SEABED INFRASTRUCTURE DEFENSE ANALYSIS

Traditional fleet operations and technologies are not adequately suited to counter the growing threat to undersea infrastructure from autonomous undersea systems. A cost-effective unmanned and manned system of systems is required to provide defense of this seabed infrastructure. This paper proposes possible system architectures to defend against this emerging threat to include passive barriers and active defense systems. The effectiveness of those candidate systems is evaluated through multiple agent-based modeling simulations of UUV versus UUV engagements. Analysis resulted in two major findings. First, point defense of critical assets is more effective than barrier defense. Second, system design must focus on minimizing the time required to effectively engage and neutralize threats, either through improvement to defensive UUV speed or investment in more UUV docking stations and sensor arrays. Cost analysis suggests that acquisition and operations cost of the recommended defensive system is less than the projected financial impact of a successful attack.http://archive.org/details/seabedinfrastruc1094562767Lieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyMajor, Israel Defence ForcesMajor, Republic of Singapore Air ForceMajor, Republic of Singapore Air ForceCaptain, Singapore ArmyLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyMajor, Republic of Singapore Air ForceCaptain, Singapore ArmyCivilian, Ministry of Defense, SingaporeLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant Commander, United States NavyLieutenant Junior Grade, United States NavyCivilian, Ministry of Defense, SingaporeCivilian, Ministry of Defense, SingaporeMajor, Republic of Singapore Air ForceMajor, United States Marine CorpsMajor, Singapore ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Human and mouse essentiality screens as a resource for disease gene discovery.

The identification of causal variants in sequencing studies remains a considerable challenge that can be partially addressed by new gene-specific knowledge. Here, we integrate measures of how essential a gene is to supporting life, as inferred from viability and phenotyping screens performed on knockout mice by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium and essentiality screens carried out on human cell lines. We propose a cross-species gene classification across the Full Spectrum of Intolerance to Loss-of-function (FUSIL) and demonstrate that genes in five mutually exclusive FUSIL categories have differing biological properties. Most notably, Mendelian disease genes, particularly those associated with developmental disorders, are highly overrepresented among genes non-essential for cell survival but required for organism development. After screening developmental disorder cases from three independent disease sequencing consortia, we identify potentially pathogenic variants in genes not previously associated with rare diseases. We therefore propose FUSIL as an efficient approach for disease gene discovery

A+ COMICS! an anarchistic, autoethnographic approach analyzing and adapting an absent, abject, AMAB abomination (aka ABOMINATRIX); and also, accommodating an author’s adult ADHD & anxiety awaiting an apocalypse… academically approved, ACAB.

Morgan Sea went to grad school to make comics and avoid being ground into the dirt by capitalism. While trying to understand Kristeva’s theory of the abject, her magical adhd brain made a tangled web of connections between obscure marvel comics, trans misogyny, and the monstrous feminine. She wrote and illustrated a 14-page comic about a transsexual, legally distinct She-Hulk type character named the Abominatrix. Attempts at writing and illustrating another comic about mermaids were derailed by an extended depressive episode, so Sea doubled back and handwrote an experimental thesis exploring the creation of her Abominatrix comic. The results are handwritten autoethnography of process, formal and informal research, cartooning experimentation, and mental illness navel gazing. This thesis is a piece of performative research where documentation of process combines with the original art to create another art object. Through this research, Sea was able to experiment with cartooning and find her writing and illustrative voice, build a portfolio, and survive a few years in our late capitalist hellscape. TAGS FOR THE ALGORITHM: Identity politics: Transsexual, transgender, trans art, saphic, bisexual, Saskatchewan born artist, colonizer, canadian, trans woman, gay, lgbtq, lesbian, t4t, w4w, very attractive woman, some kind of genius, just gorgeous and funny too. Methods: Cartooning, illustration, writing, comics, cartoonist, autoethnography, autobiography, graphic medicine, adhd, anxiety, depression, powers of horror, abjection, capitalist realism, trans feminism, tumblr, Advisors: Fiona Smyth, Dr. Michelle Millar and Shannon Gerrard Artists that vaguely have to do with this project: Lynda Barry, Joe Sacco, Jack Kirby, Steve Gerber, Buzz Dixon, Stan Lee, John Buscema, John Byrne, Things Disney owns: Hulk, She-hulk, Fantastic Four, Abomination, mutants, most superheroes, Spider-Man

