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Authors: Rui Guo, Ancan Yao

The relationship between environmental heterogeneity and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) remains insufficiently explored at the regional scale. Using data from 312 ethnic minority villages and 305 ICH items in Guizhou, China, this study develops an Environmental Type–Recessiveness Cultural Adaptation (ERC) framework to examine associations between environmental conditions and ICH distribution patterns. Four environmental variables were integrated into five environmental types using K-means clustering. ICH recessiveness was operationalized as a three-dimensional composite index comprising observability, carrier explicitness, and environmental association. Expert scoring exhibited strong reliability. Results reveal clear associations between environmental settings and ICH recessiveness: moderate recessiveness predominates across the province; high-elevation, high-elevation environments with large distance to water systems tend to host more recessive forms of heritage, whereas low-relief and highly accessible landscapes are associated with lower recessiveness. These findings indicate that environmental differentiation is spatially coupled with systematic variation in ICH recessiveness. Such spatial correspondence is consistent with processes of socio-ecological adaptation rather than environmental determinism. The ERC framework provides a standardized and reproducible quantitative approach for comparative analysis of ICH across heterogeneous landscapes, offering a transferable tool for heritage research in mountainous and ethnically diverse regions. Overall, the observed west-to-east gradient in ICH recessiveness further supports the role of socio-ecological adaptation in shaping ethnic heritage patterns in mountainous environments.

Source: PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0360100. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Muhammed Abdul Odud, Omar I. Abdul-Aziz

Objective This scoping review examines how climate-related stressors and infectious-disease conditions, including pandemic-related workplace disruptions, interact to influence worker health, vulnerability, and occupational resilience. The review focuses on shared exposure pathways, vulnerable worker populations, methodological patterns, policy gaps, and strategies for strengthening worker safety under compound hazards. Rather than treating pandemics as isolated events, the review uses pandemic conditions as a lens to understand broader, recurring occupational risks and to inform strategies for building safer and more resilient workplaces under compound hazards. Methods Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a structured literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for English-language peer-reviewed and formally structured evidence sources published primarily between January 2020 and April 2025, with one pre-2020 policy study retained for foundational context. Out of 612 records initially identified, 10 studies or sources met the inclusion criteria across healthcare, agriculture, construction, emergency response, and other high-exposure sectors after systematic screening and eligibility assessment. Data were charted and synthesized by occupational sector, geographic region, exposure type, worker vulnerability, and methodological approach. Results The evidence indicates that climate-related and infectious-disease stressors frequently converge, amplifying physical, environmental, and psychosocial pressures on workers. Disproportionate risks were observed among migrant workers, informal laborers, low-income populations, older adults, women, and seasonal or cross-border agricultural workers, particularly where access to healthcare, legal protections, or adaptive infrastructure was limited. Most studies relied on descriptive, qualitative, cross-sectional, conceptual, or review-based designs, with limited use of predictive modeling, geospatial analysis, longitudinal evidence, or integrated datasets. Policy responses were often fragmented, with climate adaptation and infection-control measures addressed separately despite overlapping benefits. Conclusions Climate-related and infectious-disease stressors interact to reinforce occupational health inequities and expose persistent gaps in worker protection. The findings highlight the need for integrated, multi-hazard occupational health strategies that align climate adaptation, infection prevention, and psychosocial support. Embedding data-driven early-warning systems, equitable protections for vulnerable workers, and cross-sector coordination into occupational policies may help strengthen workforce resilience during routine operations as well as future climate extremes and public health crises. However, the findings should be interpreted with caution because of the limited number of available studies combining climate-related and infectious-disease occupational risks, heterogeneous study designs, and the emerging nature of the evidence base. Furthermore, since this scoping review maps evidence rather than formally grading evidence strength or testing causal relationships, recommendations should be interpreted as evidence-informed directions for future occupational-health planning and research.

Source: PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0361296. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Md. Emon Prodhan, Ashraful Alam, Sajida Subha, Faizul Islam, Mohd. Al Amin, Mohammad Nayeem Hasan, Mohammad Anamul Haque, Md Jamal Uddin

Primary school dropout is a serious concern worldwide. In Bangladesh, primary education is strongly shaped by the home learning environment. This study aimed to investigate the associations between the dropout of primary school children and the learning environment at home as well as the associated risk factors by analyzing cross-sectional data from the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), with a total sample size of 14,278 children aged 6–12 years. Bivariate analysis, crude and adjusted log-binomial models were used to assess the relationships between dropout and risk factors. Overall, 1.68% of the children dropped out, with increased rates observed among males (ARR = 2.44, 95% CI: 1.63–3.64) and children aged 9–12 years at the beginning of the school year had a higher risk of dropout (ARR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.15–2.93). Mymensingh presented the highest dropout rate, 3.82 (ARR = 3.82, 95% CI: 1.59–9.18) times higher than Barishal. Children who did not read books or were not read to at home had 14.47 (ARR = 14.47, 95% CI: 9.30–22.51) times higher risk of primary school dropout. To reduce primary school dropouts in Bangladesh, addressing gender inequalities, regional disparities, and inadequate home reading activity is essential. Strengthening early childhood education initiatives, promoting home-based literacy activities, supporting older children in their grades, and implementing targeted interventions in disadvantaged regions may help reduce primary school dropout in Bangladesh.

Source: PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0360931. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Yuanqing Cao, Huihui Wang, Xuan Chen, Li Zhu

Soil salinization threatens agricultural productivity in arid gravity irrigation systems worldwide, yet the depth-stratified relationships between soil water and salt content remain poorly characterized. We monitored soil moisture and electrical conductivity (EC) at six depths (0–100 cm) across 15 sites in the Hetao Irrigation District, China, during the 2025 growing season. Our results indicate a depth-dependent divergence in water–salt associations. The EC-derived salinity index varied from 0.08 to 42.91 g/kg, exhibiting extreme spatial heterogeneity (coefficient of variation (CV) = 185.2%) across the salinity gradient. However, moisture-salinity relationships showed marked depth dependency. Surface soils (0–20 cm) exhibited non-statistically significant correlations (r = 0.07), whereas deep layers (60–100 cm) showed a statistically significant but weak positive correlation (r = 0.25, p < 0.01, R2 = 0.06), indicating limited explanatory power. This pattern is consistent with a subtle tendency of downward salt redistribution. The EC-derived salinity index showed a 42% increase in deep layers (from 1.59 to 2.26 g/kg) over the season, compared to a 136% fluctuation in surface layers. These results highlight limitations of surface-focused monitoring approaches and indicate patterns consistent with subsurface salt redistribution. Compared with previous studies, this work provides a depth-resolved, multi-site observational dataset combined with a stratified analytical approach, offering additional evidence for interpreting soil salinity dynamics under heterogeneous field conditions.

Source: PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0360976. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Thanat Nakaphan, Monthaka Teerachaisakul, Chatchai Chaotham, Krit Pongpirul

Introduction Despite the growing use of herbal medicinal products (HMPs) in Thailand, factors relevant to their availability and consumption in pharmacies remain insufficiently characterized. Pharmacies and healthcare professionals may play important roles in improving the availability and promoting their appropriate use. Methods A three-round e-Delphi study was conducted among 30 multidisciplinary experts to identify and establish consensus on factors considered relevant to the availability and consumption of HMPs in pharmacies across Thailand. Experts rated the relevance and impact of each factor using a 7-point Likert scale. Consensus was defined as a Quality of the Lower Approximation (QL) score ≥ 0.75. Results Of the 34 factors assessed, 25 reached consensus across four domains: (1) herbal medicinal products, (2) product information, (3) professional responsibilities, and (4) pharmacy operations. The National List of Essential Herbal Drugs received the highest consensus score (QL = 1.00). All nine product information factors reached consensus. Professional factors reaching consensus included product recommendation, knowledge of HMP categories, and knowledge of evidence-based efficacy and safety. Pharmacy-related factors reaching consensus included pharmacy type, business model, participation in national health programs, and location. Conclusion Expert consensus identified a set of factors considered relevant to HMP availability and consumption in Thai pharmacies. These findings provided a framework for future empirical studies and may inform policies and interventions related to product information, professional competency, and pharmacy operations.

Source: PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0360797. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Dongxu He, Tao Jiang, Huajing Xu

Pultruded carbon/glass-fiber hybrid composite rods are increasingly used as sucker rods, yet the relationship between degradation accumulated during long-term downhole service and subsequent longitudinal splitting during retrieval and drum winding remains insufficiently understood, particularly for rods containing a carbon/glass hybrid transition region. This study compared five specimens sectioned from a pristine 22 mm-diameter parent rod with five specimens sectioned from a service-aged parent rod retrieved after 435 days of actual downhole service. Tensile, compressive, flexural, and apparent horizontal shear tests were combined with Welch’s t-tests, bootstrap-assisted two-parameter Weibull analysis, scanning electron microscopy, dynamic mechanical analysis, and moisture-desorption measurements to characterize mechanical degradation and matrix/interfacial damage. After service, the mean tensile, flexural, and apparent short-beam shear strengths decreased by 10.02%, 19.92%, and 21.98%, respectively. After Holm correction, the reductions in flexural and apparent short-beam shear strength remained statistically significant, whereas the tensile-strength reduction did not (adjusted p = 0.057). The mean compressive strength decreased by only 2.25% and showed no statistically significant difference; however, its coefficient of variation increased from 2.42% to 18.88%, while the Weibull shape-parameter estimate decreased from 41.31 to 5.27, suggesting greater compressive-strength dispersion. For the carbon-fiber core, the storage modulus decreased by 34.3%, whereas the glass-transition temperature increased from 159.5 to 164.76 °C. These changes may reflect competing contributions from residual post-curing and moisture-related effects, although the underlying chemical mechanisms were not directly characterized. The greater equilibrium mass loss of the service-aged specimens during drying was consistent with greater retention of removable moisture. Scanning electron microscopy observations revealed extensive matrix fragmentation, resin loss, fiber–matrix debonding, and longitudinal interfacial cracking. Collectively, the results support a possible two-phase damage-evolution process in which prolonged fluid exposure and repeated operational loading progressively weaken the matrix and hybrid interfaces, while additional bending during retrieval and drum winding may promote the propagation and coalescence of pre-existing cracks, thereby contributing to local longitudinal splitting. These findings provide insight into the relationships among field exposure, loading-mode-dependent degradation, strength dispersion, and interfacial damage in three-region hybrid composite sucker rods.

Source: PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0360408. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Bing Li, Li Wang, Cundong Li, Zhanyuan Lu, Li Zhang, Hongbo Liu, Juan Li, Dejian Zhang

Post-wheat green manure incorporation can improve fallow-season resource use and crop productivity, but species-specific effects on soil greenhouse gas emissions and subsequent wheat yield remain unclear in spring wheat systems. A field experiment was conducted from 2022 to 2023 in the Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia, China, with five green manure species, namely common vetch, hairy vetch, sesbania, forage rapeseed, and forage oat, and a fallow control. Soil CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions, global warming potential (GWP), greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI), wheat growth, and grain yield were evaluated. The system acted as a source of CO2 and N2O and a sink for CH4. Compared with fallow, green manure incorporation numerically increased cumulative CO2 emissions by 7.29%−44.30% and GWP by 7.44%−39.64%, although treatment differences in GWP were not significant, with CO2 contributing more than 85% of total GWP. It also increased grain yield by 2.96%−11.95%. Despite the numerical increase in GWP, GHGI differed among species. Hairy vetch achieved the highest yield and lowest GHGI, common vetch reduced GHGI relative to fallow, and forage oat showed high yield with the lowest cumulative N2O emission. These results suggest that hairy vetch, common vetch, and forage oat are suitable for post-wheat incorporation in this region.

