An Advanced Signal Jammer Interference System DeliveringComplete Connectivity Suppression in Controlled ApplicationZones

The prevalence and pervasive nature of emerging chemicals of concern have created widespread environmental injustice apprehensions in vulnerable communities. To alleviate and address these concerns, identifying, engaging, and training a diverse environmental health research workforce will be critical and necessary steps to combat and prevent the consequences of environmental injustice. While there is an obvious need to enhance diversity in environmental health research, this process is hampered by facets of systemic racism that reduce access to educational resources needed to build interest and knowledge in students and teachers. We present here a historical perspective to offer a guide for building programs and relationships with underserved schools to help overcome limiting factors that have plagued certain public school systems. With the proper training and mentorship, the untapped workforce present within these schools will be empowered to understand and address current and emerging environmental health and safety threats. Through this transformative 8-week high school research program, we will develop well-prepared, ethical researchers committed to scientific inquiry, intensive fieldwork, and collaborative problem solving to address environmental health challenges. Following the four-step risk assessment process, students, teachers, and faculty mentors will work collaboratively to identify toxicants, potential hazards and risks, and environmental disparities in urban neighborhoods, which provides the necessary training to formulate critical thinking skills for use in academic or nonacademic careers.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The Engaging Multidisciplinary Professional Opportunities for Women in Environmental Research (EMPOWER) program is a one-of-a-kind research summer experience for minority female high school students in the state of Georgia. In addition, this program provides high school teachers with hands-on experiences that can be adapted to use in the classrooms. This combination of lab and field research immerses participants in understanding urban environmental exposures and their health effects. The EMPOWER program was established to meet the critical need for increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The negative effects of extremely competitive academic and research environments on the performance and health of researchers are well known and common worldwide. The prevalence of these effects, particularly among early career researchers, calls for a more humane and people-centered way of working within research labs. Although there is growing concern about the urgent need for a better life–work balance when doing science, there are not many examples about how this could be achieved in practice. In this article, I introduce 10 simple rules to make the working environment of research labs more nurturing, collaborative, and people-centered. These rules are directed towards existing and future principal investigators (PIs) but will be of interest to anyone working in a research lab and/or dealing with how to improve working conditions for scientists.

The AlkaPolP process: Fractionation of various lignocelluloses and continuous pulping within an integrated biorefinery concept

Researchers and Project Managers in a research and development environment often resist the notion that a structured process such as System Engineering can be applied to their environment. While it is impossible to invent to a schedule, it is certainly possible and necessary to use good engineering practices in the research and development process. System Engineering is one of these necessary engineering disciplines.To illustrate the use of System Engineering in its applications in R&D, this paper will follow the development of a new ceramic material from its origin in the research laboratories in the early 1960s through its application to the Space Shuttle thermal protection studies in the late 1960s and its production scale‐up as the Space Shuttle tile material in the 1970s, to its ultimate potential in the current exploratory studies as a matrix for repair of human bone in the 1990s.The author was closely associated with the material throughout much of its history. In the mid‐ to late 1960s the author was deputy director of the Materials and Structures Laboratory (where the material was invented by Robert Beasley) in the Lockheed Palo Alto, California, Research Facility. The author later became program manager of the Space Shuttle Tile Program.

