OpenSpace: A System for Astrographics.

Human knowledge about the cosmos is rapidly increasing as instruments and simulations are generating new data supporting the formation of theory and understanding of the vastness and complexity of the universe. OpenSpace is a software system that takes on the mission of providing an integrated view of all these sources of data and supports interactive exploration of the known universe from the millimeter scale showing instruments on spacecrafts to billions of light years when visualizing the early universe. The ambition is to support research in astronomy and space exploration, science communication at museums and in planetariums as well as bringing exploratory astrographics to the class room. There is a multitude of challenges that need to be met in reaching this goal such as the data variety, multiple spatio-temporal scales, collaboration capabilities, etc. Furthermore, the system has to be flexible and modular to enable rapid prototyping and inclusion of new research results or space mission data and thereby shorten the time from discovery to dissemination. To support the different use cases the system has to be hardware agnostic and support a range of platforms and interaction paradigms. In this paper we describe how OpenSpace meets these challenges in an open source effort that is paving the path for the next generation of interactive astrographics.

OpenSpace: Changing the Narrative of Public Dissemination in Astronomical Visualization from What to How.

We present the development of an open-source software called OpenSpace that bridges the gap between scientific discoveries and public dissemination and thus paves the way for the next generation of science communication and data exploration. We describe how the platform enables interactive presentations of dynamic and time-varying processes by domain experts to the general public. The concepts are demonstrated through four cases: Image acquisitions of the New Horizons and Rosetta spacecraft, the dissemination of space weather phenomena, and the display of high-resolution planetary images. Each case has been presented at public events with great success. These cases highlight the details of data acquisition, rather than presenting the final results, showing the audience the value of supporting the efforts of the scientific discovery.

Globe Browsing: Contextualized Spatio-Temporal Planetary Surface Visualization.

Results of planetary mapping are often shared openly for use in scientific research and mission planning. In its raw format, however, the data is not accessible to non-experts due to the difficulty in grasping the context and the intricate acquisition process. We present work on tailoring and integration of multiple data processing and visualization methods to interactively contextualize geospatial surface data of celestial bodies for use in science communication. As our approach handles dynamic data sources, streamed from online repositories, we are significantly shortening the time between discovery and dissemination of data and results. We describe the image acquisition pipeline, the pre-processing steps to derive a 2.5D terrain, and a chunked level-of-detail, out-of-core rendering approach to enable interactive exploration of global maps and high-resolution digital terrain models. The results are demonstrated for three different celestial bodies. The first case addresses high-resolution map data on the surface of Mars. A second case is showing dynamic processes, such as concurrent weather conditions on Earth that require temporal datasets. As a final example we use data from the New Horizons spacecraft which acquired images during a single flyby of Pluto. We visualize the acquisition process as well as the resulting surface data. Our work has been implemented in the OpenSpace software [8], which enables interactive presentations in a range of environments such as immersive dome theaters, interactive touch tables, and virtual reality headsets.

Learning and sleep-dependent consolidation of spatial and procedural memories are unaltered in young men under a fixed short sleep schedule.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate if a fixed short sleep schedule impairs one of the main functions of sleep, which is to consolidate newly learned memories. METHODS: Sixteen young men participated in two experimental conditions, each of which lasted for 3 consecutive days and nights in our laboratory: a short sleep schedule (4.25-h sleep opportunity per night) versus a normal sleep schedule (8.5h per night). In the evening after two experimental nights, participants learned locations of 15 card pairs (spatial memory task) and a procedural finger tapping sequence task. Post-sleep retrieval of both memory tasks was tested the next morning. RESULTS: The short sleep schedule, compared with the normal sleep schedule, considerably altered sleep characteristics, e.g. the proportion of time in slow-wave sleep increased across the three experimental nights. In contrast, neither learning in the evening of day 2, nor subsequent overnight memory consolidation (i.e. concerning the change in memory performance between pre-sleep learning on day 2 and post-sleep retrieval on day 3) differed between the normal and short sleep schedule conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that learning in the evening and subsequent sleep-dependent consolidation of procedural and spatial memories are unaltered in young men living under a fixed short sleep schedule. Future studies are warranted to validate our findings in other groups (e.g. adolescents and older subjects) and after more prolonged chronic sleep loss paradigms.

A single night of partial sleep loss impairs fasting insulin sensitivity but does not affect cephalic phase insulin release in young men.

The present study sought to investigate whether a single night of partial sleep deprivation (PSD) would alter fasting insulin sensitivity and cephalic phase insulin release (CPIR) in humans. A rise in circulating insulin in response to food-related sensory stimulation may prepare tissues to break down ingested glucose, e.g. by stimulating rate-limiting glycolytic enzymes. In addition, given insulin's anorexigenic properties once it reaches the brain, the CPIR may serve as an early peripheral satiety signal. Against this background, in the present study 16 men participated in two separate sessions: one night of PSD (4.25 h sleep) versus one night of full sleep (8.5 h sleep). In the morning following each sleep condition, subjects' oral cavities were rinsed with a 1-molar sucrose solution for 45 s, preceded and followed by blood sampling for repeated determination of plasma glucose and serum insulin concentrations (-3, +3, +5, +7, +10 and +20 min). Our main result was that PSD, compared with full sleep, was associated with significantly higher peripheral insulin resistance, as indicated by a higher fasting homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index (+16%, P = 0.025). In contrast, no CPIR was observed in any of the two sleep conditions. Our findings indicate that a single night of PSD is already sufficient to impair fasting insulin sensitivity in healthy men. In contrast, brief oral cavity rinsing with sucrose solution did not change serum insulin concentrations, suggesting that a blunted CPIR is an unlikely mechanism through which acute sleep loss causes metabolic perturbations during morning hours in humans.

Short Sleep Makes Declarative Memories Vulnerable to Stress in Humans.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: This study sought to investigate the role of nocturnal sleep duration for the retrieval of oversleep consolidated memories, both prior to and after being cognitively stressed for ∼30 minutes the next morning. DESIGN: Participants learned object locations (declarative memory task comprising 15 card pairs) and a finger tapping sequence (procedural memory task comprising 5 digits) in the evening. After learning, participants either had a sleep opportunity of 8 hours (between ∼23:00 and ∼07:00, full sleep condition) or they could sleep between ∼03:00 and ∼07:00 (short sleep condition). Retrieval of both memory tasks was tested in the morning after each sleep condition, both before (∼08:30) and after being stressed (∼09:50). SETTING: Sleep laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: 15 healthy young men. RESULTS: The analyses demonstrated that oversleep memory changes did not differ between sleep conditions. However, in their short sleep condition, following stress hallmarked by increased subjective stress feelings, the men were unable to maintain their pre-stress performance on the declarative memory task, whereas their performance on the procedural memory task remained unchanged. While men felt comparably subjectively stressed by the stress intervention, overall no differences between pre- and post-stress recalls were observed following a full night of sleep. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that 8-h sleep duration, within the range recommended by the US National Sleep Foundation, may not only help consolidate newly learned procedural and declarative memories, but also ensure full access to both during periods of subjective stress.