2,322 research outputs found
The motivations and environmental attitudes of nature-based visitors to protected areas in Hong Kong
postprin
INFECTIOUS DISEASE, DEVELOPMENT, AND CLIMATE CHANGE: A SCENARIO ANALYSIS
We study the effects of development and climate change on infectious disease in Sub-Saharan Africa. Infant mortality and infectious disease are close related, but there are better data for the former. In an international cross-section, per capita income, literacy, and absolute poverty significantly affect infant mortality. We use scenarios of these three determinants, and of climate change to project the future incidence of malaria, assuming it to change proportionally to infant mortality. Malaria deaths will first increase, because of population growth and climate change, but then fall, because of development. This pattern is robust to the choice of scenario, parameters, and starting conditions; and it holds for diarrhoea, schistosomiasis, and dengue fever as well. However, the time and level of the mortality peak is very sensitive to assumptions. Climate change is important in the medium term, but dominated in the long term by development. As climate can only be changed with a substantial delay, development is the preferred strategy to reduced infectious diseases, even if that is exacerbated by climate change.Development, infectious disease, climate change, Sub-Saharan Africa, malaria
BRDFs acquired by directional radiative measurements during EAGLE and AGRISAR
Radiation is the driving force for all processes and interactions between earth surface and atmosphere. The amount of
measured radiation reflected by vegetation depends on its structure, the viewing angle and the solar angle. This angular
dependence is usually expressed in the Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF). This BRDF is not
only different for different types of vegetation, but also different for different stages of the growth. The BRDF therefore
has to be measured at ground level before any satellite imagery can be used the calculate surface-atmosphere
interaction. The objective of this research is to acquire the BRDFs for agricultural crop types.
A goniometric system is used to acquire the BRDFs. This is a mechanical device capable of a complete hemispherical
rotation. The radiative directional measurements are performed with different sensors that can be attached to this
system. The BRDFs are calculated from the measured radiation.
In the periods 10 June - 18 June 2006 and 2 July - 10 July 2006 directional radiative measurements were performed at
three sites: Speulderbos site, in the Netherlands, the Cabauw site, in the Netherlands, and an agricultural test site in
Goermin, Germany. The measurements were performed over eight different crops: forest, grass, pine tree, corn, wheat,
sugar beat and barley. The sensors covered the spectrum from the optical to the thermal domain. The measured radiance
is used to calculate the BRDFs or directional thermal signature.
This contribution describes the measurements and calculation of the BRDFs of forest, grassland, young corn, mature
corn, wheat, sugar beat and barley during the EAGLE2006 and AGRISAR 2006 fieldcampaigns. Optical BRDF have
been acquired for all crops except barley. Thermal angular signatures are acquired for all the crop
High-bandwidth uni-traveling carrier waveguide photodetector on an InP-membrane-on-silicon platform
A uni-traveling carrier photodetector (UTC-PD), heterogeneously integrated on silicon, is demonstrated. It is fabricated in an InP-based photonic membrane bonded on a silicon wafer, using a novel double-sided processing scheme. A very high 3 dB bandwidth of beyond 67 GHz is obtained, together with a responsivity of 0.7 A/W at 1.55 ÎŒm wavelength. In addition, open eye diagrams at 54 Gb/s are observed. These results promise high speed applications using a novel full-functionality photonic platform on silicon
The cholesterol-raising diterpenes from coffee beans increase serum lipid transfer protein activity levels in humans
Cafestol and kahweolâditerpenes present in unfiltered coffeeâ strongly raise serum VLDL and LDL cholesterol and slightly reduce HDL cholesterol in humans. The mechanism of action is unknown. We determined whether the coffee diterpenes may affect lipoprotein metabolism via effects on lipid transfer proteins and lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase in a randomized, double-blind cross-over study with 10 healthy male volunteers. Either cafestol (61â64 mg/day) or a mixture of cafestol (60 mg/day) and kahweol (48â54 mg/day) was given for 28 days. Serum activity levels of cholesterylester transfer protein, phospholipid transfer protein and lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase were measured using exogenous substrate assays. Relative to baseline values, cafestol raised the mean (±S.D.) activity of cholesterylester transfer protein by 18±12% and of phospholipid transfer protein by 21±14% (both P<0.001). Relative to cafestol alone, kahweol had no significant additional effects. Lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase activity was reduced by 11±12% by cafestol plus kahweol (P=0.02). It is concluded that the effects of coffee diterpenes on plasma lipoproteins may be connected with changes in serum activity levels of lipid transfer proteins
Potential of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor for the monitoring of terrestrial chlorophyll fluorescence
Global monitoring of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is improving our knowledge about the photosynthetic functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. The feasibility of SIF retrievals from spaceborne atmospheric spectrometers has been demonstrated by a number of studies in the last years. In this work, we investigate the potential of the upcoming TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite mission for SIF retrieval. TROPOMI will sample the 675â775 nm spectral window with a spectral resolution of 0.5 nm and a pixel size of 7 km Ă 7 km. We use an extensive set of simulated TROPOMI data in order to assess the uncertainty of single SIF retrievals and subsequent spatio-temporal composites. Our results illustrate the enormous improvement in SIF monitoring achievable with TROPOMI with respect to comparable spectrometers currently in-flight, such as the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) instrument. We find that TROPOMI can reduce global uncertainties in SIF mapping by more than a factor of 2 with respect to GOME-2, which comes together with an approximately 5-fold improvement in spatial sampling. Finally, we discuss the potential of TROPOMI to map other important vegetation parameters at a global scale with moderate spatial resolution and short revisit time. Those include leaf photosynthetic pigments and proxies for canopy structure, which will complement SIF retrievals for a self-contained description of vegetation condition and functioning
Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage at risk from coastal flooding and erosion due to sea-level rise
UNESCO World Heritage sites (WHS) located in coastal areas are increasingly at risk from coastal hazards due to sea-level rise. In this study we assess Mediterranean cultural WHS at risk from coastal flooding and erosion under four sea-level rise scenarios until 2100. Based on the analysis of spatially explicit WHS data, we develop an index-based approach that allows for ranking WHS at risk from 15 both coastal hazards. Here we show that of 49 cultural WHS located in low-lying coastal areas of the Mediterranean, 37 are at risk from a 100-year flood and 42 from coastal erosion, already today. Until 2100, flood risk may increase by 50 % and erosion risk by 13 % across the region, with considerably higher increases at individual WHS. Our results provide a first-order assessment of where adaptation is most urgently needed and can support policymakers in steering local-scale research to devise suitable adaptation strategies for each WHS
- âŠ