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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

ISS Payload Operations Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacts and Solutions

Introduction: The onset and the protracted duration of the COVID-19 pandemic brought a dramatic and rapid transformation to almost every aspect of humanity in 2020. The world’s space agencies and their missions were not immune to the unpredictable and wide-sweeping changes. One discipline principally affected was mission operations and the various groups supporting that critical function. Mission support teams, especially for complex and crewed missions like the International Space Station (ISS) were forced to rapidly rethink how and where control center staff performed their vital work. Operations training – an essential element to mission ops, had unique hurdles to overcome. Operations training is responsible for preparing astronaut crews for their scientific missions, providing recurring proficiency and currency material to flight controllers, as well as ensuring new team members are ready to join their colleagues on console. Every element of training was impacted by COVID restrictions. From orientation and introductory classes for new controllers, training for scientists and payload developers, to simulations and advanced lessons, critical On the Job Training (OJT) and final evaluations; all aspects faced new challenges. Operations trainers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, were forced to rethink, retool, and become more efficient with trainees and training resources in order to continue supporting payload operations on the ISS. Impacts and Barriers to Operations Training: The pandemic started in the United States in early March 2020. Immediately, NASA mandated that the support for ISS real-time operations was critical. As a result, physical access to the ISS Payload Operations Center was restricted to only those people supporting console operations. Thus, use of on-site NASA facilities and any trainer to trainee face-to-face interaction was not authorized. Trainers and trainees had to quickly shift to 100% remote learning. In the short term, this was not a problem since NASA had already prepared Information Technology (IT) resources that facilitated remote access to mission resources like classes, documents and teleconferences. However, instructors quickly discovered the classes that they were accustomed to delivering in a large classroom environment did not translate well to remote teaching. The lack of non-verbal communication with the class became a major barrier to instruction. Another significant hurdle to operations training was the mandate that all simulations could only be held remotely. The logistics of planning and executing even small simulations proved to be challenging, almost impossible, due to IT technology and public internet limitations. With simulations essentially stopped, as well as the restrictions on most OJT training, trainees were essentially stopped in their advancement towards certification. An additional barrier that had to be overcome was the formal documentation of the curriculum objectives. Even though NASA had been deliberately transitioning to electronic documents for years, some organizations were still relying on “pen and ink” documents to formalize training completion. The logistics of implementing secure and controlled e-signature documents in a standardized, NASA approved format had to be addressed. Lesson Learned and Efficiencies: Once the various limitations were identified, ISS trainers at MSFC discussed, proposed, and prioritized new options and techniques. Transitioning to all electronic learning materials and certifications was a relevantly easy fix. Teaching courses to large and diverse groups took additional shifts in the NASA training paradigm. Likewise, methods and procedures for preparing astronauts for their missions were forced to be revised. Simulation supervisors and their teams were also forced to find more efficient techniques to provide realistic training experience. Communication and approvals from management was essential. In every case, the ISS payload operations instructors found novel and efficient solutions to all functions listed above. This paper will discuss the factors and solutions payloads operations trainers found to keep scientific research on the ISS flying forward to mission success.

ISS Operations↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

ISS Payload Operations Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacts and Solutions

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought a dramatic and rapid transformation to almost every aspect of humanity in 2020. The world’s space agencies and their missions were not immune to the wide-sweeping changes. One discipline principally affected was mission operations and the various groups supporting that function. Mission support teams, especially for complex and crewed missions like the International Space Station were forced to rapidly rethink how and where control center staff performed their vital work. Operations training – an essential element to mission ops, had unique hurdles to overcome. Operations training is responsible for preparing astronaut crews for their missions, providing training to flight controllers, as well as ensuring that new team members are ready to join their colleagues. Every element of training was impacted by COVID restrictions. From orientation and introductory classes for new controllers, simulations and advanced lessons, On the Job Training and final evaluations; all aspects faced new challenges. Trainers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, were forced to become more efficient with trainees and resources to continue supporting payload operations. The pandemic started in the USA in March 2020. Immediately, NASA mandated that the support for ISS real-time operations was critical. As a result, physical access to key facilities was restricted. Trainers and trainees had to quickly shift to 100 percent remote learning. In the short term, this was not a problem. However, instructors discovered lessons that they were accustomed to delivering in a classroom environment did not translate to remote teaching. Another hurdle to operations training was the mandate that all simulations could only be held remotely. The logistics of even small simulations proved to be challenging due to IT restrictions and public internet limitations. With simulations essentially stopped, as well as the restrictions on most OJT, trainees were essentially stopped in their advancement towards certification. Once limitations were identified, trainers prioritized new options. Transitioning to all electronic learning materials was a relatively easy fix. Teaching to large groups took additional shifts in the training paradigm. Methods for preparing astronauts for their missions were revised. Simulation supervisors found more efficient techniques to provide realistic training experience. Communication and approvals from management was essential. In every case, the payload operations instructors found novel solutions to all functions listed. This paper will discuss the factors and solutions payloads operations trainers found to keep scientific research on the ISS flying forward to mission success.

