Heavens

Cost-effectiveness studies are widely used to guide prescribing policy in many countries, as part of health technology assessment programmes. However, a new study published this week in PLoS Medicine by Tjeerd-Pieter van Staa and colleagues suggests that cost-effectiveness analyses based on data from randomized controlled trials may not be realistic enough to accurately inform policy.

A study from Canada published this week in PLoS Medicine suggests an association between tighter glycemic control and an increased risk of a motor vehicle crash in diabetic adults. Using a population-based case control analysis over a 2 year period, Donald Redelmeier and colleagues from the University of Toronto studied the association between measured glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in diabetic drivers and the risk of a motor vehicle crash.

Almost 1 million preschool children from low-income families are enrolled in Head Start, a national program for young children that readies them for school. While the program provides them with educational and social skill enhancement, a study authored by Temple University researchers finds that it also goes above and beyond the current federal recommendations for promoting healthy eating and exercise habits among this group of children who are at high risk for obesity.

The Materials on the International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) 7, designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), launched aboard STS-129 on November, 16, for transport to the International Space Station.

Dec. 7, 2009 -- A thin rain of charged particles continually bombards our atmosphere from outer space. The mysterious particles were first detected 100 years ago but until 10 years ago when a new type of telescope began to come online physicists weren't sure where the "cosmic rays" came from or how they were generated. They suspected the particles were accelerated by supernova shockwaves, but suspicions aren't proof.

A bull's-eye in the hunt for planets: astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have discovered and directly imaged a faint celestial body that orbits the star GJ 758. Its mass is estimated to be between 10 and 40 Jupiter masses. Accordingly, it is either a giant planet or a brown dwarf, a would-be sun. One thing is certain: with a temperature of around 330 degrees Celsius, GJ 758 B is the coldest companion of a Sun-like star ever to be directly imaged (arXiv.org/abs/0911.1127).

"Astronomers are left in the dark, and for once, we do not enjoy it," says Christine Nicholls from Mount Stromlo Observatory, Australia, lead author of a paper reporting the study. "We have obtained the most comprehensive set of observations to date for this class of Sun-like stars, and they clearly show that all the possible explanations for their unusual behaviour just fail."

RENO, Nev. – Graham Kent, Nevada Seismological Laboratory director at the University of Nevada, Reno is leading the installation, testing and maintenance of a novel way to monitor forests fires and other environmental data with the prototype of a new camera system developed by Sony-Europe.

The new 360-degree, solar-powered camera and wi-fi system was installed at Tahoe City, Calif. in anticipation of its debut Dec. 12 via the Internet from Copenhagen during the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The "walls" of System 97W have been breached, and residents in the Western Pacific Ocean no longer have a tropical cyclone to worry about today. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center cancelled their "formation alert" for System 97W. System 97W is following in Nida's footsteps and is headed for dissipation. Nida has now officially dissipated.

An international team of scientists that includes an astronomer from Princeton University has made the first direct observation of a planet-like object orbiting a star similar to the sun.

The finding marks the first discovery made with the world's newest planet-hunting instrument on the Hawaii-based Subaru Telescope and is the first fruit of a novel research collaboration announced by the University in January.

What happens when a really gargantuan star – one hundreds of times bigger than our sun – blows up? Although a theory developed years ago describes what the explosion of such an enormous star should look like, no one had actually observed one – until now. An international team, led by scientists in Israel, and including researchers from Germany, the US, UK and China, tracked a supernova – an exploding star – for over a year and a half, and found that it neatly fits the predictions for the explosion of a star of over 150 times the sun's mass.

NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites flew over Tropical Depression Nida and System 97W in the Western Pacific Ocean and noticed that one is fading while the other is powering up.

The Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies on NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of the two storms in one satellite pass. Nida still had a swirl to its clouds although the system has continued to weaken. On the visible imagery, System 97W currently appears as a rounded area of clouds with no established center.

Noted for harbouring Eta Carinae — one of the wildest and most massive stars in our galaxy — the impressive Carina Nebula also houses a handful of massive clusters of young stars. The youngest of these stellar families is the Trumpler 14 star cluster, which is less than one million years old — a blink of an eye in the Universe's history. This large open cluster is located some 8000 light-years away towards the constellation of Carina (the Keel).

HOUSTON - Latino men who are more adapted to U.S. culture are more likely to quit smoking than their less-acculturated counterparts, according to research by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center published in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, which has a special emphasis on tobacco.

(Dec. 3, 2009) – The worldwide safety experience of endoscopist-administered propofol sedation now exceeds 600,000 patients. The low rate of serious adverse events underscores the safety of nonanesthesiologist-administered propofol (NAAP) for gastrointestinal (GI) procedures, provided that it is administered by a team of individuals who have received training specific to the administration of propofol according to the "Position statement: nonanesthesiologist administration of propofol for GI endoscopy" issued by the four major gastroenterology and hepatology societies.