The Asian clam Corbicula fluminea, originating from Southeast Asia, was first recorded in Lake Constance in 2003 and developed local mass occurrences afterwards. Effects of harsh winter conditions in 2005/2006 associated with a strongly decreasing water level were studied at 3 different depths at and below the mean low water level (MLL, MLL -1 m and MLL -3 m). Low winter temperatures produced a...

Indoor use of wood-burning and other biomass-fuelled cookstoves remains a major, if frequently overlooked, respiratory health hazard. In India, these cooking practices translate to high burdens of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)— potentially leading to low birthweights in infants of women who spend much of their days cooking indoors, Giridhara R Babu (P...

Moderation of stream temperatures by riparian shading and groundwater are known to promote growth and survival of salmonid fishes, but effects of riparian shade and groundwater on to be growth of warmwater stream fishes are poorly understood or assumed to be negligible. We used stream temperature models to relate shading from riparian vegetation and groundwater inflow to summer water temperatur...

The distributional limits of many ectothermic species are set by thermal tolerances of early-developmental stages in the life history; embryos and larvae often are less able to buffer environmental variation than are conspecific adults. In pond-breeding amphibians, for example, cold water may constrain viability of eggs and larvae, even if adults can find suitable thermal conditions in terrestr...

BACKGROUND Falls are a major threat to older people's health and wellbeing. Approximately half of falls occur in outdoor environments but little is known about the circumstances in which they occur. We conducted a qualitative study to explore older people's experiences of outdoor falls to develop understanding of how they may be prevented. METHODS We conducted nine focus groups across the UK ...

[1] Mechanistic models for sediment transport on hillslopes are needed for applications ranging from landscape evolution to debris-flow hazards. Progress has been made for soil-mantled landscapes; however, little is known about sediment production and transport in bedrock landscapes that often maintain a patchy soil mantle, even though slopes exceed the angle of repose. Herein we investigate th...

The purpose of this paper is to improve the accuracy of the COMFA outdoor thermal comfort model for application to subjects performing physical activity. A sensitivity analysis was performed to identify conditions where the COMFA model produced erroneous estimates of the heat and moisture exchanges between the human body and the ambient environment, based on data from subjects performing modera...

Relation between cold stress and mortality The general cold stress and mortality related to cold seen at temperatures below 0°C in Yekaterinburg, and their absence at temperatures above 0°C, can be most easily explained by a causal relation between mortality and cold stress. These results reinforce those of our earlier study, which showed an association between cold stress and mortality among d...

Research results have identified the use of heat pipe heat exchangers (HPHXs) for heat recovery as a way to reduce the pre-cooling and re-heating energy. This paper suggests decoupling dehumidification from cooling to reduce energy consumption. The feasible usage and the energy saving potential of heat pipe heat exchanger at the air handler dedicated in accomplishing this objective is investiga...