When Tropical Depression 12W formed on the northeastern tip of the Philippines in the Luzon Region, NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on the newborn storm. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on Tropical Depression 12W. AIRS data showed some cloud top temperatures were as cold as -63F/-53C on July 23 at 5:17 UTC (1:17 a.m. EDT). Cloud top temperatures that cold have been shown to generate heavy rainfall. Tropical Depression 12W (TD12W) formed at 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) on July 23 ...

Fairfax, Va., July 22, 2015 - The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is concerned about proposed additional payment cuts to radiation therapy detailed in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), released July 8, 2015, which will take effect on January 1, 2016. Freestanding centers estimate that the combined impact of the Medicare proposals would result in a five to seven percent reduction in payment for radiation oncology services at community-based centers, although the cuts will vary and could ...

Tropical Storm Felicia was born early on July 23 in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, over 400 miles southwest of Baja California's southern tip. NOAA's GOES-West satellite provided an infrared image of the newborn storm. Previously known as tropical low pressure area "System 99E," the storm finally developed after days of remaining unorganized. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Felicia on July 23, 2015 at 15:45 UTC (11:45 a.m. EDT). Satellite imagery shows that a curved band of thunderstorms are wrapping around the southern quadrant of the storm. The ...

Researchers in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood & Marrow Transplantation at Children's Hospital Los Angeles have shown greatly improved outcomes in using stem cell transplantation to treat patients with a serious but very rare form of chronic blood cancer called juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML). Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) involves the transplantation of stem cells from a donor, which may be derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood. The recipient's immune system is usually destroyed with radiation ...

Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have accurately mapped out the movement of the devastating 7.8-magnitude Nepal earthquake that killed over 9,000 and injured over 23,000 people. Scientists have determined that the earthquake was a rupture consisting of three different stages. The study could help a rapidly growing region understand its future seismic risks. The Himalayan region is particularly prone to earthquakes and this study will serve as an important benchmark for understanding where future earthquakes may occur, especially ...

SEDE BOQER, Israel...July 23, 2015 - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and University of Western Australia researchers have developed a new process to develop few-layer graphene for use in energy storage and other material applications that is faster, potentially scalable and surmounts some of the current graphene production limitations. Graphene is a thin atomic layer of graphite (used in pencils) with numerous properties that could be valuable in a variety of applications, including medicine, electronics and energy. Discovered only 11 years ago, graphene is one ...

The physical symptoms of weakness and fatigue from multiple sclerosis (MS) can rock a person's confidence and ability to engage in what he or she feels is important, from being a good parent and friend to taking up a hobby, according to Matthew Plow, assistant professor from Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. To help people with MS maintain autonomy and independence, a team of researchers set out to determine what factors prevented individuals from undertaking and enjoying the activities they believe are most important to live fulfilling ...

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have made a breakthrough in understanding how mutated genes in leukaemia reprogram blood stem cells and send them spiralling out of control. The findings help to explain the early development of leukaemia, representing the essential first step to developing new treatments for patients based on these findings. A study, published in Cell Reports by Professors Peter Cockerill and Constanze Bonifer, investigated the role of one specific mutation in the FLT3 gene found in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). AML is diagnosed in ...

Researchers add a new twist to the more than century old biological principles of Mendelian inheritance - describing a small group of cells in pregnant mothers that promote genetic fitness and multi-generational reproductive health. Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report their findings online July 23 in Cell. The study suggests a scientific basis for developing new therapies to promote reproductive health and prevent pregnancy complications like prematurity and stillbirth, according to Sing Sing Way, MD, PhD, senior author and pediatrician ...

When does aging really begin? Two Northwestern University scientists now have a molecular clue. In a study of the transparent roundworm C. elegans, they found that adult cells abruptly begin their downhill slide when an animal reaches reproductive maturity. A genetic switch starts the aging process by turning off cell stress responses that protect the cell by keeping important proteins folded and functional. The switch is thrown by germline stem cells in early adulthood, after the animal starts to reproduce, ensuring its line will live on. While the studies were conducted ...

Highly-social zebra finches learn foraging skills from their parents. However, new research has found that when juvenile finches are exposed to elevated stress hormones just after hatching, they will later switch strategies and learn only from unrelated adult birds - ignoring their parents' way of doing things and instead gaining foraging skills from the wider network of other adult finches. Researchers say that spikes in stress during early development may act as a cue that their parents are doing something wrong, triggering the young birds to switch their social learning ...

If you find yourself downing that extra piece of chocolate fudge cake even though you're not hungry, it might be the absence of a hormone in your brain that's causing you to overeat purely for pleasure. In a new Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School study published in Cell Reports, researchers found that when the hormone glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) was reduced in the central nervous system of laboratory mice, they overate and consumed more high fat food. "The mice in which the GLP-1 deficiency was induced ate beyond the need for calories and showed an increase ...

