The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and Mississippi River Delta (MRD) are two of the largest deltas in the world. Despite similar forcing conditions of fluvial sediment reduction and relative sea-level ...rise, there are significant differences in deltaic change caused by hydrodynamics and human activities. In this review, we compare the morphological changes of the two deltas at multiple spatial and temporal scales and identify the lessons learned from past engineering and management strategies. While the YRD has seen an increase of subaerial land of ~1500 km2 since 1950, the MRD has lost approximately 5000 km2 of land since the early 1930s. Extensive land reclamation and coastal shoreline embankment in the YRD have led to land gain at the expense of tidal wetland shrinkage. In contrast, flood control, waterway transportation, and petroleum industry in the MRD have resulted in levee construction and canal building, which together with subsidence and sea-level rise, have led to significant wetland loss in the MRD. The tidal forcing in the YRD is much stronger than that in the MRD, which has played a role in redistributing subaqueous sediment back into the delta plain, offsetting the negative effect of fluvial sediment reduction. In contrast with continuous population increase on the YRD, wetland loss and exposure to flooding hazards have resulted in population loss on the MRD. These comparative analyses reveal that nature and human interventions have acted together in shaping the modern deltaic morphology. Using the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) analysis framework, we propose a conceptual model to provide holistic understanding of the natural-human coupled delta system and management strategies, which could yield broad implications for coping with the future challenges in global deltas.
There is a good understanding of past and present coastal processes as a result of coastal monitoring programmes within the UK. However, one of the key challenges for coastal managers in the face of ...climate change is future coastal change and vulnerability of infrastructure and communities to flooding. Drawing on a vulnerability-led and decision-centric framework (VL-DC) a Decision Support Tool (DST) is developed which, combines new observations and modelling to explore the future vulnerability to sea-level rise and storms for nuclear energy sites in Britain. The combination of these numerical projections within the DST and a Real Options Analysis (ROA) delivers essential support for: (i) improved response to extreme events and (ii) a strategy that builds climate change resilience.
•Changing threats to coastal populations and infrastructure are found.•Features that enable coastal resilience are identified.•An approach to develop a stakeholder-focussed decision-support tool is presented.•Physical process understanding and real options analysis are combined.
Human intervention makes river channels adjust their slope and bed surface grain size as they transition to a new equilibrium state in response to engineering measures. Climate change alters the ...river controls through hydrograph changes and sea level rise. We assess how channel response to climate change compares to channel response to human intervention over this century (2000–2100), focusing on a 300‐km reach of the Rhine River. We set up a schematized numerical model representative of the current (1990–2020), non‐graded state of the river, and subject it to scenarios for the hydrograph, sediment flux, and sea level rise. We conclude that the lower Rhine River will continue to adjust to past channelization measures in 2100 through channel bed incision. This response slows down as the river approaches its new equilibrium state. Channel response to climate change is dominated by hydrograph changes, which increasingly enhance incision, rather than sea level rise.
Plain Language Summary
Humans have modified rivers to enable boat traffic, to protect people against flooding, and to provide them with freshwater and energy. When the shape of a river changes, the amount of sand and gravel (sediment) that can move along its bed also changes. In response, rivers change their slope and bed characteristics, so that they can transport as much sediment as they receive from higher up in the basin. This results in changes in bed level, which becomes higher or lower, causing problems for navigation and flood protection. Climate change makes this worse, because it changes the amount of water flowing down the river, and sea level. This further affects the amount of sediment that can move down the river, therefore causing additional bed level change. Here we study how climate change affects the lower Rhine River (Germany‐Netherlands), over the 21st century. This river has been heavily modified by humans, and its bed has been lowering over hundreds of kilometers. With a computer model, we simulate how different scenarios of climate change affect this behavior. We foresee that the ongoing bed level lowering will continue in the upcoming decades, and that it will be enhanced by climate change.
