Sleep Environment Recommendations for Future Spaceflight Vehicles

Current evidence demonstrates that astronauts experience sleep loss and circadian desynchronization during spaceflight. Ground-based evidence demonstrates that these conditions lead to reduced performance, increased risk of injuries and accidents, and short and long-term health consequences. Many of the factors contributing to these conditions relate to the habitability of the sleep environment. Noise, inadequate temperature and airflow, and inappropriate lighting and light pollution have each been associated with sleep loss and circadian misalignment during spaceflight operations and on Earth. As NASA prepares to send astronauts on long-duration, deep space missions, it is critical that the habitability of the sleep environment provide adequate mitigations for potential sleep disruptors. We conducted a comprehensive literature review summarizing optimal sleep hygiene parameters for lighting, temperature, airflow, humidity, comfort, intermittent and erratic sounds, and privacy and security in the sleep environment. We reviewed the design and use of sleep environments in a wide range of cohorts including among aquanauts, expeditioners, pilots, military personnel and ship operators. We also reviewed the specifications and sleep quality data arising from every NASA spaceflight mission, beginning with Gemini. Finally, we conducted structured interviews with individuals experienced sleeping in non-traditional spaces including oil rig workers, Navy personnel, astronauts, and expeditioners. We also interviewed the engineers responsible for the design of the sleeping quarters presently deployed on the International Space Station. We found that the optimal sleep environment is cool, dark, quiet, and is perceived as safe and private. There are wide individual differences in the preferred sleep environment; therefore modifiable sleeping compartments are necessary to ensure all crewmembers are able to select personalized configurations for optimal sleep. A sub-optimal sleep environment is tolerable for only a limited time, therefore individual sleeping quarters should be designed for long-duration missions. In a confined space, the sleep environment serves a dual purpose as a place to sleep, but also as a place for storing personal items and as a place for privacy during non-sleep times. This need for privacy during sleep and wake appears to be critically important to the psychological well-being of crewmembers on long-duration missions

Adaptation of respiratory patterns in collaborative reading

International audienceSpeech and variation of respiratory chest circumferences of eight French dyads were monitored while reading texts with increasing constraints on mutual synchrony. In line with previous research, we find that speakers mutually adapt their respiratory patterns. However a significant alignment is observed only when speakers need to perform together, i.e. when reading in alternation or synchronously. From quiet breathing to listening, to speech reading, we didn't find the gradual asymmetric shaping of respiratory cycles generally assumed in literature (e.g. from symmetric inhalation and exhalation phases towards short inhalation and long exhalation). In contrast, the control of breathing seems to switch abruptly between two systems: vital vs. speech production. We also find that the syllabic and the respiratory cycles are strongly phased at speech onsets. This phenomenon is in agreement with the quantal nature of speech rhythm beyond the utterance, previously observed via pause durations

Workplace Health and Its Impact on Human Capital: Seven Key Performance Indicators of Workplace Health

Health, a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being according to the World Health Organization, is a critical issue in the workplace as it is directly related to human capital, the most important and expensive asset of an organization. When it comes to workplace health, there are seven key performance indicators to consider. These include physical fitness, physical comfort, physical nourishment, cognitive well-being, social well-being, emotional well-being, and environmental well-being. Various environmental attributes in these seven KPIs in the workplace affect not only health but also performance and engagement of employees via their physical, mental, and social interactions within the environment. For instance, ergonomics, acoustics, lighting, thermal comfort, and olfactory comfort address the overall physical comfort while biophilic components contribute to employee cognitive functions as well as their capacity to cope with mental stress and fatigue. These seven KPIs of workplace health ultimately contribute to five positive organizational outcomes, including healthy organizational culture, higher productivity, improved individual health and safety, financial savings, and enhanced reputation of the organization. This chapter discusses critical health factors in the workplace and their contributions to the capacity of human capital at the individual as well as organizational levels

Optimal learning spaces: design implications for primary schools

Review guide of the design evidence for primary school

Assistive Listening Devices: A Guide

Objective: The purpose of this research was to develop a guide on assistive listening devices (ALDs) describing the various types of ALDs, the basic underlying concepts, their advantages and disadvantages, the instrumentation and its components, and the setup and procedures for specification/evaluation of ALDs in accordance with national standards or guidelines issued by professional organizations in our field. This guide is intended for audiologists, hearing scientists, and audiology and hearing science students. Method: A thorough review of the previous ALD literature including national and international standards for set-up and installation, specification/evaluation and verification of ALDs; guidelines from professional audiology and acoustic and hearing sciences organizations for ALD set-up and installation, specification/evaluation and verification; peer-reviewed studies on ALDs; text-book chapters and books on ALDs; and ALD websites from professional organizations. Results: This guide was organized by ALD type, and was subcategorized by the basic underlying concepts, their advantages and disadvantages, the instrumentation and components, and the setup/installation and procedures for specification/evaluation and verification. A comparative analysis was also performed on the relative benefits of various ALDs in a real-word application setting. Discussion: This guide demonstrates that ALDs facilitate communicative efficiency in persons with hearing loss in adverse listening environments. Selection of an appropriate ALD should be based on the intended system use and the intended listening environment. Appropriately selected and fitted ALDs help individuals detect environmental sounds or improve their speech recognition in specific listening settings. Also, ALDs can enable higher levels of communicative performance would be obtained with just the use of individual hearing technology alone. Conclusion: The research findings demonstrate that ALDs improve audibility and overall listening benefit for individuals with hearing loss, especially those with compatible hearing technology. The guide can help one ensure optimal ALD performance to maximize communicative benefit; it serves as a resource for audiologists, hearing scientists, and audiology and hearing science students to develop a better understanding of topics related to ALDs; appropriate ALDs to recommend to persons with hearing loss for various listening situations; set-up and installation of ALDs; and evaluation and verification of ALD performanc

Support Their Sleep: Enhancing Nurses\u27 Knowledge and Implementation of Non-Pharmacological Sleep Protocols to Improve Patient Rest, Recovery, and Reduce Cognitive Impairment.

