The Federal District is a highly urbanized administrative area centered on Brasília, with an estimated population approaching 3 million in 2024. Researchers used a structured questionnaire based on a framework developed for an earlier study in Colombia. The instrument was linguistically and culturally adapted for the Federal District by the Environmental Agency, Instituto Brasília Ambiental, or IBRAM. Questions covered sociodemographic characteristics, general awareness of invasive species, direct experiences with L. fulica, perceived environmental and health effects, familiarity with control measures and assessments of government information and control efforts. Binary responses and Likert-style scales were used, including 1–10 ratings for perceived knowledge, harm and government performance.

Recruitment combined an online questionnaire hosted through the IBRAM website with in-person distribution of printed forms. Online participation provided 423 responses, while 190 people completed the survey in person. The researchers said support from IBRAM and the University of Brasília may have attracted online respondents with higher education or stronger environmental interests. To improve geographic representation, they circulated the online survey through social networks, approached people at locations such as the main bus station and monitored the distribution of responses by region. Sampling temporarily paused where one administrative region was disproportionately represented.

General recognition of invasive species was widespread but did not translate into procedural knowledge. Seventy-nine percent of respondents had heard of invasive species, 88% believed they could have negative effects and 53% said they had noticed a possible invasive species in their home. By contrast, most lacked the next stage of practical information: 75% did not know what action to take if they found an invasive species at home, and 80% did not know which authority to contact. The survey therefore distinguished recognition of a general ecological problem from knowledge of reporting routes and response procedures, rather than treating the two as interchangeable.

Responses about the giant African snail showed a similar divide between exposure, perceived danger and operational knowledge. Fifty-one percent rated their knowledge of L. fulica as low, assigning scores from 1 to 3 on the 10-point scale, while 41% rated its environmental effects as high and 48% rated its effects on public and animal health as high. Fifty-eight percent reported personally seeing the snail and 32% said they had collected one, but only 16% said they knew any control methods. The study also documented low evaluations of official action: 59% rated government information on L. fulica as inadequate, with scores from 1 to 3, and 75% considered control efforts insufficient.

Education was the sociodemographic variable most strongly associated with awareness and knowledge of control. Permutation Fisher’s exact tests returned P < 0.001 for education. Respondents with higher educational attainment were more likely to know about invasive species generally, report greater familiarity with L. fulica and understand control measures. Age was also significantly associated with responses at P < 0.002. Older participants, especially those with more education, were more likely to consider invasive species a serious threat and to recognize the need to control the snail. Men showed slightly greater awareness of the authority to which invasive-species occurrences should be reported than women, at P = 0.008, while other gender differences were less pronounced. Evaluations of government performance in snail management were not significantly associated with any sociodemographic factor at P > 0.05.

Multiple correspondence analysis identified two dimensions that structured responses across the questionnaire. The first explained 32% of the variance and linked general knowledge of invasive species with self-reported familiarity with L. fulica, awareness of parasites, personal encounters and judgments about environmental and health effects. The second explained 14% and was dominated by procedural items: knowing what to do after finding an invasive species, whom to contact and which measures can control L. fulica. This configuration separated factual awareness and risk judgments from management-related knowledge within the survey responses. It did not establish a causal sequence, nor did it test whether one kind of knowledge produced another.

A negative binomial generalized linear model examined how self-reported knowledge and perceived impacts related to ratings of government action. Greater self-reported knowledge of L. fulica was associated with more favorable government-performance ratings, with χ² = 29.90, one degree of freedom and P < 0.001. That association varied with awareness of environmental harm. Among respondents scoring environmental impact awareness from 6 to 10, greater knowledge of the snail corresponded with more positive government ratings. Environmental and health awareness also interacted significantly, with χ² = 8.39, one degree of freedom and P = 0.004. Respondents aware of neither impact gave the lowest ratings, those aware of either impact gave the highest ratings, and those aware of both gave intermediate ratings. The model therefore identified statistical relationships within the sample rather than showing that knowledge caused favorable assessments.

Several limitations constrain how the findings should be interpreted. The survey measured respondents’ confidence in their knowledge rather than testing their answers, so self-reported familiarity may exceed factual understanding. The authors noted that research from Paraná found that half of its respondents could not correctly identify L. fulica. Collection during the dry season may also have affected responses because the snails typically aestivate underground and are less visible then. Although in-person recruitment and geographic monitoring helped broaden the sample, people with higher education may still have been overrepresented. The cross-sectional design identified associations among education, age, knowledge and attitudes; it did not establish causal effects, observe actual control behavior or evaluate whether any management intervention reduced snail populations.

The results point to a communication problem in which broad concern and recognition of ecological risk coexist with limited knowledge of procedures. Younger and less-educated respondents were identified as important groups for expanded outreach, while the high proportion lacking knowledge of control methods indicates a wider practical gap. The authors advocate education that combines ecological understanding with actionable information, greater clarity about institutional responsibilities, more transparent communication of government efforts and incorporation of community feedback into management. They also call for stakeholders to co-produce useful knowledge and for incentives and tangible benefits to support participation. The survey did not test the effectiveness of those measures or demonstrate improved control of L. fulica, but it quantified where residents’ general awareness, practical knowledge and confidence in official action diverged.

Subject of Research: Public awareness, perceptions and control knowledge regarding the giant African snail in Brazil’s Federal District

Article Title: Perceptions and awareness of invasive species in the Brazilian Federal District: implications for controlling the giant African snail ( Lissachatina fulica )

Article References: Patiño-Montoya, A., Marins, G., Nomiyama, T. S., & Tidon, R. (2025). Perceptions and awareness of invasive species in the Brazilian Federal District: implications for controlling the giant African snail (Lissachatina fulica). NeoBiota, 103, 325-337. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.103.156013

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/neobiota.103.156013

Keywords: giant African snail, Lissachatina fulica, invasive species, Brazil, Federal District, public awareness, knowledge-action gap, government communication, snail control, cross-sectional survey, Perceptions, awareness

The research team employed a survey-based technique known as the double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method, or CVM, one of the most widely used tools in environmental economics for pricing goods that never appear on any market. Clean air is a classic example of such a non-market good: no one buys a unit of reduced mortality risk at a store, yet people clearly value it. Contingent valuation works by constructing a hypothetical market. Respondents are asked whether they would pay a specific amount for a defined improvement in this case, a policy that reduces mortality risk by one in ten thousand. In the double-bounded variant, a follow-up question adjusts the offered amount depending on the first answer, tightening the statistical bounds around each household’s true willingness to pay and yielding far more precise estimates than a single yes-or-no question.