Many people are unaware of the science underlying the biophysical properties of Soldier clothing and personal protective equipment, yet there is a well-refined biomedical methodology initiated by Army physiologists in World War II. This involves a methodical progression of systematic material testing technologies, computer modeling, and human testing that enables more efficient development and rapid evaluation of new concepts for Soldier health and performance. Sophisticated manikins that sweat and move are a central part of this testing continuum. This report briefly summarizes the evolution and use of one specialized form of the manikin technologies, the thermal hand model, and its use in research on Soldier hand-wear items that sustain dexterity and protect the hand in extreme environments. Thermal manikin testing methodologies were developed to provide an efficient and consistent analytical tool for the rapid evaluation of new clothing concepts. These methods have been upgraded since the original World War II and Korean War eras to include articulation and sweating capabilities, as characterized and illustrated in this article. The earlier "retired" versions of thermal hand models have now been transferred to the National Museum of Health and Science. The biophysical values from manikin testing are critical inputs to the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine mathematical models that provide predictions of soldier comfort, duration of exposure before loss of manual dexterity, and time to significant risk of freezing (skin temperature <-1°C) and nonfreezing cold injuries (skin temperature <5°C). The greater thickness of better insulated handwear reduces dexterity and also increases surface area which makes added insulation increasingly less effective in retaining heat. Measurements of both thermal resistance (insulation) and evaporative resistance (permeability) collectively characterize the biophysical properties and enable mathematical modeling of the human thermophysiological responses. This information can help guide the hand-wear development and selection process which often requires trade-offs between factors such as material, cost, and sizing. Soldier hands provide fine motor dexterity in tactical functions, ranging from pulling a trigger to pulling a parachute ripcord; thus, protecting hand function is critical to soldier readiness. Also, the importance of protection against nonbattle cold injuries was highlighted during World War II in northern Europe, in the Aleutian Islands, and later in Korea. The U.S. Army has been on the forefront of the biophysical analysis of clothing including gloves since environmental research was established at the Armored Medical Research Laboratory and Climatic Research Laboratory during World War II. U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine does not make the equipment but works with their Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center partners to make the equipment better.

DATA REPORT article Front. Neurosci., 13 May 2016Sec. Neural Technology Volume 10 - 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00196

BackgroundGiven the rarity of most single-gene Mendelian disorders, concerted efforts of data exchange between clinical and scientific communities are critical to optimize molecular diagnosis and novel disease gene discovery.MethodsWe designed and implemented protocols for the study of cases for which a plausible molecular diagnosis was not achieved in a clinical genomics diagnostic laboratory (i.e. unsolved clinical exomes). Such cases were recruited to a research laboratory for further analyses, in order to potentially: (1) accelerate novel disease gene discovery; (2) increase the molecular diagnostic yield of whole exome sequencing (WES); and (3) gain insight into the genetic mechanisms of disease. Pilot project data included 74 families, consisting mostly of parent–offspring trios. Analyses performed on a research basis employed both WES from additional family members and complementary bioinformatics approaches and protocols.ResultsAnalysis of all possible modes of Mendelian inheritance, focusing on both single nucleotide variants (SNV) and copy number variant (CNV) alleles, yielded a likely contributory variant in 36% (27/74) of cases. If one includes candidate genes with variants identified within a single family, a potential contributory variant was identified in a total of ~51% (38/74) of cases enrolled in this pilot study. The molecular diagnosis was achieved in 30/63 trios (47.6%). Besides this, the analysis workflow yielded evidence for pathogenic variants in disease-associated genes in 4/6 singleton cases (66.6%), 1/1 multiplex family involving three affected siblings, and 3/4 (75%) quartet families. Both the analytical pipeline and the collaborative efforts between the diagnostic and research laboratories provided insights that allowed recent disease gene discoveries (PURA, TANGO2, EMC1, GNB5, ATAD3A, and MIPEP) and increased the number of novel genes, defined in this study as genes identified in more than one family (DHX30 and EBF3).ConclusionAn efficient genomics pipeline in which clinical sequencing in a diagnostic laboratory is followed by the detailed reanalysis of unsolved cases in a research environment, supplemented with WES data from additional family members, and subject to adjuvant bioinformatics analyses including relaxed variant filtering parameters in informatics pipelines, can enhance the molecular diagnostic yield and provide mechanistic insights into Mendelian disorders. Implementing these approaches requires collaborative clinical molecular diagnostic and research efforts.

Incidental germline variants in 1000 advanced cancers on a prospective somatic genomic profiling protocol

