Monthly Archives: March 2014

Island Trader Vacations Reviews the World's Best Islands

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Michigan (PRWEB) March 01, 2014

Islands are found in oceans and even lakes around the world. From large to small, populated to uninhabited, islands are as diverse as the areas in which they are located. Whether it is a remote Caribbean Island or a populated island off the coast of Australia, islands make up many of the worlds most popular destinations for travel and vacations. Island Trader Vacations reviews 5 top island destinations for travel in 2014.

Bora Bora Located in the beautiful South Pacific, surrounded by pristine turquoise waters and sugar white beaches, millions of visitors choose Bora Bora as their choice as the worlds best island destination. From its luxury resorts to its peaceful and secluded lagoons, this island paradise is part of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. Offering a long and rich history in addition to its natural abundance, Bora Bora now relies on its tourism and caters to those who visit in the form of culturally rich activities, unique aquatic based resorts and wildly diverse recreational options.

Chincoteague Best known for its ponies, this lovely U.S. Island is situated off the coast of Virginia. Located near to some of the most popular and well known resort islands on the east coast, Chincoteague is a breath of fresh air, an escape to the peace and serenity of the Virginia coast of the past. A popular tourist destination, activities on and around the island include many outdoor activities, visiting the nationally protected areas, and enjoying the culture of the towns and festivals unique to the island.

Great Barrier Reef Islands Actually a group of more than 3,000 individual islands, the Great Barrier Reef Islands hold the distinction of being within an ecologically rich, unique and protected region of the world. Located off the coast of Australia, there are over 100 islands for which visitors are welcome to visit. From Daydream Island known for its secluded forests and beaches to Bedarra Islands known for its exclusivity, there is likely an island perfect for any traveler.

Prince Edward Island Made popular in the 1980s as the home of Anne of Green Gables, this lovely island is the smallest and least populated in the country of Canada. Known as the Garden in the Gulf, it is renowned for its lush green surroundings and its agriculture not to mention in ocean views and its tranquility. Celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, visitors to this beautiful island can take advantage of many unique events and festivals in honor of this sesquicentennial celebration.

Boracay Known as home to the worlds softest sand, this small yet accessible island welcomes over a million visitors each year. Part of the Philippines, Boracay is frequently named a top island in the world not just for its sand but also for its peace, its luxury resort accommodations and amenities and its stunning natural beauty.

Other top island destinations which were named included the Cayman Islands, Bali, Kauai, the Maldives, Maui, Easter Island, Marco Island and Naxos, Greece as well. Islands inspire, relax and astound millions of people each year for their uniqueness and beauty and often remoteness. Island Trader Vacations reviews invites travelers to find the islands which inspire them when they travel.

Island Trader Vacations reviews top destinations for travel. A members-only travel club, Island Trader Vacations offers members-only benefits on travel.

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Island Trader Vacations Reviews the World's Best Islands

Will traditional travel reviews die out? | By Alan Young

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By Alan Young

A recent TripAdvisor-PhoCusWright study shows that consumers read at least six to twelve travel reviews prior to booking.

That study was based on trends over the past year. However, the Internet is a fast paced and ever changing world, and there are signs that in the near future, travelers might consume reviews in a different way.

TrustYou, for example, has developed what it calls "the Meta-Review", a summary of a hotel's reputation derived from semantic analysis of reviews across the world.

The claimed reach of more than 50 million monthly unique visitors being influenced by TrustYou data on sites like Kayak or Wego.com is impressive.

We interviewed TrustYou CEO and co-founder Benjamin Jost to find out more:

What exactly are Meta-Reviews?

Meta-Reviews are a trusted summary of relevant reviews worldwide, showing the most talked about and most relevant attributes of a particular hotel, along with some special, important-to-know 'nuggets' of information that are unique to the particular hotel.

Different signals are taking into account; for example, the most recent content carries a higher weight. We also start to experiment with different weighting for verified reviews versus unverified ones.

Bottom line, think of Meta-Reviews as the Cliff's Notes for thousands and thousands of reviews; they give travelers the best possible summary of all reviews for faster, more informed booking decisions.

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Will traditional travel reviews die out? | By Alan Young

Glory To God Ministries International | Religion & Spirituality in Cathedral City – Video

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The space double-whammy: Less gravity, more radiation

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Astronauts floating weightlessly in the International Space Station may appear carefree, but years of research have shown that microgravity causes changes to the human body. Spaceflight also means exposure to more radiation. Together, microgravity and radiation exposure add up to pose serious health risks. But research is not only making space safer for astronauts, it's helping to improve health care for the Earth-bound as well.

