WASHINGTON -- The average area covered by the Antarctic ozone hole this year was the second smallest in the last 20 years, according to data from NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. Scientists attribute the change to warmer temperatures in the Antarctic lower stratosphere. The ozone hole reached its maximum size Sept. 22, covering 8.2 million square miles (21.2 million square kilometers), or the area of the United States, Canada and Mexico combined. The average size of the 2012 ozone hole was 6.9 million square miles (17.9 ...

While the United States has largely been spared the scourge of mosquito-borne diseases endemic to the developing world—including yellow fever, malaria and dengue fever—mosquito-related illnesses in the US are on the rise. One pathogen of increasing concern in the U.S. is an arbovirus known as West Nile. Now Qiang "Shawn" Chen, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute and a professor in the College of Technology and Innovation has developed a new method of testing for West Nile, using plants to produce biological reagents for detection and diagnosis. ...

A new study based on data from European Space Agency's Cluster mission shows that it is easier for the solar wind to penetrate Earth's magnetic environment, the magnetosphere, than had previously been thought. Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. have, for the first time, directly observed the presence of certain waves in the solar wind—called Kelvin-Helmholtz waves that can help transfer energy into near-Earth space—under circumstances when previous theories predicted they were not expected. The recent paper, published on Aug 29, 2012, ...

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 24, 2012 – Isolated stars kicked to the edges of space by violent galaxy mergers may be the cause of mysterious infrared light halos observed across the sky, according to UC Irvine and other astronomers. "Background glow in our sky has been a huge unanswered question," said UCI physics & astronomy professor Asantha Cooray, lead author of a paper about the discovery in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Nature. "We have new evidence that this light is from stars that linger between galaxies. Individually, they're too dim to be seen, but we think we're ...

Boston, Mass. , Oct. 24, 2012—Children with serious anger problems can be helped by a simple video game that hones their ability to regulate their emotions, finds a pilot study at Boston Children's Hospital. Results were published online October 24 in the journal Adolescent Psychiatry. Noticing that children with anger control problems are often uninterested in psychotherapy, but very eager to play video games, Jason Kahn, PhD, and Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich, MD, at Boston Children's Hospital developed "RAGE Control" to motivate children to practice emotional control skills ...

The latest tropical storm in the western North Pacific Ocean has already spread its clouds and showers over the Philippines, as seen in NASA satellite imagery. NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image as it flew over Tropical Storm Son-tinh today, Oct. 24. On Oct. 24, 2012 at 0445 UTC (12:45 a.m. EDT) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Son-tinh. At the time of the image, Son-tinh's center was moving through the central Philippines, but its cloud cover extended ...

One of the lowest mass supermassive black holes ever observed in the middle of a galaxy has been identified, thanks to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other observatories. The host galaxy is of a type not expected to harbor supermassive black holes, suggesting that this black hole, while related to its supermassive cousins, may have a different origin. The black hole is located in the middle of the spiral galaxy NGC 4178, shown in this image from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The inset shows an X-ray source at the position of the black hole, in the center ...

NASA's TRMM satellite measured rainfall and towering clouds within the Arabian Sea's first tropical cyclone of the season as it passed overhead from space. Meanwhile, the infrared AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite noticed that strong thunderstorms surrounded the center of the storm. Tropical Cyclone 1A is expected to be short-lived as it heads for a landfall in Somalia on Oct. 25. Since it was launched in 1997 the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite has been useful for monitoring tropical cyclones in the tropics. TRMM passed above the first ...

Drinking a couple of glasses of wine each day has generally been considered a good way to promote cardiovascular and brain health. But a new Rutgers University study indicates that there is a fine line between moderate and binge drinking – a risky behavior that can decrease the making of adult brain cells by as much as 40 percent. In a study posted online in the journal Neuroscience, scheduled to be published on November 8, lead author Megan Anderson, a graduate student working with Dr. Tracey J. Shors, Professor II in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience in the Department ...

AURORA, Colo. (Oct. 24, 2012) – In the first study of its kind, researchers have found that those who suffer cardiac arrests in upper income, white neighborhoods are nearly twice as likely to get cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) than people who collapse in low-income, black neighborhoods. "If you drop in a neighborhood that is 80 percent white with a median income over $40,000 a year, you have a 55 percent chance of getting CPR," said study author Comilla Sasson, MD, an emergency room physician at the University of Colorado Hospital. "If you drop in a poor, black neighborhood ...

Recycling keeps paper, plastics, and even jeans out of landfills. Could recycling rare-earth magnets do the same? Perhaps, if the recycling process can be improved. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames Laboratory are working to more effectively remove the neodymium, a rare earth element, from the mix of other materials in a magnet. Initial results show recycled materials maintain the properties that make rare-earth magnets useful. The current rare earth recycling research builds on Ames Laboratory's decades of rare-earth processing experience. In ...

Everyone feels refreshed after a good night's sleep, but sleep does more than just rejuvenate, it can also consolidate memories. 'The rapid eye movement form of sleep and slow wave sleep are involved in cognitive forms of memory such as learning motor skills and consciously accessible memory', explains Randolf Menzel from the Freie Universtät Berlin, Germany. According to Menzel, the concept that something during sleep reactivates a memory for consolidation is a basic theory in sleep research. However, the human brain is far too complex to begin dissecting the intricate ...

