most acute in Nijhumdwip. Lack of information the main problem in Nijhumdwip Island. Farmers are found less interest in integrated farming and crop diversification. Few farmers from Sonadia Union are involved in homestead gardening. Regression analysis have shown a negative relationship (p<0.001) between education of stockholders and decrease of crop production. On the other hand education level of stockholders is to be found positively (p<0.05) varied with decrease of food insecurity. So it can be said that educated farmers are more adaptive against climate change.

A simplified nonlinear dispersive system of BBM-type, initially derived by D. Mitsotakis, is employed here in order to model the generation and propagation of surface water waves over variable bottom. The simplification consists in applying the so-called Boussinesq approximation. Using the finite element method and the FreeFem++ software, we solve numerically this system for three different complexities for the bathymetry function: a flat bottom case, a variable bottom in space, and a variable bottom both in space and in time. The last case is illustrated with the Java 2006 tsunami event. This article is designed rather as a tutorial paper even if it contains the description of completely new adaptation techniques.

Climate disruption has serious impact on the entire agricultural production system at global scale. Research and development efforts as well as innovations may be necessary to offset the negative impact of climate change. Adaptation to climate change has remained a major socio-ecological issue in the Northern Region of Cameroon for three decades. Several agricultural innovations have been promoted in this region by international organizations and NGO, within the framework of different projects and programs, with a strong potential for adaptation to climate change. However, little is still known about agricultural innovations that have evolved over time in response to climatic factors. Therefore, research aiming at identifying adaptation strategies and practices at the local level is still limited. Also, rural communities and households do not always have access to these agricultural innovations because of lack of efficient innovation support service for agriculture. Through surveys and focus group discussions carried out in several villages in the Northern Cameroon Region, this study provides empirical data on emerging agricultural innovations in contrasting socio-economic, agricultural and ecological contexts. The study demonstrated that the process of adaptation at the village level using agricultural innovations is the result of various forms of support provided by a diversity of actors. However, heads of household (83%) are more involved in innovative initiatives to the detriment of other social strata, resulting in an imbalance in access and proximity to agricultural innovations. Also, support for agricultural innovations is segmented over time and weakens the sustainable transformation of adaptation due to the lack of coordination and the very low visibility of permanent structures dedicated to supporting agricultural innovations.

The process of oxygenic photosynthesis is primarily driven by two multiprotein complexes known as photosystem II (PSII) and photosystem I (PSI). PSII facilitates the light–induced reactions of water–splitting and plastoquinone reduction, while PSI functions as the light–driven plastocyanin-ferredoxin oxidoreductase. In contrast to the highly conserved structure of PSII among all oxygen–evolving photosynthetic organisms, the structures of PSI exhibit remarkable variations, especially for photosynthetic organisms that grow in special environments. In this review, we make a concise overview of the recent investigations of PSI from photosynthetic microorganisms including prokaryotic cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae from the perspective of structural biology. All known PSI complexes contain a highly conserved heterodimeric core; however, their pigment compositions and peripheral light-harvesting proteins are substantially flexible. This structural plasticity of PSI reveals the dynamic adaptation to environmental changes for photosynthetic organisms.

We investigated the response of leaf photosynthetic capacity to climate warming and its variation among provenances of Larix gmelinii (Dahurian larch). Seedlings of 11 L. gmelinii provenances were transplanted into two common gardens with different climate conditions (control and warming climate). We measured the leaf photosynthetic capacity and explored its influencing factors. The warming treatment significantly increased the maximum net photosynthetic rate (Pmax-a), photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE), maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax), maximum electron transport rate (Jmax), triose phosphate utilization rate (TPU), mesophyll conductance (gm), leaf nitrogen content (Narea), and chlorophyll content (Chlm). The Pmax-a was significantly positively associated with Vcmax, Jmax, TPU, gm, and Narea, and the slope of the correlations between Pmax-a and Vcmax, Jmax, and TPU was steeper in the warming treatment. The responses of Pmax-a, PNUE, Vcmax, Jmax, TPU, Narea, and Chlm to warming differed among provenances. The effects of warming on Pmax-a, Vcmax, Jmax, and TPU increased and then decreased as the aridity index of the original site increased. Overall, the warming treatment improved the photosynthetic capacity of L. gmelinii, but the extent of the improvement varied among provenances. These findings provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the responses of L. gmelinii to climate warming.

Recent advancements in machine learning have ushered in innovative techniques for augmenting datasets, particularly through contrastive learning in the computer vision domain. This study pioneers the application of contrastive learning for sentiment analysis, introducing a novel approach termed EmoConLearn. By fine-tuning contrastive learning embeddings, EmoConLearn significantly surpasses BERT-based embeddings in sentiment analysis accuracy, as evidenced by our evaluations on the DynaSent dataset. This research further delves into the efficacy of EmoConLearn across various domain-specific datasets, highlighting its versatility. Additionally, we investigate upsampling strategies to mitigate class imbalance, further enhancing EmoConLearn's performance in sentiment analysis benchmarks.

Single-cell green microalga Nannochloropsis oceanica is potentially considered to be the bioresource for biofuel and pharmaceutical production. Urea is a kind of nutrient component for photosyn-thetic N. oceanica. Meanwhile, urea could induce to accumulate some substances such as lipid and affect its growth and physiology. However, how marine microalga N. oceanica respond and adapt to urea addition remains elusive. Here, acclimation of the metabolic reprogramming to changes in the nutrient environment was studied by high-throughput mRNA sequencing in N. oceanica under Ct vs U, there were 2104 genes displayed differential expression (including 1354 upregulation and 750 downregulation, respectively) and some pathways including carbon/nitrogen metabolism, photosynthesis, and lipid metabolism would be reprogrammed in N. oceanica. The results showed that genes related to photosynthesis in N. oceanica were significantly down-regulated, especially those related to light harvesting proteins. Interestingly, urea absorption and transport may de-pend not only on specialized transport mechanisms such as urease, but also on alternative transport channels such as the ABC transporter family, CLC protein family. In addition, urea causes specific changes in carbon and lipid metabolism. Genes associated with the Calvin cycle and carbon concentration mechanisms were significantly upregulated. In lipid metabolism, genes associated with lipases, or polyunsaturated fatty acid enzymes, are highly activated. In addition, expression is enhanced in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and folate metabolism, making important contributions to energy supply and synthesis and modification of genes or macromolecules. These phenomena indicate that N. oceanica actively and dynamically regulates the redistribution of carbon and nitrogen after urea addition., which will provide references for further research on the effects of urea on N. oceanica.

Drought is a long period of unusually low rainfall and can have serious effects on people's lives. It is caused by various factors such as climate change, deforestation, and the overuse of water re-sources. In the Somali region of Ethiopia, Kebri Dehar is the most at risk and most likely to have a drought. The lack of rainfall and high temperatures in Kebri Dehar have led to drought. Man-aging drought is the most challenging and complex problem. The purpose of this study is to as-sess household perception of drought hazards occurrence and adaptation. Additionally, the study aims to design a drought resilience mechanism matrix to mitigate its impact on the local commu-nity. This study used the Heckman two-stage model, which is useful in measuring drought per-ception as it accounts for potential selection bias and allows for the identification of factors that influence individuals' perceptions of drought. Gender, severity of drought, water shortage, tem-perature, drought frequency, and long dry season all have a positive effect on adaptation of resil-ience mechanisms to drought hazards, while food availability and rainfall have a negative effect. It is important for governments and individuals to act to mitigate the effects of the drought. Ef-forts to address the issue require a multi-participation approach that involves household, com-munity, and institutional level participation is needed for adopting drought resilience mecha-nisms.

