A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine finds new and innovative approaches to dust control are needed at Owens Lake, California, to improve air quality, reduce water use, and preserve habitats.

Although less invasive and more evidence-based approaches are available for temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) – a set of 30 disorders that cause pain or malfunction in the jaw joint and muscles of the jaw – some dentists continue to rely on aggressive or costly procedures as a first-line treatment, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

As a novel coronavirus spreads throughout the world and the number of cases and deaths continues to rise, almost no country or community remains untouched by this rapidly evolving threat.

When it comes to COVID-19 testing, questions remain about which of the tests available are reliable, how much testing is needed, and how to ensure access to testing. The latest COVID-19 Conversations webinar explored the challenges ahead.

A screencap from NBCLA of the rapidly spreading, 4,300-acre vegetation fire in the Pope Valley area of Napa County, which by Thursday had destroyed two homes and prompted the mandatory evacuation of hundreds of others.; Credit: NBCLA

Today's dryku comes from H. Hanson of Pyro Spectaculars:

Because it's so dry
Professional fireworks shows
Are the way to go

Hanson actually wrote no less than five excellent drykus about the importance of professional fireworks shows during the drought. His company will be doing the fireworks at the Rose Bowl Friday night. You can get more information about that and other shows at our Fireworks FAQ. And remember to keep sending your #drykus to @kpccdryku.

Fire:

• Firefighters continue to battle a wildfire burning near Napa. Thousands of acres have burned, and more than 200 homes have been evacuated. Fire officials said the intensity is due to the bone-dry conditions. (KPCC)

Hunger:

• Tulare County and other areas hit hard by the drought have been providing food assistance to people who've lost work because of the drought. Supplies are running short, because need is more than anticipated.

Pickers aren’t the only workers hurt by the drought. Food banks are seeing some truck drivers, too. Less picking means less product to ship.

“We think [this] is going to have a devastating effect on our families,” said Wynn, adding that Visalia Emergency Aid passed out more than 500 boxes in about three weeks. “We only have 87 boxes left to last us through the rest of summer, and we serve over 800 families a month.” (Visalia Times-Delta)

Wildlife:

• The drought is driving insects from the desert into more urban areas. They're coming in search of water and nourishment. The good news is we might see more butterflies. The bad news?

Also, expect to see more roaches, black widows and ants during the summer, when they are most active, according to David Wilcox, owner of the Yucca Valley-based Sahara Pest Control that services the Coachella Valley. (The Desert Sun)

• Lakes and rivers are lower, which means less water to warm, which means warmer water, which means less oxygen in the water, which means a lot of people worried about fish. (Fresno Bee)

Wine:

• Finally, because we need some good news this morning, some wine growers/makers say that the drought is stressing their vines perfectly. That means the wine this year should be of good quality, even if there's less of it. Stock up. (CBS Sacramento)

How has your community been affected by the drought? Share your story with a photo on Twitter or Instagram. Tag it #mydrought. For more details on our photo project, click here.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Using 3D modeling and simulations to target tumors

A new study has investigated the impacts of human activity on Antarctic Marine and Coastal. Alongside local effects of fishing, pollution and invasive alien species, global climate change is causing sea temperature rises and ocean acidification. Action is therefore needed at all levels to address these impacts.

A new study of pollutants in Mediterranean coastal waters assesses the risks posed by difficult-to-detect chemicals present at low concentrations. Coastal monitoring programmes may be required to control discharges of some of these pollutants, which, at current levels, could be harmful to sensitive marine creatures.

The lack of clear international regulations is putting ???animal forests??? at risk, a recent analysis concludes. The research examined threats to these important seafloor habitats, and suggests that collective responsibility and coherent ecosystem-based management are needed to prevent their loss.

Nutella has turned into a global phenomenon, which is boosting the demand for hazelnuts. ; Credit: Ingrid Taylar/Flickr

Nutella, that sinfully indulgent chocolate-hazelnut spread, turns 50 this year, and it's come a long way, baby.

