A massive earthquake triggered a tsunami in Indonesia on September 28, 2018.

                                              Here is an expanding list of news and information resources.

CLICK HERE - AHA Centre - Indonesia, Central Sulawesi, M 7.4 Earthquake and Tsunami - Updates

CLICK HERE - reliefweb - Indonesia: Earthquakes - Sep 2018

CLICK HERE - Humanitarian Response - Indonesia

CLICK HERE - Indonesian soldiers ordered to fire on looters - October 3, 2018

CLICK HERE - AFP - Time running out for survivors as Indonesia toll tops 1,400 - October 3, 2018

CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE - YEMEN: Surge in suspected cholera cases in Hodeidah

reliefweb.int - Save the Children - October 1, 2018

Save the Children’s health centres report 170 per cent spike in suspected cases.

Malnutrition, displacement and attacks on water supplies could spark a new wave of the disease nationwide.

100,000 severely malnourished children at risk in Hodeidah.

SANAA, October 2 – Suspected cholera cases have almost tripled in Yemen’s coastal Hodeidah region since fighting escalated in June.

Health facilities supported by Save the Children across the governorate recorded a 170 per cent increase in the number of suspected cholera cases, from 497 in June to 1,342 in August.

The spike is in line with national data that also shows a steady increase of suspected cholera cases across Yemen. 30 per cent of all suspected cases are children under five years old, according to the World Health Organization.

A Sept. 7, 2017, satellite image from NOAA shows the eye of Hurricane Irma, left, just north of the island of Hispaniola, with Hurricane Jose, right, in the Atlantic Ocean. Six major hurricanes formed in the Atlantic in 2017, including Harvey, Irma and Maria.  (Photo: AP)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Dominant effect of relative tropical Atlantic warming on major hurricane occurrence

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - September 27, 2018

The catastrophic 2017 hurricane season – which included such monsters as Harvey, Irma and Maria – was fueled in part by unusually warm ocean water, a new study suggests.

And because of human-caused global warming, the study said similar favorable conditions for fierce hurricanes will be present in the years and decades to come . . .

 . . . "We show that the increase in 2017 major hurricanes was not primarily caused by La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, but mainly by pronounced warm sea surface conditions in the tropical North Atlantic," the study said.

New solar flow battery with a 14.1 percent efficiency. Photo: David Tenenbaum, UW-Madison

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Chem - 14.1% Efficient Monolithically Integrated Solar Flow Battery

theverge.com - by Angela Chen - September 27, 2018

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular as prices drop, yet a home powered by the Sun isn’t free from the grid because solar panels don’t store energy for later. Now, researchers have refined a device that can both harvest and store solar energy, and they hope it will one day bring electricity to rural and underdeveloped areas.

The problem of energy storage has led to many creative solutions, like giant batteries. For a paper published today in the journal Chem, scientists trying to improve the solar cells themselves developed an integrated battery that works in three different ways.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

WHO/Twitter - A WHO team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in response to ebola outbreak.

news.un.org - September 25, 2018

A "perfect storm" of active conflict and traumatized communities in Ebola-affected areas of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could enable the deadly disease to spread, but there are “no plans” to pull UN workers out of the country despite concerns for their security, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - CIDRAP - Ebola response faces 'grave obstacles' as count hits 150

See also:

CLICK HERE - Sep 25 WHO media briefing

Protective suits are essential kit for some workers like firefighters and healthcare workers, but staying cool enough to work for long periods is a challenge.

africanews.com - September 19, 2018

A team at California’s Stanford University working on the regulation of body temperature have created a cooling system that could double the amount of time workers can spend wearing protective suits.

The research was prompted by healthcare workers from Sierra Leone who experienced debilitating heat when wearing suits that protected them from the highly infectious Ebola virus . . . 

 . . . the cooling system allowed the students to spend at least double the time being active than without it, and some tripled or quadrupled the time spent being active.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by John Carroll

reliefweb.int - September 21, 2018

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

During Epidemiological Week (EW) 28, the Ministry of Public Health and Epidemiology reported that the Los Pinos Health Center (La Descubierta, municipality) saw an increase in the number of patients with acute diarrhoeal diseases from surrounding communities, which were suspected to be cases of cholera.

In EW 32, the Ministry of Health reported that Vibrio cholerae had been identified in samples collected from residents of La Descubierta municipality in the National Public Health Laboratory. The same report also stated that three confirmed cases of cholera in the municipality had been identified.

Since the outbreak began in EW 28 and up to EW 34, 4 confirmed cases of cholera and 91 suspected cases have been identified in the municipality (please see Figure 1 below), in residents of Los Pinos del Edén, Ángel Feliz, urban area of La Descubierta and Los Bolos.

