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Study of Chinese teens examines nonmedical use of Rx and suicidal behaviors

The nonmedical use of prescription drugs and the misuse of sedatives and opioids were associated with subsequent suicidal thoughts or attempts in a study of Chinese adolescents, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

Suicide is a leading cause of injury and death worldwide. The overall rate of suicide in China is lower than it was in the 1990s but suicidal ideation (thoughts) and attempts are still problems among adolescents in China.

SLAC, Stanford gadget grabs more solar energy to disinfect water faster

In many parts of the world, the only way to make germy water safe is by boiling, which consumes precious fuel, or by putting it out in the sun in a plastic bottle so ultraviolet rays will kill the microbes. But because UV rays carry only 4 percent of the sun's total energy, the UV method takes six to 48 hours, limiting the amount of water people can disinfect this way.

Are expecting moms as well-prepared as they should be to breastfeed?

Alexandria, Va. (August 15, 2016) - Incorporating candid insights from healthcare providers in five countries, The 2016 Lansinoh Global Healthcare Provider Survey today reveals several noteworthy breastfeeding trends and ongoing barriers among expecting and new moms. The top trend is that 81% of survey participants agree women should consult health experts about breastfeeding techniques well before delivery, ideally in the third trimester.

NASA's spots extra-tropical cyclone Conson in Sea of Okhotsk

NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of extra-tropical cyclone Conson's clouds spread Japan's northern most island, the Sea of Okhotsk and Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.

On Aug. 15, 2016 the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of the clouds associated with the extra-tropical cyclone. In the image, clouds covered Japan's island of Hokkaido and stretched over the Sea of Okhotsk and the southern portion of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.

New Worlds New Horizons: A Midterm Assessment -- new report

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NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies

New residential water heater concept promises high efficiency, lower cost

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Aug. 15, 2016 - A team of scientists from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Florida has developed a novel method that could yield lower-cost, higher-efficiency systems for water heating in residential buildings.

The theory behind the newly termed "semi-open" natural gas-fired design, explained in an ORNL-led paper published in Renewable Energy: An International Journal, reduces the cost and complexity of traditional closed gas-fired systems by streamlining, and even eliminating, certain components.

Brown dwarfs reveal exoplanets' secrets

Washington, DC-- Brown dwarfs are smaller than stars, but more massive than giant planets. As such, they provide a natural link between astronomy and planetary science. However, they also show incredible variation when it comes to size, temperature, chemistry, and more, which makes them difficult to understand, too.

Warming climate likely to have 'minor' impact on power plant output

DURHAM, N.C. -- Future climate warming will likely cause only minor cuts in energy output at most U.S. coal- or gas-fired power plants, a new Duke University study finds.

The study -- the first of its kind based on real-world data -- rebuts recent modeling-based studies that warn rising temperatures will significantly lower the efficiency of power plants' cooling systems, thereby reducing plants' energy output. Those studies estimated that plant efficiencies could drop by as much as 1.3 percent for each 1 degree Celsius of climate warming.

NASA's Van Allen probes catch rare glimpse of supercharged radiation belt

Our planet is nestled in the center of two immense, concentric doughnuts of powerful radiation: the Van Allen radiation belts, which harbor swarms of charged particles that are trapped by Earth's magnetic field. On March 17, 2015, an interplanetary shock - a shockwave created by the driving force of a coronal mass ejection, or CME, from the sun - struck Earth's magnetic field, called the magnetosphere, triggering the greatest geomagnetic storm of the preceding decade. And NASA's Van Allen Probes were there to watch the effects on the radiation belts.

NASA sees Tropical Storm Chanthu east of Japan

NASA's Terra satellite flew over Tropical Storm Chanthu as it continued moving past the big island of Japan and staying to the east of the country.

On August 15 at 11:00 a.m. EDT (15:00 UTC) the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) indicated that Chanthu was located about 424 nautical miles south-southeast of Yokosuka, Japan, near 29.6 degrees north latitude and 143.3 degrees east longitude. Chanthu was moving to the north-northwest. Maximum sustained winds were near 46 mph (40 knots/74 kph). Slight intensification is forecast.

NASA analyzes deadly Louisiana flooding

Record-setting rainfall and flooding in southern Louisiana have been calculated at NASA with data from satellites.

An extremely severe rainfall event hit the states of Louisiana and southern Mississippi when a very slow moving low pressure system continuously pulled tropical moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.

New map of world vegetation reveals substantial changes since 1980s

A botany researcher at New Zealand's University of Otago and colleagues have developed a new system to map the world's "biomes"-- large-scale vegetation formations -- that will provide an objective method for monitoring how vegetation reacts as climate changes.

The system uses satellite observations of the timing and intensity of vegetation activity and how this relates to temperature and soil moisture to classify the world's vegetation into 24 biome types.

NYU study looks at how racial inequality is produced online

Internet users tend to navigate between websites in a racially segregated way, despite pathways that provide equitable access to different sites, finds a new study by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The findings are published online in the journal Information, Communication, and Society.

Discussions about racial inequality on the web have been going on for decades, but few studies have attempted to demonstrate whether and how systemic racial inequality might form on the web.

De-icing agent remains stable at more than a million atmospheres of pressure

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have combined X-ray diffraction and vibrational spectroscopy measurements together with first-principle calculations to examine the high-pressure structural behavior of magnesium chloride.

NASA's Fermi mission expands its search for dark matter

Dark matter, the mysterious substance that constitutes most of the material universe, remains as elusive as ever. Although experiments on the ground and in space have yet to find a trace of dark matter, the results are helping scientists rule out some of the many theoretical possibilities. Three studies published earlier this year, using six or more years of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, have broadened the mission's dark matter hunt using some novel approaches.