There's even a "Nutella bar" in midtown Manhattan, right off Fifth Avenue, tucked inside a grand temple of Italian food called Eataly. There's another Nutella bar at Eataly in Chicago. Here, you can order Nutella on bread, Nutella on a croissant, Nutella on crepes.

"We create a simple place," explains Dino Borri, Eataly's "brand ambassador," a man so charming that he should be an ambassador for the whole Italian country. "Simple ingredients, few ingredients. With Nutella, supertasty, supersimple. When you are simple, the people love!"

Nutella was the product of hard times. During World War II, an Italian chocolate-maker named Ferrero couldn't get enough cocoa, so he mixed in some ground hazelnuts instead. Then he made a soft and creamy version.

"It was one of the greatest inventions of the last century!" says Borri.

It's a bold claim, but greatness, you have to admit, is a matter of taste. In any case, Nutella conquered Italy and, eventually, the world.

The recipe for world domination, it turns out, isn't too complicated: Sugar, cocoa, palm oil and hazelnuts. Three of those ingredients are easy to get. Sugar, cocoa and palm oil are produced in huge quantities.Hazelnuts, though, which some people call filberts, are a different matter. Most of them come from a narrow strip of land along the coast of the Black Sea in Turkey.

Karim Azzaoui, vice president for sales and marketing at BALSU USA, which supplies hazelnuts to the U.S., says the hazelnut trees grow on steep slopes that rise from the Black Sea coast. The farms are small; grandparents and children help to harvest the nuts, usually by hand. "It's a very traditional way of life," Azzaoui says. "The Turkish family farmers are extremely proud of the hazelnut crop, as it has been part of their family history for centuries. Farmers have been growing hazelnuts here for 2,000 years."

Nutella is now making this traditional crop extremely trendy.

Ferrero, the Nutella-maker, now a giant company based in Alba, Italy, uses about a quarter of the world's hazelnut supply — more than 100,000 tons every year.

That's pushed up hazelnut prices. And this year, after a late frost in Turkey that froze the hazelnut blossoms and cut the country's hazelnut production in half, prices spiked even further. They're up an additional 60 percent this year.

Because they're so valuable, more people want to grow them. Farmers are growing hazelnuts in Chile and Australia. America's hazelnut orchards in Oregon are expanding.

And now, one can even find a few hazelnuts in the Northeastern United States, where they've never been successfully grown before. They're standing in a Rutgers University research farm, an oasis of orchards tucked in between highways, just outside New Brunswick, N.J.

"All the green leafy things you see here are hazelnut trees. But in the beginning, they all used to die from disease," says Thomas Molnar, a Rutgers plant scientist who is in charge of this effort.

The disease, called Eastern Filbert Blight, is caused by a fungus. Some relatives of the commercial hazelnut, native to North America, can withstand the fungus. But the European hazelnut, the kind that fetches high prices, cannot. When the fungus attacks, it ruptures the bark around each branch, and the tree dies.

About 10 years ago, though, a plant breeder at Rutgers named C. Reed Funk embarked on a quest for hazelnut trees that could survive Eastern Filbert Blight. Similar efforts have been underway at Oregon State University, because Eastern Filbert Blight has made its way to Oregon as well, threatening the orchards there.

"I personally went and made seed collections in Eastern Europe, Russia, Poland, Ukraine," says Molnar. "I collected thousands of seeds. We grew them as we normally would, and I'd say that 98 percent of them died."

The other 2 percent, though, did not. They carried genes that allowed them to survive the blight. Molnar cross-pollinated these blight-resistant trees with other hazelnut trees, from Oregon, that produce lots of high-quality nuts. He collected the offspring of that mating, looking for individual trees with the ideal genetic combination: blight resistance and big yields.

Molnar shows me a few candidate trees. They're thriving, and producing lots of nuts. Molnar and his colleagues now are conducting field trials of these trees in 10 locations around the Eastern U.S. and Canada to see whether they yield enough nuts to be commercially successful.

