Stratigraphy of Cretaceous to Lower Pliocene sediments in the northern part of Cyprus based on comparative 87Sr/86Sr isotopic, nannofossil and planktonic foraminiferal dating

New age data from Sr isotope analysis and both planktonic foraminifera and nannofossils are presented and discussed here for the Upper Eocene–Upper Miocene sedimentary rocks of the Değirmenlik (Kythrea) Group. New dating is also given of some Cretaceous and Pliocene sediments. In a revised stratigraphy the Değirmenlik (Kythrea) Group is divided into ten formations. Different Upper Miocene formations are developed to the north and south of a regionally important, E–W-trending syn-sedimentary fault. The samples were dated wherever possible by three independent methods, namely utilizing Sr isotopes, calcareous nannofossils and planktonic foraminifera. Some of the Sr isotopic dates are incompatible with the nannofossil and/or the planktonic foraminiferal dates. This is mainly due to reworking within gravity-deposited or current-affected sediments. When combined, the reliable age data allow an overall biostratigraphy and chronology to be erected. Several of the boundaries of previously defined formations are revised. Sr data that are incompatible with well-constrained biostratigraphical ages are commonly of Early Miocene age. This is attributed to a regional uplift event located to the east of Cyprus, specifically the collision of the Anatolian (Eurasian) and Arabian (African) plates during Early Miocene time. This study, therefore, demonstrates that analytically sound Sr isotopic ages can yield geologically misleading ages, particularly where extensive sediment reworking has occurred. Convincing ages are obtained when isotopic dating is combined with as many forms of biostratigraphical dating as possible, and this may also reveal previously unsuspected geological events (e.g. tectonic uplift or current activity)

Datos del subsuelo y su conocimiento para las Ciudades del Mañana: lecciones aprendidas de Glasgow y su aplicabilidad en otros lugares

El conocimiento del subsuelo es de vital importancia en la planificación y ejecución exitosa de proyectos de construcción y regeneración urbanas. Para abordar en el área de Glasgow éste y otros temas del subsuelo urbano (por ejemplo, la planificación, las inundaciones, la contaminación), el proyecto Clyde-Urban Super-Project (CUSP) del Servicio Geológico Británico (BGS, por sus siglas en inglés) ha desarrollado modelos 3D y 4D del subsuelo. Asimismo, se han producido otros conjuntos de datos de geociencias (geoquímica, agua subterránea, geología de ingeniería). Los modelos basados en información obtenida de decenas de miles de perforaciones y otras fuentes, proporcionan nuevos conocimientos sobre: la geología compleja de Glasgow, los impactos de su legado industrial, y las oportunidades para aprovechar el calor de las explotaciones mineras abandonadas. Para que los modelos y datos del proyecto CUSP fueran más accesibles, el BGS y el Ayuntamiento de Glasgow, socio clave, han establecido una red para acceder al conocimiento del subsuelo (ASK, por sus siglas en inglés). Esta red permite el intercambio de datos y conocimientos, implicando a socios de los sectores público y privado. ASK promueve el libre flujo digital de datos del subsuelo y el conocimiento entre sus socios. Las lecciones aprendidas en Glasgow se comparten a través de la Acción Europea COST (Sub-Urban), centrada en el uso sostenible del subsuelo urbano, y en la transformación de las relaciones entre los que desarrollan el conocimiento del subsuelo urbano y los que pueden beneficiarse más de él, los planificadores y promotores de las ciudades del futuro

Living the life of floods: place-based learning in an Anthropocene harmscape

This article explores how place-based learning and the development of landscape literacies unfold in a place suffused with a complex set of risks resulting from inter-operating and intersecting sociohistorical, political and environmental factors. By analysing assemblages of images and accompanying texts produced through a photovoice process undertaken by co-researchers in an informal settlement in South Africa’s Cape Flats, we show that residents are embedded in an ongoing process of embodied place-connectedness that has extensive pedagogical impact. We suggest that the learning that takes place in this harmscape may enable residents’ survival at the cost of allowing for either hope or the possibility of transformative change

Embedding co-production of nature-based solutions in urban governance: Emerging co-production capacities in three European cities

