Rapid Response Command and Control (R2C2): a systems engineering analysis of scaleable communications for Regional Combatant Commanders

Includes supplementary materialDisaster relief operations, such as the 2005 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, and wartime operations, such as Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, have identified the need for a standardized command and control system interoperable among Joint, Coalition, and Interagency entities. The Systems Engineering Analysis Cohort 9 (SEA-9) Rapid Response Command and Control (R2C2) integrated project team completed a systems engineering (SE) process to address the military’s command and control capability gap. During the process, the R2C2 team conducted mission analysis, generated requirements, developed and modeled architectures, and analyzed and compared current operational systems versus the team’s R2C2 system. The R2C2 system provided a reachback capability to the Regional Combatant Commander’s (RCC) headquarters, a local communications network for situational assessments, and Internet access for civilian counterparts participating in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief operations. Because the team designed the R2C2 system to be modular, analysis concluded that the R2C2 system was the preferred method to provide the RCC with the required flexibility and scalability to deliver a rapidly deployable command and control capability to perform the range of military operations

Outplayed but not Outclassed: Interwar Australia's Independent Approach to Defence.

Master'sMASTER OF ART

A performance analysis of BGP/MPLS VPN failover functionality

Future military systems, many of which have unique timing requirements, will rely on the Global Information Grid (GIG) as the core data communication infrastructure. The GIG currently uses the BGP/MPLS VPN technology to provide secure and robust IP-level connectivity. This technology supports the provisioning of IP connectivity by a service provider to multiple customers over a common physical IP backbone while allowing complete logical separation of customer traffic and routing information. This research focuses on evaluating and validating the performance characteristic of BGP/MPLS VPN to determine if the use of this technology can provide the necessary performance guarantees required by military applications. A set of experiments have been performed to identify the key factors that affect the time delay of a network failure and recovery. The results show that reducing the ISIS SPF interval and TDP Hello interval could shorten the failover latency while decreasing the ISIS SPF interval and TDP Hello interval could reduce the restoration delay, hence improving the BGP/MPLS VPN failover functionality.http://archive.org/details/aperformancenaly109452425Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Natural resources in Argentina, Chile and Peru

Argentina, Chile and Peru are among the South American countries blessed with an abundance of natural resources. The natural resource sectors, which include mining, oil and gas, agriculture, fisheries and forestry, have been the engine of economic growth in many ways. In order to promote the development in these sectors, particularly mining and oil and gas, the Governments of Argentina, Chile and Peru have embarked on a programme of deregulation to de-monopolise state-owned enterprises. Numerous policies have been introduced, incorporating various concessions, to attract foreign direct investment in the natural resource sectors. Many multinational companies have taken advantage of theses incentives and invested in activities such as exploration and extraction of minerals as well as manufacturing and food processing.Master of Business Administratio

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy.

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field