Customer Utilization Requirements and Their Impact for Space Station Capabilities

This is a summary of work presented to the Level B Space Station Program Office at Johnson Space Center related to customer requirements definition and their impact for Space Station design. The study was global in scope, querying the range of potential Station users for their ranked requirements for access to Station capabilities. User groups are identified based on their common set of functional requirements for Station services, and group needs were ranked according to level of utility for each unique Space Station capability. Analysis of the design drivers identified by the utility scores was conducted, resulting in a determination of which Station capabilities are in greatest demand, and where major technical commonalities and incompatibilities exist between user groups. This analysis provides a mechanism whereby NASA managers can evaluate the impact of design tradeoffs for the Station\u27s customer community. Major conclusions of the study include: 1) the need to base design choices on functional user group needs in order to account for currently unknown users; 2) emphasizing operational flexibility and minimizing life cycle costs in order to provide a user-friendly system; 3) scarring the Station to allow for potential external resource enhancements provided by international partners or commercial firms; and 4) establishing an IOC operating envelope based on the identified core capabilities with the greatest utility to the widest user community. In particular, this means optimizing for users who have a primary requirement for manned interaction on the Station, and providing for users whose requirements are not met within the IOC envelope through growth configurations or logistical support for their activities outside the core manned facility

Is the formula of Traub still up to date in antemortem blood glucose level estimation?

According to the hypothesis of Traub, also known as the 'formula of Traub', postmortem values of glucose and lactate found in the cerebrospinal fluid or vitreous humor are considered indicators of antemortem blood glucose levels. However, because the lactate concentration increases in the vitreous and cerebrospinal fluid after death, some authors postulated that using the sum value to estimate antemortem blood glucose levels could lead to an overestimation of the cases of glucose metabolic disorders with fatal outcomes, such as diabetic ketoacidosis. The aim of our study, performed on 470 consecutive forensic cases, was to ascertain the advantages of the sum value to estimate antemortem blood glucose concentrations and, consequently, to rule out fatal diabetic ketoacidosis as the cause of death. Other biochemical parameters, such as blood 3-beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, acetone, glycated haemoglobin and urine glucose levels, were also determined. In addition, postmortem native CT scan, autopsy, histology, neuropathology and toxicology were performed to confirm diabetic ketoacidosis as the cause of death. According to our results, the sum value does not add any further information for the estimation of antemortem blood glucose concentration. The vitreous glucose concentration appears to be the most reliable marker to estimate antemortem hyperglycaemia and, along with the determination of other biochemical markers (such as blood acetone and 3-beta-hydroxybutyrate, urine glucose and glycated haemoglobin), to confirm diabetic ketoacidosis as the cause of death