Strategies for managing spring frost risks in orchards: effectiveness and conditionality—A systematic review protocol

Background Spring frosts pose an important threat to orchard productivity in temperate zones and predictions of future occurrences do not exclude damaging events. However, there is no up-to-date and systematic comparison of the effectiveness and conditionality of the existing passive and active damage prevention strategies. This review seeks to answer the questions “How do the performances of spring frost damage reduction strategies in temperate fruit orchards compare?” and “How do environmental conditions affect frost damage reduction strategies in temperate fruit orchards?”. Methods and output The review covers on-site frost damage prevention mechanisms and interventions for the most important temperate pome, stone and citrus fruit trees as well as grapevine. Searches include the core collection and regional databases on the Web of Science platform, Scopus, as well as specialized libraries like Agris, Agricola, CAB Abstracts, Groenekennis and selected institutional websites. Included studies report on the effectiveness of at least one intervention in reducing spring frost damage or increasing temperatures in the field. The validity of the studies will be evaluated based on their risk of general research bias and on topic-specific, stakeholder co-designed validity criteria. Data will be extracted regarding the study setup (study design, location, characteristics of frosts) and the resulting temperature increase, crop development alteration and/or damage reductions. The effectiveness of interventions will be evaluated in terms of yields, damage to flowers, ambient temperature and/or crop development. An Evidence Atlas will identify general and geographic research gaps, as well as research trends. Meta-regression of effectiveness on environmental conditions will be attempted.

Study of the Epidemiology and Use of Condoms in Vulnerable Women Referring to Damage Reduction Centers in Shiraz During 2015-2016

Background and aims: Female sex workers (FSWs) play an essential role in the transmission of HIV and are considered critical groups compared to the public groups of society and their customers. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the status of sexual intercourse among prostitutes in Shiraz in 2015-2016. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 162 prostitutes referred to Shiraz transitional damage reduction centers and the information was gathered through a checklist. Results: The results showed that the mean age at the first vaginal intercourse was 16.57±3.65. In 62.3% of people, the main reason for prostitution was the need for money to help the family. It was also found that 39.5% of prostitutes had anal sex, and more than 95% of them did not use condoms during sex. There was also a statistically significant relationship (P<0.01) between the age of sexual intercourse and education level. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that prostitutes initiated the first sexual intercourse at a very young age, and increase in the education level postponed the first sexual intercourse. Otherwise stated, the first sexual intercourse can be delayed by increasing the level of education.

Earthquake Damage Reduction in Timber Frame Houses Using Small-Size Fluid Damper

Timber frame structures are common traditional methods of housing construction, which use squared-off timber beams, columns, and walls as lateral load-bearing members. The seismic performance of timber frame houses can be secured by the load-bearing capacity of erected braces and walls; however, past major earthquakes have caused severe damage to earthquake-resistant timber frame houses. This study investigates the effect of small-size fluid dampers on the earthquake damage reduction in a timber frame house through earthquake response analyses. A detailed analytical model was generated based on an actual two-story timber frame house, which was designed for the highest seismic grade using the latest Japanese standards. Time-history response analyses were carried out for the analytical model subjected to the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake with and without small-size fluid dampers. The small-size fluid damper is equipped with a relief mechanism for the damping force, and its damping property can be expressed using the Maxwell model. Four or seven fluid dampers were installed in the first story of the model to investigate their effect on the earthquake damage reduction. The results of the earthquake response analyses show that the four and seven fluid dampers can reduce the maximum first-story drift angle by approximately one-third and half, respectively. The dampers suppress the residual deformation, control the elongation of the fundamental period during the response, and restrain the amplitude growth. A small-size fluid damper has an equivalent quake resistance to a conventional structural wall with a wall ratio of 3 plus.

