Developmental adaptations to gravity in animals

Terrestrial animals have adapted to a constant gravitational stress over millions of years. Tissues of the cardiovascular system and lumbar spine in tall species of animals such as the giraffe are particularly well adapted to high and variable vectors of gravitational force. Swelling of the leg tissues in the giraffe is prevented by a variety of physiological mechanisms including (1) a natural 'antigravity suit', (2) impermeable capillaries, (3) arterial-wall hypertrophy, (4) variable blood pressures during normal activity, and (5) a large-capacity lymphatic system. These adaptations, as well as a natural hypertension, maintain blood perfusion to the giraffe's brain. The intervertebral disk is another tissue that is uniquely adapted to gravitational stress. Tall and large terrestrial animals have higher swelling pressures than their smaller or aquatic counterparts. Finally, the meniscus of the rabbit knee provides information on the effects of aging and load-bearing on cartilaginous tissues. Such tissues within the joints of animals are important for load-bearing on Earth; these connective tissues may degenerate during long-duration space flight

Evaluation Real-Time Data Warehousing Challenges From A Theoretical And Practical Perspective

The concept of real-time data warehousing has grown in popularity in recent years as organizations demand access to critical pieces of data in real-time to produce analytics and make business decisions to gain competitive advantage. Real-time data warehousing systems differ substantially from traditional data warehousing systems, thus, presenting a unique set of organizational and operational challenges. The basis for the research was to investigate whether adequate information is available regarding the organizational and operational challenges of real-time data warehousing and whether that information is available to the database community. This exploration was done by gathering primary research, conducting a case study research design, and comparing, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from the two different types of research. The information for the primary research was gathered from scholarly, peer reviewed articles, and books on Google Scholar and ACM, computer science and database journals, various textbooks, and the Internet. The case study was conducted on an organization utilizing a real-time data warehousing system

Oligarchic Cartelization in Post-Suharto Indonesia

A few ruling individuals from party organizations overpowered Indonesia\u27s post-authoritarian, representative democracy. The legislative process of the 2017 Election Act was the case study employed to examine this assumption. The underlying thinking was that there was a contest between “wealth power” (oligarchy) and “participation power” (democracy). The power of wealth controls the party and government institutions. Notwithstanding the presence of participation power, there was, however, no balance between wealth power and participation power, because the formal control of politics was in the hands of party oligarchs. The study purpose was to bridge the gap in knowledge by exploring how the party oligarchs maintained the policymaking, reputedly using cartelized strategies, to defend the status quo. By employing the oligarchy and cartelization theories, the central research question of this inquiry focused on how the party oligarchs, allegedly using cartel work-patterns, mastered the policy process in post-Suharto Indonesia. A qualitative case-study was used with in-depth interviews with 15 participants for data collection and the N-Vivo program for data analysis. Qualitative findings indicated that the party oligarchs engineered the legal process in parliament applying cartelized strategies to defend privileges they obtained from collusive interpenetration with the state. The implications for social change include informing members of parliament, other policymakers, and civil society groups of the cruciality of comprehending the modus operandi of oligarchic cartels. Understanding the “oligarchic cartelization” theoretical postulate is a fundamental step for party members to improve their performance in public offices. The results of this study can also be a useful reference for pro-democracy activists to defend the ontological essence of public participation in implementing representative democracy at an appropriate level

Examining student achievement and interventions for underprepared vocational math students

Math preparedness is a barrier to completion for many community college vocational students. With President Obama\u27s (2010) challenge to produce more graduates in order to ensure our nation succeeds in the 21st century, community colleges across the country have an increased focus on graduation or completion. This study was conducted to provide guidance to community college administrators, advisors, and faculty as they assist underprepared vocational math students become successful and graduate. This study examined the characteristics of vocational math students who scored as underprepared on a college entrance examination for arithmetic as determined by the community college in this study. These underprepared vocational math students were then categorized into three levels of preparedness based on their entrance exam score and into career cluster areas based on their declared major. Analyses were conducted to examine the differences in the academic success among the three groups of students determined by level of math deficiency and among the career cluster groups based on majors. Finally, this study investigated to what extent the success of underprepared vocational math students could be predicted by student characteristics such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, level of deficiency in math preparedness as well as interventions such as successfully completing a developmental math course, utilizing tutoring services, utilizing computer-aided math software, and participation in a consistent student support program. Using an ex post facto quantitative research design and data from underprepared vocational math students enrolled in a midwestern community college from 2007-2012, this study employed descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, multinomial and binomial hierarchical logistic regression analyses

Muscle changes with eccentric exercise: Implications on earth and in space

Recent investigations of fluid pressure, morpholo gy, and enzyme activities of skeletal muscle exercised eccentrically or concentrically in normal human subjects are reviewed. Intramuscular pressures were measured before, during, and after submaximal exercise and correlated with subjective muscle soreness, fiber size, water content, and blood indices of muscle enzymes. High intensity eccentric exercise is characterized by post exercise pain, elevated intramuscular pressures, and swelling of both type 1 and 2 fibers as compared to concentric exercise. Thus, long periods of unaccustomed, high level eccentric contraction may cause muscle injury, fiber swelling, fluid accumulation, elevated intramuscular pressure, and delayed muscle soreness. Training regimens of progressively increasing eccentric exercise, however, cause less soreness and are extremely efficacious in increasing muscle mass and strength. It is proposed that on Earth, postural muscles are uniquely adapted to low levels of prolonged eccentric contraction that are absent during weightlessness. The almost complete absence of eccentric exercise in space may be an important contributor to muscle atrophy and therefore equipment should be designed to integrate eccentric contractions into exercise protocols for long-term spaceflight

Exercise Within LBNP to Produce Artificial Gravity

Integrated physiologic countermeasures are needed to maintain orthostatic tolerance after spaceflight or bed rest. We hypothesized that supine exercise during LBNP would prevent bed rest-induced loss of orthostatic tolerance by preventing hemoconcentration. In a study conducted jointly with NASA Johnson Space Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, fifteen male subjects underwent 5 days of 6 deg head-down bed rest: 5 control subjects did not exercise, and 10 performed 30 min/day of supine interval treadmill exercise at intensities up to 90% VO(sub 2peak). We will undertake two 14 day bed-rest studies (6 deg head-down tilt bed rest, HDT) to investigate the mechanism of action and efficacy of our partial vacuum exerciser concept. These 14 day bed rest studies were chosen to simulate current microgravity exposures for Space Shuttle crew members

Quantitative analysis of impact of risk factors and learning modalities on urban high school student credit attainment and grade point average during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-2021

This study examined how traditionally least advantaged populations of urban American midwestern high school students were affected by the pandemic compared to non-least advantaged peers. Previous literature recognized achievement gaps between students in the following groups prior to the COVID-19 pandemic: (a) traditionally least advantaged ethnicities (Hanushek et al., 2019; Ladson-Billings, 2006; Noguera, 2009), (b) students with special needs (Cohodes, 2018; Gilmour et al., 2019; Noguera, 2009), (c) students whose native language was different from the language predominantly spoken at school or English language learners (Fry, 2008; Garcia et al., 2012; Hyock, 2001) and students coming from low socioeconomic households (Chamielewski, 2019; Hanushek et al., 2019; Ladson-Billings, 2006; Noguera, 2009) in comparison to their peers not represented in the aforementioned sub-populations. Also, students not obtaining sufficient credits each semester to stay on pace for graduation have been identified as having a predictor of students not graduating (Allensworth & Easton, 2007; Heppen et al., 2017; Herlihy, 2007). Students were grouped by levels of low, medium, and high At-Riskness to determine if there was a significant correlation and/or difference between student achievement rates before and during the pandemic on credits earned and grade-point averages (GPAs) each semester. The data showed that as students accumulate at-risk factors their achievement declined, during the pandemic there was a disproportionate decline in achievement by the most at-risk. This study calls for a re-examination of how to educate through crisis.Includes bibliographical references

Local fluid shifts and edema in humans during simulated microgravity

Local fluid shifts and edema in humans during simulated microgravity is studied. Recent results and significance and future plans on the following research topics are discussed: mechanisms of headward edema formation during head-down tilt; postural responses of head and foot microcirculations and their sensitivity to bed rest; and transcapillary fluid transport associated with lower body negative pressure (LBNP) with and without saline ingestion