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PubMed1991

Lunar outpost agriculture.

America's long-term commitment to a new Space Exploration Initiative has focused attention on the basic requirements for establishing a permanently manned lunar outpost and, ultimately, a martian one. High among these is the development of Regenerative Life Support Systems--with lunar agriculture an essential component--to provide a high level of self-sufficiency.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1999

A strategy for developing practice guidelines for the ICU using automated knowledge acquisition techniques.

OBJECTIVES: To implement practice guideline entry tools in a reminder system in order to provide decision support to health care workers in clinical care and emergency care environments. To design a knowledge acquisition environment that enables physicians to formulate, update, and verify guidelines without the assistance of a knowledge engineer. METHODS: We developed a knowledge acquisition environment for the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) consisting of 1) a graphical knowledge acquisition tool, 2) tools that perform logical and semantic tests on proposed guidelines, 3) a Patient Data Management System (PDMS) containing clinical patient data, and 4) an expert system that reminds ICU health care workers of inconsistencies between a treatment plan and implemented guidelines. Physicians enter the guidelines using the knowledge acquisition tool, after which consistency and correctness tests are performed on the guidelines. The guidelines are then transferred to the knowledge base of the reminder system and validated by applying the new guidelines to a large stored data set of previous patients. If the new guidelines are approved, they are exported to the reminder system that is used in daily practice. RESULTS: ICU physicians used the knowledge acquisition tool to enter 58 guidelines into the reminder system's knowledge base. These guidelines were tested on a data set consisting of 803 previously admitted patients. As a result, 27 guidelines fired at least once, generating 406 reminders in total. Of the 406 generated reminders, 356 (88%) were issued correctly and 50 (12%) were false alarms. The reminders that were issued correctly involved 3 situations: 1) the database contained inconsistent or incomplete information, 2) the actions or decisions of the health care workers were not the most appropriate ones, and 3) there was a potential risk involved. All false alarms were caused by the fact that the corresponding guidelines were not specific enough to handle certain exceptions. As a result of this analysis, the guidelines could be improved in such a way as to eliminate all false alarms. CONCLUSIONS: These first results demonstrate that this bottom-up knowledge acquisition strategy, implemented by the automated knowledge acquisition tools, enables medical specialists to improve the quality of computer support in an ICU without assistance of a knowledge engineer.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMed2006

Physical environmental stimuli that turn healthcare facilities into healing environments through psychologically mediated effects: systematic review.

AIM: This paper reports a systematic review to determine the effects of physical environmental stimuli in healthcare settings on the health and well-being of patients. BACKGROUND: The concept of healing environments suggests that the physical environment of the healthcare setting can encourage the healing process and patients' feelings of well-being. Understanding the effects of physical environmental stimuli will allow us to design healthcare environments that generate these potential health benefits. METHOD: A search was conducted using the MedLine, PsychInfo, Embase, CINAHL, Iconda, ScienceDirect, Compendex and the ISI Citation Indexes databases. Studies were included if they concerned interventions involving health effects of environmental stimuli in healthcare settings on patients, and were based on controlled clinical trials published in peer-reviewed journals. Both clinical and psychological outcome measures were included. The search was completed in 2005. FINDINGS: Of the over 500 potentially relevant studies identified, only 30 met all criteria and were included in this review. Predominantly positive effects were found for sunlight, windows, odour and seating arrangements. Inconsistent effects were found for sound, nature, spatial layout, television and multiple stimuli interventions. In general, both the size and direction of effects seem highly dependent on characteristics of patient populations and healthcare settings. CONCLUSIONS: Studies that manipulate several environmental stimuli simultaneously clearly support the general notion that the physical healthcare environment affects the well-being of patients. However, when scrutinizing the effects of specific environmental stimuli, conclusive evidence is still very limited and difficult to generalize. The field thus appears to be in urgent need of well-conducted, controlled clinical trials. At present, and on the basis of the available research, it would be premature to formulate evidence-based guidelines for designing healthcare environments.

Environment Design↗
PubMed1984

A DNA analysis program designed for computer novices working in an industrial-research environment.

A program designed for DNA sequence analysis by people with no computer background or experience is described. The criteria used in the program design were (i) user friendliness, (ii) ability to handle large DNA files (greater than 10 kilobases), (iii) low storage requirements so that it could be put on a personal computer (IBM), (iv) written in a widely used language (FORTRAN 77) and (v) ability to handle all of the needed tasks for DNA analysis. The program consists of an executive that controls a set of modular subprograms. A file management system using 'SEQ' and 'SITE' files is also in place. SEQ files contain long DNA nucleotide sequences (e.g. restriction enzyme sites). Related SEQ and SITE files are grouped into categories. A SITE category can include related sequences a user wishes to search for in a longer SEQ sequence from a designated category. For example, all of the restriction enzyme recognition sites can group into a single category called 'Enzymes' and can be searched for in a SEQ sequence which has been placed in the SEQ file category 'Plasmids'. Colour graphics is also used as a visual aid.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1980

Prioritization of chemicals according to the degree of hazard in the aquatic environment.

