Spatial and temporal analysis of the risks posed by metal contamination in coastal and marine sediments of Bahrain

Nine metals including Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn were analysed from sediment samples collected from 29 stations since 2007 from Bahraini waters. Within this study, it was investigated whether concentrations of these determinants are at concentrations above internationally established Assessment Criteria (AC). The majority of sites were considered not to pose a toxicological risk in terms of metal contamination. Where breaches occurred, they were mainly from historic samples related to Cr, Cu and Ni contamination. A trend assessment revealed that out of 59 significant trends, 36 were downwards and 23 upwards, indicating that some determinants like Al, Zn and Ni are improving strongly across some sites, whilst areas associated with industrial activity still see some increasing trends for Al, Cd, Pb and Zn.

Wavelets based estimation of trend in sub-divisional rainfall in India

Presence of long memory in climatic variables is frequently observed. The trend assessment becomes difficult in the presence of long-memory as the usual methods are not capable to take care of this property during trend estimation. In order to estimate the trend in presence of long memory, the non-parametric wavelet method has become popular in the recent time. The discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) re-expresses a time-series in terms of coefficients that are associated with a particular time and a particular scale. In the present study, DWT has been applied to estimate the monthly rainfall trend for the monsoon months: June-September in ten selected sub-divisions of India using “Haar” wavelet filter. The results from DWT were cross checked with the non-parametric Mann-Kendall (M-K) test. The investigation reveals that the monthly rainfall trend for the monsoon months of different sub-divisions in India are significantly decreasing over the years. However, in some of the sub-divisions, rainfall trend is increasing. DWT reveals significant trend in most of the sub-divisions whereas M-K test reveals that most of the trends are not significant at 5% level.

Fixed investment: Trend assessment

Subject. This article considers investment in fixed assets as an economic growth factor. Objectives. The article aims to identify trends in the field of investment in fixed assets in the Perm Krai, Volga Federal District, and the Russian Federation. Methods. For the study, we used the methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison, and generalization. Results. The article presents the changes in and patterns of fixed investment for 2015–2019, and it assesses the level of fixed investment in the Russian Federation, Volga Federal District, and the Perm Krai. Relevance. The results of the study can be used to improve the effectiveness of management decisions on fixed capital investment.

Trend Assessment of Global, UVB, UVA Irradiation and Dry Bulb Temperature at the Lowest Terrestrial Site on Earth: Dead Sea, Israel

The Dead Sea basin is lowest terrestrial site on the globe. A meteorological station monitoring the global, UVB and UVA irradiation and the dry bulb temperature was established in 1995 in conjunction with a study of bio-climatological properties of the region with regard to photoclimatherapy treatment of dermatological diseases. The availability of such irradiation and dry bulb temperature databases has been utilized to perform a study to determine if any trends regarding either irradiation or dry bulb temperature exist at this unique site. There was no indication of any trends, based upon a p-value analysis, regarding the global, UVB and UVA irradiation. The global irradiation database included the time interval 1995-2020; whereas the corresponding time interval for the UVB and UVA irradiation databases was 1995-2018. The dry bulb temperature database consisted of the time interval 1995-2020 and, once again, no trends were observed throughout the year with the exception of the nocturnal time interval, between 18:00 to 06:00, during the month of October which exhibited a warming trend of 0.78°C/decade

N2O retrievals from IASI: a new strategy, its validation and a preliminary 13-years trend assessment

