Feature Article

The biological mechanisms by which cleaning products and disinfectants - an emerging risk factor - affect respiratory health remain incompletely evaluated. Studying genes by environment interactions (GxE) may help identify new genes related to adult-onset asthma.

Original Source

Hypertension is the leading preventable cause of premature death worldwide. We examined global disparities of hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control in 2010 and compared secular changes from 2000 to 2010.

This paper presents a study on short-term ensemble flood forecasting specifically for small dam catchments in Japan. Numerical ensemble simulations of rainfall from the Japan Meteorological Agency nonhydrostatic model (JMA-NHM) are used as the input data to a rainfall–runoff model for predicting river discharge into a dam. The ensemble weather simulations use a conventional 10 km and a high-resolution 2 km spatial resolutions. A distributed rainfall–runoff model is constructed for the Kasahori dam catchment (approx. 70 km2) and applied with the ensemble rainfalls.

The water quality of rivers is an issue of serious concern today. Rivers are heavily impacted due to their use for carrying off the industrial, municipal, agricultural and domestic effluents.

The study was carried out to determine the bacteriological safety of water in hand-dug wells in the Atebubu-Amantin District of the Brong-Ahafo Region in Ghana. A total of 60 samples were collected from ten hand dug wells and analysed for total coliform (TC), faecal coliform (FC), E. coli (EC), Salmonella spp. (SP) and Enterococcus spp. (ES). Data was collected in both the rainy and the dry seasons.

Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness affect 20 million people worldwide and lead to more than 50,000 deaths annually. The diseases are caused by infection with the kinetoplastid parasites Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma brucei spp., respectively. These parasites have similar biology and genomic sequence, suggesting that all three diseases could be cured with drug(s) modulating the activity of a conserved parasite target. However, no such molecular targets or broad spectrum drugs have been identified to date.

Revegetation of degraded ecosystems provides opportunities for carbon sequestration and bioenergy production. However, vegetation expansion in water-limited areas creates potentially conflicting demands for water between the ecosystem and humans. Current understanding of these competing demands is still limited. Here, we study the semi-arid Loess Plateau in China, where the ‘Grain to Green’ large-scale revegetation programme has been in operation since 1999.

As the practice of Community Based Adaptation (CBA) to climate change in countries like Nepal is growing, the literature has pointed out the need for more research in order to test the effectiveness of CBA in reaching the most vulnerable households and its wider applicability. This paper reviews a Community Adaptation Plan (CAP) piloted and implemented in Nepal. The study involved interviews and interaction with a wide range of relevant stakeholders, in order to map their perceptions on the effectiveness of CAP.

The understanding of rapidly evolving concentrations of particulate matter (PMC) at signalised traffic intersections (TIs) is limited, but it is important for accurate exposure assessment. We performed “mobile” and “fixed-site” monitoring of size-resolved PMCs in the 0.25–34 μm range at TIs. On-road mobile measurements were made inside a car under five different ventilation settings on a 6 km long round route, passing through 10 different TIs. Fixed-site measurements were conducted at two types (3- and 4-way) of TIs.

Comparative phylogeography of African savannah mammals shows a congruent pattern in which populations in West/Central Africa are distinct from populations in East/Southern Africa. However, for the lion, all African populations are currently classified as a single subspecies (Panthera leo leo), while the only remaining population in Asia is considered to be distinct (Panthera leo persica). This distinction is disputed both by morphological and genetic data. In this study we introduce the lion as a model for African phylogeography.