Monitoring Astronauts’ Status through Non-Invasive Positive Pressure Ventilation

Many hospitalized patients with respiratory failure are treated with non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NiPPV). In many cases non-invasive ventilation can be used to successfully treat patients and subsequently avoid endotracheal intubation. Recent literature and clinical practice have shown that in patients who are protecting their airway, and in whom the pH is not dangerously low, the use of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation can be effective (1). Additional studies argue that NiPPV in more severely ill patients (pH \u3c 7.2) with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is no worse than endotracheal intubation (2,3) with regard to mortality, lengths of stay and readmission rates. Furthermore, better outcome was confirmed for patients who succeeded NiPPV and avoided endotracheal intubation. Thus, the non-invasive mode of ventilation can assist patients in ventilating equally or more effectively, and in many cases can be used to avoid the more invasive endotracheal intubation. Many studies have evaluated treatment failures of NiPPV. Failure rates range from 30-80% depending on the cause of respiratory failure and underlying medical condition(s) of patient population (4). Other studies have looked at factors which predict NiPPV failure, such as physiologic scoring (age, severity of underlying illness) and presence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or community acquired pneumonia (CAP) (5). Having an objective and real time means of early identification of patients that will fail NiPPV would greatly benefit patients by helping physicians intervene early with endotracheal intubation when indicated

A Developmental Perspective on Community Service in Adolescence

A substantial number of U.S. adolescents currently participate in community service and there is increased national interest in service programs. This article assesses the assumption of developmental benefits to service participants by critically reviewing 44 empirical studies. It offers a theoretical framework for understanding the findings by connecting them to identity development and delineating three pertinent concepts: agency, social relatedness, and moral-political awareness. These concepts are applied to studies that investigate: ( 1) the characteristics and motivations of participants, ( 2) the effects of service, and ( 3) the process of service. The findings support the conclusion that service activities which provide opportunities for intense experiences and social interactions are often associated with prosocial development. The findings also point to the need for more studies focused on particular service programs and on relationships between service providers and those served

Conceiving “personality”: Psychologist’s challenges and basic fundamentals of the Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals

Scientists exploring individuals, as such scientists are individuals themselves and thus not independent from their objects of research, encounter profound challenges; in particular, high risks for anthropo-, ethno- and ego-centric biases and various fallacies in reasoning. The Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals (TPS-Paradigm) aims to tackle these challenges by exploring and making explicit the philosophical presuppositions that are being made and the metatheories and methodologies that are used in the field. This article introduces basic fundamentals of the TPS-Paradigm including the epistemological principle of complementarity and metatheoretical concepts for exploring individuals as living organisms. Centrally, the TPS-Paradigm considers three metatheoretical properties (spatial location in relation to individuals’ bodies, temporal extension, and physicality versus “non-physicality”) that can be conceived in different forms for various kinds of phenomena explored in individuals (morphology, physiology, behaviour, the psyche, semiotic representations, artificially modified outer appearances and contexts). These properties, as they determine the phenomena’s accessibility in everyday life and research, are used to elaborate philosophy-of-science foundations and to derive general methodological implications for the elementary problem of phenomenon-methodology matching and for scientific quantification of the various kinds of phenomena studied. On the basis of these foundations, the article explores the metatheories and methodologies that are used or needed to empirically study each given kind of phenomenon in individuals in general. Building on these general implications, the article derives special implications for exploring individuals’ “personality”, which the TPS-Paradigm conceives of as individual-specificity in all of the various kinds of phenomena studied in individuals