'Will the Paris Agreement protect us from hydro-meteorological extremes?'

Multi-hazard assessment is needed to understand compound risk. Yet, modelling of multiple climate hazards has been limitedly applied at the global scale to date. Here we provide a first comprehensive assessment of global population exposure to hydro-meteorological extremes—floods, drought and heatwaves—under different temperature increase targets. This study shows how limiting temperature increase to 1.5 and 2 °C, as for the goals of the Paris Agreement, could substantially decrease the share of global population exposed compared to a 3 °C scenario. In a 2 °C world, population exposure would drop by more than 50%, in Africa, Asia and the Americas, and by about 40% in Europe and Oceania. A 1.5 °C stabilization would further reduce exposure of about an additional 10% to 30% across the globe. As the Parties of the Paris Agreement are expected to communicate new or updated nationally determined contributions by 2020, our results powerfully indicate the benefits of ratcheting up both mitigation and adaptation ambition

An Evaluation of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Perceived Social Distancing Policies in Relation to Planning, Selecting, and Preparing Healthy Meals: An Observational Study in 38 Countries Worldwide

Objectives: To examine changes in planning, selecting, and preparing healthy foods in relation to personal factors (time, money, stress) and social distancing policies during the COVID-19 crisis. Methods: Using cross-sectional online surveys collected in 38 countries worldwide in April-June 2020 (N = 37,207, Mage 36.7 SD 14.8, 77% women), we compared changes in food literacy behaviors to changes in personal factors and social distancing policies, using hierarchical multiple regression analyses controlling for sociodemographic variables. Results: Increases in planning (4.7 SD 1.3, 4.9 SD 1.3), selecting (3.6 SD 1.7, 3.7 SD 1.7), and preparing (4.6 SD 1.2, 4.7 SD 1.3) healthy foods were found for women and men, and positively related to perceived time availability and stay-at-home policies. Psychological distress was a barrier for women, and an enabler for men. Financial stress was a barrier and enabler depending on various sociodemographic variables (all p < 0.01). Conclusion: Stay-at-home policies and feelings of having more time during COVID-19 seem to have improved food literacy. Stress and other social distancing policies relate to food literacy in more complex ways, highlighting the necessity of a health equity lens. Copyright 2021 De Backer, Teunissen, Cuykx, Decorte, Pabian, Gerritsen, Matthys, Al Sabbah, Van Royen and the Corona Cooking Survey Study Group.This research was funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (G047518N) and Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HBC.2018.0397). These funding sources had no role in the design of the study, the analysis and interpretation of the data or the writing of, nor the decision to publish the manuscript.Scopu

Technical note: A hydrological routing scheme for the Ecosystem Demography model (ED2+R) tested in the Tapajós River basin in the Brazilian Amazon

Land surface models are excellent tools for studying how climate change and land use affect surface hydrology. However, in order to assess the impacts of Earth processes on river flows, simulated changes in runoff need to be routed through the landscape. In this technical note, we describe the integration of the Ecosystem Demography (ED2) model with a hydrological routing scheme. The purpose of the study was to create a tool capable of incorporating to hydrological predictions the terrestrial ecosystem responses to climate, carbon dioxide, and land-use change, as simulated with terrestrial biosphere models. The resulting ED2+R model calculates the lateral routing of surface and subsurface runoff resulting from the terrestrial biosphere models' vertical water balance in order to determine spatiotemporal patterns of river flows within the simulated region. We evaluated the ED2+R model in the Tapajós, a 476 674 km2 river basin in the southeastern Amazon, Brazil. The results showed that the integration of ED2 with the lateral routing scheme results in an adequate representation (Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency up to 0.76, Kling–Gupta efficiency up to 0.86, Pearson's R up to 0.88, and volume ratio up to 1.06) of daily to decadal river flow dynamics in the Tapajós. These results are a consistent step forward with respect to the no river representation common among terrestrial biosphere models, such as the initial version of ED2

Mobile sociality and the use of the network of personal technologies

The article investigates how personal technologies interact with the sociality of young people in a context of long-distance mobility. We focussed on a group of individuals \u2013 expatriates and internal migrants \u2013 who are highly mobile, multilingual, multicultural, sometimes also multinational, highly educated, and who extensively use personal technologies to support their sociality. The long-distance mobility of these young adults has been discussed so far in socio-economic terms, but scholars have substantially neglected to explore how these young persons manage their sociality and communication as well as the sustainability of their life in the long run. We adopted a qualitative approach and conducted 23 interviews with a convenience sample. The main results highlight three implications, due to the intensive use of personalised technologies: (a) when the spatial distance is great, close relationships are strengthened; (b) the relationships with new friends are evaluated less than those with the friends left behind; (c) the role played by digital media is only positive (not ambivalent as in sedentary contexts) since it is only thanks to these media that the young adults are able to manage their overall sociality. Moreover, these people tend to stay in a mobile status, which risks being detrimental for them. Finally, but not unexpectedly, mobile sociality emerges as a dimension full of tensions and contradictions

What lies behind a Facebook page? Insights from an action research project in rural Bangladesh

This investigation explores ambiguities, limitations, constraints, and ethical issues related to the collection and use of online social data for research purposes from a Facebook community fostered by developmental bodies in rural Bangladesh. Even though there have been prior studies of information and communication technology use in vulnerable communities in development contexts, such research has not taken sufficient account of cultural and power dynamics at the coalface of social research. This investigation also examines the positionality of the researchers, including relationships to patriarchal and communal structures in Bangladesh. In this context, it examines the Facebook posts by women of a village. In particular, it finds that the desire to be seen as a “good woman” acts to regulate personal agency and expression of the village women

Irreversible and reversible topoisomerase II DNA cleavage stimulated by clerocidin: Sequence specificity and structural drug determinants

In contrast to other topoisomerase II poisons, the microbial terpenoid clerocidin was shown to stimulate irreversible topoisomerase II-mediated DNA cleavage. To establish the structural determinants for drug activity, in this study we have investigated intensity patterns and sequence specificity of clerocidin-stimulated DNA cleavage using 5'-end P-32-labeled DNA fragments. At a majority of the sites, clerocidin-stimulated cleavage did not revert upon NaCl addition; nevertheless, at some sites, cleavage completely reverted. Statistical analyses showed that drug-preferred bases were different in the two cases: guanine and cytosine were highly preferred at position -1 at irreversible and reversible sites, respectively. These results demonstrated that cleavage irreversibility was site selective and required a guanine at the 3' end of the cut. Further experiments revealed that some irreversible sites showed an abnormal electrophoretic mobility in sequencing gels with respect to cleaved bands generated by 4-(9-acridinylamino)methanesulfon-m-anisidide, suggesting a chemical alteration of the DNA strand. Interestingly, the ability to stimulate irreversible cleavage progressively decreased over time when clerocidin was stored in ethanol. Under these conditions, nuclear magnetic resonance measurements demonstrated that the drug underwent structural modifications that involved the C-12-C-15 side chain. Thus, the results indicate that a specific moiety of clerocidin may react with the DNA (guanine at -1) in the ternary complex, resulting in cleavage irreversibility and in altered DNA mobility in sequencing gels