shoreacres posted: "It seems the receptionist stepped out for a moment It's an old joke, but in certain circles it still gets a laugh: "What's the difference between a boatyard and a bar?" "In a bar, someone might be working." To a degree, the joke's rooted in re" The Task at Hand
It seems the receptionist stepped out for a moment It's an old joke, but in certain circles it still gets a laugh: "What's the difference between a boatyard and a bar?" "In a bar, someone might be working." To a degree, the joke's rooted in reality. Boatyards have their share of hard workers, but they […]
Editorial Team posted: "If you must have a meeting and it only needs to be about ten minutes, don't get everyone together — utilize video conferencing rather than meeting in person or voice... Find out more at https://ift.tt/mGxMigy via Entrepreneur.com" Technology & Business News
If you must have a meeting and it only needs to be about ten minutes, don't get everyone together — utilize video conferencing rather than meeting in person or voice... Find out more at https://ift.tt/mGxMigy via Entrepreneur.com
krismunro posted: " Orion WayCambuslangGlasgow, G32 8EY Visit18-06-2022 Todays Visit I decided to make another visit and try something different to what I had ages ago. Décor★★★Noise Level★★★★Restaurant Temperature★★★★★Table Dr" Kris Munro Glasgow Food Travel & Lifestyle Review Blog
Serena Williams has entered August's National Bank Open in Toronto ahead of the US Open. Williams made a brief return to the court at Wimbledon after a year away due to injury.
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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: [R]esearchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology are warning this week about a novel technique attackers could use to de-anonymize website visitors and potentially connect the dots on many components of targets' digital lives. The findings (PDF), which NJIT researchers will present at the Usenix Security Symposium in Boston next month, show how an attacker who tricks someone into loading a malicious website can determine whether that visitor controls a particular public identifier, like an email address or social media account, thus linking the visitor to a piece of potentially personal data. When you visit a website, the page can capture your IP address, but this doesn't necessarily give the site owner enough information to individually identify you. Instead, the hack analyzes subtle features of a potential target's browser activity to determine whether they are logged into an account for an array of services, from YouTube and Dropbox to Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and more. Plus the attacks work against every major browser, including the anonymity-focused Tor Browser. "If you're an average internet user, you may not think too much about your privacy when you visit a random website," says Reza Curtmola, one of the study authors and a computer science professor at NJIT. "But there are certain categories of internet users who may be more significantly impacted by this, like people who organize and participate in political protest, journalists, and people who network with fellow members of their minority group. And what makes these types of attacks dangerous is they're very stealthy. You just visit the website and you have no idea that you've been exposed." How this de-anonymization attack works is difficult to explain but relatively easy to grasp once you have the gist. Someone carrying out the attack needs a few things to get started: a website they control, a list of accounts tied to people they want to identify as having visited that site, and content posted to the platforms of the accounts on their target list that either allows the targeted accounts to view that content or blocks them from viewing it -- the attack works both ways. Next, the attacker embeds the aforementioned content on the malicious website. Then they wait to see who clicks. If anyone on the targeted list visits the site, the attackers will know who they are by analyzing which users can (or cannot) view the embedded content. [...] Complicated as it may sound, the researchers warn that it would be simple to carry out once attackers have done the prep work. It would only take a couple of seconds to potentially unmask each visitor to the malicious site -- and it would be virtually impossible for an unsuspecting user to detect the hack. The researchers developed a browser extension that can thwart such attacks, and it is available for Chrome and Firefox. But they note that it may impact performance and isn't available for all browsers.
PG&E announced that more than 1,500 Tesla Powerwall owners have already decided to joined the new virtual power plant it launched in partnership with Tesla in California. Electrek reports: A virtual power plant (VPP) consists of distributed energy storage systems, like Tesla Powerwalls, used in concert to provide grid services and avoid the use of polluting and expensive peaker power plants. Last year, Tesla launched a test VPP in California, where Powerwall owners would join in voluntarily without compensation to let the VPP pull power from their battery packs when the grid needed it. Last month, Tesla and PG&E, a large electric utility company in Northern California, announced the launch of a new commercial VPP where homeowners with Powerwalls would get compensated for helping the grid with the energy in their battery packs. PG&E has now released an update on the virtual power plant and said that more than 1,500 Tesla Powerwall owners have already joined the program: "On June 22, Tesla invited approximately 25,000 PG&E customers with Powerwalls to join the VPP and help form the world's largest distributed battery. In the first two weeks of the new program, more than 3,000 customers have expressed interest in enrolling, with more than 1,500 customers officially in the program." With an average of two Powerwalls per customer, the VPP most likely already has a 13 MW load capacity. PG&E says that if all eligible Powerwall owners join, the VPP would have the available megawatts equivalent to "the energy generated by a small power plant." Tesla Powerwall owners can join through the Tesla app and receive $2 per kWh that they send back to the grid during emergency events. "Enabling Powerwall customers to support the grid and their community is a necessary and important part of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy," said Drew Baglino, senior vice president of Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla. "We seek to partner with utilities and regulators everywhere to unlock the full potential of storage to bring more renewable, resilient, and less costly electricity to everyone."
Bungie, the developer of Destiny 2, is now officially a part of Sony. The Verge reports: The PlayStation maker had announced its intent to acquire the gaming studio in January, and now, that acquisition is complete. At the initial announcement, Sony said (pdf) the deal was worth $3.6 billion, but in an SEC filing on Friday, it said the deal was worth "approximately" $3.7 billion. Though it's now under the Sony umbrella, Bungie will "continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games," Bungie CEO Pete Parsons said in a blog post from the original announcement of the acquisition. And future games in development won't be PlayStation exclusives, Bungie's Joe Blackburn and Justin Truman said. But Sony does plan to lean on Bungie for its "world-class expertise in multi-platform development and live game services," which "will help us deliver on our vision of expanding PlayStation to hundreds of millions of gamers," Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan said in January. Sony views live service games as a critical part of PlayStation's future, as it plans to launch more than 10 new live service games by March 2026.
TikTok's chief security officer is leaving the role in September amid renewed calls from members of the government to look into the social media app's ties to China. Insider reports: A TikTok spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the decision to replace Roland Cloutier as Chief Security Officer is unrelated to any data-privacy concerns. TikTok, which is currently the fastest growing social media company, has often faced scrutiny for being owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Last month, Buzzfeed News reported that US user data had been repeatedly accessed by TikTok employees in China based on leaked audio from internal company meetings. [...] CEO Shou Zi Chew sent a note to TikTok employees about Cloutier's exit as chief security officer, writing that "part of our evolving approach has been to minimize concerns about the security of user data in the U.S., including the creation of a new department to manage U.S. user data for TikTok. This is an important investment in our data protection practices, and it also changes the scope of the Global CSO role." Cloutier will officially step down from his role as Chief Security Officer in September and transition to an advisory role at TikTok.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: The Tor Project team has announced the release of Tor Browser 11.5, a major release that brings new features to help users fight censorship easier. [...] The updates in Tor Browser 11.5 focus on circumventing censorship, a process that started a year ago in version 10.5 with improving the Tor connection experience. In the new version, users no longer have to manually try out bridge configurations to unblock Tor. Tor Browser version 11.5 comes with a new feature called "Connection Assist," which assigns automatically the bridge configuration known to work best for the user's location. "Connection Assist works by looking up and downloading an up-to-date list of country-specific options to try using your location (with your consent)," explains the release announcement. "It manages to do so without needing to connect to the Tor Network first by utilizing moat – the same domain-fronting tool that Tor Browser uses to request a bridge from torproject.org." Since Connection Assist is still in an early stage of development (v1.0), the Tor team welcomes user feedback and reports, which would help them iron out any kinks and improve on the system. Another important new feature in version 11.5 is making 'HTTPS-Only Mode' the default browsing mode, so that the connection is through a secure tunnel. This ensures that all data exchange between the user and the server hosting the website will be encrypted, to defend against man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks and to protect users from SSL stripping on malicious exit relays. [...] The third significant improvement in Tor Browser 11.5 is a heavily revamped Network Settings menu, now called "Connection Settings," which should make it easier to find and understand specific settings. Most notably, bridge configuration and connection options have been redesigned to enable quick and easy review and management. Using emojis on the saved Bridges, the new interface offers visualization for the configuration for the first time, making it easy to identify the right bridge and select it when needed. You can download the latest Tor Browser from the official download portal.
