Deep Space Habitability Design Guidelines Based on the NASA NextSTEP Phase 2 Ground Test Program

This report summarizes habitation design guidelines for deep space habitats, which were derived from the NASA Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Phase 2 Habitat Ground Test Program. All data presented in this document have been contractor-deidentified and approved for public release. The report prioritizes capabilities and recommends allocating those capabilities to either the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) or the International Habitat (I-Hab). A review of the design guidelines is presented in the main body of the report, along with a list of the 170 specific design guidelines with references to the specific data sources from which they were derived

Hydrogeology, geology & engineering aspects of surficial materials on the Lake Michigan shore in Illinois

Other titles: Geologic, Hydrogeologic, and engineering aspects of surficial materials on the Lake Michigan shore in IllinoisOpe

Intracapsular Femoral Neck Fractures—A Surgical Management Algorithm

Background and Objectives: Femoral neck fractures are common and constitute one of the largest healthcare burdens of the modern age. Fractures within the joint capsule (intracapsular) provide a specific surgical challenge due to the difficulty in predicting rates of bony union and whether the blood supply to the femoral head has been disrupted in a way that would lead to avascular necrosis. Most femoral neck fractures are treated surgically, aiming to maintain mobility, whilst reducing pain and complications associated with prolonged bedrest. Materials and Methods: We performed a narrative review of intracapsular hip fracture management, highlighting the latest advancements in fixation techniques, generating an evidence-based algorithm for their management. Results: Multiple different fracture configurations are encountered within the category of intracapsular hip fractures, with each pattern having different optimal surgical strategies. Additionally, these injuries typically occur in patients where further procedures due to operative complications are associated with a considerable increase in mortality, highlighting the need for choosing the correct index operation. Conclusions: Factors such as pathological causes for the fracture, pre-existing symptomatic osteoarthritis, patient’s physiological age and fracture displacement all need to be considered when choosing optimal management

Nanocrystalline diamond-glass platform for the development of three-dimensional micro- and nanodevices

Low-cost and robust platforms are key for the development of next-generation 3D micro- and nanodevices. To fabricate such platforms, nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) is a highly appealing material due to its biocompatibility, robustness, and mechanical, electrical, electrochemical, and optical properties, while glass substrates with through vias are ideal interposers for 3D integration due to the excellent properties of glass. However, developing devices that comprise NCD films and through glass vias (TGVs) has rarely been attempted due to a lack of effective process strategies. In this work, a low-cost process - free of photolithography and transfer-printing - for fabricating arrays of TGVs that are sealed with suspended portions of an ultra-thin NCD film on one side is presented. These highly transparent structures may serve as a platform for the development of microwells for single-cell culture and analysis, 3D integrated devices such as microelectrodes, and quantum technologies. The process is demonstrated by fabricating TGVs that are sealed with an NCD film of thickness 175 nm and diameter 60 mu m. The technology described can be extended by replacing NCD with silicon nitride or silicon carbide, allowing for the development of complex heterogeneous structures on the small scale

Boundary curvature effect on the wrinkling of thin suspended films

A relation between the boundary curvature κ and the wrinkle wavelength λ of a thin suspended film under boundary confinement is demonstrated. Experiments were performed with nanocrystalline diamond films of approximate thickness 184nm grown on glass substrates. By removing portions of the substrates after growth, suspended films with circular boundaries of radius 30–811 μm were fabricated. Due to residual stresses, the portions of the film bonded to the substrate are of approximate compressive prestrain 11×10⁻⁴ and the suspended portions of the film are azimuthally wrinkled at their boundary. Measurements show that λ decreases monotonically with κ, and a simple model that is in line with this trend is proposed. The model can be applied to design devices with functional wrinkles and can be adapted to gain insight into other systems such as plant leaves. A method for measuring residual compressive strain in thin films, which complements standard strain characterization methods, is also described

Testing Behavioral Messages to Increase Recruitment to Health Research When Embedded Within Social Media Campaigns on Twitter: Web-Based Experimental Study

Background: Social media is rapidly becoming the primary source to disseminate invitations to the public to consider taking part in research studies. There is, however, little information on how the contents of the advertisement can be communicated to facilitate engagement and subsequently promote intentions to participate in research. Objective: This paper describes an experimental study that tested different behavioral messages for recruiting study participants for a real-life observational case-control study. Methods: We included 1060 women in a web-based experiment and randomized them to 1 of 3 experimental conditions: standard advertisement (n=360), patient endorsement advertisement (n=345), and social norms advertisement (n=355). After seeing 1 of the 3 advertisements, participants were asked to state (1) their intention to take part in the advertised case-control study, (2) the ease of understanding the message and study aims, and (3) their willingness to be redirected to the website of the case-control study after completing the survey. Individuals were further asked to suggest ways to improve the messages. Intentions were compared between groups using ordinal logistic regression, reported in percentages, adjusted odds ratio (aOR), and 95% CIs. Results: Those who were in the patient endorsement and social norms–based advertisement groups had significantly lower intentions to take part in the advertised study compared with those in the standard advertisement group (aOR 0.73, 95% CI 0.55-0.97; P=.03 and aOR 0.69, 95% CI 0.52-0.92; P=.009, respectively). The patient endorsement advertisement was perceived to be more difficult to understand (aOR 0.65, 95% CI 0.48-0.87; P=.004) and to communicate the study aims less clearly (aOR 0.72, 95% CI 0.55-0.95; P=.01). While the patient endorsement advertisement had no impact on intention to visit the main study website, the social norms advertisement decreased willingness compared with the standard advertisement group (157/355, 44.2% vs 191/360, 53.1%; aOR 0.74, 95% CI 0.54-0.99; P=.02). The majority of participants (395/609, 64.8%) stated that the messages did not require changes, but some preferred clearer (75/609, 12.3%) and shorter (59/609, 9.7%) messages. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that adding normative behavioral messages to simulated tweets decreased participant intention to take part in our web-based case-control study, as this made the tweet harder to understand. This suggests that simple messages should be used for participant recruitment through Twitter (subsequently rebranded X)

Understanding Public Attitudes and Willingness to Share Commercial Data for Health Research: Survey Study in the United Kingdom

Background: Health research using commercial data is increasing. The evidence on public acceptability and sociodemographic characteristics of individuals willing to share commercial data for health research is scarce. Objective: This survey study investigates the willingness to share commercial data for health research in the United Kingdom with 3 different organizations (government, private, and academic institutions), 5 different data types (internet, shopping, wearable devices, smartphones, and social media), and 10 different invitation methods to recruit participants for research studies with a focus on sociodemographic characteristics and psychological predictors. Methods: We conducted a web-based survey using quota sampling based on age distribution in the United Kingdom in July 2020 (N=1534). Chi-squared tests tested differences by sociodemographic characteristics, and adjusted ordered logistic regressions tested associations with trust, perceived importance of privacy, worry about data misuse and perceived risks, and perceived benefits of data sharing. The results are shown as percentages, adjusted odds ratios, and 95% CIs. Results: Overall, 61.1% (937/1534) of participants were willing to share their data with the government and 61% (936/1534) of participants were willing to share their data with academic research institutions compared with 43.1% (661/1534) who were willing to share their data with private organizations. The willingness to share varied between specific types of data—51.8% (794/1534) for loyalty cards, 35.2% (540/1534) for internet search history, 32% (491/1534) for smartphone data, 31.8% (488/1534) for wearable device data, and 30.4% (467/1534) for social media data. Increasing age was consistently and negatively associated with all the outcomes. Trust was positively associated with willingness to share commercial data, whereas worry about data misuse and the perceived importance of privacy were negatively associated with willingness to share commercial data. The perceived risk of sharing data was positively associated with willingness to share when the participants considered all the specific data types but not with the organizations. The participants favored postal research invitations over digital research invitations. Conclusions: This UK-based survey study shows that willingness to share commercial data for health research varies; however, researchers should focus on effectively communicating their data practices to minimize concerns about data misuse and improve public trust in data science. The results of this study can be further used as a guide to consider methods to improve recruitment strategies in health-related research and to improve response rates and participant retention

Elongase Reactions as Control Points in Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Synthesis

