Temporal Changes Research Articles

Diversity of Late Yangshao Agricultural Practices at Xishanping, NW China

ABSTRACT Previous work at the Xishanping site, located in the upper Wei River basin in eastern Gansu Province, NW China, has identified the earliest archaeological evidence for agricultural diversification for the period 5200–4300 cal. yr BP. This study presents the first integrated archaeobotanical and isotopic research on charred crop remains at Xishanping site. Our essay suggests that late Yangshao populations at Xishanping not only implemented a wider mixed-crop millet-based agricultural regime, but to some extent intensified cultivation from around 5200–4800 cal. yr BP. This study enriches current understandings of the spatial and temporal changes in agricultural practices in the late Neolithic Wei River Basin at the dawn of complex society in northern China.

Comparison of passive and manual chlorination in small piped water networks in rural Ghana: Technical performance, ease-of-use, and cost

Chlorination is the most common water treatment method globally and leads to proven health benefits. Yet, many rural water supplies in low-income settings are unchlorinated, exposing consumers to waterborne diseases. Insufficient technical and financial capacity of water suppliers in low-resource settings are common barriers to more widespread chlorination. We conducted a case study of two approaches to chlorinate small piped water supplies− passive (inline) chlorination and manual chlorination− and compared their technical performance, ease-of-use, and costs in rural Ghana. Based on 685 water quality measurements across two piped networks over three months, both methods provided adequate free chlorine residuals (i.e., 0.2–2.0 mg/L) most of the time (71% for manual chlorination and 86% for passive chlorination). Follow-up measurements five months later revealed a decline in chlorine levels with the manual approach (47% in the target range) and an increase with the passive (inline) approach (100% in the target range). We observed large fluctuations in chlorine levels over time, particularly with inline chlorination, that pH, temperature, conductivity, and turbidity variations did not fully explain. Temporal changes in chlorine demand and/or inconsistently implemented protocols possibly contributed to these fluctuations. Inline chlorination scored higher for ease-of-use (85%) than manual chlorination (70%) but was less financially viable: it represented an 11% increase in operational expenses, compared to 4% for manual chlorination. Initial equipment and installation cost approximately 6,000 USD for inline chlorination and about 260 USD for manual chlorination. Our results highlight the tradeoffs between passive (inline) and manual chlorination. Although less favorable for ease-of-use, manual chlorination is more viable financially and can achieve comparable performance with strict dosing protocol adherence, suggesting this approach deserves similar consideration as passive chlorination when evaluating options for low-resource settings. Both methods are susceptible to changes in operator behaviors and require external oversight plus support for troubleshooting and recalibration.

High CO2 dampens then amplifies N-induced diversity loss over 24 years.

Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen (N) deposition affect plant communities in numerous ways1-11. Nitrogen deposition causes local biodiversity loss globally12-14, but whether, and if so how, rising CO2 concentrations amplify or dampen those losses remains unclear and is almost entirely unstudied. We addressed this knowledge gap with an open-air experiment in which 108 grassland plots were grown for 24 years under different CO2 and N regimes. We initially found that adding N reduced plant species richness less at elevated than at ambient CO2. Over time, however, this interaction reversed, and elevated CO2 amplified losses in diversity from enriched N, tripling reductions in species richness from N addition over the last eight years of the study. These interactions resulted from temporal changes in the drivers of diversity, especially light availability, that were in turn driven by CO2 and N inputs and associated changes in plant biomass. This mechanism is likely to be similar in many grasslands, because additions of the plant resources CO2 and N are likely to increase the abundance of the dominant species. If rising CO2 generally exacerbates the widespread negative impacts of N deposition on plant diversity, this bodes poorly for the conservation of grassland biodiversity worldwide.

