81 research outputs found

    Sex differences in variability across timescales in BALB/c mice.

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    BackgroundFemales are markedly underinvestigated in the biological and behavioral sciences due to the presumption that cyclic hormonal changes across the ovulatory cycle introduce excess variability to measures of interest in comparison to males. However, recent analyses indicate that male and female mice and rats exhibit comparable variability across numerous physiological and behavioral measures, even when the stage of the estrous cycle is not considered. Hormonal changes across the ovulatory cycle likely contribute cyclic, intra-individual variability in females, but the source(s) of male variability has, to our knowledge, not been investigated. It is unclear whether male variability, like that of females, is temporally structured and, therefore, quantifiable and predictable. Finally, whether males and females exhibit variability on similar time scales has not been explored.MethodsThese questions were addressed by collecting chronic, high temporal resolution locomotor activity (LA) and core body temperature (CBT) data from male and female BALB/c mice.ResultsContrary to expectation, males are more variable than females over the course of the day (diel variability) and exhibit higher intra-individual daily range than females in both LA and CBT. Between mice of a given sex, variability is comparable for LA but the inter-individual daily range in CBT is greater for males. To identify potential rhythmic processes contributing to these sex differences, we employed wavelet transformations across a range of periodicities (1-39 h).ConclusionsAlthough variability in circadian power is comparable between the sexes for both LA and CBT, infradian variability is greater in females and ultradian variability is greater in males. Thus, exclusion of female mice from studies because of estrous cycle variability may increase variance in investigations where only male measures are collected over a span of several hours and limit generalization of findings from males to females

    Detection of melatonin-onset in real settings via wearable sensors and artificial intelligence : a pilot study

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    Circadian rhythms modulate physiological and behavioral processes of approximately 24-h periodicity. Alterations in the circadian timing system may lead to cardiovascular, metabolic or neurological diseases, cancers and sleep disorders, as well as to disruption of quality of life. Circadian rhythms can be tracked via laboratory tests measuring hormones in salivary, urinary or blood samples, which are collected in controlled environments. These tests are unsuitable for continuous monitoring in real-life, being expensive and time consuming, producing discrete information (i.e., few values per day) and requiring controlled environmental conditions (e.g., exposure to light can alter the samples). Thus, there is a need to develop non-invasive methods and tools to track circadian rhythms in real-life conditions

    The design and evaluation of discrete wearable medical devices for vital signs monitoring

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    The observation, recording and appraisal of an individual’s vital signs, namely temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), are key components in the assessment of their health and wellbeing. Measurements provide valuable diagnostic data, facilitating clinical diagnosis, management and monitoring. Respiratory rate sensing is perhaps the most under-utilised of all the vital signs, being routinely assessed by observation or estimated algorithmically from respiratory-induced beat-to-beat variation in heart rate. Moreover there is an unmet need for wearable devices that can measure all or most of the vital signs. This project therefore aims to a) develop a device that can measure respiratory rate and b) develop a wearable device that can measure all or most of the vital signs. An accelerometer-based clavicular respiratory motion sensor was developed and compared with a similar thoracic motion sensor and reference using exhalatory flow. Pilot study results established that the clavicle sensor accurately tracked the reference in monitoring respiratory rate and outperformed the thoracic device. An Ear-worn Patient Monitoring System (EPMS) was also developed, providing a discrete telemonitoring device capable of rapidly measuring tympanic temperature, heart rate, SpO2 and activity level. The results of a comparative pilot study against reference instruments revealed that heart rate matched the reference for accuracy, while temperature under read (< 1°C) and SpO2 was inconsistent with poor correlation. In conclusion, both of the prototype devices require further development. The respiratory sensor would benefit from product engineering and larger scale testing to fully exploit the technology, but could find use in both hospital and community-based The design and evaluation of discrete wearable medical devices for vital signs monitoring DG Pitts ii Cranfield University monitoring. The EPMS has potential for clinical and community use, having demonstrated its capability of rapidly capturing and wirelessly transmitting vital signs readings. Further development is nevertheless required to improve the thermometer probe and resolve outstanding issues with SpO2 readings

