Future heat stress to reduce people's purchasing power.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kuhla K
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8191966 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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| S-EPMC8175401 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study utilizes China's records of non-accidental mortality along with twenty-five simulations from the NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections to evaluate forthcoming heat stress and heat-related mortality across China across four distinct scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5). The findings demonstrate a projected escalation in the heat stress index (HSI) throughout China from 2031 to 2100. The most substantial increments compared to the baseline (1995-2014) are observed under SSP5-8.5, indicating a rise of 7.96°C by the year 2100, while under SSP1-2.6, the increase is relatively modest at 1.54°C. Disparities in HSI growth are evident among different subregions, with South China encountering the most significant elevation, whereas Northwest China exhibits the lowest increment. Projected future temperatures align closely with HSI patterns, while relative humidity is anticipated to decrease across the majority of areas. The study's projections indicate that China's heat-related mortality is poised to surpass present levels over the forthcoming decades, spanning a range from 215% to 380% from 2031 to 2100. Notably, higher emission scenarios correspond to heightened heat-related mortality. Additionally, the investigation delves into the respective contributions of humidity and temperature to shifts in heat-related mortality. At present, humidity exerts a greater impact on fluctuations in heat-related mortality within China and its subregions. However, with the projected increase in emissions and global warming, temperature is expected to assume a dominant role in shaping these outcomes. In summary, this study underscores the anticipated escalation of heat stress and heat-related mortality across China in the future. It highlights the imperative of emission reduction as a means to mitigate these risks and underscores the variances in susceptibility to heat stress across different regions.
| S-EPMC10581210 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The threat of global warming makes uncovering mechanisms of plant tolerance to long-term moderate heat stress particularly important. We previously reported that Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants lacking mitochondrial proteases FTSH4 or OMA1 suffer phenotypic changes under long-term stress of 30°C, while their growth at 22°C is not affected. Here we found that these morphological and developmental changes are associated with increased accumulation of insoluble mitochondrial protein aggregates that consist mainly of small heat-shock proteins (sHSPs). Greater accumulation of sHSPs in ftsh4 than oma1 corresponds with more severe phenotypic abnormalities. We showed that the proteolytic activity of FTSH4, and to a lesser extent of OMA1, as well as the chaperone function of FTSH4, is crucial for protecting mitochondrial proteins against aggregation. We demonstrated that HSP23.6 and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 9 present in aggregates are proteolytic substrates of FTSH4, and this form of HSP23.6 is also a substrate of OMA1 protease. In addition, we found that the activity of FTSH4 plays an important role during recovery from elevated to optimal temperatures. Isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ)-based proteomic analyses, along with identification of aggregation-prone proteins, implicated mitochondrial pathways affected by protein aggregation (e.g. assembly of complex I) and revealed that the mitochondrial proteomes of ftsh4 and oma1 plants are similarly adapted to long-term moderate heat stress. Overall, our data indicate that both FTSH4 and OMA1 increase the tolerance of plants to long-term moderate heat stress by reducing detergent-tolerant mitochondrial protein aggregation.
| S-EPMC8491029 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionPrevious literatures have mainly explored the impact of the experience of power on impulsive buying, but have ignored the impacts of the expectations of power. The purpose of this research is to delineates a two-facet portrait of power in the role of affecting purchase impulsiveness by proposing a theoretical extension from the experience of power to the expectations of power.MethodsFour laboratory experiments were developed that used ANOVA to verify the hypothesis. A moderated mediation path model was established including the experience of power, product attribute, the expectations of power, deservingness, and purchasing impulsiveness as observed variables.ResultsThe results revealed that powerless consumers are more likely to impulsively buy hedonic products; while powerful consumers prefer to impulsively buy utilitarian products. However, when focusing on the expectations of power, powerless consumers feel a lower perception of deservingness, which reduces their impulse to buy hedonic products. In contrast, when powerful consumers imagine how powerful people should behave in consumption, they will experience a higher sense of deservingness and increase purchasing impulsiveness for hedonic products. The underlying mechanism is that deservingness plays a mediation role in the three-way interaction impacts of the experience of power, product attribute, and the expectations of power on purchasing impulsiveness.ConclusionThe current research formulates a new theoretical perspective on the relationship between power and purchasing impulsiveness. An experience-expectation model of power is presented that proposes consumers' purchasing impulsiveness can be affected both by the experience of power and the expectations of power.
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Project description:IntroductionHeat-related illnesses can lead to morbidity, which are anticipated to increase frequency with predictions of increased global surface temperatures and extreme weather events. Although heat acclimation training (HAT) could prevent heat-related diseases, the mechanisms underlying HAT-promoting beneficial changes in organ function, immunity, and gut microbes remain unclear.MethodsIn the current study, we recruited 32 healthy young soldiers and randomly divided them into 4 teams to conduct HATs for 10 days: the equipment-assisted training team at high temperature (HE); the equipment-assisted training team under normal hot weather (NE); the high-intensity interval training team at high temperature (HIIT), and the control team without training. A standard heat tolerance test (HTT) was conducted before (HTT-1st) and after (HTT-2nd) the training to judge whether the participants met the heat acclimation (HA) criteria.ResultsWe found that the participants in both HE and NE teams had significantly higher acclimation rates (HA/total population) than whom in the HIIT team. The effects of HAT on the participants of the HE team outperformed that of the NE team. In the HA group, the differences of physiological indicators and plasma organ damage biomarkers (ALT, ALP, creatinine, LDH, α-HBDH and cholinesterase) before and after HTT-2nd were significantly reduced to those during HTT-1st, but the differences of immune factors (IL-10, IL-6, CXCL2, CCL4, CCL5, and CCL11) elevated. The composition, metabolism, and pathogenicity of gut microbes changed significantly, with a decreased proportion of potentially pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia-Shigella and Lactococcus) and increased probiotics (Dorea, Blautia, and Lactobacillus) in the HA group. Training for a longer time in a high temperature and humidity showed beneficial effects for intestinal probiotics.ConclusionThese findings revealed that pathogenic gut bacteria decrease while probiotics increase following HA, with elevated immune factors and reduced organ damage during heat stress, thereby improving the body's heat adaption.
