330 research outputs found
ANALYZING KEY COMMUNICATORS
As history has shown, members of social groups trust select individuals who can access information and provide persuasive perspectives. Known by the Department of Defense as key communicators, these personalities maintain a great deal of influence deriving their authority from various official, cultural, religious, and social statuses within their respective communities. Although psychological operations and other national security personnel understand their value, current government training and processes do not adequately address the need for effective analysis of key communicators. The purpose of this research is to develop a foundational PSYOP analytical process to improve how practitioners select key communicators to support military objectives. Drawing from academic theories, scientific processes, and the experience of military service members, how can PSYOP personnel analyze key communicators to leverage their social networks? The research reviewed relevant theories, systems, processes, techniques, and procedures to develop the key communicator analytical process (KCAP). This process and its associated tool were designed to guide practitioners as they identify, categorize, organize, visualize, and evaluate relevant qualitative and quantitative communicator and audience variables to yield an appropriate index score with which to compare against others. Finally, this tool was applied to a historical case study to validate its functionality in future operational settings.Major, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited
Velocity Segregation and Systematic Biases In Velocity Dispersion Estimates With the SPT-GMOS Spectroscopic Survey
The velocity distribution of galaxies in clusters is not universal; rather,
galaxies are segregated according to their spectral type and relative
luminosity. We examine the velocity distributions of different populations of
galaxies within 89 Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) selected galaxy clusters spanning . Our sample is primarily draw from the SPT-GMOS spectroscopic
survey, supplemented by additional published spectroscopy, resulting in a final
spectroscopic sample of 4148 galaxy spectra---2868 cluster members. The
velocity dispersion of star-forming cluster galaxies is % greater than
that of passive cluster galaxies, and the velocity dispersion of bright () cluster galaxies is % lower than the velocity dispersion of
our total member population. We find good agreement with simulations regarding
the shape of the relationship between the measured velocity dispersion and the
fraction of passive vs. star-forming galaxies used to measure it, but we find a
small offset between this relationship as measured in data and simulations in
which suggests that our dispersions are systematically low by as much as 3\%
relative to simulations. We argue that this offset could be interpreted as a
measurement of the effective velocity bias that describes the ratio of our
observed velocity dispersions and the intrinsic velocity dispersion of dark
matter particles in a published simulation result. Measuring velocity bias in
this way suggests that large spectroscopic surveys can improve dispersion-based
mass-observable scaling relations for cosmology even in the face of velocity
biases, by quantifying and ultimately calibrating them out.Comment: Accepted to ApJ; 21 pages, 11 figures, 5 table
Reflex Based Interventions For Children with Autism and Developmental Disabilities: An Evidence-Based Practice Project
This research will focus on reflex based interventions, specifically The Masgutova Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration Method (MNRI Method). Background learning was completed by searching multiple search engines with combinations of keywords. The background information consisted of who the founder of MNRI is, what MNRI is, how it is done, and why the creator believes it works. MNRI was created by Dr. Svetlana Masgutova. Dr. Masgutova has her Doctorate in Developmental Educational Psychology (Dr. Svetlana Masgutova n.d.). Her doctoral work was geared toward the history of reflexes (Dr. Svetlana Masgutova n.d.; Rentschler, 2008). The background information she used came from the work of researchers such as Vygotsky and Piaget (Dr. Svetlana Masgutova n.d.; Rentschler, 2008). She also participated in work with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which eventually became the groundwork for MRNI (Dr. Svetlana Masgutova n.d.). She now works with individuals with multiple disorders and leads the MNRI International Team (Dr. Svetlana Masgutova n.d)
Collaborative Forum 3.1: Suit Sizing for Optimal Fit
No abstract availabl
Silver release from silver nanoparticles in natural waters