Chemicals designated as "priority pollutants" or "toxics" have received special attention recently because the discharge of these compounds into public water is to be restricted to the maximum possible with little regard to water quality or economics. The selection of many of the 129 priority cemicals was not based on an objective scientific assessment of the exposure and effect data. In fact, for some compounds, including acenaphthene and 4-chlorophenyl-phenyl ether, the necessary data for listing were non-existent. As an alternative to arbitrarily listing or delisting chemicals for the purpose of prioity control, this paper suggests a promising scientific approach to selecting priority chemicals based on the principles of hazard assessment for chemicals in the aquatic environment. According o the hypothesis, the highest priority chemicals are those with the least margin of safety, defined as the gap between the no-observable-effect concentrations and the ambient exposure concentrations. The no-observable-effect concenrations are based on the results of chronic or sensitive life stage tests with aquatic organisms and the acceptable daily intake rate for fish eates. The ambient exposure concentrations are levels either measured in fish and water, or roughly estimated from a simple nomogram that requires only two of the following three factors: environmental release rate, ratio of dissipation to bioconcentration potential, or ambient residues in fish. THE CHEMICALS STUDIED TO ILLUSTRATE THIS APPROACH TO PRIORITIZING CHEMICALS BASED ON HAZARD ASSESSMENT ARE: polychlorinated biphenyls, di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, linear alkylbenzene sulfonate, and pentachlorophenol.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Intracanopy lighting of cowpea canopies in controlled environments.

Traditional designs for plant-growth lighting in space life support systems irradiate tops of closed foliar canopies while canopy understories are light limited. "Intracanopy lighting," a technique whereby plants are allowed to grow up and around multiple layers of low-intensity lamps that irradiate interior portions of canopies, can potentially enhance productivity while reducing overall energy consumption. Intracanopy lighting of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) was optimized by varying stand densities and lining growth compartments with light-scattering or reflective films. Yield rates using intracanopy lighting were less than those obtained with traditional lighting strategies. However, yield efficiencies and energetic conversion efficiencies, parameters that put edible yield in terms of inedible biomass, energetic, spatial, and temporal penalties, indicate intracanopy lighting is more efficient in crop production. Single-leaf photosynthetic rates indicate all leaves participate in net carbon gain regardless of age and position within a canopy.

Biomass↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Noise in the ambulatory health care setting. How loud is too loud?

A study was conducted to assess noise levels at the Sycamore Primary Care Center, an ambulatory health care facility. It is hypothesized that the building design led to an unusually quiet environment. Noise levels were sampled over a two-week period at two locations within the center, with a range of between 49.2 and 53.2 decibels. A comprehensive literature review failed to find comparison data at other ambulatory care facilities. However, when comparing the results to those of a typical business office environment, the building is unusually quiet. This should result in a positive environment for employees, by increasing productivity and reducing stress.

Ambulatory Care Facilities↗
PubMed1998

Designing the esthetic dental environment.

The esthetic dental environment requires a re-thinking of outdated concepts of office design. The design of the dental office must reflect the dentist's commitment to excellence. Each detail of the office design must be both functional and esthetic to mirror the type of work the esthetic patient expects and demands.

Dental Equipment↗
PubMed1995

Control of glucose transport by GLUT1: regulated secretion in an unexpected environment.

Studies designed to elucidate the mechanism of regulation of the GLUT1 isoform of the glucose transporter in response to a variety of cellular stresses are reviewed. Using ts mutants of vesicular stomatitis virus, it was shown that the viral L gene was responsible for the stimulation of glucose transport in infected cells. Immunofluorescence of GLUT1 demonstrated that the increase in glucose transport was the consequence of a translocation of the transporter from a reservoir in cytoplasmic vesicles to the plasma membrane. When cells were cycled between deficient and standard medium, the change in glucose transport rates was paralleled by a cycling of the transporter between the plasma membrane and the cytoplasmic vesicles. The redistribution of GLUT1 was not a consequence of a general redistribution of recycling plasma membrane proteins. Instead, the findings focus attention on the regulated exocytosis of specific membrane constituents in cells that, until recently, were not thought to exhibit this capacity.

Animals↗