Heavens

New research highlights the robust presence of antibiotic stewardship practices in most Veterans Administration-affiliated facilities, manifested in both formal and informal policies. The study was published online today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

Now that Japan's Hitomi spacecraft is safely in orbit, a team of NASA scientists is now ready to begin gathering data about the high-energy universe with an advanced instrument that carries never-before-flown technologies.

Nanoparticles - tiny particles 100,000 times smaller than the width of a strand of hair - can be found in everything from drug delivery formulations to pollution controls on cars to HD TV sets. With special properties derived from their tiny size and subsequently increased surface area, they're critical to industry and scientific research.

They're also expensive and tricky to make.

APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment telescope, is located at 5100 metres above sea level on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile's Atacama region. The ATLASGAL survey took advantage of the unique characteristics of the telescope to provide a detailed view of the distribution of cold dense gas along the plane of the Milky Way galaxy [1].

On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes 29 and 36 times the mass of the Sun. Such an event is expected to be dark, but the Fermi Space Telescope detected a gamma-ray burst just a fraction of a second after LIGO's signal. New research suggests that the two black holes might have resided inside a single, massive star whose death generated the gamma-ray burst.

Alcohol-content-based taxation or minimum unit pricing (MUP) are both predicted to reduce health inequalities more than taxation based on product value (ad valorem taxes) or alcohol tax increases under the current system (excise duty plus value added tax) in England, according to research published this week in PLOS Medicine.

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite saw that Tropical Cyclone Winston maintained a pinhole eye as it tracked east of southern Vanuatu's islands in the Southern Pacific Ocean on Feb. 23, 2016. Infrared imagery showed bands of strong thunderstorms were wrapping into the low-level center of the storm.

MELBOURNE, FLA. -- One of the biggest quests in astrophysics is to find Earth-like planets around other stars - places where life may exist. Regular telescopes are not good at directly imaging such small objects because a host star's light generally drowns out the relatively dimmer light of a potential planet.

But a new development in space imaging may solve that vexing problem.

From the Yellow River in China to the Mississippi River in Louisiana, researchers are racing to better understand and mitigate the degradation of some of the world's most important river deltas, according to a University of Colorado Boulder faculty member.

A new study supports the theory that the detrimental effects of low-level exposure to mercury may be outweighed by the beneficial effects of fish consumption.

The study finds little evidence of harm in infants whose mothers had low fish consumption and low mercury exposure. In fact, infants of mothers with higher mercury exposure during pregnancy and who consumed more fish had better attention and needed less special handling during a newborn exam. This likely was due to the beneficial nutritional effects of fish consumption, according to the researchers.

The research project, called Access to Justice for Children with Mental Disabilities, was designed to address a large gap in this area with the goal of improving public policies on the national and European levels.

Influenza is able to mask itself, so that the virus is not initially detected by our immune system. This is the result of new research from Aarhus University. The researchers behind the study hope that the discovery can be used to develop better treatment against influenza and chronic inflammation conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- The danger of acquiring a computer virus or spyware used to come with the risk of visiting the dark, sketchy corners of the Internet. But now trusted and harmless smartphone apps like MyFitnessPal and Candy Crush carry their own risks.

"Even reputable apps can lead users to websites hosting malicious content," said Yan Chen, professor of computer science at the Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering. "No matter what app you use, you are not immune to malicious ads."

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a chip that allows new radar cameras to be made a hundred times smaller than current ones.

With this NTU technology, radar cameras that usually weigh between 50 kg and 200 kg and are commonly used in large satellites can be made to become as small as palm-sized.

Despite being small, they can produce images that are of the same high quality if not better compared to conventional radar cameras. They are also 20 times cheaper to produce and consume at least 75 per cent less power.

A study led by Drexel University researchers suggests that survivors of sexual abuse who seek guidance and support in online forums may be doing so because they find comfort in the relative anonymity the forums provide, which allows them to speak candidly about their experience and be direct in asking for help.