This study has confirmed a continuing decrease in the quality and quantity of young physicians entering academic careers in clinical oncology research, defined as cancer research requiring a clinician-patient interaction. Two major contributing factors were identified: the training programs and the research environment. The primary problems for the trainees were the financial insecurity of embarking on an academic career and the poor academic status of their role models in clinical cancer research. The problems regarding the environment of academic oncology and oncology research relate primarily to the strong and widespread perception that grant proposals for clinical oncology research are at a competitive disadvantage with proposals for cancer research in the laboratory. The study results yielded two basic recommendations. The first recommendation is to improve training for clinical cancer research and to implement unique funding mechanisms for trainees. Because physicians devote 3-10 years to clinical training, a minimum of 10 years of clinical research is needed for a clinician to compete effectively as a principal investigator in the R01 and P01 grant areas. The second recommendation is to develop peer review mechanisms that allow clinical research proposals to compete within a pool restricted to proposals in this category. The consensus in the study was that when programs in clinical research and laboratory research are in competition, the clinical proposals have a lower success rate. The problem appears to rest with the fact that the reviewers are frequently from disciplines other than clinical research and, more importantly, that clinical research proposals fare badly in competition against laboratory research proposals even when they are reviewed by appropriate peers. Implementation of this recommendation will require development of a clinical oncology research study section in the Division of Research Grants at the National Institutes of Health to review R01 grant proposals for innovative clinical cancer research, providing an academic environment that would enable the clinical investigator, through increased success in obtaining grants, to be a positive role model for the young physician/scientist.

Non‐structural deterrents may limit invasive fish dispersal and range expansion without altering waterflow or navigation. Despite extensive research in laboratory and artificial environments, few studies have been conducted in situ and, of those, few have evaluated the full community response of fishes interacting with the deterrent. We deployed acoustic deterrents within a physical trap‐and‐sort fishway at Cootes Paradise, Ontario, Canada, to determine the avoidance responses of a community of fishes attempting to disperse into the wetland.To test the effectiveness of an acoustic deterrent, the catch rates of fishes entering Cootes Paradise were compared when the deterrent was off (control) and on (treatment). Community diversity was fit to candidate generalised linear models, and common carp catch abundance was fit to candidate generalised additive models, both of which were compared with backwards selection. The presence of a phylogenetic signal in fish responses was assessed with Pagel's λ and Blomberg's K indices of trait evolution.Over 11,500 fishes, representing 16 species and 12 families, were captured. The acoustic deterrent did not alter the Shannon diversity of fishes challenging the fishway, but a significant phylogenetic signal in species‐specific avoidance responses was observed. There was a modest decrease in the catch rates of common carp (ambient trials = 1.03 fish/hr, deterrent trials = 0.84 fish/hr), a species of major management concern.Fish avoidance responses to acoustic deterrents were widely variable, and species specific. The avoidance response of common carp, the target species, was weak, probably due to a complex acoustic environment surrounding the fishway. Group size did not alter deterrent efficacy, but precipitation, water temperature, and turbidity did.Our study successfully quantified acoustic deterrent responses across an entire community of wetland fishes, including both native and invasive species. We are the first to demonstrate that there is a phylogenetic component to deterrent responses across species. We also identify environmental parameters that alter deterrent efficacy in the field, and describe important considerations for the deployment of non‐structural deterrents in the field.

New statistical methods allow discovery of causal models from observational data in some circumstances. These models permit both probabilistic and causal inference for models of reasonable size. Many domains can benefit from such methods. Educational research does not easily lend itself to experimental investigation. Research in laboratories is artificial while research in authentic environments is complex and difficult to control. The variables are typically hidden and change over the long term, making them challenging and expensive to investigate experimentally. We present an analysis of causal discovery algorithms and their applicability to educational research and learning technology, an engineered causal model of self-regulated learning (SRL) theory based on the literature, and an evaluation of the potential for discovering such a model from observational data using the new statistical methods.

Dr. Russ Kunz was known as an early pioneer of fuel cell research in the corporate research environment, carrying out and publishing basic and applied research toward the improvement of specific corporate applications. This talk will describe how similar research on polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), or hydrogen fuel cells, is being developed at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the corporate research laboratory for the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy is interested in unmanned systems for numerous reasons, such as offering reduced manning and creating the ability to carry out missions in environments hostile to humans. However, numerous challenges remain, such as the limited endurance of battery-electric vehicles. At NRL, we targeted the limited endurance of battery-electric unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) proposing hydrogen fuel cells as a path to long-endurance propulsion. NRL developed the Ion Tiger UAV, first using a 1.1-kg 550-Watt fuel cell built by Protonex Technology Corporation in the power train. The Ion Tiger flew for 26 hours on hydrogen fuel cell propulsion in November 2009 using compressed hydrogen gas as the fuel, and 48 hours in April 2013 using liquid hydrogen fuel. More recently, NRL has designed and built in house a flight-weight, modular 1.5 to 5 kW PEMFC using metal bipolar plates as the backbone – first with 3D printed titanium bipolar plates, and more recently using automotive-grade, formed stainless steel bipolar plates. We have also developed the methodology to make catalyst-coated membranes in house to speed development of new designs. The overall success of our hydrogen UAV program is due to advances in materials, electronics, and thermal management, integrated into an aerodynamically efficient package. The resulting fuel cell–powered UAVs are relatively small (35 to 100 lbs) but they are quiet and efficient, allowing them to do “big airplane” missions. The full system approach, with basic and applied research as its foundation, is clearly a tribute to the corporate research approach that Dr. Kunz espoused.