    Adaptive wake and sleep detection for wearable systems

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    Sleep problems and disorders have a serious impact on human health and wellbeing. The rising costs for treating sleep-related chronic diseases in industrialized countries demands efficient prevention. Low-cost, wearable sleep / wake detection systems which give feedback on the wearer's "sleep performance" are a promising approach to reduce the risk of developing serious sleep disorders and fatigue. Not all bio-medical signals that are useful for sleep / wake discrimination can be easily recorded with wearable systems. Sensors often need to be placed in an obtrusive location on the body or cannot be efficiently embedded into a wearable frame. Furthermore, wearable systems have limited computational and energetic resources, which restrict the choice of sensors and algorithms for online processing and classification. Since wearable systems are used outside the laboratory, the recorded signals tend to be corrupted with additional noise that influences the precision of classification algorithms. In this thesis we present the research on a wearable sleep / wake classifier system that relies on cardiorespiratory (ECG and respiratory effort) and activity recordings and that works autonomously with minimal user interaction. This research included the selection of optimal signals and sensors, the development of a custom-tailored hardware demonstrator with embedded classification algorithms, and the realization of experiments in real-world environments for the customization and validation of the system. The processing and classification of the signals were based on Fourier transformations and artificial neural networks that are efficiently implementable into digital signal controllers. Literature analysis and empiric measurements revealed that cardiorespiratory signals are more promising for a wearable sleep / wake classification than clinically used signals such as brain potentials. The experiments conducted during this thesis showed that inter-subject differences within the recorded physiological signals make it difficult to design a sleep / wake classification model that can generalize to a group of subjects. This problem was addressed in two ways: First by adding features from another signal to the classifier, that is, measuring the behavioral quiescence during sleep using accelerometers. Conducted research on different feature extraction methods from accelerometer data showed that this data generalizes well for distinct subjects in the study group. In addition, research on user-adaptation methods was conducted. Behavioral sleep and wake measures, notably the measurement of reactivity and activity, were developed to build up a priori knowledge that was used to adapt the classification algorithm automatically to new situations. This thesis demonstrates the design and development of a low-cost, wearable hardware and embedded software for on-line sleep / wake discrimination. The proposed automatic user-adaptive classifier is advantageous compared to previously suggested classification methods that generalize over multiple subjects, because it can take changes in the wearer's physiology and sleep / wake behavior into account without adjustment from a human expert. The results of this thesis contribute to the development of smart, wearable, bio-physiological monitoring systems which require a high degree of autonomy and have only low computational resources available. We believe that the proposed sleep / wake classification system is a first promising step toward a context-aware system for sleep management, sleep disorder prevention, and reduction of fatigue

    Framework for design, simulation and functional prototyping of wearable IoT devices.

