Tech

Commercial fishing endangers dolphin populations

*"The Mediterranean Sea has a stable and constant dolphin population off the coast of Israel. Any resolution concerning the sea must also consider the dolphins," says Dr. Aviad Scheinin of the University of Haifa, who carried out the study.*

Extensive commercial fishing endangers dolphin populations in the Mediterranean. This has been shown in a new study carried out at the University of Haifa's Department of Maritime Civilizations. "Unfortunately, we turn our backs to the sea and do not give much consideration to our marine neighbors," states researcher Dr. Aviad Scheinin.

NASA's Aqua Satellite sees Tropical Depression Fami fading fast

Now that Fami has crossed Madagascar, its fading fast. NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared satellite image earlier today that showed the storm was elongating and losing its circulation.

NASA's Aqua satellite AIRS instrument captured Fami on Feb. 3 at 09:35 UTC (4:35 a.m. ET), and showed the system more resembling a cold front than a tropical cyclone, as it appears stretched out from northwest to southeast. There are also very few strong thunderstorms left in what was once the center.

Targeted prevention stopped spread of H1N1 at Alabama boys camp

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Providing preventive Tamiflu and educating and emphasizing the need for repeated hand sanitizer use and disinfectant spray helped stop the spread of H1N1 influenza at a boys' summer camp in northern Alabama, according the co-director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.

Flu vaccination rate at large, Midwest health system rises dramatically due to mandatory policy

Making flu shots mandatory in 2008 dramatically increased the vaccination rate among St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare's nearly 26,000 employees to more than 98 percent, according to a report now online in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The study's lead author, infectious disease specialist Hilary Babcock, M.D., says the success of the mandatory program demonstrates it is possible to implement a vaccination campaign on a large scale in a health-care setting.

Cord blood-derived CD133+ cells improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction

Black carbon a significant factor in melting of Himalayan glaciers

The fact that glaciers in the Himalayan mountains are thinning is not disputed. However, few researchers have attempted to rigorously examine and quantify the causes. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Surabi Menon set out to isolate the impacts of the most commonly blamed culprit—greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide—from other particles in the air that may be causing the melting. Menon and her collaborators found that airborne black carbon aerosols, or soot, from India is a major contributor to the decline in snow and ice cover on the glaciers.

Nano imagining takes turn for the better

Stephan Link wants to understand how nanomaterials align, and his lab's latest work is a step in the right direction.

Link's Rice University group has found a way to use gold nanorods as orientation sensors by combining their plasmonic properties with polarization imaging techniques.

That may make it possible to see and perhaps track single nanoparticles over long periods. It would give researchers new information about materials, including living systems, that incorporate them.

Tropical Storm Oli kicking up waves in South Pacific

Tropical Storm Oli is headed between the islands of Bora Bora and Raratonga in the South Pacific, while maintaining its intensity as a tropical storm. Infrared satellite data from NASA's Aqua satellite reveals that Oli is a large storm, so those islands will experience gusty winds, some moderate to heavy rainfall, and heavy swells along their coasts.

Bad news for mosquitoes: Yale study may lead to better traps, repellents

Yale University researchers have found more than two dozen scent receptors in malaria-transmitting mosquitoes that detect compounds in human sweat, a finding that may help scientists to develop new ways to combat a disease that kills 1 million people annually.

Older female cancer survivors have added health issues compared to their counterparts

As cancer survivors live longer, questions arise about what kind of care long-term survivors require.

A recently published study from Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences found 245 older married women who survived cancer had more health problems as compared to a sample of 245 married women without cancer.

Smart coating opens door to safer hip, knee and dental implants

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a "smart coating" that helps surgical implants bond more closely with bone and ward off infection.

Community hospitals offer a safe surgical option for some cancer surgeries

CHICAGO --- Low-risk patients who require certain cancer surgeries can have the procedures performed with low operative mortality rates at community hospitals, according to a new study.

The research showed that for 13 different kinds of cancer surgeries such as gastric and colon, younger patients with few pre-existing illnesses survived operations at community hospitals at a similar rate as at cancer centers.

Tropical Storm Oli kicking up waves in south Pacific

Tropical Storm Oli is headed between the islands of Bora Bora and Raratonga in the South Pacific, while maintaining its intensity as a tropical storm. Infrared satellite data from NASA's Aqua satellite reveals that Oli is a large storm, so those islands will experience gusty winds, some moderate to heavy rainfall, and heavy swells along their coasts.

NASA satellite sees Tropical Storm Fami form, fast and furious

NASA's Aqua satellite caught the thirteenth tropical cyclone in the southern Indian Ocean form very quickly. In 12 hours a low grew into a tropical storm named Fami and made a fast landfall in Madagascar around 1 a.m. ET (0600 UTC) today, February 2.

At 1 a.m. ET (0600 UTC), Tropical Storm Fami had maximum sustained winds near 46 mph (40 knots) and was located in southern Madagascar, about 235 nautical miles west-southwest of Antananarivo, Madagascar. That's near 21.2 South and 43.8 East. Fami is moving east-southeast near 9 mph (8 knots).

Cancer patients become bold advocates once surviviors

Sociologists at Case Western Reserve University found that when passive cancer patients become survivors, they have plenty of bold advice to offer other cancer patients, according to a study in JAGS, the Journal of American Geriatric Society.

Eva Kahana, Robson Professor of Sociology and director of the Elderly Care Research Center at Case Western Reserve, reported the findings from interviews with 100 cancer survivors. These survivors are part of a longitudinal study of 1,107 elderly adults living in a retirement community.