Mapping Climate Services for Disaster Risk Management: A Systematic Review and Research Gaps from a Policy Process Perspective

Climate services (CS) are crucial for mitigating and managing the impacts and risks associated with climate-induced disasters. While evidence over the past decade underscores their effectiveness across various domains, particularly agriculture, to maximize their potential, it is crucial to identify emerging priority areas and existing research gaps for future research agendas. As a contribution to this effort, this paper employs the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology to review the state-of-the-art in the field of climate services for disaster risk management. A comprehensive search across five literature databases combined with a snowball search method using ResearchRabbit was conducted and yielded 242 peer-reviewed articles, book sections, and reports over 2013-2023 after the screening process. The analysis revealed flood, drought, and food insecurity as major climate-related disasters addressed in the reviewed literature. Major climate services addressed included early warning systems, (sub)seasonal forecasts and impact-based warnings. Grounded in the policy processes’ theoretical perspective, the main focus identified and discussed three prevailing policy-oriented priority areas: 1) development of climate services, 2) use-adoption-uptake, and 3) evaluation of climate services. In response to the limitations of the prevalent supply-driven and top-down approach to climate services promotion, co-production emerges as a cross-cutting critical aspect of the identified priority areas. Despite the extensive research in the field, more attention is needed, particularly pronounced in the science-policy interface perspective, which in practice bridges scientific knowledge and policy decisions for effective policy processes. This perspective offers a valuable analytical lens as an entry point for further investigation. Hence, future research agendas would generate insightful evidence by scrutinizing this critical aspect given its importance to institutions and climate services capacity, to better understand intricate facets of the development and the integration of climate services into disaster risk management.

Telecentres in Mountain Regions-A Peruvian Case Study of the Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Remoteness and Exclusion

Communities in developing country mountain areas,in part due to their remoteness,find themselves excluded from social,political and economic systems; and excluded from access to resources. This paper aims to study the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on remoteness and exclusion. It utilises two models - the resource movement framework,and the "information chain" - to analyse a telecentre in one district of mountainous Huancavelica,Peru's poorest region,set in the high Andes. It finds ICTs enabling new and positive resource flows for the two key user groups:teenaged school students and young farmers. These help to maintain social networks. They also support information searches that have improved agricultural practice where other information chain resources have been available. But non-use and ineffective use of the telecentre are found where information chain resources are lacking. ICTs have some impacts on intangible elements of remoteness. In this particular example,they also offer access to some previously-excluded resources. But they have not really addressed the systematic exclusions faced by mountain communities. And they so far appear to be a technology of inequality; favouring those residents who begin with better resource endowments.The paper concludes by offering some recommendations for mountain ICT project practice.

Online coal dust suppression system for opencast coal mines

Coal is the major source of power in India and world over.Coal mining is an essential industry which has a major role in the economic development of the country.Most major mining activities contribute directly or indirectly to air pollution.Coal dust is a major air pollutant which affects the personal working in the mines and also people residing in villages near the mines.Air pollution due to coal particulates can affect human health and cause damages to the environment.Hence effective pollution control mechanisms are needed to keep the pollution levels within permissible levels.The easiest and most common method employed for dust suppression worldwide is sprinkling of water.In majority of mines,water sprinklers are operated manually and can lead to wastage of water due to over sprinkling.It can also prove to be ineffective in dust suppression if sprinkling is not done properly.The paper proposes a system which can be deployed to automate the dust suppressions sprinklers.The system will monitor the concentration of PM_(10) and PM_(2.5) in the air and initiate sprinkling operation when the particulate matter content exceeds preconfigured limits.

