US Defense Department Research Articles

World view: Missing weapons

The US defence department should be at the centre of the nation's energy policy, says Daniel Sarewitz.

Involvement of the US Department of Defense in Civilian Assistance, Part I: A Quantitative Description of the Projects Funded by the Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid Program

To review the history and goals of the US Department of Defense's largest civilian assistance program, the Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster and Civic Aid Program and to describe the number, geographic regions, years, key words, countries, and types of projects carried out under this program since 2001. Using the program's central database, we reviewed all approved projects since 2001 and tabulated them by year, combatant command, country, and key word. We also reviewed the project descriptions of projects funded between January 1, 2006, and February 9, 2008, and examined how their activities varied by combatant command and year. Of the 5395 projects in the database, 2097 were funded. Projects took place in more than 90 countries, with Southern, Pacific, and Africa Command hosting the greatest number. The most common types of projects were school, health, disaster response, and water infrastructure construction, and disaster-response training. The "global war on terror" was the key word most frequently tagged to project descriptions. Project descriptions lacked stated goals as well as implementation and coordination strategies with potential partners, and did not report outcome or impact indicators. The geographic reach of the program is vast and projects take place in a wide variety of public sectors. Yet their security and civilian assistance value remains unclear given the lack of stated project goals, implementation strategies, or measures of effectiveness. To facilitate transparency and policy discussion, we recommend project proposals include hypotheses as to how they will enhance US security, their relevance to the public sector they address, and outcome and impact indicators that can assess their value and effectiveness.

Guam

Guam Kelly G. Marsh (bio) and Tyrone J. Taitano (bio) During a year in which most of the world experienced a major economic downturn, Guam's political and economic focus was concerned with what promises to be a major boost to the economy yet comes with attendant political and social consequences. To buttress the previously announced relocation of several thousand marines and their families from Okinawa to Guam, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Japan to sign an agreement [End Page 130] with Japanese officials to formalize the move (KUAM, 17 Feb 2009). On Guam, announcements were made of expenditures or contracts signed as part of the US Department of Defense's $10 billion in projected spending for the relocation (KUAM, 15 Oct 2009). Overall, military construction spending on the island accelerated, which in part compensated for the decrease in tourism resulting from the worldwide economic downturn (Bradley 2009). Throughout 2008 and early 2009, tourism arrivals declined from Guam's principal market, Japan. An April 2009 report from the Guam public auditor pointed out that Japan's 2008 arrival numbers were even lower than in 2004 when the tourist industry was recovering from two super typhoons and coping with the impact of the Asian sars epidemic. Visitor arrivals from other Asia-Pacific markets also declined in 2008, and the report characterized prospects for tourism in 2009 as "bleak" (KUAM, 13 April 2009). On the other hand, Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) board chairman Dave Tydingco stated that GVB officials were surprised to see that arrivals from Japan had been rising recently. Among the reasons given for the upturn was the strengthening of the yen and the reduction in the fuel surcharge, which decreased the cost of airfare. However, with respect to Guam's other major market, Korea, visitor numbers remain challenging as that country's currency, the won, lost 30 percent of its value against the US dollar. Tydingco said, "We are hoping that with the stabilization of the Japan market the summer months are looking better but this global financial crisis is having a significant impact on travel around the world and we just need to be a little bit smarter about how we are going to be able to push tourism in our core markets" (KUAM, 18 March 2009). In April 2009, First Hawaiian Bank issued its economic forecast for Guam noting that, despite difficulties in the tourist industry, the island stands out as one of the few economies in the world that has a brighter future, primarily due to the massive military buildup. The bank's economic adviser, Dr Leroy Laney, stated, "The coming military buildup occupies center stage on Guam in 2009. It is assured that the buildup will come, and parts of it are already underway, even though some uncertainty still exists as to the exact timing of the transfer" (KUAM, 28 April 2009). Uncertainty about the buildup, though, troubled many island leaders and activists, particularly with respect to infrastructure, environmental, and social considerations. Many of these concerns were voiced in a number of forums, including a series of oversight hearings conducted by Senator Judi Guthertz, chair of the legislature's Committee on the Guam Military Buildup and Homeland Security (KUAM, 3 March 2009). The University of Guam (UOG) also held symposiums featuring speakers on the buildup. In November 2008, the UOG College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, along with Sanctuary, Incorporated, hosted a discussion about the military buildup for students and island residents (PDN, 21 Nov 2008). At a UOG symposium in April 2009, Dr Catherine Lutz of Brown University led a presentation entitled "U.S. Military Basing and Its [End Page 131] Impact on Local Communities and Global U.S. Strategy" (KUAM, 13 April 2009). Another symposium featured Meio University's Kiyoshi Nakachi and focused on Okinawa's experiences in hosting US military forces (KUAM, 15 April 2009). The US Department of Defense indicated that it needed more land than previously estimated for the buildup of troops and was exploring the possibility of leasing Government of Guam (GovGuam) property (KUAM, 17 Feb 2009). In February 2009, Senator Benjamin J F Cruz introduced legislation to allow Guam voters to decide whether they support...

