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Military programs to prevent combat-related psychological disorders need improvement

By Guest PostFebruary 27, 2014General, Healthadjustment disorders, combat related, department of defense, dod, institute of medicine, kenneth warner, military programs, prevent, psychological disorders, sale of alcohol

ANN ARBOR — Despite numerous resilience and prevention programs to address the psychological health of military veterans and their families, no evidence exists to prove their effectiveness, according to a new report issued by the Institute of Medicine.

Kenneth Warner, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and chair of the committee that wrote the report for the U.S. Department of Defense, said the military should develop, track and evaluate programs based on scientific evidence to ensure their effectiveness. In addition, more frequent evaluations of programs are needed. (more…)

SMART scholar

By Guest PostJuly 28, 2013Education, Environmentaccretion, brandon boyd, christopher sommerfield, coastal marshes, department of defense, doctoral work, dod, dredging operations data, drone, factors, lake pontchartrain, lidar, louisiana state university, map making technology, new orleans, oceanography graduate student, plant growth, rising sea level, sediment flow, sedimentation, shore erosion, smart scholar, sophisticated, university of delaware, vicksburg, way of life, wetland research

Oceanography graduate student lands scholarship supporting wetland research

Growing up along Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Brandon Boyd spent a lot of time hunting for waterfowl and fishing for speckled trout in marshes and swamps. There, wetlands are a way of life.

“Ever since I was in high school, I knew I really wanted to do something to help protect wetlands,” said Boyd, a graduate student in oceanography in the School of Marine Science and Policy within the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. (more…)

In Conversation with: Paul Bracken, Expert on Nuclear ‘Power Politics’

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2013Politicsatomic bomb, cold war, collapse, critical regions, department of defense, expert, food, iran, Japan, mirv, missile, multiple warhead icbm, north korea, nuclear power politics, nuclear test, oil donations, paul bracken, political science, pyongyang, second nuclear age, south korea, submarines, un. china, united states, Washington, weapons program, world, yale

North Korea, which just conducted its third nuclear test, is using its weapons program to deter the United States by holding its allies “hostage,” according to Paul Bracken, who teaches management and political science at Yale.

Bracken is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on several Department of Defense advisory boards, and is the author, most recently, of “The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics” (Times Books, 2012). The following is an edited version of an email interview with him. (more…)

U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and DISA Expand Access to Microsoft Technologies through Cost-Saving Modernization Agreement

By Guest PostJanuary 4, 2013Technologyadvanced mobility, africa, air force base, alabama, asia-pacific, big data, cloud computing, cybersecurity, defense, department of defense, disa, dod, Europe, fort huachuca, gunter annex, information systems agency, insight enterprises, insight public sector, it costs, microsoft corp., microsoft office 2013, microsoft solutions, middle east, mobility, North America, reduce, sharepoint 2013, tim solms, us air force, us army, windows 8

Insight Public Sector selected to deliver licensing agreement aimed at reducing IT costs while offering advanced mobility, collaboration and cloud computing capabilities to personnel.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jan. 4, 2013 — In an effort to modernize technology infrastructure, reduce costs and foster new levels of cross-agency collaboration, the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) are expanding access to Microsoft solutions by entering into a transformative three-year Joint Enterprise Licensing Agreement for enterprise licenses and software assurance. The agreement provides all three organizations with a single vehicle for accessing the latest Microsoft technologies in support of top IT priorities around datacenter consolidation, collaboration, cybersecurity, mobility, cloud computing and big data.

This is the most comprehensive licensing agreement Microsoft Corp. has ever established with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), covering nearly 75 percent of all DoD personnel. The net new contract was awarded to Insight Public Sector, a division of Insight Enterprises Inc., one of the largest global Microsoft Large Account Resellers. (more…)

UA Researchers Hunt Bomb-Eating Bugs

By Guest PostApril 29, 2012Environment, Weaponsarmy, aromatic amines, bacteria, bacterial eating habits, bio augmentation, bomb eating bugs, cancer, carcinogenic compound, conventional explosive, cytotoxic, degradation pathway, department of defense, ed stiles, environmental effect, environmental fate, environmental impact, fate and toxicity, food source, groundwater, humic polymer, humus, imcs, insensitive munitions compounds, james a field, jon chorover, molecular ecology technique, munition, mutagenic, nitro aromatic compound, organic matter, polymerization, reyes sierra, site selection, surface water, threat, tnt, university of arizona

UA researchers are investigating bacterial eating habits as part of a $1 million study to determine the environmental fate of newly developed munitions.

University of Arizona researchers are studying the environmental effects of insensitive munitions compounds, or IMCs, which are new, more stable explosives that won’t detonate in response to heat or shock.

Not much is known about the environmental impact of IMCs, which the U.S. Department of Defense hopes will reduce injuries and fatalities among troops who handle explosives. (more…)

JPL-Developed Clean Energy Technology Moves Forward

By Guest PostMay 30, 2011Environmentandrew kindler, caltech, darpa, defense advanced research projects agency, department of defense, direct methanol fuel cell technology, electric vehicles, electrical energy, erik brandon, fuel cell, george olah, gerald halpert, harvey frank, hydrogen gas, jet propulsion laboratory, los angeles, methanol fuel cell products, NASA, nobel laureate, pasadena, rao surampudi, stand alone power systems, surya prakash, university of southern california, us market, water and carbon dioxide

A team of scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in partnership with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, developed a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell technology for future Department of Defense and commercial applications. Recently, USC and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA, awarded a license to SFC Energy, Inc., the U.S. affiliate of SFC Energy AG. The non-exclusive license for the technology will facilitate the expansion of the company’s methanol fuel cell products into the U.S. market. (more…)

Tiny Protozoa May Hold Key to World Water Safety

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2010Environment, Sciencebarometers, better world, biologist, bob curtis, camera, car, climate change, department of defense, digital camera, dod, gasoline, groundbreaking technique, microscopic plankton, one celled protozoa, pesticides, plastic containers, protozoa, sbs, scott gallager, software, swimming behavioral spectrophotometer, Technology, toxins, underwater environment, wade mcgillis, water

Right now, it looks a little like one of those plastic containers you might fill with gasoline when your car has run dry. But Scott Gallager is not headed to the nearest Mobil station. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist has other, grander plans for his revolutionary Swimming Behavioral Spectrophotometer (SBS), which employs one-celled protozoa to detect toxins in water sources.

Not only is he working on streamlining the boxy-looking contraption—eventually even evolving it into a computer chip—but he sees it as a tool to potentially “monitor all the drinking water in the world.

“It has a unique utility.” (more…)

Rare Earth Elements in U.S. Not So Rare

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2010Economy, Environment, Scienceaustralia, bear lodge mountains, bokan mountain, China, department of defense, deposits, geochemical properties, marcia mcnutt, mountain pass, rare earth elements, ree, united states

*Significant Deposits Found in 14 States*

Rare Earth Elements. Image credit: USGS

Approximately 13 million metric tons of rare earth elements (REE) exist within known deposits in the United States, according to the first-ever nationwide estimate of these elements by the U.S. Geological Survey.

This estimate of domestic rare earth deposits is part of a larger report that includes a review of global sources for REE, information on known deposits that might provide domestic sources of REE in the future, and geologic information crucial for studies of the availability of REE to U.S. industry.

The report describes significant deposits of REE in 14 states, with the largest known REE deposits at Mountain Pass, Calif.; Bokan Mountain, Alaska; and the Bear Lodge Mountains, Wyo. The Mountain Pass mine produced REE until it closed in 2002. Additional states with known REE deposits include Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina. (more…)

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