Milder, wilder, drier: Understanding preferences for urban nature-based solutions in China

Nature-based solutions have gained recognition for their potential to address urban environmental challenges, particularly in rapidly urbanising countries such as China. However, financial and spatial constraints hinder their widespread adoption. Here we explore urban residents' preferences for nature-based solutions targeting stormwater management, urban heat island reduction, and biodiversity support through monetary, time, and space contributions. We carried out three choice experiment surveys with 1536 Chinese respondents, employing three payment vehicles: willingness to pay (WTP), willingness to contribute time (WTCT), and a novel metric, willingness to contribute space (WTCS). The WTCS metric assesses individuals' willingness to voluntarily convert sealed surfaces on private land into greenspace. We found strong preferences for temperature and flooding reduction across all payment vehicles, reflecting substantial challenges of urban heat islands and flooding in China. Additionally, we reveal a preference for moderate greenspace management intensity, highlighting the potential for biodiversity benefits through reduced management intensities. The introduction of the WTCS payment vehicle expands the methodological toolkit for choice experiments and offers a novel approach to assess citizen support for nature-based solutions. These findings have practical implications for designing effective nature-based solutions programs to address urban environmental challenges and meet the preferences of urban residents in China and beyond.

Cleaning Up without Messing Up: Maximizing the Benefits of Plastic Clean-Up Technologies through New Regulatory Approaches

As the global plastics crisis grows, numerous technologies have been invented and implemented to recover plastic pollution from the environment. Although laudable, unregulated clean-up technologies may be inefficient and have unintended negative consequences on ecosystems, for example, through bycatch or removal of organic matter important for ecosystem functions. Despite these concerns, plastic clean-up technologies can play an important role in reducing litter in the environment. As the United Nations Environment Assembly is moving toward an international, legally binding treaty to address plastic pollution by 2024, the implementation of plastic clean-up technologies should be regulated to secure their net benefits and avoid unintended damages. Regulation can require environmental impact assessments and life cycle analysis to be conducted predeployment on a case-by-case basis to determine their effectiveness and impact and secure environmentally sound management. During operations catch-efficiency and bycatch of nonlitter items, as well as waste management of recovered litter, should be documented. Data collection for monitoring, research, and outreach to mitigate plastic pollution is recommended as added value of implementation of clean-up technologies.

Diversified Farming Systems: Impacts and Adaptive Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States, Norway and China

The COVID-19 pandemic fully exposed the vulnerability of the global agri-food system to shocks and stresses, highlighting the need for transformation and action to make it more resilient and inclusive. This paper offers a unique insight into the global nature of the COVID-19 pandemic by examining impacts and responses in the agri-food sector within three very distinct contexts, namely the United States, Norway, and China. Focusing on small, diversified farms, the study builds on prior research with the same farmers and support organizations from an on-going collaboration. Firstly, we conducted a short review of policy adaptations to understand how governments, the private sector, non-profit organizations, and communities “stepped up” to provide emergency relief, specialized training, and recovery support for farmers, support that was instrumental in preventing more devastating impacts in all three countries. Secondly, drawing from in-depth interviews with farmers (23) and government and non-governmental support organizations (19), we mapped the vulnerability and resiliency of selected farmers to shocks that severely disrupted traditional supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected on both the negative and positive impacts of the pandemic to farmer inputs, including labor, operations, and markets, how these changed from the initial lockdowns in early 2020 and through 2021, and on farmer adaptive responses to these impacts. In some contexts, innovation and adaptive responses counteracted negative impacts. We saw diversifying markets, catering to consumer safety concerns, switching to direct and e-markets, hiring in more labor or relying on family labor, and switching to high demand crops and products as the most prominent adaptive responses. Farmers who lacked access to information and government programs, in large part because of language, technology and institutional barriers, missed out on pandemic related opportunities and suffered the most. As we enter the post-pandemic new normal it is important to take stock of lessons learned, and to continue to support those initiatives and innovations that were pivotal not only for weathering the storm, but for building a more inclusive and resilient agri-food system in the long-run.

[Quality criteria in pancreatic sonography ]

The quality of pancreatic sonography is determined not only by the technical equipment used and by the experience of the interpreter but also by the variable anatomical and nutritional status of the patients examined. The sonograms obtained from 211 consecutively examined patients were analyzed with regard to the quality of pancreatic imaging. Direct visualization of the parenchyma of the pancreatic head and body was found in 47%. In an additional 36%, unequivocal localization of the pancreatic area was possible by delineating the peripancreatic vessels. 17% of the studies were non-diagnostic due to over-lying intestinal gas in obese patients and cases of extensive scarring. This percentage can be reduced by a modified examination technique. The use of alternative radiological methods is, therefore, obligatory in less than 10%.

