Space Chemical Propulsion Test Facilities at NASA Lewis Research Center

The NASA Lewis Research Center, located in Cleveland, Ohio, has a number of space chemical propulsion test facilities which constitute a significant national space testing resource. The purpose of this paper is to make more users aware of these test facilities and to encourage their use through cooperative agreements between the government, industry, and universities. Research which is of interest to the government is especially encouraged and often can be done in a cooperative manner that best uses the resources of all parties. An overview of the Lewis test facilities is presented

Physician Communication Skills: Results of a Survey of General/Family Practitioners in Newfoundland

Purpose: To describe the attitudes related to communication skills, confidence in using commnication skills, and use of communication skills during the physician-patient encounter among a population-based sample of family physicians. Procedures: A mailed survey, distributed to all family physicians and general practitioners currently practicing in Newfoundland. The questionnaire was designed to collect data in five general areas participant demographics, physician confidence in using specific communication strategies, perceived adequacy of time spent by physicians with their patients, physician use of specific communication strategies with the adult patients they saw in the prior week, and physician use of specific communication strategies during the closing minutes of the encounters they had with adult patients in the prior week. Main Findings: A total of 160 completed surveys was received from practicing family physicians/general practitioners in Newfoundland, yielding an adjusted response rate of 43.1%. Most of the respondents (83.8%) indicated their communication skills are as important as technical skills in terms of achieving positive patient outcomes. Between one-third and one-half of the respondents, depending on the educational level queried, rated their communications skills training as being inadequate. Fewer than 20% of the respondents rated the communications skills training they received as being excellent. Physicians indicated a need to improve their use of 8 of 13 specific communication strategies during patient encounters, and reported using few communication strategies during the closing minutes of the encounter. Interactions that occurred during a typical encounter tended to focus on biomedical versus psychosocial issues. Conclusions: Family physicians/general practitioners recognize a need to improve their commnications skills. Well-designed communications skills training programs should be implemented at multi-levels of physician training in order to improve patient satisfaction with their encounters with family/general practitioners, and to increase the likelihood of positive patient outcomes

Test results at transonic speeds on a contoured over-the-wing propfan model

A semispan wing/body model with a powered highly loaded propeller has been tested to provide data on the propulsion installation drag of advanced propfan-powered aircraft. The model had a supercritical wing with a contoured over-the-wing nacelle. It was tested in the Ames Research Center's (ARC) 14-foot Transonic Wind Tunnel at a total pressure of 1 atm. The test was conducted at angles of attack from -0.5 to 4 deg at Mach numbers ranging from 0.6 to 0.8. The test objectives were to determine propeller performance, exhaust jet effects, propeller slipstream interference drag, and total powerplant installation drag. Test results indicated a total powerplant installation drag of 82 counts (0.0082) at a Mach number of 0.8 and a lift coefficient of 0.5, which is approximately 29 percent of a typical airplane cruise drag

Wind tunnel testing of low-drag airfoils

Results are presented for the measured performance recently obtained on several airfoil concepts designed to achieve low drag by maintaining extensive regions of laminar flow without compromising high-lift performance. The wind tunnel results extend from subsonic to transonic speeds and include boundary-layer control through shaping and suction. The research was conducted in the NASA Langley 8-Ft Transonic Pressure Tunnel (TPT) and Low Turbulence Pressure Tunnel (LTPT) which have been developed for testing such low-drag airfoils. Emphasis is placed on identifying some of the major factors influencing the anticipated performance of low-drag airfoils

Attitudes of surgeons to the use of postoperative markers of the systemic inflammatory response following elective surgery

Background: Cancer is responsible for 7.6 million deaths worldwide and surgery is the primary modality of a curative outcome. Postoperative care is of considerable importance and it is against this backdrop that a questionnaire based study assessing the attitudes of surgeons to monitoring postoperative systemic inflammation was carried out. Method: A Web based survey including 10 questions on the “attitudes of surgeons to the use of postoperative markers of the systemic inflammatory response following elective surgery” was distributed via email. Two cohorts were approached to participate in the survey. Cohort 1 consisted of 1092 surgeons on the “Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI)” membership list. Cohort 2 consisted of 270 surgeons who had published in this field in the past as identified by two recent reviews. A reminder email was sent out 21 days after the initial email in both cases and the survey was closed after 42 days in both cases. Result: In total 29 surgeons (2.7%) from cohort 1 and 40 surgeons (14.8%) from cohort 2 responded to the survey. The majority of responders were from Europe (77%), were colorectal specialists (64%) and were consultants (84%) and worked in teaching hospitals (54%) and used minimally invasive techniques (87%). The majority of responders measured CRP routinely in the post-operative period (85%) and used CRP to guide their decision making (91%) and believed that CRP monitoring should be incorporated into postoperative guidelines (81%). Conclusion: Although there was a limited response the majority of surgeons surveyed measure the systemic inflammatory response following elective surgery and use CRP measurements together with clinical findings to guide postoperative care. The present results provide a baseline against which future surveys can be compared

Radiological assessment for Space Station Freedom

Circumstances have made it necessary to reassess the risks to Space Station Freedom crewmembers that arise from exposure to the space radiation environment. An option is being considered to place it in an orbit similar to that of the Russian Mir space station. This means it would be in a 51.6 deg inclination orbit instead of the previously planned 28.5 deg inclination orbit. A broad range of altitudes is still being considered, although the baseline is a 407 km orbit. In addition, recent data from the Japanese A-bomb survivors has made it necessary for NASA to have the exposure limits reviewed. Preliminary findings of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements indicate that the limits must be significantly reduced. Finally, the Space Station will be a laboratory where effects of long-term zero gravity on human physiology will be studied in detail. It is possible that a few crewmembers will be assigned to as many as three 1-year missions. Thus, their accumulated exposure will exceed 1,000 days. Results of this radiation risk assessment for Space Station Freedom crewmembers finds that females less than 35 years old will be confined to mission assignments where the altitude is less than about 400 km. Slight restrictions may also need to be made for male crewmembers less than 35 years old

High fidelity optogenetic control of individual prefrontal cortical pyramidal neurons in vivo

Precise spatial and temporal manipulation of neural activity in specific genetically defined cell populations is now possible with the advent of optogenetics. The emerging field of optogenetics consists of a set of naturally-occurring and engineered light-sensitive membrane proteins that are able to activate (e.g., channelrhodopsin-2, ChR2) or silence (e.g., halorhodopsin, NpHR) neural activity. Here we demonstrate the technique and the feasibility of using novel adeno-associated viral (AAV) tools to activate (AAV-CaMKll{\alpha}-ChR2-eYFP) or silence (AAV-CaMKll{\alpha}-eNpHR3.0-eYFP) neural activity of rat prefrontal cortical prelimbic (PL) pyramidal neurons in vivo. In vivo single unit extracellular recording of ChR2-transduced pyramidal neurons showed that delivery of brief (10 ms) blue (473 nm) light-pulse trains up to 20 Hz via a custom fiber optic-coupled recording electrode (optrode) induced spiking with high fidelity at 20 Hz for the duration of recording (up to two hours in some cases). To silence spontaneously active neurons we transduced them with the NpHR construct and administered continuous green (532 nm) light to completely inhibit action potential activity for up to 10 seconds with 100% fidelity in most cases. These versatile photosensitive tools combined with optrode recording methods provide experimental control over activity of genetically defined neurons and can be used to investigate the functional relationship between neural activity and complex cognitive behavior.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures F1000Research articl