Ecological marginalization is widespread and increases extinction risk in mammals.

Human land-use results in widespread range change across taxa. Anthropogenic pressures can result in species' realized niches expanding, shifting, or contracting. Marginalization occurs when contraction constrains species to the geographic or ecological extremes of their historic niche. Using 4,785 terrestrial mammal species, we show that range contraction results in niche space and habitat diversity loss. Additionally, ecological marginalization is a common consequence of range contraction caused by human land use change. Remnant populations become located in the climatic and topographic extremes of their historic niche that are more likely to be at the periphery of their historic niche at greater distances from historic niche centroids. This ecological marginalization is associated with poor performance and increased extinction risk independent of geographic range loss. Range loss and marginalization may create a "double whammy" in vulnerable groups, such as large-bodied species and species with small geographical range size. Our results reveal a hitherto unrecognized conservation threat that is vital to incorporate into conservation assessment and management.

COVID-19 infection induces higher trust in strangers.

How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect interpersonal trust? Most evidence shows that natural disasters reinforce trust and cooperation, but the COVID-19 virus differs from other calamities, since it spreads through contact with people, potentially increasing suspicion and distrust, as, according to contemporaneous writers' accounts, seems to have been the case with the Black Death, the London plague, and the Spanish influenza. We investigate the link between interpersonal trust and individuals exposed to COVID-19, either vicariously through their community or networks or directly by becoming infected. We rely on an original panel survey, including a survey experiment, with a representative sample of adults in Italy, one of the countries hardest struck by the pandemic. Our experimental findings reveal that priming people about the risk that the pandemic poses to their health leads to a substantial increase in their trust in strangers. Our panel data analysis of within-individual effects shows that those who become infected trust strangers more than those who are not infected. Our findings could be explained by people observing higher than expected altruistic behavior or becoming more dependent on other people's support, consistent with the "emancipation theory of trust." When people recover from COVID-19, however, they drop to trusting strangers as much as those who were not directly exposed to the virus, an indication that the positive effects on trust during the pandemic have an emotional source. Nonetheless, the evidence suggests that, in the aggregate, there has been a small but significant increase in trust among the general population relative to prepandemic levels.

When danger strikes: A linguistic tool for tracking America's collective response to threats.

In today's vast digital landscape, people are constantly exposed to threatening language, which attracts attention and activates the human brain's fear circuitry. However, to date, we have lacked the tools needed to identify threatening language and track its impact on human groups. To fill this gap, we developed a threat dictionary, a computationally derived linguistic tool that indexes threat levels from mass communication channels. We demonstrate this measure's convergent validity with objective threats in American history, including violent conflicts, natural disasters, and pathogen outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the dictionary offers predictive insights on US society's shifting cultural norms, political attitudes, and macroeconomic activities. Using data from newspapers that span over 100 years, we found change in threats to be associated with tighter social norms and collectivistic values, stronger approval of sitting US presidents, greater ethnocentrism and conservatism, lower stock prices, and less innovation. The data also showed that threatening language is contagious. In all, the language of threats is a powerful tool that can inform researchers and policy makers on the public's daily exposure to threatening language and make visible interesting societal patterns across American history.

The moral filter of patriotic prejudice: How Americans view Chinese in the COVID-19 era.

About one in six Asian Americans have fallen victim to anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic [J. Lee, K. Ramakrishnan, aapidata.com/blog/discrimination-survey-2022/]. By examining anti-Asian racism in the United States primarily as a domestic issue, most prior studies have overlooked the connections between shifting US-China relations and Americans' prejudices against the Chinese in China and, by extension, East Asian Americans. This study investigates the patterns and perceptual bases of nationality-based prejudices against Chinese amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Our nationally representative online survey experiment reveals that Americans assess a hypothetical Chinese person in China as inferior in multiple social and psychological characteristics to an otherwise identical Japanese person in Japan or East Asian American. Furthermore, subjects who perceive China as more threatening to America's national interests assess Chinese more negatively, especially in terms of trustworthiness and morality, suggesting that perceived China threats propel Americans' negative stereotypes about Chinese. A contextual analysis further indicates that counties with a higher share of Trump voters in 2016 tend to perceive all East Asian-origin groups similarly as a racial outgroup. By contrast, residents in predominantly Democrat-voting counties tend to perceive Chinese in China more negatively relative to Asian Americans, despite broadly viewing East Asians more favorably. Overall, this study underscores the often-overlooked relationships between the prevailing anti-Asian sentiments in the United States and the US-China geopolitical tensions and America's domestic political polarization.