Molnar is optimistic. His efforts have even caught the attention of Ferrero, the Nutella-maker. "They've come here several times," Molnar says. "They've told me, if we can meet their quality specifications, they'd be interested in buying all the hazelnuts that we can produce."

If you just want to get one of these trees and grow hazelnuts in your backyard, though, Molnar does have a warning. "I haven't seen any other food that drives squirrels more crazy than hazelnuts," he says. Squirrels will do almost anything to get their greedy little paws on the nuts before you do.

So your hazelnuts may need a guard dog — one that likes to chase squirrels.

Finding affordable apartments is especially tough in Los Angeles, where 52 percent of people are renters, according to a new study.; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

You need to earn at least $33 an hour — $68,640 a year — to be able to afford the average apartment in Los Angeles County, according to Matt Schwartz, president and chief executive of the California Housing Partnership, which advocates for affordable housing. 

That's more than double the level of the highest minimum wage being proposed by Mayor Eric Garcetti, which he argued would make it easier for workers to afford to live here. “If we pass this, this will allow more people to live their American Dream here in L.A.," Garcetti proclaimed when he announced his plan to raise the minimum wage to $13.25 by 2017. 

The $33 an hour figure is based on the average L.A. County apartment rental price of $1,716 a month, from USC's 2014 Casden Multifamily Forecast. An apartment is considered affordable when you spend no more than 30 percent of your paycheck on rent.

To earn $33 an hour or more, you'd need to have a Los Angeles job like one of the following occupations: 

• Marketing manager: $66,538 (average in L.A., according to Payscale.com)
• LAUSD teacher: $70,000 (average salary, according to LAUSD)
• Software engineer: $82,669 (average according to Payscale.com)
• Lawyer: $104,249 (average according to Payscale.com)

But many occupations typically earn far below that $33 an hour threshold in L.A. County, according to the California Housing Partnership:

• Secretaries: $36,000 ($17 an hour)
• EMT Paramedics: $25,00 ($12 an hour)
• Preschool teachers: $29,000 ($14 an hour)

That's why L.A. residents wind up spending an average of 47 percent of their income on rent, which is the highest percentage in the nation, according to UCLA's Ziman Center for Real Estate.

Naturally, people who earn the current California minimum wage of $9 an hour ($18,720 a year) would fare even worse in trying to afford an average apartment.

Raising the minimum wage to $13.25 would equal a $27,560 salary; raising it to $15.25 an hour totals $31,720 a year.

What about buying a home?

In order to afford to purchase the median-priced home in Los Angeles, you'd need to earn $96,513 a year, according to HSH.com, a mortgage information website. 

The median home price in Los Angeles is $570,500, according to the real estate website, Trulia.com.

But consider that the median income in Los Angeles is about half that: $49,497, according to census numbers from 2009-2013.

So it's no surprise that Los Angeles has been rated as the most unaffordable city to rent in America by Harvard and UCLA. 

The cost of housing has gone up so much that even raising the minimum wage to $15.25 an hour – as some on the city council have proposed doing by 2019– would not go very far in solving the problem.

“Every little bit helps, but even if you doubled the minimum wage, it wouldn’t help most low-income families find affordable rental housing in Los Angeles,” said Schwartz.

What percentage of your income to you spend on housing in Los Angeles? Let us know in the comments, on our Facebook page or on Twitter (@KPCC). You can see how affordable your neighborhood is with our interactive map.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly calculated the hourly pay rate, based on the estimated $68,640 annual pay needed to afford the average rent in L.A. County. KPCC regrets the error.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

With Zoom – and Zoom-bombing – being all the rage, here’s why the app’s default password settings may be leaving the backdoor wide open

The post Ever needed a Zoom password? Probably not. But why not? appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Stricter management of fisheries is needed to prevent overexploitation and decline of tuna and their mackerel relatives, according to an international study. The researchers say fisheries managers have wrongly treated upper limits for catches as target levels for fishing, contributing to global declines and the threatened status of some species.

Current knowledge on the availability of mineral resources is explored in a recent study, which focuses on phosphorus as a key example. Static measures of availability, such as the consumption-to-production ratio, are useful as early warning signals, the researchers suggest, but more dynamic indicators that consider technological development and population change are needed to better inform policy.

Current knowledge on the availability of mineral resources is explored in a recent study, which focuses on phosphorus as a key example. Static measures of availability, such as the consumption-to-production ratio, are useful as early warning signals, the researchers suggest, but more dynamic indicators that consider technological development and population change are needed to better inform policy.

There is a need for greater harmonisation of the methods used to estimate the environmental impact of products, otherwise known as product category rules (PCRs). A new study has reviewed the development of PCRs and provided recommendations for better alignment.

There is a need to broaden the debate on sustainable food security from a straight comparison between organic and conventional farming to a consideration of a variety of farming techniques. This is the conclusion of a new review of research that indicates, for some crop types, organic yields can nearly match conventional yields under good management practices and growing conditions.

A new study indicates that ‘commitment’ interventions are effective in encouraging environmentally-friendly behaviour, both in the short- and long-term. However, to increase the effectiveness of such interventions, whereby people promise or pledge to perform certain behaviours, more research is needed on the psychological processes behind their effects.

A new study finds that a quarter of fish products labelled as ‘cod’ or ‘haddock’ in Dublin, Ireland, are in fact completely different species of fish. This indicates that fish consumers are being misled by inaccurate labels, which could compromise sustainable fishing and consumption efforts.

A new study from Denmark has indicated that a substantial proportion of farmers may place professional values above cost savings when making decisions about how much pesticide to use. This implies that agricultural policy should consider a broad array of policy instruments to reduce pesticide usage.

A new study indicates that ‘commitment’ interventions are effective in encouraging environmentally-friendly behaviour, both in the short- and long-term. However, to increase the effectiveness of such interventions, whereby people promise or pledge to perform certain behaviours, more research is needed on the psychological processes behind their effects.

New research has investigated the combined impact of climate change and land cover change on external household water consumption and local night-time temperatures. It estimates that a 3ºC rise in temperature combined with a high degree of urban sprawl would increase water consumption by 4,061 litres per household for the month of August due to increases in evaporation from ground surface. The study recommends full integration of land use planning and water management.

The importance of comprehensive flood emergency plans is becoming increasingly recognised. A new study has evaluated plans in England and Wales, France and the Netherlands. It was found that, although plans perform well in terms of organisation and communication, they are lacking in more technical aspects, such as the provision of flood hazard maps and evacuation plans.

Effective flood-risk management requires accurate risk-analysis models. Conventional analysis approaches, however, are based on the evaluation of spatially homogenous scenarios, which do not account for variation in flooding across a river reach/ region. Since flood events are often spatially heterogeneous (i.e. unevenly distributed), this paves the way for error. Now, scientists have developed a novel framework for risk analysis that accounts for their heterogeneity, and successfully demonstrated the accuracy of the approach by applying it in a proof-of-concept exercise in Vorarlberg, Austria. By facilitating improved prediction and quantification of flood events, this model is likely to inform future flood-risk management and related decision-making.

The use of herbicides on crops causes environmental concerns. A new French study assesses the performance of cropping systems to manage weeds and finds that these techniques could control arable weeds in the long-term and reduce reliance on herbicides.

A Dutch study has assessed the water requirements of 13 bioenergy crops across the world. The findings could help select the best crops and locations to produce bioenergy.

Climate change poses a large threat to African agriculture, but there is little research on how to respond. A recent study indicates that traditional adaptation methods are not enough and international collaboration is needed in ‘planned adaptation’ by collecting and conserving certain crops for the future.

Biochar is increasingly mixed into farm soils to improve crop productivity and maintain carbon stocks. However, it can change the way that pesticides applied to the same soil behave, according to a new study. The researchers suggest that farmers may also need to follow new guidelines on pesticide application if they add biochar to their soil.

There is a need to broaden the debate on sustainable food security from a straight comparison between organic and conventional farming to a consideration of a variety of farming techniques. This is the conclusion of a new review of research that indicates, for some crop types, organic yields can nearly match conventional yields under good management practices and growing conditions.

The widespread use of higher-yielding improved varieties of crops as part of the ‘Green Revolution’ has averted the conversion of between 18 to 27 million hectares of forests, woodlands and pastures in the period 1965 to 2004, according to a recent study. However, its authors caution that the relationship between these crops and land use change is complex, and good governance is needed to protect biodiversity from future expansion of agricultural land.

A new analysis has indicated that policies to encourage active travel, such as walking and cycling, lead to a large but complex range of health benefits. However, it is not always possible to tell which policy has had which specific impact. The study argues for improved approaches to evaluating travel policy that consider indirect policy impacts.

The presence of plastics in aquatic environments is a growing concern across the EU. This study explored the amount of microplastic particles present in raw and treated water at three water-treatment plants in the Czech Republic. While treated water contained fewer particles than raw1 fresh water, the amount found in treated water was not negligible, and largely comprised tiny particles of <10 micrometres (μm) in diameter. Ways to filter microplastics from potable water must be identified and their risk to humans, sources and routes into drinking water determined, say the researchers.

In a new study, Spanish researchers describe a method specifically designed for measuring and characterising noise from building sites. They claim the method could help shape future policy related to noise pollution caused by the construction industry and provide important information to help reduce construction noise.

New research has analysed some of the issues around the implementation of the EU's Environmental Noise Directive (END) by Member States. It demonstrated large differences in the way noise levels are calculated and geographically mapped between countries and called for more standardised and clearer guidelines.

An analysis of European retailers revealed a range of initiatives being undertaken to improve the environmental performance of product supply chains. However, it appears that very large grocery retailers are less proactive than specialist and cooperative retailers, owing to their complex supply chains and tendency to consider consumers responsible for environmental improvements.

The world’s soils have the potential to store about 3000 megatonnes of carbon per year by the end of the 21st century, according to a new study. It suggests that restoring carbon to cropland and peat soils through practices such as afforestation and no-till farming could help solve global problems of food insecurity and climate change.

There are no technical or economic barriers to providing all of the world’s energy from renewable sources, according to a recent study. With a concerted effort, including reduced demand and international cooperation, the researchers suggest that the world could be entirely reliant on renewable energy for electric power, transportation and heating/cooling by 2050.

Policy efforts have focused on modifying individual behaviour as one strategy to address climate change. However, this has been met with limited success and a new UK study suggests that policies to encourage behaviour change need to operate on multiple levels and that there is a need for greater co-ordination between individuals, governments, businesses and communities.

New research investigating the effects of naturally occurring iron fertilisation in the sea suggests that large scale geoengineering projects designed to sequester carbon in the deep sea could have a dramatic impact on marine ecosystems. The study found that the organic matter arriving at the sea floor and the species that live there are very different, depending on whether waters are fertilised by iron leached from nearby islands or not.

Concerns about the negative impacts of ‘sunshade’ geoengineering on global food security are not supported by a recent modelling study, the first to simulate yield changes in a geoengineered climate. However, to mitigate climate change, the researchers suggest actions to reduce CO2 emissions are safer than introducing geoengineering projects, partly because some regions may actually suffer reduced crop yield in a geoengineered climate.

Turning brown seaweed into biofuels is one option that has been proposed to help meet the world's growing energy demands from renewable sources. Recent research has overcome a major barrier to converting the majority of sugars in seaweed into bioethanol and other valuable products by using genetically engineered bacteria to break down the seaweed.

Motivating homeowners to carry out energy-efficient refurbishments remains a significant challenge for policymakers. New research from Germany has called for more government incentives and better communication strategies to ensure homeowners are aware of the advantages of making energy saving changes to their homes.