Floods are the most frequent and devastating disasters in Bangladesh. The riverine islands, known as char-lands, are particularly vulnerable to flooding. As flooding poses a significant threat to the lives and livelihoods of residents, especially farmers, it is crucial to understand how they perceive flood risk and assess their adaptation strategies in this geographically susceptible context. However, the existing literature has not adequately addressed these issues. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the factors influencing farmers' perceived flood risk and their assessments of flood adaptation. In a survey of 359 farmers in Bangladesh's char-land region, located in the Chowhali sub-district of Sirajganj district, we used the protection motivation theory (PMT) to measure farmers' perceived flood risk and adaptation assessments. Multiple regression analysis was employed to identify factors influencing them. Farmers prioritized the risk to livelihoods (production and income) over psychological aspects (health and diseases). Larger farms, more flood experience, and greater risk awareness are associated with higher overall flood risk perception; and better flood adaptation, indicating higher self-efficacy, response efficacy, and response cost among farmers. Farmers perceived lower flood risk in exchange for greater house distance from the river and more trust in government actions. Hence, strengthening campaigns and programs is crucial to understanding flood risk in char-lands for improved adaptation to floods. The study highlights the application of PMT to assess farmers' perceptions of flood risk and their attitudes towards adaptation, suggesting further research opportunities.

The inherent dependency of deep learning models to labeled data is a well-known problem and one of the barriers that slows down the integration of such methods into different fields of applied sciences and engineering, in which experimental and numerical methods can easily generate a colossal amount of unlabeled data. This paper proposes an unsupervised domain adaptation methodology that mimics the peer review process to label new observations in a different domain from the training set. The approach evaluates the validity of a hypothesis using domain knowledge acquired from the training set through a similarity analysis, exploring the projected feature space to examine the class centroid shifts. The methodology is tested on a binary classification problem, where synthetic images of cubes and cylinders in different orientations are generated. The methodology improves the accuracy of the object classifier from 60% to around 90% in the case of a domain shift in physical feature space without human labeling.

The relationship between living things and their respective environments highly dependent on body temperature regulation. The human capacity to effectively thermoregulate evolved at a time when the environmental temperature was likely around 25°C during the Eocene epoch, some ~ 50-60 million years ago. This effectively meant that homeothermy settled on a core temperature balance point of ~ 37°C. When Homo split from chimpanzee around 5 million years ago the Earth was entering a cooling period where the balance point temperature was always well above that of the environment and body heat balance could be maintained. Following this cooling period, the Earth’s rewarming by 7 °C took over approximately 5,000 years, whereas the current estimates indicate 0.7 °C over the past 100 years; ten times the rate of ice-age-recovery warming, or 20 times faster compared with the last 2 million years. As such, if the predicted continued rise in global temperature continues, and surface temperature reaches values where heat load cannot be dumped as the body temperature balance point is at or near the environmental temperature, areas of the Earth would become inhospitable. This effectively means that we will need to deal with both physiological and behavioral limitations since our ability to adapt will be limited by a thermoregulatory strategy that evolved over millions of years for a different kind of environment, not one that is predicted to change rapidly over the next century. This paper outlines the basis on which Homo settled on a thermoregulatory balance point and what limitations this presents for us in the future.

The agricultural sector provides employment and income to the majority of Myanmar's population. The sector, however, is extremely susceptible to severe weather, rising temperatures, and changes in precipitation. This paper aims to analyze how vulnerable Myanmar's agricultural sector is to climate change and highlights the key sectors that are most at risk. This report also examines historical climate information, and the anticipated effects of climate change on Myanmar's agricultural sectors. In-depth literature reviews and summaries of Myanmar's climate change adaptation efforts are included in the report, along with recom-mendations for targeted, locally appropriate actions to strengthen the country's agricultural sector's resilience. Additionally, the study reviews Myanmar's in-stitutional framework for climate action and government priorities for adaptation measures, emphasizes the urgent need for climate action in Myanmar's agricul-ture sectors and calls for more research and development efforts on the effects of climate change on rural livelihoods and agriculture.

In the contemporary business world, digital transformations have undergone vast and important developments over the last several decades, and they have aided in the development of the virtual team concept, in which geographically dispersed team members work to achieve a common goal. Virtual teams, according to the literature, suffer from process losses more frequently than their face-to-face counterparts. Although just a few studies have looked at the effects of individual differences in virtual teams, this study fills in the gaps by examining the impact of individual differences: Age Disparity (AD), Gender Disparity (GD), Language Competency (LC), and IT Competency (ITC) in management perspective on virtual team adaptation in the Sri Lankan private sector. A survey was used to collect data from a sample of 175 private sector companies in Sri Lanka during the COVID- 19 pandemic, and the data was analyzed using partial least squares path modeling (PLS) to test the study's hypotheses. The results indicated that the hypotheses were statistically significant only in the language competency and IT competency and their effects were in the expected direction. Future research could benefit from perceptions of employees in public sector organizations.

Proposed article deals with analyses on trends of problem-solving robotic applications in manu-facturing, especially in transportations and manipulations. Intelligent agent-based manufacturing systems with robotic agents are observed. Intelligent core of such units must be able to propose the plan of problem-solving in form of strategy. The logical model of adaptive strategies planning for intelligent robotic system is described in form of predicates with presentation of data processing on base of set theory descriptions. Dynamic structure of workspace and possible change of goals are considered as reasons for functional strategies adaptation. Proposed formal descriptions are sup-ported by model of mobile robotic platform, acting in warehouse.

There is growing awareness that “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) can help to protect us from climate change impacts whilst slowing further warming, supporting biodiversity and securing ecosystem services. However, the potential of NbS to provide the intended benefits has not been rigorously assessed. There are concerns over their reliability and cost-effectiveness compared to engineered alternatives, and their resilience to climate change. Trade-offs can arise if climate mitigation policy encourages NbS with low biodiversity value, such as afforestation with non-native monocultures. This can result in maladaptation, especially in a rapidly changing world where biodiversity-based resilience and multifunctional landscapes are key. Here we highlight the rise of NbS in climate policy—focussing on their potential for climate change adaptation as well as mitigation—and discuss barriers to their evidence-based implementation. We outline the major financial and governance challenges to implementing NbS at scale, highlighting avenues for further research. As climate policy turns increasingly towards greenhouse gas removal approaches such as afforestation, we stress the urgent need for natural and social scientists to engage with policymakers. They must ensure that NbS can achieve their potential to tackle both the climate and biodiversity crisis while also contributing to sustainable development. This will require systemic change in the way we conduct research and run our institutions.

This study assessed farmers’ perception of climate change, estimated the determinants of, and evaluated the relationship among adaptation practices using the multivariate probit model. A survey in 300 agricultural households was carried out covering 10 sample districts considering five agro-ecological zones and a vulnerability index. Four adaptation choices (change in planting date, crop variety, crop type and investment in irrigation) were deemed as outcome variables and socioeconomic, demographic, institutional, farm-level and perceptions variables were deployed as explanatory variables. Their marginal effects were determined for three climatic variables—temperature, precipitation and drought. Age, gender and education of head of household, credit access, farm area, rain-fed farming and tenure, are found to be more influential compared to other factors. All four adaptation-options are found to be complimentary to each other. Importantly, the intensity of impact of dependent variables in different models, and for available adaptation-options, are found to be unequal. Therefore, policy options and support facilities should be devised according to climatic variables and adaptation options to achieve superior results.

Ecosystem services (ES) are increasingly recognized as a means to adapt to the ongoing impact of climate change and associated impacts. However, these ES itself are facing adverse impact of climate change especially in developing countries where most of the people are dependent on these services for their livelihood. Very little is known about the relationship between the climate change and ES. Here we assess the impact of climate change on ecosystem services in ES rich landscape of Panchase Mountain Ecological Region of western Nepal. The study area was divided into three ecoregions from lowland through midland to the upland region. Focus group discussion, and key informant interview were used to elicit the required data for the study, which was further supported by transect walk, field observation and secondary source of information. Major impacts of climate change were observed are, reduced availability of water, reduced food production, forest ecosystem, shifting species composition in forest ecosystem, farmland abandonment, and their associated ecosystem services. We recommend to initiate the management actions to help ES adapt to climate change, and which in return could support the ecosystem itself and people dependent on the ES in adaptation to climate change by providing various goods and services.

