This week, Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes a somewhat unusual research article because it is co-authored by German high-school students. Led by astronomer Klaus Beuermann (University of Göttingen, Germany), the team [1] involves a secondary school physics teacher, three students from two high schools in Göttingen [2], and three professional astronomers.
Heavens
The perceptions of five Chinese vowel /u, o, a, y, i/ and many perceptional phenomena can be explained well by the excitation pattern peaks. The study is reported in Science in China, Series F-Information Sciences, Volume 52，Issues 10 (Oct, 2009).
It is commonly accepted that the locations of prominent energy concentrations are related to vowel quality. But, because the spectrum of a sound undergoes many significant changes after entering the peripheral auditory system, no simple determinant relation is found between acoustic formant frequencies and vowel qualities.
New research shows that the widely used pain reliever acetaminophen may be associated with an increased risk of asthma and wheezing in both children and adults exposed to the drug. Researchers from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, conducted a systematic review and metaanalysis of 19 clinical studies (total subjects=425,140) that compared the risk of asthma or wheezing with acetaminophen exposure.
CHICAGO (November 4, 2009)––Men whose prostate specific antigen (PSA) rise within 18 months of radiotherapy are more likely to develop spread and die of their disease, according to an international study led by Fox Chase Cancer Center radiation oncologist Mark K. Buyyounouski, M.D., M.S. and presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Boston, Mass. -- As flu season approaches, parents around the country are starting to face school closures. But how bad should an influenza outbreak be for a school to shut down? A study led by epidemiologists John Brownstein, PhD, and Anne Gatewood Hoen, PhD of the Children's Hospital Boston Informatics Program, in collaboration Asami Sasaki of the University of Niigata Prefecture (Niigata, Japan), tapped a detailed set of Japanese data to help guide decision making by schools and government agencies.
University of Alberta physics professor Craig Heinke has solved a mystery that lies 11,000 light years beyond Earth. A supernova (or exploding star), 20 times heavier than our sun blasted apart, leaving behind a small core that has puzzled astronomers since its discovery in 1999.
Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year mystery surrounding this object.
"The compact star at the center of this famous supernova remnant has been an enigma since its discovery," said Wynn Ho of the University of Southampton and lead author of a paper that appears in the latest issue of Nature. "Now we finally understand that it can be produced by a hot neutron star with a carbon atmosphere."
Is there such a thing as "weather" on Mars? There are some doubts, considering the planet's atmosphere is only 1 percent as dense as that of the Earth. Mars, however, definitely has clouds, drastically low temperatures and out-of-this-world dust storms, and Istvan Szunyogh, a Texas A&M professor of atmospheric sciences, has been awarded a NASA grant to analyze and forecast Martian weather.
Mars is the most Earth-like planet we know, but it is still quite different. For example, it is much colder on Mars.
ESA's comet chaser Rosetta will swing by Earth for the last time on 13 November to pick up energy and begin the final leg of its 10-year journey to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA's European Space Operations Centre will host a media briefing on that day.
Bethesda, MD (Nov. 2, 2009) – Due to the increasing complexities of treating digestive diseases, allowing gastroenterological (GI) trainee physicians the opportunity to develop enhanced abilities and experiences in specific disease areas or procedures will be a great benefit to patients, according to a "Report of the Multisociety Task Force on GI Training." Additionally, GI training programs need to measure the achievements of trainees based on specific defined competencies rather than the duration of training alone.
Tropical Depression 97W hasn't grown into a tropical storm and is now tracking through the central Philippines, far south of Manila. The storm is weakening and is dissipating, and NASA's Aqua satellite verified that the thunderstorm cloud tops are not as cold as they were yesterday, indicating a weakening storm.
At 11 a.m. local (Asia/Manila) time on November 3, TD97W had maximum sustained winds near 30 knots (34 mph) and higher gusts. It was located 160 miles east of Manila, near 14.1 North and 123.7 East. The storm is kicking up 12-foot high waves.
Typhoon Mirinae drenched the Philippines and Vietnam over the last two weeks. Typhoon Mirinae dropped heavy rain over the central Philippines after hitting as a category two typhoon with wind speeds of 85 knots (~98 mph). Mirinae weakened to a tropical storm as it moved into the South China Sea but briefly increased to typhoon strength just before hitting Vietnam on Monday, November 2 in the southern coastal province of Phu Yen.
Following the launch of ESA's SMOS satellite on 2 November, the French space agency CNES, which is responsible for operating the satellite, has confirmed that the instrument's three antenna arms have deployed as planned, and that the instrument is in good health.
COLLEGE STATION, TX—Pecan, the most valuable nut tree native to North America, is native from northern Illinois and southeastern Iowa to the Gulf Coast of the United States, where it grows abundantly along the Mississippi River, the rivers of central and eastern Oklahoma, and Texas. Popularity and consumer demand for pecans has increased the cultivation of pecan trees to other areas, while commercial production has expanded into many regions of the United States and Mexico.
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 3 – Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), a radiation therapy procedure pioneered at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) that precisely delivers a large dose of radiation to tumors, effectively controls pain in patients with cancer that has spread to the spine, according to researchers from UPCI. The results of the research will be presented this week during the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting in Chicago.