Progressive optimization allocation model for carbon emission quotas: An empirical study of Jiangsu cities.

The rational allocation of carbon emission quotas is crucial for improving the orderly operation of carbon markets. As a major energy-consuming province in China, Jiangsu's cities must allocate allowable carbon emissions effectively to meet China's 2030 peaking target. This study aims to achieve an optimal allocation of carbon emission quotas by considering principles such as responsibility, efficiency, and equity. To accomplish this goal, we developed a three-stage progressive optimization allocation process. This process incorporates the entropy weight TOPSIS allocation model, zero-sum game-DEA model, and Gini coefficient. The initial allocation scheme revealed that cities in southern Jiangsu, which have higher economic development levels, also received higher carbon emission quotas, compromising efficiency and equity. In response, the second stage involves adjusting the allocation to optimize efficiency for each city, aligning the quotas more closely with historical levels. Finally, the third stage uses the Gini coefficient to further refine the allocation scheme, achieving a more balanced distribution that aligns responsibility, efficiency, and fairness. This research highlights the importance of a structured approach to carbon quota allocation, ensuring a balance that supports both environmental goals and equitable development.

Bovine medicine: Whats´s your diagnosis?

INTRODUCTION: Two Angus calves housed in the Swiss Alps for two months were presented with brisket edema, jugular distension, and diarrhea. Hematological and biochemical examination included elevated concentration of erythrocytes and increased activity of liver enzymes. Ultrasonography revealed small amount of pleural effusion hepatomegaly and congested caudal vena cava. The diagnosis of congestive heart failure secondary to high-altitude disease was confirmed in pathology.

INTRODUCTION: Deux veaux Angus alpés dans les Alpes suisses depuis deux mois ont été présentés avec un œdème du poitrail, une stase jugulaire et de la diarrhée. Les examens hématologiques et biochimiques ont révélé une concentration élevée d'érythrocytes ainsi qu'une augmentation de l'activité des enzymes hépatiques. L'échographie a révélé un petit épanchement pleural, une hépatomégalie et une veine cave caudale congestionnée. Le diagnostic d'insuffisance cardiaque congestive secondaire à un mal des montagnes a été confirmé par la pathologie.

Investigating the perceptions of career development as the Japanese regional quota medical students and graduates in A prefecture.

Background: There are few reports about the perceptions of the regional quota called Chiikiwaku medical students and graduates. Method: Eighty-four medical students and 41 graduates were enrolled in A prefecture. The questionnaire comprised 22 items scored on a 7-point Likert scale, focusing on perceptions of merit and demerit of Chiikiwaku. The data were collected online. Results: Chiikiwaku students scored higher on an item such as 'regional quotas are a solution to the doctor shortage'. Chiikiwaku graduates felt more burdened than Chiikiwaku students. Conclusion: Our results suggested that the perception of Chiikiwaku was different between Chiikiwaku students and graduates.

Academic Engagement of Women as Orthopaedic Surgeons at the Annual Meetings of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association From 2012 to 2022.

BACKGROUND: Higher gender diversity correlates with higher patient satisfaction, higher-quality medical education, increased research productivity, and higher revenues. Although the field of Japanese orthopaedic surgery includes the lowest proportion of women and lags in gender diversity, reports on the current gender diversity status in academic activities are scarce. We investigated changes in women's participation in academic activities at the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) annual meetings over the past 11 years. METHODS: Data on the percentage of women in the JOA membership during 2012-2022 were analyzed to ascertain the proportion of women as first authors of oral and poster presentations, abstract reviewers, invited lecturers, seminar lecturers, general abstract oral chairpersons, symposium chairpersons, and speakers. Regarding the ratio of women among the JOA members during 2012-2022, we relied on data provided by the JOA. Data related to other categories were collected from the abstract book presented at the JOA Annual Meetings between 2012 and 2022. We analyzed the time trend for women's proportions using the Cochran-Armitage trend test. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: During 2012-2022, the percentage of female members (4.9-6.7%), poster first authors (2.7-4.3%), abstract reviewers (0-1.5%), general abstract oral chairpersons (0-2.3%), symposium chairpersons (0-3.6%), and symposium speakers (1.6-6.8%) had increased significantly (p < 0.05). Oral first authors (2.2-4.1%), invited lecturers (0-6.8%), or seminar lecturers (0%-6.7%) showed no trend. Women engaged in academic activities at all annual association meetings did not exceed the women's proportion among the association members. CONCLUSION: Although the proportion of women members of the JOA has gradually increased and more women are involved in its annual meetings, the proportion of female presenters, invited speakers, symposiasts, and chairpersons of oral and poster presentations is generally lower than that of women as JOA members. Members should be asked to raise awareness, including more active education of women as physicians in educational institutions and the creation of positive actions to select women as physicians for more important roles (chairpersons, educational speakers, and symposiasts) in the organization of annual meetings.