Seeds of three C₃ and one C₄ annual weedy species were collected from agricultural fields in Beltsville, Maryland in 1966 and 2006, when atmospheric CO₂ concentrations averaged about 320 and 380 mmol mol^-1, respectively. Plants from each collection year were grown over a range of CO₂ concentrations to test for adaptation of these weedy species to recent changes in atmospheric CO₂. In all three of the C₃ species, the increase in CO₂ concentration from 320 to 380 mmol mol^-1 increased total dry mass at 24 days in plants from seeds collected in 2006, but not in plants from seeds collected in 1966. Shoot and seed dry mass at maturity was greater at the higher growth CO₂ in plants collected in 2006 than in 1966 in two of the species. Down regulation of photosynthetic carboxylation capacity during growth at high CO₂ was less in the newer seed lots than in the older in two of the species. Overall, the results indicate that adaptation to recent changes in atmospheric CO₂ has occurred in some of these weedy species.

Climate change threatens water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) facilities and services, as these are intimately linked to the water cycle and are vulnerable to changes in the quantity and quality of available water resources. Floods and droughts, which pollute and reduce water delivery respectively, have now become a perennial issue to deal with in the northern regions of the country, including the Bolgatanga Municipality. This study aimed to assess the degree to which climate change adaptation measures are mainstreamed into the WaSH development planning process in Ghana. Stakeholders from government and non-government agencies were interviewed to gain perspectives on the threat of climate change, the inclusion of climate change in WaSH planning and the barriers preventing mainstreaming. In general, despite awareness and concern about climate change, adaptation measures have been regarded to be far away from the immediate concerns of WaSH development planning. Most of the current measures are reactive and respond to environmental issues rather than to climate change stressors. In essence, stakeholders expressed the view that the adaptive capacity of the Municipality was low and that mainstreaming has not yet occurred. Despite the lack of progress, there are great opportunities for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into planning through increasing awareness and capacity, legislative and institutional changes and the development of participatory systems to provide early warning systems and disaster risk analyses that will inform future planning.

Subnational governments play a key role responding to climate change risks in terms of policy strategies and instruments. This article analyzes how Brazilian municipal and state governments have developed and implemented public policies to mitigate and to adapt to climate change risks. We surveyed all cities’ and states’ climate policies within the country. The methodological approach includes five main points of analysis: 1. mitigation targets and intentions; 2. adaptation actions; 3. stakeholders’ participation; 4. policy implementation; 5. participation in networks related to climate change. Our results suggest that even though subnational climate policies in Brazil are isolated initiatives within the national context, they play an important role responding to climate change risks in different scales and levels. The strongest Brazilian policies with both mitigation and adaptation actions counted on previous mobilization for the climate issue involving different stakeholders from several segments of the society. These governments have also participated in transnational cooperation networks related to climate change.

Climate Change is among the greatest threats to health in the 21st century, requiring urgent scale-up of adaptation interventions. We aim to summarize adaptation interventions that were funded by the Belmont Forum and the European Union, the largest global funders of climate change and health research. A systematic search was conducted (updated February 2023) to identify articles on adaptation interventions for health within this funding network. Data extracted included study characteristics, types of interventions, and study outcomes. Results were synthesised narratively within the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. 197 articles were screened, with 37 reporting on adaptation interventions. The majority of interventions focused on the general population (n=17), with few studies examining high-risk populations such as pregnant women and children (n=4) or migrants (n=0). Targeted interventions were mostly aimed at behaviour change (n=8) and health system strengthening (n=6), while interventions with mitigation co-benefits such as nature-based solutions (n=1) or the built environment (n=0) were limited. The most studied climate change hazard was extreme heat (n=26). Several studies reported promising findings, principally on interventions to counter heat impacts in workers and pregnant women, and improving risk awareness in communities. These findings provide a platform on which to expand research and public health interventions towards safeguarding public health from the effects of climate change.

Predicting the remaining useful life (RUL) of mechanical bearings is crucial in the industry. 1 Estimating the RUL enables the assessment of health bearing, maintenance planning, and signifi- 2 cant cost reduction, thereby fostering industrial development. Existing models rely on traditional 3 feature engineering, with feature changes because operating conditions pose a major challenge to 4 the generalization of RUL prediction models. This study focuses on neural network-based feature 5 engineering and the downstream prediction of the RUL, eliminating the need for specific prior 6 knowledge and simplifying the development and maintenance of models. Initially, a convolutional 7 neural network (CNN) model is employed for feature engineering. Subsequently, a bidirectional 8 long short-term memory network (Bi-LSTM) model is used to capture the time-series degradation 9 characteristics of the engineered features and predict the RUL through regression. Finally, the study 10 examines the influence of operating conditions in the model and integrates domain adaptation to 11 minimize differences in feature distribution, thereby enhancing the model’s generalizability for the 12 RUL prediction.

Climate change is an important threat to orchard production at Mediterranean basin. Diversification seems to be implemented at a farm level as an important strategy to face these challenges. This paper aims to analyse farmer’s perceptions on crop diversification as a way to enhance farm’s adaptive capacity in a context of current and future climate changes impacts. Our case study is focused in orchards growers from French department of Vaucluse recently diversifying their activities through pistachio (Pistacia vera L.). We did in-depth semi-structured farmers’ interviews in 2021. The results show that diversification is supposed to enhance 3 main components of farms adaptative capacity: (1) strengthening robustness through improvement of buffering capacities to climate impacts (trough robust and adapted plants), economic uncertainties (by exploring local/niche markets) and labour scarcity (by lowering workforce requirements and mechanization); (2) Learning by experimenting, monitoring and exchanging with pairs and advisors (3) Cope with change related with societal demands and helps to increase personal satisfaction. Finally, promote farm’s diversification can contribute to enhance farm’s adaptive capacity under climate change impacts.

Organisational performance is a major concern for any company wishing to remain competitive in today's market. This is why many companies have begun to integrate digital technologies into their management systems. The aim of this article is to determine the contribution of digitisation to organisational performance management, through observations and analysis of a single case study of a company that has adopted a digital transformation project. It emerged that digital transformation makes a significant contribution to organisational performance management. However, this transformation requires significant support and adaptation of skills and organisational structures.

The prevailing challenge in our current era is climate change, a crisis recognized by the global community that has prompted immediate actions to confront and mitigate its consequences. There is a consensus among scientists that human activities, driven by developmental ambitions, are the driving force behind the ongoing climate crisis. “The well-documented aftermath, including the rise in sea levels, coastal erosion, reduced agricultural yields, compromised access to clean water, and health implications, emphasizes the intricate and wide-ranging effects of climate change.” Furthermore, there is an increasing recognition that climate change gives rise to distinct social, economic, and divergent consequences. “Although all countries worldwide will undergo the impacts of climate change, the distribution of these effects will differ among regions, generations, age groups, income levels, occupations, and genders.” Notably, the adverse consequences will disproportionately impact the impoverished, predominantly situated in developing nations. “This paper explores the effects of climate change on displacement and the ensuing refugee dilemma.” It aims to scrutinize the inclusion of climate-induced displacement in the present international framework, encompassing both climate change and refugee regimes. The paper promotes a human rights-centred approach to tackling displacement stemming from climate change.