Anthropology and the military: AFRICOM, ‘culture’ and future of Human Terrain Analysis (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This article updates new developments in the evolution of the US Army's controversial Human Terrain System program (HTS). Building upon the recent report on the HTS program by the American Anthropological Association's Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the Security and Intelligence Communities, this article discusses how HTS‐type arrangements are becoming part of the US Department of Defense's (DoD's) newest Combatant Command for the continent of Africa, or AFRICOM. Of particular note is the way “human terrain” no longer refers simply to the HTS program, but has acquired expanded reference to describe a broader array of approaches to the leveraging of socio‐cultural knowledge within DoD. Most notably for AFRICOM, this includes moving beyond rapid assessment ethnography to incorporate cultural data into the predictive work of cultural modelling, as this informs the implementation both of counterinsurgency doctrine as well as military humanitarianism in Africa and elsewhere. This article explores the ethical, practical and cultural implications of such a turn.

Database Security: What Students Need to Know

Introduction Database technologies are a core component of many computing systems. They allow to be retained and shared electronically and the amount of contained in these systems continues to grow at an exponential rate. So does the need to insure the integrity of the and secure the from unintended access. The Privacy Rights Clearing House (2010) reports that more than 345 million customer records have been lost or stolen since 2005 when they began tracking breach incidents, and the Ponemon Institute reports the average cost of a breach has risen to $202 per customer record (Ponemon, 2009). In August 2009, criminal indictments were handed down in the United States to three perpetrators accused of carrying out the single largest security breach recorded to date. These hackers allegedly stole over 130 million credit and debit card numbers by exploiting a well known database vulnerability, a SQL injection (Phifer, 2010). The Verizon Business Risk Team, who have been reporting breach statistics since 2004, examined 90 breaches during the 2008 calendar year. They reported that more than 285 million records had been compromised, a number exceeding the combined total from all prior years of study (Baker et al., 2009). Their findings provide insight into who commits these acts and how they occur. Consistently, they have found that most breaches originate from external sources, with 75% of the incidents coming from outside the organization as compared to 20% coming from inside. They also report that 91% of the compromised records were linked to organized criminal groups. Further, they cite that the majority of breaches result from hacking and malware often facilitated by errors committed by the victim, i.e., the database owner. Unauthorized access and SQL injection were found to be the two most common forms of hacking, an interesting finding given that both of these exploits are well known and often preventable. Given the increasing number of beaches to database systems, there is a corresponding need to increase awareness of how to properly protect and monitor database systems. At its core, database security strives to insure that only authenticated users perform authorized activities at authorized times. It includes the system, processes, and procedures that protect a database from unintended activity. The Defense Information Systems Agency of the US Department of Defense (2004), in its Database Security Technical Implementation Guide, states that database security should provide controlled, protected access to the contents of your database and, in the process, preserve the integrity, consistency, and overall quality of your data (p. 9). The goal is simple, the path to achieving the goal, a bit more complex. Traditionally database security focused on user authentication and managing user privileges to database objects (Guimaraes, 2006). This has proven to be inadequate given the growing number of successful database hacking incidents and the increase in the number of organizations reporting loss of sensitive data. A more comprehensive view of database security is needed, and it is becoming imperative for students in the computing disciplines to develop an understanding of the issues and challenges related to database security and to identify possible solutions. Database security is often included as a topic in an introductory database course or introductory computer security course. However as the knowledge base related to database security continues to grow, so do the challenges of effectively conveying the material. Further, many topics related to database security are complex and require students to engage in active learning to fully comprehend the fundamental nature of database security issues. This paper presents a set of subtopics for inclusion in a database security component of a course. These sub-topics are illustrated using a set of interactive software modules. …

