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INDIA – A novel form of gene regulation in bacteria.

INDIA – Algal biofuels are no energy panacea.

JAPAN – Medical Data Vision enhances the quality of medical care with Actian Vectorwise.

SINGAPORE – Singapore heart surgeon to receive honour from The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

SINGAPORE – ELGA^® to deliver innovative water purification at new Singapore General Hospital expansion.

AUSTRALIA – Specialised Therapeutics Australia: New drug to fight hospital superbug infection.

AUSTRALIA – Group of genes hold the clue in migraine cases.

AUSTRALIA – CT scans can triple risk of brain cancer, leukemia.

BRAZIL – Science can do more for sustainable development.

MIDDLE EAST – Particles and persecution: why we should care about Iranian physicists.

EUROPE – Medicyte coordinates EU-funded collaboration on Biomimetic Bioartificial Liver.

EUROPE – Selvita and Orion Pharma achieve a research milestone in Alzheimer's Disease Program.

EUROPE – Zinforo (ceftaroline fosamil) receives positive CHMP opinion in the European Union for the treatment of patients with serious skin infections or community acquired pneumonia.

USA – Vein grown from girl's own stem cells transplanted.

USA – Hidden vitamin in milk yields remarkable health benefits - Weill Cornell researchers show tiny vitamin in milk, in high doses, makes mice leaner, faster and stronger.

USA – New report finds biotechnology companies are participating in 39% of all projects in development for new medicines and technologies for neglected diseases.

USA – TriReme Medical receives FDA clearance for expanded matrix of sizes of Chocolate PTA balloon catheter.

USA – New data show investigational compound dapagliflozin demonstrated significant reductions in blood sugar levels when added to sitagliptin in adults with type 2 diabetes at 24 weeks, with results maintained over 48 weeks.

USA – Zalicus successfully completes Phase 1 single ascending dose study with Z944, a novel, oral T-Type Calcium Channel Blocker.

USA – Study provides clues to clinical trial cost savings.

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry (BLASTPol) was a suborbital experiment designed to map magnetic fields in order to study their role in star formation processes. BLASTPol made detailed polarization maps of a number of molecular clouds during its successful flights from Antarctica in 2010 and 2012. We present the next-generation BLASTPol instrument (BLAST-TNG) that will build off the success of the previous experiment and continue its role as a unique instrument and a test bed for new technologies. With a 16-fold increase in mapping speed, BLAST-TNG will make larger and deeper maps. Major improvements include a 2.5-m carbon fiber mirror that is 40% wider than the BLASTPol mirror and ~3000 polarization sensitive detectors. BLAST-TNG will observe in three bands at 250, 350, and 500 μm. The telescope will serve as a pathfinder project for microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) technology, as applied to feedhorn-coupled submillimeter detector arrays. The liquid helium cooled cryostat will have a 28-day hold time and will utilize a closed-cycle ³He refrigerator to cool the detector arrays to 270 mK. This will enable a detailed mapping of more targets with higher polarization resolution than any other submillimeter experiment to date. BLAST-TNG will also be the first balloon-borne telescope to offer shared risk observing time to the community. This paper outlines the motivation for the project and the instrumental design.

We have developed a lightweight low-cost attitude sensor, based on a Raspberry Pi, built with readily available commercial components. It can be used in experiments where weight and power are constrained, such as in high-altitude lightweight balloon flights. This attitude sensor will be used as a major building block in a closed-loop control system with driver motors to stabilize and point cameras and telescopes for astronomical observations from a balloon-borne payload.

MCP-based detectors are widely used in the ultraviolet (UV) region due to their low noise levels, high sensitivity and good spatial and temporal resolution. We have developed a compact near-UV (NUV) detector for high-altitude balloon and space flights, using off-the-shelf MCP, CMOS sensor, and optics. The detector is designed to be capable of working in the direct frame transfer mode as well in the photon counting mode for single photon event detection. The identification and centroiding of each photon event are done using an FPGA-based data acquisition and real-time processing system. In this paper, we discuss various algorithms and methods used in both operating modes, as well as their implementation on the hardware.

We have developed a balloon-borne far-infrared interferometer, the Far-infrared Interferometric Telescope Experiment (FITE). The final goal of spatial resolution was one arcsec at 100$\mu$m. As a first step, we aimed to achieve a spatial resolution of five arcsecs at 155$\mu$m with a 6-m baseline. FITE is a two-beam interferometer like Michelson’s stellar interferometer. Positions and attitudes of all mirrors required to have their alignment checked and possibly adjusted before launch and were checked during observation. We had to satisfy three requirements: the coincidence of the phases of each beam (wavefront error), image quality of the two beams at the (common) focus, and no optical path difference between the two beams for celestial objects. In order to achieve the former two requirements, we developed an interferometer adjustment system that used a newly-developed interferometer measurement instrument. This instrument adopted a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor to measure wavefront errors of the two off-axis parabolic mirrors, simultaneously. With this system, the adjustment of the FITE interferometer was carried out at the Alice Springs balloon base in Australia as the JAXA’s Australia balloon experiment campaign of 2018. On-site adjustment was successful; wavefront errors of the two off-axis parabolic mirrors were 1.78$\mu$m and 4.99$\mu$m (peak-to-valley), and the Hartmann constant was 13 arcsecs. As for the optical path difference, we achieved the requirement by step-wise displacement of a folding plane mirror. Results satisfied the requirements for an interferometer designed for a wavelength of 155$\mu$m. Improvement of spatial resolution at far-infrared wavelengths is undoubtedly important for research on protoplanetary disks, circumstellar dust shells of late-type stars, and star-forming galaxies. The method we have developed is also useful for future space interferometers.

We describe the cryostat and supporting electronics for the EBEX experiment. EBEX is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to measure the B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The instrument includes a 1.5 meter Gregorian-type telescope and 1432 bolometric transition edge sensor detectors operating at 0.3 K. Electronics for monitoring temperatures and controlling cryostat refrigerators is read out over CANbus. A timing system ensures the data from all subsystems is accurately synchronized. EBEX completed an engineering test flight in June 2009 during which the cryogenics and supporting electronics performed according to predictions. The temperatures of the cryostat were stable, and an analysis of a subset of the data finds no scan synchronous signal in the cryostat temperatures. Preparations are underway for an Antarctic flight.

JEM-EUSO is a wide-angle refractive UV telescope being proposed for attachment to the Japanese Experiment Module on ISS. The main goal of the mission is to study Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays.

Two pathfinder mission are now in progress: EUSO-TA and EUSO-Balloon. The EUSO-TA project foresees the installation of a telescope prototype in the Telescope Array site. The aim of this project is to calibrate the telescope with the TA fluorescence detector. An initial run of one year starting from 2013 is foreseen. EUSO-Balloon is a pathfinder mission in which a prototype telescope will be mounted on a stratospheric balloon. The main aim of this mission is to perform a end-to-end test of all the key technologies and instrumentation of JEM-EUSO detectors and to prove the global detection chain. EUSO-Balloon will measure the UV background fundamental for the development of the simulations. EUSO-Balloon has the potential to detect Extensive Air Showers from above, paving the way for any future space-based EECR observatory.

We will present the Data Processor of the pathfinders. The DP is the component of the Electronics System which performs data management and instrument control. The DP controls front-end electronics, performs 2^nd level trigger filtering, tags events with arrival time and payload position through a GPS system, manages mass memory for data storage, measures live and dead time of the telescope, provides signals for time synchronization of the event, performs housekeeping monitor and handles interface to the telemetry system. We will describe the main components of the DP, the state-of-the-art and the results of the tests carried out.