Ecological problems and ecological restoration zoning of the Aral Sea

The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world but it has shrunk dramatically as a result of irrational human activities, triggering the "Aral Sea ecological crisis". The ecological problems of the Aral Sea have attracted widespread attention, and the alleviation of the Aral Sea ecological crisis has reached a consensus among the five Central Asian countries(Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan). In the past decades, many ecological management measures have been implemented for the ecological restoration of the Aral Sea. However, due to the lack of regional planning and zoning, the results are not ideal. In this study, we mapped the ecological zoning of the Aral Sea from the perspective of ecological restoration based on soil type, soil salinity, surface water, groundwater table, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI), land cover, and aerosol optical depth(AOD) data. Soil salinization and salt dust are the most prominent ecological problems in the Aral Sea. We divided the Aral Sea into 7 first-level ecological restoration subregions(North Aral Sea catchment area in the downstream of the Syr Darya River(Subregion Ⅰ);artificial flood overflow area in the downstream of the Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅱ);physical/chemical remediation area of the salt dust source area in the eastern part of the South Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅲ);physical/chemical remediation area of severe salinization in the central part of the South Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅳ);existing water surface and potential restoration area of the South Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅴ);Aral Sea vegetation natural recovery area(Subregion Ⅵ);and vegetation planting area with slight salinization in the South Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅶ)) and 14 second-level ecological restoration subregions according to the ecological zoning principles. Implementable measures are proposed for each ecological restoration subregion. For Subregion Ⅰ and Subregion Ⅱ with lower elevations, artificial flooding should be carried out to restore the surface of the Aral Sea. Subregion Ⅲ and Subregion Ⅳ have severe salinization, making it difficult for vegetation to grow. In these subregions, it is recommended to cover and pave the areas with green biomatrix coverings and environmentally sustainable bonding materials. In Subregion Ⅴ located in the central and western parts of the South Aral Sea, surface water recharge should be increased to ensure that this subregion can maintain normal water levels. In Subregion Ⅵ and Subregion Ⅶ where natural conditions are suitable for vegetation growth, measures such as afforestation and buffer zones should be implemented to protect vegetation. This study could provide a reference basis for future comprehensive ecological management and restoration of the Aral Sea.

Stepwise Ecological Restoration:A framework for improving restoration outcomes

Ecosystem degradation is one of the critical constraints for the sustainable development of our planet.However,recovering an ecosystem to a pre-impairment condition is often not practical.The International Restoration Standards provide the first framework for practical guidance on what constitutes the process of ecological repair and how this repair process can be influenced to improve net ecological benefits.In these Standards,Restorative Continuum is highlighted and it recognises that many do not,yet there is still value in aspiring to improvements to the highest extent possible,with some sites potentially being able to be improved in a stepwise manner.Here we elaborate on these Standards by providing a cross-ecosystem theoretical framework of Stepwise Ecological Restoration(STERE)for promoting higher environmental benefits.STERE allows the selection of suitable restorative modes by considering the degree of degradation while encouraging a transition to a higher state.These models include environmental remediation for completely modified and degraded ecosystems,ecological rehabilitation for highly modified and degraded ecosystems,and ecological restoration for degraded native ecosystems.STERE requires selecting tailored restorative modes,setting clear restorative targets and reference ecosystems,applying a systematic-thinking approach,and implementing a continuous monitoring program at all process stages to achieve a resilient trajectory.STERE allows adaptive management in the context of climate change,and when the evidence is available,to“adapt to the future”to ensure climate resilience.The STERE framework could assist in initiating and implementing restoration projects worldwide,especially in developing countries.

Lactate is a potentially harmful substitute for brain glucose fuel:consequences for metabolic restoration of neurotransmission

The metabolite lactate (L-lactate) can be generated and released by diverse brain cells,including neurons,astrocytes,and oligodendrocytes (Kann,2023;Rae et al.,2024).Lactate production usually requires the degradation of glucose (D-glucose)-and glycogen in astrocytes-to pyruvate by glycolysis and subsequent conversion of pyruvate to lactate by the enzyme lactate dehydrogenase(Figure 1A;Dienel,2019;Rae et al.,2024).

Restoration or Rehabilitation of the Faleme River Affected by Mining Activities: What Methods?