Studying the dynamics of urban form means questioning the processes of evolution of the form in general. The discussion on the architecture of buildings and urban spaces has drawn the concept of adaptation from the theories of natural evolution. These notes propose a reflection on the opposite concept of exaptation proposed by the biologist and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould in 1982. Through some examples (some different transformations of the Roman amphitheaters of the imperial age and the metamorphoses that occurred to the Chinese urban fabrics, originally made by courtyard houses, in the contemporary city), it is possible to extend to urban form the idea of casual co-optation for new uses of organs and anatomical parts developed for other reasons. This kind of reflections opens up innovative considerations on the potential of transitional urban analysis and its repercussions on evolutive urban transformation processes.

Coastal ecosystems provide a wide range of goods and services for the lives of human beings and aquatic species. Nevertheless, climate-induced extreme events cause unprecedented impacts on these areas, instigating a reduction of aquatic goods and services, destruction of infrastructure, and loss of human lives. Hence, this review investigated the impacts of climate-induced coastal hazards and adaptation responses. A systematic review method was used to address the objectives of this literature review. The main data sources were Research Gate, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. A total of 40 research articles (2012-2023) were selected using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA 2020) methodology. The findings of this review revealed that Bangladesh was the leading country based on the number of studies published on the impacts of climate-induced coastal hazards and coastal adaptations (20%), followed by the USA, which accounts for about 15%. Sea-level rise, coastal flooding, and climate change and variability were the most studied climate-induced coastal hazards, each accounting for 55%, 52.5% and 52.5% respectively. Coastal hazards have had significant impacts on the fishery, water, coastal ecosystems and biodiversity, agriculture, tourism, and infrastructure sectors. Besides, they caused migration and death of humans and animals. About 35% of the articles explored the assessment of vulnerability to climate-induced hazards. Moreover, 32.5% of the articles investigated anticipated climate-induced hazards. Hard, soft, ecosystem-based, and hybrid adaptation measures were used to adapt to the impacts of diverse climate-induced coastal hazards. In conclusion, developing countries are more vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate-induced coastal hazards than developed countries. The coastal area’s vulnerability to climate change risks will continue unless all stakeholders act proactively. Thus, it is suggested that the adaptation policies of vulnerable coastal areas should give due attention to nature-based solutions to reduce the adverse impacts of coastal hazards sustainably.

Eustachian Tube Dysfunction is considered a common condition among ENT patients and requires careful history, clinical examination and appropriate investigations to obtain a diagnosis. The ETDQ-7 questionnaire is a useful tool to subjectively score severity of symptoms that are related to this pathology (Appendix A). This study aimed to adapt and validate the ETDQ-7 questionnaire in Greece to ensure correct and efficient use in the outpatient setting (Appendix B). The ETDQ-7 was translated into the Greek language following appropriate methodology. Data for the main study were collected from a sample of 75 Greek patients diagnosed with ETD as well as 25 patients that did not have ETD and who served as a control group. The participants completed the adapted ETDQ-7 questionnaire and underwent a clinical examination that was statistically correlated with their ETDQ-7 answers. Face and content validity were confirmed and the questionnaire was found easy to administer and to be completed by our patients. Test-retest reliability revealed similar internal consistency for the questions and good correlation between individual items and total score. Discriminative validity confirmed statistically significant difference between the two patient groups to ensure that the Greek version of ETDQ-7 is useful to confirm the diagnosis. The Greek version of the ETDQ-7 is safe and efficient to use among a variety of investigation methods for the diagnosis of ETD in the Greek speaking population.

Climate change (CC) poses severe consequences, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty rates may escalate by 2050 without significant climate and development action. The health impacts are diverse, encompassing communicable and non-communicable diseases. Mozambique, a climate-vulnerable nation, has experienced significant natural disasters in the past 42 years, impacting its health system. This study aims to assess Mozambique’s health sector vulnerability and adaptation needs to climate change. Following a methodology proposed by the World Health Organization and Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, a six-step vulnerability and adaptation assessment was conducted. The Health Vulnerability Index (HVI), integrating historical climate, epidemiological, and socio-economic data at the district level (n=162), was computed using exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity dimensions. The Results revealed spatial patterns in exposure to climate variables, extreme weather events, and variations in sensitivity and adaptive capacity across the country. The HVI mirrored the exposure findings. Notably, high vulnerability was observed in several districts, while major urban centers displayed lower vulnerability. These findings highlight the country’s vulnerability to climate change and underscore the potential for adverse impacts on livelihoods, the economy, and human health. The study provides a foundation for developing strategies and adaptation actions.

The log data generated during the operation of a software system contains information about the system, and using logs for anomaly detection can detect system failures in a timely manner. Most of the existing log anomaly detection methods are specific to a particular system, have cold start problems, and are sensitive to updates in log format. In this paper, we propose a log anomaly detection method LogBD based on pre-training model and domain adaptation, which uses the pre-training model BERT to learn the semantic information of logs, and can solve the problems caused by multiple meaning words and log statement updates. An anomaly detection method LogBD based on distance to determine anomalies is constructed based on domain adaptation, using TCN networks to extract common features of different system logs and map them to the same hypersphere space. Finally, experiments are conducted on two publicly available datasets to evaluate the method, and the experimental results show that the method can better solve the log instability problem and has some improvement in the cross-system log anomaly detection effect.

Maternal obesity is increasingly prevalent and is associated with elevated morbidity and mortality rates in both mothers and children. As the interface between the mother and fetus, the placenta has mediates the impact of the maternal environment on fetal development. Most of the literature data on the effects of maternal obesity on placental functions do not exclude potential confounding factors like metabolic diseases (e.g. gestational diabetes). Moreover, it is now clear that the placental response to maternal environment depends on the fetal sex. In this context, we reviewed how maternal obesity (in the absence of gestational diabetes) affects the human placenta in terms of (i) endocrine function, (ii) morphological characteristics, (iii) nutrient exchanges and metabolism, (iv) inflammatory/immune status, (v) oxidative stress, and (vi) transcriptome, with a focus on fetal sex specificities. A better understanding of sex-specific placental responses to maternal obesity is crucial for improving pregnancy outcomes and the health of mothers and children.

SMEs constitute the backbone of the Syrian economy which have suffered manifold challenges due to the continuous Syrian war. Covid-19 added further pressures on Syrian SMEs and force them to take certain adaptation strategies to survive. This paper aims to investigate the main challenges that face Syrian SMEs during the pandemic and illustrate how they respond to adversities emerged from governmental intervention to control the spread of the virus. It also discusses the measures initiated by the government to support SMEs during the pandemic. Through interviewing persons from the Syrian SMEs ecosystem, we find that high interest rates on SMEs loans, decline on demand as well as high inflation represent the main challenges. SMEs respond to these challenges by marketing products online, stock procurement, and strengthen connections with stakeholders. We recommend the Syrian authorities reduce lending rates and increase loan size available to SMEs to help them overcome the pandemic adversities. Moreover, SMEs will immensely benefit from training on digital tools to enhance their expansion and survival opportunities. Furthermore, bazars should be organized around the year to give SMEs the opportunity to gain continuous access to markets. In addition, incubation services should be revised, particularly, to SMEs with great potential to grow to create the suitable environment for them to scale and flourish.

The literature on contract farming and climate change in Zimbabwe has blind spots in relation to the study of contract farming as a climate change response. While the literature on contract farming and climate change abounds, such literature is lacking when it comes to the exploration of how contract farming can facilitate climate change coping and adaptation strategies by smallholder farmers. This paper fills this gap. It draws on in-depth interviews with 10 contracted and 10 non-contract farmers who were engaged through face-to-face in-depth interviews in the Chipinge South Constituency. It found that contract farming does not only boost productivity, but it also enables farmers to positively respond to the ravages of climate change, and therefore, it should be supported and encouraged. Future research should explore more viable and sustainable way through which the state, instead of private sector actors, should be at the centre of contract farming.