ISS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Viral Dynamic Models During COVID‐19: Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic?

Mathematical models have been used for about 30 years to improve our understanding of virus-host interaction, in particular during chronic infections. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these models have been used to provide insights into the natural history of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, optimize antiviral treatment strategies, understand factors associated with transmission, and optimize surveillance systems. The impact of modeling has been accelerated by the availability of unprecedented multidimensional immune data from animal and human systems, which enhanced partnerships between experimentalists and theorists and led to exciting new modeling and statistical developments. In this mini review, we examine the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss the main insights provided by mathematical models of viral dynamics at the different stages of the outbreak. Although we focus on respiratory infection, we also consider the new areas for development in anticipation of future acute infections from new or reemerging pathogens.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Extended use of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic - Thermal conditioning and spray-on surface disinfection

The current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in globally constrained supplies for face masks and personal protective equipment (PPE). Production capacity is limited in many countries and the future course of the pandemic will likely continue with shortages for high quality masks and PPE in the foreseeable future. Therefore, expectations are that mask reuse, extended wear and similar approaches will enhance the availability of personal protective measures. Repeated thermal disinfection could be an important option and likely easier implemented in some situations, at least on the small scale, than UV illumination, irradiation or hydrogen peroxide vapor exposure. In this paper, an overview on thermal responses and ongoing filtration performance of multiple face mask types is provided. Most masks have adequate material properties to survive a few cycles (i.e. 30 min disinfection steps) of thermal exposure in the 75°C regime. Some are more easily affected, as seen by the fusing of plastic liner or warping, given that preferred conditioning temperatures are near the softening point for some of the plastics and fibers used in these masks. Hence adequate temperature control is equally important. As guidance, disinfectants sprayed via dilute solutions maintain a surface presence over extended time at 25 and 37°C. Some spray-on alcohol-based solutions containing disinfectants were gently applied to the top surface of masks. Neither moderate thermal aging (less than 24 h at 80 and 95°C) nor gentle application of surface disinfectant sprays resulted in measurable loss of mask filter performance. Subject to bio-medical concurrence (additional checks for virus kill efficiency) and the use of low risk non-toxic disinfectants, such strategies, either individually or combined, by offering additional anti-viral properties or short term refreshing, may complement reuse options of professional masks or the now ubiquitous custom-made face masks with their often unknown filtration effectiveness.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Fast Climate Responses to Aerosol Emission Reductions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The reduced human activities and associated decreases in aerosol emissions during the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to affect climate. Assuming emission changes during lockdown, back-to-work and post-lockdown stages of COVID-19, climate model simulations show a surface warming over continental regions of the Northern Hemisphere. In January–March, there was an anomalous warming of 0.05–0.15 K in eastern China, and the surface temperature increase was 0.04–0.07 K in Europe, eastern United States, and South Asia in March–May. The longer the emission reductions undergo, the warmer the climate would become. The emission reductions explain the observed temperature increases of 10–40% over eastern China relative to 2019. A southward shift of the ITCZ is also seen in the simulations. This study provides an insight into the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global and regional climate and implications for immediate actions to mitigate fast global warming.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Model-based evaluation of school- and non-school-related measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic

The role of school-based contacts in the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 is incompletely understood. We use an age-structured transmission model fitted to age-specific seroprevalence and hospital admission data to assess the effects of school-based measures at different time points during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands. Our analyses suggest that the impact of measures reducing school-based contacts depends on the remaining opportunities to reduce non-school-based contacts. If opportunities to reduce the effective reproduction number (R e ) with non-school-based measures are exhausted or undesired and R e is still close to 1, the additional benefit of school-based measures may be considerable, particularly among older school children. As two examples, we demonstrate that keeping schools closed after the summer holidays in 2020, in the absence of other measures, would not have prevented the second pandemic wave in autumn 2020 but closing schools in November 2020 could have reduced R e below 1, with unchanged non-school-based contacts.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Controlling the pandemic during the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rollout