Complementary Food Situation in Sierra Leone: Nutritional Problems and Possible Strategies—A Review

Low nutrient density and bulkiness of complementary foods, early introduction of solid foods, and unhygienic practices during weaning stage of a child predispose infants to malnutrition, growth retardation, infection and high mortality. In most West African countries, especially in Sierra Leone, the use of a variety of home-made complementary foods prepared from locally grown foodstuffs during the weaning process is popular, with products traditionally known as pap (mesh rice water) fofo from cassava, ogi, gari, akamu and couscous. Sierra Leone is one of the countries in West Africa that has been reported to have a challenging situation with regards to complementary foods, and little effort has so far been done to improve the situation. Despite these challenges, very little work has been directed towards the development of complementary foods using local foodstuffs as practiced in some other African countries. This situation has serious impact on the lives of infants in Sierra Leone, thus increasing the rate of mortality in the country. Complementary food situation in Sierra Leone was reviewed in terms of the past and present practices as well as the types of complementary foods used in Sierra Leone. Thus, the objective of this review was to discuss the complementary food situation in Sierra Leone: Nutritional problems and possible strategies. Formulation of high nutritive value home-made complementary foods in the country was recommended using traditional food processing techniques such as fermentation and germination, since these methods are simple, and could easily be employed at household and community levels without the use of sophisticated machinery. Nonetheless, it was recently reported that a product from the orange-flesh sweet potato could address the issue of complementary food in the country as it is easy to prepare, and the products are easily available in the rural area and even urban settings. Other recommendations made include: community nutrition education, the development of weaning recipe book, reduction in the workload of the suckling mother, promotion of breastfeeding and increased maternity leave period, which were suggested to be the most immediate possible strategies for the problems highlighted.

Food Hygiene and Safety Practices amongst Food Vendors in the Western Area, Sierra Leone

Food safety and hygiene practices require a multisectoral approach including food, water, sanitation, waste management, transport, education, trade, policies and programs that enable safe food preparation, storage and service. Unsafe food can cause illness keeping people from achieving their full potential and death. This was a descriptive study that uses a mixed method approach to derive insights into the characteristics of food vendors related to demography, knowledge, practices, infrastructure, compliance and recommendation for a policymaking framework. Using the Lemeshows’ sample size formula, 473 vendors from formal (restaurants) and informal (cookri-baffa/table top) sites were interviewed and observed. We found from discussions that respondents had a good understanding on how to keep food safe. However, observed practices were poor 93% handled food with their bare hands, 83% did not cover their hair, and 76% did not wear an apron whilst handling, preparing or serving food, 61% did not keep their finger nails clean or short and 57% did not wash their hand before preparing or serving food. Over half (51%) had access to a toilet but 32% reported their use required payment and emphasized their poor condition/inadequate management. Nearly half (47%) of the vending sites did not have a handwashing facility, with soap and water available. Only 7% reported having any authority oversight of food safety. Food safety and hygiene practices in most cookri shops and restaurants was ‘poor’ with very limited surveillance system in place by competent authorities for compliance of food operators. Hand washing, clean surroundings, and covered food were the most common and emphasized practices to mitigate the risks associated with unsafe food.

Profile and determinants of unsuccessful tuberculosis outcome in rural Nigeria:Implications for tuberculosis control

AIM: To determine the treatment outcomes and predictors for unsuccessful tuberculosis(TB) outcomes in rural Nigeria.METHODS: Adult rural TB patients treated during 2011 and 2012 in two healthcare facilities(one urban public and one rural private) were identified from the TB treatment registers and retrospectively reviewed. Tuberculosis treatment outcomes were assessed according to World Health Organisation guidelines. Determinants of unsuccessful treatment outcomes were identified using a multivariable logistic regression analysis.RESULTS: Between January 2011 to December 2012, 1180 rural TB patients started treatment, of whom 494(41.9%) were female. The treatment success rate was 893(75.7%), while the rates of death, loss-tofollow-up, and treatment failure were 129(10.9%), 100(8.5%), and 18(1.5%) respectively. In the final multivariable logistic regression model, the odds of unsuccessful treatment outcome were higher among patients who received care at the urban public facility(a OR = 2.9, 95%CI: 1.9-4.4), smear-negative(1.3,1.0-1.8) and extrapulmonary(2.7, 1.3-5.6) TB patients, human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) co-infected(2.1, 1.5-3.0), and patient who received the longer(8-mo) anti-TB regimen(1.3, 1.1-1.8).CONCLUSION: Treatment success among rural TB patient in Nigeria is low. High risk groups should be targeted for closer monitoring, socio-economic support, and expansion of TB/HIV activities.

