Pacific Islanders have been exposed to risks associated with climate change. Samoa as one of the Pacific Islands are prone to climatic hazards that will likely increase in coming decades, affecting coastal communities and infrastructure around the islands. Climate models do not predict a reduction of such disaster events in the future in Samoa; indeed, most predict an increase in such events.

The 2014-15 H1N1 outbreak in India has reportedly led to 800 fatalities. The reported influenza hemagglutinin sequences from India indicate that these viruses contain amino acid changes linked to enhanced virulence and are potentially antigenically distinct from the current vaccine containing 2009 (Cal0709) H1N1 viral hemagglutinin.

The HadGEM2 earth system climate model was used to assess the impact of biomass burning on surface ozone concentrations over the Amazon forest and its impact on vegetation, under present-day climate conditions. Here the researchers consider biomass burning emissions from wildfires, deforestation fires, agricultural forest burning, and residential and commercial combustion.

Original Source

In 1966, the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR) began planning a targeted research program to identify interventions for widespread application to eradicate dental caries (tooth decay) within a decade. In 1971, the NIDR launched the National Caries Program (NCP). The objective of this paper is to explore the sugar industry’s interaction with the NIDR to alter the research priorities of the NIDR NCP.

Original Source

The behavior of marine-terminating ice sheets, such as the West Antarctic ice sheet, is of interest due to the possibility of rapid grounding-line retreat and consequent catastrophic loss of ice. Critical to modeling this behavior is a choice of basal rheology, where the most popular approach is to relate the ice-sheet velocity to a power-law function of basal stress. Recent experiments, however, suggest that near-grounding line tills exhibit Coulomb friction behavior. Here we address how Coulomb conditions modify ice-sheet profiles and stability criteria.

Mortality in people in Africa with HIV infection starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) is high, particularly in those with advanced disease. We assessed the effect of a short period of community support to supplement clinic-based services combined with serum cryptococcal antigen screening. The researchers did an open-label, randomised controlled trial in six urban clinics in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Lusaka, Zambia. From February, 2012, we enrolled eligible individuals with HIV infection (age ≥18 years, CD4 count of

Rapid and reliable assessment of soil characteristics is an important step in agricultural and natural resource management. Over the last few decades, diffuse reflectance

Remote sensing is being increasingly used in different agricultural applications. Hyperspectral remote sensing in large continuous narrow wavebands provides significant

Snow depth is an important parameter for avalanche forecast and hydrological studies. In the Himalaya, manual snow depth data collection is difficult due to remote and rugged terrain and the severe weather conditions. However, microwave-based sensors in various satellites have the capability to estimate snow depth in all weather conditions. In the present study, experiments were performed to establish an algorithm for snow depth estimation using ground-based passive microwave radiometer with 6.9, 18.7 and 37 GHz antenna frequencies at Dhundhi and Patseo, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen have long been used to trace the hydrological processes on the principle that the lighter isotopes of water (e.g. H2O) preferentially evaporate over its heavier isotopes (e.g. HDO or H2 18O), and the heavier isotopes preferentially condense. In this line, several studies were carried out all over the world to characterize the local meteoric lines for generalizing the amalgamation of various hydrological processes taking place over multiple temporal and spatial scales.