Background: This study compared patient profiles and clinical courses of SARS-CoV-2 infected inpatients over different pandemic periods. Methods: In a retrospective cross-sectional analysis, we examined administrative data of German Helios hospitals using ICD-10-codes at discharge. Inpatient cases with SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted between 03/04/2020 and 07/19/2022 were included irrespective of the reason for hospitalization. All endpoints were timely assigned to admission date for trend analysis. The first pandemic wave was defined by change points in time-series of incident daily infections and compared with different later pandemic phases according to virus type predominance. Results: We included 72,459 inpatient cases. Patients hospitalized during the first pandemic wave (03/04/2020–05/05/2020; n = 1,803) were older (68.5 ± 17.2 vs. 64.4±22.6 years, p<0.01) and severe acute respiratory infections were more prevalent (85.2 vs. 53.3%, p < 0.01). No differences were observed with respect to distribution of sex, but comorbidity burden was higher in the first pandemic wave. The risk of receiving intensive care therapy was reduced in all later pandemic phases as was in-hospital mortality when compared to the first pandemic wave. Trend analysis revealed declines of mean age and Elixhauser comorbidity index over time as well as a decline of the utilization of intensive care therapy, mechanical ventilation and in-hospital mortality. Conclusion: Characteristics and outcomes of inpatients with SARS-CoV-2 infection changed throughout the observational period. An ongoing evaluation of trends and care pathways will allow for the assessment of future demands

The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Basin (LMAB) faces significant environmental challenges due to phosphorus (P) runoff from agricultural lands, contributing to eutrophication and aquatic ecosystem degradation. Excess nutrient runoff, particularly P, threatens water quality and contributes to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. The current Mississippi Phosphorus Index (P-Index), a tool for assessing P loss vulnerability from agricultural fields, has shown limitations in its applicability across the diverse conditions of the Mississippi Delta, a sub-region of the LMAB. This research presents a comprehensive revision of the P-Index by employing a suite of analytical techniques and diverse data sources, including geospatial analysis, rainfall simulations, and extensive data from soil tests, agricultural censuses, and expert evaluations. The aim was to enhance the model's sensitivity and accuracy in predicting P loss vulnerability, thereby enabling more precise nutrient management recommendations tailored to the Mississippi Delta's unique agricultural and environmental conditions. The study identified a critical lack of variability in the P-Index's recommendations for different agricultural scenarios within the region, highlighting its inadequacy in accurately reflecting the specific vulnerabilities to soil P loss. Through a detailed sensitivity analysis and recalibration of the model, incorporating updated parameters and data sources, significant improvements were achieved. The revised P-Index now better distinguishes between various agricultural practices set in the environmental conditions of the MS Delta, offering differentiated recommendations that align closely with the region's real-world complexities. Furthermore, the research underscores the necessity for ongoing investigations into the equivalencies between different soil test P methods (Lancaster and Mehlich-III) and the impact of P levels in irrigation water on nutrient cycling and loss. The recalibrated P-Index represents a significant step forward in regional nutrient management strategies, promising enhanced environmental protection and agricultural sustainability through more informed and targeted recommendations. This work emphasizes the critical need for adapting nutrient management tools like the P-Index to regional conditions, ensuring they accurately address the environmental challenges and agricultural practices specific to areas like the Mississippi Delta. Keywords: Nutrient management, Phosphorus Index, Mississippi Delta, Agricultural runoff, Soil test phosphorus, Environmental sustainability, Sensitivity analysis, Trend analysis.

