Areas of mariculture — where marine organisms are cultivated for food — have been identified as important source areas for the dispersal of invasive alien species (IAS) via artificial floating litter. In order to identify IAS at high risk of dispersal via this method, researchers have analysed fouled anthropogenic litter sampled on beaches in two important European mariculture areas. Overall, the team detected eight aquaculture-related IAS attached to anthropogenic litter. All of these species are well adapted to rafting on artificial surfaces and have high potential to disperse in this way, suggesting that they are suitable candidates for closer monitoring and policy action in the future.

Groundwater pumping and irrigation can disrupt natural atmospheric processes, affect the whole water cycle, and potentially worsen water shortages during heatwaves, a new study suggests. The findings contribute to our understanding of how to manage water resources under future climate change conditions. The study shows how some of the most intensively water managed areas of Europe — such as the Iberian Peninsula — could be affected by extraction of groundwater during years when conditions are especially hot and dry, potentially amplifying water scarcity in already-stressed regions.

This study paves the way for better projections of the impact of climate change on plants, including agricultural crops and carbon drawdown. The research shows how an equation used in climate models to represent soil moisture levels is responsible for major variations in estimates of the carbon cycle.

Domestic water saving is important — not only to address water scarcity and drought, but also to save energy and tackle climate change. Water-management strategies are needed to prevent these shortages, and include incentives to change consumers’ behaviour concerning water use. This study examines the design of a behaviour-change system and a linked incentive model to stimulate a sustainable change in water-consumption behaviour.

Researchers have developed an online tool to help water managers find effective ways of tackling eutrophication, an excess growth of weeds and algae that suffocates life in rivers, lakes and seas. They describe the tool as quick and easy to use and understand. Users can compare the likely effects of different strategies for cutting nutrient pollution in surface waters via an interactive map-based system; this is currently available for Sweden and Europe as a whole.

Considering the sustainability of the services provided by an ecosystem could help to overcome management challenges and hit water quality targets defined by the EU, says a new study. By exploring 13 of the ecosystem services (ES) provided by the Venice Lagoon, Italy, the researchers identify factors affecting sustainable and unsustainable patterns of ES provision, and suggest that confined and more open water bodies could benefit from different management strategies.

A recent study helps city planners find the greenest and most effective way of producing renewable energy, crops and water on rooftops. The researchers developed a method for analysing the performance and environmental impacts of different combinations of rooftop rainwater-harvesting-, energy- and food systems. It could aid efforts to promote urban self-sufficiency and a sustainable circular economy, they suggest.

River flooding costs billions of euros annually in the EU. When one river floods, others nearby often do so at the same time — extending the overall impact beyond the border of an individual drainage basin. With this in mind, this study analysed the spatial extent of flood events across Europe from 1960 to 2010, using data from the European Flood Database (EFD). The research presents key findings for flood forecasting, risk financing and flood-mitigation policy.

Belgrad, Daniel, author

Samsung has created an ecommerce platform in partnership with Benow.in along with mobile phone retailers across the country that will allow them to sell and deliver smartphones. Offline stores are also being used to fulfil orders placed on Samsung’s e-store for television and appliances.

On Thursday, Uber told financial analysts that it couldn’t forecast how much revenue it would generate this year because of the upheaval caused by the coronavirus.

Hari Menon pointed out that deliveries were largely constrained due to lack of on-ground staff that had left cities in large numbers prior to the lockdown

Over the past year, social networking giant Facebook has been actively investing in the Indian tech and startup ecosystem

Researchers have developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based system to detect Twitter bots after identifying differences in their short-term behaviour from humans on the social media platform.

After years of working almost exclusively on long-term projects and pushing day-to-day management to his deputies, Bezos, 56, has turned back to the here-and-now problems facing Amazon, the company said, as the giant retailer grapples with a surge of demand, labor unrest and supply chain challenges brought on by the coronavirus.

Amazon India has announced a Rs 10 crore investment to sign up, train and help businesses catalogue products.

Facebook on Friday unveiled a new video chat service with virtual "rooms" where people can pop in to visit friends, aiming at users turning to the popular Zoom platform during the pandemic.

A Crisil note said due to the aggressive play by the telcos, the number of subscribers has stagnated at 19 million since 2016. Till now, the lower speed 4G served the purpose for people due to affordable smartphones, it noted. "But now, subscriptions to fixed broadband, especially in the urban areas, have surged because millions are working from home...," it said.

