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The ICE Cubes Facility is a capable experiment platform on board the Columbus Module of the International Space Station that offers flexibility to host many different experiments. The ICE Cubes Facility is suited for any scientific research and technological demonstrator that requires the study of the effects of microgravity and radiation exposure in a pressurised volume. The ICE Cube Service is also open to different schooling levels (primary, secondary, universities) and to different STEAM curricula and offers University students (Master and PhD) the opportunity to design, develop, test and operate a real experiment for the ISS under the supervision of experts from the ICE Cube Service.The Artery In Microgravity (AIM) project is a 2U ICE Cubes experiment cube and the first experiment to be selected for the Orbit Your Thesis! programme of ESA Academy. The cube is expected to be launched on SpaceX-20 in early 2020. The project is being developed by an international group of students from ISAE-Supaero and Politecnico di Torino. The experiment will investigate coronary heart disease, the most common form of cardiovascular disease and the cause of approximately 9 million deaths every year. In view of the very long duration missions to come, such diseases may also affect healthy astronauts in space. The AIM cube is a test-bench for investigating haemodynamics in microgravity and will study the effects of microgravity on blood flow in the coronary artery with and without an implanted coronary stent and the impact of augmented radiation levels on metallic ion release from coronary stents.The experimental setup consists of a closed hydraulic loop containing two models of a coronary artery in series. An electric pump and reservoir will control the flow of a blood-mimicking fluid through the system. One model of the coronary artery will contain a coronary stent. The pressure of the fluid will be studied along its path using a series of pressure sensors and a camera will visualise the flow. Ground tests will be conducted concurrently in order to perform a comparison between the on-ground behaviour and the behaviour in microgravity.The paper will showcase the design and development of the AIM experiment cube, the results of testing and the educational applications of theICE Cubes Facility.

Two-phase flow applications are of great interest in the space sector thanks to its advantages, in the recent years, the research on this subject has increased considerably. Some examples can be found in space bioreactors, chemical contactors, life-support systems for human exploration and development of space, etc. Despite the great effort on understanding the behaviour of two-phase flows in microgravity, there are still many unknowns, therefore, further research is needed. In this study, we have dedicated our work to analyse the bubble generation of the water-air combination in a T-junction capillary. The simulations have been performed in a microgravity environment due to the very different behavior when compared to the one observed in the presence of gravitational forces, as well as, despite there is a lot of research in this field, there is still much more to be done. The open source program OpenFoam is used as the main tool for our simulations and Paraview as a post-processing tool. The InterFoam solver is selected to use in order to simulate laminar flow with two incompressible and isothermal phases. The study of numerical simulations has been carried out to compare it with experimental data and therefore, validate the software for this use. Before obtaining the results, convergence tests on the mesh have been performed, in addition to a study to detach the bubbles from the walls, focusing on the contact angle and wettability condition. We validated our mesh and selected the best boundary conditions to perform the finals tests. In the results, we carried out the simulations for three groups of combinations of velocities with U_SL=0.106 m/s, U_SL=0.318 m/s, and U_SL=0.531 m/s and different gas superficial velocity to analyse the behaviour of the bubble frequency, volume, velocity, and longitude. We obtained that simulations and experiments are really similarly qualitatively, with some differences quantitatively. Besides, they adequately reproduced the bubbles formation. By analysing all the parameters, we observe that for lower liquid superficial velocities the simulations approach perfectly to the experiments while increasing its velocity the simulations start having more fluctuations and move away from the experimental data.

Casual creators are creativity support tools intended to be fun and easy to use for exploratory creation. We have built casual creators called fluidic games, which support exploratory game design on mobile devices without programming. These work by encoding games in a parameterised design space and enabling player/designers to create new games by varying the parameters in a design interface and seeing changes in their design instantly. A question largely unanswered by existing work is how to choose a suitable parameter space. We describe a methodology for specifying and implementing parameterised design spaces for casual creators, a context that requires balancing a large and expressive space against a manageable and fun user interface. This methodology was derived through investigating and generalising how the parameter spaces for three fluidic games were conceived. It suggests an iterative process whereby parameters are sourced in seven different ways, within a dynamic of incremental expansion and contraction of the parameter spaces.