This paper seeks to understand how co-production can become embedded as a collaborative governance practice by which city governments plan, deliver and steward nature-based solutions. To these ends, the paper analyses how policy officers manifest capacities for co-production in three European cities – Genk (Belgium), Glasgow (United Kingdom) and Poznań (Poland) – while experimenting with co-production to develop and scale nature-based solutions. Co-production capacities include conditions and activities to (1) create space for co-production, (2) safeguard inclusive and legitimate co-production, and (3) link co-production processes and results to contexts. The results demonstrate how policy officers in the three cities have mobilised and created resources, skills, institutional support and partnerships to implement diverse processes to co-produce nature-based solutions. While these conditions mark starting changes in urban governance, engaging with and embedding co-production causes tensions between the dynamic and diffuse nature of co-production and existing formal governance settings and processes. Lessons for strengthening the capacities to embed co-production as a collaborative governance practice in nature-based solutions planning, delivery and stewardship are: (1) embedding a tailor-made approach for inclusive co-production to meaningfully engage diverse actors in place-based settings, (2) embedding open-ended co-production with long-term benefits, and (3) embedding new relations and roles to sustain co-production

Understanding resilience capitals, agency and habitus in household experiences of water scarcity, floods and fire in marginalized settlements in the Cape Flats, South Africa

A significant percentage of the urban population in most low- and middle-income countries live in informal settlements. Due to poor quality housing, dense settlement patterns and lack of risk reducing infrastructure, informal settlements are least prepared and at higher risk for climate change issues. Marginalized communities in settlements in the Cape Flats region of South Africa face a range of environmental hazards and risks including recurrent large-scale fires, localised flooding and inconsistent access to water. This paper presents findings from a household survey with 600 participants from three economically marginalised settlements in this region. The paper explores how different forms of capital come into play in the shaping of these experiences and responses and uses these to consider power structures and the creation of particular types of habitus amongst settlement residents. Results show that cultural (knowledge) capital is one of the most important capitals enabling resilience and adaptive capacities across all three sites. Findings show the complex interplay of forms of capital and the importance of recognizing ownership, control and power structures. Our findings also illustrate how repeated exposure to risk can shape a habitus of risk acceptance and a focus on coping rather than change. Insights from this study further enhance knowledge of community resilience that could potentially inform policy development and institutional disaster risk reduction strategies for climate change resilience of cities in low- and middle-income countries

Border Insecurity: Reading Transnational Environments in Jim Lynch’s Border Songs

This article applies an eco-critical approach to contemporary American fiction about the Canada-US border, examining Jim Lynch’s portrayal of the British Columbia-Washington borderlands in his 2009 novel Border Songs. It argues that studying transnational environmental actors in border texts—in this case, marijuana, human migrants, and migratory birds—helps illuminate the contingency of political boundaries, problems of scale, and discourses of risk and security in cross-border regions after 9/11. Further, it suggests that widening the analysis of trans-border activity to include environmental phenomena productively troubles concepts of nature and regional belonging in an era of climate change and economic globalization. Cet article propose une lecture écocritique de la fiction étatsunienne contemporaine portant sur la frontière entre le Canada et les États-Unis, en étudiant le portrait donné par Jim Lynch de la région frontalière entre la Colombie-Britannique et Washington dans son roman Border Songs, paru en 2009. L’article soutient que l’étude, dans les textes sur la frontière, des acteurs environnementaux transnationaux – dans ce cas-ci, la marijuana, les migrants humains et les oiseaux migratoires – jette un jour nouveau sur la contingence des limites territoriales politiques, des problèmes d’échelle et des discours sur le risque et la sécurité des régions transfrontalières après les évènements du 11 septembre 2001. Il suggère également qu’en élargissant l’analyse de l’activité transfrontalière pour y inclure les phénomènes environnementaux, on brouille de façon productive les concepts de nature et d’appartenance régionale d’une époque marquée par les changements climatiques et la mondialisation de l’économie

The ANTENATAL multicentre study to predict postnatal renal outcome in fetuses with posterior urethral valves: objectives and design

