Military traumatic brain injury: a challenge straddling neurology and psychiatry

Military psychiatry, a new subcategory of psychiatry, has become an invaluable, intangible effect of the war. In this review, we begin by examining related military research, summarizing the related epidemiological data, neuropathology, and the research achievements of diagnosis and treatment technology, and discussing its comorbidity and sequelae. To date, advances in neuroimaging and molecular biology have greatly boosted the studies on military traumatic brain injury (TBI). In particular, in terms of pathophysiological mechanisms, several preclinical studies have identified abnormal protein accumulation, blood–brain barrier damage, and brain metabolism abnormalities involved in the development of TBI. As an important concept in the field of psychiatry, TBI is based on organic injury, which is largely different from many other mental disorders. Therefore, military TBI is both neuropathic and psychopathic, and is an emerging challenge at the intersection of neurology and psychiatry.

The Expulsion of Academic Teaching Staff from German Universities, 1933–45

In spring 1933, a political purge began in German universities, affecting around one fifth of their academic staff. This study examines the various stages of this process, uses new data to create a collective portrait of those dismissed and asks why they received so little support from their unscathed colleagues. An analysis of the reasons for their dismissal shows that approximately 80% were driven out on antisemitic grounds, even though less than a third belonged to the Jewish community. Their lives after their dismissal varied greatly. Whereas some managed to pursue highly successful careers while in emigration, others were murdered by the Nazis or committed suicide. At the same time the purge policy improved the career chances of younger academics and it is no coincidence that it was from their ranks that the largest number of supporters of the Nazi regime were recruited. Not until the second half of the war did leading German politicians and academic leaders recognise a further effect of this policy, namely that the emigration of numerous influential scholars had provided the Allies with a ‘considerable gain in potential’, including in highly significant military research.

The Field of Vegetable Operations

In this short speculation, I imagine a future forest that has been disturbed by invasive species, a changing climate, and engineered plant sensors. By staging this encounter between a wandering hiker, who never quite realizes that he is being watched, and MetaBee™ #21783, a drone that watches over nanobionic spinach, I feel out the strangeness of this burgeoning mode of surveillance. In my own research, I term this operationalization of pollinator-plant relations, in which drones harvest information from engineered plants instead of pollen, a “vital informatics.” That is to say, I argue that current military research into nanobionic and genetically engineered plants constitutes a living information science that integrates organic systems into data collection, storage, and processing.

Maximising Operational Effectiveness: Exploring Stigma, Militarism, and the Normative Connections to Military Partners’ Support-Seeking

Non-serving partners of personnel in the British military endure numerous challenges due to their association with the Armed Forces and complex systems of support exist to mitigate some disadvantages they might experience. Military research suggests that support-seeking can be stigmatised, limiting the effectiveness of existing support systems. However, it seldom engages with how stigma is produced, often obscuring reflection on normative and disciplinary power, rendering discussions politically anesthetised. Through the thematic analysis of welfare policy and provision, interviews with welfare-providers and military partners, this article develops understandings of stigma as a barrier to support-seeking, considering how it is produced and how it is productive of gendered militarised neoliberalism.

Review and Prospects for Autonomous Observing Systems in Vessels of Opportunity

This paper focuses on the state of the art on Autonomous Observing Systems (AOS) used in Vessels of Opportunity (VOO) for collecting in situ atmospheric, oceanic and biogeochemical data. The designation Vessels of Opportunity includes all kinds of ships, even if not having scientific goals, which may carry proper devices that autonomously measure environmental variables. These vessels can be merchant, military, research, cruise liners, fishing, ferries, or even private yachts or sailing boats. The use of AOS can provide the opportunity for highly refined oceanographic data and improved derived data estimation, for local, regional or global scales studies. However, making the collected information accessible, both for scientific and technical purposes, provides a challenge in data management and analysis, which must, above all, ensure trusted useful data to the stakeholders. An overall review of the systems implemented is presented. This includes the definition of objectives, the recruitment of vessels and a review on the installation of proper acquisition devices; the selection and collection of Essential Oceanic Variables (EOV); the mechanisms for transmitting the information, and the quality control analysis and dissemination of data. The present and future capabilities of VOO for measuring EOV, within the Portuguese context are referred.

Introduction of a new dataset and method for location predicting based on deep learning in wargame

It is a challenge for existing artificial intelligence algorithms to deal with incomplete information of computer tactical wargames in military research, and one effective method is to take advantage of game replays based on data mining or supervised learning. However, the open source datasets of wargame replays are extremely rare, which obstruct the development of research on computer wargames. In this paper, a data set of wargame replays is opened for predicting algorithm on the condition of incomplete information, to be specific, we propose the dataset processing method for deep learning and an network model for enemy locations predicting. We first introduce the criteria and methods of data preprocessing, parsing and feature extraction, then the training set and test set for deep learning are predefined. Furthermore, we have designed a newly specific network model for enemy locations predicting, including multi-head input, multi-head output, CNN and GRU layers to deal with the multi-agent and long-term memory problems. The experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves good performance of 84.9% on top-50 accuracy. Finally, we open source the data set and methods on https://github.com/daman043/AAGWS-Wargame-master.

Fluids of the Future

Fluids are a vital tool in the armament of acute care clinicians in both civilian and military resuscitation. We now better understand complications from inappropriate resuscitation with currently available fluids; however, fluid resuscitation undeniably remains a life-saving intervention. Military research has driven the most significant advances in the field of fluid resuscitation and is currently leading the search for the fluids of the future. The veterinary community, much like our civilian human counterparts, should expect the fluid of the future to be the fruit of military research. The fluids of the future not only are expected to improve patient outcomes but also be field expedient. Those fluids should be compatible with military environments or natural disaster environments. For decades, military personnel and disaster responders have faced the peculiar demands of austere environments, prolonged field care, and delayed evacuation. Large scale natural disasters present field limitations often similar to those encountered in the battlefield. The fluids of the future should, therefore, have a long shelf-life, a small footprint, and be resistant to large temperature swings, for instance. Traumatic brain injury and hemorrhagic shock are the leading causes of preventable death for military casualties and a significant burden in civilian populations. The military and civilian health systems are focusing efforts on field-expedient fluids that will be specifically relevant for the management of those conditions. Fluids are expected to be compatible with blood products, increase oxygen-carrying capabilities, promote hemostasis, and be easy to administer in the prehospital setting, to match the broad spectrum of current acute care challenges, such as sepsis and severe systemic inflammation. This article will review historical military and civilian contributions to current resuscitation strategies, describe the expectations for the fluids of the future, and describe select ongoing research efforts with a review of current animal data.