The goal of this short communication is to analyze a published discussion that states that long-term residing at a thermoneutral indoor temperature condition hinders human thermal acclimation capacities. According to current research, human thermal acclimation and acclimatization capacities can be easily gained through repeated heat and cold exposures mixed with physical activity over a period of days (often 3–21 days). Furthermore, heat and cold adaptations are not permanent, and heat acclimation would progressively fade away if frequent heat exposures (associated with physical work/exercise) were discontinued. People who have been heat acclimatized for a long period and live in tropical places may progressively lose their physiological and perceptual benefits when they shift to temperate zones. On the other hand, the decay of cold acclimation and cold acclimatization has not been well examined, demanding future research on this area. To summarize, there is no evidence to support the claim that extended exposure to thermoneutral conditions impairs human acclimatization abilities.

Objective On the eve of the summer Olympic Games in Tokyo research focus has shifted on the core temperature responses of elite athletes competing in the heat. In the absence of the field data of core temperature during Olympic sailing competition aim of the present study was to identify core temperature response during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Test Event. Methods Four elite athletes from Olympic sailing (177.5±5.2 cm, 71.1±7.4 kg, body mass index 22.5±1.4 kg/m2, 24.8±3.7 yrs, VO2max 50.6±7.2 mL/min/kg)): 2 males and 2 females participated in the study. Core temperature was recorded using e-Celsius ingestible capsules, heart rate using a heart rate monitor. Ambient conditions in direct sunlight were measured using portable meteo station. Results Core temperature was recorded at water environment via an ingestible capsule in 4 sailors during the training (T), and competition (C), respectively. Ambient conditions in direct sunlight were hot and humid: during training temperature were 30.9°C±1.7°C and relative humidity 81.4%±2.8%, corresponding to a wet-bulb globe temperature of 41°C±4°C and during competition temperature was 31.2°C±2.3°C and relative humidity 87.2%±4.4%, corresponding to a wet-bulb globe temperature of 45.2°C±8.9°C. Core temperature increased during training reaching higher peak values (38.6°C±0.4°C) and during competition (38.9°C±0.4°C). The highest temperature recorded was 39.4°C (C). Conclusion The current study provides unique information into the core temperature parameters under heat stress in elite Olympic sailors during training and race event.

Reticulate evolution through the interchanging of genetic components across organisms can impact significantly on the fitness and adaptation of species. Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum subsp. aestivum) is one of the most important crops in the world. Allopolyploid speciation, frequent hybridization, extensive introgression, and occasional horizontal gene transfer (HGT) have been shaping a typical paradigm of reticulate evolution in bread wheat and its wild relatives, which is likely to have a substantial influence on phenotypic traits and environmental adaptability of bread wheat. In this review, we outlined the evolutionary history of bread wheat and its wild relatives with a highlight on the interspecific hybridization events, demonstrating the reticulate relationship between species/subspecies in the genera Triticum and Aegilops. Furthermore, we discussed the genetic mechanisms and evolutionary significance underlying the introgression of bread wheat and its wild relatives. An in-depth understanding of the evolutionary process of Triticum species should be beneficial to future genetic study and breeding of bread wheat.

Parents’ attitudes and practices may support the children’s reactions to treatments for leukemia and their general adjustment. This study has two aims: to explore parenting depending on child's age and to develop and test a model on how family processes influence the psycho-social development of children with leukemia. Patients were 118 leukemic children and their parents recruited at the Haematology-Oncologic Clinic of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Padua. All parents were Caucasian with a mean age of 37.39 years (SD = 6.03). Children’s mean age was 5.89 years (SD = 4.21). After the signature of the informed consent, the parents were interviewed using the EFI-C from which we derived Parenting dimension and 3 parental perceptions on child’s factors. One year later, the clinical psychologist interviewed again parents using the VABS scales. The analyses revealed the presence of a significant difference in parenting by child’s age: Infants required a higher and more intensive parenting. Child’s coping to medical procedures at the second week after the diagnosis, controlled for parenting effect, impacted upon child’s adaptation one-year post diagnosis. Specific intervention programmes are proposed in order to help children more at risk just after the diagnosis for developmental delays.

Failure to adapt to climate change is currently considered one of the major threats affecting humanity. Hence, much effort is being put into discussing adaptation approaches. While many adaptation options have been identified, the academic literature does not present a simple process that local councils and community members can use to rank adaptation options. In this context, community members participating on planning processes are presented with many adaptation options, but with no objective approach for selection, which adds challenge to the planning process. With the objective of addressing this issue, this work proposes a simple equation that allows calculating the applicability level of adaptation options. Results can then be plotted into graphs that allow correlating adaptation options and applicability level, which can be easily understood by community members. To develop such equation, this work built on existing sophisticated models from where the indicators used on the equation were identified, as well as the relationship between them. A scale was proposed to help on identifying adaptation options that should be implemented on the short, medium and long term, and options that should only be implemented if the circumstance change.

Climate change is a buzzword in the world. Scientist has approved it as global warming with its projection of undesired and unpredicted frequent extreme events and their vulnerabilities not only at present but also at future. There is an assumption of occurrence of adaptive capacity and behavior of farmers in agriculture production activity at some extent to neutralize climate change vulnerabilities of flood and landslides on paddy production. This paper empirically examines the effects of climate change in paddy production and farmer’s adaptive behaviors to neutralize such climatic shocks and events in paddy production by employing CD production function based econometric model. The study employed primary data collected through 642 household surveys. The study finds that climatic shocks and events have huge loss (60%) in paddy production and revenue income in such plot where farmers have not indigenous knowledge and practices. But both small and larger farmers who have adaptive capacity and behavior with their indigenous knowledge have less loss in paddy production and revenue income, although they have heterogeneity in their socio economic characteristics (income, asset holding, literacy, experience, land holding and age). The farmers who have used adaptive behavior have indigenous knowledge and experiences including bamboo wall construction to control flood and landslides and seed change to resist climatic shocks and events. In hilly region, the farmers have not sufficient alternative measures, except both adaptive measures because of their poverty, illiteracy and remote locations. The study finds their higher effective level to minimize vulnerabilities to paddy production and revenue per farm plot, although these adaptive behaviors are cost effective and local entity. Comparatively, bamboo wall construction is more effective measure in the paddy production than others are (seed switch) to minimize the flooding materials from the flood and the landslides. Thus, low cost indigenous adaption behavior of farmers is effective measure to climate change and climate change induced disasters and events vulnerability in paddy production.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a new and emerging concept in climate discourse to address the issues of climate change impacts in agriculture. Few researchers and organizations have concentrated on CSA policies and practices in Nepal. This study aims to review and analyze the policies and practices in relation to CSA and define local level CSA indicators in the Central and Western Nepal. This study adopted the scoping review of climate policies and practices in Nepal and also utilized the household survey information particularly focusing on climate adaptation relating to agriculture. Through the scoping review, it is recognized that the number of climate policies in Nepal has specifically prioritized agriculture and food security as an important thematic area. Among those policies, National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), National Framework for Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) have specific sections on CSA practices, however, these policies/plans lack specific indicators. Different categories of CSA practices are common in Nepal, but many of these practices are popular as agricultural and environmental practices prior to the CSA concept and approach. The output indicators specific to CSA practices help the communities and policymakers to measure and monitor the progress of its implementation. Additional researches are required in this field to better understand the CSA concept, approaches, and mechanisms in the Nepalese context.