Acomodar adequadamente uma população urbana crescente terá implicações maiores não só para a indústria da construção, empregos e habitação, mas também para a infraestrutura associada, incluindo transporte, energia, água e espaços abertos ou verdes. Limitações da infraestrutura geralmente incluem o envelhecimento, subutilização e inadequação, assim como uma ausência de integração das estratégias de planejamento, projeto e gestão para o desenvolvimento futuro da cidade, em cenários de longo prazo. A exemplo do retrofit de edifícios, em que as intervenções ocorrem no âmbito do edifício isolado e seus sistemas constituintes, o retrofit urbano pode ser entendido como um conjunto de intervenções urbanas com vistas não somente à adequação da área urbana para atingir a sustentabilidade no momento presente, frente a problemas e demandas atuais, mas vislumbra a adequação para população e demandas futuras, fazendo a transição da situação atual da cidade para sua visão de futuro. Esta transição, o retrofit urbano em si, apresenta caráter abrangente e de larga escala, natureza integrada e deve ser mensurado por meio de indicadores e metas claramente definidos para monitoramento. Portanto, esta tese apresenta um método para implementação de retrofit urbano, na escala de cidades, para auxiliar a definição de metas de longo prazo e a tomada de decisão em processos de planejamento urbano. Utilizando as metas dos ODS - Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável, os \"indicadores de serviços urbanos e qualidade de vida\" da NBR ISO 37120:2017 (ABNT, 2017a), análise de tendência por Média Móvel Simples e benchmarking por análise de agrupamento (clustering), o resultado é um painel visual (dashboard), adaptável e flexível, passível de agregações e filtros, tais como: seções e temas da ISO 37120, classificação de indicadores, diferentes escalas temporais e espaciais, entre outras. O dashboard é interativo e amigável, traz informações e resultados desta pesquisa e pode ser totalmente acessado em https://bit.ly/2EDnZ4J. Sorocaba, município de grande porte do Estado de São Paulo, é utilizada como estudo de caso, evidenciando os desafios e oportunidades gerados pelo rápido crescimento populacional e auxiliando a priorizar intervenções de retrofit para o desenvolvimento urbano na direção de cenários futuros. / Accommodating growing populations in cities will have major implications not only for employment, housing and the construction industry, but also for urban infrastructure including transportation, energy, water and open or green space. Infrastructure constraints currently include ageing, underutilized and inadequate existing built environment, as well as a lack of integration in planning, design and management strategies for future infrastructure development in long-term scenarios. As building retrofit, which interventions take place in isolated buildings and their constituting systems performance, urban retrofitting can be understood as a set of interventions designed to upgrade and sustain an urban area by providing a long-term practical response to its current problems and pressures. Such interventions must take into account the future population´s needs by ensuring that the present urban infrastructure provides a firm basis for launching and achieving a city\'s ambitions for the future. One of the main requirements for urban retrofitting is a clearly defined set of goals and metrics for monitoring purposes. This thesis presents a method for urban retrofit implementation at city scale using a visual tool to support decision-making and urban planning processes. Using Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets, the 100 ISO 37120:2014 \'indicators for city services and quality of life\', Simple Moving Averages (SMA) trend analysis, clustering and city benchmarking, this method proposes creating an adaptative and flexible dashboard, that could aggregate and filter data, such as: ISO 37120 sections, indicators classification, time and spatial levels, etc. The resulting dashboard is interactive and friendly, and can be fully accessed in https://bit.ly/2EDnZ4J. We use Sorocaba, a medium sized, well-located city in São Paulo State in Brazil, as a case study, focusing on the challenges and opportunities arising from exceptional urban population growth, and ranking key retrofit interventions in Sorocaba as possible forerunners of future urban development scenarios.

