Children’s toys are made of artificial material often softened by phthalates. These are synthetic compounds added to PVC as plasticizers for the purpose of improving its elasticity and flexibility. Phthalates can endanger the health of children exposed to their effect by inducing reproductive, hormonal and developmental disorders. The goal of the present study was to determine phthalate presence in children’s toys and childcare articles from different sources sold in different areas in Croatia in 2012 and 2013.

Growing food in unconventional systems such as those using irrigation with domestic wastewater and the use of potentially toxic waste has generated resistance from producers and consumers. Here, we evaluate the possible physical and biochemical damage to Swiss mice fed for 13 weeks with corn produced in soil containing tannery sludge vermicompost and irrigated with wastewater from domestic sewage.

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The present article discusses the application of a new technology using solar photovoltaic (PV) cell coupled with membrane distillation (MD) in the desalination of tap water. Salinity decreases the palatibility of water and causes long-term health issues. MD is the most promising technology to provide safe and clean drinking water to households and for other applications in small quantities. It consumes less energy than the existing commercial brackish water reverse osmosis (RO; pressure-driven) desalination technology (48%) used for the production of drinking water.

Carbon farming describes a collection of eco-friendly techniques that have the ability to increase carbon sink into soil, i.e. carbon sequestration. Increasing C sink in the soil will help reduce the amount of CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions in the environment. Carbon farming that leads to reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is referred to as abatement activities. It holds carbon in vegetation and soils, and reduces GHG emissions. (Correspondence)

In the quest for planetary exploration, Mars holds a special position in view of the many similarities it has with Earth. This article highlights the significant aspects of the concept design and planning which paved the way for the successful Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). Lessons learnt from historical failures of Mars missions are summarized. The main driving factors of the MOM design are reliability, optimal utilization of existing launch systems, and minimum energy orbit placement around Mars with an innovative, highly elliptic orbit.

Artificial recharge to groundwater is steadily assuming importance in the wake of the decline in water level in several parts of the country. Recharge through an injection well is the most suitable option of artificial recharge for semi-confined and confined aquifers, especially in urban and industrial areas as it requires little space. Recharging capacity of a well is an important criterion in deciding the number of recharge structures required for large-scale planning of artificial recharge.

With the rapid population growth, ecological pressure caused by human activities on rivers is growing. Decision makers are often faced with the dilemma of how to maintain economic growth while also maintaining the resources of a river and its environment. In this study, a model has been proposed for the assessment of river–human relationship. The method establishes a complete index system to quantify the abstraction of river–human relationship and evaluation.

Zinc (Zn) deficiency is the most widespread micronutrient deficiency in crop plants and humans. Low intake of Zn through diet appears to be the major reason for the widespread prevalence of Zn deficiencies in human populations. Application of Zn fertilizer in soil having low Zn increased the grain yield in wheat up to 6.4–50.1%. However, soil Zn application increased the grain yield of rice only up to 7.2–14.8%.

A study was taken up to identify annual changes in temperature. For this study, daily (maximum and minimum) temperature data for 45 years (1969–2013) prepared by the India Meteorological Department, Pune were used. The identification of change was based on statistical trend analysis. From the analysis, it can be concluded that the dominant tendency over the India land mass is of warming, and colder months of the year show more warming.

Invasion is an ecological phenomenon of introduction of organisms to areas outside their native ranges. It concerns all aspects relating to their transport, establishment and spread in a new region . An invasive species causes imbalance to the ecosystem by monopolizing food and spatial resources and consequently disrupting the native community . Biological invasion is presently one of the major sources of stress to the coral reef habitats, which harbour 25% of total marine biodiversity and contribute to 10% of total fishery production .