NASA has put people in unique and extreme environments for over six decades. Supporting these individuals with a comprehensive health-care system has evolved over this period. As the Apollo program ended and NASA began to contemplate a space shuttle and space station program, societal pressures in the late 1960s and early 1970s caused federal agencies such as NASA to reconsider how to link the needs of the space program with a growing pressure to address societal needs by forging interagency partnerships. The Space Technology Applied to the Rural Papago Health Care (STARPAHC) project provides an example of how NASA sought to balance these two imperatives in an age of diminishing federal support. This project can provide lessons for today’s uncertain budgetary future for agencies such as NASA, which are once again being asked to find creative and innovative ways to support their missions while demonstrating their larger value to society.

Nutritional therapy is a cornerstone of burns management. The optimal macronutrient intake for wound healing after burn injury has not been identified, although high-energy, high-protein diets are favoured. The present study aimed to identify the optimal macronutrient intake for burn wound healing. The geometric framework (GF) was used to analyse wound healing after a 10 % total body surface area contact burn in mice ad libitum fed one of the eleven high-energy diets, varying in macronutrient composition with protein (P5−60 %), carbohydrate (C20−75 %) and fat (F20−75 %). In the GF study, the optimal ratio for wound healing was identified as a moderate-protein, high-carbohydrate diet with a protein:carbohydrate:fat (P:C:F) ratio of 1:4:2. High carbohydrate intake was associated with lower mortality, improved body weight and a beneficial pattern of body fat reserves. Protein intake was essential to prevent weight loss and mortality, but a protein intake target of about 7 kJ/d (about 15 % of energy intake) was identified, above which no further benefit was gained. High protein intake was associated with delayed wound healing and increased liver and spleen weight. As the GF study demonstrated that an initial very high protein intake prevented mortality, a very high-protein, moderate-carbohydrate diet (P40:C42:F18) was specifically designed. The dynamic diet study was also designed to combine and validate the benefits of an initial very high protein intake for mortality, and subsequent moderate protein, high carbohydrate intake for optimal wound healing. The dynamic feeding experiment showed switching from an initial very high-protein diet to the optimal moderate-protein, high-carbohydrate diet accelerated wound healing whilst preventing mortality and liver enlargement.

Empirical studies are incompatible with the proposal that neonatal imitation is arousal driven or declining with age. Nonhuman primate studies reveal a functioning brain mirror system from birth, developmental continuity in imitation and later sociability, and the malleability of neonatal imitation, shaped by the early environment. A narrow focus on arousal effects and reflexes may grossly underestimate neonatal capacities.

A total of ten experimental diets with protein concentrations ranging from 154 to 400 g/kg and two lipid levels (46 and 85 g/kg) with identical energy densities were offered to 240 male Ross 308 broilers from 7 to 28 d post-hatch. Growth performance was monitored and nutrient utilisation (apparent metabolisable energy (AME), N-corrected AME (AMEn), AME daily intake, AME:gross energy ratios, N retention) was determined. The weight gain response of broiler chickens to dietary protein concentrations in diets containing high and low lipid levels was diverse, with the relevant quadratic regressions being significantly different (P<0·05). With low lipid levels, the predicted maximum weight gain of 1809 g/bird equated to 342 g/kg dietary protein, whereas, for high lipid levels the predicted maximum weight gain of 1694 g/bird equated to 281 g/kg dietary protein. AME was linearly correlated with dietary protein concentration but regressions in diets with different lipid content were not significantly different (P>0·05). AMEn was also linearly (P<0·0001) increased with dietary protein concentrations but regressions in diets with low and high lipid content were significantly different (P<0·03). Carcass protein content increased linearly with dietary protein content in diets containing high lipid concentrations (r 0·933, P<0·0001); by contrast, this relationship was quadratic (R2=0·93, P<0·0001) in diets with low lipid levels. In conclusion, predictably, the effects of dietary protein concentrations on broiler performance were profound; however, the impact of dietary protein on performance in broiler chickens was modified by dietary lipid concentrations.

The revised Dietary Guideline Index (DGI-2013) scores individuals’ diets according to their compliance with the Australian Dietary Guideline (ADG). This cross-sectional study assesses the diet quality of 794 community-dwelling men aged 74 years and older, living in Sydney, Australia participating in the Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project; it also examines sociodemographic and lifestyle factors associated with DGI-2013 scores; it studies associations between DGI-2103 scores and the following measures: homoeostasis model assessment – insulin resistance, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, TAG, blood pressure, waist:hip ratio, BMI, number of co-morbidities and medications and frailty status while also accounting for the effect of ethnicity in these relationships. Median DGI-2013 score was 93·7 (54·4, 121·2); most individuals failed to meet recommendations for vegetables, dairy products and alternatives, added sugar, unsaturated fat and SFA, fluid and discretionary foods. Lower education, income, physical activity levels and smoking were associated with low scores. After adjustments for confounders, high DGI-2013 scores were associated with lower HDL-cholesterol, lower waist:hip ratios and lower probability of being frail. Proxies of good health (fewer co-morbidities and medications) were not associated with better compliance to the ADG. However, in participants with a Mediterranean background, low DGI-2013 scores were not generally associated with poorer health. Older men demonstrated poor diet quality as assessed by the DGI-2013, and the association between dietary guidelines and health measures and indices may be influenced by ethnic background.