Background: Sleep and rest play an influential role in promoting recovery and healing in humans. Hospitalized patients are at risk for altered sleep from hospitalization, illness, and stimulation from a hospital environment. Non-pharmacologic interventions preformed by nurses can help to improve sleep and sleep environment for patients. Local problem: There was no protocol or available information regarding patient sleep promotion for nurses to references when caring for patients. Methods: Nurses in the microsystem (n=8) were administered a pre/post questionnaire containing Likert scales and a short quiz containing knowledge-based questions. Questionnaires were distributed to nurses prior to and after one-on-one education surrounding non-pharmacological sleep promotion interventions. Interventions: RNs were educated to perform non-pharmacological interventions to foster a sleep promoting environment for patients. Interventions included, closing blinds in patient rooms during nighttime medication passes, opening patient blinds in the morning to allow sunlight to help regulate circadian rhythm, closing patient room doors to reduce noise from unit hallways, and turning off televisions and lighting in patient rooms to facilitate natural melatonin production. Results: There was a 17.885% increase in quiz scores measuring nurses\u27 knowledge of sleep related topics following education. RNs also showed an increase in self-perceived ability to provide evidenced-based non-pharmacological sleep interventions to their patients. Conclusion: Providing evidenced–based education for Registered Nurses (RNs) in a specific microsystem helped improve nurse knowledge and facilitate an evidenced–based sleep fostering environment for patients. Key words: Non-pharmacological, Sleep, intervention, education, microsystem, protocol, RN education, Nurse confidence, Nurse knowledge, Progressive care, Dementia, Cognitive impairment, Circadian rhythm, Melatonin, Stimulu

The Use of Otoacoustic Emissions in Clinical Diagnosis of Hearing Loss in Canines

Otoacoustic emissions are an essential part of the audiology test battery, especially for patients who cannot appropriately respond during subjective tests. Otoacoustic emissions provide information regarding the function of the inner ear, specifically the outer hair cells within cochlea. This testing has been done previously in canines in laboratory settings and has shown to accurately diagnose hearing loss in canines verified by brainstem auditory evoked response. There are currently no established protocols, which means no clinical normative data could be established and utilized. The purpose of this project was to review the use of otoacoustic emissions in humans and canines and to discuss factors that could affect otoacoustic emissions in canines to assist in establishing a proposed protocol. This project found otoacoustic emissions are a reliable way to assess hearing of canines and can be used as a screening tool or as part of a diagnostic battery

Evaluating the impact of air purifiers and window operation upon indoor air quality - UK nurseries during Covid-19

Many indoor air pollutants have been demonstrated to have a negative impact on occupants and due to physiological and behavioural differences, young children are more vulnerable to these effects than adults. Millions of children in the UK spend large parts of the day in nurseries, where occupant density is high, and indoor air quality can be poor. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the quality of indoor air in nurseries and how to improve it. The aims of the research presented here were to explore the indoor air quality (IAQ) in nurseries and the impact of both the use of air purifiers and window operations on IAQ. Three nurseries in London were selected and monitored via both continuous air quality sensors and passive sampling covering a total of 21 pollutants. Key findings include that mean reduction rate of PM2.5 by using air purifier was 63% with window closed, and 46% with window open. The results also highlight the impacts of operational changes implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic. Windows were operated more frequently for ventilation needs rather than being driven by temperature alone. The increased ventilation in the monitored nurseries in London led to low levels of VOCs and aldehydes (except for formaldehyde and 2-ethylhexanol) but could bring thermal discomfort to occupants. Both temperature and noise levels were shown to be relevant factors impacting the operation of air purifiers. Air purifiers can be effective at reducing PM2.5 when combined with proper window operation and have potential to bring substantial health benefits

The SCOPE of hospital falls: a systematic mixed studies review

Purpose: This systematic mixed studies review (MSR) on hospital falls is aimed to facilitate proactive decision-making for patient safety during the healthcare facility design. Background: Falls were identified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a non-reimbursed hospital acquired condition (HAC) due to volume and cost, and additional financial penalties were introduced with the 2014 US hospital acquired condition (HAC) reduction program. In 2015, a Joint Commission alert identified patient falls as one of the top reported sentinel events, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) added slips, trips, and falls as a focus for investigators' healthcare inspections. Variations in fall rates at both the hospital and the unit level is indicative of an ongoing challenge. The built environment can act as a barrier or enhancement to achieving the desired results in safety complexity that includes the organization, people and environment (SCOPE). Methods: The systematic literature review used MeSH terms and key word alternates for hospital falls with searches in MEDLINE, Web of Science, and CINAHL. The search was limited to English-language papers. Results: Following full text review, 27 papers were included and critically appraised using a dual method mixed methods critical appraisal tool. Themes were coded by broad categories of factors for organization (policy/operations), people (caregivers/staff, patients); and the environment (healthcare facility design). Subcategories were developed to define the physical environment and consider the potential interventions in the context of relative stability. Conclusions: Conditions of hospital falls were identified and evaluated through the literature review. A theoretical model was developed to propose a human factors framework, while considering the permanence of solutions