Key Points
Human intervention will continue to govern channel response in the lower Rhine River by 2100, mainly through channel bed incision
Climate change leads to sea level rise and hydrograph adjustment, the latter being dominant and causing enhanced incision
Channel response to human intervention slows down as the river approaches its equilibrium state, but response to climate change accelerates
Purpose
Low fruit and vegetable consumption is linked with an increased risk of death from vascular disease and cancer. The benefit of eating fruits and vegetables is attributed in part to ...antioxidants, vitamins and phytochemicals. Whether increasing intake impacts on markers of disease remains to be established. This study investigates whether increasing daily intake of fruits, vegetables and juices from low (approx. 3 portions), to high intakes (approx. 8 portions) impacts on nutritional and clinical biomarkers. Barriers to achieving the recommended fruit and vegetable intakes are also investigated.
Method
In a randomised clinical trial, the participants 19 men and 26 women (39–58 years) with low reported fruit, juice and vegetable intake (<3 portions/day) were randomised to consume either their usual diet or a diet supplemented with an additional 480 g of fruit and vegetables and fruit juice (300 ml) daily for 12 weeks. Nutritional biomarkers (vitamin C, carotenoids, B vitamins), antioxidant capacity and genomic stability were measured pre-intervention, at 4-, 8- and 12 weeks throughout the intervention. Samples were also taken post-intervention after a 6-week washout period. Glucose, homocysteine, lipids, blood pressure, weight and arterial stiffness were also measured. Intake of fruit, fruit juice and vegetables was reassessed 12 months after conducting the study and a questionnaire was developed to identify barriers to healthy eating.
Results
Intake increased significantly in the intervention group compared to controls, achieving 8.4 portions/day after 12 weeks. Plasma vitamin C (35%), folate (15%) and certain carotenoids α-carotene (50%) and β-carotene (70%) and lutein/zeaxanthin (70%) were significantly increased (
P
< 0.05) in the intervention group. There were no significant changes in antioxidant capacity, DNA damage and markers of vascular health. Barriers to achieving recommended intakes of fruits and vegetables measured 12 months after the intervention period were amount, inconvenience and cost.
Conclusion
While increasing fruit, juice and vegetable consumption increases circulating level of beneficial nutrients in healthy subjects, a 12-week intervention was not associated with effects on antioxidant status or lymphocyte DNA damage.
Trial registration
This trial was registered at Controlled-Trials.com; registration ISRCTN71368072.
Abstract
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) encompassing nanovesicles derived from the endosome system and generated by plasmatic membrane shedding are of increasing interest in view of their ability to ...sustain cell-to-cell communication and the possibility that they could be used as surrogate biomarkers of healthy and unhealthy trajectories. Nutritional strategies have been developed to preserve health, and the impact of these strategies on circulating EVs is arousing growing interest. Data available from published studies are now sufficient for a first integration to better understand the role of EVs in the relationship between diet and health. Thus, this review focuses on human intervention studies investigating the impact of diet or its components on circulating EVs. Because of analytical bias, only large EVs have been assessed so far. The analysis highlights that poor-quality diets with elevated fat and sugar content increase levels of circulating large EVs, and these can be partly counteracted by healthy food or some food micronutrients and bioactive compounds. However, knowledge of the content and the biological functions of these diet-induced EVs is still missing. It is important to address these aspects in new research in order to state if EVs are mediators of the effects of diet on health.
The Ganga–Brahmaputra delta is the largest on Earth, the product of two of the world's largest and siltiest rivers. It is formed in a basin located over the zone where the Indian plate subducts ...beneath the Himalaya to the north and the Indo-Burman ranges to the east. The distributaries in the south-western part of the delta remain disconnected from the Ganga–Padma during the lean season, although they are still active in bank erosion and sediment transport during the monsoon. Four distributaries of the Bhagirathi–Hugli (the westernmost branch of the Ganga) have gone dry during known historical period. In many cases, the natural decay of rivers has been exacerbated by the human intervention, especially where rivers are embanked and no allowance made for their migration through meandering and avulsion. In the coastal zone where mangroves were cleared and creeks were embanked since the late 18th century, decay of channels, and advancement of the sea towards inland have been aggravated. The subsequent attempt of flushing the sediment load to the sea from the estuary to improve the status of navigation in the Bhagirathi–Hugli River was not successful to the level of expectation. This paper deals with the decay and changing courses of rivers in the western part of the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta.