Vulnerability of terrestrial vertebrate food webs to anthropogenic threats in Europe.

Vertebrate species worldwide are currently facing significant declines in many populations. Although we have gained substantial knowledge about the direct threats that affect individual species, these threats only represent a fraction of the broader vertebrate threat profile, which is also shaped by species interactions. For example, threats faced by prey species can jeopardize the survival of their predators due to food resource scarcity. Yet, indirect threats arising from species interactions have received limited investigation thus far. In this study, we investigate the indirect consequences of anthropogenic threats on biodiversity in the context of European vertebrate food webs. We integrated data on trophic interactions among over 800 terrestrial vertebrates, along with their associated human-induced threats. We quantified and mapped the vulnerability of various components of the food web, including species, interactions, and trophic groups to six major threats: pollution, agricultural intensification, climate change, direct exploitation, urbanization, and invasive alien species and diseases. Direct exploitation and agricultural intensification were two major threats for terrestrial vertebrate food webs: affecting 34% and 31% of species, respectively, they threaten 85% and 69% of interactions in Europe. By integrating network ecology with threat impact assessments, our study contributes to a better understanding of the magnitude of anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity.

Climate and human stressors on global penguin hotspots: Current assessments for future conservation.

As charismatic and iconic species, penguins can act as "ambassadors" or flagship species to promote the conservation of marine habitats in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately, there is a lack of reliable, comprehensive, and systematic analysis aimed at compiling spatially explicit assessments of the multiple impacts that the world's 18 species of penguin are facing. We provide such an assessment by combining the available penguin occurrence information from Global Biodiversity Information Facility (>800,000 occurrences) with three main stressors: climate-driven environmental changes at sea, industrial fisheries, and human disturbances on land. Our analyses provide a quantitative assessment of how these impacts are unevenly distributed spatially within species' distribution ranges. Consequently, contrasting pressures are expected among species, and populations within species. The areas coinciding with the greatest impacts for penguins are the coast of Perú, the Patagonian Shelf, the Benguela upwelling region, and the Australian and New Zealand coasts. When weighting these potential stressors with species-specific vulnerabilities, Humboldt (Spheniscus humboldti), African (Spheniscus demersus), and Chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus) emerge as the species under the most pressure. Our approach explicitly differentiates between climate and human stressors, since the more achievable management of local anthropogenic stressors (e.g., fisheries and land-based threats) may provide a suitable means for facilitating cumulative impacts on penguins, especially where they may remain resilient to global processes such as climate change. Moreover, our study highlights some poorly represented species such as the Northern Rockhopper (Eudyptes moseleyi), Snares (Eudyptes robustus), and Erect-crested penguin (Eudyptes sclateri) that need internationally coordinated efforts for data acquisition and data sharing to understand their spatial distribution properly.

Extinction risk of the world's freshwater mammals.

The continued loss of freshwater habitats poses a significant threat to global biodiversity. We reviewed the extinction risk of 166 freshwater aquatic and semiaquatic mammals-a group rarely documented as a collective. We used the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species categories as of December 2021 to determine extinction risk. Extinction risk was then compared among taxonomic groups, geographic areas, and biological traits. Thirty percent of all freshwater mammals were listed as threatened. Decreasing population trends were common (44.0%), including a greater rate of decline (3.6% in 20 years) than for mammals or freshwater species as a whole. Aquatic freshwater mammals were at a greater risk of extinction than semiaquatic freshwater mammals (95% CI -7.20 to -1.11). Twenty-nine species were data deficient or not evaluated. Large species (95% CI 0.01 to 0.03) with large dispersal distances (95% CI 0.03 to 0.15) had a higher risk of extinction than small species with small dispersal distances. The number of threatening processes associated with a species compounded their risk of extinction (95% CI 0.28 to 0.77). Hunting, land clearing for logging and agriculture, pollution, residential development, and habitat modification or destruction from dams and water management posed the greatest threats to these species. The basic life-history traits of many species were poorly known, highlighting the need for more research. Conservation of freshwater mammals requires a host of management actions centered around increased protection of riparian areas and more conscientious water management to aid the recovery of threatened species.

Riesgo de extinción de los mamíferos de agua dulce Resumen La pérdida continua de hábitats de agua dulce representa una amenaza importante para la biodiversidad mundial. Analizamos el riesgo de extinción de 166 especies de mamíferos acuáticos y semiacuáticos de agua dulce-un grupo que se documenta pocas veces como colectivo. Usamos las categorías de la Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza de diciembre 2021 para determinar el riesgo de extinción. Después comparamos este riesgo entre grupos taxonómicos, áreas geográficas y caracteres biológicos. El 30% de los mamíferos de agua dulce están categorizados como amenazados. La declinación de las tendencias poblacionales fue común (44.0%), incluyendo una mayor tasa de declinación (3.6% en 20 años) que para los mamíferos o las especies de agua dulce como conjunto. Los mamíferos acuáticos de agua dulce se encuentran en mayor riesgo de extinción que los mamíferos semiacuáticos (95% IC -7.20 a -1.11). Veintinueve especies no contaban con suficientes datos o no estaban evaluadas. Las especies grandes (95% IC 0.01 a 0.03) con distancias de dispersión amplias (95% IC 0.03 a 0.15) tuvieron un mayor riesgo de extinción que las especies pequeñas con menores distancias de dispersión. El número de procesos amenazantes asociados a alguna especie agravó su riesgo de extinción (95% CI 0.28 a 0.77). Las principales amenazas para estas especies fueron la cacería, el desmonte de tierras para tala y agricultura, la contaminación, los desarrollos residenciales y la destrucción o modificación del hábitat causados por presas o manejo hidrológico. Se sabe poco sobre los caracteres básicos de la historia de vida de muchas especies, lo que destaca la necesidad de más investigación al respecto. La conservación de mamíferos de agua dulce requiere una serie de acciones gestoras centradas en el incremento de la protección de las áreas ribereñas y una gestión hidrológica más consciente para ayudar a la recuperación de las especies amenazadas.

Evaluating drivers of recent large whale strandings on the East Coast of the United States.

Anthropogenic stressors threaten large whales globally. Effective management requires an understanding of where, when, and why threats are occurring. Strandings data provide key information on geographic hotspots of risk and the relative importance of various threats. There is currently considerable public interest in the increased frequency of large whale strandings occurring along the US East Coast of the United States since 2016. Interest is accentuated due to a purported link with offshore wind energy development. We reviewed spatiotemporal patterns of strandings, mortalities, and serious injuries of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), the species most frequently involved, for which the US government has declared an "unusual mortality event" (UME). Our analysis highlights the role of vessel strikes, exacerbated by recent changes in humpback whale distribution and vessel traffic.  Humpback whales have expanded into new foraging grounds in recent years. Mortalities due to vessel strikes have increased significantly in these newly occupied regions, which show high vessel traffic that also increased markedly during the UME. Surface feeding and feeding in shallow waters may have been contributing factors. We found no evidence that offshore wind development contributed to strandings or mortalities. This work highlights the need to consider behavioral, ecological, and anthropogenic factors to determine the drivers of mortality and serious injury in large whales and to provide informed guidance to decision-makers.

