scholarly journals Predation Pressure of Invasive Marsh Frogs: A Threat to Native Amphibians?

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 595
Author(s):  
Fabien Pille ◽  
Laura Pinto ◽  
Mathieu Denoël
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Adult Stage ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Water Frogs ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The World ◽  
Time Specific ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Quantitative Assessments

Anurans have been introduced in many parts of the world and have often become invasive over large geographic areas. Although predation is involved in the declines of invaded amphibian populations, there is a lack of quantitative assessments evaluating the potential risk posed to native species. This is particularly true for Pelophylax water frogs, which have invaded large parts of western Europe, but no studies to date have examined their predation on other amphibians in their invaded range. Predation of native amphibians by marsh frogs (Pelophylax ridibundus) was assessed by stomach flushing once a month over four months in 21 ponds in southern France. Nine percent of stomachs contained amphibians. Seasonality was a major determinant of amphibian consumption. This effect was mediated by body size, with the largest invaders ingesting bigger natives, such as tree frogs. These results show that invasive marsh frogs represent a threat through their ability to forage on natives, particularly at the adult stage. The results also indicate that large numbers of native amphibians are predated. More broadly, the fact that predation was site- and time-specific highlights the need for repeated samplings across habitats and key periods for a clear understanding of the impact of invaders.

scholarly journals Update on emissions and environmental impacts from the international fleet of ships. The contribution from major ship types and ports

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 18323-18384 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. B. Dalsøren ◽  
M. S. Eide ◽  
Ø. Endresen ◽  
A. Mjelde ◽  
G. Gravir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Wet Deposition ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Surface Ozone ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Ship Emissions ◽  
Low Latitudes ◽  
The World ◽  
Emission Modelling ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. A reliable and up-to-date ship emission inventory is essential for atmospheric scientists quantifying the impact of shipping and for policy makers implementing regulations and incentives for emission reduction. The emission modelling in this study takes into account ship type and size dependent input data for 15 ship types and 7 size categories. Global port arrival and departure data for more than 32 000 merchant ships are used to establish operational profiles for the ship segments. The modelled total fuel consumption amounts to 217 Mt in 2004 of which 11 Mt is consumed in in-port operations. This is in agreement with international sales statistics. The modelled fuel consumption is applied to develop global emission inventories for CO2, NO2, SO2, CO, CH4, VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), N2O, BC (Black Carbon) and OC (Organic Carbon). The global emissions from ships at sea and in ports are distributed geographically, applying extended geographical data sets covering about 2 million global ship observations and global port data for 32 000 ships. In addition to inventories for the world fleet, inventories are produced separately for the three dominating ship types, using ship type specific emission modelling and traffic distributions. A global Chemical Transport Model (CTM) was used to calculate the environmental impacts of the emissions. We find that ship emissions is a dominant contributor over much of the world oceans to surface concentrations of NO2 and SO2. The contribution is also large over some coastal zones. For surface ozone the contribution is high over the oceans but clearly also of importance over western North America (contribution 15–25%) and western Europe (5–15%). The contribution to tropospheric column ozone is up to 5–6%. The overall impact of ship emissions on global methane lifetime is large due to the high NOx emissions. With regard to acidification we find that ships contribute 11% to nitrate wet deposition and 4.5% to sulphur wet deposition globally. In certain coastal regions the contributions may be in the range 15–50%. In general we find that ship emissions have a large impact on acidic deposition and surface ozone in western North America, Scandinavia, western Europe, western North Africa and Malaysia/Indonesia. For most of these regions container traffic, the largest emitter by ship type, has the largest impact. This is the case especially for the Pacific and the related container trade routes between Asia and North America. However, the contributions from bulk ships and tank vessels are also significant in the above mentioned impact regions. Though the total ship impact at low latitudes is lower, the tank vessels have a quite large contribution at low latitudes and near the Gulf of Mexico and Middle East. The bulk ships are characterized by large impact in Oceania compared to other ship types. In Scandinavia and north-western Europe, one of the major ship impact regions, the three largest ship types have rather small relative contributions. The impact in this region is probably dominated by smaller ships operating closer to the coast. For emissions in ports impacts on NO2 and SO2 seem to be of significance. For most ports the contribution to the two components is in the range 0.5–5%, for a few ports it exceeds 10%. The approach presented provides an improvement in characterizing fleet operational patterns, and thereby ship emissions and impacts. Furthermore, the study shows where emission reductions can be applied to most effectively minimize the impacts by different ship types.

