Building a GPS Receiver for Space Lessons Learned

Over the past 4 years the Component Systems and Hardware branch at NASA GSFC has pursued an inhouse effort to build a unique space-flight GPS receiver. This effort has resulted in the Navigator GPS receiver. Navigator's first flight opportunity will come with the STS-125 HST-SM4 mission in August 2008. This paper covers the overall hardware design for the receiver and the difficulties encountered during the transition from the breadboard design to the final flight hardware design. Among the different lessons learned, the paper stresses the importance of selecting and verifying parts that are appropriate for space applications, as well as what happens when these parts are not accurately characterized by their datasheets. Additionally, the paper discusses what analysis needs to be performed when deciding system frequencies and filters. The presentation also covers how to prepare for thermal vacuum testing, and problems that may arise during vibration testing. It also contains what criteria should be considered when determining which portions of a design to create in-house, and which portions to license from a third party. Finally, the paper shows techniques which have proven to be extraordinarily helpful in debugging and analysis

Medication errors at hospital admission and discharge in Type 1 and 2 diabetes

International audienceAIMS: To assess the prevalence and characteristics of medication errors at hospital admission and discharge in people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and identify potential risk factors for these errors. METHODS: This prospective observational study included all people with Type 1 (n~=~163) and Type 2 diabetes (n~=~508) admitted to the Diabetology-Department of the University Hospital of Montpellier, France, between 2013 and 2015. Pharmacists conducted medication reconciliation within 24~h of admission and at hospital discharge. Medication history collected from different sources (patient/family interviews, prescriptions/medical records, contact with community pharmacies/general practitioners/nurses) was compared with admission and discharge prescriptions to detect unintentional discrepancies in medication indicating involuntary medication changes. Medication errors were defined as unintentional medication discrepancies corrected by physicians. Risk factors for medication errors and serious errors (i.e. errors that may cause harm) were assessed using logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 322 medication errors were identified and were mainly omissions. Prevalence of medication errors in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes was 21.5% and 22.2% respectively at admission, and 9.0% and 12.2% at discharge. After adjusting for age and number of treatments, people with Type 1 diabetes had nearly a twofold higher odds of having medication errors (odds ratio (OR) 1.72, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02-2.94) and serious errors (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.02-4.76) at admission compared with those with Type 2 diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: Medication reconciliation identified medication errors in one third of individuals. Clinical pharmacists should focus on poly-medicated individuals, but also on other high-risk people, for example, those with Type 1 diabetes

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Placebo controlled pilot trial to study the remyelinating potential of intravenous immunoglobulins in multiple sclerosis

Currently there is no treatment available to improve a stable deficit in multiple sclerosis. It was shown in animal models that intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) can enhance central nervous remyelination, and the first open trials were promising. We therefore conducted a double blind, placebo controlled pilot study to evaluate the effect of IVIg treatment in patients with multiple sclerosis with a stable clinical deficit. The primary outcome parameter was the change in central motor conduction time as an indirect measure of central myelination. Secondary outcome parameters were neurological examinations including the expanded disability status scale (EDSS), neurological rating scale (NRS), and manual muscle testing (MMT). Ten patients were treated first with placebo and then with IVIg (0.4 g/kg body weight on 5 consecutive days), the two treatments being separated by an interval of 6 weeks. There was no difference in the central motor conduction times measured before and 6 weeks after each treatment. Clinically there was a small improvement after IVIg treatment, but there was no significant difference when compared with placebo. In conclusion, our data do not support a role for IVIg in the remyelination of stable multiple sclerosis lesions as measured by central conduction time. The importance of the small clinical benefit is currently not clear.


Immunoglobulins for intravenous use inhibit TNF alpha cytotoxicity in vitro.

Intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) have been used as an immunomodulatory therapy in a variety of diseases. Several mechanisms of action have been proposed, one of which is interference with the cytokine network. We have investigated the effect of IVIg on the cytotoxicity of human TNF alpha. IVIg was capable of protecting L929 fibroblasts from TNF alpha induced cell death. This effect was not species specific and was mediated by both the Fc and the Fab portion of immunoglobulins. Since the effect was also seen when IVIg was added after the removal of TNF alpha from the culture medium, it seems to be independent of the interaction of TNF alpha with its receptor. We conclude that IVIg either act on some point of the TNF alpha signalling pathway or influence the cell cycle unspecifically. The cytoprotective effect of IVIg potentially could contribute to the beneficial effect described for various diseases

Sample-to-Answer Immuno-Magnetic Assay Using Thermally Responsive Alkane Partitions

To combat pandemics, there is a need for rapid point-of-care diagnostics to identify infected patients and to track the spread of the disease. While recent progress has been made in response to COVID-19, there continues to be a need for point-of-care diagnostics capable of detecting biomarkers—such as antibodies—in whole blood. We have recently reported the development of thermally responsive alkane partitions (TRAPs) for the automation of point-of-care immuno-magnetic assays. Here, we demonstrate the use of TRAPs to enable sample-to-answer detection of antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in whole blood samples. We report a limit of detection of 84 pg/mL, well below the clinically relevant threshold. We anticipate that the TRAP-enabled sample-to-answer immunoassay can be used to track the progression of future pandemics, leading to a more informed and robust clinical and societal response.https://doi.org/10.3390/bios1211103

Spektroskopie, Polarimetrie und Lokalisation von Roentgenstrahlen mit CCD's

Charge coupled devices (CCDs) are potentially suited as universal X-ray detectors integrating simultaneous determination of localization, energy measurement (spectroscopy) and detection of the state of polarization (polarimetry). In this work a commercial CCD camera optimized for the visible and near IR region has been used as a detector for monochromatic synchrotron radiation (hard X-rays). Impact points could be reconstructed with a standard deviation of 1 #mu#m. For use in spectrosopy the energy of individual X-ray quantums can be reconstructed, and CCD's can be applied for analyses with polychromatic X-ray sources. The scanning power of the studied CCD is only in the order of 10 %. A more reasonable value of the scanning power is expected with smaller pixels, thicker epitaxial layers and large values of the depletion depths. (WEN)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RR 2916(95-18) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Spurbus Essen. Spurbusbetrieb im Tunnel Eine Informationsschrift zum Forschungs- und Entwicklungsvorhaben Spurbus Essen (Dual-Mode-Bus)

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F95B1044+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman