NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite found an unusually tall towering thunderstorm in Cyclone Evan. According to Owen Kelley of the TRMM satellite team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md, the most startling feature of the December 16 overflight of Tropical Cyclone Evan was the extremely tall storm-cell in the north side of the eyewall. At the time TRMM passed overhead and captured an image of the storm, Evan was about to rake across the northern coast of the islands of Fiji. The updrafts in this tower extended high enough ...

Johns Hopkins scientists have created stunning images of the branching patterns of individual sensory nerve cells. Their report, published online in the journal eLife on Dec. 18, details the arrangement of these branches in skin from the backs of mice. The branching patterns define ten distinct groups that, the researchers say, likely correspond to differences in what the nerves do and could hold clues for pain management and other areas of neurological study. Each type of nerve cell that the team studied was connected at one end to the spinal cord through a thin, wire-like ...

Shrinking Arctic sea ice grabbed the world's attention again earlier this year with a new record low minimum. Growing economic activity in the Arctic, such as fishing, mineral exploration and shipping, is emphasizing the need for accurate predictions of how much of the Arctic will be covered by sea ice. Every June, an international research group known as the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) publishes a summary of the expected September Arctic sea ice minimum known as the Sea Ice Outlook. The initial reports and monthly updates aim to give the scientific community ...

New Orleans, LA –Research led by Dr. Udai Pandey, Assistant Professor of Genetics at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has found that the ability of a protein made by a gene called FUS to bind to RNA is essential to the development of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). This discovery identifies a possible therapeutic target for the fatal neurological disease. The research will be available online in the Advanced Access section of the journal Human Molecular Genetics website, posted by December 21, 2012. It will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal. ...

Making small easy changes to our eating habits on a consistent basis - 25 days or more per month - can lead to sustainable weight loss, according to research by Professor Brian Wansink in Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab. The challenge is to figure out which changes work for specific individuals and how to stick with changes long enough to make them second nature. To explore this issue, Cornell researchers launched the National Mindless Eating Challenge (NMEC), an online healthy eating and weight loss program that focused on simple eating behavior changes, instead ...

Amsterdam, NL, December 19, 2012 – As many as 50 percent of all human protein-coding genes are regulated by microRNA (miRNA) molecules. While some miRNAs impact onset and progression of cancer, others can actually suppress the development of malignant tumors and are useful in cancer therapy. They can also serve as potential biomarkers for early cancer detection. In a new issue of Cancer Biomarkers, investigators report on non-coding miRNAs as appealing biomarkers for malignancy. "MiRNA-based therapies are attractive partly due to the fact that these molecules can target ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have conducted a study showing that many skills and practices that could help scientists make use of technological and computational opportunities are only marginally being taught in California's formal graduate programs in the environmental sciences. The researchers found, too, that graduate students in the state were, in general, not engaged in data management practices. Of the students surveyed who had already completed their graduate degree, only 29.3 percent had made their research data products ...

He loves her, he loves her not. A new study led by Joshua Hart, assistant professor of psychology, suggests that men's insecurities about relationships and conflicted views of women as romantic partners and rivals could lead some to adopt sexist attitudes about women. The study was recently published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, a peer-reviewed journal. Hart and his co-authors, Jacqueline Hung '11, a former student of Hart's, and psychology professors Peter Glick of Lawrence University and Rachel Dinero of Cazenovia College, surveyed more than 400 ...

Many high school students work in addition to going to school, and some argue that employment is good for at-risk youths. But a new study has found that placing juvenile offenders in jobs without ensuring that they attend school may make them more antisocial. The study, by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and the University of California, Irvine, appears in the journal Child Development. While evidence suggests that working long hours during the school year has negative effects on adolescent antisocial behavior among middle- and upper-income ...

Fights between siblings about simple things, like whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher, aren't harmless. Rather, such fights are about equality and fairness, and they can lead to depression, according to a new study. The longitudinal research, by researchers at the University of Missouri, appears in the journal Child Development. Although teen siblings fight about a lot of different issues, many of their fights can be categorized as being about equality and fairness (for example, whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher) or invasion of personal space (for example, ...

Low-income teenagers who have supportive role models and engage in adaptive strategies have lower levels of a marker for cardiovascular risk than low-income teens without such resources, according to a new study. The study, by researchers at Northwestern University and the University of British Columbia, is published in the journal Child Development. "Low socioeconomic status is one of the strongest determinants of chronic disease in developed countries," notes Edith Chen, professor of psychology and faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern ...

It's not how smart students are but how motivated they are and how they study that determines their growth in math achievement. That's the main finding of a new study that appears in the journal Child Development. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Munich and the University of Bielefeld. "While intelligence as assessed by IQ tests is important in the early stages of developing mathematical competence, motivation and study skills play a more important role in students' subsequent growth," according to Kou Murayama, postdoctoral researcher of ...

Toddlers with more developed language skills are better able to manage frustration and less likely to express anger by the time they're in preschool. That's the conclusion of a new longitudinal study from researchers at the Pennsylvania State University that appears in the journal Child Development. "This is the first longitudinal evidence of early language abilities predicting later aspects of anger regulation," according to Pamela M. Cole, liberal arts research professor of psychology and human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University, who was ...

