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Into the Endless Mist Volume 2: The Aleutian Campaign September 1942-March 1943
No full textAt the beginning of June 1942, in the wake of the enormous Japanese struggle to bring a conclusive victory in the Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Navy commenced Operation AL (AL Sakusen). By conquering Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy intended to turn them into bastions that, supplied directly from the Kurile Islands, would check any American advance against the home islands from the north until at least the summer of 1943. The great disaster at Midway foiled the Japanese plan to create a greater defensive perimeter, though, ironically, as a result of the same battle, the Americans lacked the forces to quickly reconquer the two lost islands, and instead initially engaged in a low-level campaign of attrition against the Japanese forces over the winter of 1942 into 1943.Volume 2 of Into the Endless Mist continues the story of the relatively little-known Aleutian Islands campaign from September of 1942. The Americans, using their industrial capacity and taking advantage of Japanese mistakes, moved against Kiska by landing on Adak and Amchitka and using these as bases from which to conduct an attritional air campaign against the Japanese garrisons and the ships sent to support them. Japanese efforts to provide reinforcements and supplies to their garrisons in the Aleutians would lead to the naval battle of the Komandorski Islands (Attsu oki kaisen) in March 1943, which also marked the end of the era of the classic duel of gun-armed ships without air support.Although this battle did not decisively end the campaign, the period of balance between the US and Japanese navies in the North Pacific had ended and it was only a matter of time before the islands were retaken by US Army ground forces. Operation Landcrab, the US counter-invasion of Attu would end with the first Japanese ‘honourable defeat’ (gyokusai), in which the garrison sought to inflict a terrible toll on the attackers at the cost of their own complete destruction in a banzai charge. However, a painful lesson was learnt and soon after, despite all pessimistic predictions, the Japanese garrison of Kiska would be evacuated in what would become known as the ‘miracle at Kiska’ (Kisuka no kiseki) in Japanese historiography.Into the Endless Mist Volume 2: The Aleutian Campaign, September 1942 – March 1943 concludes the account of the forgotten struggle in the Aleutians, and is based on meticulous research of American and Japanese primary sources, testimonies, monographs, and papers. This volume is illustrated throughout with original photographs and includes the @War series’ specially commissioned signature colour artworks
Safe(r)-by-design principles in the thermoplastics industry: guidance on release assessment during manufacture of nano-enabled products
Get PDFBackground: The application of nanomaterials (NMs) and nano-enabled products (NEPs) across many industries has been extensive and is still expanding decades after first being identified as an emerging technology. Additive manufacturing has been greatly impacted and has seen the benefits of integrating NMs within products. With the expansion of nanotechnology, there has been a need to develop more adaptive and responsive methods to ascertain risks and ensure technology is developed safely. The Safe(r)-by-Design (SbD) concept can be used to establish safe parameters and minimise risks during the materials’ lifecycle, including the early stages of the supply chain. Exposure monitoring has advanced in recent years with the creation of standardised protocols for occupational exposure assessment of nano-objects and their aggregates and agglomerates (NOAA).Methods: To aid in the development of an online SbD-supporting platform by the EU-funded project SAbyNA, we adopt a Europe Standard for monitoring release of NOAA to identify if a greater release of NOAA is associated with incorporation of NMs within NEPs compared to a polymer matrix alone. Case studies included filaments of polypropylene (PP) with nano-Ag or polycarbonate (PC) with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). NMs were received in masterbatch, and therefore previously modified to align with SbD interventions. Results were collected in line with European Standard recommendations: monitoring particle concentrations using direct reading instruments (DRI), sampling for offline chemical and morphological analysis, and collecting contextual information.Results and discussion: Based on the criteria described in the European standard (BS EN 17058), data from both case studies identified that inhalation exposure relating to NM was “unlikely”. Despite this, during the production of the SWCNT-PC filaments, some noteworthy observations were made, including several DRI activity measurements shown to be higher than background levels, and material morphologically similar to the reference SWCNT/polymeric masterbatch observed in offline analysis. The data collected during this campaign were used to discuss choices available for data interpretation and decision-making in the European Standard for monitoring release of NOAA and also to facilitate the development of SAbyNA’s user-friendly industry platform for the SbD of NMs and NEPs
