Enterprise Command and Control requirements and common architecture on U.S. Navy surface combatants

Across the U.S. Navy, each new ship class implements a new command and control (C2) system design, leading to separate design and development efforts, training pipelines, support requirements, and upgrade activities. This project serves as an initial step in determining whether the Navy can consolidate C2 systems by defining a common C2 system architecture and requirements that can be applied across all surface combatants for the Surface Warfare and Maritime Interception Operations missions. The project applied a systems engineering process consisting of a needs analysis, functional analysis, and modeling and cost analysis. The needs analysis defined key user objectives and needs and identified threats to Navy platforms. The functional analysis included the core tasks of requirements definition and enterprise architecture. The modeling and cost analysis task verified the C2 system architecture and evaluated possible training course hour savings. The project found that the definition of a common set of C2 system requirements and system architecture is feasible and does provide possible life cycle cost savings to the Navy. In order to fully evaluate a proposed common C2 system, further work will be required, expanding the analysis to other missions and assessing the cost impacts of a common C2 systemhttp://archive.org/details/enterprisecomman109456939N

Reactivity Ratios of Comonomers from a Single MALDI–ToF–MS Measurement at One Feed Composition

The reactivity ratios in a copolymerization are needed to predict the microstructure (random, gradient, block or alternating) of the produced copolymer. This microstructure reflects on the physical properties of the polymeric material. Conventional ways to determine these reactivity ratios demand in most cases tedious laboratory work and several experiments at different monomer feed compositions. Here, a novel method is described to derive these ratios from a single MALDI-ToF-MS spectrum obtained at one feed composition by employing either a Monte Carlo approach to numerically simulate a first order Markov chain or the analytical form of the first order Markov chain. A single MALDI-ToF-MS spectrum proved to give very good estimates of the reactivity ratios of comonomers from copolymer's synthesized by free radical polymerization, ring-opening polymerization of lactones and lactides, or ring-opening copolymerization of anhydrides plus epoxides