THE MARITIME OPERATIONAL THREAT RESPONSE PLAN: A MODEL FOR INTERAGENCY COOPERATION

History has shown that homeland security is a learning process and an evolution, whereby threats are identified and strategies and policies are developed and implemented. Those strategies and policies are occasionally tested in the real world and refined to adapt to the new threat landscape. The modern homeland security apparatus is characterized by overlapping and interconnecting legal and jurisdictional responsibilities that intertwine response agencies and require a whole-of-government response. A reorganization of the federal government in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, created a plethora of new policies and procedures. This restructuring produced overlapping interests and responsibilities that required cross-disciplines, jurisdictions, and authorities to manage threats appropriately. To adapt, the federal government developed several strategies and frameworks for organizing these disparate departments and agencies. This thesis provides a comprehensive understanding of the Maritime Operational Threat Response (MOTR) Plan and how it successfully connects federal organizations to adapt and deal with threats in the unique environment of the maritime domain. Also, it identifies several elements that make the MOTR Plan successful, so the plan may be exported to other areas such as federal, state, or local governments and international partners interested in interagency collaboration.Lieutenant Commander, United States Coast GuardApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Separable GPL: Decidable Model Checking with More Non-Determinism

Generalized Probabilistic Logic (GPL) is a temporal logic, based on the modal mu-calculus, for specifying properties of branching probabilistic systems. We consider GPL over branching systems that also exhibit internal non-determinism under linear-time semantics (which is resolved by schedulers), and focus on the problem of finding the capacity (supremum probability over all schedulers) of a fuzzy formula. Model checking GPL is undecidable, in general, over such systems, and existing GPL model checking algorithms are limited to systems without internal non-determinism, or to checking non-recursive formulae. We define a subclass, called separable GPL, which includes recursive formulae and for which model checking is decidable. A large class of interesting and decidable problems, such as termination of 1-exit Recursive MDPs, reachability of Branching MDPs, and LTL model checking of MDPs, whose decidability has been studied independently, can be reduced to model checking separable GPL. Thus, GPL is widely applicable and, with a suitable extension of its semantics, yields a uniform framework for studying problems involving systems with non-deterministic and probabilistic behaviors

Bayesian comparison of cost-effectiveness of different clinical approaches to diagnose coronary artery disease

The objective of this study was to compare the cost-effectiveness of four clinical policies (policies I to IV) in the diagnosis of the presence or absence of coronary artery disease. A model based on Bayes' theorem and published clinical data was constructed to make these comparisons. Effectiveness was denned as either the number of patients with coronary disease diagnosed or as the number of quality-adjusted life years extended by therapy after the diagnosis of coronary disease.The following conclusions arise strictly from analysis of the model and may not necessarily be applicable to all situations. 1) As prevalence of coronary disease in the population increased, it caused a linear increase in cost per patient tested, but a hyperbolic decrease in cost per effect, that is, increased cost-effectiveness. Thus, cost-effectiveness of all policies (I to IV) was poor in populations with a prevalence of disease below 10%, for example, asymptomatic people with no risk factors. 2) Analysis of the model also indicates that at prevalences less than 80%, exercise thallium scintigraphy alone as a first test (policy II) is a more cost-effective initial test than is exercise electrocardiography alone as a first test (policy I) or exercise electrocardiography first combined with thallium imaging as a second test (policy IV). 3) Exercise electrocardiography before thallium imaging (policy IV) is more cost-effective than exercise electrocardiography alone (policy I) at prevalences less than 80%. 4) Noninvasive exercise testing before angiography (policies I, II and IV) is more cost-effective than using coronary angiography as the first and only test (policy III) at prevalences less than 80%. 5) Above a threshold value of prevalence of 80% (for example patients with typical angina), proceeding to angiography as the first test (policy III) was more cost-effective than initial noninvasive exercise tests (policies I, II and IV).One advantage of this quantitative model is that it estimates a threshold value of prevalence (80%) at which the rank order of policies changes. The model also allows substitution of different values for any variable as a way of accounting for the uncertainty inherent in the data. In conclusion, it is essential to consider the prevalence of disease when selecting the most cost-effective clinical approach to making a diagnosis

Coronary angiographic morphology in myocardial infarction: A link between the pathogenesis of unstable angina and myocardial infarction

It has previously been shown that analysis of coronary morphology can separate unstable from stable angina. An eccentric stenosis with a narrow neck or irregular borders, or both, is very common in patients who present with acute unstable angina, whereas it is rare in patients with stable angina. To extend these observations to myocardial infarction, the coronary morphology of 41 patients with acute or recent infarction and nontotally occluded infarct vessels was studied. For all patients, 27 (66%) of 41 infarct vessels contained this eccentric narrowing, whereas only 2 (11%) of 18 noninfarct vessels with narrowing of 50 to less than 100% had this lesion (p < 0.001). In addition, a separate group of patients with acute myocardial infarction who underwent intracoronary streptokinase infusion were also analyzed in similar fashion. Fourteen (61%) of 23 infarct vessels contained this lesion after streptokinase infusion compared with 1 (9%) of 11 noninfarct vessels with narrowing of 50 to less than 100% (p < 0.01).Therefore, an eccentric coronary stenosis with a narrow neck or irregular borders, or both, is the most common morphologic feature on angiography in both acute and recent infarction as well as unstable angina. This lesion probably represents either a disrupted atherosclerotic plaque or a partially occlusive or lysed thrombus, or both. The predominance of this morphology in both unstable angina and acute infarction suggests a possible link between these two conditions. Unstable angina and myocardial infarction may form a continuous spectrum with the clinical outcome dependent on the subsequent change in coronary supply relative to myocardial demand

Manganese oxide catalysts for secondary zinc air batteries: from

An efficient, durable and low cost air cathode with low polarization between the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential for a high performance and durable secondary zinc-air battery. Different valence states and morphologies of MnxOy catalysts were synthetized via thermal treatment of EMD (generating Mn2O3 and Mn3O4) and acid digestion of synthetized Mn2O3 (producing a-MnO2) in order to develop an efficient Bifunctional Air Electrode (BAE). Change in the ratio H+ to Mn2O3 during the acid digestion affects the sample microporosity, the crystallographic plane distribution, as well as the physical and chemical adsorbed water which was related to defects, i.e. cation vacancies (Mn4+) and Mn3+. These characteristics were discussed and linked to the electrocatalytic activity. The best ORR performing catalyst was that with the higher surface water content (associated to material BET surface area) and a (310) surface as the 2nd more contributing plane (after 211). On the other hand, the catalyst with the higher structural water and with (110) and (200) crystallographic planes being the most intensity contributors (after 211) was the most OER active material. In this work, it was able to find a relationship between catalyst structure and air-efficiency through a volcano-like relationship between air-efficiency and surface water content. Air-efficiency (also take as round-efficiency discharge/charge in battery context) can be taken as a good descriptor of potentially good materials for Zn-Air secondary batteries technology. In this term, we were able to prepare a Bifunctional Air Electrode based on the selected a-MnO2 sample which demonstrated a roundefficiency of 53%, a DV around 1 V and a neglected loss of the charge potential (about 2.1 V) over the entire lifecycle test (more 200 cycles over 30 hours) with a capacity retention superior to 95%.European Commission H2020: Proyecto ZAS “Zinc Air Secondary innovative nanotech based batteries for efficient energy storage” (Grant Agreement 646186

Co3O4 Nanocrystals on Graphene as a Synergistic Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Catalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions are at the heart of key renewable energy technologies including fuel cells and water splitting. Despite tremendous efforts, developing oxygen electrode catalysts with high activity at low costs remains a grand challenge. Here, we report a hybrid material of Co3O4 nanocrystals grown on reduced graphene oxide (GO) as a high-performance bi-functional catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). While Co3O4 or graphene oxide alone has little catalytic activity, their hybrid exhibits an unexpected, surprisingly high ORR activity that is further enhanced by nitrogen-doping of graphene. The Co3O4/N-doped graphene hybrid exhibits similar catalytic activity but superior stability to Pt in alkaline solutions. The same hybrid is also highly active for OER, making it a high performance non-precious metal based bi-catalyst for both ORR and OER. The unusual catalytic activity arises from synergetic chemical coupling effects between Co3O4 and graphene.Comment: published in Nature Material

Validation of the severity index by cardiac catheterization and Doppler echocardiography in patients with aortic sclerosis and stenosis

The severity index is a new echocardiographic measure that is thought to be an accurate indicator of aortic leaflet pathology in patients with AS. However, it has not been validated against cardiac catheterization or Doppler echocardiographic measures of AS severity nor has it been applied to patients with aortic sclerosis. The purposes of this study were to compare the severity index to invasive hemodynamics and Doppler echocardiography across the spectrum of calcific aortic valve disease, including aortic sclerosis and AS. 48 patients with aortic sclerosis and AS undergoing echocardiography and cardiac catheterization comprised the study population. The aortic valve leaflets were assessed for mobility (scale 1 to 6) and calcification (scale 1 to 4) and the severity index was calculated as the sum of the mobility and calcification scores according to the methods of Bahler et al. The severity index increased with increasing severity of aortic valve disease; the severity indices for patients with aortic sclerosis, mild to moderate AS and severe AS were 3.38 ± 1.06, 6.45 ± 2.16 and 8.38 ± 1.41, respectively. The aortic jet velocity by echocardiography and the square root of the maximum aortic valve gradient by cardiac catheterization correlated well with the severity index (r = 0.84, p < 0.0001; r = 0.84, p < 0.0001, respectively). These results confirm that the severity index correlates with hemodynamic severity of aortic valve disease and may prove to be a useful measure in patients with aortic sclerosis and AS