Análisis de las causantes de los recientes varamientos de ballenas en la costa este de los Estados Unidos Resumen El estrés antropogénico amenaza a las ballenas en todo el mundo. El manejo efectivo requiere comprender en dónde, cuándo y por qué ocurren las amenazas. Los datos de varamientos proporcionan información clave sobre los puntos críticos geográficos de riesgo y la importancia relativa de varias amenazas. Actualmente existe un interés público considerable por el incremento en la frecuencia de varamientos de ballenas que ocurren en la costa este de los Estados Unidos desde 2016, al cual el gobierno nacional ha denominado un "evento inusual de mortalidad" (EIM). El interés se acentúa debido a la supuesta conexión con el desarrollo de la energía eólica marina. Revisamos los patrones espaciotemporales de los varamientos, mortandad y lesiones graves de las ballenas jorobadas (Megaptera novaeangliae), la especie involucrada con mayor frecuencia. Nuestro análisis resalta el papel de las colisiones con navíos, agudizados por los cambios recientes en la distribución de la especie, y el tráfico de navíos. Las ballenas jorobadas se han expandido hacia nuevas áreas de forrajeo y los años recientes. La mortandad causada por las colisiones con navíos ha incrementado significativamente en estas regiones ocupadas recientemente, las cuales también muestran un tráfico elevado de navíos que también incrementó durante el EIM. La alimentación superficial y en áreas someras podrían ser factores contribuyentes. No encontramos evidencia de que la energía eólica marina contribuya a los varamientos o a la mortandad. Este trabajo resalta la necesidad de considerar los factores ecológicos, antropogénicos y de comportamiento para determinar las causas de la mortalidad y las lesiones graves en las ballenas y de proporcionar orientación informada para quienes toman las decisiones.

A data-driven approach to multiple-stressor impact assessment for a marine protected area.

The coastal environment is not managed in a way that considers the impact of cumulative threats, despite being subject to threats from all realms (marine, land, and atmosphere). Relationships between threats and species are often nonlinear; thus, current (linear) approaches to estimating the impact of threats may be misleading. We developed a data-driven approach to assessing cumulative impacts on ecosystems and applied it to explore nonlinear relationships between threats and a temperate reef fish community. We used data on water quality, commercial fishing, climate change, and indicators of recreational fishing and urbanization to build a cumulative threat map of the northern region in New South Wales, Australia. We used statistical models of fish abundance to quantify associations among threats and biophysical covariates and predicted where cumulative impacts are likely to have the greatest impact on fish. We also assessed the performance of no-take zones (NTZs), to protect fish from cumulative threats across 2 marine protected area networks (marine parks). Fishing had a greater impact on fish than water quality threats (i.e., percent increase above the mean for invertivores was 337% when fishing was removed and was 11% above the mean when water quality was removed inside NTZs), and fishing outside NTZs affected fish abundances inside NTZs. Quantifying the spatial influence of multiple threats enables managers to understand the multitude of management actions required to address threats.

Una estrategia basada en datos para la evaluación de impacto de múltiples estresores en un área marina protegida Resumen Los ambientes costeros no se manejan de manera que se considere el impacto de las amenazas acumulativas, a pesar de que se enfrentan a amenazas de todos los entornos (marinas, terrestres y atmosféricas). Las relaciones entre las amenazas y las especies casi siempre son no lineales; por lo tanto, las estrategias actuales (lineales) para estimar el impacto de las amenazas pueden ser engañosas. Desarrollamos una estrategia basada en datos para evaluar el impacto acumulativo sobre los ecosistemas y la aplicamos para explorar las relaciones no lineales entre las amenazas y la comunidad de peces de arrecifes templados. Usamos datos de la calidad del agua, pesca comercial, cambio climático e indicadores de pesca recreativa y urbanización para construir un mapa acumulativo de amenazas de la región norte de Nueva Gales del Sur, Australia. Usamos modelos estadísticos de la abundancia de peces para cuantificar las asociaciones entre las amenazas y las covarianzas biofísicas y pronosticamos en dónde es probable que los impactos acumulativos sean mayores sobre los peces. También evaluamos el desempeño de las zonas de veda para así proteger a los peces de las amenazas acumulativas en dos redes de áreas marinas protegidas (parques marinos). La pesca tuvo un mayor impacto que la calidad del agua sobre los peces (es decir, el incremento del porcentaje por encima de la media de depredadores de invertebrados fue de 337% cuando se eliminó la pesca y fue de 11% por encima de la media cuando se eliminó la calidad del agua dentro de las zonas de veda) y la pesca fuera de las zonas de veda afectó la abundancia de los peces dentro de ellas. La cuantificación de la influencia espacial de las múltiples amenazas permite que los gestores entiendan la multitud de acciones de manejo que se requieren para abordar las amenazas.