The Faleme River, a West Africa long transboundary stream (625 km) and abundant flow (>1100 million m3) is affected by severe erosion because of mining activities that takes place throughout the riverbed. To preserve this important watercourse and ensure the sustainability of its services, selecting and implementing appropriates restorations techniques is vital. In this context, the purpose of this paper was to present an overview of the actions and techniques that can be implemented for the restoration/rehabilitation of the Faleme. The methodological approach includes field investigation, water sampling, literature review with cases studies and SWOT analysis of the four methods presented: river dredging, constructed wetlands, floating treatment wetlands and chemical precipitation (coagulation and flocculation). The study confirmed the pollution of the river by suspended solids (TSS > 1100 mg/L) and heavy metals such as iron, zinc, aluminium, and arsenic. For the restoration methods, it was illustrated through description of their mode of operation and through some case studies presented, that all the four methods have proven their effectiveness in treating rivers but have differences in their costs, their sustainability (detrimental to living organisms or causing a second pollution) and social acceptance. They also have weaknesses and issues that must be addressed to ensure success of rehabilitation. For the case of the Faleme river, after analysis, floating treatment wetlands are highly recommended for their low cost, good removal efficiency if the vulnerability of the raft and buoyancy to strong waves and flow is under control.

Phytoremediation Strategies for Heavy Metal Contamination: A Review on Sustainable Approach for Environmental Restoration

Current globalization trends and important breakthroughs globally need a complete study of heavy metal contamination, its causes, its impacts on human and environmental health, and different remediation strategies. Heavy metal pollution is mostly produced by urbanization and industry, which threatens ecosystems and human health. Herein, we discuss a sustainable environmental restoration strategy employing phytoremediation for heavy metal pollution, the carcinogenic, mutagenic, and cytotoxic effects of heavy metals such as cadmium, copper, mercury, selenium, zinc, arsenic, chromium, lead, nickel, and silver, which may be fatal. Phytoremediation, which was prioritized, uses plants to remove, accumulate, and depollute pollutants. This eco-friendly method may safely collect, accumulate, and detoxify toxins using plants, making it popular. This study covers phytostabilization, phytodegradation, rhizodegradation, phytoextraction, phytovolatilization, and rhizofiltration. A phytoremediation process’s efficiency in varied environmental circumstances depends on these components’ complex interplay. This paper also introduces developing phytoremediation approaches including microbe-assisted, chemical-assisted, and organic or bio-char use. These advancements attempt to overcome conventional phytoremediation’s limitations, such as limited suitable plant species, location problems, and sluggish remediation. Current research includes machine learning techniques and computer modeling, biostimulation, genetic engineering, bioaugmentation, and hybrid remediation. These front-line solutions show that phytoremediation research is developing towards transdisciplinary efficiency enhancement. We acknowledge phytoremediation’s promise but also its drawbacks, such as site-specific variables, biomass buildup, and sluggish remediation, as well as ongoing research to address them. In conclusion, heavy metal pollution threatens the ecology and public health and must be reduced. Phytoremediation treats heavy metal pollution in different ways. Over time, phytoremediation systems have developed unique ways that improve efficiency. Despite difficulties like site-specificity, sluggish remediation, and biomass buildup potential, phytoremediation is still a vital tool for environmental sustainability.

Restoration of the JPEG Maximum Lossy Compressed Face Images with Hourglass Block-GAN

In the context of high compression rates applied to Joint Photographic Experts Group(JPEG)images through lossy compression techniques,image-blocking artifacts may manifest.This necessitates the restoration of the image to its original quality.The challenge lies in regenerating significantly compressed images into a state in which these become identifiable.Therefore,this study focuses on the restoration of JPEG images subjected to substantial degradation caused by maximum lossy compression using Generative Adversarial Networks(GAN).The generator in this network is based on theU-Net architecture.It features a newhourglass structure that preserves the characteristics of the deep layers.In addition,the network incorporates two loss functions to generate natural and high-quality images:Low Frequency(LF)loss and High Frequency(HF)loss.HF loss uses a pretrained VGG-16 network and is configured using a specific layer that best represents features.This can enhance the performance in the high-frequency region.In contrast,LF loss is used to handle the low-frequency region.The two loss functions facilitate the generation of images by the generator,which can mislead the discriminator while accurately generating high-and low-frequency regions.Consequently,by removing the blocking effects frommaximum lossy compressed images,images inwhich identities could be recognized are generated.This study represents a significant improvement over previous research in terms of the image resolution performance.

