Articoli di riviste sul tema "Flight of the Earls, 1607"

The ‘flight of the earls’ is considered one of the most intriguing events in Irish history. Traditionally, historians explaining this event have been divided into two schools of thought. Some have depicted the earls as offended innocents, forced into exile by unwarrantable pressure from Lord Deputy Chichester’s administration. Others have accepted the conspiracy theory, agreeing with the Dublin government’s contemporary view that the earls fled because they feared that their treasonable machinations had been uncovered. Since 1971, however, historical interpretation of the affair has been dominated by an article written by Nicholas Canny.Departing from the previous lines of explanation, Canny focused on the intentions of the earl of Tyrconnell and Cuchonnacht Maguire to leave Ireland in 1607 as the key to understanding the flight. Anxious to leave the country because they were in acute financial difficulties, they were determined to seek profitable service with Archduke Albert, governor of the Spanish Netherlands. The ‘premature’ arrival of the ship that was sent to encompass Tyrconnell’s passage discomfited Tyrone, then preparing to go to court, causing him to ‘panic’ and take flight.

Structured personal accounts of contemporary events and happenings composed in the Irish language are exceedingly rare in the pre-Revival period; that is to say, in the period prior to the founding of the Gaelic League or Conradh na Gaeilge in Dublin in 1893. The first such composition and the main focus of this paper is the account of the Ulster Earls’ journey from Rathmullan in Co. Donegal to Rome in 1607–8. It was written by Tadhg Ó Cianáin, a member of the native learned class, who accompanied the Earls on their journey. Tadhg Ó Cianáin’s account of the Earls’ journey to Rome includes many instances where specific reference is made to conversation as an accomplishment and pleasurable social activity. There would seem to be no doubt but that this reflects Ó Cianáin’s observation of a practice which was being cultivated on the Continent for societal and aesthetic purposes, and regarded as being conducive to family, kindred and community cohesion. Nonetheless, the examples of conversation-in-being culled from Irish literature more generally and cited in this article bear witness to the ongoing engagement with conversation, discourse and storytelling which has always permeated Irish culture.

Abstract. We analyze the extent of subtropical stratocumulus-capped boundary layer decoupling and its relation to other boundary-layer characteristics and forcings using aircraft observations from VOCALS-REx along a swath of the subtropical southeast Pacific Ocean running west 1600 km from the coast of Northern Chile. We develop two complementary and consistent measures of decoupling. The first is based on boundary layer moisture stratification in flight profiles from near the surface to above the capping inversion, and the second is based the difference between the lifted condensation level (LCL) and a mean lidar-derived cloud base measured on flight legs at 150m altitude. Most flights took place during early-mid morning, well before the peak in insolation-induced decoupling. We find that the boundary layer is typically shallower, drier, and well mixed near the shore, and tends to deepen, decouple, and produce more drizzle further offshore to the west. Decoupling is strongly correlated to the “well-mixed cloud thickness”, defined as the difference between the capping inversion height and the LCL; other factors such as wind speed, cloud droplet concentration, and inversion thermodynamic jumps have little additional explanatory power. The results are broadly consistent with the deepening-warming theory of decoupling. In the deeper boundary layers observed well offshore, there was frequently nearly 100% boundary-layer cloud cover despite pronounced decoupling. The cloud cover was more strongly correlated to a κ parameter related to the inversion jumps of humidity and temperature, though the exact functional relation is slightly different than found in prior large-eddy simulation studies.

Abstract. We analyze the extent of subtropical stratocumulus-capped boundary layer decoupling and its relation to other boundary-layer characteristics and forcings using aircraft observations from VOCALS-REx along a swath of the subtropical southeast Pacific Ocean running west 1600 km from the coast of Northern Chile. We develop two complementary and consistent measures of decoupling. The first is based on boundary layer moisture and temperature stratification in flight profiles from near the surface to above the capping inversion, and the second is based the difference between the lifted condensation level (LCL) and a mean lidar-derived cloud base measured on flight legs at 150 m altitude. Most flights took place during early-mid morning, well before the peak in insolation-induced decoupling. We find that the boundary layer is typically shallower, drier, and well mixed near the shore, and tends to deepen, decouple, and produce more drizzle further offshore to the west. Decoupling is strongly correlated to the "mixed layer cloud thickness", defined as the difference between the capping inversion height and the LCL; other factors such as wind speed, cloud droplet concentration, and inversion thermodynamic jumps have little additional explanatory power. The results are broadly consistent with the deepening-warming theory of decoupling. In the deeper boundary layers observed well offshore, there was frequently nearly 100 % boundary-layer cloud cover despite pronounced decoupling. The cloud cover was more strongly correlated to a κ parameter related to the inversion jumps of humidity and temperature, though the exact functional relation is slightly different than found in prior large-eddy simulation studies.

