Archive | July 31, 2012 | Armed with Science

Smart Phones, Service Members & PTSD Treatments

Filed under Featured, Life Sciences by jtozer on July 31, 2012 at 4:19 pm {no comments}

The computer age has dramatically impacted the practice of medicine. No matter what specialty of health care you look to, technology has enabled new tools to support the work of providers and facilitate the healing of patients.

Behavioral health is no exception.

Mobile computing platforms, such as smart phones and tablet computers, provide capabilities that can provide constant, hip pocket access to a range of potentially helpful tools.

The Department of Defense (DoD), National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2), the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Center for PTSD collaborated to develop the PE Coach smartphone app. This new smartphone application, or app, was recently released to support the face-to-face psychotherapy of service members or veterans engaged in treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

When a patient is diagnosed with PTSD, behavioral health providers have several effective treatments from which to choose. One of those treatments, prolonged exposure (PE), asks patients to revisit the memory of the traumatic event in their imagination.

These sessions are audio recorded and the patient listens to the recording each day. Between PE treatment sessions, patients also confront safe but distressing situations, places, and circumstances that either remind them of the trauma or feel unsafe.

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Tracking TBI – How The NFL Wants A Piece Of The Action

Filed under Featured by jtozer on July 31, 2012 at 7:38 am {no comments}

The Army is putting senors into soldier helmets to measure the impact of concussive events. The information gathered can further the Army's understanding of traumatic brain injury. Now, the National Football League wants to do the same thing with the helmets of football players. (Photo provided by PEO Solider)

The National Football League now wants to put into the helmets of its players the same type of sensors used by the Army to evaluate concussive events that could lead to traumatic brain injury.

The Army is working with the National Football League, or NFL, to help the league develop ways to protect football players from traumatic brain injury, known as TBI, in much the same way the service hopes to protect its own soldiers from those same injuries, said Lt. Col. Frank Lozano, product manager of soldier protection with Program Executive Office soldier.

Lozano says there are similarities between the head injuries suffered by football players and those suffered by soldiers.

“The NFL is very interested in having a similar type of capability that would aid doctors in diagnosing and understanding football players’ experience of concussions and blunt force trauma on the football field so that they can better offer medical aid at the appropriate time to those players,” he said.

Lozano also mentioned the positive relationship between the NFL and the Army, which he illustrated with three C’s: Cooperation, coordination and collaboration. These three goals, he said, are all part of the joint effort between the Army and the NFL to combat TBI.

Officials from the NFL and the Army meet periodically to discuss new ways to prevent and treat TBI, as well as to swap information and treatment tactics, Lozano said.

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Renewable Energy Solutions

Filed under Technology, Videos by jtozer on July 30, 2012 at 7:02 am {no comments}

Soldiers stationed in remote combat outposts face logistics and safety challenges to power their radios, laptops and GPS units.

U.S. Army scientists are researching methods to harness the sun and wind to ease the burdens associated with transporting fossil fuels to dangerous areas.

Marnie de Jong, an electrical engineer with the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, is helping to develop renewable-energy based microgrids that work independently of traditional grid power.

Video provided by RDECOM

Robotics Rodeo Highlights Advances Life Saving Technologies

Filed under Education & Culture, Robots, STEM by jtozer on July 29, 2012 at 7:18 am {no comments}

An unmanned vehicle is demonstrated at the Robotics Rodeo on Fort Benning, Ga. The 2012 Robotics Rodeo held at Fort Benning, June 20-29, 2012, allowed manufacturers to showcase the latest robotics technology designed to defeat battlefield threats, especially improvised explosive devices. (Photo by U.S. Army photo)

An unmanned ground vehicle makes its way across the field and suddenly slows, its sensors activated by a threat buried beneath the ground. A mechanical arm lowers, blades whirring and kicking up dirt as it searches for land mines and improvised explosive devices.

A loud report and a shower of sparks fill the air as the threat is discharged.

The above scenario took place at Fort Benning, Ga., during the 2012 Robotics Rodeo. The event allowed manufacturers to showcase the latest robotics technology designed to defeat battlefield threats, especially improvised explosive devices, known as IEDs.

Robotics technology has been vital in allowing soldiers and Marines to detect and defeat these devices from safe standoff distances during overseas contingency operations.

The Rodeo enables Maneuver Center of Excellence, or MCoE, soldiers to “test drive” the latest unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, and offer feedback based on their recent deployment experiences.

This year’s Robotics Rodeo was co-hosted by the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center; the Army Capabilities Integration Center; Fort Benning’s MCoE; and the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, also known as JIEDDO . The organizations gave private industry and academic researchers an opportunity to present their latest technology to system users and discuss potential collaboration with Army leaders.

NEEDED CAPABILITIES

Over the past decade, the use of UGVs in theater has greatly increased, providing soldiers with enhanced capabilities to safely conduct reconnaissance missions, route clearance and threat defeat. As threats evolve and soldiers prepare for missions in new areas of operations, advanced robotics technology will be needed to meet emerging needs.