One of the effects of space radiation is damage to DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic material in nearly every cell of our bodies. When damaged DNA repairs itself, errors can occur that increase the risk of developing cancer. A new study, MicroRNA Expression Profiles in Cultured Human Fibroblast in Space -- Micro-7 for short -- will examine the effect of gravity on DNA damage and repair. Because there is no controlled radiation source aboard the space station, the cells will be treated with bleomycin, a chemotherapy drug, to induce DNA damage.

"When a cell in the human body is exposed to radiation, DNA will be broken and repaired, which is considered the initiation stage of tumor development," explains principal investigator Honglu Wu, Ph.D., at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Cells damaged from radiation exposure in space also experience microgravity, which we know changes gene expressions even without radiation exposure." That equals the space double-whammy for the human body.

Previous studies have exposed cells or organisms on Earth to high-energy charged particles to simulate space radiation, using the resulting cell damage or induction of tumors to predict the risk of cancer for astronauts from radiation. But those predictions don't include the effects of microgravity, making them potentially less accurate than the space based Micro-7 study. This investigation will address that by examining the effects of bleomycin-induced DNA damage aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The study will be the first in space to use cultured human fibroblasts, the non-dividing cells that make up most of the human body. Fibroblasts form the framework for organs and tissues and play a critical role in wound healing and other bodily functions.

The investigation is scheduled to launch to the orbital complex aboard SpaceX-3 March 16, 2014. Micro-7 is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and is funded by NASA's Space Biology Program. Bioserve Space Technologies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo. is providing the experiment hardware and implementing the science payload aboard the space station.

Wu will focus on how these cells respond to DNA damage in space by examining changes in a small, non-coding form of RNA known as microRNA, which is known to affect how genes are expressed in cells. The investigation will compare the cells in spaceflight with those on the ground to identify unknown functions of microRNA and the functions they regulate in our bodies. Similarities and differences in the space and Earth data will also improve our knowledge of fundamental biological processes critical for maintaining normal cell function.

In the future, Wu would like to have a controlled radiation source, such as a portable X-ray machine, on the space station to expose cultured cells or small animals to specific doses of radiation in space. Cells or organisms on the ground would be exposed to the same dose, and the DNA repair in both compared. Wu says that may be possible in the near future, perhaps by modifying a bone density scanner or other equipment aboard the space station.

Researchers can use data from Micro-7 in future Earth-based studies to examine whether the cell changes observed during spaceflight are seen in disease states of tissues and organs as well. Ultimately, this may help scientists better understand disease and this type of research could even lead to development of new treatment drugs.

"If we learn more about how cells repair DNA damage more efficiently or less efficiently in space, that knowledge also will be helpful for cancer radiotherapy or treatment with radiation," Wu adds. "A challenge in medical treatment is that certain tumors are highly resistant to radiation. But there could be various ways to make them more radiosensitive, or less resistant to radiation. That would help provide more effective treatment." And also make those weightless astronauts a bit more carefree.

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The space double-whammy: Less gravity, more radiation

Better Cancer Treatments May Follow Research In Outer Space

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Image Caption: Dr. Dennis Morrison poses with the Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing System flight hardware that was used on the International Space Station to produce microcapsules for cancer treatment delivery. Credit: NASA

Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Although a necessary evil for a vast amount of people, systemic cancer treatment is an invasive procedure with devastating side effects.

People undergoing cancer treatment often experience nausea, immune suppression, hair loss and organ failure. All of this is endured with the hope of exterminating the cancerous tissues in the body. If a treatment were developed to specifically target the cancerous tissue instead of treating the patients entire body, it would provide a welcome alternative to using toxic levels of chemotherapy and radiation. Quality of life for patients with cancer would drastically improve with such treatments.

Fascinatingly, the research for such therapy began in space and could soon provide such treatment options here on Earth.

Aboard the International Space Station (ISS), there is the unique opportunity to study substances in a microgravity environment. Currently there is a particular amount of research that has made substantial advancements in cancer therapy. This process is known as microencapsulation and provides the ability to create tiny, liquid-filled, biodegradable micro-balloons which contain particular mixtures of concentrated anti-tumor drugs. With the use of specialized needles, a doctor can inject the micro-balloons, also called microcapsules, into specific treatment sites within a cancer patient. New targeted therapy similar to this could revolutionize cancer treatment delivery.

In order to develop this type of technology, it was necessary to utilize the microgravity environment aboard the space station to understand microencapsulation before the experiments could be performed on Earth. Dennis Morrison, PhD, retired NASA principal investigator of the Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing System-II (MEPS-II) study and current vice president and director for microencapsulation research and development at NuVue Therapeutics, Inc., explained, The technique that we have for making these microcapsules could not be done on the ground, because the different densities of the liquids would layer, but in space, since there is not sedimentation due to gravity, everything goes spherical.

Using a mixture of 80 percent water and 20 percent oil, the MEPS operations in microgravity were successful in uniting the two liquids in a way incapable of production on the Earth. In the unique conditions of space, the liquid-filled microcapsules spontaneously formed into spherical, tiny liquid-filled bubbles that were encased with a thin, semi-permeable outer membrane.

