Human Research as Canadian, Japanese Robot Arms Swap Experiments

[spaceexp]

ISS - Expedition 59 Mission patch.

May 10, 2019

The Expedition 59 crew focused intensely on human research today to improve the health of people on Earth and in space. The residents aboard the International Space Station are busy exploring how the human body and other organisms adapt to space helping NASA prepare to go to the moon by 2024.

Astronauts Christina Koch and Anne McClain split Friday checking on the Kidney Cells experiment seeking innovative treatments for kidney stones, osteoporosis and toxic chemical exposures. Counteracting the space-exacerbated symptoms is critical to the success of a long-term spaceflight to the moon and Mars.

Image above: Four Expedition 59 astronauts pose for a playful portrait inside the Harmony module. Clockwise from left are astronaut David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Anne McClain and Nick Hague. Image Credit: NASA.

McClain started her day with Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin researching space-caused head and eye pressure. The quartet tested a specialized suit, the Lower Body Negative Pressure suit, that reverses the upward flow of blood and other fluids toward an astronaut’s head. The crewmates also participated in ultrasound scans of their eyes and veins for the long-running Fluid Shifts study.

In addition, a pair of Canadian and Japanese robotic arms on the station are coordinating to swap external payloads over the weekend. Two Earth and space research facilities inside the SpaceX Dragon’s trunk are being removed for installation on the station. An older atmospheric experiment that has completed its mission will be placed back in Dragon’s trunk.

The Canadarm2 robotic arm removed the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) from the Dragon’s unpressurized trunk. It handed off the OCO-3, a global carbon detection device, to Japan’s smaller robotic arm for installation on the Kibo lab module’s external pallet. Next, the Canadarm2 will extract and install the Space Test Program-Houston 6 hardware for space physics research on the station’s truss structure.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

Finally, Japan’s robotic arm attached to Kibo will hand off the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) to the Canadarm2 for installation in Dragon’s trunk. Before Dragon splashes down in the Pacific at the end of May, its trunk with CATS inside will separate during reentry and burn up over Earth’s atmosphere.

A SpaceX Dragon resupply ship delivered CATS in January of 2015 for robotic installation on Kibo’s external pallet. CATS successfully demonstrated low cost atmospheric monitoring techniques from the station.

Related links:

Expedition 59: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition59/index.html

Kidney Cells: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7819

Moon and Mars: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/moon2mars/

Lower Body Negative Pressure suit: https://blogs.nasa.gov/ISS_Science_Blog/2015/06/02/rubber-vacuum-pants-that-suck/

Fluid Shifts: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1126

SpaceX Dragon: https://www.nasa.gov/spacex

Canadarm2 robotic arm: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/mobile-servicing-system.html

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1786

Kibo lab module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/japan-kibo-laboratory

Space Test Program-Houston 6: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/search.html?#q=%22stp-h6%22&i=&p=&c=&g=&s=

Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1007


Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch
Full article

Female Endocrinology - overview

[biomedicool]

General endocrinology info:

• Autocrine - affects same cell
  
• Paracrine - affects a nearby cell
  
• Endocrine - affects elsewhere in the body (secreted by glands into the bloodstream)
  
• Exocrine - secreted by glands into the external environment (eg sweat, saliva)
  

Steroid hormones

• Oestrogen
  
• Progesterone 
  
• Testosterone
• Cortisol

Non-steroid hormones

• Glycoproteins (LH, FSH, TSH, hCG)
  
• Proteins (GH, prolactin, others include insulin, PTH)
  
• Peptides (oxytocin, gonadotropin releasing hormone)
• Amino acid derivatives (triiodothyronine, thyroxine (T4), adrenalin)

Anterior pituitary secretes LH and FSH (gonadotropins)

Menstrual Cycle

Follicular phase

• prepares follicles for ovulation
  
• uses LH, FSH, oestrogen
  
• FSH (from ant. pituitary) stimulates growth and maturation of several primary follicles
• each produce oestrogen which helps regenerate/prepare endometrium 
• one follicle eventually becomes dominant and the others degenerate (~day 7)

Preovulation

• Graafian follicle sends a surge of OES through bloodstream
  
• resulting LH surge prompts next stage - ovulation (~day 14)
  

Ovulation

• follicle does not enter fallopian tubes
  
• ovum erupts from follicle 
  
• fimbrae sweep up ovum, muscular contractions help guide it down the tube
  

Luteal phase

• following ovulation cells of the ruptured follicle enlarge and form the corpus luteum
• corpus luteum produces progesterone, growing for 7-8 days. if no fertilization, growth stops and progesterone slows 

Outcome 1: Fertilization 

• Egg lives for 12-24 hours
  
• takes 5 days to reach uterus (fertilization must occur in uterine tube)
• endometrial development continues with progesterone production
• formation of placenta after implantation from trophoblast - it will take over progesterone production and signal corpus luteum to degenerate into corpus albicans

Outcome 2: No fertilization 

• no blastocyst means no hCG to ovary
  
• corpus luteum stops action, degenerates
  
• drop in progesterone causes constriction of endometrial arterioles - leads to endometrial ischemia
  
• causes spongy endrometrial tissue to slough off - menstrual bleed
  

summary:

The Beginning

[qwanderer]

(So I haven’t gotten very far yet but I feel like sharing what I’ve got)

It began, more or less, when a very young angel called Jewels refused to be edited. Not again.

“Do I have to?” Jewels said, as he looked at the Almighty’s metaphorical potter’s wheel, not wanting to step onto it again.

The Almighty, as was Xir wont, made Xir reply known in a manner which was clear and definite, but which was, being ineffable, not easily put into words. However, in this case, the most basic and accurate translation was probably Yes.

Keep reading

[qwanderer]

The Middle

Being terrifying was lonely. Having one’s own allies be terrified of one, especially so.

Elim was very good at terror. Very good at getting things done, at scaring people straight. It was what heaven seemed to want from him, the whole “put the fear of God in people” schtick.

He would have tried harder not to fall so completely into the role, if he didn’t find his fellow angels so stultifyingly boring.

Keep reading

[qrdrws]

T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock + Ineffable Husbands
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, (Part 8)

South Downs…
(Almost at the end, folks!)

emmalily asked:

Hello, I'm sorry if you've already answered this, but was Crowley's watch custom made for the show?

neil-gaiman answered:

No. It’s a nightmarishly expensive fancy watch we borrowed from the manufacturer.

[vbartilucci]

The Devon Tread 1.

$25,000.

Product Placement has achieved a new level.

archiveofourown.org

Moving and twitching - tinsnip - Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett [Archive of Our Own]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens)
Characters: Aziraphale, Crowley
Additional Tags: Conversation, Cigarettes, Animal harm (discussed), Sometimes it’s hard to like humanity., Dialogue, Rationalizing
Summary:

When everything seems planned out, when everything seems nicely planned out, well, the human race will come smack your face.

“I just think everything should get a say, that’s all. In how it gets used. Or what it gets used for.”

A sigh. “There is a plan, Crowley…”

“So you say. But I wouldn’t mind having a look at it. And I imagine the ducks feel the same way.”

Crowley and Aziraphale sit together, smoking, talking about Humanity.

The Warm Fuzzies

[bunjywunjy]

sweater weather is upon us once again, so it’s time to introduce you to a tiny fuzzy creature to warm your soul and make you go 

✨💖💖AWWWWWWW💖💖✨ (dramatization)

also, I feel like this tiny fuzzy creature should have legs. LOTS of legs. at least 7.

so, meet the Mustache Spider! 

✨💖💖AWWWWWWW💖💖✨

the Mustache Spider (Phidippus mystaceus) is a type of Jumping Spider native to the southern US. Like all Jumping Spiders, they have four pairs of kind and loving eyes, excellent and forgiving vision, and soft, strokeable fur covering their tiny adorable bodies (though tragically, since the larger females reach a maximum length of about 1 cm, they are too small to snuggle).

A TRAGEDY BEYOND COMPARE

the Mustache Spider gets its name from the fancy facewear that female spiders sport (say that five times fast)

it’s not known why exactly these spiders go in for a lovely fashionable pencil mustache, but some theories include that it’s because it’s “simply smashing” or “absolutely delightful” or “almost inutterable fancy” (my theories. these are my theories)

oh so dapper! she’ll be tying a helpless maiden to a train track any moment now

sadly, the male Mustache Spiders do lack this distinguished facewear, though they still have those tufts of fur that kind of look like kitty ears

nyah, ma’am

like all Jumping Spiders, the Mustache Spider is an adaptable ambush predator that will hunt anything it can get the drop on. 

it stalks its prey (like a cat) and wiggles its tiny fluffy butt (like a cat) just before it pounces many times the length of its own body, pinning its helpless victim (like a cat) and injecting a paralyzing venom that liquefies the prey’s insides, which it slurps up with its hollow fangs (like a cat)

Ò w Ó   NYA.

this being said, the Mustache Spider is completely harmless to humans (though they would totally hurt a fly).

in fact, Mustache Spiders are often curious about humans! like all Jumping Spiders, Mustache Spiders are intelligent enough to solve puzzles, watch nature videos and observe you observing them for no other reason than they think humans are neat.

Giant Hairless Ape is my favorite show

who knows, maybe they think we’re as adorable as we think they are.

wouldn’t that be something

[doesitsparkjoytho]

“He had heard about talking to plants in the early seventies….although talking is perhaps the wrong word for what Crowley did.”

[zetablarian]

Sometimes I accidentally remember that modern life is a series of tedious and unfulfilling responsibilities made only slightly better by the frantic acquisition of fleeting, shallow interests and I get

Upset.

[kingkitkatsu]