Infrastructure capacity planning for reducing risks of future hydrologic extremes

Floods and droughts and their associated economic, environmental, and social losses or damages are increasing in severity and frequency. Measures taken to reduce these losses or damages stemming from extreme events typically depend on how effective they are in reducing the consequences of having either too much or too little water and for longer periods of time. To identify trade-offs between the annual estimated loss or damage reduction, i.e., the benefits, however measured, and the average annual cost of various damage reduction measures, one can perform risk–cost analyses. Because of climate change, the likelihoods of future hydrologic extremes are both changing and uncertain. Also uncertain are any estimates of future damages that would occur given any specific extreme event. In addition, one cannot be certain of the future costs or benefits of damage reduction measures. This paper outlines a range of practical approaches for identifying these trade-offs, taking into account the uncertainties associated with future damages resulting from any specific flood or drought event, the changing uncertainties of future flood and drought events, and the uncertainty of future damage mitigation costs.

Valuing the Role of Mangroves in Storm Damage Reduction in Coastal Areas of Odisha

Mangroves help in building coastal resilience as effective natural safeguards against cyclones. The state of Odisha is the most cyclone prone region in the east coast of India and was endowed with nearly 500 km2 of mangroves until 1940s, which has now been reduced, through destruction, to 227 km2. This chapter attempts to value the storm protection provided by these remaining mangroves during the 1999 super cyclone and examines whether it is economically efficient to conserve these mangroves. During this storm, the storm protection value of mangroves was estimated to be USD 68,586 per km width and USD 4335 per ha of mangroves to all households living in the impact zone of the forest. To examine the question of conservation, these onetime values were annualized and the annual storm protection value of a mangrove hectare was found to be more than two times higher than the land price of cleared forests and more than twenty times higher than the annual return from alternative land uses, justifying mangrove conservation as a socially and financially viable policy and an economically efficient decision to build resilience.

Therapeutic Potential of Isoflavones with an Emphasis on Daidzein

Daidzein is a phytoestrogen isoflavone found in soybeans and other legumes. The chemical composition of daidzein is analogous to mammalian estrogens, and it could be useful with a dual-directional purpose by substituting/hindering with estrogen and estrogen receptor (ER) complex. Hence, daidzein puts forth shielding effects against a great number of diseases, especially those associated with the control of estrogen, such as breast cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. However, daidzein also has other ER-independent biological activities, such as oxidative damage reduction acting as an antioxidant, immune regulator as an anti-inflammatory agent, and apoptosis regulation, directly linked to its potential anticancer effects. In this sense, the present review is aimed at providing a deepen analysis of daidzein pharmacodynamics and its implications in human health, from its best-known effects alleviating postmenopausal symptoms to its potential anticancer and antiaging properties.

Setting Statistical Thresholds Is Useful to Define Truly Effective Conservation Interventions

Effective interventions are needed to solve conflicts between humans and predators over livestock killing, nuisance behavior, and attacks on pets and humans. Progress in quantification of evidence-based effectiveness and selection of the best interventions raises new questions, such as the existence of thresholds to identify truly effective interventions. Current classification of more and less effective interventions is subjective and statistically unjustified. This study describes a novel method to differentiate true and untrue effectiveness on a basis of false positive risk (FPR). I have collected 152 cases of applications of damage-reducing interventions from 102 scientific publications, 26 countries, 22 predator species, and 6 categories of interventions. The analysis has shown that the 95% confidence interval of the relative risk of predator-caused damage was 0.10–0.25 for true effectiveness (FPR &lt; 0.05) and 0.35–0.56 for untrue effectiveness (FPR ≥ 0.05). This means that damage was reduced by 75–90% for truly effective interventions and by 44–65% for interventions of untrue effectiveness. Based on this, it was specified that truly effective interventions have the relative risk ≤ 0.25 (damage reduction ≥ 75%) and the effectiveness of interventions with the relative risk &gt; 0.25 (damage reduction &lt; 75%) is untrue. This threshold is statistically well-justified, stable, easy to remember, and practical to use in anti-predator interventions. More research is essential to know how this threshold holds true for other conservation interventions aiming to reduce negative outcomes (e.g., poaching rates) or increase positive outcomes (e.g., species richness).