Lunar surface mineralogy using hyperspectral data： Implications for primordial crust in the Earth-Moon system

Mineralogy of the Lunar surface provides important clues for understanding the composition and evo- lution of the primordial crust in the Earth-Moon system. The primary rock forming minerals on the Moon such as pyroxene, olivine and plagioclase are potential tools to evaluate the Lunar Magma Ocean （LMO） hypothesis. Here we use the data from Moon Mineralogy Mapper （M3） onboard the Chandrayaan- 1 project of India, which provides Visible/Near Infra Red （NIR） spectral data （hyperspectral data） of the Lunar surface to gain insights on the surface mineralogy. Band shaping and spectral profiling methods are used for identifying minerals in five sites： the Moscoviense basin, Orientale basin, Apollo basin, Wegener crater-highland, and Hertzsprung basin. The common presence of plagioclase in these sites is in conformity with the anorthositic composition of the Lunar crust. Pyroxenes, olivine and Fe-Mg-spinel from the sample sites indicate the presence of gabbroic and basaltic components. The compositional difference in pyroxenes suggests magmatic differentiation on the Lunar surface. Olivine contains OH/H20 band, indicating hydrous phase in the primordial magmas.

Environment and Awareness Influencing Food Safety in the Western Area, Sierra Leone

Food safety, nutrition, health and wellbeing are inextricably linked. This study investigated the environmental, awareness and practices amongst both food vendors and consumers in and around Freetown the capital of Sierra Leone. The population of the area has vastly out-grown the infrastructure laid down before and since independence. De-centralization of authority to local councils as recommended post-war has only been partial. The role of local versus central government in the planning and maintenance of water, sanitation and market-infrastructure and related policies was explored. This is a qualitative study that used semi-structured interviews with vendors, consumers and 29 key informants. Amongst an estimated population of 5386 actors in food services a sample size of 309 vendors, consumers in and around the 12 busiest market hubs in Western Area Urban and Rural Districts were sampled. Most of the respondents described “food safety” as “good-to-eat, well taken care-off, and free from germs”. The respondents cited that main causes to unsafe food are poor hygienic practices: 38%, contamination by flies: 28%, uncovered food/ improper handling/poor personal hygiene: 21%, and environmental factors, such as improper refuse disposal: 11%. Respondents expressed that consuming unsafe foods can lead to diarrhoea: 34%, food poisoning: 24%, vomiting: 17%, stomach ache/pain: 16%, or typhoid: 9%. Various measures to improve food safety were cited as hand washing: 60%, cleaning surroundings: 57%, covering food: 56%, washing utensils: 52%, covering hair: 42% and using a face mask: 32%. However almost 76% of food vendors interviewed were trading near gutters, where muddy/dirty water settled, with slippery floors, discarded plastic waste, flies and inadequate water, sanitation, and/or storage facilities. None of the food vendors had had any formal training on food safety. Despite progress recently made in solid and liquid waste management during the “Transform Freetown” agenda much more improvement in infrastructure and behaviour change is required. Similarly, despite improvements in formal market facilities the pattern of informal street trading remains the most prevalent especially for the poor. The link between “safe food” and good health was only partially understood, whilst the widespread application of recommended practices to reduce risks was lacking due in part to inadequate infrastructure. As the importance of food safety becomes better understood by administrators and the public the investments required in infrastructure and social and behavioural change will contribute towards a healthier environment and outcomes.

Pancreatic Cancer Data Classification with Quantum Machine Learning

Quantum computing is a promising new approach to tackle the complex real-world computational problems by harnessing the power of quantum mechanics principles.The inherent parallelism and exponential computational power of quantum systems hold the potential to outpace classical counterparts in solving complex optimization problems,which are pervasive in machine learning.Quantum Support Vector Machine(QSVM)is a quantum machine learning algorithm inspired by classical Support Vector Machine(SVM)that exploits quantum parallelism to efficiently classify data points in high-dimensional feature spaces.We provide a comprehensive overview of the underlying principles of QSVM,elucidating how different quantum feature maps and quantum kernels enable the manipulation of quantum states to perform classification tasks.Through a comparative analysis,we reveal the quantum advantage achieved by these algorithms in terms of speedup and solution quality.As a case study,we explored the potential of quantum paradigms in the context of a real-world problem:classifying pancreatic cancer biomarker data.The Support Vector Classifier(SVC)algorithm was employed for the classical approach while the QSVM algorithm was executed on a quantum simulator provided by the Qiskit quantum computing framework.The classical approach as well as the quantum-based techniques reported similar accuracy.This uniformity suggests that these methods effectively captured similar underlying patterns in the dataset.Remarkably,quantum implementations exhibited substantially reduced execution times demonstrating the potential of quantum approaches in enhancing classification efficiency.This affirms the growing significance of quantum computing as a transformative tool for augmenting machine learning paradigms and also underscores the potency of quantum execution for computational acceleration.

