The spatial heterogeneity of urban green space distribution and configuration in Lilongwe City, Malawi

Odala Nambazo; Kennedy Nazombe

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0307518

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionNovember 3, 2023
26 Feb 2024 Decision Letter - Saeid Norouzian-Maleki, Editor PONE-D-23-36331The spatial heterogeneity of urban green space distribution and configuration in Lilongwe City, MalawiPLOS ONE Dear Dr. Nambazo, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Reviewer #1: It seems that the study is structured and coherent, and the process from question to answer has been logically progressed in the direction of the research. The only problem is the lack of tables that show some of the analysis and results more clearly, and it is recommended to fix this deficiency in the comments of the attached file. Reviewer #2: This work started with an interesting concept but was not very well executed or presented. I would like to kindly ask the authors to make further efforts to revise their manuscript based on the following comments: Notwithstanding the manuscript's endeavor to delineate functional land use categories, it either parallels pre-existing literature or falls short of introducing profound novel insights. Scholarly manuscripts are esteemed for their novelty and seminal contributions. Redundancies with extant literature or the absence of innovative perspectives diminish its perceived value. The field of management of green spaces offers a variety of methodologies and strategies. Attempting to encapsulate or categorize these within a single manuscript is commendably ambitious but poses a quandary—the balance between comprehensiveness and depth. While the manuscript aims to provide a comprehensive perspective, it risks compromising depth, critical assessment, or intricate explication of specific methodologies. The hallmark of academic literature lies in its depth, rigorous analysis, and groundbreaking revelations. Overextension risks diluting these attributes, offering only superficial overviews without profound insights into specific subjects or methodologies. The findings remain mostly generic and descriptive. Some interesting considerations are reported in the concluding section, but these are not adequately articulated and backed by data. Please submit your revised manuscript by Apr 11 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript: A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). 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Please see our Supporting Information guidelines for more information: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/supporting-information. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Partly ******** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: No Reviewer #2: No ****** 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No ****** 5. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: It seems that the study is structured and coherent, and the process from question to answer has been logically progressed in the direction of the research. The only problem is the lack of tables that show some of the analysis and results more clearly, and it is recommended to fix this deficiency in the comments of the attached file. Reviewer #2: This work started with an interesting concept but was not very well executed or presented. I would like to kindly ask the authors to make further efforts to revise their manuscript based on the following comments: Notwithstanding the manuscript's endeavor to delineate functional land use categories, it either parallels pre-existing literature or falls short of introducing profound novel insights. Scholarly manuscripts are esteemed for their novelty and seminal contributions. Redundancies with extant literature or the absence of innovative perspectives diminish its perceived value. The field of management of green spaces offers a variety of methodologies and strategies. Attempting to encapsulate or categorize these within a single manuscript is commendably ambitious but poses a quandary—the balance between comprehensiveness and depth. While the manuscript aims to provide a comprehensive perspective, it risks compromising depth, critical assessment, or intricate explication of specific methodologies. The hallmark of academic literature lies in its depth, rigorous analysis, and groundbreaking revelations. Overextension risks diluting these attributes, offering only superficial overviews without profound insights into specific subjects or methodologies. The findings remain mostly generic and descriptive. Some interesting considerations are reported in the concluding section, but these are not adequately articulated and backed by data. ****** 6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. 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Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: PONE-D-23-36331_reviewer_1.pdf https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307518.r001
Revision 1
1 Jun 2024 Author Response Journal requirements: 1. When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf. Response: We have carefully checked the PLOS ONE style templates and we have adjusted throughout the manuscript to fulfill the requirements. 2. Please note that PLOS ONE has specific guidelines on code sharing for submissions in which author-generated code underpins the findings in the manuscript. In these cases, all author-generated code must be made available without restrictions upon publication of the work. Please review our guidelines at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/materials-and-software-sharing#loc-sharing-code and ensure that your code is shared in a way that follows best practice and facilitates reproducibility and reuse. Response: We believe this is not applicable in our case since we did not do any coding. 3. When completing the data availability statement of the submission form, you indicated that you will make your data available on acceptance. We strongly recommend all authors decide on a data sharing plan before acceptance, as the process can be lengthy and hold up publication timelines. Please note that, though access restrictions are acceptable now, your entire data will need to be made freely accessible if your manuscript is accepted for publication. This policy applies to all data except where public deposition would breach compliance with the protocol approved by your research ethics board. If you are unable to adhere to our open data policy, please kindly revise your statement to explain your reasoning and we will seek the editor's input on an exemption. Please be assured that, once you have provided your new statement, the assessment of your exemption will not hold up the peer review process. Response: We have created an account and uploaded our datasets to Mendeley Data. This is an open-access repository. The data can be accessed through the following doi: 10.17632/rfkv3y4237.1 4. Please include the reference section of your manuscript. Response: A reference section has been added. 5. We note that Figure(s) 1, 2 and 3 in your submission contain [map/satellite] images which may be copyrighted. All PLOS content is published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which means that the manuscript, images, and Supporting Information files will be freely available online, and any third party is permitted to access, download, copy, distribute, and use these materials in any way, even commercially, with proper attribution. For these reasons, we cannot publish previously copyrighted maps or satellite images created using proprietary data, such as Google software (Google Maps, Street View, and Earth). For more information, see our copyright guidelines: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/licenses-and-copyright. We require you to either (1) present written permission from the copyright holder to publish these figures specifically under the CC BY 4.0 license, or (2) remove the figures from your submission: a. You may seek permission from the original copyright holder of Figure(s) 1, 2 and 3 to publish the content specifically under the CC BY 4.0 license. We recommend that you contact the original copyright holder with the Content Permission Form (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=7c09/content-permission-form.pdf) and the following text: “I request permission for the open-access journal PLOS ONE to publish XXX under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Please be aware that this license allows unrestricted use and distribution, even commercially, by third parties. Please reply and provide explicit written permission to publish XXX under a CC BY license and complete the attached form.” Please upload the completed Content Permission Form or other proof of granted permissions as an ""Other"" file with your submission. In the figure caption of the copyrighted figure, please include the following text: “Reprinted from [ref] under a CC BY license, with permission from [name of publisher], original copyright [original copyright year].” b. If you are unable to obtain permission from the original copyright holder to publish these figures under the CC BY 4.0 license or if the copyright holder’s requirements are incompatible with the CC BY 4.0 license, please either i) remove the figure or ii) supply a replacement figure that complies with the CC BY 4.0 license. Please check copyright information on all replacement figures and update the figure caption with source information. If applicable, please specify in the figure caption text when a figure is similar but not identical to the original image and is therefore for illustrative purposes only. The following resources for replacing copyrighted map figures may be helpful: USGS National Map Viewer (public domain): http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth (public domain): http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/clickmap/ Maps at the CIA (public domain): https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html and https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/cia-maps-publications/index.html NASA Earth Observatory (public domain): http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ Landsat: http://landsat.visibleearth.nasa.gov/ USGS EROS (Earth Resources Observatory and Science (EROS) Center) (public domain): http://eros.usgs.gov/# Natural Earth (public domain): http://www.naturalearthdata.com/ Response. In our revised manuscript we added a different Figure (Fig 1) on page 5, which shows the location of the study area. The data used to prepare the maps is publicly available. We properly referred to the data sources of the map within the map’s labels. Figures 2 and 3 have been removed. 6. Please include captions for your Supporting Information files at the end of your manuscript, and update any in-text citations to match accordingly. Please see our Supporting Information guidelines for more information: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/supporting-information. Response: All necessary information has been included within the main manuscript. Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Partly Response: We have included a methodological framework of the manuscript to better connect all the elements of our study on page 5 as Figure 2. We have also included Table 6 on page 12 showing detailed statistical results that supports further our observed results with our conclusions. 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: No Reviewer #2: No Response: As already stated in the response to the Academic Editor, we have made all underlining data fully available in the Mendeley Data open-access repository. The following is the doi: 10.17632/rfkv3y4237.1 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No Response: The English grammar of the revised version has been greatly improved. 5. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: It seems that the study is structured and coherent, and the process from question to answer has been logically progressed in the direction of the research. The only problem is the lack of tables that show some of the analysis and results more clearly, and it is recommended to fix this deficiency in the comments of the attached file. Response: Thank you for your constructive feedback. We introduced Table 3 on page 8 to provide an overview of the urban form metrics used. To further elucidate the relationship between population density and green space configuration, we added Table 6 on page 12. A diagram of the process has also been included on page 5. Reviewer #2: This work started with an interesting concept but was not very well executed or presented. I would like to kindly ask the authors to make further efforts to revise their manuscript based on the following comments: Notwithstanding the manuscript's endeavor to delineate functional land use categories, it either parallels pre-existing literature or falls short of introducing profound novel insights. Scholarly manuscripts are esteemed for their novelty and seminal contributions. Redundancies with extant literature or the absence of innovative perspectives diminish its perceived value. The field of management of green spaces offers a variety of methodologies and strategies. Attempting to encapsulate or categorize these within a single manuscript is commendably ambitious but poses a quandary—the balance between comprehensiveness and depth. While the manuscript aims to provide a comprehensive perspective, it risks compromising depth, critical assessment, or intricate explication of specific methodologies. The