A series of four test flights of the SPHERES formation flying testbed was conducted aboard NASA’s KC-135 micro-gravity airplane in November 2003. These tests were sponsored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, through the Terrestrial Planet Finder program, with the goal of advancing the progress of the SPHERES-TPF project prior to launch of the testbed to the International Space St...

As a way to value growth opportunities, real options have had a difficult time catching on with managers. Many CFOs believe the method ensures the overvaluation of risky projects. This concern is legitimate, but abandoning real options as a valuation model isn't the solution. Companies that rely solely on discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis underestimate the value of their projects and may fail...

The changes in signal intensity of micro-PET and micro-MRI images of tumors were characterized using histology, »flow cytometry, DNA fragmentation analysis and NMR peaks. This approach was used to assay the chemotherapeutic efficacy based on FDG and intracellular(IC) sodium changes in tumor. A detailed methodology is presented for PC-3 tumor progression. The logic is presented for signal intens...

BACKGROUND There are inherent conceptual problems in investigating the pharmacodynamics of cancer drugs in vivo. One of the few possible approaches is serial biopsies in patients. However, this type of research is severely limited by methodological and ethical constraints. MATERIALS AND METHODS A modified 3-dimensional tissue culture technique was used to culture human tumor samples, which ha...

PURPOSE Overexpression of the proinflammatory enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 is associated with the progression of various malignancies; the role of COX-2 in prostate cancer is less clear. The significance of COX-2 in prostate cancer growth and response to chemotherapy was investigated in an androgen-refractory prostate cancer cell line using a Tet-inducible antisense COX-2 expression system. ...

Brain metastasis is a fatal disease with limited treatment options and very short survival. Although systemic chemotherapy has some effect on peripheral metastases of breast cancer, it is ineffective in treating brain metastasis due largely to the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Here we developed a BBB-penetrating amphiphilic polymer-lipid nanoparticle (NP) system that efficiently delivered anti-mit...

BACKGROUND In the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer, anthracycline and taxane based regimens can be used concomitantly or sequentially. The best order in the sequential regimens has yet to be well established. This study evaluated the feasibility of 4 cycles of adjuvant taxotere (100mg/m2) every 3 weeks followed by 4 cycles of doxorubicin (60 mg/m2) and cyclophosphamide (600mg/m2) every 3 wee...

Bone is the key metastatic site for prostate cancer. Endothelin 1 (ET-1) produced abundantly by prostate cancer cells binds to its receptor present on bone marrow stromal cells and favors osteoblastic response during bone metastases of prostate cancer. This suggests that interrupting ET-1 interaction with its endothelin A (ET(A)) receptor could be useful for inhibiting prostate cancer bone meta...