Over the next few years business continuity solutions will continue to power the new redefined future of work itself.

The criminal minds too have evolved during this pandemic. While there has been a significant drop in number of heinous crimes in city, cybercrime cases have spiked since lockdown.

Google blocked and removed 2.7 billion bad ads more than 5,000 bad ads per minute and suspended nearly 1 million advertiser accounts for policy violations, the company announced on Thursday.

There has been a significant increase in cybercrime against women, especially sextortion, during the COVID-19-induced lockdown with "caged criminals" targeting them online, say experts.

The Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In), in a latest advisory, has said while there is "nothing to worry" about such emails, users should update or change their passwords, used to login any of their social media or other online platforms, if they find them compromised.

The Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In), in a latest advisory, has said while there is "nothing to worry" about such emails, users should update or change their passwords, used to login any of their social media or other online platforms, if they find them compromised.

The Internet consumers are becoming more aware of their personal data and 82 per cent users have tried to remove private information from websites or social media channels, according to a report by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.

The video-conferencing app has seen a global usage during the coronavirus lockdowns.

The new features will allow admins to disable the use of a Personal Meeting ID (PMI) for scheduling or starting an instant meeting. As per the company, disabling the use of PMIs reduces that risk altogether and doesn’t leave PMI security up to individual users.

Unacademy said that basic information related to 11 million learners had been compromised but no sensitive information such as financial data, location, or passwords had been leaked

‘Safe harbour protection’ only if intermediaries facilitate and not modify such content, including ads

Bengaluru police has opened an account on short video-making platform TikTok to reach out to the people in an engaging and entertaining manner, an official said on Friday.

Facebook also recently announced the appointment of Avinash Pant as the marketing director for India to drive the consumer marketing efforts of its family of apps.

Facebook has revealed that it removed a network of 37 Facebook accounts, 32 Pages, 11 Groups and 42 Instagram accounts that originated in India and used fake accounts masquerading as media outlets to target the Gulf region, the US, the UK and Canada.

Big Tech firms have already sent in their suggestions to govt on creating awareness

The government asked social media platforms to start awareness campaigns, remove misinformation from the platform and promote authentic information

In novel coronavirus times, there is so much fake news going around and according to new research, there's a price to pay when you get your news and political information from the same place you find funny memes and cat pictures.

In a breakthrough, researchers have demonstrated a new model that shows how competing pieces of information spread in online social networks and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Facebook has announced to expand its Community Help feature as part of COVID-19 efforts which will help people offer help to those affected by the new coronavirus pandemic, as well as donate to nonprofit organisations.

Direct messages on the desktop have been in the works for a while now.

Facebook said that when people saw those warning labels, 95% of the time they did not go on to view the original content. To date, the social media giant also removed hundreds of thousands of pieces of misinformation that could lead to imminent physical harm.

Facebook said advertising revenue was roughly flat in the first three weeks of April compared with the same period last year

With the microblogging site emerging as a key platform for information dissemination, many central banks are active on Twitter, especially in these times of economic uncertainties amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The alliance aims to help clients provide enterprise end users with exceptional data control across multiple data sources.

Rajasthan to create a common data and analytics platform for all government departments across the State to collate and utilize data more effectively and efficiently, improving the delivery of citizen services with the help of Teradata solutions.

To believe that China will have a significant advantage due to its population size requires us to believe that each additional user adds as much to an informational ecosystem as the first one.

The integrated database on infrastructure projects can be accessed to study & analyse trends in the sector almost on real-time basis.

View: Data is the oil that fuels digital economy. It promotes innovation, increases democratic quotient of the society, enhances productivity & efficiency of systems and helps better understand different worlds.

As part of the partnership with the Guiyang Municipal government, agreements worth 25 million Yen between Chinese customers and Indian service providers are also going to be announced.

Big infrastructure and cost requirements have long kept data analytics a fiefdom of large enterprises; however, the advent of cloud tech has made it possible for SMEs to use data analytics with a fraction of a cost.

The company has gained significant traction as enterprises face massive skills shortages in big data, cloud and associated development operations, or ‘DevOps’.

The short point is that data protection is not just about Aadhaar.