hallmark of academic literature lies in its depth, rigorous analysis, and groundbreaking revelations. Overextension risks diluting these attributes, offering only superficial overviews without profound insights into specific subjects or methodologies. The findings remain mostly generic and descriptive. Some interesting considerations are reported in the concluding section, but these are not adequately articulated and backed by data. Response: We appreciate the insightful comments and constructive critiques you provided. We recognize the importance of emphasising the unique contributions of our study, especially in a well-researched field. To address this concern, we have revised the introduction and discussion sections to better highlight the unique aspects of our research. We clarified that our study is one of the first to comprehensively analyse urban green space distribution in Lilongwe, providing new data and insights from a lesser-studied geographical context where UGS research is scarce (page 3 line 68). We expanded on how our work integrates urban form metrics with UGS analysis, which is less explored in the context of developing cities like Lilongwe, adding a novel perspective to urban planning literature (page 20 line 447). In addition, we emphasised our findings on the inequities in green space distribution and how they contribute to discussions on environmental justice in urban settings, particularly in developing countries like Malawi (Page 26 Line 326). Further, by cross-referencing our findings with those from other regions, we contribute to a more robust validation of core principles of urban planning, particularly the need for equitable access to green spaces. This cross-contextual validation demonstrates the universality of challenges such as inequitable green space distribution and the impact of urban form on the quality and accessibility of UGSs (Page 20 Line 425 and throughout the discussion). We have added a new table to better support our claims and provide clearer, more detailed insights into the relationship between population and urban greenspaces in Lilongwe (Table 6 on page 12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307518.r002
17 Jun 2024 Decision Letter - Saeid Norouzian-Maleki, Editor PONE-D-23-36331R1The spatial heterogeneity of urban green space distribution and configuration in Lilongwe City, MalawiPLOS ONE Dear Dr. Nambazo, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Reviewer #1: The added tables and especially the prepared diagram helped me understand the topic better. However, figures 2 and 3 would have been better if they had not been deleted because they better showed the population distribution and green space. Reviewer #2: The manuscript describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. All comments have been addressed in the revised manuscript. Please submit your revised manuscript by Aug 01 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript: A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'. A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'. An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'. If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter. If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols. We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. Kind regards, Saeid Norouzian-Maleki, Ph.D. Academic Editor PLOS ONE Journal Requirements: Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation. Reviewer #1: (No Response) Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed ******** 2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 6. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: The added tables and especially the prepared diagram helped me understand the topic better. However, figures 2 and 3 would have been better if they had not been deleted because they better showed the population distribution and green space. Reviewer #2: The manuscript describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. All comments have been addressed in the revised manuscript. ****** 7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: No Reviewer #2: No ******** [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307518.r003
Revision 2
4 Jul 2024 Author Response Reviewer #1: The added tables and especially the prepared diagram helped me understand the topic better. However, figures 2 and 3 would have been better if they had not been deleted because they better showed the population distribution and green space. Response: We have reinstated figures 2 and 3, now figures 3 and 4 respectively. These figures have been prepared by the authors. Figure 3 is derived from sentinel 2 images. These images have no restrictions on reuse, sale, or redistribution. They only require that the author include a statement of the data source in their manuscripts. Figure 4 was prepared from the public report, the Malawi population and housing census 2018. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307518.r004
8 Jul 2024 Decision Letter - Saeid Norouzian-Maleki, Editor The spatial heterogeneity of urban green space distribution and configuration in Lilongwe City, Malawi PONE-D-23-36331R2 Dear Dr. Nambazo, We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements. Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication. An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. If you have any questions relating to publication charges, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Saeid Norouzian-Maleki, Ph.D. Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Reviewers' comments: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307518.r005
Formally Accepted
15 Jul 2024 Acceptance Letter - Saeid Norouzian-Maleki, Editor PONE-D-23-36331R2 PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Nambazo, I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team. At this stage, our production department will prepare your paper for publication. This includes ensuring the following: * All references, tables, and figures are properly cited * All relevant supporting information is included in the manuscript submission, * There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset If revisions are needed, the production department will contact you directly to resolve them. If no revisions are needed, you will receive an email when the publication date has been set. At this time, we do not offer pre-publication proofs to authors during production of the accepted work. Please keep in mind that we are working through a large volume of accepted articles, so please give us a few weeks to review your paper and let you know the next and final steps. Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Saeid Norouzian-Maleki Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307518.r006

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