Ethical Issues in Cardiovascular Research Involving Humans

This component of the series “Careers in Cardiovascular Research: A Primer for New Investigators” will address ethical conduct of research involving humans. The dramatic decline in cardiovascular mortality (Figure) provides testimony to the societal benefits of research leading to new therapies and systems of care.1 In concert with these rapid developments, changing expectations have resulted in the emergence of ethical issues with highly publicized examples of concern over conduct of research in humans.2–5 Whereas professional ethics should, and for most physicians do, “regulate” conduct of biomedical research, “self-regulation” does not always meet societal expectations. Dr Barry Coller6 has pointed out that science lacks intrinsic morality. Thus, the laudable goals of improving patient care, understanding mechanisms of disease, or protecting society from perceived external threats do not justify ignoring fundamental human rights that guide (and regulate) the conduct of research. Figure. Death rates for cardiovascular disease in the United States, 1900 to 2005 (not adjusted for age). At the same time it is important to reflect on the importance of physicians participating in research and providing the opportunity for their patients to do so. Although some have argued this compromises the basic physician responsibility to a patient,7 we believe the best interest of the patient can and must be protected in the research setting. Two brief examples demonstrate the fundamental changes in understanding that may arise from direct involvement of physicians in research. As late as the 1970s, the prevailing wisdom to explain the presence of intracoronary thrombus on postmortem examination of patients after myocardial infarction was simply wrong; pathologists studying hearts in this setting found evidence to “suggest that coronary thrombi are consequences rather than causes of acute myocardial infarction”8 and “consideration is given to the possibility that some thrombi may follow rather than precede …

Using the ACG® casemix system in population health management programs at Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins HealthCare contracts with the US Department of Defense (DOD) to provide fully capitated healthcare services to 28,000 DOD beneficiaries. The health plan is known as the US Family Health Plan (USFHP). In order to understand and meet the healthcare needs of the USFHP population, Johns Hopkins HealthCare uses The ACG® (Adjusted Clinical Group) Casemix System to perform a population health analysis. It then targets patients for a variety of population health-management interventions. Programs such as Health Coaching, Disease Management and Case Management have been developed and implemented to help this population improve health, and reduce healthcare expenditures. The purpose of this presentation is to: 1) Present the results of the population analyses 2) Review the process for identifying and stratifying appropriate patients for interventions 3) Describe the management programs employed at Johns Hopkins HealthCare 4) Review the results of an intensive case-management program, Guided Care (GC), for patients with multi-morbidity

Human Factors Considerations in Global Positioning System (GPS) Receiver Technology: Contrasting Military Technical Requirements with User Expectations

This paper presents only the opinions of the authors for a forum of other Human Factors professionals. No representation of The Aerospace Corporation, GPS Wing, US Air Force, US Army, or US Department of Defense (DoD) policy is implied or intended. The need for human factors considerations in the development of handheld GPS receiver technology becomes increasingly apparent as society becomes increasingly dependant on precision navigation and timing information. GPS receivers provide ubiquitous situational awareness, during the daily mundane commute or in theater amidst the fog of war. Both military and commercial receivers are only as useful as their ability to convey navigation information to the user in a timely and reliable manner. Warfighters have become familiar with the ease and convenience of commercial receivers, mapping functionality, and integrated technology. However, there is great variance between the requirement set for military operations and civilian applications. The US Army and Air Force GPS Wing face future expectation management issues with military GPS user equipment. Potential areas for risk mitigation include careful human factors considerations early in the requirements development process, platform and application tailoring, incorporating “best practices” from industry and commercial end-user experience, and education and training.

Dynamic reconfiguration of software defined radios using standard architectures

The software defined radio (SDR) has opened the doors for levels of radio reconfiguration not possible through the use of more traditional radio design approaches. While most radios allow variation of parameters such as carrier frequency, an SDR enables large-scale reconfiguration (e.g., changing to a different protocol type or MAC). In this research, we explore automated, dynamic large-scale radio reconfiguration through the implementation and characterization of three alternative reconfigurable radio designs. These implementations seek to quantify the impacts of implementing large-scale radio reconfiguration through SDR application management enabled by the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) and similar SDR architectures. The SCA, a widely used SDR standard developed by the US Department of Defense, primarily supports static configurations with infrequent reconfiguration. However, we present a novel approach that uses features of the SCA and its enabling technologies to achieve rapid dynamic reconfiguration of SDRs. The act of radio reconfiguration through SCA application management is found to momentarily decrease the radio throughput. Although some overhead is experienced in the demonstration systems, the methods discussed achieve a high degree of flexibility through the use of standard SDR architectures.

Infectious Disease Modeling and Military Readiness

Advances in infectious disease modeling may offer opportunities to mitigate the effect of emerging infectious diseases upon military readiness (1–3). In August 2005, the US Department of Defense (DoD) Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (GEIS) sponsored a meeting on the epidemiologic applications of infectious disease modeling in support of DoD readiness. Several recommendations were made at this conference to include the identification of organizations with “…demonstrated expertise in model development and operation for collaboration with the DoD and civilian organizations that are developing simulation models or conducting exercises” (4). Despite this recommendation, infectious disease modeling efforts in support of DoD have remained somewhat disjointed. An infectious disease modeling collaboration between DoD-GEIS and The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, begun in 2007, again identified this issue. Concerned that opportunities for collaboration might be missed and that unintended redundancy might be occurring, DoD-GEIS sponsored a second conference on May 12–13, 2008, for infectious disease modelers engaged in DoD projects or on models useful to the DoD. Over 30 participants from 10 agencies met for a day and a half at the Infectious Disease Modeling Meeting on the campus of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, USA (Appendix). The first day consisted of presentations detailing past and current work by the participating organizations. These presentations are available on the secure DoD-GEIS website for governmental organizations, collaborators, and academic institutions (request access from http://www.AFHSC.mil/about_GEIS.asp). The second day consisted of a roundtable discussion of how to optimize DoD-relevant infectious disease modeling efforts; specifically, how to maximize opportunities for collaboration and coordination while minimizing unintended redundancy. The roundtable discussion first turned to who was at the table, and importantly, who was not. Many participants had also attended the 2005 conference, although some had not, and some of the key attendees at the 2005 conference were not present for the 2008 meeting. A strong recommendation was again made to identify all key organizations involved in infectious disease modeling of use to DoD. Additionally, because of the blurred lines of responsibility among federal agencies, participants thought that many other non-DoD federal organizations should participate in these types of discussions. Some participants called for the creation of a formal organization or society of infectious disease modelers. The Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS; http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Initiatives/MIDAS/Background/Factsheet.htm) group was mentioned as already serving as a nexus for the modeling community, but the need for a larger, coordinating body was expressed. Representatives from the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (the parent organization of DoD-GEIS; http://afhsc.army.mil/About_AFHSC.asp) indicated a willingness to be involved in future efforts in a coordinating capacity. Participants also addressed the ambiguity associated with the term modeling, even within the infectious disease modeling community. Models may be used to provide indicators or warnings, surveillance data, or casualty prediction or to assist with consequence management, resource allocation, or policy development. Many models provide various combinations of these functions. Some participants believed it was important to organize modeling efforts by the functionality of the models in question. A stimulating discussion centered on who should have access to infectious disease models. Some thought that models should remain only in the hands of the experts who create them and can manage and interpret them. Others believed that state and community officials, who presumably have much greater local knowledge but less mathematical acumen, should be allowed access to the models. The conference ended by reiterating the recommendation that the entire community of those working on disease modeling of interest to DoD should not only be identified but also strongly encouraged to meet again within the year. In addition to sharing ideas and work, participants of the 2008 conference recommended the development of a format and plan for ongoing communication and collaboration. This plan could include the formation of productive work groups to address definitions, e.g., the meaning of modeling, and to develop recommendations on the use of infectious disease models. The creation of a professional society for federal disease modelers could facilitate these actions and was identified for serious consideration.

MacB: The Macbeth Project (review)

