The International Space Station is a closed and complex environment, so some contamination of its internal atmosphere and water system is expected. To protect space crews from contaminants in potable and hygiene water, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) requested that the National Research Council (NRC) provide guidance on how to develop water exposure guidelines and review NASA's development of the exposure guidelines for specific chemicals. NASA selects water contaminants for which spacecraft water exposure guidelines (SWEGs) will be established; this involves identifying toxicity effects relevant to astronauts and calculating exposure concentrations on the basis of those end points. SWEGs are established for exposures of 1, 10, 100, and 1,000 days. This report is the second volume in the series, Spacecraft Water Exposure Guidelines for Selected Chemicals. SWEG reports for acetone, alkylamines, ammonia, barium, cadmium, caprolactam, formate, formaldehyde, manganese, total organic carbon, and zinc are included in this report. The committee concludes that the SWEGs developed for these chemicals are scientifically valid based on the data reviewed by NASA and are consistent with the NRC (2000) report, Methods for Developing Spacecraft Water Exposure Guidelines. SWEG reports for additional chemicals will be presented in a subsequent volume.

Methods in Extra Cellular Matrix, Volume 142, a new volume in the Methods in Cell Biology series, continues the legacy of this premier serial with quality chapters authored by leaders in the field. Unique to this updated volume are sections devoted to Elastin, Quantification of collagen and elastin, Fibrillins, Lysyl oxidase, Fibulins, Matrilins, Hyaluronic Acid, Small leucine-rich proteoglycans, Syndecans, Fibronectin, SPARC, Thrombospondins, Tenascins, Collagen IV, Multi-photon analysis of ECM, Cell-derived extracellular matrices, Laminins, Fibrillar Collagens, Imaging ECM in developing embryos, Analysis of Matrix Degradation, Ultrastructural analysis of ECM, Versican and Large proteoglycans, and an ECM crosslink analysis. This series covers a wide array of topics about the extracellular matrix, including an understanding of crucial proteins and glycoproteins components of ECM.

Investigators have long recognized the importance of certain elements, commonly called "minerals," in the diet of humans and animals and in the soil that supports plants, in that these elements are essential for the life or optimum health of the organisms. Deficiencies of 20 to 24 elements in animals and man and of 13 to 18 elements in plants have been recognized. At the same time, an understanding of the responses of these organisms to the insult of toxic concentrations of these and other elements also has been of interest. More recently, concern has arisen regarding the effects of an organism's exposure to the more subtle chronic and subchronic concentrations of certain elements that industrial and other human activities are releasing into the environment.