Overview of NASA Technology Development for In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) encompasses a broad range of systems that enable the production and use of extraterrestrial resources in support of future exploration missions. It has the potential to greatly reduce the dependency on resources transported from Earth (e.g., propellants, life support consumables), thereby significantly improving the ability to conduct future missions. Recognizing the critical importance of ISRU for the future, NASA is currently conducting technology development projects in two of its four mission directorates. The Advanced Exploration Systems Division in the Agency's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate has initiated a new project for ISRU Technology focused on component, subsystem, and system maturation in the areas of water volatiles resource acquisition, and water volatiles and atmospheric processing into propellants and other consumable products. The Space Technology Mission Directorate is supporting development of ISRU component technologies in the areas of Mars atmosphere acquisition, including dust management, and oxygen production from Mars atmosphere for propellant and life support consumables. Together, these two coordinated projects are working towards a common goal of demonstrating ISRU technology and systems in preparation for future flight applications

How do general practitioners experience providing care to refugees with mental health problems? A qualitative study from Denmark

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Critical Dimensions in Architectural Photography: Contributions to Architectural Knowledge

This paper illustrates and explores three critical dimensions of photography in architecture, each of which informs the production of images, texts, and other artifacts which establish what might be called a building’s media footprint. The paper’s broad goal is to question the extent to which these critical dimensions are relevant to architectural decision-making processes. Acknowledging that such dimensions as the ones examined here rarely predict an architect’s specific design decisions in a transparent manner, the paper discusses not only the decisions made by architects during the process of designing buildings, but the decisions made by critics, visitors, and members of the general public as they engage in activities such as visiting buildings, writing about them and, particularly, photographing them. First, the text discusses the potential of buildings to operate as mechanisms for producing images, in the sense originated by Beatriz Colomina. The question is developed through the analysis of the space of photography – mapping of points of view, directions of view, and fields of view of defined photographic collections. Secondly, it considers photography’s complicity in the canonization of buildings, and specifically, the extent to which photography is responsible for distinguishing between major and minor architectural works. Finally, the essay examines the erosion over time of photography’s historical power to frame when confronted with contemporary technologies of virtual reality and photo realistically rendered digital models. Each of these critical dimensions, or concepts, develops a specific aspect of how photographic information about buildings is organized, structured, and disseminated, and is thus only part of the larger project of architectural epistemology, which inquires into this wider field. This will be done through an examination of the Mies van der Rohe-designed Commons Building at ITT in Chicago and the evolution of its relationship with architectural photography and photographic representation – both on its own terms and through the prism of the Rem Koolhaas-designed McCormick Tribune Student Center, which adds to and incorporates the Commons Building. Until the end of the twentieth century, the Commons Building on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology was generally considered one of Mies van der Rohe’s lesser works. Reportedly neglected by its own architect during the design process, and frequently marginalized in academic discussions of the campus, when mentioned at all the building was often cited as an unrefined prototype of Crown Hall. This discourse took a new direction when in 1998, Rem Koolhaas/OMA won a design competition for a student center on the IIT campus: uniquely among the competition entries, Koolhaas’s design incorporated the Commons Building within a new context – what ultimately became the McCormick Tribune Campus Center (MTCC). When critics concluded that the incorporation of the Commons Building into the larger whole could compromise its integrity as an exemplar of Mies’s work, the building became the object of renewed interest and controversy. The two projects considered here show a clear evolution in architecture’s relationship with the photographic image. Specifically, the history of the Commons Building can be traced through photographs: during and shortly following its construction, the building was photographed as part of Mies’s own attention to publicity; it was documented as part of historical analyses; and over time it was visited and photographed by casual and amateur photographers. Following the competition results, photographs of the Commons Building were strategically deployed by both proponents and critics of Koolhaas’s design. Contemporary photographs of the building appear in architectural and campus guidebooks and on websites such as Flickr.com. Examining the ways in which photographs of the Commons Building appear in these various contexts allows discussion of the critical dimensions identified above and permits us to trace the evolution of the mutually reinforcing relationship between architecture and photography

From Oxford to Hawaii Ecophysiological Barriers Limit Human Progression in Ten Sport Monuments

In order to understand the determinants and trends of human performance evolution, we analyzed ten outdoor events among the oldest and most popular in sports history. Best performances of the Oxford-Cambridge boat race (since 1836), the channel crossing in swimming (1875), the hour cycling record (1893), the Elfstedentocht speed skating race (1909), the cross country ski Vasaloppet (1922), the speed ski record (1930), the Streif down-hill in Kitzbühel (1947), the eastward and westward sailing transatlantic records (1960) and the triathlon Hawaii ironman (1978) all follow a similar evolutive pattern, best described through a piecewise exponential decaying model (r2 = 0.95±0.07). The oldest events present highest progression curvature during their early phase. Performance asymptotic limits predicted from the model may be achieved in fourty years (2049±32 y). Prolonged progression may be anticipated in disciplines which further rely on technology such as sailing and cycling. Human progression in outdoor sports tends to asymptotic limits depending on physiological and environmental parameters and may temporarily benefit from further technological progresses

The Emotional and Political Power of Images of Suffering: Discursive Psychology and the Study of Visual Rhetoric

Drawing on insights from discursive and rhetorical approaches in psychology, the chapter examines responses to the publication of the photographs of the body of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned off the coast of Turkey in 2015. The chapter considers how and why the images were constructed as inherently ‘moving’, and as possessing the power to elicit emotions, and affect the audience on a ‘visceral’ level. It also looks at how accounts of (and for) emotional reactions to the images were deployed rhetorically to manage accountability associated with viewing, and sharing, images of a dead child. Through the examination of the Kurdi images the chapter also considers the possibility of a psychologically-informed approach to visual rhetoric, one that offers a better understanding of how and why certain images (but not others) are constituted as topics of humanitarian concern, and a source of emotional and political investment