Employment rates for working-age patients receiving hemodialysis increasing: Changing economic environment.

INTRODUCTION: This study explored employment trends among working-age patients undergoing hemodialysis using 5-year surveys from 1996 to 2021. Policy changes affecting individuals with disabilities, the economic environment, and employment status among the general population in Japan were considered. Differences in trends by gender and health status were examined. METHODS: Employment status was categorized into employment and nonemployment; and regular, nonregular, and self. Analytical data with similar characteristics were generated over the six surveys using the propensity score method. RESULTS: The employment rate, especially among women, increased from 1996 to 2021. However, the employment rate ratio to the general population was approximately 80% for men and 50% for women, even in 2021. The employment rate increased with an expansion in nonregular employment. Women's employment trends could be explained by changes in real gross domestic product and employment quotas for individuals with disabilities. CONCLUSION: Employment trends differ by gender and by regular versus nonregular employment.

Comparison of attitudes toward community-based medicine between regional-quota and general-selected medical student in Japan.

Objective: This study compared the regional-quota and general-selected medical students' understanding, interest, and confidence in the community medicine practice and their attitudes toward the concept guidelines. Methods: We conducted a Web-based questionnaire survey regarding the understanding, interest, and confidence in future community medicine practice and attitudes toward concept guidelines among medical students of all grades (regional-quota and general-selected: n=82 and n=617, respectively). Results: The overall response rates were 68.5% (56/82) and 66.0% (409/617) in the regional-quota and general-selected groups, respectively. Although there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of understanding (P=0.998), interest and confidence in future practice were significantly higher in the regional-quota group (both P<0.001). There was no significant difference between the two groups for any of the six questions regarding community medicine guidelines. Conclusion: The understanding of community medicine or its conceptual guidelines did not significantly differ between the two groups; however, interest and confidence in future practice were significantly higher in the regional-quota group. These results suggest that the regional-quota system positively upregulates the interest in community medicine, which could be associated with confidence in future practice. Comprehensive and longitudinal improvements in the regional-quota system may be effective in cultivating community medicine.

The allocative efficiency of construction land quota in rural China: a perspective of bidders' behavior and regret psychology.

The construction land quota pricing mechanism with cost plus pricing method is not sufficient to reflect its intrinsic value. This diminishes the willingness of farmers to voluntarily reclaim abandoned residential and other rural construction land, leading to suboptimal efficiency in rural land utilization and an excessive squandering of rural land resources. Thus, a sequential auction model with two stages for complementary goods was constructed, which considered the synergic characteristics between the land and quota. Further, regret psychology of bidder was considered in the case of winning or losing. A rational pricing mechanism has been developed to allocate construction land quotas, aiming to enhance farmers' motivation to the vacant homesteads of reclamation and revitalizing the stock of rural construction land. The results revealed that the regret psychology in the case of winning would decrease the transaction price of the quota, i.e., the greater the perceived regret in the case of winning, the more significant the reduction in the bidding price offered. Moreover, the regret psychology in the event of losing/failure would increase the transaction price of quota. Furthermore, publishing only the winner's price after the auction leads to the highest price of the quota offered by the bidder. In contrast, publishing only the loser's bidding price leads to the lowest transaction price of the quota offered by the bidder. In addition, the fee for delayed construction would increase the bidding price of the construction land quota. Therefore, local governments should consider announcing only the winner of price after the quota auction has ended. In addition, imposing a fee for delayed construction would enhance the transaction price of land quota, increase farmers' revenue from land reclamation, and incentivize farmers to reclaim unused rural land.

[Novel admission procedure for medical students leads to equal opportunities for the individuals-but may aggravate the shortage of rural doctors]. / Neues Zulassungsverfahren Humanmedizin: höhere individuelle Gerechtigkeit, aber Verstärkung des Landarztmangels?

BACKGROUND: In 2017, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled several aspects of the German student admission process unconstitutional. Consequently, the waiting time quota was replaced by an aptitude quota in 2020. Students are now allowed to simultaneously apply to all German medical faculties and an adjustment algorithm for school leaving grades from different federal states was introduced. The present study investigates the impact of these changes on the new study cohorts. METHODS: Records from the federal admission trust were used to compare the final two winter semesters before the change to the first three thereafter. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The impact of the new procedure on students with previous medical training cannot yet be conclusively assessed. While grade point average (GPA) and sex of the students remained comparable and students still prefer to study close to home; however, they have become younger. The adjustment for school leaving grades indeed led to equal opportunities for the individual applicant; however, this may aggravate the shortage of rural doctors. The current adjustment mechanism considers applicant numbers, yet less people apply from rural areas while at the same time these areas suffer from a shortage of physicians. As rural upbringing and education are the best predictors of rural practice after licensing, the shortage may worsen. To counteract this, the compensation mechanism for the school leaving grades could easily be adjusted.

Comparison of attitudes toward community-based medicine between regional-quota and general-selected medical student in Japan / Journal of Rural Medicine

Objective: This study compared the regional-quota and general-selected medical students’ understanding, interest, and confidence in the community medicine practice and their attitudes toward the concept guidelines.Methods: We conducted a Web-based questionnaire survey regarding the understanding, interest, and confidence in future community medicine practice and attitudes toward concept guidelines among medical students of all grades (regional-quota and general-selected: n=82 and n=617, respectively).Results: The overall response rates were 68.5% (56/82) and 66.0% (409/617) in the regional-quota and general-selected groups, respectively. Although there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of understanding (P=0.998), interest and confidence in future practice were significantly higher in the regional-quota group (both P<0.001). There was no significant difference between the two groups for any of the six questions regarding community medicine guidelines.Conclusion: The understanding of community medicine or its conceptual guidelines did not significantly differ between the two groups; however, interest and confidence in future practice were significantly higher in the regional-quota group. These results suggest that the regional-quota system positively upregulates the interest in community medicine, which could be associated with confidence in future practice. Comprehensive and longitudinal improvements in the regional-quota system may be effective in cultivating community medicine.

Novel insights into toxin changes associated with the growth of Alexandrium pacificum: Revealing active toxin-secretion ability and toxin cell quota variation.

Paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) are widely distributed globally and are produced by Alexandrium pacificum in marine system. However, the characteristics of toxins producing and secreting associated with growth phases are still unclear, especially whether A. pacificum has the ability to actively secrete PSTs is controversial. In this study, variation characteristics of intracellular and extracellular PSTs contents associated with A. pacificum growth phases were investigated thoroughly. The results showed that intracellular and extracellular PSTs contents increased sharply during the exponential phase. But during the stationary phase, the intracellular PSTs content increased by only 26 %, and the extracellular PSTs content did not increase significantly. Since the increase in extracellular PSTs content mainly occurred at the exponential phase, when most cells were living, we speculated that active PSTs secretion of living cells might be an important production pathway of extracellular toxins besides leakage from dead cells. Furthermore, toxin cell quota variation associated with the growth phase was analysed. In the exponential phase, the toxin cell quota first increased and then decreased, with a maximum of 19.02 ± 1.80 fmol/cell at 6 d. However, after entering the stationary phase, this value slowly increased again, suggesting that vigilance should be raised for the plateau of Alexandrium blooms. In addition, cells in the exponential phase mainly produced O-sulfated components such as GTX1&4, cells in the stationary phase mainly produced O-sulfate-free components such as GTX5. In this study, the toxigenic rules of A. pacificum were comprehensively uncovered, which provided theoretical guidance for the prevention and mitigation of A. pacificum blooms.

Factors associated with regional retention of physicians: a cross-sectional online survey of medical students and graduates in Japan.

BACKGROUND: Physician shortage and maldistribution is an urgent health policy issue requiring resolution. Determination of factors associated with regional retention and development of effective policy interventions will help to solve this issue. The purpose of the present study was to identify factors associated with regional retention and discuss their policy implications. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey from February to March of 2022 for graduates from regional quotas (special quotas for medical schools to select students engaged in community medicine) and Jichi Medical University (JMU) and students at 10 medical schools including JMU. Completed surveys were obtained from 375 graduates and 1153 students. Questions included intention to continue to work in their home prefecture in the future, as well as background information and potential factors associated with regional retention. In the analyses, regional quotas and JMU were referred to as community medicine-oriented programs and schools (CMPS). We performed logistic regression analyses to identify factors associated with regional retention. RESULTS: Among the students, scholarship-bonded obligatory service, satisfaction with current life, intention to belong to ikyoku (a traditional physician allocation/training system in Japanese medical schools), and interest in general practice/family medicine were significantly positively associated with regional retention. Among the graduates, satisfaction with training environment, intention to belong to ikyoku, and recommending their program to high school students were significantly positively associated with regional retention. For students of CMPS, satisfaction with the career development program was positively associated with future regional retention. For graduates, this association was observed only in the crude analysis. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to known factors such as interest in general practice/family medicine, intention to belong to ikyoku had a substantial impact on regional retention. The present results suggest that the career support system represented by ikyoku as well as a career development program are of potential importance for increasing regional retention through the mechanisms of a sense of belonging and a life-long education system. These findings provide useful information for the development of further policy interventions that interweave traditional and new systems to maximize their effectiveness.