[Successful transplantation of a two year old child's kidney to an adult (author's transl)]

The successful transplantation of a single kidney of a two year old child to a 38 year old recipient is reported. The size of the kidney increased 400% and the function 340% over a period of 23 months. Adequate function of the transplant was accomplished through growth and considerable compensatory hypertrophy despite intercurrent rejection reactions.

[Acute left decompensation--significance of thoracic bed roentgenography for assessing pulmonary venous pressure (author's transl)]

25 thoracic bed x-ray films from 20 intensive-care patients were classified roentgenologically according to three degrees of severity of left decompensation, and compared with the end-diastolic pulmonary arterial pressure. Very good correlation was seen in 60% of the cases and a satisfactory agreement in 30%, whereas a discrepancy compared with haemodynamic parameters was observed in about 10% of the patients. Possibilities of explaining discrepancies are discussed within the framework of error analysis.

[The radiological differential diagnosis of small bowel disease (author's transl)]

The flow diagram of Goldberg and Sheft for the differential diagnosis of diseases of the small bowel was modified (using as its basis mucosal swelling, width of lumen, secretion). Its accuracy was then tested retrospectively in 61 patients. Examination of the small bowel was performed after the administration of a single large dose of contrast medium. A surprisingly high accuracy of 90% was found in 41 pathologically proven cases; all normal patients were correctly identified. The method therefore appears to be extremely promising. More detailed identification is not always possible because of similar reaction of the small bowel to various influences; it may be possible on some occasions, or when taking account of further radiological signs, or of the clinical and laboratory findings.

[Sonography for clarify complications after renal transplantation (author's transl)]

The diagnostic value of the ultrasound method was studied via 170 individual examinations in 75 patients. The method is particularly well suited for an accurate determination of the location and size of the transplanted kidney and for demonstrating perirenal growing and displacing processes such as cystic lymphangiomas, haematomas and abscesses. In addition, ultrasound supplies information on the area covered by lacunae. However, the use of the method for diagnosing casting-off reactions is limited on account of the great variability of the dimensional parameters. It can be used without risk in followup studies of patients with transplanted kidneys, since it is a non-invasive method. It deserves preference among the possible methods of investigation, especially when growing and displacing processes have to be identified.

[Parathyroid hormone and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol concentrations in the serum of patients with kidney transplantations and their radiological correlation]

In 40 renal transplant patients the serum concentration of parathyroid hormone, 25-hydroxycholecalciferol, calcium and inorganic phosphate were estimated. The results of these biochemical studies were compared to X-ray soft tissue and bone pathologic findings. The serum immunoreactive parathyroid hormone (iPTH) was normal in 37 patients and increased in 3 cases. 19 (47.5%) renal transplant recipients showed decreased serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol levels. In 23 out of 40 patients (57.5%) serum phosphate was lower than 3.0 mg/100 ml. X-ray soft tissue changes were observed in 28 (70%) and bone changes in 18 (45%) patients; both frequencies were higher when compared to occurrence during regular dialysis treatment. Features of hyperparathyroid osteopathy were frequently observed in renal transplant recipients. Femoral head necroses were predominant in men, whereas osteomalacia with Looser's zones were found mainly in women. The pathogenesis of X-ray bone changes in patients with renal transplants seems to be multifactorial and related to the duration of secondary hyperparathyroidism before renal transplantation as well as to phosphate depletion and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol deficiency.

[The diagnostic scope of ultrasonography in renal pathology (author's transl)]

The accuracy of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of different pathological renal conditions is evaluated. Correlations were established to the findings on intravenous urography and selective angiography. Ultrasonography is suitable for the determination of the exact size and site of the kidney and, therefore, should be used routinely in the follow-up of renal transplant recipients. The ability to differentiate between solid and cystic lesions is of partcular value. Moreover, perirenal changes are easily recognizable. The limits of B-mode sonography lie in the interpretation of central expanding lesions with a diameter of under 3 cm. This non-invasive method should be used selectively in the diagnosis of renal disease, whereas angiography should be limited to the classification of equivocal ultrasound findings and in the case of solid tumours.

[Differential diagnosis of space-occupying lesions of kidneys (comparison between IVP, angiography and ultra-sound) (author's transl)]

On 77 IVP's it can be shown that correct assessment of the identity of space-occupying lesions of the kidneys is difficult (correct diagnosis in 39% of cystic and 10% of solid conditions). Improvement can be expected from early tomography of IVP's by improved pictures of the parenchyma, mainly with ultra-sound which separates cystic from solid conditions. Correlation of these techniques appears sufficient for cystic processes. Angiography is indicated for solid tumors and doubtful ultra-sound findings.