Abstract Background Posterior urethral valves (PUV) account for 17% of paediatric end-stage renal disease. A major issue in the management of PUV is prenatal prediction of postnatal renal function. Fetal ultrasound and fetal urine biochemistry are currently employed for this prediction, but clearly lack precision. We previously developed a fetal urine peptide signature that predicted in utero with high precision postnatal renal function in fetuses with PUV. We describe here the objectives and design of the prospective international multicentre ANTENATAL (multicentre validation of a fetal urine peptidome-based classifier to predict postnatal renal function in posterior urethral valves) study, set up to validate this fetal urine peptide signature. Methods Participants will be PUV pregnancies enrolled from 2017 to 2021 and followed up until 2023 in >30 European centres endorsed and supported by European reference networks for rare urological disorders (ERN eUROGEN) and rare kidney diseases (ERN ERKNet). The endpoint will be renal/patient survival at 2 years postnatally. Assuming α = 0.05, 1–β = 0.8 and a mean prevalence of severe renal outcome in PUV individuals of 0.35, 400 patients need to be enrolled to validate the previously reported sensitivity and specificity of the peptide signature. Results In this largest multicentre study of antenatally detected PUV, we anticipate bringing a novel tool to the clinic. Based on urinary peptides and potentially amended in the future with additional omics traits, this tool will be able to precisely quantify postnatal renal survival in PUV pregnancies. The main limitation of the employed approach is the need for specialized equipment. Conclusions Accurate risk assessment in the prenatal period should strongly improve the management of fetuses with PUV

Strategies for mainstreaming nature-based solutions in urban governance capacities in ten European cities

This paper explores the institutional mainstreaming of nature-based solutions (NBS) to advance a process-based understanding about how to strategically develop the governance capacities needed for systemic, localised and inclusive NBS. To this end, it reports how policy officers in ten European cities have started to mainstream NBS by interacting with and changing incumbent governance arrangements when experimenting with novel governance processes and mechanisms to plan, deliver and steward NBS. Based on these activities of the policy officers, the analysis identifies three strategies, associated stepping stones and changes in governance conditions, to mainstream NBS in governance capacities: institutionalising (a) a systems’ approach to link NBS to policies, regulations, and departments across goals and sectors, (b) inclusive collaborations for localised and inclusive interventions, and (c) reflexivity and learning about how NBS interact with the (institutional, ecological, social, etc.) contexts and create impacts. The strategies illustrate institutional entrepreneurship in interacting with incumbent governance contexts, and how starting from NBS as a type of systemic innovation can promote broader shifts in urban governance arrangements

Bypass versus Angioplasty in Severe Ischaemia of the Leg (BASIL) trial: A survival prediction model to facilitate clinical decision making

BackgroundAn intention-to-treat analysis of the Bypass versus Angioplasty in Severe Ischaemia of the Leg (BASIL) trial showed that in patients with severe lower limb ischemia (SLI) due to infrainguinal disease who survived for 2 years after intervention, initial randomization to a bypass surgery (BSX)-first vs balloon angioplasty (BAP)-first revascularization strategy was associated with improvements in subsequent overall survival (OS) and amputation-free survival (AFS) of about 7 and 6 months, respectively. This study explored the value of baseline factors to estimate the likelihood of survival to 2 years for the trial cohort (Cox model) and for individual BASIL trial patients (Weibull model) as an aid to clinical decision making.MethodsOf 452 patients presenting to 27 United Kingdom hospitals, 228 were randomly assigned to a BSX-first and 224 to a BAP-first revascularization strategy. Patients were monitored for at least 3 years. Baseline factors affecting the survival of the entire cohort were examined with a multivariate Cox model. The chances of survival at 1 and 2 years for patients with given baseline characteristics were estimated with a Weibull parametric model.ResultsAt the end of follow-up, 172 patients (38%) were alive without major limb amputation of the trial leg, and 202 (45%) were alive. Baseline factors that were significant in the Cox model were BASIL randomization stratification group, below knee Bollinger angiogram score, body mass index, age, diabetes, creatinine level, and smoking status. Using these factors to define five equally sized groups, we identified patients with 2-year survival rates of 50% to 90%. The factors that contributed to the Weibull predictive model were age, presence of tissue loss, serum creatinine, number of ankle pressure measurements detectable, maximum ankle pressure measured, a history of myocardial infarction or angina, a history of stroke or transient ischemia attack, below knee Bollinger angiogram score, body mass index, and smoking status.ConclusionsPatients in the BASIL trial were at high risk of amputation and death regardless of revascularization strategy. However, baseline factors can be used to stratify those risks. Furthermore, within a parametric Weibull model, certain of these factors can be used to help predict outcomes for individuals. It may thus be possible to define the clinical and anatomic (angiographic) characteristics of SLI patients who are likely—and not likely—to live for >2 years after intervention. Used appropriately in the context of the BASIL trial outcomes, this may aid clinical decision making regarding a BSX- or BAP-first revascularization strategy in SLI patients like those randomized in BASIL