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Mars Base

First drug to improve heart failure mortality in over a decade - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...-failure-mortality-decade.html

scibyte96 scibyte97 heart

shared by Mars Base on 01 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Coenzyme Q10 decreases all cause mortality by half
  • results of a multicentre randomised double blind trial
  • It is the first drug to improve heart failure mortality in over a decade
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) occurs naturally in the body and is essential to survival
  • CoQ10 works as an electron carrier in the mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cells, to produce energy and is also a powerful antioxidant
  • CoQ10 levels are decreased in the heart muscle of patients with heart failure, with the deficiency becoming more pronounced as heart failure severity worsens
  • Double blind controlled trials have shown that CoQ10 improves symptoms, functional capacity and quality of life in patients with heart failure with no side effects
  • until now, no trials have been statistically powered to address effects on survival
  • study randomised 420 patients with severe heart failure
  • to CoQ10 or placebo and followed them for 2 years
  • primary endpoint was time to first major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE)
  • unplanned hospitalisation due to worsening of heart failure, cardiovascular death, urgent cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support
  • CoQ10 halved the risk of MACE
  • 29 (14%) patients in the CoQ10 group reaching the primary endpoint compared to 55 (25%) patients in the placebo group
  • CoQ10 also halved the risk of dying from all causes, which occurred in 18 (9%) patients in the CoQ10 group compared to 36 (17%) patients in the placebo group
  • CoQ10 treated patients had significantly lower cardiovascular mortality
  • and lower occurrence of hospitalisations for heart failure
  • There were fewer adverse events in the CoQ10 group compared to the placebo group
  • CoQ10 is the first medication to improve survival in chronic heart failure since ACE inhibitors and beta blockers more than a decade ago
  • Other heart failure medications block rather than enhance cellular processes and may have side effects
  • CoQ10
  • is a natural and safe substance, corrects a deficiency in the body and blocks the vicious metabolic cycle in chronic heart failure called the energy starved heart
  • CoQ10 is present in food, including red meat, plants and fish, but levels are insufficient to impact on heart failure
  • CoQ10 is also sold over the counter as a food supplement but
  • Food supplements can influence the effect of other medications including anticoagulants and patients should seek advice from their doctor before taking them
Mars Base

Saturn-Like Alien Planet Found by Little Telescope | KELT-6b | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/-saturn-like-alien-planet.html

scibyte97 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Tiny telescopes in Arizona and South Africa have spotted a Saturn-like planet in orbit around a star about 700 light-years from Earth.
  • the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) and other ground-based tools spied the alien planet as it passed in front of its star
  • KELT-6b, can be seen from the surface of Earth for five hours as it transits
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • year lasts only about 7.8 days
  • KELT-6b has no rings, its mass and size resemble the planet Saturn
Mars Base

Planets Found by Kepler Spacecraft Likely Larger Than Thought | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/anets-larger-than-thought.html

scibyte97 Kepler

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A large number of worlds found by NASA's Kepler alien planet-hunting space telescope are probably significantly larger than scientists previously estimated
  • a new study suggests
  • The Kepler Space Telescope has spotted more than 2,700 potential
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • researchers made detailed follow-up observations of 300 of the stars Kepler found likely to be harboring exoplanets
  • One of the main findings of this initial work is that our observations indicate that most of the stars we observed are slightly larger than previously thought and one quarter of them are at least 35 percent larger
  • any planets orbiting these stars must be larger and hotter as well
  • By implication, these new results reduce the number of candidate Earth-size planet analogues detected by Kepler
  • Determination of accurate stellar sizes allows astronomers to more accurately identify which exoplanets are Earth analogs
  • total
  • stars observed by
  • team host more than 360 Kepler planet candidates, as some of the stars were found to have more than one satellite
Mars Base

These Artificially Intelligent Legos Look Awesome | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...intelligent-legos-look-awesome

scibyte97

shared by Mars Base on 04 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • IDG News Service took a tour of Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo, and found a series of wired Legos, complete with cameras, motors, and a dash of artificial intelligence, all stuffed inside special bricks
  • a motorized Lego platform controlled by a computer squared off against a platform controlled by a human with a PlayStation controller
  • The computer's platform used a camera to locate and chase down the human's platform
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • This project's still in the experimental phase, so it'll likely be quite a while before anyone can pick up a kit from the store
Mars Base

Multiple sclerosis breakthrough: Trial safely resets patients' immune systems and reduc... - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...breakthrough-trial-safely.html

