Space architecture design for commercial suitability: A case study in in-situ resource utilization systems

© 2020 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Space Agencies are increasingly interested in stimulating non-traditional players to participate more broadly in the space enterprise. Historically, high barriers to entry in the space market have included challenges of working with the government customer and high technical and financial risks associated with the complexity of space exploration. More recently, agencies have used inducements (e.g., new contracting mechanisms, access to testing facilities) to mitigate these barriers. While these efforts mainly focused on reducing barriers to participation in existing exploration architectures, this paper explores the viability of an alternative strategy. Instead of providing inducements, which essentially subsidize participation, we propose a new strategy for space agencies to treat “commercial suitability” as another “-ility” and make it an explicit criterion of the initial architecture selection. This can be an effective option when multiple equivalent architectures (as evaluated against traditional cost, schedule, and performance measures) differ on their “commercial suitability.” As a proof-of-concept for this strategy, we develop a case study with lunar in-situ resource utilization plant systems as a basis for comparing the architectures with dedicated mass-wise optimal design (selected using traditional architecting strategies) vs. standardized mass-produced modular ISRU (selected using commercially-suitable strategies). The results show that architecture selection that considers commercial suitability upfront can achieve increased commercial participation without compromising cost performance compared with the baseline architecture. This serves as an existence proof for the potential value of this new strategy.This material is partially based upon work supported by the funding from NASA (80NSSC17K0329) awarded to the University of Illinois and George Washington University, where this work was initiated

A Mixed-Methods Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial of a Hospital-Based Psychosocial Stimulation and Counseling Program for Caregivers and Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition.

BackgroundChildren with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) who require nutritional rehabilitation unit (NRU) treatment often have poor developmental and nutritional outcomes following discharge. The Kusamala Program is a 4-d hospital-based counseling program for caregivers of children with SAM that integrates nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene and psychosocial stimulation, aimed at improving these outcomes.ObjectivesThe aim was to evaluate the effects of the Kusamala Program on child development and nutritional status in children with SAM 6 mo after NRU discharge. The other aim was to qualitatively understand perceptions and experiences of caregivers who participated in the intervention.MethodsA cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted with caregivers and their children 6-59 mo of age with SAM admitted to the Moyo NRU in Blantyre, Malawi. The primary outcome of the trial was child development according to Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT) composite z-scores of gross motor, fine motor, language, and social domains. A qualitative component with focus group discussions and in-depth interviews was also completed with a subset of caregivers who participated in the trial.ResultsSixty-eight caregivers and children were enrolled to clusters by week and randomly assigned to the comparison arm and 104 to the intervention arm. There were no differences in child development, with mean MDAT composite z-scores in the comparison arm of -1.2 (95% CI: -2.1, -0.22) and in the intervention arm of -1.1 (95% CI: -1.9, -0.40) (P = 0.93). The qualitative evaluation with 20 caregivers indicated that the 3 modules of the Kusamala Program were appropriate and that they applied many of the lessons learned at home as much as possible.ConclusionsThe Kusamala Program did not result in improved developmental or nutritional outcomes, yet it was viewed positively by caregivers according to qualitative results. Future research should evaluate more intensive interventions for caregivers and children with SAM. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03072433

Combining somatic mutations present in different in vivo affinity-matured antibodies isolated from immunized Lama glama yields ultra-potent antibody therapeutics

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The Childhood Acute Illness and Nutrition (CHAIN) network nested case-cohort study protocol: a multi-omics approach to understanding mortality among children in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Introduction: Many acutely ill children in low- and middle-income settings have a high risk of mortality both during and after hospitalisation despite guideline-based care. Understanding the biological mechanisms underpinning mortality may suggest optimal pathways to target for interventions to further reduce mortality. The Childhood Acute Illness and Nutrition (CHAIN) Network ( www.chainnnetwork.org) Nested Case-Cohort Study (CNCC) aims to investigate biological mechanisms leading to inpatient and post-discharge mortality through an integrated multi-omic approach. Methods and analysis; The CNCC comprises a subset of participants from the CHAIN cohort (1278/3101 hospitalised participants, including 350 children who died and 658 survivors, and 270/1140 well community children of similar age and household location) from nine sites in six countries across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Systemic proteome, metabolome, lipidome, lipopolysaccharides, haemoglobin variants, toxins, pathogens, intestinal microbiome and biomarkers of enteropathy will be determined. Computational systems biology analysis will include machine learning and multivariate predictive modelling with stacked generalization approaches accounting for the different characteristics of each biological modality. This systems approach is anticipated to yield mechanistic insights, show interactions and behaviours of the components of biological entities, and help develop interventions to reduce mortality among acutely ill children. Ethics and dissemination. The CHAIN Network cohort and CNCC was approved by institutional review boards of all partner sites. Results will be published in open access, peer reviewed scientific journals and presented to academic and policy stakeholders. Data will be made publicly available, including uploading to recognised omics databases. Trial registration NCT03208725