The headline numbers are striking. The researchers found that the average South Korean household would be willing to pay 41,643 Korean won per year, roughly 29.75 US dollars, for a policy that cuts PM2.5-related mortality risk by one in ten thousand. Scaling that per-household figure against the size of the risk reduction yields a Value of a Statistical Life, or VSL, of approximately 416.4 million won, or about 297,428 US dollars. The VSL is a cornerstone metric in health and safety economics; it does not assign a price to any identifiable person’s life, but rather measures how much a population collectively values small reductions in the probability of death. Regulators around the world use VSL estimates to weigh the costs of pollution controls, traffic safety measures, and workplace protections against the mortality benefits they deliver.

When the per-household values are extrapolated across the entire nation, the aggregate picture becomes dramatic. The study calculates a total annual social benefit of approximately 681.9 billion won, equivalent to roughly 487 million US dollars, for achieving the specified mortality risk reduction. That figure represents the economic dividend that cleaner air would deliver to Korean society each year, and it provides policymakers with a concrete benchmark. If a proposed regulation, such as stricter emissions standards for factories or tighter controls on construction dust, costs less than this aggregate benefit to implement, the economic case for action becomes compelling. In effect, the study converts an abstract public health aspiration into the language of cost-benefit analysis that finance ministries and legislatures understand.

Perhaps the most intriguing finding, however, concerns not money but information. The analysis revealed that household willingness to pay was significantly influenced by income, which is consistent with standard economic theory, since richer households can afford to spend more on risk reduction. But the strongest and most notable driver was public awareness of existing environmental policies and access to information about air quality. Households that knew more about what their government was already doing, and that had better access to pollution data, expressed systematically higher valuations for further improvements. This suggests that willingness to pay is not a fixed psychological constant but a socially conditioned variable, shaped by how transparently governments communicate and how engaged citizens are with environmental issues.

The implications of that awareness effect ripple outward in two directions. First, it means that public engagement campaigns and information disclosure programs are not merely decorative additions to environmental policy; they are critical co-factors that can amplify the perceived value of clean air interventions and, by extension, the political feasibility of funding them. A government that invests in real-time air quality monitoring, accessible public dashboards, and clear communication about policy goals may simultaneously raise the societal benefit it can claim for its pollution control programs. Second, the finding offers a caution: if citizens distrust or remain unaware of existing policies, their stated willingness to pay may understate the true social value of clean air, leading to systematic underinvestment in mitigation.

Methodologically, the study sits within a rich tradition of Korean and international research on the economics of air pollution. Earlier Korean studies estimated willingness to pay for reductions in coarse particulate matter, examined averting expenditures on protective masks and air purifiers, and applied contingent valuation to Seoul’s air quality. Internationally, comparable work in Beijing, Tehran, and China’s Jing-Jin-Ji region has documented similarly substantial public valuations of particulate matter risk reductions, while global assessments by the OECD and the Global Burden of Disease project have framed air pollution as one of the largest environmental health burdens worldwide. The new Korean estimates add a carefully constructed, nationally relevant data point to this comparative landscape, one that reflects both the country’s distinctive pollution profile and its citizens’ evolving environmental consciousness.

The technical rigor of the double-bounded design deserves emphasis, because contingent valuation has historically faced skepticism about hypothetical bias, the tendency of survey respondents to overstate what they would actually pay in a real transaction. By using two linked binary choices per respondent, the method narrows each individual’s valuation interval and allows researchers to model responses with econometric frameworks rooted in the utility theory first formalized for discrete choice contexts by Hanemann in the 1980s. The researchers also had to grapple with protest zero bids, responses in which people reject the payment premise altogether, often because they believe polluters or the government, not citizens, should bear the cost. How such protests are treated can materially shift the final estimate, and the Korean literature has developed dedicated protocols for identifying and handling them.

For South Korea specifically, the timing of this valuation is significant. The country has experienced recurring springtime haze episodes, driven by a combination of domestic emissions from industry, power generation, and transportation, and transboundary transport of pollutants from neighboring regions. Public concern over fine dust has become a fixture of Korean civic life, with mask-wearing and air purifier purchases now routine household responses. By quantifying the mortality-related benefits of risk reduction in monetary terms, the study gives Korean policymakers a defensible economic foundation for investments in cleaner production technologies, emissions controls, and cross-border cooperation. The authors frame their results as a pathway for aligning public health objectives with sustainable development goals, a framing that resonates as nations weigh climate and air quality policies against economic growth pressures.

Ultimately, the study’s broader lesson may be its most viral takeaway: the value of clean air is not an abstraction that only economists can compute, but a measurable quantity that ordinary households reveal every time they answer a survey, buy an air purifier, or demand better information from their government. A single household’s 29.75 dollars a year may seem modest, but multiplied across millions of homes, it becomes nearly half a billion dollars of annual social value attached to a one-in-ten-thousand reduction in pollution mortality. That arithmetic transforms air quality from a public health talking point into a bankable policy asset, and it sends a clear signal to governments everywhere: investing in transparency and public engagement is not just good governance, it is a direct multiplier on the economic returns of every clean air program they fund.