Do Psychological Treatments for PTSD in Children and Young People Reduce Trauma- Related Appraisals? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
No full textResearch is increasingly highlighting the role of negative trauma-related appraisals in child and adolescent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The cognitive model of PTSD claims that an essential mechanism of treatment is a reduction in these appraisals. The current systematic review with meta-analysis investigated the extent to which psychological treatments for PTSD reduce negative trauma-related appraisals in children and adolescents. Four databases (PsycINFO, Medline Complete, CINAHL Complete and PTSDpubs) were searched on the 11-12th December 2022. The Risk of Bias 2 (ROB-2) tool was used to assess for risk of bias. Thirteen studies were included in this review, comprising 937 child and adolescent participants. Using a random effects model to perform the meta-analysis, a medium pooled effect size for the effect of current treatments on trauma-related appraisals was found (g = -.67, 95% CI [-.86, -.48]). There was only a moderate level of heterogeneity between studies (I2= 44.4%), increasing the confidence with which these findings can be interpreted. These results indicate that psychological treatments for child and adolescent PTSD significantly reduce negative trauma-related appraisals. However, it is important to note that no trial included in the review was categorised as having low risk of bias
Compact reconfigurable MIMO antenna for 5G and Wi-Fi applications
Get PDFFour miniaturized four-element multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna designs are proposed, designed, and fabricated with dimensions of 26 mm x 26 mm x 0.8 mm each. The first MIMO design operates at 3.5 GHz, while the second operates at 5.2 GHz. The first and second designs are combined into a third design that can be reconfigured to operate at either 3.5 GHz or 5.2 GHz. A new concept of balance is introduced to address the issue of small ground faced by the previous designs. This concept is applied to the third antenna design, resulting in a fourth design of reconfigurable MIMO operating at 5.2 GHz or 3.5 GHz. The antenna demonstrates good impedance matching at both operating frequencies, with isolation levels of approximately 25 dB and 21 dB, envelope correlation coefficients (ECC) less than 0.0001, diversity gain (DG) of around 10 dB at both frequencies, and peak realized gains of 3.5 dBi at 3.5 GHz and 4 dBi at 5.2 GHz. The radiation efficiency of the fourth compact antenna design is approximately 88% at 3.5 GHz and 91% at 5.2 GHz. The measured results show excellent agreement with the simulated results for all four antenna designs
The fallout from the forex cartels: what legacy for foreign exchange regulation?
Get PDFThis article analyses infringement and settlement decisions issued by the European Commission in recent years in relation to cartels in the foreign exchange (‘forex’ or ‘FX’) sector, assesses what these decisions tell us about the susceptibility of the forex sector to anticompetitive behaviour and proposes how these risks might be reduced. This includes a focus on addressing the lack of transparency that characterises the sector. It is argued that preventing similar abuses occurring in future cannot be left to competition law alone, but rather requires greater ex ante regulation of the forex sector. As such, a crucial first step is the need for greater data gathering and analysis in relation to the purposes for which most forex trading is undertaken and it is proposed that there should be a stronger division between traders’ market-making activities and proprietary trading to try to minimise opportunities for collusive conduct and reduce information asymmetries
Data Temperature Informed Streaming for Optimising Large-Scale Multi-Tiered Storage
Get PDFData temperature is a response to the ever-growing amount of data. These data have to be stored, but they have been observed that only a small portion of the data are accessed more frequently at any one time. This leads to the concept of hot and cold data. Cold data can be migrated away from high-performance nodes to free up performance for higher priority data. Existing studies classify hot and cold data primarily on the basis of data age and usage frequency. We present this as a limitation in the current implementation of data temperature. This is due to the fact that age automatically assumes that all new data have priority and that usage is purely reactive. We propose new variables and conditions that influence smarter decision-making on what are hot or cold data and allow greater user control over data location and their movement. We identify new metadata variables and user-defined variables to extend the current data temperature value. We further establish rules and conditions for limiting unnecessary movement of the data, which helps to prevent wasted input output (I/O) costs. We also propose a hybrid algorithm that combines existing variables and new variables and conditions into a single data temperature. The proposed system provides higher accuracy, increases performance, and gives greater user control for optimal positioning of data within multi-tiered storage solutions
