Big Win for Huge Coral Reefs off NC, SC, Georgia, Florida

/PRNewswire/ -- Environmental Defense Fund saluted the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council today for its final vote to protect what may be Earth's largest deepwater coral ecosystem off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. A veritable wonderland of marine life, the 25,000-square-mile area is among the most important in the world for marine species and for exploration for biopharmaceuticals.

A first for fishery councils in the United States, the model safeguards strike an innovative balance between protecting critical habitat while allowing fishermen continued access to traditional fishing grounds using gears that do minimal damage to reefs.

The action by the regional council, which is meeting this week in Charleston, SC, culminates 10 years of collaboration between scientists, managers, conservationists and fishermen.

"We started with the idea of protecting every single square mile, even before we knew how many there were," said Doug Rader, chief oceans scientists for Environmental Defense Fund. "The final plan incorporates the science coming straight from research vessels. I know of no other process in the world where unpublished, brand-new science was translated so directly into world-class protection for a unique natural resource."

Rader served as chair of the regional committee that developed the protection plan. He was instrumental in bringing together fishery managers and fishermen to chart the areas in which fishing is allowed with certain gear.

"The plan could not have happened without the scientists who shared privileged data, the fishery managers who imagined this stunning outcome, and the fishermen who worked side-by-side on the design," said Rader. "We commend the commercial fishermen who participate in the golden crab and royal red shrimp fisheries for their collaboration. Working together, we set an important example of co-management that can be replicated in other fisheries."

The fragile reefs lie 1,000 feet or more below the ocean's surface. Individual colonies may be more than 1,000 years old, and individual coral mounds may be more than one million years old.

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Arts Across Georgia

Georgia State Professor Awarded Grant to help Give Homicide Victims’ Families Answers after Tragedy

Families of homicide victims have limitless questions after their loved one is gone — questions about what happened, which are often hard to get answers to as court cases wind their way through the legal system.

Georgia State University’s Elizabeth Beck and the Georgia Council on Restorative Justice have sought to help answer those questions, by helping to give victims’ families access to information from the defense — which often is the only party that has answers.

Now, thanks to a $656,000 grant from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Administration, Beck and her colleagues hope to create a model to bring the concept, called Defense Initiated Victim Outreach, to other locales, like Texas. The federal grant furthers the GCRJ’s work, which stems from funding from the Justice, Equality, Human Dignity and Tolerance Foundation.

“After a homicide, the victim’s families often have a lot of questions, and sometimes, the only people with the information that can answer the questions are the defense,” said Beck, an associate professor of social work in Georgia State’s College of Health and Human Sciences. “We work with defense attorneys, and the prosecution, so that victim-survivors can have access to information that can help to answer their questions.”

A key principle of Defense Initiated Victim Outreach, or DIVO, is that victim-survivors should be provided with as much information about the crime, the case and the process, without compromising due process for defendants.

Trained Victim Outreach Specialists work with the defense and victims’ families to help provide this information, and to help reduce the potential of additional emotional trauma — which can happen during testimony, cross-examination or other parts of the process.

For more information about the Georgia Council for Restorative Justice, visit www.gcrj.org.

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Iran Follows Russia in Threatening New Administration with Ballistic Missiles

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Riki Ellison, Chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA, http://www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org/) pointed out today that Iran's test-firing of a long-range ballistic missile is an attempt to intimidate the United States as the transition of Administrations is taking place. His comments are as follows:

"Yesterday, Iran launched a two stage solid fuel ballistic missile with a range of 1,200 miles making U.S. troops, bases, and allies in the Middle East most notably Israel vulnerable to threats, intimidation and influence of Iran and its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This display of provocation intended to engage the new administration under President-elect Obama follows the similar tactics of the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev who set a precedent less than a week ago by threatening the deployment of ballistic missiles on its border if the new U.S. administration does not withdrawal from the agreements that would deploy missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic."

"The Iranian ballistic missile proliferation, demonstration and development coupled with their quest for nuclear weapons creates an extremely unstable region that extends beyond the Middle East and into Europe."

"Countries within the region will be forced to react to equalize the status quo and maintain stability. Their limited options are, to rely upon and request American security, match and deter the ballistic missile inventory of Iran, launch pre-emptive military action, or become nuclear."

"Iran's technical development of two stage and solid fuel boosters with its ballistic missiles extends their range and technology today and in the future to influence, deter and threaten Europe and critical U.S. bases stationed in Europe."

"It is clearly apparent for President-elect Obama and his new administration to have flexibility, tools and options to deal with Iran to maintain peace and stability in the Middle East."

The current investment in missile defense capabilities must continue to be developed, tested and deployed from the European third site to the U.S. and regional missile defense assets to ensure security and stability for the Middle East.

"Missile defense will supplement current and future diplomatic and threat reduction efforts as well as give insurance for protection and stability in case of failure of these efforts."

