Positive illusions about dyadic perspective-taking as a moderator of the association between attachment insecurity and marital satisfaction.

Attachment insecurity (i.e., attachment anxiety or avoidance) puts people at risk for dissatisfying relationships. However, the dyadic regulation model of insecurity buffering suggests that an understanding and responsive partner may help insecure individuals to regulate emotions, thus improving couples' relationships. It may also be that perceiving partners as understanding and empathic, especially in an exaggeratedly positive way (i.e., positive illusions) will buffer insecurity. In 196 mixed-gender newlywed couples, we investigated whether spouses' positive illusions about partner's dyadic perspective-taking moderated the association between spouses' attachment insecurity and spouses' and partners' marital satisfaction over two years. Positive illusions generally predicted more satisfying relationships and attachment avoidance consistently predicted more dissatisfying relationships. There were also several instances where multilevel modeling indicated that positive illusions of dyadic perspective-taking buffered the negative effects of attachment avoidance on relationship satisfaction. However, there was also potentiation such that in two instances, positive illusions about dyadic perspective-taking strengthened the association between spouses' insecurity (husbands' attachment anxiety and wives' attachment avoidance) and subsequent marital dissatisfaction. In the moment, positive illusions about dyadic perspective-taking may allow spouses to feel happy in their relationship despite fear of emotional intimacy; however, positive illusions may not continue to buffer effects of insecurity on subsequent relationship satisfaction and may even be harmful in the face of insecurity.

Updated Smoke Exposure Estimate for Indonesian Peatland Fires Using a Network of Low-Cost PM2.5 Sensors and a Regional Air Quality Model.

Indonesia accounts for more than one third of the world's tropical peatlands. Much of the peatland in Indonesia has been deforested and drained, meaning it is more susceptible to fires, especially during drought and El Niño events. Fires are most common in Riau (Sumatra) and Central Kalimantan (Borneo) and lead to poor regional air quality. Measurements of air pollutant concentrations are sparse in both regions contributing to large uncertainties in both fire emissions and air quality degradation. We deployed a network of 13 low-cost PM2.5 sensors across urban and rural locations in Central Kalimantan and measured indoor and outdoor PM2.5 concentrations during the onset of an El Niño dry season in 2023. During the dry season (September 1st to October 31st), mean outdoor PM2.5 concentrations were 136 µg m-3, with fires contributing 90 µg m-3 to concentrations. Median indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios were 1.01 in rural areas, considerably higher than those reported during wildfires in other regions of the world (e.g., USA), indicating housing stock in the region provides little protection from outdoor PM2.5. We combined WRF-Chem simulated PM2.5 concentrations with the median fire-derived I/O ratio and questionnaire results pertaining to participants' time spent I/O to estimate 1.62 million people in Central Kalimantan were exposed to unhealthy, very unhealthy and dangerous air quality (>55.4 µg m-3) during the dry season. Our work provides new information on the exposure of people in Central Kalimantan to smoke from fires and highlights the need for action to help reduce peatland fires.

Sea level rise from West Antarctic mass loss significantly modified by large snowfall anomalies.

Mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is dominated by glaciers draining into the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE), yet the impact of anomalous precipitation on the mass balance of the ASE is poorly known. Here we present a 25-year (1996-2021) record of ASE input-output mass balance and evaluate how two periods of anomalous precipitation affected its sea level contribution. Since 1996, the ASE has lost 3331 ± 424 Gt ice, contributing 9.2 ± 1.2 mm to global sea level. Overall, surface mass balance anomalies contributed little (7.7%) to total mass loss; however, two anomalous precipitation events had larger, albeit short-lived, impacts on rates of mass change. During 2009-2013, persistently low snowfall led to an additional 51 ± 4 Gt yr-1 mass loss in those years (contributing positively to the total loss of 195 ± 4 Gt yr-1). Contrastingly, extreme precipitation in the winters of 2019 and 2020 decreased mass loss by 60 ± 16 Gt yr-1 during those years (contributing negatively to the total loss of 107 ± 15 Gt yr-1). These results emphasise the important impact of extreme snowfall variability on the short-term sea level contribution from West Antarctica.

