720 million birds flew across the US Tuesday night
BirdCast, a research consortium consisting of scientists from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Colorado State University and UMass Amherst, uses weather radar to estimate the number of birds and direction of flight during spring migration and produces a U.S. forecast for the night.
The site has a migration dashboard for every county in the United States. For example, Pulaski County, Arkansas, was near the peak of the migration Tuesday night when nearly 10 million birds crossed the county, mostly Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and White-throated Sparrows.
Peak migration season ranges from April 24 in Florida to May 15 in Maine. Scientists recommend turning off lights between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time to avoid bird collisions.
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Medscape
10 hours ago
- Medscape
Diabetes Tied to Slower Brain Recovery After TBI
TOPLINE: Diabetes was associated with reduced global cognition 2 weeks after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and less improvement in processing speed throughout the first year post-TBI compared to not having diabetes, a new cohort study showed. METHODOLOGY: The prospective cohort TRACK-TBI study included more than 1000 participants aged 17 years or older with TBI (mean age, 39 years; 67% men; 76% White individuals) who presented to one of 18 level 1 trauma centers in the US between 2014 and 2018. Participants underwent cognitive assessments at 2 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year post-injury that evaluated verbal episodic memory, executive function, and processing speed alone and combined into a global cognitive factor score. Researchers analyzed associations between cognitive outcomes and the vascular risk factors of hypertension (17%), diabetes (7.5%), hyperlipidemia (9%), and smoking (30%). They adjusted the analysis for age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, severity of TBI, and histories of TBI and psychiatric conditions. TAKEAWAY: After adjustment for confounders, participants with diabetes had lower global cognitive factor scores at 2 weeks post-injury than those without diabetes (mean difference in change, -0.25; P < .05) and showed less improvement in processing speed over the first year post-injury (mean difference, -0.26; P < .05). Individuals with two or more vascular risk factors had lower global cognitive factor scores at 2 weeks post-injury than those without any vascular risk factors (mean difference, -0.21; P < .05), as well as worse verbal memory and processing speed (mean differences, -0.18 and -0.22, respectively; P < .05 for both). However, they had similar improvement over the first year. Cognitive performance did not differ significantly by hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or smoking status. In sensitivity analyses, participants with treated diabetes had worse cognitive outcomes than those without diabetes, including lower global cognitive factor scores at 2 weeks (mean difference, -0.32) and less improvement in global cognitive function over 1 year (mean difference, -0.29). IN PRACTICE: 'Given the modifiable nature of comorbid vascular risk factors, future work interrogating postinjury changes in vascular risk factor burden, over longer follow-up, is warranted,' the investigators wrote. SOURCE: The study was led by Andrea L. C. Schneider, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia. It was published online on August 8 in JAMA Network Open. LIMITATIONS: Vascular risk factors were only assessed at enrollment, preventing the evaluation of post-injury changes in risk factor status. Information on disease duration or severity were unavailable. The study also experienced significant attrition leading to missing data. Additionally, the findings could not be generalized to milder injuries or more severe TBI cases managed beyond level 1 trauma centers. DISCLOSURES: The study was funded by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke and by a grant from the Department of Defense. Several investigators reported having financial or other ties with various sources. Full details are provided in the original article. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
New sensors are designed to predict flooding in Chicago
As the rain came down in sheets one summer afternoon late last month, Thomas Baranowski was sitting on the back porch of his Garfield Ridge home when his wife, Rose, stepped outside. ''Oh come on, you've got to see this,'' she told him. He followed her down the steep stairwell to their basement, where water was spewing out of their flood drain 'just like a geyser,' Baranowski, 79, recalled. Though he and Rose, 80, are lifelong Chicagoans and no strangers to urban flooding, they didn't see the deluge coming — or the thousands of dollars in water damage that followed. But what if they had been given a heads-up the rain would hit their block so hard? A new initiative recently launched in Chicago is striving to do just that. Verizon, in conjunction with Chicago's Center for Neighborhood Technology and a Michigan-based startup, is equipping the city with technology that will give officials and residents alike the ability to track urban flooding in real time. The venture, project partners say, could eventually help Chicago better respond to and mitigate the impact of flash floods — especially in areas that have historically faced the brunt of torrential rain — as human-made climate change intensifies storms in the Midwest and places pressure on the city's outdated sewer system. At the core of the initiative are wireless floodwater sensors that, using sonar technology, can calculate the depth of nearby water in seconds. The idea is to deploy a network of these sensors citywide, which together will be able to track when and where water levels are rising during a storm. To date, 10 sensors have been installed from South Deering on the Far South Side to Austin on the West Side, with 40 more due for installation over coming months. This marks only the second time in the United States that technology of this kind has been deployed on a citywide scale. The sensors are the product of Hyfi, an Ann Arbor company launched five years ago by University of Michigan engineering professor Branko Kerkez and his former doctoral student, Brandon Wong, after the pair sought to devise a technological solution to changing climate conditions, according to Wong, now CEO of the startup. From California, Wong grew up around weather extremes, from droughts and flooding to wildfires, he said, noting he still remembers days when he'd wake up to 'ash raining' from a bright orange sky. But it wasn't until he moved out to Michigan for graduate school 12 years ago and shortly after saw historic flooding kill two people and cause millions of dollars of damage in Detroit that Wong knew he wanted to find a way to temper the impact of climate disasters. Hyfi sensors can detect how high floodwaters are rising within a 30-foot radius by generating a continuous, nearly inaudible sound wave pulse on the water's surface. To detect urban flooding, sensors are placed in low-lying areas, along viaducts and under manhole covers to see where water is pooling first or backing up, down to a city's pipes. Data the sensors collect is reported to a central server, which Hyfi then visualizes in a map of real-time flood conditions. The technology is making its Chicago debut as part of a larger effort