Subject of Research: Economic valuation of mortality risk reductions from PM2.5 air pollution in South Korea using contingent valuation

Article Title: Valuing clean air: economic assessment of mortality risks from PM2.5 in South Korea

Article References: Lee, H., Kwon, D., Choi, S., & Kim, B. H. S. (2026). Valuing clean air: economic assessment of mortality risks from PM2.5 in South Korea. Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, 19(11), Article 240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-026-02062-w

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s11869-026-02062-w

Keywords: PM2.5, air pollution, contingent valuation, willingness to pay, value of statistical life, South Korea, environmental economics, health economics, mortality risk, environmental policy, public awareness, air quality

The study, conducted by Sibongangani Khonelihle Mngomezulu of the Department of Built Environment at Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein, surveyed 255 households across three deliberately contrasting neighbourhoods: Walmer-E as an informal, low-income township; Summerstrand as a relatively affluent, formally serviced suburb; and Gqeberha Central as a mixed residential-commercial urban core. With an 84 percent response rate from 303 targeted households, the survey achieved unusually strong participation for household-level waste research. Respondents were asked about how often they generated different waste types, how they stored and disposed of materials, what challenges they perceived in their local waste systems, and whether they were aware of existing municipal policies.

The statistical architecture of the study was rigorous. Mngomezulu applied Pearson’s chi-square tests to check whether differences in waste-generation frequency across the three areas were real or merely sampling noise, reporting effect sizes with Cramér’s V. For perception data, Welch’s analysis of variance was used because group variances and sample sizes differed, followed by Games-Howell post hoc comparisons to pinpoint which area pairs differed significantly. Principal component analysis, with a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value of 0.936 and a highly significant Bartlett’s test, distilled 26 Likert-scale items into four underlying dimensions of sustainable waste management: governance, social behaviour, economic feasibility, and education and knowledge.

The waste-generation findings are striking in their specificity. In Gqeberha Central, 80 percent of respondents reported generating plastics daily — the highest single frequency recorded anywhere in the study. Organic waste was also generated daily by 57.6 percent of Central residents and 53.7 percent of Summerstrand residents. Walmer-E showed a fundamentally different rhythm: plastics were generated monthly by 54.5 percent of respondents, old clothes by 59.1 percent, glass by 60.2 percent, and metal cans by 52.3 percent. This monthly concentration of durable and recyclable streams suggests that Walmer households consume and discard differently, potentially reflecting lower purchasing frequency, different storage capacity, or distinct patterns of reuse before disposal.

Chi-square tests confirmed that these cross-area differences were statistically robust for the four waste streams that met expected-frequency criteria. Plastics produced a chi-square value of 188.28 with a Cramér’s V of 0.609; nappies and wipes reached 216.25 with a V of 0.652; glass scored 179.59 with V = 0.597; and cans and metals registered 164.17 with V = 0.568. All four exceeded the conventional threshold of 0.5 for a large effect, meaning that residential area alone explains a substantial portion of the variation in how often households generate these materials. Sparse cells prevented reliable testing for specialised streams such as hazardous waste, e-waste, garden waste, and construction debris, which the study treats descriptively rather than inferentially.

Collection systems told a more nuanced story. Routine household waste was generally well served: 69.4 percent of respondents reported weekly collection, 22.0 percent daily, and only 1.2 percent said their waste was never collected. When collections were missed, service typically resumed within a week (32.5 percent of respondents) or a fortnight (31.0 percent). But the picture changed dramatically for specialised waste. In both Walmer and Summerstrand, identical numbers of respondents — 38 for hazardous waste, 61 for batteries, 63 for electronic waste, 58 each for garden and construction waste — reported using alternative disposal methods outside the formal municipal system. In Gqeberha Central, old clothes (68 respondents), garden waste (58), and construction waste (58) were similarly diverted into informal channels.

Perceived challenges varied enormously by area, and the pattern is telling. Gqeberha Central recorded the highest mean scores across nearly every challenge dimension: diminished tourism at 4.62 on a five-point scale, clogged drains at 4.46, dust and litter at 4.31, inadequate awareness programmes at 4.28, and cultural and traditional practices at 4.27. Walmer followed with clogged drains at 4.43 and dust and litter at 4.28. Summerstrand, by contrast, reported greenhouse gas emissions as its top concern at just 2.73, with clogged drains scoring a mere 1.84 and diminished tourism 1.45. The gap between Central’s 4.62 and Summerstrand’s 1.45 on tourism impacts — a spread of more than three full scale points — illustrates how differently the same municipal waste system is experienced depending on where one lives.

Perhaps the most alarming finding concerns public awareness. When asked whether they knew about existing waste-management systems or policies in Nelson Mandela Bay, 68.2 percent of respondents said they were unaware. Only 30.2 percent reported any awareness, and 1.6 percent of responses were missing. This knowledge gap persisted across all three areas regardless of income or education level, suggesting that the problem lies not in individual households but in the communication infrastructure connecting municipal authorities to residents. The study links this awareness deficit to reduced participation in recycling, waste separation, and compliance with regulations, and points to South African research showing that indiscriminate dumping correlates strongly with low awareness and limited service access.

The four-factor model derived from principal component analysis revealed that governance dominates the sustainable waste-management landscape, explaining 51.68 percent of variance with an eigenvalue of 13.437 and a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.933 — exceptional internal consistency for a social science construct. Social behaviour followed at 8.25 percent of variance, economic feasibility at 7.57 percent, and education and knowledge at 4.44 percent. Welch’s ANOVA confirmed that all four factors differed significantly across the three areas, with eta-squared values of 0.397 for governance, 0.494 for social behaviour, 0.455 for economic feasibility, and 0.347 for education and knowledge — all large effects. Games-Howell comparisons showed that every pair of areas differed significantly on governance and economic feasibility, while for social behaviour, Walmer and Summerstrand did not differ significantly from each other (p = 0.294), indicating that area differences are construct-specific rather than uniform.

