Net reductions or spatiotemporal displacement of intentional wildfires in response to arrests? : evidence from Spain

Research to date has not examined how the impacts of arrests manifest across space and time in environmental crimes. We evaluate whether arrests reduce or merely spatiotemporally displace intentional illegal outdoor firesetting. Using municipality-level daily wildfire count data from Galicia, Spain, from 1999 to 2014, we develop daily spatiotemporal ignition count models of agricultural, non-agricultural and total intentional illegal wildfires as functions of spatiotemporally lagged arrests, the election cycle, seasonal and day indicators, meteorological factors and socioeconomic variables. We find evidence that arrests reduce future intentional illegal fires across space in subsequent time periods.This research was partly funded by Project ECO2017–89274-R MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UES

Towards sample-efficient policy learning with DAC-ML

The sample-inefficiency problem in Artificial Intelligence refers to the inability of current Deep Reinforcement Learning models to optimize action policies within a small number of episodes. Recent studies have tried to overcome this limitation by adding memory systems and architectural biases to improve learning speed, such as in Episodic Reinforcement Learning. However, despite achieving incremental improvements, their performance is still not comparable to how humans learn behavioral policies. In this paper, we capitalize on the design principles of the Distributed Adaptive Control (DAC) theory of mind and brain to build a novel cognitive architecture (DAC-ML) that, by incorporating a hippocampus-inspired sequential memory system, can rapidly converge to effective action policies that maximize reward acquisition in a challenging foraging task

Fine particulate matter in the tropical environment: monsoonal effects, source apportionment, and health risk assessment

The health implications of PM2:5 in the tropical region of Southeast Asia (SEA) are significant as PM2:5 can pose serious health concerns. PM2:5 concentration and sources here are strongly influenced by changes in the monsoon regime from the south-west quadrant to the north-east quadrant in the region. In this work, PM2:5 samples were collected at a semi-urban area using a high-volume air sampler at different seasons on 24 h basis. Analysis of trace elements and water-soluble ions was performed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and ion chromatography (IC), respectively. Apportionment analysis of PM2:5 was carried out using the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) positive matrix factorization (PMF) 5.0 and a mass closure model. We quantitatively characterized the health risks posed to human populations through the inhalation of selected heavy metals in PM2:5. 48% of the samples collected exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) 24 h PM2:5 guideline but only 19% of the samples exceeded 24 h US EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The PM2:5 concentration was slightly higher during the north-east monsoon compared to south-west monsoon. The main trace metals identified were As, Pb, Cd, Ni, Mn, V, and Cr while the main ions were SO

Prognostic Importance of Dyspnea for Cardiovascular Outcomes and Mortality in Persons without Prevalent Cardiopulmonary Disease: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

The relationship between dyspnea and incident heart failure (HF) and myocardial infarction (MI) among patients without previously diagnosed cardiopulmonary disease is unclear. We studied the prognostic relevance of self-reported dyspnea for cardiovascular outcomes and all-cause mortality in persons without previously diagnosed cardiopulmonary disease

Cellulose an ageless renewable green nanomaterial for medical applications: an overview of ionic liquids in extraction, separation and dissolution of cellulose

Cellulose is a renewable natural fiber, which has gained enormous and significant research interest and evolved as the prime and promising candidate for replacing synthetic fibers. The various sources of cellulose, which is one of the world's most ubiquitous and renewable biopolymer resources, include trees, plants, tunicate and bacteria. The renewable biomaterial in the form of nanocellulose and its composites have been included in this review having the broad range of medical applications, viz.; tissue engineering, cardiovascular surgery, dental, pharmaceuticals, veterinary, adhesion barriers and skin therapy. These grafts are being fabricated from biodegradable materials. Bacterial cellulose is also an emerging renewable biomaterial with immense potential in biomedical field. The fabrication methods, characteristic properties and various overwhelming applications of cellulosic composites are explicitly elucidated in this review. The crux of this review is to exhibit the latest state of art, development in the field of cellulosic nanocomposite science and technology research and their applications towards biomedical field. Among the fourteen principle of green chemistry the two key principles i.e. using environmentally preferable solvents and bio-renewable feed-stocks covers in dissolution of cellulose in ionic liquids (ILs). In addition, this review covers about the comprehensive extraction and dissolution of cellulose and nanocellulose using ILs.publishe

New Rotation Periods in the Pleiades: Interpreting Activity Indicators

We present results of photometric monitoring campaigns of G, K and M dwarfs in the Pleiades carried out in 1994, 1995 and 1996. We have determined rotation periods for 18 stars in this cluster. In this paper, we examine the validity of using observables such as X-ray activity and amplitude of photometric variations as indicators of angular momentum loss. We report the discovery of cool, slow rotators with high amplitudes of variation. This contradicts previous conclusions about the use of amplitudes as an alternate diagnostic of the saturation of angular momentum loss. We show that the X-ray data can be used as observational indicators of mass-dependent saturation in the angular momentum loss proposed on theoretical grounds

Cardiac structure and function and leisure-time physical activity in the elderly: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

Adults who engage in leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) have a reduced risk of developing heart failure. We hypothesized that high levels of LTPA are associated with diminished adverse age-related changes in cardiac structure and function