The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite detected dozens of fires burning in central Africa on June 03, 2013. The fires are outlined in red. Most of the fires burn in grass or cropland, which is brownish in this image. The location, widespread nature, and number of fires suggest that these fires were deliberately set to manage land. Farmers often use fire to return nutrients to the soil and to clear the ground of unwanted plants especially in places where open land for farming is not readily available because of dense vegetation ...

Boulder, Colorado, USA – In the June issue of GSA Today, Kieran O'Hara of the University of Kentucky and E.K. Esawi of Elizabethtown Community & Technical College propose a new model for the eruption of Yellowstone Park's Old Faithful geyser. The model, which replicates the geyser's eruption interval for 2000-2011, is based on three stages of convective boiling in the conduit. The preplay phase, which triggers the main eruption, plays a key role in determining the eruption interval, the duration of which is the sum of the preplay time and the time to uppermost (stage ...

SINGAPORE – A research team led by the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS) in Singapore has identified ways to inhibit the function of a key protein linked to stem cell-like behavior in terminal-stage chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), making it possible to develop drugs that may extend the survival of these patients. The study, published in the prestigious international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the result of a long-standing collaboration between Duke-NUS, the Experimental Therapeutics Centre at the Agency for Science, Technology ...

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of a large light-brown colored plumes of smoke from two large fires burning in New Mexico: the Thompson Ridge Fire (left) and the Tres Lagunas Fire (right). Inciweb reported that the Thompson Ridge Fire is located in the Valles Caldera National Preserve, located about two miles northeast of La Cueva, New Mexico. The fire is reported to be human-caused, and started on May 31, 2013. So far, 1,906 acres have burned in the Preserve. The Tres Leguans Fire was started by a downed power line on May 30. The fire started about 10 miles ...

Here are highlights from the online issue of Discovery's Edge, Mayo Clinic's research magazine. You may cite and link to this publication as often as you wish. Republication is allowed with proper attribution. Please include the following subscription information as your editorial policies permit: Visit Discovery's Edge for subscription information. Regenerating Heart Tissue Through Stem Cell Therapy Read the details of how Mayo Clinic's unique stem cell technique restored strength and endurance to heart attack patients in three European countries. This groundbreaking ...

In the brain, cell-to-cell communication is dependent on neurotransmitters, chemicals that aid the transfer of information between neurons. Several proteins have the ability to modify the production of these chemicals by either increasing or decreasing their amount, or promoting or preventing their secretion. One example is tomosyn, which hinders the secretion of neurotransmitters in abnormal amounts. Dr. Boaz Barak of Tel Aviv University's Sagol School of Neuroscience, in collaboration with Prof. Uri Ashery, used a method for modifying the levels of this protein in the ...

NASA's Terra satellite captured this natural-color satellite image of California's Powerhouse Fire with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on June 1, 2013. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. According to the CBSnews.com, "Nearly 3,000 people from some 700 homes were under evacuation orders Monday as a wildfire north of Los Angeles kept growing, feeding on old, dry brush, some of which hadn't burned in decades. The blaze had burned about 46 square miles in the mountains and canyons of the ...

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of a large light-brown colored plume of smoke blowing east-southeast from the Tres Lagunas Fire burning in New Mexico. On June 3, the smoke is forecast to blow in a more northerly and easterly direction, affecting Las Vegas, I-25 and surrounding communities. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite has infrared capabilities that can detect heat from the various wildfires. This image was captured on May 31, 2013 21:00 UTC (5 p.m. EDT/3p.m. MT). In the MODIS images, fires, or ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – College-aged women judge promiscuous female peers – defined by bedding 20 sexual partners by their early 20s – more negatively than more chaste women and view them as unsuitable for friendship, finds a study by Cornell University developmental psychologists. Notably, participants' preference for less sexually active women as friends remained even when they personally reported liberal attitudes about casual sex or a high number of lifetime lovers. Men's views, on the other hand, were less uniform – favoring the sexually permissive potential friend, the ...

TRANSPORTATION – Better, cleaner engines . . . Air in the United States could be cleaner in years to come because of a laboratory researchers expect will help in the development of new standards for fuel economy and emissions evaluations. The Vehicle Systems Integration Laboratory provides unprecedented capabilities that will be invaluable to manufacturers of diesel and conventional engines, transmissions, and other drivetrain and emissions components. The payoff is that manufacturers can test different designs under real-world conditions, saving time and money. "We can ...

To the list of oncogenic drivers of lung cancer that includes ALK, EGFR, ROS1 and RET, results of a University of Colorado Cancer Center study presented at ASCO 2013 show that mutations in the gene NTRK1 cause a subset of lung cancers. "We're reconceptualizing lung cancer as many, related diseases. And we need to learn to identify and treat each individually. We can treat the forms of the disease that depend on ALK and EGFR mutations. We're getting very close to treating lung cancers that depend on ROS1 and RET. And now we show another oncogenic driver of the disease ...

BALTIMORE -- Smartphones and tablets can make for sleep-disrupting bedfellows. One cause is believed to be the bright light-emitting diodes that allow the use of mobile devices in dimly lit rooms; the light exposure can interfere with melatonin, a hormone that helps control the natural sleep-wake cycle. But there may be a way to check your mobile device in bed and still get a good night's sleep. A Mayo Clinic study suggests dimming the smartphone or tablet brightness settings and holding the device at least 14 inches from your face while using it will reduce its potential ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The fate of a species may rest upon a single butterfly captured in late May by University of Florida lepidopterists. A UF research technician netted a female Schaus swallowtail in Biscayne National Park on Elliott Key, the first capture of a female since a multi-agency work group got a permit to do so last year. The Schaus population has declined so much that last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) issued UF an emergency permit to collect eggs. That effort ended without a single female sighting last summer but got off to a promising ...

