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Research in India Finds Mobile Phone 'Alerts' Plus 'Free Minutes' Improve Childhood Immunization Rates

In a study conducted in rural India, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers working in collaboration with Bal Umang Drishya Sanstha (BUDS), a nonprofit Indian organization focused on child health, have found that mobile phone reminders linked with incentives such as free talk time minutes work better than phone alerts alone to improve childhood immunization rates in poor communities.

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Smoking Linked With Higher Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

The prevalence of diabetes has increased almost 10-fold in China since the early 1980s, with one in 10 adults in China now affected by diabetes. Although adiposity is the major modifiable risk factor for diabetes, other research in China suggests this can explain only about 50% of the increase in diabetes prevalence over recent decades, suggesting other lifestyle factors, including smoking, may play a role in the aetiology of diabetes. In recent decades, there has been a large increase in cigarette smoking in China, especially among men. About two thirds of Chinese men now smoke, consuming roughly 40% of the world’s cigarettes.

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Chain Reaction of Fast-Draining Lakes Poses New Risk for Greenland Ice Sheet

A growing network of lakes on the Greenland ice sheet has been found to drain in a chain reaction that speeds up the flow of the ice sheet, threatening its stability. 

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Decreased Oxygen Levels Could Present Hidden Threat to Marine Species, Study Suggests

Species living in coastal regions could face a significant future threat from reduced levels of oxygen in the marine environment, according to research published in Nature Scientific Reports.

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How cash can promote tropical forest conservation

Paying rural villagers to cut down fewer trees boosts conservation not only while the payments are being made but even after they’re discontinued, according to a new CU Boulder study involving 1,200 tropical forest users in five developing countries.

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These veterans have a mission: This time, it’s fighting for coral

A team of military veterans is putting their hard-earned skills toward a different challenge: Restoring damaged corals in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.

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A Cold Case on Greenland’s Glaciers Warms Up With New Evidence

UCLA led-research shows Earth may be approaching a carbon dioxide threshold for melting ice in the Arctic

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UK Rivers Heavily Contaminated With Microplastics

Researchers from The University of Manchester are calling for tighter regulations on waste flowing into urban waterways, after the first study of its kind found that microplastics from urban river channels are a major contributor to the pollution problem in the oceans.

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World’s Largest Cities Depend on Evaporated Water from Surrounding Lands

Researchers found that 19 of 29 large cities depend on evaporation from surrounding lands for more than one-third of their water supplies.

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Toilet-To-Tap: Gross to Think About, but How Does It Taste?

UC Riverside researchers conduct first blind taste test of recycled wastewater

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