Higher Education at a Crossroads

2016 ◽  
pp. 27-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela A. Lemoine ◽  
Thomas Hackett ◽  
Michael D. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Research Funding ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
University Research ◽  
Public Higher Education ◽  
The Road ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The World ◽  
Quality Learning ◽  
The Impact

The leadership needs to develop new organizational structures and systems that will promote and encourage quality learning and the ability to assess the impact of the teaching. Governments across the world have steadily minimized their support for public higher education, and costs associated with gaining a degree have increased constantly over the last decade. Most universities are forced to adopt a restructuring model for commoditizing education to make a profit from large numbers of students. The road ahead for higher education is filled with challenges, risks and uncertainties that begin with education being valued as more than a simple commodity: education becomes a public good. Higher education is increasingly viewed as a major instrument of economic development. In order to hold universities accountable despite limited governmental budgets, many nations have adopted performance-based university research funding strategies for targeted programs.

scholarly journals Update on emissions and environmental impacts from the international fleet of ships: the contribution from major ship types and ports

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 2171-2194 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. B. Dalsøren ◽  
M. S. Eide ◽  
Ø. Endresen ◽  
A. Mjelde ◽  
G. Gravir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Wet Deposition ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Surface Ozone ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Ship Emissions ◽  
Low Latitudes ◽  
The World ◽  
Emission Modelling ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. A reliable and up-to-date ship emission inventory is essential for atmospheric scientists quantifying the impact of shipping and for policy makers implementing regulations and incentives for emission reduction. The emission modelling in this study takes into account ship type and size dependent input data for 15 ship types and 7 size categories. Global port arrival and departure data for more than 32 000 merchant ships are used to establish operational profiles for the ship segments. The modelled total fuel consumption amounts to 217 Mt in 2004 of which 11 Mt is consumed in in-port operations. This is in agreement with international sales statistics. The modelled fuel consumption is applied to develop global emission inventories for CO2, NO2, SO2, CO, CH4, VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), N2O, BC (Black Carbon) and OC (Organic Carbon). The global emissions from ships at sea and in ports are distributed geographically, applying extended geographical data sets covering about 2 million global ship observations and global port data for 32 000 ships. In addition to inventories for the world fleet, inventories are produced separately for the three dominating ship types, using ship type specific emission modelling and traffic distributions. A global Chemical Transport Model (CTM) was used to calculate the environmental impacts of the emissions. We find that ship emissions is a dominant contributor over much of the world oceans to surface concentrations of NO2 and SO2. The contribution is also large over some coastal zones. For surface ozone the contribution is high over the oceans but clearly also of importance over Western North America (contribution 15–25%) and Western Europe (5–15%). The contribution to tropospheric column ozone is up to 5–6%. The overall impact of ship emissions on global methane lifetime is large due to the high NOx emissions. With regard to acidification we find that ships contribute 11% to nitrate wet deposition and 4.5% to sulphur wet deposition globally. In certain coastal regions the contributions may be in the range 15–50%. In general we find that ship emissions have a large impact on acidic deposition and surface ozone in Western North America, Scandinavia, Western Europe, western North Africa and Malaysia/Indonesia. For most of these regions container traffic, the largest emitter by ship type, has the largest impact. This is the case especially for the Pacific and the related container trade routes between Asia and North America. However, the contributions from bulk ships and tank vessels are also significant in the above mentioned impact regions. Though the total ship impact at low latitudes is lower, the tank vessels have a quite large contribution at low latitudes and near the Gulf of Mexico and Middle East. The bulk ships are characterized by large impact in Oceania compared to other ship types. In Scandinavia and north-Western Europe, one of the major ship impact regions, the three largest ship types have rather small relative contributions. The impact in this region is probably dominated by smaller ships operating closer to the coast. For emissions in ports impacts on NO2 and SO2 seem to be of significance. For most ports the contribution to the two components is in the range 0.5–5%, for a few ports it exceeds 10%. The approach presented provides an improvement in characterizing fleet operational patterns, and thereby ship emissions and impacts. Furthermore, the study shows where emission reductions can be applied to most effectively minimize the impacts by different ship types.

scholarly journals The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Air Quality—A Global Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10212
Author(s):  
Abdullah Addas ◽  
Ahmad Maghrabi
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The World ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Google Search ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Tremendous Impact ◽  
Total Environment ◽  
The U.S

