College education

Space Grant Colleges and Universities must build the space curriculum of the future on the firm basis of deep knowledge of an involvement with the present operating programs of the nation and an on-going and extensive program of leading edge research in the aerospace sciences and engineering, management, law, finance, and the other arts that are integral to our planetary society. The Space Grant College and Fellowship Program must create new academic fields of enquiry, which is a long and difficult process that will require deeper and broader interaction between NASA and academia than has previously existed

Lunar power system summary of studies for the lunar enterprise task force NASA-office of exploration

The capacity of global power systems must be increased by a factor of ten to provide the predicted power needs of electric power by the year 2050. The Lunar Power System (LPS) would collect solar energy at power bases located on opposing limbs of the moon as seen from Earth. LPS can provide dependable, economic, renewable, and environmentally benign solar energy to Earth. A preliminary engineering and cash flow model of the LPS was developed. Results are shown for a system scaled to a peak capacity of 355 GWe on Earth and to provide 13,600 GWe-Yrs of energy over a 70 year life cycle of construction and full operation. The growth in capacity of the reference system from start of installation on the moon in 2005 to completion of its nominal life cycle in the year 2070 is shown. World needs for power could be accommodated by expansion in capacity of the reference LPS beyond 344 GWe. This would be done by steadily incorporating newer technology during full operation and by establishing additional bases. The results presented encourage consideration of a faster paced program than is assumed herein

Photoelectric charging of partially sunlit dielectric surfaces in space

Sunlight-shadow effects may substantially alter the charging situation for a dielectric surface. The sunlight-shadow boundary tends to be the site of intense multipole electric fields. Charges on a sunlit dielectric surface have a finite effective mobility. The charge distribution tends to resemble that on a conducting surface. A boundary between a conducting and a dielectric surface may not represent a conductivity discontinuity when this boundary is sunlit; charges may migrate at a nontrivial rate across the boundary. A contracting or expanding sunlit area may experience a supercharging

Lunar interactions: Abstracts of papers presented at the Conference on Interactions of the Interplanetary Plasma with the Modern and Ancient Moon

Reviewed are the active mechanisms relating the moon to its environment and the linkage between these mechanisms and their records in the lunar sample and geophysical data. Topics: (1) large scale plasma interactions with the moon and non-magnetic planets; (2) ancient and present day lunar surface magnetic and electric fields; (3) dynamics and evolution of the lunar atmosphere; (4) evolution of the solar plasma; (5) lunar record of solar radiations; (6) non-meteoritic and meteoritic disturbance and transport of lunar surface materials; and (7) future lunar exploration

Lung Cancer Stigma: Associated Variables and Coping Strategies

Lung cancer stigma is a burgeoning area of literature, yet two important questions remain unanswered: a) What are the associations between lung cancer stigma and psychosocial outcomes across lung cancer survivors with different smoking histories and b) how would lung cancer survivors describe their experience of coping strategies they utilize to cope with lung cancer stigma. This dissertation presents two studies that seek to answer the above-mentioned questions: a) a quantitative study that describes the rates of Personal Responsibility, Regret, and Medical Stigma and the associations between the above-mentioned constructs and psychosocial outcomes; and b) a qualitative study of coping strategies that lung cancer survivors reported utilizing in response to lung cancer stigma. Results from the quantitative study suggest that, while current and former smokers report significantly greater rates of Personal Responsibility and Regret when compared to never smokers, smoking status did not significantly affect the level of Medical Stigma reported by lung cancer survivors. The most common themes extracted from the qualitative data were coping strategies involving education, avoidance, support, helping others, acceptance, and assertive communication. Further research is needed to investigate exactly how lung cancer stigma relates to psychosocial outcomes. As future interventions geared towards lung cancer stigma are developed and tested, it will be important to a) measure lung cancer stigma and its associated constructs (e.g., regret, guilt/shame, personal responsibility) with instruments that are firmly rooted in testable theoretical frameworks, b) track psychosocial outcome variables and their changes as a result of the treatment response via the intervention, c) and observe any differences in how stigma variables (e.g., perceived stigma and internalized stigma) might be associated differently with outcome variables and change over time differently depending on smoking history (e.g., comparing outcomes between ever vs. never smokers)

Qualitative Study of Psychosocial Needs for Individuals with Lung Cancer

Lung cancer affects many people in the United States, accounting for 14.5% of cancer cases in 2010. Additionally, it is responsible for more cancer-related deaths than any other cancer type. Those living with lung cancer also experience a higher prevalence of psychological distress and mood problems relative to most other cancer types. Despite the high physical and mental health burden borne by those living with lung cancer, psychosocial research on lung cancer generally lags far behind comparable studies in other cancer populations. Evidence from the few interventions developed specifically for lung cancer patients demonstrate an underutilization of those services, which is inferred from generally low response rates from eligible participants. Although a low participation rate may demonstrate the need to investigate the barriers of participating in interventions, little research on that topic is currently available. Also, it is not clear what factors predict refusal to participate in psychosocial interventions for the lung cancer population, despite the available data on demographic and medical differences between eligible those who did and those who did not participate. Overall, there is limited evidence available for preferred interventions, for favored methods of receiving interventions (e.g., Internet, face-to-face, telephone), and for perceived barriers to access and maintain engagement in available psychosocial interventions for lung cancer patients. A qualitative study that utilizes a grounded theory approach to the analysis of interview data from lung cancer patients can address the current gap in understanding of lung cancer patients\u27 perspective on three specific areas: 1) the most important psychosocial needs to address and what factors contribute to higher importance, 2) interest in different psychosocial services and what factors contribute to low and high interest, and 3) what factors serve as barriers to engage in psychosocial interventions. Elucidating these three areas will increase researchers\u27 understanding of lung cancer patients\u27 perspectives via the development of a grounded theory, which investigators can utilize to better address the psychosocial and quality of life needs of this cancer population

Early detection of disease program: Evaluation of the cellular immune response

Surfaces of normal, cultured, and mitogen-stimulated mouse lymphoid cells were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Lymphocytes with smooth, highly villous and intermediate surfaces were observed in cell suspensions from both spleens and thymuses of normal mice and from spleens of congenitally athymic (nude) mice. Several strain-specific surface features were noted, including the spine-like appearance of microvilli on C57B1/6 lymphocytes. Although thymus cell suspensions contained somewhat more smooth cells than did spleen cell preparations, lymphocyte derivation could not be inferred from SEM examination. Studies of cells stimulated with mitogenic agents for thymus-derived lymphocytes (concanavalin A) or for bone marrow-derived lymphocytes (lipopolysaccharide) suggested that, in the mouse, development of a complex villous surface is a general concomitant of lymphocyte activation and transformation

Utilization of lunar materials and expertise for large scale operations in space: Abstracts

The practicality of exploiting the moon, not only as a source of materials for large habitable structures at Lagrangian points, but also as a base for colonization is discussed in abstracts of papers presented at a special session on lunar utilization. Questions and answers which followed each presentation are included after the appropriate abstract. Author and subject indexes are provided