Continuous group cohomology with coefficients in locally analytic vectors of admissible Qp \mathbb{Q}_p -Banach space representations

We show that the continuous cohomology groups of a $p$-adic reductive group with coefficients in the locally analytic vectors of an admissible $\mathbb{Q}_p$-Banach space representation are homeomorphic to those with coefficients in the Banach space representation itself. Moreover, we deduce that the canonical topologies on those continuous cohomology groups are Hausdorff and are the uniquely determined finest locally convex topologies

Civ-mil in Danger? Blame the pundits, not the academies.

I teach civil-military relations at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. While searching for readings for an elective course taught in the spring semester, I came across a 2010 article written in the L.A. Times, “An increasingly politicized military.” One passage stood out: “By all accounts, the curricula of the service academies and the war colleges give remarkably little attention to the central importance of civilian control. They do not systematically expose up-and-coming officers to intensive case studies and simulations designed to give them a sense of the principle’s real-world implications.” So where are we now? Nearly a decade later, those cadets have graduated and are now midcareer officers. Do civilians have less control over the military as a result of the claim that the military received poor instruction on proper civ-mil relations? Can curriculum “fix” broken civilmilitary relations

Current Military Academy Service Obligation: Good for Civil-Military Relations

Imagine receiving a free undergraduate education at one of the best colleges in the United States. The military academies provide this. Any economist, however, will tell you that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The American tax payer foots the bill for all those who are admitted to attend one of the military’s academies. In exchange, these citizens will commission as officers and serve an obligation of five years on active duty. The most recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes a section directing the Secretary of Defense to assess if this five-year service obligation should be extended. Congress is now questioning if the increase in the cost of educating and training should equate to an increase in time served for graduates. In short, is the nation getting “an adequate return on investment for a service academy graduate?

Good for the Military - Bad for the Nation?

Has an overreliance on the military as a one-size-fits-all solution become so engrained that we no longer consider alternatives? Are domestic politics so intertwined with foreign affairs that the citizenry has no choice but to accept veterans to fill the ranks of the executive branch? Is there hope for the future? Can we rebalance the general orientation of our government? The outcome to all these questions can be arrived at in a favorable way if our military continues to embrace the Huntingtonian notion of objective control. If professionalism continues to guide the actions of our military’s senior leaders and those who serve in decision making bodies such as the National Security Council, there is hope for a reversal in what Lasswell describes as a “picture of the probable.

Army Schools… Go To Them

Besides looking cool on your chest or sleeve, Army schools should be sought after. They provide opportunities, they demonstrate your technical or tactical proficiency, and the act of preparing to complete them will make you stronger and faster. As a junior officer you should actively seek every opportunity to invest in your education. Rarely will the slot be handed to you. You must make the effort to be ready when the tryouts come along, or circumstances align to allow you to attend

Play to Win: Sticking to a Playbook in the Competition with Russia

Russia docks a warship in Havana knowing it will provoke a response from the United States. How dare they. The US Navy dispatched a destroyer to shadow the vessel; after all, the United States has the Monroe doctrine to enforce. A few weeks prior, Russia sent around a hundred troops to Venezuela. This also provoked a response, albeit rhetorical. Despite these US reactions, Russia continues to play strategic games. Why did the United States respond to these actions in these ways? And what is the most appropriate response

YOU CAN’T SURGE TRUST: LESSONS ON WORKING WITH ALLIES AND PARTNERS

Today’s increasingly complex global operating environment can change at the speed of a tweet or viral video. It is therefore imperative for US forces to have the relationships that offer flexibility and options for any contingency—relationships established in advance of unforeseeable events. The world’s interconnectedness and US defense requirements demand partners and allies with whom we work effectively to bridge cultural gaps. Those relationships increase interoperability by creating realistic expectations and combating what can at times emerge as negative stereotypes. Further, shared experiences can help overcome misunderstandings and foster friendships that will be critical in times of crisis. Simply put, you cannot surge trust. It must be cultivated and given constant attention

The role of pain modulation in non-suicidal self-injury

Individuals with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior tend to report feeling little or no pain when they self-injure. Moreover, in laboratory studies the NSSI population tends to demonstrate reduced sensitivity to painful stimuli. There is reason to believe that hypoalgesia could be a risk factor for developing and maintaining NSSI. Many theories have been proposed to explain the reduced sensitivity to pain in the NSSI population; some examples are dissociation, self-critical cognitive style, and low levels of endogenous opioids. However, the evidence supporting these theories are sparse. To understand why the NSSI population experiences less pain, there is a need for a better understanding of how individuals with NSSI process pain. We wanted to use methods that have been developed to study pain modulation in individuals with long-term pain to characterize the pain modulation system of women with ongoing NSSI. Our general hypothesis was that women with NSSI have a hyper-effective pain modulation system that inhibits pain to a greater extent and facilitates pain to a lesser extent, compared to women without NSSI. In Study I, a non-clinical population (N = 62) was recruited to test a pain testing protocol in order to produce offset analgesia (OA) and onset hyperalgesia (OH). Small deviations in a painful thermal stimulation have been found to produce disproportional hypoalgesic (OA) and hyperalgesic (OH) responses. Different stimulus ranges (±1°C and ±2°C) were included in the protocol to study the dynamic relation between heat and pain. The study was composed of two identical experiments. In experiment 1, we produced OA and OH responses, using ±2°C but not ±1°C. In experiment 2, we only produced OA responses, but no OH responses. Study II investigated if it was possible to induce sensory attenuation of pain in a non-clinical population (N = 40) by comparing self-administered pressure pain threshold to experimenteradministrated pressure pain threshold, using an algometer. An experimental condition, where the participants imagined that they pressed the algometer, was also included in the study, to examine if sensory attenuation could be induced with the help of imagery. Self-administered pressure was found to be less painful, compared to experimenter-administered pressure. Moreover, imagined self-administered pressure was also experienced as less painful than experimenter-administered pressure. Self-induced sensory attenuation of pain could be a factor in explaining hypoalgesia during NSSI. Study III consisted of an extensive battery of pain tests in order to study pain modulation in a sample of women with NSSI (N = 41) and an age-matched control group, consisting of healthy women (N = 40). The study also included a simple pain test combined with fMRI. We found that the NSSI group demonstrated higher pressure and heat pain thresholds, compared to the control group. The NSSI group also demonstrated a larger conditioned pain modulation (CPM) effect, compared to the control group. CPM is a test based on the principle pain inhibits pain, and is a measure of central down-regulation of pain. We found no difference between the groups regarding temporal summation of pain, a measure of pain facilitation, or in heat pain tolerance. Tonic painful heat stimulation produced a larger hemodynamic response in primary and secondary somatosensory cortex in the NSSI group, compared to the control group. In Study IV, we used the combined OA/OH protocol that was evaluated in Study I to study pain modulation in women with NSSI (N = 37) and controls (N = 39). The OA/OH protocol was combined with fMRI. Across groups, both the OA and the OH responses were significant. We also found a difference between the groups regarding the OH response, as the NSSI group demonstrated a weaker OH response, compared to the control group. The OH response was associated with a hemodynamic response in the primary somatosensory cortex, across groups, which suggests that the nociceptive signal was upregulated before reaching the brain. In line with our main hypothesis, we found that the NSSI group inhibited pain to a greater extent (CPM in Study III) and facilitated pain to a lesser extent (OH in Study IV), compared to the control group. These results suggest that women with NSSI have a hyper-effective pain modulation system. There were also results that did not support our main hypothesis; the NSSI group did not demonstrate weaker pain facilitation when tested with the temporal summation protocol (Study III) or stronger inhibition associated with OA (Study IV). An explanation could be that different pain tests measure different aspects of pain modulation and only certain pain modulation mechanisms are affected in the NSSI population. The studies of this thesis provide evidence that the previous findings of hypoalgesia in the NSSI population does not reflect response bias but is rooted in how the nervous system modulates nociceptive signals

Adhesive for polyester films cures at room temperature, has high initial tack

Quick room-temperature-cure adhesive bonds polyester-insulated flat electrical cables to metal surfaces and various other substrates. The bond strength of the adhesive may be considerably increased by first applying a commercially available polyamide primer to the polyester film