Iraq
It’s rare when real-world events perfectly mirror experiments that scientists are conducting.
That’s why neuroscientists at the University of Washington were delighted at the reactions of former President George W. Bush and Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki when an Iraqi reporter flung his shoes toward the two men during a Baghdad news conference.
A team of scientists from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, or USU, have characterized the expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and associated signaling in response to Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) infection.
In an article published in the April 15, 2009 edition of the Journal of General Virology, Drs.
The strategy outlined by President Barack Obama emphasized scientific and technological collaboration to promote peace in partnership with Muslim countries is at the core of the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF).
A new UCLA-led study challenges the popular perception that ethnic diversity is to blame for sectarian conflicts in Iraq and Northern Ireland, recent tensions in Tibet, and ethnic violence in post-election Kenya.
FAIRFAX, Va.--Due to regional conflicts across the globe, such as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the global war on terrorism, women are being deployed overseas in greater numbers than ever before. Women constitute approximately 16 percent of the 3.5 million members of the U.S. armed forces and 10 percent of present forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Soldiers who survive severe injuries on battlefields such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan can be at risk from developing infections of their wounds with multidrug resistant bacteria.
Humor is a powerful communications tool with potential political implications at various levels of society, as the recent Danish political cartoon representations of the Prophet Mohammad and the political repercussions and resulting economic boycotts demonstrated. Purcell and colleagues' paper looks at humor as an important form of popular culture in the creation of geopolitical worldviews.
A new weapons carrier that has already proven itself under fire in Iraq will give ground troops a more mobile platform for firing rockets and missiles when it's fielded to operational units beginning this spring. The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System fires the Army's new guided Multiple Launch Rocket System during testing at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. U.S. Army photo
(Click photo for screen-resolution image); high-resolution image available.
The Defense Department's second amputee care center is slated to open Jan. 14 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, to provide state-of-the- art care for servicemembers who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The new center at Brooke Army Medical Center will incorporate a full range of amputee patient care at one site. This includes orthopedics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, occupational therapy, physical therapy and prosthetics, as well as social work and Veterans Affairs counselors.
Two deaths have been attributed to a rare type of pneumonia that is occurring among U.S. troops in Iraq at a higher than normal rate, according to a study in the December 22/29 issue of JAMA. Acute eosinophilic pneumonia (AEP) is a rare disease characterized by a fever, respiratory failure, and an infiltration of the lungs, according to background information in the article. Generally, patients with AEP present with respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation. Clinicians may initially confuse AEP with severe community-acquired pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), or both.
With funding from the federal government, researchers have begun a five-year, multidisciplinary research project to restore arm and leg function to amputees. At the end of the project, scientists hope to have created ''biohybrid'' limbs that will use regenerated tissue, lengthened bone, titanium prosthetics and implantable sensors that allow an amputee to use nerves and brain signals to move the arm or leg. The aim is to give amputees -- particularly war veterans -- better mobility and control of their limbs and reduce the discomfort and infections common with current prosthetics.
A laminate that protects NASCAR racecar windshields from rocks and debris will soon give extra protection to Army helicopters flying in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate at Fort Eustis, Va., started testing the concept in March and just got the green light to begin applying the Mylar polyester coating to the windshields of operational aircraft. Nathan Bordick, an engineer working on the project, said the Army borrowed the idea from NASCAR, where teams have been applying multiple layers of the peelable coatings to vehicle windshields for years to resist cracking, chipping and scratching. Periodically throughout a race, pit crews peel away a layer, leaving a clear, undamaged windshield for the laps ahead, he said.
As the Marine Corps look for answers to the deadly dangers of improvised explosive devices in Iraq, and the Navy seeks to protect ships from sea mines and anti-ship missiles, the Office of Naval Research is exploring radically new approaches to designing metals that could lead to effective blast shielding for military units -- and protection for civilian targets against terrorist attack.
Unmanned aerial vehicles are earning star status in the global war on terror, becoming the most-requested capability among combatant commanders in Southwest Asia and increasing fourfold in that theater during the last year alone, according to the deputy director of the Pentagon's UAV planning task force. UAVs are topping combatant commanders' wish lists. During the past year alone, UAVs' numbers in Iraq have jumped from less than 100 to more than 400.
The Field Museum is embarking on a two-year project that could help bridge cultural and scientific barriers exacerbated by the Iraq war. With the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the museum recently began to study, catalog and reconcile the scattered but priceless collections of materials from the famous 5,000-year-old archaeological site of Kish, 50 miles south of Baghdad. Kish is one of the world's oldest cities and site of the earliest evidence of wheeled transport.
