NASA Discusses Curiosity Radiation FIndings

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NASA will host a media teleconference at 2:30 p.m. EDT (18:30 UTC) Thursday, May 30, to present new findings from the Mars Science Laboratory Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) aboard the rover Curiosity.

The journal Science has embargoed details until 2 p.m. May 30.

Briefing participants:

-- Donald M. Hassler, RAD principal investigator and program director, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), San Antonio -- Cary Zeitlin, principal scientist, SwRI -- Eddie Semones, spaceflight radiation health officer, NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston -- Chris Moore, deputy director of advanced exploration systems, NASA Headquarters, Washington

For dial-in information, media representatives should e-mail their name, affiliation and telephone number to Trent Perrotto at trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov by noon EDT May 30.

Visuals will be posted at the start of the teleconference on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory website: http://go.nasa.gov/curiositytelecon

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Contact: Trent J. Perrotto NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. +1 202-358-1100 trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov

SwRI and Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, built RAD with funding from NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and Germany's national aerospace research center, Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project. NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington manages the Mars Exploration Program.

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NASA Discusses Curiosity Radiation FIndings

NASA engineer helps advance hypersonic flight

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In the three years since he joined NASA as a research engineer, 29-year-old Manan Vyas has accomplished two major technical feats in the highly challenging area of aeronautics.

One will allow for more realistic and effective flight testing of space vehicles and high-speed aircraft, both for military and passenger use. The other will help the U.S. Air Force retest a hypersonic engine that previously failed to ignite and propel an experimental aircraft, a critical step toward advancing the technology.

(Sam Kittner/Kittner.com)

Vyas work comes in the field of hypersonic propulsionthat is, speeds several times faster than the speed of sound. It is a souped-up version of supersonic propulsionanything above the speed of soundthe 20th-century innovation that thrilled the world with the launch of the Concorde passenger jet that could fly from New York to Paris in less than 3.5 hours. Hypersonic propulsion is considered the final frontier of aeronautics because of the huge technical difficulties that need to be solved.

The team that Vyas works with at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland designs different types of hypersonic-propulsion systems, brings them into wind tunnels and tweaks them as necessary. When developing new technologies, simulations are a critical tool to help understand and predict how the test conditions may be different from actual flight.

Vyas first achievement verified what many in the field had long suspectedthat the airflow in the wind tunnels that are used to replicate flight conditions has a chemical composition different from actual atmospheric conditions and leads to different combustion processes. In technical terms, he performed complex simulations using computational fluid dynamics and sophisticated chemistry, turbulence and heat-transfer models.

His investigation produced first-of-their-kind results and underscored that significant care must be taken when replicating flight conditions in wind tunnels and testing supersonic combustion.

Manans work has helped us understand the differences between actual flight and the simulated environment, which before his work was unknown, said Dhanireddy Reddy, chief of NASAs Aeropropulsion Division. He has only been out of school for three years and has made significant contributions to NASA Glenn.

Jih-Fen Lei, director of NASAs Research and Technology Directorate agreed. Without his work, we would not have the confidence we need.

High-speed flight has implications far in the future for reusable space vehicles, long-distance cruise missiles, greatly reduced travel times for passenger jets, and other military and civilian applications, said George Schmidt, deputy director of NASAs Research and Technology Directorate. Researchers predict that use of the new technology could allow the 18-hour trip from New York to Tokyo to be reduced to two hours in airplanes reaching 15 times the speed of sound.

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NASA engineer helps advance hypersonic flight

How 3D Printers Could Reinvent NASA Space Food

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A NASA-funded project that aims to transform a 3D printer into a space kitchen could one day reinvent how astronauts eat in the final frontier.

NASA officials confirmed this week that the space agency awarded $125,000 to the Austin, Texas-based company Systems and Materials Research Consultancy (SMRC) to study how to make nutritious and efficient space food with a 3D-printerduring long space missions. The project made headlines this week largely because of the first item on the menu: a 3D-printed space pizza.

