Strategic Culture as the Basis for Military Adaptive Capacity: Overcoming battlefield technological surprises

The ability of a military to respond to environmental changes rather than rigidly adhere to previously defined concepts of operation is paramount to overcoming unforeseen battlefield technological challenges. A force with the greater capacity for learning and adaptation will possess significant advantages in overcoming unforeseen challenges. However, it is unclear as to what determines the flexibility or adaptive capacity of a military during military engagements. To address this issue, this study focuses on intra- war adaptation as a product of a military’s strategic culture in overcoming enemy technological surprises. The work demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between strategic culture and adaptability that ultimately determines how effectively a force will respond to unforeseen battlefield challenges. For this reason, strategic culture is indispensable in explaining why militaries may continue to act in ways that are incongruous with prevailing operational circumstances while others are adept at responding to Clausewitzian fog and friction

Comparison of Two Alternate Methods for Tracking Toe Clearance

Analyses of toe clearance during the swing phase of locomotion has often been utilized in determining a subject s propensity to trip while either walking or stepping over an obstacle. In the literature, toe clearance has been studied using a marker on the superior aspect of the second toe (rtoe), a marker on the lateral aspect of the fifth metatarsal head (mth5), or a virtual marker positioned at the anterior tip of the toe (vtoe). The purpose of this study was to compute toe clearance and associated parameters using a fifth metatarsal marker and a virtual toe marker, and compare the results with those of the standard toe marker. Subjects walked on a motorized treadmill at five different speeds while performing a visual acuity task at two separate target distances (ten 60-second trials). The minimum vertical height (TCl) was determined for each stride, along with its point of occurence in the gait cycle, and the angles of the foot and ankle at that time. A regression analysis was performed on the vtoe and mth5 results versus rtoe individually. For all TCl parameters, the mth5 marker did not correlate well with rtoe; the vtoe marker showed better agreement. Most importantly, the mth5 marker predicted a later occurence of TCl than rtoe and vtoe - thereby missing the most dangerous point in swing phase for a trip. From this analysis, the vtoe marker proved to be a better analog to rtoe than mth5, especially for determining a subject s propensity to trip

Effect of mass extractions and injections on the performance of a fixed-size humidification–dehumidification desalination system

The impact of mass extractions and injections as a method for increasing the energetic performance of fixed-size humidification–dehumidification desalination systems is examined. Whereas previous studies of this problem have been restricted to thermodynamic models, the use of a more complete model that includes transport provides the ability to quantify the impact of mass extractions/injections on a realizable, fixed-size system. For a closed air, open water cycle, the results show that a single water extraction from the dehumidifier to the humidifier increases the gained output ratio by up to 10%, with extractions higher in the cycle proving more effective. The sizing problem for the humidifier and dehumidifier under thermodynamically optimized conditions found in literature is also discussed, as is the impact of system size on overall performance of a system without extractions/injections. For a range of sizes, it is shown that a rough doubling of both dehumidifier and humidifier size results in a two- to three-fold increase in gained output ratio, with diminishing returns as the absolute sizes increase.Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM (Project R4-CW-08)Eni S.p.A. (Firm)MIT Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainabilit

Pointing Guns

The American gun debate is increasingly populated with scenes of people pointing and otherwise displaying guns. What is the legal regime governing gun displays, and how well can it address the distinct social and legal problems they pose? In this Essay, we argue that the current structure of criminal law does not supply clear rules of conduct sufficient to avoid the negative effects of gun displays, and that the rhetorical and expressive effects of Second Amendment debates threaten to make the situation worse. We also suggest how the legal rules might be improved, and how battles over norms—as much as criminal prohibitions and defenses—will continue to shape both social practice and law when it comes to displays of firearms in public and towards other persons

Lubricating Bacteria Model for Branching growth of Bacterial Colonies

Various bacterial strains (e.g. strains belonging to the genera Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Serratia and Salmonella) exhibit colonial branching patterns during growth on poor semi-solid substrates. These patterns reflect the bacterial cooperative self-organization. Central part of the cooperation is the collective formation of lubricant on top of the agar which enables the bacteria to swim. Hence it provides the colony means to advance towards the food. One method of modeling the colonial development is via coupled reaction-diffusion equations which describe the time evolution of the bacterial density and the concentrations of the relevant chemical fields. This idea has been pursued by a number of groups. Here we present an additional model which specifically includes an evolution equation for the lubricant excreted by the bacteria. We show that when the diffusion of the fluid is governed by nonlinear diffusion coefficient branching patterns evolves. We study the effect of the rates of emission and decomposition of the lubricant fluid on the observed patterns. The results are compared with experimental observations. We also include fields of chemotactic agents and food chemotaxis and conclude that these features are needed in order to explain the observations.Comment: 1 latex file, 16 jpeg files, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Critical research needs for successful food systems adaptation to climate change

