Cryogenic cooling system Patent

Portable cryogenic cooling system design including turbine pump, cooling chamber, and atomize

Phobos LIFE (Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment)

The Planetary Society's Phobos Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (Phobos LIFE) flew in the sample return capsule of the Russian Federal Space Agency's Phobos Grunt mission and was to have been a test of one aspect of the hypothesis that life can move between nearby planets within ejected rocks. Although the Phobos Grunt mission failed, we present here the scientific and engineering design and motivation of the Phobos LIFE experiment to assist with the scientific and engineering design of similar future experiments. Phobos LIFE flew selected organisms in a simulated meteoroid. The 34-month voyage would have been the first such test to occur in the high-radiation environment outside the protection of Earth's magnetosphere for more than a few days. The patented Phobos LIFE “biomodule” is an 88 g cylinder consisting of a titanium outer shell, several types of redundant seals, and 31 individual Delrin sample containers. Phobos LIFE contained 10 different organisms, representing all three domains of life, and one soil sample. The organisms are all very well characterized, most with sequenced genomes. Most are extremophiles, and most have flown in low Earth orbit. Upon return from space, the health and characteristics of organisms were to have been compared with controls that remained on Earth and have not yet been opened

Quantitation of Insulin-stimulated Glucose Disposal in Patients with Non-insulin-dependent Diabetes Mellitus

Glucose disposal rates (Rd) during an insulin clamp study reflect both basal and insulin-stimulated Rd. To quantify the amount of glucose taken up in response to a known increase ininsulin concentration, two consecutive studies were performed on 10 patients with mild to moderate NIDDM (mean fasting glucose = 146 mg/ dl) and 10 normal subjects. Endogenous insulin secretion was inhibited by somatostatin and plasma glucose level maintained at 180 mg/dl for 5 h. Rd (mg/m2/min) was determined isotopically for 2.5 h at insulin concentrations ∼6 μU/ml and during 2.5 h of physiologic hyperinsulinemia at ∼60 μU/ml (total glucose disposal), with the increase in Rd resulting from the approximate 10-fold elevation of plasma insulin concentration defined as insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. Results showed that the increment in Rd resulting from the elevation of plasma insulin concentration was relatively minor in NIDDM (38 ± 6), increasing from a mean (±SEM) value of 83 ± 8 to 121 ±12. Similar values in normal subjects were 90 ± 7 and 274 ± 26 with an increment of 183 ± 21. Thus, insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in patients with NIDDM was only one-fifth of that in normals, and accounted for only 31% (38 ÷ 121) of total glucose disposal during the clamp study. These data indicate that the majority of previous insulin clamp studies of in vivo insulin action in patients with NIDDM, in which total glucose disposal and insulinstimulated glucose disposal have been equated, have underestimated the magnitude of insulin resistance present in NIDDM. This conclusion is highlighted by the fact that the current study was carried out in patients with relatively mild NIDDM, and the possibility exists that physiologic increments of plasma insulin have essentially no effect on peripheral glucose disposal in patients with moresevere NIDDM.</jats:p