The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Engineering field division/activity manpower staffing

MBA Professional ReportNaval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) is responsible for all U.S. Navy and Marine Corps facilities. The mission of NAVFAC is to plan and deliver innovative, best-value, technology-leveraged solutions and alternatives that enable the clients and various commands to accomplish their missions. NAVFAC is the major claimant for the eleven Engineering Field Divisions/Activities (EFD/A). The Officer in Charge of Contracts (OICC) is primarily responsible for the post-award phase of construction contracts that NAVFAC administers. The OICCs work at the various field offices throughout the NAVFAC organization. The resource sponsor for NAVFAC is N4, Fleet Readiness and Logistics, who is responsible for identifying the mission, funding and authorizing requirements for NAVFAC. As the major claimant, NAVFAC is responsible for determining the requirements for the EFD/As, which are funded by N4. Due to funding constraints, the Navy is required to be as efficient as possible. This research analyzes the current manpower algorithm used to determine requirements for the various EFD/As. The data shows that the current algorithm does not reflect a number of factors impacting work-hours. An analysis was conducted to derive a more accurate algorithm to include the number of contracts and a method to include other missing factors such as distance, complexity, other military construction providers and commanding officer interest, etc. The conclusion of this research is that a more accurate algorithm that includes these missing factors is essential to the safe, efficient and thorough completion of workload accomplished by the EFD/A in support of NAVFAC's mission and ultimate responsibilities of N4.http://archive.org/details/engineeringfield109459847Lieutenant, United States Navy ReserveLieutenant, United States NavyCaptain, Czech Republic ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Research Models and Tools for the Identification of Antivirals and Therapeutics against Zika Virus Infection.

Zika virus recently re-emerged and caused global outbreaks mainly in Central Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and in Central and South America. Even though there is a declining trend, the virus continues to spread throughout different geographical regions of the world. Since its re-emergence in 2015, massive advances have been made regarding our understanding of clinical manifestations, epidemiology, genetic diversity, genomic structure and potential therapeutic intervention strategies. Nevertheless, treatment remains a challenge as there is no licensed effective therapy available. This review focuses on the recent advances regarding research models, as well as available experimental tools that can be used for the identification and characterization of potential antiviral targets and therapeutic intervention strategies

Inactivation of Zika virus in human breast milk by prolonged storage or pasteurization

Zika virus infection during pregnancy poses a serious risk for pregnant women as it can cause severe birth defects. Even though the virus is mainly transmitted via mosquitos, human-to-human transmission has been described. Infectious viral particles have been detected in breast milk of infected women which raised concerns regarding the safety of breastfeeding in areas of Zika virus transmission or in case of a suspected or confirmed Zika virus infection. In this study, we show that Zika virus is effectively inactivated in human breast milk after prolonged storage or upon pasteurization of milk

High-Pressure Delivery of Oncolytic Viruses via Needle-Free Injection Preserves Therapeutic Activity

Intratumoural delivery of oncolytic viruses (OVs) to solid tumours is currently performed via multiple percutaneous methods of needle injections (NI). In this study, we investigated the potential use of a novel delivery approach, needle-free injection (NFI), to administer OVs to subcutaneous tumours. The stability and genetic integrity of several RNA and DNA viruses exposed to high-pressure jet injectors were first evaluated in vitro. We demonstrate that replication competence and infectivity of the viruses remained unchanged after NFI, as compared to traditional NI. Using the oncolytic Vesicular Stomatitis Virus expressing luciferase (VSVΔ51-Luc) in the syngeneic CT26 subcutaneous tumour model, we show that NFI administration not only successfully delivers infectious particles but also increases the dissemination of the virus within the tumour tissues when compared to NI. Furthermore, mice treated with VSVΔ51-Luc by NFI delivery showed similar reduction in tumour growth and survival compared to those with needle-administered virus. These results indicate that NFI represents a novel approach to administer and potentially increase the spread of OVs within accessible solid tumours, highlighting its usefulness in virotherapy

Intradermal immune response after infection with Vaccinia virus.

Although Vaccinia virus (VACV) was used to eradicate smallpox by dermal vaccination, there is little information available about the immune response induced at the vaccination site. Previously, an intradermal murine model that mimics smallpox vaccination was established. Here, this model was used to investigate which leukocytes are recruited to the infected lesion and what are the kinetics of recruitment. Data presented show that VACV infection induced the infiltration of macrophages, followed by granulocytes and lymphocytes. Up to 4 days post-infection, the major lymphocyte population was TCRgammadelta T cells, but thereafter, there was a large recruitment of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. Interestingly, the majority of T cells expressed the natural killer-cell marker DX5. This report is the first to characterize the local immune response sequence to VACV infection and represents a benchmark against which the responses induced by genetically modified VACVs may be compared

Virucidal Activity of World Health Organization-Recommended Formulations Against Enveloped Viruses, Including Zika, Ebola, and Emerging Coronaviruses.

The World Health Organization (WHO) published 2 alcohol-based formulations to be used in healthcare settings and for outbreak-associated infections, but inactivation efficacies of these products have not been determined against (re-)emerging viruses. In this study, we evaluated the virucidal activity of these WHO products in a comparative analysis. Zika virus (ZIKV), Ebola virus (EBOV), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) as (re-)emerging viral pathogens and other enveloped viruses could be efficiently inactivated by both WHO formulations, implicating their use in healthcare systems and viral outbreak situations