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BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The provinces of Guizhou and Hunan reported their lowest levels of precipitation since 1951 in July, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said on Monday.Precipitation levels across the country saw a decrease of 8.7 percent from the average level of 115.9 mm in July, the lowest levels seen in 11 years, said Chen Zhenlin, an expert with the CMA.The average temperature recorded across the country in July was 22.1 degrees Celsius, up 0.7 degrees Celsius from the average level.

LOS ANGELES, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The spacecraft Dawn of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has returned the first close-up image of the giant asteroid Vesta after entering its orbit for the first time last week, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced on Monday.The image taken for navigation purposes shows Vesta in greater detail than ever before, said JPL in Pasadena, California.On July 15, Dawn became the first probe to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.When Vesta captured Dawn into its orbit, there were approximately 9,900 miles (about 16,000 kilometers) between the spacecraft and the asteroid.Vesta is 330 miles (about 530 kilometers) in diameter and the second most massive object in the asteroid belt.NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 17, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 9,500 miles (15,000 kilometers) away from the protoplanet Vesta. Each pixel in the image corresponds to roughly 0.88 miles (1.4 kilometers). Ground- and space-based telescopes have obtained images of Vesta for about two centuries, but they have not been able to see much detail on its surface."We are beginning the study of arguably the oldest extant primordial surface in the solar system," said Dawn principal investigator Christopher Russell from the University of California, Los Angeles, which is responsible for Dawn's mission science. " This region of space has been ignored for far too long. So far, the images received to date reveal a complex surface that seems to have preserved some of the earliest events in Vesta's history, as well as logging the onslaught that Vesta has suffered in the intervening eons."Vesta is thought to be the source of a large number of meteorites that fall to Earth. Vesta and its new NASA neighbor, Dawn, are currently approximately 117 million miles (about 188 million kilometers) away from Earth. The Dawn team will begin gathering science data in August.Observations will provide unprecedented data to help scientists understand the earliest chapter of the solar system and pave the way for future human space missions, according to JPL."Dawn slipped gently into orbit with the same grace it has displayed during its years of ion thrusting through interplanetary space," said Marc Rayman, Dawn chief engineer and mission manager at NASA's JPL. "It is fantastically exciting that we will begin providing humankind its first detailed views of one of the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system."Although orbit capture is complete, the approach phase will continue for about three weeks. During approach, the Dawn team will continue a search for possible moons around the asteroid; obtain more images for navigation; observe Vesta's physical properties; and obtain calibration data.In addition, navigators will measure the strength of Vesta's gravitational tug on the spacecraft to compute the asteroid's mass with much greater accuracy than has been previously available, according to JPL.Dawn will spend one year orbiting Vesta, then travel to a second destination, the dwarf planet Ceres, arriving in February 2015. The mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alaska.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The weakness of aging is associated with leaky calcium channels inside muscle cells and a drug already in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of heart failure might plug those leaks, according to a report published Tuesday in the online edition of Cell Metabolism.Earlier studies by the research team led by Andrew Marks of Columbia University showed the same leaks underlie the weakness and fatigue that come with heart failure and Duchenne muscular dystrophy."It's interesting, normal people essentially acquire a form of muscular dystrophy with age," Marks said. "The basis for muscle weakness is the same." Extreme exercise like that done by marathon runners also springs the same sort of leaks, he added, but in that case damaged muscles return to normal after a few days of rest. A microscopic view shows smooth muscle cells derived from human embryonic stem cells showing the nuclei (blue) and proteins of the cytoskeleton (green) in this handout photo released to Reuters by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, March 9, 2009The leaks occur in a calcium release channel called ryanodine receptor 1 (RyR1) that is required for muscles to contract. Under conditions of stress, those channels are chemically modified and lose a stabilizing subunit known as calstabin1.Calcium inside of muscle cells is usually kept contained. When it is allowed to leak out into the cell that calcium itself is toxic, turning on an enzyme that chews up muscle cells. Once the leak starts, it's a vicious cycle. The calcium leak raises levels of damaging reactive oxygen species, which oxidize RyR1 and worsen the leak.The researchers made their discovery by studying the skeletal muscles of young and old mice. They also showed that 6-month-old mice carrying a mutation that made their RyR1 channels leaky showed the same muscular defects and weakness characteristic of older mice.When older mice were treated with a drug known as S107, the calcium leak in their muscles slowed and the animals voluntarily showed about a 50 percent increase in the amount of time spent wheel running. Now in clinical trials for patients with heart failure, the drug is known to work by restoring the connection between costabilin and RyR1.Despite considerable effort to understand and reverse age- related muscle wasting, there are no established treatments available. The new work suggests there may be hope in approaching the problem from a different angle."Most research has focused on making more muscle mass," Marks said. "What's different here is that we are focused not on muscle mass but on muscle function. More muscle doesn't help if it is not functional."