MacB: The Macbeth Project Presented by The African-American Company at the Buriel Clay Theatre, San Francisco, California. September 19-October 5, 2008 and Willow High School, Crockett, California. March 9-March 20, 2009. Directed and adapted by Victoria Evans Erville. Lighting designed by Kevin Myrick. Set designed by Atom Gray. Costumes designed by Steven Lamont. Choreography by LaTonya Watts. Fights directed by Dave Maier. Music by Dogwood Speaks and Johnathan Williams. Teaching by Sherri Young. With David Moore (Macbeth), Melvina Jones (Lady Macbeth, Melody), Johnathan Williams (Banquo, Hipcat, Macduff), Maikiko James (Witch 1, Old Man, Ensemble), DC Allen (Witch 2, Porter, Ensemble), Toya Willock (Witch 3, Lenox, Ensemble), Clifton Jones (Duncan, Ross), Levertis Stallings (Fleance), and others. San Francisco's African-American Company recently finished staging its second hip-hop Macbeth. This time it's a Not too long ago, at the height of the culture wars, any combining hip-hop and seemed like the radical and inventive solution to increasingly turbulent racial politics and troubled divisions between high and low culture, but today we can find and hip hop conjoined in a host of pedagogical and performance practices. Stephen Greenblatt has enthusiastically endorsed Flocabulary's hip-hop curriculum, is Hip Hop, and Ian McKellen recently recorded a rap version of Sonnet 18 before joining Akala, a British rapper claiming to be Shakespeare reincarnated, to form East London's Hip Hop Company. The San Francisco Bay Area is no stranger to hip-hop Shakespeare. In 2006, we saw Jonathan Moscone and the California Theater performing Naomi Iizuka's hip-hop remix of Hamlet, Blood in the Brain, at San Francisco's Intersection for the Arts. In 2007, we saw Ayodele Wordslanger Nzinga direct West Oakland's Lower-Bottom Playaz in her localized and poetic hip-hop adaptation of Macbeth, Mack, A Gangsta's Tale. It's no surprise, then, that this year the Bay Area, home of everything Mac, from Oakland's The Mack (1973) to Vallejo's Mac Dre, hosted a play calling itself MacB. The Macbeth Project. What did the African-American Company add to the mix with their Macbeth Project? We might begin by looking at what made the AASC's Macbeth a project. The word project evokes corporate and artistic collaboration at the same time that it conjures the specter of public housing. As an action, project is doubly verbal, containing both language and movement; to is to utter in the linguistic or theatrical sense, but it also includes the spatial emanation which results from such utterances. A can be simultaneously an eidos, its logos, and its telos. The AASC's performs all of the above. The Macbeth Project is an ensemble of sites and institutions, players and pupils, actions and ideas. Partially funded by an NEA grant as part of the latter's Shakespeare for a New Generation initiative, the Macbeth Project conjoins performance and pedagogy as its teaching artists engage at-risk Bay Area youth in theatre games through their Shake-It-Up program (The NEA's Shakespeare for a New Generation program is part of the larger Shakespeare in American Communities initiative, both of which are partially supplemented by funding from the US Department of Defense and the Department of Justice's Office of Justice and Juvenile Delinquency Prevention). The Macbeth Project involves schools in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, and Crockett. As a series of nodes in a larger network of projects, the Macbeth Project operates, in part, as the local and mobile expression of a national arts pedagogy as it projects itself through local voices and bodies. I attended a performance of MacB towards the end of its run in San Francisco. Before taking my seat in the Buriel Clay Theater, I decided to get a closer look at Atom Gray's set. …

Unintended consequences of performance specifications for the reliability of military weapon systems

AbstractThe use of performance specifications became a key US Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition reform in the 1990s. Gone were the detailed military specifications for parts and materials selection, workmanship, derating, and fault tolerance. Maximum use was to be made of commercial specs. Reliability would be specified only in quantitative terms such as Mean‐Time‐To‐Failure (MTTF) and/or the reliability R(t). However, there are significant differences between commercial and military weapon systems whereby performance specifications might bring in significantly greater mission risk. Reliability data from 1996 to 2000 might be an indicator of negative unintended consequences of the cancellation of military specifications. The acquisition of successful military systems requires a mix of performance and prescriptive reliability requirements that depend on the application, technology maturity, and complexity. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng

Assurance and US extended deterrence in NATO

Historically the NATO allies have focused considerable attention on US ‘extended deterrence’— that is, the extension by Washington of an umbrella of protection, sometimes called a ‘nuclear guarantee’. A persisting requirement has been to provide the allies with assurance about the reliability and credibility of this protection. This article examines the definition of ‘assurance’ used by the US Department of Defense for most of the past decade and argues that it has drawn attention to long-standing policy challenges associated with US extended deterrence in NATO. The article considers the assurance roles of US nuclear forces in Europe, as well as elements of assurance in Washington's relations with its allies regarding extended nuclear deterrence. Whether the allies will retain the current requirements of extended deterrence and assurance in their new Strategic Concept or devise a new approach will be an issue of capital importance in the policy review launched at the Strasbourg/Kehl Summit. Contrasting approaches to these questions are visible in the United States and Germany, among other allies. The main issues to be resolved include reconciling extended deterrence with arms control priorities; managing the divisions in public and expert opinion; and avoiding certain potential consequences of a rupture with established arrangements.