The study’s five-year review of municipal waste-quantity data exposed a deeper governance crisis beneath the household findings. Published figures for Nelson Mandela Bay are not comparable across years: the 2019/20 estimate of 571,482 tonnes was a planning figure for two landfill sites, while the 2020/21 figure of 285,652 tonnes reflected waste received at licensed landfills. No comparable figure exists for 2021/22 because no landfill audit was conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak. The 2022/23 total of 191,670 tonnes covers only seven months due to non-functional weighbridges and a backlog in manual records. Reported waste diversion collapsed from 1,463 tonnes in 2022/23 to just 463 tonnes in 2023/24 — a 68.4 percent decline — though the absence of a comparable landfill denominator makes it impossible to determine whether this reflects genuine contraction in recovery activity or simply deteriorating record-keeping. Either interpretation, the study argues, demands urgent attention: weak recovery means valuable organic material, plastics, paper, glass, and metals are lost to disposal, while weak recording makes it impossible to recognise the contributions of informal reclaimers and private-sector recyclers.

Mngomezulu’s recommendations are deliberately area-specific rather than uniform. For Walmer-E, the study proposes scheduled dry-recyclables collection, neighbourhood buy-back and repair hubs, community composting, and accessible drop-off points, with indicators tracking kilograms of recyclables per household per month and income flowing to local enterprises. For Summerstrand, two-stream kerbside separation of dry recyclables and residual waste, home and community composting, and extended producer responsibility-supported collection of packaging and e-waste are recommended. For Gqeberha Central, the study calls for high-frequency separate collection, organics services for food businesses, staffed recovery points, and formal integration of informal reclaimers, with indicators measuring tonnes recovered per day, overflow incidents, drain blockages, and reclaimer income and safety compliance. Across all three areas, the study urges the municipality to adopt a current Integrated Waste Management Plan with ward-level targets, repair and calibrate landfill weighbridges, digitise daily tonnage records, publish comparable annual data, and respond to the 68.2 percent awareness gap through multilingual campaigns, schools, ward committees, and clear service calendars.

Subject of Research: Comparative analysis of household municipal solid waste management practices and perceptions across income groups in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, South Africa

Article Title: Municipal solid waste management systems in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality: a comparative analysis across diverse income groups

Article References: Mngomezulu, S. K. (2026). Municipal solid waste management systems in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality: a comparative analysis across diverse income groups. Frontiers in Sustainability, 7, Article 1941833. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2026.1941833

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/frsus.2026.1941833

Keywords: municipal solid waste, circular economy, Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa, waste management, recycling, income inequality, governance, public awareness, waste generation, urban sustainability, household survey

Researchers from Al-Quds University, Palestine Polytechnic University, Hebron University, and the Palestinian Ministry of Health surveyed 741 adults across the West Bank and Jerusalem between December 1 and December 30, 2025, using an online questionnaire distributed through social media. The instrument covered sociodemographics, awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and eye-care practices, and it was translated into locally adapted Arabic and piloted with 30 respondents. The eight-item knowledge scale showed strong internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.87, and knowledge was scored out of eight points with good knowledge defined as at least six correct answers. Data were analyzed in SPSS version 23 using chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression, and the final sample far exceeded the minimum required size of 384 participants.

The headline numbers reveal a striking disconnect between recognition and understanding. Just over half of participants, 54 percent, had heard of glaucoma, a level of name recognition that actually exceeds figures reported in neighboring Jordan, where awareness stood at 38 percent, and in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at 37.8 percent. Yet when the researchers tested genuine comprehension, only 13.8 percent of participants demonstrated good knowledge under a strict cutoff requiring at least seven correct answers, and just 33.9 percent met the more lenient threshold of six. The mean knowledge score was a modest 3.62 out of 8, and 27.1 percent of respondents scored zero, while only 6.2 percent achieved a perfect score.

The item-level results expose precisely where public understanding breaks down, and the failures cluster around the clinical features that matter most for early detection. Only 20.9 percent of participants correctly rejected the idea that glaucoma usually announces itself with noticeable early symptoms such as pain or redness. Roughly 29 percent actively believed that misconception, and another 50 percent were simply not sure. Equally troubling, only 20.9 percent recognized that glaucoma cannot be completely cured with full reversal of vision loss. That figure compares poorly with neighboring Jordan, where 52.2 percent of participants in a prior study correctly identified glaucoma as treatable but not curable. Because the disease damages the optic nerve irreversibly, these two misconceptions together create a false sense of security that can delay diagnosis until permanent damage is done.

Knowledge of risk factors was similarly patchy. Just 49 percent of respondents knew that adults aged 40 and older face elevated risk, 44.9 percent recognized family history as a risk factor, and 55.1 percent identified diabetes, the best-recognized of the three, likely reflecting broader public health messaging about diabetic complications. On the positive side, 64.4 percent correctly understood that early treatment can prevent further vision loss, and 57 percent knew that untreated glaucoma can cause irreversible blindness. Notably, having a chronic disease was not associated with better glaucoma knowledge in this sample, despite 12.1 percent of participants reporting chronic conditions, a finding that echoes detailed knowledge results from Saudi Arabia even where raw awareness differed.

Who understood glaucoma best was one of the study’s most telling findings. Prior awareness of having heard of the disease was by far the strongest predictor of good knowledge, with an adjusted odds ratio of 7.89, meaning participants who had previously encountered the term were nearly eight times more likely to answer knowledge questions correctly. But even within that group, only 22.8 percent achieved good knowledge, underscoring that hearing a disease name and understanding its behavior are two very different levels of health literacy. Age, education, and geography also mattered. Participants aged 55 and older had substantially lower odds of good knowledge compared with those aged 18 to 24, with adjusted odds ratios as low as 0.06 under the strict definition, and those with only a high school education scored significantly below bachelor’s degree holders. Urban residents had nearly double the good-knowledge rate of rural villagers and camp residents, 17 percent versus 8.7 percent, an independent association confirmed in regression analysis, and the gap likely reflects the concentration of healthcare services and health campaigns in cities.