Source: PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0360932. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Pavan Kumar, Megha Paul, Preeti Kumari, Manmohan Dobriyal, Pankaj Lavania, Manish Srivastav, Prem Chandra Pandey, Benson Turyasingura

Accurate modeling of species distribution is essential for effective biodiversity conservation, afforestation planning, and land-use management. This study presents a comparative analysis of two prominent presence-only species distribution models Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) and MaxNet to evaluate their efficacy in predicting the ecological niche of Eucalyptus tereticornis in a semi-arid agro-climatic region. A total of 138 georeferenced occurrence records and 25 pseudo-absence points were used, incorporating key environmental variables such as wind speed, temperature range, precipitation, and root zone soil wetness. Both models were optimized and assessed using metrics including accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and the Area Under the Curve (AUC). Results indicate that MaxEnt outperformed MaxNet in most metrics, achieving an accuracy of 87.5% and an AUC of 0.956, compared to MaxNet’s accuracy of 75% and AUC of 0.926. Environmental variable importance varied by model, with MaxEnt highlighting surface pressure and MaxNet emphasizing wind speed. Probability density plots revealed that MaxEnt distinctly identified high suitability zones, whereas MaxNet offered a more balanced, conservative distribution across the landscape. These differences underscore the influence of algorithm design on ecological inference. This study emphasizes the importance of model selection and tuning in species distribution modeling and suggests that integrating outputs from both models can yield robust insights for habitat suitability assessment. The findings support data-driven afforestation strategies, especially under changing climatic conditions, and provide valuable guidance for sustainable plantation efforts involving Eucalyptus tereticornis in similar agro-ecological zones.

Source: PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0360385. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Kuo-Ying Wang, Philippe Nedelec, Valerie Thouret, Hannah Clark, Andreas Wahner, Andreas Petzold

Carbon monoxide (CO) is not a greenhouse gas, but as the dominant sink of the hydroxyl radical it governs the oxidising capacity of the troposphere and so indirectly forces climate. Its trends in the North Pacific upper troposphere matter disproportionately: this is the principal outflow corridor for Asian anthropogenic emissions, the fastest-growing combustion source of the past half-century, yet it has almost no routine ground-based monitoring and satellite retrievals resolve it poorly. We therefore combine in-situ CO measurements from the In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS; 2012–2018) with earlier in-situ data from NASA/NSF/NOAA campaigns (1991–2019), the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) satellite record, and the Integrated Modelling System (IMS) global chemistry transport model. Trends are computed separately for the monthly maximum, percentile, minimum and mean statistics, using a 10,000-sample perturbation regression framework. Mean CO increases by 0.15 ppb month–1 (18.0 ppb decade–1; 95% CI: −0.02 to 0.32) over 150∘E−140∘W, 45∘N−60∘N and by 0.06 ppb month–1 (7.2 ppb decade–1; 95% CI: −0.04 to 0.16) over 25∘N−45∘N; both intervals include zero but lie predominantly positive. The monthly maximum rises significantly over 25∘N−45∘N, by 0.31 ppb month–1 (37.2 ppb decade–1; 95% CI: 0.06 to 0.57), while the monthly minimum declines weakly. The most polluted air masses over the North Pacific are thus becoming more polluted even as background CO falls. The North Atlantic upper troposphere shows significantly decreasing CO over the same period. The opposing signs track the opposing trajectories of the upwind inventories: Asian emissions rose through most of the record and are lifted efficiently by summertime convection and warm conveyor belts, whereas North American and European emissions fell steadily and the Atlantic receives a larger share of CO-poor stratospheric air.

Source: PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0359855. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.