ScopeWe examined whether flavan‐3‐ol‐enriched dark chocolate, compared with standard dark and white chocolate, beneficially affects platelet function in healthy subjects, and whether this relates to ...flavan‐3‐ol bioavailability.
Methods and resultsA total of 42 healthy subjects received an acute dose of flavan‐3‐ol‐enriched dark, standard dark or white chocolate, in random order. Blood and urine samples were obtained just before and 2 and 6 h after consumption for measurements of platelet function, and bioavailability and excretion of flavan‐3‐ols. Flavan‐3‐ol‐enriched dark chocolate significantly decreased adenosine diphosphate‐induced platelet aggregation and P‐selectin expression in men (all p ≤ 0.020), decreased thrombin receptor‐activating peptide‐induced platelet aggregation and increased thrombin receptor‐activating peptide‐induced fibrinogen binding in women (both p ≤ 0.041), and increased collagen/epinephrine‐induced ex vivo bleeding time in men and women (p ≤ 0.042). White chocolate significantly decreased adenosine diphosphate‐induced platelet P‐selectin expression (p = 0.002) and increased collagen/epinephrine‐induced ex vivo bleeding time (p = 0.042) in men only. Differences in efficacy by which flavan‐3‐ols affect platelet function were only partially explained by concentrations of flavan‐3‐ols and their metabolites in plasma or urine.
ConclusionFlavan‐3‐ols in dark chocolate, but also compounds in white chocolate, can improve platelet function, dependent on gender, and may thus beneficially affect atherogenesis.
•Villages have a strong effect on CES perception, both as a landscape feature and a demographic character.•Especially cultivated lands influence social relations and education and science.•Human ...interventions resulting in distance-change between landscape features and residents had the strongest influences.•This paper highlighted the diversity of local perceptions of CES and the complexity of the role of landscape features in a coastal context.
Maintaining and enhancing the beneficial contributions of landscapes to a good quality of life is a major challenge of our time. Coastal landscapes are rapidly changing due to human interventions such as urbanization, economic development, and even restoration policy. These changes affect both the physical environment and interactions between people and the landscapes in which they live. Cultural ecosystem services (CES), which result from these interactions, are often overlooked in landscape planning and decision-making. Furthermore, the influence of landscape interventions on the local residents’ perception of CES are unknown. To clarify these influences, we studied the relationships between people, CES, and resident perceptions of local landscape features in a Chinese coastal landscape. By combining questionnaires, GPS positioning, and spatial data (distances and areas of human interventions), we gained insights into local perceptions of CES and their relationships with specific landscape features. We found that villages played an important role in the perception of CES, both as a landscape feature and as a specific palette of demographic characteristics. Next to villages, cultivated land was the landform perceived as providing the most CES to local inhabitants, with coastal wetlands having a lower value. For human interventions in the local context, the distance to the interventions influenced the perception of CES more strongly than the area affected by the interventions. Our assessment revealed different perceptions of CES and the diverse roles of local landscape features for CES provision. This provides empirical support for multi-functional and sustainable landscape management.
Isoflavones are secondary plant constituents of certain foods and feeds such as soy, linseeds, and red clover. Furthermore, isoflavone-containing preparations are marketed as food supplements and ...so-called dietary food for special medical purposes to alleviate health complaints of peri- and postmenopausal women. Based on the bioactivity of isoflavones, especially their hormonal properties, there is an ongoing discussion regarding their potential adverse effects on human health. This review evaluates and summarises the evidence from interventional and observational studies addressing potential unintended effects of isoflavones on the female breast in healthy women as well as in breast cancer patients and on the thyroid hormone system. In addition, evidence from animal and in vitro studies considered relevant in this context was taken into account along with their strengths and limitations. Key factors influencing the biological effects of isoflavones, e.g., bioavailability, plasma and tissue concentrations, metabolism, temporality (pre- vs. postmenopausal women), and duration of isoflavone exposure, were also addressed. Final conclusions on the safety of isoflavones are guided by the aim of precautionary consumer protection.
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