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Release The Railgun

Filed under Featured, Videos by jtozer on July 28, 2012 at 7:53 am {no comments}

The Naval Research Laboratory‘s 5,000 square foot Materials Testing Facility (MTF) houses a “scaled-for-laboratory,” 6-meter Electromagnetic Railgun. A railgun consists of a power supply that drives current through a pair of conductors or rails to accelerate a projectile to high velocity.

MTF demonstrated, October 31, 2011, the one-thousandth successful firing of its Electromagnetic Railgun, reaching a materials testing milestone in the weapon’s technological development and future implementation aboard U.S. Navy warships.

Many of the 1000 shots have been designed to test different barrel designs and to quantify damage generated during high power launch. The innovations and understanding generated by NRL’s science and technology program have been fed directly into the Office of Naval Research’s Electromagnetic Railgun program and transferred to full-scale tests conducted at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, Va.

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Video provided by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory YouTube Channel

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Reaching The Final Frontier

Filed under Featured, Space, STEM, Videos by jtozer on July 27, 2012 at 7:29 am {no comments}

Gene Roddenberry had it right when he said that space is the final frontier.

What he may have neglected to mention, however, is how rough and tumble that frontier really is, or how difficult it is for us to ride through that star-speckled range.

I think it goes without saying that if we ever want to traverse the stars with the grace and ease afforded galaxy-class starships, we first need to start with strolling our own solar system. And by “strolling” I mean taking very well-planned and orchestrated steps in the right direction. Yes, the NASA space program is still reaching out into the universe, and every day they’re working to making space travel a practical and realistic future.

One environmentally inhospitable step at a time.

Let’s face it, unless you’re already a spaceship-flying alien or some kind of robot, space travel is not really smoothing sailing for us biped, oxygen-breathing, land-dwelling human types. But that’s not to say we’re letting a few challenging variables like food, air, water, and environment stop us.

Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are collaborating efforts to bring human beings out of low-Earth orbit. However, before we hop into the nearest rocket and strap MARS OR BUST on the back there is a lot of planning that goes into making that happen.

So how are the brilliant minds at NASA helping to make our footprints in the celestial sand? One of the ways is by using R.A.T.S. And not the white, furry types that frequent mazes. I’m talking about one of these:

Casual desert wear, good for any occasion.

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Female Body Armor

Filed under Featured, Videos by jtozer on July 26, 2012 at 7:31 am {no comments}

Body armor wasn’t originally made for women.

That’s the short and long of it (ah…measurement puns). But, before we start getting all up in arms (ha!) about this, think about the reason for that. Initially women didn’t serve in a military capacity that required them to wear body armor, but now all that’s changed.

Now that women are actively engaged in combat zones within their military roles (and have been for a while), the need to have correctly fitting and appropriate protection is a necessity. This isn’t a one-shield-fits-all thing. Well, not anymore. Female soldiers will soon see a big advancement in their protective equipment.

PEO Soldier‘s LTC Frank Lozano says that the new emphasis is on form, fit and function.

Video provided by The US Army YouTube Channel, SRTV

Here are some of the new improvements to the body armor for women:

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Artificial Anti-Gravity – How NRL Is Simulating Space

Filed under Featured, Space, STEM by jtozer on July 25, 2012 at 7:20 am {no comments}

Quarried in California, the 300 square-foot, 75,000 pound, Gravity Offset Table arrives at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. (Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Spacecraft Engineering Department‘s space robotics research facility recently took possession of a one-of-a-kind 75,000 pound Gravity Offset Table (GOT) made from a single slab of solid granite.

I know what you’re thinking. “TACOS!” Oh wait, that’s what I’m thinking.

Actually, the idea that a slab that weighs 37 and a 1/2 tons (which is, oh, maybe half a dozen elephants? Give or take?) could be associated with something that has no gravity is pretty impressive. And intuitively confusing. So let’s read on…

While the idea of building a space simulator is pretty cool (see: AWESOME), the concept conjures up thoughts of holodecks and space walks and whatnot. Obviously I’m getting ahead of myself here (crawl, walk, run), but why are we starting off at the quarry? Why the slab of granite?

Apparently, emulating the classical mechanics of physics found in space on a full-scale replica on Earth requires not only a hefty amount of air to ‘float’ the object, but a precision, frictionless, large surface area that will allow researchers to replicate the effects of inertia on man-made objects in space.

Ah. A hover table. But wait a minute, how is this even possible?

“We accomplish this by floating models of spacecraft and other resident space objects on air bearings — similar to the dynamics of an upside-down air hockey table,” said Dr. Gregory P. Scott, space robotics scientist. “Based on the inertia of the ‘floating’ system, a realistic spacecraft response can be measured when testing thrusters, attitude control algorithms, and responses to contact with other objects.”

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