NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Human Factors Engineering Analysis of Various Hatch Sizes and Associated Safety Impacts

The NASA Docking System (NDS) is a 31.5-inch (800-millimeter)-diameter circular hatch for astronauts to pass through when docked to other pressurized elements in space or for surface egress. The NDS is utilized on the Orion Spacecraft and has been implemented as the International Docking System Standard (IDSS). The EV74 Human Factors Engineering (HFE) Team at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) conducted human factors analyses with various hatch shapes and sizes to accommodate for all astronaut anthropometries, task comfort, and task safety. The 32-inch hatch is too small and a bigger hatch size would better accommodate most astronauts and prove to be safer for daily pass-throughs. To conduct human factors analyses, four participants were gathered based on anthropometry: 1st female, 5th female, 95th male, and 99th male

A comparison of injuries, crashes, and outcomes for pediatric rear occupants in traffic motor vehicle collisions

BACKGROUND This study was initiated was initiated to describe pediatric rear-occupant motor vehicle collision (MVC) injuries, including injury patterns and outcomes as well as characteristics associated with severe injury to the head and abdomen. METHODS A retrospective cohort of severely injured (Injury Severity Score [ISS] \u3e 12) pediatric (age \u3c18 years) patients involved in a traffic MVC as a rear occupant and treated at one of two Ontario trauma centers (2001–2010) was studied was studied. Demographic, injury, crash and outcome data were obtained from the trauma registries. Data were statistically compared by two pediatric age groups: children (0–8 years; requiring a child or booster seat) versus adolescents (9–17 years; requiring a lap-shoulder belt). RESULTS There were 36 children (34%) and 70 adolescents (66%) severely injured as rear occupants in MVCs. Despite similar ISS (p = 0.716) and mortality rates (p = 0.680) between age groups, there were significant differences in injury patterns and risk factors. Children were more likely to have severe head injuries (78% vs. 39%, p \u3c 0.001) associated with a lack of an age-appropriate child restraints (odds ratio [OR], 3.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1–10.8; p = 0.029), middle seating (OR, 6.2; 95% CI, 1.5–26.1; p = 0.013), and side-impact crashes (p = 0.007). Adolescents were more likely to have severe abdominal injuries (23% vs. 6%, p \u3c 0.001) associated with the use of lap-shoulder belts (OR, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.1–13.3; p = 0.034), single-vehicle MVCs (p = 0.007), and vehicle extrications (p = 0.035). CONCLUSION While safer than the front seat for children, additional study is needed on the restraint systems and the potential for injury to pediatric rear occupants in an MVC. Our data suggest that pediatric age groups differ in injuries, risk factors, and MVC impacts. Recommendations for improved protection of child occupants and preferred seating positions are required

Perspectives in machine learning for wildlife conservation

Data acquisition in animal ecology is rapidly accelerating due to inexpensive and accessible sensors such as smartphones, drones, satellites, audio recorders and bio-logging devices. These new technologies and the data they generate hold great potential for large-scale environmental monitoring and understanding, but are limited by current data processing approaches which are inefficient in how they ingest, digest, and distill data into relevant information. We argue that machine learning, and especially deep learning approaches, can meet this analytic challenge to enhance our understanding, monitoring capacity, and conservation of wildlife species. Incorporating machine learning into ecological workflows could improve inputs for population and behavior models and eventually lead to integrated hybrid modeling tools, with ecological models acting as constraints for machine learning models and the latter providing data-supported insights. In essence, by combining new machine learning approaches with ecological domain knowledge, animal ecologists can capitalize on the abundance of data generated by modern sensor technologies in order to reliably estimate population abundances, study animal behavior and mitigate human/wildlife conflicts. To succeed, this approach will require close collaboration and cross-disciplinary education between the computer science and animal ecology communities in order to ensure the quality of machine learning approaches and train a new generation of data scientists in ecology and conservation

Mycobacterium tuberculosis ClpP Proteases Are Co-transcribed but Exhibit Different Substrate Specificities

PMCID: PMC3613350This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Early protein intake predicts functional connectivity and neurocognition in preterm born children

© 2021, The Author(s). Nutritional intake can promote early neonatal brain development in very preterm born neonates (\u3c 32 weeks’ gestation). In a group of 7-year-old very preterm born children followed since birth, we examined whether early nutrient intake in the first weeks of life would be associated with long-term brain function and neurocognitive skills at school age. Children underwent resting-state functional MRI (fMRI), intelligence testing (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 5th Ed) and visual-motor processing (Beery-Buktenica, 5th Ed) at 7 years. Relationships were assessed between neonatal macronutrient intakes, functional connectivity strength between thalamic and default mode networks (DMN), and neuro-cognitive function using multivariable regression. Greater functional connectivity strength between thalamic networks and DMN was associated with greater intake of protein in the first week (β = 0.17; 95% CI 0.11, 0.23, p \u3c 0.001) but lower intakes of fat (β = − 0.06; 95% CI − 0.09, − 0.02, p = 0.001) and carbohydrates (β = − 0.03; 95% CI − 0.04, − 0.01, p = 0.003). Connectivity strength was also associated with protein intake during the first month (β = 0.22; 95% CI 0.06, 0.37, p = 0.006). Importantly, greater thalamic-DMN connectivity strength was associated with higher processing speed indices (β = 26.9; 95% CI 4.21, 49.49, p = 0.02) and visual processing scores (β = 9.03; 95% CI 2.27, 15.79, p = 0.009). Optimizing early protein intake may contribute to promoting long-term brain health in preterm-born children

Quality of chronic disease care in general practice: the development and validation of a provider interview tool

BACKGROUND: This article describes the development and psychometric evaluation of an interview instrument to assess provider-reported quality of general practice care for patients with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and asthma – the Australian General Practice Clinical Care Interview (GPCCI). METHODS: We administered the GPCCI to 28 general practitioners (family physicians) in 10 general practices. We conducted an item analysis and assessed the internal consistency of the instrument. We next assessed the quality of care recorded in the medical records of 462 of the general practitioners' patients with Type 2 diabetes, ischaemic heart disease/hypertension and/or moderate to severe asthma. This was then compared with results of the GPCCI for each general practice. RESULTS: Good internal consistency was found for the overall GPCCI (Cronbach's alpha = 0.75). As far as the separate sub-scales were concerned, diabetes had good internal consistency (0.76) but the internal consistency of the heart disease and asthma subscales was not strong (0.49 and 0.16 respectively). There was high inter-rater reliability of the adjusted scores of data extracted from patients' medical notes for each of the three conditions. Correlations of the overall GPCCI and patients' medical notes audit, combined across the three conditions and aggregated to practice level, showed that a strong relationship (r = 0.84, p = 0.003) existed between the two indices of clinical care. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the GPCCI has good internal consistency and concurrent validity with patients' medical records in Australian general practice and warrants further evaluation of its properties, validity and utility

The Promoter of Rv0560c Is Induced by Salicylate and Structurally-Related Compounds in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is a major global health threat. During infection, bacteria are believed to encounter adverse conditions such as iron depletion. Mycobacteria synthesize iron-sequestering mycobactins, which are essential for survival in the host, via the intermediate salicylate. Salicylate is a ubiquitous compound which is known to induce a mild antibiotic resistance phenotype. In M. tuberculosis salicylate highly induces the expression of Rv0560c, a putative methyltransferase. We identified and characterized the promoter and regulatory elements of Rv0560c. PRv0560c activity was highly inducible by salicylate in a dose-dependent manner. The induction kinetics of PRv0560c were slow, taking several days to reach maximal activity, which was sustained over several weeks. Promoter activity could also be induced by compounds structurally related to salicylate, such as aspirin or para-aminosalicylic acid, but not by benzoate, indicating that induction is specific to a structural motif. The −10 and −35 promoter elements were identified and residues involved in regulation of promoter activity were identified in close proximity to an inverted repeat spanning the −35 promoter element. We conclude that Rv0560c expression is controlled by a yet unknown repressor via a highly-inducible promoter

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Risk of placental abruption in relation to migraines and headaches

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Migraine, a common chronic-intermittent disorder of idiopathic origin characterized by severe debilitating headaches and autonomic nervous system dysfunction, and placental abruption, the premature separation of the placenta, share many common pathophysiological characteristics. Moreover, endothelial dysfunction, platelet activation, hypercoagulation, and inflammation are common to both disorders. We assessed risk of placental abruption in relation to maternal history of migraine before and during pregnancy in Peruvian women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cases were 375 women with pregnancies complicated by placental abruption, and controls were 368 women without an abruption. During in-person interviews conducted following delivery, women were asked if they had physician-diagnosed migraine, and they were asked questions that allowed headaches and migraine to be classified according to criteria established by the International Headache Society. Logistic regression procedures were used to calculate odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusted for confounders.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, a lifetime history of any headaches or migraine was associated with an increased odds of placental abruption (aOR = 1.60; 95% CI 1.16-2.20). A lifetime history of migraine was associated with a 2.14-fold increased odds of placental abruption (aOR = 2.14; 95% CI 1.22-3.75). The odds of placental abruption was 2.11 (95% CI 1.00-4.45) for migraineurs without aura; and 1.59 (95% 0.70-3.62) for migraineurs with aura. A lifetime history of tension-type headache was also increased with placental abruption (aOR = 1.61; 95% CI 1.01-2.57).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study adds placental abruption to a growing list of pregnancy complications associated with maternal headache/migraine disorders. Nevertheless, prospective cohort studies are needed to more rigorously evaluate the extent to which migraines and/or its treatments are associated with the occurrence of placental abruption.</p

Developing cancer warning statements for alcoholic beverages

Background: There is growing evidence of the increased cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption, but this is not well understood by the general public. This study investigated the acceptability among drinkers of cancer warning statements for alcoholic beverages. Methods: Six focus groups were conducted with Australian drinkers to develop a series of cancer-related warning statements for alcohol products. Eleven cancer warning statements and one general health warning statement were subsequently tested on 2,168 drinkers via an online survey. The statements varied by message frame (positive vs negative), cancer reference (general vs specific), and the way causality was communicated (‘increases risk of cancer’ vs ‘can cause cancer’). Results: Overall, responses to the cancer statements were neutral to favorable, indicating that they are unlikely to encounter high levels of negative reaction from the community if introduced on alcoholic beverages. Females, younger respondents, and those with higher levels of education generally found the statements to be more believable, convincing, and personally relevant. Positively framed messages, those referring to specific forms of cancer, and those using ‘increases risk of cancer’ performed better than negatively framed messages, those referring to cancer in general, and those using the term ‘can cause cancer’. Conclusion: Cancer warning statements on alcoholic beverages constitute a potential means of increasing awareness about the relationship between alcohol consumption and cancer risk