Achieving Brazil's Deforestation Target Will Reduce Fire and Deliver Air Quality and Public Health Benefits.

Climate, deforestation, and forest fires are closely coupled in the Amazon, but models of fire that include these interactions are lacking. We trained machine learning models on temperature, rainfall, deforestation, land-use, and fire data to show that spatial and temporal patterns of fire in the Amazon are strongly modified by deforestation. We find that fire count across the Brazilian Amazon increases by 0.44 percentage points for each percentage point increase in deforestation rate. We used the model to predict that the increased deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon from 2013 to 2020 caused a 42% increase in fire counts in 2020. We predict that if Brazil had achieved the deforestation target under the National Policy on Climate Change, there would have been 32% fewer fire counts across the Brazilian Amazon in 2020. Using a regional chemistry-climate model and exposure-response associations, we estimate that the improved air quality due to reduced smoke emission under this scenario would have resulted in 2,300 fewer deaths due to reduced exposure to fine particulate matter. Our analysis demonstrates the air quality and public health benefits that would accrue from reducing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.

Impact of the 2019/2020 Australian Megafires on Air Quality and Health.

The Australian 2019/2020 bushfires were unprecedented in their extent and intensity, causing a catastrophic loss of habitat, human and animal life across eastern-Australia. We use a regional air quality model to assess the impact of the bushfires on particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) concentrations and the associated health impact from short-term population exposure to bushfire PM2.5. The mean population Air Quality Index (AQI) exposure between September and February in the fires and no fires simulations indicates an additional ∼437,000 people were exposed to "Poor" or worse AQI levels due to the fires. The AQ impact was concentrated in the cities of Sydney, Newcastle-Maitland, Canberra-Queanbeyan and Melbourne. Between October and February 171 (95% CI: 66-291) deaths were brought forward due to short-term exposure to bushfire PM2.5. The health burden was largest in New South Wales (NSW) (109 (95% CI: 41-176) deaths brought forward), Queensland (15 (95% CI: 5-24)), and Victoria (35 (95% CI: 13-56)). This represents 38%, 13% and 30% of the total deaths brought forward by short-term exposure to all PM2.5. At a city-level 65 (95% CI: 24-105), 23 (95% CI: 9-38) and 9 (95% CI: 4-14) deaths were brought forward from short-term exposure to bushfire PM2.5, accounting for 36%, 20%, and 64% of the total deaths brought forward from all PM2.5. Thus, the bushfires caused substantial AQ and health impacts across eastern-Australia. Climate change is projected to increase bushfire risk, therefore future fire management policies should consider this.

Meeting the needs of an ever-demanding market.

Balancing cost and performance in packaging is critical. This article outlines techniques to assist in this whilst delivering added value and product differentiation. The techniques include a rigorous statistical process capable of delivering cost reduction and improved quality and a computer modelling process that can save time when validating new packaging options.

Contribution of P2X1 receptor intracellular basic residues to channel properties.

The intracellular amino and carboxy termini of P2X receptors have been shown to contribute to the regulation of ATP evoked currents. In this study we produced, and expressed in Xenopus oocytes, individual alanine point mutants of positively charged amino acids (eight lysine, seven arginine and one histidine) in the intracellular domains of the human P2X1 receptor. The majority of these mutations had no effect on the amplitude, time-course or rectification of ATP evoked currents. In contrast the mutant K367A was expressed at normal levels at the cell surface however ATP evoked currents were reduced by >99% and desensitised more rapidly demonstrating a role of K367 in channel regulation. This is similar to that previously described for T18A mutant channels. Co-expression of T18A and K367A mutant P2X1 receptors produced larger ATP evoked responses than either mutant alone and suggests that these amino and carboxy terminal regions interact to regulate channel function.