华中神农架山地竹类及其分布(英文)

神农架共有山地竹类4属11种。其中单轴型竹类4种(Phyllostachys nigra var. Henonis,Ph. heterclada,Ph. nidularia 和 Ph. bambusoides),复轴型竹类4种(Indocalamus latifolius,I. longiauritus,I. wilsoni 和I. tessellatus),合轴型竹类3种 (Fargesia spathacea,F. murielae和Yushania confusa)。单轴型竹类仅生长于海拔1800 m 以下的缓坡,在神农架山地立体气候带谱中,分布于亚热带和暖温带。合轴型竹类分布海拔较高,其于暖温带(1200 m),跨越中温带与寒温带,至大山顶冻温带(3100 m)。复轴型竹类分布于除冻温带之外的所有气候区。三种主要竹子(F. spathacea, F. murielae和Y. confusa)分别覆盖着神农架12%,9%和3%的土地。参18表2。

Policy options for Agriculture Green Development by farmers in China

Farmers are the key agents who manage land and water.Agriculture Green Development(AGD)requires a transformation in farming from high resource consumption and environmental cost to sustainable intensification with high productivity,high resource use efficiency and low environmental risk.This paper analyzes the public policy challenge of AGD and makes the case for a location-sensitive policy mix made up of regulation,advice provision,voluntarism and targeted incentives.The public agricultural extension service in China is a key resource,but one that requires reorientation and reform with the aim of better balancing high farm productivity with environmental protection.

Scarcity within Opulence:Water Management in the Karakoram Mountains Revisited

Water management in general and in the Indus Basin in particular is concerned with the energy-efficient transportation of hydrologically exploitable resources from the upper zone to climatically favourable areas where irrigation helps to supersede arid conditions for the cultivation of crops and watering of meadows.In other words:Human intervention sets the stage for the allocation of water from a wider catchment area in a smaller habitat where this resource is deficient.Emphasis on mountain irrigation practices is counteracted with developments in the forelands where different frame conditions prevail and peculiar development problems occur.In dealing with the importance of water from the mountain regions three dimensions have to be evaluated:1) natural factors and their validity for the environmental frame conditions and technological adaptation processes;2) social factors and their impact on culture,economy and equitability;3) institutional factors and their importance for sustainable growth and for the implementation of development projects.In the study of decentralized irrigation systems in high mountain regions of the Indus Basin a systems theoretical approach values the complexity of interrelationships between different systems elements.Human activities in arid mountain regions are restricted by limiting ecological factors and are characterized by certain utilization and adaptive strategies.

Risk factors of treatment default and death among tuberculosis patients in a resource-limited setting

Objective:To evaluate the rates,timing and determinants of default and death among adult tuberculosis patients in Nigeria.Methods:Routine surveillance data were used.A retrospective cohort study of adult tuberculosis patients treated during 2011 and 2012 in two large health facilities in Ebonyi State.Nigeria was conducted.Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to tdentify independent predictors for treatment default and death.Results:Of 1668 treated patients,the default rate was 157(9.4%),whilst 165(9.9%) died.Also,35.7%(56) of the treatment defaults and 151(91.5%) of deaths occurred during the intensive phase of treatment.Risk of default increased with increasing age(adjusted odds ratio(aOR) 1.2;95%confidence interval(CI)1.1-1.9).smear-negative TB case(aOR 2.3:CI 1.5-3.6).extrapulmonary TB case(aOR 2.7:CI 1.3-5.2).and patients who received the longer treatment regimen(aOR 1,6;1.1-2.2).Risk of death was highest in extrapulmonary TB(aOR 3.0:CI 1.4-6.1) and smear-negative TB cases(aOR 2.4:CI1.7-3.51.rural residents(aOR 1.7:CI 1.2-2.6),HIV co-infected(aOR 2.5:CI 1.7-3.6),not receiving antiretroviral therapy(aOR 1.6:CI 1.1-2.9),and not receiving cotrimoxazole prophylaxis(aOR 1.7:CI 1.2—2.6).Conclusions:Targeted interventions to improve treatment adherence for patients with the highest risk of default or death are urgently needed.This needs to he urgently addressed by the National Tuberculosis Programme.