In an effort to settle accusations by regulators that the company engages in anti-competitive behavior, Amazon leaders have discussed abandoning its private-label "Amazon Basics" business altogether. This follows previously reported concessions including giving more visibility to listings from multiple sellers for a given product to prohibiting the company from using any non-public data from Amazon sellers to boost the company's own retail business. Recode reports: At least as recently as last year, several top Amazon executives, including its current worldwide retail CEO Doug Herrington and its general counsel David Zapolsky, expressed a willingness to make this different but significant change if it meant avoiding potentially harsh remedies resulting from government investigations in the US or abroad, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions. Amazon's private-label business includes homegrown brands like Amazon Basics, which sells everything from garbage bags to batteries to office chairs, as well as the clothing line Amazon Essentials. The business line also includes brands that don't carry the Amazon name, such as the paper-goods label Presto, the food brand Happy Belly, and the fashion line Goodthreads. Such a concession would not apply to the company's own gadget lines, including Kindle, Echo, and Fire TV devices. Amazon's use of private-label brands has come under fire from politicians and regulators not merely because they exist, but because of the data Amazon leverages to create them and the tactics it uses to favor them in search results on its shopping website and app. "There was a strong consensus that this could be a viable option if the company was ever pressed into a position where it had to negotiate a settlement," the source told Recode. This person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose internal discussions. [...] The conversations at Amazon around abandoning its private labels occurred on and off for several years as scrutiny of the business line heightened, the source said, with executives expressing a desire to keep this potential remedy under wraps so that it could come across to regulators as a major concession. Leaders in favor of such a decision believed that Amazon had a right to sell private-label brands as many retailers do, but that the business was not strategically crucial enough to defend in the face of more severe potential remedies sought by antitrust enforcers. When a company like Amazon offers such a concession, it does so with the hope of closing down any current investigations. Amazon spokesperson Betsy Harden denies the report, saying the company continues "to invest in this area, just as our many retail competitors have done for decades and continue to do today."
Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed raising the minimum definition of broadband to 100Mbps for downloads and 20Mbps for uploads. Engadget reports: The previous 25/3 benchmark is both outdated and hides just how many low-income and rural internet users are being "left behind and left offline," Rosenworcel said. The chair said multiple pieces of evidence supported the hike, including requirements for new network construction stemming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The FCC had already proposed upgrades to rural speeds through a special program, but this would affect the definition of broadband regardless of where users live in the country. Rosenworcel also wanted the minimum speed to evolve over time. She proposed setting a much higher standard of 1Gbps down and 500Mbps up for some point in the future. The leader further suggested more criteria for determining the "reasonable and timely" rollout of broadband, including adoption rates, affordability, availability and equitable access.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google's developer deadline for the Play Store's new "Data Safety" section is next week (July 20), and we're starting to see what the future of Google Play privacy will look like. The actual Data Safety section started rolling out in April, but now that the developer deadline is approaching... Google is turning off the separate "app permissions" section? That doesn't sound like a great move for privacy at all. The Play Store's new Data Safety section is Google's answer to a similar feature in iOS 14, which displays a list of developer-provided privacy considerations, like what data an app collects, how that data is stored, and who the data is shared with. At first blush, the Data Safety entries might seem pretty similar to the old list of app permissions. You get items like "location," and in some ways, it's better than a plain list of permissions since developers can explain how and why each bit of data is collected. The difference is in how that data ends up in Google's system. The old list of app permissions was guaranteed to be factual because it was built by Google, automatically, by scanning the app. The Data Safety system, meanwhile, runs on the honor system. Here's Google's explanation to developers of how the new section works: "You alone are responsible for making complete and accurate declarations in your app's store listing on Google Play. Google Play reviews apps across all policy requirements; however, we cannot make determinations on behalf of the developers of how they handle user data. Only you possess all the information required to complete the Data safety form. When Google becomes aware of a discrepancy between your app behavior and your declaration, we may take appropriate action, including enforcement action."
Astronomers at MIT and universities across Canada and the United States have detected a strange and persistent radio signal from a far-off galaxy that appears to be flashing with surprising regularity. From a report:The signal is classified as a fast radio burst, or FRB -- an intensely strong burst of radio waves of unknown astrophysical origin, that typically lasts for a few milliseconds at most. However, this new signal persists for up to three seconds, about 1,000 times longer than the average FRB. Within this window, the team detected bursts of radio waves that repeat every 0.2 seconds in a clear periodic pattern, similar to a beating heart. The researchers have labeled the signal FRB 20191221A, and it is currently the longest-lasting FRB, with the clearest periodic pattern, detected to date. The source of the signal lies in a distant galaxy, several billion light-years from Earth. Exactly what that source might be remains a mystery, though astronomers suspect the signal could emanate from either a radio pulsar or a magnetar, both of which are types of neutron stars -- extremely dense, rapidly spinning collapsed cores of giant stars. There are not many things in the universe that emit strictly periodic signals," says Daniele Michilli, a postdoc in MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. âoeExamples that we know of in our own galaxy are radio pulsars and magnetars, which
A committee in Britain's parliament has told payment firms Visa and Mastercard to justify recent rises in their card transaction fees after the country's payments regulator expressed concerns. From a report: The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) told the Treasury Committee last week that the increases in card fees showed the market was "not working well", according to correspondence published by the committee on Thursday.
Taiwanese prosecutors on Friday accused a Chinese Apple supplier of stealing commercial secrets from a Taiwanese supplier and poaching its workforce to win orders from the U.S. company, saying it had charged 14 people. From a report: Taiwan has been stepping up efforts to stop what it views as underhand and illegal activities by Chinese firms to steal know-how and poach away talent in what Taipei's government views as a threat to the island's tech prowess. Prosecutors in New Taipei said after a year-and-a-half investigation they had found that China's Luxshare Precision had targeted Taiwanese competitor Catcher Technology "in order to quickly enter the Apple production chain to win orders." Luxshare "lured" Catcher's China based research and development team with promises of high salaries and stole business secrets from the Taiwanese firm, causing them big losses, the prosecutors said in a statement. Luxshare was doing this in order to be able to "quickly build factories and mass produce cases for iPhones, iPads and other products", the statement said.
A Twitch streamer has crowdsourced the manuals for upwards of 850 unique Super Nintendo games and made them free on an online archive. From a report: Video game consoles have come a long way since the Super Nintendo arrived in the U.S. in 1991 and launched a new generation of gamers, but sometimes there is no beating the classics. The console was wildly popular, with more than 700 games released for the system in the U.S., and Kerry Hays (aka "Peebs" on the Twitch streaming platform) has been working on beating every. single. one. "We had wondered, some of these games, had anyone ever even beaten them before? They were so weird and obscure or difficult," he said. And so, Hays turned to the manuals. For those who weren't playing a lot of video games in the '90s, almost all of them came with a manual inside the case that had lots of helpful information. The manual was where you would find the buttons to push and how the console works. It could also include your lore, backstory, and maybe even a map. "And if you're really lucky, you get a little bit of a walkthrough that would tell you, like, the first 10% of the game," Hays said. [...] The collection is hosted on the Internet Archive and contains upwards of 850 unique Super Nintendo manuals -- and it's all free. Hays says he's not in it for the money.
In a rare move, more than 200 congressional staffers have sent a letter to Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, demanding they close the deal on a climate and clean energy package and warning that failure could doom younger generations. From a report: "We've crafted the legislation necessary to avert climate catastrophe. It's time for you to pass it," the staffers wrote in a letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday evening. The letter, which staffers signed anonymously with initials, was shared first with CNN. "Our country is nearing the end of a two-year window that represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass transformative climate policy," the letter continues. "The silence on expansive climate justice policy on Capitol Hill this year has been deafening. We write to distance ourselves from your dangerous inaction." The staffers' grievances were delivered as Schumer negotiates with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia on a Democrat-only package that is expected to address inflation, the cost of prescription drugs, energy and the climate crisis. The climate and energy portion has remained the largest sticking point in negotiations, as Manchin has publicly stated he wants to lower gas prices by increasing US energy production.
A new study from Germany has found that working in virtual reality does not increase productivity, comfort, or wellbeing, but does say the report will help identify opportunities for improving the experience of working in VR in the future. From a report: The project was headed by Dr Jens Grubert, a specialist in human-computer interaction at Coburg University, Germany. It involved 16 people who had to work for five days, eight hours a week (with 45 mins lunch break), in VR. The participants used Meta Quest 2 VR headsets combined with a Logitech K830 keyboard and Chrome Remote Desktop. The equipment was chosen specifically to create a realistic scenario of what users would be using in today's world. Participants were also asked specific VR-related questions ('do you feel sick?' or 'are your eyes starting to hurt?'). The research team also monitored the worker's heartbeats and typing speed. The published paper, entitled 'Quantifying the Effects of Working in VR for One Week' found "concerning levels of simulator sickness, below average usability ratings and two participants dropped out on the first day using VR, due to migraine, nausea and anxiety." The study found that, as expected, VR results in significantly worse ratings across most measures. Each test subject scored their VR working experience versus working in a physical environment, many felt their task load had increased, on average by 35%. Frustration was by 42%, the 'negative affect' was up 11%, and anxiety rose by 19%. Mental wellbeing decreased by 20%., eye strain rose 48%, and VR ranked 36% lower on usability. Participants' self-rated workflow went down by 14% and their perceived productivity dropped by 16%.
The amount of cryptocurrency flowing into privacy-enhancing mixer services has reached an all-time high this year as funds from wallets belonging to government-sanctioned groups and criminal activity almost doubled, researchers reported on Thursday. ArsTechnica: Mixers, also known as tumblers, obfuscate cryptocurrency transactions by creating a disconnect between the funds a user deposits and the funds the user withdraws. To do this, mixers pool funds deposited by large numbers of users and randomly mix them. Each user can withdraw the entire amount deposited, minus a cut for the mixer, but because the coins come from this jumbled pool, it's harder for blockchain investigators to track precisely where the money went. Some mixers provide additional obfuscation by allowing users to withdraw funds in differing amounts sent to different wallet addresses. Others try to conceal the mixing activity altogether by changing the fee on each transaction or varying the type of deposit address used. Mixer use isn't automatically illegal or unethical. [...]. "Mixers present a difficult question to regulators and members of the cryptocurrency community," researchers from cryptocurrency analysis firm Chainalysis wrote in a report that linked the surge to increased volumes deposited by sanctioned and criminal groups. "Virtually everyone would acknowledge that financial privacy is valuable, and that in a vacuum, there's no reason services like mixers shouldn't be able to provide it. However, the data shows that mixers currently pose a significant money laundering risk, with 25 percent of funds coming from illicit addresses, and that cybercriminals associated with hostile governments are taking advantage." Cryptocurrency received by these mixers fluctuates significantly from day to day, so researchers find it more useful to use longer-term measures. The 30-day moving average of funds received by mixers hit $51.8 million in mid-April, an all-time high, Chainalysis reported. The high-water mark represented almost double the incoming volumes at the same point last year. What's more, illicit wallet addresses accounted for 23 percent of funds sent to mixers this year, up from 12 percent in 2021.
aletho posted: " Samizdat | July 16, 2022 Saudi Arabia is ready to increase oil production to its maximum of 13 million barrels per day but does not have the capacity to pump out more, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said during his address at the US-Arab summit in " Aletho News
Saudi Arabia is ready to increase oil production to its maximum of 13 million barrels per day but does not have the capacity to pump out more, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said during his address at the US-Arab summit in Jeddah on Saturday.
"The kingdom has announced an increase in its production capacity level to 13 million barrels per day, after which the kingdom will not have any additional capacity to increase production," he was quoted as saying by UAE's newspaper The National.
The crown prince also said that the global community should join forces to support the global economy, but noted that unrealistic policies regarding energy sources would only worsen the situation.
"Adopting unrealistic policies to reduce emissions by excluding main sources of energy will lead in coming years to unprecedented inflation and an increase in energy prices and rising unemployment, and a worsening of serious social and security problems," he stated.
Mohammed bin Salman's words come a day after his talks with Joe Biden, who was in Saudi Arabia on his first visit as US president, and urged the kingdom to increase oil production in order to reduce global reliance on supplies from Russia.
Commenting on his trip to the kingdom, Biden said Saudi Arabia's "energy resources are vital for mitigating the impact on global supplies of Russia's war in Ukraine."
Saudi Arabia, one of the globe's largest oil exporters and the leading producer within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), currently pumps out more than 12 million barrels of oil per day. The kingdom previously said it plans to reach production capacity of 13 million barrels per day by 2027. The Crown Prince did not reveal whether the timeframe for the boost in capacity has changed.
Following the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, the US and other Western nations have stepped up sanctions on Moscow, calling, among other things, for a boycott on Russian energy supplies. The US stopped importing Russian oil earlier this year, and the EU placed a partial embargo on Russian fuel last month.
Washington is now planning to set a price cap on the Russian commodity, and the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is currently in Asia attempting to garner support for the scheme. The US is especially eager to secure the participation of China and India in the price cap mechanism, as both countries have not only refused to sanction Russia over the Ukraine conflict, but have recently stepped up purchases of Russian oil.
Cannabis News World posted: "Employees at New Jersey's Largest Smoke Shop Chain Submit Landmark Petition in Favor of Unionizing to National Labor Relations Board CANNANNEW REPORT Overcoming owner objection, workers at all nine Wonderland Smoke Shop locations will vote in NLRB-con" Cannabis News World
Employees at New Jersey's Largest Smoke Shop Chain Submit Landmark Petition in Favor of Unionizing to National Labor Relations Board CANNANNEW REPORT Overcoming owner objection, workers at all nine Wonderland Smoke Shop locations will vote in NLRB-conducted elections to become full participants in the Garden State's cannabis industry, and share in its union protections, trainings and benefits. WEST BERLIN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 360 announces the submission of a groundbreaking petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by the employees of Wonderland Smoke Shop, New Jersey's largest cannabis accessories business. Wonderland Smoke Shop now becomes the first cannabis accessories business to formally ask the NLRB to conduct an election to unionize. Such businesses are not covered by current New Jersey legislation requiring cannabis license holders and bona fide labor groups to mutually attest that a labor peace agreement is in place. Wonderland Smoke Shop describes itself as a "one-stop shop," with wall-to-wall display cases that showcase "hand-blown glass pipes, water pipes, smoking accessories and body jewelry." To submit the petition that triggers the NLRB's process, at least 30% of employees had to declare their support for union certification elections. In fact, employees added their names to the petition even after business owners pushed them to reject the worker protections and family-supporting benefits that come with joining UFCW Local 360. "Workers in these stores have always been in the vanguard of the industry," said Hugh Giordano, UFCW Local 360's director of organizing. "From making sure that sick and suffering patients know how to properly experience the benefits of medical marijuana to supporting those who advocated for cannabis legalization, they've been vocal and committed. Now they're advocating for themselves and UFCW is proud to stand with them." Typically, once a petition is filed, employers must conspicuously post a Notice of Petition for Election. NLRB agents will then seek an election agreement between the employer, union, and others to…
Cannabis News World posted: "Federal Cannabis Busts Continue to Drop in Legalized States green enterpre Decriminalization works. Excerpt only ... READ MORE BELOW Source : Federal Cannabis Busts Continue to Drop in Legalized States reposted by Cannabis News World " Cannabis News World
Sickr posted: " The latest Japanese most wanted video games charts are in via Weekly Famitsu. it has been a long-running battle between Splatoon 3 and Final Fantasy XVI for the No.1 spot over the past few months. This week sees Final Fantasy XVI return to No.1 with 774 " My Nintendo News
The latest Japanese most wanted video games charts are in via Weekly Famitsu. it has been a long-running battle between Splatoon 3 and Final Fantasy XVI for the No.1 spot over the past few months. This week sees Final Fantasy XVI return to No.1 with 774 votes despite Square Enix delaying the JRPG until next […]
Back End News posted: " One of Tower of Fantasy's most compelling features is its weapons, which can be transformed through upgrades and come in a variety of rarities, with increasing attributes. Each weapon has four types of skills: general attack, dodge, weapon-specific, and " Back End News
One of Tower of Fantasy's most compelling features is its weapons, which can be transformed through upgrades and come in a variety of rarities, with increasing attributes. Each weapon has four types of skills: general attack, dodge, weapon-specific, and combination. General attack skills are further divided into special stage attacks and stalls. Currently there are […]
aletho posted: " Samizdat | July 15, 2022 The European Commission announced on Friday the launch of a so-called infringement procedure against Hungary for its locals-only cap of fuel prices. According to the report, Hungary imposes different fuel prices for vehicl" Aletho News
The European Commission announced on Friday the launch of a so-called infringement procedure against Hungary for its locals-only cap of fuel prices.