Research on Restoration of Murals Based on Diffusion Model and Transformer

Due to the limitations of a priori knowledge and convolution operation,the existing image restoration techniques cannot be directly applied to the cultural relics mural restoration,in order to more accurately restore the original appearance of the cultural relics mural images,an image restoration based on the denoising diffusion probability model(Denoising Diffusion Probability Model(DDPM))and the Transformer method.The process involves two steps:in the first step,the damaged mural image is firstly utilized as the condition to generate the noise image,using the time,condition and noise image patch as the inputs to the noise prediction network,capturing the global dependencies in the input sequence through the multi-attentionmechanismof the input sequence and feedforward neural network processing,and designing a long skip connection between the shallow and deep layers in the Transformer blocks between the shallow and deep layers using long skip connections to fuse the feature information of global and local outputs to maintain the overall consistency of the restoration results;In the second step,taking the noisy image as a condition to direct the diffusion model to back sample to generate the restored image.Experiment results show that the PSNR and SSIM of the proposedmethod are improved by 2%to 9%and 1%to 3.3%,respectively,which are compared to the comparison methods.This study proposed synthesizes the advantages of the diffusionmodel and deep learningmodel to make themural restoration results more accurate.

Characterisation of the Bacteria and Archaea Community Associated with Wild Oysters, At Three Possible Restoration Sites in the North Sea

With 85% of the global oyster reefs destroyed, there is an urgent need for large scale restoration to benefit from the ecosystem services provided by biogenic oyster reefs and their associated biodiversity, including microorganisms that drive marine biogeochemical cycles. This experiment established a baseline for the monitoring of the bacterial and archaeal community associated with wild oysters, using samples from their immediate environment of the Voordelta, with cohabiting Crassostrea gigas and Ostrea edulis, Duikplaats with only C. gigas attached to rocks, and the Dansk Skaldyrcentre, with no onsite oysters. The microbial profiling was carried out through DNA analysis of samples collected from the surfaces of oyster shells and their substrate, the sediment and seawater. Following 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and bioinformatics, alpha indices implied high species abundance and diversity in sediment but low abundance in seawater. As expected, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Thaumarchaeota dominated the top 20 OTUs. In the Voordelta, OTUs related to Colwellia, Shewanella and Psychrobium differentiated the oysters collected from a reef with those attached to rocks. Duikplaats were distinct for sulfur-oxidizers Sulfurimonas and sulfate-reducers from the Sva 0081 sediment group. Archaea were found mainly in sediments and the oyster associated microbiome, with greater abundance at the reef site, consisting mostly of Thaumarchaeota from the family Nitrosopumilaceae. The oyster free site displayed archaea in sediments only, and algal bloom indicator microorganisms from the Rhodobacteraceae, Flavobacteriaceae family and genus [Polaribacter] huanghezhanensis, in addition to the ascidian symbiotic partner, Synechococcus. This study suggests site specific microbiome shifts, influenced by the presence of oysters and the type of substrate.

Feature extraction and analysis of reclaimed vegetation in ecological restoration area of abandoned mines based on hyperspectral remote sensing images