Effects of Different Water and Nitrogen Supply Modes on Peanut Growth and Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiency under Mulched Drip Irrigation in Xinjiang.

The optimization of irrigation and fertilization indexes for peanuts with drip irrigation is urgently needed in Xinjiang. A field experiment was conducted during the 2021 peanut growing season at Urumqi, Xinjiang, in Northwestern China, to evaluate the effects of different water and nitrogen treatments on the growth, yield, and water and nitrogen utilization of peanuts. In field experiments, we set up three irrigation levels (irrigation water quotas of 22.5, 30, and 37.5 mm, respectively, for W1, W2, and W3), two nitrogen application levels (77.5 and 110 kg·ha-1, recorded as N1 and N2), and a control treatment (W2N0) that did not include the application of nitrogen. The results showed that nitrogen application enhanced the growth, physiological indexes, yield, and water use efficiency of the W1, W2, and W3 treatments when the irrigation volume remained the same. In comparison with no nitrogen application (W2N0), the peanut growth, physiological indexes, yield, and water use efficiency improved with increasing irrigation amounts in the N1 and N2 treatments. With an increase in the irrigation volume, the water use efficiency grew; the W3N2 treatment had the highest water use efficiency, which was 1.32 kg·m-3. The total water consumption and reproductive-stage water consumption of the peanuts in all treatments increased with the irrigation volume, and a high yield was achieved at 402.57 mm, which was 5.2974 Mg·ha-1. In the W1, W2, and W3 treatments, the nitrogen partial factor productivity significantly decreased as the nitrogen application increased, with the nitrogen partial factor productivity in the W3N1 treatment being the highest, at 60.61 kg·kg-1. A comprehensive evaluation based on principal component analysis assigned W3N2 the higher score. These findings suggest that irrigation water quotas of 37.5 mm should be coupled with 110 kg·ha-1 nitrogen applications for peanuts using drip irrigation in mulch film in Xinjiang.

A study on urban household water consumption behavior under drought conditions.

The increasing frequency of drought events has intensified the risk of water scarcity, posing significant challenges for urban domestic water supply. Reducing urban household water consumption is an important way to alleviate water stress during drought periods. However, due to various factors, it is difficult to determine a water-saving target that is within the residents' capacity. Here, taking Beijing, China as an example, we explored the socio-psychological factors behind urban household water use behaviors under drought conditions, and further quantified the compressible ratio of water quotas for flexible water use behaviors. Therefore, the present study was based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and extended TPB (ETPB) by adding drought risk perception as a variable to the theoretical framework. With the help of questionnaire method and structural equation modeling (SEM), the explanatory power of TPB and ETPB in predicting people's water saving intention and behavior was compared. Meanwhile, mathematical statistical analysis methods were employed to calculate the water quota for elastic water consumption behavior and the compressible proportion of urban residents' elastic water consumption under drought conditions. The results showed that drought risk perception has a significant positive correlation with subject norms and water reduction behavior under drought conditions. Furthermore, ETPB was more effective in analyzing water use intentions and behaviors. The predictive explanatory power of SEM for reducing water use increased from 44% to 50% after adding drought risk perception variable. In terms of quantification of elastic water use behavior, the average total water consumption in summer and winter were 71.3L/(p.d) and 52.9L/(p.d) under drought conditions, while it were 124.3 L/(p.d) and 108.9 L/(p.d) under normal conditions. And the compressible proportions of the total water quota for summer and winter elastic water use were 46.7% and 56.8%, respectively. The calculation results can provide a reference for the government to make emergency water supply decisions against drought.

Research on carbon emission quota allocation scheme under "Double Carbon" target: a case study of industrial sector in Henan Province.

