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Topic Review
Astrooceanography
Astrooceanography is the study of oceans outside planet Earth. Unlike other planetary sciences like astrobiology, astrochemistry and planetary geology, it only began after the discovery of underground oceans in Saturn's Titan and Jupiter's Ganymede. This field remains speculative until further missions reach the oceans beneath the rock or ice layer of the moons. There are many theories about oceans or even ocean worlds of celestial bodies in the Solar System, from oceans made of diamond in Neptune to a gigantic ocean of liquid hydrogen that may exist underneath Jupiter's surface. Early in their geologic histories, Mars and Venus are theorized to have had large water oceans. The Mars ocean hypothesis suggests that nearly a third of the surface of Mars was once covered by water, and a runaway greenhouse effect may have boiled away the global ocean of Venus. Compounds such as salts and ammonia dissolved in water lower its freezing point so that water might exist in large quantities in extraterrestrial environments as brine or convecting ice. Unconfirmed oceans are speculated beneath the surface of many dwarf planets and natural satellites; notably, the ocean of the moon Europa is estimated to have over twice the water volume of Earth. The Solar System's giant planets are also thought to have liquid atmospheric layers of yet to be confirmed compositions. Oceans may also exist on exoplanets and exomoons, including surface oceans of liquid water within a circumstellar habitable zone. Ocean planets are a hypothetical type of planet with a surface completely covered with liquid. Astrooceanography is closely related to Astrobiology, as oceans are expected to have higher chances to house simple forms of life.
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  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Societal Benefit Areas
The Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) are eight environmental fields of interest, all of which relate to climate, around which the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) project is exerting its efforts. These include: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability, Disaster Resilience, Energy and Mineral Resources Management, Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture, Infrastructure and Transport Management, Public Health Surveillance, Sustainable Urban Development, and Water Resources Management around which a preliminary hierarchical vocabulary has been created. One of the aims of GEOSS is to implement a proper system of Earth monitoring and to render information deriving from this process available to a global range of users. Currently, the hierarchical vocabulary structuring these societal benefit categories and their subcategories are available only in English. However, translations have been created for French, Spanish and Italian versions by Claudia Cialone and Kristin Stock of the Centre for Geospatial Science (CGS) at the University of Nottingham, UK, with input from a number of people from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Italy, the University of Zaragoza and the European Union Joint Research Centre (JRC). Translations have also been accomplished for a Slovenian version of the SBAs by the Biotehnical faculty of the University of Ljubljana, SI.
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Topic Review
Vilabouly Complex, Laos
The Vilabouly Complex is an archaeological site that is located in the Savannakhet Province in Laos which holds copper smelting and copper mining during the Iron Age. The Vilabouly Complex is significant since it puts archaeologists in a predicament of when did the origin of bronze metallurgy begin in Southeast Asia. It was estimated that the site was around 400BC - AD 500 as well as 1000 - 400BC reaching both the Iron Age and Bronze Age of Southeast Asia. The site contained a lead signature that followed copper, bronze alloys, and bronze which signifies a massive source of material that can benefit metallurgy in the region. By this, the Vilabouly Complex will hold all the power of the region since it has all the resources to advance their technology during the Bronze and Iron Ages. The Vilabouly Complex and the region contained such mining sites such as Dragon Field, Peun Balo, Tengkham South D, Khanong A2, and the Malachite Cave. These sites all refer to the Iron Age but Peun Balo revealed mining in the Bronze Age continuing the predicament for Archaeologists. Research like this is vital for the Vilabouly Complex to find and understand the exact date to when the people of Southeast Asia are trading metals, and sharing mining techniques. There are also other sites in region such as the Prachan Valley that shared a lot of similarities to that of the Vilabouly Complex revealing continuities for the Southeast Asian people.
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Topic Review
Holocene Climatic Optimum
The Holocene Climate Optimum (HCO) was a warm period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years BP, with a thermal maximum around 8000 years BP. It has also been known by many other names, such as Altithermal, Climatic Optimum, Holocene Megathermal, Holocene Optimum, Holocene Thermal Maximum, Hypsithermal, and Mid-Holocene Warm Period. This warm period was followed by a gradual decline until about two millennia ago.
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  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Jeannette Expedition
The Jeannette Expedition of 1879–1881, officially called the U.S. Arctic Expedition, was an attempt led by George W. De Long to reach the North Pole by pioneering a route from the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait. The premise was that a temperate current, the Kuro Siwo, flowed northwards into the strait, providing a gateway to the Open Polar Sea and thus to the pole. This theory proved illusory; the expedition's ship, USS Jeannette and its crew of 33, was trapped by ice and drifted for nearly two years before she was crushed and sunk, north of the Siberian coast. De Long then led his 32 men on a perilous journey by sled, dragging the Jeannette's whaleboat and two cutters, eventually switching to these small boats to sail for the Lena Delta in Siberia. During this journey, and in the subsequent weeks of wandering in Siberia before rescue, 20 of the ship's complement died, including De Long. The chief exponent of the theory of a warm-water gateway to the North Pole was the German cartographer August Petermann. He encouraged James Gordon Bennett Jr., the proprietor of the New York Herald, to finance a polar expedition based on the untried Pacific route. Bennett acquired a former Royal Navy gunboat, the Pandora, and changed her name to Jeannette. De Long, whom Bennett chose to lead the expedition, was a serving naval officer with previous Arctic experience. Although essentially a private venture, in which Bennett paid all the bills, the expedition had the full support of the U.S. Government. Before departure the ship was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as USS Jeannette, and sailed under navy laws and discipline. Before its demise, the expedition discovered new islands—the De Long Islands—and collected valuable meteorological and oceanographic data. Although Jeannette's fate demolished the widely believed Open Polar Sea theory, the appearance in 1884 of debris from the wreck on the south-west coast of Greenland indicated the existence of an ocean current moving the permanent Arctic ice from east to west. This discovery inspired Fridtjof Nansen to mount his Fram expedition nine years later. A monument to the Jeannette's dead was erected at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, in 1890.
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Topic Review
Immobilized Nanomaterials for Energy Production
Nanomaterials (NMs) have been extensively used in several environmental applications; however, their widespread dissemination at full scale is hindered by difficulties keeping them active in engineered systems. Thus, several strategies to immobilize NMs for their environmental utilization have been established and are described in the present text, emphasizing their role in the production of renewable energies, the removal of priority pollutants, as well as greenhouse gases, from industrial streams, by both biological and physicochemical processes. The challenges to optimize the application of immobilized NMs and the relevant research topics to consider in future research are also presented to encourage the scientific community to respond to current needs.
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Topic Review
Loess in Xinjiang, China
The loess in the arid area of Xinjiang is located at the eastern end of the Central Asia Loess Belt, and paleoclimate research about it is of great importance for understanding the mechanism of interaction of the Eurasian Westerly monsoon system and the aridity of Central Asia. Loess sediments have been mainly distributed on the river terraces and windward piedmont of the Tianshan Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains since the late Pliocene (mainly late Pleistocene). Grain size and age data show that Xinjiang loess deposits at some locations are rapid and discontinuous or sedimentary hiatus. The Siberian High system largely controlled dust mobilization and loess accumulation in northern Xinjiang but not southern Xinjiang. In southern Central Asia, the intensity of dust activity may be determined by the Caspian Sea–Hindu Kush Index (CasHKI) and local circulation. 
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Topic Review
Degua Tembien
Dogu'a Tembien (Template:Lang-ti, "Upper Tembien", sometimes transliterated as Degua Tembien) is one of the woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is named in part after the former province of Tembien. Nowadays, the mountainous district is part of the Southeastern Tigray Zone. The administrative centre of this woreda is Hagere Selam.
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  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand
Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand is a non-fiction book about climate change denial, coauthored by Haydn Washington and John Cook, with a foreword by Naomi Oreskes. Washington had a background in environmental science prior to authoring the work, and Cook was educated in physics and founded the website Skeptical Science which compiles peer-reviewed evidence of global warming. The book was first published in hardcover and paperback formats in 2011 by Earthscan, a division of Routledge. The book presents an in-depth analysis and refutation of climate change denial, going over several arguments point-by-point and disproving them with peer-reviewed evidence from the scientific consensus for climate change. The authors assert that those denying climate change engage in tactics including cherry picking data purported to support their specific viewpoints, and attacking the integrity of climate scientists. They use social science theory to examine the phenomenon of climate change denial in the wider public, and call this phenomenon a form of pathology. The book traces financial support for climate change denial to the fossil fuel industry, asserting these companies have attempted to influence public opinion on the matter. Washington and Cook write that politicians have a tendency to use weasel words as part of a propaganda tactic through use of spin, as a way to deflect public interest away from climate change and remain passive on the issue. The authors conclude that if the public ceased engaging in denial, the problem of climate change could be realistically addressed. For his research on the book, and efforts in communicating the essence of climate change science to the general public, John Cook won the 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge. Climate Change Denial received a positive reception in reviews from publications including: The Ecologist, ECOS magazine, academic journal Natures Sciences Sociétés, the journal Education published by the New South Wales Teachers Federation,. An article in The New American was critical, describing the labels of "deniers" and "denialists" as cruel and forms of character assassination.
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Topic Review
Historical Perspective of Microorganisms Involved in EBPR
The application of enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has commonly been utilized worldwide. The EBPR in biological nutrient removal (BNR) systems is mainly carried out by a group of microorganisms known as polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs).
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