Uridine diphosphate (UDP)-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are major phase II detoxification enzymes involved in glycosylation of lipophilic endobiotics and xenobiotics, including phytoalexins. Nicotine, one of the most abundant secondary plant metabolites, is highly toxic to herbivorous insects. Plant-herbivore competition has been the major impetus for evolution of large superfamilies of UGTs and other detoxification enzymes. However, UGT functions in Myzus persicae adaptation have remained unknown. In this study, UGT inhibitors (sulfinpyrazone and 5-nitrouracil) significantly increased nicotine toxicity in M. persicae nicotianae, suggesting UGTs may be involved in nicotine tolerance. One hundred one UGT transcripts identified from the M. persicae genome/transcriptome were renamed according to UGT Nomenclature Committee guidelines and clustered into 11 families: UGT329, UGT330, UGT339, UGT341-UGT345, and UGT348-UGT350. UGT344 contained the most UGTs (fifty-seven). Ten UGTs (UGT330A3, UGT339A2, UGT341A6, UGT342B3, UGT343C3, UGT344D5, UGT344D8, UGT348A3, UGT349A3 and UGT350A3) were overexpressed in M. persicae nicotianae compared with M. persicae sensu stricto. UGT330A3/UGT344D5/UGT348A3/UGT349A3 knockdown significantly increased M. persicae nicotianae nicotine sensitivity, suggesting UGT upregulation in this subspecies may be associated with nicotine tolerance and thus host adaptation. This study reveals possible UGTs relevant to nicotine adaptation in tobacco-consuming M. persicae nicotianae and might facilitate further validation of the roles of these UGTs in nicotine tolerance.

Chronic heat stress (HS), aggravated by global warming, reduces the production efficiency of the buffalo dairy industry. Here, we conducted a proteomic analysis to investigate the adaptation strategies used by buffalo in response to heat stress. Seventeen differentially abundant proteins with known functions were detected using label-free quantification (LFQ), and five of these differentially expressed proteins were validated with parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). These five proteins were associated with various aspects of heat stress, including decreased heat production, increased blood oxygen delivery, and enhanced natural disease resistance. Lipase (LPL), glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3), cathelicidin-2 (CATHL2, LL-37), ceruloplasmin (CP), and hemoglobin subunit alpha 1 (HBA1) were shown to play cooperative roles in the tolerance of chronic HS in dairy buffalo. We found that high levels of HBA1 increased blood oxygen transport capacity. Our results increase our understanding of the adaptation of dairy buffalo to chronic heat stress.

Ecosystems are not merely vulnerable to climate change but, if sustainably restored and protected, are a major source of human resilience. Not only is the evidence-base for the importance of these “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) growing rapidly, but NbS are featuring with increasing prominence in global climate change policy. Here we report on the prominence of NbS in the 141 adaptation components of the 167 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that were submitted to UNFCCC by all signatories of the Paris Agreement. In total, 103 nations include NbS in the adaptation component of their NDC, 76 nations include them in both their adaptation and mitigation component, and an additional 27 include them as part of their mitigation plans only. In other words, 130 nations—or 66% of all signatories to the Paris Agreement—have articulated intentions of working with ecosystems, in one form or another, to address the causes and consequences of climate change. However, commitments rarely translate into robust science-based targets. As climate pledges are revised in 2020, we urge the ecosystem science community to work closely with policymakers to identify meaningful adaptation targets that benefit both people and the ecosystems on which they depend.

For decades, sepsis research has been motivated by the idea of a dangerous overreaction of the immune system in sepsis. But is it true that the response to sepsis is dysregulated? This review surveys the history of sepsis trials and found that evidence for dysregulation does not exist in many of the physiologic mechanisms of sepsis. It is time to consider the alternative hypothesis, that sepsis traits are often functional, and do more harm than good. This review discusses the implications of this perspective for the future of sepsis research

Climate variability and change has been found to be one of the factors that affect economies leading to food insecurity in various parts of the world. Kenya is no exception. This study looks at how climate variability has contributed to food insecurity in Kisii County, Kenya. The objectives of this study is therefore to, (i) to examine the rainfall and temperature trends in Kisii County for a period of approximately 30 years, (ii) to examine the effect of climate variability on food production and (iii) to assess the perception of local farmers on weather and climate information, (iv) to evaluate the coping strategies adopted at to bridge the gap on food deficit at different household level and (v) to assess the nutritional status of children and the elderly. The study was conducted in two sub-counties of Kisii County; Marani and Bomachoge Chache. The data used was mainly rainfall and temperature data from meteorological stations and sample data gathered from selected groups. The study population comprised of children between 6 months and 59 months, household heads, elderly people and agricultural officers. Purposive sampling was used to select agricultural officers while multistage sampling was used to select respondents at household level. Data was collected by use of a pre-tested questionnaire. The MUAC tape was used to collect nutritional status of children while BMI data was obtained from elderly people. Mann Kendall statistic was used to determine whether the trend of rainfall and temperature observed is significant while Chi-square test was used to determine whether the coping strategies observed varied significantly at household level. From the analysis, rainfall has not shown any significant change in Kisii County while temperature trend has been significantly increasing over the years at 95% confidence level. This could explain the observed reduction in river levels. Analysis of crop production and price trends of major food crops in Kisii County showed a decreasing trend of food production leading to increase in price over the years. This meant that farmers could not produce enough to take them to the next harvesting season making farmers to adopt different coping strategies at household level which differed significantly according to Chi-Square test. Malnutrition status of both elderly people above 59 years and children between 6-59 months were similar with 23% of both children/elderly being severely malnourished/malnourished. This study has only looked at climatic factors such as rainfall and temperature. Other aspects such as depth of underground water, ph level of soil and the effects of land fragmentation also need to be looked at. This study is important to both farmers in choosing the right crop to plant, and policy makers and planners in formulating the best mitigation and intervention strategies for Kisii County food insecurity problem. This will further contribute to national efforts towards achievement of vision 2030.

This study investigates the reintroduction and ecological adaptation of the endangered dung beetle, Gymnopleurus mopsus, in South Korea, a region from which it has been absent since the 1970s. To facilitate this, we imported genetically identical populations of G. mopsus from Mongolia and embarked on a comprehensive restoration research project. A key focus of this endeavor was to evaluate the adaptability of these beetles to the local environment, an essential aspect of successful reintegration of species from foreign ecosystems. Under meticulously controlled field cage conditions, we conducted an in-depth monitoring of the life history traits of G. mopsus. This monitoring revealed that the adult beetles, which entered hibernation in September 2019, began emerging in stages from late April to May 2020. Following hibernation, we observed that the adults engaged in reproductive activities from late May until early August, with the emergence of the first-generation (F1) adults occurring from late July to mid-September. This led to a notable tripling in population size, increasing from 34 to 109 individuals. The successful survival and reproductive behaviors of these Mongolian dung beetles in the climatic conditions of Korea suggest a promising potential for their adaptation when reintroduced into native habitats. We are now directing our efforts towards long-term monitoring, focusing on the survival and reproductive efficacy of these new generations, to further validate the success of this ecological restoration project.

This study quantitatively assessed the effectiveness of three main options for the adaptation of crop farming to climate change (i.e., shift of planting dates, increase/addition of irrigation, and resilient hybrids/cultivars) in a southern European country (Greece). The potential effect of each option on the yields of several crops in all Greek regions is estimated for 2021-2040 and 2041-2060 and compared with those under the historical local climate of 1986-2005, by using agronomic and statistical regression models, and data from different climatic simulations and climate change scenarios. Our results reveal that all the adaptation options examined have the potential to significantly reduce crop yield losses occurring under no adaptation, particularly during 2021-2040 when for many regions and crops more than half of the losses can be compensated for. Notably, in some cases during this period, the measures examined can lead to crop yields that are higher than those under the historic climate. However, the effectiveness of the measures was found to greatly diminish in 2041-2060 under very adverse climate change conditions, highlighting the dynamic nature of adaptation. The assessment of the effectiveness of combined adaptation options, and the evaluation of additional criteria (e.g., feasibility) represent main areas for future research.

