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The effect of extreme temperature has become an increasing public health concern. Evaluating the impact of ambient temperature on morbidity has received less attention than its impact on mortality.We performed a systematic literature review and extracted quantitative estimates of the effects of hot temperatures on cardiorespiratory morbidity. There were too few studies on effects of cold temperatures to warrant a summary. Pooled estimates of effects of heat were calculated using a Bayesian hierarchical approach that allowed multiple results to be included from the same study, particularly results at different latitudes and with varying lagged effects.Twenty-one studies were included in the final meta-analysis. The pooled results suggest an increase of 3.2% (95% posterior interval = -3.2% to 10.1%) in respiratory morbidity with 1°C increase on hot days. No apparent association was observed for cardiovascular morbidity (-0.5% [-3.0% to 2.1%]). The length of lags had inconsistent effects on the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular morbidity, whereas latitude had little effect on either.The effects of temperature on cardiorespiratory morbidity seemed to be smaller and more variable than previous findings related to mortality.

Many countries are developing or reviewing national adaptation policy for climate change but the extent to which these meet the health needs of vulnerable groups has not been assessed. This study examines the adequacy of such policies for nine known climate-vulnerable groups: people with mental health conditions, Aboriginal people, culturally and linguistically diverse groups, aged people, people with disabilities, rural communities, children, women, and socioeconomically disadvantaged people.The study analyses an exhaustive sample of national adaptation policy documents from Annex 1 ('developed') countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: 20 documents from 12 countries. A 'critical computational linguistics' method was used involving novel software-driven quantitative mapping and traditional critical discourse analysis.The study finds that references to vulnerable groups are relatively little present or non-existent, as well as poorly connected to language about practical strategies and socio-economic contexts, both also little present.The conclusions offer strategies for developing policy that is better informed by a 'social determinants of health' definition of climate vulnerability, consistent with best practice in the literature and global policy prescriptions.

Redox flow batteries are promising devices for large-scale stationary energy storage.

Tin (Sn), antimony (Sb), as well as their intermetallic compound SnSb are potential high‐capacity negative electrodes for lithium‐ or sodium‐ion batteries. Starting from bulk Sn and Sb, the effect of ball milling in sodium‐ion half cells with a diglyme‐based electrolyte is studied. Nonreactive ball milling of Sn, Sb, and carbon leads to intimately mixed but largely phase‐separated composites (Sn + Sb) with electrochemical sodiation behavior being the sum of the individual phases. Thereby, Sb shows an unusual and rapid capacity fade in the chosen electrolyte which is unexpected, considering the usually excellent compatibility of diglyme‐based electrolytes with negative electrodes. Reactive ball milling of Sn and Sb using a planetary ball mill leads to the phase‐pure intermetallic compound β‐SnSb. Compared with Sn + Sb, SnSb shows excellent performance with a specific capacity exceeding 400 mAh g−1 after 190 cycles and a high rate capability (around 400 mAh g−1 at 5 C). Hence, herein, Sb is largely inactive as a pure phase but active when bound in the β‐SnSb intermetallic compound. Using in situ electrochemical dilatometry, the “breathing” of the electrodes during charging/discharging is minimized by optimizing ball‐milling time, which improves cycle life.

Air pollution is a major issue all over the world because of its impacts on the environment and human beings. The present review discussed the sources and impacts of pollutants on environmental and human health and the current research status on environmental pollution forecasting techniques in detail; this study presents a detailed discussion of the Artificial Intelligence methodologies and Machine learning (ML) algorithms used in environmental pollution forecasting and early-warning systems; moreover, the present work emphasizes more on Artificial Intelligence techniques (particularly Hybrid models) used for forecasting various major pollutants (e.g., PM2.5, PM10, O3, CO, SO2, NO2, CO2) in detail; moreover, focus is given to AI and ML techniques in predicting chronic airway diseases and the prediction of climate changes and heat waves. The hybrid model has better performance than single AI models and it has greater accuracy in prediction and warning systems. The performance evaluation error indexes like R2, RMSE, MAE and MAPE were highlighted in this study based on the performance of various AI models.