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    El presente proyecto tiene como propósito facilitar el diseño, simulación y prototipado funcional de dispositivos IoT vestibles. Estos dispositivos vestibles son elementos de cómputo con una gran capacidad de interacción con las personas y de comunicación con Internet. Estos dispositivos presentan una oportunidad para los ecosistemas donde se requiere implementar el desarrollo e innovación de base tecnológica, como en Colombia, país que cuenta con políticas encaminadas hacia este horizonte. Sin embargo, el proceso de desarrollo de tales equipos en un ambiente competitivo que se desarrolla a la velocidad de la tecnología de punta se considera complejo debido a factores como el tiempo de desarrollo, la interdisciplinariedad del equipo de trabajo necesario y la necesidad de implementación de funcionalidades avanzadas acordes con el desarrollo tecnológico actual. Para abordar estas dificultades se propuso el framework denominado Frame-WIoT, utilizando un enfoque de diseño basado en modelos con el cual se pudo abordar las dificultades inherentes al desarrollo de dispositivos vestibles. El trabajo consideró diseñar una arquitectura genérica que permita representar los dispositivos vestibles, de acuerdo con la documentación científica. El siguiente paso fue implementar los componentes de la arquitectura en un ambiente de simulación, Simulink, con el objetivo de formalizar el diseño genérico del punto anterior. Finalmente, se generaron los componentes de simulación y prototipado que fueron evaluados con la construcción de un prototipo funcional de dispositivo.LISTA DE FIGURAS 11 LISTA DE ANEXOS 16 RESUMEN 17 ABSTRACT 18 INTRODUCCION 19 1 PROBLEMA, PREGUNTA E HIPOTESIS DE INVESTIGACIÓN 21 1.1 PROBLEMA 21 1.1.1 Pregunta 23 1.1.2 Hipótesis 23 1.2 OBJETIVOS 25 1.2.2 Objetivos específicos 25 1.3 JUSTIFICACIÓN 26 2 MARCO REFERENCIAL 28 2.1 MARCO CONCEPTUAL 28 2.1.1 Framework 28 2.1.2 Diseño 28 2.1.3 Simulación 28 2.1.4 Prototipado 28 2.1.5 Dispositivo vestible 28 2.2 MARCO TEÓRICO 29 2.2.1 Internet de las cosas 29 2.2.2 Modelo de referencia de IoT 29 2.2.3 Capacidades de dispositivo IoT 29 2.2.4 Computación vestible 30 2.2.5 Vestibilidad 31 2.3 ESTADO DEL ARTE 32 2.3.1 Prototipado de vestibles: Aplicaciones y enfoques 33 2.3.2 Frameworks y otras herramientas para el prototipado 37 2.3.3 Consideraciones finales 41 2.4 MARCO LEGAL Y POLÍTICO 43 2.5 MARCO CONTEXTUAL 45 3 ASPECTOS METODOLÓGICOS 46 3.1 ENFOQUE Y TIPO DE INVESTIGACIÓN 46 3.2 TÉCNICAS E INSTRUMENTOS DE RECOLECCIÓN DE INFORMACIÓN 47 3.3 ACTIVIDADES REALIZADAS 48 3.3.1 Diseño de una arquitectura genérica para dispositivos vestibles 48 3.3.2 Implementación de los componentes de la arquitectura propuesta en Simulink 49 3.3.3 Construcción del componente de simulación del framework 50 3.3.4 Construcción del componente de prototipado del framework 51 4 ARQUITECTURA GENÉRICA PARA DISPOSITIVOS IOT VESTIBLES 53 4.1 ANÁLISIS DE ARQUITECTURAS ENCONTRADAS EN LA LITERATURA CIENTÍFICA 53 4.2 REQUISITOS DE UN VESTIBLE 57 4.3 MODELO DE DOMINIO PARA IOT VESTIBLE 60 4.4 FLUJO DE INFORMACIÓN EN LA ARQUITECTURA IOT-A 62 4.4.1 Servicio adquiere valor de un sensor 62 4.4.2 Almacenamiento de