Environmental and Climate Justice in Palestine

To have a clean, safe, and functional environment is not only essential for the purpose of preservation, but also imperative for safeguarding the most fundamental of human rights. Resolution 45/94 of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly also stresses and acknowledges that: “all individuals are entitled to live in an environment adequate for their health and wellbeing” (United Nations Digital Library System, 1991). Environmental and climate justice, which: “emerged in the context of the local environmental struggles of directly oppressed groups”, is a global movement dedicated to ensuring equal protection of people’s human rights (i.e., water, health, life, etc.) in the face of the climate crisis. Moreover, health, environment and human rights are part of the 2030 agenda (in particular, SDG 1, SDG 5, SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 13, SDG 16, SDG 17). Individually, both environmental and climate justice are rooted in an intersectional outlook, by which they highlight the common threads between communities and the people’s inclusion, irrespective of race, class, or gender, in the pursuit of justice. On the other hand, they recognise and acknowledge the role and consequences of climate change in economic, social, and political dimensions;thus, drawing emphasis on the rights of people under the emerging inequities. In the case of Palestine, the Palestinian community is increasingly becoming vulnerable to these effects and the resulting inequalities of climate change. This vulnerability stems from: 1) The right to life;clean WASH;equitable work opportunities;access to resources;and free movement;are all examples of human rights that the Israeli colonial regime infringes upon;2) Infrastructure is essential for climate adaptation: 61% of the West Bank is ultimately barred from building infrastructure (B’Tselem, 2019) and Gaza Strip has major gaps in infrastructure due to intentional destruction by Israel;3) Palestinian deprivation of the sovereign right to natural resources by Israel;4) Apartheid system in water accessibility: Israeli water usage per person is over three times higher than that of Palestinians (their usage is under the WHO recommended minimum per day) (B’Tselem, 2023);and 5) Violent settler attacks. In 2022 alone, the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ) recorded 1527 settler attacks that targeted land, properties, livestock, agriculture and even Palestinian civilians. The ongoing neglect of these concerns and the persistent colonization of Palestine by Israel unequivocally and unwaveringly affect the human rights of Palestinians. The power dynamics at play especially hamper the Palestinian ability to exercise and fulfill their inalienable human rights and to tackle the obstacles to justice in their environment.

博士后对学术职业环境满意吗?——基于Nature全球博士后调查数据比较分析

本研究基于已有成果,将博士后学术职业环境划分为学术资源、职业保障、组织管理、科研强度四个维度。利用2020年Nature全球博士后教育调查数据,通过比较分析博士后对学术职业环境的感知与评价。研究发现,相比较国外发达国家博士后而言,我国接近四成博士后对学术职业环境感到满意。为了优化博士后学术职业环境,大学需强化对博士后科研资金的支持力度,保障博士后科研参与机会,减少非学术事务对博士后科研时间的挤占,规范导师指导;大学不断调适大学基层学术组织治理模式,优化院系对博士后学术职业发展的组织支持与服务质量;大学与博士后建立稳定性雇佣关系,不断提升工资薪酬水平,疏通博士后学术职业晋升渠道,营造良好的工作环境;高校实行服务型、便捷式的科研管理方式,制定灵活多元的学术评价机制,破除博士后对“学术GDP主义”的崇拜。

Advancement Towards Spatial Justice:The Barrier-Free Environment Construction from a Gender Perspective

Space is both a product and a producer of social relations.In the spatial domain,gender blindness has long existed,limiting women’s rights of access to and use of space,leading to structural oppression of women’s rights,and giving rise to new gender inequalities.The barrier-free environment construction has the functions of eliminating physical barriers and generating societal norms,and when combined with social changes,can facilitate justice correction across multiple dimensions.However,barrier-free environment construction itself,as a means of justice correction,also suffers from gender blindness.There remains room for improvement in the areas of facility construction,information exchange,and social services within the realm of barrier-free environments.In response to this phenomenon,gender equality offers a new critical perspective.Therefore,integrating a gender perspective into the barrier-free environment construction,focusing on the spatial rights of women,especially groups with multiple vulnerabilities,such as disabled women and elderly women,can contribute to the advancement towards spatial justice.