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a serious public health threat and has had a tremendous impact on all spheres of the environment. The air quality across the world improved because of COVID-19 lockdowns. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, large numbers of studies have been carried out on the impact of lockdowns on air quality around the world, but no studies have been carried out on the systematic review on the impact of lockdowns on air quality. This study aims to systematically assess the bibliographic review on the impact of lockdowns on air quality around the globe. A total of 237 studies were identified after rigorous review, and 144 studies met the criteria for the review. The literature was surveyed from Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, and the Google search engine. The results reveal that (i) most of the studies were carried out on Asia (about 65%), followed by Europe (18%), North America (6%), South America (5%), and Africa (3%); (ii) in the case of countries, the highest number of studies was performed on India (29%), followed by China (23%), the U.S. (5%), the UK (4%), and Italy; (iii) more than 60% of the studies included NO2 for study, followed by PM2.5 (about 50%), PM10, SO2, and CO; (iv) most of the studies were published by Science of the Total Environment (29%), followed by Aerosol and Air Quality Research (23%), Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health (9%), and Environmental Pollution (5%); (v) the studies reveal that there were significant improvements in air quality during lockdowns in comparison with previous time periods. Thus, this diversified study conducted on the impact of lockdowns on air quality will surely assist in identifying any gaps, as it outlines the insights of the current scientific research.

scholarly journals The Main Features of the Modern World Market of Insurance Services

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (519) ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
K. V. Drymalovska ◽  
◽  
R. O. Kyryliuk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
World Market ◽  
Insurance Market ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The World ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Main Components ◽  
The Impact

As competition in international and national markets intensifies, it is important to create a system to protect economic actors from potential threats and adverse factors. To solve these issues, it is necessary to ensure the effective functioning of the insurance market, which is one of the important components of financial security. Without the developed insurance market, it will be impossible to ensure the social and economic progress of the country, its corporate security, welfare etc. The current state of the world insurance market has certain features, which makes it possible to adapt to the change of the modern world and improve the work of the insurance industry. To create a clear insurance market, it is necessary to develop an effective policy as to the insurance activities of both the insurer and the reinsurers, as well as to establish solvency insurance systems. The development of the insurance market is accompanied by many economic, regulatory, organizational, methodological and personnel issues. The publication is aimed at studying and distinguishing the peculiarities of development of the world market of insurance services. On the basis of studying the works of scholars, the main features of the modern insurance market are provided; key signs of the insurance industry are presented; statistical information on trends in the insurance market development during 2019 in the following regions: North and Latin America, Western Europe, Asia, European developing countries. The impact of COVID-19 on the state of the insurance industry in Europe has been characterized. As result of studying the key trends in the future development of the insurance market, the main components that are necessary for the formation of an effective policy of insurance companies in the context of COVID-19 have been formed as follows: digitalization, innovation, analytics, feedback.

scholarly journals Analyzing and Visualizing the Impact of Covid19 on the World

2020 ◽  
pp. 265-268
Keyword(s):  
World Health ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Corona Virus ◽  
Johns Hopkins University ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The World ◽  
Open Datasets ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Impact

The Novel Corona virus is emerging as a Global public health threat. The outbreak initially emerged in Wuhan, China, large numbers of patients were getting sick because of Pneumonia and later it was found that they were nfected with the Novel Corona virus this emphasizes the importance of analyzing the data of this virus and predicting their risks of infecting people all around the globe. In this study, we present an effort to compile and analyze the outbreak information on COVID19 based on the open datasets on 2019 nCoV provided by the Johns Hopkins University, World Health Organization. An exploratory data analysis with visualizations has been made to understand the number of different cases reported (confirmed, death, and re-covered) in the World. Overall, at the outset of an outbreak like this, it is highly important to readily provide information to begin the evaluation necessary to understand the risks and begin containment activities.

scholarly journals External Labor Migration from Ukraine: the Impact of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-40
Author(s):  
E. M. LIBANOVA ◽  
O. V. POZNIAK
Keyword(s):  
Labor Migration ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Business Support ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

The article is devoted to the assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the tendencies of external labor migration from Ukraine. The relevance of the work is due to the limited analytical research on population migration during the pandemic. Until the beginning of 2020, changes in the formation of external labor migration flows occurred mainly under the infl uence of the internal situation in the country and the transformation of Ukraine’s political relations with certain foreign countries, but under COVID-19, the trends of external labor migration from Ukraine have changed radically for reasons independent of the socio-economic situation in Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to assess the changes in the scale of labor migration due to COVID-19 and to determine the prospects for external labor migration of Ukrainians. Relevant analytical developments became the basis for the formation of recommendations for adjusting the migration policy of Ukraine in the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The novelty of the study is to determine the impact of COVID-19 on the parameters of external labor migration from Ukraine and to assess probable perspective future transformations of migration trends. Abstract-logical and systema tic approaches, the method of expert assessments are used in the study. The analysis of the migration situation in Ukraine in recent years is carried out, the latest changes in the directions and scales of external labor migration are identifi ed. The tendencies of international population movement aft er the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic are analyzed. Prospects for external migration of the population of Ukraine are determined. The future of this process will depend on the pace of economic recovery in Europe and the world at large and the local demand for labor from other countries. It is probable that the employment structure of Ukrainian labor migrants will change by type of activity: migrants who were not employed in agriculture before the pandemic will not resume work so soon, and those who remained in the recipient countries will try to fi nd employment in agriculture and related activities. The geography of working trips will also change, and a new reorientation of some migrants is probable — from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, especially Germany and the United Kingdom, which are far ahead of traditional Ukrainian employment countries (Poland, the Czech Republic and even Italy) in terms of wages. A key element of the policy of keeping some migrants in Ukraine is a radical non-declarative change in the state’s attitude to small and medium-sized businesses. It is necessary to involve representatives of small and medium business to public policy, including policy of withdrawal from quarantine, business support. Eff ective business support programs should also be implemented, in particular following the example of EU countries. For those migrants who, even under the best conditions, are not interested in starting a business in Ukraine, a strategy is needed to ensure that, on the one hand, these people are not lost to Ukraine, and on the other hand, to get the most out of working with the diaspora. This will help both to improve the situation in the economy and to improve the image and strengthen Ukraine’s infl uence in the world.