Purpose. Develop a methodology for the pre-project selection of quadcopter-type UAV components for the creation of drones based on the specified criteria. Methodology. Mathematical analysis and modeling. Findings. The paper presents a comprehensive framework aimed at facilitating the rapid assembly of customizable multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (MR-UAVs) tailored to specific mission requirements, all without the need for tools. This modular approach encompasses the development, implementation, and evaluation of a structured process that guides operators through selecting hardware components such as sensors, actuators, propellers, motors, batteries, and electronic speed controllers. This meticulous selection process is pivotal in achieving the desired flight characteristics of the MR-UAV. Furthermore, a software tool has been devised to streamline the equipment selection process and accurately compute flight time. The flight time calculation algorithm, rooted in data obtained from brushless motor and propeller analyses conducted using a traction stand/dynamometer, has undergone rigorous testing to ensure reliability and precision. The framework itself comprises five distinct modules: controller, transmission, video, communication, and payload. These modular components afford users the flexibility to mix and match according to the demands of their specific application, enabling the swift assembly of an MR-UAV optimized for the task at hand. To validate the efficacy of the framework, a prototype was constructed and subjected to rigorous testing, confirming the soundness of the design. Notably, the versatility of this framework is exemplified through the creation of three distinct modular MR-UAV profiles. These profiles cater to diverse applications: surveillance, emphasizing extended flight time; delivery, prioritizing larger payload capacity; and a hybrid configuration allowing seamless transition between battery power sources mid-flight. In essence, this paper not only introduces a modular framework for MR-UAV assembly but also underscores its practicality and adaptability through real-world implementation and testing across varied mission profiles. Originality. For this section of the abstract should determining the most important results that reflect originality of work. The algorithm proposed in the article is based on an approach that allows adapting MR-UAVs at a higher level than previous systems. The infrastructure allows the user to configure flight characteristics (flight time, speed, maximum payload), as well as sensors and communication channels (video and data link) according to the requirements of a specific operation. Practical value. To facilitate the process of selecting hardware components for frame modules, the paper presents an algorithm for estimating flight time, which is included in the process of building modular profiles. The algorithm has been tested and an average accuracy of 98.94% has been achieved for hover time-of-flight estimation. The design of the software is presented. This tool allows developers to analyze brushless motor and propeller data (obtained from the thrust stand), evaluate how gross weight and battery selection affect the MR-UAV (in terms of flight time, thrust-to-weight ratio, and maximum payload), and optimizes the process development of MR-UAV.

Harmfulness and spread of a new dangerous pest of Mordellistena parvuliformis Stshegol.-Bar, 1930 have been recorded in the north-east of Ukraine. The results of researches of the reasons of occurrence, harmfulness and distribution of this dangerous pest of sunflower are generalized. It was found that the larvae of the sunflower Mordellistena parvuliformis from the diapause occur from the end of the third decade of April after feeding on dead stem tissue. Depending on the time of hatching, the presence of pupae is observed until the end of May. From the third decade of May, you can see the flight of adults and after a short additional feeding on flowering vegetation — the beginning of mating. Adult flight lasts a little more than 1.5 months — until the second decade of July. Embryonic development lasts about two weeks. The last eggs laid were observed in early August. From the second decade of June there was a revival of larvae, which are in an active state inside the stems until mid-September until the end of feeding and transition to a state of rest for further wintering. Thus, the development of one complete generation of toadstools per year is established.

Context. Modern theory and practice of preparation and conduct of hostilities on land, at sea, in the air, and recently in cyberspace dictates the relentless modernization of military equipment. The development of fundamentally new weapons is carried out considering one of the main requirements – maximum automation of operational processes, which allows combatants to distance themselves from each other as much as possible. Among the newest models of armaments on the battlefield, due to the predominantly positional nature of the armed confrontation, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become virtually indispensable due to their own multitasking. One of the ways to increase the efficiency of UAVs on the battlefield is to increase the level of technical perfection of flight control systems. Creating new approaches to the design of unmanned aerial vehicle navigation systems, in particular, based on a platformless inertial navigation system is an urgent task that will provide automatic control of the UAV flight route in the absence of corrective signals from the global satellite navigation system. Objective. The purpose of this work is to develop a method for improving the accuracy of MEMC navigation data processing of an inertial navigation system of an unmanned aerial vehicle based on an advanced Madgwik filter. This method will increase the speed of data processing of navigation parameters and the accuracy of determining the positioning parameters in the space of the UAV through the use of an advanced Madgwik filter. The paper shows the developed block diagram of MEMS PINS filtration on the basis of the improved Madgwik filter, the detailed mathematical description of filtration processes is carried out. This method was tested experimentally in the MATLAB software environment using a real set of data collected during the flight of the UAV. Method. To achieve this goal, the following methods were used: intelligent systems, theory of automatic control, pseudo-spectral method; methods based on genetic algorithm and fuzzy neural network apparatus. Results. A method for improving the accuracy of MEMC navigation data processing of an inertial navigation system of an unmanned aerial vehicle based on an advanced Madgwik filter has been developed. The possibility of practical application of the obtained results and in comparison, with traditional methods is investigated. An experiment was performed in the MatLab software environment, and a comparison was made with the method of processing navigation data based on the Madgwik filter and the Kalman filter. Conclusions. The developed method of increasing the accuracy of MEMC navigation data processing of an inertial navigation system of an unmanned aerial vehicle based on an advanced Madgwik filter shows an advantage over known methods in the absence of corrective signals from the global satellite navigation system for accuracy and speed of navigation data processing.

The depth of change which the country experienced in the reign of James I has become an axiom of early modern Irish historiography. The extension of crown government throughout the island, the flight of the northern earls, the subsequent plantation in Ulster and the putative religious reformation of the indigenous inhabitants contributed to a climate of flux and tension. The burgeoning scholarly interest in this phase of Irish history has resulted in a more detailed understanding of administrative, political, regional and religious trends in the period. Progress has also been made in the study of contemporary mentalities. An interesting development has been the use of sources in the Irish language for the reconstruction of previously obscure intellectual currents amongst the Gaelic élite. The recent appearance of Michelle O Riordan’s monograph on the Gaelic reaction to the collapse of traditional society represents the fullest exposition yet of an interpretation which has characterised the early modern Gaelic ideological response to conquest and social change as fundamentally passive and backward-looking. O Riordan has, in effect, elaborated upon the conclusions of preceding commentators, notably Tom Dunne and Bernadette Cunningham, in portraying the Gaelic understanding of socio-political transformation as lacking in critical perception. This essay is intended as a further contribution to the elucidation of the mental climate of the time. More particularly, it will focus on two themes which figured prominently in the separate, but in this instance similar, communal reactions of the Gaelic Irish and the New English settlers to their respective political and social environments.