According to the report, Hungary imposes different fuel prices for vehicles with foreign and local license plates.
"Vehicles with Hungarian number plates, including tractors and agricultural machinery with Hungarian documents, are entitled to lower official fuel prices by 60 to 70%. In contrast, all other vehicles with a foreign number plate cannot benefit from such reduced prices," the statement reads.
Hungary restricted its 480 forint per liter ($1.20) price cap for gasoline and diesel to locals only in May following an influx of drivers from neighboring countries who were coming to take advantage of the European Union's cheapest gas. The cap was originally introduced as a measure to help shield consumers from inflation, which is at its highest level in two decades. The price cap is currently in place until October.
The Commission requested that the Hungarian authorities comply with EU law provisions pertaining to "the free movement of goods and services including transport services, the freedom of establishment, the free movement of citizens and workers, the principle of non-discrimination as well as rules on notifications under the Single Market Transparency Directive."
Cannabis News World posted: "Cannabis Strain Labels Are Misleading — A New Study Poses A Fix fresh toast Cannabis Strain Labels Are Misleading — A New Study Poses A Fix Cannabis producers are not obligated to include other compound data except for THC and CBD on the label. The po" Cannabis News World
Cannabis Strain Labels Are Misleading — A New Study Poses A Fix fresh toast Cannabis Strain Labels Are Misleading — A New Study Poses A Fix Cannabis producers are not obligated to include other compound data except for THC and CBD on the label. The post Cannabis Strain Labels Are Misleading — A New Study Poses A Fix appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
Tech News Favs posted: " TODAY'S TECH NEWS FAV PICK: Netflix partners with Microsoft for cheaper ad-supported subscriptions - After months of speculation, Netflix recently confirmed plans for a cheaper ad-supported tier, but the company would need a partner to help d" Tech News Favs
TODAY'S TECH NEWS FAV PICK: Netflix partners with Microsoft for cheaper ad-supported subscriptions - After months of speculation, Netflix recently confirmed plans for a cheaper ad-supported tier, but the company would need a partner to help deliver those ads. This week, it announced that it chose Microsoft. Most of Netflix's competitors already have ad-supported membership […]
Cannabis News World posted: "Woman fakes pregnancy to smuggle a 6.1 kg cannabis baby Growth op Bud baby revealed following the keen senses of a drug-sniffing dog. Excerpt only ... READ MORE BELOW Source : Woman fakes pregnancy to smuggle a 6.1 kg cannabis baby reposted b" Cannabis News World
Kinjal posted: "An 8-minute-long video clip that purportedly shows a kidnapping attempt is viral on social media. In the video, we see a woman getting out of an auto-rickshaw with a child. As she is speaking to the auto driver, another woman standing in the vicinity pick" Alt News
An 8-minute-long video clip that purportedly shows a kidnapping attempt is viral on social media. In the video, we see a woman getting out of an auto-rickshaw with a child. As she is speaking to the auto driver, another woman standing in the vicinity picks up the child and flees.
Meanwhile, two men recorded this act on their phones. They inform the child's mother and head in the direction of the alleged kidnapper. The mother, along with those who had filmed the act, get into a physical altercation with the alleged kidnapper. During this scuffle, one of the men slaps the alleged kidnapper several times. In the end, she confesses and apologises.
Social media users have shared the video and claimed the mother was deaf and dumb. Hence she did not notice when her child got kidnapped. A Facebook user posted this video with the same claim. (Archived link)
Another user also amplified the video on Facebook.
Fact-check
A disclaimer appears at the 0:16-mark of the viral video. It states that the video "should be considered for entertainment purposes only".
Upon further investigation, we found the same video posted on June 7 by a Facebook page called 'Ankur Jatuskaran'. Ankur Jatuskaran is a video creator who often makes prank videos and shares them on his YouTube channel and Facebook page.
We examined the Facebook page closely and discovered that it has previously posted several such scripted videos (link 1, link 2, link 3). Apart from this, we noticed that the man seen in the viral clip is Ankur himself. He features as an actor in most of the videos.
To sum it up, the viral video that shows child kidnapping is actually scripted. In the past, Alt News has fact-checked multiple such videos which are actually dramatised or made for awareness. However, because the disclaimers are not being featured properly, they are often mistakenly shared as real incidents.
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dunrenard posted: " Published: 14 July 2022 Abstract In Fukushima, government-led decontamination reduced radiation risk and recovered 137Cs-contaminated soil, yet its long-term downstream impacts remain unclear. Here we provide the comprehensive decontamination impac" nuclear-news
In Fukushima, government-led decontamination reduced radiation risk and recovered 137Cs-contaminated soil, yet its long-term downstream impacts remain unclear. Here we provide the comprehensive decontamination impact assessment from 2013 to 2018 using governmental decontamination data, high-resolution satellite images and concurrent river monitoring results. We find that regional erosion potential intensified during decontamination (2013–2016) but decreased in the subsequent revegetation stage. Compared with 2013, suspended sediment at the 1-year-flood discharge increased by 237.1% in 2016. A mixing model suggests that the gradually increasing sediment from decontaminated regions caused a rapid particulate 137Cs decline, whereas no significant changes in downstream discharge-normalized 137Cs flux were observed after decontamination. Our findings demonstrate that upstream decontamination caused persistently excessive suspended sediment loads downstream, though with reduced 137Cs concentration, and that rapid vegetation recovery can shorten the duration of such unsustainable impacts. Future upstream remediation should thus consider pre-assessing local natural restoration and preparing appropriate revegetation measures in remediated regions for downstream sustainability.
Main
Radioactive material leakage from nuclear industry activities or nuclear accidents poses a major threat to the environment and the economy1,2. Historically, widespread radioactive contamination has been observed several times, such as the Kyshtym accident (Soviet Union) in the 1940s–50s3, Windscale accident (England) in 1957 (ref. 4) and Chernobyl accident (Soviet Union) in 1986 (ref. 5). Long-term radiation exposure and radiophobia have increased the health risk and psychological pressure on the people of these regions, resulting in the abandonment of large areas rich in environmental resources and consequently in constrained sustainable human development6,7. As a key means for recovering contaminated regions, mechanical decontamination has been implemented in many legacy sites, including Hanford (United States)8 and Chernobyl9. However, almost all attention has been directed to understanding in situ decontamination effects10,11 and atmospheric particle resuspension issues12 and little is known about if these perturbations would have secondary environmental impacts on their downstream catchments for the long-term.
On 11 March 2011, the most recent large-scale nuclear accident happened at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP), Japan13. Over 2.7 PBq of fallout 137Cs (half-life T1/2 = 30.1 yr) from the FDNPP was deposited in the terrestrial environment, causing long-term radioactive contamination on large-scale neighbouring catchments13,14. To recover contaminated soil and decrease the exposure dose in Fukushima, the Japanese government evacuated the residents in 2011 and large-scale decontamination was implemented in contaminated villages15,16 in 2012. Within a few years, dramatic land-cover changes occurred in the agricultural regions where 5 cm of the surface soil and vegetation were removed and replaced with uncontaminated soil (Fig. 1), with the subsequent natural restoration promoting revegetation in these decontaminated regions11,13,16.
The effectiveness of such intensive decontamination at reducing radiation exposure in situ is apparent, with air dose rates decreasing by 20–70% after decontamination13. However, as 137Cs can firmly bind to clay minerals, it is transported along with suspended sediments (particulate 137Cs) in the river system to the Pacific Ocean17,18. Comprehensively assessing the impacts of land-use changes in decontaminated regions on the downstream ecosystem is also necessary from the perspective of environmental sustainability. Moreover, recent studies have shown notable differences in the reduction in the particulate 137Cs concentration over time across 30 rivers in Fukushima19,20, further underscoring the need to study land-use impacts on downstream particulate 137Cs discharge into the ocean.
In addition to contaminant migration, land-use changes induced by strong perturbations (for example, decontamination) also alter land–ocean sediment transfer patterns21,22, which in turn affect elemental cycles23, biodiversity24 and global climate25. Systematically assessing the perturbations' impacts on downstream river suspended sediments (SS) has thus become a joint goal of many related disciplines and a key part of developing science-based catchment management strategies26,27,28,29. However, owing to the limited availability of reliable and concurrent river monitoring data, how downstream river SS variations and land-use changes are linked remains unclear21.
With approximately 11.9% of the watershed area subjected to government-led decontamination between 2013 and early 2017, the Niida River Basin in Fukushima (Fig. 2a)11,30 provides an excellent opportunity to examine the long-term impact on the dynamics of SS and particulate 137Cs in river systems. Previous short-term river studies19,20,31,32,33,34 have suggested an increased river SS load and decreased particulate 137Cs concentrations during decontamination. Several studies that analysed geochemical fingerprints in deposited sediments have implied a significant contribution of sediment sources from the decontaminated regions to the river35,36,37. Yet, given that threats to sustainable catchment management from anthropogenic perturbations are often long-term28,29, more comprehensive and reliable data on quantified land cover and continuous river records are required to explore the effect of decontamination on river SS and particulate 137Cs discharge.
Here we provide a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of land-use changes in decontaminated regions on river SS and particulate 137Cs dynamics, as well as the downstream discharge. We mapped the evolution of decontaminated region boundaries using governmental decontamination documents (Fig. 2b), photographed the land cover in the decontaminated regions using drones and quantified the land-use changes using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at 10 m spatial resolution. Meanwhile, we conducted a long-term field investigation (Methods and Supplementary Table 1) spanning the decontamination (2013–2016) and natural restoration (2017–2018) stages to continuously record the fluctuations in water discharge and turbidity (10 min temporal resolution) and particulate 137Cs concentrations, both upstream and downstream. Combining the above quantitative data, we systematically reveal that long-term land-use changes in upstream decontaminated regions greatly affect sediment and 137Cs discharge from downstream river systems into the Pacific Ocean.
Land-cover changes in decontaminated regions
Regional decontamination was accomplished in March 2017, spanning over 22.9% and 11.9% of the upstream (Notegami) and downstream (Haramachi) watershed areas, respectively (Fig. 2c). In 2014, agricultural land (18.02 km2) was one of the major land uses in the regions where decontamination was ordered, with a significant increase of over 720% compared with that in 2012. Conversely, the changes in the ordered grassland (1.93 km2) were minimal, with an approximately 26% increase between 2012 and 2014. Given that overall land-cover changes were more pronounced in agricultural lands than in grasslands or residential lands, large-scale agricultural land decontamination may severely alter landscape erodibility and consequently the sediment supply. Moreover, the proximity of the decontaminated agricultural land to rivers increases sediment transport from terrestrial environments.
Drone photographs (Fig. 3a and Supplementary Fig. 1) showed significant land-cover changes in the upstream decontaminated regions. For instance, the agricultural land at the Hiso site (D3, Fig. 3a) was almost bare in August 2016 when the decontamination was completed. However, natural restoration caused the recovery of vegetation during the post-decontamination stage (August 2018). Considering the decontamination sequence and seasonal dependence of the plant growth cycle38, drastic spatiotemporal land-cover changes in the decontamination regions are conceivable.
To quantitatively estimate and compare land-cover changes in the decontaminated regions, we generated NDVI maps in these regions based on the available satellite images from Sentinel 2 and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) between 2011 and 2018. The comparison between realistic scenarios and Sentinel 2-based NDVI maps (spatial resolution: 10 m) from drone observation sites (Fig. 3a and Supplementary Fig. 1) confirmed the feasibility of NDVI images in distinguishing bare land and agricultural land with vegetation cover. To improve the temporal–spatial resolution of the NDVI dataset, we used the enhanced spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (ESTARFM)39 to fuse Sentinel 2 and MODIS maps. Subsequently, we used interpolation to link these newly generated NDVI data (spatial resolution: 10 m) and plotted daily NDVI variations for all decontaminated regions between 2011 and 2018 (Fig. 3b).
In the daily NDVI variation curve, the peak NDVI during 2013–2014 was similar to the pre-decontamination stage (2012) but decreased by approximately 10% in 2016. After decontamination, the peak value presented an increasing trend under the influence of vegetation recovery. However, as the government lifted the evacuation zone after 2017 and allowed the residents to return, vegetation was again removed from some areas planned for agricultural activities in 2018 (Supplementary Fig. 1b). Further analyses of the NDVI variations in the decontaminated regions scheduled in 2012 (Fig. 3c), 2013 (Fig. 3d) and 2014 (Fig. 3e) showed that the NDVI peaks were decreased by approximately 12%, 11% and 15%, respectively, within 2–3 years after decontamination was ordered, thereby providing unambiguous evidence for decreasing vegetation land cover caused by decontamination.
We converted all NDVI maps derived from ESTARFM-images to C × P (cover management and support practice factors, respectively) maps using empirical models40,41. We then estimated erosion potential (that is, K × LS × C × P in the revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE); Methods) maps using the LS (slope length and slope steepness factors, respectively) map (Supplementary Fig. 2) and K (soil erodibility) factor in the decontaminated regions. We found that the slopes of decontaminated regions were generally similar for each decontamination-ordered year (Supplementary Fig. 2), suggesting that the erosion potential was consistent with the NDVI in the decontaminated regions. Therefore, we also estimated the daily variation curve of the erosion potential using the mean CP, LS and K factors in the decontaminated regions.
Here we show the ESTARFM-based NDVI (Fig. 3f) and erosion potential (Fig. 3g) during the summer season for each year (specific periods in Supplementary Table 2). NDVI showed a decreasing trend from 2013 to 2016, while the erosion potential peaked in 2016, representing approximately 98% and 52% increases over the pre-decontamination (2011) and natural restoration (2018) stages, respectively. Combining the corresponding NDVI (Supplementary Fig. 3) and erosion potential maps (Supplementary Fig. 4), significant changes in the spatial differences between the land cover and erosion potential during decontamination were also observed.
Response of river SS to land-cover changes
The downstream river SS load (L; Fig. 4a) exhibited a strong correlation with water discharge (Q) during the monitoring periods (Supplementary Fig. 5 and Supplementary Table 3). Under the range of water discharges from 0.1 to 100 m3 s−1, river SS carrying capacity exhibited a considerable increase from 2013 to 2016 and a slight decrease after decontamination (2017 to 2018). Contrastingly, the range of water discharges was relatively narrow upstream, and a steady decrease in SS loads has been observed since 2015. Although the above result suggests an increase in SS supply during the decontamination stage, the high SS carrying capacity in 2015 is not consistent with the actual decontamination progress. Since decontaminated regions tend to be bare land, sediment loads are prone to increasing during rainstorms due to soil erosion. Governmental decontamination plans showed that over 50% of agricultural land decontamination was planned to be implemented in 2016, implying that the erosion potential of the decontaminated regions should have been higher in 2016, rather than in 2015.
The variations in downstream river SS loads over the 6 years (Supplementary Table 4) exhibited a similar trend to peak river SS load in 2015 (126.7 ± 0.3 Gg yr−1). This was an approximately 1,776%, 140% and 215% increase relative to that of 2013, 2016 and 2018, respectively. The historical rainfall records (Fig. 4b) show that the rainfall in September 2015 (551 mm) was more than two-fold greater than that during the same period in 2016 (274 mm), implying that the SS peak may be related to strong runoff. Here we estimate the SS loads at 1-year-flood discharge (Q = 95 m3 s−1) using established L–Q curves, which allow for the comparison of dynamic variations in SS loads under the same flood conditions. In Fig. 4b, a significant increasing trend during the decontamination period is shown, with a 237.1% increase in 2016 compared with 2013. After decontamination, the SS loads drastically decreased by approximately 41% from 2016 to 2017, implying changes in sediment yield and transfer patterns due to natural restoration. These results reveal that river SS loads responded closely to land-cover changes during the study period.