<p>N<sub>2</sub>O is the third anthropogenic greenhouse gas, after CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub>. N<sub>2</sub>O is about a 1000 times less abundant than CO<sub>2</sub>, but is a much stronger greenhouse gas (265 times stronger, for the same amount of gas). N<sub>2</sub>O has an atmospheric lifetime of about 120 years, and resides mostly in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. N<sub>2</sub>O is also the principal source of nitrogen in the stratosphere, participating in the ozone destruction.</p><p>Although N<sub>2</sub>O emissions are mostly natural as a part of biogeochemical cycles, a significant part of the emissions is anthropogenic, linked to agriculture, industry and transport. The N<sub>2</sub>O concentrations are continuously increasing since the industrial era. Because its greenhouse potential is very high, identifying and regulating the anthropogenic N<sub>2</sub>O emissions is crucial for climate change mitigation.</p><p>The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) is a nadir viewing satellite instrument, measuring the outgoing radiation in the Infrared range. It flies on board the Metop satellite series, on a polar sun-synchronous orbit, and has been providing data since 2006 with a succession of 3 instruments. The follow-up instrument, IASI-NG (new generation), is already in preparation and will not only ensure data continuity for at least an additional decade, but it will also provide improved performances.</p><p>In this work, we present N<sub>2</sub>O profiles with a limited resolution of maximum 2 degrees of freedom, and the corresponding integrated columns, retrieved from IASI measurements using a new retrieval strategy. We assess the quality of our data through comparisons with Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) and Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) measurements. We will discuss the main “trouble makers” in this retrieval, i.e. the non-retrieved parameters that have the highest impact on the resulting N<sub>2</sub>O data quality. Finally, we will discuss a preliminary trend assessment derived from the retrieved time series covering 13-years.</p>

Observed snow depth trends in the European Alps 1971 to 2019

<p>The European Alps stretch over a range of climate zones, which affect the spatial distribution of snow. Previous analyses of station observations of snow were confined to regional analyses, which complicates comparisons between regions and makes Alpine wide conclusions questionable. Here, we present an Alpine wide analysis of snow depth from six Alpine countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Switzerland; including altogether more than 2000 stations, of which more than 800 were used for the trend assessment. Using a principal component analysis and k-means clustering, we identified five main modes of variability and five regions, which match the climatic forcing zones: north & high Alpine, northeast, northwest, southeast, and south & high Alpine. Linear trends of monthly mean snow depth between 1971 and 2019 showed decreases in snow depth for most stations for November to May. The average trend among all stations for seasonal (November to May) mean snow depth was -8.4 % per decade, for seasonal maximum snow depth -5.6 % per decade, and for seasonal snow cover duration -5.6 % per decade. However, regional trends differed substantially after accounting for elevation, which challenges the notion of generalizing results from one region to another or to the whole Alps. This study presents an analysis of station snow depth series with the most comprehensive spatial coverage in the European Alps to date.</p>

Nilotinib and Imatinib Utilization in Iran over 14 years

Background: Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) are drugs of choice for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) treatment. CML healthcare costs greatly exceed of other haematological malignancies treatment mostly due to TKIs. There are several generic and brand preparations of imatinib and nilotinib, the only available TKIs, in Iran with different prices and varied insurance coverage. We have studied TKIs utilization and also investigate the effect of different insurance coverage on TKIs utilization in Iran. Methods: This was drug utilization study about Imatinib and Nilotinib over 14 years. It was conducted in two phases; data extraction from pharmaceutical wholesale data (2003-2017) for utilization trend assessment and registered data of prescriptions from Sizdah-Aban Pharmacy (2011-2014) for utilization trend and insurance coverage assessment such as; prescriptions frequency, number of TKIs, insurance companies and their cost coverage in each prescription. Results: Imatinib consumption increased significantly from 2003 to 2013. This trend stopped afterward. Nilotinib consumption had ascending trend. The trend line of years 2014 to 2017 was steeper and statistically significant (β=0.0014, p-value=0.02). The amount of nilotinib cost coverage by insurance companies increased significantly from 2011 to 2014 (p-value=0.04). The coverage of imatinib costs by insurance companies changed slightly during the study period that was not statistically significant. Frequency of prescriptions with full cost coverage doubled for nilotinib, while did not change remarkably for imatinib, from 2011 to 2014. Mean (SD) of imatinib and nilotinib counts per prescription was significantly higher in prescriptions for which 100% of the cost was covered. Conclusion: We found increasing trend in nilotinib utilization and observed some effects from nilotinib cost coverage by insurance on its consumption. This study made a clear picture for policy makers to monitor imatinib and nilotinib use appropriateness and design the proper cost-effective studies to make evidence-based decisions.