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are used increasingly in consumer products for their antimicrobial properties. This increased use raises ecological concern because of the release of AgNPs into the environment. Once released, zero-valent silver may be oxidized to Ag+ and the cation liberated or it may persist as AgNPs. The chemical form of Ag has implications for its toxicity; it is therefore crucial to characterize the persistence of AgNPs to predict their ecotoxicological potential. In this study, we evaluated the release of Ag from AgNPs of various sizes exposed to river and lake water for up to 4 months. Several AgNP-capping agents were also considered: polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), tannic acid (Tan), and citric acid (Cit). We observed a striking difference between 5, 10, and 50 nm AgNPs, with the latter being more resistant to dissolution in oxic water on a mass basis. However, the difference decreased when Ag was surface-area-normalized, suggesting an important role of the surface area in determining Ag loss. We propose that rapid initial Ag+ release was attributable to desorption of Ag+ from nanoparticle surfaces. We also observed that PVP- and Tan-AgNPs are more prone to Ag+ release than Cit-AgNPs. In addition, it is likely that oxidative dissolution also occurs but at a slower rate. This study clearly shows that small AgNPs (5 nm, PVP and Tan) dissolve rapidly and almost completely, while larger AgNPs (50 nm) have the potential to persist for an extended period of time and could serve as a continuous source of Ag ions
PrioDeX: a Data Exchange middleware for efficient event prioritization in SDN-based IoT systems
International audienceReal-time event detection and targeted decision making for emerging mission-critical applications require systems that extract and process relevant data from IoT sources in smart spaces. Oftentimes, this data is heterogeneous in size, relevance, and urgency, which creates a challenge when considering that different groups of stakeholders (e.g., first responders, medical staff, government officials, etc) require such data to be delivered in a reliable and timely manner. Furthermore, in mission-critical settings, networks can become constrained due to lossy channels and failed components, which ultimately add to the complexity of the problem. In this paper, we propose PrioDeX, a cross-layer middleware system that enables timely and reliable delivery of mission-critical data from IoT sources to relevant consumers through the prioritization of messages. It integrates parameters at the application, network, and middleware layers into a data exchange service that accurately estimates end-to-end performance metrics through a queueing analytical model. PrioDeX proposes novel algorithms that utilize the results of this analysis to tune data exchange configurations (event priorities and dropping policies), which is necessary for satisfying situational awareness requirements and resource constraints. PrioDeX leverages Software-Defined Networking (SDN) methodologies to enforce these configurations in the IoT network infrastructure. We evaluate our approach using both simulated and prototype-based experiments in a smart building fire response scenario. Our application-aware prioritization algorithm improves the value of exchanged information by 36% when compared with no prioritization; the addition of our network-aware drop rate policies improves this performance by 42% over priorities only and by 94% over no prioritization
18F-FDG PET/CT in Primary AL Hepatic Amyloidosis Associated with Multiple Myeloma
We report here on a rare case of primary AL hepatic amyloidosis associated with multiple myeloma in a 64-year-old woman. The patient was referred for evaluating her progressive jaundice and right upper quadrant pain. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) showed diffusely and markedly increased 18F-FDG uptake in the liver. Although there have been several case studies showing positive 18F-FDG uptake in pulmonary amyloidosis, to the best of our knowledge, the 18F-FDG PET/CT findings of hepatic amyloidosis or primary hepatic amyloidosis associated with multiple myeloma have not been reported previously
The STAGES view of red spirals and dusty red galaxies: Mass-dependent quenching of star-formation in cluster infall
We investigate the properties of optically passive spirals and dusty red
galaxies in the A901/2 cluster complex at redshift ~0.17 using restframe
near-UV-optical SEDs, 24 micron IR data and HST morphologies from the STAGES
dataset. The cluster sample is based on COMBO-17 redshifts with an rms
precision of sigma_cz~2000 km/sec. We find that 'dusty red galaxies' and
'optically passive spirals' in A901/2 are largely the same phenomenon, and that
they form stars at a substantial rate, which is only 4x lower than that in blue
spirals at fixed mass. This star formation is more obscured than in blue
galaxies and its optical signatures are weak. They appear predominantly in the
stellar mass range of log M*/Msol=[10,11] where they constitute over half of
the star-forming galaxies in the cluster; they are thus a vital ingredient for
understanding the overall picture of star formation quenching in clusters. We
find that the mean specific SFR of star-forming galaxies in the cluster is
clearly lower than in the field, in contrast to the specific SFR properties of
blue galaxies alone, which appear similar in cluster and field. Such a rich red
spiral population is best explained if quenching is a slow process and
morphological transformation is delayed even more. At log M*/Msol<10, such
galaxies are rare, suggesting that their quenching is fast and accompanied by
morphological change. We note, that edge-on spirals play a minor role; despite
being dust-reddened they form only a small fraction of spirals independent of
environment.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
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