UK Joint Strike Fighter (JSF): Unable to land on new UK Aircraft Carriers

The UK hi-tech jets that will be flown from the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers cannot land on the ships in "hot, humid and low pressure weather conditions", a report warns today.

The version of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) that has been bought for the £5.5bn carriers is still in development but currently cannot land vertically – as its predecessor the Harrier jump jet could – in warm climates without jettisoning heavy payloads, the UK National Audit Office (NAO) says.

Though the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) insists the problem will be overcome by the time the first carrier is ready for service in 2020, it is one of a number of concerns pointed out by the NAO over a project that has been bedevilled by delays and cost increases.

The spending watchdog says the early warning "Crowsnest" radar needed by the carriers will not be fully operational until 2022, meaning the ships will need protection from other navy vessels for two years while trials are completed.

Despite the difficulties, the NAO says the MoD avoided further financial calamity last year by choosing a different version of the JSF to fly from the carriers, the biggest warships ever built for the navy.



Originally the military decided it wanted the so-called "short take off, vertical landing" (STOVL) version of the JSF, which is being built and tested in the US, but in 2010, the MoD dumped the plan, with the ill-informed and dis-credited PM, Cameron, arguing in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) that another type of the fighter-bomber was much more capable and compatible with the UK's allies.

The chaotic UK coalition government changed position again in May last year, reverting back to the STOVL aircraft because of the cost of refitting the carriers to accommodate the superior planes was said to be too costly.

Today's report castigates the decision, saying it was "based on immature data and a number of flawed assumptions". It is also obvious that the decision-makers were completely out of their depth strategically and focused only on cutting budgets.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the public accounts committee, said the saga was a "terrible waste of public money."

She said: "Decisions were based on the same wildly over-optimistic assumptions and poor understanding of costs and risks that have characterized this programme from the start."

Jim Murphy, the UK shadow defence secretary, said: "Flawed ministerial decisions have wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers' money at a time of mass service sackings and cuts to pensions and allowances."

Dragon Runner 10 | QinetiQ North America - YouTube

The Dragon Runner 10 (DR-10) Micro Unmanned Ground Vehicle (MUGV) is a lightweight, compact, multi-mission remote platform developed for supporting small unit, dismounted operations.

Using a wearable controller, the warfighter sends DR-10 in first to gain situational awareness and take action. DR-10's day and night sensors enable it to serve as the team's forward eyes and ears while also delivering remote sensors, setting counter-IED charges and more.

QinetiQ North America today announced that its Dragon Runner 10 (DR10) has been selected by the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) in response to a Joint Urgent Operations Needs Statement (JUONS) for lightweight, throwable robots.

This order for more than 100 DR10 robots represents the first significant US military procurement of this new class of robot.

With multiple cameras and payload options, DR10 is ideal for reconnaissance and surveillance missions to support small military units, patrols and first responder teams.

At just over ten pounds, DR10 is small enough to carry in an assault pack and rugged enough to throw into buildings and hostile environments.

DR10 can climb stairs, carry significant payloads and maintain effective wireless communication over long distances.

To protect warfighter lives, DR10 is thrown or driven into potentially hostile environments to assess situations remotely, before committing personnel.

DR10 provides rapid situational awareness with visual reports back to its operator using day and night sensors.

With optional accessories, this modular robot can also carry out other critical missions such as delivering counter-IED charges and remote sensors.

The JIEDDO order includes DR10 robots and spare parts at a contract value of $5.3 million. Initial deliveries were made within four weeks of contract award, and follow-on deliveries will continue into early spring 2012.

Multiple payloads are available, including a variety of sensors, radios, cameras and robotic arms. DR10 can be equipped with either tracked or wheeled mobility options to negotiate various types of terrain.

When thrown, DR10 has the ability to automatically flip video images, antennae and controls upon landing. DR10 is 15” long, 13.5” wide and 5.8” tall. For product photos, videos and fact sheets, visit our Facebook page (link below).

QinetiQ North America is a world leader in robotic technology solutions that save lives in defense, security and first responder environments.

For more information, please see our website www.qinetiq-na.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/qinetiqnarobots or Twitter at www.twitter.com/qinetiqnarobots.

Innovation: Why Culture Is Key - S+G

The elements that make up a truly innovative company are many: a focused innovation strategy, a winning overall business strategy, deep customer insight, great talent, and the right set of capabilities to achieve successful execution.

More important than any of the individual elements, however, is the role played by corporate culture, the organization’s self-sustaining patterns of behaving, feeling, thinking, and believing, in tying them all together.

Yet according to the results of this year’s Global Innovation 1000 study, only about half of all companies say their corporate culture robustly supports their innovation strategy.

Moreover, about the same proportion say their innovation strategy is inadequately aligned with their overall corporate strategy.

This disconnect, as the saying goes, is both a problem and an opportunity. Our data shows that companies with unsupportive cultures and poor strategic alignment significantly underperform their competitors.

Moreover, most executives understand what’s at stake and what matters, even if their companies don’t always seem to get it right.

Across the board, for example, respondents identified “superior product performance” and “superior product quality” as their top strategic goals.

They asserted that their two most important cultural attributes were “strong identification with the consumer/customer experience” and a “passion/pride in products.”

Read the full article here

NASA SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory

SOFIA, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is ready to take off into the heavens for its first science flight this week.

Two astronomy professors, Mark Morris of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and Paul Harvey of the University of Colorado at Boulder will use the Faint Object InfraRed Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST), a mid-spectrum infrared camera developed by Terry Herter of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. to learn more about star formation from the airborne observatory.