Familiar categories whose members appear in orderly sequences are processed differently than others in the brain, according to new research published by David Eagleman in the open access journal Frontiers in Neuroscience on December 20th, 2012. The study suggests that ordinal sequences have a strong spatial quality and activate a region of the brain not thought to be directly involved in language acquisition and production. Also, sequences shown in the correct order stimulated less brain activity in comparison to sequences that were not in the correct order, implying that ...

Pina Fratamico is on the quest to find the easiest and fastest way to test for harmful Escherichia coli in ground beef. In an article published in Frontiers in Microbiology on the 20th of December, she explores using a next-generation real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system to discover specific gene targets that indicate the presence of dangerous foodborne pathogens. The results show that assays performed using this PCR system are rapid, sensitive, and reliable. "Testing using these types of systems is faster, easier, and more reproducible than previous methods, ...

WASHINGTON — Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center say they have new evidence that challenges scientific dogma involving two fatal neurodegenerative diseases — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) — and, in the process, have uncovered a possible therapeutic target as a novel strategy to treat both disorders. The study, posted online today in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, found that the issue in both diseases is the inability of the cell's protein garbage disposal system to "pull out" and destroy TDP-43, a powerful, ...

Holiday presents will soon be under the tree for millions of adolescents. With those gifts may come sibling squabbles over violations of personal space, such as unwanted borrowing of a fashionable clothing item, or arguments over fairness, such as whose turn it is to play a new video game. Those squabbles represent two specific types of sibling conflict that can have different effects on a youth's emotional health, according to a multi-year study by a University of Missouri psychologist. With these findings, parents can learn how to bring peace to the home and encourage ...

(Philadelphia, PA) – By all accounts, a combination of colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure can be a recipe for medical disaster. Now, a new study led by a surgical oncologist and researcher at Temple University School of Medicine and Fox Chase Cancer Center has shown just how deadly this mix can be. In a retrospective analysis of more than 36,000 patients with colon cancer, investigators showed that those with early stage disease and diabetes or high blood pressure – two components of metabolic syndrome – have a greater risk for the cancer returning after treatment ...

Your primary care physician may be your first choice for assistance with most health-related issues, but according a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, primary care physicians agree they may not be the best health care professionals to give weight related counseling. Researchers examined primary care physician perspectives on the causes of and solutions to obesity care and identified differences in these perspectives by number of years since completion of medical school. They found that only 44 percent of primary care physicians ...

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), on-the-job fatalities fell slightly last year to a total of 4,609, down from 4,690 workplace deaths in 2010. A recent CNN report on the nation's most dangerous occupations touched on several industries that employ many people in and around Houston, Texas. Fishermen Although conditions have improved in the fishing industry over the past several years, professional fishermen still lost their lives at a rate of 121.2 per 100,000 workers in 2011, according to BLS data. In comparison, the average fatality rate for ...

Federal Study: More Teens Texting Behind the Wheel A new study shows that a disturbing number of teens are texting while driving, despite the dangers. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that while more teens are wearing seatbelts and fewer are drinking while driving, the number who admit to texting while driving is increasing rapidly. According to the CDC, nearly 60 percent of high school seniors and over 40 percent of juniors admitted to texting or emailing while driving in the month prior to the survey. Over 15,000 teens from public and private ...

Car-Bicycle Accidents Still a Danger on the Road Unfortunately, thousands of people are seriously injured or killed in motor vehicle and bicycle collisions each year. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation, 51,000 bicyclists were injured and more than 600 died in bicycle-motor vehicle crashes in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available. Recognizing the problem of bicycle accidents, Wisconsin developed a program called Enforcement for Bicycle Safety, which is designed to teach police officers the fundamentals of Wisconsin bicycle ...

New insurance guides help Ohio residents choose the best coverage The Ohio Department of Insurance now provides consumers with insurance guides that help them choose the best insurance coverage for auto, homeowners, health, life and Medicare insurance. The guides are detailed but easy to understand. According to the Department of Insurance director, the goal of the guides is to provide Ohio residents with the information necessary to make informed decisions on insurance policies. The guides available include: -Automobile insurance. The auto insurance guide provides ...

Family limited partnerships can reduce estate taxes and pass a business A family limited partnership is a good idea for passing on a family-owned business or real estate holdings. Business succession planning is one of the most important and difficult aspects of leaving an estate to a younger generation. Carrying on the business to future generations is emotional, but estate planning, financial considerations and legal structure of the business must all be taken into account as well. Having a fully realized succession plan can minimize financial strain on the business ...

New drug may improve outcomes for victims of traumatic brain injury A new study reveals how a new delivery system for the drug Etanercept may improve the physical and mental health of those struggling with a traumatic brain injury up to 115 months after the injury occurred. Research shows drug may improve outcomes The Institute for Neurological Recovery has completed a study, published this October, of over 629 people who suffered a stroke or TBI. The study took place over two years. The researchers found statistically significant evidence that a new delivery of ...