Mandating indoor air quality for public buildings
Get PDFPeople living in urban and industrialized societies, which are expanding globally, spend more than 90% of their time in the indoor environment, breathing indoor air (IA). Despite decades of research and advocacy, most countries do not have legislated indoor air quality (IAQ) performance standards for public spaces that address concentration levels of IA pollutants (1). Few building codes address operation, maintenance, and retrofitting, and most do not focus on airborne disease transmission. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made all levels of society, from community members to decision-makers, realize the importance of IAQ for human health, wellbeing, productivity, and learning. We propose that IAQ standards be mandatory for public spaces. Although enforcement of IAQ performance standards in homes is not possible, homes must be designed and equipped so that they could meet the standards
Creating a people-centred view of risk and restorative justice
Get PDFWe live in a risky and risk-centred world, in which we are concerned about the potential negative impact of interaction with other people. This has promoted actuarial, group-based ideas of risk assessment in relation to criminal justice. Different paradigms for justice, such as restorative justice, offer different ideas and possibilities about risk and how risk may be mitigated and managed, which may be used to reflect back on current criminal justice processes and theoretical views. Stemming from research into experienced facilitators’ risk assessment and mitigation in restorative justice, the article argues that risk assessment in restorative justice incorporates a different paradigm, which is more individualistic, co-produced and strength-based. It fits the core purposes of restorative justice and the emphasis that people can change. Could it potentially be used to inform risk assessment in criminal justice? Our article considers the potential of restorative approaches to risk for criminal justice
Return and volatility connectedness between agricultural tokens and us equity sectors
Get PDFThis study investigates the return and volatility interconnectedness between emerging digital assets, specifically agricultural tokens, and U.S. equity sectors using the TVP-VAR model. Analyzing data from August 7, 2020, to January 2, 2024, the findings indicate modest interconnections between agricultural tokens and U.S. sectors, with time-varying behavior. Notably, return interconnectedness is generally stronger than volatility, except at the sample period's outset, where volatility dominates. Return spillovers predominantly drive the connectedness system, though agricultural tokens uniquely act as net recipients of both return and volatility spillovers, while U.S. equity sectors mainly transmit spillovers. Optimal portfolio analysis, utilizing portfolio weights and hedge ratios, reveals that incorporating agricultural tokens offers portfolio diversification benefits and enhances hedging performance. Investors are advised to frequently adjust portfolios to maximize diversification and hedging gains. These findings provide significant portfolio implications for policymakers, market participants, and investors
The Climate Investment Case for the Livestock Sector
No full textKey Messages• Livestock are vital for nutrition, food security, and livelihoods in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), but climate change threatens these benefits.• The livestock sector also presents an environmental challenge, contributing an estimated 12% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.• With increasing global demand for animal products, there is likely to be an increase in the GHG footprint of the livestock sector.• Sustainably increasing livestock productivity is crucial to balance livelihood support and emissions reduction goals.• Investing in livestock can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while alleviating poverty, improving nutrition, and building climate resilience.• Additional measures, supported by investments, are needed to abate emissions and increase carbon capture.• Climate finance could support the shift towards sustainability, but investments to date have been limited.• The brief identifies several barriers facing financing institutions wishing to invest in livestock and sets out potential solutions.• There is a narrowing window to shape the nature of the sector’s growth and therefore its environmental impact in emerging markets.• Strategic sector investments are needed to target high-quality growth, reduce emissions, and address climate impacts on the livestock sector
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