Small Arms...as a Last Resort

One can only contemplate the fearful moment of realisation that a situation has become dire, there are few options available, and in reality there will be ‘no quarter’ from your adversaries. At such a critical moment there is a desperate need for all systems, including small arms, to work flawlessly. The following Article discusses three historic battles, where such a situation arose. This Article aims to focus on dismounted infantry small arms and should not be considered as an exhaustive account of the battles or the circumstances surrounding those battles. I have also tried to address the small arms ‘bigger picture.’ This Article is my endeavour to better appreciate the role of small arms at three influential moments in history. The following is a ‘distillation’ of the information available in the public domain. I hope that this ‘distillation’ may be helpful to those looking for insights into these events

5.56mm or 7.62mm? Small Arms Alternatives Explored.

Small arms developments tend to occur in cycles and decisions are made that influence events for tens of years ahead. The ‘boots on the ground,’ from both the US and UK, have recently been voicing concern about aspects such as system mechanical reliability, terminal ballistic reliability and effective range. The U.S. Congress has also asked questions about the suitability of the current range of small arms. The current small arms mix employed by the NATO forces in Afghanistan has required some significant ‘patches’ to try and remedy evident problems. The opposing forces in Afghanistan have used the topography to their advantage while employing tactics to highlight the weakness of the original NATO small arms mix

Making Effective Audits Truly Effective

The Queensland Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 and the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 require a mine to have a Safety and Health Management System (SHMS) in place to manage the risk to safety and health of persons at the mine. The legislation assigns the obligation to the site senior executive to develop and implement the mine’s SHMS. It assigns a further obligation to the mine operator to audit the effectiveness of the system put in place by the site senior executive. What is exactly meant in the legislation by the term effectiveness, and how to go about assessing effectiveness has been the topic of much debate since the legislation was enacted. In 2008, the Queensland Mines Inspectorate provided some clarification on the issue, when it published Queensland Guidance Note QGN09 Reviewing the Effectiveness of Safety and Health Management Systems. However, QGN09 is not an exhaustive treatment of reviewing the effectiveness of an SHMS. In this paper, former Queensland Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health, Paul Harrison, and former Queensland Chief Inspector of Mines, Phil Goode, discuss effectiveness audits from the perspective of the authors’ experience and propose a tool for quantitative measurement of SHMS effectiveness

On Being Us: Who Are We, and What is This Book About? - Chapter 1 of Being at Home in the World: A New Christian Apologetic

This chapter introduces the authors and explains why we have written a book of Christian apologetics. It is important that the authors introduce themselves, because our apologetic procedure is personal. We do not offer a cool, detached, objective argument; instead, we extend an invitation

Differential expression of skeletal muscle genes following administration of clenbuterol to exercised horses.

BackgroundClenbuterol, a beta2-adrenergic receptor agonist, is used therapeutically to treat respiratory conditions in the horse. However, by virtue of its mechanism of action it has been suggested that clenbuterol may also have repartitioning affects in horses and as such the potential to affect performance. Clenbuterol decreases the percent fat and increases fat-free mass following high dose administration in combination with intense exercise in horses. In the current study, microarray analysis and real-time PCR were used to study the temporal effects of low and high dose chronic clenbuterol administration on differential gene expression of several skeletal muscle myosin heavy chains, genes involved in lipid metabolism and the β2-adrenergic receptor. The effect of clenbuterol administration on differential gene expression has not been previously reported in the horse, therefore the primary objective of the current study was to describe clenbuterol-induced temporal changes in gene expression following chronic oral administration of clenbuterol at both high and low doses.ResultsSteady state clenbuterol concentrations were achieved at approximately 50 h post administration of the first dose for the low dose regimen and at approximately 18-19 days (10 days post administration of 3.2 μg/kg) for the escalating dosing regimen. Following chronic administration of the low dose (0.8 μg/kg BID) of clenbuterol, a total of 114 genes were differentially expressed, however, none of these changes were found to be significant following FDR adjustment of the p-values. A total of 7,093 genes were differentially expressed with 3,623 genes up regulated and 3,470 genes down regulated following chronic high dose administration. Of the genes selected for further study by real-time PCR, down-regulation of genes encoding myosin heavy chains 2 and 7, steroyl CoA desaturase and the β2-adrenergic receptor were noted. For most genes, expression levels returned towards baseline levels following cessation of drug administration.ConclusionThis study showed no evidence of modified gene expression following chronic low dose administration of clenbuterol to horses. However, following chronic administration of high doses of clenbuterol alterations were noted in transcripts encoding various myosin heavy chains, lipid metabolizing enzymes and the β2-adrenergic receptor

Naturalness vs. Predictability: A Key Debate in Controlled Languages

Abstract. In this paper we describe two quite different philosophies used in developing controlled languages (CLs): A "naturalist " approach, in which CL interpretation is treated as a simpler form of full natural language processing; and a "formalist " approach, in which the CL interpretation is “deterministic” (context insensitive) and the CL is viewed more as an English-like formal specification language. Despite the philosophical and practical differences, we suggest that a synthesis can be made in which a deterministic core is embedded in a naturalist CL, and illustrate this with our own controlled language CPL. In the second part of this paper we present a fictitious debate between an ardent “naturalist ” and an ardent “formalist”, each arguing their respective positions, to illustrate the benefits and tradeoffs of these different philosophies in an accessible way. Part I: The Naturalist vs. Formalist Debate

Do volcanic emissions affect carbon gas fluxes in peatlands?

Recently, a link has been suggested between volcanic deposition of SO4 and the suppression of CH4 emissions in northern peatlands (Gauci et al., 2008). This link stems from the widely accepted idea that acid rain SO4 additions to peatlands can cause a shift in microbial communities as SO4 reducing bacteria out-compete methanogens for substrates, which results in a suppression of CH4 emission. However, volcanic emissions contain besides S other chemically reactive species that are potentially harmful to the environment. In particular, gaseous and particulate F emissions from volcanoes constitute a steady or intermittent source of F emission and deposition into the environment both close to the source and within fallout range of large eruptions. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of volcanic depositions of SO4, both alone and in combination with F, on CH4 emission in peatlands. Peat mesocosms collected from Pennine uplands in the UK were treated with weekly pulses of Na2SO4 and NaF over 20 weeks in doses of 74 kg SO4/ ha and 13.5 and 135 kg F /ha. CH4 emissions were measured at regular intervals by taking headspace samples, which were analysed by GC-FID. CO2 fluxes were also measured using a portable Infra Red Gas Analyser (IRGA). No significant differences in CH4 and CO2 emissions were observed for any of the treatments when compared to the controls, which had only received deionised water. These findings are in contrast with previous studies where SO4 reduces CH4 emission in peatlands. The reason for this is unclear but may be due to the heterogeneous nature of peat soils. An alternative explanation relates to the previous history of the soils used in the mesocosms which are known to have been previously exposed to large volumes of anthropogenic S pollution. This may have caused microbial communities to evolve and become acclimatised to high levels of S addition. In either case, the assumption that CH4 suppression in peatlands occurs upon exposure to volcanic depositions is questionable. Gauci, V., S. Blake, et al. (2008). Halving of the northern wetland methane source by a large icelandic volcanic eruption. JGR, doi:10.1029/2007JG00049

The Current Status of Farm Forestry in Australia

A report for the RIRDC/Land & Water Australia/FWPRDC Joint Venture Agroforestry Program, 2002

Using proxies to calculate the carbon impact of investment into electricity network assets

Replacement and upgrading of assets in the electricity network requires financial investment for the distribution and transmission utilities. The replacement and upgrading of network assets also represents an emissions impact due to the carbon embodied in the materials used to manufacture network assets. This paper uses investment and asset data for the GB system for 2015-2023 to assess the suitability of using a proxy with peak demand data and network investment data to calculate the carbon impacts of network investments. The proxies are calculated on a regional basis and applied to calculate the embodied carbon associated with current network assets by DNO region. The proxies are also applied to peak demand data across the 2015-2023 period to estimate the expected levels of embodied carbon that will be associated with network investment during this period. The suitability of these proxies in different contexts are then discussed, along with initial scenario analysis to calculate the impact of avoiding or deferring network investments through distributed generation projects. The proxies were found to be effective in estimating the total embodied carbon of electricity system investment in order to compare investment strategies in different regions of the GB network