A participatory and comprehensive intervention to improve violence prevention in two high-risk occupations: effect and process evaluation of a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: Work-related violence committed by clients, patients, and customers represents a major occupational health risk for employees that needs to be reduced. METHODS: We tested a comprehensive violence prevention intervention involving active participation of both employees and managers in the Prison and Probation Service (PPS) and on psychiatric wards in Denmark. We used a stepped wedge cluster randomised controlled trial design. We measured the degree of implementation of the intervention by registration of fidelity, reach, and dose and used a mixed-effects regression analysis to estimate the effects of the intervention. RESULTS: We recruited 16 work units for the intervention, but three work units dropped out. The average implementation rate was 73%. In the psychiatric wards, the intervention led to statistically significant improvements in the primary outcome (an increase in the degree to which managers and employees continuously work on violence prevention practices based on their registration and experiences), but none statistically significant improvements in any of the secondary outcomes. In the PPS units, the intervention did not lead to a statistically significant improvement in the primary outcome, but to statistically significant improvements in three secondary outcomes. CONCLUSION: Most work units were able to carry out the intervention as planned. The intervention showed mixed results regarding the primary outcome. Nevertheless, the results indicate improvements also in the sector where a change in the primary outcome was not achieved. The results point at that a participatory and comprehensive approach could be a viable way of working with violence prevention in high-risk workplaces. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN86993466: 20/12/2017.

Prediction of individual, community and societal resilience in the Czech Republic compared to Slovakia during the war in Ukraine.

The present study examines, as research questions, which and to what extent psychological and demographic variables significantly predict individual, community, and societal resilience among a sample of Czech Republic adults (N = 1,100) six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The research tools included the following scales: Societal, community, and individual resilience; hope, well-being; morale; distress symptoms; a sense of danger; and perceived threats. The results indicated the following: (a) Correlation analysis shows that resilience is significantly and positively correlated with supporting coping factors and significantly and negatively correlated with suppressing coping factors. (b) A comparison of supporting coping indicators (hope, well-being, and morale) and suppressing coping indicators (distress symptoms, sense of danger, and perceived threats) in the Czech Republic with those variables in Slovakia and Israel indicated that Israel reported higher resilience, higher supporting coping indicators, and lower suppressing coping factors. Three-path analysis among the Czech sample indicated that the best predictor of SR was the level of hope, the best predictor of CR was morale, and the best predictor of IR was the sense of danger. In an attempt to explain these findings in the discussion section, we refer to the background of Czech society and a possible connection to the findings.

Generative AI in Medical Practice: In-Depth Exploration of Privacy and Security Challenges.

