REDD implementation for greenhouse gas reduction and climate change mitigation in Hyrcanian forests: a case study of the Kojoor Watershed, Northern Iran

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is a specific strategy for combating deforestation and forest degradation to alleviate the effects of climate change. In this study, the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction resulting from the implementation of a REDD project is estimated. Changes in forest cover throughout the years 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2010, 2015, and 2020 were analyzed using time-series Landsat imagery (TM, ETM + , and OLI) and a random forest algorithm. Multilayer perceptron neural networks were used to model the transition potential of the forest cover, which were then predicted via Markov chain analysis. The change detection analysis revealed two discernible patterns in forest cover dynamics. Between 1985 and 2000, a notable decrease in forest cover was seen, whereas from 2000 to 2020, it significantly increased. The results suggested that the absence of REDD implementation would result in the deforestation of approximately 199,569 hectares of forest cover between 2020 and 2050, leading to the release of 1,995,695 tCO2e of emissions into the atmosphere. However, with the implementation of REDD, these emissions would be reduced to 405,512 tCO2e, effectively preventing the release of 1,590,183 tCO2e of emissions into the upper atmosphere. This study demonstrates that the implementation of REDD projects can be an effective strategy for reducing GHG emissions and mitigating climate change in the Hyrcanian forests.

Hydrogeochemical assessment of aquifer salinization in north-eastern Morocco's Gueroaou coastal plain using statistical methods

The Guerouaou aquifer investigation spanning 280 km2 in Ain Zohra yields promising outcomes, instilling optimism for regional water quality. These analyses were applied to 45 sampling instances from 43 wells, enabling a comprehensive water quality assessment. Groundwater conductivity ranged from medium to high, peaking at 18360 ms/cm2. The conductivity reveals insights about the groundwater's mineralization. Key physiochemical parameters fell within desirable thresholds, bolstering the positive perspective. HCO3- levels spanned 82-420 mg/L, while chloride content ranged from 38 to 5316 mg/L, benefiting water quality. NO3- ions, vital for gauging pollution, ranged from 0 to 260 mg/L, indicating favorable results. Cation concentrations exhibited encouraging variations: Ca2+- 24 to 647 mg/L, Mg2+- 12 to 440 mg/L, Na+- 18 to 2722 mg/L, K+- 1.75 to 28.65 mg/L. These collectively favor water quality. Halite breakdown dominated mineralization, as evidenced by the prevalence of Na-Cl-Na-SO4 facies. Water resource management and local communities need effective management and mitigation strategies to prevent saltwater intrusion.

Discrepancies of remote techno-tolerance due to COVID-19 pandemic within Arab middle-east countries

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) changed the world’s lifestyle switching many techno-services to be provided remotely instead of direct usual physical interactions between people. This study focused on university students’ perceptions of this virtual technology-engineering change as discrepancies to be analyzed. The research surveyed 777 different students from four Arab middle-east neighboring countries, with related demographics and specifications, expressing full remarkable experiences of e-technology in virtual as well as traditional performances helping reveal overall tolerance possibilities. The study adopted examination technology via ANOVA to test discrepancies within students' perceptions for overall multi-factors deep analysis classification. The exploration highlighted an interesting range of pros and cons remarks including feminism and economic effect as well as other cultural and engineering interaction issues, raising signals to essentially consider and mutually benefit from adequate future generation e-techno adaptation within the region.

Practicality analysis of utilizing text-based CAPTCHA vs. graphic-based CAPTCHA authentication

CAPTCHA as "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart" is becoming an essential tool to help reduce many automated security authentication attacks. This research focused on studying differences running text-based CAPTCHA vs. graphical-based CAPTCHA in a utilization applicable dominant practicality manner. The ordinary text-based CAPTCHA works simple to prevent automated submissions as thought of being relatively easy to exploit. On the other hand, graphic-based CAPTCHA can be more preferred from users side, but can be providing some complexities making clear tradeoff analysis need between its usability and security. Even though graphic-based CAPTCHA has been generally considered as improvement of text-based CAPTCHA with respect to security, its usage is still not common, raising a practicality gap needing some search for comparing the two methods side by side comprehensively involving usability applicability and cultural preference beside security. In this regard, this research contributes towards filling the gap in knowledge running thorough local experimentations for finding different CAPTCHA performance tradeoffs in terms of real statistical humanoid possibilities of practicality easiness, repetition secrecy, and configuration solving timing, that can be used as basis for conducting further techno improvement human-oriented research.