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Article Highlights

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 16-Jun-2025 03:10 ET (16-Jun-2025 07:10 GMT/UTC)

Two stage iterative approach for addressing missing values in small-scale water quality data

Compuscript Ltd

https://doi.org/10.1007/s44312-024-00040-3

Announcing a new publication for Marine Development journal. The availability of water quality data is crucial for water quality assessment and environmental management. In real-time monitoring, the issue of missing data frequently occurs because of various reasons, such as natural hazards, facility malfunction, periodic maintenance, and parameter adjustment. Missingness can cause a mismatch in sample sizes and introduce unpleasant blank cells in data matrices, which reduces the utility and precision of related statistical analysis. Handling missing values in real water quality monitoring systems is essential for environmental analysis, particularly in some small-scale datasets.

Operating between ports inside and outside emission control areas and its effect on shipping cost

Compuscript Ltd

https://doi.org/10.1007/s44312-024-00033-2

Announcing a new publication for Marine Development journal. The shipping industry plays a pivotal role in facilitating global trade, with over 80% of world trade by volume being transported via maritime transportation. However, the environmental impacts of shipping, particularly in terms of air pollution in coastal regions, have received increasing attention in recent years. In response to these concerns, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has implemented a series of regulations designed to curb emissions from ships, with the establishment of Emission Control Areas (ECAs) being one of the most significant measures. ECAs are designated sea areas where stricter controls are imposed on emissions of sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM).

Reflections on governing Japan’s discharge of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water: from the perspective of building a Maritime Community with a shared future

Compuscript Ltd

https://doi.org/10.1007/s44312-024-00034-1

Announcing a new publication for Marine Development journal. In August 2023, Japan officially began to discharge the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water. By August 8, 2024, Japan had conducted eight discharges, totaling some 62,800 tons of nuclear-contaminated water, and despite the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) forming a task force and reporting that Japan’s discharge plan meets international standards, public unease persisted, especially with frequent news of adverse incidents which are related to the discharge. On February 7, 2024, due to a valve left open by site workers, 5.5 tons of contaminated water from the storage tanks at the plant leaked, amounting to approximately 22 billion becquerels of radioactive materials such as cesium and strontium. The concerns over the safety of discharging nuclear-contaminated water are arguably well warranted.

Journal: Marine Development

A new approach to combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing: analysis of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies

Compuscript Ltd

https://doi.org/10.1007/s44312-024-00023-4

Announcing a new publication for Marine Development journal. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing has been widely acknowledged as one of the greatest threats to fish stocks, marine ecosystems, and global ocean sustainability. Globally, an estimated one in five fish caught originates from IUU fishing. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately 90% of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited or overexploited, which means that they cannot accommodate any more legal fishing, much less illegal fishing. An estimated $22 billion a year in subsidies creates substantial, perverse incentives that encourage destructive fishing practices. There is strong evidence that certain forms of subsidies have been contributing to IUU fishing by reducing the cost of fishing operations or enhancing revenues.

Journal: Marine Development

Research progress and development trend of restoration of damaged coastal wetland ecosystems in greater bay areas

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

The present study explores the potential for functional processes maintenance principles to be applied in coastal restoration. In this paper, the research progress and development trend of restoration of damaged coastal wetland ecosystems in greater bay areas were specially discussed in terms of the mechanism, restoration technologies and methods, and the importance and criticality of coastal wetland functional processes to maintaining ecosystem functions, the main future research trends are proposed, which will solve the principal theory facing the restoration of coastal wetland ecosystems in greater bay areas.

Journal: Watershed Ecology and the Environment
Funder: Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation, Fund for Innovative Research Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key R&D Program of China

HKUMed develops new nanoparticles to effectively starve cancer cells

The University of Hong Kong

Researchers at the LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), have pioneered a new cancer-treatment strategy that amplifies cancer cell starvation for amino acids. The study found that cancer cells can survive in nutrient-deprived environments by internalising extracellular proteins via macropinocytosis and degrading them through the proteasomal pathway. Leveraging this discovery, the HKUMed researchers engineered pH-responsive polymeric nanoparticles that release drugs to block both protein uptake and degradation, effectively achieving tumour starvation therapy. The research findings were published in Advanced Science, and a US patent application has been filed.

Journal: Advanced Science

Finding the heart in the machine

Edith Cowan University

Researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) are helping machines become more emotionally aware, using a new method that allows them to better recognise human facial expressions.

Porous Ti3C2Tx for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

Higher Education Press

A novel in-plane pore engineering strategy to enhance the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance of Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene is demonstrated, achieving higher electrochemical activity, lower charge transfer resistance, and improved stability, while further boosting performance via localized surface plasmon resonance under near-infrared laser irradiation.

Scientists develop “mosquito STD” to combat malaria

University of Maryland

A University of Maryland entomologist helped develop a deadly fungus that spreads during mating to target mosquitoes that spread disease to humans.

Journal: Scientific Reports
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health

In preparing patients for metabolic surgery, a combination of weight loss drugs may be better than GLP-1s or traditional dieting alone

Pennington Biomedical Research Center

In a recent study from Pennington Biomedical Research Center’s Metamor Institute, researchers evaluated the use of different types of pre-surgery treatments, including the use of strong weight-loss medications such as multi-modal anti-obesity medications (mmAOMs), GLP-1s, and traditional diet and exercise to determine which option was most effective. In the study “Multi-modal neo-adjuvant anti-obesity medications may be more effective than medically supervised weight loss or GLP-1 therapy alone in preparing BMI ≥70 patients for metabolic surgery,” published in the International Journal of Obesity, the results demonstrated that patients who used multiple medications lost the most weight prior to surgery.

Journal: International Journal of Obesity

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