Description: The possible connectivity between the spatial distribution of water bodies suitable for vectors of malaria and endemic malaria foci in Southern Europe is still not well known. Spain was one of the last countries in Western Europe to be declared free of malaria by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1964. This study combines, by means of a spatial-temporal analysis, the historical data of patients and deceased with the distribution of water bodies where the disease-transmitting mosquitos proliferate. Therefore, data from historical archives with a Geographic Information System (GIS), using the Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) interpolation method, was analyzed with the aim of identifying regional differences in the distribution of malaria in Spain. The reasons, why the risk of transmission is concentrated in specific regions, are related to worse socioeconomic conditions (Extremadura), the presence of another vector (Anopheles labranchiae) besides A. atroparvus (Levante) or large areas of water bodies in conditions to reproduce theses vectors (La Mancha and Western Andalusia). In the particular case of Western Andalusia, in 1913, the relatively high percentage of 4.73% of the surface, equal to 202362 ha, corresponds to wetlands and other unhealthy water bodies. These wetlands have been reduced as a result of desiccation policies and climate change such as the Little Ice Age and Global Climate Change. The comprehension of the main factors of these wetland changes in the past can help us interpret accurately the future risk of malaria re-emergence in temperate latitudes, since it reveals the crucial role of unhealthy water bodies on the distribution, endemicity and eradication of malaria in southern Europe.

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Description: Energies, Vol. 11, Pages 645: Sucrose Is a Promising Feedstock for the Synthesis of the Platform Chemical Hydroxymethylfurfural Energies doi: 10.3390/en11030645 Authors: David Steinbach Andrea Kruse Jörg Sauer Philipp Vetter Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) has an outstanding position among bio-based platform chemicals, because high-value polymer precursors and fuel additives can be derived from HMF. Unfortunately, the large-scale industrial production of HMF is not yet realized. An open research question is the choice of hexose feedstock material. In this study, we used the highly available disaccharide sucrose for HMF synthesis. The conversion of sucrose was catalyzed by sulfuric acid in water media. Experiments were conducted at temperatures of 180, 200, and 220 °C with reaction times of 2–24 min. A carbon balance showed that the yield of unwanted side products rose strongly with temperature. We also developed a kinetic model for the conversion of sucrose, involving nine first-order reactions, to uncover the kinetics of the main reaction pathways. Within this model, HMF is produced exclusively via the dehydration of fructose. Glucose isomerizes slowly to fructose. Side products arise simultaneously from glucose, fructose, and HMF. A pathway from hexoses to xylose via reverse aldol reaction was also included in the model. We believe that sucrose is the ideal feedstock for large-scale production of HMF because it is more abundant than fructose, and easier to process than sugars obtained from lignocellulosic biomass.

Description: This study intends to contribute to the ongoing discussion on whether land use and land cover changes (LULC) or climate trends have the major influence on the observed increase of flood magnitudes in the Sahel. A simulation-based approach is used for attributing the observed trends to the postulated drivers. For this purpose, the ecohydrological model SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model) with a new, dynamic LULC module was set up for the Sahelian part of the Niger River until Niamey, including the main tributaries Sirba and Goroul. The model was driven with observed, reanalyzed climate and LULC data for the years 1950–2009. In order to quantify the shares of influence, one simulation was carried out with constant land cover as of 1950, and one including LULC. As quantitative measure, the gradients of the simulated trends were compared to the observed trend. The modeling studies showed that for the Sirba River only the simulation which included LULC was able to reproduce the observed trend. The simulation without LULC showed a positive trend for flood magnitudes, but underestimated the trend significantly. For the Goroul River and the local flood of the Niger River at Niamey, the simulations were only partly able to reproduce the observed trend. In conclusion, the new LULC module enabled some first quantitative insights into the relative influence of LULC and climatic changes. For the Sirba catchment, the results imply that LULC and climatic changes contribute in roughly equal shares to the observed increase in flooding. For the other parts of the subcatchment, the results are less clear but show, that climatic changes and LULC are drivers for the flood increase; however their shares cannot be quantified. Based on these modeling results, we argue for a two-pillar adaptation strategy to reduce current and future flood risk: Flood mitigation for reducing LULC-induced flood increase, and flood adaptation for a general reduction of flood vulnerability.

Description: This study aims to assess the potential alterations in the hydrological regime attributed to projected climate change in one of the largest rivers in the Carpathian Area, the Mures River, and to estimate associated threats to riverine ecosystem. The eco-hydrological model, Soil and Water Integrated Model (SWIM), was applied on the Mures River basin, calibrated and validated against records at a gauging station in Alba-Julia town. A set of nine future projections for climatic parameters under one emissions scenario A1B over the period 1971–2100 were fed into the SWIM model. To provide functional link between hydrological regimes and riverine ecosystems, each of the nine simulated discharge time series were introduced into the IHA (Indicators of Hydrological Alterations) tool. Triggered changes in hydrological patterns of the Mures River were assessed at the basin and sub-basin scales. The obtained results present a strong agreement through all nine climate projections; suggesting an increase in the discharge of Mures River for the winter season; a decrease in summer and prolongation of the low flow periods by the end of the century. Anticipated changes would pose threats to aquatic ecosystems; altering normal life-cycles; and depleting natural habitats of species.