Challenges to Online Criminal Litigation in the Context of Smart Justice and Responses——Focusing on the Protection of the Right to Defense

Online criminal litigation transcends the constraints of physical time and space and changes the logic and path of trial hearings for some criminal cases with the help of technology.However,the leapfrog shift from the“physical field”to the“virtual field”has brought great challenges to the effective exercise of the defendant's right to defense.Online criminal justice further highlights the imbalance in the relationship between prosecution and defense in the context of smart justice,and proposes a new topic for protecting the human rights of the prosecuted.The introduction of online criminal litigation in judicial practice is intended to achieve justice in a faster and more convenient way.However,the dissipation of the ritualized remote hearings tends to undermine the effectiveness of the defense and impair the defense's ability to cross-examine evidence,while the technically advantageous public authorities can aggravate the barrier to the defense's meeting and reading the case file.The root cause is that technological power instrumentalism overemphasizes pragmatism and the pursuit of truth under the position of authority,thus diluting humanistic care for the subject of litigation.In order to resolve the problem with the quality and effectiveness of the right to defense in remote hearings,it is necessary to transform online criminal litigation from a“practical technical tool”to a“convenient auxiliary method,”and appropriately weigh the limits of pursuing truth against human rights protection in special scenarios.Meanwhile,it is also feasible to provide technical care for the defense and strengthen its ability to cross-examine evidence.Moreover,a covert communication platform should be furnished for the defender's online meeting to actively strengthen the protection of the defendant's right to defense.

The Alienation of Nature in Emily Dickinson’s Poems through the Prism of Taoism

In the poems created by the renowned American poet Emily Dickinson,those related to nature constitute a considerable proportion.However,Dickinson’s attitude toward nature is,in fact,contradictory.On the one hand,Dickinson perceives nature as gentle and kind,akin to a mother.Nature is regarded as“heaven”and embodies harmony.On the other hand,nature possesses its own operational principles and harbors inherent cruelty.According to Dickinson,humans should refrain from excessive interference in the natural order.This article attempts to analyze the similarities in attitude towards nature between Dickinson’s poetry and Taoist philosophy.

Problems and Development Suggestions of Nature Education in Jiangxi Province

The forest coverage rate of Jiangxi Province ranks second in China.It has rich natural resources,a long history of ancient color culture and rich red culture.In the development of nature education,Jiangxi Province has great potential and advantages.This paper introduces the development conditions of nature education in Jiangxi Province,summarizes the problems existing in the development of nature education in Jiangxi Province from the aspects of the types of nature education and the construction of nature education base,such as simple content and single form,imperfect infrastructure and lack of professionals,and puts forward some suggestions on the development of nature education in Jiangxi Province.

The Macrolichens of Barluk Mountain National Nature Reserve, Xinjiang Province, China

A checklist of the macrolichens (foliose, fruticose & squamulose) of Barluk Mountain National Nature Reserve located in northwestern China is presented. It was derived from 47 inventories of preserved and undeveloped areas which yielded more than 670 collections containing 102 taxa (99 species, 1 subspecies, 2 varieties). Eight species were found that were new to Xinjiang, China. Twenty-eight species and 2 varieties were found on rock, 31 species on bark of deciduous and coniferous trees, 26 species on soil and 14 species and 1 subspecies over mosses. Foliose lichens were dominant with 76 species, followed by 16 species of squamulose lichens and 7 species of fruticose lichens.

Adaptive Network Sustainability and Defense Based on Artificial Bees Colony Optimization Algorithm for Nature Inspired Cyber Security

Cyber Defense is becoming a major issue for every organization to keep business continuity intact.The presented paper explores the effectiveness of a meta-heuristic optimization algorithm-Artificial Bees Colony Algorithm(ABC)as an Nature Inspired Cyber Security mechanism to achieve adaptive defense.It experiments on the Denial-Of-Service attack scenarios which involves limiting the traffic flow for each node.Businesses today have adapted their service distribution models to include the use of the Internet,allowing them to effectively manage and interact with their customer data.This shift has created an increased reliance on online services to store vast amounts of confidential customer data,meaning any disruption or outage of these services could be disastrous for the business,leaving them without the knowledge to serve their customers.Adversaries can exploit such an event to gain unauthorized access to the confidential data of the customers.The proposed algorithm utilizes an Adaptive Defense approach to continuously select nodes that could present characteristics of a probable malicious entity.For any changes in network parameters,the cluster of nodes is selected in the prepared solution set as a probable malicious node and the traffic rate with the ratio of packet delivery is managed with respect to the properties of normal nodes to deliver a disaster recovery plan for potential businesses.