Long‐Term Stability of Marine Forests Facing Moderate Gradual Warming in a Remote Biodiversity Hotspot

ABSTRACTAimOcean warming and marine heatwaves are rapidly reconfiguring the composition of seaweed forests—the world's largest coastal vegetated biome. Seaweed forest responses to climate change in remote locations, which constitute the majority of the forest biome, remain however poorly quantified. Here, we examine the temporal stability of the seaweed forests across a global seaweed biodiversity hotspot where several species are predicted to undergo severe range contractions in this century.LocationWestern south coast of Australia.MethodsSeaweed forest canopies were censused at 18 shallow (< 10 m) sheltered reefs between 1997 and 2006 and again between 2021 and 2024 (six sites per location). We also surveyed 24 sites to examine whether temporal changes differed over gradients of wave exposure and depth.ResultsSeaweed forest canopies across all locations showed surprisingly little change in biomass, cover, stand density and species composition over two decades, with strong spatial structuring across depth and exposure gradients persisting over time. The average thermal affinity of forest canopies (i.e., the community temperature index, CTI) did not track warming, suggesting that factors other than temperature (e.g., wave exposure and depth) are more important drivers of forest stand structure and/or that key thermal thresholds have not yet been crossed. Forests in the location with the most pronounced warming exhibited increased thermal bias over time (total bias of 0.8°C–2.2°C), indicating they were dominated by species with cooler affinities than their local temperatures.Main ConclusionsThe greater thermal bias in forests at the warmer edge of southern Australia suggests these will be more susceptible to future warming‐related compositional changes than forests in cooler locations. The relative stability we found contrasts with a current context of rapidly changing seaweed forests nationally and globally, highlighting the need to deepen our ecological understanding of the region so that future changes to its unique biodiversity and ecosystem services can be predicted and mitigated.

TCEDN: A Lightweight Time-Context Enhanced Depression Detection Network.

The automatic video recognition of depression is becoming increasingly important in clinical applications. However, traditional depression recognition models still face challenges in practical applications, such as high computational costs, the poor application effectiveness of facial movement features, and spatial feature degradation due to model stitching. To overcome these challenges, this work proposes a lightweight Time-Context Enhanced Depression Detection Network (TCEDN). We first use attention-weighted blocks to aggregate and enhance video frame-level features, easing the model's computational workload. Next, by integrating the temporal and spatial changes of video raw features and facial movement features in a self-learning weight manner, we enhance the precision of depression detection. Finally, a fusion network of 3-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (3D-CNN) and Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory Network (ConvLSTM) is constructed to minimize spatial feature loss by avoiding feature flattening and to achieve depression score prediction. Tests on the AVEC2013 and AVEC2014 datasets reveal that our approach yields results on par with state-of-the-art techniques for detecting depression using video analysis. Additionally, our method has significantly lower computational complexity than mainstream methods.

CT Radiomics Features Predict Change in Lung Density and Rate of Emphysema Progression.

Rationale Emphysema progression is heterogeneous. Predicting temporal changes in lung density and detecting rapid progressors may facilitate selection of individuals for targeted therapies. Objective To test whether computed tomography (CT) radiomics can be used to predict changes in lung density and detect rapid progressors. Methods We extracted radiomics features from inspiratory chest CT in 4,575 subjects with and without airflow obstruction at enrollment, who completed a follow-up visit at approximately 5 years. We quantified emphysema using adjusted lung density (ALD) and estimated emphysema progression as the annualized change in ALD (∆ALD/year) between visits. We categorized participants into rapid progressors (>1% ∆ALD/year) and stable disease (≤1% ∆ALD/year). A gradient boosting model was used (1) to predict ALD at 5-years and (2) to identify rapid progressors. Four models using demographics (base clinical model); CT density; radiomics; and combined features (clinical, radiomics, and CT density) were evaluated and tested. Results There were 1,773 (38.8%) rapid progressors. For predicting ALD at 5-years in the 20% held-out data, the base model explained 31% of the variance (adjusted R2 = 0.31) whereas R2 was 0.74 for the CT density model, 0.66 for the radiomics-only model, and 0.77 for the combined features model. For detecting rapid progressors, the base model (AUC = 0.57, 95%CI 0.53-0.61) was outperformed by the radiomics-only model (AUC = 0.73, 95%CI 0.69-0.76, ∆ =0.0003, p < 0.001) and the combined model (AUC = 0.74, 95%CI 0.71-0.77, ∆ = 0.0003, p < 0.001). Conclusions Parenchymal and airway radiomics features derived from inspiratory scans can be used to predict temporal changes in lung density and help identify rapid progressors.

