Based on the physical and geographical conditions, the Baltic Region is categorised as a humid climate zone. This means that, there is usually more precipitation than evaporation throughout the year, suggesting that droughts should not occur frequently in this region. Despite the humid climate in the region, the study focused on assessing the spatio-temporal patterns of droughts. The drought events were analysed across the Baltic Region, including Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. This analysis included two drought indices, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI), for different accumulation periods. Daily data series of precipitation and river discharge were used. The spatial and temporal analyses of selected drought indices were carried out for the Baltic Region. In addition, the decadal distribution of drought classes was analysed to disclose the temporal changes and spatial extent of drought patterns. The Pearson correlation between SPI and SDI was applied to investigate the relationship between meteorological and hydrological droughts. The analysis showed that stations with more short-duration SPI or SDI cases had fewer long-duration cases and vice versa. The number of SDI cases (SDI ≤ -1) increased in the Western Baltic States and some WGSs in Sweden and Finland from 1991 to 2020 compared to 1961-1990. The SPI showed no such tendencies except in Central Estonia and Southern Finland. The 6-month accumulation period played a crucial role in both the meteorological and hydrological drought analyses, as it revealed prolonged and widespread drought events. Furthermore, the 9- and 12-month accumulation periods showed similar trends in terms of drought duration and spatial extent. The highest number of correlation links between different months was found between SPI12-SDI9 and SPI12-SDI12. The results obtained have deepened our understanding of drought patterns and their potential impacts in the Baltic Region.

Background and Objectives: Oncohematological patients have a high risk of mortality when they need treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). The aim of our study is to analyze the outcomes of oncohemathological patients admitted to the ICU and their risk factors. Materials and Methods: A prospective single-center observational study was performed with 114 patients from July 2017 to December 2019. Inclusion criteria were transfer to an ICU, hematological malignancy, age >18 years, a central line or arterial line inserted or planned to be inserted, and a signed informed consent form. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were used to evaluate the potential risk factors for ICU mortality. Results: ICU mortality was 44.74%. Invasive mechanical ventilation in ICU was used for 55.26% of the patients, and vasoactive drugs were used for 77.19% of patients. Factors independently associated with it were qSOFA score ≥2, increase of SOFA score over the first 48 h, mechanical ventilation on the first day in ICU, need for colistin therapy, lower arterial pH on arrival to ICU. Cut-off value of the noradrenaline dose associated with ICU mortality was 0.21 μg/kg/min with a ROC of 0.9686 (95% CI 0.93-1.00, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Mortality of oncohematological patients in the ICU is high and it is associated with progression of organ dysfunction over the first 48 h in ICU, invasive mechanical ventilation and need for relatively low dose of noradrenaline. Despite our findings, we do not recommend making decisions regarding treatment limitations for patients who have reached cut-off dose of noradrenaline.

The data file presents information on the quantitative taxa distribution for plant macrofossils in the Holocene sediment cores of mires in the Kaliningrad region (Russian Federation, South-Eastern Baltic Region), as well as 24 radiocarbon dates (14C). The dataset contains percentages of 51 most common (more than 1%) taxa in 1361 samples of 45 sediment cores. These data provide information on environmental development and evolution of the azonal wetland vegetation in the south-eastern part of the Baltic region during the Holocene.

The accuracy of the operational models can be improved by using observational data to shift the model state in a process called data assimilation. Here, a data assimilation approach using the temperature similarity to control the extent of extrapolation of point-like phenological observations is explored. A degree-day model is used to describe the spring phenology of the bird cherry Padus racemosa in the Baltic region in 2014. The model results are compared to phenological observations that are expressed on a continuous scale based on the BBCH code. The air temperature data are derived from a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model. It is assumed that the phenology at two points with a similar temperature pattern should be similar. The root mean squared difference (RMSD) between the time series of hourly temperature data over a selected time interval are used to measure the temperature similarity of any two points. A sigmoidal function is used to scale the RMSD into a weight factor that determines how the modelled and observed phenophases are combined in the data assimilation. The parameter space for determining the weight of observations is explored. It is found that data assimilation improved the accuracy of the phenological model and that the value of the point-like observations can be increased through using a weighting function based on environmental parameters, such as temperature.

Tick-borne rickettsiae are considered to be emerging, but there is still a lack of data on the occurrence and prevalence of the spotted fever group rickettsiae across Europe, especially in the Baltic countries. The aim of the present study was to investigate the presence of Rickettsia spp. in Dermacentor reticulatus and Ixodes ricinus ticks, as well as to determine their prevalence in various regions of Lithuania and Latvia. The prevalence of Rickettsia spp. in geographically distinct populations of D. reticulatus on transect Baltic-Adriatic regions was compared. The molecular analyses of 1859 D. reticulatus and 361 I. ricinus from 48 localities in Lithuania and Latvia revealed the presence of Rickettsia raoultii in D. reticulatus and Rickettsia helvetica in I. ricinus. The prevalence of pathogens in D. reticulatus (4.9%) and I. ricinus (17%) ranged in different locations from 0% to 36.9% and 0%-31.3%, respectively. Higher overall infection rates were detected in D. reticulatus collected in Poland (15.8%) and Slovakia (11.4%), with the prevalence range in different locations from 0% to 59.6%. Our study is the first demonstration of the presence of R. raoultii in D. reticulatus ticks in the Baltic countries and R. helvetica in questing I. ricinus ticks in Lithuania.