There is a growing sense of the fragility of agricultural production in the Global North and South and of increasing risks to food security, as scientific observations confirm significant changes in the Gulf Stream, polar ice, atmospheric CO2, methane release, and other measures of climate change. This sense is heightened as each of us experiences extreme weather, such as the increasing frequency of droughts, floods, unseasonal temperatures, and erratic seasonality. The central research challenge before us is how global, national, regional, and local food systems may adapt to accelerating climate change stresses and uncertainties to ensure the availability, access, consumption, and stability of healthy food for and by all people. Missing aspects of research fall into two broad categories: the impacts of rapid climate change on the environmental systems supporting food production, and climate change’s impact on the predominantly human systems that influence food security. Of particular concern is how different policy and governance mechanisms can support or hinder the collective decision-making needed to promote a swift adaptive response to increase and sustain food security. Human systems research is needed to investigate food system activities beyond production (processing, distribution, consumption, and waste management). It also must consider political, cultural, and regulatory factors that influence behavior and facilitate positive behavioral changes. To accurately envision future scenarios, research is needed to characterize risk comprehensively throughout the food system, assess barriers to and opportunities for changing food systems, and evaluate novel and traditional approaches that may lead to greater food security

Angular Conditions,Relations between Breit and Light-Front Frames, and Subleading Power Corrections

We analyze the current matrix elements in the general collinear (Breit) frames and find the relation between the ordinary (or canonical) helicity amplitudes and the light-front helicity amplitudes. Using the conservation of angular momentum, we derive a general angular condition which should be satisfied by the light-front helicity amplitudes for any spin system. In addition, we obtain the light-front parity and time-reversal relations for the light-front helicity amplitudes. Applying these relations to the spin-1 form factor analysis, we note that the general angular condition relating the five helicity amplitudes is reduced to the usual angular condition relating the four helicity amplitudes due to the light-front time-reversal condition. We make some comments on the consequences of the angular condition for the analysis of the high-$Q^2$ deuteron electromagnetic form factors, and we further apply the general angular condition to the electromagnetic transition between spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 systems and find a relation useful for the analysis of the N-$\Delta$ transition form factors. We also discuss the scaling law and the subleading power corrections in the Breit and light-front frames.Comment: 24 pages,2 figure

Locomotor Dysfunction after Spaceflight: Characterization and Countermeasure Development

Astronauts returning from space flight show disturbances in locomotor control manifested by changes in various sub-systems including head-trunk coordination, dynamic visual acuity, lower limb muscle activation patterning and kinematics (Glasauer, et al., 1995; Bloomberg, et al., 1997; McDonald, et al., 1996; 1997; Layne, et al., 1997; 1998, 2001, 2004; Newman, et al., 1997; Bloomberg and Mulavara, 2003). These post flight changes in locomotor performance, due to neural adaptation to the microgravity conditions of space flight, affect the ability of crewmembers especially after a long duration mission to egress their vehicle and perform extravehicular activities soon after landing on Earth or following a landing on the surface of the Moon or Mars. At present, no operational training intervention is available pre- or in- flight to mitigate post flight locomotor disturbances. Our laboratory is currently developing a gait adaptability training program that is designed to facilitate recovery of locomotor function following a return to a gravitational environment. The training program exploits the ability of the sensorimotor system to generalize from exposure to multiple adaptive challenges during training so that the gait control system essentially "learns to learn" and therefore can reorganize more rapidly when faced with a novel adaptive challenge. Ultimately, the functional goal of an adaptive generalization countermeasure is not necessarily to immediately return movement patterns back to "normal". Rather the training regimen should facilitate the reorganization of available sensorimotor sub-systems to achieve safe and effective locomotion as soon as possible after space flight. We have previously confirmed that subjects participating in adaptive generalization training programs, using a variety of visuomotor distortions and different motor tasks from throwing to negotiating an obstacle course as the dependent measure, can learn to enhance their ability to adapt to a novel sensorimotor environment (Roller et al., 2001; Cohen et al. 2005). Importantly, this increased adaptability is retained even one month after completion of the training period. Our laboratory is currently developing adaptive generalization training procedures and the associated flight hardware to implement such a training program, using variations of visual flow, subject loading, and treadmill speed; during regular in-flight treadmill operations

Botanic Gardens in the Arabian Peninsula

Botanic gardens in the Arabian Peninsula and adjacent countries, along with institutions such as museums, universities and research centres, have long played a major role in the exploration, identification and conservation of this region’s flora and vegetation. The primary aim of botanic gardens in the past was to study the plant world from the horticultural point of view and to cultivate plants of economic or medicinal importance. However, at present, particularly in arid regions such as the Arabian Peninsula, the activities of botanic gardens are focused primarily on (i) the study and exploration of the region’s rapidly vanishing flora, thereby safeguarding gene pools of wild species, and (ii) the assessment and preservation of species that may be of importance to humans and animals for food, medicines, fibre and amenity. Recently established botanic gardens in the region, including the proposed King Abdullah International Gardens in Riyadh and Oman Botanic Garden near Muscat, will enhance existing conservation activities concerning the ailing and rapidly vanishing floristic components of the Arabian Peninsula