To better explore the response of river SS load to land-cover changes, we extracted river monitoring data during each rainfall event and quantitatively linked the river SS to the corresponding soil loss from the decontaminated regions. We found that SS loads during rainstorms were highly correlated with water discharges in both upstream and downstream areas (Supplementary Fig. 6). Comparing similar rainfall events, significantly greater SS concentrations are observed in 2015–2016 than in other years (Supplementary Figs. 7 and 8). Considering that the land-cover changes induced by decontamination were more pronounced in the summer season, the regression was performed for SS loads between May and October and soil loss during the corresponding period. A more significant correlation was observed (Fig. 4c) between estimated soil loss by RUSLE and SS load upstream (R2 = 0.55, P < 0.01, N = 34) than downstream (R2 = 0.27, P < 0.01, N = 52). Eliminating the effect of rainfall and normalizing by discharge (Fig. 4d) results in a more evident relationship between the erosion potential and SS loads downstream (R2 = 0.35, P < 0.01, N = 52). Overall, these results demonstrate the connection between river SS dynamics and land-cover changes in the decontaminated regions. The short distance between the upstream catchment and decontaminated regions makes soil erosion a critical driver for upstream river SS transport, whereas the downstream river is dependent on long-distance SS transport, making water discharge an important driver for the downstream catchment.
Long-term impact on river SS and 137Cs discharge
From August 2014 to March 2017, the particulate 137Cs concentration in Haramachi exhibited a steep decrease, contrasting remarkably with the limited 137Cs variation observed in the early decontamination stages (January 2013 to August 2014; Fig. 5a). The effective half-life of the particulate 137Cs (eliminated by the natural attenuation factor) during this decontamination period (1.87 yr) was considerably faster than that of physical decay of 137Cs (30.1 yr), the early decontamination period (16.9 yr) and the surrounding contaminated catchments (mean of 4.92 yr)20. Such a sharp decrease in the 137Cs concentration was also observed at the other three monitoring sites (Supplementary Fig. 9a). Because the 137Cs concentration in decontaminated soil was considerably lower than that in the contaminated soil37,42, these results suggest the contribution of sediment from decontaminated regions to the river system. Moreover, strong negative correlations were observed between measured 137Cs levels and decontamination progress at all monitoring sites (Fig. 5b and Supplementary Fig. 9b), which further supports our interpretation. The observed 137Cs concentration increased by approximately 150% in 2018 compared with that at the end of 2016, which may be caused by the weakened sediment supply from decontaminated regions owing to natural restoration and resulting in a relatively increased contribution of sediments from contaminated forest regions13.
Given that the variation in 137Cs concentrations reflects a change in sediment source, the deviations between the measured 137Cs and the natural decrease in 137Cs derived from surrounding contaminated catchments provide a way to quantitatively estimate the contribution of sediment from decontaminated regions (Fig. 5c). In the early decontamination period, our results showed slight variations in the 137Cs concentration (Fig. 5a), which could be attributed to the contribution of sediment from upstream regions with different degrees of contamination. During the main decontamination period, the erosion potential in the summer of 2015 was approximately 22% higher than that in 2014 and the heavy rainfall caused the largest flooding event during the study period (26-year flood). This may result in the sediment from decontaminated regions not being the dominant source for downstream. In 2016, decontamination caused an increase by approximately 59% in the erosion potential compared with 2013, with the contribution percentage steadily increasing over this period to a maximum of 75.7% ± 3.2% (value ± 95% uncertainty). After decontamination, the decreased contribution of sediment from decontaminated regions and the increased 137Cs concentrations can both be attributed to the reduction of soil loss from upstream due to natural restoration.
The 137Cs discharge from contaminated catchments around the Fukushima region into the Pacific Ocean is another ecological issue of global concern. Our data show that the export flux of particulate 137Cs from the downstream of the Niida river (that is, Haramachi) peaked in 2015 (1.24 TBq yr−1, equalling 0.65% 137Cs loss), which is an approximately 667%, 233% and 429% increase relative to that in 2013, 2016 and 2018, respectively (Fig. 5d). Although such 137Cs loss is negligible compared with the terrestrial inventory, it is approximately 105 times greater than that in the pre-Fukushima stage43,44. Accordingly, the dynamic variations in 137Cs discharge from terrestrial environments into the Pacific Ocean, and its drivers, require more attention in the future.
Here we used SS loads at one-year-flood discharge to normalize the 137Cs flux and found its peak occurred in 2015 (Fig. 5e). Additionally, the reduction of the normalized 137Cs flux from 2013 to 2016 (~32%) was similar to natural attenuation in the non-contaminated catchment (~34%) over same period, which may be due to the increased SS load during decontamination offsetting the role of declining 137Cs concentrations in reducing 137Cs emission. During the subsequent natural restoration period, the rapid NDVI increase (Fig. 3f) suggested vegetation recovery in decontaminated regions and a decrease in regional erosion potential (Fig. 3g). This resulted in an approximately 24% decrease in sediment yield from the catchment and an approximately 31% decrease in the contribution of sediment from decontaminated regions (Fig. 5c) from 2016 to 2018. Due to the mutual balance of these effects, there were no significant changes in normalized particulate 137Cs flux in 2018 compared with 2016.
Discussion
Our work highlights the great potential of interdisciplinary analyses for understanding river SS variation and quantifying the contribution of sediment from specific regions. Fukushima decontamination practices, like a controllable validation experiment, justified the reliability of using long-term 137Cs monitoring data for tracing sediment source dynamics due to specific perturbation. Combining the long-term dataset of 137Cs (or other fallout radionuclides) in SS with remote sensing images would provide additional evidence to determine if the changes in the downstream SS transport pattern are linked to the upstream perturbation.
With these interdisciplinary analyses, we systematically reveal how changes in land use in the decontaminated regions significantly influences downstream river SS and 137Cs discharge into the ocean. Indeed, the secondary environmental impacts of surface remediation are being increasingly considered in the broader field concerning remediation of regions contaminated with hazardous materials (for example, heavy metals and organic contaminants)45. The concept of environmental sustainability-centred green remediation has also been brought up in many scenarios46,47. The Fukushima decontamination practice provides evidence showing that mechanical remediation can cause persistently excessive SS load downstream, though it also reduced river 137Cs concentrations. Since persistently excessive turbidity in rivers affects not only surrounding residents' water use but also trophic level structure in aquatic environments48, the unsustainable downstream impacts caused by upstream decontamination should be highly regarded. The vegetation recovery after land development is highly dependent on local conditions49, and the soil used for decontamination and local high rainfall amount in Fukushima promoted rapid vegetation recovery11,13, which shortened the duration of such unsustainable impacts. Therefore, future upstream contaminated lands that await mechanical remediation need to consider the pre-assessment of local natural restoration conditions or the preparation of appropriate revegetation measures in the catchments' regulatory frameworks, which would minimize the impact of long-term decontamination on downstream sustainability.
Methods
Study region
The Niida River Basin (265 km2) is located about 40 km northwest of the damaged FDNPP. The topography of its upstream is almost mountainous and its soil types are mainly cambisols and andosols, while fluvisols are the dominant soil type in the downstream plain50. The monitoring data from the Japan Meteorological Agency show that the average rainfall in the Niida River Basin is greater than 1,300 mm, with more than 75% of the rainfall occurring between May and October. According to the third airborne monitoring survey by the Japanese government, the 137Cs inventory in the Niida River Basin was over 700 kBq m−2 (ref. 14). Because of particularly high contamination in its upstream watershed (over 1,000 kBq m−2)51, the government-led decontamination was implemented in the upstream basin from 2013 to 2016 (~1% of the area was extended to March 2017).
Land-cover observation
We constructed the vector decontamination maps based on the paper maps from the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. The boundaries of the decontaminated regions with different land-use types were first outlined by creating polygons using Google Earth. Subsequently, the projections of these polygons were imported to ArcMap v.10.3 to quantitatively evaluate their area.
During the decontamination (2016) and post-decontamination stages (2018), drone photography was utilized (Fig. 2a, triangle) to compare land-cover changes. A commercially available drone (Phantom 4, DJI product) was employed at 100 m above the ground in Matsuzuka (D1; 37.689° N, 140.720° E), Iitoi (D2; 37.663° N, 140.723° E) and Hiso (D3; 37.613° N, 140.711° E) to take photographs.