Future astronauts on deep-space mission will face a host of health and sustenance challenges. A roundtrip from Earth to Mars, for instance, could last several years and require thousands of meals for an astronaut crew. [10 Amazing 3D-Printed Objects]

"The current food system wouldn't meet the nutritional needs and five-year shelf life required for a mission to Mars or other long duration missions," NASA officials said in a statement. "Because refrigeration and freezing require significant spacecraft resources, current NASA provisions consist solely of individually prepackaged shelf stable foods, processed with technologies that degrade the micronutrients in the foods."

NASA officials said SMRC will explore whether a3D-printedfood system will be able to provide nutrient stability and a wide variety of foods from shelf stable ingredients, while minimizing waste and saving time for space crews.

Engineers at SMRC are apparently envisioning a system that can "print" dishes using layers of food powders that will have a shelf life of three decades.

"The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form," Anjan Contractor, a senior mechanical engineer at SMRC, toldQuartz, which first reported the project. "We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years."

Contractor already printed chocolate and now is working on a prototype to print a pizza, according to Quartz. NASA later issued a statement about the Small Business Innovation Research phase I contract that was given to SMRC.

This initial six-month project could lead to a phase II study, but NASA officials said the technology is still years away from being tested on an actual flight.

Besides printing celestial pizza, 3D printing could have other uses in space. Also called additive manufacturing, the technology could allow astronauts to make replacement parts for spacecraft or even extraterrestrial habitats, like alunar base.

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How 3D Printers Could Reinvent NASA Space Food

Convocation address Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine May 23, 2013 – Video

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Convocation address Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine May 23, 2013
Jon Lorsch, Ph.D., Professor of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, delivers the keynote address at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Convoca...

By: Johns Hopkins Medicine

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Convocation address Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine May 23, 2013 - Video

GOCC Sabbath Class: Spiritual Healing vs. Frankenstein Medicine {Part 9} finale’ – Video

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GOCC Sabbath Class: Spiritual Healing vs. Frankenstein Medicine {Part 9} finale #39;
Gathering of Christ Church Phone: 888*334*3330 Email: gatheringas1@aol.com http://www.gatheringofchrist.org/ Blogtalkradio: http://m.blogtalkradio.com/gocchu...

By: Judah #39;s Back

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GOCC Sabbath Class: Spiritual Healing vs. Frankenstein Medicine {Part 9} finale' - Video

Editorial: Noble motives behind UW Medicine-PeaceHealth partnership

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AN agreement between the University of Washingtons medical system and Catholic-sponsored PeaceHealth should not be mistaken for a merger. Mergers between secular and religious hospitals, which often dont provide abortion care or end-of-life services, has been a trend that threatens to make those services harder to access.

The mission of the proposed strategic affiliation between UW Medicine and PeaceHealth is noble and deserves a chance to work. Together they wrote off a combined $425 million in charity care last year.

But many questions remain.

In the era of health-care reform, academic institutions like UW Medicine rely on partnerships to advance science, train the next generation of health-care providers and improve patient outcomes. Community hospitals like PeaceHealth need a place to send patients for care they arent able to provide.

As the organizations codifythe terms of an informal network, they should also work to ease tensions and answer the concerns of many in the communities they serve.

How will they reconcile inherent differences in their missions? UW Medicine offers the full spectrum of health services. PeaceHealth limits abortion care and prohibits end-of-life services within its facilities.

Will UW students be trained to provide comprehensive care in PeaceHealth settings? If not, where will that learning occur?

What is PeaceHealths relationship with the Catholic church? The letter of intent makes no mention of religion. Ignoring this important affiliation on paper invites suspicion.

Are there long-term implications? The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington warns similar agreements have led to hospitals being taken over by Catholic organizations. Though PeaceHealth is independent today, its officials negotiated with the more conservative Catholic Health Initiatives to blend operations. Talks were suspended in April, but critics are leery of their public pledge to strengthen their respective ministries in the Pacific Northwest.

