The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite detected dozens of fires burning in eastern Russia in this satellite image captured on August 15, 2013. The fires are outlined in red. Smoke appears as grayish, wispy air currents. 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. While fire helps enhance crops and grasses for pasture, the fires also produce smoke that degrades ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Older heart patients present unique challenges for determining the optimal dosages of medications, so a new study from researchers at Duke Medicine offers some rare clarity about the use of drugs that are used to treat patients with heart attacks. For certain heart patients older than age 75, a half-dose of the anti-platelet drug prasugrel works about as well as the typical dosage of clopidogrel, according to a team led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute that looked at a sub-study of a large clinical trial. "As people live longer throughout the ...

ARLINGTON, VA, August 16, 2013—The advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has transformed HIV from a death sentence into a chronic disease. In one of the largest studies of perinatally infected HIV (PHIV) patients to date, Agwu, et al, found that the proportion of patients on ART has increased and rates of viremia and advanced immunosuppression have decreased. But the rates of both markers in older patients are higher, according to an article in the Fall issue of The Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (JPIDS). The retrospective study of the HIV Research ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Children with autism and average IQs consistently demonstrated superior math skills compared with nonautistic children in the same IQ range, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. "There appears to be a unique pattern of brain organization that underlies superior problem-solving abilities in children with autism," said Vinod Menon, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a member of the Child Health Research Institute at Packard Children's. The autistic ...

From frogs to humans, selecting a mate is complicated. Females of many species judge suitors based on many indicators of health or parenting potential. But it can be difficult for males to produce multiple signals that demonstrate these qualities simultaneously. In a study of gray tree frogs, a team of University of Minnesota researchers discovered that females prefer males whose calls reflect the ability to multitask effectively. In this species (Hyla chrysoscelis) males produce "trilled" mating calls that consist of a string of pulses. Typical calls can range in ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA - MIT chemical engineers have discovered that arrays of billions of nanoscale sensors have unique properties that could help pharmaceutical companies produce drugs — especially those based on antibodies — more safely and efficiently. Using these sensors, the researchers were able to characterize variations in the binding strength of antibody drugs, which hold promise for treating cancer and other diseases. They also used the sensors to monitor the structure of antibody molecules, including whether they contain a chain of sugars that interferes with proper ...

The biological information that makes us unique is encoded in our DNA. DNA damage is a natural biological occurrence that happens every time cells divide and multiply. External factors such as overexposure to sunlight can also damage DNA. Understanding how the human body recognizes damaged DNA and initiates repair fascinates Michael Feig, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University. Feig studies the proteins MutS and MSH2-MSH6, which recognize defective DNA and initiate DNA repair. Natural DNA repair occurs when proteins like MutS (the ...

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over two developing low pressure areas in the Central Pacific Ocean, just before one of them strengthened into Tropical Storm Pewa. When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Central Pacific on Aug. 16 at 00:35 UTC (8:35 p.m. EDT/Aug. 15), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument captured a visible image of two developing low pressure areas. The low farthest west was called System 91C, and that's the low that strengthened into Tropical Storm Pewa. The low pressure area east of Pewa is System 90C, which has a high ...

Tropical Storm Erin ran into cooler waters and dry, stable air over the Eastern Atlantic that sapped its strength and weakening the storm to depression status. NOAA's GOES-East satellite showed the storm waning today. NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Depression Erin on Aug. 16 at 1445 UTC/10:45 a.m. EDT. The image was created by NASA's GOES Project at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and showed that the storm still had good circulation, but the clouds and showers had diminished. The National Hurricane Center noted that ...

Why are some individuals more attractive to the opposite sex than others? New research by a team from University College London and Oxford University, published in PLOS Genetics, has shown that in wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), the essence of male beauty is mainly dependent on the way that males use their genes, rather than differences in the genes themselves. Males and females in many animals show profound differences in how they look and act, and some of these differences are key to sexual attractiveness. Within each sex, individuals often show a range of these ...

People who reported dietary intake that was most consistent with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans had lower risk of pancreatic cancer, according to a new study published August 15 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Previous studies investigating the relationship between food and nutrient intake and pancreatic cancer have yielded inconsistent results. The U.S. Government issues evidence-based dietary guidelines that provide the basis for federal nutrition policy and education activities to promote overall health for Americans. The authors evaluated ...

This release is also available in Chinese on EurekAlert! Chinese. The 160 million-year-old fossil of an extinct rodent-like creature from China is helping to explain how multituberculates—the most evolutionarily successful and long-lived mammalian lineage in the fossil record—achieved their dominance. This fossil find—the oldest ancestor in the multituberculate family tree—represents a newly discovered species known as Rugosodon eurasiaticus. The nearly complete skeleton provides critical insights into the traits that helped such multituberculates thrive in their day. ...

HOUSTON – (Aug. 15, 2013) – Dr. David Corry compares the allergic response to a computer. "The core of a computer is its CPU (central processing unit) or chip. We are looking for the chip that drives allergic disease," said the professor of medicine, chief of the section of immunology, allergy and rheumatology in Baylor College of Medicine's department of medicine and director of the Biology of Inflammation Center at BCM. In a report that appears online in the journal Science, he and colleagues at BCM describe an important component of that chip – a molecule called toll-like ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Patients who participated in a smoking-cessation program during hospitalization for mental illness were able to quit smoking and were less likely to be hospitalized again for their psychiatric conditions, according to a new study led by a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist. The findings counter a longstanding assumption, held by many mental-health experts, that smoking serves as a useful tool in treating some psychiatric patients. Smoking among such patients has been embedded in the culture for decades, with cigarettes used as part of ...

Obesity is a lot more deadly than previously thought. Across recent decades, obesity accounted for 18 percent of deaths among Black and White Americans between the ages of 40 and 85, according to a study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This finding challenges the prevailing wisdom among scientists, which puts that portion at around 5%. "Obesity has dramatically worse health consequences than some recent reports have led us to believe," says first author Ryan Masters, PhD, who conducted the research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar ...

Rochester, MN, August 15, 2013 – Nearly 400 million cups of coffee are consumed every day in America. Drinking large amounts of coffee may be bad for under-55s, according to a new study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. A study of more than 40,000 individuals found a statistically significant 21% increased mortality in those drinking more than 28 cups of coffee a week and death from all causes, with a greater than 50% increased mortality risk in both men and women younger than 55 years of age. Investigators warn that younger people in particular may need to avoid heavy ...

The essence of male beauty is down to the way males use their genes rather than what genes they have, according to a new study into the sexual attractiveness of turkeys. Geneticists have long puzzled over why individuals of the same sex show a greater or lesser degree of sexual attractiveness. In other words - why are some people better looking than others when they're genetically similar? In a new study, published today in the journal PLoS Genetics, scientists turned to male wild turkeys to solve the problem. They found that among turkeys that are brothers (and therefore ...

Limited availability of fossil fuels stimulates the search for different energy resources. The use of biofuels is one of the alternatives. Sugars derived from the grain of agricultural crops can be used to produce biofuel but these crops occupy fertile soils needed for food and feed production. Fast growing plants such as poplar, eucalyptus, or various grass residues such as corn stover and sugarcane bagasse do not compete and can be a sustainable source for biofuel. An international collaboration of plant scientists from VIB and Ghent University (Belgium), the University ...

As part of the largest international research effort ever made to combat tuberculosis, a team of Johns Hopkins and Brazilian experts has found that preventive antibiotic therapy for people with HIV lowers this group's chances of developing TB or dying. Specifically, they found in men and women already infected with HIV that taking isoniazid reduced deaths and new cases of active TB disease by 31 percent, while new cases of TB alone decline by 13 percent. The research team's findings, to be published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases online Aug. 16, stem from ...

A new study has calculated the average cost per case of TB in the EU. The findings suggest the economic burden of TB far outweighs the costs of investing in more effective vaccines. The research, published online today (16 August 2013), in the European Respiratory Journal, is the first study to estimate the costs of the disease in recent years. Researchers used a systematic review of literature and institutional websites for the 27 EU member states to summarise economic data on the treatment cost of TB cases in 2011. The researchers separated the countries into ...

New research shows that a Mediterranean-style diet and diets low in available carbohydrates can offer protection against type 2 diabetes. The study is published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), and is by Dr Carlo La Vecchia, Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy, and colleagues. The authors studied patients from Greece who are part of the ongoing European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition (EPIC), led by Dr. Antonia Trichopoulou, from the University of Athens. From a ...

Boston, MA – Current methods to treat acute coronary syndrome conditions, such as heart attack, include artery-clearing procedures (e.g., percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting) with medications, or medications alone for those that do not undergo procedures. In a new report from the TRILOGY ACS trial from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), in patients without artery-clearing procedures, those who had an angiography (a type of x-ray to view the inside of blood vessels) followed by prasugrel (Effient) ...

Monitoring slow earthquakes may provide a basis for reliable prediction in areas where slow quakes trigger normal earthquakes, according to Penn State geoscientists. "We currently don't have any way to remotely monitor when land faults are about to move," said Chris Marone, professor of geophysics. "This has the potential to change the game for earthquake monitoring and prediction, because if it is right and you can make the right predictions, it could be big." Marone and Bryan Kaproth-Gerecht, recent Ph.D. graduate, looked at the mechanisms behind slow earthquakes ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- MIT researchers have developed a lightweight structure whose tiny blocks can be snapped together much like the bricks of a child's construction toy. The new material, the researchers say, could revolutionize the assembly of airplanes, spacecraft, and even larger structures, such as dikes and levees. The new approach to construction is described in a paper appearing this week in the journal Science, co-authored by postdoc Kenneth Cheung and Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms. Gershenfeld likens the structure — which is made ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Voyager 1 appears to have at long last left our solar system and entered interstellar space, says a University of Maryland-led team of researchers. Carrying Earthly greetings on a gold plated phonograph record and still-operational scientific instruments – including the Low Energy Charged Particle detector designed, built and overseen, in part, by UMD's Space Physics Group – NASA's Voyager 1 has traveled farther from Earth than any other human-made object. And now, these researchers say, it has begun the first exploration of our galaxy beyond the ...