Acomodar adequadamente uma população urbana crescente terá implicações maiores não só para a indústria da construção, empregos e habitação, mas também para a infraestrutura associada, incluindo transporte, energia, água e espaços abertos ou verdes. Limitações da infraestrutura geralmente incluem o envelhecimento, subutilização e inadequação, assim como uma ausência de integração das estratégias de planejamento, projeto e gestão para o desenvolvimento futuro da cidade, em cenários de longo prazo. A exemplo do retrofit de edifícios, em que as intervenções ocorrem no âmbito do edifício isolado e seus sistemas constituintes, o retrofit urbano pode ser entendido como um conjunto de intervenções urbanas com vistas não somente à adequação da área urbana para atingir a sustentabilidade no momento presente, frente a problemas e demandas atuais, mas vislumbra a adequação para população e demandas futuras, fazendo a transição da situação atual da cidade para sua visão de futuro. Esta transição, o retrofit urbano em si, apresenta caráter abrangente e de larga escala, natureza integrada e deve ser mensurado por meio de indicadores e metas claramente definidos para monitoramento. Portanto, esta tese apresenta um método para implementação de retrofit urbano, na escala de cidades, para auxiliar a definição de metas de longo prazo e a tomada de decisão em processos de planejamento urbano. Utilizando as metas dos ODS - Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável, os \"indicadores de serviços urbanos e qualidade de vida\" da NBR ISO 37120:2017 (ABNT, 2017a), análise de tendência por Média Móvel Simples e benchmarking por análise de agrupamento (clustering), o resultado é um painel visual (dashboard), adaptável e flexível, passível de agregações e filtros, tais como: seções e temas da ISO 37120, classificação de indicadores, diferentes escalas temporais e espaciais, entre outras. O dashboard é interativo e amigável, traz informações e resultados desta pesquisa e pode ser totalmente acessado em https://bit.ly/2EDnZ4J. Sorocaba, município de grande porte do Estado de São Paulo, é utilizada como estudo de caso, evidenciando os desafios e oportunidades gerados pelo rápido crescimento populacional e auxiliando a priorizar intervenções de retrofit para o desenvolvimento urbano na direção de cenários futuros. / Accommodating growing populations in cities will have major implications not only for employment, housing and the construction industry, but also for urban infrastructure including transportation, energy, water and open or green space. Infrastructure constraints currently include ageing, underutilized and inadequate existing built environment, as well as a lack of integration in planning, design and management strategies for future infrastructure development in long-term scenarios. As building retrofit, which interventions take place in isolated buildings and their constituting systems performance, urban retrofitting can be understood as a set of interventions designed to upgrade and sustain an urban area by providing a long-term practical response to its current problems and pressures. Such interventions must take into account the future population´s needs by ensuring that the present urban infrastructure provides a firm basis for launching and achieving a city\'s ambitions for the future. One of the main requirements for urban retrofitting is a clearly defined set of goals and metrics for monitoring purposes. This thesis presents a method for urban retrofit implementation at city scale using a visual tool to support decision-making and urban planning processes. Using Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets, the 100 ISO 37120:2014 \'indicators for city services and quality of life\', Simple Moving Averages (SMA) trend analysis, clustering and city benchmarking, this method proposes creating an adaptative and flexible dashboard, that could aggregate and filter data, such as: ISO 37120 sections, indicators classification, time and spatial levels, etc. The resulting dashboard is interactive and friendly, and can be fully accessed in https://bit.ly/2EDnZ4J. We use Sorocaba, a medium sized, well-located city in São Paulo State in Brazil, as a case study, focusing on the challenges and opportunities arising from exceptional urban population growth, and ranking key retrofit interventions in Sorocaba as possible forerunners of future urban development scenarios.

<p>The aim of this thesis was to determine whether there has been a trend of increasing or decreasing water colour, absorbance, in Lake Mälaren during the last 35 years and whether it could be correlated with water discharge. The discharge was accounted for using regression analysis. The data material was analyzed for trends using a nonparametric test, the so-called seasonal Mann- Kendall test. The regression model could only account for a small (maximum of 24%) variation due to discharge. Thisindicates that discharge single-handedly can not explain the variation in absorbance. The trend analysis indicated a significant yearly increase in absorbance of 0.93% - 2.43% yr-¹ for three out of four investigated sub-basins, namely, Galten, Ekoln and Skarven. This strongly implies that there has been an increase of absorbance and a change in the amount of organic material in Lake Mälaren during the last 35 years.</p>

The aim of this thesis was to determine whether there has been a trend of increasing or decreasing water colour, absorbance, in Lake Mälaren during the last 35 years and whether it could be correlated with water discharge. The discharge was accounted for using regression analysis. The data material was analyzed for trends using a nonparametric test, the so-called seasonal Mann- Kendall test. The regression model could only account for a small (maximum of 24%) variation due to discharge. Thisindicates that discharge single-handedly can not explain the variation in absorbance. The trend analysis indicated a significant yearly increase in absorbance of 0.93% - 2.43% yr-1 for three out of four investigated sub-basins, namely, Galten, Ekoln and Skarven. This strongly implies that there has been an increase of absorbance and a change in the amount of organic material in Lake Mälaren during the last 35 years.

There is growing concern for increased frequency of extreme events due to several severe floods and droughts occurring globally in recent years. Improving knowledge on the complexity of hydrological systems and interactions with climate is essential to be able to determine drivers and predict changes in the future. This is especially true in cold regions such as the Swedish Subarctic. This thesis explored changes in high peak flows and linked trends to climate. Trend analyses were applied on 18 catchments in the Swedish Subarctic over their entire periods of record and a common period (1990-2013) among the data to explore changes in flood magnitude, flood occurrence, mean summer flow, snowmelt onset and center of mass. Further, a flood frequency analysis was applied using the extreme value type I (Gumbel) distribution and selected flood percentiles were tested for stationarity. The results show the complexity of the hydrological system and interactions with climate. No clear overall pattern could be determined suggesting that changes are happening at catchment scale. Indications for a shift in flow regime from snowmelt-dominated to rainfall-dominated are evident with all significant trends pointing towards lower flood magnitudes in the spring flood, earlier flood occurrence and snowmelt onset, and decreasing mean summer flows. The shift in flow regime suggests that air temperature is more clearly reflected in streamflow than precipitation in the Swedish Subarctic. Decreasing trends in flood magnitude and mean summer flows are suggestive of permafrost thawing, which agrees with the increasing trends in the annual minimum flow. Long streamflow records can further link variability in streamflow to multidecadal atmospheric circulations over the North Atlantic. Most evident are changes towards lower mean summer flows (ten catchments significant at a 95% confidence interval) and earlier snowmelt onset (eight catchments significant). Trends in the selected flood percentiles show indications towards an increase in extreme events over the entire period (significant for four catchments), with all significant trends being positive. Over the common period, no pattern is notable and the sensitivity of trend analyses is evident.