There is a consensus that mass vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 will ultimately end the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is not clear when and which control measures can be relaxed during the rollout of vaccination programmes. We investigate relaxation scenarios using an age-structured transmission model that has been fitted to age-specific seroprevalence data, hospital admissions, and projected vaccination coverage for Portugal. Our analyses suggest that the pressing need to restart socioeconomic activities could lead to new pandemic waves, and that substantial control efforts prove necessary throughout 2021. Using knowledge on control measures introduced in 2020, we anticipate that relaxing measures completely or to the extent as in autumn 2020 could launch a wave starting in April 2021. Additional waves could be prevented altogether if measures are relaxed as in summer 2020 or in a step-wise manner throughout 2021. We discuss at which point the control of COVID-19 would be achieved for each scenario.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Preparing for the next pandemic via transfer learning from existing diseases with hierarchical multi-modal BERT: a study on COVID-19 outcome prediction

Abstract Developing prediction models for emerging infectious diseases from relatively small numbers of cases is a critical need for improving pandemic preparedness. Using COVID-19 as an exemplar, we propose a transfer learning methodology for developing predictive models from multi-modal electronic healthcare records by leveraging information from more prevalent diseases with shared clinical characteristics. Our novel hierarchical, multi-modal model ( $${\textsc {TransMED}}$$ T R A N S MED ) integrates baseline risk factors from the natural language processing of clinical notes at admission, time-series measurements of biomarkers obtained from laboratory tests, and discrete diagnostic, procedure and drug codes. We demonstrate the alignment of $${\textsc {TransMED}}$$ T R A N S MED ’s predictions with well-established clinical knowledge about COVID-19 through univariate and multivariate risk factor driven sub-cohort analysis. $${\textsc {TransMED}}$$ T R A N S MED ’s superior performance over state-of-the-art methods shows that leveraging patient data across modalities and transferring prior knowledge from similar disorders is critical for accurate prediction of patient outcomes, and this approach may serve as an important tool in the early response to future pandemics.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Imaginaries of the Pandemic in Chile: A Conceptual‐Empirical Discussion

This article aims to reconstruct the social imaginaries of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in Chile. We seek to understand how families interpret their experience confronting the pandemic by identifying four main aspects: (a) the COVID‐19 pandemic, (b) working and learning, (c) health and (d) family life. Following Habermas' distinction between lifeworld and social systems, we consider these issues as constituting the social imaginary of lifeworld, different but related to the imaginaries of social systems. The qualitative empirical data was gathered through a sample of 38 families interviewed online between September 2020 and January 2021 in four Chilean cities: Iquique, Valparaíso, Santiago and Concepción. Other complementary sources of information are multimodal ethnography (digital diaries), press articles and state reports.

Vergara, Jorge Iván↗
DOE OSTI2024

SARS-CoV-2 wastewater variant surveillance: pandemic response leveraging FDA’s GenomeTrakr network

ABSTRACT Wastewater surveillance has emerged as a crucial public health tool for population-level pathogen surveillance. Supported by funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the FDA‘s genomic epidemiology program, GenomeTrakr, was leveraged to sequence SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater sites across the United States. This initiative required the evaluation, optimization, development, and publication of new methods and analytical tools spanning sample collection through variant analyses. Version-controlled protocols for each step of the process were developed and published on protocols.io. A custom data analysis tool and a publicly accessible dashboard were built to facilitate real-time visualization of the collected data, focusing on the relative abundance of SARS-CoV-2 variants and sub-lineages across different samples and sites throughout the project. From September 2021 through June 2023, a total of 3,389 wastewater samples were collected, with 2,517 undergoing sequencing and submission to NCBI under the umbrella BioProject,PRJNA757291. Sequence data were released with explicit quality control (QC) tags on all sequence records, communicating our confidence in the quality of data. Variant analysis revealed wide circulation of Delta in the fall of 2021 and captured the sweep of Omicron and subsequent diversification of this lineage through the end of the sampling period. This project successfully achieved two important goals for the FDA’s GenomeTrakr program: first, contributing timely genomic data for the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic response, and second, establishing both capacity and best practices for culture-independent, population-level environmental surveillance for other pathogens of interest to the FDA. IMPORTANCE This paper serves two primary objectives. First, it summarizes the genomic and contextual data collected during a Covid-19 pandemic response project, which utilized the FDA’s laboratory network, traditionally employed for sequencing foodborne pathogens, for sequencing SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater samples. Second, it outlines best practices for gathering and organizing population-level next generation sequencing (NGS) data collected for culture-free, surveillance of pathogens sourced from environmental samples.

