The challenge of unprecedented floods and droughts in risk management

Risk management has reduced vulnerability to floods and droughts globally1,2, yet their impacts are still increasing3. An improved understanding of the causes of changing impacts is therefore needed, but has been hampered by a lack of empirical data4,5. On the basis of a global dataset of 45 pairs of events that occurred within the same area, we show that risk management generally reduces the impacts of floods and droughts but faces difficulties in reducing the impacts of unprecedented events of a magnitude not previously experienced. If the second event was much more hazardous than the first, its impact was almost always higher. This is because management was not designed to deal with such extreme events: for example, they exceeded the design levels of levees and reservoirs. In two success stories, the impact of the second, more hazardous, event was lower, as a result of improved risk management governance and high investment in integrated management. The observed difficulty of managing unprecedented events is alarming, given that more extreme hydrological events are projected owing to climate change3

小児重症デング熱発症前早期バイオマーカー候補分子のプロテオーム解析による同定

Background: Severe dengue with severe plasma leakage (SD-SPL) is the most frequent of dengue severe form. Plasma biomarkers for early predictive diagnosis of SD-SPL are required in the primary clinics for the prevention of dengue death. Methodology: Among 63 confirmed dengue pediatric patients recruited, hospital based longitudinal study detected six SD-SPL and ten dengue with warning sign (DWS). To identify the specific proteins increased or decreased in the SD-SPL plasma obtained 6?48 hours before the shock compared with the DWS, the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) technology was performed using four patients each group. Validation was undertaken in 6 SD-SPL and 10 DWS patients. Principal findings: Nineteen plasma proteins exhibited significantly different relative concentrations (p<0.05), with five over-expressed and fourteen under-expressed in SD-SPL compared with DWS. The individual protein was classified to either blood coagulation, vascular regulation, cellular transport-related processes or immune response. The immunoblot quantification showed angiotensinogen and antithrombin III significantly increased in SD-SPL whole plasma of early stage compared with DWS subjects. Even using this small number of samples, antithrombin III predicted SD-SPL before shock occurrence with accuracy. Conclusion: Proteins identified here may serve as candidate predictive markers to diagnose SD-SPL for timely clinical management. Since the number of subjects are small, so further studies are needed to confirm all these biomarkers.長崎大学学位論文 学位記番号:博(医歯薬)甲第862号 学位授与年月日:平成28年3月18日Author: Dang My Nhi, Nguyen Tien Huy, Kaname Ohyama, Daisuke Kimura, Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, Leo Uchida, Nguyen Van Thuong, Cao Thi My Nhon, Le Hong Phuc, Nguyen Thi Mai, Shusaku Mizukami, Lam Quoc Bao, Nguyen Ngoc Doan, Nguyen Van Thanh Binh, Luong Chan Quang, Juntra Karbwang, Katsuyuki Yui, Kouichi Morita, Vu Thi Que Huong, Kenji HirayamaCitation: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 10(2), e0004435; 2016Nagasaki University (長崎大学)課程博

Short-term carbon and nitrogen dynamics in soil, litterfall and canopy of a suburban native forest subjected to prescribed burning in subtropical Australia

Hosseini Bai, S ORCiD: 0000-0001-8646-6423Purpose: This study aimed to understand the mechanisms of the variations in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools and examine the possibility of differentiating the burning effects from seasonal and pre-existed N limitations in a native suburban forest ecosystem influenced by prescribed burning in subtropical Australia. Materials and methods: Soil and litterfall samples were collected from two study sites from 1 to 23 months since last burnt. Soil labile C and N pools, soil C and N isotopic compositions (δ13C and δ15N), litterfall mass production (LM), and litterfall total C, total N, δ13C and δ15N were analysed. In-situ gas exchange measurements were also conducted during dry and wet seasons for Eucalyptus baileyana and E. planchoniana. Results and discussion: The results indicated that labile C and N pools increased within the first few months after burning, with no correlations with climatic factors. Therefore, it was possible that the increase was due to the burning-induced factors such as the incorporation of ashes into the soil. The highest values of soil and litterfall δ15N, observed when the study was commenced at the experimental sites, and their high correlations with climatic factors were indicative of long-term N and water limitation. The 13C signals showed that soil N concentrations and climatic factors were also two of the main factors controlling litterfall and foliage properties mainly through the changes in photosynthetic capacity and stomatal conductance. Conclusions: Long-term soil N availabilities and climatic factors were the two of the main driving factors of C and N cycling in the studied forest sites. Further studies are needed to compare soil and litterfall properties before and after burning to profoundly understand the effects of prescribed burning on soil labile C and N variations. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature