Reusable rocket engine turbopump condition monitoring

Significant improvements in engine readiness with attendant reductions in maintenance costs and turnaround times can be achieved with an engine condition monitoring system (CMS). The CMS provides real time health status of critical engine components, without disassembly, through component monitoring with advanced sensor technologies. Three technologies were selected to monitor the rotor bearings and turbine blades: the isotope wear detector and fiber optic deflectometer (bearings), and the fiber optic pyrometer (blades). Signal processing algorithms were evaluated and ranked for their utility in providing useful component health data to unskilled maintenance personnel. Design modifications to current configuration Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) high pressure turbopumps and the MK48-F turbopump were developed to incorporate the sensors

Brain connectivity Patterns Dissociate action of specific Acupressure Treatments in Fatigued Breast cancer survivors

Funding This work was supported by grants R01 CA151445 and 2UL1 TR000433-06 from the National Institutes of Health. The funding source had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. We thank the expert assistance by Dr. Bradley Foerster in acquisition of 1H-MRS and fMRI data.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An overview of early investigational drugs for the treatment of human papilloma virus infection and associated dysplasia

Introduction: High-risk HPV (HR-HPV) related invasive cervical cancer (ICC) causes >270,000 deaths per annum world-wide with over 85% of these occurring in low-resource countries. Ablative and excisional treatment modalities are restricted for use with high-grade pre-cancerous cervical disease with HPV infection and low-grade dysplasia mostly managed by a watch-and-wait policy.Areas Covered: Various pharmacological approaches have been investigated as non-destructive alternatives for the treatment of HR-HPV infection and associated dysplasia. These are discussed dealing with efficacy, ease-of-use (physician or self-applied), systemic or locally applied, side-effects, cost and risks. The main focus is the perceived impact on current clinical practice of a self-applied, effective and safe pharmacological anti-HPV treatment.Expert opinion: Current prophylactic HPV vaccines are expensive, HPV type restricted and have little effect in already infected women. Therapeutic vaccines are under development but are also HPV type-restricted. At present, the developed nations use national cytology screening and surgical procedures to treat only women identified with HPV-related high-grade dysplastic disease. However, since HPV testing is rapidly replacing cytology as the test-of-choice, a suitable topically-applied and low-cost antiviral treatment could be an ideal solution for treatment of HPV infection per se with test-of-cure carried out by repeat HPV testing. Cytology would only then be necessary for women who remained HPV positive. Although of significant benefit in the developed countries, combining such a treatment with self-sampled HPV testing could revolutionise the management of this disease in the developing world which lack both the infrastructure and resources to establish national cytology screening programs

Costs analysis of a population level rabies control programme in Tamil Nadu, India

The study aimed to determine costs to the state government of implementing different interventions for controlling rabies among the entire human and animal populations of Tamil Nadu. This built upon an earlier assessment of Tamil Nadu’s efforts to control rabies. Anti-rabies vaccines were made available at all health facilities. Costs were estimated for five different combinations of animal and human interventions using an activity-based costing approach from the provider perspective. Disease and population data were sourced from the state surveillance data, human census and livestock census. Program costs were extrapolated from official documents. All capital costs were depreciated to estimate annualized costs. All costs were inflated to 2012 Rupees. Sensitivity analysis was conducted across all major cost centres to assess their relative impact on program costs. It was found that the annual costs of providing Anti-rabies vaccine alone and in combination with Immunoglobulins was \$0.7 million (Rs 36 million) and \$2.2 million (Rs 119 million), respectively. For animal sector interventions, the annualised costs of rolling out surgical sterilisation-immunization, injectable immunization and oral immunizations were estimated to be \$ 44 million (Rs 2,350 million), \$23 million (Rs 1,230 million) and \$ 11 million (Rs 590 million), respectively. Dog bite incidence, health systems coverage and cost of rabies biologicals were found to be important drivers of costs for human interventions. For the animal sector interventions, the size of dog catching team, dog population and vaccine costs were found to be driving the costs. Rabies control in Tamil Nadu seems a costly proposition the way it is currently structured. Policy makers in Tamil Nadu and other similar settings should consider the long-term financial sustainability before embarking upon a state or nation-wide rabies control programme

Chemical kinetics and photochemical data for use in stratospheric modeling

As part of a series of evaluated sets, rate constants and photochemical cross sections compiled by the NASA Panel for Data Evaluation are provided. The primary application of the data is in the modeling of stratospheric processes, with particular emphasis on the ozone layer and its possible perturbation by anthropogenic and natural phenomena. Copies of this evaluation are available from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Evaluation of cost-effective strategies for rabies post-exposure vaccination in low-income countries

<b>Background:</b> Prompt post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is essential in preventing the fatal onset of disease in persons exposed to rabies. Unfortunately, life-saving rabies vaccines and biologicals are often neither accessible nor affordable, particularly to the poorest sectors of society who are most at risk and upon whom the largest burden of rabies falls. Increasing accessibility, reducing costs and preventing delays in delivery of PEP should therefore be prioritized.<p></p> <b>Methodology/Principal Findings:</b> We analyzed different PEP vaccination regimens and evaluated their relative costs and benefits to bite victims and healthcare providers. We found PEP vaccination to be an extremely cost-effective intervention (from $200 to less than$60/death averted). Switching from intramuscular (IM) administration of PEP to equally efficacious intradermal (ID) regimens was shown to result in significant savings in the volume of vaccine required to treat the same number of patients, which could mitigate vaccine shortages, and would dramatically reduce the costs of implementing PEP. We present financing mechanisms that would make PEP more affordable and accessible, could help subsidize the cost for those most in need, and could even support new and existing rabies control and prevention programs.<p></p> <b>Conclusions/Significance:</b> We conclude that a universal switch to ID delivery would improve the affordability and accessibility of PEP for bite victims, leading to a likely reduction in human rabies deaths, as well as being economical for healthcare providers.<p></p&gt

Sustained attention in children with two etiologies of early hydrocephalus.

Several studies have shown that children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) and hydrocephalus have attention problems on parent ratings and difficulties in stimulus orienting associated with a posterior brain attention system. Less is known about response control and inhibition associated with an anterior brain attention system. Using the Gordon Vigilance Task (Gordon, 1983), we studied error rate, reaction time, and performance over time for sustained attention, a key anterior attention function, in 101 children with SBM, 17 with aqueductal stenosis (AS; another condition involving congenital hydrocephalus), and 40 typically developing controls (NC). In SBM, we investigated the relation between cognitive attention and parent ratings of inattention and hyperactivity and explored the impact of medical variables. Children with SBM did not differ from AS or NC groups on measures of sustained attention, but they committed more errors and responded more slowly. Approximately one-third of the SBM group had attention symptoms, although parent attention ratings were not associated with task performance. Hydrocephalus does not account for the attention profile of children with SBM, which also reflects the distinctive brain dysmorphologies associated with this condition

Portable instrument for in-vivo infrared oxymetry using spread-spectrum modulation

Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) can be employed to monitor noninvasively and continuously local changes in hemodynamics and oxygenation of human tissues. A portable NIRS research-grade acquisition system, dedicated to measurements during muscular exercise, is presented. The instrument is able to control up to eight LED sources and two detectors. A digital correlation technique, implemented on a single-chip RISC microcontroller, performs source-to-detector multiplexing. Such algorithm is highly optimized for computational efficiency and ambient noise rejection. Software-configurable input stages allow for flexibility in instrument setup. As a result of the specific correlation technique employed, the instrument is compact, lightweight and efficient. Clinical tests on oxygen consumption show excellent performance