Local Communities and Separate Space: The Zionist Stance on Jewish Settlement in Arab Cities—The Case of Acre

This article looks at the impact of harsh environmental conditions on the development of the Zionist narrative and the pursuit of Jewish urban settlement in Arab cities, specifically Acre. While overcoming adversity was part of the Zionist farming ethos, settling in areas that were environmentally challenging was one of the factors that kept the Zionist establishment from acknowledging or supporting urban Jewish settlement in Arab towns. In fact, the openly professed ideology of settling in such locations and creating mixed cities was implemented only in the few cases where an economic or political incentive existed. These incentives aside, environmental issues like swampy land and seasonal flooding were major inhibiting factors, not only affecting the scope of Jewish settlement but also the way they were addressed in the Zionist narrative.

Pre and post flooding malaria parasitemia in gravid women, South East, Nigeria

The effect of global change on the incidence of vector borne diseases including malaria is of great importance. Malaria has been regarded as one of the most sensitive disease that responds fast to climate change. Pregnant women tend to have reduced immunity are more vulnerable to vector borne diseases such as malaria especially with climate change like flooding where these vectors borne diseases are endemic. To measure malaria parasitaemia in gravid women pre and post flooding and also to determine the relationship between malaria and seasonal flooding in South east Nigeria. This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study involving pregnant women aged 15- 45 years attending the antenatal clinics of two maternity centres in a rural community South east Nigeria. Malaria was determined using the thick and thick blood films. Plasmodium falciparum species was examined in this study. Chi-square was used to assess the relationship between malaria and seasonal flooding. One Hundred and fifty pregnant women were recruited for the study. The prevalence of malaria in the gravid women pre and post flooding were 60.00% and 65.30% respectively. Malaria parasite was highest in the gravid women aged 28-31 years and the primigravids. There was no statistical difference between malaria and parity. The mean parasite density in the gravid women was significantly higher post flooding than pre flooding with p-value of 0.001. There was no significant relationship between malaria parasite in gravid women and the periods of investigation. The prevalence of malaria parasite among gravid women in the study area is high regardless of the seasonal flooding. Hence, the need for adherence to malaria prophylaxis protocol by the health care professionals and increase on community health education on malaria preventive strategies.

Decreasing Richness And Biomass During A Flood Pulse Observed In A Southeastern US Coastal Floodplain Following A Multi-Year, Supra-Seasonal Drought

Floodplains of the southeastern United States exhibit high biological productivity, maintained by periodic floodplain inundation as a result of seasonal flooding. To examine the relationship between biological productivity and seasonal flooding following periods of drought, we quantified aquatic macroinvertebrate communities monthly in an inundated floodplain during the annual flood pulse (December-April) in two years, one following a multi-year drought and one following a larger than average flooding event. We predicted that floodplain communities would differ in richness, biomass, and community composition between years and that differences would be driven by discharge at the main stem and organic matter availability. We collected macroinvertebrates from the floodplain of the Altamaha River, an unimpounded 6th order river in the Coastal Plain region of the southeastern US that experiences floodplain connectivity. With invertebrates identified to genus, we elucidated richness, abundance, biomass, community composition, and functional feeding group. Richness was generally higher in the drought year but decreased throughout the flood pulse, while during the flood year richness was lower and increased. Biomass decreased throughout the flood pulse following the drought year and increased during the flood year. There was a high degree of overlap in invertebrate community composition based on abundance data during both years of the study with collector gatherers being the most highly abundant functional feeding group. As climate change impacts (i.e., severe droughts) become more common, it is critical to investigate how aquatic communities are responding to increasingly unpredictable flow conditions in unimpounded and seemingly unaltered rivers.

Monuments from Area Town of Madjary (the North Caucasus): current research developments

The paper features the problem of selection of Golden Horde era sites located in the area neighbouring the town of Majary in the territory of the Middle Kuma valley. The bulk of information about the sites is mostly contained in archival documents relating to the 16th – 18th centuries. At present there is information about 9 sites. The locations of five of them have been discovered. Two sites could possibly be locations of the towns of Majary-al-Jedid and Karakogun, which are known due to numismatic and written sources. The medieval climate and landscape in the region allowed to a certain extent cultivating the Kuma river valley, prone to seasonal flooding. Permanent settlements in the area neighbouring Majary could have been founded in the Upland of the Kuma river valley or the terrace areas above the flood plain in the Kuma river valley or the Kuma tributaries. The areas of the estuaries of the left and the right tributaries of the Kuma river seem promising for the search of Golden Horde era artefacts of everyday life. The sites (“Orlovskoye-1”, 13th – 14th centuries, “Preobrazhenskoye-1”) which are situated in the neighborhood of the Madjary hillfort could relate to the rural area around Majary. Specification of a number of sites situated in some distance from Majary requires a more precise definition.

New deal breathes life into Somalia’s election process

Significance The deal opens a consensual path to elections after the parties agreed on steps to address disputes that have delayed polls since last December. Impacts Regional authorities will need to ramp up preparations to address the challenges posed by al-Shabaab, COVID-19 and seasonal flooding. Divisive polls will make the search for the political consensus to address key state-building tasks in the post-poll period challenging. Somaliland leaders will use the comparison with their just-concluded peaceful, democratic vote to push their independence claims.

Water containment rick estimation during interim flooding for rock-fill dam

In this paper, a mathematical model is designed to estimate the water containment rick for rock-fill dams during interim seasonal flooding based on the condition that the water must not flow over the top of the dam and other stochastic factors such as the level of the floodwater in front of the dam and the high water level during flooding. The characteristics of the rock fill dam construction system, and the number of days each month when the dam is under maintenance and the stochasticity of the average speed of the increase in the water level per day are considered for designing a model to calculate the simulated height for flood prevention during interim flooding. Based on the Monte Carlo method, the risk assessment model is solved by linking stochastic elements for hydrology, hydropower, and construction. Furthermore, the influence of the controllable construction indicator, which is the minimum average daily rising speed, on the risk rate is researched.

Hydraulic flow resistance of epigean and hypogean fish of the family Trichomycteridae (Ostariophysi, Siluriformes)

Critical swimming speeds of four trichomycterid fish species from epigean and hypogean environments were analyzed and compared: Trichomycterus itacarambiensis and Ituglanis passensis, both troglobitic from underground rivers; Trichomycterus brasiliensis, from epigean rivers; and Ituglanis sp., an undescribed troglophilic species from an underground stream. Swimming tests were conducted with a non-volitional apparatus in which fish swim against a progressive incremental water velocity until they longer resist the flow. Total length was significantly related to critical speed for only T. itacarambiensis. The critical speed obtained by each species, in decreasing order, with values in lengths per second (lengths/s), were: I. passensis (3.61), T. itacarambiensis (3.49), T. brasiliensis (3.11) and Ituglanis sp. (1.89). Swimming performance differed between the congeners T. itacarambiensis and T. brasiliensis, but did not differed between I. passensis and Ituglanis sp. The greater speed for the troglobitic species compared to that of the troglophilic and epigean species is probably related to seasonal flooding pulses that can be extremely severe in caves. Furthermore, during the tests, fish were observed using their mouth and/or barbels to fasten themselves to the substrate to avoid high flows.