Context. The problem of approximation of empirical data in the decision-making system in safety management.. The object of the study was to verify the adequate coefficients of the mathematical model for data approximation using information technology. Objective. The goal of the work is the creation adequate math-ematical model using information technology on the bases analyze different approaches for approximating empirical data an that can be used to predict the current state of the operator in the flight safety system.. Method. A comparative analysis of the description of the transformation of information indicators with a non-standard structure. The following models of transformation of information indicators with similar visual representation are selected for comparison: parabolas of the second and third order, single regression and regression with jumps. It is proposed to use new approaches for approximation, based on the use of the criterion proposed by Kuzmin and the Heaviside function. The adequacy of the approximation was checked using these criteria, which allowed to choose an adequate mathematical model to describe the transformation of information indicators. The stages of obtaining a mathematical model were as follows: determining the minimum sum of squares of deviations for all information indicators simultaneously; use of the Heaviside function; optimization of the abscissa axis in certain areas; use of the linearity test. The obtained mathematical model adequately describes the process of transformation of information indicators, which will allow the process of forecasting changes in medical and biological indicators of operators in the performance of professional duties in aviation, as one of the methods of determining the human factor in a proactive approach in flight safety. Results. The results of the study can be used during the construction of mathematical models to describe empirical data of this kind. Conclusions. Experimental studies have suggested recommending the use of three-segment linear regression with jumps as an adequate mathematical model that can be used to formalize the description of empirical data with non-standard structure and can be used in practice to build models for predicting operator dysfunction as one of the causes of adverse events in aviation. Prospects for further research may be the creation of a multiparameter mathematical model that will predict the violation of the functional state of the operator by informative parameters, as well as experimental study of proposed mathematical approaches for a wide range of practical problems of different nature and dimension.

Purpose. Development of a mechatronic system based on the example of a Glider type aircraft model for studying and researching its control processes. Methodology. Physical experiment on the developed laboratory bench, computer modelling, calculation and analytical methods. Findings. In the course of the study, the main processes of glider control were considered and analyzed: the interaction of the pilot's controls and the operating mechanisms of the wing. An analysis of the shortcomings and advantages of existing developments on the subject under study was carried out, taking into account the issues of mobility, economy, simplicity and reliability of implementation, as well as the possibility of using it as a training stand. A laboratory stand has been developed in the form of a mechatronic system based on the example of a "Glider" type aircraft model for studying and researching the interaction processes of control bodies and flight executive mechanisms. The software and hardware complex is connected using the USB interface. A SOC platform with an ArduinoUno microcontroller was used to process processor commands and convert them into aileron movements. The Logitech Extreme 3D joystick was chosen as the control interface. In order to increase the similarity to real systems, a certain delay (inertia) is provided between the moment of the operator's impact on the joystick and the response of the glider. Styrofoam was used as the material of the glider model. Servo drives MG-90S and DS-37 are used to control the position of the moving parts of the glider model. The airframe is rotated using a 28BYJ-48 engine. Software has been developed, the feature of which is easy setup and quick start-up of the laboratory stand. Provide for the possibility of keeping a log, which will allow analysis of the actions of the stand operator. As a result of the conducted research, the features of glider control and the structure of the mechanisms that ensure the control process were determined. Originality. A mechatronic system of a "Glider" type aircraft model based on an ArduinoUno-based software-hardware complex has been proposed and developed, which differs from the existing ones by the presence of a program that provides easy setup and quick start-up of the aircraft, which allows you to study the interaction of control bodies and executive mechanisms flight. Practical value. The developed laboratory stand based on the "Glider" type aircraft expands the possibilities of studying and researching electromechanical processes of automatic control systems of complex mechatronic objects.

AbstractInstrumentation and software for the automated analysis of insect flight trajectories is described, intended for quantifying the behavioural dynamics of moths in the vicinity of artificial light. For its time, this moth imaging system was relatively advanced and revealed hitherto undocumented insights into moth flight behaviour. The illumination source comprised a 125 W mercury vapour light, operating in the visible and near ultraviolet wavelengths, mounted on top of a mobile telescopic mast at heights of 5 and 7.1 m, depending upon the experiment. Moths were imaged in early September, at night and in field conditions, using a ground level video camera with associated optics including a heated steering mirror, wide angle lens and an electronic image intensifier. Moth flight coordinates were recorded at a rate of 50 images per second (fields) and transferred to a computer using a light pen (the only non-automated operation in the processing sequence). Software extracted ground speed vectors and, by instantaneous subtraction of wind speed data supplied by fast-response anemometers, the airspeed vectors. Accumulated density profiles of the track data revealed that moths spend most of their time at a radius of between 40 and 50 cm from the source, and rarely fly directly above it, from close range. Furthermore, the proportion of insects caught by the trap as a proportion of the number influenced by the light (and within the field of view of the camera) was very low; of 1600 individual tracks recorded over five nights, a total of only 12 were caught. Although trap efficiency is strongly dependent on trap height, time of night, season, moonlight and weather, the data analysis confirmed that moths do not exhibit straightforward positive phototaxis. In general, trajectory patterns become more complex with reduced distance from the illumination, with higher recorded values of speeds and angular velocities. However, these characteristics are further qualified by the direction of travel of the insect; the highest accelerations tended to occur when the insect was at close range, but moving away from the source. Rather than manifesting a simple positive phototaxis, the trajectories were suggestive of disorientation. Based on the data and the complex behavioural response, mathematical models were developed that described ideal density distribution in calm air and light wind speed conditions. The models did not offer a physiological hypothesis regarding the behavioural changes, but rather were tools for quantification and prediction. Since the time that the system was developed, instrumentation, computers and software have advanced considerably, allowing much more to be achieved at a small fraction of the original cost. Nevertheless, the analytical tools remain useful for automated trajectory analysis of airborne insects.