Abstract Offshore cultivation of seaweed provides an innovative feedstock for biobased products supporting blue growth in northern Europe. This paper analyzes two alternative exploitation pathways: energy and protein production. The first pathway is based on anaerobic digestion of seaweed which is converted into biogas, for production of electricity and heat, and digestate, used as fertilizer; the second pathway uses seaweed hydrolysate as a substrate for cultivation of heterotrophic microalgae. As a result the seaweed sugars are consumed while new proteins are produced enhancing the total output. We performed a comparative Life Cycle Assessment of five scenarios identifying the critical features affecting resource efficiency and environmental performance of the systems with the aim of providing decision support for the design of future industrial scale production processes. The results show that all scenarios provide environmental benefits in terms of mitigation of climate change, with biogas production from dried Laminaria digitata being the most favorable scenario, quantified as −18.7*10 2 kg CO 2 eq./ha. This scenario presents also the lowest consumption of total cumulative energy demand, 1.7*10 4 MJ/ha, and even resulting in a net reduction of the fossil energy fraction, −1.9*10 4 MJ/ha compared to a situation without seaweed cultivation. All scenarios provide mitigation of marine eutrophication thanks to bioextraction of nitrogen and phosphorus during seaweed growth. The material consumption for seeded lines has 2–20 times higher impact on human toxicity (cancer) than the reduction achieved by energy and protein substitution. However, minor changes in cultivation design, i.e. use of stones instead of iron as ballast to weight the seeded lines, dramatically reduces human toxicity (cancer). Externalities from the use of digestate as fertilizer affect human toxicity (non-cancer) due to transfer of arsenic from aquatic environment to agricultural soil. However concentration of heavy metals in digestate does not exceed the limit established by Danish regulation. The assessment identifies seaweed productivity as the key parameter to further improve the performance of the production systems which are a promising service provider of environmental restoration and climate change mitigation.

(1) Background: Although the health effects of future climate change have been examined in previous studies, few have considered additive impacts of population expansion, ageing, and adaptation. We aimed to quantify the future heat-related years of life lost (YLLs) under different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios and global-scale General Circulation Models (GCMs), and further to examine relative contributions of population expansion, ageing, and adaptation on these projections. (2) Methods: We used downscaled and bias-corrected projections of daily temperature from 27 GCMs under RCP2.6, 4.5, and 8.5 scenarios to quantify the potential annual heat-related YLLs in Guangzhou, China in the 2030s, 2060s, and 2090s, compared to those in the 1980s as a baseline. We also explored the modification effects of a range of population expansion, ageing, and adaptation scenarios on the heat-related YLLs. (3) Results: Global warming, particularly under the RCP8.5 scenario, would lead to a substantial increase in the heat-related YLLs in the 2030s, 2060s, and 2090s for the majority of the GCMs. For the total population, the annual heat-related YLLs under the RCP8.5 in the 2030s, 2060s, and 2090s were 2.2, 7.0, and 11.4 thousand, respectively. The heat effects would be significantly exacerbated by rapid population expansion and ageing. However, substantial heat-related YLLs could be counteracted by the increased adaptation (75% for the total population and 20% for the elderly). (4) Conclusions: The rapid population expansion and ageing coinciding with climate change may present an important health challenge in China, which, however, could be partially counteracted by the increased adaptation of individuals.

The ocean provides resources key to human health and well-being, including food, oxygen, livelihoods, blue spaces, and medicines. The global threat to these resources posed by accelerating ocean acidification is becoming increasingly evident as the world’s oceans absorb carbon dioxide emissions. While ocean acidification was initially perceived as a threat only to the marine realm, here we argue that it is also an emerging human health issue. Specifically, we explore how ocean acidification affects the quantity and quality of resources key to human health and well-being in the context of: (1) malnutrition and poisoning, (2) respiratory issues, (3) mental health impacts, and (4) development of medical resources. We explore mitigation and adaptation management strategies that can be implemented to strengthen the capacity of acidifying oceans to continue providing human health benefits. Importantly, we emphasize that the cost of such actions will be dependent upon the socioeconomic context; specifically, costs will likely be greater for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, exacerbating the current inequitable distribution of environmental and human health challenges. Given the scale of ocean acidification impacts on human health and well-being, recognizing and researching these complexities may allow the adaptation of management such that not only are the harms to human health reduced but the benefits enhanced.