Purdue researcher Jialiang Tang helped resolve charging issues in sodium-ion batteries that have prevented the technology from advancing to industry testing and use. Credit: Purdue University Marketing and Media

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of sodium powder as electrode additive to improve cycling performance of sodium-ion batteries

phys.org - by Kayla Wiles - September 19, 2018

Most of today's batteries are made up of rare lithium mined from the mountains of South America. If the world depletes this source, then battery production could stagnate.

Sodium is a very cheap and earth-abundant alternative to using lithium-ion batteries that is also known to turn purple and combust if exposed to water—even just water in the air.

Video: As the storm moved toward southern China, the search for survivors started in the Philippines, where the death toll could surpass 100. By BARBARA MARCOLINI and SARAH STEIN KERR on Publish Date September 16, 2018. Photo by Jes Aznar for The New York Times.

nytimes.com - September 17th 2018

Emergency workers in the Philippines recovered more than 40 bodies from the muddied wreckage of a gold miners’ bunkhouse after Typhoon Mangkhut set off a landslide, burying the remote northern town of Itogon in a river of debris, officials said on Monday.

Mangkhut, a super typhoon that slammed into the northern Philippine province of Luzon on Saturday, continued a path of destruction across southern China on Sunday and into Monday.

In the Philippines, the police on Monday gave an unofficial death toll of 66 people nationwide, though that number was almost certain to rise. 

Illustration by Thomas Pullin

CLICK HERE - FULL TEXT AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION - Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study (6 page .PDF file)

My research shows that when people feel threatened they want ‘tighter’ social norms, with profound consequences for politics

theguardian.com - by Michele Gelfand - September 17, 2018

What is the essential dividing line between human beings around the world? . . . 

 . . . My research across hundreds of communities suggests that the fundamental driver of difference is not ideological, financial or geographical – it’s cultural. Behaviour, it turns out, depends a lot on whether the culture in which we live is a “tight” or “loose” one.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study

Maria Jesus Lopez shows a corn ear in a drought-affected farm near the town of San Marcos Lempa, El Salvador, July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

Central America is one of the regions most vulnerable to extreme weather linked to climate change

Thomson Reuters Foundation - news.trust.org - by Anastasia Moloney - September 7, 2018

Poor harvests caused by drought in parts of Central America could leave more than two million people hungry, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday, warning climate change was creating drier conditions in the region.

Lower than average rainfall in June and July has led to major crop losses for small-scale maize and bean farmers in Central America's "Dry Corridor", which runs through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

This means subsistence farmers will not have enough food to eat or sell in the coming months, and have no food supplies to see them through the lean time between harvests.

                                                     (CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE)

Data: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Chart: Chris Canipe/Axios

axios.com - by Chris Canipe, Andrew Freedman - June 21, 2018

The Earth is warmer now than at any time since reliable record-keeping began in 1880, and we're continuing to warm at an accelerated rate. In fact, the Earth is warmer now than at any point in modern human civilization.

Two flights land in Philadelphia with multiple sick passengers.

nbcnews.com - by Dennis Romero - September 6, 2018

Twelve passengers arriving in Philadelphia from Saudi Arabia, where it's believed they had celebrated Hajj, were referred to medical professionals after exhibiting flu-like symptoms on their flight, officials said.

It was the second day in a row at a Mid-Atlantic airport that arriving passengers from the Middle East exhibited indications of illness.

On Wednesday a massive Emirates Airbus 380 that had arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport from Dubai was moved to an isolated location so passengers . . . could be screened.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE RELATED INFORMATION WITHIN THE LINKS BELOW . . .

CLICK HERE - Multiple passengers fall ill on separate international flights to Philadelphia

There is no effective vaccine to protect swine from the disease.

FAO urges regional collaboration including stronger monitoring and preparedness measures

fao.org - August 28, 2018

The rapid onset of African Swine Fever (ASF) in China, and its detection in areas more than one thousand kilometres apart within the country, could mean the deadly pig virus may spread to other Asian countries anytime, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today. 

There is no effective vaccine to protect swine from the disease. And, while the disease poses no direct threat to human health, outbreaks can be devastating with the most virulent forms lethal in 100 percent of infected animals.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE - 'It’s not if, it’s when': the deadly pig disease spreading around the world

CLICK HERE - STUDY - PNAS - Seroprevalence, risk factor, and spatial analyses of Zika virus infection after the 2016 epidemic in Managua, Nicaragua

sph.berkeley.edu - August 30, 2018

Almost half of the population of Managua, Nicaragua, is infected with Zika virus, according to a study by UC Berkeley School of Public Health researchers. Eva Harris, professor of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the School of Public Health and director of the UC Berkeley Center for Global Public Health, led the research, which was published August 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Knowing that 50 percent of the population was infected in only a three-month period during the epidemic is important because it means that another epidemic of that size and ferocity in the near future is very unlikely,” says Harris.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)