Comparative Study of 3-Dimensional Woven Joint Architectures for Composite Spacecraft Structures

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Exploration Systems Mission Directorate initiated an Advanced Composite Technology (ACT) Project through the Exploration Technology Development Program in order to support the polymer composite needs for future heavy lift launch architectures. As an example, the large composite structural applications on Ares V inspired the evaluation of advanced joining technologies, specifically 3D woven composite joints, which could be applied to segmented barrel structures needed for autoclave cured barrel segments due to autoclave size constraints. Implementation of these 3D woven joint technologies may offer enhancements in damage tolerance without sacrificing weight. However, baseline mechanical performance data is needed to properly analyze the joint stresses and subsequently design/down-select a preform architecture. Six different configurations were designed and prepared for this study; each consisting of a different combination of warp/fill fiber volume ratio and preform interlocking method (Z-fiber, fully interlocked, or hybrid). Tensile testing was performed for this study with the enhancement of a dual camera Digital Image Correlation (DIC) system which provides the capability to measure full-field strains and three dimensional displacements of objects under load. As expected, the ratio of warp/fill fiber has a direct influence on strength and modulus, with higher values measured in the direction of higher fiber volume bias. When comparing the Z-fiber weave to a fully interlocked weave with comparable fiber bias, the Z-fiber weave demonstrated the best performance in two different comparisons. We report the measured tensile strengths and moduli for test coupons from the 6 different weave configurations under study

The Importance of Personal Possessions for the Development of a Sense of Home of Nursing Home Residents

Personal possessions of nursing home residents can contribute to their sense of home. This study investigated which of the personal belongings were considered most important, and if these items indeed contributed to a sense of home. A qualitative research was conducted with 27 nursing home residents. Photographs, paintings, and pieces of furniture are objects with sentimental value. The television set is valued for its practical function. Residents of larger rooms have more flexibility in bringing along personal items, including pieces of furniture. The results of this study can be used for the design of nursing homes or for making informed choices during the process of institutionalization

Bartonella species detection in captive, stranded and free-ranging cetaceans

We present prevalence of Bartonella spp. for multiple cohorts of wild and captive cetaceans. One hundred and six cetaceans including 86 bottlenose dolphins (71 free-ranging, 14 captive in a facility with a dolphin experiencing debility of unknown origin, 1 stranded), 11 striped dolphins, 4 harbor porpoises, 3 Risso's dolphins, 1 dwarf sperm whale and 1 pygmy sperm whale (all stranded) were sampled. Whole blood (n = 95 live animals) and tissues (n = 15 freshly dead animals) were screened by PCR (n = 106 animals), PCR of enrichment cultures (n = 50 animals), and subcultures (n = 50 animals). Bartonella spp. were detected from 17 cetaceans, including 12 by direct extraction PCR of blood or tissues, 6 by PCR of enrichment cultures, and 4 by subculture isolation. Bartonella spp. were more commonly detected from the captive (6/14, 43%) than from free-ranging (2/71, 2.8%) bottlenose dolphins, and were commonly detected from the stranded animals (9/21, 43%; 3/11 striped dolphins, 3/4 harbor porpoises, 2/3 Risso's dolphins, 1/1 pygmy sperm whale, 0/1 dwarf sperm whale, 0/1 bottlenose dolphin). Sequencing identified a Bartonella spp. most similar to B. henselae San Antonio 2 in eight cases (4 bottlenose dolphins, 2 striped dolphins, 2 harbor porpoises), B. henselae Houston 1 in three cases (2 Risso's dolphins, 1 harbor porpoise), and untyped in six cases (4 bottlenose dolphins, 1 striped dolphin, 1 pygmy sperm whale). Although disease causation has not been established, Bartonella species were detected more commonly from cetaceans that were overtly debilitated or were cohabiting in captivity with a debilitated animal than from free-ranging animals. The detection of Bartonella spp. from cetaceans may be of pathophysiological concern

Home: The place the older adult can not imagine living without

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rapidly aging populations with an increased desire to remain at home and changes in health policy that promote the transfer of health care from formal places, as hospitals and institutions, to the more informal setting of one's home support the need for further research that is designed specifically to understand the experience of home among older adults. Yet, little is known among health care providers about the older adult's experience of home. The aim of this study was to understand the experience of home as experienced by older adults living in a rural community in Sweden.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Hermeneutical interpretation, as developed by von Post and Eriksson and based on Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, was used to interpret interviews with six older adults. The interpretation included a self examination of the researcher's experiences and prejudices and proceeded through several readings which integrated the text with the reader, allowed new questions to emerge, fused the horizons, summarized main and sub-themes and allowed a new understanding to emerge.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two main and six sub-themes emerged. Home was experienced as the place the older adult could not imagine living without but also as the place one might be forced to leave. The older adult's thoughts vacillated between the well known present and all its comforts and the unknown future with all its questions and fears, including the underlying threat of loosing one's home.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Home has become so integral to life itself and such an intimate part of the older adult's being that when older adults lose their home, they also loose the place closest to their heart, the place where they are at home and can maintain their identity, integrity and way of living. Additional effort needs to be made to understand the older adult's experience of home within home health care in order to minimize intrusion and maximize care. There is a need to more fully explore the older adult's experience with health care providers in the home and its impact on the older adult's sense of "being at home" and their health and overall well-being.</p

Older People, Sense of Coherence and Community

Population ageing is a global trend and even though years added to life often are lived in good health; it will have an impact on healthcare, housing and facilities, and social security costs. Healthy ageing in place, especially in one’s own home and community, increasingly receives attention from health professionals, researchers, and policymakers. In this chapter, we first discuss the meaning of the concept of healthy ageing, and how Sense of Coherence contributes to this process. Next, we discuss the characteristics of the community in which older people live their lives and how the community can provide resources (GRR and SRR) to strengthen Sense of Coherence and hence perceived well-being and quality of life

Envejecer en casa con teleasistencia en España. Un análisis del discurso

Caring for the elderly is turning to forms of community care and home care. Telecare is one of those emergent modalities of caring. This article will explore the meanings that older people give to the experience of staying at home in later life by using telecare. Discourse analysis is used to examine a set of focus groups and interviews with telecare users from different cities of Catalonia (Spain). The outcomes include three interpretative repertoires that we called: "Aging at home", "normal aging" and "unsafe aging". For each repertoire we examine how the permanence of older people in their homes is accounted, and which role telecare plays in such experience.El cuidado de las personas mayores está dando un giro hacia modalidades de atención comunitaria y domiciliaria. La teleasistencia es una de dichas modalidades. Este artículo se propone explorar los significados que las personas mayores asocian a la experiencia de permanecer en el hogar a edades avanzadas con ayuda de la teleasistencia. Se utiliza el análisis del discurso para examinar un conjunto de grupos de discusión con y de entrevistas a usuarios de teleasistencia de diferentes ciudades de Cataluña (España). Como resultado se presentan tres repertorios interpretativos denominados: "envejecimiento en casa", "envejecimiento normal" y "envejecimiento inseguro". Para cada uno se examina la forma como describen la permanencia de las personas mayores en sus hogares, así como el papel que la teleasistencia juega en dicha experiencia

Deadly diving? Physiological and behavioural management of decompression stress in diving mammals

© The Author(s), 2011. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 279 (2012): 1041-1050, doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.2088.Decompression sickness (DCS; ‘the bends’) is a disease associated with gas uptake at pressure. The basic pathology and cause are relatively well known to human divers. Breath-hold diving marine mammals were thought to be relatively immune to DCS owing to multiple anatomical, physiological and behavioural adaptations that reduce nitrogen gas (N2) loading during dives. However, recent observations have shown that gas bubbles may form and tissue injury may occur in marine mammals under certain circumstances. Gas kinetic models based on measured time-depth profiles further suggest the potential occurrence of high blood and tissue N2 tensions. We review evidence for gas-bubble incidence in marine mammal tissues and discuss the theory behind gas loading and bubble formation. We suggest that diving mammals vary their physiological responses according to multiple stressors, and that the perspective on marine mammal diving physiology should change from simply minimizing N2 loading to management of the N2 load. This suggests several avenues for further study, ranging from the effects of gas bubbles at molecular, cellular and organ function levels, to comparative studies relating the presence/absence of gas bubbles to diving behaviour. Technological advances in imaging and remote instrumentation are likely to advance this field in coming years.This paper and the workshop it stemmed from were funded by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Mammal Centre

A review of the toxicology of oil in vertebrates : what we have learned following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

This research was made possible by a grant from The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. This publication is UMCES contribution No. 6045 and Ref. No. [UMCES] CBL 2022-008. This is National Marine Mammal Foundation Contribution #314 to peer-reviewed scientific literature.In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, a number of government agencies, academic institutions, consultants, and nonprofit organizations conducted lab- and field-based research to understand the toxic effects of the oil. Lab testing was performed with a variety of fish, birds, turtles, and vertebrate cell lines (as well as invertebrates); field biologists conducted observations on fish, birds, turtles, and marine mammals; and epidemiologists carried out observational studies in humans. Eight years after the spill, scientists and resource managers held a workshop to summarize the similarities and differences in the effects of DWH oil on vertebrate taxa and to identify remaining gaps in our understanding of oil toxicity in wildlife and humans, building upon the cross-taxonomic synthesis initiated during the Natural Resource Damage Assessment. Across the studies, consistency was found in the types of toxic response observed in the different organisms. Impairment of stress responses and adrenal gland function, cardiotoxicity, immune system dysfunction, disruption of blood cells and their function, effects on locomotion, and oxidative damage were observed across taxa. This consistency suggests conservation in the mechanisms of action and disease pathogenesis. From a toxicological perspective, a logical progression of impacts was noted: from molecular and cellular effects that manifest as organ dysfunction, to systemic effects that compromise fitness, growth, reproductive potential, and survival. From a clinical perspective, adverse health effects from DWH oil spill exposure formed a suite of signs/symptomatic responses that at the highest doses/concentrations resulted in multi-organ system failure.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Features of home and neighbourhood and the liveability of older South Africans

While older people live in developing countries, little is known about the relative importance of features of their communities in influencing their liveability. We examinecomponents of home and neighbourhood among older South Africans. Linear regression analyses revealed that features of home (basic amenities, household composition, financial status and safety) and neighbourhood (ability to shop for groceries, participate in organizations and feel safe from crime) are significantly associated with life satisfaction. Approaches to liveability that are person-centred and also set within contexts beyond home and neighbourhood are needed to addressboundaries between home and neighbourhood; incorporate personal resources into liveability models and import broader environmental contexts such as health and social policy