SU‐FF‐J‐151: Fabrication and Testing of An Agar‐Based Heat‐Sensitive Gel for Thermal Dosimetry

Purpose: To develop a novel heat‐sensitive gel made of non‐toxic materials that can be used to measure heat resulting from illumination of gold nanoshells/nanorods with near‐infrared (NIR) 808 nm laser. Method and Materials: The heat‐sensitive gel is made by mixing 1.5 weight percent agar in distilled water and the solution is allowed to mix completely while heating it to 90 °C. Once the agar has completely melted and the solution becomes clear, it is allowed to cool to 50 °C, when 20–30 weight percent bovine serum albumin (BSA) is added to the agar mixture. The gel can be poured into any container or mold and allowed to solidify to become various shapes of phantoms. BSA is a heat sensitive protein that will undergo denaturing and result in an optical density change at the areas where temperature exceeds 70 °C. The phantom made of this gel can contain a small cavity where gold nanoshells and nanorods will be concentrated to simulate the tumor. The phantom can be read with T2 weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for quantification and visualization of heat damage around the cavity due to NIR laser illumination. Results: The agar based gel has shown to be heat‐sensitive and T2 weighted MRI imaging can be used to visualize the permanent heat damage. The average T2 value corresponding to the damaged areas was 90.2 ms compared to 78.9 ms to non‐damaged sites. Conclusion: The agar based heat‐sensitive gel has the thermal stability to withstand relatively high temperatures. It also can be made easily for the experimental verification of various clinical applications without using any toxic chemicals which are required for many existing heat‐sensitive gel recipes.This work has been supported by the US Department of Defense, Breast Cancer Research Program, Concept Award, W81XWH‐08‐1‐0686.

Imported fire ant immunotherapy prescribing patterns in a large health care system during a 17-year period

No large evaluation has been performed of the maintenance vial concentration commonly used by physicians when prescribing imported fire ant (IFA) immunotherapy since the publication of the first Stinging Insect Hypersensitivity Practice Parameter 10 years ago. To describe the prescribing patterns for IFA immunotherapy among practicing allergists in a large health care setting and the impact of published Practice Parameter recommendations. Data from the US Army Centralized Allergen Extract Laboratory were analyzed to determine IFA immunotherapy prescribing patterns from 1990 to May 2007. This extract laboratory provides prescriptions for more than 320 US Department of Defense, US Department of Veterans Affairs, and US Public Health Service clinics. A total of 1,091 patients were given 1,437 new or revised prescriptions for IFA immunotherapy. Monotherapy for Solenopsis invicta and Solenopsis richteri was prescribed in 169 (11.8%) and 3 (0.1%) instances, respectively, with the remainder of patients given both IFA antigens. The most commonly prescribed maintenance vial dose was 0.5 mL of a 1:200 (wt/vol) dilution, accounting for 36.3% of prescriptions. A total of 17.3% of prescriptions had a maintenance vial dose of 0.5 mL of a 1:100 (wt/vol) dilution, 4.6% had a dilution of 1:10 (wt/vol), and 50.6% had a dilution between 1:10 and 1:100 (wt/vol). The mean starting dose was 4.4 10-fold dilutions below the maintenance dose (5.4 vials per treatment set). The most commonly prescribed maintenance dose was 0.5 mL of a 1:200 (wt/vol) dilution, although most prescriptions used a maintenance dose consistent with recommended dosing in the Stinging Insect Practice Parameters. Both IFA antigens were used by most physicians. Further study evaluating the effective dose range for IFA immunotherapy is needed.

Future energy efficiency improvements within the US department of defense: Incentives and barriers

The present work describes the military impact of improved efficiency and then highlights existing technological, political, and financial barriers for improving overall energy efficiency. As the largest user of energy within the US government, the Department of Defense (DOD) is rightly concerned that any disruption to the nation's energy supply may have an extremely adverse impact on its military capabilities. The total solution to providing energy security will be multi-faceted with progress required on many fronts. Increasing the use of renewable energy sources and improving energy storage capabilities are gradually creating a positive impact, but investing in improving the overall efficiency of the military effort provides both immediate and long-lasting payback. One might suppose that a decrease in the energy used by the DOD should lead to a decrease in military capability, but historical data proves otherwise. It is shown that the military has additional impetus, compared to civilian consumers, to pursue energy-efficiency improvements. Many tools are available to help the DOD along this path, yet there remain obstacles which must first be identified and analyzed as discussed herein.

Simultaneous bone marrow and tissue transplantation in rats treated with a nonmyeloablative conditioning regimen promote tolerance to composite tissue allografts (141.18)

Abstract Approaches to safely induce graft acceptance through bone marrow chimerism and limited immunosuppression are currently being pursued. Here we evaluated the effect of nonmyeloablative conditioning on the establishment of tolerance and mixed chimerism in recipients of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and reconstructive tissue allotransplantation (RTA). Twenty Wistar-Firth rats were treated with a short course of immunosuppressive therapy (anti-ab-TCR mAb, tacrolimus, and anti-lymphocyte serum). One day prior to BMT, rats received total body irradiation followed by transplantation of heterotopic osteomyocutaneous flaps taken from hind limbs of ACI rats. Following BMT, rats were monitored for rejection and mixed chimerism (>2% donor cells). Fifteen rats rejected their RTA, and five rats accepted the graft. Mixed chimerism was detected in peripheral blood at one month after RTA, but chimerism was lost in all transplant recipients by four months. After 1.5 years post-RTA, the number of donor cells in spleen, mesenteric lymph node, recipient bone marrow and thymus was <2%. To determine the tolerance mechanism, ten rats were given donor skin grafts at one year post-RTA and examined for anti-donor antibodies by flow cross-match assay. Acceptors of RTA were tolerant of donor skin and no anti-donor antibodies were detectable, which points to a deletional mechanism. These studies suggest that nonmyeloablative conditioning can establish long-term tolerance and indefinite allograft survival in rats. (Research supported by a grant from the US Department of Defense).

Open Source Software Governance Serving Technological Agility

The development of open source software is currently arousing increasing interest in the IT world. This research inquires some specific paths enlarging the traditional view over open source software in inquiring the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the dynamics associated its front- and back-office activities. We explain how distinguishing basic administration from operational constraints and weapon R&D dynamics introduces specific governance concerns among public and private stakeholders. By no longer defining open source solutions as mere goods, but as services characterized by a flow of knowledge, we particularly highlight new emerging strategies of technological acquisition. Our analysis leads to revise the traditional role focusing mainly on cost issues and introduces open source software with distinctive properties serving the management of innovation and technological agility at the level of complex systems, exemplified here with the constraints associated to weapon systems and the Network centric warfare doctrine

Managing risks in mega defense acquisition projects: Performance, policy, and opportunities

This research explores key aspects involved in the process of managing risk associated with acquisition projects within the US Department of Defense (DOD). First, various US Government Accountability Office reports are analyzed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the DOD’s overall program management practices, as well as individual projects. Then, the evolution and progress of United States Army’s Future Combat Systems project is examined in detail as a case study to substantiate the argument that insufficient risk management has contributed to project delays and cost overruns significantly. Poor risk management performance and practices are not unique to the Army, but arises from a system bred into the process of gaining approval to implement projects in the DOD. Incorporating a comprehensive risk management plan in the planning phase and filling key project management positions with personnel trained to recognize sound proposals from contractors would make significant strides toward improving overall project management practices in the DOD.

Accelerated Learning (?)

We wish to pose accelerated learning as a challenge for intelligent systems technology. Research on intelligent tutoring systems has proved that accelerated learning is possible. The Sherlock tutor for electronics troubleshooting, for example, condensed four years of on-the-job training to approximately 25 hours, compressing the duration of the experience-feedback-learning cycle. But accelerated learning should refer to more than the hastening of basic proficiency. It reaches across the proficiency scale to the question of how to accelerate the achievement of expertise, and whether that is even possible. Paralleling this question are practical issues, including the military's need to conduct training at a rapid pace, and the issues of workforce and loss of expertise. Many organizations such as the US Department of Defense, NASA, and the electric utilities are at risk because of the imminent retirement of domain practitioners who handle the most difficult and mission-critical challenges. To accelerate proficiency, we must facilitate the acquisition of extensive, highly organized knowledge. We must also accelerate the acquisition of expert-level reasoning skills and strategies. But that's just the beginning of the challenge.