The Status and Needs of Small Businesses Owned and Controlled by Disabled Veterans

This introduction provides a thumbnail sketch, or landscape, of the history and conditions of veterans’ benefits against which to profile the issue of veterans’ small business opportunities. After years of applied research on issues pertaining to the veteran community, it has become abundantly clear to this researcher that the good people who serve in our federal and state agencies, and as staff persons in various congressional and state legislative offices often lack the data and/or information they need to fully and meaningfully address the needs of veterans and their families. This situation is no doubt a result of demographic facts. With the decline in the veterans’ population, ever fewer members of Congress and state legislatures have any military experience. One of the over-arching themes this researcher has come across again and again is that most non-veterans hold the mistaken notion that the Department of Veterans Affairs provides virtually every possible service to the nation’s veterans. It is hopedthat this introduction and the findings that follow will provide a more accurate picture of the difficult conditions veterans have been confronted with as they have sought to pursue small business endeavors

American Warfare in the Twenty-First Century

Over the last several years there have been a number of calls for the development of a new theoretical doctrine to govern the force structure of the United States military. The last big change in doctrine occurred in the post-Vietnam era. It involved not simply the change to the all-volunteer force, but an abandonment of escalation brinkmanship and open-ended missions. The subsequent Powell Doctrine demanded the use of overwhelming force and clear objectives and boundaries for military intervention. As the new millennium approached, the deficiencies of the Powell Doctrine became apparent — the multilateral approach of coalition building and the logistic assembly of forces and equipment was too cumbersome to respond to the new threats from non-state entities. This led to the development of the concept of Force Transformation as embraced by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Yet the modernization plans envisioned by him are meeting significant resistance within the military because of September 11, Afghanistan, and Iraq — in short, such dramatic change is too risky given these immediate challenges and the entrenched interests of the military bureaucracy. This paper outlines a number of changes in the overarching social conditions and the various technological advances in weapons development. Next, the paper discusses the resistance to change in the military that was demonstrated in the first Gulf War and the problem of the overextension of the Guards and Reserves. Finally, the paper examines a few scenarios of reorganization and three possible paths that the military can pursue

From a Troubled Past to an Uncertain Future: Vietnam Veterans, A Community at Risk: Five-Year Follow-Up Report on the Status of Vietnam Veterans in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

This report on the concerns of Vietnam and Vietnam-Era veterans in Massachusetts comes at a critical moment. When the inquiry was initiated in 1988, few people anticipated the precipitous decline in the state and national economy, fewer could have foreseen the rapid sequence of events leading to American entry into another war. As the state fiscal crisis has eroded gains made by veterans over the last 20 years and military service in the Gulf has changed the lives of a new generation of Americans, it becomes all the more urgent to recognize the long-term, multi-generational consequences of war and to affirm the need for a comprehensive program on behalf of veterans. In 1992 Vietnam-Era veterans will become the majority veteran population in this country, a major constituency supporting the need for such a comprehensive program. The William Joiner Center\u27s follow-up investigation into the status of Vietnam and Vietnam-Era Veterans indicates that, far from diminishing, the physical, psychological, economic, and educational problems faced by Vietnam and Vietnam-Era veterans are becoming more acute and that in many cases these problems extend to the lives of their children

The Somali Diaspora in Greater Boston

Our nation was founded on and thrives on immigration. One of the newest immigrant groups in the Boston area are Somalis. They are among the largest of the new populations of African immigrants. While precise numbers are very difficult to determine, there are approximately 8,000 in the Greater Boston area and another 2,000 estimated across the rest of Massachusetts. Very few studies have examined Somalis in the United States, and no studies exist on the community in Boston or Massachusetts. It is an interesting sociological question to ask how similar the Somali experience has been in the United States (and in Boston) compared with other immigrant groups. In this article, we will attempt to suggest some plausible answers to that question, but a definitive answer awaits a formal research study. Turmoil, poverty, and war—particularly civil war—are powerful motivating factors in the migration of large numbers of people away from their cultural roots. These circumstances have certainly been present in the case of the failed state of Somalia. Prior to the outbreak of civil war in 1991, the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, was actually a tourist destination. But since then Somalia in general and the capital of Mogadishu have come to represent one of the worst cases in nation state failure and chaos in civil war

Self-consistent modelling of the Milky Way structure using live potentials

To advance our understanding of the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) of our Galaxy, numerical models of Milky Way (MW) type galaxies are widely used. However, most models only vaguely resemble the MW (e.g. in total mass), and often use imposed analytic potentials (which cannot evolve dynamically). This poses a problem in asserting their applicability for the interpretation of observations of our own Galaxy. The goal of this work is to identify a numerical model that is not only an MW-type galaxy, but one that can mimic some of the main observed structures of our Galaxy, using dynamically evolving potentials, so that it can be used as a base model to study the ISM cycle in a galaxy like our own. This paper introduces a suite of 15 MW-type galaxy models developed using the AREPO numerical code, that are compared to Galactic observations of 12CO and H I emission via longitude–velocity plots, from where we extract and compare the skeletons of major galactic features and the terminal gas velocities. We found that our best-fitting model to the overall structure, also reproduces some of the more specific observed features of the MW, including a bar with a pattern speed of 30 ± 0.2 km s-1 kpc-1⁠, and a bar half-length of 3.2 ± 0.8  kpc. Our model shows large streaming motions around spiral arms, and strong radial motions well beyond the inner bar. This model highlights the complex motions of a dynamic MW-type galaxy and has the potential to offer valuable insight into how our Galaxy regulates the ISM and star formation.Peer reviewe

Evolution of substrate specificity in a recipient's enzyme following horizontal gene transfer

Despite the prominent role of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in shaping bacterial metabolism, little is known about the impact of HGT on the evolution of enzyme function. Specifically, what is the influence of a recently acquired gene on the function of an existing gene? For example, certain members of the genus Corynebacterium have horizontally acquired a whole L-tryptophan biosynthetic operon, whereas in certain closely related actinobacteria, for example, Mycobacterium, the trpF gene is missing. In Mycobacterium, the function of the trpF gene is performed by a dual-substrate (βα)8 phosphoribosyl isomerase (priA gene) also involved in L-histidine (hisA gene) biosynthesis. We investigated the effect of a HGT-acquired TrpF enzyme upon PriA’s substrate specificity in Corynebacterium through comparative genomics and phylogenetic reconstructions. After comprehensive in vivo and enzyme kinetic analyses of selected PriA homologs, a novel (βα)8 isomerase subfamily with a specialized function in L-histidine biosynthesis, termed subHisA, was confirmed. X-ray crystallography was used to reveal active-site mutations in subHisA important for narrowing of substrate specificity, which when mutated to the naturally occurring amino acid in PriA led to gain of function. Moreover, in silico molecular dynamic analyses demonstrated that the narrowing of substrate specificity of subHisA is concomitant with loss of ancestral protein conformational states. Our results show the importance of HGT in shaping enzyme evolution and metabolism

In situ, real-time visualization of electrochemistry using magnetic resonance imaging

The drive to develop better electrochemical energy storage devices requires the development of not only new materials, but also better understanding of the underpinning chemical and dynamical processes within such devices during operation, for which new analytical techniques are required. Currently, there are few techniques that can probe local composition and transport in the electrolyte during battery operation. In this paper, we report a novel application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for probing electrochemical processes in a model electrochemical cell. Using MRI, the transport and zinc and oxygen electrochemistry in an alkaline electrolyte, typical of that found in zinc-air batteries, are investigated. Magnetic resonance relaxation maps of the electrolyte are used to visualize the chemical composition and electrochemical processes occurring during discharge in this model metal-air battery. Such experiments will be useful in the development of new energy storage/conversion devices, as well as other electrochemical technologies

Fitness Changes in Adolescent Girls Following In-School Combined Aerobic and Resistance Exercise: Interaction With Birthweight.

Purpose: To assess the efficacy of a supervised in-school combined resistance and aerobic training program in adolescent girls and investigate whether responses differ according to birthweight. Methods: Participants (girls aged 13–17 y) were randomized either to an intervention replacing physical education (PE) classes with 2 × 60-minute training sessions per week (n = 58) or to a control group that continued to attend 2 × 60 minutes per week of curriculum PE (n = 41). We measured muscular fitness (handgrip, standing long jump, and sit-ups), cardiorespiratory fitness (20-m shuttle run), skinfolds, and lean body mass preintervention and postintervention and determined effect size (Hedge’s g) differences between changes in these measures. We also compared changes within lower (<3000 g) and normal birthweight intervention and PE control subgroups. Results: The intervention group showed greater improvements in all the fitness measures and lean body mass (g = 0.22–0.48) and lower skinfold increases (g = 0.41) than PE controls. Within the intervention group, improvements in all fitness measures were larger in lower birthweight (g = 0.53–0.94) than in normal birthweight girls (g = 0.02–0.39). Conclusion: Replacing curriculum PE with supervised training improved muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition outcomes in adolescent females. Our findings suggest an enhanced adaptive response to training in participants with lower birthweight which warrants further investigation

What can the Gulf of Mexico and Panama tell us about education and outreach?

ABSTRACT: A series of research grants funded by the National Science Foundation involved a major component about education and outreach as it pertained to marine algal diversity. These included comprehensive studies into 1) the diversity of the deep bank marine algae in the Gulf of Mexico (NSF Biodiversity Surveys and Inventories program) and the discovery of unsuspected eukaryotic life inhabiting rhodolith forming coralline algae (NSF DEB), 2) monographic research (NSF PEET), 3) advanced tropical phycology with the integration of modern and traditional techniques in the study of tropical algae of Panama (NSF PASI), among others.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Self-consistent modelling of the Milky Way structure using live potentials

To advance our understanding of the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) of our Galaxy, numerical models of Milky Way (MW) type galaxies are widely used. However, most models only vaguely resemble the MW (e.g. in total mass), and often use imposed analytic potentials (which cannot evolve dynamically). This poses a problem in asserting their applicability for the interpretation of observations of our own Galaxy. The goal of this work is to identify a numerical model that is not only an MW-type galaxy, but one that can mimic some of the main observed structures of our Galaxy, using dynamically evolving potentials, so that it can be used as a base model to study the ISM cycle in a galaxy like our own. This paper introduces a suite of 15 MW-type galaxy models developed using the AREPO numerical code, that are compared to Galactic observations of CO and H I emission via longitude–velocity plots, from where we extract and compare the skeletons of major galactic features and the terminal gas velocities. We found that our best-fitting model to the overall structure, also reproduces some of the more specific observed features of the MW, including a bar with a pattern speed of km s  kpc ⁠, and a bar half-length of  kpc. Our model shows large streaming motions around spiral arms, and strong radial motions well beyond the inner bar. This model highlights the complex motions of a dynamic MW-type galaxy and has the potential to offer valuable insight into how our Galaxy regulates the ISM and star formation