Assessing Rhythmic Visual Entrainment and Reinstatement of Brain Oscillations to Modulate Memory Performance.

The human brain's ability to store information and remember past events is thought to be orchestrated by the synchronization of neuronal oscillations in various frequency bands. A vast amount of research has found that neural oscillations in the theta (∼4-7 Hz) and alpha (∼8-12 Hz) bands play an important role in memory formation. More specifically, it has been suggested that memory performance benefits if the same oscillatory pattern is present during encoding and retrieval.

Conversational Agents in Health Care: Scoping Review and Conceptual Analysis.

Background: Conversational agents, also known as chatbots, are computer programs designed to simulate human text or verbal conversations. They are increasingly used in a range of fields, including health care. By enabling better accessibility, personalization, and efficiency, conversational agents have the potential to improve patient care.

A method to estimate population densities and electricity consumption from mobile phone data in developing countries.

High quality census data are not always available in developing countries. Instead, mobile phone data are becoming a popular proxy to evaluate the density, activity and social characteristics of a population. They offer additional advantages: they are updated in real-time, include mobility information and record visitors' activity.

Global trends in mangrove forest fragmentation.

Fragmentation is a major driver of ecosystem degradation, reducing the capacity of habitats to provide many important ecosystem services. Mangrove ecosystem services, such as erosion prevention, shoreline protection and mitigation of climate change (through carbon sequestration), depend on the size and arrangement of forest patches, but we know little about broad-scale patterns of mangrove forest fragmentation. Here we conduct a multi-scale analysis using global estimates of mangrove density and regional drivers of mangrove deforestation to map relationships between habitat loss and fragmentation.

A conceptual framework to untangle the concept of urban ecosystem services.

Urban ecosystem service (UES) is becoming an influential concept to guide the planning, design, and management of urban landscapes towards urban sustainability. However, its use is hindered by definitional ambiguity, and the conceptual bases underpinning its application remain weak. This is exemplified by two different but equally valid interpretations of UES: "urban ", referring to ecosystem services from analogs of natural and semi-natural ecosystems within urban boundaries, and " services", a much broader term that includes the former group as well as urban services in a city.

Demographic biases in engagement with nature in a tropical Asian city.

Urban residents can benefit from spending time in outdoor spaces and engaging with nature-related activities. Such engagement can improve health and well-being, support community cohesion, and improve environmentally-friendly behaviours. However, engagement with nature may not be equal amongst different members of society.

Future land use changes in a peri-urban context: Local stakeholder views.

Future land use/cover change (LUCC) analysis has been increasingly applied to spatial planning instruments in the last few years. Nevertheless, stakeholder participation in the land use modelling process and analysis is still low. This paper describes a methodology engaging stakeholders (from the land use planning, agriculture, and forest sectors) in the building and assessment of future LUCC scenarios.

The impact of pace of life on pedestrian heat stress: A computational modelling approach.

Elevated walking speed is an indicator of increased pace of life in cities, caused by environmental pressures inherent to urban environments, which lead to short- and long-term consequences for health and well-being. In this paper we investigate the effect of walking speed on heat stress. We define the heat-stress-optimal walking speed and estimate its values for a wide range of air temperatures with the use of computational modelling of metabolic heat production and thermal regulation.

Social media, nature, and life satisfaction: global evidence of the biophilia hypothesis.

Humans may have evolved a need to connect with nature, and nature provides substantial cultural and social values to humans. However, quantifying the connection between humans and nature at a global scale remains challenging. We lack answers to fundamental questions: how do humans experience nature in different contexts (daily routines, fun activities, weddings, honeymoons, other celebrations, and vacations) and how do nature experiences differ across countries? We answer these questions by coupling social media and artificial intelligence using 31,534 social media photographs across 185 countries.

Globe thermometer free convection error potentials.

For thermal comfort research, globe thermometers have become the de facto tool for mean radiant temperature, t, measurement. They provide a quick means to survey the radiant environment in a space with nearly a century of trials to reassure researchers. However, as more complexity is introduced to built environments, we must reassess the accuracy of globe measurements.

Application of Sustainable Bamboo-Based Composite Reinforcement in Structural-Concrete Beams: Design and Evaluation.

Reinforced concrete is the most widely used building material in history. However, alternative natural and synthetic materials are being investigated for reinforcing concrete structures, given the limited availability of steel in developing countries, the rising costs of steel as the main reinforcement material, the amount of energy required by the production of steel, and the sensitivity of steel to corrosion. This paper reports on a unique use of bamboo as a sustainable alternative to synthetic fibers for production of bamboo fiber-reinforced polymer composite as reinforcement for structural-concrete beams.

Identification of sex-linked markers in the sexually cryptic coco de mer: are males and females produced in equal proportions?

(coco de mer) is a long-lived dioecious palm in which male and female plants are visually indistinguishable when immature, only becoming sexually dimorphic as adults, which in natural forest can take as much as 50 years. Most adult populations in the Seychelles exhibit biased sex ratios, but it is unknown whether this is due to different proportions of male and female plants being produced or to differential mortality. In this study, we developed sex-linked markers in using ddRAD sequencing, enabling us to reliably determine the gender of immature individuals.

Using social media user attributes to understand human-environment interactions at urban parks.

Urban parks and green spaces are among the few places where city dwellers can have regular contact with nature and engage in outdoor recreation. Social media data provide opportunities to understand such human-environment interactions. While studies have demonstrated that geo-located photographs are useful indicators of recreation across different spaces, recreation behaviour also varies between different groups of people.

Global collaboration through local interaction in competitive learning.

Feature maps, that preserve the global topology of arbitrary datasets, can be formed by self-organizing competing agents. So far, it has been presumed that global interaction of agents is necessary for this process. We establish that this is not the case, and that global topology can be uncovered through strictly local interactions.

Magnitude of urban heat islands largely explained by climate and population.

Urban heat islands (UHIs) exacerbate the risk of heat-related mortality associated with global climate change. The intensity of UHIs varies with population size and mean annual precipitation, but a unifying explanation for this variation is lacking, and there are no geographically targeted guidelines for heat mitigation. Here we analyse summertime differences between urban and rural surface temperatures (ΔT) worldwide and find a nonlinear increase in ΔT with precipitation that is controlled by water or energy limitations on evapotranspiration and that modulates the scaling of ΔT with city size.

A topological characterization of flooding impacts on the Zurich road network.

Infrastructure systems are the structural backbone of cities, facilitating the flow of essential services. Because those systems can be disrupted by natural hazards, risk management has been the prevailing approach for assessing the consequences and expected level of damage. Although this may be a valuable metric, the practice of risk assessment does not represent how hazards affect a network of assets on a larger scale.

Particulate matter mitigation via plants: Understanding complex relationships with leaf traits.

Elevated levels of airborne particulate matter (PM) pose health risks to populations living in many cities worldwide. To remediate the impact of air pollution, urban greening has been increasingly explored as a possible way to remove PM from the surroundings. However, existing research focuses mainly on species-specific assessments within temperate climates that may not necessarily grow outside of their local regions.

Outlier-Detection Methodology for Structural Identification Using Sparse Static Measurements.

The aim of structural identification is to provide accurate knowledge of the behaviour of existing structures. In most situations, finite-element models are updated using behaviour measurements and field observations. Error-domain model falsification (EDMF) is a multi-model approach that compares finite-element model predictions with sensor measurements while taking into account epistemic and stochastic uncertainties-including the systematic bias that is inherent in the assumptions behind structural models.

Precipitation influences pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance gene abundance in storm drain outfalls in coastal sub-tropical waters.

Stormwater contamination can threaten the health of aquatic ecosystems and human exposed to runoff via nutrient and pathogen influxes. In this study, the concentrations of 11 bacterial pathogens and 47 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were determined by using high-throughput microfluidic qPCR (MFQPCR) in several storm drain outfalls (SDOs) during dry and wet weather in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA. Data generated in this study were also compared with the levels of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and sewage-associated molecular markers (i.

Gross domestic product growth rates as confined Lévy flights: Towards a unifying theory of economic growth rate fluctuations.

A model that combines economic growth rate fluctuations at the microscopic and macroscopic levels is presented. At the microscopic level, firms are growing at different rates while also being exposed to idiosyncratic shocks at the firm and sector levels. We describe such fluctuations as independent Lévy-stable fluctuations, varying over multiple orders of magnitude.

Heart versus head: Differential bodily feedback causally alters economic decision-making.

Metaphorically, altruistic acts, such as monetary donations, are said to be driven by the heart, whereas sound financial investments are guided by reason, embodied by the head. In a unique experiment, we tested the effects of these bodily metaphors using biofeedback and an incentivized economic decision-making paradigm. Participants played a repeated investment game with a simulated partner, alternating between tactical investor and altruistic investee.

A resilience-oriented approach for quantitatively assessing recurrent spatial-temporal congestion on urban roads.

Traffic congestion brings not only delay and inconvenience, but other associated national concerns, such as greenhouse gases, air pollutants, road safety issues and risks. Identification, measurement, tracking, and control of urban recurrent congestion are vital for building a livable and smart community. A considerable amount of works has made contributions to tackle the problem.

Characterisation of survivability resilience with dynamic stock interdependence in financial networks.

This paper examines the dynamic evolutionary process in the London Stock Exchange and uses network statistical measures to model the resilience of stock. A large historical dataset of companies was collected over 40 years (1977-2017) and conceptualised into weighted, temporally evolving and signed networks using correlation-based interdependences. Our results revealed a "fission-fusion" market growth in network topologies, which indicated the dynamic and complex characteristics of its evolutionary process.

Effects of stressor characteristics on early warning signs of critical transitions and "critical coupling" in complex dynamical systems.

Complex dynamical systems face abrupt transitions into unstable and catastrophic regimes. These critical transitions are triggered by gradual modifications in stressors, which push the dynamical system towards unstable regimes. Bifurcation analysis can characterize such critical thresholds, beyond which systems become unstable.