For the narrator of Motion Sickness life is an unguided tour, populated with hotels and strangers, art, books, and films. Adrift in Europe, her life becomes a carousel of unusual encounters, where coincidences and luck shape la vita nuova. In London our narrator is befriended by an expatriate American Buddhist and her mysterious husband. In Paris she meets Arlette, an art historian obsessed with Velazquez's painting 'Las Meninas'. In Barcelona she meets two generations of Germans. She tours the hill towns of Italy in a London taxi with two surprising Englishmen in pursuit of art and Henry Moore. She buys postcards to send, but often tears them up, not sure of what the pictures mean. At once dreamlike and tough, hilarious and melancholic, Motion Sickness is a contemporary picaresque in which a young woman drifts and reinvents herself with every new encounter.

This book offers a survey of the state of the art in the field of motion sickness. It begins by describing the historical background and the current definition of motion sickness, then discusses the prevalence among individuals, along with the physiological and psychological concomitants of the disorder. It reviews the incidence of motion sickness in numerous provocative motion environments and discusses various personal factors that appear to influence this aspect. Various characteristics of provocative motion stimuli are also described, together with the results of studies conducted in the laboratory, on motion simulators and at sea. Laboratory tests that could potentially be used to assess an individual’s susceptibility to motion sickness and his or her ability to adapt to motion environments are presented in detail, together with the ways in which individuals might be trained to prevent motion sickness or more effectively cope with motion environments. In closing, the book reports on the cognitive-behavioral approach developed by the author (Dobie, 1963) as well as the various desensitization programs employed in military settings, and discusses the relative effectiveness of these methods in comparison to cognitive-behavioral counseling.

This compendium, written by active researchers in the field, encompasses topics ranging from anatomical and physiological subjects, through analyses of stimulus characteristics, prediction of sickness, and consideration of human factors, to pharmacological and behavioral therapeutic measures for terrestrial as well as microgravity travelers. Material often found scattered in diverse journals, paper-bound proceedings of symposia, difficult-to-find laboratory reports, or included with other topics in collections having a diffuse focus, are presented here in one volume dedicated to a single theme. The critical up-to-date- reviews are a first source for researchers and research program managers as well as an essential information source for engineers and practitioners.

Over the years, a large body of knowledge has developed regarding the ways in which space flight affects the health of the personnel involved. Now, for the first time, this clinical knowledge on how to diagnose and treat conditions that either develop during a mission or because of a mission has been compiled by Drs. Michael Barratt and Sam L. Pool of the NASA/Johnson Space Center. Complete with detailed information on the physiological and psychological affects of space flight as well as how to diagnose and treat everything from dental concerns to decompression to dermatological problems encountered, this text is a must have for all those associated with aerospace medicine.

Despite widespread interest in virtual reality, research and development efforts in synthetic environments (SE)â€"the field encompassing virtual environments, teleoperation, and hybridsâ€"have remained fragmented. Virtual Reality is the first integrated treatment of the topic, presenting current knowledge along with thought-provoking vignettes about a future where SE is commonplace. This volume discusses all aspects of creating a system that will allow human operators to see, hear, smell, taste, move about, give commands, respond to conditions, and manipulate objects effectively in a real or virtual environment. The committee of computer scientists, engineers, and psychologists on the leading edge of SE development explores the potential applications of SE in the areas of manufacturing, medicine, education, training, scientific visualization, and teleoperation in hazardous environments. The committee also offers recommendations for development of improved SE technology, needed studies of human behavior and evaluation of SE systems, and government policy and infrastructure.