Temporal changes in the proanthocyanidins to anthocyanins ratio during dormancy associate with bloom time variations in peach

Our previous research demonstrated that fall applications of ethephon, an ethylene-releasing plant growth regulator, delay bloom in peach, accompanied by changes in endogenous hormones, ROS, sugar metabolism, and transcriptomic profiles during bud dormancy phases (endodormancy and ecodormancy). In this study, floral bud tissues were collected from ethephon-treated and untreated trees at three time points (200, 600, and 1000 chilling hours, CH) during endodormancy and two points (1000 and 3000 growing degree hours, GDH) during ecodormancy. Using ultra-performance liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-TOF/MS), we aimed to unravel the untargeted metabolic changes explaining ethephon-mediated bloom delay. Metabolite set-enrichment analysis (MSEA) revealed significant chemical group variations between dormancy phases, with a threefold increase in flavonoids during endodormancy and a doubling of organic and amino acids during ecodormancy. Further analysis of genes associated with the biosynthesis and transcriptional regulation of the flavonoid pathway showed that ethephon treatment upregulated genes associated with proanthocyanidin (PA) biosynthesis and downregulated genes related to anthocyanins (ACNs). We quantified PA and ACN contents in 12 peach cultivars with contrasting bloom times and chilling requirements (e.g. 727–1308 CH). Late-bloom cultivars had higher PA levels during endodormancy, while early-bloom cultivars had higher ACN levels during ecodormancy. Staining buds with 4-dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde (DMAC) dye revealed a decline in the PA/ACN ratio at later ecodormancy stages, correlating with bloom time. Integrated analysis of metabolite content and gene expression in late-bloom 'KV021779' and early-bloom 'John Boy' cultivars validated that late-blooming cultivars have higher PA levels during endodormancy, extending dormancy-release periods and resulting in later blooms.

Towards the construction of regional marine radiocarbon calibration curves: an unsupervised machine learning approach

Abstract. Radiocarbon may serve as a powerful dating tool in palaeoceanography, but its accuracy is limited by the need to calibrate radiocarbon dates to calendar ages. A key problem is that marine radiocarbon dates must be corrected for past offsets from either the contemporary atmosphere (i.e. “reservoir age” offsets) or a modelled estimate of the global average surface ocean (i.e. delta-R offsets). This presents a challenge because the spatial distribution of reservoir ages and delta-R offsets can vary significantly, particularly over periods of major marine hydrographic and/or carbon cycle change such as the last deglaciation. Modern reservoir age and delta-R estimates therefore have limited applicability. While forward modelling of past R-age variability has been proposed as a means of resolving this problem, this requires accurate a priori knowledge of past global radiocarbon budget closure (i.e. production, and cycling), which we currently lack. In this context, the construction of empirical regional marine calibration curves could provide a way forward. However, the spatial reach of such calibrations and their robustness subject to (uncertain) temporal changes in climate and ocean circulation would need to be tested. Here, we use unsupervised machine learning techniques to define distinct regions of the surface ocean that exhibit coherent behaviour in terms of their radiocarbon age offsets from the contemporary atmosphere (R ages), regardless of the causes of R-age variability. We apply multiple algorithms (k-means, k-medoids, and hierarchical clustering) to outputs from two different numerical models spanning a range of climate states, forcings, and timescales of adjustment. Comparisons between the cluster assignments across model runs confirm some robust regional patterns that likely stem from constraints imposed by large-scale ocean and atmospheric physics. At the coarsest scale, regions of coherent R-age variability correspond to the major ocean basins. By further dividing basin-scale shape-based clusters into amplitude-based subclusters, we recover regional associations, such as increased high-latitude R ages, or the propagation of R-age anomalies from regions of deep mixing in the Southern Ocean to upwelling sites in the eastern equatorial Pacific, which cohere with known modern oceanographic processes. We show that the medoids (i.e. the most representative locations) for these regional sub-clusters provide significantly better approximations of simulated local R-age variability than constant offsets from the global surface average. This remains true when cluster assignments obtained from one model simulation are applied to simulated R-age time series from another. Further, model-based clusters are found to be broadly consistent with existing reservoir age reconstructions that span the last ∼30 kyr. We therefore propose that machine learning provides a promising approach to the problem of defining regions for which empirical marine radiocarbon calibration curves may eventually be generated.

Used in Urban Area for Landscape Planning and Design Spatial and Temporal Variations in Chromium (Cr) Concentrations in Picea orientalis L.

This study investigates the spatial and temporal variations in chromium (Cr) concentrations in Picea orientalis L., across different directions (north, east, south, and west) and plant organs (outer bark, inner bark, and wood) in a forested region. The research, conducted over eight age periods spanning 1980 to 2020, aimed to assess the effectiveness of Picea orientalis L. as a biomonitor for Cr pollution. The highest Cr concentrations were observed in the east direction, particularly in the inner bark and wood, while the lowest levels were found in the west. The study was conducted in an urban area near the industrial zone and highway, as well as in forested regions. A total of 100 trees were selected for the study, with samples collected from three different organs: outer bark (OB), inner bark (IB), and wood. Samples were taken from each organ at breast height (approximately 1.3 meters above the ground) to ensure consistency. The sampling covered various age periods, specifically 1980–2020, to analyze temporal changes in Cr concentrations. Statistical analysis revealed significant variations in Cr concentrations across most directions and periods, with notable increases during certain periods, especially in the west direction. These variations can be attributed to several factors, including the proximity to industrial sources of pollution, which typically release higher levels of chromium into the environment. The eastern direction likely experiences greater exposure to these emissions due to prevailing wind patterns and urban runoff, leading to increased accumulation in Picea orientalis L. Additionally, seasonal changes, temperature fluctuations, and soil characteristics may influence the bioavailability of chromium, affecting its uptake by the tree. The results suggest that Picea orientalis L. can effectively reflect Cr pollution levels, with significant directional and temporal variations that highlight the influence of these environmental factors on Cr accumulation. This study underscores the potential of Picea orientalis L. as a valuable tool for monitoring and managing Cr pollution in forested environments.

Data-driven assessment of business process resilience

Process resilience represents a core competence for organizations in light of an increasing number of process disruptions, such as sudden increases in case arrivals or absences in the workforce. It reflects an organization’s ability to restore a process to its acceptable performance level after a disruption. In this regard, the first key step for organizations towards achieving resilience is to understand how resilient their processes actually are. Although recognized as important, few works focus on such resilience assessment in a data-driven manner, thus barring organizations from gaining the necessary insights into how much their processes are affected by disruptions and how long it takes them to recover. To address this problem, we propose an approach for automated resilience assessment, based on recorded event data. Our approach interprets relevant process characteristics, such as the average lead time or arrival rate, as time series, which capture the development of the process execution over time. Based on these time series, it uses statistical modeling, specifically a vector autoregressive model, to determine the inter-relations between those characteristics and assess how the process performance responds to a disruption, i.e., a significant and temporal change in one of the process characteristics. We validate our approach by comparing its accuracy with a what-if analysis using a simulation model and demonstrate its effectiveness by assessing the resilience of the same process to diverse disruptions across different organizations.

GEOMECHANICAL MODELING OF RESERVOIR DYNAMICS ASSOCIATED WITH SHALLOW INJECTION AND PRODUCTION IN THE DELAWARE BASIN

The Permian Basin is an area of active hydrocarbon production and saltwater disposal, as well as associated induced seismicity and other geomechanical responses that threaten the surface environment. Among the important but not yet fully answered questions are: (i) what are the temporal and spatial changes in stress and pore pressure in response to fluid injection and production, and (ii) how do these changes relate to slip on pre-existing faults and surface deformation? We simulate stress and pore pressure responses to saltwater injection in the Delaware Mountain Group and production from the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring Formations with the aid of 2D geomechanical simulations that capture key mechanical stratigraphic units and representative faults. Primary loading consists of localized pore pressure changes that represent fluid injection into the Delaware Mountain Group and production from the lowermost portion of the Bone Spring Formation, the entire Wolfcamp A Formation, and the uppermost portion of the Wolfcamp B Formation. Injection leads to pore pressure increase, vertical extension, reduction in mean stress, and increase in differential stress in the Delaware Mountain Group. Production leads to decrease in pore pressure, vertical contraction, increase in mean stress, and increase in differential stress in the Bone Spring and Wolfcamp A and B Formations. The net effect of injection and production in our generalized simulations is normal faulting slip on faults that are relatively shallow in the subsurface, similar to faults that are known to have produced seismogenic rupture. The combination of injection and production reproduces a spatially-variant trend in uplift and subsidence, consistent with regional patterns measured in the study area via InSAR analysis. The modeled scenarios with shallow injection and/or production caused only small (lt;0.2 MPa) stress perturbations to propagate downward to basement, which would be unlikely to cause instability of deep-seated seismogenic faults.

Impact of bariatric surgery on gut microbiota composition in obese patients compared to healthy controls

Bariatric surgery is vital for sustainable weight loss and metabolic improvement in obese individuals, but its effects on gut microbiota and their role in these benefits require further investigation. Investigate the temporal changes in gut microbiota in obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery (gastric sleeve gastrectomy or Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB)) compared to healthy controls, aiming to understand their role in weight loss and metabolic health improvement. A case-control study included 30 obese patients aged 65–95 undergoing bariatric surgery, and 18 matched healthy controls. Selection criteria were based on age, race, BMI, history of antibiotics, probiotics, and prebiotics usage. Stool samples were collected at baseline, three months, and six months post-surgery for DNA extraction and quantitative real-time PCR analysis to assess gut microbiota changes. Physical activity and dietary intake were evaluated using standardized questionnaires. Statistical analyses were performed using R. Post-surgery, patients showed significant reductions in weight and BMI, with changes in dietary habits and physical activity. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed substantial alterations in bacterial groups such as Bacteroides and Fusobacterium. However, some groups showed no significant changes, indicating a complex interaction between gut microbiota and bariatric surgery. Notable correlations were found between body weight, BMI, and specific bacterial groups like the C. cluster IV and Lactobacillus, particularly in RYGB patients. Bariatric surgery significantly alters gut microbiota, aiding weight loss and metabolic regulation in obese patients. Understanding these changes is crucial for developing effective obesity management strategies, requiring further research to optimize outcomes.

Quantifying Dissolution Dynamics in Porous Media Using a Spatial Flow Focusing Profile

AbstractThe diverse range of patterns in porous media formed by dissolution processes depends on the relative magnitude of flow, transport, and chemical reactions at pore surfaces. However, distinguishing between regimes often relies solely on qualitative, visual comparisons of emergent structures. Here, we propose a quantitative measure capable of identifying different regimes using the concept of the spatial flow focusing profile, which segments the medium into cross sections along the flow direction to calculate the flow focusing index for each section. We employ this measure in numerical simulations of a dissolving porous medium using a pore network model. We obtain a morphological phase diagram of dissolution patterns, which we characterize using the flow focusing profile. In particular, we demonstrate that analyzing the temporal changes in the profile allows one to quantitatively distinguish between wormholing and channeling. The transition between them is shown to be affected by the heterogeneity of the system.

Quantitative Analysis about the Spatial Heterogeneity of Water Conservation Services Function Using a Space–Time Cube Constructed Based on Ecosystem and Soil Types

Precisely delineating the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of water conservation services function (WCF) holds paramount importance for watershed management. However, the existing assessment techniques exhibit common limitations, such as utilizing only multi-year average values for spatial changes and relying solely on the spatial average values for temporal changes. Moreover, traditional research does not encompass all WCF values at each time step and spatial grid, hindering quantitative analysis of spatial heterogeneity in WCF. This study addresses these limitations by utilizing an improved water balance model based on ecosystem type and soil type (ESM-WBM) and employing the EFAST and Sobol’ method for parameter sensitivity analysis. Furthermore, a space–time cube of WCF, constructed using remote-sensing data, is further explored by Emerging Hot Spot Analysis for the expression of WCF spatial heterogeneity. Additionally, this study investigates the impact of two core parameters: neighborhood distance and spatial relationship conceptualization type. The results reveal that (1) the ESM-WBM model demonstrates high sensitivity toward ecosystem types and soil data, facilitating the accurate assessment of the impacts of ecosystem and soil pattern alterations on WCF; (2) the EHSA categorizes WCF into 17 patterns, which in turn allows for adjustments to ecological compensation policies in related areas based on each pattern; and (3) neighborhood distance and the type of spatial relationships conceptualization significantly impacts the results of EHSA. In conclusion, this study offers references for analyzing the spatial heterogeneity of WCF, providing a theoretical foundation for regional water resource management and ecological restoration policies with tailored strategies.