Maximum transparency and clarity would strengthen the UW Medicine-PeaceHealth affiliation and help them fulfill the greater goal of building a healthy community.

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Editorial: Noble motives behind UW Medicine-PeaceHealth partnership

Scientists taking Chinese medicine west

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By Pamela Boykoff, CNN

updated 8:07 PM EDT, Mon May 27, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Hong Kong (CNN) -- At Chi-Med's labs in Shanghai, a group of 70 chemists has been working for a decade to try and crack the mysteries of Chinese medicine.

The company's scientists are attempting to break 1,300 medicinal herbs into their component parts and then test them for global use against diseases.

It's an ambitious effort and one that looks close to paying off. Chi-Med, in partnership with Nestle, has started the first worldwide phase III clinical testing trials -- the final step before approval for sale -- for a botanical drug based on Chinese Traditional Medicine.

If Chi-Med and Nestle succeed in winning U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, the companies will be at the forefront of efforts to export Chinese medicine beyond its loyal following at home. They'll also have tackled the central problem in taking Chinese medicine global: how do you get a centuries-old remedy through the rigors of modern government regulation?

"The simpler the product, the better at this stage," says Chi-Med CEO Christian Hogg. "The more similar it is to conventional drugs, the better from the FDA standpoint." That's why the company has started with a drug called HMPL-004, which treats inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

The testing was made possible by a change in the FDA policies and procedures in 2004 regarding botanical drug products.

The new guidelines removed some of the obstacles involved in getting an investigational new drug application (IND), the first step in getting a drug developed and marketed in the U.S.

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Scientists taking Chinese medicine west

BG Medicine Announces Late-Breaker Oral Presentation of New Data on the BGM Galectin-3(R) Test in Heart Failure

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WALTHAM, Mass., May 28, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BG Medicine, Inc. (BGMD) today announced the presentation of new clinical research data on the BGM Galectin-3(R) test in heart disease at the 2013 European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure Congress (ESC-HF) in Lisbon, Portugal. Among the highlights was a late-breaking oral presentation of results from the Aldo-DHF Biomarker Substudy which demonstrated the usefulness of galectin-3 testing for assessing functional capacity and clinical prognosis in patients diagnosed with a form of heart failure known as Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF).i Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction is the fastest growing type of clinical heart failure in the United States and Europe, disproportionately affecting women and accounting for one-third to one-half of all hospital admissions for heart failure.ii

The Aldo-DHF study findings were presented by Dr. Frank Edelmann of the Department of Cardiology and Pneumology and the German Center for Cardiovascular Research at the University of Gottingen. The title of Dr. Edelmann's late-breaking special sessions oral presentation was Galectin-3 Reflects Functional Capacity and Clinical Outcome in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (The Aldo-DHF Biomarker Substudy.)

"Galectin-3 has the potential to be a valuable test in clinical risk stratification for heart failure patients. In this study of 422 patients with diagnosed HFpEF, elevated galectin-3 levels, and particularly changes in galectin-3 over time, were statistically predictive of subsequent hospitalizations and mortality," commented Dr. Edelmann.

"The data presented at ESC-HF further demonstrate that galectin-3 may be an important determinant of heart failure risk across the clinical spectrum of disease," stated Paul Sohmer, President and CEO of BG Medicine. "Unplanned hospitalizations of patients with heart failure are a major cost burden on healthcare systems, particularly among patients with a diagnosis of HFpEF, one of the fastest growing but most difficult types of heart failure to identify and treat. The data presented at ESC-HF suggest that galectin-3 testing may help to identify HFpEF patients who are at risk of near-term adverse events."

In addition to the presentation of the Aldo-DHF Biomarker Substudy, other research on galectin-3 in heart disease presented at the ESC-HF meeting included:

- Reduction in 30 Day Death and Heart Failure Rehospitalization with Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonists: An Analysis from the COACH Study, A. Maisel (San Diego, US), et. al.

- Late-breaking Research Abstract Presentation

- Galectin-3 in Heart Failure with Preserved Versus Reduced Ejection Fraction, R. Santhanakrishnan (Singapore), et al.

- Abstract P-1737

- Elevated Plasma Galectin-3 Levels Correlate with Echocardiographic Parameters of Diastolic Dysfunction in Patients with Stable Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF), B. Munoz Calvo (Alcala de Henares, Spain), et al.

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BG Medicine Announces Late-Breaker Oral Presentation of New Data on the BGM Galectin-3(R) Test in Heart Failure

Asia-Pacific Nuclear Medicine/Radiopharmaceuticals Market Worth $825 Million by 2017

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DALLAS, May 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Asia-Pacific Nuclear Medicine/Radiopharmaceuticals Market & Stable Isotopes [SPECT/PET Radioisotopes (Technetium, F-18)], [Beta/Alpha Radiation Therapy (I131, Y-90)], [Applications (Cancer/Oncology, Cardiac)] & (Deuterium, C-13)-Forecast to 2017" analyzes and studies the major market drivers, restraints, and opportunities in Japan, China, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and Rest of Asia.

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http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/asia-pacific-nuclear-medicine-radiopharmaceuticals-market-1140.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

This report studies the Asia-Pacific nuclear medicine market over the forecast period of 2012-2017.

The Asia-Pacific radiopharmaceutical market was valued at $500.8 million in 2012 and is poised to reach $824.9 million by 2017 at a CAGR of 10.5%.

Similar to the global nuclear medicine market, the Asia-Pacific region is also minimizing its dependency on nuclear reactor by introducing hospital-based cyclotron facilities. This paves the way for novel isotopes such as Tl-201, F-18, and Rb-82 to capitalize on opportunities in the growing diagnostics market. Besides the gigantic Tc-99m market, florbetapir F 18 and F18-FDG are gaining popularity through their applications for Alzheimers disease and diagnosis of brain tumors. Nihon Medi Physics, Covidien, Fujifilm, and ANSTO contributed more than 75% to the Asia-Pacific NuclearMedicine/RadiopharmaceuticalsMarket in 2012.

It is estimated that Tc-99m diagnostic procedures are expected to increase by more than 30% in the developing markets of the Asia-Pacific region, including India, Australia, and South Korea, between 2010 and 2030. The scheduled shutdown of the NRU reactor in Canada in 2016 and OSIRIS in France in 2018 will not have any major impact in the near future, since demand in this geographic region is compensated by local reactors such as ANSTO. Radiopharmaceuticals are under clinical trials to extend applications. For instance, preference for radiopharmaceuticals in neurological indications such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia are increasing besides conventional applications such as cardiology and oncology. Furthermore, upcoming radioisotopes such as Ra-223 (Alpharadin) and Ga-68 possess huge potential for clinical applications.

Japan is the dominant Market for Diagnostic Radioisotopes with almost 40% share and has around 1,600 gamma cameras, installed in about 1,120 institutions; PET diagnosis has increased dramatically after 2002. The total number of PET institutes in Japan has increased around 6-7 times in the last 10 years. Among Asia-Pacific countries, India, South Korea, and Australia will be significant markets due to rising healthcare budgets and increasing popularity of different radiopharmaceuticals in various clinical indications. Processors such as ANSTO and other players from different geographies run reactors that are involved in the irradiation of U-235 to make crude isotopes. They follow various strategies to achieve sustainable growth, one of which is shifting to Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) from High Enriched Uranium (HEU). These key players were mainly involved in strategic agreements and contracts with other institutes and players, while generator manufacturers followed several strategies to maintain a sustainable supply chain.

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Asia-Pacific Nuclear Medicine/Radiopharmaceuticals Market Worth $825 Million by 2017