Extent: 9p.Background: Δ6-Desaturase (Fads2) is widely regarded as rate-limiting in the conversion of dietary α-linolenic acid (18:3n-3; ALA) to the long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3; DHA). However, increasing dietary ALA or the direct Fads2 product, stearidonic acid (18:4n-3; SDA), increases tissue levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3; EPA) and docosapentaenoic acid (22:5n-3; DPA), but not DHA. These observations suggest that one or more control points must exist beyond ALA metabolism by Fads2. One possible control point is a second reaction involving Fads2 itself, since this enzyme catalyses desaturation of 24:5n-3 to 24:6n-3, as well as ALA to SDA. However, metabolism of EPA and DPA both require elongation reactions. This study examined the activities of two elongase enzymes as well as the second reaction of Fads2 in order to concentrate on the metabolism of EPA to DHA. Methodology/Principal Findings: The substrate selectivities, competitive substrate interactions and dose response curves of the rat elongases, Elovl2 and Elovl5 were determined after expression of the enzymes in yeast. The competitive substrate interactions for rat Fads2 were also examined. Rat Elovl2 was active with C20 and C22 polyunsaturated fatty acids and this single enzyme catalysed the sequential elongation reactions of EPA→DPA→24:5n-3. The second reaction DPA→24:5n-3 appeared to be saturated at substrate concentrations not saturating for the first reaction EPA→DPA. ALA dose-dependently inhibited Fads2 conversion of 24:5n-3 to 24:6n-3. Conclusions: The competition between ALA and 24:5n-3 for Fads2 may explain the decrease in DHA levels observed after certain intakes of dietary ALA have been exceeded. In addition, the apparent saturation of the second Elovl2 reaction, DPA→24:5n-3, provides further explanations for the accumulation of DPA when ALA, SDA or EPA is provided in the diet. This study suggests that Elovl2 will be critical in understanding if DHA synthesis can be increased by dietary means.Melissa K. Gregory, Robert A. Gibson, Rebecca J. Cook-Johnson, Leslie G. Cleland and Michael J. Jame

Species-specific differences in the expression of the HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes

Background: The HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes are part of an autoregulatory network in mammalian pancreas, liver, kidney and gut. The layout of this network appears to be similar in rodents and humans, but inactivation of HNF1A, HNF1B or HNF4A genes in animal models cause divergent phenotypes to those seen in man. We hypothesised that some differences may arise from variation in the expression profile of alternatively processed isoforms between species. Methodology/Principal Findings: We measured the expression of the major isoforms of the HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes in human and rodent pancreas, islet, liver and kidney by isoform-specific quantitative real-time PCR and compared their expression by the comparative Ct (??Ct) method. We found major changes in the expression profiles of the HNF genes between humans and rodents. The principal difference lies in the expression of the HNF1A gene, which exists as three isoforms in man, but as a single isoform only in rodents. More subtle changes were to the balance of HNF1B and HNF4A isoforms between species; the repressor isoform HNF1B(C) comprised only 6% in human islets compared with 24–26% in rodents (p = 0.006) whereas HNF4A9 comprised 22% of HNF4A expression in human pancreas but only 11% in rodents (p = 0.001). Conclusions/Significance: The differences we note in the isoform-specific expression of the human and rodent HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes may impact on the absolute activity of these genes, and therefore on the activity of the pancreatic transcription factor network as a whole. We conclude that alterations to expression of HNF isoforms may underlie some of the phenotypic variation caused by mutations in these genes

Lipoprotein-apheresis reduces circulating microparticles in individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia

Lipoprotein-apheresis (apheresis) removes LDL-cholesterol in patients with severe dyslipidemia. However, reduction is transient, indicating that the long-term cardiovascular benefits of apheresis may not solely be due to LDL removal. Microparticles (MPs) are submicron vesicles released from the plasma membrane of cells. MPs, particularly platelet-derived MPs, are increasingly being linked to the pathogenesis of many diseases. We aimed to characterize the effect of apheresis on MP size, concentration, cellular origin, and fatty acid concentration in individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). Plasma and MP samples were collected from 12 individuals with FH undergoing routine apheresis. Tunable resistive pulse sensing (np200) and nanoparticle tracking analysis measured a fall in MP concentration (33 and 15%, respectively; P < 0.05) pre- to post-apheresis. Flow cytometry showed MPs were predominantly annexin V positive and of platelet (CD41) origin both pre- (88.9%) and post-apheresis (88.4%). Fatty acid composition of MPs differed from that of plasma, though apheresis affected a similar profile of fatty acids in both compartments, as measured by GC-flame ionization detection. MP concentration was also shown to positively correlate with thrombin generation potential. In conclusion, we show apheresis nonselectively removes annexin V-positive platelet-derived MPs in individuals with FH. These MPs are potent inducers of coagulation and are elevated in CVD; this reduction in pathological MPs could relate to the long-term benefits of apheresis