Cognitive Assessment During Long-Duration Space Flight

The Space Flight Cognitive Assessment Tool for Windows (WinSCAT) is a computer-based, self-administered battery of five cognitive assessment tests developed for medical operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. WinSCAT is a medical requirement for U.S. long-duration astronauts and has been implemented with U.S. astronauts from one NASA/Mir mission (NASA-7 mission) and all expeditions to date on the International Space Station (ISS). Its purpose is to provide ISS crew surgeons with an objective clinical tool after an unexpected traumatic event, a medical condition, or the cumulative effects of space flight that could negatively affect an astronaut's cognitive status and threaten mission success. WinSCAT was recently updated to add network capability to support a 6-person crew on the station support computers. Additionally, WinSCAT Version 2.0.28 has increased difficulty of items in Mathematics, increased number of items in Match-to-Sample, incorporates a moving rather than a fixed baseline, and implements stricter interpretation rules. ISS performance data were assessed to compare initial to modified interpretation rules for detecting potential changes in cognitive functioning during space flight. WinSCAT tests are routinely taken monthly during an ISS mission. Performance data from these ISS missions do not indicate significant cognitive decrements due to microgravity/space flight alone but have shown decrements. Applying the newly derived rules to ISS data results in a number of off-nominal performances at various times during and after flight.. Correlation to actual events is needed, but possible explanations for off-nominal performances could include actual physical factors such as toxic exposure, medication effects, or fatigue; emotional factors including stress from the mission or life events; or failure to exert adequate effort on the tests

Cognitive Assessment in Long-Duration Space Flight

This slide presentation reviews the development and use of a tool for assessing spaceflight cognitive ability in astronauts. This tool. the Spaceflight Cognitive Assessment Tool for Windows (WinSCAT) has been used to provide ISS flight surgeons with an objective clinical tool to monitor the astronauts cognitive status during long-duration space flight and allow immediate feedback to the astronaut. Its use is medically required for all long-duration missions and it contains a battery of five cognitive assessment subtests that are scheduled monthly and compared against the individual preflight baseline

Mandated data archiving greatly improves access to research data

The data underlying scientific papers should be accessible to researchers both now and in the future, but how best can we ensure that these data are available? Here we examine the effectiveness of four approaches to data archiving: no stated archiving policy, recommending (but not requiring) archiving, and two versions of mandating data deposition at acceptance. We control for differences between data types by trying to obtain data from papers that use a single, widespread population genetic analysis, STRUCTURE. At one extreme, we found that mandated data archiving policies that require the inclusion of a data availability statement in the manuscript improve the odds of finding the data online almost a thousand-fold compared to having no policy. However, archiving rates at journals with less stringent policies were only very slightly higher than those with no policy at all. At one extreme, we found that mandated data archiving policies that require the inclusion of a data availability statement in the manuscript improve the odds of finding the data online almost a thousand fold compared to having no policy. However, archiving rates at journals with less stringent policies were only very slightly higher than those with no policy at all. We also assessed the effectiveness of asking for data directly from authors and obtained over half of the requested datasets, albeit with about 8 days delay and some disagreement with authors. Given the long term benefits of data accessibility to the academic community, we believe that journal based mandatory data archiving policies and mandatory data availability statements should be more widely adopted

Mortality in adult children of parents with alcohol use disorder: a nationwide register study

Research suggests that adult children of parents with harmful alcohol use are at increased risk for premature death. This national cohort study investigated mortality in adult children of parents with alcohol use disorder (AUD), adjusting for sociodemographic variables. The study used 1973 to 2018 data from Swedish national registers to compare mortality risk in children who had >= 1 parent with AUD (ICD-10 code F10 and its ICD-8 and ICD-9 equivalents) (n = 122,947) and those who did not (n = 2,298,532). A Cox regression model adjusted for year of birth, sex, parental education, and childhood loss of a parent was used. Before the age of 18 years, about 5% of children born in Sweden lived with >= 1 parent who had a clinical diagnosis of AUD. Overall mortality was higher in adult children of parents with AUD: hazard ratio (HR) 1.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.71-1.82. Mortality remained elevated after adjustments for sociodemographic factors (HR 1.45, 95% CI 1.40-1.50). Children of parents with AUD had increased mortality from all investigated causes. The highest excess risk was for death from drug-related causes (excluding accidental poisonings) (HR 3.08, 95% CI 2.74-3.46). For most causes, mortality was higher if the mother had AUD than if the father had AUD. Patterns of mortality were similar in both sexes. This study provides evidence that parental AUD raises the risk of offspring mortality from preventable causes such as drug use, suicide (HR 2.16, 95% CI 1.98-2.36), accident (HR 2.00, 95% CI 1.87-2.13), and assault (HR 1.76, 95% CI 1.38-2.24).</p

The Demographics of Terrestrial Planets in the Venus Zone

Understanding the physical characteristics of Venus, including its atmosphere, interior, and its evolutionary pathway with respect to Earth, remains a vital component for terrestrial planet evolution models and the emergence and/or decline of planetary habitability. A statistical strategy for evaluating the evolutionary pathways of terrestrial planets lies in the atmospheric characterization of exoplanets, where the sample size provides sufficient means for determining required runaway greenhouse conditions. Observations of potential exoVenuses can help confirm hypotheses about Venus' past, as well as the occurrence rate of Venus-like planets in other systems. Additionally, the data from future Venus missions, such as DAVINCI, EnVision, and VERITAS, will provide valuable information regarding Venus, and the study of exoVenuses will be complimentary to these missions. To facilitate studies of exoVenus candidates, we provide a catalog of all confirmed terrestrial planets in the Venus Zone, including transiting and non-transiting cases, and quantify their potential for follow-up observations. We examine the demographics of the exoVenus population with relation to stellar and planetary properties, such as the planetary radius gap. We highlight specific high-priority exoVenus targets for follow-up observations including: TOI-2285 b, LTT 1445 A c, TOI-1266 c, LHS 1140 c, and L98-59 d. We also discuss follow-up observations that may yield further insight into the Venus/Earth divergence in atmospheric properties.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

"We can't expect much": Childbearing women's 'horizon of expectations' of the health system in rural Vietnam.

Highlights • Responsiveness centres on understanding peoples' ‘legitimate’ expectations of their health system. • Healthcare-related expectations are shaped at the intersection of social, temporal, and spatial ‘locations’. • Expectations are also shaped by social norms, and market-driven practices and forces in the health system. • There is a need for health system actors to consider the impact of market forces on responsive care provision. • Active citizen participation and contestation is also needed to establish ‘legitimate’ expectations of care