información del sensor 62 4.5 FLUJO DE INFORMACIÓN EN EL DISPOSITIVO VESTIBLE 62 4.6 DIAGRAMA DE COMPONENTES 63 4.7 DIAGRAMA DE DESPLIEGUE 65 5 ARQUITECTURA IMPLEMENTADA EN SIMULINK 68 5.1 COMPONENTE DE ADQUISICIÓN 71 5.2 COMPONENTE DE PROCESAMIENTO 74 5.3 COMPONENTE DE ALMACENAMIENTO 76 5.4 COMPONENTE DE SALIDA/CTUACIÓN 77 5.5 COMPONENTE DE COMUNICACIÓN 79 6 ENTORNO DE SIMULACIÓN PARA FRAME-WIOT 81 6.1 ESCENARIOS DE SIMULACIÓN 81 6.1.1 Escenario de interacción con la persona 83 6.1.2 Escenario de comunicación de datos 83 6.2 ELEMENTOS DEL ENTORNO DE SIMULACIÓN PARA FRAME-WIOT 84 6.3 MODELO DE COMPONENTES DE LA ARQUITECTURA DE DISPOSITIVO VESTIBLE EN SIMULINK 84 6.3.1 Componente de adquisición 84 6.3.2 Componente de procesamiento 85 6.3.3 Componente de actuación 87 6.3.4 Componente de comunicación 88 6.3.5 Componente de almacenamiento 89 6.4 INTERFAZ DE SIMULACIÓN 89 6.5 INTERFAZ DE SALIDA DE VIDEO 90 6.6 MODELO DEL CUERPO HUMANO 91 7 ENTORNO DE PROTOTIPADO 94 7.1 RECURSOS PARA LA IMPLEMENTACIÓN DE PROTOTIPOS 94 7.1.1 Raspberry Pi 94 7.1.2 Thingspeak 95 7.1.3 Modelo de prototipado 97 7.2 COMPONENTES MODIFICADOS PARA PROTOTIPADO 99 7.2.1 Componente de adquisición 100 7.2.2 Componente de comunicación 101 7.2.3 Componente de actuación/salida. 102 7.3 PRUEBAS IMPLEMENTADAS 104 7.3.1 Pruebas para el componente de adquisición 104 7.3.2 Pruebas al componente de actuación 105 7.3.3 Pruebas al componente de comunicación 107 7.4 PRUEBA DE CONCEPTO 110 7.4.1 Problema 110 7.4.2. Solución planteada 111 7.4.3 Escenarios evaluados 111 7.4.4 Conclusiones sobre la prueba de concepto 118 8 RESULTADOS 119 9 CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES 121 9.1 CONCLUSIONES 121 9.2 RECOMENDACIONES 125 10 REFERENCIAS 127 11 ANEXOS 140MaestríaThe purpose of this project is to facilitate the design, simulation and functional prototyping of wearable IoT devices. These wearable devices are computational elements with a great capacity for interaction with people and communication with the Internet. These devices present an opportunity for ecosystems where it is necessary to implement technology-based development and innovation, as in Colombia, a country that has policies aimed at this horizon. However, the process of developing such equipment in a competitive environment that develops at the speed of cutting-edge technology is considered complex due to factors such as development time, the interdisciplinary nature of the necessary work team and the need to implement advanced functionalities in line with current technological development. To address these difficulties, the framework called Frame-WIoT was proposed, using a design approach based on models with which the inherent difficulties in the development of wearable devices could be addressed. The work considered to design a generic architecture that allows to represent wearable devices, according to the scientific documentation. The next step was to implement the components of the architecture in a simulation environment, Simulink, with the aim of formalizing the generic design of the previous point. Finally, the simulation and prototyping components that were evaluated with the construction of a functional device prototype were generated