Quantification of land-cover changes in decontaminated regions
We calculated NDVI within the boundary of the decontaminated regions to quantify the land-cover changes. Through the spectral reflectance dataset in the red (R, nm) and near-infrared (NIR, nm) regions, the NDVI was calculated as52:
NDVI=NIR−RNIR+R.
(1)
The available satellite images from 2011 to 2018 from Sentinel 2 were downloaded from the United States Geological Survey53, while the concurrent MODIS images were derived from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Reverb54. The wavelength bands and spatiotemporal resolutions of the satellite images used here are summarized in Supplementary Tables 5 and 6.
To confirm the reliability of the newly generated NDVI variation curve, NDVIs for the same date as the Sentinel 2 images were estimated using the interpolation and compared with the Sentinel 2-based NDVI. The linear regression analysis showed that the fitting R2 was 0.99 (N = 16, P < 0.01). We also calculated the NDVI in the decontaminated region based on available satellite images of Landsat 5/7/8 (ref. 53) and established a daily NDVI variation curve. The linear regression analysis also showed a high R2 between two daily NDVI curves (R2 = 0.97, N = 2868, P < 0.01). Therefore, these NDVIs calculated by different satellite images confirmed the reliability of the NDVI variation curve based on ESTARFM.
Estimation of erosion potential in decontaminated regions
To link the land-cover changes in decontaminated regions with the soil erosion dynamics, we defined an erosion potential (K × LS × C × P) based on the RUSLE.
The soil loss (A, t ha−1 yr−1) of a specific region can be estimated as55:
A=R×K×LS×C×P,
(2)
where R is the precipitation erosivity factor (MJ mm ha−1 h−1 yr−1), K represents the soil erodibility factor (t h MJ−1 mm−1), L and S are slope length factor (dimensionless) and slope steepness factor (dimensionless), respectively, and C and P are the cover management factor (dimensionless) and support practice factor (dimensionless), respectively. Because these parameters are often set as fixed values, it is difficult to assess the soil loss dynamics during anthropogenic disturbances. To address this problem, we used daily NDVI data to estimate C × P and then considered these dynamic factors in RUSLE.
Wakiyama et al.40 reported a correlation between vegetation cover in Fukushima and the sediment discharges from the standard USLE plot (that is, soil loss, A) that have been normalized by R, K, S and L factors40,56. Therefore, this empirical equation reflects the quantitative relationship between vegetation fractions (VF) and C × P.
To quantify daily C × P changes in decontaminated regions, we first converted the interpolated daily NDVI into the VF by a semi-empirical equation41:
VF=1−(NDVI−NDVI∞NDVIs−NDVI∞)0.6175,
(3)
where NDVIs and NDVI∞ represent the NDVI value for land cover corresponding to no plants and 100% green vegetation cover, respectively. Since these values mainly depend on plant species and soil types, we followed previous methods applied to agricultural land and set NDVIs and NDVI∞ as 0.05 and 0.88, respectively41.
Subsequently, the C × P was estimated by the empirical equation derived from uncultivated farmlands and grasslands (R2 = 0.47, N = 145)40:
C×P=0.083×e−5.666×VF.
(4)
Since the soil type used for decontamination is generally the same, the K factor was set as a constant (0.039; ref. 40). For the LS factor, we downloaded a digital elevation model from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (spatial resolution: 10 m) to build an LS map using55:
LS=[Qa×M22.13]y×(0.065+0.045×Sg+0.0065×S2g),
(5)
where Qa is the flow accumulation grid, Sg represents the grid slope as a percentage, M is the grid size and y is a parameter depended on slope steepness. We here used the y values recommended by a published study, ref. 55.
The calculated LS-factor map (Supplementary Fig. 2) showed a relatively consistent LS distribution in space. Based on the ESTARFM-generated satellite images, we compared C×P and erosion potential (K × LS × C × P) and found a significant correlation (R2 = 0.99, P < 0.01, N = 174). Since these results suggest that LS factors in decontaminated regions have a negligible effect on the erosion potential, the mean LS factor and interpolated NDVI based on the daily variation curve (Fig. 3b) were used to estimate the daily erosion potential.
Monitoring of river discharge and turbidity
The water-level gauges (in situ Rugged TROLL100 Data Logger) and a turbidimeter (ANALITE turbidity NEP9530, McVan Instruments) were installed in each monitoring site to continuously recording the water level and turbidity with a temporal resolution of 10 min. As ocean tides may influence the accuracy of water-level monitoring, the Sakekawa site (M4 in Fig. 2) was excluded from the river monitoring programme.
The recorded water level (H, m) was converted to the water discharge (Q, m3 h−1) based on the annual H–Q curves for each monitoring site. These curves were calibrated using a synchronous monitoring dataset of 10-min-resolution water level and discharge provided by the Fukushima prefecture's official monitoring network57. Because of occasional damage to the water-level gauge at the Haramachi site, the available monitoring data with a temporal resolution of 10 min recorded by the Fukushima prefecture's official monitoring network57 were used to fill the gaps. The percentages of filling data from official monitoring network were all less than 34% except for 2015 (56.6%). Although similar situations occurred in Notegami, we were unable to fill in gaps with other data due to the lack of a concurrent monitoring network.
The hourly SS concentration (Css, g m−3) at each monitoring site was calculated from the measured turbidity (T, mV) using a calibrated curve20. As the turbidimeter was susceptible to the moss and debris flowing in the river, the dataset was verified with an automated check by HEC-DSSVue (The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Hydrologic Engineering Center Data Storage System) before transforming the data.
The SS load was estimated as the product of the corresponding datasets of discharge and SS concentration, after which we can obtain the annual SS load (L, ton yr−1) by taking the sum:
L=∑(Q×Css).
(6)
We estimated values for gaps including missing and abnormal data through a linear model established by 10-min-resolution monitoring data at the same site. The reliability of the gap-filling strategies used in this study has been documented by Taniguchi et al.19,20 These procedures vastly enhance the possibility of reconstructing the complete dataset. In this study, only the error in converting from water discharge to SS load was considered in the uncertainty assessment, and all estimates were within 0.5% (95% confidential interval) in this case. To reduce the uncertainty of L–Q fitting, the 10-min monitoring dataset (discharge and SS load) was transformed to a 1-hour dataset.
Considering the river SS is often transported by discharge, we used downstream L–Q curves to estimate river SS loads at 1-year-flood discharge (Q = 95 m3 s−1), which eliminates the influence caused by different annual water discharges. The 1-year-flood discharge was calculated from the daily maximum discharge data from 1 January 2013 to 30 September 2020 at the Haramachi site.
To compare river SS dynamics during rainfall events, we here defined a rainfall event as the increase in water discharge exceeding 1.4 and 1.6 times the baseflow before precipitation for the upstream and downstream catchments, respectively. As a result, a total of 64 and 72 rainfall events from the Notegami and Haramachi sites were identified.
To study the dynamic relationship between soil loss from decontaminated regions and river SS load, we estimated eroded soil amount during each rainstorm using RUSLE. Specifically, the NDVI during a specific rainfall was determined by interpolation. Subsequently, the corresponding C × P can be estimated using equations (3) and (4). With the mean values of the K and LS factors, the erosion potential can then be calculated. Finally, precipitation erosivity factor (Supplementary Table 7) for each rainfall event can be calculated as58:
R=1n∑j=1n∑k=1mj(EI30)k,
(7)
where n is the number of years used, mj is the number of precipitation events in each given year j and E and I30 represent each event's kinetic energy (MJ) and maximum 30 min precipitation intensity (mm h−1), respectively, for each event k. The event's erosivity, EI30, can be calculated as58:
EI30=(∑r=10ervr)I30,
(8)
where er denotes the unit rainfall energy (MJ ha−1 mm−1) and vr provides the rainfall volume during a set period (r) (mm). For this calculation, the criterion for the identification of a precipitation event is consistent with previous work, that is, the cumulative rainfall of an event is greater than 12.7 mm (ref. 58). If another rainfall event occurs within 6 h of the end of a rainfall event, they are counted as one event. Therefore, the unit rainfall energy (er) can be derived for each time interval based on rainfall intensity (ir, mm h−1)58:
er=0.29[1−0.72e(−0.05×ir)].