Spatial and Temporal Change Analysis of Urban Built-Up Area via Nighttime Lighting Data—A Case Study with Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces

As urbanization accelerates, characteristics of urban spatial expansion play a significant role in the future utilization of land resources, the protection of the ecological environment, and the coordinated development of population and land. In this study, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces were selected as the study area, and the 2013–2021 National Polar-Orbiting Partnership’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS) nighttime light (NTL) data were utilized for spatial and temporal change analysis of urban built-up areas. Firstly, the built-up areas in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces were extracted through ENUI (Enhanced Nighttime Lighting Urban Index) indices, and then the urban expansion speed and urban center of gravity migration were constructed and used to explore and analyze the spatial and temporal change and expansion characteristics of built-up areas in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. The results showed the following. (1) Due to the complementarity between data types, such as NTL, EVI, NDBI, and NDWI, ENUI has better performance in expressing urban characteristics. (2) Influenced by national and local policies, such as “One Belt, One Road”, transportation infrastructure construction, geographic location, the historical background, and other factors, the urban expansion rate of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces in general showed a continuous advancement from 2013 to 2021, and there were three years in which the expansion rate was positive. (3) The center of gravity migration distance of most cities in Guizhou Province shows a trend of increasing and then decreasing, while the center of gravity migration distance in Yunnan Province shows a trend of continuous decrease in general. From the perspective of migration direction, Guizhou Province has the largest number of migrations to the northeast, while Yunnan Province has the largest number of migrations to the southeast. (4) Influenced by policy, economy, population, geography, and other factors, urban compactness in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces continued to grow from 2013 to 2021. The results of this study can help us better understand urbanization in western China, reveal the urban expansion patterns and spatial characteristics of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, and provide valuable references for development planning and policymaking in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

The Impact of Major Ecological Projects on the Water Yield of Mountain Basins, Northern China

Water yield, one of the most valuable and important ecological indicators, reflects the renewable capacity of regional water resources. The Taihang Mountains are a natural ecological barrier and an important source of water production for the North China Plain. Two large-scale projects involving returning farmland to forest and grassland have significantly changed the distribution of land use in the Taihang Mountains, and also affect the water production characteristics of the Taihang Mountains. Taking the Hutuo River Basin, a typical river in the Taihang Mountainous region, as the study area, the InVEST model is utilized to calculate the spatial and temporal changes in water yield capacity in the Hutuo River basin, and four scenarios were set to judge the impact of different ecological projects on the water yield of the mountainous watershed of the Hutuo River. The results showed that the water yield in the five study periods was 218.58–376.44 mm. The interannual variations in both precipitation and water yield of the study area in the last decade were large. The water yield is mainly concentrated in the northeast region of the upper reaches of the basin, and the smallest is the northwest and central regions of the upper reaches. The water yield in each year in the study area is mainly less than 400 mm, accounting for more than 60% of the study area, and the water yield has shown a large regional expansion in the past 10 years. Grassland has the largest water yield capacity of all land use types, and climate change has basically no effect on the water yield capacity of different land use types. The ecological project of returning farmland to forestland has a negative impact on the water yield capacity, whereas the water yield capacity increases after returning farmland to grassland. The water conservancy project of river training has a negative impact on the water yield capacity of the Hutuo River mountainous basin. The research results provide theoretical data for judging the relationship between vegetation restoration and water yield in mountainous watersheds, a scientific basis for evaluating the implementation effect of major projects, and strong data support for water resource management in the North China Plain.

An Ocean Memory Perspective: Disentangling Atmospheric Control of Decadal Variability in the North Atlantic Ocean

AbstractAn ocean memory framework is proposed to reveal the atmosphere's influence on ocean temperatures. Anomalous atmospheric forcing alters the ocean state through two mechanisms: short‐term, local effects involving airsea heat fluxes and Ekman circulation, and long‐term, far‐field effects involving changes from overturning and gyre circulations. The framework employs the Green function's method to incorporate both effects, enabling the quantification of ocean memory and the contribution of atmospheric forcing to ocean thermal variability. The framework is employed to examine the North Atlantic Oscillation's (NAO) influence on the North Atlantic Ocean variability, including the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, with its memory estimated to be years. The NAO and variability in the North Atlantic jet speed explain up to 30% of ocean decadal variability, primarily driven by temporal changes in ocean heat transport. Therefore, decadal fluctuations in ocean temperatures cannot be accurately modeled solely as a passive response to stochastic atmospheric forcing.