To achieve China's "Double Carbon" target, overall carbon emissions should be effectively controlled, and carbon emission quota (CEQ) allocation is an important tool. This study develops carbon emission prediction, CEQ allocation, and scheme feasibility evaluation models based on the principles of fairness, efficiency, and economy. The purpose is to propose a suitable CEQ allocation scheme for the Industrial Sector in Henan Province (ISHP). The results show that (1) the allocation model combining the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and the zero-sum gains DEA (ZSG-DEA) can trade off the fairness and efficiency principles. (2) The reallocation scheme has an environmental Gini coefficient of 0.393 (< 0.4), which maximizes efficiency while lowering the abatement costs by 126.268 billion yuan, making it an ideal scheme that considers multiple principles. (3) CEQ should be reduced in 7 subsectors of ISHP while increasing in 33 others. Carbon emissions from these 7 subsectors are high, and CEQ should be reduced in accordance with the fairness principle. Even if their abatement costs are high and CEQ rises according to the efficiency principle, the increase is much smaller than the decrease. The findings are useful for optimizing the CEQ allocation under the "Double Carbon" target.

The impact of carbon quota allocation and low-carbon technology innovation on carbon market effectiveness: a system dynamics analysis.

As the problems of "valuing compliance over trading" and quota over-allocation seriously affect the effectiveness of China's national carbon emission trading (CET) market, the quota auction mechanism will be introduced timely to solve these problems. Since implementing the quota auction means reduced free quotas, regulated enterprises are more motivated to pursue low-carbon technology innovation (L-CTI). On these grounds, by establishing a system dynamics model of the national CET market and designing seven scenarios for simulation analysis, this paper investigates the impact of quota auction and L-CTI on the emission reduction effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the national CET market. The results indicate that for the national CET market, introducing quota auction is conducive to decreasing the CET price and improving its liquidity and emission reduction effectiveness, which is one of the quota allocation mechanisms to improve the CET market effectiveness at present. However, the quota auction will increase the abatement cost and reduce the cost effectiveness. Therefore, to improve the institutional performance of China's CET system, it is necessary to conduct L-CTI to alleviate the increasing abatement cost caused by quota auction, and thus improve the emission reduction effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the national CET market.

[The problematic aspects of implementation of cochlear implantation].

In the conditions of sanctions and aggravation of trade relations, the issue of importing many categories of goods is rather sharp. At that, goods of medical purposes as one of most import-dependent category faced great difficulties associated with their lacking in adequate quantities for planned support of patients. The cochlear implantation at the moment of implementation of restrictions was built on almost 90% of imported implants and their components that makes considered topic especially actual. The article considers in detail basic principles of cochlear implants functioning. The customs statistics regarding importation of implants is analyzed. The procedure of organizing work on implantation and postoperative rehabilitation is examined. The main problematic aspects in industry were identified and recommendations for their elimination were formulated.

Phosphorus storage and utilization strategies of two bloom-forming freshwater cyanobacteria.

The inter-relationships between cellular phosphorus (P) storage, dissolved inorganic P (DIP) uptake affinity, alkaline phosphatase activity (APA) and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentrations were studied in two ubiquitous diazotrophic freshwater cyanobacteria, Raphidiopsis raciborskii (six strains) and Chrysosporum ovalisporum (two strains). DIP uptake kinetics were measured using rates of incorporation of the radio-isotope, 33P and APA as a proxy for DOP-ester utilization. The study showed that DIP uptake of individual strains followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics (modified in our study to incorporate cellular P quotas), but differed with DIN and P availability, and between growth stages. High-affinity DIP uptake and APA were activated below a P quota threshold of approximately 0.01 µg P µg-1 C across the species and strains. C. ovalisporum had significantly higher APA and P quotas (per unit C and cell) but lower uptake affinity than R. raciborskii. Demand for DIP by C. ovalisporum increased when N fixation occurred, but typically not for R. raciborskii. Our results indicate that cyanobacterial species and strains differ in their strategies to P limiting conditions, and highlight the interplay between N and P. Physiological adaptations like APA and diazotrophy of cyanobacteria adapting to low DIP and/or DIN conditions may occur simultaneously and drive species dominance in oligotrophic environments.

Year-Round Presence of Microcystins and Toxin-Producing Microcystis in the Water Column and Ice Cover of a Eutrophic Lake Located in the Continuous Permafrost Zone (Yakutia, Russia).