Washington, D.C.—Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. The way it responds under extreme pressures and temperatures is crucial to our understanding of matter and the nature of hydrogen-rich planets. New work from Carnegie scientists using intense infrared radiation shines new light on this fundamental material at extreme pressures and reveals the details of a surprising new form of solid hydrogen. Under normal conditions hydrogen is a gas consisting of diatomic molecules. The hydrogen molecules start to change as the pressure increases. These different ...

ST. LOUIS -- The time between pregnancies is a golden window for obese women to lose weight, a Saint Louis University study finds. The research, led by Arun Jain, M.D., visiting scholar in SLU's department of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health, also found that obese women should be counseled not to gain excessive weight during pregnancy. "This data suggested that the interval between pregnancies is a crucial period for obese women to lose weight," Jain said. "In addition, the pregnancy and postpartum periods provide a unique opportunity for behavior change because ...

VIDEO: New surveys conducted by NASA's Swift provide the most detailed overviews ever captured in ultraviolet light of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the two closest major galaxies to our... Click here for more information. Astronomers at NASA and Pennsylvania State University have used NASA's Swift satellite to create the most detailed ultraviolet light surveys ever of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the two closest major galaxies. "We took thousands of ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Black patients are more likely to have surgery performed at low-quality hospitals even though they frequently live closer to better facilities than white patients. A study that examined Medicare data from 2005-2008 revealed that although black patients live nearly twice as close to high-quality hospitals as white patients, they were between 25-58 percent more likely to receive surgery at low-quality hospitals. Additionally, black patients in the most segregated areas were between 41-96 percent more likely than white patients to have surgery at the ...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will have two opportunities in the next few years to hunt for Earth-sized planets around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri. The opportunities will occur in October 2014 and February 2016 when Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to our sun, passes in front of two other stars. Astronomers plotted Proxima Centauri's precise path in the heavens and predicted the two close encounters using data from Hubble. "Proxima Centauri's trajectory offers a most interesting opportunity because of its extremely close passage to the two stars," said Kailash ...

Urban epidemics resulting from viral diseases, such as West Nile fever and chikungunya fever, are transmitted by infected mosquitoes. According to Virginia Tech scientists, mosquitoes reared in cooler temperatures have weaker immune systems, making them more susceptible to dangerous viruses and more likely to transmit them to people. The connection between temperature and the mosquito's immune system, published Friday (May 31, 2013) in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, is significant in light of global climate change, said researchers Kevin Myles and Zach Adelman, ...

Measuring blood flow in the brain may be an easy, noninvasive way to predict stroke or hemorrhage in children receiving cardiac or respiratory support through a machine called ECMO, according to a new study by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Early detection would allow physicians to alter treatment and take steps to prevent these complications—the leading cause of death for patients on ECMO. Short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, ECMO is used when a patient is unable to sustain enough oxygen in the blood supply due to heart failure, septic shock, ...

Alexandria, VA — The American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation on Tuesday published a new Clinical Practice Guideline on "Improving Voice Outcomes after Thyroid Surgery" to recognize the importance of the patient's voice and the potential impact thyroid surgery can have on it. "Thyroid surgery rates have tripled over the last three decades," said Sujana S. Chandrasekhar, MD, guideline chair. "This new guideline will help educate physicians and patients of the importance of voice outcomes after thyroid surgery, steps that can be taken during ...

Dutch researchers report that weather conditions including temperature, sunshine, and precipitation have no impact on fibromyalgia symptoms in female patients. Results published in Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), suggest that individual patients may be sensitive to some changes in the weather. Medical evidence shows that fibromyalgia affects 2% of the world population with a greater prevalence among women. In the U.S., the ACR estimates that five million people experience the widespread pain, unexplained fatigue, headaches, ...

NORTH GRAFTON, Mass. —Another piece of the puzzle to better understand and treat obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) has fallen into place with the publication of new research that shows that the structural brain abnormalities of Doberman pinschers afflicted with canine compulsive disorder (CCD) are similar to those of humans with OCD. The research suggests that further study of anxiety disorders in dogs may help find new therapies for OCD and similar conditions in humans. Published online in advance of print on April 13 in Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological ...

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa –disorders characterized by extreme eating behavior and distorted body image – are among the deadliest of psychiatric disorders, with few proven effective treatments. A landmark study, with first author Tyson Oberndorfer, MD, and led by Walter H. Kaye, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, suggests that the altered function of neural circuitry contributes to restricted eating in anorexia and overeating in bulimia. The research, published June 4 in the early on-line edition of the ...

Boston, Mass. – After receiving an organ transplant, patients must follow a regimented medication routine to maintain the health of their graft (transplanted organ). Failure to do so, known as non-adherence (NA), can result in life-threatening illness. NA has long been a concern among adolescent patients, but a new study from Boston Children's Hospital demonstrates the problem may be more serious than previously understood. The study, published online June 4 by the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, looked at eight years' worth of data from the Organ Procurement ...