As advances in artificial intelligence (AI) continue to transform and revolutionize the field of medicine, understanding the potential uses of generative AI in health care becomes increasingly important. Generative AI, including models such as generative adversarial networks and large language models, shows promise in transforming medical diagnostics, research, treatment planning, and patient care. However, these data-intensive systems pose new threats to protected health information. This Viewpoint paper aims to explore various categories of generative AI in health care, including medical diagnostics, drug discovery, virtual health assistants, medical research, and clinical decision support, while identifying security and privacy threats within each phase of the life cycle of such systems (ie, data collection, model development, and implementation phases). The objectives of this study were to analyze the current state of generative AI in health care, identify opportunities and privacy and security challenges posed by integrating these technologies into existing health care infrastructure, and propose strategies for mitigating security and privacy risks. This study highlights the importance of addressing the security and privacy threats associated with generative AI in health care to ensure the safe and effective use of these systems. The findings of this study can inform the development of future generative AI systems in health care and help health care organizations better understand the potential benefits and risks associated with these systems. By examining the use cases and benefits of generative AI across diverse domains within health care, this paper contributes to theoretical discussions surrounding AI ethics, security vulnerabilities, and data privacy regulations. In addition, this study provides practical insights for stakeholders looking to adopt generative AI solutions within their organizations.

Evil-related threats and mental health concomitants among offspring of Holocaust survivors gay men.

OBJECTIVES: In view of the accumulated stress associated with the combination of intergenerational trauma and minority stress, we aimed to examine whether offspring of Holocaust survivors (OHS) reported stronger evil-related threats compared to non-OHS individuals and whether OHS gay men experienced stronger threats. We also examined whether sexual orientation moderated the hypothesized indirect effect of Holocaust background on mental health through evil-related threats. METHOD: Participants were 346 middle-aged and older Israeli men (mean age = 60.56, SD = 8.42, range 50-86). Among them, 173 identified as gay men, and 81 identified as OHS. Participants completed measures of evil-related threats, depression, and life satisfaction. RESULTS: Analysis of covariance revealed that OHS men reported stronger evil-related threats compared to non-OHS men. Yet, an interaction between Holocaust background and sexual orientation indicated that OHS gay men reported stronger evil-related threats compared to non-OHS gay men, while no such difference existed among heterosexual counterparts. Conditional indirect effect analysis showed a significant indirect effect, in which Holocaust background related to higher depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction through evil-related threats among gay men, but not among heterosexual men. CONCLUSION: This study sheds light on the particular experience of evil-related threats, focusing on older OHS gay men and the mental health vulnerability associated with it. In applied contexts, this might help identify a sexual minority group that is particularly sensitive to adverse mental health and offer it supporting interventions.

How researchers can translate health evidence into books for children.

The health promotion literature that considers how scientific evidence can be effectively communicated tends to focus on evaluating the effectiveness of communication materials. This has resulted in a knowledge gap regarding effective knowledge translation processes. This study explores the process, reasoning and practices for developing books for children that incorporate evidence-based information to aid understanding of scientific evidence about health and environmental or natural disasters. This study is informed by a systematic review of the literature combined with responses to an email interview with authors of books for children. Nine published studies were included in the systematic review. Twenty-two authors responded to the email survey (25% response rate, following 86 invitations). We report seven key findings to guide the development of health-promoting books for children: (i) understand the needs and expectations of the audience, (ii) articulate the topic and research evidence, (iii) assemble a team with a mix of content knowledge and creative expertise, (iv) format should be chosen to suit the user group and guided by the creative team, (v) early testing with children and their support system is crucial, (vi) develop a dissemination strategy to reach the user group and (vii) engage in reflexivity through evaluation of effectiveness of messaging. The current investigation can guide the process, reasoning and practice of developing books for children that incorporate evidence about health and environmental disasters.

Proactive Threat Hunting in Critical Infrastructure Protection through Hybrid Machine Learning Algorithm Application.