In this literature review, the analysis of the studies of venous blood flow pathology in the inferior Vena cava system using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is carried out. Special attention is paid to the attempts made to use this method in the diagnosis of chronic lower limb vein disorders (CVD) through magnetic resonance venography (MRV). Historically and methodically, the gradual introduction of MRV methods in the diagnosis of lower limb vein thrombosis (LEDVT) and venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been shown.Methods of non-contrast MRV based on the effect of blood flow, as in the case of MR-Angiography, are divided into two principal groups: methods based on the amplitude effects of Time-of-Flight (TOF) and methods based on Phase Contrast effects (PC). Techniques for conducting contrast-free MRV are described in detail. Attention is paid to pulse sequences used in the world for visualization of veins in contrast-free MRV in TOF and PC mode (FR-FBI, SPADE, SSFP) and post-processing methods: 2D-TOF MRV FLASH, 2D-TOF MRV CRASS, FIPS, VED, VENS.Contrast-enhanced MRV (CE MRV) is based on the use of “blood pool” contrast agents, which feature the ability to form stable compounds with blood plasma proteins. Worldwidesubstances with magnetic and supermagnetic properties based on gadolinium or iron oxide are used as contrast agents for CE MRV. The result of using these contrast agents is an increase in the quality of visualization due to a better signal to noise ratio (SNR) using 3D image processing (3D CE MRV) using fast sequences: GRE, TFLAS, VESPA, CAT, in conditions of direct and indirect CE MRV.It is noted that in recent years, certain restrictions have been imposed on certain linear contrast agents containing gadolinium in their further use. Therefore, for the purpose of CE MRV, it is efficientl to use only cyclic contrast agents to avoid unnecessary risks.Contrast-free MRV has again received intensive development in recent years, due to the restrictions imposed, one of these methods is direct thrombus imaging (Direct Thrombus Imaging – DTI or Magnetic Resonance Direct Thrombus Imaging - MRDTI) using fast pulse sequences: bSSFP, BBTI, DANTE. The latest research on this LEDVT diagnostic method was published in 2019 and has shown high diagnostic value.For all the most commonly used methods of MRV, specificity and sensitivity are shown.Further MRV in patients with CVD and DVT is a promising diagnostic task in modern phlebology. MRV should be introduced into clinical practice more actively than it is today.

Purpose. Synthesis of an automatic control system for an asynchronous electric drive of a grain thrower conveyor based on a frequency converter with vector control. Methodology. The research was carried out using methods of mathematical modeling of an electric drive; using methods of tuning optimization and regulator synthesis. The technique of synthesis of vector control systems is based on the representation of a non-stationary multi-connected object, which is an AC machine, in the form of a set of stationary subobjects with linear links in the main control channels. Findings. The study of the work of the subordinate regulation system, which implements the principles of vector control, oriented along the vector of the rotor flux linkage, has been carried out. The modeling of the processes of AM excitation, AM start-up at idle speed, nominal load surge, speed reduction has been carried out. It was found that the synthesized system is characterized by good quality indicators. The overshoot at start does not exceed 5%, the regulation time is 0.4 s, the torque limitation is carried out at a predetermined level. It has been proven that oscillatory processes in transient modes with significant torque surges with classical settings of loop regulators can be compensated by introducing artificial cross-links into the control part of the electric drive. Originality. A system of subordinate regulation of the blood pressure of the grain thrower trimmer conveyor has been implemented to set the speed of the grain flow with the aim of throwing grain at a given distance by creating an appropriate ballistic flight trajectory, which ensures a reduction in losses from damage to grain. Practical value. The structure of the vector control system of a frequency-controlled asynchronous electric drive with additional compensating cross-connections between active and reactive energy control channels is proposed to improve the quality indicators of the system.

Purpose. Development of a methodology for accelerated studies on the wear resistance of tribocombinations operating under complex dynamic contact loading conditions and varying temperatures. Research methods. A methodology and setup have been devised for conducting accelerated studies on the wear resistance of materials under various loading conditions (unidirectional sliding, impact with sliding, impact with sliding in two mutually perpendicular directions) similar to operational conditions and temperatures. Additionally, the separate influence of each parameter affecting the system load is considered. The variation in load magnitude and displacement amplitudes of specimens is carried out directly during the tests using a control system with stepper motors controlled by the Arduino Uno computing platform. Results. It is demonstrated that the increase in the multicomponent nature of dynamic loading in tribo-coupling contact leads to an escalation in the intensity of wear of heat-resistant alloys. The variation in wear intensity, depending on the test temperature, exhibits a complex nature. Determining the regularities and developing the conditions for the formation of a wear-resistant surface layer of parts of tribocombinations is possible based on the analysis of the amount of wear and the condition of the surface, taking into account the real type of load (unidirectional sliding, impact with sliding, impact with sliding in two mutually perpendicular directions). Scientific novelty. The physical modeling of the process of wear of the bandage shelves of the blades of the gas turbine under a complex thermodynamic load is considered. Practical value. The setup and methodology for conducting accelerated tests of friction pair models under conditions approximating real tribocombinations operating conditions with various types of loading on flat details are presented. This allows providing technological recommendations for enhancing the wear resistance of gas turbine engines. Conducting accelerated programmable tests will allow to study the condition of the tri-junctions during a load cycle close to the engine duty cycle in flight mode.

At 1606:22, Clipper 759 informed the tower that it was ready for takeoff. At 1606:24, the local controller cleared the flight for takeoff, and at 1606:30, the first officer acknowledged the clearance. The acknowledgement was the last radio transmission received from Clipper 759. On July 8, 1982, Pan American World Airways Flight 759 (Clipper 759), a Boeing 727-235, N4737, was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Miami, Florida, to Las Vegas, Nevada, with an en route stop at New Orleans, Louisiana. About 1607:57 central daylight time, Clipper 759, with 7 crewmembers, 1 nonrevenue passenger on the cockpit jumpseat, and 137 passengers on board, began its takeoff from runway 10 at the New Orleans International Airport, Kenner, Louisiana. At the time of flight 759’s takeoff, there were showers over the east end of the airport and to the east end of the airport along the airplane’s intended takeoff path. The winds at the time were gusty, variable, and swirling. Clipper 759 lifted off the runway, climbed to an altitude of between 95 feet to about 150 feet above the ground, and then began to descend. At 1608:57, the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) activated and “Whoop whoop pull up whoop. . . .” was recorded. The airplane struck a line of trees about 2,376 feet beyond the departure end of runway 10 at an altitude of about 50 feet above the ground. The airplane continued on an eastward track for another 2,234 feet hitting trees and houses and then crashed into a residential area about 4,100 feet from the end of the runway. The airplane was destroyed during the impact, explosion, and subsequent ground fire. One hundred forty-five persons on board the airplane and eight persons on the ground were killed in the crash. Six houses were destroyed; five houses were damaged substantially.1,2 Moreover, nine people on the ground suffered severe injuries. The aircraft hit the ground with a considerable left bank angle, firstly hitting an oak tree with the left wing, cutting the power and the telephone lines mounted on poles, then destroying the houses of the Schultz family, the neighboring house, and a few others, and eventually cartwheeled and broke into pieces. Kerosene spilled from the ruptured tanks and ignited although there was a thunderstorm with heavy rain; three members of the Schultz family staying in their house were badly burned, one of them died in hospital. Among those killed on the ground—actually the first victim along the swathe of destruction caused by the crashing/impacting aircraft—was Jennifer Schultz, then eleven years of age, who was in the carport (perhaps was talking on the telephone, sitting on a swing there as she used to do) when disaster struck. On March 11th, 2008, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, a girl, Rylann, was born to the O’Bannion family. Rylann appeared to be developing earlier than usual, but she showed some curious habits, e.g., for some time she kept sleepwalking. She started complaining that her hair touching her back hurt her back; she drew dramatic fits about putting on shirts. The clothing, she would complain, hurt her back, neck, and shoulders—it felt like her skin was burning. Referring to a photograph she mentioned time and again, she had been “bigger” than on that picture, a statement that didn’t make sense to her mother at that point in time. Eventually, at the age of three years and five months, again touching the topic of having been “bigger” before, she said: “Mommy, I died. I was in our backyard. It was raining. I was alone but I wasn’t scared. Then the rain shocked me. It was raining a lot. There was a loud noise, then the rain shocked me. I floated up to the sky then.” As the O’Bannion family subscribed to the Catholic faith, reincarnation was not a subject to consider. Over time, Rylann added new bits of memory; at the age of five she started talking about what happened to her “in heaven” after her death (meeting God and Jesus, and ‘Grandy Sally’ whom she never had met in reality), and that “you can choose to come back if you died before you were supposed to.” Once, out of the blue, she said “I remember the name of Jennifer.”

Background: Children with sickle cell anemia (SCA) are highly susceptible to stroke and other manifestations of pediatric cerebral vasculopathy. Detailed evaluations of children with SCA in sub-Saharan Africa are limited, especially magnetic resonance imaging and angiography (MRI/MRA). In a sample of Ugandan children receiving care at the Mulago Hospital sickle cell clinic in Kampala and were not on disease-modifying therapy, we examined the range of MR imaging findings, and how those findings correlated with standardized demographic, clinical, neurological and neurocognitive assessments. Methods: From within a larger sample of 265 participants with HbSS ages 1-12 years not taking disease-modifying therapy and enrolled in the BRAIN SAFE study, a sub-sample of 81 underwent non-contrast MRI/MRA on a 1.5 Telsa scanner. Participants also underwent 3 standardized assessments: neurocognitive testing by experienced testers using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (for ages 1-4 years) or Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd edition (for ages 5-12) (abnormal z-score of -2 or lower), stroke examination (PedsNIHSS) and transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) using criteria for pediatric SCA. Participants undergoing MRI/MRA intentionally included 29 without any abnormal findings. MRI scans included T1- and T2- weighted images, T2 FLAIR and MRA three-dimensional time-of-flight technique. MR scans were interpreted by clinical and research methods, the latter per SWiTCH protocol (Helton, Blood 2014). Adjudication of differing reads was performed by a blinded third neuroradiologist. Results: A total of 81 children with SCA were examined by MRI/MRA. Mean age was 6.48 ± 2.75 years; 50.6% were male. Mean hemoglobin was 7.26±0.90 g/dl; 75% had hemoglobin <8.0. In all, 16.7% were malnourished using standard international measures established by age and sex. Infarcts and/or arterial stenoses on MRI/MRA were detected in 42 (52%), including 13 (25%) with no other abnormalities detected. There were 35 children (43.2%) who had medium or large infarcts seen; an additional 16 (19.8%) had 1-2 small infarcts. Four had moya moya. Of the 29 children categorized as normal on each of the 3 other tests, 14 (48.3%) had one or more medium or large infarct(s) on MRI, and 3 (10.3%) had 1-2 small infarcts (Figure 1). The proportion of children with malnutrition was higher among those with an abnormal MRI compared to those with a normal MRI, whereas no children with a small infarct was malnourished (29.4% vs. 10.7% vs. 0% p=0.019). A higher proportion of participants with stroke by exam had medium or large infarct(s) compared to participants with normal or small infarct (28.6% vs. 10% vs. 6.3%; p=0.061). Stroke on exam was associated with medium or large infarct(s) compared to normal or small infarct (unadjusted OR 4.2; 95% CI 1.19-14.8), and remained after adjusting for age and hemoglobin (OR 3.90 95%CI 1.10-13.9). The proportion of abnormal psychological testing was higher in the small infarct group than in the group with larger infarct(s) or the normal group (37.5% vs. 28.6% vs. 17.2%; p=0.307). Conclusion: High prevalence of pediatric cerebral vasculopathy was found on MR scanning. Despite clinical evidence suggesting abnormal neuropsychological testing or a prior stroke, not all of the children who had clinical evidence of neurological disorders had MRI evidence of a stroke. Additionally, a number with no evidence of stroke had infarct(s) on MRI, so-called "silent stroke." The strongest predictors of an abnormal MRI reading included having a detectable stroke or an abnormal TCD. MR imaging is a critical aspect of evaluating cerebral vasculopathy in this patient population, and will be an important measure when prospectively assessing impact in a treatment trial. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract Background Among gynaecological malignancies, endometrial cancer (EC) is the most prevalent type of uterine cancer affecting women. This study explored the proteomic profiles of plasma samples obtained from EC patients, those with hyperplasia (Hy), and a control group (CO). A combination of techniques, such as 2D-DIGE, mass spectrometry, and bioinformatics, including pathway analysis, was used to identify proteins with modified expression levels, biomarkers and their associated metabolic pathways in these groups. Methods Thirty-four patients, categorized into three groups—10 with EC, 12 with Hy, and 12 CO—between the ages of 46 and 75 years old were included in the study. Untargeted proteomic analysis was carried out using two-dimensional difference in gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) coupled with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). Results In all three groups, 114 proteins that were significantly (p ≤ 0.05 and fold change ≥ 1.5) altered were successfully identified using peptide mass fingerprints (PMFs). Compared with those in the control group (CO), the EC samples had 85 differentially expressed proteins (39 upregulated and 46 downregulated), and in the Hy group, 81 proteins were dysregulated (40 upregulated and 41 downregulated) compared to those in the CO group, while 33 proteins exhibited differential regulation (12 upregulated and 21 downregulated) in the EC plasma samples compared to those in the Hy group. Vitamin D binding protein and complement C3 distinguished Hy and EC from CO with the greatest changes in expression. Among the differentially expressed proteins identified, enzymes with catalytic activity represented the largest group (42.9%). In terms of biological processes, most of the proteins were involved in cellular processes (28.8%), followed by metabolic processes (16.7%). STRING analysis for protein interactions revealed that the significantly differentially abundant proteins in the three groups are involved in three main biological processes: signalling of complement and coagulation cascades, regulation of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) transport and uptake by insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs), and plasma lipoprotein assembly, remodelling, and clearance. Conclusion The identified plasma protein markers have the potential to serve as biomarkers for differentiating between EC and Hy, as well as for early diagnosis and monitoring of cancer progression.

