Creating a Culture for Leading and Performing in the Extreme

By early 2008 in the Iraq War, the positive effects of the U.S. surge had started to become visible in the streets of Baghdad, as shops began to reopen and people again filled the streets.1 Despite these outwardly positive appearances, a sinister undercurrent flowed through the population. Rumors ran rampant in Iraqi military and government circles that the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr\u27s Mahdi Army was about to launch an offensive against the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite, because of Sadr\u27s unhappiness with his waning political influence. In the neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, in Baghdad\u27s southeastern quadrant, Sadrist fighters started to make trouble. The unit responsible for Zafaraniyah had been trained by its commander to act with a great deal of restraint in order to avoid unnecessary civilian deaths. This was in keeping with guidance issued by General David Petraeus, commanding general of the Multi-National Forces-Iraq. The success or failure of Petraeus\u27 strategy of limiting civilian deaths depended solely on the support of the Iraqi people and their perceptions of American and Iraqi forces. What Petraeus was attempting to do on a large scale was to change the organizational culture of both forces. The events of February and March 2008 would put Petraeus\u27 vision and strategy to the test and offer evidence of what happens when old ways of doing business compete with the new. On the second night of what would come to be called the uprising, a fight erupted between a dozen young Sadrist fighters and a platoon of American and Iraqi soldiers in the most troubled neighborhood in Zafaraniyah. The engaged platoon was well trained, had the situation well in hand, and acted with restraint. What unfolded was a textbook example of the tendency of higher headquarters to use available technological innovations regardless of the logic (or illogic) of doing so and in contravention of a subordinate commander\u27s wishes. The battalion watch officer, or battle captain, ran from the tactical operations center (TOC) to the battalion commander\u27s office to notify him of the firefight. The battle captain explained that the brigade headquarters wanted to drop a SOD-pound bomb from an F/A-18 Super Hornet onto the house where it was believed that twelve or so fighters had gone to make a last stand. The brigade TOC was watching the house from several miles away via a live camera feed from an aerial drone. Rushing to the TOC the battalion commander attempted to call off the strike. For God\u27s sake-our job here is to protect the Iraqi people! It\u27s the first sentence in our f--g mission statement! And you want to drop a damned bomb on someone\u27s house?! Every soldier in the TOC broke eye contact. They knew they were wrong. Their error: they got caught up in viewing the action as nothing more than a video game. They failed to assess whether dropping a bomb on an Iraqi house was consistent with the commander\u27s intent to exercise restraint and minimize civilian casualties. Within minutes, the battalion commander was on his way to the scene of the fighting to assess the situation. Almost immediately, he heard the boom of a Hellfire missile striking its target to the east of the commander\u27s location, followed by the staccato report of a string of 30mm shells from the helicopter\u27s main gun. Several minutes later, the commander found the platoon. The two small units and the Iraqi soldiers began fighting their way deep into the neighborhood to find the target house. It appeared that the missile strike had taken the spirit out of the enemy fighters, and friendly forces surrounded the house. They found surprisingly little damage. Fortunately, the Apache helicopter had fired a newly developed missile, specifically designed to limit destruction in urban terrain. Nonetheless, there was still collateral damage to other houses and pools of blood on the ground, along with bloody Iraqi National Police uniforms

Creating a Culture for Leading and Performing in the Extreme

By early 2008 in the Iraq War, the positive effects of the U.S. surge had started to become visible in the streets of Baghdad, as shops began to reopen and people again filled the streets.1 Despite these outwardly positive appearances, a sinister undercurrent flowed through the population. Rumors ran rampant in Iraqi military and government circles that the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr\u27s Mahdi Army was about to launch an offensive against the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite, because of Sadr\u27s unhappiness with his waning political influence. In the neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, in Baghdad\u27s southeastern quadrant, Sadrist fighters started to make trouble. The unit responsible for Zafaraniyah had been trained by its commander to act with a great deal of restraint in order to avoid unnecessary civilian deaths. This was in keeping with guidance issued by General David Petraeus, commanding general of the Multi-National Forces-Iraq. The success or failure of Petraeus\u27 strategy of limiting civilian deaths depended solely on the support of the Iraqi people and their perceptions of American and Iraqi forces. What Petraeus was attempting to do on a large scale was to change the organizational culture of both forces. The events of February and March 2008 would put Petraeus\u27 vision and strategy to the test and offer evidence of what happens when old ways of doing business compete with the new. On the second night of what would come to be called the uprising, a fight erupted between a dozen young Sadrist fighters and a platoon of American and Iraqi soldiers in the most troubled neighborhood in Zafaraniyah. The engaged platoon was well trained, had the situation well in hand, and acted with restraint. What unfolded was a textbook example of the tendency of higher headquarters to use available technological innovations regardless of the logic (or illogic) of doing so and in contravention of a subordinate commander\u27s wishes. The battalion watch officer, or battle captain, ran from the tactical operations center (TOC) to the battalion commander\u27s office to notify him of the firefight. The battle captain explained that the brigade headquarters wanted to drop a SOD-pound bomb from an F/A-18 Super Hornet onto the house where it was believed that twelve or so fighters had gone to make a last stand. The brigade TOC was watching the house from several miles away via a live camera feed from an aerial drone. Rushing to the TOC the battalion commander attempted to call off the strike. For God\u27s sake-our job here is to protect the Iraqi people! It\u27s the first sentence in our f--g mission statement! And you want to drop a damned bomb on someone\u27s house?! Every soldier in the TOC broke eye contact. They knew they were wrong. Their error: they got caught up in viewing the action as nothing more than a video game. They failed to assess whether dropping a bomb on an Iraqi house was consistent with the commander\u27s intent to exercise restraint and minimize civilian casualties. Within minutes, the battalion commander was on his way to the scene of the fighting to assess the situation. Almost immediately, he heard the boom of a Hellfire missile striking its target to the east of the commander\u27s location, followed by the staccato report of a string of 30mm shells from the helicopter\u27s main gun. Several minutes later, the commander found the platoon. The two small units and the Iraqi soldiers began fighting their way deep into the neighborhood to find the target house. It appeared that the missile strike had taken the spirit out of the enemy fighters, and friendly forces surrounded the house. They found surprisingly little damage. Fortunately, the Apache helicopter had fired a newly developed missile, specifically designed to limit destruction in urban terrain. Nonetheless, there was still collateral damage to other houses and pools of blood on the ground, along with bloody Iraqi National Police uniforms

Tribology: The Story of Lubrication and Wear

Topics addressed include: lubrication and design of high speed rolling element bearings, high speed gears, and traction drives

Timing and mechanism of conceptus demise in a complement regulatory membrane protein deficient mouse

PROBLEM: Crry is a widely expressed type 1 transmembrane complement regulatory protein in rodents which protects self-tissue by downregulating C3 activation. Crry METHOD OF STUDY: We investigated the basis of Crry RESULTS: We narrowed the critical period of the complement effect from 6.5 to 8.5 days post-coitus (dpc), which is immediately after the conceptus is exposed to maternal blood. Deposition by 5.5 dpc of maternal C3b on the placental vasculature lacking Crry CONCLUSION: Our data are most consistent with the deposition of C3b being responsible for the failure of the allantois to fuse to the chorion leading to subsequent conceptus demise

A Water-Damaged Home and Health of Occupants: A Case Study

A family of five and pet dog who rented a water-damaged home and developed multiple health problems. The home was analyzed for species of mold and bacteria. The diagnostics included MRI for chronic sinusitis with ENT and sinus surgery, and neurological testing for neurocognitive deficits. Bulk samples from the home, tissue from the sinuses, urine, nasal secretions, placenta, umbilical cord, and breast milk were tested for the presence of trichothecenes, aflatoxins, and Ochratoxin A. The family had the following diagnosed conditions: chronic sinusitis, neurological deficits, coughing with wheeze, nose bleeds, and fatigue among other symptoms. An infant was born with a total body flare, developed multiple Cafe-au-Lait pigmented skin spots and diagnoses with NF1 at age 2. The mycotoxins were detected in bulk samples, urine and nasal secretions, breast milk, placenta, and umbilical cord. Pseudomonas aueroginosa, Acinetobacter, Penicillium, and Aspergillus fumigatus were cultured from nasal secretions (father and daughter). RT-PCR revealed A. fumigatus DNA in sinus tissues of the daughter. The dog had 72 skin lesions (sebaceous glands and lipomas) from which trichothecenes and ochratoxin A. were detected. The health of the family is discussed in relation to the most recent published literature regarding microbial contamination and toxic by-products present in water-damaged buildings

Heterologous prime-boost-boost immunisation of Chinese cynomolgus macaques using DNA and recombinant poxvirus vectors expressing HIV-1 virus-like particles

Background: There is renewed interest in the development of poxvirus vector-based HIV vaccines due to the protective effect observed with repeated recombinant canarypox priming with gp120 boosting in the recent Thai placebo-controlled trial. This study sought to investigate whether a heterologous prime-boost-boost vaccine regimen in Chinese cynomolgus macaques with a DNA vaccine and recombinant poxviral vectors expressing HIV virus-like particles bearing envelopes derived from the most prevalent clades circulating in sub-Saharan Africa, focused the antibody response to shared neutralising epitopes. Methods: Three Chinese cynomolgus macaques were immunised via intramuscular injections using a regimen composed of a prime with two DNA vaccines expressing clade A Env/clade B Gag followed by boosting with recombinant fowlpox virus expressing HIV-1 clade D Gag, Env and cholera toxin B subunit followed by the final boost with recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara expressing HIV-1 clade C Env, Gag and human complement protein C3d. We measured the macaque serum antibody responses by ELISA, enumerated T cell responses by IFN-gamma ELISpot and assessed seroneutralisation of HIV-1 using the TZM-bl beta-galactosidase assay with primary isolates of HIV-1. Results: This study shows that large and complex synthetic DNA sequences can be successfully cloned in a single step into two poxvirus vectors: MVA and FPV and the recombinant poxviruses could be grown to high titres. The vaccine candidates showed appropriate expression of recombinant proteins with the formation of authentic HIV virus-like particles seen on transmission electron microscopy. In addition the b12 epitope was shown to be held in common by the vaccine candidates using confocal immunofluorescent microscopy. The vaccine candidates were safely administered to Chinese cynomolgus macaques which elicited modest T cell responses at the end of the study but only one out of the three macaques elicited an HIV-specific antibody response. However, the antibodies did not neutralise primary isolates of HIV-1 or the V3-sensitive isolate SF162 using the TZM-bl b-galactosidase assay. Conclusions: MVA and FP9 are ideal replication-deficient viral vectors for HIV-1 vaccines due to their excellent safety profile for use in humans. This study shows this novel prime-boost-boost regimen was poorly immunogenic in Chinese cynomolgus macaques

Clinical and hemodynamic follow-up of left ventricular to aortic conduits in patients with aortic stenosis

To assess the long-term results of left ventricular outflow tract reconstruction utilizing an apical left ventricular to aortic valved (porcine) conduit the clinical and hemodynamic data were reviewed from 24 patients who had placement of an apico-aortic conduit. Eighteen of the patients are asymptomatic and taking no cardiac medications. Three patients were reoperated on, one patient 1.5 years after his original operation for subacute bacterial endocarditis and two patients 3 to 4 years after their original operation for severe conduit valve insufficiency. None of the patients is taking anticoagulants and no thromboembolic events have occurred. Postoperative catheterization has been performed 1 to 1.5 years (mean 1.2) after repair in 15 of 21 patients. The rest left ventricular outflow tract gradient has decreased from 102.5 ± 20 mm Hg preoperatively to 14.8 ± 9.9 mm Hg postoperatively (probability [p] < 0.001). Some degree of conduit obstruction was demonstrated by catheter passage in 11 of the 15 patients. In these 11 patients, the obstruction occurred at three distant sites: at the egress of the left ventricle in 9, at the porcine valve in 5 and at the aortic to conduit junction in 1. Isometric exercise in five and supine bicycle exercise in six patients increased the left ventricular outflow tract gradient by 2.5 ± 1.1 and 20.8 ± 11.8 mm Hg, respectively, despite an increase in cardiac index of 1 ± 0.3 and 3.7 ± 0.4 liters/min per m2, respectively. The data suggest that a left ventricular to aortic conduit is an effective form of therapy for severe left ventricular outflow tract obstruction

Daily mood, partner support, sexual interest, and sexual activity among adolescent women

This is a post print version of the article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below.Objective: to examine day-to-day associations of coitus, sexual interest, partner emotional support, negative mood and positive mood among adolescent women. Methods: Women (ages 14 – 17 at enrollment; N=146) enrolled from one of three adolescent primary care clinics completed up to five 84-day diaries over a 27-month period. The diaries assessed partner interactions, sexual activity, substance use and mood. Partner-specific measures assessed on each day included partner emotional support (4 items; alpha = 0.94), argument with a partner (no/yes) and coitus (no/yes). Within-day measures assessed marijuana use (no/yes), Positive Mood (3-items; alpha = 0. 86); Negative Mood (3-items; alpha = 0.82) and Sexual Interest (1-item). Lagged measures of mood and sexual activity were included in multivariate models to control for recent mood and sexual behavior effects on current day mood and coitus. Two main analyses were conducted: coitus as a predictor of positive and negative mood; and the role of positive and negative mood as predictors of coitus. Analyses were conducted by multivariate mixed effect regression and mixed effect logistic regression models. Results: Data represent 28,376 days from 146 participants. The average number of diary days was 194 days per participant. Sexual activity was reported on 8.3% of days, with condoms used for 27.0% of these coital events. Marijuana was used on 11% of days. Significant predictors of positive mood on a given day included partner support, marijuana use, and coitus. Negative mood was associated with having an argument with a partner and with prior day coitus. Predictors of coitus on a given day included age (Odds ratio = 1.22), increased coital frequency in previous week (OR = 1.49), coitus on the previous day (1.21), increased same-day sexual interest (OR = 2.8) and decreased same-day negative mood (OR = 0.92). Conclusions: The data demonstrate complex associations of sexual interest, mood, partner interactions and sexual activity

NASA Sea Ice Validation Program for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Special Sensor Microwave Imager

The history of the program is described along with the SSM/I sensor, including its calibration and geolocation correction procedures used by NASA, SSM/I data flow, and the NASA program to distribute polar gridded SSM/I radiances and sea ice concentrations (SIC) on CD-ROMs. Following a discussion of the NASA algorithm used to convert SSM/I radiances to SICs, results of 95 SSM/I-MSS Landsat IC comparisons for regions in both the Arctic and the Antarctic are presented. The Landsat comparisons show that the overall algorithm accuracy under winter conditions is 7 pct. on average with 4 pct. negative bias. Next, high resolution active and passive microwave image mosaics from coordinated NASA and Navy aircraft underflights over regions of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in March 1988 were used to show that the algorithm multiyear IC accuracy is 11 pct. on average with a positive bias of 12 pct. Ice edge crossings of the Bering Sea by the NASA DC-8 aircraft were used to show that the SSM/I 15 pct. ice concentration contour corresponds best to the location of the initial bands at the ice edge. Finally, a summary of results and recommendations for improving the SIC retrievals from spaceborne radiometers are provided