"My primary target is the Orion nebula, which is a star formation factory," Morris said. "It's close and offers the best views of stars forming right before our very eyes."

Morris hopes to better understand the complexities of the star formation process by viewing the infrared energy emitted by warm dust in the interstellar clouds that are forming the stars. The dust is heated by the luminous, newborn stars.

"Nature doesn't form stars in isolation," he said. "It forms them in clusters, out of natal clouds that collapse under their own gravity.

If you observe carefully, you start to get a clearer picture of how all the new stars are interacting with each other and with their environment."

Harvey's immediate goal is to use the unique combination of high image IR resolution available with SOFIA and FORCAST to study the distribution of dust and gas around Sharpless 140, a young, forming star cluster. Sharpless 140 lies almost 3,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus.

"Observing the birth of stars in our own galaxy is critical, because planetary systems form at the same time that a central star is formed," Harvey said. "Some of the most luminous galaxies in the universe appear to be powered by extreme bursts of star formation."

Scottish Scientists advance Hospital Hygiene (HINS)

Superbugs are a huge problem in hospitals, but scientists have been working on a number of ways to combat the spread of the potentially deadly pathogens.

There’s anti-pathogenic drugs to treat superbugs and a coating that can kill MRSA upon contact.

Now, scientists at the University of Strathclyde have shown that special light is enough to make the bacteria basically commit cell suicide.

Clinical trials proved the HINS-light Environmental Decontamination System is effective in getting rid of bacterial pathogens in the hospital setting - at least the light system works better than traditional wipe down methods.

“The technology kills pathogens but is harmless to patients and staff, which means for the first time, hospitals can continuously disinfect wards and isolation rooms,” Strathcylde professor John Anderson said in a statement.

“The system works by using a narrow spectrum of visible-light wavelengths to excite molecules contained within bacteria. This in turn produces highly reactive chemical species that are lethal to bacteria such as meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and Clostridium difficile, known as C.diff,” he added.

The light prevents the pathogens from being transmitted through the environment - which ultimately lessens the spread of the infection among patients.

As you’ll notice in the picture, the light gives off a purple color. To make the lights appear more normal, the scientists designed the system with LED technology to off-set the violet colour.

Beruli Ulcers: The WHO Needs to seriously re-think it's strategy

Buruli ulcers, one of the ‘neglected tropical diseases’ left aside by big pharma and governments alike, are reasonably well treatable, also in poor regions but then more attention has to be paid to early diagnosis and correct treatment.

This means the rules of the World Health Organization urgently need to be changed. So say scientists of the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), based on ten years of research in Congo.

The disease is caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, a nephew of the infamous tuberculosis bacterium. It occurs in tropical and subtropical countries, mainly in Africa. It causes hideously ulcerating ‘holes’ in the skin, that can dig to the bone and can outgrow to diameters of more than 10 centimetres.

Much about the disease is unknown, for instance how exactly people get infected. It is assumed that water plays a role, but only in 2008 scientists — at ITM — succeeded in cultivating the bacterium from a water insect.

For a long time the only treatment consisted of caring for the wounds, and possibly a skin transplantation. Nowadays the WHO proposes a treatment analogous to tuberculosis, with two antibiotics, rifampicin and streptomycin. This works for light cases, but for lesions above 10 cm the effect was not documented.

ITM scientist Anatole Kibadi Kapay collected cases in DR Congo from the previous five years, when surgery combined with antibiotics was used, and from the five year before that, when only surgery was used. In the process he discovered a new focus close to the Angolan border; he assumes it to be correlated to the working conditions in the illegal diamond mines there.

Kibadi Kapay noticed that the WHO guidelines for clinical diagnosis lead to a correct diagnosis in only 2 cases out of 3. As opposed to a Ziehl-Neelsen smear, a microscopic technique that is within reach of poor countries — and that, through a better diagnosis, prevents the needless use of antibiotics.

But when large wounds have to be treated, from a microscopically confirmed Buruli case, antibiotics indeed are of good use. With surgery only, 15% of patients relapse; with parallel use of antibiotics, less than 2% relapse. But antibiotics only, without surgery, make large wounds worse.

Kibadi Kapay — who today received a doctorate from Antwerp University for his work — and his ITM colleagues advocate faster surgery of large ulcerating lesions, without four weeks of waiting with antibiotics only.

The more because patients themselves already wait a long time before consulting a doctor — to them the ulcers are inflicted by witchcraft or fate.

The research by Kibadi Kapay demonstrates the need of a better education of the population, but more important, it shows that WHO guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of Buruli ulcers urgently need to be adapted.

A new strategy to restore normal blood sugar levels in diabetes

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have identified a new strategy for treating type 2 diabetes, identifying a cellular pathway that fails when people become obese.

By re-activating this pathway artificially, they were able to normalize blood glucose levels in severely obese and diabetic mice. Their findings will be published online by Nature Medicine on March 28.

Epidemiologists have long known that obesity contributes to type 2 diabetes. In previous work, researcher Umut Ozcan, MD, in Division of Endocrinology at Children's, showed that the brain, liver and fat cells of obese mice have increased stress in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a structure in the cell where proteins are assembled, folded into their proper shapes, and dispatched to do jobs for the cell. In the presence of obesity, the ER is overwhelmed and its operations break down.

This so-called "ER stress" activates a cascade of events that suppress the body's response to insulin, and is a key link between obesity and type 2 diabetes.

To read the full article click here