This study evaluated the feasibility of a home-based intervention to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage intake and television viewing among children. Lower income parents of overweight children aged 5–12 years (n = 40) were randomized to a home environment intervention to reduce television viewing with locking devices and displace availability of sugar-sweetened beverages with home delivery of non-caloric beverages (n = 25), or to a no-intervention control group (n = 15) for 6 months. Data were collected at baseline and 6 months.

This analysis of the draft wildlife action plan says that it takes note of the injustices historically carried out upon the local communities and addresses such injustice to be able to create local support for conservation. It also examines the extent to which the draft has explored complementarities between national laws and international obligations.

Armed conflict and communal or ethnic violence have continued to cause massive displacement in India. The country is in need of amending its policies in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles for protecting internally displaced persons. The reliability of the existing data on IDPs and lack of a national governing body for protecting them are problems that need to be addressed.

Understanding the causes of recent climatic trends and variability in the high-latitude Southern Hemisphere is hampered by a short instrumental record. Here, we analyse recent atmosphere, surface ocean and sea-ice observations in this region and assess their trends in the context of palaeoclimate records and climate model simulations. Over the 36-year satellite era, significant linear trends in annual mean sea-ice extent, surface temperature and sea-level pressure are superimposed on large interannual to decadal variability.

In Nagaland, three species (Tetragonula irridipenis, Tetragonula laviceps and Lophotrigona canifrons) of stingless bees were observed; however, most of the beekeepers were rearing T. irridipenis. Stingless bees were found to prefer low light, high humidity, and stenothermal climatic conditions with diverse abundant flora. The traditional colony capture method of terrestrial and subterranean stingless bee was logical and practical and shows immense scope to introduce precise method with scientific interventions.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is recognised as the primary cause of human tuberculosis worldwide. However, substantial evidence suggests that the burden of Mycobacterium bovis, the cause of bovine tuberculosis, might be underestimated in human beings as the cause of zoonotic tuberculosis. In 2013, results from a systematic review and meta-analysis of global zoonotic tuberculosis showed that the same challenges and concerns expressed 15 years ago remain valid.

By 2025, India will have over 17 million obese children and stand second among 184 countries where the number of obese children are concerned, says this new study published in the journal Paediatric Obesity.

Sustainably feeding the world’s growing population is a challenge, and closing yield gaps (that is, differences between farmers’ yields and what are attainable for a given region) is a vital strategy to address this challenge. The magnitude of yield gaps is particularly large in developing countries where smallholder farming dominates the agricultural landscape. Many factors and constraints interact to limit yields, and progress in problem-solving to bring about changes at the ground level is rare.

It is fitting that the United Nations Habitat III conference in October will be held in Quito, Ecuador. In April, the city and nearby Portoviejo and Manta suffered an earthquake that killed more than 660 people and injured at least 10,000. Around 73,000 people were displaced. Some 700,000 needed emergency assistance, such as drinking water, sanitation and hygiene kits. Many water-supply systems and hospitals were destroyed or disrupted. Insurance companies estimated the damage at US$2.5 billion, of which only 16% was insured.

Anthropogenic emissions completely overwhelmed natural marine lead (Pb) sources during the past century, predominantly due to leaded petrol usage. Here, based on Pb isotope measurements, we reassess the importance of natural and anthropogenic Pb sources to the tropical North Atlantic following the nearly complete global cessation of leaded petrol use. Significant proportions of up to 30–50% of natural Pb, derived from mineral dust, are observed in Atlantic surface waters, reflecting the success of the global effort to reduce anthropogenic Pb emissions.