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European, Arabic Media United in Intense Interest in U.S. Election

Cherribi, former member of the Dutch Parliament and head of the Emory Development Institute, has been busy the last several weeks giving interviews on Al Jazeera as well as media outlets throughout the Middle East and Europe. One thing he says that European and Arabic media outlets have in common is their intense interest in the Nov. 4 presidential election.

"They talk in a very stigmatizing and negative way about the current administration,” says Cherribi, who, as a fluent speaker of French, Dutch, English and Arabic, has been an in-demand interview. Cherribi says he's seen the transatlantic divide between Europe and America grow in recent years and notes, "European-American relations has to be high on the political agenda of anyone who is elected."

Although Cherribi was not surprised by results of the recent Gallup poll in 70 countries showing Barak Obama favored 4 to 1 over John McCain, he notes that Obama has not been above criticism overseas. "A lot of people were favoring an Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket and were disappointed," he says.

Nor has reaction to a possible McCain presidency been totally negative. "People recognize that McCain was a war hero; he is a good man; he was against bad policies of the administration," says Cherribi. But McCain's choice of Sarah Palin on the ticket did not go over well. "The interpretation was that McCain wants to reach out to the far right."

Whatever the outcome of the election, says Cherribi, the next president must send a message that a new day is dawning in American relations abroad. "Europe knows that it's an economic superpower, but when it comes to defense, Europe and the Arab world are regional powers," says Cherribi. "Europe knows it cannot function without an adequate American defense program. Europe and the rest of the world are looking to America for leadership."

Cherribi was a member of Parliament (MP) in The Netherlands from 1994-2002, representing his hometown of Amsterdam. As a Dutch MP he served as a member of the Council of Europe (an assembly focused primarily on human rights), the West European Union (focused on defense and security) and twice served as a member of the Dutch delegation to the United Nations.

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FDA Launches Food Defense Awareness Training Kit for Employees in the Food Industry

Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched its food defense awareness training kit for first line food industry employees. The training targets these individuals because they can play an important role in helping to keep our nation's food supply safe, from the farm to the table.

Food industry management will use the FIRST tool kit as part of ongoing employee food defense training programs. The tool kit focuses on five key points that industry and businesses can use to educate first line workers about the risks of food contamination. It also provides industry with measures to consider and implement to reduce these risks. Each of the letters in the FIRST acronym describes an action that a first line employee can take to mitigate risks of contamination.

F – FOLLOW company food defense plan and procedures

I – INSPECT your work area and surrounding areas

R – RECOGNIZE anything out of the ordinary

S – SECURE all ingredients, supplies and finished product

T – TELL management if you notice anything unusual or suspicious

Single copies of the kit are available in English and Spanish. The kit is free to employees and includes one DVD, a training poster, and on-screen instructions. Copies can be obtained by ordering online from the Food Defense & Terrorism Web site: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/fooddefense . A Web-ready version of the kit will be available later this month.

The FIRST tool kit focuses on preventing food contamination. Prevention is the essential first step to help ensure the safety of the nation's food supply. A shift to an increased emphasis on prevention is at the core of the FDA's Food Protection Plan . The FDA released the Food Protection Plan last fall and has been implementing the plan since that time. The plan provides a robust strategy to protect the nation's food supply from both unintentional contamination and deliberate attack.

The FIRST training kit is the second in a line of Food Defense Awareness Materials. ALERT, a program that was issued in July 2006, also focuses on prevention and identifies key points that supervisors and managers in industry and businesses can use to raise awareness of food defense issues and decrease the risks of food contamination.



A – AS SURE that the supplies and ingredients are from safe and secure sources

L – LOOK after the security of the products and ingredients

E – Know your EMPLOYEES

R – Provide REPORTS about the security of products

T – Know whom to notify if there's a THREAT , including suspicious behavior.

The FDA sets food safety standards, conducts inspections, takes regulatory action, and works with other government agencies and private sector organizations to help reduce the risk of tampering and other malicious, criminal or terrorist actions on our nation's food supply.

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Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor Recognized for Excellence in Performance Based Logistics

PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The U.S. Department of Defense has recognized Lockheed Martin's (NYSE:LMT) F-22 Raptor as an exemplary program in Performance Based Logistics (PBL), an innovative support approach that provides higher aircraft readiness to warfighters and lower overall costs to taxpayers.

Randy T. Fowler, Assistant Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense for Materiel Readiness, presented the 2008 PBL System Level Award to the F-22 team on Sept. 30 at the Aerospace Industries Association Fall Product Support Conference in Hilton Head, S.C. The PBL awards program recognizes government and industry teams that demonstrate outstanding achievements in PBL development, implementation and execution. This is the third time that a Lockheed Martin program or company has won the annual award.

The F-22 Raptor PBL Team won the System Level Award. Composed of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney, along with the U.S. Air Force, the team was honored for producing the highest readiness rates in the program's history.

"The award is a huge win for the 478th, the air logistics centers, contractors and aeronautical systems center. It's an even more significant and enabling win for our warfighters, providing them with better ability to fly, fight and win," said Thomas Severyn, director of the 478th Aeronautical Systems Wing, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

The F-22 was designed for supportability and self-sufficiency with a focus on reduced logistics costs. The improved reliability of the F-22 Raptor is projected to save the taxpayer $14 billion, or more than 35 percent in support costs over the life of the aircraft.