| S-EPMC9995595 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Information security and data breaches are perhaps the biggest challenges that global businesses face in the digital economy. Although data breaches can cause significant harm to users, businesses, and society, there is significant individual and national variation in people's responses to data breaches across markets. This research investigates power distance as an antecedent of people's divergent reactions to data breaches. Eight studies using archival, correlational, and experimental methods find that high power distance makes users more willing to continue patronizing a business after a data breach (Studies 1-3). This is because they are more likely to believe that the business, not they themselves, owns the compromised data (Studies 4-5A) and, hence, do not reduce their transactions with the business. Making people believe that they (not the business) own the shared data attenuates this effect (Study 5B). Study 6 provides additional evidence for the underlying mechanism. Finally, Study 7 shows that high uncertainty avoidance acts as a moderator that mitigates the effect of power distance on willingness to continue patronizing a business after a data breach. Theoretical contributions to the international business literature and practitioner and policy insights are discussed.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41267-022-00519-5.
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Project description:Young people in the UK consume far above the maximum recommended levels of added sugar. It is likely that neither they nor their parents fully take account of the future health, social and economic costs of this high sugar consumption. This provides a rationale for policy intervention. The majority of young people's added sugar consumption occurs in the home, where purchases are typically made by parents. This means that understanding the purchase decisions of adults is important for policy design, even if the policies aim to reduce the consumption of young people. We discuss the merits of popular policies, including taxes, advertising restrictions and restrictions on the availability of specific foods, and we identify promising avenues for future research.
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Chronic heat stress and dehydration from strenuous work in hot environments is considered an essential component of the epidemic of chronic kidney disease in Central America. OBJECTIVE:(1) To assess feasibility of providing an intervention modelled on OSHA's Water.Rest.Shade programme (WRS) during sugarcane cutting and (2) to prevent heat stress and dehydration without decreasing productivity. METHODS:Midway through the 6-month harvest, the intervention introduced WRS practices. A 60-person cutting group was provided water supplied in individual backpacks, mobile shaded rest areas and scheduled rest periods. Ergonomically improved machetes and efficiency strategies were also implemented. Health data (anthropometric, blood, urine, questionnaires) were collected preharvest, preintervention, mid-intervention and at the end of harvest. A subsample participated in focus group discussions. Daily wet bulb globe temperatures (WBGT) were recorded. The employer provided individual production records. RESULTS:Over the harvest WBGT was >26°C from 9:00 onwards reaching average maximum of 29.3±1.7°C, around 13:00. Postintervention self-reported water consumption increased 25%. Symptoms associated with heat stress and with dehydration decreased. Individual daily production increased from 5.1 to a high of 7.3?tons/person/day postintervention. This increase was greater than in other cutting groups at the company. Focus groups reported a positive perception of components of the WRS, and the new machete and cutting programmes. CONCLUSIONS:A WRS intervention is feasible in sugarcane fields, and appears to markedly reduce the impact of the heat stress conditions for the workforce. With proper attention to work practices, production can be maintained with less impact on worker health.
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Project description:Cost or burden of illness studies for mental illnesses has helped define the magnitude of their negative effects on the household, community and national economy. Despite its many benefits, there is a paucity of these studies among Nigerians being managed for mental illnesses. This study was aimed at assessing the economic burden of mental illnesses and its effect on household purchasing power. The study was descriptive cross-sectional in design conducted among 284 out-patients with five categories of mental illnesses at the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro recruited via a systematic sampling technique. Data collection was quantitative using a semi-structured interviewer-administered tool. Participants provided the actual direct costs and estimates of indirect costs incurred during their most recent inpatient admission and their first clinic visit after discharge. Parametric and non-parametric statistical tests were conducted on the direct and estimated indirect costs respectively after testing them for normality using the Q-Q plot with statistical significance determined at p<0.05. Almost 96% of respondents finance their healthcare costs by themselves or their family with >50% earning <US$1.8 per day. Their mean direct and estimated indirect costs were (US$23.1±US$11.3 and US$15±US$28). There were no statistically significant differences in the mean direct and estimated indirect costs incurred by participants across the categories of mental illnesses. A significantly higher proportion of participants could afford the essential goods (88%) compared to those who could afford luxurious goods (29%) with p<0.001. The mean direct costs incurred by those who could afford the essential and luxurious goods were significantly higher than those who could not following a t-test. The median estimated indirect costs incurred by those who could not afford luxurious goods differed significantly from those who could with the Mann Whitney U-test. Participants with mental illnesses face a high economic burden in managing their condition with the majority unable to afford luxurious goods. Affordability was also associated with incurring more direct costs.
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Project description:Thermoelectric power generators are used to convert heat into electricity. Like any other heat engine, the performance of a thermoelectric generator increases as the temperature difference on the sides increases. It is generally assumed that as more heat is forced through the thermoelectric legs, their performance increases. Therefore, insulations are typically used to minimize the heat losses and to confine the heat transport through the thermoelectric legs. In this paper we show that to some extend it is beneficial to purposely open heat loss channels in order to establish a larger temperature gradient and therefore to increase the overall efficiency and achieve larger electric power output. We define a modified Biot number (Bi) as an indicator of requirements for sidewall insulation. We show cooling from sidewalls increases the efficiency for Bi values less than one, and decreases the efficiency for Bi values larger than one.
| S-EPMC4817038 | biostudies-other