AMORE - Mission concept overview for a progressively independent and self-sustainable lunar habitat

Throughout the last decade a renewed interest for lunar space exploration has been expressed through the announcements of many ambitious missions such as Artemis. Annually the Space Station Design Workshop (SSDW) tasks students and young professionals to design a space station concept in a con-current engineering environment. In line with the elevated interest on the Moon this year's SSDW was centred around a self-sustainable lunar habitat. This paper presents the conceptual design of Team Blue at the SSDW 2021. Advanced Moon Operations and Resource Extraction (AMORE) is conceptu-alized as a public-private cooperation for the creation of a lunar platform that acts as an outpost for human exploration and robotic In-situ Resources Utilization (ISRU). AMORE’s proposed location is near the rim of Shackleton Crater at the Lunar South Pole. This location provides opportunities in science and ISRU and favourable sun coverage and thermal conditions. The terrain offers a natural shield for debris and storage advantages for ISRU. The mission architecture allows for incremental crew size increase through a modular dome structure, an initial prioritization of ISRU and a sustainable resource management strategy. Based on the identified system requirements, the initial configuration envisions one core module and two modular structures that would serve as greenhouses or living spaces. The phasing of the base assembly is designed to allow for adequate conditions of an increasing crew size capacity. The greenhouse modules are designed to provide all required oxygen and most required food supply. The modules are constructed using lightweight inflatable structures, while a regolith shell will provide radiation as well as thermal and micrometeorite protection. For reliable communication, a cus-tom relay network named Lunar Earth Telecommand Telemetry Relay (LETTER) is proposed. The mis-sion architecture analysis includes several methods to financially utilize the mission. These include a range of services on the lunar surface such as training facilities for deep space missions, leasing habitats to other Moon explorers, and performing scientific and technological demonstrations. A variety of rovers will be used throughout the mission that will assist in various aspects. In addition to this, a scalable hybrid power generation system that utilizes the abundant sunlight and nuclear energy assures a suffi-cient power supply throughout the entire mission lifetime. This research presents a holistic architecture for a Moon base, which provides an approach to initially utilize the Moon. Within this context, the mission concept is primarily based on already existing or currently in-development technologies. Hence, AMORE offers an approach for a financially and technologically feasible as well as a continuous and expandable human presence on the lunar surfac

Vehicular Visible Light Positioning for Collision Avoidance and Platooning: A Survey

Relative vehicle positioning methods can contribute to safer and more efficient autonomous driving by enabling collision avoidance and platooning applications. For full automation, these applications require cm-level positioning accuracy and greater than 50 Hz update rate. Since sensor-based methods (e.g., LIDAR, cameras) have not been able to reliably satisfy these requirements under all conditions so far, complementary methods are sought. Recently, positioning based on visible light communication signals from vehicle head/tail LED lights (VLP) has shown significant promise as a complementary method attaining cm-level accuracy and near-kHz rate in realistic driving scenarios. Vehicular VLP methods measure relative bearing (angle) or range (distance) of transmitters (i.e., head/tail lights) based on received signals from on-board photodiodes and estimate transmitter relative positions based on those measurements. In this survey, we first review existing vehicular VLP methods and propose a new method that advances the state-of-the-art in positioning performance. Next, we analyze the theoretical and simulated performance of all methods in realistic driving scenarios under challenging noise and weather conditions, real asymmetric light beam patterns and different vehicle dimensions and light placements. Our simulation results show that the newly proposed VLP method is the overall best performer, and can indeed satisfy the accuracy and rate requirements for localization in collision avoidance and platooning applications within practical constraints. Finally, we discuss remaining open challenges that are faced for the deployment of VLP solutions in the automotive sector and further research questions.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure

The relationship between changes in the expression of growth associated protein-43 and functional recovery of the injured inferior alveolar nerve following transection without repair in adult rats

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the changes in the expression of growth associated protein-43 (GAP-43) in trigeminal ganglions (TGs) and in the distal stumps of transected inferior alveolar nerves (IANs), and to clarify the relationship between these changes and functional recovery of the transected IAN without repair using a rat IAN axotomy model. Material and methods: Following transection, GAP-43 expression was measured at multiple time points. The functional recovery of the transected IAN was evaluated based on the compound muscle action potentials recorded from the digastric muscle. Results: GAP-43 expression in TGs was significantly higher at 2, 7, 14, 28, and 56 days following IAN transection compared to that in samples from sham-operated rats (p < 0.0005, p < 0.0005, p < 0.0005, p = 0.007, and p = 0.023, respectively). GAP-43 expression in the distal stumps of transected IANs was significantly higher at 2, 7, 14, and 28 days following IAN transection compared to that in samples taken from sham rats (p < 0.0005, p < 0.0005, p < 0.0005, and p = 0.009, respectively). GAP-43 expression in the distal stumps of transected IANs returned nearly to sham levels by day 56 following IAN transection. On days 7, 14, 28, and 56 following transection, the amplitude of the compound muscle action potential gradually increased, the latency gradually decreased, and the duration gradually increased. The amplitude, latency, and duration of the compound muscle action potentials nearly returned to sham levels on post-transection day 56. Conclusions: Time-dependent changes in the expression of GAP-43 in both TGs and distal stumps of transected IANs without repair are synchronously consistent with the regeneration and functional recovery of the transected IAN. The recovery of the amplitude, latency, and duration of the compound muscle action potentials indicates increased myelination and increased axon density of the regenerated nerve fibers. (C) 2015 European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Comparison of kinesio taping, trigger point injection, and neural therapy in the treatment of acute myofascial pain syndrome: A randomized controlled study

Objectives: Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is a regional painful soft-tissue disorder, characterized by trigger points (TrPs) and taut bands in the muscles. In this study, we aimed to compare the effectiveness of kinesio taping (KT), TrPs injection, and neural therapy (NT) on pain and disability in acute MPS.Methods: 104 patients with MPS in the cervical region were allocated into three groups. Group 1 (n=35) were treated with KT, Group 2 (n=35) received local anesthetic (LA) (lidocaine of 0.5%) TrPs injection, and Group 3 (n=34) received NT with the same LA solution. Patients were assessed by means of pain, pressure pain threshold (PPT), and disability. Pain severity was measured by Visual Analog Scale. The neck pain disability scale was used for assessing disability. PPT was measured by using an algometer. Measurements were taken before and after treatment of 3(rd) and 7(th) days.Results: There were improvements on pain and disability in all groups at the end of treatments at 3(rd) day and during follow-up period (p<0.001) and no differences were found between the groups. There was significant difference in PPT values in TrPs injection and NT groups in comparisons between all time periods, however, the change, depending on time in the KT group, was not statistically significant.Conclusion: The results of this study show that all these three treatment methods found to be effective on pain relief and disability in acute MPS. In terms of PPT, injection treatments seem to be superior than KT

Targeting Periostin Expression Makes Pancreatic Cancer Spheroids More Vulnerable to Natural Killer Cells

Pancreatic cancer (PaCa) characteristically has a dense tumor microenvironment, which results in poor patient prognosis. Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are the most abundant cells in the PaCa microenvironment and the principal source of collagen. Periostin, a matricellular protein, is produced specifically by PSCs and promotes the aggressiveness of PaCa cells by facilitating extracellular collagen assembly. Here, we aimed to decrease extracellular collagen assembly by suppressing periostin, thereby increasing the cytotoxic activity of natural killer (NK) cells. Periostin expression was suppressed in PSCs (called PSC-P) using CRISPR-Cas9. PaCa cells (BxPC-3) were co-cultured with PSC and PSC-P cells in a 3D environment to form tumor spheroids mimicking the tumor microenvironment. The extracellular collagen production of spheroids was evaluated by Masson’s trichrome staining. The cytotoxic activity of NK-92 cells was analyzed by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy via CD107a staining. Cell death in BxPC-3 cells was evaluated by measuring Annexin-V and PI positivity using flow cytometry. As a result, periostin suppression decreased extracellular collagen and increased the infiltration of NK-92 cells into spheroids, and induced cell death in PaCa cells. In conclusion, we suggest that periostin might be a therapeutic target for PaCa and further analysis is warranted using in vivo models for proof-of-concept

Targeting Periostin Expression Makes Pancreatic Cancer Spheroids More Vulnerable to Natural Killer Cells

Pancreatic cancer (PaCa) characteristically has a dense tumor microenvironment, which results in poor patient prognosis. Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are the most abundant cells in the PaCa microenvironment and the principal source of collagen. Periostin, a matricellular protein, is produced specifically by PSCs and promotes the aggressiveness of PaCa cells by facilitating extracellular collagen assembly. Here, we aimed to decrease extracellular collagen assembly by suppressing periostin, thereby increasing the cytotoxic activity of natural killer (NK) cells. Periostin expression was suppressed in PSCs (called PSC-P) using CRISPR-Cas9. PaCa cells (BxPC-3) were co-cultured with PSC and PSC-P cells in a 3D environment to form tumor spheroids mimicking the tumor microenvironment. The extracellular collagen production of spheroids was evaluated by Masson&rsquo;s trichrome staining. The cytotoxic activity of NK-92 cells was analyzed by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy via CD107a staining. Cell death in BxPC-3 cells was evaluated by measuring Annexin-V and PI positivity using flow cytometry. As a result, periostin suppression decreased extracellular collagen and increased the infiltration of NK-92 cells into spheroids, and induced cell death in PaCa cells. In conclusion, we suggest that periostin might be a therapeutic target for PaCa and further analysis is warranted using in vivo models for proof-of-concept

Determination of Total Antioxidant Capacities of Algal Pigments in Seaweed by the Combination of High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with A Cupric Reducing Antioxidant Capacity (CUPRAC) Assay

This study mainly aimed to analyze the essential antioxidant algal pigments present in marine algae to quantify the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of these pigment constituents with CUPRAC (cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity) and ABTS spectrophotometric methods, and to correlate the TAC values combined with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) results. S. vulgare, C. barbata brown and F. petiolata green algae species demonstrated the highest antioxidant activity with the values of 12.11 +/- 0.01; 18.56 +/- 0.01; and 13.98 +/- 0.02 (mmol trolox (TR) g(-1) dw) obtained by the CUPRAC method. The individual antioxidant constituents of acetonic seaweed extracts were detected and quantified by HPLC on a C30 column using a modified mobile phase of gradient elution comprised of methanol-acetonitrile (50:50, v/v) with 0.1% (v/v) triethylamine (TEA) and acetone and ultraviolet detection for caroteneoids at 450 nm and for chlorophylls at 650 nm. The theoretical TAC values of seaweed samples were calculated by multiplying individual concentrations of pigments determined by HPLC with the spectrophotometric trolox equivalent or beta-carotene equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC or CEAC) coefficient of each identified pigment and summing up this values. Among the studied seaweeds, those with the highest carotenoid content determined by HPLC were S. vulgare (51.77 mu g/g), H. incurva (32.89 mu g/g) and F. petiolata (200.12 mu g/g), respectively. On the other hand, those with the highest total chlorophyll content were F. petiolata (1694.67 mu g/g), S. vulgare (127.07 mu g/g), and C. barbata (100.78 mu g/g), respectively. As expected, fucoxanthin was present as the main carotenoid accumulated in the brown algae species presented in the study