The EB-ANUBAD translator:A hybrid scheme

This article is aimed at describing a hybrid scheme for English to Bangla translation. The translated output in English scripts is useful for learning Bengali language. This is a significant contribution to Human Language Technology generation also. About two hundred million people in West Bengal and Tripura (two states in India) and in Bangladesh (a country whose people speak and write Bangla as their first language). This proposed translator would benefit Bengalee society because rural people are not usually very conversant with English. The English to Bangla Translator is being enhanced. This system (English- Bangla-ANUBAD or EB-ANUBAD) takes a paragraph of English sentences as input sentences and produces equivalent Bangla sentences. EB-ANUBAD system is comprised of a preprocessor, morphological parser, semantic parser using English word ontology for context disambiguation, an electronic lexicon associated with grammatical information and a discourse processor, and also uses a lexical disambiguation analyzer. This system does not rely on a stochastic approach. Rather, it is based on a special kind of hybrid architecture of transformer and rule-based Natural Language Engineering (NLE) architectures along with various linguistic knowledge components of both English and Bangla.

In Memoriam: Matthias Kuhle

Matthias Kuhle,an internationally renowned physical geographer and highly respected geomorphologist,died tragically on the 25th of April,2015.He was in the Manaslu Himalaya,close to the epicentre of April 2015 Nepal earthquake at Magnitude 7.8,and was fatally injured.

A novel handover scheme using torch nodes and adaptive measurement aggregation mechanism to improve QoS in high-speed railway communication

Technological advancement in the field of trans- portation and communication has been happening at a faster pace in the past few decades. As the demand for high-speed transportation increases, the need for an improved seamless communication system to handle higher data traffic in a highly mobile environment becomes imperative. This paper proposes a novel scheme to enhance the quality of service in high-speed railway （HSR） communication environment using the concept of torch nodes （TNs） and adaptive measurement aggregation （AMA）. The system was modeled using an object-oriented discrete event sim- ulator, and the performance was analyzed against the existing single-antenna scheme. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme with its minimal imple- mentation overhead can efficiently perform seamless han- dover with reduced handover failure and communication interruption probability.

基于光学立体和InSAR技术提取DEM的方法比较

由光学立体和InSAR技术反演高程信息的方法是各自不同的。每一种技术都有其自身的优点和缺点。由光学立体生成DEM的问题出现在云层覆盖,低地面纹理,现时变化和辐射差异。InSAR技术处理环节的主要问题是解相位模糊。两景SAR影像之间的时相失相关大多是由于植被覆盖和土地使用频繁所致。除了几何问题,如透视收缩、叠掩和阴影外,SAR数据还受到大气条件变化的影响。基线估计的不正确同样也给InSAR提取DEM带来误差。为进行DEM比较,选择了Maharastra州的Koyna试验区。试验区约为25km×25km。该区地形变化从150m到1100m,某些地方有很陡峭斜坡。大多数地方有植被覆盖。自1962年以来该地区多次发生地震。

生物多样性的开发利用:对环境和发展的影响

生物多样性保护是1992年里约热内卢世界首脑会议上提交签署的二项密切相关的立法条约之一。迄今为止,180多个国家加入该条约。条约签署国必须制定法律法规确保实现生物多样性的保护,亦即:①保护生物多样性;②可持续地利用生物多样的组分;③公正平等地分享利用遗传资源所获得的利益。生物多样性保护引入了资源国遗传资源所有权的新体系。