Microbiology↗
DOE OSTI2020

Opinion: Lighting Research During and After the Pandemic

For many lighting researchers, the recent restrictions related to COVID-19 have paused most in-person laboratory or field experiments. In certain countries, regulatory institutions have allowed such experiments to resume but issued safety recommendations like pre-checking participants for disease symptoms and excluding those that are especially vulnerable. To avoid potential complications and delays, researchers are likely to resort to other research designs that enable remote research — eliminating the need for the experimenter and subjects to be in the same room. While unanticipated, this shift to remote research methods is an opportunity to revisit and further develop remote experimental techniques, which can have beneficial long-lasting implications on lighting research during and after the pandemic. Perhaps the most common type of remote research is online experiments; which can greatly benefit from improved techniques to allow for greater control or characterization of experimental conditions, like those proposed by Villa and Labayrade . These techniques require validation specific to the type of response collected and context, e.g. space type and attributes. New research techniques continue to emerge and will enable remote collection of objective measures such as gaze direction and high dynamic range images (HDRIs) without specialized equipment. In fact, many of these methods and techniques are commonly used in other disciplines, like vision science and psychology, and can be adapted for lighting research. Not all lighting studies can be conducted online, but in the age of ubiquitous and connected technologies, there is a largely missed opportunity to utilize crowdsourced responses to lighting conditions in real environments where people live and go about their daily lives without the research being limited to a certain time and laboratory locations. For instance, outdoor street luminaires can be rated by passersby using ecological momentary assessments on mobile phones. While this approach does not provide laboratory-level control over experimental conditions, it can provide more contextual responses resulting from ‘normal’ dynamic gaze, behavior, and interactions. Further, it can also reduce bias related to the experimental setting. Further development of remote research methods and their use in lighting research can improve the quality of lighting research. Given that sample sizes in most lighting research are relatively small, remote research can substantially increase sample sizes, reduce research costs, and shorten study duration, all while reducing interaction between experimenter and subjects. Another benefit is reaching a wider audience and including under-represented individuals who typically are not reachable using common recruitment methods. The pandemic has set back our plans for in-lab experiments, but can it inspire us to think of new and creative ways to expand lighting research?

Abboushi, Belal K.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Reverse-zoonoses of 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza A viruses and evolution in United States swine results in viruses with zoonotic potential

The 2009 H1N1 pandemic (pdm09) lineage of influenza A virus (IAV) crosses interspecies barriers with frequent human-to-swine spillovers each year. These spillovers reassort and drift within swine populations, leading to genetically and antigenically novel IAV that represent a zoonotic threat. We quantified interspecies transmission of the pdm09 lineage, persistence in swine, and identified how evolution in swine impacted zoonotic risk. Human and swine pdm09 case counts between 2010 and 2020 were correlated and human pdm09 burden and circulation directly impacted the detection of pdm09 in pigs. However, there was a relative absence of pdm09 circulation in humans during the 2020–21 season that was not reflected in swine. During the 2020–21 season, most swine pdm09 detections originated from human-to-swine spillovers from the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons that persisted in swine. We identified contemporary swine pdm09 representatives of each persistent spillover and quantified cross-reactivity between human seasonal H1 vaccine strains and the swine strains using a panel of monovalent ferret antisera in hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays. The swine pdm09s had variable antigenic reactivity to vaccine antisera, but each swine pdm09 clade exhibited significant reduction in cross-reactivity to one or more of the human seasonal vaccine strains. Further supporting zoonotic risk, we showed phylogenetic evidence for 17 swine-to-human transmission events of pdm09 from 2010 to 2021, 11 of which were not previously classified as variants, with each of the zoonotic cases associated with persistent circulation of pdm09 in pigs. These data demonstrate that reverse-zoonoses and evolution of pdm09 in swine results in viruses that are capable of zoonotic transmission and represent a potential pandemic threat.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sandia's Research in Support of COVID-19 Pandemic Response: Computing and Information Sciences

