The location, widespread nature, and number of fires in this satellite image 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. While fire helps enhance crops and grasses for pasture, the fires also produce smoke that degrades air quality. In Mozambique and Madagascar, the growing season runs from the first rains in October – November. Thus, the clearing of lands in early September heralds the new growing season. Sadly, according to reports in the National Geographic, ...

Gabrielle is a fighter. Tropical Storm Gabrielle regained tropical storm status on Sept. 12 at 11 a.m. EDT after being knocked down to tropical depression status earlier in the day. NASA's GOES Project used NOAA's GOES-East satellite data to create an image that showed wind shear is still having a big effect on Gabrielle, and another low pressure area appears to be organizing in the Gulf of Mexico. At 11 a.m. EDT on Sept. 12, Tropical Depression Gabrielle's center was 200 miles/325 km northwest of Bermuda, and about 530 miles/850 km south-southeast of Nantucket, Mass. ...

The researchers found virulent E. coli bacteria blocked a pathway that would normally protect the gut from infection. These infections are particularly serious in young children and can result in diarrhoea and other complications such as kidney damage. The role of this pathway in fighting gut infection was previously unknown but defects in it are associated with inflammatory bowel disease. The research, published tomorrow in Nature, provides much needed insight into how the gut fights infection. Lead author Professor Elizabeth Hartland from the University's Department ...

Evaluation of the effectiveness of a mass vaccination campaign with a new meningitis serogroup A vaccine, PsA-TT, in sub-Saharan Africa found that it had a dramatic impact on cases of serogroup meningitis and on carriage of the disease-causing bacteria in the throat, according to new research published in The Lancet. Authors from Africa and Europe, led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Centre de Support en Santé Internationale (CSSI) in Chad, evaluated the effectiveness of a mass vaccination campaign in Chad in 2011 by measuring the incidence of ...

A team of researchers, led by the University of Warwick, have published new data that could prove vital for advances in care for women who suffer from recurrent miscarriage. The recurrent loss of pregnancy through miscarriage causes significant distress to couples, often exacerbated by there being so few treatments available to clinicians. The search for an effective treatment has been the cause of significant controversy in the field of medical research, centering on the role of natural killer cells (or NK cells) and the ability of steroids to prevent miscarriage. Scientists ...

For a long time it was thought that only humans had the ability to anticipate future actions, whereas animals are caught in the here and now. But in recent years, clever experiments with great apes in zoos have shown that they do remember past events and can plan for their future needs. Anthropologists at the University of Zurich have now investigated whether wild apes also have this skill, following them for several years through the dense tropical swamplands of Sumatra. Orangutans communicate their plans Orangutans generally journey through the forest alone, but they ...

Peru's cloud forests are some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world. A profusion of tree and plant species as well as one third of Peru's mammal, bird and frog species make their home in these perennially wet regions, located along the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains. The high elevation (6,500-11,000 feet), and remote location of these areas makes them some of the hardest to reach and therefore hardest to study ecosystems in the world. To date, scientists only believe a fraction of cloud forest tree and plant species have been discovered. This ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The first proteomic analysis of an animal model of a rare, sometimes deadly birth defect, Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome (SLOS), has revealed that the molecular mechanisms that cause it are more complex than previously understood. SLOS involves multiple neurosensory and cognitive abnormalities, mental and physical disabilities, including those affecting vision and in severe cases, death before the age of 10. The research, published by University at Buffalo scientists on Aug. 26 in Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, is the first to demonstrate a broad range ...

A small beach ball-sized satellite designed and built by a team of University of Colorado Boulder students to better understand how atmospheric drag can affect satellite orbits is now slated for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Sept. 15. The satellite, known as the Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer satellite, or DANDE, is designed to investigate how a layer of Earth's atmosphere known as the thermosphere varies in density at altitudes from about 200 to 300 miles above Earth. There are thousands of satellites orbiting Earth at those altitudes, ...

PORTLAND, Ore. — An HIV/AIDS vaccine candidate developed by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University appears to have the ability to completely clear an AIDS-causing virus from the body. The promising vaccine candidate is being developed at OHSU's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. It is being tested through the use of a non-human primate form of HIV, called simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, which causes AIDS in monkeys. Following further development, it is hoped an HIV-form of the vaccine candidate can soon be tested in humans. These research results were ...

A team of researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has developed an antibody that could prevent Candida infections that often afflict hospitalized patients who receive central lines. Margaret Hostetter, MD, director of infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children's, and her team developed the antibody, which prevents Candida albicans from binding to heparin, thereby stopping the formation of biofilm in a rat model of catheter-associated infection. A biofilm is a multi-layered buildup of millions of microorganisms that coat the inside of the catheter The ...

DETROIT – Patients with longer-lasting chest pain are more likely having a heart attack than those with pain of a shorter duration, according to a study by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. The study is published in the September issue of Critical Pathways in Cardiology. Every year, eight to 10 million people in the U.S. go to emergency departments for chest pain. But only 15󈞊 percent of them are having a heart attack. The characteristics of chest pain are important to diagnosing the cause. Researchers studied the relationship between the length of time ...

