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PubMed2004

The ALTEA/ALTEINO projects: studying functional effects of microgravity and cosmic radiation.

The ALTEA project investigates the risks of functional brain damage induced by particle radiation in space. A modular facility (the ALTEA facility) is being implemented and will be operated in the International Space Station (ISS) to record electrophysiological and behavioral descriptors of brain function and to monitor their time dynamics and correlation with particles and space environment. The focus of the program will be on abnormal visual perceptions (often reported as "light flashes" by astronauts) and the impact on retinal and brain visual structures of particle in microgravity conditions. The facility will be made available to the international scientific community for human neurophysiological, electrophysiological and psychophysics experiments, studies on particle fluxes, and dosimetry. A precursor of ALTEA (the 'Alteino' project) helps set the experimental baseline for the ALTEA experiments, while providing novel information on the radiation environment onboard the ISS and on the brain electrophysiology of the astronauts during orbital flights. Alteino was flown to the ISS on the Soyuz TM34 as part of mission Marco Polo. Controlled ground experiments using mice and accelerator beams complete the experimental strategy of ALTEA. We present here the status of progress of the ALTEA project and preliminary results of the Alteino study on brain dynamics, particle fluxes and abnormal visual perceptions.

Brain↗
PubMed2000

Assessment of the cosmic radiation exposure on Canadian-based routes.

As a result of the recent recommendations of the ICRP-60 and in anticipation of possible regulation on occupational exposure of commercial aircrew, a two-phase investigation was carried out over a 1-y period to determine the total dose equivalent on representative Canadian-based flight routes. In the first phase of the study, dedicated scientific flights on a Northern round-trip route between Ottawa and Resolute Bay provided the opportunity to characterize the complex mixed-radiation field and to intercompare various instrumentation using both a conventional suite of powered detectors and passive dosimetry. In the second phase, volunteer aircrew carried (passive) neutron bubble detectors during their routine flight duties. From these measurements, the total dose equivalent was derived for a given route with a knowledge of the neutron fraction as determined from the scientific flights and computer code (CARI-3C) calculations. This study has yielded an extensive database of over 3,100 measurements providing the total dose equivalent for 385 different routes. By folding in flight frequency information and the accumulated flight hours, the annual occupational exposures of 20 flight crew have been determined. This study has indicated that most Canadian-based domestic and international aircrew will exceed the proposed annual ICRP-60 public limit of 1 mSv y(-1) but will be well below the occupational limit of 20 mSv y(-1).

Aircraft↗
PubMed2003

ALTEA: anomalous long term effects in astronauts. A probe on the influence of cosmic radiation and microgravity on the central nervous system during long flights.

The ALTEA project participates to the quest for increasing the safety of manned space flights. It addresses the problems related to possible functional damage to neural cells and circuits due to particle radiation in space environment. Specifically it aims at studying the functionality of the astronauts' Central Nervous Systems (CNS) during long space flights and relating it to the peculiar environments in space, with a particular focus on the particle flux impinging in the head. The project is a large international and multidisciplinary collaboration. Competences in particle physics, neurophysiology, psychophysiology, electronics, space environment, data analyses will work together to construct the fully integrated vision electrophysiology and particle analyser system which is the core device of the project: an helmet-shaped multi-sensor device that will measure concurrently the dynamics of the functional status of the visual system and passage of each particle through the brain within a pre-determined energy window. ALTEA is scheduled to fly in the International Space Station in late 2002. One part of the multi-sensor device, one of the advanced silicon telescopes, will be launched in the ISS in early 2002 and serve as test for the final device and as discriminating dosimeter for the particle fluences within the ISS.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1975

[Influence of cosmic radiation at high altitude on duration of the cell cycle].

Paramecia cultures placed at 3800 meter altitude, show a proliferating activity acceleration if we compared them to control cultures placed at low altitude under the same environment conditions. These results confirm the cosmic irradiation influence upon the activating effect produced by the natural ionizing radiations on living organisms.

Altitude↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The significance of the radioactive isotope potassium-40 for the normal development of the animal organism].

21-day-old rats subjected to nourishing by KCl (20-30 mg per day) without radioactive isotope 40K. Besides the decrease of 40K content in animal tissue (30-50%) a reducing of body weight was obtained. In the second set of experiments in the lead (9 cm thick) chamber with low (20 times) background radiation the trustworthy decrease of young mouse development was observed under the simultaneous reducing other components of background radiation (radon, products of its disintegration, gamma, beta radiation, cosmic radiation). Possible mechanisms of necessity of 40K natural concentration for the normal development of the animal organism are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1963

Estimates of radiation doses in space on the basis of current data.