Research on the Flicker Effect in Modern Light Sources Powered by an Electrical Network

Disruptions in power quality have a negative impact on many energy consumers. These include lighting, where interference manifests itself, among others, in the form of light flickering. The article presents phenomena accompanying the operation of modern light sources against the background of exemplary results of studies on the flicker of conventional light sources, such as incandescent or fluorescent lamps. The flickering effect of light generated in modern lamps can occur under stable voltage conditions in the supply network. The main subjects of the conducted research were solid-state light sources—light-emitting diode (LED) lamps, currently available on the lighting market. To assess the effects of these phenomena, it is necessary to use measures other than those traditionally used. The method used allows for the measurement of flicker resulting from both power supply disturbances and the properties of modern light sources. Using the developed measurement system, it is possible to record temporal changes in flicker coefficients resulting from, for example, changing supply voltage conditions. Due to the possibility of flickering light from sources offered by different manufacturers, as shown by research, it is advisable to carry out measurements at the place of use of the lighting.

The Relationship of the Change in Hydrogeochemical Features and Lithium Values of Kızılırmak Basin (Nevsehir-Central Anatolia) Water with Tectonic Fields

In this study, in particular, the relationship between high lithium values and geological environments was examined. To determine this, the geology, structural geology, hydrogeology, and hydrogeochemistry of the area in the north of the Gülşehir-Yeşilöz sub-basin of the Kızılırmak Basin were investigated. For hydrogeological studies, 19 water samples were collected in May and September. Tectonically, this area has a horst-graben structure. The relationships between the water analysis values of the study area and the tectonic areas were investigated. In particular, the lithium content of the waters in the study area was investigated. Hydrogeochemical properties and seasonal changes in water resources were studied in detail, and their relationship with tectonic areas was evaluated. Water analyses were carried out during wet and dry periods to determine temporal hydrogeochemical changes. According to the analysis, the waters in the area are of Ca-HCO3 and Ca-Mg-HCO3 facies. In addition, there are water samples with high lithium content in the study area. IDW and Kernel diagrams of these were prepared. It was found that these high values were influenced by the rocks formed in the ancient sea and saline lake environments. The region with the highest lithium value is in the formations that represent the former salt lake environment. High lithium (Li) values are generally higher in the region within the Kızılırmak graben. Lithium values in this area were determined as 241.3 µg/L, 154.5 µg/L, 155.2 µg/L, 156.8 µg/L, and 155.6 µg/L.

Land Use Changes and Future Land Use Scenario Simulations of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor under the Belt and Road Initiative

The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative, is of great significance for the promotion of sustainable development in the region through the study of land use change and the simulation of future multi-scenarios. Based on the multi-period land use data of the CPEC, this study firstly analyzed the spatial and temporal land use changes in the CPEC from 2000 to 2020 by using GIS technology, and, secondly, simulated the land use patterns of the CPEC under four scenarios, namely, natural development, investment priority, ecological protection, and harmonious development, in 2040 by using the Markov-FLUS model with comprehensive consideration of natural, socio-economic, and other driving factors. The results show the following: (1) The urban land, forest land, and grassland in the CPEC from 2000 to 2020 show an increasing trend, while the farmland, unutilized land, and water area categories show a decreasing trend. In terms of land use transfer changes, the most frequently transferred out is the conversion of unutilized land to grassland. (2) The FLUS model has high accuracy in simulating the land use pattern of the CPEC, and its applicability in the CPEC area is strong and can be used to simulate the future land use pattern of the CPEC. (3) Among the four different land use scenarios, the harmonious development scenario strikes a better balance between infrastructure construction, economic development, and ecological protection, and can provide a scientific basis for future land management in the CPEC, in order to highlight the importance of promoting economic growth and ecological protection and ultimately realize sustainable development.