The HRF contains 4,100 square feet of floor space divided into subject living, testing, food preparation, and administrative areas. Access to the HRF is controlled to ensure investigators and subjects complete privacy during studies. The HRF living area consists of an open recreation/dining area, four bedrooms, and three bathrooms with showers. A special horizontal shower is available for subjects who must remain supine. Two of the bedrooms are sound-proofed and have adjoining bathrooms, making them ideal for isolation or group-interaction studies. A dumbwaiter is used to transport biological specimens to the Central Clinical Laboratory (CCL) for processing. Subjects are monitored from a central nurses' station and connections are provided for researchers who bring in their own instrumentation.
There is also direct telephone communication with each subject from the nurses' station. Each subject has a color television and a stereo at their bedside. Headphones permit individual selection of FM radio, network TV, and VCR tapes. Games, books, daily newspapers, and magazines are also provided. Ambulatory subjects dine and relax in a central lounge/recreation/dining area. A dietitian plans the menu and meals are prepared onsite in a fully-equipped kitchen. The unit is ideally suited for nutritional and metabolic balance studies.
A lower-body negative pressure device (LBNP), upright and supine bicycle ergometers, upright treadmill, isokinetic exercise devices, and a tilt table for orthostatic tolerance testing are available for use in the physiological testing area. A dosimeter for bone scans and body composition is located at ARC a short distance from the facility. Investigators can also bring their own equipment. Additional ARC facilities that can be used in conjunction with the HRF include a water-immersion tank, the 20-G Centrifuge, the Human Powered Centrifuge (HPC), and the 30-Foot Linear Sled.
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