Leverage points for addressing marine and coastal pollution: A review.

Despite an increasing understanding of the issue of marine pollution, humanity continues on a largely unsustainable trajectory. This study aimed to identify and classify the range of scientific studies and interventions to address coastal and marine pollution. We reviewed 2417 scientific papers published between 2000 and 2018, 741 of which we analysed in depth.

Urban storm water infiltration systems are not reliable sinks for biocides: evidence from column experiments.

Groundwater quality in urban catchments is endangered by the input of biocides, such as those used in facade paints to suppress algae and fungal growth and washed off by heavy rainfall. Their retention in storm water infiltration systems (SIS) depends, in addition to their molecular properties, on chemical properties and structure of the integrated soil layer. These soil properties change over time and thus possibly also the relevance of preferential flow paths, e.

Developmental plasticity of in response to P deficiency: Modulation by inoculation with phosphate-solubilizing bacteria.

Background: Mineral phosphorus (P) fertilizers must be used wisely in order to preserve rock phosphate, a limited and non-renewable resource. The use of bio-inoculants to improve soil nutrient availability and trigger an efficient plant response to nutrient deficiency is one potential strategy in the attempt to decrease P inputs in agriculture.

Method: An in vitro co-cultivation system was used to study the response of to contrasted P supplies (soluble and poorly soluble forms of P) and inoculation with P solubilizing bacteria.

Parametric Finite Element Model and Mechanical Characterisation of Electrospun Materials for Biomedical Applications.

Electrospun materials, due to their unique properties, have found many applications in the biomedical field. Exploiting their porous nanofibrous structure, they are often used as scaffolds in tissue engineering which closely resemble a native cellular environment. The structural and mechanical properties of the substrates need to be carefully optimised to mimic cues used by the extracellular matrix to guide cells' behaviour and improve existing scaffolds.

Digital teaching as an instrument for cross-location teaching networks in medical informatics: opportunities and challenges.

The increasingly digitized healthcare system requires new skills from all those involved. In order to impart these competencies, appropriate courses must be developed at educational institutions. In view of the rapid development of new aspects of digitization, this presents a challenge; suitable teaching formats must be developed successively.

The knowledge transfer potential of online data pools on nature-based solutions.

Improving the adoption of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) requires learning from successes and failures. Knowledge derived from implemented cases helps to identify for instance drivers and barriers of NBS implementation, generates lessons learned, and supports their upscaling. Online data pools that catalogue information from NBS case studies may help scientists and practitioners to create this knowledge.

Developing a Process for the Analysis of User Journeys and the Prediction of Dropout in Digital Health Interventions: Machine Learning Approach.

Background: User dropout is a widespread concern in the delivery and evaluation of digital (ie, web and mobile apps) health interventions. Researchers have yet to fully realize the potential of the large amount of data generated by these technology-based programs. Of particular interest is the ability to predict who will drop out of an intervention.

Sensory Perception of Non-Deuterated and Deuterated Organic Compounds.

The chemical background of olfactory perception has been subject of intensive research, but no available model can fully explain the sense of smell. There are also inconsistent results on the role of the isotopology of molecules. In experiments with human subjects it was found that the isotope effect is weak with acetone and D -acetone.

The effects of pre-intervention mindset induction on a brief intervention to increase risk perception and reduce alcohol use among university students: A pilot randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Brief interventions based on personalized feedback have shown promising results in reducing risky alcohol use among university students. We investigated the effects of activating deliberative (predecisional) or implemental (postdecisional) mindsets on the effectiveness of a standardized brief intervention, the ASSIST-linked Brief Intervention. This intervention comprises a personalized feedback and a decisional balance exercise.

Environmental impact of high-value gold scrap recycling.

Purpose: The gold routes satisfying the global gold supply are mining (74%), recycling of high-value gold (23%), and electronic scraps (3%). Besides its applications in the investment, jewelry, and industrial sector, gold also has a bad image. The gold production in industrial as well as artisanal and small-scale mines creates negative impacts such as resource depletion, extensive chemical use, toxic emissions, high energy consumption, and social concerns that are of great importance.

Rethinking the meaning of "landscape shocks" in energy transitions: German social representations of the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Sociotechnical sustainability transitions are understood to involve changes in cultural meaning, alongside a wide variety of other changes. One of the most popular conceptual models of such change, the multi-level perspective, exogenously locates slow-changing cultural factors in the 'sociotechnical landscape', viewing this landscape as periodically subject to 'shocks' that may support the break-through of niche innovations. Here we emphasise that shock to a sociotechnical system has social psychological dimensions, including meaning-related correlates.

Call for Participation: Collaborative Benchmarking of Functional-Structural Root Architecture Models. The Case of Root Water Uptake.

Three-dimensional models of root growth, architecture and function are becoming important tools that aid the design of agricultural management schemes and the selection of beneficial root traits. However, while benchmarking is common in many disciplines that use numerical models, such as natural and engineering sciences, functional-structural root architecture models have never been systematically compared. The following reasons might induce disagreement between the simulation results of different models: different representation of root growth, sink term of root water and solute uptake and representation of the rhizosphere.

A Web- and Mobile-Based Intervention for Comorbid, Recurrent Depression in Patients With Chronic Back Pain on Sick Leave (Get.Back): Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial on Feasibility, User Satisfaction, and Effectiveness.

Background: Chronic back pain (CBP) is linked to a higher prevalence and higher occurrence of major depressive disorder (MDD) and can lead to reduced quality of life. Unfortunately, individuals with both CBP and recurrent MDD are underidentified. Utilizing health care insurance data may provide a possibility to better identify this complex population.

Deciding between the Covariance Analytical Approach and the Change-Score Approach in Two Wave Panel Data.

The manuscript focuses on effects in nonrandomized studies with two outcome measurement occasions and one explanatory variable, and in which groups already differ at the pretest. Such study designs are often encountered in educational and instructional research. Two prominent approaches to estimate effects are (1) covariance analytical approaches and (2) latent change-score models.

Grazing effects on intraspecific trait variability vary with changing precipitation patterns in Mongolian rangelands.

Functional traits are proxies for plant physiology and performance, which do not only differ between species but also within species. In this work, we hypothesized that (a) with increasing precipitation, the percentage of focal species which significantly respond to changes in grazing intensity increases, while under dry conditions, climate-induced stress is so high that plant species hardly respond to any changes in grazing intensity and that (b) the magnitude with which species change their trait values in response to grazing, reflected by coefficients of variation (CVs), increases with increasing precipitation. Chosen plant traits were canopy height, plant width, specific leaf area (SLA), chlorophyll fluorescence, performance index, stomatal pore area index (SPI), and individual aboveground biomass of 15 species along a precipitation gradient with different grazing intensities in Mongolian rangelands.

Evaluation of the OECD P and LRTP screening tool for estimating the long-range transport of organophosphate esters.

Scientists and decision makers need accurate, accessible and fast tools to assess and prioritize the persistence (P) and environmental long-range transport potential (LRTP) of chemicals. Here we evaluated the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) P and LRTP Screening Tool ("the Tool") with respect to the P and LRTP estimates that the Tool provides for organophosphate esters (OPEs). We found that the use of default parameter values could significantly underestimate P and LRTP values of OPEs and, potentially, other Persistent Mobile Organic Compounds (PMOCs), by not accounting for episodic atmospheric transport and poleward river-based transport in the northern hemisphere.

Cultural adaptation of internet interventions for refugees: Results from a user experience study in Germany.

Background: The estimated number of refugees worldwide resulting from persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations reached 25.4 million in 2017. An increased prevalence of mental disorders combined with language and socio-cultural barriers pose a challenge for healthcare systems.

Three principles for co-designing sustainability intervention strategies: Experiences from Southern Transylvania.

Transformational research frameworks provide understanding and guidance for fostering change towards sustainability. They comprise stages of system understanding, visioning and co-designing intervention strategies to foster change. Guidance and empirical examples for how to facilitate the process of co-designing intervention strategies in real-world contexts remain scarce, especially with regard to integrating local initiatives.

Discrete-Point Analysis of the Energy Demand of Primary versus Secondary Metal Production.

The metal industry consumes large amounts of energy and contributes significantly, up to 10%, to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Recycling is commonly included among the most viable options for mitigating the climate forcing of metal production by replacing primary production. However, the recycling rates of metals are still incomplete and, in particular, do not exist for most specialty metals.

Integrating the underlying structure of stochasticity into community ecology.

Stochasticity is a core component of ecology, as it underlies key processes that structure and create variability in nature. Despite its fundamental importance in ecological systems, the concept is often treated as synonymous with unpredictability in community ecology, and studies tend to focus on single forms of stochasticity rather than taking a more holistic view. This has led to multiple narratives for how stochasticity mediates community dynamics.

Program FAKE: Monte Carlo Event Generators as Tools of Theory in Early High Energy Physics.

The term Monte Carlo method indicates any computer-aided procedure for numerical estimation that combines mathematical calculations with randomly generated numerical input values. Today it is an important tool in high energy physics while physicists and philosophers also often consider it a sort of virtual experiment. The Monte Carlo method was developed in the 1940s, in the context of U.