A gross survey of data on Van Allen belt radiations, galactic cosmic radiation, and solar cosmic radiation is presented. On the basis of these data that are, in part, fragmentary and uncertain, upper and lower limits of rad doses under different amounts of mass shielding are estimated. The estimates are preliminary especially in the cases of chance encounter with solar flare protons. Generally, the relative biological effectiveness of the high energetic space radiations and their secondaries appear insufficiently known to give detailed biological or rem doses. The overall ionization dosage of the low level galactic cosmic radiation in free space is estimated to be even in solar minimum years equivalent to less than 50 rem/year or 1 rem/week. Mass shielding up to 80 g/cm2 would not reduce the ionization dosage but would shield against heavy primaries and heavy ionizing secondaries, thus reducing the biological dose. The flux of energetic protons in the maximum intensity zone of the inner Van Allen belt is by about four orders of magnitude higher, their energy and penetration power, of course, lower. A shield of 25 g/cm2 would reduce the dose rate from 20 rad/hour under 2 g/cm2 to 5 rad/hour. These proton dose rates and also the electron and X-radiation dose rates under some g/cm2 shielding of low z-number material will not constitute a radiation hazard for flights straight through the inner and outer belt in about two hours. Staying within the maximum of the inner belt for two days would, however, lead even within 25 g/cm2 depth of outer shield and body itself to a dose of 200 rad which is on the permissible limit. Extreme solar cosmic ray events or proton showers of high intensity and a duration of days occurred with a frequency of 1-4 per year during the last highly active cycle. For the penetrating, most intense high energy event of February 23, 1956, the dose within 25 g/cm2 is estimated to have been in the order of 50 rad. In most cases the dose decreased more rapidly with penetration depth and would have been even in multiple events with such high shielding below critical levels, especially on inner organs. On the surface of the body and in a lightly shielded space vehicle or protected by a space suit only the dose can, especially in multiple events, reach values of 1000 rad and more.

Atmosphere↗
PubMed1975

The effects of cosmic particle radiation on pocket mice aboard Apollo XVII: VII. Cosmic ray particle dosimetry and trajectory tracing.

Five pocket mice (Perognathus longimembris) were flown on Apollo XVII, each with a solid-state (plastic) nuclear track detector implanted beneath its scalp. The subscalp detectors were sensitive to HZE cosmic ray particles with a LET larger than or equal to 0.15 million electron volts per micrometer (MeV/mjm). A critical aspect of the dosimetry of the experiment involved tracing individual particle trajectories through each mouse head from particle tracks registered in the individual subscalp detectors, thereby establishing a one-to-one correspondence between a trajectory location in the tissue and the presence or absence of a lesion. The other major aspect was the identification of each registered particle. An average of 16 particles with Z larger than or equal to 6 and 2.2 particles with Z larger than or equal to 20 were found per detector. The track density, 29 tracks/cm2, when adjusted for detection volume, was in agreement with the photographic emulsion data from an area dosimeter located next to the flight package.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Cosmic ionizing radiation effects in plant seeds after short and long duration exposure flights.

Recently, comparison of biophysical data obtained from orbital flights of short and long duration led to results which will be significant for long and/or repeated stay of man in space. Under orbital conditions biological stress is induced in dry seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana by cosmic radiation especially its high energetic, densely ionizing component, the heavy ions (HZE). For comparison of radiation impact during different space flights a biological attempt at estimating the impact of single particles with high mass and energy (HZE-particles) on seeds was developed. Subdivision into LET-groups showed a remarkable contribution of an intermediate group (LET = 35 to 100 keV/micrometer) due to medium heavy ions (Z = 6 to 10). Efficiency factors for radiation damage experimentally determined and assigned to different LET-classes were compared to radiation quality factors discussed in literature.

Arabidopsis↗
PubMed2003

Measurements with a Ge detector and Monte Carlo computations of dose rate yields due to cosmic muons.

The present work shows how portable Ge detectors can be useful for measurements of the dose rate due to ionizing cosmic radiation. The methodology proposed converts the cosmic radiation induced background in a Ge crystal (energy range above 3 MeV) to the absorbed dose rate due to muons, which are responsible for 75% of the cosmic radiation dose rate at sea level. The key point is to observe in the high energy range (above 20 MeV) the broad muon peak resulting from the most probable energy loss of muons in the Ge detector. An energy shift of the muon peak was observed, as expected, for increasing dimensions of three Ge crystals (10%, 20%, and 70% efficiency). Taking into account the dimensions of the three detectors the location of the three muon peaks was reproduced by Monte Carlo computations using the GEANT code. The absorbed dose rate due to muons has been measured in 50 indoor and outdoor locations at Thessaloniki, the second largest town of Greece, with a portable Ge detector and converted to the absorbed dose rate due to muons in an ICRU sphere representing the human body by using a factor derived from Monte Carlo computations. The outdoor and indoor mean muon dose rate was 25 nGy h(-1) and 17.8 nGy h(-1), respectively. The shielding factor for the 40 indoor measurements ranges from 0.5 to 0.9 with a most probable value between 0.7-0.8.

Air Pollutants, Radioactive↗