Since each molecule on a liquids surface in space is pulled with equal tension by its neighbors, the surface tension causes liquids to form into spheres. This MEPS-II system effectively allowed liquids to combine in a bubble shape that let the fluids interface instead of sit on top of each other.

We were able to figure out what parameters we needed to control so we could make the same kind of microcapsules on the ground, said Morrison. Now, we no longer have to go to space. Space was our teacher, our classroom to figure out how we could make these on Earth.

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Better Cancer Treatments May Follow Research In Outer Space

NASA Solicitation: Research Opportunities for Flight Experiments in Space Biology

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This NASA Research Announcement (NRA) solicits hypothesis-driven space-flight research in Space Biology (SB) to be conducted on ISS. NASA SB experiments have one or more of the following primary goals: 1) to effectively use microgravity and the other characteristics of the space environment to enhance our understanding of basic biological processes; 2) to develop the scientific and technological foundations for a safe, productive human presence in space for extended periods and in preparation for exploration; and 3) to apply this knowledge and technology to improve our nation's competitiveness, education, and the quality of life on Earth. NASA SB experiments will be designed to discover how space flight affects a diverse group of microorganisms, plants, and animals; study the effects of gravity (g) across the g-spectrum, i.e., from micro- to hyper-gravity; and characterize the biological effects of radiation, magnetic fields, and the interaction among species in the unusual environments of space and spacecraft. In this NRA, selection preference will be given to proposals developed by teams of investigators that provide a multifaceted, integrated project to understand some aspect of adaptation to space by biological systems. Individual investigator lead proposals may be submitted, but selection preference will be given to team proposals, and the budgets for individual projects must be appropriate for the work proposed.

This solicitation (NRA NNH14ZTT002N), entitled, "Research Opportunities for Flight Experiments in Space Biology," will be available on or about February 28, 2014. This solicitation will be found by opening the NASA Research Opportunities homepage athttp://tinyurl.com/SB-ILSRA.

Short (1-5 pages) Step-1 proposals will be due on March 28, 2014 at 5 PM Eastern Time, and invited full-length Step-2 proposals will be due on May 23, 2014 at 5 PM Eastern Time. Proposals must be submitted electronically by an authorized official of the proposing organization. Proposers can use either NSPIRES (http://nspires.nasaprs.com/) orGrants.gov(http://www.grants.gov) for proposal submission. NASAs selection of research projects will be guided by recommendations of the National Research Councils 2011 Decadal Survey Report, Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13048.html).

All categories of U.S. institutions are eligible to submit proposals in response to this NRA. Principal Investigators (PIs) may collaborate with investigators from universities, Federal Government laboratories, the private sector, state and local government laboratories and other countries.

Every organization that intends to submit a proposal in response to this NRA must be registered with NSPIRES, and such registration must identify the authorized organizational representative(s) who will submit electronic proposals. Instructions on how to register in NSPIRES will be described in the NRA. Each electronic proposal requires the registration of principal investigators and other participants (e.g. co-investigators). Potential proposers and proposing organizations are urged to access the system(s) well in advance of the proposal due date(s) to familiarize themselves with its structure and enter the requested information. Questions about this NRA may be addressed to the contacts referenced in the full solicitation document.

This is a broad agency announcement as specified in FAR 6.102 (d)(2). All awards resulting from selections of proposals to this NRA will be grants or cooperative agreements.

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NASA Solicitation: Research Opportunities for Flight Experiments in Space Biology

Future of space travel from Wallops Island looks bright

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Launching rockets from Wallops Island is a big deal in Virginia now. But the possibilities that exist for space travel in the near future could be an even bigger deal.

We have developed a space port that proves we can launch into space. We launch critical missions to the International Space Station and were looking forward to building on that, says Dale Nash, the Executive Director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority.

The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority at ODU makes some of the big decisions when it comes to space travel from our shores.

And one thing that has been a big topic recently is the possibility of human spaceflight from Wallops Island.

Any time you have astronauts on, your cargo is extremely precious, and you pay a lot of attention to that. So it`s a different game in many ways. But don`t discount what we`ve done so far because that`s very significant, too. It is the supplies and the lifeline to the astronauts on the International Space Station being launched from here. But that would be a very big deal, Nash says.

In order to continue the launches, the board is working with NASA and the Army Corps to replenish sand and restore dunes to protect the infrastructure at Wallops Island.

Its very beneficial. It was that sand buildup that helped us ride out Superstorm Sandy very well. We didnt really receive any kind of damage to the launch pad, just some erosion. This is building it back up, Nash says.

So from the Space Station to the moon, these board members are playing a big role in keeping Wallops Island on the map for space travel.

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Future of space travel from Wallops Island looks bright