SAN FRANCISCO, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Database giant Oracle on Tuesday announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire FatWire Software, a provider of web experience management solutions.FatWire's solutions provide organizations with ability to deliver relevant customer content, build community engagement and drive site stickiness and loyalty.It currently has more than 500 customers in industries, including finance, healthcare, manufacturing, media, retail, public sector and more. Its key customers include Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Ford and Pfizer.Oracle said in a statement that the acquisition is expected to help Oracle clients improve online engagement across web, mobile and social channels, through website optimizations.The transaction is expected to close mid-year 2011 and the financial details were not disclosed. In its recent acquisitions, Oracle acquired e-commerce software company Art Technology Group for 1 billion U.S. dollars.

WASHINGTON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Space shuttle Atlantis will soar into the sky Friday on NASA's 135th and final flight. Its scheduled return to Earth later this month will mark the end of NASA's 30-year space program.Since its onset with the launch of space shuttle Columbia, the program has been seen as a cheap, safe and reliable way for space exploration.Despite its great contributions to U.S. manned space flight, it has also left some grave and tragic lessons, making its termination inevitable.HIKING COSTSLaunched in 1972 by then President Richard Nixon, the shuttle program aimed to provide a new system of affordable space travel and proved to be NASA's most enduring project in its 50 years of existence.In 1981, shuttle Columbia made its first shuttle flight for two days. It was the ultimate hybrid and the first reusable spacecraft.Launched like a rocket and gliding back to Earth like an airplane, space shuttles not only can act as a space taxi to carry astronauts, but have the muscle of a long-distance trucker to haul heavy machinery.The spaceship boasts more than 3,500 subsystems and 2.5 million parts and is nine times faster than a speeding bullet as it climbs heavenward. That versatility, however, has translated into higher costs.NASA originally estimated the program would cost about 90 billion U.S. dollars. However, its actual cost stands at about 200 billion dollars, compared with the 151 billion dollars spent on Apollo which took Americans to the moon in 1969.In an article in Technology Review, John Logsdon, former head of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, drew a direct connection between the ravenous shuttle budget and the lack of other large advances in manned space flight."By operating the system for 30 years, with its high costs and high risk, rather than replacing it with a less expensive, less risky second-generation system, NASA compounded the original mistake of developing the most ambitious version of the vehicle," he wrote."The shuttle's cost has been an obstacle to NASA starting other major projects," he added.HIGH RISKIn terms of safety, the shuttles have never been as reliable as their designers had envisioned.On average, one out of every 67 flights ended up with fatal accidents. Based on the rate of deaths per million miles traveled, the space shuttle is 138 times riskier than a passenger jet.Seven astronauts onboard died when Challenger exploded about a minute after launch in 1986. Nearly two decades after the tragic blast, a new catastrophe descended when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated moments before landing in 2003, killing another seven spacemen.Again, the shuttle program was shelved for more than two years as NASA stepped up efforts to make it safer. But experts say the fundamental problem related to shuttles' safety cannot be solved due to their "birth defects.""It is in the nation's interest to replace the Shuttle as soon as possible," concluded the panel that investigated the 2003 Columbia accident.

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