Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations on Air, Sea, Land

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land is our fourth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS). (Nichols R. K., 2018) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2019) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020)The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS systems. Our title shows our concern for growth and unique cyber security unmanned vehicle technology and operations for unmanned vehicles in all theaters: Air, Sea and Land – especially maritime cybersecurity and China proliferation issues. Topics include: Information Advances, Remote ID, and Extreme Persistence ISR; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & How They Can Augment Mesonet Weather Tower Data Collection; Tour de Drones for the Discerning Palate; Underwater Autonomous Navigation & other UUV Advances; Autonomous Maritime Asymmetric Systems; UUV Integrated Autonomous Missions & Drone Management; Principles of Naval Architecture Applied to UUV’s; Unmanned Logistics Operating Safely and Efficiently Across Multiple Domains; Chinese Advances in Stealth UAV Penetration Path Planning in Combat Environment; UAS, the Fourth Amendment and Privacy; UV & Disinformation / Misinformation Channels; Chinese UAS Proliferation along New Silk Road Sea / Land Routes; Automaton, AI, Law, Ethics, Crossing the Machine – Human Barrier and Maritime Cybersecurity.Unmanned Vehicle Systems are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. Unmanned Vehicle (UV) Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land discusses state-of-the-art technology / issues facing U.S. UV system researchers / designers / manufacturers / testers. We trust our newest look at Unmanned Vehicles in Air, Sea, and Land will enrich our students and readers understanding of the purview of this wonderful technology we call UV.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1035/thumbnail.jp

On the trigger mechanisms for SGR giant flares

We examine two trigger mechanisms, one internal and the other external to the neutron star, that give rise to the intense soft gamma-ray repeater (SGR) giant flares. So far, three giant flares have been observed from the three out of the seven confirmed SGRs on March 5, 1979, August 27, 1998, and December 27, 2004. The last two events were found to be much more powerful than the first, and both showcased the existence of a precursor, that we show to have had initiated the main flare. In the internal mechanism, we propose that the strongly wound up poloidal magnetic field develops tangential discontinuities and dissipates its torsional energy in heating the crust. The timescale for the instability to develop coincides with the duration of the quiescent state that followed the precursor. Alternatively, we develop a reconnection model based on the hypothesis that shearing motion of the footpoints causes the materialization of a Sweet-Parker current layer in the magnetosphere. The thinning of this macroscopic layer due to the development of an embedded super-hot turbulent current layer switches on the impulsive Hall reconnection, which powers the giant flare. Again, we show that the thinning time is on the order of the preflare quiescent time. This model naturally explains the origin of the observed nonthermal radiation during the flares, as well as the post flare radio afterglows.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, version accepted by MNRAS. Changes: New references, added a section to introduction, added a paragraph to discussion. The results of this study remain unchanged

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

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Deciphering the transcriptional network of the dendritic cell lineage.

Although much progress has been made in the understanding of the ontogeny and function of dendritic cells (DCs), the transcriptional regulation of the lineage commitment and functional specialization of DCs in vivo remains poorly understood. We made a comprehensive comparative analysis of CD8(+), CD103(+), CD11b(+) and plasmacytoid DC subsets, as well as macrophage DC precursors and common DC precursors, across the entire immune system. Here we characterized candidate transcriptional activators involved in the commitment of myeloid progenitor cells to the DC lineage and predicted regulators of DC functional diversity in tissues. We identified a molecular signature that distinguished tissue DCs from macrophages. We also identified a transcriptional program expressed specifically during the steady-state migration of tissue DCs to the draining lymph nodes that may control tolerance to self tissue antigens

Deciphering the transcriptional network of the dendritic cell lineage.

Although much progress has been made in the understanding of the ontogeny and function of dendritic cells (DCs), the transcriptional regulation of the lineage commitment and functional specialization of DCs in vivo remains poorly understood. We made a comprehensive comparative analysis of CD8(+), CD103(+), CD11b(+) and plasmacytoid DC subsets, as well as macrophage DC precursors and common DC precursors, across the entire immune system. Here we characterized candidate transcriptional activators involved in the commitment of myeloid progenitor cells to the DC lineage and predicted regulators of DC functional diversity in tissues. We identified a molecular signature that distinguished tissue DCs from macrophages. We also identified a transcriptional program expressed specifically during the steady-state migration of tissue DCs to the draining lymph nodes that may control tolerance to self tissue antigens

Association of ideal cardiovascular health and calcified atherosclerotic plaque in the coronary arteries: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study

BACKGROUND: The American Heart Association (AHA) established recommendations based on 7 ideal health behaviors and factors with the goal of improving cardiovascular health (CVH) and reducing both morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) by 20% by 2020. Few studies have investigated their association with subclinical coronary heart disease (CHD). We sought to examine whether the 7 AHA CVH metrics were associated with calcified atherosclerotic plaque in the coronary arteries. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a cross-sectional design, we studied 1731 predominantly Caucasian men and women from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study without prevalent CHD. Diet was assessed by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Coronary artery calcium (CAC) was measured by cardiac CT. We defined prevalent CAC using an Agatston score of 100+ and fitted generalized estimating equations to calculate prevalence odds ratios of CAC. Mean age was 56.8 years and 41% were male. The median number of ideal CVH metrics was 3, and no participants met all 7. There was a strong inverse relationship between number of ideal CVH metrics and prevalent CAC. Odds ratios (95% CI) for CAC of 100+ were 1.0 (reference), 0.37 (0.29–0.45), 0.35 (0.26–0.44), and 0.27 (0.20–0.36) among subjects with 0–1, 2, 3, and 4+ ideal CVH metrics, respectively (p for trend: 0.0001), adjusting for sex, age, field center, alcohol, income, education, and calorie consumption. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate a strong and graded inverse relationship between AHA ideal CVH metrics and prevalent CAC in adult men and women

Deciphering the transcriptional network of the dendritic cell lineage

Although much progress has been made in the understanding of the ontogeny and function of dendritic cells (DCs), the transcriptional regulation of the lineage commitment and functional specialization of DCs in vivo remains poorly understood. We made a comprehensive comparative analysis of CD8(+), CD103(+), CD11b(+) and plasmacytoid DC subsets, as well as macrophage DC precursors and common DC precursors, across the entire immune system. Here we characterized candidate transcriptional activators involved in the commitment of myeloid progenitor cells to the DC lineage and predicted regulators of DC functional diversity in tissues. We identified a molecular signature that distinguished tissue DCs from macrophages. We also identified a transcriptional program expressed specifically during the steady-state migration of tissue DCs to the draining lymph nodes that may control tolerance to self tissue antigens