Modern climatic changes have an impact on the bearing capacity of permafrost soils at the base of the foundations of buildings and structures in the urbanized territories of the Arctic and Subarctic. The activation of cryogenic processes leads to the destruction of the infrastructure of human settlements and, as a result, to social, economic, environmental consequences for the population. Based on the results of geothermy of frozen and thawing soil, GPR profiling of the territory of the city of Anadyr, it was concluded that the main risks of permafrost degradation are associated with the spread of hydrogenic melt zones. Maps of soil temperature in imaginary cross-sectional with a depth of 3, 5 and 10 m were compiled; maps of the capacity of thawing soils and the permafrost aquifer; a map of zones of dangerous spread of exogenous cryogenic processes. A permafrost monitoring system in the territory of Anadyr has been substantiated, which will consist of an automated network of observations of soil temperature in 35 wells at the border and at the epicenter of 20 zones of dangerous development of exogenous cryogenic processes and 12 control GPR profiles at the intersection of linear hydrogenic taliks.

Adaptation to the impacts of human induced global heating is inevitable. For a socially just and ecological sustainable adjustment to these new circumstances, we need to draw from diverse knowledge systems while, simultaneously, foster a social-ecological transformation. We approach these concerns through the concept of community-based adaptation (CBA) and discuss remedies. Synergies with feminist knowledge systems and indigenous ways of living show the transdisciplinary essence of CBA. By abstracting from its origin and overlapping disciplines, revealing the social metabolism as a common problem, CBA is prone to achieve more equitable and sustainable adjustments. Transdisciplinarity itself and the current related CBA literature point beyond mere adjustments and call for a redesign of the social metabolism, thereby shifting from adaptation to global heating towards adaptation with nature by focusing on social provisioning. An engagement with transformative adaptation and heterodox economics further shows the potential of CBA to serve as an instrument in support of a social-ecological transformation by addressing root causes of vulnerability and by fostering epistemic justice. Reflecting these points back on the epistemological and ontological assumptions of CBA, the viewpoint proposes critical realism as a guiding philosophy of science to move forward.

The epigenetic mechanism of DNA methylation is essential for regulating gene expression and adaptation in plants, especially when exposed to various environmental stressors such as drought, heat, and nutrient availability. The impact of these stressors can lead to alterations in DNA methylation patterns and gene expression, which this study aims to investigate. Specifically, we are interested in understanding how DNA methylation plays a role in controlling the expression of stress-response genes, as well as genes involved in plant growth and development. To accomplish this, we are analyzing the changes in DNA methylation patterns and gene expression in response to different stressors like drought and heat. Our research findings suggest that DNA methylation is a vital regulator of plant adaptation to environmental stress, and we hope to gain further insight into these mechanisms by identifying genes that exhibit differential expression in response to stress and analyzing their DNA methylation status. This study offers valuable insights into the development of crops that can thrive under changing climate conditions.

Tropical cyclones (TC) are dangerous weather events and accurate monitoring and forecasting can provide significant early warning to reduce loss of life and property. However, the study of tropical cyclone intensity remains challenging, both in terms of theory and forecasting. ERA5 reanalysis is benchmark data set for tropical cyclone studies, yet the maximum wind speed error is very large (68 kts) and still 19 kts after simple linear correction even in the better sampled North Atlantic. Here, we develop an adaptive learning approach to correct the intensity in the ERA5 reanalysis, by optimising the inputs to overcome the problems because of the poor data quality and updating the features to improve the generalisability of the deep learning-based model. Specifically, we use TC knowledge to increase the representativeness of the inputs so that the general features can be learned with deep neural networks in the sample space, and then use domain adaptation to update the general features from the known domain with historical storms to the specific features for the unknown domain of new storms. This approach can reduce the error to only 6 kts which is within the uncertainty of the best track data in IBTrACS in the North Atlantic. The method may have wide applicability, such as extending it to the correction of intensity estimation from satellite imagery and intensity prediction from dynamical models.

The present research was titled “A Study on Dark Triad Personality and Emergency Response and Psychological Adaptation among Young Adults during Pandemic.” The purpose of the study was to explore the association between the dimensions of dark triad personality namely narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and the dimensions of emergency response and psychological adaptation namely worry, agitation, awareness, prosociality, perceived self-efficacy. The correlation between the dimensions of dark triad personality and the dimensions of emergency response and psychological adaptation. Gender differences were also studied for the dimension dark triad personality. The results showed that a strong positive correlation existed between narcissism and agitation, Machiavellianism and worry and Machiavellianism and agitation. Narcissism and psychopathy were found to be strong predictors of agitation. Significant Gender differences were noted on the dimensions of psychopathy and Machiavellianism where males scored higher than females.

Having valid and reliable tools that help health professionals to assess fear in children undergoing medical procedures is essential to offer humanized and quality of care in the paediatric population. The aim of this study was to develop the cross-cultural adaptation and the evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the “Child Medical Fear Scale” in its shortened version (CMFS-R). The design consisted of two phases, first of cross-cultural adaptation and second of the psychometric validation of the CMFS-R with a sample of 262 children from Spain. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess construct validity and the Cronbach alpha and the adjusted item-total score correlation coefficients were performed to study reliability. The results confirmed internal consistency and construct validity of the Spanish version of the CMFS-R, indicating that the scale has an acceptable level of validity and reliability. Therefore, this study brings a new version of the scale to assess fear related to medical procedures for use in the Spanish paediatric population.

Background This paper draws learnings and successes based on field implementation experience spanning four years (2016–2019) of implementing CLTS by Prince of Peace Orphans and Widows Vision, a community-based organization located in Kaberamaido district in eastern Uganda. Methods The study aimed to document, disseminate and inform from an evidence-based point of view how adaptation and collaborative engagements triggers learning from mistakes to inform iterative changes from improvements and success.This is a descriptive paper that used project documents review based on field implementation experience. Existing project reports were synthesised, collated and curated for evidence. Data were drawn from project reports and records to inform narratives in writing. Implementation of the project was executed in homogenous rural communities occupied by people of the same dialect, cultural and social settings. Results We note that success in CLTS implementation can hardly be achieved by merely following prescriptions in handbooks and guidelines but rather by devising innovative community engagement and other participatory and community-driven techniques that foster adaptive management, promote ownership, and buy-in.Having learned from our failures, we used data to inform decisions and transformatively deviated from traditional CLTS implementation and introduced high impact and innovative approaches such as the use of CLTS helpdesks and Situation room, the Pamoja approach, learning labs and iterative feedback loops, innovatively tackling slippage and carefully introducing the follow-up mandona approach. These enhanced experiential learning and ultimately resulted in sustained sanitation behaviour. Conclusions The CLTS approach as outlined in the handbook needs to be flexibly adapted to address contextual needs. Reflective and learning sessions reinforced with routine feedback loops from implementers and beneficiaries yields tremendous results, propagates experiential learning, and ultimately results in a transformative deviation from undesirable to desired sanitation behaviours. These innovative approaches once carefully blended have proved to be sustainable, are adaptable and can work in an even larger scale and in a variety of contexts.

The contextual and risk perception of climate change plays a critical role in an individual’s decision-making process. It could also help people to respond appropriately to the consequences of global climate change and eventually take necessary adaptation actions. However, the perceptions of climate change are often gendered and vary among men and women. Therefore, this study explores different perceptions of climate change and its local adaptation options among ultra-poor vulnerable women, particularly in highly vulnerable flood-prone regions of Bangladesh. The research followed an empirical research methodology to collect primary and secondary information using qualitative and quantitative research tools. The study findings reveal that climate change perceptions at the individual level are relatively low (63%). Still, they have been observing significant changes in various climatic variables over the past 30 years. Moreover, this study identified some major adaptation options such as plinth raising (100%), livestock rearing (100%), homestead gardening (82%), seasonal migration (82%), and using indigenous knowledge (69%), and so on to tackle the adverse impacts of climate change-induced extreme events including flooding at the local level. For implementing these adaptation measures, the respondents spent a significant amount of financial resources from individual sources in the study area. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used in addition to the statistical analyses to understand any connections between the climate change perceptions and other variables associated with the community under study. The SEM result shows that climate change will be a long–term problem, which offers a strong predictor in this model, considering standardized regression weight β= 0.56. It means, despite inadequate knowledge on climate change of the respondent’s, climate change is occurring and becoming the worst factor limiting cultural, economic, and environmental development in the study area.