The vegetation growth status largely represents the ecosystem function and environmental quality.Hyperspectral remote sensing data can effectively eliminate the effects of surface spectral reflectance and atmospheric scattering and directly reflect the vegetation parameter information.In this study,the abandoned mining area in the Helan Mountains,China was taken as the study area.Based on hyperspectral remote sensing images of Zhuhai No.1 hyperspectral satellite,we used the pixel dichotomy model,which was constructed using the normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI),to estimate the vegetation coverage of the study area,and evaluated the vegetation growth status by five vegetation indices(NDVI,ratio vegetation index(RVI),photochemical vegetation index(PVI),red-green ratio index(RGI),and anthocyanin reflectance index 1(ARI1)).According to the results,the reclaimed vegetation growth status in the study area can be divided into four levels(unhealthy,low healthy,healthy,and very healthy).The overall vegetation growth status in the study area was generally at low healthy level,indicating that the vegetation growth status in the study area was not good due to short-time period restoration and harsh damaged environment such as high and steep rock slopes.Furthermore,the unhealthy areas were mainly located in Dawukougou where abandoned mines were concentrated,indicating that the original mining activities have had a large effect on vegetation ecology.After ecological restoration of abandoned mines,the vegetation coverage in the study area has increased to a certain extent,but the amplitude was not large.The situation of vegetation coverage in the northern part of the study area was worse than that in the southern part,due to abandoned mines mainly concentrating in the northern part of the Helan Mountains.The combination of hyperspectral remote sensing data and vegetation indices can comprehensively extract the characteristics of vegetation,accurately analyze the plant growth status,and provide technical support for vegetation health evaluation.

Offset restoration in total hip arthroplasty:Important:A current review

Normal vertical and horizontal offset is essential for hip biomechanics,muscle functioning and gait pattern.Total hip arthroplasty(THA)should aim to restore normal offset with implantation of femoral and acetabular components.This would be possible with proper preoperative planning,templating and ensuring implant options are available for offset restoration.Templating is essential for understanding the vertical and horizontal offset change,especially in hip arthritis presenting late with significant limb length discrepancy at THA.Planning should include appropriate soft tissue releases and the use of ideal implants to achieve restoration of horizontal and vertical offset.Under correction of horizontal offset at THA for fracture neck of femur could result in abductor fatigue,limp and increased wear.Restoration of horizontal offset is imperative at THA for a fractured neck of the femur to achieve optimal abductor function.Horizontal offset is necessary for optimal abductor muscle tension and function.Revision THA for acetabular bone loss would require hip center restoration with the acetabular and femoral offset correction to achieve limb length correction and abductor length.The inability to achieve vertical and horizontal offset correction could lead to dislocation or signs of abductor fatigue.Careful vertical and horizontal femur offset restoration is required for normal hip biomechanics,decreased wear and increased longevity.

Resilience-Oriented Load Restoration Method and Repair Strategies for Regional Integrated Electricity-Natural Gas System

The rising frequency of extreme disaster events seriously threatens the safe and secure operation of the regional integrated electricity-natural gas system(RIENGS).With the growing level of coupling between electric and natural gas systems,it is critical to enhance the load restoration capability of both systems.This paper proposes a coordinated optimization strategy for resilience-enhanced RIENGS load restoration and repair scheduling and transforms it into a mixed integer second-order cone programming(MISOCP)model.The proposed model considers the distribution network reconfiguration and the coordinated repair strategy between the two systems,minimizing the total system load loss cost and repair time.In addition,a bi-directional gas flow model is used to describe the natural gas system,which can provide the RIENGS with more flexibility for load restoration during natural gas system failure.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by conducting case studies on the test systems RIENGS E13-G7 and RIENGS E123-G20.

From single to combinatorial therapies in spinal cord injuries for structural and functional restoration

Spinal cord injury results in paralysis, sensory disturbances, sphincter dysfunction, and multiple systemic secondary conditions, most arising from autonomic dysregulation. All this produces profound negative psychosocial implications for affected people, their families, and their communities;the financial costs can be challenging for their families and health institutions. Treatments aimed at restoring the spinal cord after spinal cord injury, which have been tested in animal models or clinical trials, generally seek to counteract one or more of the secondary mechanisms of injury to limit the extent of the initial damage. Most published works on structural/functional restoration in acute and chronic spinal cord injury stages use a single type of treatment: a drug or trophic factor, transplant of a cell type, and implantation of a biomaterial. Despite the significant benefits reported in animal models, when translating these successful therapeutic strategies to humans, the result in clinical trials has been considered of little relevance because the improvement, when present, is usually insufficient. Until now, most studies designed to promote neuroprotection or regeneration at different stages after spinal cord injury have used single treatments. Considering the occurrence of various secondary mechanisms of injury in the acute and sub-acute phases of spinal cord injury, it is reasonable to speculate that more than one therapeutic agent could be required to promote structural and functional restoration of the damaged spinal cord. Treatments that combine several therapeutic agents, targeting different mechanisms of injury, which, when used as a single therapy, have shown some benefits, allow us to assume that they will have synergistic beneficial effects. Thus, this narrative review article aims to summarize current trends in the use of strategies that combine therapeutic agents administered simultaneously or sequentially, seeking structural and functional restoration of the injured spinal cord.