A device-integrated planar inverted-F antenna is proposed for reception of broadcasting services. The antenna provides an omni-directional coverage on the azimuthal plane. The antenna volume is 60 × 60 × 20 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> and is placed at the corner of a 300 × 300 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> metal plate. The intended operation band is the 900 MHz ISM band. The proposed antenna configuration is of a low profile and is compact in terms of its electric lengths. Antenna characteristics are examined via parametric studies. Comparisons of simulation and measurement results are conducted to validate its superior performance.

As noted in an editorial published earlier this year (Smol 2007a) announcing the appointment of Mark Brenner as the new co-editor of the Journal of Paleolimnology (JOPL), I will be stepping down as editor of JOPL on December 31, 2007. Several colleagues have kindly asked me how I felt about leaving JOPL after so many years. Of course, there will be many things that I will miss about the journal and my interaction with so many interesting people. However, I leave the editor’s chair content that ‘‘my job has been done’’, at least as well as I could have done it. Looking back at my opening JOPL editorial (Smol 1988), I feel we have met and surpassed the goals set out for the journal at that time. A simple perusal of any recent volume will show that it includes a wide spectrum of excellent papers using diverse approaches from all parts of the globe. I am especially proud of JOPL’s leading role in fostering the inter-disciplinary nature of paleolimnology, and thereby helping to define our discipline. I am convinced that the journal, like the field of paleolimnology itself, will continue to thrive and serve the greater scientific community. I am especially pleased that Mark Brenner has agreed to take on the editorship—it is impossible to have more confidence in a future editor than the confidence and admiration that I have for Mark. I fully expect wonderful things for JOPL and its contributors in the future. Paleolimnologists tend to look backwards in time. As I look at my tenure as JOPL editor, which appears to have covered most of my adult life (!), my first thought is how quickly the time has gone by. It is hard to believe that I started this job 21 years ago. In an editorial celebrating our 20 years of publication (Smol 2007b), I highlighted some of the journal’s history and progress since its inception. We have seen remarkable changes over those two decades—starting with different means of communication (for example, most people were not even using email when the journal started), to differences in publishing production procedures (going from typesetting, to computergenerated figures, to submitting accepted manuscripts on computer disks, to electronic publishing, to webbased submission and editing), and of course to major changes in the field of paleolimnology itself. Most importantly, the content and visibility of the journal (in step with the science of paleolimnology) has improved by leaps and bounds over the intervening two decades. I again wish to emphasize the pivotal role played by Bill Last (co-editor from 1993 to 2006) in the journal’s success. By any independent measure, including citation statistics, journal index values, or simply the very impressive data from the Springer website showing how many researchers download our papers, it is clear that JOPL is no J. P. Smol (&) Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen’s University, 116 Barrie St., Kingston, ON, Canada K7L 3N6 e-mail: smolj@queensu.ca

Recently, a new gas chromatography-vacuum ultraviolet (GC-VUV) detector was created and used for the identification of petroleum and petrochemicals. Information from GC-VUV includes both quantitative and qualitative data. The VUV detector demonstrates exceptional adaptability, sensitivity, and complementary properties in diverse research fields, including environmental, food, and petrochemical research. It achieves low picogram level detection limits and comparable sensitivity to a quadruple MS operated in scan mode, making VUV spectroscopy a competitive and cutting-edge technique. This review aims to shed light on the benefits and quirks of the GC-VUV coupling, which received high acceptance since the advent of a commercial VUV detector. It is aimed in this review to present and discuss the potential applications of GC-VUV technique with respect to the recent development and progress, practical considerations, and industrial implementation in refineries and research laboratories as well as its restrictions.