《Nature》揭示:禁食机制下的脂肪依赖性肿瘤会消退

近日,一篇发表在《Nature》上的研究显示,研究发现了一种能让小鼠摆脱胰腺癌的新方法,该疗法通过抑制脂肪代谢,切断肿瘤的能量供应,只要小鼠持续遵循生酮饮食,肿瘤生长便会停滞。研究中,研究团队聚焦于机体在禁食状态下如何转向脂肪作为能源的问题。研究者发现直接关联到胰腺癌的生物学研究,首次揭示了真核生物翻译起始因子(eukaryotic translation initiation factor,eIF4E)在禁食期间如何调控机体代谢,使其从消耗碳水化合物转变为消耗脂肪。

《Nature》子刊:苏佳琪等开发基于牛奶的水凝胶,用作酒精中毒的解毒剂

近日,苏黎世联邦理工学院Raffaele Mezzenga、苏佳琪等人在《Nature》子刊《Nature Nanotechnology》上发表的一篇研究显示,该研究开发了一种口服的、基于牛奶蛋白的水凝胶——FeSA@FibBLG,或可作为急性酒精中毒的有效解毒剂,能够稳定耐受胃酸消化且持续显著降低酒精中毒小鼠血液中的酒精水平,同时避免额外积累有毒的乙醛,还可增强肝脏保护,并显著减轻肠道损伤和生态失调,强调了其作为酒精相关疾病的新疗法的潜力。

Nature’s Gift

NATURAL WONDERS IN CHINA AND AFRICA Qilian Mountains National Park Located in Northwest China’s Gansu and Qinghai provinces,Qilian Mountains National Park spans 50,200 square km,serving as a vital ecological security barrier and water source conservation area in west China.Established in 2017 to address ecosystem damage,intensive food chain protection and wildlife monitoring in the area began in early 2011.

Spatiotemporal Evolution of Ecological Quality in Alpine Freshwater Lake Nature Reserves in the Past 20 Years

The Caohai Nature Reserve is one of the three major plateau freshwater lakes in China.Since the 1950s,human activities such as land reclamation and population relocation have greatly damaged Caohai.A rapid evaluation of the spatiotemporal evolution trend of the ecological quality of the Caohai Nature Reserve is significant for the maintenance and construction of the ecosystem in this area.The research is based on the Google Earth Engine(GEE)remote sensing cloud computing platform.Landsat TM/OLI images from May to October in five time periods:2000-2002,2004-2006,2009-2011,2014-2016,and 2019-2021 were obtained to reconstruct the optimal cloud image set by averaging the images in each time period.By constructing four ecological indicators:Greenness(NDVI),Wetness(Wet),Hotness(LST),and Dryness(NDBSI),and using Principal Component Analysis(PCA)method to obtain the Remote Sensing Ecological Index(RSEI)for the corresponding years,the spatiotemporal variation of ecological quality in the Caohai Nature Reserve over 20 years was analyzed.The results indicate:①the mean value of RSEI increased from 0.460 in 2000-2002 to 0.772 in 2019-2021,a 67.83%increase,indicating a significant improvement in the ecological quality of the reserve over the 20 years;②from the perspective of functional zoning of the Caohai Nature Reserve,the ecological quality of the core area showed a degrading trend,while the ecological quality of the buffer zone and experimental zone significantly improved;③with the implementation of ecological restoration projects,the ecological quality of the reserve gradually recovered and improved from 2014 to 2021.The trend of RSEI value changes is well correlated with human interventions,indicating that the PCA-based RSEI model can be effectively used for ecological quality assessment in lake areas.