The distributed air wing

The development of advanced anti-access/area denial (A2AD) threats by potential adversaries presents a significant challenge to the United States Navy. The proliferation of these threats makes operating an aircraft carrier from contested waters a high-risk endeavor. If a carrier must be withheld from the battle or is put out of action, the entire capability of the air wing is lost. The Systems Engineering process was applied to this problem by exploring a concept called the Distributed Air Wing (DAW). This high-level concept includes various methods to distribute and disperse naval air capabilities from their centralized location on an aircraft carrier. This study outlines the development and analysis of three conceptual designs that fall under the concept of the DAW: a dispersed land and sea basing concept that utilizes carrier-borne Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, a seaborne unmanned aircraft courier system, and a carrier-based unmanned air-to-air vehicle. The analysis within shows that a mixture of these alternatives in varying degrees delivers the Fleet’s most critical capabilities— Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), Offensive/Defensive Counter Air, and Surface/Land Strike— with less risk than the current Carrier Air Wing (CVW) force structure and operational doctrine.http://archive.org/details/thedistributedir1094542717Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Data from manuscript "distance doesn't matter: migration strategy in a seabird has no effect on survival or reproduction"

Migrating animals show remarkable diversity in migration strategies, even between individuals from the same population. Migrating longer distances is usually expected to be costlier in terms of time, energy expenditure and risks with potential repercussions for subsequent stages within the annual cycle. Such costs are expected to be balanced by increased survival, for example due to higher quality wintering areas or lower energy expenditure at lower latitudes. We compared reproductive parameters and apparent survival of lesser black-backed gulls (Larus fuscus) breeding in the Netherlands, whose winter range extends from the UK to West Africa, resulting in one-way migration distances that differ by more than 4500 km. Individuals migrating furthest arrived later in the colony than shorter-distance migrants, but still laid in synchrony with the colony and consequently had a shorter pre-laying period. This shorter pre-laying period affected neither egg volumes nor hatching success. We found no relationship between migration distance and apparent survival probability, corresponding with previous research showing that annual energy expenditure and distance travelled throughout the year is similar across migration strategies. Combined, our results indicate an equal fitness payoff across migration strategies, suggesting there is no strong selective pressure acting on migration strategy within this population

Fishers' perceptions about the EU discards policy and its economic impact on small-scale fisheries in Galicia (North West Spain)

This paper investigates the impact of the European Union landing obligation in the Galician (North West of Spain) multispecies small-scale gillnet fishery. By combining results from semi-structured interviews with small-scale fishers and a bioeconomic model, we found that the percentage of discards for small-scale fisheries is usually low, which is consistent with general empirical observations globally but can be high when quotas are exhausted. Our results also confirm that the landing obligation would generate negative impacts on fishers' activities by investing more time on-board to handle previously discarded fishes, and putting at risk the security of fishers at sea due to full use of allowable storage on-board coupled with often adverse sea conditions in Galician bays. The application of the landing obligation policy to small-scale fisheries would result in short-and long-term losses of fishing days and yields, with high negative impacts on sustainable fisheries such as the Galician multi species small-scale gillnet fishery. The expected number of fishing days under the landing obligation is estimated to be reduced by 50% during the five years following the implementation of the policy. The future yield (catches) under the landing obligation would be only 50% of catches expected in the absence of the landing obligation, regardless of the total volume of quotas allocated to the fleet. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved