China Maritime Report No. 25: More Chinese Ferry Tales: China\u27s Use of Civilian Shipping in Military Activities, 2021-2022

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of Chinese civilian shipping support to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), examining civil maritime-military activities from October 2021 through September 2022. As of 2022, the PLA and its reserve civilian merchant fleet are still probably unable to provide significant amphibious landing capabilities or the maritime logistics in austere or challenging environments necessary to support a major cross-strait invasion of Taiwan. However, large volume lift exercises conducted in 2022 suggest that the PLA has made significant progress in the use of civilian vessels for the large-scale lift of PLA troops and equipment into undefended ports, a capability that may be leveraged in a military assault on Taiwan. This report also discusses other civil maritime-military activities not previously observed, including the use of civilian vessels and infrastructure to conceal PLA troop movements, operations from austere ports, use of ocean-going vessels to transport PLA forces along inland waterways, and logistics support for China’s South China Sea outposts.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-maritime-reports/1024/thumbnail.jp

China Maritime Report No. 35: Beyond Chinese Ferry Tales: The Rise of Deck Cargo Ships in China\u27s Military Activities, 2023

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of Chinese civilian shipping support to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), examining civil maritime-military activities in 2023. As of 2023 and probably through at least 2030, the PLA’s reserve fleet of civilian ships is probably unable to provide the amphibious landing capabilities or the over-the-shore logistics in austere or challenging environments necessary to support a major cross-strait invasion of Taiwan. However, 2023 activity has demonstrated significant progress toward that end. In addition to the extensive use of civilian ferries, this report identifies the first use of large deck cargo ships to support PLA exercises. While not as capable as large, ocean-going ferries, China’s civil fleet boasts dozens of large deck cargo ships and may provide the PLA with the lift capacity necessary to eventually support a large crossstrait operation. This report also discusses other civil maritime-military activities including “surge lift events,” coordination and synchronization of multi-theater events, floating causeway developments, and the dedicated use of civilian ships for intra-theater military logistics.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-maritime-reports/1034/thumbnail.jp

China Maritime Report No. 28: Bitterness Ends, Sweetness Begins: Organizational Changes to the PLAN Submarine Force Since 2015

“Above-the-neck” reforms in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that began in 2015 directed the development of a new joint operational command system that resulted in commensurate changes to PLA Navy submarine force command and control. Additional changes to tactical submarine command and control were driven by the evolution and expansion of PLA Navy surface and airborne capabilities and the introduction of new longer-range submarine weapons. Follow-on “below-theneck” reforms inspired significant organizational change across most of China’s military services. However, the PLA Navy submarine force, for its part, did not reorganize its command structure but instead focused on significant improvements to the composition and quality of its force. Between 2017 and 2023, the PLA Navy submarine force engaged in a notable transformation, shuffling personnel and crews among twenty-six submarines—eleven newly commissioned and fifteen since retired—relocating in-service submarines to ensure an equitable distribution of newer, more capable submarines across the fleet. Observations of infrastructure improvements at PLA Navy submarine bases portend even more changes to submarine force structure in the coming years.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-maritime-reports/1027/thumbnail.jp

Laser soot-Mie scattering in a reacting vortex ring

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76846/1/AIAA-2001-786-760.pd

Extended versus standard lymph node dissection for urothelial carcinoma of the bladder in patients undergoing radical cystectomy

We acknowledge the support received from the author of the in-cluded study, Jürgen E. Gschwend who provided information onthe method of blinding. We are very grateful to Annemarie Uhlig, Guillaume Ploussard,Wassim Kassouf, Caroline Raw and Martin Burton for havingserved as peer reviewers. We thank Cochrane Urology, ManagingEditor Robert Lane and Cochrane Fast-Track Service, ManagingEditor Helen Wakeford, for the support we received.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Astrometry and Photometry for ≈\approx1000 L, T, and Y Dwarfs from the UKIRT Hemisphere Survey

We present positions, proper motions, and near-infrared photometry for 966 known objects with spectral types later than M observed as part of the the UKIRT Hemisphere Survey (UHS). We augment the photometry and astrometry from UHS with information from Gaia DR3, Pan-STARRS DR2, and CatWISE 2020 to produce a database of homogeneous photometry and astrometry for this sample. The multi-epoch survey strategy of UHS allows us to determine proper motions for most sources, with a median proper motion uncertainty of $\sim$3.6 mas yr$^{-1}$. Our UHS proper motion measurements are generally in good agreement with those from Gaia DR3, Pan-STARRS, and CatWISE 2020, with UHS proper motions typically more precise than those from CatWISE 2020 and Pan-STARRS but not Gaia DR3. We critically analyze publicly available spectra for 406 members of this sample and provide updated near-infrared spectral types for $\sim$100 objects. We determine typical colors as a function of spectral type and provide absolute magnitude vs. spectral type relations for UHS $J$- and $K$-band photometry. Using newly determined proper motions, we highlight several objects of interest, such as objects with large tangential velocities, widely separated co-moving companions, and potential members of young nearby associations.Comment: Accepted to A

IRISS (Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Societies) FP7 European Research Project, Deliverable 3.2: Surveillance Impact Report

External research report produced for the European Commission as part of the FP7 IRISS project: Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Socieities, containing European case studies on the varying formats of neighbourhood watch, including the cultural and historical factors which may influence the creation of neighbourhood watch groups in the first instance. Overview of neighbourhood watch in the United Kingdom and analysis of the changing role of the police in relation to community policing and the impact which this has had on the primary purpose of neighbourhood watch organisations.This deliverable was written as part of the IRISS project which received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under Grant Agreement No. 285593. Additional co-authors: Alessia Ceresa, Chiara Fonio, Walter Peissl, Robert Rothman, Jaro Sterbik Lamina, Ivan Szekely, Beatrix Vissy, Wolfgang Bonß, Daniel Fischer, Gemma Galdon Clavell, Reinhard Kreissl, Alexander Neumann, Nils Zurawsk

Preliminary Trigonometric Parallaxes of 184 Late-T and Y Dwarfs and an Analysis of the Field Substellar Mass Function into the "Planetary" Mass Regime

We present preliminary trigonometric parallaxes of 184 late-T and Y dwarfs using observations from Spitzer (143), USNO (18), NTT (14), and UKIRT (9). To complete the 20-pc census of $\ge$T6 dwarfs, we combine these measurements with previously published trigonometric parallaxes for an additional 44 objects and spectrophotometric distance estimates for another 7. For these 235 objects, we estimate temperatures, sift into five 150K-wide $T_{\rm eff}$ bins covering the range 300-1050K, determine the completeness limit for each, and compute space densities. To anchor the high-mass end of the brown dwarf mass spectrum, we compile a list of early- to mid-L dwarfs within 20 pc. We run simulations using various functional forms of the mass function passed through two different sets of evolutionary code to compute predicted distributions in $T_{\rm eff}$. The best fit of these predictions to our L, T, and Y observations is a simple power-law model with $\alpha \approx 0.6$ (where $dN/dM \propto M^{-\alpha}$), meaning that the slope of the field substellar mass function is in rough agreement with that found for brown dwarfs in nearby star forming regions and young clusters. Furthermore, we find that published versions of the log-normal form do not predict the steady rise seen in the space densities from 1050K to 350K. We also find that the low-mass cutoff to formation, if one exists, is lower than $\sim$5 $M_{Jup}$, which corroborates findings in young, nearby moving groups and implies that extremely low-mass objects have been forming over the lifetime of the Milky Way.Comment: 86 pages with 19 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series on 2018 Dec 0

Overview of the massive young star-forming complex study in infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) project

The Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) seeks to characterize 20 OB-dominated young clusters and their environs at distances d ≤ 4 kpc using imaging detectors on the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, and the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope. The observational goals are to construct catalogs of star-forming complex stellar members with well-defined criteria and maps of nebular gas (particularly of hot X-ray-emitting plasma) and dust. A catalog of MYStIX Probable Complex Members with several hundred OB stars and 31,784 low-mass pre-main sequence stars is assembled. This sample and related data products will be used to seek new empirical constraints on theoretical models of cluster formation and dynamics, mass segregation, OB star formation, star formation triggering on the periphery of H II regions, and the survivability of protoplanetary disks in H II regions. This paper gives an introduction and overview of the project, covering the data analysis methodology and application to two star-forming regions: NGC 2264 and the Trifid Nebula