Cyber-security challenges are growing globally and are specifically targeting critical infrastructure. Conventional countermeasure practices are insufficient to provide proactive threat hunting. In this study, random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), multi-layer perceptron (MLP), AdaBoost, and hybrid models were applied for proactive threat hunting. By automating detection, the hybrid machine learning-based method improves threat hunting and frees up time to concentrate on high-risk warnings. These models are implemented on approach devices, access, and principal servers. The efficacy of several models, including hybrid approaches, is assessed. The findings of these studies are that the AdaBoost model provides the highest efficiency, with a 0.98 ROC area and 95.7% accuracy, detecting 146 threats with 29 false positives. Similarly, the random forest model achieved a 0.98 area under the ROC curve and a 95% overall accuracy, accurately identifying 132 threats and reducing false positives to 31. The hybrid model exhibited promise with a 0.89 ROC area and 94.9% accuracy, though it requires further refinement to lower its false positive rate. This research emphasizes the role of machine learning in improving cyber-security, particularly for critical infrastructure. Advanced ML techniques enhance threat detection and response times, and their continuous learning ability ensures adaptability to new threats.

Trustworthy Localization in IoT Networks: A Survey of Localization Techniques, Threats, and Mitigation.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has revolutionized the world, connecting billions of devices that offer assistance in various aspects of users' daily lives. Context-aware IoT applications exploit real-time environmental, user-specific, or situational data to dynamically adapt to users' needs, offering tailored experiences. In particular, Location-Based Services (LBS) exploit geographical information to adapt to environmental settings or provide recommendations based on users' and nodes' positions, thus delivering efficient and personalized services. To this end, there is growing interest in developing IoT localization systems within the scientific community. In addition, due to the sensitivity and privacy inherent to precise location information, LBS introduce new security challenges. To ensure a more secure and trustworthy system, researchers are studying how to prevent vulnerabilities and mitigate risks from the early design stages of LBS-empowered IoT applications. The goal of this study is to carry out an in-depth examination of localization techniques for IoT, with an emphasis on both the signal-processing design and security aspects. The investigation focuses primarily on active radio localization techniques, classifying them into range-based and range-free algorithms, while also exploring hybrid approaches. Next, security considerations are explored in depth, examining the main attacks for each localization technique and linking them to the most interesting solutions proposed in the literature. By highlighting advances, analyzing challenges, and providing solutions, the survey aims to guide researchers in navigating the complex IoT localization landscape.

A review of conservation status of freshwater fish diversity in China.

China harbors a high species diversity of freshwater fishes not shared with any of its neighboring nations. Freshwater fish diversity in the country has been under severe threat from human activities over the past decades, thus conservation freshwater fishes and ecosystems is urgently needed. To accumulate baseline data for guiding protection actions, the third red list assessment of Chinese freshwater fishes was carried out. Among Chinese freshwater fishes assessed, there are 355 at-risk species (22.3% of the total), including 69 ranked as Critically Endangered, 97 as Endangered, and 189 as Vulnerable. Two species are classified as Extinct and one as Regionally Extinct. China's threat level seems to be lower than the known average level found in the IUCN's global assessment of freshwater fishes, but this is an artifact of a high rate of species classified as Data Deficient. Conservation of freshwater fishes is presently facing a grim situation in China. Imperilment of Chinese freshwater fishes is primarily attributed to habitat loss and degradation arising from human perturbations, particularly river damming. Despite the adoption of protected areas setting up, captive breeding and release, and a fishing moratorium, conservation efforts for freshwater fishes are compromised by disproportional attention in China's biodiversity conservation, baseline data deficiency, insufficiently designed protection networks, and inefficient or inadequate implementation of conservation strategies. To achieve the objectives of Chinese freshwater fish conservation, it is proposed to conduct a national-scale survey of fish diversity and reassess their at-risk status, develop systematic conservation planning of freshwater fish diversity and ecosystems, prioritize strategies for protected areas development, perform genetic-based captive breeding for releasing in concert with other protection actions, and implement flexible fishing moratorium strategies in different water bodies.

Detecting management gaps for biodiversity conservation: An integrated assessment.