Cincinnati, OH, October 25, 2012 -- Clinical drug trials are a vital part of pharmaceutical manufacturers gaining approval for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A Commentary scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics assesses the issues surrounding the lack of clinical trials on medications used by children, most notably neonates, and how drug manufacturers and academic researchers could work together to create clinical trials that would benefit this underrepresented population. Henry Akinibi, MD, and colleagues from Cincinnati Children's Hospital ...

Long after women have chosen Mr. Stable over Mr. Sexy, they struggle unconsciously with the decision, according to a new study by UCLA researchers who look at subtle changes in behavior during ovulation. At their most fertile period, these women are less likely to feel close to their mates and more likely to find fault with them than women mated to more sexually desirable men, the research shows. "A woman evaluates her relationship differently at different times in her cycle, and her evaluation seems to be colored by how sexually attractive she perceives her partner ...

Philadelphia PA (October 25, 2012) – The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, the premier source of practice-based information for public health management expert, announced today the availability of the journal on the iPad to be launched with a special November/December issue focused on public health services and systems research. The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, (JPHMP) is published in print, online and digitally by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. "In today's increasingly digital environment, offering ...

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have discovered a unique immune gene signature that can predict the presence of microscopic lymph node-like structures in metastatic melanoma. The presence of these immune structures, the researchers said, appears to be associated with better survival and may indicate the possibility of selecting patients for immunotherapy based solely on the immune-related makeup of their tumors as an approach to personalized medicine. The study appears in Scientific Reports, a journal from Nature Publishing Group. In this study, the researchers ...

Having a stroke, being in a car accident, experiencing a heart attack -- these are experiences that no one can determine when they will happen. A new study, however, suggests that whether such incidents happen on a weekday or a weekend may have an impact on a hospital patient's likelihood of survival. This is known as the "weekend effect" and should be a concern for both hospitals and patients alike. Study Examines the Weekend Effect The study, performed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and published in the Journal of Surgical ...

Dr. James Corasanti, a physician from New York, was recently sentenced in a driving while intoxicated case (DWI). During the summer of 2011, the physician was involved in a car accident; the charges allege that his vehicle struck and killed an 18-year-old skateboarder and that Corasanti left the scene. After deliberating for almost 12 hours, a jury acquitted Corasanti of the most serious charges connected to the accident. The charges associated with the DWI case included vehicular manslaughter, manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and tampering with evidence. ...

Married people residing in Pennsylvania who wish to separate and divorce must qualify under special circumstances. Pennsylvania law outlines the situations that allow people to qualify as residents, obtain a fault-based divorce or be granted a no-fault divorce. No-Fault Divorce in Pennsylvania No-fault divorce is when someone files for divorce and specifies that it is not the fault of either spouse. Pennsylvania residents have the option of filing for no-fault divorce in several circumstances: -Institutionalism: The court may grant no-fault divorce when the spouse ...

Mobile devises are becoming increasingly ingrained in our day-to-day lives. It's not just about talking anymore; everything from apps to social networking to banking is quite literally at our fingertips. But, when it comes to your health, the law may have fallen drastically behind the technology. The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 made drastic changes to the rules protecting individually identifiable health information. In 2012, the confusion surrounding HIPAA and texting is making it unclear whether or not health care entities may ...

As the popularity of synthetic drugs increases, the side effects of using substances like "bath salts" have led to more than 300 calls to the New York State Poison Control Center in the first six months of 2012 alone. This is a dramatic jump from 2010, when only 20 calls concerning dangerous side effects associated with the substances were made, according to a press release from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. This massive increase in reported poisonings connected to bath salts has caused concern at all levels, from health care providers to government officials. Until ...

When going through the emotional turmoil that often accompanies the dissolution of a marriage, complex financial matters may be the last thing that a person feels like addressing. Unfortunately, such financial issues as dividing assets and determining spousal support have to be resolved with the final divorce decree. As such, people need to pay attention to the impact that divorce will have on their financial situations. There are some steps people can take to help ensure that they protect themselves financially during divorce. Find the Right Lawyer One of the most ...

Rural Minnesota is strong and continues to attract quality companies. Morrison County, MN is no exception and a recent expansion by AirBorn Inc. proves that manufacturing and distribution has a home in Central Minnesota. AirBorn, Inc. offers a full package of services and capabilities for high speed precision stamping, metal finishing, molding (both open/closed and reel to reel insert molds, and automated assembly as an interconnect manufacturer--serving the Mil-Aero, Commercial Air, Medical, and High Performance Computing and Data Storage markets. According to Bob ...

Excavating NJ Inc. finished installing a Hoot Aerobic Treatment System in Hopatcong. The Hoot System was recommended and chosen because the home owner had limited space to install a septic system, and because the house was not connected or had access to a municipal sewer. The new system will be able to capture and store the home's wastewater, treated and then released safely underground to irrigate the landscape. "A multi-pronged approach is certainly a vital part in water conservation and reclamation that everyone in Northern New Jersey should take note of," ...

AFN Security, distributor and integrator of surveillance and alarm technology, has won the award for "Excellence in Innovation" at the NG Mining Summit, held from October 16-18 at the Stamford Grand in Adelaide last week. Following a high-energy educational workshop, AFN Managing Director, Darren Ruger, learned top level Australian and international mining executives voted AFN as an innovative leader in security technology for the industry at the close of the event. "We're very pleased to have been recognised by such a distinguished group," says ...