At the time of the study, most of the municipal waste, including solid municipal waste, in the city of St. Petersburg and in the connected larger Leningrad region is processed by landfilling. This sort of waste processing in open landfills causes environmental damage, uncontrollable landfill fires, bad and dangerous odors, nearby rivers/streams, groundwater pollution, CH4 and CO2 emissions, to mention a few. Additionally, landfilling is a waste of energy and material resources present in the content dumped into landfills. In this context, Waste-to-Energy (WtE) incineration is a process that we use to recover the energy the materials have back to usable form, which we use in the form of heat and electricity. Even though a lot of resources and energy are available in the (municipal solid) waste, it does not mean that recovering it would always make sense. Our study analyses and estimates the profitability of a WtE incineration plant(s) in the city of St. Petersburg and the connected Leningrad region. With the available data and following analysis, we have concluded that the WtE incineration is economically feasible in this specific region and city areas, given that the implementations follow more traditional (economically less expensive and easier) technical and process model solutions. As a note of results stability, it needs to be pointed out that the changes in estimates of gate fees, cost of electricity and heat, and so on do impact the economic feasibility a lot, and larger scale changes in the assumed revenues would have a high impact on the outcome of repeatability of the results.
Climate change poses significant challenges to agriculture, particularly in developing nations like Nigeria, where the sector is highly dependent on vulnerable rain-fed farming systems. Extreme weather events such as prolonged droughts, erratic rainfall, flooding, and rising temperatures threaten agricultural productivity, food security, and rural livelihoods. This study examines the vulnerability of food crops to climate change, focusing on smallholder farmers’ perceptions and adaptation strategies. Using a multistage sampling technique, data were collected from 480 smallholder farmers across selected agro-ecological zones in Nigeria. The study employed descriptive statistics and a crop vulnerability scale to assess the susceptibility of key food crops—maize, cassava, sorghum, rice, millet, soybean, and yam—to climate extremes. Findings reveal that drought is the most critical climate-induced stressor affecting food crops, with maize and cassava exhibiting the highest vulnerability indices. Flooding also presents a substantial risk, particularly to maize, while temperature fluctuations have relatively less severe immediate impacts. The study highlights the importance of climate information dissemination, cooperative memberships, and extension services in enhancing farmers’ resilience. However, limited access to climate information remains a significant barrier to adaptation. Given the observed variability in crop vulnerability, it is recommended to implement targeted climate adaptation strategies such as drought-resistant crop varieties, improved drainage systems, and early warning mechanisms. This study underscores the urgent need for climate-smart agricultural policies and resilience-building measures to safeguard food production and rural livelihoods in Nigeria amid escalating climate change threats.
With the growing use of Real Time Kinematics (RTK) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and advancements in ground control points (GCPs), assessing positional accuracy of UAV derived orthophoto mosaics is crucial. This study aimed to improve UAV aerial image accuracy for more reliable orthophoto mosaics by examining the positional accuracy of orthophoto mosaics derived with (1) an RTK UAV; and (2) an RTK UAV combined with AeroPoints 2 GCPs. We tested two GPS base station methods for the RTK UAV: self-determined and manually assigned coordinates. The manually assigned coordinates resulted in significantly lower root mean square error (RMSE = 0.0729 m) compared to the self-determined method (RMSE = 1.9762 m), indicating improved accuracy. For the AeroPoints 2 GCPs, we recorded coordinates from a central GCP at a known location and four additional GCPs placed in each cardinal direction. The AeroPoints 2 system showed lower RMSE at all points compared to the RTK, with the central GCP at 0.0136 m, indicating high accuracy. These findings suggest that while RTK UAVs improve accuracy with manual base station assignment, incorporating AeroPoints 2 GCPs provides consistently higher precision across multiple locations. The study highlights the potential of AeroPoints 2 GCPs and suggests further research opportunities to enhance RTK UAV accuracy in areas lacking GPS correctional networks.
Recent advances in ancient DNA analysis have transformed our understanding of kinship and underlying social structures in past populations. The application of next-generation sequencing technologies has enabled researchers to reconstruct the genetic makeup of ancient individuals with unprecedented precision, providing new insights into lineage, ancestry, and social organization. Ancient DNA evidence has revealed a wide range of kinship systems, including patrilineal and matrilineal descent, consanguineous marriages, female exogamy, and family-based burial practices. These findings underscore the complexity of human social relationships and the dynamic interactions between genetic inheritance, cultural traditions, and environmental factors in ancient societies. By examining case studies across different geographic and temporal contexts, this review highlights the transformative potential of ancient DNA in deciphering past human relationships. However, it also addresses key ethical concerns, including the importance of respecting cultural sensitivities and avoiding overly deterministic interpretations of genetic data. The integration of genetic evidence with archaeological and anthropological perspectives enables a more comprehensive reconstruction of ancient social systems, moving beyond simplistic genetic determinism to appreciate the intricate interconnections between biology, culture, and identity.
To address the limited endurance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the efficiency degradation and instability in traditional wireless charging systems, this study proposes a high-efficiency UAV wireless charging system based on the parity-time (PT) symmetric principle. A non-Hermitian coupled resonator model is established, incorporating a dynamic gain-loss balancing mechanism and real-time parameter feedback control to adaptively compensate for coupling coefficient fluctuations caused by UAV positional deviations, thereby maintaining PT-symmetric phase stability. The receiver coil adopts a planar air-core spiral structure and is integrated beneath the UAV landing gear to minimize interference with aircraft operations. Experimental results show a transmission efficiency of 90.2% at 65 W output power, with both power and efficiency remaining stable in the strong coupling region. The system demonstrates strong robustness against horizontal misalignment and eliminates the need for complex relay structures or high-precision alignment. This work not only provides a theoretical foundation for the application of PT-symmetry in wireless power transfer but also offers a novel technical pathway for enhancing UAV endurance.
