The Effects of Hypergravity and Microgravity on Biomedical Experiments

✍ Scribed by Thais Russomano

• Publisher: Morgan and Claypool Publishers
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 77
• Series: Synthesis Lectures on Biomedical Engineering
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Take one elephant and one man to the top of a tower and simultaneously drop. Which will hit the ground first? You are a pilot of a jet fighter performing a high-speed loop. Will you pass out during the maneuver? How can you simulate being an astronaut with your feet still firmly placed on planet Earth? In the aerospace environment, human, animal, and plant physiology differs significantly from that on Earth, and this book provides reasons for some of these changes. The challenges encountered by pilots in their missions can have implications on the health and safety of not only themselves but others. Knowing the effects of hypergravity on the human body during high-speed flight led to the development of human centrifuges. We also need to better understand the physiological responses of living organisms in space. It is therefore necessary to simulate weightlessness through the use of specially adapted equipment, such as clinostats, tilt tables, and body suspension devices. Each of these ideas, and more, is addressed in this review of the physical concepts related to space flights, microgravity, and hypergravity simulations. Basic theories, such as Newtons law and Einsteins principle are explained, followed by a look at the biomedical effects of experiments performed in space life sciences institutes, universities, and space agencies. Table of Contents: General Concepts in Physics - Definition of Physical Terms / The Effects of Hypergravity on Biomedical Experiments / The Effects of Microgravity on Biomedical Experiments / References

✦ Table of Contents

The Effects of Hypergravity and Microgravity on Biomedical Experiments......Page 2
Keywords......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
1.1 GRAVITY AND RELATED CONCEPTS......Page 8
1.2 WEIGHT VERSUS MASS AND INERTIAL MASS......Page 11
1.3 APPARENT WEIGHT AND NORMAL FORCE......Page 12
1.4 THE EINSTEIN PRINCIPLE......Page 14
1.5 MICROGRAVITY......Page 15
1.7 PARTIAL-GRAVITY ENVIRONMENTS ON EARTH......Page 20
1.7.3 Body Suspension Devices......Page 21
1.8 Hypergravity......Page 22
2.1 HYPERGRAVITY AND HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY......Page 24
2.1.1 Positive Gz Effects......Page 25
2.1.2 Negative Gz Effects......Page 27
2.2 G IMPACT IN SPACE MISSIONS......Page 28
2.3 HUMAN CENTRIFUGES......Page 31
2.4 THE MICROGRAVITY CENTRE HYPERGRAVITY EXPERIMENTS......Page 35
2.5.1 System of Tubes Simulating the Column of Blood......Page 37
2.5.2 Magnetic Rings Representing Intervertebral Disks......Page 38
2.5.3 Spring and Rubber Band With an Attached Mass Modeling Muscle Function......Page 40
2.5.4 Eruca sativa Mill (Rocket Plant)......Page 41
3.1 GROUND-BASED MICROGRAVITY SIMULATION......Page 46
3.1.1 Bed Rest and Bed Rest-Associated HDT......Page 47
3.1.2 Tilt Tables......Page 48
3.1.3 Water Immersion (Neutral Buoyancy)......Page 53
3.1.4 Immobilization......Page 55
3.1.5 Body Suspension Devices......Page 56
3.1.6 Barany’s Chair......Page 57
3.1.7 3D Clinostat......Page 59
Humidity and Temperature Sensors......Page 65
Experimental Use of the Clinostat With Human Cells......Page 66
3.3 CELL PROLIFERATION/VIABILITY ASSAY......Page 67
3.3.2 Proliferation and Cellular Viability With PBMCs in Microgravity Simulation......Page 68
3.3.3 Proliferation and Viability Assay......Page 69
References......Page 72
Author Biography......Page 76