(9)
The calculation's required parameters were derived from the historical precipitation record from the Japan Meteorological Agency59. For the Notegami catchment, the precipitation monitoring data were derived from Iitate. For the Haramachi catchment, the precipitation was obtained from three adjacent monitoring sites (that is, Haramachi, Iitate and Tsushima) with the specific weights of 0.143, 0.545 and 0.312, respectively. These weights were determined by the Voronoi diagram method in a Geographic Information System60.
River monitoring of particulate 137Cs
At each monitoring site, the suspended sediment sampler proposed by Phillips et al.61 was installed at 20–30 cm above the riverbed for the time‐integrated sampling of river suspended sediment. The reliability of this sampler has been widely proven in past studies19,20. After sampling, the trapped turbid water and SS samples were transferred into a clean polyethylene container and stored until laboratory analysis.
The SS samples were separated from the collected water mixture via natural precipitation and physical filtration, dried at 105 °C for 24 h and subsequently packed into a plastic container. The activities of 137Cs in the SS samples (C, Bq kg−1) were determined via the measurement system, which consists of a high-purity germanium γ-ray spectrometer (GCW2022S, Canberra−Eurisys, Meriden) coupled to an amplifier (PSC822, Canberra, Meriden) and multichannel analyser (DSA1000, Canberra, Meriden). The measurement system was calibrated with the standard soil sample from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Under the 662 keV energy channel, each measurement batch would take approximately 1–24 h to make the analytical precision of the measurements within 10% (95% confidential interval). All measured 137Cs concentrations were decay-corrected to their sampling date. Moreover, the results obtained in this study were also normalized by their initial average 137Cs inventory in the catchment (D, Bq m−2) to eliminate the effect caused by spatial differences.
As 137Cs concentration in the sediment sample depends on particle size19,20, we conducted a particle size correction for all measured data in Takase, Ukedo and Haramachi to eliminate this effect. The particle size distributions for dried SS samples were analysed using the laser diffraction particle size analyser (SALD-3100, Shimadzu Co., Ltd.). With the parameterized particle size distributions, the particle size correction coefficient (Pc) can be calculated by19:
Pc=(SsSr)v,
(10)
where Sr and Ss represent the reference and collected samples' specific surface areas (m2 g−1). The exponent coefficient, v, is a fitting parameter associated with chemical and mineral compositions. In this study, the same parameters measured in the Abukuma River, the major river in the Fukushima area, were applied for Sr (0.202 m2 g−1) and v (0.65). The specific surface area for collected SS samples was estimated by the following equation under a spherical approximation20:
Ss=∑(6×ρ−1×d−1i×p−1i),
(11)
where ρ is the particle density and di and pi denote the ratio and diameter of the particle size fraction for particle i. Therefore, the 137Cs concentration corrected for particle size can be obtained by dividing the measured 137Cs concentration by Pc.
Considering that the decrease in particulate 137Cs concentration in a catchment was also affected by natural attenuation, there is a need to eliminate this effect from the declining trend of our observed 137Cs dataset to highlight the impacts of decontamination. The Ukedo and Takase are rivers surrounding the Niida River with similar contaminated situations. Our long-term 137Cs monitoring data from downstream of these two catchments showed that their 137Cs decline trends were relatively steady. Although there is a dam reservoir upstream of Ukedo, the 137Cs concentration observed both upstream and downstream showed a similar declining trend62. Therefore, the above evidence suggests that natural attenuation was the dominant factor controlling the 137Cs decrease in these two rivers. Here we assumed that the natural attenuation trend of 137Cs in the surrounding catchments (Ukedo and Takase) with little effect by decontamination was similar to that of the Haramachi catchment. Thus, we fitted their time change curves of 137Cs concentration (normalized by average 137Cs inventory of the corresponding catchment) using an exponential model. We then estimated the 137Cs concentration at the same sampling time as Haramachi in the two catchments by using the fitting models. Finally, we calculated the mean value of the two datasets and recalculated the effective half-life (Teff = ln(2)/λ; λ is the fitting exponential term) of the natural attenuation by the exponential model.
The 137Cs flux (LCs, Bq) for each monitoring site was estimated by the product of the SS flux and the 137Cs concentration in the suspended sediment sample. We then took the sum over that year:
LCs=∑(Q×Css×C).
(12)
According to the law of error propagation, we considered the error from SS load and 137Cs measurement in the combined uncertainty assessment for 137Cs fluxes and found their values are all within 1.1% (95% confidential interval).
Using 137Cs as a tracer in estimating SS source contribution
Although 137Cs has been widely used in tracing sediment source, the spatial variability of the 137Cs deposition inventory in the Fukushima catchment hinders the estimation of the source contribution from a specific region. However, for the decontaminated catchments, as the 137Cs concentration in decontaminated soil was much lower than that in contaminated regions (for example, forested regions and the riverbank)11,13,63, the fluctuations in the particulate 137Cs concentration can help to identify the sediment from the decontamination regions. Specifically, we assumed that the particulate 137Cs concentrations in surrounding contaminated watersheds (that is, having similar land-use composition) follow a similar decline trend driven by natural reasons, while the decontamination-induced land-cover changes cause other sediment sources to mix with the original river SS and thus result in a deviation in observed 137Cs concentrations from this natural trend. Therefore, the relative contribution (RC) of the specific sediment source can be expressed as:
RC=(Cm−Cn)(Cs−Cn),
(13)
where the Cm is the measured 137Cs concentration and Cs and Cn represent the 137Cs concentration in a specific sediment source and the naturally varied 137Cs concentration at the same time as the measured 137Cs. For data comparability, all 137Cs concentrations presented here were corrected by their particle size and 137Cs inventory. We also excluded the samples with collection weights below 0.5 g from the calculations due to their high uncertainty in Pc measurement.
In this study, the specific sediment source is the decontaminated soil in the Niida River Basin where the 137Cs concentration was approximately 53.99 ± 40.90 Bq kg−1 (refs. 37,42; mean ± standard deviation, N = 8). The natural decline of the 137Cs concentration (that is, λ) was established using temporal variation in 137Cs data originating from the Ukedo and Takase rivers, which were scarcely influenced by decontamination. The first measured 137Cs data in Haramachi were set as the starting point of its natural decline curve. The total uncertainty for the contribution percentage of SS from the decontaminated regions was calculated by the propagation of error from each part with the uncertainties originating from the measured 137Cs concentration, 137Cs concentration in a specific source and the natural 137Cs concentration. For the uncertainty in the 137Cs concentration in decontaminated soil (Cs), we set the standard deviation as its error source, while the natural 137Cs concentrations were calculated by the propagation of the 95% confidential interval of the fitting curves.
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Acknowledgements
We appreciate B. Matsushita for his valuable suggestions on satellite image processing and NDVI calculation, J. Chen for sharing the code for ESTARFM, J. Takahashi for sharing 137Cs in decontaminated soil data, H. Kato for his suggestions on presenting the results, S. Fujiwara for his assistance on calculating the precipitation erosivity factor, Y. Yamanaka and T. Kubo for their work on decontamination map development, field investigation and preliminary data analysis and Y. He and F. Yoshimura for their constructive suggestions on improving figure quality. We also acknowledge funding support from the commissioned study from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) FY2011–2012, Nuclear Regulation Authority FY2013–2014, Japan Atomic Energy Agency-funded FY2015–2021, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas grant number 24110005, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) 22H00556, Agence Nationale de la Recherche ANR-11-RSNR-0002 and the Japan Science and Technology Agency as part of the Belmont Forum.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Center for Research in Isotopes and Environmental Dynamics, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan Bin Feng, Yuichi Onda, Asahi Hashimoto & Yupan Zhang
Institute of Environmental Radioactivity, Fukushima University, Fukushima, JapanYoshifumi Wakiyama
National Institute of Technology, Tsuyama College, Tsuyama, JapanKeisuke Taniguchi
Contributions
B.F. and Y.O. conceived the study; B.F. performed the data evaluation and all analyses, interpreted the data, wrote the manuscript and prepared all figures and tables in close discussion with Y.O.; Y.O. provided funding support for the field monitoring and all needed resources; K.T. and Y.Z outlined the boundary of the decontamination regions and implemented the drone observations of the sites; and Y.W. and K.T. performed the field river monitoring and determined the particulate 137Cs concentration. B.F., A.H. and Y.Z. prepared all satellite images, ran the NDVI calculation and processed ESTARFM. All listed authors contributed to the editing of the manuscript and approved the final version.
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