The right-angled triangle mixture experiment was designed to include fourteen diets with different concentrations of starch, protein and lipid. Experimental diets were offered to male Ross 308 broiler chickens from 10 to 23 d after hatching, and response curves and surfaces were generated to illustrate the influence of macronutrients on growth performance and nutrient utilisations. Despite the primary function of macronutrients, especially protein, may not be providing energy, macronutrients were expressed as energy derived from starch, protein and fat for statistical purposes in the mixture design. Energy derived from lipid had a greater impact on feed intake than energy derived from starch and protein. When we compared the influence of starch and protein on feed intake, ‘equal distance rule’ was observed, which means the animal consumes feed to the point on its respective nutritional rails where the shortage of starch exactly equals the surplus of consumed protein. Increasing the protein-derived energy intake increased weight gain in broiler chickens, whereas energy intake derived from starch and lipid had little impact on weight gain. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) may be reduced by either increasing protein energy intake or decreasing starch energy intake. As the slope of the contours was less than 1, the influence of starch energy intakes on FCR exceeded that of protein energy intakes. In conclusion, energy derived from protein is more important than non-protein energy in terms of weight gain, and a balance between protein and energy supplies is required for efficient muscle protein deposition.

Previous research shows that older men tend to have lower nutritional intakes and higher risk of under-nutrition compared with younger men. The objectives of this study were to describe energy and nutrient intakes, assess nutritional risk and investigate factors associated with poor intake of energy and key nutrients in community-dwelling men aged ≥75 years participating in the Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project – a longitudinal cohort study on older men in Sydney, Australia. A total of 794 men (mean age 81·4 years) had a detailed diet history interview, which was carried out by a dietitian. Dietary adequacy was assessed by comparing median intakes with nutrient reference values (NRV): estimated average requirement, adequate intake or upper level of intake. Attainment of NRV of total energy and key nutrients in older age (protein, Fe, Zn, riboflavin, Ca and vitamin D) was incorporated into a ‘key nutrients’ variable dichotomised as ‘good’ (≥5) or ‘poor’ (≤4). Using logistic regression modelling, we examined associations between key nutrients with factors known to affect food intake. Median energy intake was 8728 kJ (P5=5762 kJ, P95=12 303 kJ), and mean BMI was 27·7 (sd 4·0) kg/m2. Men met their NRV for most nutrients. However, only 1 % of men met their NRV for vitamin D, only 19 % for Ca, only 30 % for K and only 33 % for dietary fibre. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only country of birth was significantly associated with poor nutritional intake. Dietary intakes were adequate for most nutrients; however, only half of the participants met the NRV of ≥5 key nutrients.

Balancing of macronutrient intake has only recently been demonstrated in predators. In particular, the ability to regulate carbohydrate intake is little studied in obligate carnivores, as carbohydrate is present at very low concentrations in prey animal tissue. In the present study, we determined whether American mink (Neovison vison) would compensate for dietary nutritional imbalances by foraging for complementary macronutrients (protein, lipid and carbohydrate) when subsequently given a dietary choice. We used three food pairings, within which two macronutrients differed relative to each other (high v. low concentration), while the third was kept at a constant level. The mink were first restricted to a single nutritionally imbalanced food for 7 d and then given a free choice to feed from the same food or a nutritionally complementary food for three consecutive days. When restricted to nutritionally imbalanced foods, the mink were willing to overingest protein only to a certain level (‘ceiling’). When subsequently given a choice, the mink compensated for the period of nutritional imbalance by selecting the nutritionally complementary food in the food choice pairing. Notably, this rebalancing occurred for all the three macronutrients, including carbohydrate, which is particularly interesting as carbohydrate is not a major macronutrient for obligate carnivores in nature. However, there was also a ceiling to carbohydrate intake, as has been demonstrated previously in domestic cats. The results of the present study show that mink regulate their intake of all the three macronutrients within limits imposed by ceilings on protein and carbohydrate intake and that they will compensate for a period of nutritional imbalance by subsequently selecting nutritionally complementary foods.