Feasibility Assessment of an EVA Glove Sensing Platform to Evaluate Potential Hand Injury Risk Factors

Injuries to the hands are common among astronauts who train for extravehicular activity (EVA). When the gloves are pressurized, they restrict movement and create pressure points during tasks, sometimes resulting in pain, muscle fatigue, abrasions, and occasionally more severe injuries such as onycholysis. A brief review of the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health's injury database reveals that 58% of total astronaut hand and arm injuries from NBL training between 1993 and 2010 occurred either to the fingernail, MCP, or fingertip. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential of using small sensors to measure force acting on the fingers and hand within pressurized gloves and other variables such as blood perfusion, skin temperature, humidity, fingernail strain, skin moisture, among others. Tasks were performed gloved and ungloved in a pressurizable glove box. The test demonstrated that fingernails saw greater transverse strain levels for tension or compression than for longitudinal strain, even during axial fingertip loading. Blood perfusion peaked and dropped as the finger deformed during finger presses, indicating an initial dispersion and decrease of blood perfusion levels. Force sensitive resistors to force plate comparisons showed similar force curve patterns as fingers were depressed, indicating suitable functionality for future testing. Strategies for proper placement and protection of these sensors for ideal data collection and longevity through the test session were developed and will be implemented going forward for future testing

The Potential of Wearable Sensor Technology for EVA Glove Ergonomic Evaluation

Injuries to the hands are common among astronauts who train for extravehicular activity (EVA). Many of these injuries refer to the gloves worn during EVA as the root cause. While pressurized, the bladder and outer material of these gloves restrict movement and create pressure points while performing tasks, sometimes resulting in pain, muscle fatigue, abrasions, and occasionally a more severe injury, onycholysis (fingernail delamination). The most common injury causes are glove contact (pressure point/rubbing), ill-fitting gloves, and/or performing EVA tasks in pressurized gloves. A brief review of the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health's injury database reveals over 57% of the total injuries to the upper extremities during EVA training occurred either to the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint, fingernail, or the fingertip. Twenty-five of these injuries resulted in a diagnosis of onycholysi

The Potential of Wearable Sensor Technology for EVA Glove Ergonomic Evaluation

Injuries to the hands are common among astronauts who train for extravehicular activity (EVA). Many of these injuries refer to the gloves worn during EVA as the root cause. While pressurized, the bladder and outer material of these gloves restrict movement and create pressure points while performing tasks, sometimes resulting in pain, muscle fatigue, abrasions, and occasionally a more severe injury, onycholysis (fingernail delamination). The most common injury causes are glove contact (pressure point/rubbing), ill-fitting gloves, and/or performing EVA tasks in pressurized gloves. A brief review of the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health's injury database reveals over 57% of the total injuries to the upper extremities during EVA training occurred either to the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint, fingernail, or the fingertip. Twenty-five of these injuries resulted in a diagnosis of onycholysis

Spacesuit Glove-Induced Hand Trauma and Analysis of Potentially Related Risk Variables

Injuries to the hands are common among astronauts who train for extravehicular activity (EVA). When the gloves are pressurized, they restrict movement and create pressure points during tasks, sometimes resulting in pain, muscle fatigue, abrasions, and occasionally more severe injuries such as onycholysis. Glove injuries, both anecdotal and recorded, have been reported during EVA training and flight persistently through NASA's history regardless of mission or glove model. Theories as to causation such as glove-hand fit are common but often lacking in supporting evidence. Previous statistical analysis has evaluated onycholysis in the context of crew anthropometry only (Opperman et al 2010). The purpose of this study was to analyze all injuries (as documented in the medical records) and available risk factor variables with the goal to determine engineering and operational controls that may reduce hand injuries due to the EVA glove in the future. A literature review and data mining study were conducted between 2012 and 2014. This study included 179 US NASA crew who trained or completed an EVA between 1981 and 2010 (crossing both Shuttle and ISS eras) and wore either the 4000 Series or Phase VI glove during Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit EVA training and flight. All injuries recorded in medical records were analyzed in their association to candidate risk factor variables. Those risk factor variables included demographic characteristics, hand anthropometry, glove fit characteristics, and training/EVA characteristics. Utilizing literature, medical records and anecdotal causation comments recorded in crewmember injury data, investigators were able to identify several risk factors associated with increased risk of glove related injuries. Prime among them were smaller hand anthropometry, duration of individual suited exposures, and improper glove-hand fit as calculated by the difference in the anthropometry middle finger length compared to the baseline EVA glove middle finger length

Interferometric Follow-Up of WISE Hyper-Luminous Hot, Dust-Obscured Galaxies

WISE has discovered an extraordinary population of hyper-luminous dusty galaxies which are faint in the two bluer passbands ($3.4\, \mu$m and $4.6\, \mu$m) but are bright in the two redder passbands of WISE ($12\, \mu$m and $22\, \mu$m). We report on initial follow-up observations of three of these hot, dust-obscured galaxies, or Hot DOGs, using the CARMA and SMA interferometer arrays at submm/mm wavelengths. We report continuum detections at $\sim$ 1.3 mm of two sources (WISE J014946.17+235014.5 and WISE J223810.20+265319.7, hereafter W0149+2350 and W2238+2653, respectively), and upper limits to CO line emission at 3 mm in the observed frame for two sources (W0149+2350 and WISE J181417.29+341224.8, hereafter W1814+3412). The 1.3 mm continuum images have a resolution of 1-2 arcsec and are consistent with single point sources. We estimate the masses of cold dust are 2.0$\times 10^{8} M_{\odot}$ for W0149+2350 and 3.9$\times 10^{8} M_{\odot}$ for W2238+2653, comparable to cold dust masses of luminous quasars. We obtain 2$\sigma$ upper limits to the molecular gas masses traced by CO, which are 3.3$\times 10^{10} M_{\odot}$ and 2.3$\times 10^{10} M_{\odot}$ for W0149+2350 and W1814+3412, respectively. We also present high-resolution, near-IR imaging with WFC3 on the Hubble Space Telescope for W0149+2653 and with NIRC2 on Keck for W2238+2653. The near-IR images show morphological structure dominated by a single, centrally condensed source with effective radius less than 4 kpc. No signs of gravitational lensing are evident.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. ApJ in pres

Magnetic Anisotropy of Co2MnSn1−xSbx Thin Films Grown on GaAs (001)

Heusler alloy Co2MnSn1−xSbx (x = 0.0, 0.5, and 1.0) thin films were grown on GaAs (001) substrates using pulsed laser deposition techniques. Growth parameters have been determined that result in highly magnetically anisotropic, crystalline, and oriented (001) films. The angular dependences, relative to the GaAs (001) crystallographic directions, of the coercive field Hc(θ) and the remanence Mr(θ) were determined from angle dependent magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) measurements. It was found that Hc(θ) revealed higher order symmetry contributions to the magnetic anisotropy than did Mr(θ). The Fourier analysis of rotational MOKE data was used to determine the symmetry contributions to the total anisotropy

Fourier-Transform Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy in Binary Hydrocarbon-Alcohol Single Droplet Evaporation

Broadband absorption spectroscopy, by way of FTIR, was used to investigate the vapor cloud of a single millimeter sized liquid droplet suspended by a syringe as it evaporates at standard conditions. Single beam data were collected every 8 seconds resulting in a time-resolved record. Species concentrations were tracked using their resonant absorption peaks and correlated with a multidimensional numerical model. The numerical model combined a Gaussian beam transmission through a temporally changing spherical vapor cloud with radial concentration gradients, informed by the D² law and interpreted using the Abel transform. There was fair agreement with temporal evaporation trends for single component runs. Multicomponent experiments of ethanol and isooctane showed synergistic blending effects and preferential evaporation of ethanol. Droplets were also suspended by a thermocouple to track the droplet temperature over time as they were subject to evaporative cooling. This work is the foundation of a basic technique for collecting useful data to inform a complex transport problem.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by Hindawi Publishing Corporation. The published article can be found at: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jspec