Debris-flows not only cause a great loss of property, but also kill and injure people every rainy season in the mountainous regions of China. In order to reduce hazard and risk, several methods of assessing rainfall thresholds have been provided at present, based on statistical models. However, the limited rainfall data with debris-flow occurrence or non-occurrence makes threshold analyses very difficult.

Tumor suppressor p53 is a critical player in the fight against cancer as it controls the cell cycle check point, apoptotic pathways and genomic stability. It is known to be the most frequently mutated gene in a wide variety of human cancers. Single-nucleotide polymorphism of p53 at codon72 leading to substitution of proline (Pro) in place of arginine (Arg) has been identified as a risk factor for development of many cancers, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Correct estimation of soil loss at catchment level helps the land and water resources planners to identify priority areas for soil conservation measures. Soil erosion is one of the major hazards affected by the climate change, particularly the increasing intensity of rainfall resulted in increasing erosion, apart from other factors like landuse change. Changes in climate have an adverse effect with increasing rainfall. It has caused increasing concern for modeling the future rainfall and projecting future soil erosion.

Droughts are intensifying across the globe, with potentially devastating implications for freshwater ecosystems. We used new network science approaches to investigate drought impacts on stream food webs and explored potential consequences for web robustness to future perturbations. The substructure of the webs was characterized by a core of richly connected species surrounded by poorly connected peripheral species.

Persistent environmental pollutants may represent a modifiable risk factor involved in the gene-time-environment hypothesis in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The objective of the study was to evaluate the association of occupational exposures and environmental toxins on the odds of developing ALS in Michigan.

The Colorado River has been identified as the most overallocated river in the world. Considering predicted future imbalances between water supply and demand and the growing recognition that base flow (a proxy for groundwater discharge to streams) is critical for sustaining flow in streams and rivers, there is a need to develop methods to better quantify present-day base flow across large regions.

Atmospherically transported dust from the Saharan desert provides pulses of biologically important nutrients, including iron, to ocean surface waters. The biological response to these ephemeral events is not fully known, especially among the heterotrophic microbial community. Here we use the well-characterized Vibrio genus as a model for heterotrophic bacterial response. We demonstrate that Saharan dust nutrients, deposited in tropical marine waters, can promote Vibrio bloom formation and suggest that dust-associated iron is an important driver of Vibrio population dynamics.

The Greenland ice sheet presently accounts for ~70% of global ice sheet mass loss. Because this mass loss is associated with sea-level rise at a rate of 0.7 mm/year, the development of improved monitoring techniques to observe ongoing changes in ice sheet mass balance is of paramount concern. Spaceborne mass balance techniques are commonly used; however, they are inadequate for many purposes because of their low spatial and/or temporal resolution.

Water evaporating from the ocean sustains precipitation on land. This ocean-to-land moisture transport leaves an imprint on sea surface salinity (SSS). Thus, the question arises of whether variations in SSS can provide insight into terrestrial precipitation. This study provides evidence that springtime SSS in the subtropical North Atlantic ocean can be used as a predictor of terrestrial precipitation during the subsequent summer monsoon in Africa.

Original Source

There are strong interdependencies between water use in agriculture and energy consumption as water saving technologies can require increased pumping and pressurizing. The Chinese Government includes water efficiency improvement and carbon intensity reduction targets in the 12th Five-Year Plan (5YP. 2011–2015), yet the links between energy use and irrigation modernization are not always addressed in policy targets. Here we build an original model of the energy embedded in water pumpingfor irrigated agriculture and its related processes.