by Verizon, using Hyfi's sensor platform, to improve flood response and stormwater management systems across the country. The initiative first rolled out in New Orleans last summer and is due to launch in Detroit over the next year, according to Donna Epps, chief responsible business officer at Verizon. For now, as sensors are piloted in Chicago, water level readings won't be widely available quite yet, Wong said, but the goal is to have data live on a public-facing platform that residents can access. Wong pointed to New Orleans, where, after an initial citywide installation of 27 Hyfi sensors, the city integrated the data into its own public alert system. The sensors could give communities and first responders a warning that flooding is imminent up to an hour before it hits, Wong says. That advance notice, Wong said, could be indispensable to local residents fearful of flood damage in their homes and for avoiding streets prone to flooding. Almost every time it's rained this year, Emmanuel Garcia has noticed that water pools on the streets and sidewalks around Belmont Cragin, where the 17-year-old has lived his entire life, he said. His family has had to stay in their apartment during storms for fear of encountering dangerous roadway conditions or having their basement flood, Garcia said. Jean Flisk, 58, who grew up in Canaryville but now lives on the Southwest Side, said she 'rain preps' her basement, which frequently floods during storms. 'If they say there's a flood warning or the rain is going to be really bad, I have to go and move everything in the basement … just in case,' she said. 'It's aggravating, it's a pain. I don't know if there's something to do.' There is, Hyfi and Verizon hope. Beyond proactively reporting floods, the project's partners imagine that over time, data can help inform long-term resilience planning, they say, particularly in areas of the city that have habitually been vulnerable to significant flooding. Hyfi and Verizon are also collaborating with the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a Chicago-based urban research group, to host community meetings where residents can give their input on where and how they'd like to see sensors used. So far, the group has hosted meetings in Chatham and Belmont Cragin, two neighborhoods troubled with chronic flooding, with several more planned for this year. The meetings were held in tandem with local organizations, including the Greater Chatham Initiative on the South Side and the Grassroots Empowerment Mission and North River Commission on the Northwest Side. With these meetings and the venture overall, the broader goal is to chart a path forward where 'we systemically even stop the flooding from happening,' Center for Neighborhood Technology CEO Nina Idemudia said. 'How do we work on improving the drainage system, improving where we make capital improvements in order to make sure the water is draining?' Sensors won't reveal new insights into which parts of Chicago are hit hardest by flooding, Idemudia said, but it could draw awareness to a long-standing need. She pointed to a 2019 study by the center that found urban flooding in Chicago disproportionately affects communities of color. 'Data is another way of accountability, right?' Idemudia said. 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They will help determine if and how much government assistance residents will qualify for, according to OEMC Emergency Services Manager Kaila Lariviere. Assessment teams have been directing their efforts based on a survey released a few weeks ago that gave residents the chance to self-report if they had been affected by the storms. Some 2,900 Cook County and Chicago residents reported damages, Lariviere said. Last Thursday, assessment teams spent the morning walking through Garfield Ridge on the Southwest Side. One of the surveyed homes belonged to Larry Anguiano, a husband and father whose basement flooded entirely in last month's storms, forcing his family to replace rugs, carpets and furniture in their home of the past five years, he told the Tribune. 'It was extremely quick,' he said, adding that since, he's been wary of it happening all over again. 'If there's that type of rain and you see it fill up in the streets, (you think), 'Oh no.'' The Baranowskis, who were also visited by damage assessment teams last week, echoed the sentiment. The past few weeks have been 'backbreaking' work to replace the walls and flooring of their flooded basement, Hope Baranowski said. The couple plans to install a flood control system because 'we can't have this happen again,' Thomas added. When Chicago received from 1.5 to 4.5 inches of rainfall across the city last week, according to the National Weather Service, the Baranowskis waited anxiously for the storms to pass. 'I was scared to death,' Hope Baranowski recalled.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
A Mysterious Light in the Sky Seemed to Be a UFO — Here's What It Really Was
The strange white light appeared above the sky in upstate New York on the evening of Aug. 12 NEED TO KNOW People in upstate New York observed an unusual white light that they thought was a UFO in the night's sky on Aug. 12 The light was from the tail and plume of the Vulcan Centaur rocket, which launched from Florida The spacecraft is designed to provide data similar to that of a GPS system and will test a variety of new technologies Residents of upstate New York were recently met with an unusual sight — a bright white light in the night sky with a strange-looking aura. The mysterious light appeared the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 12, per local news outlet the Times Union. A number of area residents posted about the sighting on social media, with several speculating it might be a UFO, according to the New York Post. However, it turns out that the source of the light had a much more earthly explanation: Local residents were observing the tail and plume of the Vulcan Centaur rocket, which was launched on Aug. 12 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at around 9 p.m. local time, per The rocket carried an experimental navigation satellite and was launched by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) on behalf of the U.S. military, per the outlet. It launched with four side-mounted rocket boosters in order to send the satellite directly into geosynchronous orbit. Additionally, it was the U.S. military's first experimental navigation satellite to be launched in 48 years, per The spacecraft is designed to provide data similar to that of a GPS system and will test a variety of new technologies. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. This was the Vulcan's third successful flight. The 202-foot rocket took flight in January 2024 and again in October of the same year. The most recent launch marked one of ULA's longest flights ever, at seven hours and 22,000 miles, according to the ULA blog. Upstate New York residents were looking up at the sky for good reason the night of the launch: It coincided with the peak night of the Perseids meteor shower, which lights up the sky each summer. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! The Perseids are especially famous for their brilliant fireballs. These exceptionally bright meteors burst with intense light and often linger longer than a typical shooting star. NASA considers it 'the best meteor shower of the year,' producing 'swift, bright meteors that frequently leave long wakes of light and color.' Read the original article on People