Rain-on-snow events represent a natural hydro-meteorological phenomenon and their occurrence is often associated with floods. Due to the climate change occurrence, rain-on snow events are also changing. The main goal of diploma thesis is to define spatial and temporal occurrence of rain-on-snow events at 16 selected meteorological stations in the Czech Republic between the years 1966-2012. Spatial occurrence of rain-on-snow events is expressed by number of events per meteorological station. Final number of events varies widely even between the stations with similar altitude. Stations with the highest frequency of rain-on-snow events are located in Jizerské hory between 675 and 780 m a.s.l. Temporal occurrence of rain- on-snow events is expressed by number of events per year and month respectively. Time series of rain-on-snow events were analysed by statistical trends to gain information about changes in occurrence over time. Most of the stations proved no statistically significant trend. There was a trend detected only at four out of 16 stations. Three meteorological stations showed a rising trend, whereas one station signalled a decreasing trend. More complex results were produced by the trend analysis of monthly time series of rain-on snow events. Nine stations yielded at least one month with a...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a positive relationship between environmental responsibility and financial performance of South African listed companies. For the purposes of this study annual financial statements for the periods ending from 1994 to 1998 were investigated. Only companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) during the calendar years 1994 to 1998 were included. The investigation was not limited to certain sectors of the JSE in order to include all possible environmentally responsible companies. In the review of the related literature the theoretical foundation of environmental reporting was investigated based on fundamental accounting principles. The stakeholders interested in environmental reporting were identified and their influence on the environmental information presented in annual financial statements was examined. The costs or disadvantages versus the benefits or advantages of environmental responsibility were explored. The findings of previous studies that examined the relationship between environmental performance and financial performance were investigated. Environmental responsibility was defined, taking previous researchers' definitions into consideration. Pressures towards environmental responsibility that companies experience and progress made by companies were discussed. Previous studies were used to identify the most appropriate measures to use when measuring environmental responsibility. A control list and a judgement scale developed from previous research were selected for use in this study to determine environmentally responsible companies. Profitability, as a key component of financial performance, was defined. Elements of financial performance were discussed under the profit zone and causal factors. Financial performance measures most often used were identified from relevant literature. These measures were considered as well as measures used in previous research before selecting return on equity, return on assets, return on capital and economic value added for purposes of this study. Correlation analyses were performed for the following groups of companies for every year from 1994 to 1998: · Total qualifying population of companies; · total population excluding wild points regarding environmental reporting percentages; and · companies reporting on environmental matters during four to five years of the period examined. The financial performance measures ROE, ROA and ROC were individually correlated with the environmental reporting percentages for all the companies, regardless of the JSE sector of the companies. The correlation of EVA with the environmental reporting percentages was limited to industrial companies. Analyses per sector were performed by way of the following trend analyses for every year from 1994 to 1998: · Environmental responsibility per sector; · average financial performance for environmentally responsible companies in comparison to average financial performance for companies without a environmental responsibility measure per sector; and · data plots. There is a positive relationship between the environmental responsibility and the financial performance of South African listed companies; i.e. the higher the environmental responsibility of a company is, the higher is the financial performance of that company. However, it is important to note that this conclusion is based on the results in total and that causality could not be addressed. There are still many sectors with no or very little evidence of environmental responsibility. / Dissertation (DComm(Accounting Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2002. / Accounting / unrestricted

Local ecological knowledge (LEK) is a useful method to capture environmental or resource changes when there is an absence of biological data. Since the bonefish fishery is data limited, this study aims to understand the trend of bonefish decline over the last 40 years using LEK and to assess whether varying fisher experience and fisher type would influence perception of bonefish decline. Semi-structured surveys and key informant interviews were conducted to collect LEK data. Along with perceiving an overall decline (p