Image 1: “Oklahoma State Highway Re-imagined.” CC BY-SA 4.0 2015 by author, using Wikimedia image by Ks0stm (CC BY-SA 3 2013). Introduction This article is divided in three major parts. First a scenario, second its context, and third, an analysis. The text draws on ethnographic research on security practices in the United States among police and parts of the intelligence community from 2006 through to the beginning of 2014. Real names are used when the material is drawn from archival sources, while individuals who were interviewed during fieldwork are referred to by their position rank or title. For matters of fact not otherwise referenced, see the sources compiled on “The Complete 911 Timeline” at History Commons. First, a scenario. Oklahoma, 2001 It is 1 April 2001, in far western Oklahoma, warm beneath the late afternoon sun. Highway Patrol Trooper C.L. Parkins is about 80 kilometres from the border of Texas, watching trucks and cars speed along Interstate 40. The speed limit is around 110 kilometres per hour, and just then, his radar clocks a blue Toyota Corolla going 135 kph. The driver is not wearing a seatbelt. Trooper Parkins swung in behind the vehicle, and after a while signalled that the car should pull over. The driver was dark-haired and short; in Parkins’s memory, he spoke English without any problem. He asked the man to come sit in the patrol car while he did a series of routine checks—to see if the vehicle was stolen, if there were warrants out for his arrest, if his license was valid. Parkins said, “I visited with him a little bit but I just barely remember even having him in my car. You stop so many people that if […] you don't arrest them or anything […] you don't remember too much after a couple months” (Clay and Ellis). Nawaf Al Hazmi had a valid California driver’s license, with an address in San Diego, and the car’s registration had been legally transferred to him by his former roommate. Parkins’s inquiries to the National Crime Information Center returned no warnings, nor did anything seem odd in their interaction. So the officer wrote Al Hazmi two tickets totalling $138, one for speeding and one for failure to use a seat belt, and told him to be on his way. Al Hazmi, for his part, was crossing the country to a new apartment in a Virginia suburb of Washington, DC, and upon arrival he mailed the payment for his tickets to the county court clerk in Oklahoma. Over the next five months, he lived several places on the East Coast: going to the gym, making routine purchases, and taking a few trips that included Las Vegas and Florida. He had a couple more encounters with local law enforcement and these too were unremarkable. On 1 May 2001 he was mugged, and promptly notified the police, who documented the incident with his name and local address (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 139). At the end of June, having moved to New Jersey, he was involved in a minor traffic accident on the George Washington Bridge, and officers again recorded his real name and details of the incident. In July, Khalid Al Mihdhar, the previous owner of the car, returned from abroad, and joined Al Hazmi in New Jersey. The two were boyhood friends, and they went together to a library several times to look up travel information, and then, with Al Hazmi’s younger brother Selem, to book their final flight. On 11 September, the three boarded American Airlines flight 77 as part of the Al Qaeda team that flew the mid-sized jet into the west façade of the Pentagon. They died along with the piloting hijacker, all the passengers, and 125 people on the ground. Theirs was one of four airplanes hijacked that day, one of which was crashed by passengers, the others into significant sites of American power, by men who had been living for varying lengths of time all but unnoticed in the United States. No one thought that Trooper Parkins, or the other officers with whom the 9/11 hijackers crossed paths, should have acted differently. The Commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety himself commented that the trooper “did the right thing” at that April traffic stop. And yet, interviewed by a local newspaper in January of 2002, Parkins mused to the reporter “it's difficult sometimes to think back and go: 'What if you had known something else?'" (Clay and Ellis). Missed Opportunities Image 2: “Hijackers Timeline (Redacted).” CC BY-SA 4.0 2015 by author, using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s “Working Draft Chronology of Events for Hijackers and Associates”. In fact, several of the men who would become the 9/11 hijackers were stopped for minor traffic violations. Mohamed Atta, usually pointed to as the ringleader, was given a citation in Florida that spring of 2001 for driving without a license. When he missed his court date, a bench warrant was issued (Wall Street Journal). Perhaps the warrant was not flagged properly, however, since nothing happened when he was pulled over again, for speeding. In the government inquiries that followed attack, and in the press, these brushes with the law were “missed opportunities” to thwart the 9/11 plot (Kean and Hamilton, Report 353). Among a certain set of career law enforcement personnel, particularly those active in management and police associations, these missed opportunities were fraught with a sense of personal failure. Yet, in short order, they were to become a source of professional revelation. The scenarios—Trooper Parkins and Al Hazmi, other encounters in other states, the general fact that there had been chance meetings between police officers and the hijackers—were re-imagined in the aftermath of 9/11. Those moments were returned to and reversed, so that multiple potentialities could be seen, beyond or in addition to what had taken place. The deputy director of an intelligence fusion centre told me in an interview, “it is always a local cop who saw something” and he replayed how the incidents of contact had unfolded with the men. These scenarios offered a way to recapture the past. In the uncertainty of every encounter, whether a traffic stop or questioning someone taking photos of a landmark (and potential terrorist target), was also potential. Through a process of re-imagining, police encounters with the public became part of the government’s “national intelligence” strategy. Previously a division had been marked between foreign and domestic intelligence. While the phrase “national intelligence” had long been used, notably in National Intelligence Estimates, after 9/11 it became more significant. The overall director of the US intelligence community became the Director National Intelligence, for instance, and the cohesive term marked the way that increasingly diverse institutional components, types of data and forms of action were evolving to address the collection of data and intelligence production (McConnell). In a series of working groups mobilised by members of major police professional organisations, and funded by the US Department of Justice, career officers and representatives from federal agencies produced detailed recommendations and plans for involving police in the new Information Sharing Environment. Among the plans drawn up during this period was what would eventually come to be the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative, built principally around the idea of encounters such as the one between Parkins and Al Hazmi. Map 1: Map of pilot sites in the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Evaluation Environment in 2010 (courtesy of the author; no longer available online). Map 2: Map of participating sites in the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative, as of 2014. In an interview, a fusion centre director who participated in this planning as well as its implementation, told me that his thought had been, “if we train state and local cops to understand pre-terrorism indicators, if we train them to be more curious, and to question more what they see,” this could feed into “a system where they could actually get that information to somebody where it matters.” In devising the reporting initiative, the working groups counter-actualised the scenarios of those encounters, and the kinds of larger plots to which they were understood to belong, in order to extract a set of concepts: categories of suspicious “activities” or “patterns of behaviour” corresponding to the phases of a terrorism event in the process of becoming (Deleuze, Negotiations). This conceptualisation of terrorism was standardised, so that it could be taught, and applied, in discerning and documenting the incidents comprising an event’s phases. In police officer training, the various suspicious behaviours were called “terrorism precursor activities” and were divided between criminal and non-criminal. “Functional Standards,” developed by the Los Angeles Police Department and then tested by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), served to code the observed behaviours for sharing (via compatible communication protocols) up the federal hierarchy and also horizontally between states and regions. In the popular parlance of videos made for the public by local police departments and DHS, which would come to populate the internet within a few years, these categories were “signs of terrorism,” more specifically: surveillance, eliciting information, testing security, and so on. Image 3: “The Seven Signs of Terrorism (sometimes eight).” CC BY-SA 4.0 2015 by author, using materials in the public domain. If the problem of 9/11 had been that the men who would become hijackers had gone unnoticed, the basic idea of the Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative was to create a mechanism through which the eyes and ears of everyone could contribute to their detection. In this vein, “If You See Something, Say Something™” was a campaign that originated with the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and was then licensed for use to DHS. The tips and leads such campaigns generated, together with the reports from officers on suspicious incidents that might have to do with terrorism, were coordinated in the Information Sharing Environment. Drawing on reports thus generated, the Federal Government would, in theory, communicate timely information on security threats to law enforcement so that they would be better able to discern the incidents to be reported. The cycle aimed to catch events in emergence, in a distinctively anticipatory strategy of counterterrorism (Stalcup). Re-imagination A curious fact emerges from this history, and it is key to understanding how this initiative developed. That is, there was nothing suspicious in the encounters. The soon-to-be terrorists’ licenses were up-to-date, the cars were legal, they were not nervous. Even Mohamed Atta’s warrant would have resulted in nothing more than a fine. It is not self-evident, given these facts, how a governmental technology came to be designed from these scenarios. How––if nothing seemed of immediate concern, if there had been nothing suspicious to discern––did an intelligence strategy come to be assembled around such encounters? Evidently, strident demands were made after the events of 9/11 to know, “what went wrong?” Policies were crafted and implemented according to the answers given: it was too easy to obtain identification, or to enter and stay in the country, or to buy airplane tickets and fly. But the trooper’s question, the reader will recall, was somewhat different. He had said, “It’s difficult sometimes to think back and go: ‘What if you had known something else?’” To ask “what if you had known something else?” is also to ask what else might have been. Janet Roitman shows that identifying a crisis tends to implicate precisely the question of what went wrong. Crisis, and its critique, take up history as a series of right and wrong turns, bad choices made between existing dichotomies (90): liberty-security, security-privacy, ordinary-suspicious. It is to say, what were the possibilities and how could we have selected the correct one? Such questions seek to retrospectively uncover latencies—systemic or structural, human error or a moral lapse (71)—but they ask of those latencies what false understanding of the enemy, of threat, of priorities, allowed a terrible thing to happen. “What if…?” instead turns to the virtuality hidden in history, through which missed opportunities can be re-imagined. Image 4: “The Cholmondeley Sisters and Their Swaddled Babies.” Anonymous, c. 1600-1610 (British School, 17th century); Deleuze and Parnet (150). CC BY-SA 4.0 2015 by author, using materials in the public domain. Gilles Deleuze, speaking with Claire Parnet, says, “memory is not an actual image which forms after the object has been perceived, but a virtual image coexisting with the actual perception of the object” (150). Re-imagined scenarios take up the potential of memory, so that as the trooper’s traffic stop was revisited, it also became a way of imagining what else might have been. As Immanuel Kant, among others, points out, “the productive power of imagination is […] not exactly creative, for it is not capable of producing a sense representation that was never given to our faculty of sense; one can always furnish evidence of the material of its ideas” (61). The “memory” of these encounters provided the material for re-imagining them, and thereby re-virtualising history. This was different than other governmental responses, such as examining past events in order to assess the probable risk of their repetition, or drawing on past events to imagine future scenarios, for use in exercises that identify vulnerabilities and remedy deficiencies (Anderson). Re-imagining scenarios of police-hijacker encounters through the question of “what if?” evoked what Erin Manning calls “a certain array of recognizable elastic points” (39), through which options for other movements were invented. The Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative’s architects instrumentalised such moments as they designed new governmental entities and programs to anticipate terrorism. For each element of the encounter, an aspect of the initiative was developed: training, functional standards, a way to (hypothetically) get real-time information about threats. Suspicion was identified as a key affect, one which, if cultivated, could offer a way to effectively deal not with binary right or wrong possibilities, but with the potential which lies nestled in uncertainty. The “signs of terrorism” (that is, categories of “terrorism precursor activities”) served to maximise receptivity to encounters. Indeed, it can apparently create an oversensitivity, manifested, for example, in police surveillance of innocent people exercising their right to assemble (Madigan), or the confiscation of photographers’s equipment (Simon). “What went wrong?” and “what if?” were different interrogations of the same pre-9/11 incidents. The questions are of course intimately related. Moments where something went wrong are when one is likely to ask, what else might have been known? Moreover, what else might have been? The answers to each question informed and shaped the other, as re-imagined scenarios became the means of extracting categories of suspicious activities and patterns of behaviour that comprise the phases of an event in becoming. Conclusion The 9/11 Commission, after two years of investigation into the causes of the disastrous day, reported that “the most important failure was one of imagination” (Kean and Hamilton, Summary). The iconic images of 9/11––such as airplanes being flown into symbols of American power––already existed, in guises ranging from fictive thrillers to the infamous FBI field memo sent to headquarters on Arab men learning to fly, but not land. In 1974 there had already been an actual (failed) attempt to steal a plane and kill the president by crashing it into the White House (Kean and Hamilton, Report Ch11 n21). The threats had been imagined, as Pat O’Malley and Philip Bougen put it, but not how to govern them, and because the ways to address those threats had been not imagined, they were discounted as matters for intervention (29). O’Malley and Bougen argue that one effect of 9/11, and the general rise of incalculable insecurities, was to make it necessary for the “merely imaginable” to become governable. Images of threats from the mundane to the extreme had to be conjured, and then imagination applied again, to devise ways to render them amenable to calculation, minimisation or elimination. In the words of the 9/11 Commission, the Government must bureaucratise imagination. There is a sense in which this led to more of the same. Re-imagining the early encounters reinforced expectations for officers to do what they already do, that is, to be on the lookout for suspicious behaviours. Yet, the images of threat brought forth, in their mixing of memory and an elastic “almost,” generated their own momentum and distinctive demands. Existing capacities, such as suspicion, were re-shaped and elaborated into specific forms of security governance. The question of “what if?” and the scenarios of police-hijacker encounter were particularly potent equipment for this re-imagining of history and its re-virtualisation. References Anderson, Ben. “Preemption, Precaution, Preparedness: Anticipatory Action and Future Geographies.” Progress in Human Geography 34.6 (2010): 777-98. Clay, Nolan, and Randy Ellis. “Terrorist Ticketed Last Year on I-40.” NewsOK, 20 Jan. 2002. 25 Nov. 2014 ‹http://newsok.com/article/2779124›. Deleuze, Gilles. Negotiations. New York: Columbia UP, 1995. Deleuze, Gilles, and Claire Parnet. Dialogues II. New York: Columbia UP 2007 [1977]. 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Madigan, Nick. “Spying Uncovered.” Baltimore Sun 18 Jul. 2008. 25 Oct. 2015 ‹http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-te.md.spy18jul18-story.html›. Manning, Erin. Relationscapes: Movement, Art, Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 2009. O’Malley, P., and P. Bougen. “Imaginable Insecurities: Imagination, Routinisation and the Government of Uncertainty post 9/11.” Imaginary Penalities. Ed. Pat Carlen. Cullompton, UK: Willan, 2008.Roitman, Janet. Anti-Crisis. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2013. Simon, Stephanie. “Suspicious Encounters: Ordinary Preemption and the Securitization of Photography.” Security Dialogue 43.2 (2012): 157-73. Stalcup, Meg. “Policing Uncertainty: On Suspicious Activity Reporting.” Modes of Uncertainty: Anthropological Cases. Eds. Limor Saminian-Darash and Paul Rabinow. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2015. 69-87. Wall Street Journal. “A Careful Sequence of Mundane Dealings Sows a Day of Bloody Terror for Hijackers.” 16 Oct. 2001.