Metaheuristic algorithms are widely used as optimization methods, due to their global exploration and exploitation characteristics, which obtain better results than a simple heuristic. The Stochastic Fractal Search (SFS) is a novel method inspired by the process of stochastic growth in nature and the use of the fractal mathematical concept. Considering the chaotic-stochastic diffusion property, an improved Dynamic Stochastic Fractal Search (DSFS) optimization algorithm is presented. The DSFS algorithm was tested with benchmark functions, such as the multimodal, hybrid and composite functions, to evaluate the performance of the algorithm with dynamic parameter adaptation with type-1 and type-2 fuzzy inference models. The main contribution of the article is the utilization of fuzzy logic in the adaptation of the diffusion parameter in a dynamic fashion. This parameter is in charge of creating new fractal particles, and the diversity and iteration are the input information used in the fuzzy system to control the values of diffusion.

This study aims to determine the impact of climate change on market garden production in the extreme south of Mali through the perception and adaptation of market gardeners to climatic phenomena. The study used two models, namely the probit selection and Heckman results models and multinomial logistic regression, based on data collected from producers. A total of 194 producers were surveyed. The results of Heckman's probit model indicate that experience in agriculture and the educational level of the producers are the two main determinants of producers' perception and simultaneous adaptation to climate change. Among these variables agricultural experience is both positively and negatively correlated with perception.

The notion that there is a one to one mapping from genotype to phenotype was overturned a long time ago. Along with genotype and environment, ‘non-genetic changes’ orchestrated by altered RNA and protein molecules also guide the development of phenotype. The idea that there is a route through which changes in phenotype can lead to changes in genotype impinges on several phenomena of molecular, developmental, evolutionary and applied interest. Phenotypic changes that do not alter the underlying DNA sequence have been studied across model systems (eg: DNA and histone modifications, RNA editing, prion formation) and are known to play an important role in short term adaptation. However, because of their transient nature and unstable inheritance, the role of such changes in long term evolution has remained controversial. I classify and review three ways in which non-genetic changes can influence genotype and impact cellular fitness across generations, with an emphasis on the enticing idea that they may act as stepping stones for genetic adaptation. I focus on work from microbial systems and attempt to highlight recent experiments and models that bear on this idea. Overall, I review evidence which suggests that non-genetic changes can impact phenotype via their influence on the genotype, and thus play a role in evolutionary change.

Ploidy is a significant type of genetic variation, describing the number of chromosome sets per cell. Ploidy evolves in natural populations, clinical populations, and lab experiments, particularly in fungi. Despite a long history of theoretical work on this topic, predicting how ploidy will evolve has proven difficult, as it is often unclear why one ploidy state outperforms another. Here, we review what is known about contemporary ploidy evolution in diverse fungal species through the lens of population genetics. As with typical genetic variants, ploidy evolution depends on the rate that new ploidy states arise by mutation, natural selection on alternative ploidy states, and random genetic drift. However, ploidy variation also has unique impacts on evolution, with the potential to alter chromosomal stability, the rate and patterns of point mutation, and the nature of selection on all loci in the genome. We discuss how ploidy evolution depends on these general and unique factors and highlight areas where additional experimental evidence is required to comprehensively explain the ploidy transitions observed in the field and the lab.

Despite recent scientific advancements, there is a gap in the use of technology to measure signals, behaviors, and processes of adaptation physiology of farm animals. Sensors present exciting opportunities for sustained, real-time, non-intrusive measurement of farm animal behavioral, mental, and physiological parameters with the integration of nanotechnology and instrumentation. This paper critically reviews the sensing technology and sensor data-based models used to explore biological systems such as animal behavior, energy metabolism, epidemiology, immunity, health, and animal reproduction. The use of sensor technology to assess physiological parameters can provide tremendous benefits and tools to overcome and minimize production losses while making positive contributions to animal welfare. Of course, sensor technology is not free from challenges; these devices are at times highly sensitive and prone to damage from dirt, dust, sunlight, colour, fur, feathers, and environmental forces. Rural farmers unfamiliar with the technologies must be convinced and taught to use sensor-based technologies in farming and livestock management. While there is no doubt that demand will grow for non-invasive sensor-based technologies that require minimum contact with animals and can provide remote access to data, their true success lies in the acceptance of these technologies by the livestock industry.

As Christopher Alexander conceived and defined through his life’s work – The Nature of Order – wholeness is a recursive structure that recurs in space and matter and is reflected in human minds and cognition. Based on the definition of wholeness, a mathematical model of wholeness, together with its topological representation, has been developed, and it is able to address not only why a structure is beautiful, but also how much beauty the structure has. Given the circumstance, this paper is attempted to argue for the wholeness as the scientific foundation of sustainable urban design and planning, with the help of the mathematical model and topological representation. We start by introducing the wholeness as a mathematical structure of physical space that pervasively exists in our surroundings, along with two fundamental laws – scaling law and Tobler’s law – that underlie the 15 properties for characterizing and making living structures. We argue that urban design and planning can be considered to be wholeness-extending processes, guided by two design principles of differentiation and adaptation, to transform a space – in a piecemeal fashion – into a living or more living structure. We further discuss several other urban design theories and how they can be justified by and placed within the theory of wholeness. With the wholeness as the scientific foundation, urban design can turn into a rigorous science with creation of living structures as the primary aim.

This study presents the development of a number of finite element (FE) models of the pelvis using different continuum and structural modelling approaches. Four FE models were developed using different modelling approaches: continuum isotropic, continuum orthotropic, hybrid isotropic and hybrid orthotropic. The models were subjected to an iterative adaptation process based on the Mechanostat principle. Each model was adapted to a number of common daily living activities (walking, stair ascent, stair descent, sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit) by applying onto it joint and muscle loads derived using a musculoskeletal modelling framework. The resulting models, along with a structural model previously developed by the authors, were compared visually in terms of bone architecture, and their response to a single load case was compared to a continuum FE model derived from CT imaging data. The main findings of this study were that the continuum orthotropic model was the closest to the CT derived model in terms of load response albeit having less total bone volume, suggesting that the role of material directionality in influencing the maximum orthotropic Young's modulus should be included in continuum bone adaptation models. In addition, the hybrid models, where trabecular and cortical bone were distinguished, had similar outcomes, suggesting that the approach to modelling trabecular bone is less influential when the cortex is modelled separately.

Downpours are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change. Cities are particularly susceptible to downpours because of their large share of impervious surfaces. Minimising pluvial flood risk requires all involved stakeholders to collaborate and overcome probable barriers. Simultaneously, an increase in citizen engagement in climate adaptation is preferred, whereas experiences with inclusive decision-making are still limited. The aim of this paper is to obtain a deeper understanding of how the capacity to govern pluvial flood risk can be developed through citizen engagement. We scrutinised the capacity of local actors to govern pluvial flood risk in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands. For the analysis of Utrecht’s problem-solving capacity, the Governance Capacity Framework provided a consistent assessment of governance components. The results indicate that Utrecht’s capacity to govern pluvial flooding is relatively well-developed. Collaboration between public authorities is advanced, sufficient financial resources are available and smart monitoring enables high levels of evaluation and learning. However, citizen awareness and engagement in policy making is rather low. Accordingly, citizens’ willingness to pay for flood adaptation is limited. Stimulating flood risk awareness by combining financial incentives with more advanced arrangements for active citizen engagement is key for Utrecht and other cities.