The behavioral consequences of these knowledge gaps show up plainly in the eye-care data. Only 26.9 percent of participants had undergone a comprehensive eye examination within the preceding year, nearly a quarter reported never having had any such examination, and 35.1 percent had never been examined at all. Perhaps most revealing, having previously had an eye exam was not significantly associated with better glaucoma knowledge, which the authors interpret as evidence that routine clinical visits in Palestine are not being used to educate patients about the disease. Intentions, by contrast, tracked knowledge closely: participants who said they would definitely follow a provider’s recommendation for screening had a good-knowledge rate of 16.3 percent, compared with 3.8 percent among those who would probably not go and zero percent among those who would definitely not go, a statistically significant association.

The study is the first to assess glaucoma awareness in the general Palestinian population, and its findings sit within a global pattern of poor eye-health literacy. Comparable surveys have found that only 13.1 percent of participants in the Maldives recognized glaucoma’s potentially asymptomatic course, while studies in rural North India and Germany documented similar misconceptions that glaucoma must cause pain or blurred vision to be present. This convergence across widely different health systems suggests the problem is structural rather than local: glaucoma’s asymptomatic progression defeats the intuitive human strategy of waiting for symptoms before seeking care. The international data, including regional reports that up to 36 percent of primary open-angle glaucoma patients and 70 percent of primary angle-closure glaucoma patients were already blind at examination in some population-based studies, illustrate what happens when detection depends on symptom recognition.

The authors are candid about their study’s limitations. The non-probability, voluntary-response online sampling means the sample skewed young, with 49.9 percent of participants aged 18 to 24, highly educated, with 62.1 percent holding bachelor’s degrees, and urban, with 61.3 percent living in cities. Because those same characteristics were associated with better knowledge, the observed figures likely overestimate the true knowledge levels of the broader Palestinian adult population, and the true gaps among older, rural, and less educated groups may be even wider than reported. The authors emphasize that the prevalence estimates should not be read as population-representative, though the internal associations between demographics and knowledge remain robust and warrant confirmation in probability-sampled studies.

The practical implications are clear. Awareness campaigns that stop at teaching the name of the disease are not enough, the researchers argue, because fewer than one in seven people who recognize the term understand the disease’s silent progression, its irreversibility, or who is at risk. They propose embedding glaucoma education into routine clinical consultations, training ophthalmologists and primary care physicians to discuss the disease at every visit, and deploying community health workers and mobile screening programs to reach older adults, rural residents, and people with lower educational attainment, the very groups whose knowledge scores were lowest and whose risk of preventable blindness is highest. Given that glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, affecting more than 3.6 million blind individuals globally, closing the gap between knowing the word and knowing the disease may be one of the most cost-effective interventions available to protect sight in Palestine and beyond.

Subject of Research: Public awareness and knowledge gaps regarding glaucoma among adults in Palestine

Article Title: Knowledge gaps and practices for glaucoma among adults in Palestine: a cross-sectional study

Article References: Awlad Mohammad, M. W., Bader, B., Sayes, M. F., Amro, A. M., Awlad Mohammad, T. W., Hasheem, E., Amro, M., Mosameh, D. M., Amwas, D., Qawasmeh, A., & Abu Sham’a, F. K. (2026). Knowledge gaps and practices for glaucoma among adults in Palestine: a cross-sectional study. Frontiers in Ophthalmology, 6, Article 1953940. https://doi.org/10.3389/fopht.2026.1953940

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fopht.2026.1953940

Keywords: glaucoma, Palestine, eye health, public awareness, blindness prevention, cross-sectional study, health literacy, screening, optic neuropathy, risk factors, West Bank, public health

Rip currents are among the most misunderstood phenomena in coastal science, even though their fundamental mechanics have been well established for decades. When waves break over a sandbar or near structures, water piles up in the surf zone and must find its way back to sea. Rather than flowing uniformly along the entire beach, the return flow often concentrates into narrow, jet-like channels—rip currents—that can move faster than an Olympic swimmer can sustain. These channels are typically fed by feeder currents running parallel to the shore and terminate in a rip head just beyond the breaking zone, where the flow decelerates and disperses. The classic misconception, immortalized as the “undertow myth” as far back as 1925, holds that rips drag swimmers under the water. In reality, they pull swimmers away from the shore, and the instinctive response—swimming directly back against the current—is precisely what exhausts and drowns most victims. Scientific escape strategies instead recommend staying calm, floating, and swimming parallel to the beach until free of the narrow channel, or signaling for help while allowing the current to carry one beyond the breakers.

The Moroccan context gives this hazard a particularly urgent dimension. According to national figures cited in the study, approximately ten thousand people drown in Morocco every year from various causes, and lifeguard reports and government data indicate that most drowning cases along the Bouknadel–Mehdia stretch are associated with rip current cells. This coastline is a microcosm of the pressures facing Atlantic Morocco: it hosts touristic beaches adjacent to growing urban centers, receives intense seasonal visitor traffic, and sits on a wave-exposed shore where Atlantic swell arrives with considerable energy. Earlier work by some of the same research groups had already documented the wave climate and morphosedimentary behavior of the neighboring Kenitra–Bouknadel sandy coast, establishing that this is a dynamic, high-energy environment where the underwater topography of bars and channels is in near-constant rearrangement.

To characterize the rip systems, the team adopted a multi-method approach that reflects the state of the art in rip current research. Satellite images acquired over the past ten years allowed the researchers to identify the surface signatures of rip channels—turbid plumes of suspended sediment extending seaward through gaps in the wave-breaking pattern. Field observations then ground-truthed these remote detections, documenting the position, spacing, and behavior of individual rips under different tidal and wave conditions. Finally, questionnaire surveys administered to beach visitors and lifeguards quantified the human dimension of the hazard: how well users understand what a rip current is, whether they can spot one, and what they believe they should do if caught in one. This combination of physical characterization and social science is essential, because a rip that nobody can identify is, in practical terms, far more dangerous than its flow speed alone would suggest.

The physical results are striking. Along the fourteen-kilometer study area, the team identified more than thirty distinct rip current cells, with their occurrence and intensity primarily controlled by low-tide conditions and by the characteristics of the incoming waves. This tidal dependence fits established theory: as the tide falls, waves increasingly break on shallow bars, driving stronger setup gradients and concentrating return flow into channels cut through the bar system. On embayed and barred beaches worldwide, researchers have shown that wave-breaking patterns directly control rip flow regimes and whether swimmers are flushed offshore or retained within the surf zone, and the Moroccan observations are consistent with that framework. The density of rips—more than two per kilometer of coastline on average—means that on any given summer day, hazardous channels are likely to be present within easy swimming distance of crowded stretches of sand.

Two findings stand out for their implications for beach safety. The first concerns Nations Beach, where channelized rip currents observed between April and August 2021 remained relatively stationary over several days at a time. Persistence is what turns a rip from a transient curiosity into a chronic hazard: a fixed channel position means that the same section of beach remains dangerous day after day, and swimmers who return to a favorite spot may repeatedly enter the same deadly flow without ever realizing it. Stationary rips also offer an opportunity, however, because lifeguards and local authorities can learn their locations and target warnings, flag placement, and supervision accordingly. The second finding concerns the urban beach of Mehdia, where the team documented a boundary rip—a current flowing along the edge of the surf zone, often near structures or the margin of a bay—that poses a serious threat precisely because it is visually “invisible.” Unlike channelized rips, which often announce themselves with foamy, sediment-laden streaks of darker, calmer water between breaking waves, boundary rips lack an obvious surface signature, leaving swimmers with no visual cue that they are drifting into danger.

The survey component of the study revealed what the authors describe as a significant lack of rip current awareness among beach users. This is not a uniquely Moroccan problem. International research has repeatedly shown that even on well-patrolled beaches in countries with mature lifeguarding cultures, large proportions of beachgoers cannot correctly identify a rip current from photographs or in situ, and that self-reported knowledge frequently fails to translate into safe behavior. Studies of escape strategies based on swimmer-equipped GPS instruments have demonstrated that the widely advised tactic of swimming parallel to the shore works for many but not all rip configurations, reinforcing the importance of matching public advice to local rip morphology. Programs such as “Break the Grip of the Rip!” in the United States have shown that hazard education can shift public perceptions, but only when the message is sustained, localized, and delivered in forms that beachgoers actually absorb.

The Moroccan study arrives amid a broader global reckoning with coastal risk. Human populations in coastal zones are growing faster than the global average, concentrating more people on shorelines exposed to waves, erosion, and flooding, while climate-driven changes in storminess and sea level continue to reshape surf zone dynamics. In this context, drowning at recreational beaches is increasingly understood not as a random tragedy but as a manageable natural hazard—one that can be quantified, mapped, forecast, and communicated. The Bouknadel–Mehdia work contributes to that shift by treating rip currents as a systematic, recurring feature of the coastal environment rather than an unpredictable accident, and by explicitly linking the physical geography of the rips to the knowledge gaps of the people who swim among them.

The practical recommendations that flow from the research are correspondingly concrete. Mapping rip cells from satellite imagery offers a low-cost way for authorities to identify persistent hazard zones and prioritize them for lifeguard coverage, signage, and flag systems, particularly at low tide when the rips are most active. Targeted awareness campaigns—delivered in local languages, at beach entrances, and through the lifeguards themselves—could address the specific misconceptions documented in the surveys, including the persistent undertow myth and the fatal instinct to fight the current head-on. For the boundary rip at Mehdia’s urban beach, where visual identification fails, the emphasis must shift to education and supervision rather than self-rescue by recognition. The authors frame their findings as a foundation for improving public awareness and beach safety strategies along the Moroccan Atlantic coast, but the underlying message travels far beyond fourteen kilometers of Moroccan sand: the deadliest thing on many beaches is not a shark or a storm, but a narrow channel of flowing water that most of the people swimming beside it have never learned to see.

Subject of Research: Rip current cells and drowning risk on recreational beaches of the Atlantic Moroccan coast

Article Title: Rip currents cells on recreational beaches: the poorly know drowning risk (a case study in the Atlantic Moroccan coast)

Article References: Terhzaz, L., Niazi, S., Regragui, S., & Jiménez-Espejo, F. J. (2026). Rip currents cells on recreational beaches: the poorly know drowning risk (a case study in the Atlantic Moroccan coast). Natural Hazards, 122(21), Article 671. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-026-08438-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-026-08438-6

Keywords: rip currents, drowning risk, coastal hazards, beach safety, Morocco, Atlantic coast, surf zone dynamics, lifeguards, satellite imagery, public awareness, Mehdia, Bouknadel

A new qualitative study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine has now mapped out exactly why the gap between recommendation and reality persists in Hong Kong. Researchers from The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care at The Chinese University of Hong Kong conducted in-depth, one-on-one interviews with 35 stakeholders: 12 service recipients, 19 physicians drawn from public hospitals, private clinics and community organisations, and 4 policymakers involved in designing preventive health programmes. Rather than simply cataloguing opinions, the team structured their interviews and analysis around the updated Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, or CFIR, one of the most widely used determinant frameworks in implementation science. CFIR organises the factors influencing whether an intervention succeeds into five domains: the innovation itself, the outer setting of policy and financing, the inner setting of the clinical organisation, the individuals involved, and the implementation process.

The interviews, each lasting roughly 30 minutes and conducted by Zoom or telephone, were transcribed verbatim in Chinese and analysed in two phases. First, the researchers performed an inductive thematic analysis to identify patterns emerging naturally from the data. Second, they re-examined those preliminary themes through the lens of the CFIR’s 2022 version, coding independently with NVivo software and resolving disagreements through discussion with senior investigators. The team followed the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research, pilot-tested their interview guide, trained interviewers in CFIR constructs and cultural sensitivity, and recruited participants purposively until data saturation was reached within each stakeholder group. The result is one of the first multi-stakeholder portraits of osteoporosis screening feasibility in Hong Kong, and it reveals a striking pattern of convergence and divergence across the five CFIR domains.

