Childhood cancer survival trends in Queensland 1956-80.

The true survival rates for the various forms of childhood cancer are best determined from a population-based study rather than from the results of clinical trials. Population-based survival rates have been calculated for four periods between 1956 and 1980 in Queensland. There was a significant improvement in survival for children who developed cancer after 1973 compared with those diagnosed before this date. There has however been no significant improvement in the survival rate for childhood cancer overall, or for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia since 1973. Over the 25 year period significant trends in survival rates were seen in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, Wilms' tumour, medulloblastoma, and retinoblastoma. No such trend was seen for acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia, neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, juvenile or anaplastic astrocytoma, brain stem glioma, histiocytosis X, or bone tumours. There is a need for continuing research into better methods of treatment of childhood cancer

Sunburn and malignant melanoma.

We investigated the relationship between cutaneous malignant melanoma and multiple sunburns in the Queensland population. Interview data were gathered from 236 case-control pairs concerning their lifetime experience of severe sunburns, their occupational and recreational sun exposure, and their skin type. Excluding the lentigo maligna melanoma subtype, an association between multiple sunburns and melanoma was evident. After controlling for other major risk factors there was a significant dose-response relationship (P less than 0.05): the estimated relative risk associated with 2-5 sunburns in life was 1.5, and with 6 or more was 2.4. This observation extends the hitherto circumstantial evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation and melanoma, and suggests that precautionary measures could prevent the development of this disease in a proportion of cases in fair-skinned populations

Global observations of 2 day wave coupling to the diurnal tide in a high‐altitude forecast‐assimilation system

We examine wave components in a high-altitude forecast-assimilation system that arise from nonlinear interaction between the diurnal tide and the westward traveling quasi 2 day wave. The process yields a westward traveling “sum” wave with zonal wave number 4 and a period of 16 h, and an eastward traveling “difference” wave with zonal wave number 2 and a period of 2 days. While the eastward 2 day wave has been reported in satellite temperatures, the westward 16 h wave lies outside the Nyquist limits of resolution of twice daily local time satellite sampling. Hourly output from a high-altitude forecast-assimilation model is used to diagnose the nonlinear quadriad. A steady state primitive equation model forced by tide-2 day wave advection is used to intepret the nonlinear wave products. The westward 16 h wave maximizes in the midlatitude winter mesosphere and behaves like an inertia-gravity wave. The nonlinearly generated component of the eastward 2 day wave maximizes at high latitudes in the lower thermosphere, and only weakly penetrates to low latitudes. The 16 h and the eastward 2 day waves are of comparable amplitude and alias to the same apparent frequency when viewed from a satellite perspective

U.S./Russian lab-to-lab materials protection, control and accounting program efforts at the Institute of Inorganic Materials. Revision 1

The All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Inorganic Materials (VNIINM) performs research in nuclear power reactor fuel, spent fuel reprocessing and waste management, materials science of fissionable and reactor structural materials, metallurgy, superconducting materials, and analytical sciences. VNIINM supports the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation (MINATOM) in technologies for fabrication and processing of nuclear fuel. As a participant in the US/Russian Lab-to-Lab nuclear materials protection, control and accounting (MPC and A) program, VNIINM is providing support for measurements of nuclear materials in bulk forms by developing specifications, test and evaluation, certification, and implementation of measurement methods for such materials. In 1996, VNIINM will be working with Brookhaven staff in developing and documenting material control and accounting requirements for nuclear materials in bulk form, Livermore and Los Alamos staff in testing and evaluating gamma-ray spectrometry methods for bulk materials, Los Alamos staff in test and evaluation of neutron-coincidence counting techniques, Oak Ridge staff in accounting of bulk materials with process instrumentation, and Pacific Northwest staff on automating VNIINM`s coulometric titration system. In addition, VNIINM will develop a computerized accounting system for nuclear material within VNIINM and their storage facility. The paper will describe the status of this work and anticipated progress in 1996

Enhanced NO x in 2006 linked to strong upper stratospheric Arctic vortex

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95315/1/grl21996.pd

Gamma-ray flaring activity from the gravitationally lensed blazar PKS 1830-211 observed by Fermi LAT

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope routinely detects the highly dust-absorbed, reddened, and MeV-peaked flat spectrum radio quasar PKS 1830-211 (z=2.507). Its apparent isotropic gamma-ray luminosity (E>100 MeV) averaged over $\sim$ 3 years of observations and peaking on 2010 October 14/15 at 2.9 X 10^{50} erg s^{-1}, makes it among the brightest high-redshift Fermi blazars. No published model with a single lens can account for all of the observed characteristics of this complex system. Based on radio observations, one expects time delayed variability to follow about 25 days after a primary flare, with flux about a factor 1.5 less. Two large gamma-ray flares of PKS 1830-211 have been detected by the LAT in the considered period and no substantial evidence for such a delayed activity was found. This allows us to place a lower limit of about 6 on the gamma rays flux ratio between the two lensed images. Swift XRT observations from a dedicated Target of Opportunity program indicate a hard spectrum and with no significant correlation of X-ray flux with the gamma-ray variability. The spectral energy distribution can be modeled with inverse Compton scattering of thermal photons from the dusty torus. The implications of the LAT data in terms of variability, the lack of evident delayed flare events, and different radio and gamma-ray flux ratios are discussed. Microlensing effects, absorption, size and location of the emitting regions, the complex mass distribution of the system, an energy-dependent inner structure of the source, and flux suppression by the lens galaxy for one image path may be considered as hypotheses for understanding our results.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by the The Astrophysical Journal. Corresponding authors: S. Ciprini (ASI ASDC & INAF OAR, Rome, Italy), S. Buson (INAF Padova & Univ. of Padova, Padova, Italy), J. Finke (NRL, Washington, DC, USA), F. D'Ammando (INAF IRA, Bologna, Italy

Fermi observations of high-energy gamma-ray emission from GRB 090217A

The Fermi observatory is advancing our knowledge of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) through pioneering observations at high energies, covering more than 7 decades in energy with the two on-board detectors, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). Here we report on the observation of the long GRB 090217A which triggered the GBM and has been detected by the LAT with a significance greater than 9 sigma. We present the GBM and LAT observations and on-ground analyses, including the time-resolved spectra and the study of the temporal profile from 8 keV up to 1 GeV. All spectra are well reproduced by a Band model. We compare these observations to the first two LAT-detected, long bursts GRB 080825C and GRB 080916C. These bursts were found to have time-dependent spectra and exhibited a delayed onset of the high-energy emission, which are not observed in the case of GRB 090217A. We discuss some theoretical implications for the high-energy emission of GRBs.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. Contact Authors: Fred, Piron; Sara, Cutini; Andreas, von Kienli