PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Fires in the Northern Territories July 2014

Fires in the Northern Territories July 2014
2014-07-23
(Press-News.org) Environment Canada has issued a high health risk warning for Yellowknife and surrounding area because of heavy smoke in the region due to forest fires. In the image taken by the Aqua satellite, the smoke is drifting eastward along normal wind patterns. Fire is an obvious health hazard, but the smoke that comes from fires is not quite so obvious and its effects are insidious.

The smoke released by any type of fire (forest, brush, crop, structure, tires, waste or wood burning) is a mixture of particles and chemicals produced by incomplete burning of carbon-containing materials. All smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter (PM or soot). Smoke can contain many different chemicals, including aldehydes, acid gases, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzene, toluene, styrene, metals and dioxins. The type and amount of particles and chemicals in smoke varies depending on what is burning, how much oxygen is available, and the burn temperature. Exposure to high levels of smoke should be avoided. Individuals are advised to limit their physical exertion if exposure to high levels of smoke cannot be avoided. Individuals with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions (e.g., asthma), fetuses, infants, young children, and the elderly may be more vulnerable to the health effects of smoke exposure.

High values are forecast to persist until this evening (7/23) when a cold front moves across the region and is expected to clear some of the smoke.

There are currently 160 fires burning throughout the Northwest Territories.

INFORMATION: This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on July 22, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner with information from North American Fire Incident Display system.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Fires in the Northern Territories July 2014

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study links enzyme to autistic behaviors

Study links enzyme to autistic behaviors
2014-07-23
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic disorder that causes obsessive-compulsive and repetitive behaviors, and other behaviors on the autistic spectrum, as well as cognitive deficits. It is the most common inherited cause of mental impairment and the most common cause of autism. Now biomedical scientists at the University of California, Riverside have published a study that sheds light on the cause of autistic behaviors in FXS. Appearing online today (July 23) in the Journal of Neuroscience, and highlighted also on the cover in this week's print issue ...

This week from AGU: New Oso report, rockfall in Yosemite, and earthquake models

2014-07-23
From AGU's blogs: Oso disaster had its roots in earlier landslides A research team tasked with being some of the first scientists and engineers to evaluate extreme events has issued its findings on disastrous Oso, Washington, landslide. The report studies the conditions and causes related to the March 22 mudslide that killed 43 people and destroyed the Steelhead Haven neighborhood in Oso, Washington. The team from the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, funded by the National Science Foundation, determined that intense rainfall in the three ...

York University researchers use bird 'backpacks' to put wood thrushes migration on the map

York University researchers use bird backpacks to put wood thrushes migration on the map
2014-07-23
TORONTO, July 23, 2014 – Migratory songbirds are disappearing, and though conservationists are examining several possible reasons such as climate change, loss of habitat, acid rain and light pollution, a key piece of the puzzle has remained missing: where do these birds go once they leave their breeding sites, and what threats may they be encountering along the way? To answer this question, a team of researchers out of York University have created the first ever migratory connectivity map produced for a songbird, using tracking from both breeding and winter sites. They ...

Diseases of another kind

Diseases of another kind
2014-07-23
The drought that has the entire country in its grip is affecting more than the color of people's lawns. It may also be responsible for the proliferation of a heat-loving amoeba commonly found in warm freshwater bodies, such as lakes, rivers and hot springs, which the drought has made warmer than usual this year. A 9-year-old Kansas girl recently died of an infection caused by this parasite after swimming in several area lakes. The amoeba enters the body through the nose of an individual and travels to the brain. Nose plugs can lower the odds of this rare but fatal pathogen ...

ETH student develops filter for clean water around the world

ETH student develops filter for clean water around the world
2014-07-23
Roughly 780 million people around the world have no access to clean drinking water. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 3.4 million people die from water-related diseases every year. ETH student Jeremy Nussbaumer set himself the goal of making a contribution to solving this problem. Working with researchers from a group led by Wendelin Stark, head of the Functional Materials Laboratory, the 23-year-old spent a year researching a membrane filter and developing a prototype. "What makes our DrinkPure filter unique is that you can screw it on to virtually any ...

Ketamine can be a wonder drug for ER patients and their physicians

2014-07-23
WASHINGTON -- For critically ill patients arriving at the emergency department, the drug ketamine can safely provide analgesia, sedation and amnesia for rapid, life-saving intubation, despite decades-old studies that suggested it raised intracranial pressure. The results of a systematic review of 10 recent studies of what many emergency physicians regard as a "wonder drug" are published online in Annals of Emergency Medicine "The Effect of Ketamine on Intracranial and Cerebral Perfusion Pressure and Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review." "Apprehension for many years ...

Climate change and the soil

2014-07-23
Washington, DC -- The planet's soil releases about 60 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year, which is far more than that released by burning fossil fuels. This happens through a process called soil respiration. This enormous release of carbon is balanced by carbon coming into the soil system from falling leaves and other plant matter, as well as by the underground activities of plant roots. Short-term warming studies have documented that rising temperatures increase the rate of soil respiration. As a result, scientists have worried that global warming ...

AGU: Voyager spacecraft might not have reached interstellar space

2014-07-23
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In 2012, the Voyager mission team announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft had passed into interstellar space, traveling further from Earth than any other manmade object. But, in the nearly two years since that historic announcement, and despite subsequent observations backing it up, uncertainty about whether Voyager 1 really crossed the threshold continues. There are some scientists who say that the spacecraft is still within the heliosphere – the region of space dominated by the Sun and its wind of energetic particles – and has not yet reached the ...

Wide-faced men negotiate nearly $2,200 larger signing bonus

Wide-faced men negotiate nearly $2,200 larger signing bonus
2014-07-23
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Having a wider face helps men when they negotiate for themselves but hurts them when they are negotiating in a situation that requires compromise. Additionally, men who are more attractive are better collaborators compared to less attractive men. Those are among the findings outlined in a just published paper co-authored by Michael P. Haselhuhn and Elaine M. Wong, assistant professors of management at the University of California, Riverside's School of Business Administration. The paper describes four negotiation simulations set up by the authors ...

This week from AGU: Oso report, rockfall in Yosemite Park, and a new ear

2014-07-23
From AGU's blogs: Oso disaster had its roots in earlier landslides A research team tasked with being some of the first scientists and engineers to evaluate extreme events has issued its findings on disastrous Oso, Washington, landslide. The report studies the conditions and causes related to the March 22 mudslide that killed 43 people and destroyed the Steelhead Haven neighborhood in Oso, Washington. The team from the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, funded by the National Science Foundation, determined that intense rainfall in the three ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

AI salespeople aren’t better than humans… yet

Millions of men could benefit from faster scan to diagnose prostate cancer

Simulations solve centuries-old cosmic mystery – and discover new class of ancient star systems

MIT study explains how a rare gene variant contributes to Alzheimer’s disease

Race, ethnicity, insurance payer, and pediatric cardiac arrest survival

High-intensity exercise and hippocampal integrity in adults with cannabis use disorder

“Brain dial” for consumption found in mice

Lung cancer rewires immune cells in the bone marrow to weaken body’s defenses

Researchers find key to Antarctic ice loss blowing in the north wind

Ten years after the discovery, gravitational waves verify Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Area Theorem

Researchers uncover potential biosignatures on Mars

Built to learn: how early brain structure primes the brain to learn efficiently

Cells use electricity to eliminate their ‘weakest’ neighbours to maintain healthy protective barriers

New motion-compensation approach delivers sharper single-pixel imaging for dynamic scenes

Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience now officially part of the Canadian Science Publishing portfolio

What motivates runners? Focusing on the “how” rather than the “why”

Researchers capture new antibiotic resistance mechanisms with trace amounts of DNA

New research in JNCCN offers a simplified way to identify harmful medications in older adults with cancer

State school finance reforms increased racial and ethnic funding inequities, new study finds

Endocrine Society honors endocrinology field’s leaders with 2026 Laureate Awards    

Decoding high-grade endometrial cancer: a molecular-histologic integration using the Cancer Genome Atlas framework

An exploding black hole could reveal the foundations of the universe

Childhood traumatic events and transgender identity are strongly associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors in university students

UVA to test if MRI can reveal undetected brain injuries in soldiers

Mount Sinai Morningside unveils new, state-of-the-art facility for patients who need inpatient rehabilitation

BD² announces new funding opportunities focused on biology of bipolar disorder

“Want to, but can’t”: A new model to explain the gap in waste separation behavior

Highly sensitive, next-generation wearable pressure sensors inspired by cat whiskers

Breaking the code of sperm motion: Two proteins found to be vital for male fertility

UC Irvine poll: Californians support stricter tech regulations for children

[Press-News.org] Fires in the Northern Territories July 2014