《Nature》:新开发的可穿戴超声贴片可连续、无创监测大脑血流

近日,一篇发表在《Nature》上的研究显示,研究人员开发出一种可穿戴超声贴片(wearable ultrasound patch),其可对大脑血流进行连续、无创的监测。该研究将贴片在36名健康志愿者身上进行了测试,以检验其测量脑部主要动脉血流速度(收缩期峰值、平均流速和舒张末期速度)的能力,发现测量结果与传统超声探头的测量结果非常吻合。

《Nature》:科学家发现能驱动患者狼疮发生的两种细胞缺陷

近日,一篇发表在《Nature》上的研究显示,研究发现了一种特殊的分子缺陷或会促进系统性红斑狼疮的病理性免疫反应,同时揭示了逆转这一缺陷或有望逆转疾病。该研究中,研究人员报道了驱动狼疮发生的新通路,研究者表示,患者体内血液中的多种分子都会发生疾病相关的改变,最终,这些变化会导致芳香烃受体(aryl hydrocarbon receptor,AHR)所控制的通路激活不足,AHR能调节细胞对环境污染物、细菌或代谢产物的反应。

“Eternal Motion” as a “Form of Movement of a Special Nature” and the Main Condition for the Creation of the Universe

The article hypothesizes that DE and DM (UCM) are a “Form of Motion of a Special Nature”, where “Form of Motion” means “Eternal Motion” as the power of dynamics of different levels and varying degrees of self-sufficiency, and by “Special Nature”, gravitational and two other properties of matter, “tied” to the “Eternal Movement” and completely dependent on it. Carriers of key properties of a “Special Nature” have been established: “0”-DE particles and “3”-DM particles (UDM). The unity of their inherent “motionally-gravitational” properties and the peculiarity of the relationship between “motion” and “gravity” are revealed: the higher the intensity of “Eternal Motion”, the stronger the gravitational properties of matter are manifested (and vice versa). The relationship of “time” with the “vibration frequency” and the “mass” of photons with the “degree of bonding and deformation properties of the field” is shown. The maximum level of gravity has been determined, which allows Nature to successfully create the Universe: such a landmark is the proximity to the property of the Primary Source—the “pure graviton” of the OSP space, the most powerful “motionally-gravitational” particle of the Universe. The reasons for the emergence of such an identity of the gravitational properties of particles with the indicators of a “pure graviton” are established: for “0”-DE particles, this is the acquisition of the function of “freedom of movement”;for “3”-DM particles (UDM), the creation of a special structure—a “double field” (“Main” and “Small”). The presence in the “double field” of specific “tools” for the creation of the worlds of the Universe—gravitational “waves” gives rise to impulses (shocks) of varying intensity and shape. A list of functions performed by “waves” in the “Main” and “Small” fields has been compiled. The specific conditions for the formation of “UDM Streams”, their transformation into a “Vortex” and, under the influence of a powerful Initial Impulse (push), sending them to the “place” of the creation of galaxies, are shown. It is suggested that there is a “Cycle of Matter in Nature” in the closed structure of our Universe due to the “work” of “waves” and the functioning of special “factories” in the form of exotic space objects—Black holes.

Mushroomβ-glucan and polyphenol formulations as natural immunity boosters and balancers:nature of the application

Mushrooms are experiencing a kind of renaissance as a part of the contemporary human diet.These valuable organisms are more than food,they fit in perfectly as a novel market group known as nutra-mycoceuticals.Immune-balancing mushroom dietary fibers and secondary metabolites such as polyphenols are the main focus of the healthcare industry.Wellness and cosmetic companies are increasingly using mushroom extracts rich in these ingredients.This review considers the basic molecular immunomodulatory mechanisms of action of the most commonly used mushroom dietary fibers,β-glucans.The literature data on their bioavailability,metabolic transformations,preclinical and human clinical research,and safety are discussed.Immunomodulatory mechanisms of polyphenol ingredients are also considered.These molecules present great potential in the design of the new immunity balancer formulations according to their widespread structural diversity.Finally,we draw attention to the perspectives of modern trends in mushroom nutraceutical and cosmeceutical formulations to strengthen and balance immunity.