Aberrant Mer receptor tyrosine kinase expression contributes to leukemogenesis in acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) continues to be extremely difficult to treat successfully, and the unacceptably low overall survival rates mandate that we assess new potential therapies to ameliorate poor clinical response to conventional therapy. Abnormal tyrosine kinase activation in AML has been associated with poor prognosis and provides strategic targets for novel therapy development. We found that Mer receptor tyrosine kinase was over-expressed in a majority of pediatric (29/36, 80%) and adult (10/10, 100%) primary AML patient blasts at the time of diagnosis, and 100% of patient samples at the time of relapse. Mer was also found to be expressed in 12 of 14 AML cell lines (86%). In contrast, normal bone marrow myeloid precursors expressed little to no Mer. Following AML cell line stimulation with Gas6, a Mer ligand, we observed activation of prosurvival and proliferative signaling pathways, including phosphorylation of ERK1/2, p38, MSK1, CREB, ATF1, AKT and STAT6. To assess the phenotypic role of Mer in AML, two independent short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) constructs were used to decrease Mer expression in the AML cell lines Nomo-1 and Kasumi-1. Reduction of Mer protein levels significantly increased rates of myeloblast apoptosis two to threefold in response to serum starvation. Furthermore, myeloblasts with knocked-down Mer demonstrated decreased colony formation by 67–87%, relative to control cell lines (P<0.01). NOD-SCID-gamma mice transplanted with Nomo-1 myeloblasts with reduced levels of Mer had a significant prolongation in survival compared with mice transplanted with the parental or control cell lines (median survival 17 days in parental and control cell lines, versus 32–36 days in Mer knockdown cell lines, P<0.0001). These data suggest a role for Mer in acute myeloid leukemogenesis and indicate that targeted inhibition of Mer may be an effective therapeutic strategy in pediatric and adult AML

Addressing the needs of children with disabilities experiencing disaster or terrorism

Purpose of review: This paper reviews the empirical literature on psychosocial factors relating to children with disabilities in the context of disaster or terrorism. Recent findings: Research indicates individuals with disabilities experience increased exposure to hazards due to existing social disparities and barriers associated with disability status. However, studies on the psychological effects of disaster/terrorism on children with preexisting disabilities are exceedingly few and empirical evidence of the effectiveness of trauma-focused therapies for this population is limited. Secondary adversities, including social stigma and health concerns, also compromise the recovery of these children post-disaster/terrorism. Schools and teachers appear to be particularly important in the recovery of children with disabilities to disaster. Disasters, terrorism, and war all contribute to the incidence of disability, as well as disproportionately affect children with preexisting disabilities. Summary: Disaster preparedness interventions and societal changes are needed to decrease the disproportionate environmental and social vulnerability of children with disabilities to disaster and terrorism

Use of a non-homologous end-joining-deficient strain (delta-ku70) of the biocontrol fungus Trichoderma virens to investigate the function of the laccase gene lcc1 in sclerotia degradation

The aim of this study was to apply a generated Δtku70 strain with increased homologous recombination efficiency from the mycoparasitic fungus Trichoderma virens for studying the involvement of laccases in the degradation of sclerotia of plant pathogenic fungi. Inactivation of the non-homologous end-joining pathway has become a successful tool in filamentous fungi to overcome poor targeting efficiencies for genetic engineering. Here, we applied this principle to the biocontrol fungus T. virens, strain I10, by deleting its tku70 gene. This strain was subsequently used to delete the laccase gene lcc1, which we found to be expressed after interaction of T. virens with sclerotia of the plant pathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Lcc1 was strongly upregulated at early colonization of B. cinerea sclerotia and steadily induced during colonization of S. sclerotiorum sclerotia. The Δtku70Δlcc1 mutant was altered in its ability to degrade the sclerotia of B. cinerea and S. sclerotiorum. Interestingly, while the decaying ability for B. cinerea sclerotia was significantly decreased, that to degrade S. sclerotiorum sclerotia was even enhanced, suggesting the operation of different mechanisms in the mycoparasitism of these two types of sclerotia by the laccase LCC1

How to increase earthquake and home fire preparedness: the fix-it intervention

Published, evaluated community intervention studies concerning natural hazard preparedness are rare. Most lack a rigorous methodology, thereby hampering the development of evidence-based interventions. This paper describes the rationale and methodology of a cross-cultural, longitudinal intervention study on earthquake and home fire preparedness, termed fix-it. The aim is to evaluate whether and how the intervention brings about behaviour change in the targeted communities in two coastal cities with high seismic risk: Seattle, USA and Izmir, Turkey. Participants are adult residents of these cities. The intervention group attends a 6-h workshop, which focuses on securing items in the household. The control group does not attend the workshop. All participants complete baseline and post-intervention, as well as 3- and 12-month follow-up assessments. The primary outcome measure is an observational measure of nine preparedness items for earthquake and fire in participants’ homes. This is evaluated alongside participants’ self-reports concerning their preparedness levels. Secondary outcomes are changes in levels of self-efficacy, perceived outcome, trust, corruption, empowerment, anxiety and social cohesion. Results from the first of the studies, conducted in Seattle in September 2015, indicate that while the fix-it intervention is effective, in the longer term, multi-hazard preparedness is increased by the mere act of going into people’s homes to observe their preparedness levels along with assessing self-reported preparedness and sociopsychological orientation towards natural hazards. This protocol and study aim to augment the empirical literature on natural hazard preparedness, informing national and international policy on delivery of evidence-based community interventions to promote multi-hazard preparedness in households