New software for designing sustainable cities
New technology could help cities around the world improve people’s lives while saving billions of dollars. The free, open-source software developed by the Stanford Natural Capital Project creates maps to visualize the links between nature and human wellbeing. City planners and developers can use the software to visualize where investments in nature, such as parks […]
4 Signs You’re Experiencing Secondhand Stress (And What To Do About It)
Hispanolistic via Getty Images It’s a human response to absorb other people’s emotions during tough situations, but that can lead to issues like secondhand stress. It can be easy to get swept up in other people’s problems or in situations that are largely out of your control. “At a fundamental level, we are social creatures. […]
Digital and group-based lifestyle counselling to prevent type 2 diabetes shows real-world effectiveness
People’s diet quality improved and their abdominal obesity and insulin resistance decreased in a one-year lifestyle intervention, new findings from the Finnish StopDia study show. Looking at 2,907 Finnish adults with an elevated risk for type 2 diabetes, the study is the first to examine the effects of a group-based lifestyle intervention implemented in primary […]
Humans possess surprising nutritional intelligence
Pioneering research has shed new light on what drives people’s basic food preferences, indicating our choices may be smarter than previously thought and influenced by the specific nutrients, as opposed to just calories, we need. The international study, led by the University of Bristol (UK), set out to re-examine and test the widely-held view that […]
Stricter Pandemic Policies Took Toll on Mental Health
People’s mental health suffered when strict COVID-19 control measures were put in place by their governments, according to two new studies. In one longitudinal analysis drawing on data from 15 countries excluding the U.S., policies with higher stringency were associated with higher mean psychological distress scores during the first 15 months of the pandemic (standardized […]
Indigenous and local communities key to successful nature conservation
Indigenous Peoples and local communities provide the best long-term outcomes for conservation, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and partners in France. Lead author, Dr Neil Dawson of UEA’s School of International Development, was part of an international team conducting a systematic review that found conservation success is “the exception […]
Big data-derived tool facilitates closer monitoring of recovery from natural disasters
By analyzing peoples’ visitation patterns to essential establishments like pharmacies, religious centers and grocery stores during Hurricane Harvey, researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a framework to assess the recovery of communities after natural disasters in near real time. They said the information gleaned from their analysis would help federal agencies allocate resources equitably […]