(Press-News.org) Fires purposely set to burn crop residues and get the land ready for the growing season are continuing as evidenced in this image from the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite. A longer, more detailed account of these types of fires can be found at this URL: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/world/20130326-indochina.html.
This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on April 07, 2013. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red.
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NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner.
Fires in Southeast Asia
2013-04-11
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Fires in Southeastern United States
2013-04-11
Many plumes of smoke from fires burning across the southeastern United States of America can be seen here. The fires are affecting several states including Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, and Florida.
There are currently over 1000 new fires in the past week across the South. There were 17 new large fires with 3 being uncontained as well as numerous smaller ones. A "large fire" is defined by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) as a wildfire of 100 acres or more occurring in timber, or a wildfire of 300 acres or more occurring in grass/sage.
In addition to ...
Texting, social networking and other media use linked to poor academic performance
2013-04-11
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The widespread use of media among college students – from texting to chatting on cell phones to posting status updates on Facebook – may be taking an academic toll, say researchers with The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine.
According to a new study, freshmen women spend nearly half their day – 12 hours – engaged in some form of media use, particularly texting, music, the Internet and social networking. Researchers found media use, in general, was associated with lower grade point averages (GPAs) and other negative academic ...
BUSM researchers identify novel approach to study COPD and treatment efficacy
2013-04-11
(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have pinpointed a genetic signature for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from airway cells harvested utilizing a minimally invasive procedure. The findings provide a novel way to study COPD and could lead to new treatments and ways to monitor patient's response to those treatments. The study is published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive lung disease that leads to the loss of lung function ...
Older people may be at greater risk for alcohol impairment than teens, according to Baylor Study
2013-04-11
An acute dose of alcohol may cause greater impairment in coordination, learning and memory in the elderly than in young people, according to a study by Baylor University.
Researchers said the findings have profound significance for older people —a population that is aging worldwide at an unprecedented rate and that includes Baby Boomers as they become seniors.
"Health implications such as falls, accidents and poor medicine-taking are pretty easy to conclude," said Douglas B. Matthews, Ph.D., senior author of the paper, published online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical ...
Revealing hidden artwork with airport security full-body-scanner technology
2013-04-11
Michael Woods
m_woods@acs.org
504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10)
202-872-6293
American Chemical Society
Revealing hidden artwork with airport security full-body-scanner technology
NEW ORLEANS, April 10, 2013 — In the latest achievement in efforts to see what may lie underneath the surface of great works of art, scientists today described the first use of an imaging technology like that used in airport whole-body security scanners to detect the face of an ancient Roman man hidden below the surface of a wall painting in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
They ...
Safety reflector technology from footwear getting new life in detecting bioterror threats
2013-04-11
Michael Woods
m_woods@acs.org
504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10)
202-872-6293
American Chemical Society
Safety reflector technology from footwear getting new life in detecting bioterror threats
NEW ORLEANS, April 10, 2013 — Tiny versions of the reflectors on sneakers and bicycle fenders that help ensure the safety of runners and bikers at night are moving toward another role in detecting bioterrorism threats and diagnosing everyday infectious diseases, scientists said today.
Their report on progress in using these innovative "retroreflectors" ...
High levels of lead detected in rice imported from certain countries
2013-04-11
Michael Woods
m_woods@acs.org
504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10)
202-872-6293
American Chemical Society
High levels of lead detected in rice imported from certain countries
NEW ORLEANS, April 8, 2013 — Rice imported from certain countries contains high levels of lead that could pose health risks, particularly for infants and children, who are especially sensitive to lead's effects, and adults of Asian heritage who consume large amounts of rice, scientists said here today. Their research, which found some of the highest lead levels in baby food, ...
How Seattle Cancer Care Alliance implemented Washington's Death with Dignity Act
2013-04-11
SEATTLE – By the end of 2011, most of the 255 Washington residents who received a prescription for lethal medication to end their lives under the state's Death with Dignity Act had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Of those, 40 were patients at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, part of the Pacific Northwest's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Because several states are considering similar Death with Dignity laws, and because such legislation disproportionately affects cancer patients and their families, SCCA conducted a study to describe ...
Scientists use nature against nature to develop an antibiotic with reduced resistance
2013-04-11
A new broad range antibiotic, developed jointly by scientists at The Rockefeller University and Astex Pharmaceuticals, has been found to kill a wide range of bacteria, including drug-resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA) bacteria that do not respond to traditional drugs, in mice. The antibiotic, Epimerox, targets weaknesses in bacteria that have long been exploited by viruses that attack them, known as phage, and has even been shown to protect animals from fatal infection by Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax.
Target selection is critical for the development ...
Signature of circulating breast tumor cells that spread to the brain found
2013-04-11
HOUSTON -- (April 10, 2013) – Some breast tumor circulating cells in the bloodstream are marked by a constellation of biomarkers that identify them as those destined to seed the brain with a deadly spread of cancer, said researchers led by those at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
"What prompted us to initiate this study was our desire to understand the characteristics of these cells," said Dr. Dario Marchetti, professor of pathology at BCM, director of the CTC (circulating tumor cell) Core Facility ...