The Kumamoto area includes 11 municipalities and a population of about one million. The area represents the largest total use of groundwater in Japan. The main recharging area for this groundwater used to be paddy fields for rice production located along the mid-stream section of the Shirakawa River. In the past few decades, the area of paddy fields has rapidly decreased due to the Japanese govern

The electric field response of the lead-free solid solution (1-x)Bi0.53Na0.47TiO3-xBaTiO3 (BNT-BT) in the higher BT composition range with x = 0.12 was investigated using in situ synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. An introduced Bi-excess non-stoichiometry caused an extended morphotropic phase boundary, leading to an unexpected fully reversible relaxor to ferroelectric (R-FE) phase transformatio

Mitochondria function as hubs of plant metabolism. Oxidative phosphorylation produces ATP, but it is also a central high-capacity electron sink required by many metabolic pathways that must be flexibly coordinated and integrated. Here, we review the crucial roles of redox-associated posttranslational protein modifications (PTMs) in mitochondrial metabolic regulation. We discuss several major conce

Diabetic foot disease results in a major global burden for patients and the health care system. The International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF) has been producing evidence-based guidelines on the prevention and management of diabetic foot disease since 1999. In 2019, all IWGDF Guidelines have been updated based on systematic reviews of the literature and formulation of recommendations

The production of a prompt photon in association with a Z boson is studied in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy s = 13 TeV. The analysis uses a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC from 2015 to 2018. The production cross-section for the process pp → ℓ+ℓ−γ + X (ℓ = e, μ) is measured within a fiducial phase-space region de

We present the first experimental study of the frontier orbitals in an ultrathin film of the novel hexa-carbene photosensitizer [Fe(btz)3]3+, where btz is 3,3′-dimethyl-1,1′-bis(p-tolyl)-4,4′-bis(1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidene). Resonant photoelectron spectroscopy (RPES) was used to probe the electronic structure of films where the molecular and oxidative integrities had been confirmed with optical and X

Waste is a valuable commodity and remains a livelihood source for waste pickers in the global South. Waste to Energy (WtoE) is often described as alternative to landfilling, as it provides cheap fuel while making waste disappear. In some European cities, this method has evolved into an impediment, slowing down the adoption of more sustainable technologies and waste prevention. These plants typical

Concepts are the basic building blocks of all knowledge, while the strength of any societal project is dependent on the quality of those concepts. As two of the oldest geographical concepts still in widespread use, ‘rural/ur-ban’ stand in stark contrast to the immense changes encountered by the society over the last century, let alone decades. To better understand this controversy, this paper move

The condition of the environment is one of the most fundamental concerns of cities worldwide, especially when high levels of pollution and environmental destruction exert immense impact on people's quality of life. This paper focuses on Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, which often tops the charts as the world's most polluted city. Despite associated problems such as congestion, ill health, and pr

It is increasingly appreciated how all societies contain many 'wicked problems' or socio-cultural challenges that are multidimensional, hard to pindown and consequently extremely challenging to solve. Obtaining functional and inclusive societal organisation is not a simple matter of 'doing it' by subscribing to winning formulae as there are, for example, many choices to be made in the process. Mor

The concepts ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ have long been criticized by geographers for their lack of analytical and explanatory power, yet have remained a vital source for conceptual guidance in human geography. Realizing that the continued use of questionable concepts inadvertently runs the risk of compromising communication, misdirecting resources and downgrading social theory, the current status of ‘rur

Departing from the idea that cultural mechanisms are capable of allowing for conceptual dichotomies to create oppression, this paper challenges the engrained tradition of using ‘urban/rural’ as guiding labels in societal organisation when seen through the prism of deprivation. Two Polish deprivation-ridden estates – one ‘urban’ and one ‘rural’ – were investigated. Having taken account of the resid

Reflective inquiries to better understand 'the rural' have tried to embed rural research within the notion of performativity. Performativity assumes that the capacity of language is not simply to communicate but also to consummate action, whereupon citational uses of concepts produce a series of material effects. Of late, this philosophical shif has also implicated geographers as active agents in

Despite fierce criticisms, ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ still constitute powerful narratives around which we structure our society. The ‘formal reality’, however, frequently disregards the cultural nature of these concepts, elevating them to the role of objective spaces apt to serve as acceptable guiding perspectives. While the analytical inadequacy of rural-urban ideations is well-documented, the phenomen

Poverty and social exclusion remain some of the biggest concerns in the face of obtaining social sustainability. In this respect, the continuing immense spatial differences between individual localities of seemingly similar characteristics have puzzled social scientists for decades. In quest for a better understanding, this article highlights the role of spatial heterogeneity as a factor conducive

The paper aims at examining the levels of social cohesion and socio-economic dysfunctionality in former State Agricultural Farms (post-PGR) areas and at assessing the possibilities for initiating bottom-up actions, and for participating in the creation of mechanisms for local development. Data used in the study was obtained in multimethods approach, i.e. mainly during a questionnaire survey, in-de

The article discusses the phenomenon of urban abandonment as a result of environmental hazards. Seen as an outcome of environmental drivers, the underlying assumption is that a characteristic of environmental hazards is their spatial and temporal constancy of impact, whereby processes and phenomena having taken place in the past have their analogies in the present. In order to generate insights fo