SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT
Revised September 23, 2002

SPONSORS
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Universities Space Research Association

CHAIRS
Claire M. Lathers, Rockville, MD
Claes E. Lundgren, Buffalo, NY
Charles F. Sawin, Houston, TX

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
John B. Charles, USA
Helmut Hinghofer-Szalkay, Austria
Inessa Kozlovskaya, Russia
Claire M. Lathers, USA
Adrian D. LeBlanc, USA
Claes E. Lundgren, USA
Tadaaki Mano, Japan
Peter Norsk, Denmark
David R. Pendergast, USA
Charles F. Sawin, USA

INVITATION
We are pleased to invite you to participate in THE 5TH INTERNATIONAL HEAD-OUT WATER IMMERSION SYMPOSIUM, which will be held in Houston, Texas, October 8–9, 2002.   It precedes THE WORLD SPACE CONGRESS which is being held in Houston October 10–19, 2002.

The 5th International Head-Out Water Immersion Symposium, held for the first time in the United States, will build upon its predecessors in Graz in 1999, in Copenhagen in 1995, in Berlin in 1992, and in Bristol in 1989. The Symposium will serve as a vehicle for the discussion of the effects of head-out water immersion on physiologic systems, as a therapeutic agent, and as a ground-based model for space flight. Additional models, such as head-down tilt, horizontal bed rest, and limb suspension, which mimic the effects of microgravity will also be discussed during the Symposium.

OBJECTIVES
The Symposium presentations and discussions are intended to:

• Compare the strengths and weaknesses of ground-based models for space flight, including head-out water immersion, horizontal bed rest, 5-degree head down tilt, and parabolic flight.
  
  • Demonstrate the changes in protein metabolism with bed rest and space flight.
  • Introduce potential physiological and pharmacological countermeasures for the consequences of space flight.
  • Discuss possible countermeasures and their efficacy in the bed rest model.
  • Discuss lower body negative pressure as a tool to evaluate orthostatic function and a potential countermeasure for orthostatic hypotension.
• Present new material on the quantitative effect of stimuli either increasing or reducing central blood volume (head-out water immersion / lower body positive pressure / head-down tilt; head-up tilt/ lower body negative pressure/ hyper-gravity).


• Discuss what intensities of such stimuli when combined compensate each other.
  
• Find out if different subsystems respond in different ways (i.e., if such a thing like a 'generally neutralizing combination' exists or not).
• Test the hypothesis that initial exposure to microgravity may lower muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) while prolonged exposure to microgravity may enhance MSNA by analyzing how the neural control of blood pressure becomes altered by short- and long-term simulation of microgravity.

VENUE
The Symposium will be held at the Center for Advanced Space Studies at 3600 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77058. The building is located near the NASA Johnson Space Center some 20 miles south of Downtown Houston.

ORAL AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Oral presentations will be organized according to the topics listed below and will be limited to ten minutes with an additional five minutes for questions. Support for oral presentations includes dual-screen rear projection of slides and overheads. An LCD projector with 800 x 600 resolution and a Toshiba satellite laptop (128 MB of RAM, CD-ROM drive, 100 MB Zip drive, running Windows 98 and Microsoft Office 2000) will be available.

Poster presentations should also be organized according to the topics listed below, and will be made during the evening of Tuesday, October 8, 2002. Poster display space available for authors is 44" x 44". Requests for tables, computers, video equipment, etc., cannot be honored due to space limitations. Posters may be put up beginning at 8:00 a.m. on October 8, 2002 and remain up through 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 9, 2002.

PROGRAM TOPICS

SYMPOSIUM PUBLICATIONS
Symposium abstracts and preliminary program will be placed online in PDF format. The Symposium proceedings will be produced on CD-ROM.

REGISTRATION
Pre-registration is required for this meeting. Please check here for the registration form. Due to the space available for the Symposium, registration is limited to 100 people. The $250.00 registration fee includes admission to all scientific sessions, morning and afternoon breaks, two lunches, a gala banquet, a welcoming reception and poster session, transportation from the Symposium hotel to the Symposium, and the Symposium proceedings on CD-ROM.

Please address correspondence to:
info@dsls.usra.edu

SYMPOSIUM HOTEL
The Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake, 3000 NASA Road One, Houston, Texas 77058 has been designated as the official Symposium hotel. We have secured a block of rooms at the special rate of $73.00* (plus applicable state and local tax) per night. This rate is available from Sunday, October 6, 2002 through Tuesday, October 8, 2002. Please identify yourself as a HOWI Symposium participant when you call the hotel directly at 800-445-8667 or 281-333-9300; the fax number is 281-333-9748. The deadline for reservations at the special Symposium rate is September 6, 2002. Individuals will be asked to guarantee all reservations; a guest will be responsible for payment of one night's room rental if the reservation is not cancelled 72 hours prior to scheduled arrival.

*The special rate is tied to the current U.S. government per diem rate and could fluctuate accordingly.

SCHEDULE