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Dvanaest dobrih razloga da podržite Zakladu za zaštitu životinja Bestie iz Splita.
POMOZITE ZAKLADI BESTIE: MOLIM VAS DONIRAJTE!
Detalji za donacije:
Research in Wales found that home, not outdoor travel, was largest contributor to children’s daily exposure
Children living in homes with wood burners could be exposed to over three times more pollution than those in non-wood-burning homes. The results come from a study that looked at air pollution experienced by primary schoolchildren in Wales.
Fifty-three children from two primary schools in Anglesey (Ynys Môn) were given backpacks equipped with air pollution sensors. They took the packs home and carried them during their journeys to and from school.
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This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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With plans to sell off over a million acres of natural habitat for oil and gas development, the Trump administration is ignoring the dire impact on its fragile ecosystem
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This week, the Trump administration took a key step towards opening new leases for oil and gas drilling across millions of acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – a pristine and biodiverse expanse in northern Alaska and one of the last wildlands in the US still left untouched.
With a call for nominations officially issued on Tuesday, the US Bureau of Land Management began evaluating plots across the 1.5 million-acre Coastal Plain at the heart of the refuge – an area often referred to as the American Serengeti, thanks to its rich tundra ecosystems, which provide habitat for close to 200 species and serve as the traditional homelands of the Iñupiat and Gwichʼin peoples.
Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn
Fossil fuel firms may have to pay for climate damage under proposed UN tax
The lithium boom: could a disused quarry bring riches to Cornwall?
Trump’s Greenland threats open old wounds for Inuit across Arctic
Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of ‘winter being redefined’
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Rammed earth sourced from, or near, the grounds of a proposed building site is attracting attention as an eco-friendly construction material
From afar, the low-rise homestead perched in the Wiltshire countryside may look like any other rural outpost, but step closer and the texture of the walls reveal something distinct from the usual facade of cement, brick and steel.
The Rammed Earth House in Cranborne Chase is one of the few projects in the UK that has been made by unstabilised rammed earth – a building material that consists entirely of compacted earth and which has been used as far back as the Neolithic period.
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Hawes, North Yorkshire: A stunning ray of sunshine, beamed on to a farmhouse, is a reminder of my family’s history in this landscape
It is early Saturday morning and I’m on my way to the Hawes Honeys sale of “in-lamb” (pregnant) ewes at Hawes auction. Usually I drive through Nateby and up over the tops into North Yorkshire, past the big pipe under the road where I used to play with toy cars when I was little, and remembering my sons shouting “hold your breath everyone, don’t breathe the Yorkshire air” as we passed the county boundary.
Today I take a different route, turning off at Wharton to go via Mallerstang instead. As I drove into Mallerstang I had to stop the car and watch as a single ray of sunlight broke through, lighting up a white farmhouse on the other side of the valley, opposite Pendragon Castle.
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Charity praises effort to stop Ramsgate’s Pie Factory Music closing but calls for more youth services in coastal towns
The last remaining youth centre in one of England’s most deprived coastal places has been saved from being sold after a long campaign by the charity that has for 13 years called it home.
In November the Guardian revealed how the centre in Ramsgate on the Kent coast was facing being auctioned off by Kent county council, despite an independent report that estimated the centre was saving the council more than £500,000 a year in costs, including for services in mental health, youth justice and social care.
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Shas Sheehan challenges refusal to remove 25,000 tonnes of waste causing ‘grave environmental hazard’ near school
A 25,000-tonne illegal waste dump next to a primary school in Wigan presents “a grave environmental hazard” and should be cleared, the chair of the Lords environment committee has told the government.
Shas Sheehan challenged the refusal of the Environment Agency to clean up an illegal waste dump in Bolton House Road in the Greater Manchester town, given the agency was spending millions clearing up illegal waste deposited in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
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A mangrove conservation project in Guanabara Bay has shown how a dying ecosystem can be transformed into a thriving sanctuary
With deep blue waters flanked by dramatic peaks, Guanabara Bay is the postcard view of Rio de Janeiro – but it is also one of Brazil’s most polluted coastal environments. Raw sewage and solid waste flow into the bay from surrounding cities, home to more than 8 million people. Cargo ships and oil platforms chug in and out of commercial ports, while dozens of abandoned vessels lie rotting in the water.
But at the head of the bay, between the cities of Itaboraí and Magé, the environment feels different. The air is purer, the waters are empty but for small fishing canoes, and flocks of birds soar overhead.
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Paying attention to the calls of our avian neighbours can reduce stress, find scientists in Germany
Feeling stressed? Try a dose of birdsong to lift the spirits. A new study shows that paying attention to the treetop melodies of our feathered friends can boost wellbeing and bring down stress levels.
Previous research has shown that people feel better in bird-rich environments, but Christoph Randler, from the University of Tübingen, and colleagues wanted to see if that warm fuzzy feeling translated into measurable physiological changes. They rigged up a park with loudspeakers playing the songs of rare birds and measured the blood pressure, heart rate and cortisol levels (a marker of stress) of volunteers before and after taking a 30-minute walk through the park. Some volunteers experienced the birdsong-enriched environment, some heard just natural birdsong, and some wore noise-cancelling headphones and heard no birdsong. Half of the recruits were asked to pay attention to the birdsong.
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Known as ‘white gold’, lithium is among the most important mined elements on the planet – ideal for the rechargeable batteries used in tech products. Can Europe’s largest deposit bring prosperity to the local community?
It looks more like the past than the future. A vast chasm scooped out of a scarred landscape, this is a Cornwall the summer holidaymakers don’t see: a former china clay pit near St Austell called Trelavour. I’m standing at the edge of the pit looking down with the man who says his plans for it will help the UK’s transition to renewable energy and bring back year-round jobs and prosperity to a part of the country that badly needs both. “And if I manage to make some money in the process, fantastic,” he says. “Though that is not what it’s about.”
We’ll return to him shortly. But first to the past, when this story begins, about 275-280m years ago. “There was a continental collision at the time,” Frances Wall, professor of applied mineralogy at the Camborne School of Mines at the University of Exeter, explained to me before my visit. This collision caused the bottom of the Earth’s crust to melt, with the molten material rising higher in the crust and forming granite. “There are lots of different types of granite that intrude at different times, more than 10m years or so,” she says. “The rock is made of minerals and, if you’ve got the right composition in the original material and the right conditions, then within those minerals there are some called mica. Some of those micas contain lithium.”
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Osobe s ulceroznim proktitisom, blažim i ograničenijim oblikom ulceroznog kolitisa, nemaju veći rizik od razvoja raka rektuma od opće populacije, tvrde rezultati švedske studije. Smatra se, da ovo otkriće može doprinijeti individualiziranijem praćenju pacijenata s upalnom bolešću crijeva.
Pridržavanje mediteranske prehrane povezano je s nižim rizikom od svih vrsta moždanog udara među ženama, tvrdi nova studija. Valja istaknuti, da studija ne dokazuje da je mediteranska prehrana uzrok nižeg rizika od moždanog udara; samo pokazuje povezanost.
Testiranje menstrualne krvi na humani papiloma virus (HPV) moglo bi biti dobra alternativa ili zamjena za trenutni probir raka vrata maternice koji provode kliničari, otkriva nova studija. Naime, korištenje menstrualne krvi za testiranje na HPV je praktično i neinvazivno, što ženama omogućuje prikupljanje uzoraka kod kuće, te bi stoga moglo ponuditi praktičan put za proširenje pristupa probiru.
Bol u donjem dijelu leđa jedan je od najčešćih zdravstvenih problema u svijetu, koji pogađa ljude svih dobnih skupina i predstavlja veliko opterećenje za zdravstvene sustave. Mnogi pacijenti osjećaju trajnu nelagodu koja ometa rad, san i svakodnevne aktivnosti. Ipak, u većini slučajeva liječnici ne mogu utvrditi jasan strukturni uzrok, što otežava dugoročno liječenje.
Izgleda da gljivica Candida albicans čini melanom, najsmrtonosniji tip raka kože, agresivnijim, sugeriraju rezultati nove studije. Naime, gljivica aktivira nekoliko signalnih puteva u stanicama melanoma i, kao rezultat toga, stvara okruženje koje pomaže u reprogramiranju angiogeneze i metabolizma; drugim riječima, okruženje koje stvara pogodne uvjete koji omogućuju malignim stanicama da dobiju više kisika i energije te se lakše šire u krv i druge organe.
Prema rezultatima novog istraživanja, trudnoća i dojenje povezani su s boljim dugoročnim kognitivnim sposobnostima kod žena u postmenopauzi. Naime, studija je otkrila da povećanje kumulativnog vremena provedenog u trudnoći i vremena provedenog u dojenju korelira s boljom kognitivnom funkcijom, verbalnim pamćenjem i vizualnim pamćenjem kasnije u životu.
Rezultati nove studije pokazali su da je lijek za dijabetes, metformin, povezan s manjom progresijom senilne makularne degeneracije (AMD), najčešćeg uzroka sljepoće u zapadnim zemljama. Naime, osobe s dijabetesom starije od 55 godina koje su uzimale metformin, imale su 37% manju vjerojatnost da će razviti srednji stadij AMD-a tijekom petogodišnjeg razdoblja u usporedbi s onima koji nisu uzimali metformin.
Nova studija nudi nadu da bi pacijenti s transplantiranim bubregom jednog dana mogli primati mjesečni tretman umjesto više lijekova svaki dan. Novi tretman također može smanjiti nuspojave i produžiti životni vijek donorskog organa. Trenutno, pacijenti kojima je transplantiran bubreg moraju uzimati koktel lijekova svaki dan do kraja života. Ovi standardni imunosupresivi sprječavaju imunološki sustav da napadne novi organ, ali s vremenom mogu oštetiti funkciju bubrega i postati manje učinkoviti.
Nova studija sugerira da starije odrasle osobe hospitalizirane s delirijem mogu imati bolje ishode kada se liječe trazodonom, koji se obično koristi za liječenje depresije i problema sa spavanjem, u odnosu na uobičajeno korištene antipsihotičke lijekove. Delirij, iznenadno stanje zbunjenosti koje često pogađa starije odrasle osobe tijekom ili nakon hospitalizacije, često se liječi lijekovima unatoč ograničenim dokazima o tome koji su lijekovi najsigurniji.
Strategija prevencije koju su razvili kanadski znanstvenici može smanjiti rizik od najčešćeg i najsmrtonosnijeg oblika raka jajnika za gotovo 80 posto, tvrde rezultati nove studije. Strategija, poznata kao oportunistička salpingektomija (OS), uključuje proaktivno uklanjanje jajovoda osobe kada već prolazi kroz rutinsku ginekologiju poput histerektomije ili podvezivanja jajovoda, što se obično naziva podvezivanje jajovoda.