Within the Innovation domain, which concerns perceptions of the intervention itself, the news was largely encouraging. Service recipients consistently framed screening as a proactive way to learn their fracture risk and act early, with one participant remarking that it would be best to check so that any problem could be treated earlier. Physicians agreed, emphasising that screening high-risk groups could prevent deterioration and benefit individuals, families and society, and they pointed to existing clinical guidelines from international organisations as evidence that screening rests on a solid, actionable framework. But policymakers introduced a sobering counterpoint: Hong Kong lacks local evidence on fracture incidence trends, cost-effectiveness and long-term outcomes. One policymaker asked pointedly whether any local studies existed to demonstrate disease trends, arguing that a committee should monitor such data before implementation decisions are made. The divide reflects fundamentally different evidentiary expectations: clinicians are satisfied with international guidance, while policymakers demand locally generated data to justify allocating scarce public resources.

Money emerged as the most consistent barrier across every stakeholder group. Service recipients described screening fees of several hundred to a few thousand Hong Kong dollars as prohibitive, particularly for elderly people on fixed incomes, and some said outright that they would not participate at current prices. Physicians echoed the concern, noting that even moderate fees deterred some patients and that large-scale rollout would be difficult because the general population would find the cost too high. Policymakers agreed that out-of-pocket costs directly affect participation. Beyond individual affordability, stakeholders raised the question of cost-effectiveness at the health-system level: physicians argued that academics needed to demonstrate how much money a territory-wide programme would actually save, given that fractures already cost the Hospital Authority substantial sums, while policymakers insisted that cost-effectiveness calculations and targeting of higher-risk groups, rather than universal screening, were prerequisites for any scale-up. In the Outer Setting domain, participants across all groups converged on subsidies and affordable access as the key facilitators, with suggestions ranging from partial government subsidies to partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, yet physicians and policymakers simultaneously worried that Hong Kong’s current economic climate makes new public spending unlikely.

The Inner Setting domain, which captures organisational capacity, exposed a second layer of difficulty. Service recipients and policymakers reported that information about osteoporosis and its screening is poorly disseminated, leaving potential participants confused and reluctant. One service recipient described seeing a flyer or two without understanding what screening involved, and therefore having little interest in exploring it further. Policymakers noted that frontline staff would need training before any rollout, since not everyone is familiar with the process. Physicians, for their part, emphasised resource constraints inside the clinic: severe manpower shortages, limited consultation time, inadequate facilities, and the absence of a supporting system to guide patients after a positive screen. Several physicians asked who would counsel patients on lifestyle modification or refer them to allied health professionals, noting that online resources alone are insufficient. Structured training and clear communication about eligibility and workflow were viewed as foundational, but the overall picture was of a healthcare system not yet equipped to translate a screening test into meaningful follow-up care.

At the level of Individuals, the study found a genuine wellspring of motivation among older residents. Many service recipients expressed a strong desire to know their bone health status, manage their diet and weight, and take responsibility for their own ageing bodies, and perceived susceptibility associated with ageing helped legitimise screening as timely and appropriate across all groups. Yet this personal motivation is undercut by low public awareness of osteoporosis itself. Policymakers in particular stressed that citizens have essentially no awareness of the disease, and that any policy would need to begin with sustained publicity and advertising campaigns. International literature supports this concern: studies in Denmark, Sweden and Australia show that people often regard bone fragility as an inevitable part of ageing, creating a false sense of security, while general practitioners frequently prioritise other conditions and view osteoporosis management as complex. Educational interventions grounded in behavioural theory, such as the theory of planned behavior, have been shown to improve knowledge, attitudes and preventive behaviors, suggesting that awareness campaigns could convert latent motivation into actual participation.

The Implementation Process domain revealed both the most creative proposals and the most structural pessimism. Service recipients wanted screening promoted through familiar community touchpoints, elderly centres, public hospitals, volunteers and social workers, arguing that trusted routine channels would normalise participation. Physicians envisioned a coordinated ecosystem in which non-governmental organisations, District Health Centres and private providers each play defined roles, citing an existing NGO-operated women’s health centre that already offers DXA scans with doctors on site as a model collaborative partner. They also called for multi-front public education combining awareness campaigns with practical guidance on diet, exercise and risk management. Policymakers, however, identified the hard barriers: limited coordination among stakeholders, no well-designated referral pathway, and the difficulty of reaching vulnerable populations. One policymaker invoked the inverse care law, the observation that health programmes tend to reach those who need them least, warning that the people most at risk and most in need of screening may be precisely the ones who never show up.

Taken together, the findings suggest that the barriers to osteoporosis screening in Hong Kong are not isolated problems but interacting ones. Reliance on out-of-pocket payment suppresses uptake, a pattern documented in previous Hong Kong screening studies where higher fees were associated with lower participation. Public-sector capacity pressures and long waiting times weaken confidence that a positive screen will lead to timely, actionable follow-up. Gaps in preventive-care awareness among older adults and disadvantaged communities mean that improving participation would itself demand counselling and navigation support, further straining limited frontline capacity. The authors argue that overcoming this cluster of challenges requires coordinated, multi-pronged action: government-subsidised or free screening for vulnerable populations, public-private partnerships to expand service capacity, clear care pathways with defined roles for primary care physicians, nurses and allied health professionals, community outreach including mobile screening units and senior centre education sessions, and culturally tailored campaigns to dispel misconceptions about bone fragility.

The study’s authors propose that the next step should be systematic rather than ad hoc: mapping the identified barriers and facilitators onto CFIR-Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change, or ERIC, a validated method for matching implementation strategies to contextual determinants, then refining candidate strategies through expert consensus methods such as Delphi panels and testing them in real-world settings. The researchers acknowledge limitations, including possible social desirability bias in interviews, purposive sampling that may introduce selection bias, and a small policymaker sample constrained by institutional recruitment limits. Still, as one of the first studies to bring patients, doctors and policymakers into a single implementation-focused conversation about osteoporosis in Hong Kong, the work offers a candid diagnosis of what stands between a well-evidenced screening test and a population that desperately needs it: money, manpower, coordination and, above all, awareness.