This report summarizes the goals and findings of eight research projects conducted under the Computing and Information Sciences (CIS) Research Foundation and related to the COVID- 19 pandemic. The projects were all formulated in response to Sandia's call for proposals for rapid-response research with the potential to have a positive impact on the global health emergency. Six of the projects in the CIS portfolio focused on modeling various facets of disease spread, resource requirements, testing programs, and economic impact. The two remaining projects examined the use of web-crawlers and text analytics to allow rapid identification of articles relevant to specific technical questions, and categorization of the reliability of content. The portfolio has collectively produced methods and findings that are being applied by a range of state, regional, and national entities to support enhanced understanding and prediction of the pandemic's spread and its impacts.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Industrial Energy Management During a Pandemic: Lessons Learned from DOE Better Plants Program Partners

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing many challenges for manufacturers, especially those that depend on workers whose jobs cannot be performed remotely. This has detrimentally impacted the energy management workforce, energy support system performance, as well as operations and supply chains.This article discusses four primary challenges for industrial energy management caused by the pandemic, strained budget for energy projects, increased energy intensity caused by low production rates and other safety practices, limited access to energy systems, and the lost knowledge and experience of senior staff. This article also proposes some potential solutions for these challenges that include implementing no- and low-cost energy conservation measures, adopting alternative financing options, improving shutdown procedures, reducing baseloads, creating an effective online energy-monitoring system, performing virtual energy assessments, building a robust EnMS, and attending online and in-person training events.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sandia's Research in Support of COVID-19 Pandemic Response: Materials Science

Sandia Materials Science Investment Area contributed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 disease which represent the most significant pandemic threat in over 100 years. We completed a series of 7, short duration projects to provide innovative materials science research and development in analytical techniques to aid the neutralization of COVID-19 on multiple surfaces, approaches to rapidly decontaminate personal protective equipment, and pareto assessment of construction materials for manufacturing personal protective equipment. The developed capabilities and processes through this research can help US medical personnel, government installations and assets, first responders, state and local governments, and multiple federal agencies address the COVID-19 Pandemic.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Addressing Parental Vaccine Hesitancy and Other Barriers to Childhood/Adolescent Vaccination Uptake During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Routine childhood immunizations are proven to be one of the most effective public health interventions at controlling numerous deadly diseases. Therefore, the CDC recommends routine immunizations for children and adolescent populations against vaccine-preventable diseases e.g., tetanus, pertussis, diphtheria, etc. This current review sought to examine barriers to pediatric vaccine uptake behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also explored the implications for parental vaccine hesitancy/delay during an ongoing health crisis and proposed recommendations for increasing vaccine confidence and compliance. Our review determined that the receipt for vaccinations steadily improved in the last decade for both the United States and Tennessee. However, this incremental progress has been forestalled by the COVID-19 pandemic and other barriers i.e. parental vaccine hesitancy, social determinants of health (SDoH) inequalities, etc. which further exacerbate vaccination disparities. Moreover, non-compliance to routine vaccinations could cause an outbreak of diseases, thereby, worsening the ongoing health crisis and already strained health care system. Healthcare providers are uniquely positioned to offer effective recommendations with presumptive languaging to increase vaccination rates, as well as, address parental vaccine hesitancy. Best practices that incorporate healthcare providers’ quality improvement coaching, vaccination reminder recall systems, adherence to standardized safety protocols (physical distancing, hand hygiene practices, etc.), as well as, offer telehealth and outdoor/drive-through/curbside vaccination services, etc. are warranted. Additionally, a concerted effort should be made to utilize public health surveillance systems to collect, analyze, and interpret data, thereby, ensuring the dissemination of timely, accurate health information for effective health policy decision-making e.g., vaccine distribution, etc.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Commitment to Hypertension Control During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Million Hearts Initiative Exemplars

Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, but 3 of 4 US adults do not have their blood pressure adequately controlled. Million Hearts (US Department of Health and Human Services) is a national initiative that promotes a set of priorities and interventions to optimize delivery of evidence-based strategies to manage cardiovascular disease, including hypertension. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has disrupted routine care and preventive service delivery. We identified examples of clinical and health organizations that adapted services and care processes to continue a focus on monitoring and controlling hypertension during the pandemic. Eight Hypertension Control Exemplars were identified and interviewed. They reported various adapted care strategies including telemedicine, engaging patients in self-measured blood pressure monitoring, adapting or implementing medication management services, activating partnerships to respond to patient needs or expand services, and implementing unique patient outreach approaches. Documenting these hypertension control strategies can help increase adoption of adaptive approaches during public health emergencies and routine care.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