This study aimed to test the hypothesis of the year-round presence of toxigenic Microcystis and cyanotoxins in the water and ice of the shallow eutrophic Lake Ytyk-Kyuyol located in the continuous permafrost zone. Three independent approaches-mass-spectrometry, molecular methods and light microscopy-were applied in the study. The cyanobacterial biomass ranged from 1.0 × 10-4 to 4.8 mg L-1. Microcystis flos-aquae and M. aeruginosa were the dominant morphospecies in plankton throughout the observation. In environmental DNA, the presence of M. aeruginosa was supported and mcy gene regions responsible for microcystin biosynthesis were detected through a BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) search and phylogenetic estimation based on newly obtained 16S rRNA, 16S-23S ITS rRNA, mcyA and mcyE nucleotide sequences. The intracellular microcystin concentration ranged from <0.1 to 803 ng L-1, and the microcystin quota in the Microcystis biomass was extremely low. For the first time, it was shown that Microcystis cells containing mcy genes and microcystins presented permanently in the water column, both during the ice-free period and under ice, as well as inside thick ice covers within 7 months of severe winter. We hypothesized that minor pelagic and ice populations of Microcystis could participate in increasing cell density in the spring. However, further studies are needed to confirm the viability of the overwintering Microcystis colonies in the water and inside the ice of Lake Ytyk-Kyuyol.

The Case Against Race-Based Quotas in Pharmaceutical Trials.

This Article is the first to offer a comprehensive case against using racial quotas in pharmaceutical studies by providing a detailed examination of the arguments for and against the practice. It begins by discussing the current racial classification system, calls for racial quotas in pharmaceutical trials, and the troubling history of combining race and scientific investigation. It next examines the cautionary tale of BiDil, the first drug authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in only Black people. The third part of the Article sets forth the arguments against racial quotas. The fourth part provides legal analysis of these arguments, concluding that racial quotas in pharmaceutical trials likely would not satisfy the strict scrutiny standard for two independent reasons. The fifth part evaluates the alleged benefits of racial quotas and demonstrates that when properly understood they are insignificant in comparison to the disadvantages. The final part weighs the evidence to arrive at a conclusion and considers future implications.Ultimately, this Article provides a valuable framework for assessing the legal and pragmatic implications not just for pharmaceutical trial quotas but also for other racial-classification issues in health care. For example, while it presents a cumulative case against the proposed practice of racial quotas in pharmaceutical trials, many of the same arguments presented are also applicable to the currently mandated practice of acquiring and reporting racial data of pharmaceutical trial participants. It will serve as a valuable resource not only for opponents of racial quotas but also for advocates. For example, this Article provides numerous race-neutral alternatives for consideration. And the strong case against racial quotas helps facilitate a refocus of efforts away from merely ameliorating the end results of health care disparities and instead targeting the root causes. Evidence suggests that this redirected focus on root causes is more effective at producing positive change. In this way, rejecting these quotas is not in conflict with addressing health disparities; rather, it is beneficial to it. This Article will hopefully serve as a catalyst for future research regarding best practices on how pragmatic; legal; and diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations can synergistically exist.

Decoding algae under abnormal temperature variability with odorant as a responsive indicator.

Harmful algal blooms impair the aesthetic quality and healthy performance of in-situ water. Worse yet, dramatic temperature variability arises additional difficulty in algal-induced risk assessment, which is so far poorly explored. Microcystis aeruginosa (FACHB 905), was selected to explore the odor-producing pattern (ß-cyclocitral, the major odorant of the test alga) under several temperature-varying scenarios. Significant differences were observed in total ß-cyclocitral yield between these scenarios, e.g., a rapid yield response as a result of acute temperature variation. Yield response was not only dependent on absolute temperature, but influenced by temperature variability stress. Acute increase (AI) or sequential increase (SI) in temperature caused extra production response, while the opposite was observed in groups with acute decrease (AD) and sequential decrease (SD) in temperature. Cell growth in AD group showed severe inhibition, with the specific growth rates fluctuating around half of that in 16-control. Whereas, SD could relieve such detrimental growth effects. Cell quota of ß-cyclocitral yield was sensitive to temperature variation, with notable increase in AI and SI. Further, peaks in cell quota for SI group (79.3 %) were higher than for AI group (57.9 %). Cell quota variations in temperature-varying conditions contributed to the total yield response (R2 = 0.566-0.980) more than cell intensity variations (R2 = 0.0397-0.548). Further, it was also found that the internal mechanism by reactive oxygen species and pigments varied in various thermal scenarios. Overall, it was demonstrated that more than absolute value differences, temperature varying patterns across time influence algal behavior and related hazards, which should be noted in resource water quality management.