Subject of Research: Barriers and facilitators to implementing osteoporosis screening in Hong Kong from the perspectives of service recipients, physicians and policymakers

Article Title: Implementing Osteoporosis Screening in Hong Kong: A CFIR-Guided Qualitative Study of Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives

Article References: Zhong, C. C., Yim, M. K., Yang, Z., Chen, M., Lo, C. Y., Ng, S., Huang, J., & Wong, M. C. S. (2026). Implementing Osteoporosis Screening in Hong Kong: A CFIR-Guided Qualitative Study of Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives. Journal of General Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-026-10680-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s11606-026-10680-4

Keywords: osteoporosis, DXA screening, Hong Kong, implementation science, CFIR, qualitative research, fragility fractures, primary care, health policy, bone mineral density, public awareness, healthcare financing

The UGR’s pivotal research harnesses the power of deep generative vision models capable of synthesizing satellite imagery that vividly illustrates the possible climate-related events of the future. As the climate crisis intensifies, the demand for reliable visual tools to communicate its impacts becomes increasingly pressing. This project is a concerted effort to bridge the gap between science and public perception, using imagery that resonates with audiences, thereby fostering a deeper understanding of climate change impacts.

Under the guidance of Natalia Díaz, a prominent researcher at UGR’s Andalusian Inter-University Institute for Data Science and Computational Intelligence (DaSCI), the project unfolded in collaboration with esteemed institutions across the globe, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and various centers in Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The diverse expertise among the team members enriched the research, facilitating profound insights and innovative methodologies. This multidisciplinary approach underscores the significance of global collaboration in confronting ubiquitous issues like climate change that transcend borders.

At the core of their methodology lies a generative adversarial network (GAN), specifically the pix2pixHD model, which has been meticulously trained to produce synthetic satellite images depicting future climatic phenomena such as flooding scenarios and reforestation initiatives. The capacity for the model to generate remarkably realistic images is commendable; however, it has encountered challenges, particularly in accurately predicting flooding occurrences. The term “hallucination” is used to describe when models inaccurately generate images in incorrect geographical contexts, which can lead to misguided interpretations of the data presented.

In addressing this challenge, the research team ingeniously combined deep learning techniques with physics-based flood modeling to enhance the model’s efficacy. The integration of segmentation maps generated by traditional flood models with deep learning algorithms has yielded promising results, significantly decreasing prediction errors while substantially improving the reliability of the generated images. This harmonious relationship between established traditional models and cutting-edge deep learning exemplifies the potential of interdisciplinary research in advancing scientific understanding and technological capabilities.

The evaluation of this innovative method was comprehensive, leveraging multiple remote sensing datasets across various climate-related events. The team’s findings extend beyond just comprehensively depicting flooding; they encompass significant climate phenomena such as melting Arctic sea ice and the aftermath of reforestation efforts. This breadth of application highlights the adaptability and utility of the model in various contexts, catering to the burgeoning need for adaptable tools that can accurately reflect the nuances associated with climate change.

To contribute to the scientific community and ensure the approach can be utilized and built upon in future research endeavors, the team made considerable efforts to share their findings by releasing an extensive dataset comprising over 30,000 labeled high-definition image triplets. The dataset is invaluable, essentially encapsulating around 5.5 million images at 128 by 128 pixels, which facilitates segmentation-guided image-to-image translation for further exploration and development within the realm of climate visualization.

Beyond the immediate research findings, this endeavor is pivotal in establishing a nuanced approach toward producing reliable visual tools that communicate the complex impacts of climate change. The work emphasizes the importance of integrating physics-based modeling with advanced computational techniques, fostering further collaborations across these fields. Each step taken towards understanding and depicting climate phenomena not only illuminates specific issues but strengthens the urgent call to action in addressing climate change on a global scale.

The Andalusian Inter-University Institute for Data Science and Computational Intelligence (DaSCI) plays a crucial role in this landscape. Jointly managed by the universities of Granada, Jaén, and Córdoba, DaSCI is devoted to enhancing research and training in artificial intelligence. The Institute advocates for innovative technological applications across various domains, thereby advancing industry digitization and technological progress. This initiative epitomizes the essence of collaboration, where shared resources, knowledge, and innovative methodologies empower researchers to tackle pressing global challenges.

As discussions around climate change and its tangible impacts proliferate, the utilization of powerful visual tools has become paramount in conveying complex information. The involvement of advanced algorithms and deep learning methodologies not only augments the accuracy of the representation of future events but also augments the audience’s connection to the issues at hand. As the visuals generated resonate more deeply with viewers, the likelihood of spurring public interest in climate action increases, enhancing the effectiveness of communications aimed at fostering change.

In conclusion, the remarkable strides made by the UGR and its collaborators signify the potential held by integrating traditional scientific approaches with modern technological advancements to address the climate crisis. As the study emphasizes, precise and realistic visualizations of future climate events serve not just as a research tool but as a vehicle for public engagement. As we edge closer to a tipping point concerning global warming and its effects, the urgency of advocating for informed action becomes increasingly evident.

Through the dissemination of research findings, high-quality datasets, and continuous dialogue around innovative methodologies, the scientific community can foster a movement toward enhanced awareness and action. Global cooperation among researchers, institutions, and the public will be vital in not only addressing climate change but also in ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come.

Subject of Research: Not applicable
Article Title: Generating Physically-Consistent Satellite Imagery for Climate Visualizations
News Publication Date: 19-Nov-2024
Web References: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2024.3493763
References: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Image Credits: Credit: University of Granada

Keywords: climate change, satellite imagery, generative models, deep learning, environmental science, UGR, collaborative research, climate visualization, advanced technology, public awareness.