scibyte97 MultipleSclerosis

shared by Mars Base on 06 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • In MS, the immune system attacks and destroys myelin, the insulating layer that forms around nerves in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve
  • When the insulation is destroyed, electrical signals can't be effectively conducted, resulting in symptoms that range from mild limb numbness to paralysis or blindness
  • A phase 1 clinical trial for the first treatment to reset the immune system of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients showed the therapy was safe and dramatically reduced patients' immune systems' reactivity to myelin by 50 to 75 percent
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • The therapy stops autoimmune responses that are already activated and prevents the activation of new autoimmune cells
  • In the trial, the MS patients' own specially processed white blood cells were used to stealthily deliver billions of myelin antigens into their bodies so their immune systems would recognize them as harmless and develop tolerance to them
  • Current therapies for MS suppress the entire immune system, making patients more susceptible to everyday infections and higher rates of cancer
  • the study did show patients who received the highest dose of white blood cells had the greatest reduction in myelin reactivity
  • While the trial's nine patients
  • were too few to statistically determine the treatment
  • primary aim of the study was to demonstrate the treatment's safety and tolerability
  • the intravenous injection of up to 3 billion white blood cells with myelin antigens caused no adverse affects in MS patients
  • it did not reactivate the patients' disease and did not affect their healthy immunity to real pathogens
  • researchers tested patients' immunity to tetanus because all had received tetanus shots in their lifetime
  • One month after the treatment, their immune responses to tetanus remained strong, showing the treatment's immune effect was specific only to myelin
  • human safety study sets the stage for a phase 2 trial to see if the new treatment can prevent the progression of MS in humans
  • the trial, which has already been approved in Switzerland
  • patients' white blood cells were filtered out, specially processed and coupled with myelin antigens by a complex GMP manufacturing process
  • In the phase 2 trial we want to treat patients as early as possible in the disease before they have paralysis due to myelin damage
  • Then billions of these dead cells secretly carrying the myelin antigens were injected intravenously into the patients
  • The cells entered the spleen, which filters the blood and helps the body dispose of aging and dying blood cells
  • During this process, the immune cells start to recognize myelin as a harmless and immune tolerance quickly develops
  • This therapy,
  • may be useful for treating not only MS but also a host of other autoimmune and allergic diseases simply by switching the antigens attached to the cells
  • recently published research in mice in which he used nanoparticles—rather than a patient's white blood cells—to deliver the myelin antigen
  • Using a patient's white blood cells is a costly and labor-intensive procedure
  • study showed the nanoparticles, which are potentially cheaper and more accessible to a general population, could be as effective as the white blood cells as delivery vehicles
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Nears Turning Point - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte97 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 08 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Curiosity
  • will soon shift to a distance-driving mode headed for an area about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away, at the base of Mount Sharp
  • No additional rock drilling or soil scooping is planned in the "Glenelg" area
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • To reach Glenelg, the rover drove east about a third of a mile (500 meters) from the landing site
  • To reach the next destination, Mount Sharp, Curiosity will drive toward the southwest for many months.
  • just because our end goal is Mount Sharp doesn't mean
  • not going to investigate interesting features along the way
  • the mission has also already accomplished its main science objective. Analysis of rock powder from the first drilled rock target, "John Klein," provided evidence that an ancient environment in Gale Crater had favorable conditions for microbial life
  • The rover team chose a similar rock, "Cumberland," as the second drilling target to provide a check for the findings at John Klein
  • Scientists are analyzing laboratory-instrument results from portions of the Cumberland sample
  • One new capability being used is to drive away while still holding rock powder in Curiosity's sample-handling device to supply additional material to instruments later if desired by the science team
  • For the drill
  • at Cumberland, steps that each took a day or more at John Klein could be combined into a single day's sequence of commands
  • used the experience and lessons from our first drilling campaign, as well as new cached sample capabilities, to do the second drill
  • far more efficiently
  • In addition,
  • increased use of the rover's autonomous self-protection. This allowed more activities to be strung together before the ground team had to check in on the rover
  • The science team has chosen three targets for brief observations before Curiosity leaves the Glenelg area: the boundary between bedrock areas of mudstone and sandstone, a layered outcrop called "Shaler" and a pitted outcrop called "Point Lake."
  • Shaler might be a river deposit. Point Lake might be volcanic or sedimentary. A closer look at them could give us better understanding of how the rocks we sampled with the drill fit into the history of how the environment changed
Mars Base

Mars Rover Opportunity Nears Nebulous Off-Planet Driving Record | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/pportunity-driving-record.html

scibyte97 scibyte98 opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 08 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • The all-time mark is held by the Soviet Union's remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover, which traveled about 23 miles (37 kilometers) on the moon back in 1973
  • Opportunity
  • racked up 22.75 miles (36.61 km) on Mars
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • it's unclear
  • the old moon rover's mark is imprecise
  • 37 kilometers is highly uncertain
  • Scientists now have high-quality images of the moon taken by spacecraft such as NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and some of these photos even show Lunokhod 2's tracks
  • researchers could nail down the longstanding off-planet driving record if they wanted to
  • But he and his fellow Opportunity team members have no plans to do this work themselves
Mars Base

Antarctic's Mountains Revealed By Sharpest Map Yet - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...unken-mountains-antarctica-ice

scibyte97 scibyte98

shared by Mars Base on 08 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • the British Antarctic Survey, Bedmap2 drew upon millions of new measurements of the frozen continent's surface elevation, ice thickness, and bedrock topography from a wide variety of sources collected over several decades
  • the original Bedmap relied mostly on ground-based measurements, which limited the scientists in terms of how much land they could cover
  • a NASA program called Operation IceBridge sends out airplanes that fly over the entire continent. The airplanes are equipped with lasers that measure the surface mountains' heights and other features, as well as ice-penetrating radar that maps subglacial bedrock—"giving [scientists] a more 3-D picture of the ice sheet itself
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • the new data has revealed several smaller features—both on Antarctica's surface and buried under the ice—that were missed in the previous Bedmap effort
  • scientists want to know the shapes of mountains and rocks to model how fast ice will move across these features on its way to the ocean, where the ice can melt and contribute to sea level rise
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