Advanced Earth-to-orbit propulsion technology program overview: Impact of civil space technology initiative

The NASA Earth-to-Orbit (ETO) Propulsion Technology Program is dedicated to advancing rocket engine technologies for the development of fully reusable engine systems that will enable space transportation systems to achieve low cost, routine access to space. The program addresses technology advancements in the areas of engine life extension/prediction, performance enhancements, reduced ground operations costs, and in-flight fault tolerant engine operations. The primary objective is to acquire increased knowledge and understanding of rocket engine chemical and physical processes in order to evolve more realistic analytical simulations of engine internal environments, to derive more accurate predictions of steady and unsteady loads, and using improved structural analyses, to more accurately predict component life and performance, and finally to identify and verify more durable advanced design concepts. In addition, efforts were focused on engine diagnostic needs and advances that would allow integrated health monitoring systems to be developed for enhanced maintainability, automated servicing, inspection, and checkout, and ultimately, in-flight fault tolerant engine operations

1954: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

Preface The 1954 Abilene Christian College Lectureship was one of the best attended and most successful in the history of the school. Considerable interest was manifested in the timely theme, “Overcoming Dangerous Tendencies,” and in the two special topics, “Ways and Means of Doing Mission Work,” and “Caring For Widows and Orphans.” The reports from the mission fields were highly stimulating, and all in all, the speeches were unusually high caliber. The Panel Discussions were also on timely subjects and well presented. They received a warm response, as did also the thirty classes that were conducted each day. These classes were taught by persons expert in their particular fields, and covered a wide range of interests to the faithful, working Christian. We at Abilene Christian College predict for this book of Lectures a wide and hearty reception, and believe that its reading will issue in profit to the individual and to the church at large. J. D. Thomas Lectureship Directo

Multi-center feasibility study evaluating recruitment, variability in risk factors and biomarkers for a diet and cancer cohort in India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>India's population exhibits diverse dietary habits and chronic disease patterns. Nutritional epidemiologic studies in India are primarily of cross-sectional or case-control design and subject to biases, including differential recall of past diet. The aim of this feasibility study was to evaluate whether a diet-focused cohort study of cancer could be established in India, providing insight into potentially unique diet and lifestyle exposures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Field staff contacted 7,064 households within three regions of India (New Delhi, Mumbai, and Trivandrum) and found 4,671 eligible adults aged 35-69 years. Participants completed interviewer-administered questionnaires (demographic, diet history, physical activity, medical/reproductive history, tobacco/alcohol use, and occupational history), and staff collected biological samples (blood, urine, and toenail clippings), anthropometric measurements (weight, standing and sitting height; waist, hip, and thigh circumference; triceps, sub-scapula and supra-patella skin fold), and blood pressure measurements.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eighty-eight percent of eligible subjects completed all questionnaires and 67% provided biological samples. Unique protein sources by region were fish in Trivandrum, dairy in New Delhi, and pulses (legumes) in Mumbai. Consumption of meat, alcohol, fast food, and soft drinks was scarce in all three regions. A large percentage of the participants were centrally obese and had elevated blood glucose levels. New Delhi participants were also the least physically active and had elevated lipids levels, suggesting a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A high percentage of participants complied with study procedures including biological sample collection. Epidemiologic expertise and sufficient infrastructure exists at these three sites in India to successfully carry out a modest sized population-based study; however, we identified some potential problems in conducting a cohort study, such as limited number of facilities to handle biological samples.</p

Ethical issues in autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in advanced breast cancer: A systematic literature review

BACKGROUND: An effectiveness assessment on ASCT in locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer identified serious ethical issues associated with this intervention. Our objective was to systematically review these aspects by means of a literature analysis. METHODS: We chose the reflexive Socratic approach as the review method using Hofmann's question list, conducted a comprehensive literature search in biomedical, psychological and ethics bibliographic databases and screened the resulting hits in a 2-step selection process. Relevant arguments were assembled from the included articles, and were assessed and assigned to the question list. Hofmann's questions were addressed by synthesizing these arguments. RESULTS: Of the identified 879 documents 102 included arguments related to one or more questions from Hofmann's question list. The most important ethical issues were the implementation of ASCT in clinical practice on the basis of phase-II trials in the 1990s and the publication of falsified data in the first randomized controlled trials (Bezwoda fraud), which caused significant negative effects on recruiting patients for further clinical trials and the doctor-patient relationship. Recent meta-analyses report a marginal effect in prolonging disease-free survival, accompanied by severe harms, including death. ASCT in breast cancer remains a stigmatized technology. Reported health-related-quality-of-life data are often at high risk of bias in favor of the survivors. Furthermore little attention has been paid to those patients who were dying. CONCLUSIONS: The questions were addressed in different degrees of completeness. All arguments were assignable to the questions. The central ethical dimensions of ASCT could be discussed by reviewing the published literature

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Racial Differences in Initial Treatment for Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer: Results from the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether there were racial differences in initial treatment for clinically localized prostate cancer and investigated whether demographic, socioeconomic, clinical, or tumor characteristics could explain any racial differences. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Population-based tumor registries in Connecticut, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. PARTICIPANTS: We evaluated 1144 African-American and non-Hispanic white men, aged 50 to 74 years, with clinically localized cancer diagnosed between October 1994 and October 1995. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We obtained demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical data from patient surveys and medical record abstractions. We reported adjusted percentages for receiving treatment derived from multinomial logistic regression. We found an interaction between race and tumor aggressiveness. Among men with more aggressive cancers (PSA ≥ 20 ng/mL or Gleason score ≥ 8), African Americans were less likely to undergo radical prostatectomy than non-Hispanic whites (35.2% vs 52.0%), but more likely to receive conservative management (38.9% vs 16.3%, P= .003). Among the 71% of subjects with less aggressive cancers, African Americans and non-Hispanic whites were equally likely to receive either radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy (80.0% vs 84.5%, P= .2). CONCLUSIONS: African Americans with more aggressive cancers were less likely to undergo radical prostatectomy and more likely to be treated conservatively. These treatment differences may reflect African Americans’ greater likelihood for presenting with pathologically advanced cancer for which surgery has limited effectiveness. Among men with less aggressive cancers—the majority of cases—there were no racial differences in undergoing radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy