Explore the vast range of titles available.

In 2018, Indonesian government set 100 districts as the priority to reduce stunting. In this study, we hypothesize that the 100 determined districts should not be treated on an equal policy, due to some underlying factors that might affect the stunting in those districts. Thus, it is necessary to identify and analyze the grouping of 100 priority districts for stunting interventions in 2018 based on the National Team's indicators for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction to see the severity of stunting. It is hoped that this clustering could be a reference for the government in determining priority regency groups to reduce stunting rates. Data on 100 districts, represented by eight numerical measurements and six categorical measurements were analyzed using Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) method. Data similarity was measured using Gower distance, which can handle the clustering of mixed data types. We identified five priority district groups which provide meaningful insights. One of the groups has the worst stunting severity condition among other groups, for each indicator; implying the high priority to follow-up by the government. The majority of districts in Papua and East Nusa Tenggara Provinces are districts with poor stunting severity. We also found that poverty, proportion of the population with defecation in latrines, access to clean water and proper sanitation, number of integrated healthcare centers (posyandu) in a village, and number of doctors in each district are important factors that explain the stunting severity.

A central question in evolutionary biology is whether sponges or ctenophores (comb jellies) are the sister group to all other animals. These alternative phylogenetic hypotheses imply different scenarios for the evolution of complex neural systems and other animal-specific traits 1 – 6 . Conventional phylogenetic approaches based on morphological characters and increasingly extensive gene sequence collections have not been able to definitively answer this question 7 – 11 . Here we develop chromosome-scale gene linkage, also known as synteny, as a phylogenetic character for resolving this question 12 . We report new chromosome-scale genomes for a ctenophore and two marine sponges, and for three unicellular relatives of animals (a choanoflagellate, a filasterean amoeba and an ichthyosporean) that serve as outgroups for phylogenetic analysis. We find ancient syntenies that are conserved between animals and their close unicellular relatives. Ctenophores and unicellular eukaryotes share ancestral metazoan patterns, whereas sponges, bilaterians, and cnidarians share derived chromosomal rearrangements. Conserved syntenic characters unite sponges with bilaterians, cnidarians, and placozoans in a monophyletic clade to the exclusion of ctenophores, placing ctenophores as the sister group to all other animals. The patterns of synteny shared by sponges, bilaterians, and cnidarians are the result of rare and irreversible chromosome fusion-and-mixing events that provide robust and unambiguous phylogenetic support for the ctenophore-sister hypothesis. These findings provide a new framework for resolving deep, recalcitrant phylogenetic problems and have implications for our understanding of animal evolution. Deeply conserved syntenic characters unite sponges with bilaterians, cnidarians, and placozoans in a monophyletic clade to the exclusion of the comb jellies (ctenophores)—placing ctenophores as the sister group to all other animals.

Plastic debris is thought to be widespread in freshwater ecosystems globally 1 . However, a lack of comprehensive and comparable data makes rigorous assessment of its distribution challenging 2 , 3 . Here we present a standardized cross-national survey that assesses the abundance and type of plastic debris (>250 μm) in freshwater ecosystems. We sample surface waters of 38 lakes and reservoirs, distributed across gradients of geographical position and limnological attributes, with the aim to identify factors associated with an increased observation of plastics. We find plastic debris in all studied lakes and reservoirs, suggesting that these ecosystems play a key role in the plastic-pollution cycle. Our results indicate that two types of lakes are particularly vulnerable to plastic contamination: lakes and reservoirs in densely populated and urbanized areas and large lakes and reservoirs with elevated deposition areas, long water-retention times and high levels of anthropogenic influence. Plastic concentrations vary widely among lakes; in the most polluted, concentrations reach or even exceed those reported in the subtropical oceanic gyres, marine areas collecting large amounts of debris 4 . Our findings highlight the importance of including lakes and reservoirs when addressing plastic pollution, in the context of pollution management and for the continued provision of lake ecosystem services. Analysis of plastic debris found in surface waters shows that lakes and reservoirs in densely populated and urbanized regions, as well as those with elevated deposition areas, are particularly vulnerable to plastic contamination.

Enzymes are highly selective catalysts that perform intricate chemistries at ambient temperatures and pressures. Although water is the solvent of life, it is a poor solvent for most synthetic organic reactions and, therefore, most chemists avoid aqueous solutions for synthetic applications. However, when removed from the aqueous environment and placed in an organic solvent, enzyme activity is reduced greatly. Here, we present a general overview of recent efforts to activate enzymes for use in nonaqueous media, giving particular focus to the use of simple salts as additives that result in significant biocatalytic improvements.

Water scarcity threatens people in various regions, and has predominantly been studied from a water quantity perspective only. Here we show that global water scarcity is driven by both water quantity and water quality issues, and quantify expansions in clean water technologies (i.e. desalination and treated wastewater reuse) to 'reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity' as urgently required by UN's Sustainable Development Goal 6. Including water quality (i.e. water temperature, salinity, organic pollution and nutrients) contributes to an increase in percentage of world's population currently suffering from severe water scarcity from an annual average of 30% (22%-35% monthly range; water quantity only) to 40% (31%-46%; both water quantity and quality). Water quality impacts are in particular high in severe water scarcity regions, such as in eastern China and India. In these regions, excessive sectoral water withdrawals do not only contribute to water scarcity from a water quantity perspective, but polluted return flows degrade water quality, exacerbating water scarcity. We show that expanding desalination (from 2.9 to 13.6 billion m3 month−1) and treated wastewater uses (from 1.6 to 4.0 billion m3 month−1) can strongly reduce water scarcity levels and the number of people affected, especially in Asia, although the side effects (e.g. brine, energy demand, economic costs) must be considered. The presented results have potential for follow-up integrated analyses accounting for technical and economic constraints of expanding desalination and treated wastewater reuse across the world.