Background: Ghana has developed two main community-based strategies that aim to increase access to quality treatment for malaria, diarrhoea and suspected pneumonia, and to improve household and family practices: Home-based Care (HBC) and Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS). After two and eight years of HBC implementation in the Volta and the Northern Regions respectively, and more than 10 years of CHPS implementation in both regions, there was the need to assess the performance of these strategies in delivering care and preventive messages for children under-five with fever, diarrhoea or cough. Objectives: To assess (i) the curative component in terms of utilization, appropriate treatment given and client satisfaction; (ii) the preventive component in terms of carers’ disease knowledge and health behaviour and (iii) to determine the cost per case appropriately diagnosed and treated under the HBC and CHPS. Methods: A household survey was conducted in the Volta and Northern Regions. The study population were carers of children under- five who had a fever, diarrhoea and/or cough in the last 2 weeks previous to the survey. In addition, a cost analysis was conducted. Results: HBC utilization was 17.3% and 1.0% in the Volta and Northern Regions respectively, while CHPS utilization was 11.8% and 31.3%, respectively. HBC in the Volta Region was successful in reaching the poorest, contributing to health equity. Less than 50% of malaria, diarrhoea and suspected pneumonia cases received appropriate treatment in both regions and under both strategies. Health education messages from community-based agents (CBAs) in the Northern Region were associated with the identification of at least two signs of severe malaria (adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) 1.8, 95%CI 1.0, 3.3, p=0.04), two practices that can cause diarrhoea (adjusted OR 4.7, 95%CI 1.4, 15.5, p=0.02) and two signs of severe pneumonia (adjusted OR 7.7, 95%CI2.2, 26.5, p=0.01)-the later also associated with prompt treatment (p

Fluidic games blur the line between gameplay and game design, providing playful, non-technical, easy-to-use tools for users to design their own games. We introduce Wevva, our first fluidic game for iOS, which allows users to design and share their own games based on novel mechanics, entirely on a mobile device, with no need for programming skills. The development of such software is a significant challenge in user interface design, requiring a new design approach compared to the design of more traditional creative tools, and with much scope for mixed-initiative co-creation and other assistive AI technologies. Our aim with fluidic games is to democratise game design, allowing anyone and everyone to express themselves through the artform of digital games.

Additional file 2. Effect and cost for diarrhoea diagnosis and treatment under HBC and CHPS strategy in the Volta and the Northern Regions.

Additional file 4. Places and reasons for seeking care elsewhere after visiting CBA or a CHPS by region.

Mi trabajo tiene por objeto mostrar cuales han sido las repercusiones económicas y culturales que han producido las comunicaciones transfronterizas en el Pirineo Aragonés. Así mismo, indicaré el origen y la evolución de nuestros pasos fronterizos en la vertiente española, siendo éstos, el Ferrocarril de Canfranc (pasado), el Túnel de Somport (presente), el Túnel de Bielsa (presente) y la Travesía Central Europea (futuro).

We introduce fluidic games, a type of casual creator that blends game play and game design. Fluidic games have a core of built-in games that anchor a space of de- sign possibilities around them, and encourage players to alternate between playing specific games and play- ing with the design space. Our Gamika Technology platform supports fluidic games on mobile devices, and we have thus far built three of them. In doing so, we have found that even for simple games, fluidic games require computational creativity support. This takes several forms intended to keep design sessions play- ful and fast-moving, including automated game design used as a form of brainstorming, mixed-initiative co- creative design to ease design-space navigation, and au- tomated game playing to evaluate game dynamics. Fi- nally, we have exhibited this fluidic-games concept in three distinct cultural settings: a series of rapid game jams lasting 1–2 hours each, an in-progress semester- long enrichment course with a local school, and an art installation that foregrounds an autonomous version of the system exploring a fluidic game on its own, at least if the audience will allow it to do so.