The latest report on the state of nature in Europe (2013-2018) shows that biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, with most protected species and habitats in poor condition. Despite an increasing volume of collected biodiversity information, urgent action is needed to integrate biodiversity data and knowledge to improve conservation efforts. We conducted a study in Catalonia (NE Spain), where we collected management measures implemented between 2013 and 2018, including allocation, budget, pressures aimed, and habitats/species potentially benefiting. We integrated information on pressures and habitats/species with the measures to identify non-spatial management gaps. Then, we integrated the spatially explicit information to determine the spatial management gap, identifying geographical areas where species/habitats are under pressure without registered measures. We demonstrated the importance of integrating existing information. Our findings revealed that resources were often not distributed adequately across species/habitats, with biases towards certain taxa being a common issue. The non-spatial management gap analysis identified taxonomic groups, especially plants and mollusks with the wider management gaps. We also identified threatened areas, especially in the northeast of the region with the larger spatial management gaps. These results could guide priority objectives to optimize conservation efforts. Integrating different information sources provided a broader view of the challenges that conservation science is facing nowadays. Our study offers a path toward bending the curve of biodiversity loss by providing an integrative framework that could optimize the use of the available information and help narrow the knowing-doing gap. In the context of the EU, this example demonstrates how information can be used to promote some environmental policy instruments, such as the Prioritized Action Frameworks (PAFs). Additionally, our findings highlight the importance of supporting decision-making with systematic assessments to identify deficiencies in the conservation process, reduce the loss of critical ecosystems and species, and avoid biases among taxa.

Impact of different geopolitical factors on the energy transition: The role of geopolitical threats, geopolitical acts, and geopolitical risks.

In order to better understand the impact of different geopolitical factors on energy transition, the impact of geopolitical threats (war threats, peace threats, military buildups, nuclear threats and terror threats), geopolitical acts (beginning of war, escalation of war and terror acts), and geopolitical risks on energy transition were systematically investigated. Green technologies, natural resource rents and trade openness were incorporated into the analytical framework, and a dynamic panel threshold model was utilized to explore the impact of geopolitical risks on energy transition across different income levels. To this end, data on geopolitical threats, geopolitical acts, geopolitical risks, energy transitions and other key social economic factors for 38 countries from 2000 to 2022 were collected. The heterogeneity simulation results show that there is a negative correlation between geopolitical threats, geopolitical acts, geopolitical risks and energy transition. Moreover, geopolitical threats have more significant hindrance to the energy transition than geopolitical acts. The results of the nonlinear panel simulation show that there is a double threshold effect of geopolitical risks on energy transition. When geopolitical risk crosses the threshold (0.5197), the coefficient decreases to -0.29, which means that the rising geopolitical risk increases the inhibition on energy transition, and the inhibitory effect is slightly weakened after a certain level. Finally, policy implications are offered.

A threat to the natural World Heritage site rarely happens alone.

This study contributes an empirical investigation of the likelihood that different external threats to a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site occur in combination with each other when site characteristics and location are controlled for. For the purpose of the analysis, the World Heritage database and the UNESCO State of Conservation Reports are used and the nine most frequently appearing external threats are identified. These databases include 6852 site-year observations and 3316 threats over the period 1979-2023. The most commonly identified external threats are illegal activities, with eleven percent of all observations and mining with six percent. Transport infrastructure, tourism and visitor pressure are also common threats. Estimation results based on the multivariate Probit (equation system) model demonstrate that there are strong positive correlations between many pairs of the nine external threats. Most apparent are the links between illegal activities and loss of identity, social cohesion, changes in local population and community, water infrastructure (dams) and farming, as well as illegal activities and land conversion. There are also clear links between tourism and infrastructure. This emphasises that the various threats seldom appear in isolation from each other. Results also highlight that the threats have different drivers. Among the determinants, site characteristics and location are the most important ones. The likelihood of threats is highest for Natural Heritage Sites covered by forests or those in marine and coastal areas, Africa as well as the Arab region. It is also possible to identify a general increase in threats over time, although with a diminishing rate of growth towards the period 2015-2019. Contrary to this development and the general downturn in threats during the Covid-19 pandemic period of 2020-2023, pressure from tourism continues to grow. Methodologically, the results emphasize the need for multivariate Probit models when research goes beyond analyses of descriptive statistics and single equation approaches.