Heavens

For more than 25 years, our understanding of terrestrial space weather has been partly based on incorrect assumptions about how nitrogen, the most abundant gas in our atmosphere, reacts when it collides with electrons produced by energetic ultraviolet sunlight and "solar wind."

WESTCHESTER, IL – Regulations that limit the number of hours worked also should provide guidance for shift start times to maximize workers' sleep opportunity and minimize the risk of on-the-job fatigue, according to a research abstract that will be presented Tuesday, June 8, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas, at SLEEP 2010, the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

A new study shows a thick organic haze that enshrouded early Earth several billion years ago may have been similar to the haze now hovering above Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and would have protected primordial life on the planet from the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation.

SALT LAKE CITY—According to a study presented at SNM's 57th Annual Meeting, a new radioisotope generator could enhance images produced by a molecular imaging technique known as positron emission tomography (PET). The generator, in combination with instant synthesis kits that introduce target constituents like peptides to the mix, could be used to produce molecular imaging agents that enhance the range of targeting capabilities in diagnostic scans, providing physicians with a much broader portrait of how biological processes are working and why.

The Earth and Moon were created as the result of a giant collision between two planets the size of Mars and Venus. Until now it was thought to have happened when the solar system was 30 million years old or approx. 4,537 million years ago. But new research from the Niels Bohr Institute shows that the Earth and Moon must have formed much later – perhaps up to 150 million years after the formation of the solar system. The research results have been published in the scientific journal, Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Washington, DC – Preliminary findings from a unique study with sunitinib suggest that it might be possible to tweak the dosage of chemotherapy drugs used to treat HIV-positive cancer patients to achieve therapeutic benefit. Given the type of drug cocktail patients use to treat their HIV, much more or considerably less chemotherapy may be warranted, say the researchers, part of the NCI-supported AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC). The trial design is being presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Tropical Cyclone Phet made landfall in Oman on June 3 and is now back in the Arabian Sea and headed toward a second landfall in Pakistan this weekend. NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites have captured infrared and visible views of the storm.

Researchers say they have discovered that methane-eating bacteria survive in a highly unique spring located on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada's extreme North.

NASA satellite imagery confirmed that Tropical cyclone 03A has intensified quickly in the last 24 hours, and as a result, the storm has been renamed Tropical Storm Phet. Phet is located in the Arabian Sea, Northern Indian Ocean, and is threatening the Indian and Pakistani coastlines.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – June 3, 2010 – The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has issued guidelines addressing ethnicity, gastrointestinal diseases and endoscopic procedures. The guideline suggests that colorectal cancer screening should begin at age 45 for average risk African-American men and women, and that it is recommended that colorectal cancer screening be emphasized for other minority ethnic groups that have lower screening utilization rates.

Joint source-channel coding/decoding (JSCC/JSCD) techniques have become state-of-the-art and one of the challenging research subjects in the spatial communication area. This paper addresses the basic principles of joint source-channel optimal design and classification of various existing JSCC/JSCD methods. It presents a JSCD scheme based on variable-length coding, which is capable of providing reliable resolutions and has shown superior performance compared with the existing ones.

TEMPE, Ariz. – It's amazing what cleaning your glasses can reveal. A mineral-scouting instrument developed at Arizona State University has found an outcrop of rock rich in carbonates in the Columbia Hills of Gusev Crater on Mars, according to a report published online June 3 in the journal Science. The instrument is onboard NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit.

DETROIT – The size of tumors in prostate cancer patients is directly linked to their weight, according to a new six-year study conducted by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

The research team, led by Nilesh Patil, M.D., of Henry Ford's Vattikuti Urology Institute and Department of Radiology, found heavier patients, or those with the highest body mass index (BMI), also had the largest tumors. They discovered the connection after studying 3,327 patients who had undergone robotic removal of their cancerous prostate glands and surrounding tissue.

When loaded with an anticancer drug, a delivery system based on a novel material called nanosponge is three to five times more effective at reducing tumor growth than direct injection.

That is the conclusion of a paper published in the June 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research.