A new study by researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reveals a protein's critical - and previously unknown -- role in the development and progression of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a fast-growing and extremely difficult-to-treat blood cancer. The finding offers a novel target for better treating AML, and possibly other cancers, by cutting off the ability of tumors to access nearby cellular players that feed its growth. The study was published July 23 in Cell Stem Cell. "The work really focuses on trying to understand the dependence ...

Alexandria, VA - EARTH Magazine takes you to Le Mans, France, to cover how the World Endurance Competition (WEC) race series is transforming automotive efficiency in both high-performance racing and the commercial automotive industries. EARTH's latest feature explores the science behind efficiency upgrades used by three major racing competitors: Porsche, Audi and Toyota. Using physics and cutting-edge materials results in a "fascinating case study of how unbridled competition can produce unique, innovative and extraordinary solutions to engineering barriers once thought ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC (July 23, 2015) - For years, a crisis has been brewing in molecular biology. The problem is that antibodies--research tools used to identify key proteins at work in a cell--aren't always what they seem. Unreliable antibodies have led to numerous instances of false findings, failed experiments, and wasted money and samples. Enter the Histone Antibody Specificity Database, a newly launched online portal that lets scientists find the right antibodies for their research with a much higher degree of confidence than ever before. Rather than relying on the claims ...

It's well known that being socially connected promotes a person's overall and psychological health. A new study from the University of Rochester now shows that the quantity of social interactions a person has at 20--and the quality of social relationships that person has at age 30--can benefit her well-being later in life. People with poor social connections have been shown to be at an increased risk for early mortality. "In fact," said lead author Cheryl Carmichael, who conducted the research as a PhD candidate in psychology at the University of Rochester, "having ...

Astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have discovered jets of material ejected by still-forming young brown dwarfs. The discovery is the first direct evidence that brown dwarfs, intermediate in mass between stars and planets, are produced by a scaled-down version of the same process that produces stars. The astronomers studied a sample of still-forming brown dwarfs in a star-forming region some 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, and found that four of them have the type of jets emitted by more-massive stars during their formation. ...

Chemotherapy for patients with end-stage cancer was associated with worse quality of life near death for patients with a good ability to still perform many life functions, according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology. Physicians have voiced concerns about the benefits of chemotherapy for patients with cancer who are nearing death. An American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) expert panel has called chemotherapy use among patients for whom there was no evidence of clinical value the most widespread, wasteful and unnecessary practice in oncology. Holly ...

PHILADELPHIA - Physicians in training are twice as likely to order a costly brand-name statin (used to lower blood cholesterol levels) when supervised by senior physicians who prefer those medications in their own practice, according to a new study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. These findings document a link between low-value prescribing and graduate medical training, which physicians undergo after completing medical school but before they can practice ...

If oxygen was a driver of the early evolution of animals, only a slight bump in oxygen levels facilitated it, according to a multi-institutional research team that includes a Virginia Tech geoscientist. The discovery, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, calls into question the long held theory that a dramatic change in oxygen levels might have been responsible for the appearance of complicated life forms like whales, sharks, and squids evolving from less complicated life forms, such as microorganisms, algae, and sponges. The researchers discovered oxygen levels ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- In their bid to find the best combination of therapies to treat anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), researchers on Mayo Clinic's Florida campus demonstrated that all histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are not created equal. In testing multiple HDAC inhibitors in combination with the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel, known to give some benefit for this aggressive cancer, they found that class II HDAC inhibitors signal through a newly discovered pathway to promote synergy with chemotherapy treatment. They say their study, published online today in Endocrine ...

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2015 -- Have you ever wished you could hide under an invisibility cloak like Harry Potter or conceal your car with a Klingon cloaking device like in Star Trek? In a special Thursday bonus episode of Reactions, we celebrate the International Year of Light by exploring the science behind light, sight and invisibility. Though we can't make ourselves invisible yet, some promising research may light the way - or rather, bend the light away. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/sN70Bgm_PAQ. This episode of Reactions was produced in collaboration with the ...

HANOVER, N.H. - Potentially destructive high-energy electrons streak into Earth's atmosphere from space, not as Shakespeare's "gentle rain from heaven," but at velocities approaching the speed of light. This particle onslaught can lead to ozone depletion and damage to the orbital satellites that provide us with the navigation, communication, weather, and military-recognizance information upon which we have become increasingly dependent. These satellites fly through the Van Allen radiation belts -- giant concentric layers of charged particles held in place by the Earth's ...

A new guideline for the nutrition of management gastrointestinal symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) provides a framework for clinicians to navigate frequently seen issues such as food selectivity, alternative diets and nutritional deficits. The expert panel was convened at Marcus Autism Center, an affiliate of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the resulting guideline was published online by the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (JAND). "Children with autism are at increased risk for feeding and gastrointestinal (GI) concerns compared ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Brown University computer scientists have developed a new interactive tool to help researchers and clinicians explore the genetic underpinnings of cancer. The tool -- dubbed MAGI, for Mutation Annotation and Genome Interpretation -- is an open-source web application that enables users to search, visualize, and annotate large public cancer genetics datasets, including data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. "The main motivation for MAGI has been to reduce the computational burden required for researchers or doctors to ...