"We are honored by this recognition. The government-contractor team is a strong partnership providing rapid maturation of the F-22 support system and exceptional support to the warfighter," said Dennis Haines, Lockheed Martin vice president for F-22 Sustainment.

Using a life-cycle focused strategy, the Air Force and Lockheed Martin team implemented a continuous reliability improvement program, increasing mean time between maintenance by 69 percent fleet wide. The team drove a 15 percent improved mission rate and reduced repair time by 20 percent.

A total of 183 production Raptors are currently on contract. The F-22 is built by Lockheed Martin in partnership with Boeing and Pratt & Whitney. Parts and subsystems are provided by 1,000 suppliers in 44 states. The F-22 is the only aircraft that blends supercruise speed, super-agility, stealth and sensor fusion into a single air dominance platform.

Raptors are assigned to six U.S. bases: Edwards AFB, Calif., Nellis AFB, Nev., Tyndall AFB, Fla., Langley AFB, Va., Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, and Holloman AFB, N.M. Raptors will also be based at Hickam AFB, Hawaii.

Previous PBL awards honoring Lockheed Martin activities have included the following:

-- 2005 - Lockheed Martin won the System Level Award as part of the Air Force F-117 Nighthawk total system support partnership team, for innovative contracting measures enhancing war fighter capabilities and cutting costs.

-- 2006 - Lockheed Martin won the System Level Award for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems program, based at the Army's Precision Fires Rocket and Missile Systems Project Management Office at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Dallas.

Lockheed Martin is a major supplier of logistics systems and services to military and civil government customers. The corporation provides solutions for platform maintenance, modifications and repair, material readiness and distribution, and global supply chain command and control.

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Grant Supports "Intelligent Binoculars" that Mimic the Human Brain

The Georgia Institute of Technology has received a contract to help develop “intelligent binoculars” that mimic the low-level image processing done by the human brain. Called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS), the device is expected to be far more capable than portable visual threat-warning equipment currently used by the U.S. military.

A research team headed by Paul Hasler, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), will investigate the use of neuromorphic engineering to enable a CT2WS device. Neuromorphic techniques use innovative hardware and software approaches to emulate human intelligence.

The Georgia Tech team will be working with Hughes Research Laboratory and Northrop Grumman Corp., which have won CT2WS contracts from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

“Realistically, this is probably not something that’s going to be one project and then it’s done,” said Hasler, who is a research team leader at the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC), a 200-researcher group at Georgia Tech focused on mixed-signal (analog-digital) microelectronics. “This opens up a whole avenue of thought about neural-inspired approaches to new applications. There are likely to be a tremendous number of opportunities here going forward.”

Neuromorphic engineering is interdisciplinary, using fields that include biology, physics, mathematics and computer science, as well as electrical and other types of engineering. Its aim is to develop artificial systems—such as vision devices or auditory processors or even robotic systems—based to a degree on natural biological systems.

The CT2WS program’s aim is to deliver several prototype units small enough to be carried by solders in the field. DARPA has stated that these intelligent visual devices are now possible because of recent discoveries in a variety of fields, including wide-angle optics, digital imaging, cognitive visual-processing algorithms, neurally-based target detection processing and ultra low power analog-digital signal processing electronics.

A successful visual-warning device of this type could produce revolutionary capabilities for the combat soldier.

“The idea of this project is to build a visual device that is attentive, that can do the kind of low-level visual processing that your eyes do naturally,” Hasler explained. “You would see a certain picture in your field of view, but the device would actually be looking over a much wider space—and if it found something interesting it would present you with that picture as well.”

Hasler specializes in designing analog microelectronic circuits, in particular, novel analog designs that possess some of the configurability of their digital counterparts and yet use far less power.

Working with Associate Professor David Anderson, also in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hasler has built mixed-signal analog-digital circuits that can match the performance of all-digital designs while using hundreds of times less power and producing less heat.

Hasler has already performed research relevant to the design of intelligent visual devices. With $1.2 million in funding, he and Anderson worked on an earlier DARPA program that focused on new approaches to integrating the sensing and processing of images. And when Hasler won the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, he used that funding to examine frameworks for building neural circuits.

Hasler explains that power issues are vital to a project like CT2WS, which must be portable and yet have enough processing power to emulate human cognition.

“This is a highly interesting platform problem because you really are trying to build, at least initially, a simple representation of one layer of human brain cortex, maybe multiple layers if you can,” Hasler said. “You need a great deal of computational power, robustness and performance, and it becomes possible because a configurable analog-digital system has a power efficiency improvement of up to 10,000 times compared to an all-digital system.”

Hasler adds that the new DARPA program can also be expected to stimulate speculation about whether this technology has commercial promise.

“This kind of problem can serve as a roadmap for future applications,” Hasler said. “It can get people from the commercial side interested because it demonstrates some very real possibilities.”