Total hip arthroplasty for sequelae of childhood hip disorders:Current review of management to achieve hip centre restoration

Adults requiring total hip arthroplasty(THA)for childhood disorder sequelae present with shortening,limp,pain,and altered gait.THA,which can be particularly challenging due to altered anatomy,requires careful planning,assessment,and computed tomography evaluation.Preoperative templating is essential to establish the appropriate acetabular and femoral size.Information regarding neck length and offset is needed to ensure the proper options are available at THA.Hip centre restoration must be planned preoperatively and achieved intraoperatively with appropriate exposure,identification,and stable fixation with optimum-size components.Identifying the actual acetabular floor is essential as changes include altered anatomy,distortion of the margins and version changes.Proximal femur changes include anatomical variation,decreased canal diameter,cortical thickness,changes in anteversion,and metaphyseal and diaphyseal mismatch.Preoperative assessment should consist of limb assessment for variations due to prior surgical procedures.Evaluation of the shortening pattern with the relationship of the lesser trochanter to the teardrop would help identify and plan for subtrochanteric shortening osteotomy,especially in high-riding hips.The surgical approach must ensure adequate exposure and soft tissue release to achieve restoration of the anatomical hip centre.The femoral components may require modularity to enable restoration of anteversion and optimum fixation.

Ecological Restoration Technologies of Urban Artificial Landscape Lakes

Aiming at the problems of water pollution and ecological environment degradation in urban artificial landscape lakes,the ecological restoration technologies of artificial landscape lakes at home and abroad were studied to provide some reference for the ecological restoration of urban artificial landscape lakes in China.

Impact of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Fungal Community Structure in Karst Rocky Desertification Areas

In this paper,managed forest(MF)and natural forest(NF)in the Huajiang Demonstration Zone of Guanling,Guizhou were selected as research objects,and cropland(CL)was taken as control.High-throughput sequencing technology was used to study the characteristics of fungal community composition and species diversity in the surface(0-10 cm)soil of each restoration measure,in order to reveal the dominant soil fungal groups and fungal community composition in karst rocky desertification areas,which was conducive to a more comprehensive understanding of the soil conditions of different vegetation restoration measures.Research has shown that vegetation restoration significantly affected the diversity of soil fungal community,with significant increases in Sob index,Ace index,and Chao index.The vegetation restoration has significantly changed the composition of fungal community.The dominant fungi in the CL topsoil are Sordariomycetes(62.28%),Dothideomycetes(12.34%),and Eurotiomycetes(9.12%);the dominant fungi in the MF soil are Sordariomycetes(45.05%),Dothideomycetes(14.74%),and Mortierellomycetes(10.40%);the dominant fungi in the NF soil are unclassified fungal community(26.38%),Sordariomycetes(19.78%),and Agaricomycetes(13.82%).Vegetation restoration has changed the key fungal groups in the soil.Sordariomycetes,Fusarium,and Setophoma are the key dominant fungal groups in CL soil;Dioszegia is key dominant fungal group in MF soil;c_unclassified_k_Fungi,p_unclassified_k_Fungi,o_unclassified_k_Fungi,f_unclassified_k_Fungi,g_unclassified_k_Fungi,Teichospora,and Diaporthe are key dominant fungal groups in NF soil.

Optimization of Wetland Plant Selection and Configuration in Urban Water Environment Ecological Restoration Projects

In urban water ecological restoration projects,the selection and configuration of wetland plants are crucial for water quality improvement,ecological diversity enhancement,and landscape beautification.Different plants have different characteristics,and a scientific and rational selection and optimization of plant species is needed.This paper proposes an optimized plant selection and configuration scheme for urban water ecological restoration based on the ecological characteristics and pollutant removal performance of wetland plants.It analyzes the diversity,removal mechanisms,and configuration modes of wetland plants,taking into account ecology,aesthetics,and cost-effectiveness,to provide scientific evidence for wetland plant configuration and support water environment management decision-making.