    Earables: Wearable Computing on the Ears

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    Kopfhörer haben sich bei Verbrauchern durchgesetzt, da sie private Audiokanäle anbieten, zum Beispiel zum Hören von Musik, zum Anschauen der neuesten Filme während dem Pendeln oder zum freihändigen Telefonieren. Dank diesem eindeutigen primären Einsatzzweck haben sich Kopfhörer im Vergleich zu anderen Wearables, wie zum Beispiel Smartglasses, bereits stärker durchgesetzt. In den letzten Jahren hat sich eine neue Klasse von Wearables herausgebildet, die als "Earables" bezeichnet werden. Diese Geräte sind so konzipiert, dass sie in oder um die Ohren getragen werden können. Sie enthalten verschiedene Sensoren, um die Funktionalität von Kopfhörern zu erweitern. Die räumliche Nähe von Earables zu wichtigen anatomischen Strukturen des menschlichen Körpers bietet eine ausgezeichnete Plattform für die Erfassung einer Vielzahl von Eigenschaften, Prozessen und Aktivitäten. Auch wenn im Bereich der Earables-Forschung bereits einige Fortschritte erzielt wurden, wird deren Potenzial aktuell nicht vollständig abgeschöpft. Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es daher, neue Einblicke in die Möglichkeiten von Earables zu geben, indem fortschrittliche Sensorikansätze erforscht werden, welche die Erkennung von bisher unzugänglichen Phänomenen ermöglichen. Durch die Einführung von neuartiger Hardware und Algorithmik zielt diese Dissertation darauf ab, die Grenzen des Erreichbaren im Bereich Earables zu verschieben und diese letztlich als vielseitige Sensorplattform zur Erweiterung menschlicher Fähigkeiten zu etablieren. Um eine fundierte Grundlage für die Dissertation zu schaffen, synthetisiert die vorliegende Arbeit den Stand der Technik im Bereich der ohr-basierten Sensorik und stellt eine einzigartig umfassende Taxonomie auf der Basis von 271 relevanten Publikationen vor. Durch die Verbindung von Low-Level-Sensor-Prinzipien mit Higher-Level-Phänomenen werden in der Dissertation anschließ-end Arbeiten aus verschiedenen Bereichen zusammengefasst, darunter (i) physiologische Überwachung und Gesundheit, (ii) Bewegung und Aktivität, (iii) Interaktion und (iv) Authentifizierung und Identifizierung. Diese Dissertation baut auf der bestehenden Forschung im Bereich der physiologischen Überwachung und Gesundheit mit Hilfe von Earables auf und stellt fortschrittliche Algorithmen, statistische Auswertungen und empirische Studien vor, um die Machbarkeit der Messung der Atemfrequenz und der Erkennung von Episoden erhöhter Hustenfrequenz durch den Einsatz von In-Ear-Beschleunigungsmessern und Gyroskopen zu demonstrieren. Diese neuartigen Sensorfunktionen unterstreichen das Potenzial von Earables, einen gesünderen Lebensstil zu fördern und eine proaktive Gesundheitsversorgung zu ermöglichen. Darüber hinaus wird in dieser Dissertation ein innovativer Eye-Tracking-Ansatz namens "earEOG" vorgestellt, welcher Aktivitätserkennung erleichtern soll. Durch die systematische Auswertung von Elektrodenpotentialen, die um die Ohren herum mittels eines modifizierten Kopfhörers gemessen werden, eröffnet diese Dissertation einen neuen Weg zur Messung der Blickrichtung. Dabei ist das Verfahren weniger aufdringlich und komfortabler als bisherige Ansätze. Darüber hinaus wird ein Regressionsmodell eingeführt, um absolute Änderungen des Blickwinkels auf der Grundlage von earEOG vorherzusagen. Diese Entwicklung eröffnet neue Möglichkeiten für Forschung, welche sich nahtlos in das tägliche Leben integrieren lässt und tiefere Einblicke in das menschliche Verhalten ermöglicht. Weiterhin zeigt diese Arbeit, wie sich die einzigarte Bauform von Earables mit Sensorik kombinieren lässt, um neuartige Phänomene zu erkennen. Um die Interaktionsmöglichkeiten von Earables zu verbessern, wird in dieser Dissertation eine diskrete Eingabetechnik namens "EarRumble" vorgestellt, die auf der freiwilligen Kontrolle des Tensor Tympani Muskels im Mittelohr beruht. Die Dissertation bietet Einblicke in die Verbreitung, die Benutzerfreundlichkeit und den Komfort von EarRumble, zusammen mit praktischen Anwendungen in zwei realen Szenarien. Der EarRumble-Ansatz erweitert das Ohr von einem rein rezeptiven Organ zu einem Organ, das nicht nur Signale empfangen, sondern auch Ausgangssignale erzeugen kann. Im Wesentlichen wird das Ohr als zusätzliches interaktives Medium eingesetzt, welches eine freihändige und augenfreie Kommunikation zwischen Mensch und Maschine ermöglicht. EarRumble stellt eine Interaktionstechnik vor, die von den Nutzern als "magisch und fast telepathisch" beschrieben wird, und zeigt ein erhebliches ungenutztes Potenzial im Bereich der Earables auf. Aufbauend auf den vorhergehenden Ergebnissen der verschiedenen Anwendungsbereiche und Forschungserkenntnisse mündet die Dissertation in einer offenen Hard- und Software-Plattform für Earables namens "OpenEarable". OpenEarable umfasst eine Reihe fortschrittlicher Sensorfunktionen, die für verschiedene ohrbasierte Forschungsanwendungen geeignet sind, und ist gleichzeitig einfach herzustellen. Hierdurch werden die Einstiegshürden in die ohrbasierte Sensorforschung gesenkt und OpenEarable trägt somit dazu bei, das gesamte Potenzial von Earables auszuschöpfen. Darüber hinaus trägt die Dissertation grundlegenden Designrichtlinien und Referenzarchitekturen für Earables bei. Durch diese Forschung schließt die Dissertation die Lücke zwischen der Grundlagenforschung zu ohrbasierten Sensoren und deren praktischem Einsatz in realen Szenarien. Zusammenfassend liefert die Dissertation neue Nutzungsszenarien, Algorithmen, Hardware-Prototypen, statistische Auswertungen, empirische Studien und Designrichtlinien, um das Feld des Earable Computing voranzutreiben. Darüber hinaus erweitert diese Dissertation den traditionellen Anwendungsbereich von Kopfhörern, indem sie die auf Audio fokussierten Geräte zu einer Plattform erweitert, welche eine Vielzahl fortschrittlicher Sensorfähigkeiten bietet, um Eigenschaften, Prozesse und Aktivitäten zu erfassen. Diese Neuausrichtung ermöglicht es Earables sich als bedeutende Wearable Kategorie zu etablieren, und die Vision von Earables als eine vielseitige Sensorenplattform zur Erweiterung der menschlichen Fähigkeiten wird somit zunehmend realer