Biomimetic natural biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine:new biosynthesis methods,recent advances,and emerging applications

Biomimetic materials have emerged as attractive and competitive alternatives for tissue engineering(TE)and regenerative medicine.In contrast to conventional biomaterials or synthetic materials,biomimetic scaffolds based on natural biomaterial can offer cells a broad spectrum of biochemical and biophysical cues that mimic the in vivo extracellular matrix(ECM).Additionally,such materials have mechanical adaptability,micro-structure interconnectivity,and inherent bioactivity,making them ideal for the design of living implants for specific applications in TE and regenerative medicine.This paper provides an overview for recent progress of biomimetic natural biomaterials(BNBMs),including advances in their preparation,functionality,potential applications and future challenges.We highlight recent advances in the fabrication of BNBMs and outline general strategies for functionalizing and tailoring the BNBMs with various biological and physicochemical characteristics of native ECM.Moreover,we offer an overview of recent key advances in the functionalization and applications of versatile BNBMs for TE applications.Finally,we conclude by offering our perspective on open challenges and future developments in this rapidly-evolving field.

Facile synthesis of hierarchical NaX zeolite from natural kaolinite for efficient Knoevenagel condensation

Zeolite catalysts have found extensive applications in the synthesis of various fine chemicals.However,the micropores of zeolites impose diffusion limitations on bulky molecules,greatly reducing the catalytic efficiency.Herein,we explore an economic and environmentally friendly method for synthesizing hierarchical NaX zeolite that exhibits improved catalytic performance in the Knoevenagel condensation reaction for producing the useful fine chemical 2-cyano-3-phenylacrylate.The synthesis was achieved via a low-temperature activation of kaolinite and subsequent in-situ transformation strategy without any template or seed.Systematic characterizations reveal that the synthesized NaX zeolite has both intercrystalline and intra-crystalline mesopores,smaller crystal size,and larger external specific surface area compared to commercial NaX zeolite.Detailed mechanism investigations show that the inter-crystalline mesopores are generated by stacking smaller crystals formed from in-situ crystallization of the depolymerized kaolinite,and the intra-crystalline mesopores are inherited from the pores in the depolymerized kaolinite.This synthesis strategy provides an energy-saving and effective way to construct hierarchical zeolites,which may gain wide applications in fine chemical manufacturing.

Environmental Justice through Community-Policy Participatory Partnerships

Geographical information systems (GIS) are often used to design environmental justice (EJ) policy interventions. Leveraging GIS and other graphics, overburdened EJ communities can learn from maps that geographically link environmental burden (EB) and social disparity (SD) data. Visually representing EB and SD data concretizes the unjust distributions of environmental and broader inequitable societal policies. These maps can be used to efficaciously assess EJ disparities created by such policies through exploring socioeconomic characteristics with local communities. Given the great variation in how GIS EJ applications measure and visualize EB and SD, we present a community-based participatory design (CBPD) lens to collaboratively work across overburdened communities and support making EJ data accessible to all stakeholders. Our location proximity approach is a powerful way to assess overburdened EJ communities because it relies on user-predefined boundaries, and it doesn’t use a single fixed unit of reference to prioritize areas of intervention. Moreover, most areal unit applications use ordinal measures, such as percentiles, and multidimensional indexes, which are intelligible to understand by many residents. Leveraging a community-based participatory design methodology, we present our novel Proximity to Hazards Dashboard (PHD) that includes data on asphalt plants and industrial corridors, hazards often missing from state-level dashboards but very relevant for city policymaking, as well as more traditionally used environmental hazard sources. The use of the tool by policymakers and community members suggests that EJ categorization should focus less on procedural benchmarks and more on systemic change for policy impacts in ways that sustain the participatory nature of our approach.

The Man Who Organized Nature: The Life of Linnaeus by Gunnar Broberg

GunnarBroberg(1942–2022),a professor of history ideas and sciences at the Lund University in Sweden,has assembled and summarized virtually all of the contemporary documents relating to the life of Carl Linnaeus(1707–1778).This is therefore a fact-laden and definitive personal biography of the founder of our systems of plant and animal taxonomy.Linnaeus’childhood included much time in nature that forever provided him an experience background for the huge amount of plant and animal species he would encounter.In his early days,his country was in an era of poverty where“hordes of starving,homeless people drifted along the roads in the years when the harvest failed.”Linnaeus himself“...could lie awake all night as he lacked the money for evening meals when he was a student.”He inserted paper into his shoes to cover the holes on which he walked.