Editorial: Human impacts on bats in tropical ecosystems: sustainable actions and alternatives

Globally, the most extraordinary biodiversity is in the tropics, spread in a great diversity of vegetation types and habitats. Among the myriad mammalian groups, bats stand out for their remarkable taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity (Wilson and Mittermeier, 2019). Within the tropics, bats can be found in different vegetation types varying in a gradient of structural complexity from dense ancient forests to more open landscapes and woodlands in the savannas and fields (Meyer et al., 2004; Carvalho et al., 2021). Bats provide essential ecosystem services such as seed dispersal and pollination of the many plants that have a role in the income of the most impoverished human populations and the formal economy (Lacher et al., 2019). Moreover, as voracious insect predators, bats play a vital role in suppressing agricultural pests, an invaluable service in this part of the world, and disease vectors for humans (Aguiar et al., 2021; Tuneu-Corral et al., 2023). It is widely recognized that the main threat to bats globally is the extensive conversion of natural ecosystems, especially in tropical developing countries (Meyer et al., 2016). This shift in land use results in habitat loss and environmental degradation, with consequent loss of species, ecosystem services, and lineages (Frick et al., 2020; Atagana et al., 2021; Colombo et al., 2023). There is thus an urgent need to disseminate correct information about bats and explore best practices for mitigating the adverse effects stemming from human activities such as vegetation clearing for cattle ranching, agriculture, human settlements, and urbanization. Therefore, in this Research Topic, we aimed to bring together current research that assesses the influence of multiple environmental transformation drivers on the diversity of tropical bats. Nine papers were published in this Research Topic, and they present novel insights into how bats react to human-driven environmental changes and address significant gaps in bat conservation. These studies were conducted by 36 authors in six countries across the American, African and Asian continents (Figure 1). While the sampling was local in seven studies, Brasileiro et al. used data spanning Brazilian biomes, and Xavier et al. carried out a global systematic review. Three key themes emerge from the papers presented in this Research Topic, and we discuss the findings and knowledge gaps related to each theme in the following sections. Figure 1info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pre-encounter predictions of DART impact ejecta behavior and observability

We overview various efforts within the DART Investigation Team’s Ejecta Working Group to predict the characteristics, quantity, dynamical behavior, and observability of DART impact ejecta. We discuss various methodologies for simulation of the impact/cratering process with their advantages and drawbacks in relation to initializing ejecta for subsequent dynamical propagation through and away from the Didymos system. We discuss the most relevant forces acting on ejecta once decoupled from Dimorphos’s surface and highlight various software packages we have developed and used to dynamically simulate ejecta under the action of those forces. With some additional software packages, we explore the influence of additional perturbing effects, such as interparticle collisions within true N-body codes and nonspherical and rotating particles’ interplay with solar radiation pressure. We find that early-timescale and close-proximity ejecta evolution is highly sensitive to some of these effects (e.g., collisions) while relatively insensitive to other factors. We present a methodology for turning the time-evolving size- and spatially discretized number density field output from ejecta simulations into synthetic images for multiple platforms/cameras over wide-ranging vantage points and timescales. We present such simulated images and apply preliminary analyses to them for nominal and off-nominal cases bracketing realistic total mass of ejecta and ejecta cumulative size–frequency distribution slope. Our analyses foreshadow the information content we may be able to extract from the actual images taken during and after the DART encounter by both LICIACube and Earth-vicinity telescopes.ANII: FCE_1_2019_1_15645

Assembly of 500,000 inter-specific catfish expressed sequence tags and large scale gene-associated marker development for whole genome association studies

Twelve cDNA libraries from two species of catfish have been sequenced, resulting in the generation of nearly 500,000 ESTs

Roadmap on Photovoltaic Absorber Materials for Sustainable Energy Conversion

Photovoltaics (PVs) are a critical technology for curbing growing levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and meeting increases in future demand for low-carbon electricity. In order to fulfil ambitions for net-zero carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) emissions worldwide, the global cumulative capacity of solar PVs must increase by an order of magnitude from 0.9 TWp in 2021 to 8.5 TWp by 2050 according to the International Renewable Energy Agency, which is considered to be a highly conservative estimate. In 2020, the Henry Royce Institute brought together the UK PV community to discuss the critical technological and infrastructure challenges that need to be overcome to address the vast challenges in accelerating PV deployment. Herein, we examine the key developments in the global community, especially the progress made in the field since this earlier roadmap, bringing together experts primarily from the UK across the breadth of the photovoltaics community. The focus is both on the challenges in improving the efficiency, stability and levelized cost of electricity of current technologies for utility-scale PVs, as well as the fundamental questions in novel technologies that can have a significant impact on emerging markets, such as indoor PVs, space PVs, and agrivoltaics. We discuss challenges in advanced metrology and computational tools, as well as the growing synergies between PVs and solar fuels, and offer a perspective on the environmental sustainability of the PV industry. Through this roadmap, we emphasize promising pathways forward in both the short- and long-term, and for communities working on technologies across a range of maturity levels to learn from each other.Comment: 160 pages, 21 figure

Brazilian cave heritage under siege

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Achievement of the planetary defense investigations of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was the first to demonstrate asteroid deflection, and the mission's Level 1 requirements guided its planetary defense investigations. Here, we summarize DART's achievement of those requirements. On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the secondary member of the Didymos near-Earth asteroid binary system, demonstrating an autonomously navigated kinetic impact into an asteroid with limited prior knowledge for planetary defense. Months of subsequent Earth-based observations showed that the binary orbital period was changed by –33.24 minutes, with two independent analysis methods each reporting a 1σ uncertainty of 1.4 s. Dynamical models determined that the momentum enhancement factor, β, resulting from DART's kinetic impact test is between 2.4 and 4.9, depending on the mass of Dimorphos, which remains the largest source of uncertainty. Over five dozen telescopes across the globe and in space, along with the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids, have contributed to DART's investigations. These combined investigations have addressed topics related to the ejecta, dynamics, impact event, and properties of both asteroids in the binary system. A year following DART's successful impact into Dimorphos, the mission has achieved its planetary defense requirements, although work to further understand DART's kinetic impact test and the Didymos system will continue. In particular, ESA's Hera mission is planned to perform extensive measurements in 2027 during its rendezvous with the Didymos–Dimorphos system, building on DART to advance our knowledge and continue the ongoing international collaboration for planetary defense

LA MALADIE DU DENTISTE, PEUR ET ANXIETE AU CABINET DENTAIRE

CLERMONT FD-BCIU-Santé (631132104) / SudocPARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocSudocFranceF