The threats of old are still the dominant drivers of current species loss, indicates an analysis of IUCN Red List data by Sean Maxwell and colleagues.

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Refugia have long been studied from paleontological and biogeographical perspectives to understand how populations persisted during past periods of unfavorable climate. Recently, researchers have applied the idea to contemporary landscapes to identify climate change refugia, here defined as areas relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time that enable persistence of valued physical, ecological, and socio-cultural resources.

The Pacific coast of the Tohoku region of Japan experiences repeated tsunamis, with the most recent events having occurred in 1896, 1933, 1960, and 2011. These events have caused large loss of life and damage throughout the coastal region. There is uncertainty about the degree to which seawalls reduce deaths and building damage during tsunamis in Japan. On the one hand they provide physical protection against tsunamis as long as they are not overtopped and do not fail.

Global mean sea level rise estimated from satellite altimetry provides a strong constraint on climate variability and change and is expected to accelerate as the rates of both ocean warming and cryospheric mass loss increase over time. In stark contrast to this expectation however, current altimeter products show the rate of sea level rise to have decreased from the first to second decades of the altimeter era.

In this communication, accumulated soot from typical Indian share autos and buses has been characterized using FE-SEM coupled with EDS and FTIR spectroscopy for its toxicity level. Analysis reveals the size of spherical-shaped primary particles to be less than 40 nm, which agglomerate to form fractal-like structures. In share autos, average weight percentage of heavy metals such as Cr, Fe, Cu and Pt (except Zn) is higher than that in buses; trace elements include noncarbon elements.

The Himalayan glaciers feed major Asian river systems sustaining the lives of more than 800 million people. Though the rates of retreat of individual glaciers are uncertain, on the whole the Himalayan glaciers have been losing mass at an increasing rate over the past few decades. With the changing climate, glaciers will continue to shrink and the rates of retreat may increase even further. This may lead to the formation of moraine dammed glacial lakes, which can cause outburst floods upon failure of the dam, catastrophic to human life and infrastructure downstream.

In the context of achieving a national set target of 60 GW by 2022, a study was carried out in Kayathar, Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu, India on noise propagation from wind turbines. Acoustic and non-acoustic parameters were measured according to IEC 61400-11 at wind speeds of 4–13 and 0.7–8.6 m/s. 

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Ancient grain varieties have been shown to have some beneficial effects on health. Forty-five clinically healthy subjects were included in a randomized, double-blinded crossover trial aimed at evaluating the effect of a replacement diet with bread derived from ancient grain varieties versus modern grain variety on cardiovascular risk profile. After 8 weeks of intervention, consumption of bread obtained by the ancient varieties showed a significant amelioration of various cardiovascular parameters.

The province of Punjab is the main food basket of India. In recent years, many regions of Punjab are facing acute waterlogging problems and increased secondary salinity, which have negative impacts on food security of the nation. In particular, these problems are more pronounced in the Muktsar district of Punjab. The observed groundwater levels trend between 2005 and 2011 implies that groundwater levels are coming towards the land surface at the rate of 0.5 m/year in Lambi and Malout blocks.

The objective of the study was to investigate how food commercials influence children's food choices. Twenty-three children ages 8-14 years provided taste and health ratings for 60 food items. Subsequently, these children were scanned with the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging while making food choices (ie, “eat” or “not eat”) after watching food and nonfood television commercials.

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