The unique structural, dynamical and chemical properties of air/water and oil/water interfaces are thought to play a key role in various biological, geological and environmental processes. For example, non-hydrogen-bonded (‘dangling’) OH groups—which create surface defects in water's hydrogen bonding network and are experimentally detected at both macroscopic (air/water or oil/water) and microscopic (dissolved hydrophobic molecule) interfaces—are thought to catalyse some chemical reactions. However, how the size, curvature or charge of the exposed hydrophobic surface influences water's propensity to form dangling OH defects has not yet been established quantitatively. Here we use Raman multivariate curve resolution to probe spectroscopically the hydrophobic hydration shell and, using a statistical multisite analysis, we show that such interfacial dangling OH structures are entropically stabilized and their formation is cooperative (the probability that a non-hydrogen-bonded OH group will form depends nonlinearly on the hydrophobic surface area). We thus expose an important difference between the chemical properties of molecular and macroscopic oil/water interfaces. Hydrophobe/water interfaces are crucial for many chemical processes, but to be fully understood, a better appreciation of the behaviour of non-hydrogen-bonded OH groups of water is required. It is now shown that such ‘dangling’ OH structures are entropically stabilized and form cooperatively, that is, the probability of their formation depends nonlinearly on hydrophobic surface area.

The Regional Water Company of Tirtanadi in Padang Bulan Branch seeks to provide services to meet the needs of clean water, but on the way, it often gets complaints from the public or customers. Community complaints in obtaining clean water are still an obstacle in PDAM Tirtanadi, especially in the service area of Padang Bulan Branch. This research was carried out useful in the development of the theory especially, about the level of customer satisfaction with the services provided by PDAM Tirtanadi Padang Bulan Branch. Can also provide information or a more real picture, especially about the condition of customer service PDAM Tirtanadi Padang Bulan Branch with satisfaction received by customers so that they find the factors that cause the optimal service provided. The study was conducted by distributing questionnaires as many as 400 respondents. From the results of this analysis, the results of the level of service, especially the quality of the smell of clean water, need attention, and the skills of field workers need to be improved.

Freshwater ecosystems provide irreplaceable services for both nature and society. The quality and quantity of freshwater affect biogeochemical processes and ecological dynamics that determine biodiversity, ecosystem productivity, and human health and welfare at local, regional and global scales. Freshwater ecosystems and their associated riparian habitats are amongst the most biologically diverse on Earth, and have inestimable economic, health, cultural, scientific and educational values. Yet human impacts to lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands and groundwater are dramatically reducing biodiversity and robbing critical natural resources and services from current and future generations. Freshwater biodiversity is declining rapidly on every continent and in every major river basin on Earth, and this degradation is occurring more rapidly than in terrestrial ecosystems. Currently, about one third of all global freshwater discharges pass through human agricultural, industrial or urban infrastructure. About one fifth of the Earth’s arable land is now already equipped for irrigation, including all the most productive lands, and this proportion is projected to surpass one third by midcentury to feed the rapidly expanding populations of humans and commensal species, especially poultry and ruminant livestock. Less than one fifth of the world’s preindustrial freshwater wetlands remain, and this proportion is projected to decline to under one tenth by midcentury, with imminent threats from water transfer megaprojects in Brazil and India, and coastal wetland drainage megaprojects in China. The Living Planet Index for freshwater vertebrate populations has declined to just one third that of 1970, and is projected to sink below one fifth by midcentury. A linear model of global economic expansion yields the chilling prediction that human utilization of critical freshwater resources will approach one half of the Earth’s total capacity by midcentury. Although the magnitude and growth of the human freshwater footprint are greater than is generally understood by policy makers, the news media, or the general public, slowing and reversing dramatic losses of freshwater species and ecosystems is still possible. We recommend a set of urgent policy actions that promote clean water, conserve watershed services, and restore freshwater ecosystems and their vital services. Effective management of freshwater resources and ecosystems must be ranked amongst humanity’s highest priorities.

Femtosecond x-ray laser pulses were used to probe micrometer-sized water droplets that were cooled down to 227 kelvin in vacuum. Isothermal compressibility and correlation length were extracted from x-ray scattering at the low–momentum transfer region. The temperature dependence of these thermodynamic response and correlation functions shows maxima at 229 kelvin for water and 233 kelvin for heavy water. In addition, we observed that the liquids undergo the fastest growth of tetrahedral structures at similar temperatures. These observations point to the existence of a Widom line, defined as the locus of maximum correlation length emanating from a critical point at positive pressures in the deeply supercooled regime. The difference in the maximum value of the isothermal compressibility between the two isotopes shows the importance of nuclear quantum effects.