scholarly journals Initial Model for the Impact of Social Distancing on CoVID-19 Spread

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genghmun Eng
Keyword(s):  
Exponential Growth ◽  
Growth Function ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Sick People ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Good Agreement

AbstractThe initial stages of the CoVID-19 coronavirus pandemic all around the world exhibit a nearly exponential rise in the number of infections with time. Planners, governments, and agencies are scrambling to figure out “How much? How bad?” and how to effectively treat the potentially large numbers of simultaneously sick people. Modeling the CoVID-19 pandemic using an exponential rise implicitly assumes a nearly unlimited population of uninfected persons (“dilute pandemic”). Once a significant fraction of the population is infected (“saturated pandemic”), an exponential growth no longer applies. A new model is developed here, which modifies the standard exponential growth function to account for factors such as Social Distancing. A Social Mitigation Parameter [SMP] αS is introduced to account for these types of society-wide changes, which can modify the standard exponential growth function, as follows: The doubling-time tdbl = (In 2)/Ko can also be used to substitute for Ko, giving a {tdbl, αS} parameter pair for comparing to actual CoVID-19 data. This model shows how the number of CoVID-19 infections can self-limit before reaching a saturated pandemic level. It also provides estimates for: (a) the timing of the pandemic peak, (b) the maximum number of new daily cases that would be expected, and (c) the expected total number of CoVID-19 cases. This model shows fairly good agreement with the presently available CoVID-19 pandemic data for several individual States, and the for the USA as a whole (6 Figures), as well as for various countries around the World (9 Figures). An augmented model with two Mitigation Parameters, αS and βS, is also developed, which can give better agreement with the daily new CoVID-19 data. Data-to-model comparisons also indicate that using αS by itself likely provides a worst-case estimate, while using both αS and βS likely provides a best-case estimate for the CoVID-19 spread.

The international context: end of an era

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Callaghan
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
State Ownership ◽  
Economic Planning ◽  
Economic Management ◽  
Economic Equality ◽  
International Context ◽  
European Economic ◽  
National Economic ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

A pattern was visible across Western Europe in the 1980s; the policies and objectives favoured by the Left in the 1970s – a list which often included industrial democracy, greater economic equality, hostility to NATO and the European Economic Community as well as plans for more state ownership and economic planning – were being renounced. By the middle of the decade the word ‘globalisation’ had entered business literature. The theories associated with it in the 1990s had already begun to emerge – the diminished potency of states in national economic management, the closer integration of the world economy, the greater mobility of capital, the greater power of anonymous market forces, the impact of cheaper and faster communications, the growing strength of forces of convergence, and the redundancy of old socialist ideas. This chapter examines how these international developments were interpreted by the Left in Britain.

Social and Religious Change, 1750–1914

2013 ◽  
pp. 135-170
Author(s):  
Antony Polonsky
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The First World War ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Communal Institutions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First World

This chapter details how the period between 1750 and 1914 saw significant urbanization in north-eastern Europe. In the towns of Warsaw, St Petersburg, Moscow, Lviv, Kraków, and Poznań, a new Jewish way of life came into being. Jews earned their living in changed ways, Jewish communal institutions were transformed under the impact of government policies aimed at Jewish integration and the new needs created by the burgeoning of an industrial society, and, in those states where constitutional norms existed, Jews participated in municipal government. Jews also built modernized synagogues and schools and founded monthly, weekly, and eventually daily Jewish newspapers, which also provided a living for Jewish writers in Hebrew and Yiddish. Ultimately, too, it was in these new conurbations that a new pattern of interaction between Jews and non-Jews was created. The Jewish popular culture that emerged in the four decades before the First World War was an international phenomenon that accompanied the emigration of Jews in large numbers from the lands of former Poland–Lithuania to western Europe, the Americas, and even the Antipodes.

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