Description: Natural disasters like floods are a worldwide phenomenon and a serious threat to mankind. Flood simulations are applications of disaster control, which are used for the development of appropriate flood protection. Adequate simulations require not only the geometry but also the roughness of the Earth’s surface, as well as the roughness of the objects hereon. Usually, the floodplain roughness is based on land use/land cover maps derived from orthophotos. This study analyses the applicability of roughness map derivation approaches for flood simulations based on different datasets: orthophotos, LiDAR data, official land use data, OpenStreetMap data and CORINE Land Cover data. Object-based image analysis is applied to orthophotos and LiDAR raster data in order to generate land cover maps, which enable a roughness parameterization. The vertical vegetation structure within the LiDAR point cloud is used to derive an additional floodplain roughness map. Further roughness maps are derived from official land use data, OpenStreetMap and CORINE Land Cover datasets. Six different flood simulations are applied based on one elevation data but with the different roughness maps. The results of the hydrodynamic–numerical models include information on flow velocity and water depth from which the additional attribute flood intensity is calculated of. The results based on roughness maps derived from LiDAR data and OpenStreetMap data are comparable, whereas the results of the other datasets differ significantly.

Description: The temporal and magmatic evolution of central Snake River Plain (SRP; Idaho, USA) olivine tholeiites erupted within the past 4 m.y. is evaluated here. This investigation correlates and merges both geochemical and paleomagnetic measurements to constrain the volcanic history recovered from the 340 m Regional Aquifer Systems Analysis (RASA) test well located near Wendell, Idaho. Only a handful of studies have accomplished this task of shedding light on the chemical stratigraphy of the SRP and the petrogenesis of basalts with depth, and therefore through time. Paleomagnetic relationships suggest that time breaks between individual lava flows represent a few years to decades, time breaks between flow groups represent at least a couple of hundred years or possibly much longer, while significant hiatuses in volcanism, revealed by thick sediment packages or polarity reversals (both are evidenced in this well), are inferred to last thousands to tens of thousands of years. Major element geochemistry from 52 basaltic lava flows demonstrates near primitive compositions (i.e., ~10 wt% MgO) and tholeiitic iron enrichment trends, similar to lavas from the eastern SRP. Trace element concentrations are similar to those of ocean island basalts, with enriched Ba and Pb, and light rare earth element (REE)/heavy REE ratios similar to those of many Neogene volcanics of the western Cordillera. When combined, we identify a total of 11 flow groups, which we also classify as fractionation or recharge on the basis of decreasing or increasing MgO weight percent with depth. Taking into consideration these trends, we review the potential recharge, fractionation, and assimilation processes that characterize much of SRP olivine tholeiite, and conclude that assimilation, in combination with fractional crystallization, is the dominant petrogenesis for the basalts in the central SRP. Although fractionation of Wendell parent magmas was accompanied by assimilation of crustal material, this could not have been assimilation of ancient cratonic crust. The geochemical cycles observed in this well are inferred to represent fractionation and recharge of basaltic magma from a series of sill-like layered mafic intrusions located in the middle crust, similar to what has been proposed for the processes that control the eruptive history of basalts in the eastern SRP.

Description: tFatty acids of microalgae have been studied as potential chemotaxonomic markers, to reveal plausi-ble lipid phycotoxins or in the context of mass production of algal biofuels. The planctonic microalgaeAlexandrium tamarense (Dinophyceae) is a common harmful algal bloom species that often proliferatesin eutrophic costal waters. Alexandrium blooms are the proximal source of toxins associated with par-alytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), a neurological affliction that has caused human illness for centuries viaconsumption of contaminated shellfish. However, data on the fatty acid composition of A. tamarense iscurrently limited. For this reason, we cultivated a well-defined strain of A. tamarense (Alex2, group I, NorthAmerican clade) in order to study both its major and minor fatty acids. The harvested microalgae weretransesterified and the fatty acid methyl esters were fractionated by means of high-speed counter-currentchromatography (HSCCC). The resulting 31 HSCCC fractions were analyzed by gas chromatography withmass spectrometry (GC/MS). Unknown substances were identified by transferring assorted HSCCC frac-tions into picolinyl or pyrrolidide derivatives. Twenty fatty acids (range 0.2–22.9% contribution to totalfatty acids) were identified in the unfractionated sample with 14:0, 16:0, 18:1n-9, 18:4n-3, 18:5n-3 and22:6n-3 representing 〉 80% of the total fatty acids. HSCCC fractionation enabled the identification of fur-ther 22 trace fatty acids contributing between ∼0.01 and 0.2% to total fatty acids. The fatty acids includedseveral branched-chain fatty acids as well as scarcely reported fatty acids like 11-methyl-18:1n-6tr or18:2�4,9. In order to enable a better comparability and repeatability of HSCCC fractionations, we calcu-lated for each HSCCC fraction the total volume of mobile phase, which had passed the HSCCC. From thisvolume we subtracted the volume of extruded stationary phase and divided the corrected volume by thetotal coil volume. These elution values were in good agreement with the partition ratios of randomlychosen fatty acid methyl esters obtained in shake flask tests, which allows the prediction of the elutionfrom the HSCCC system when the partition ratio is known.