    Exploring the Landscape of Ubiquitous In-home Health Monitoring: A Comprehensive Survey

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    Ubiquitous in-home health monitoring systems have become popular in recent years due to the rise of digital health technologies and the growing demand for remote health monitoring. These systems enable individuals to increase their independence by allowing them to monitor their health from the home and by allowing more control over their well-being. In this study, we perform a comprehensive survey on this topic by reviewing a large number of literature in the area. We investigate these systems from various aspects, namely sensing technologies, communication technologies, intelligent and computing systems, and application areas. Specifically, we provide an overview of in-home health monitoring systems and identify their main components. We then present each component and discuss its role within in-home health monitoring systems. In addition, we provide an overview of the practical use of ubiquitous technologies in the home for health monitoring. Finally, we identify the main challenges and limitations based on the existing literature and provide eight recommendations for potential future research directions toward the development of in-home health monitoring systems. We conclude that despite extensive research on various components needed for the development of effective in-home health monitoring systems, the development of effective in-home health monitoring systems still requires further investigation.Comment: 35 pages, 5 figure

    Sensing with Earables: A Systematic Literature Review and Taxonomy of Phenomena

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    Earables have emerged as a unique platform for ubiquitous computing by augmenting ear-worn devices with state-of-the-art sensing. This new platform has spurred a wealth of new research exploring what can be detected on a wearable, small form factor. As a sensing platform, the ears are less susceptible to motion artifacts and are located in close proximity to a number of important anatomical structures including the brain, blood vessels, and facial muscles which reveal a wealth of information. They can be easily reached by the hands and the ear canal itself is affected by mouth, face, and head movements. We have conducted a systematic literature review of 271 earable publications from the ACM and IEEE libraries. These were synthesized into an open-ended taxonomy of 47 different phenomena that can be sensed in, on, or around the ear. Through analysis, we identify 13 fundamental phenomena from which all other phenomena can be derived, and discuss the different sensors and sensing principles used to detect them. We comprehensively review the phenomena in four main areas of (i) physiological monitoring and health, (ii) movement and activity, (iii) interaction, and (iv) authentication and identification. This breadth highlights the potential that earables have to offer as a ubiquitous, general-purpose platform

    Human Research Program Integrated Research Plan: December 20, 2007, Interim Baseline

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    The Human Research Program (HRP) delivers human health and performance countermeasures, knowledge, technologies, and tools to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration. This Integrated Research Plan (IRP) describes the program s research activities that are intended to address the needs of human space exploration and serve HRP customers. The timescale of human space exploration is envisioned to take many decades. The IRP illustrates the program s research plan through the timescale of early lunar missions of extended duration. The document serves several purposes for the Human Research Program: The IRP provides a means to assure that the most significant risks to human space explorers are being adequately mitigated and/or addressed, The IRP shows the relationship of research activities to expected outcomes and need dates, The IRP shows the interrelationships among research activities that may interact to produce products that are integrative or cross defined research disciplines, The IRP illustrates the non-deterministic nature of research and technology activities by showing expected decision points and potential follow-on activities, The IRP shows the assignments of responsibility within the program organization and, as practical, the intended solicitation approach, The IRP shows the intended use of research platforms such as the International Space Station, NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, and various space flight analogs. The IRP does not show all budgeted activities of the Human research program, as some of these are enabling functions, such as management, facilities and infrastructur
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