Effectiveness of Oral Care in Implant Denture Restoration in Chronic Periodontitis

Objective:To explore the effect of observation of oral care in implant denture restoration of chronic periodontitis.Methods:80 patients with chronic periodontitis implant denture restoration admitted from March 2022 to March 2023 in the hospital were selected.They were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group,with 40 cases in each group.Both groups of patients received routine treatment and care.The patients in the control group used routine oral care methods to carry out oral care,the patients in the observation group carried out oral care on the basis of the control group,observation and analysis of the patients'mastery of oral knowledge,as well as the depth of the probing and the level of clinical attachment.Results:The oral knowledge mastery of the observation group was 72.31±6.98 after the nursing intervention,which was significantly higher than the score of 86.12±7.36 of the patients in the control group who used conventional oral care,and the difference was statistically significant at P<0.05;the depth of probing and the clinical attachment level of the observation group were 2.43±0.58 and 4.31±0.86 respectively,which were significantly better than those of the control group.The depth of probing and clinical attachment level scores of the observation group were 2.99±0.54 and 5.36±1.02 respectively,and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Conclusion:The combination of conventional treatment and oral care can effectively improve the treatment effect of implant denture prosthesis for chronic periodontitis.However,it is necessary to pay attention to the psychological counseling of the patients in the specific clinical application to ensure that the patients can actively cooperate with the clinical treatment.

Landscape Design of Educational Research Base Based on Mine Ecological Restoration:Taking the Restoration of Datu Mine in Xinhe Village,Dadukou District as an Example

With the continuous development of the mining industry,the number of abandoned mines is increasing,which brings many impacts on the geology and ecological environment around the mines.It is urgent to attach great importance to the ecological management and environmental restoration of abandoned mines.The long-term traditional development path of rural areas,following the model of“pollution first,treatment later,”fails to meet the needs of sustainable development.The contradiction between mine economic development and ecological environment degradation is becoming increasingly prominent,which urgently needs to be solved.Under the guidance of the Party and the state,in order to implement the relevant policies of“green mountains and clear waters are gold and silver mountains,”we emphasize rural green development,and the transformation of rural green development path is imperative.This paper takes Datu Mine in Xinhe Village,Dadukou District,Chongqing as the research object,combines rural ecological development as the research basis,and innovatively integrates the“educational research”model,aiming to provide practical strategies for the sustainable development of rural landscapes in abandoned mines.

Research on a novel restoration algorithm of turbulence-degraded images with alternant iterations

A new restoration algorithm based on double loops and alternant iterations is proposed to restore the object image effectively from a few frames of turbulence-degraded images, Based on the double loops, the iterative relations for estimating the turbulent point spread function PSF and object image alternately are derived. The restoration experiments have been made on computers, showing that the proposed algorithm can obtain the optimal estimations of the object and the point spread function, with the feasibility and practicality of the proposed algorithm being convincing.

Model-based deep learning for fiber bundle infrared image restoration

As the representative of flexibility in optical imaging media,in recent years,fiber bundles have emerged as a promising architecture in the development of compact visual systems.Dedicated to tackling the problems of universal honeycomb artifacts and low signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)imaging in fiber bundles,the iterative super-resolution reconstruction network based on a physical model is proposed.Under the constraint of solving the two subproblems of data fidelity and prior regularization term alternately,the network can efficiently“regenerate”the lost spatial resolution with deep learning.By building and calibrating a dual-path imaging system,the real-world dataset where paired low-resolution(LR)-high-resolution(HR)images on the same scene can be generated simultaneously.Numerical results on both the United States Air Force(USAF)resolution target and complex target objects demonstrate that the algorithm can restore high-contrast images without pixilated noise.On the basis of super-resolution reconstruction,compound eye image composition based on fiber bundle is also embedded in this paper for the actual imaging requirements.The proposed work is the first to apply a physical model-based deep learning network to fiber bundle imaging in the infrared band,effectively promoting the engineering application of thermal radiation detection.