Hanover, NH – In a study to be published in the journal Nature, two Dartmouth researchers have found that the protein cyclin A plays an important but previously unknown role in the cell division process, acting as a master controller to ensure the faithful segregation of chromosomes during cell division. Cell division is the process in which cells reproduce by splitting into two identical copies. This process happens trillions of times in an average person's lifetime. To generate two identical copies, cells must separate their chromosomes precisely, an event that relies ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Many climate studies have predicted that tree species will respond to global warming by migrating via seed dispersal to cooler climates. But a new study of 65 different species in 31 eastern states finds evidence of a different, unexpected response. Nearly 80 percent of the species aren't yet shifting their geographic distributions to higher latitudes. Instead, they're staying in place -- but speeding up their life cycles. The Duke University-led study, published online Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Global Change Biology, is the first to show ...

Wild Asian elephants slink quietly away at the sound of a growling tiger, but trumpet and growl before retreating from leopard growls, researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found. The work, published Sept. 11 in the journal Biology Letters, could help Indian farmers protect their crops from marauding elephants and save the lives of both people and animals. "We noticed that the elephants were more scared of tigers than of leopards," said Vivek Thuppil, who carried out the work with Richard Coss, professor of psychology at UC Davis, as part of his Ph.D. ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A team of researchers has shown that 8-month-old infants expect objects they identify as animals to have insides. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. University of Illinois professor of psychology Renée Baillargeon, who led the new study with graduate student Peipei Setoh, said that many psychologists have theorized that babies are born with core physical and psychological frameworks that help them navigate the world. For instance, when babies see a self-propelled object, their core physical framework leads them ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers have transported two endangered freshwater mussel species from Pennsylvania to Illinois in an attempt to re-establish their populations in the western part of the Ohio River Basin. The team of biologists, led by Jeremy Tiemann, of the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), traveled to the site of a bridge-replacement project on Pennsylvania's Allegheny River to collect northern riffleshell (Epioblasma rangiana) and clubshell (Pleurobema clava) mussels. The INHS is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois. The ...

VIDEO: In this satellite flyby animation, NASA's TRMM satellite passed over Humberto on Sept. 10 and measured rainfall rates of up to 2 inches/50 mm per hour (red) in the large... Click here for more information. Two NASA satellites passed over the hurricane in the Eastern Atlantic on Sept. 10 gathering information about the environment of Hurricane Humberto. NASA's Aqua satellite gathered infrared and visible data on Humberto's clouds while NASA's TRMM satellite measured ...

At work on the International Space Station, researchers studying plant and cell growth in space encountered a challenge. Imaging revealed interesting spaceflight-associated root morphologies. They needed to fix the tissues for further study back on Earth, but conventional fixation methods require separate fixatives depending on whether the sample is intended for molecular or morphological study. If the scientists wanted to study how spaceflight affected patterns of gene expression central to morphological patterns of cell growth, they needed a fixation method that would ...

More than one billion people worldwide rely on fish as an important source of animal protein, states the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. And while fish provide slightly over 7 per cent of animal protein in North America, in Asia they represent about 23 per cent of consumption. Humans consume low levels of methylmercury by eating fish and seafood. Methylmercury compounds specifically target the central nervous system, and among the many effects of their exposure are visual disturbances, which were previously thought to be solely due to methylmercury-induced ...

The worst impacts of climate change on the world's poorest fishing communities can likely be avoided by careful management of the local environment and investing in the diversification of options for local people, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and James Cook University. Climate change is already putting pressure on fishers who depend on nature for their livelihoods. In a new study, scientists found large differences in the potential to adapt based on the local mixture of social and environmental characteristics, requiring a variety of management approaches ...

CHICAGO --- A new study shows significant health benefits for uninsured people living under the federal poverty level in the suburbs when they receive access to primary care. Uninsured residents in a suburban collar county of Chicago reported a big improvement in their health status and increased their preventive care and screenings after one year of access to primary care, reports Northwestern Medicine research. The study illustrates the potential benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation and a promising solution to accessible health care for what are ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The modern-day tulip tree, state tree of Indiana as well as Kentucky and Tennessee, can trace its lineage back to the time of the dinosaurs, according to newly published research by an Indiana University paleobotanist and a Russian botanist. The tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipfera, has been considered part of the magnolia family. But David Dilcher of Indiana University Bloomington and Mikhail S. Romanov of the N.V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden in Moscow show that it is closely related to fossil plant specimens from the Lower Cretaceous period. Their ...

Most of the time, we try to avoid inflicting pain on others — when we do hurt someone, we typically experience guilt, remorse, or other feelings of distress. But for some, cruelty can be pleasurable, even exciting. New research suggests that this kind of everyday sadism is real and more common than we might think. Two studies led by psychological scientist Erin Buckels of the University of British Columbia revealed that people who score high on a measure of sadism seem to derive pleasure from behaviors that hurt others, and are even willing to expend extra effort to make ...

Irritable bowel syndrome patients extensively suffer from chronic visceral hypersensitivity, with involvement of all levels of the brain-gut axis, as well as various neurotransmitters. Chronic visceral hypersensitivity can occur in the periphery, spinal cord and central nervous system, which has been shown to be the main pathophysiological mechanism underlying abdominal pain in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Acupuncture at Tianshu (ST25) and Shangjuxu (ST37) has been reported to relieve visceral hypersensitivity for irritable bowel syndrome. Xinxin Guo and colleagues ...